Kaimokusho or Liberation from Blindness
Kaimokusho or Liberation from Blindness

Author: Nichiren

Publisher: BDK America

Published: 2000-08

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13:

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This thirteenth-century text by Nichiren extols the Lotus Sutra and critiques the other schools of Japanese Buddhism active at that time. Nichiren was arrested by the Kamakura government in 1271 and sentenced to exile on Sado Island. There he was in constant danger of assassination, and wrote the Kaimokusho to convince his remaining followers to follow his example in Buddhism. To do this, Nichiren criticized religions other than Buddhism, and then Buddhist sutras other than the Lotus Sutra. He asked the question "Am I not the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra and answered this question by quoting five testimonies to the truthfulness of his faith. He also identifies the three kinds of arrogant people and equates them with the three kinds of enemies of the Lotus Sutra.

Tokugawa Religion
Tokugawa Religion

Author: Robert N. Bellah

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-06-30

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 1439119023

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Robert N. Bellah's classic study, Tokugawa Religion does for Japan what Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism did for the West. One of the foremost authorities on Japanese history and culture, Bellah explains how religion in the Tokugawa period (160-1868) established the foundation for Japan's modern industrial economy and dispels two misconceptions about Japanese modernization: that it began with Admiral Perry's arrival in 1868, and that it rapidly developed because of the superb Japanese ability for imitation. In this revealing work, Bellah shows how the native doctrines of Buddhism, Confucianism and Shinto encouraged forms of logic and understanding necessary for economic development. Japan's current status as an economic superpower and industrial model for many in the West makes this groundbreaking volume even more important today than when it was first published in 1957. With a new introduction by the author.