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Four Shin Buddhist thinkers reflect on their tradition's encounter with modernity.
Cultivating Spirituality is a seminal anthology of Shin Buddhist thought, one that reflects this tradition's encounter with modernity. Shin (or Jodō Shinshū) is a popular form of Pure Land Buddhism, the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in Japan, but is only now becoming well known in the West. The lives of the four thinkers included in the book spanned the years 1863–1982, from the Meiji opening to the West to Japan's establishment as an industrialized democracy and world economic power. Kiyozawa Manshi, Soga Ryōjin, Kaneko Daiei, and Yasuda Rijin, all associated with Kyoto's Ōtani University, dealt with the spiritual concerns of a society undergoing great change. Their philosophical orientation known as "Seishinshugi" ("cultivating spirituality") provides a set of principles that prioritized personal, subjective experience as the basis for religious understanding.
In addition to providing access to work generally unavailable in English, this volume also includes both a contextualizing introduction and introductions to each figure included.
"…the book is a compelling one … Though the modern world puts value on the material over the spiritual, no matter how much we have materially somehow nothing can ever satisfy us … It is because we can find no satisfaction in the material world that there is a perennial need for books like Cultivating Spirituality. In its pages we find pointed out a way beyond, whereby we can find the strength to truly live in this modern age." — Eastern Buddhist
"Buddhism, whether in Asia or the West, reveals itself to be a rich tapestry of diverse strands in which pioneers risked their standing and even their very lives to establish new pathways appropriate for their times and places. The editors … invite the reader to explore developments in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism as emblematic of this tradition of innovation." — Buddhadharma
Preface
Yasutomi Shin’ya
Abbreviations
1. Shin Buddhism in the Meiji Period
Mark L. Blum
Kiyozawa Manshi
2. Kiyozawa Manshi: Life and Thought
Mark L. Blum
3. Why Do Buddhists Lack Self-Respect?
Kiyozawa Manshi
translated by Mark L. Blum
4. Negotiating Religious Morality and Common Morality
Kiyozawa Manshi
translated by Mark L. Blum
5. The Nature of My Faith
Kiyozawa Manshi
translated by Mark L. Blum
Soga Ryōjin
6. Soga Ryōjin: Life and Thought
Robert F. Rhodes
7. A Savior on Earth: The Meaning of Dharmākara Bodhisattva’s Advent
Soga Ryōjin
translated by Jan Van Bragt
8. Shinran’s View of Buddhist History
Soga Ryōjin
translated by Jan Van Bragt
9. Lectures on the Tannishō
Soga Ryōjin
translated by Jan Van Bragt
Kaneko Daiei
10. Kaneko Daiei: Life and Times
Robert Rhodes
11. Prolegomena to Shin Buddhist Studies
Kaneko Daiei
translated by Robert Rhodes
Yasuda Rijin
12. Yasuda Rijin: Life and Thought
Paul Watt
13. The Practical Understanding of Buddhism
Yasuada Rijin
translated by Paul Watt
14. The Mirror of Nothingness
Yasuda Rijin
translated by Paul Watt
15. A Name but Not a Name Alone
Yasuda Rijin
translated by Paul Watt
Combined Glossary
Bibliography
Index