Comments on: Finding New Meaning in the Nembutsu, part two

By: Doug 陀愚

Doug 陀愚 — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 05:46:00 +0000

Hi Rory and Jeff:

Ian Reader is the same fellow who wrote the excellent book on Shinto I’ve been reading, and he certainly is a good author in my view. I will definitely (in fact just did) pick up that book. Thank you!

I would be curious to see how this kind of paradigm would work in American Buddhism. Something to definitely look out for, when your book is published.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:54:26 +0000

Glad to help with that bit of temple trivia, Doug. I have an ema I picked up at the Kyoto Tako Yakushidou that I show my students in class each year, it shows a woman praying to an octopus. Japanese religious material culture is so rich, it really helps me give my students a window into a foreign culture.

Rory, that’s one of my favorite books on Japanese religion. My PhD co-adviser insisted that I read it for my comprehensive exams and it deeply informed my understanding of Japanese religious behavior. The book I’m writing right now is actually about how the same paradigm can be applied to American Buddhism.

By: Rory

Rory — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:48:33 +0000

what do you both thing of this text: “Practically Religious: worldly benefits and the common religion of Japan” Ian Reader .

I read it for a seminar and loved it a lot. But both of you are on the ground and know better.

By: Doug 陀愚

Doug 陀愚 — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:48:49 +0000

Hi Jeff, and great to hear from you again. Yeah, I think the take away from all this is that Buddhism on the ground doesn’t always reflect what’s in books, and up until now, I’ve been probably reading too many books. Until I saw how temples on the ground look (not the touristy ones necessarily, the regular neighborhood ones), I overlooked such things. The trouble is is that there’s no Buddhist culture to speak of in the West, so a lot of people may simply not be aware of these things unless they go over there and absorb things for a bit.

Thanks for the background on Tako Yakushi temple. You’re right in that I was greatly confused by the sign there.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:52:48 +0000

Glad to hear that the nembutsu is opening itself out to you more. My main Shin mentor in Japan and I travel constantly to Shinto shrines and non-Shin temples as part of our research (and for fun). He always bows before the gohonzon of whatever site we are at with real reverence, and treats all priests with deep respect. Thus he has developed friendships with priests of the Shingon Shu, Rinzai Shu, Tendai Shu, Shugendo, and so on. At the same time he is the umpteenth-generation head priest of a Hiroshima-area Honganji-ha temple. Simply from traveling with him and observing his personal Shin devotion AND his sincerely respectful and generous attitude got me over any hang-ups I had about whether other practices or figures might somehow conflict with my own Pure Land practice.

You put a question mark after Tako Yakushi, which implies that you were confused about it. I haven’t visited the Tokyo Tako Yakushi (offical name: Jyojyuin), but it is probably a branch of the Tako Yakushidou (official name: Eifukuji) in Kyoto’s Teramachi. Both temples are Tendai Shu. The story is that once a upon a time a monk went to market in the Teramachi to buy an octopus (believed to have medicinal qualities) for his ailing mother. When he told people that he intended to cook the octopus and feed it to his mother, people berated him for taking life. But the octopus turned into Yakushi Nyorai (Medicine Buddha) and said that it was OK, and that he would heal the mother. So the octopus was cooked and the mother got better. Out of gratitude, the monk founded Tako Yakushidou. The temple does a brisk business in octopus-themed ema and similar implements, and has a wooden octopus you can rub for health. Eifukuji does not have a website, and my pictures aren’t online, but here is a Japanese site that includes a few snapshots: http://tabitano.main.jp/7tako.html