{"id":842,"date":"2009-10-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/10\/the-death-knell-of-funeral-buddhism-in-japan.html"},"modified":"2009-10-04T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-04T10:00:00","slug":"the-death-knell-of-funeral-buddhism-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/the-death-knell-of-funeral-buddhism-in-japan.html","title":{"rendered":"The Death Knell of “Funeral Buddhism” in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Evelyn Cash<\/i>
<\/i>
I came across this story yesterday from the Buddhist Channel<\/a>
\nreporting that as the religion dies in Japan, Buddhist priests are
\nresorting to desperate measures to try and regain followers.  The priests are
\ntrying everything from anime DVDs to monk and nun runway hip-hop
\nperformances but nothing seems to be working.  I found this
\nparticularly interesting in light of the fact that Buddhism seems to be
\ngaining in popularity in the West.<\/p>\n

I do wonder: would the
\npriests in Japan be able to get more people back into the temples if they
\nstressed the practical aspects of Buddhist meditation and teachings,
\nrather than the more devotional religious aspects?  That approach
\ncertainly worked here in the West, as noted in this 2006 story from the
\nChristian Science Monitor<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

To quote Lama Surya Das from the CSM piece: “People are looking for experiential practices, not just a new belief
\nsystem or a new set of ethical rules which we already have, and are
\nmuch the same in all religions… It’s the
\ntransformative practices like meditation which people are really
\nattracted to.”  Perhaps the Japanese people would also respond more positively to practical meditation instructions than “Buddhist” anime DVDs.<\/p>\n

As many of the other traditions and customs are fading in Japan, Buddhism may need to undergo a reinvention to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Evelyn CashI came across this story yesterday from the Buddhist Channel reporting that as the religion dies in Japan, Buddhist priests are resorting to desperate measures to try and regain followers.  The priests are trying everything from anime DVDs to monk and nun runway hip-hop performances but nothing seems to be working.  I found…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Death Knell of "Funeral Buddhism" in Japan - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/the-death-knell-of-funeral-buddhism-in-japan.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Death Knell of "Funeral Buddhism" in Japan - 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