Buddhist Psalms

With the Buddhist faith there came the germ of the belief that the Gautama Buddha in his own grandeur bore witness to One Greater-the Amitabha or Amida Buddha-that One who in boundless Light abideth, life of the Universe, without colour, without form, the Lover of man, his Protector and Refuge. He may, He must be worshipped, for in Him are all the essential attributes of Deity, and He, the Saviour of mankind, has prepared a pure land of peace for his servants, beyond the storms of life and death. This belief eventually crystallised and became a dogma in the faith of the Pure Land, known in Japan as JMdo Shinshu, a faith held by the majority of the Japanese people. It is a belief which has spread also in Eastern Siberia, many parts of China, Hawaii, and, in fact, where-ever the Japanese race has spread. And the man who stated this belief for all time was Shinran ShMnin, author of the Psalms here presented.