Deplorable Situation in Burma ミャンマーの混乱

It has been reported that the military government in Burma started to crush any sign of protest movements. The government has sent soldiers with clubs and weapons and brutally beaten up participants in demonstrations. In this process a Japanese free journalist Mr. Nagai was killed with a gunshot from a close distance. He was wearing short pants and a short-sleeve shirt, holding a DVD camera, which means that it was obvious that he was a foreign reporter and was not part of the demonstration. This has made it clear under the sun that the military government has permitted or even encouraged soldiers to shoot peaceful demonstrators.

The prime function of any government is to protect the life and property of its citizens. The fact that the military government of Burma has started to shoot its own people means that it now exists to protect itself and prolong its own existence, hence it has now lost its reason of existence. Anyone who opposes the government policies is now branded as "terrorist." These days, the phrase "war against terrorism" seems to be used to justify government policies to suppress any anti-government movements.

What do you think about the present situation in Burma? What about the extremely impoverished condition of the North Korean people?

Nowadays, the daily flood of information makes us numb to any information. Everything that is reported in the newspaper or on television appears like phantoms, unrelated to our actual life. It is important for us Buddhists to regard others' sufferings as our own sufferings and to realize that as long as any one person is suffering in the world, our present happiness is not real happiness.

Modern Superstition 現代の迷信

We have lots of superstitions. When I was a child, I was told to hide my thumbs when I had to pass where a funeral ceremony was in progress. I guess it meant preventing the death of one's parents because thums are called "parent fingers" in direct translation of the Japanese term. It was often said that the person standing in the middle of three persons in a photo is likely to die early, so many people avoided taking photos with two other persons. They hated to stand in the middle. In Japanese hospitals no room is numbered 4 because the Japanese pronunciation for "four" is the same as that for "death." Europeans are no exception when it comes to superstition. When I was visiting a friend in London, he told me that no house was numbered 13 along the street. The house which was supposed to be the thirteenth in order was numbered 12b and the next house was 14.

In this way we can go on talking about superstitions and laugh about them as if we were not so stupid as those who believe them. However, recently I realized that health foods and health food supplements are a form of modern superstition. In modern society, at least in affluent, developed countries, people tend to eat more than they need to maintain their life and health. Because they overeat themselves, they tend to develop all sorts of problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and more serious illnesses.

In the newspaper, many kinds of food supplements are advertised. Some say they are good for high blood pressure, others say they provide extra vitamins, calcium, iron, or potassium. To tell you the truth, my triglyceride readings have been quite high for a number of years and I have come to worry about it. Then recently I happened to notice an ad on the newspaper emphasizing that a long intake of the product would reduce the triglyceride value in one's blood. I immediately telephoned the agency and asked for their trial offer. Their product is made from sardine and they say the sardine protine is good for reducing triglyceride. Their ad even included a graph showing how much triglyceride readings could go down in two months. While I drank the white muddy juice made from sardine with a lot of additives for easy drinking, I wondered how many sardine had sacrificed their lives to provide me with this small bottle of liquid.
Then at another time, I noticed another ad put up by another company, saying that their product was good for lowering high blood pressure. It also said that their product was made from sardine. They even showed a graph indicating how much one's blood pressure could go down by taking the product for a number of months. Both products are made from sardine and one is good for lowering high blood pressure and the other for reducing triglyceride.

I realize how selfish humans are. We take the life of tons of sardine and try to prolong our lives while it is we that are responsible for our own health problems. Maybe this statement is not right. The selfish one is myself. It was I who brought myself the excess triglyceride and high blood pressure. It is my fear of losing the present healthy condition and clinging to life that made me order the juice made from sardine. Isn't this how superstitions spread? Believing in something quasi-logical and quasi-scientific out of fear of uncertain future is the source of superstition. It is grounded in illogical fear and ego-attachment. Maybe belief in science and technology is itself the source of superstition.

Death and Dying 死

In Shin Buddhism we talk about blind passions, good and evil, being grasped by the Primal Vow, being saved by Amida Buddha, falling to hell, and so on. However, the ultimate concern for us (or for almost everyone) is how to deal with death, not just death but "my" own death. Death is the ultimate mystery that humans have to deal with. This mystery is never solved because death is beyond observation. We can observe others' deaths, but not our own.
We talk about worlds after death, or afterlife, in terms of heaven, hell, Pure Land, the "Six Realms of Transmigration," and so on. But who knows for sure that these realms and these forms of life exist? To me the concept of the "Six Realms of Transmigration" makes sense because it presents a view that all living beings are interconnected. If it were only humans that are entitled to be born in heaven or Pure Land, or even in hell, what then would happen to other beings? I really hope that all the animals that offer their lives to keep us going in the world will be born in the Pure Land, if it exists, because they are entitled to.
Still the mystery of death and the question about life after death are not solved. I have a feeling that our discussion of afterlife is strongly connected with our present life. Humans must find meaning in the world they live in. If the life we live were meaningless, this life would not be worth living. Whenever we feel that we are made to live, that our life is a gift not a burden, we will certainly try to identify the subject that makes us live and gives us this life. That we Shin Buddhists call Amida Buddha and Christians call God. I am not saying God and Amida are the same, but I am trying to say that that is how we try to explain the world, our life and our afterlife. I suppose some people are contented with this explanation and others are not. Those who have felt the working of the Buddha in our own life, they are called the truly settled.
(this is still a draft, to be edited and revised later)