New Book: "The Buddha's Wish for the World"

"The Pure Land tradition is the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in the world. In Japan, the Pure Land path is epitomized by Jodo Shinshu (Shin Buddhism), Japan's largest Buddhist denomination. The head of Jodo Shinshu, Monshu Koshin Ohtani, has written a book that will be available in English for the first time. The Buddha's Wish for the World will be published in September, 2009, by the American Buddhist Study Center Press.

The Buddha's Wish for the World is dedicated to honor the 750^th memorial of Shinran Shonin (1173 - 1263), the founder of Jodo Shinshu, who established this spiritual path in 13^th century Japan. The book includes a foreword by world-renowned Buddhist scholar, Professor Robert Thurman, Professor of Buddhism at Columbia University and Founder of Tibet House in New York."

Should be a great read for those interested in the Pure Land tradition, and especially the Japanese Jodo Shinshu. I'm not very knowledgeable about Japanese Buddhism, besides a very general understanding of some main branches of Zen practice, but there is certainly a special place in my heart for Pure Land Buddhism. I would venture a guess that this is because of the often noted parallels between the Christian and Pure Land understandings of soteriology, which describes that liberation requires at least some "other" assistance in this process -- that liberation isn't possible without some measure of outside influence or help. While both Christian and Pure Land soteriologies can be much more nuanced than that, this is the fundamental conviction upon which the elaborate doctrines are based.

Though many people in Unity would decry this "other power" liberation type as something left over from the "traditional" (and thus the implication is often "outdated") understanding of salvation, it actually nonetheless fits well into the Unity system. Unity usually emphasizes the belief that one is master of one's own fate and therefore is solely responsible for one's own liberation from sin (which means going from an awareness that is not in line with the omnipresent reality of God to Christ-consciousness that is fully harmonious with God-Mind). Granted, there are some Unity students who would point out the notion of the collective consciousness where all the thought-actions of humankind are present and can affect individual people and events in the relative world. But I think that the traditional Christian and Pure Land notions of "other power" soteriologies are compatible in the Unity metaphysical system largely due to the teaching of "interdependence" or "interconnectedness" or, as most simply put it, "Oneness." Since all individuals depend on each other for their existence and are intimately connected at the most fundamental, essential level, this seems to me to imply that ultimately none of us is completely independent to the extent of being able to achieve a liberated state without help, or at least the existential influence, from/by others. Since we need/rely upon each other for being, existing, living we also need/rely upon each other in the continual process of becoming ever more liberated into greater awareness of Oneness and Love.

Besides this, one of the most basic values in the Unity movement (which I think cooperates with the metaphysical system) is that "we honor all paths to God, all ways to worship God" because it is the underlying Presence of God's Love that underpins all spiritual and religious expression. This ethic of openness and inclusivity is a steadfast hallmark of the Unity movement that couldn't explicitly single out any particular understanding of soteriology as "wrong," "false," or "untrue." This is one of the most precious aspects that I cherish about Unity.

This is just my two cents (or is it $10.00 with inflation) on the subject.

To read a review of the upcoming Pure Land book visit the RNS website.