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The Rinsho Buddhism Chaplaincy Training Program: Level One Lecture Series Year II (2014-15)
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Journey Through Dukkha: The Suicide Prevention Priests of Japan Enter into Structural Violence and Connect to Social Change (April 15, 2014)
Psycho-spiritual disease and the struggle with mortality is a pressing matter in contemporary Japan on a number of fronts. In the next forty to fifty years, roughly eighty million Japanese people will die due to natural causes because of its rapidly aging population demographic. Since 1998, Japan has experienced over 30,000 suicides per year – a number which crosses all age groups and expresses the deep sense of human alienation from years of rapid economic development. Finally, the trauma of the 3/11 tsunami and the subsequent nuclear incident in Fukushima has further unsettled a people who had been firmly rooted in traditions of intimate community. In an attempt to revive their connections to society and community, more and more Buddhist priests are engaging in pro-active psycho-spiritual support for the living and suffering, rather than what has become their role over the past few centuries of acting as ritualists for the dead.
Psycho-Spiritual Care & Buddhist Chaplaincy
- Ghosts of the Tsunami (a profile of the work of Rev. Taio Kaneda, abbot of Tsudai-ji, a Soto Zen temple in Kurihara City, Miyagi & supervisor of Cafe de Monk, which provides counseling in disaster stricken areas) by Richard Lloyd Parry (London Review of Books, Vol. 36 No. 3, February 6, 2014)
- Buddhism and Social Activism in Today’s Japan: The Activities of the Hitosaji Association by Rev. Akinori Takase (May 25, 2013)
- Buddhist Priests Who Are Present at the Time of Death by Kyoko Isa (Asahi Shimbun January 28, 2013 – evening edition)
- The Power of Prayer in Reviving Localities in Japan by Kyoko Isa (Asahi Shimbun November 20, 2012)
- The Potential of Rinsho Buddhism and Developing Buddhist Chaplaincy in Post 3/11 Japan by Rev. Hitoshi Jin (November 28, 2012)
- The Deep Listening Gyocha Volunteer Activities of the Soto Zen Youth Association by Rev. Taiko Kyuma (January, 2012)
- Psycho-Spiritual Relief Work in the Tsunami Areas: An Interview with Rev. Jin Hitoshi by Jonathan Watts (November, 2011)
Suicide Prevention
- LAST CALL: A Buddhist monk confronts Japan’s suicide culture (Profile of Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto in The New Yorker Magazine June 24, 2013)
- 2013 Outlook: The Present Situation and the Coming Future of the Suicide Problem by Rev. Yukan Ogawa (Bukkyo Times January 31, 2013)
- Reconstructing Priestly Identity and Roles in Contemporary Japan and the Development of Socially Engaged Buddhism (last 2/3s) by Jonathan Watts & Rev. Masazumi Okano
- The Association of Priests Grappling with the Suicide Problem (Mainichi News January 12, 2008)
Hospice and Care for the Dying
- Challenges of Caring for the Aging and Dying: Lessons from Japan by Carl B. Becker
- “True View”: Shifting to the Patient’s Standpoint of Suffering in a Buddhist Hospital – Dr. Hayashi Moichiro
- 「緩和ケア・ビハーラ病棟の五年間」林茂一郎
- The Vihara Movement: Buddhist Chaplaincy and Social Welfare in Japan – Rev. Yozo Taniyama
- One Dies as One Lives: The Importance of Developing Pastoral Care Services and Religious Education – Rev. Mari Sengoku
- Amans: A Buddhist Nun’s Efforts to Unite the Medical and Religious Worlds in Death – Rev. Keido Iijima
- アマンズ のダイアローグ：「遺族外来」のある病院 – 飯島惠道
- The Vihara of Compassion: An Introduction to Buddhist Care for the Dying and Bereaved in the Modern World – Jonathan Watts
- 医療・ 仏教・死の現場～海外の事例が日本に示唆するもの～ – ジョナサン・ワッツ
- TAIWAN: The Development of Indigenous Hospice Care and Clinical Buddhism in Taiwan – Jonathan Watts & Rev. Yoshiharu Tomatsu
- 台湾の「公共的仏教」：終末期ケアのための臨床仏教運動 – ジョナサン・ワッツ
Publication:
Buddhist Care for the Dying and Bereaved in the Modern World: Global Perspectives Edited by Jonathan Watts and Yoshiharu Tomatsu (Wisdom Publication – Boston & the Jodo Shu Research Institute – Tokyo)
jneb.net 