Eastern Buddhist Voices – serie

Beatrice Lane Suzuki (1878-1939) was an extremely well informed and sensitive expositor of Mahayana Buddhism. As the American wife of the influential Zen Buddhist Suzuki Daisetsu, she lived in Japan for many years, becoming very familiar with the leading temples of various Buddhist schools-especially in Kyoto and Kamakura. Buddhist Temples of Kyoto and Kamakura brings together some of her writings from The Eastern Buddhist. The collection preserves valuable information from Suzuki's own times and the charm of her personal discovery of the temples described here. Further information is also provided to place them in their current context. The volume will be of interest to scholars of Japanese Buddhism and to the many travelers to these sites today.

Beatrice Lane Suzuki (1878-1939) was an extremely well informed and sensitive expositor of Mahayana Buddhism. As the American wife of the influential Zen Buddhist Suzuki Daisetsu, she lived in Japan for many years, becoming very familiar with the leading temples of various Buddhist schools-especially in Kyoto and Kamakura. Buddhist Temples of Kyoto and Kamakura brings together some of her writings from The Eastern Buddhist. The collection preserves valuable information from Suzuki's own times and the charm of her personal discovery of the temples described here. Further information is also provided to place them in their current context. The volume will be of interest to scholars of Japanese Buddhism and to the many travelers to these sites today.

Early issues of The Eastern Buddhist contain short translations from various Buddhist texts, some of them quite important and all of considerable interest. Since they are set unobtrusively between modern statements and arguments about the nature of Buddhism, and in any case are difficult to locate, they have often gone unnoticed by students. Assembled here is a selection of those texts which have stood the test of time. Drawn from Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese originals, they mainly reflect the Zen and Shin Buddhist traditions, though in the wider context of early Maha-ya-na Buddhism. Drawing them together into one volume brings out the fact that these varied Buddhist traditions are intricately related to each other. The result is an unusual and fascinating reader which would grace many a course in Buddhist studies.

Early issues of The Eastern Buddhist contain short translations from various Buddhist texts, some of them quite important and all of considerable interest. Since they are set unobtrusively between modern statements and arguments about the nature of Buddhism, and in any case are difficult to locate, they have often gone unnoticed by students. Assembled here is a selection of those texts which have stood the test of time. Drawn from Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese originals, they mainly reflect the Zen and Shin Buddhist traditions, though in the wider context of early Maha-ya-na Buddhism. Drawing them together into one volume brings out the fact that these varied Buddhist traditions are intricately related to each other. The result is an unusual and fascinating reader which would grace many a course in Buddhist studies.

In the early twentieth century, The Eastern Buddhist Journal pioneered the presentation of Buddhism to the west and encouraged the west's engagement in interpretation. This interactive process increased dramatically in the postwar period, when dialogue between Buddhist and Christian thought began to take off in earnest. These debates attracted not only Zen voices but also thinkers from the Shin Buddhist tradition. This book brings together a wide range of classic writings from the 1950s to the 1970s which have significantly influenced subsequent Buddhist-Christian dialogue.

In the early twentieth century, The Eastern Buddhist Journal pioneered the presentation of Buddhism to the west and encouraged the west's engagement in interpretation. This interactive process increased dramatically in the postwar period, when dialogue between Buddhist and Christian thought began to take off in earnest. These debates attracted not only Zen voices but also thinkers from the Shin Buddhist tradition. This book brings together a wide range of classic writings from the 1950s to the 1970s which have significantly influenced subsequent Buddhist-Christian dialogue.

In the early twentieth century, The Eastern Buddhist journal pioneered the presentation of Buddhism to the west and encouraged the west's engagement in interpretation. This interactive process increased dramatically in the post-war period, when dialogue between Buddhist and Christian thought began to take off in earnest. These debates and dialogues brought in voices with a Zen orientation, influenced in part by the philosophical Buddhism of the Kyoto School. Also to be heard however were contributions from the Pure Land and the Shin Buddhist traditions, which also have a strong tradition in the city. The book brings together a wide range of authors who have significantly influenced subsequent Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the interaction between east and west.

In the early twentieth century, The Eastern Buddhist journal pioneered the presentation of Buddhism to the west and encouraged the west's engagement in interpretation. This interactive process increased dramatically in the post-war period, when dialogue between Buddhist and Christian thought began to take off in earnest. These debates and dialogues brought in voices with a Zen orientation, influenced in part by the philosophical Buddhism of the Kyoto School. Also to be heard however were contributions from the Pure Land and the Shin Buddhist traditions, which also have a strong tradition in the city. The book brings together a wide range of authors who have significantly influenced subsequent Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the interaction between east and west.

In the wide range of Buddhist meditation and spirituality a very special place is held by the practice of calling on the name of Amitabha, or in Japanese Amida Buddha, using the simplest of formulas, the nenbutsu. Japanese masters such as Honen, Shinran and others made this the core of a profound spiritual experience which has fascinated numberless followers ever since. The deeper meaning of the nenbutsu has therefore become a major topic in Buddhist thought which has been reflected on by various thinkers and teachers to this day, especially in the context of Shin Buddhism. In this book, which draws on classic articles first published in The Eastern Buddhist, major historic proponents and masters of the nenbutsu are introduced, in particular Shinran, Shoku, Ippen and Rennyo. Further contributions, which set the work of these masters into the wider context of Buddhist tradition, are in fact some of the earliest Buddhist voices to emerge from modern Japan into global view. Yet the presentations of writers such as Sasaki Gessho, Yamabe Shugaku and Sugihira Shizutoshi have a freshness and an immediacy which speaks to us today.