Particular and universal norms of Shinran's religious experience

The author, Professor of Religious Studies and English at the University Center for Intercultural Education, University of Shiga Prefecture, Japan,and Guest Professor of the University of the Air, is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Stanford University, USA. He has published many articles and papers in the areas of comparative studies of Eastern and Western thought with emphasis on Buddhism. Professor Ishida is the author of several books - one of which is on John Lennon, the former leader of the Beatles. He is currently working on a book on Shinran and Dogen, two of the leading figures of the "reformed Buddhism" of the Kamakura period (1185- 1333) in Japan. The text that follows is a slightly revised and edited version of a paper presented by the author at the international symposion on "Globalization and Local Identity", organized jointly by the World Society for Ekistics and the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005.