Unit 2: From “Funeral Buddhism” to End-of-Life Care & Suicide Prevention

** Cohort class system begins this week for rest of the semester. For details, see the Course Overview page!

Class Issue: Gender disparity and social exclusion are two major areas of both individual and collective suffering in Japan. Especially in terms of gender disparity, Japanese Buddhists and even social engaged ones fall short of actively engaging in this issue. This class will look at this problem and the possibility that this could be the next important movement in Japanese Buddhist social activitism.
Content: Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Japanese Buddhism (PDF)
Video: A Monk Who Wears Heels about Rev. Kodo Nishimura a Buddhist priest from the Japanese Jodo Pure Land denomination, makeup artist, LGBTQ activist, and model. NHK World Documentary. March 5, 2022

Class Issue: This class will look at how Japanese Buddhists are reviving their ancient roles and re-training themselves as compassionate guides for the dying and bereaved. We will begin to see how they are confronting the suffering of an aging society and providing support and guidance to realize the 3rd and 4th Noble Truths.
Content: Dying and Grieving in Contemporary Buddhism (PDF) Click here for entire audio lecture to go with PDF
Video: Grief and Intimacy: Buddhists who practice Spiritual Care from the NHK series The Era of the Heart/Mind (kokoro): Religion and Human Life 9/25/2022
Video: Buddhist Priests in Japan: Regular Home Visits Serve as Guideposts for Life and Death Winter 2022

Recommended Reading for next week: Journey Through Dukkha on the suicide prevention priests OR Rewriting Culture: The Suicide Prevention Priests of Japan, chapter 2 in the new book Engaged Buddhism in Japan Volume II: A New Socially Engaged Buddhism in 21st Century Japan, From Intimate Care to Social Ethics available in class

Class Issue: The two crises of Japanese Buddhism’s increasing marginalization in only taking care of the dead (soshiki bukkyo) & Japanese society’s pandemic of “disconnected death” (muen-shi) come together in the problem of suicide, which rapidly increased from the collapse of the economy in the late 1990s. Here and there, in local settings, individual Buddhist priests began to grapple with the 1st Noble Truth of suffering and encounter the suicidal who were desperate for a sympathetic person who would listen to them. By the early 2010s a non-sectarian movement of these priests was forming and today is the most powerful example of socially engaged Buddhism in Japan.
Content: The Problem of Suicide in Japan and Buddhist Priests Confronting the Situation(PDF) Click here for audio lecture that goes with PDF
Video: The Departure – a profile of the work of suicide prevention priest, Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto 90 mins. During the video takes notes using the Iceberg of Dukka & the Diamond Pyramid of Nirvana from the Buddhist Social Analysis model

Recommended Reading for next week: Rebuilding Human Bonds amidst Japan’s Disconnected Society: A Buddhist Path through Rural Decline, Migrant Laborers, Poverty & Homelessness OR Chapter 4 “Rebuilding Karmic Bonds” in Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume II
Recommended Reading for next week: Shift the Power: Building a Buddhist Temple Community as a Mechanism for Environmental and Social Change OR Chapter 5 “Aspiring for Enlightened Development” in Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume II