The Rebirth Mantra (往生咒) is one of the most intimate practices in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism. It is chanted at the bedside of the dying, at funerals and memorial services, and in the daily morning liturgy of Chinese Buddhist temples and households.

The mantra is extracted from the Aparimitāyurjñāna-sūtra (無量壽經, a short text distinct from the longer Sutra of Amitayus), and attributed to Guṇabhadra (求那跋陀羅), a fifth-century Indian master who worked in the Liu Song dynasty. The title of the text from which it comes — 拔一切業障根本得生淨土神呪 — translates roughly as "The Mantra for Eradicating Karmic Obstacles at the Root and Attaining Birth in the Pure Land."

The syllables invoke Amitabha Buddha (阿彌陀, Amitābha — Limitless Light) and his qualities. Practitioners do not translate the syllables; they chant them as a direct invocation. The tradition holds that sincere recitation transfers merit to the deceased, and that Guanyin and Mahasthamaprapta — Amitabha's two attendant bodhisattvas — will come to receive the practitioner at death.

Cihang includes this mantra because of its deep connection to the Pure Land tradition and to Guanyin as the bodhisattva who accompanies beings through death toward rebirth. It is brief enough to chant many times, and can be held as a continuous practice.