How can Buddhists in modern society become intimate with people’s hearts and minds?
#1 April 3: Morita Therapy and Buddhism: Its Potential in an Increasingly Complex Society
Prof. Kei Nakamura (Director Emeritus, Morita Therapy Center, Jikei University School of Medicine)
Morita therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which the patient is able to better utilize their own self by letting anxiety and worries “be as they are” with natural feelings. It has a common ground with the Buddhist teaching of “mind with no resting place” 無所住心 and the Zen way of being. In this lecture, we can learn how to apply this method in today’s stressful society.
#2 April 24: Comprehensive Community Support from Buddhist Temples: Supporting the Elderly in Local Communities
Rev. Ryosho Shoji (Representative, Musubi Caregiver Support Network Care)
With the aging of the population accelerating, one in three people in Japan will soon be 65 years of age or older. As medical resources are strained, support and care for the elderly are needed in local communities. What is the ideal form of care through community cooperation, which includes Buddhist temples?
#3 May 15: Are Children’s Rights Guaranteed? Children Are Seeking a Safe Place to Stay
Mr. Yutaka Aikawa (Chairperson, Carillon Children’s Center)
It has been 35 years since the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Are children in Japan guaranteed their individual rights? Poverty, abuse, sexual exploitation, and other serious conditions affect children today. We will learn from the operation of a children’s shelter how to provide support for today’s children.
#4 June 12: Practicing Medicine in the Ghetto of Sanya
Ms. Tomoko Hirano (Director of the Cosmos Home-Visit Nursing Station)
In the lost 30 years (1990s-2010s), economic disparities have become fixed, and there are many isolated and impoverished elderly people in the community of Sanya, known as a “day laborers ghetto” (yoseba). We will learn about the current situation, issues, and required care from the activities of a home-visit nursing station that provides medical care in the Sanya area.
#5 July 3: Children Nurtured by Nature: 40 Years of Practice at Otaki Nanmu Retreat Center (dojo)
Rev. Hogyo Nosaka (Master of Otaki Nanmu Retreat Center)
During the bubble economy, we were shocked by the words of a child who said, “The beetle’s battery is dead”. We will learn from the 40-year practice of a mountain temple that provides children with a place to come into contact with “life” and nurture their own buddha mind by taking advantage of the unique characteristics of mountain village temples.
#6 July 24: The Noto Peninsula Earthquake and Support for Victims: One and a Half Years After the Disaster and Tomorrow
Rev. Gaei Tsuji (Representative of the Koyasan Footbathing Team)
The practice of offering footbaths, which has been handed down over the millennium since Empress Komyo (701-760), is also a practice of bodhisattva compassion. For Buddhists who have continued to volunteer as deep listeners while providing footbaths in Noto, Miyagi, Kumamoto, and other disaster-stricken areas, what are the questions they have for rank-and-file temples and priests today?
#7 August 28: Buddhist Chaplaincy in America: “Not to Do but to Be”
Rev. Eishin Komura (Former Chaplain, University of Pennsylvania Hospital)
The state of human beings and society are changing at a dizzying pace. In the midst of this, people are suffering from the pains of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Based on the activities of Buddhist chaplains in the medical field in the U.S., this lecture will explain the mission that Buddhist chaplains in Japan should fulfill in the medical and welfare field.
#8 September 11: Support for Children Living in Social Disparity: From the Field of Free Learning Support
Rev. Gakugen Yoshimizu (Director, One Spoonful Association – Hitosaji-no-Kai)
Ms. Mariko Ishida (Representative of NPO Taitoko Net)
Public spending on education in Japan is near the lowest among OECD member countries. One in seven children live in poverty and there is a large disparity in learning opportunities. We will explore ways to ensure educational opportunities for all children.
#9 October 2: Can Buddhism Respond to Environmental Problems? Microplastics Taken into the Human Body
Rev. Kokun Kubokawa (Visiting Professor, Teikyo University)
The severe environmental pollution caused by microplastics and PFAS is forcing us to make a radical change in our way of life. It is said that these microscopic man-made materials, which will never decompose, are already being taken into our bloodstream. What is the role of Buddhists, who believe in “sufficiency” (少欲知足 saṃtuṣṭi), in the movement to save the environment?
#10 October 16: Grief Care and Buddhist Chaplaincy: To be Close to Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death Now
Rev. Hitoshi Jin (Director, Rinbutsuken Institute for Engaged Buddhism)
Grief is an emotion experienced when one loses an irreplaceable person or something precious. How should we relate to and be close to those who are suffering from grief? This session will focus on how we as Buddhists should provide grief care.
While we exist in society,
We hold on to one thought:
Understanding the reality of birth, aging, sickness, and death,
we take hold of the present moment
JNEB 