Ten years since Aum
I know it is still March, not May, but let me use the opportunity to write one little article in advance, because once the heavy work starts, I find it difficult to make an update every two months. Viewing the pictures of houses and cars b…
I am writing about the decline of Japanese Buddhism. For the past year, I was concentrating on the fact that Japanese monks marry as one reason for this decline. Because monks are married,- most teachers have no desciples except for their …
Back to the topic: Why is it a problem that Buddhist priests are married, and what does it have to do with the decline of Japanese Buddhism? I would like to concentrate on my own case. First, I think we should make clear that it means a vi…
It has been almost three years since I started writing this series of articles called "Ten years since the Aum sarin attack". I began with the question "What has Japanese Zen done in the mean time?", asking for the reason why young Japanes…
Usually at the end of our monthly five day sesshin I say something like: "Sesshin isn't over now. The real sesshin starts the moment you think it is over, so take good care!"Sitting for fifteens hours a day facing the wall isn't easy. Keep…
"Skinship" is a word widely used in Japan. According to the Japanese Wikipedia article on "skinship", it means physical intimacy or closeness between mother and child and was first used by an American at a WHO conference in 1953. The word …
I mentioned the fact that Buddhist monks and priests in Japan today usually marry as one reason for the degeneration of present day Japanese Buddhism. Before I will explain why it is a problem for Japanese Buddhism as a whole as well as fo…
Twelve years have passed now since the Sarin attack in the Tokyo subway. I have mentioned repeatedly that the degeneration of Japanese buddhism is one factor that led to the rise of the Aum cult and the poison attack. The reason for this c…
When I encountered zazen at age 16, it was like a first discovery of my physical existence. I realized that I not only have a body, but rather that this body is me. There were around 15 members in the Zen circle that I participated in. We …
With 16, I entered a Christian boarding school. One of the teachers there had a Zen meditation circle. He had originally studied philosophy, later became a Catholic priest, lived in a Theravada monastery in Thailand for a year and finally …
The problem posed by the Sarin attack of the Aum cult in the Tokyo subway was defined by the officials of the Rinzai and Ôbaku sects as a "question of responsibility of the Zen sect as an established religion in modern society".So what ans…
Who is to be held responsible for the Salin attack in the Tokyo subway ten years ago? No-one but the Aum cult itself of course. On the other hand, many Buddhists excuse themselves by saying that this cult is only pseudo-Buddhist and that t…
"When we examine the Aum incident, we can discover in it the cultural and social sickness of our modern world. The incident itself will sooner or later be forgotten. But the sickness of our modern world itself that manifested in the attack…
How did Japanese Zen deal with the Sarin attack that was performed by the Aum cult in the Tokyo subway ten years ago? First I want to start to investigate how the Rinzai and Ôbaku sects related to the problem. Today there are three differe…
"Aum Shinrikyo" is the name of a Japanese cult that released sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway on March 20th 1995, and thus killed 12. Several others were killed before in smaller incidents. Although the cult worshipped Hindu God Shiva a…
