This second volume of passages gathered from the leading monks and teachers of the Pure Land, or Shin, school of Buddhist teaching focuses on religious practice. Pure Land or Shin Buddhism is the most popular form of Buddhism in Japan. Yet in the West it has been overshadowed by the more famous Zen Buddhism. The author collects key passages on Pure Land religious practice from among the scriptures and the leading monks of the school during the 4th-15th centuries CE.
Alfred Bloom is one of the foremost authorities on Shin Buddhism. He received his PhD. from Harvard, and he is former professor at the University of Hawaii and Dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. He is the editor of The Essential Shinran and The Shin Buddhist Classical Tradition: A Reader in Pure Land Teaching, Vol. 1. He lives in Kailua, HI.
Alfred Bloom's new anthology brings together a wide range of excerpts from sutras, commentaries, sermons, essays, letters, poetry, and other sources. Many of these materials have hitherto not been readily available in English translation. The volume's thematic arrangement recommends it to both scholars and general readers. It will be welcomed by those interested in Shinran's intellectual antecedents as well as the broader East Asian tradition of Pure Land Buddhism. -- Jacqueline Stone, Princeton University, author of Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism Professor Alfred Bloom has spent a full and productive career making the ideas and values of Shin Buddhism accessible to English readers. In this momentous undertaking, he brings together his lifetime of insights into the tradition by gathering and organizing passages from the complete range of Pure Land teachings. Like Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Bloom's selections serve as a handbook for personal study and engagement with the tradition. Keeping his own commentary to a minimum, Bloom leaves it to his readers to discover the spiritual riches for themselves. -- Thomas P. Kasulis, Ohio State University The Shin Buddhist Classical Tradition symbolizes Dr. Bloom's deep personal wish for this branch of Buddhism to be made known to as wide an audience as possible. The vital passages of the tradition are categorized along topics that make the teachings more accessible to a contemporary audience regardless of their previous knowledge of Pure Land Buddhism -- Kenneth K. Tanaka, Musashino University, author of The Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine
