The Buddha's Call to Awaken - Softcover

Monshu Koshin Ohtani

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976459442 ISBN 13: 9780976459446

Publisher: American Buddhist Study Center Press, 2012

Synopsis

What is most significant about this volume is that Monshu Ohtani wrote it in the context of the various problems and crises that have best humanity in Japan and the world during his tenure. He looks beyond the simply personal nature of religion and its otherworldly character to see the Buddha calling modern people to take the teaching seriously and grasp their responsibility to care for the world and society. He calls us to return to our awareness of our deep ignorance and foolishness, to return to our true nature in order to resolve the crises. It is important that the Monshu not merely calls for personal piety, but challenges us to become more aware of our global society and how our faith can relate to it constructively and positively. His writing in this volume and other texts consistently urges Shin Buddhists to work for a better world, creating a world of Annon Nare, a peaceful world.

About this title

About the Author:

Monshu Koshin Ohtani: Born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1945, the author is the 24th Monshu of the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha and the head minister of the Nishi Hongwanji. A graduate of Tokyo University, he also completed a masters degree at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, and another masters degree at Tokyo University. He is the author of numerous Buddhist works, a regular participant at international conferences, and the director of the Japanese Association for Prison Chaplains.

Review:

These insightful essays express the spiritual reflections of Monshy Koshin Ohtani after thirty years atop the Nishi Hongwanji branch of Shin Buddhism. Long an advocate of increased social activities by Japanese Buddhist, in these writings Monshu Ohtani considers the fundamental disconnect between the values inherent in pursuing material prosperity based on our human-centered judgement and the Shin awareness of the persistence of human ignorance as the spiritual fact of who we are. It is a reminder of the personal and social implications of fundamental Buddhist problem of duhkha but also a call to awaken to the universality of a condition that unites all living beings. --Prof. Mark Blum

About this edition

• Publisher: American Buddhist Study Center Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0976459442
• ISBN 13: 9780976459446
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 161
• Editor: Rev. Michio Tokunaga, Rev. Tatsuo Muneto And Rev./Dr. Alfred Bloom, Rev. Marvin Harada And Buddhist Education Center