A Spiritual Odyssey: My Encounter with Pure Land Buddhism

The question may be asked: What is the meaning of Shin Buddhism for western people? I would approach this question from my own spiritual odyssey. Though my path is not necessarily a model for others, it may be instructive for understanding the factors that are involved in religious conversion. In brief, I was born ofJewish parentage and lived in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood long before Vatican II. As my mother was converted to a form of Baptist fundamentalism, I was raised in that tradition. Naturally there was much discussion within our family and with my peers with mixed religious views. The issues of religion have been with me as long as I can remember. In my teens, I became a strong fundamentalist, determined to be a missionary. During my army career in 1944-1946, I studied Japanese and participated in the army of occupation inJapan. As a member of the G. I. Gospel Hour (a version of Youth for Christ), I had opportunity to give talks in Christian churches in English as a means of helping Japanese youth learn English and hear the Gospel. On one occasion, as I preached on the Christian idea of grace, the minister translated my words. He said, This is like Amida. I was shocked to find that there were ideas in other faiths that compare to Christianity. I had been raised to believe that we alone-in our Baptist church-had the only truth, based on the Bible, even in opposition to the Catholic claims that surrounded us. Hearing the name of Amida at that time awakened a spiritual search in me, first for self-understanding and later in my seminary training, for a meaningful interpretation of Christianity. The seminaries I attended-Eastern Baptist, Andover Newton, and Harvard Divinity school-reflect the course of my development. World War II, the atom bomb, the Holocaust, rampant racism, the cold war, McCarthyism, the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, and the many problems I became aware of during the 1950s and 1960s increased my doubts about the Christian confidence that acts in history. The world came to appear more and more absurd and in my mind remains so. The cosmic or individualized views that God has a plan became for me an increasingly hollow notion. In interand intra-denominational conflicts, it became evident that disputes and divisions could easily be given theological cover.