Wisdom of the East is a classic Buddhist novel created by Shinran Shonin and later, translated by S.Yamabe And L. Adams Beck. It is a peculiar fact that, despite the fact that many of the earlier Buddhist Scriptures have been translated by qualified scholars, the later Buddhist devotional writings have received relatively little attention, despite the fact that the development of Buddhism in China and Japan has made them of particular interest as a reflection of the spiritual outlook of those two enormous nations. The Wisdom of the East is a book written by S. Yamabe and L. Adams Beck. Its meaning can be found wherever the human heart shines with love' - B. Alan Wallace, author of "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training". For more than a half-century, the spiritual philosophies of the East - from India to Japan, from yoga to Buddhism - have influenced our lives in the West. Leading teachers, authors, and practitioners of the main spiritual traditions with roots in Asia are among the fifty authors in this captivating anthology who share their favorite teaching tales and poems as well as the lessons they learned from them. This combination brings together simple 'turning words' and the sustaining, practical insights they inspire.
Japanese Buddhist monk Shinran Shonin was born in Hino (now a portion of Fushimi, Kyoto) on May 21, 1173, at the stormy end of the Heian period, and lived during the Kamakura period. He died on January 16, 1263. Hen's student Shinran founded the Japanese Buddhist sect that would later become known as Jodo Shinshu. Shinran Shonin was born in 1173 to Lord and Lady Arinori, from a branch of the Fujiwara clan. In 1181 he entered the Sh?ren-in temple near present-day Maruyama Park in Kyoto at age nine. Became a disciple of H?nen in 1201 and attained enlightenment through Amida's Vow. In 1207, H?nen Shinran was stripped of his monastic name and exiled after being accused of using nembutsu practice as a cover-up for sexual liaisons. Having been stripped of monastic identity, Shinran came to understand himself as neither monk nor layman. His most significant work, Kyogyoshinsho, is a series of selections and commentaries on Buddhist sutras. In 1234 Shinran returned to Kyoto with his daughter Kakushinni but disowned his eldest son Zenran. On March 14, 2008, a little wooden figure at the Jrakuji temple in Shimogy-Ku, Kyoto, was discovered to contain what is thought to be some of Shinran's ash remains.
