一日約９０人も自殺する世に僧は何かでききるか

Jimonkoryu (寺門交流 Temple Exchange) August, 2006 pp 38-47

If we include people who attempt suicide,

there are 1,000 people a day who step towards this way.

1. Signature Campaign

• 101,515 signatures demanding for legislation to deal with suicide
• Parliamentary “voluntary commission on considering measures to stop suicide”
• On June 15^th, lower house passed the “basic law on suicide measures”
• Signature campaign by the NPO Center to Support Measures for Suicide “Life Link”; endorsed by about 20 private organizations, university teachers, journalists, famous people etc.

2. Rev. Fujisawa Katsumi –

45, Jodo Shinshu Honganji-ha, Vice Abbot of Anraku-ji in Minato-ku, Tokyo

• Graduated Waseda and worked as a computer engineer until March 2006 when he quit to join the campaign
• “As a priest’s work deals with the life of people, the suicide problem is not something we can avoid, so we have to raise consciousness of it.”
• “Suicide is not some one else’s problem. It is a fundamental social problem which when we become aware of it there must be many such people living near us.”
• Many responses to the signature campaign included notes relating to direct personal experience with the suffering of suicide.
• From page 42: He now works at the Tokyo Suicide Prevention Center: “People who have anxiety walking past a temple might suddenly enter and confide in the priest. But from the gate to the entrance is far. In order to restore the temple as a “community center” kakekomidera there needs to be preparation. At this stage, telephone consulting is something we can do outside of the temple………. You don’t need any special ability. Simply listening. However, it’s most important to create a feeling of mutuality and closeness. People contemplating suicide hold the conflicting emotions of “I want to die but really I want to live.” There needs to be someone who exists that can listen to this kind of talk.”

3. Background of over 30,000 suicides for 8 straight years

• 2005 number was 32,552, up 227 from the previous year; 1,000 people/day attempt and/or succeed; last year auto deaths were 6,871. #1 cause of death among 20 and 30 year olds.
• Suicides outnumber auto deaths by 5 fold but budgeting for auto safety measures outpaces that for suicide 1,600/1.
• Half of these suicides are due to “health problems” which reflects on problems such as the pain of illness, alcoholism and spiritual obstacles.

4. “Basic law on suicide measures”

• Provide information and support for research into suicide prevention
• Provide a system to maintain mental health at workplaces, schools and in communities
• Provide needed medical services to people who are suicidal
• Create an early warning system for people who have a high risk of suicide
• Support private groups engaged in stopping suicide
• Provide suitable support for those who have attempted suicide
• Mental care for the families of those who have committed or attempted suicide
• it is the duty of the government to provide a national report annually on this issue

****as this was recognizing that this problem is not just an individual one but a larger special one, this legislation is a watershed event

5. Telephone counseling is one thing priests can do

• The Tokyo Suicide Prevention Center was begun in Osaka in 1978
• They have about 70 registered workers and work from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am
• In order to work as a counselor you have to train for half a year. Basic training is 3 months and then a period of practice sessions with other counselors. Most workers are volunteers who work in companies and so there is a limit of working 3 times a month

6. Yuhan Nishi

29, Soto Zen , Abbot of Banju-ji in Mie Prefecture

• Research fellow at the Soto-shu Research Center in Tokyo who also works at the Tokyo Suicide Prevention Center. He’s been working there about 1 year
• “Funerals are the main source of living for priests. In short, we have to confront the dead and the mourning families. Are the families of the over 30,000 people who have committed suicide in great suffering? I think that there is a need to face the people who are left after the dead and who face their own death still.”
• “People like me who are volunteers don’t have to be pros. Of course amateurs can too…………..There are many priests who say that you can’t do telephone counseling without having studied counseling and psychology. So instead, if a family member or friend gets stuck in suicidal feelings, there’s nothing they can do to support them. So shouldn’t counselors and amateurs be able to take some measures?” My comment: but he’s a monk/priest who underwent training and should have some experience in contemplating death while also having deeper spiritual knowledge about life! How is that priests can be of lower level than “professional counselors”!
• Soto-shu has a teaching called douji (同事), which means “identity”, that is to become one with others – Buddhas and bodhisattvas lead sentient beings by means of becoming one with those who need help (Daito Shuppan Dictionary). “From myself to Shakyamuni, as people all suffer equally together, so I should develop the sense of there is no distinction between myself and others. There is a lot of social suffering, and I think through telephone counseling I can engage with people’s suffering.”

7. Work on Buddhist institutions

• The Lifeline signature campaign didn’t appeal to Buddhists groups but from now will do
• NHK director: “Truthfully, the Buddhist world doesn’t have any desire. I have been engaged at the grassroots, and I have almost never met any priests dealing with this issue. The temples are closed. I think that in the there they won’t be dealing with this problem of life and death which is a priests work.” BUT is this really true?
• Nichiren-shu: Four years ago they established a nationwide system in all offices of a comprehensive counseling center. However, most of this is for questions about donations and lay followers & temple troubles with hardly anything concerning suicide. They did put out a pamphlet on resisting suicide which reported on current suicide information and finally introduces a telephone number for “Life Line” a 24 hour volunteer group. A priest from the headquarters said: “We received a request from Life Link to join the signature campaign, but there are various viewpoints among teachers, and we couldn’t get a unified response so we couldn’t cooperate in the campaign. Doing things as an organization is difficult. However, from now we would like to put energy behind measures to deal with the suicide problem by making an official Nichiren shu declaration called “Peace Now” (gense anon 現世安穏)
• Jodo Shin-shu Otani-ha: for the 750^th memorial of Shinran’s death, they have created the theme “Now, you are living your life” (今、いのちがあなたを生きている) which refers to the increase in suicide. In September 2004, the Higashi Honganji Shinshu-kaikan established “Mind Dial” (kokoro daiaru) a service provided on Fridays from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm.
• Soto-shu & Shingon-shu 豊山派 have also established telephone counseling but basically nothing from experts in suicide, but mostly about Buddhist matters. Amongst the many other sects there is no other telephone counseling. From the various counseling offered at sect offices there are cases of people asking for experts to speak with on suicide.
• Shingon-shu Koya-san: Every year they have a training course for “spiritual care workers” and “mental consultants”. Regardless of lay or ordained, they train people to work with people who have anxiety. However, there are no policy measures from the sect itself

