Lamenting Modern Misunderstandings – A reflection on a western literalist interpretation of Jodo Shinshu

For the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist tradition, the Buddha Amida and the Pure Land of Utmost Bliss are of crucial importance. Traditionally both Amida and the Pure Land have been seen as both symbolic and actual, neither fully immanent nor fully transcendent. In recent times, however, the marginal view that we ought to see Amida exclusively as ‘a real person’ and the Pure Land as ‘a real place’ has emerged.