Sailing west

Some time ago I set off on a journey, elsewhere called Sailing West that is in the direction of the Pureland where Amida resides. This direction or vector one can call the teleological vector. Sometimes visible, sometimes not, but unmistakable there always, as an eternal path cutting through the erratic movements of the mind. Telos can be translated as the destination or goal of the journey and one can read the logos as the logistics of the path leading to it. This vector points to ‘the other shore’ it is the vector of one’s aspiration to accord with the good, the true and the beauty, which exceeding our present state, can heal us and teach us to cope with our desires that orisinating from our innate lack of being, the nagging feeling of an absence. Or the realm of ‘in between,’ the bardo, the sometimes unbearable dualism between this world and the Pureland.

When I first visited the community of Amida Trust in France I met people who uttered every moment without any understandable pattern some Japanese sounding syllables:
Namo Amida Bu. When they where offered a biscuit, opened a door, greeted each other Namo Amida Bu. Although I knew vaguely that there was a sect in Japan in which they thought that enlightenment was to be attained only by calling the name of the Buddha, I could not immediately see the connection thanks to my expectations
Because it was not immediately clear from the book New Buddhism, what kind of practice this community had and I presumed a mixture between Zen and Vipassana meditation, because that were the approaches I had some experience with. I got shock on shock, praying before the meal, devotion, much bowing and singing and the practice of which I secretly hoped they were not doing: the walking meditation with Namo Amida Bu. But they did. Preposterous, strange. I sat before in retreats, hours and days, my legs falling off, my back a piece of wood, before I was granted a snippet of peace in my mind. Easy doing this practice, but does it work?
Could not prevent me to ask what does Namo Amida Bu meant. Asked it David (called him David those days, my tongue came in a knot with his Buddhist name) on a walk the second day, he said: ‘It’s just a slogan.’
Later a very emotional seminar with Sr Modgala, theme: What does Namo Amida Bu mean. Read a poem about it in the poetry section (Not going 1).

And now three years later, a sleepless night again, because I was afraid of having the black nightmares back, that left me for sometime, but suddenly out of the blue returned to me as a malignant sadness that is sleeping in me like a volcano.
(See poetry section. Not going 2)

So this is the simple question to talk about in a while, what does Namo Amida Bu mean?
(If you where to be asked to give a spontaneous and personal answer.)
This is my answer to begin with. I wrote it this night, without references to one of the many books I had beside my bed or the web, just as it came. Can do not much more as a very Bompu for the moment.
.

Who puts his foot down again in the ashes?
Whose foot again and again and again ceaselessly?
Who is calling the Name again and again over the ash covered earth?
Who is repeating Namo Amida Bu again and again, ceaselessly?