"The Promise of Boundless Compassion: Shin Buddhism for Today,"
by Alfred Bloom -Buddhist Study Center Press, 2003
A review by Dr. Richard St. Clair
“Rather
than a religion of complacency and self-satisfaction or status quo,
Buddhism became the religion of a restless spirit which always questions
itself as to whether it has reached the depths, has penetrated the final
truth.” —Alfred Bloom
What
could better fulfill the definition of Mappo, the ‘age of declining
Dharma’, than to look at the world we live in with its violence, raging
differences of belief systems at war with one another, and self-strivings
that emerge from and contribute to growing societal dysfunction? True,
there are devoted teachers of Dharma in our world, but they are relatively
few, and their voices are often drowned out in the din of competing
interests vying for the attention of the modern person. We even see
followers of different sects of Buddhism arguing with each other on the
internet, fighting over differences of belief and practice, another sure
sign of Mappo.
Yet
millions around the world are thirsting for a religious experience that
reveals to them why they are alive and where they are heading. Buddhism is
growing as the choice for many such seekers because of the Buddha’s own
quiet, gentle, and non-judging approach of heartfelt compassion and
rational wisdom. Today, the Tibetan, Zen, and Nichiren sects of Buddhism
in particular have been enormously successful in attracting followers
around the world through dynamic leadership and compelling outreach.
One
of the criticisms of Shin Buddhism in the West is the near absence of
outreach, that it is an ingrown, ethnically based community with little
interest in making its message known to the world at large. Dr. Alfred
Bloom’s latest book, THE PROMISE OF BOUNDLESS COMPASSION: SHIN BUDDHISM
FOR TODAY, published this year by the Buddhist Study Center Press, joins a
parade of recent books in English about Shin Buddhism by confronting this
stigma head-on and providing a powerful message for English-speaking
seekers who are interested in this long-neglected and little-understood
path of Mahayana Buddhism.
Dr.
Bloom’s life experience suffuses this book with insight and wisdom.
Originally brought up as a Christian fundamentalist, and studying theology
at the prestigious Harvard Divinity School, he wrote a brilliant book on
Shinran Shonin (Japan, 1173-1262), SHINRAN’S GOSPEL OF PURE GRACE, in
1968, nearly a decade before he actually converted to Shin Buddhism and
later was ordained as a Shin minister. He was first introduced to Shin
Buddhism during his tour of duty in the US Army of Occupation in postwar
Japan
in the late 1940s
where he was struck by the many superficial similarities between Shin and
Christianity. For many years he served on the faculty of the
University
of
Hawaii
, where he is an
emeritus professor of religion. And in recent years, Dr. Bloom formed a
Cyber Sangha, an email and web resource through which Shin Buddhists and
others interested in Shin can feel community across long distances and in
places where there are no Shin temples or sanghas.
Bloom’s
THE PROMISE OF BOUNDLESS COMPASSION is not a slight, vanity-press
offering. It is 380 pages long in 18 chapters, looking in depth at a wide
variety of issues facing the modern person and today’s Shin Buddhist in
particular. Every page is loaded with deep thought. But more, this book
reaches out to the religious seeker, to the person who is perhaps
dissatisfied with the pat answers and abstract theology of traditional
western religions and is looking for a direct, deep, satisfying and
uplifting spiritual encounter with reality and truth in ways which address
the experience of life as it is actually lived. These yearnings are, for
many, being addressed by the profound teachings of Shinran, which
constitute the core teachings of Jodo-Shinshu Buddhism. In his new book,
Dr. Bloom lays out these teachings with clarity and in simple layman’s
language.
Dr.
Bloom is careful to distinguish the story of Dharmakara Bodhisattva’s
life and practice to become Amida Buddha as a myth, but it is a myth that
opens the door of the mind/heart to a direct encounter with the boundless,
great compassion which suffuses the cosmos. He writes, “By understanding
the story of Dharmakara Bodhisattva as religious myth, its insight into
our bondage to the human condition and the power of compassion offers a
spiritual freedom that modern man so desperately seeks.”
The
book offers a penetrating investigation into the fundamental meaning of
Shin theology. For people whose appetites were whetted by Kenneth
Tanaka’s excellent catechism-style book, OCEAN: AN INTRODUCTION TO
JODO-SHINSHU BUDDHISM IN AMERICA, Dr. Bloom’s book offers further
challenges to the mind/heart, taking the doctrinal meaning of Shinran’s
teaching to a perhaps deeper, directly experiential level. Shin Buddhism
is not a belief-system but rather a path, a process of ever-deepening and
ever-widening religious experience. And Shin Buddhism, which emphasizes
the awakening to our blinding passions and the unconditional embrace of
boundless compassion, is for millions the great exemplar of religious
faith and spiritual realization, a sure antidote for the confusion and
toxicity of Mappo.
The
style of THE PROMISE OF BOUNDLESS COMPASSION: SHIN BUDDHISM FOR TODAY is
different from other recent books on Shin Buddhism. While Dr. Taitetsu
Unno’s two recent books — RIVER OF FIRE, RIVER OF WATER and SHIN
BUDDHISM: BITS OF RUBBLE TURN INTO GOLD — have a feeling of reaching out
to the general spiritual seeker, Dr. Bloom’s book takes a more didactic
approach for the person perhaps already acquainted with Shin, laying out
the teachings in a more systematic and historically oriented fashion with
a particular emphasis on the modern context. It does not focus on praxis
as does Jim Pym’s recent book, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SIT ON THE FLOOR,
which offers a whole palette of strategies and practices as it builds a
general appreciation of the Nembutsu in the context of the broader world
of Buddhism. Bloom’s book opens the mind to the broad implications of
Shin Buddhism and demonstrates its viability as a spiritual path for our
times.
Thus,
Dr. Bloom’s book carves out a special niche, speaking to the person who
wants Shin Buddhism explained with some rigor and depth and in language
free of religious jargon, in terms anyone seeking a meaningful spiritual
experience can understand. Dr. Bloom openly grapples with the difficult
implications of Shin tenets in ways a non-theologian and lay Buddhist can
appreciate. And for the convert to Shin Buddhism, whose numbers are
steadily growing, Bloom’s book focuses upon the life and teaching of
Shinran, making it a valuable addition to books in English on this
important spiritual founder.
THE
PROMISE OF BOUNDLESS COMPASSION is written on many levels and bears
repeated readings. Each chapter is a microcosm unto itself and takes the
reader into a fascinating matrix of thought. The book itself is a revision
of Dr. Bloom’s internet publication, “Shin
Buddhism in Modern Culture: A Self-Study Course”, which has been
on-line for many years. One can study each chapter at his website and
submit answers to the questions at the end of each chapter to Dr. Bloom
via e-mail and correspond with him directly about the issues each chapter
raises. It is the only on-line course of its kind for Shin Buddhism in a
Western language.
THE
PROMISE OF BOUNDLESS COMPASSION is an important book. It represents the
fruits of a life lived in the light of boundless compassion and a desire
to communicate that life to others in the spirit of kindness and
enthusiasm that emanates from the transforming power of the Nembutsu. It
calls for a transition from a backward-looking practice of funerals and
memorials to a forward-looking path of joyful, grateful, and continual
opening and awakening to the beauty and transforming power of Amida’s
Primal Vow in one’s daily life. And it is a resource of great value to
which one can return again and again for inspiration and direction. Thanks
to Dr. Bloom for his wonderful contribution.
