Buddhist Psalms

Written by Shinran Shōnin (親鸞聖人, 1173-1263), the founder of Jōdo Shinshū (浄土真宗), the Shin sect of Pure Land Buddhism.
Translated from the Japanese by Shūgaku Yamabe (山辺修覚) and Lily Adams Beck.

These Jōdo-Wasan (浄土和讃), or Psalms of the Pure Land are a part not only of the literature, but also of the daily worship and spiritual life of Japan.

The development of Mahayana Buddhism from the teaching of the Gautama Buddha has been often compared with that of the Christian faith from the Jewish, but it may be better compared with the growth of a sacerdotal system from the simplicities of the Gospel of St. Mark. That the development should have been on the same lines in all essential matters of symbol and (in the most important respects) of doctrine, modified only by Eastern habits of thought and environment, is a miracle of coincidence which cannot be paralleled in the world unless it be granted that Christianity filtering along the great trade routes of an earlier world joined hands with Buddhism in many unsuspected ways and places. (From Lily's introduction)

Cover: Buddhist Psalms by cartoonist Robin Bougie (2026), released by him into the public domain.

Special thanks to Rino Iwashita, a student at Akita International University, for her help with Japanese pronunciation.