Buddhist Psalms: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Buddhist Psalms, credited to Shinran, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Buddhist Psalms by Shinran. (Translated by L. Adams Beck; Shūgaku Yamabe.) Read in English by Geoffrey Edwards. 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.

Recording facts

• Recording title: Buddhist Psalms
• Author credits: Shinran
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 2:55:45

Catalogue topics

• philosophy
• Japan
• Japanese
• buddhism
• buddha
• psalms
• buddhist
• shinran

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction — 23:35
2. 01 - Lauding the Infinite One — 13:49
3. 02 - Of Paradise — 4:47
4. 03 - Concerning the Great Sutra — 9:51
5. 04 - Concerning the Sutra of the Meditation — 4:45
6. 05 - Concerning the Lesser Sutra — 2:48
7. 06 - Of the Many Sutras Concerning the Infinite One — 4:16
8. 07 - Concerning the Welfare of the Present World — 9:30
9. 08 - Of Thanksgiving for Nagarjuna, the Great Teacher of India — 4:44
10. 09 - Of Thanksgiving for Vasubandh, the Great Teacher of India — 5:00
11. 10 - Of Thanksgiving for Donran, the Great Teacher of China — 11:55
12. 11 - Concerning Unrighteous Deeds — 3:08
13. 12 - Concerning Doshaku-Zenji — 3:30
14. 13 - Concerning Zendo-Daishi — 12:20
15. 14 - Concerning Genshin-Sozu — 4:33
16. 15 - Concerning Hōnen Shōnin — 8:40
17. 16 - Of the Three Periods — 21:57
18. 17 - Concerning Belief and Doubt — 10:02
19. 18 - In Praise of Prince Shotoku — 5:23
20. 19 - Wherein with Lamentation I Make My Confession — 7:07
21. 20 - Additional Psalms — 4:05

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.