Page 47 - EH60

FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 45

mongering spiritual undertakers in
hopes of reviving societal interest in
Buddhism. Some of their efforts, like
spearheading a renta-priest startup
with the online retailer Amazon, or
launching an easy-to-use website
offering low-cost memorial services,
are savvy attempts to enliven and
modernize the priests—role in
Japanese funerals. Other Buddhist
monastics have tried more
unconventional strategies—starting
organic farms and cafés, mixing
cocktails at monk-themed bars,
engaging in environmental activism,
or using anime figures as part of
their efforts to appeal to the young.
cannot be simply extracted for Western import have the potential
general use. While agreeing that to revolutionize a funeral-oriented
But for Rev. Kawakami, the future of
mindfulness alone does produce Japanese Buddhism? Right now,
Japanese Buddhism is intertwined
benefits for the practitioner, he Rev. Kawakami teaches most of
with maindofurunesu—and he
says such results mistake the his meditation courses in English,
is choosing to take part in the
insignificant for the essential. mainly to foreigners.
mindfulness industry with a
heedfulness that bespeaks both
Reverend Takafumi Zenryu “The answer can be yes and no,”
spiritual and business savvy.
Kawakami, Rinzai Zen priest in the Zen monk maintains. “If ‘Mc -
Related: The Mindfulness
Kyoto, Japan, and mindfulness Mindfulness’—a shallow focus on
Movement and Its Surprising
advocate well-being—becomes the major
History
movement in Japan, then definitely,
Although Rev. Kawakami hasn’t mindfulness will damage us more.
Other monastics are noticeably
shied away from the m word when
less enthusiastic. Resistance to
promoting his temple, underneath “But if Buddhist priests, who
mindfulness is evident in a dialogue
those efforts lies a deeper intent. have profound experience in
between Daiko Matsuyama, a Zen
both traditional Buddhism and
priest ordained, like Rev. Kawakami,
“I want to teach people what contemporary mindfulness, speak
in the Myoshinji tradition,
mindfulness lost in the processes of out about the issues of well-being
and corporate mindfulness
secularization and universalization,” and happiness, this could be a great
instructor Yuka Shimada. Their
Kawakami explains. “The ideal opportunity for Buddhism to revive
exchange appeared in a 2017
version of mindfulness is not just itself in Japan.”
issue of the Japanese women’s
for use as a therapeutic method to
magazine President Woman. “The
make ‘you’ happy. It should be used Karen Jensen is Tricycle’s assistant
mindfulness of today is used
as a way to understand the nature of web editor.
rather like a technique, a how-to,”
the interdependent, impermanent
Matsuyama remarked. “It’s a bit of
self.” Source: Tricycle, Winter 2019 www.
a shame—mottainai [a waste].” He
tricycle.com EH
added that the “right mindfulness”
Does mindfulness as a chirpy
of the Buddha’s eightfold path