Perhaps this thread would be better served in a Buddhist Tribe. However, there is much in Buddhism that rests in Unconditional Love.

In some forms of Buddhism, for example, Pure Land (Jodo-shu), Nichiren, and other schools, worship of the deity is encouraged through the practice of devotional Buddhism. In Japanese, the term "tariki" (other power) invests in the belief that Amitābha Buddha will help the individual attain the Pure Land after death. Followers believe that saying(chanting) the Buddha's name over and over will get you Enlightened, and will achieve other benefits along the way, i.e., material wealth, health, etc. The Japanese Zen term "joriki", however, suggests we can experience the Enlightened mind through "self power". Joriki and tariki are essentially after the same thing, two sides of the same coin, but their paths follows different lines of practice. Zen leans towards "self power", and so there is no worship of any deity. There is no "holy", no "spiritual merit", no "God", no nothing. Thus the expression, in the form of a koan, "When you see the Buddha, kill him!"
It is reminding us that looking for Enlightenment outside of ourselves is a fruitless exercise, when we ourselves are the Buddha. Our daily life is the Pure Land, and when we no longer identify with an ego-centred reality, this becomes clear. Well, this practice proved a bit too hard for the masses, perhaps too elite. So an easier path to the Pure Land was devised.

Repetition of the Buddha's name through the use of chanting does two things. It creates the container or form that provides "set and setting".
And secondly, it helps to break down the ego's defenses and habit of attachment to a fixed way of perception. The mind and body becomes fatigued, the willfulness of the ego to constantly promote and identify with a separate self begins to crack, and for some, deep spiritual experiences occur. One didn't have to be a monk or a priest to experience it. The common folk in the agrarian societies of the East fell in love with this idea. There was a wide spread religious movement to embrace the practice.

As far as the accumulation of wealth and health and other human motivational forces are concerned, Zen would suggest that to become overly attached to either wealth or poverty, health or sickness, etc. misses the point. Through the path of joriki, the Middle Way of Mahayana Buddhism is followed. But life is complex. The impoverished homeless person may have hardship because of various social issues, and other conditions that make up his life, etc. Yet, conversely, the wealthy person may also be agonizing over the need to maintain his wealth. If you doubt this, one only has to follow the demise of the world's financial markets to see how it looks to suffer with money, or its loss. Perhaps there was abuse of other people and the planet to achieve that wealth, and the fallout from that finally caught up. His health may suffer from the stress, or other debilitations may surface. Who's to know....we simply don't. Suffering is a condition of life...but there is a way to understand this truth.

The person who understands the Zen way of life shows compassion to both human conditions. A person who practices Zen may suffer less because they are not attached to either extreme, and through the wisdom of joriki(self power) they understand that we truly are the change we envision. We are more likely to suffer when we are attached to the outcome of what life offers up.

J.