8. Taigen Asano

58, Rinzai Zen, Abbot of Ankoku-ji in Onsen-gun, Aichi Prefecture

• has been engaged in the issue for 10 years
• 2 years ago he proposed a Suicide Problem Research Meeting but only got two responses and nothing from the sect headquarters. The same from other Buddhist groups.
• Had a friend in school commit succeed and he thought about it too many times. Spent a half year in seclusion on a mountain in Aichi and after reading an interesting book decided to become a priest. Spent four years at Nanzen-ji in Kyoto and the year he left for his present temple a priest at nanzen-ji cut off his own head.
• Started doing suicide memorial services after two events in 1996 at a Shingon temple in Matsuyama City. Had a falling out with the head of this temple last year but continued this work in this city at the Citizens Center (shiminkaikan). Added music. People liked it so he is thinking of doing two more this year. He is now sending letters to all the abbots in Japan in order to sound out interest in holding a symposium on this.
• “There is no awareness that suicide is not an individual problem but a social problem. Every day at the funeral, while coming in contact with the mourning family of a person who committed suicide, a priest only receives the donation and doesn’t respond to the family’s suffering. Is this not fraud?” ……. “At present, people are covering their eyes to the problem, but on the other hand if we speak, of course with the suicide problem, isn’t care for the mourning family what existing Buddhist followers are asking for? Japanese Buddhism has been ridiculed as Funeral Buddhism, but grappling with this problem must be a chance for it.”

9. A Temple that is Open 24 hours a day? Eichi Shinoahara

62, Soto Zen, Abbot of Choju-in in Chiba Prefecture and Head of the Soto-shu Chiba Prefectural office

In a running series of articles previously published in this magazine, we related a letter that Rev. Shinohara received. Rev. Shinohara is an abbot who is now on the frontline of priests who are dealing with this problem of suicide. The core of Rev. Shinohara’s work is 24 hour telephone consultation. Since he’s been in the news a lot, he now gets calls from all over the country and an endless stream of visitors.

Rev. Shinohara has been doing suicide counseling for about 30-40 young people. If you include the middle aged and elderly to that it comes to about 100 total. If someone visits suddenly or calls in the middle of the night, it is Shinohara’s conviction to never refuse them. This way of working always yields surprises. So we would like to relate a bit about some one who was introduced to his temple for counseling.

Rev. Shinohara says, “Temple people also have some uneasiness about dealing with suicide, so they would rather not end up having to think about being concerned with a suicide. However, I think that if someone is feeling suicidal, a priest should confront the situation, meet them and listen to what they have to say.”

Rev. Shinohara went out the day before for 7 hours from 4-11 in the evening to listen to what a couple had to say. The wife had first come to Choju-in about one year earlier. Their second daughter committed suicide before getting married, and the parents feeling responsible were thinking of following her into suicide as well. The reason for the daughter’s suicide is that she had anxiety over the husband’s connection with women.. However, for the remaining parents, the death of the older sister could not be stopped. Recently, they blame the husband, but then have come to blame themselves say, “If she had suffered to such an extent, then we should have listened to her more.”

They reflect fully on a past memory. Recently, they bring up the words of a priest. They say “The way of raising the child at that time was bad.” Looking from the side, directly, one would think it was unconnected to the daughter’s death but end up being the blame.

Rev. Shinohara says, “It’s important to fully focus on exhaling out. Before that there is the world of silence. I simply listen. Not knowing what to do, perhaps afterwards if there is moment there is the possibility of suicide. But then I received a request for an appointment the next Saturday to talk. I don’t know how many years it will take for them to get over their daughter’s death.”

Yet it seems recently that the father is gradually changing. When he has the opportunity, Rev. Shinohara says, “You shouldn’t just remember your daughter’s bitterness. There were happy times right?” So the father looks through a photo album remembers with joy the times going to the mountains or the sea. He goes on to say, “If you do like this, and certainly think for yourselves in this way, your feeling will come that your daughter’s life was not all bitterness. The closing curtain on her death was certainly bitter, but until then she had enjoyed a loving marriage. At death, a cog simply went out of order. It wasn’t that the cog was out of place all her life. I told them please recall how this girl was happy at this time. If you change in this way, then the possibility of following her into suicide will end.”

• Take the time to share a meal. The suicidal often don’t eat well and a good meal helps them think better.
• Maybe have a drink as it gets feelings unstuck
• Make the temple a refuge for “hanging out” and finding quiet – see long quote

10. Need for a network so that older priest with experience can pass on knowledge to younger ones. They need regular contact