Home › Buddhist Traditions › Pure Land (Shin)

Pure Land (Shin)

 Mahayana school whose central figure is Amitabha, Buddha of the Infinite Light
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    A Successful Encounter Paid Member

    By Duncan Ryuken Williams
    At the turn of this century, the only English-language Buddhist magazine published on the West Coast was The Light of Dharma (1901-07). The magazine was produced under the auspices of the Japanese Pure Land (Jodo Shin) Buddhist Mission temple in San Francisco, which was established in 1899 by priests sent from the Nishi-Honganji headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. Unlike the temple's monthly Japanese publication, Beikoku Bukkyo (Buddhism in America), which was read primarily by newly arrived Japanese immigrants, The Light of Dharma had both a wider readership and a greater range of contributors. More »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Even Dewdrops Fall Paid Member

    Taitetsu Unno was born in Japan in the 1935 and moved to the United States at the age of six. During World War II he spent three and a half years behind barbed wire fences at a Japanese internment camp in Arkansas. He was later educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and reeicieved advanced degrees in Buddhist studies at Tokyo University. Currently, he is the Jill Ker Conway Professor of Religion at Smith College and an ordained priest of Shin Buddhism. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Ordinary Struggles Paid Member

    By Clark Strand
    Socho Koshin Ogui Sensei is an eighteenth-generation priest in the Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) tradition, the most commonly practiced form of Buddhism in Japan. A resident of the United States since 1962, he became minister of the Cleveland Buddhist Temple in 1977 and of the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Chicago in 1992. In 2004, he was appointed Socho (Bishop) of the Buddhist Churches of America and has been instrumental in the ongoing revitalization and outreach efforts of that organization. The author of Zen Shin Talks, he now lives in San Francisco. Last fall, Tricycle contributing editor Clark Strand spoke with Socho Ogui about the idea of “practice” in Jodo Shinshu and his experiences in combining a Zen style of meditation with a Jodo Shinshu style of living. Photos © Michael Endo More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    In the Pure Land Paid Member

    Buddha of Infinite Light D. T. Suzuki Shambhala: Boston, 1998 96 pp., $16.95 (cloth) River of Fire, River of Water An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism Taitetsu Unno Doubleday: New York, 1998 272 pp., $12.00 (paper) Ocean An Introduction to Jodo-Shinshu Buddhism in America Kenneth K. Tanaka WisdomOcean: Berkeley, 1997 288 pp., $14.95 (paper) More »
  • Tricycle Community 4 comments

    Worry Beads Paid Member

    By Clark Strand
    TAKE UP A BUDDHIST MALA, and right away you notice how good it feels in your hands. The same is true of the prayer beads of any religious tradition. First, there is the soothing feel of the beads themselves, which only increases as they become smoother or darken with use. Then there is what they symbolize—the tangible link to an age-old tradition. Run a string of prayer beads through your hands and you are touching an ancient practice. Yours are only the most recent set of fingers to caress such beads, and others will take them up later, after you are gone. More »