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Origins of Funeral Buddhism

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TRuby2b

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Aug 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM8/10/98
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Origins of Funeral Buddhism

In February 1602, when Nissho, the 15th high priest, was in office, Tokugawa
Ieyasu established a shogunate government in Edo (present-day Tokyo). Around
1635, to solidify its control on the populace as well as to prevent the spread
of Christianity, the Tokugawa government instituted a new Buddhist temple
parish system. The system was established nationwide by 1638 when the Christian
revolt in Shimabara was quelled. Under the parish system, people had to be
registered with a Buddhist temple in their area in order to prove that they
were not Christians. Unless they had a permit issued by their Buddhist temple,
people were unable to work or travel. As people's lives essentially depended
upon a temple permit, the authority of chief priests grew stronger. Even a
parish leader, if he did not visit his temple on an appointed day, had his name
deleted from the register and he would be reported to the government. Put
simply, under the parish system, Buddhist temples functioned as a government
census bureau to control people.

The Tokugawa shogunate government also prohibited religious debate. No
religious sect could publicly praise itself and criticize others. This
government ordinance became effective around 1615. It prevented any overt
religious propagation. Since the parish system made it extremely difficult for
people to leave their parishes, their desire to improve their spiritual lives
was greatly stifled and Buddhism in Japan became increasingly conservative and
ritualistic.

Since the government discouraged religious propagation, Buddhist temples
conducted more rituals to entice parish members to frequent their temples, thus
generating income. Many temples, regardless of their sects, promoted rituals
and formalities related to death -- such as funerals; posthumous Buddhist
names; memorial services; Buddhist tablets for the dead; thrice-yearly tomb
visits in spring, summer and fall; and so on. For this reason, some critics,
refer to Japanese Buddhism as "funeral Buddhism."

The parish system also required priests to see their parish members when they
died. Upon confirming that the deceased were in fact in his parish and not
Christians, he would bestow upon them posthumous Buddhist names and recite
prayers for their repose. So people always had to invite priests to funerals.
If they did not, they would run the risk of being labeled Christians and thus
executed.

Most of the Buddhist formalities surrounding funerals and memorial services
were introduced during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These
formalities included the necessity of family tombs, memorial books, memorial
tablets, Buddhist altars and so on. Parish members were required to make
offerings to a priest at every service they attended. People's discontent with
the Buddhist clergy grew, and many sayings from the Edo period attest to the
corruption of priests at that time: "All profit for priests." "If you hate a
priest, you hate even his robe." "A priest recites a sutra only for what he is
paid." "A priest snatches an offering without reciting a sutra." "Money talks
even in hell." Even today it is customary to invite a priest to a funeral in
Japan. This tradition, however, has nothing to do with any original Buddhist
teaching or with one's enlightenment. It is a remnant of the parish system
established by the Tokugawa shogunate government in the seventeenth century.

In June 1641, Nisshun, the nineteenth high priest, received from the newly
appointed third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, a deed re-authorizing Taiseki-ji's
property and its status as a head temple. At this time, Taiseki-ji also started
to register its parish members and vouch for their non-Christian status.
Following the trend of the Buddhist community, Taiseki-ji stopped its
propagation efforts and started to promote rituals and formalities such as
funerals and memorial services. As a result, Taiseki-ji's parish members grew
dependent on their priests and became negligent in their own personal practice
such as sutra recitation or gongyo. Instead of doing gongyo, they would go to
the temple and ask their priests to pray on their behalf. This priest-based
faith has since become the norm within the school headed by Taiseki-ji, which
later became known as Nichiren Shoshu. Today Nichiren Shoshu priests still
offer various prayer services for lay believers: "prayer for health," "prayer
for traffic safety" "prayer for warding off evils," "prayer for good grades"
and so on.

Believers' dependency on priests is the antithesis of the self-reliant faith
the Daishonin strongly advocates. He states:

"Muster your faith and pray to this Gohonzon. Then what is there that cannot be
achieved?" (MW1, 120). "The fact that Nichigen-nyo's prayers have gone
unanswered is like a strong bow with a weak bowstring or a fine sword in the
hands of a coward. It is in no sense the fault of the Lotus Sutra" (MW3, 73).
"No matter how earnestly Nichiren prays for you, if you lack faith, it will be
like trying to set fire to wet tinder. Spur yourself to muster the power of
faith" (MW1, 246). And "Whether or not your prayer is answered depends upon
your faith; [if it is not,] the fault in no way lies with me, Nichiren" (MW5,
305). In light of these passages, it becomes evident that having a priest pray
for one's happiness or enlightenment is contrary to the Daishonin's intent.

The government instituted parish system encouraged the further corruption in
Japan's Buddhist community. Under the strict government control and protection,
the majority of Buddhist priests became oblivious to their role as spiritual
teachers to their parish members and increasingly became consumed with the
pursuit of worldly fame and material gain. This is in exact accord with the
Daishonin's premonition:

"The Buddha stated that during the Latter Day of the Law, priests and nuns with
the hearts of dogs would be as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges. By
this he meant that the priests and nuns of that day would run like dogs after
fame and fortune. Because they wear robes and surplices, they look like
ordinary priests and nuns. But in their hearts, they wield a sword of evil,
hastening here and there among their patrons and filling them full of countless
lies so as to keep them away from other priests or nuns. Thus they strive to
keep their patrons to themselves and prevent other priests or nuns from coming
near them, like a dog who goes to a house to be fed but who growls and springs
to attack the moment another dog approaches. Each and every one of these
priests and nuns is certain to fall into the evil paths." From "The Fourteen
Slanders", (MW3, p. 206)

Under the parish system the Buddhist clergy developed a sense of superiority
over lay believers. Since priests essentially acted as government agents who
held sway over people's lives, they viewed their relationship with their parish
members as that between lord and serf. The Buddhist clergy's feudalistic view
and people's acceptance of their spiritual serfdom persisted in Japan long
after the priesthood's political influence disappeared with the demise of the
Tokugawa shogunate government in the late nineteenth century.

[This is an edited excerpt from the August 1998 "Living Buddhism", pp. 6-9.]


TRuby2b

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Aug 11, 1998, 3:00:00 AM8/11/98
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Orinins of Funeral Buddhism
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