This paperback is one in a series from The Library of Perennial Philosophy that seeks "to express the inner unanimity, transforming radiance, and irreplaceable values of the great spiritual traditions." Naturalness: A Classic of Shin Buddhism appears as one of the selections in World Wisdom's Spiritual Classics Series. Kenryo Kanamatsu wrote it in 1949 as an introduction to the form of Buddhism which D. Z. Suzuki called "Japan's greatest contribution to the West."

"We can look at our self in its two different aspects," the author writes."The self which displays itself, and the self which transcends itself, and thereby reveals its own meaning. To display itself it tries to be big, to stand upon the pedestal of its accumulations, and to retain everything to itself. To reveal itself it gives up everything it has, thus becoming perfect like a flower that has blossomed out from the bud." Through intuitive insight, we awaken to the boundless compassion that is the source and sustainer of all life.

In chapters on pure feeling, the essence of goodness, the revealer and the redeemer, the original vow, and naturalness in everyday work; Kanamatsu explains the essentials of Shin Buddhism. It has a lot in common with Christianity with its emphasis upon grace and love. Near the end, the author states:"Our abiding happiness is not in getting anything but in giving ourselves up to what is greater than ourselves, to the infinite ideal of perfection." The result is an abundant life which Kanamatsu describes as living in love and not being bound to attachments of any kind.