Let us first talk about the first meaning of the five layers of profound meaning. 

The first meaning is “Explaining the name“, it means to explain the name of this Sutra. 

What is the name of this scripture based on? 

It is “Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra”, these five words. Actually this book uses the names of two individuals in the sutra title, one is Shakyamuni Buddha, and the other is Amitabha Buddha. It is Shakyamuni Buddha who speaks of Amitabha. 

Why do you say it was said by people? 

Because at that time, Shakyamuni Buddha was a human being!

Why do we say that Amitabha Buddha is also a person? 

We explain this to mean that these are two individuals who have confirmed the truth of self-enlightenment by achieving the ultimate fruit.  

So what do we say is Buddha? 

Enlightenment is Buddha. If you have a person who has realized enlightenment, then his title is “Buddha“. Therefore, there is a sentence in the Buddhist scriptures that goes like this:

“The awakened person is the Buddha, and the unawakened person is the sentient being.” 

So we can say these two are “ultimate persons”, speaking for such a long time, they are “real persons”. 

Then what kind of beings are we? 

Are we not humans? 

If others say that we are not human, we are very angry. It doesn’t matter! 

We are not human, but Buddhas. 

Next time someone scolds us and says, “You are not human!” you can say, “It doesn’t matter! Because I am a Buddha.”   

These Buddhas—Shakyamuni Buddha and Amitabha Buddha—are the ultimate human beings. 

This word “ultimate” is very profound! 

It means they have obtained the truth and understood the great enlightenment, so when starting to explain, we explain the name of this sutra first.