Selected Works of D.T. Suzuki, Volume II

Pure Land

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780520268937
• eBook ISBN: 9780520959620
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a key figure in the introduction of Buddhism to the non-Asian world. Many outside Japan encountered Buddhism for the first time through his writings and teaching, and for nearly a century his work and legacy have contributed to the ongoing religious and cultural interchange between Japan and the rest of the world, particularly the United States and Europe. This second volume of Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki brings together Suzuki's writings on Pure Land Buddhism. At the center of the Pure Land tradition is the Buddha Amida and his miraculous realm known as paradise or "the land of bliss," where sentient beings should aspire to be born in their next life and where liberation and enlightenment are assured. Suzuki, by highlighting certain themes in Pure Land Buddhism and deemphasizing others, shifted its focus from a future, otherworldly goal to religious experience in the present, wherein one realizes the nonduality between the Buddha and oneself and between paradise and this world. An introduction by James C. Dobbins analyzes Suzuki's cogent, distinctive, and thought-provoking interpretations, which helped stimulate new understandings of Pure Land Buddhism quite different from traditional doctrine.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Editorial Note
• 1. The Development of the Pure Land Doctrine in Buddhism
• 2. Zen and Jōdo, Two Types of Buddhist Experience
• 3. Selection from The Koan Exercise
• 4. The Shin Sect of Buddhism
• 5. Selections from Japanese Spirituality
• 6. Sayings of a Modern Tariki Mystic
• 7. The Myōkōnin
• 8. From Saichi’s Journals
• 9. Infinite Light
• 10. The Spirit of Shinran Shōnin
• Notes
• Glossary of Japanese and Chinese Terms
• Bibliography
• Index