Rev. Dr. Aaron Shōken Proffitt is an associate professor of Japanese Studies at SUNY-Albany, and an ordained Buddhist priest in the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha lineage. Originally from Lynchburg, TN, Proffitt is a scholar of East Asian Buddhism, publishing popular and academic articles in English and Japanese on Esoteric Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and the Lotus Sutra. He is the author of Esoteric Pure Land Buddhism (University of Hawaii, 2023). Proffitt serves the New York Buddhist Church as a minister’s assistant, and co-founded Albany Buddhist Sangha. He is currently working on a translation of Saicho’s Kenkairon, an edited volume on the Mantra of Light, and a children’s book on the life and teachings of Buddha.
Aaron Proffitt
Recent Articles
Why I Ordained — And What It Was Like
Rev. Dr. Aaron Shōken Proffitt shares his experience of tokudo shurai — the ordination training for priests in the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha — and learns that "everything is tokudo."
A Brief History of Pure Land Buddhism
Pure Land is both a distinct school of Buddhism that developed in Japan and, says Aaron Proffitt, a cornerstone of the whole Mahayana tradition.
The Buddha Amitābha in the Himitsu nenbutsu shō
An excerpt of chapter 7 of Aaron P. Proffitt’s new book, "Esoteric Pure Land Buddhism" — reviewed in the Summer 2023 issue of Buddhadharma.