This anthology presents a vast array of Asian Buddhist texts translated into English, each of which is preceded by a succinct introduction by its translator. As the title indicates, the common feature running through the selected sources is that all of them speak of a pure land, or pure lands, in their respective contexts. It must be emphasized that, throughout this volume, the worship of the Buddha Amitābha/Amitāyus and his Land of Bliss (Sukhāvatī) are treated as one variation, not as the standard, of what is called “Pure Land Buddhism.” The two editors, Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne, claim that the de8nitive quali8cation of Pure Land Buddhism is “the shared idea of a spatially located land, often identi8ed as a postmortem goal of practice, and which is the special domain of a buddha or other similar 8gure” (p. 14). On this basis, this work is carefully designed to cover a rich variety of pure lands including, but importantly not limited to that of Amitābha. One of the primary objectives of this self-conscious e3ort is to demonstrate the diversity, ubiquity, and signi8cance of Pure Land Buddhism which could otherwise be easily underestimated or even disregarded.
