Jodo Shinshu does not give moral speeches and it doesn’t contain difficult practices. While other Buddhist methods talk about the ideal of Buddhahood and the possibility to attain it in this life, Jodo Shinshu starts with the sense of failure.

It is a simple path for ordinary people like you and me, lost from morning till evening in the fight for daily survival, filled with illusions and attachments to which we see neither the beginning nor the end. Jodo Shinshu is not a path for saints, but for losers, for those who cannot attain by themselves anything stable in the spiritual life.

Not the promise of purification, but of salvation as we are is the essence of Jodo Shinshu. Nothing special, no state of mind to be attained or developed. Only faith in the Infinite Compassion of Amida Buddha.

This book is an adaptation of some Dharma sermons given at Tariki Dojo, Amidaji temple and letters to my Buddhist friend...