The head of Jodo Shinshu, Monshu Koshin Ohtani, has written a book that will be available in English for the first time. "The Buddha's Wish for the World" will be published in September, 2009, by the American Buddhist Study Center Press.

The book is dedicated to honor the 750th memorial of Shinran Shonin (1173 - 1263), the founder of Jodo Shinshu, who established this spiritual path in 13th century Japan. It includes a foreword by world-renowned Buddhist scholar, Professor Robert Thurman, Professor of Buddhism at Columbia University and Founder of Tibet House in New York.

Born in Kyoto in 1945, Koshin Ohtani is the twenty-fourth Monshu or head of the Jodo Shinshu tradition. He also serves as chief minister of Nishi Hongwanji, the tradition's head temple in Kyoto and one of the largest Buddhist centers in the world.

"The Buddha's Wish for the World" consists of 36 short chapters, demonstrating how Buddhism is lived in everyday situations.  Monshu Ohtani shares his insights on compassion, mindful attention to others, faith, and self-understanding through personal stories and examples.  Americans who are familiar with other Buddhist teachings will find many similarities, but also unique differences that come out of the Pure Land vision.

Robert Thurman writes in his foreword that the book includes a "range of observations of life and liberation, from the tiny but utterly significant moments in ordinary life, of the turning of the mind from egotism to altruistic heart's entrustment to the vast and beautiful vision of the immanence of the all-enfolding universal compassion of Amida Buddha."

READ A SAMPLE OF THE BOOK AT THE AMERICAN BUDDHIST STUDY CENTRE...