Here is a great article in the magazine Buddhadahrma about the Shin Buddhist path. Who are the foolish beings? According to the Shin tradition of Pure Land Buddhism, we all are. Mark Unno explains that only by becoming aware of our limited self and acknowledging our fundamental foolishness can we realize the oneness of all beings and the limitless flow of compassion.
One of the implications of the Mahayana Buddhist idea of emptiness is that the important question is not “What does it mean to be a buddhist?” It is “What does it means to be a human being?” That’s because emptiness applies to Buddhism itself as much as it does to ordinary objects of attachment. It is only when one has been “emptied” of all preconceived categories, including those of Buddhism, that the deepest reality of being human becomes apparent. As the Zen master Dogen states, “To study the buddhadharma is to study the self. To study the self
is to forget the self.”
