Japan Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July this year in the ancient capital of Nara nearby the Buddhist temple Saidaiji(“Great Western Temple,”). This unfortunate event like the dark clouds has since covered not only Japan but the greater world. While saddened by the unstable development of the political trend, my thoughts were deeply connected with the calming grace and tenacity of the Japanese people. Although I had never been to Japan before, I remember the Japanese TV series I watched in 1980s. The TV series Ikkyū-san，an animation based on the recorded early life of Zen Buddhist monk Ikkyū during his stay at Ankoku-ji Temple; the famous slogan -悟性就在你的脚下(something to the effect that awakening comes from your practice), the up-lifting energy I took away from a spirit of love of life, and a strong character to overcome any obstacles in their way from the TV series Oshin. China was still a very backward, isolated place in the 1980s. Those TV series were like a fresh breeze that waken millions of Chinese from sleep, also like chicken soup for the soul leaving a long-last impression in the mind of many.
From studies of history, I know that Japan had endured the humiliation from the defeat of WWII, the disaster of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the setback of a strong appreciation of their currency in 1985-1986, the financial crash of 1992, and the last thirty years of prolonged economic downturn. So much suffering, so much hardship! In my probing, I feel it is the nurturing of spirit from teachings like Buddhism that gave Japanese people the courage to transcend their adversity, and the wisdom to keep their faith and optimism. According to the statistics by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2021, the religious corporation under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan had 135 million believers, of which 47 million were Buddhists and most of them were believers of new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). According to these statistics, the largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are the Jōdo Buddhists with 22 million believers, followed by the Nichiren Buddhists with 11 million believers. There are a wide range of estimates, however; the Pew Research Center estimated 36.2% of the population in 2010 practiced Buddhism.
Buddhism arrived in Japan by first making its way to China and Korea through the Silk Road and then traveling by sea to the Japanese archipelago at some point in the middle of the sixth century. As such, early Japanese Buddhism is strongly influenced by Chinese Buddhism and Korean Buddhism. The teachings were not systematic, especially the practices of precepts were very sloppy. In autumn 742, an emissary from Japan invited Buddhist Master Jianzhen (688-763)to lecture in Japan. They brought the invitation from the Japanese loyal family and the Prince with a thousand robes emboiled with the following words:
Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen(Ganjin) made preparations and in spring 743 was ready for the long voyage across the East China Sea to Japan. The crossing failed and in the following years, Jianzhen made three more attempts but was thwarted by unfavorable conditions or government intervention. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit Japan some six times. Ganjin finally came to Japan in the year 753 and founded Tōshōdai-ji(“Great Eastern Temple,”) in Nara. When he finally succeeded on his sixth attempt he had lost his eyesight as a result of an infection acquired during his journey. Jianzhen is credited with the introduction of the Ritsu school of Buddhism to Japan, which focused on the vinaya, or Buddhist monastic rules.
Sōka Gakkai, (“Value-Creation Society”) is another Japanese Buddhist religious movement based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese priest Nichiren as taught by its first three presidents Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, Jōsei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda. This center recognizing that all life has dignity with infinite inherent potential; this immanent “Buddhahood” exists in every person and can be awakened through the Buddhist practice prescribed by Nichiren. Further, a person’s social actions at every moment can lead to soka, or the creation of value (the theory of the interdependence of life). Societal change is facilitated through “human revolution”, a way of living in the world that creates value. The movement was founded by educators Makiguchi and Toda on 18 November 1930, and held its inaugural meeting in 1937. It was disbanded during the Second World War when much of the leadership was imprisoned for violations of the 1925 Peace Preservation Law and charges of lèse-majesté. After the war, it expanded to a claimed total of 750,000 households in 1958 through explosive recruitment, held to be unprecedented in Japanese media. Further expansion was led by its former third president Daisaku Ikeda, expanded into 12 million members in 192 countries and territories around the world. They have a large presence in Canada as well as in USA.
Another ancient Chinese sage who had a large influence on Japanese philosophy is Wang Yangming (王陽明,26 October 1472 – 9 January 1529), a leading figure in the Neo-Confucian School of heart, founded by Lu Jiuyuan (陸九淵, or Lu Xiangshan) of the Southern Song dynasty. Wang believed that knowledge and action were unified as one. He believed that only through simultaneous action could one gain knowledge and denied all other ways of gaining it. He held that objects do not exist entirely apart from the mind because the mind shapes them. He believed that it is not the world that shapes the mind, but the mind that gives reason to the world. Therefore, the mind alone is the source of all reason. He understood this to be an inner light, an innate moral goodness and understanding of what is good. In order to eliminate selfish desires that cloud the mind’s understanding of goodness, one can practice his type of meditation often called “tranquil repose” or “sitting still” (靜坐 jingzuo). This is similar to the practice of Chan (Zen) meditation in Buddhism.
As a country, the Japanese capacity to transform for the higher good, higher potential, is deep-rooted in its humanity and higher wisdom passed down from history. When we deviated from that wisdom, we were astray from that right path. Japan had stride huge steps in integrating Eastern and Western civilizations in the last two hundred years. It is the 3rd largest economy in the world, boasting twenty-nine Japanese laureates of the Nobel Prize since 1949 – an amazing number compared with its small population. Both Chinese and Americans have a lot to learn from Japan – its courageous exploration of a new path forward, and lessons learned from history. A big supporter of the Chinese Open Door Policy and Economic Reform of the last several decades, the largest purchaser of the U.S Treasury for decades, and recently the only contracted builder to upgrade India’s railway system, Japan had earned itself many admirations from all over the world.
Former Priminister Shinzō Abe’s legacy is famous for Abenomics – a “mix of **reflation, government spending and a growth strategy designed to jolt the economy out of suspended animation that has gripped it for more than two decades.” The objective is to increase Japanese annual GDP growth. As the longest-tenured Prime Minister of Japan since WWII, Abe no doubt had great contributed to the country’s heroic social-economic experiments to steer a steady-paced middle course with many sacrifices and contributions to world peace and growth of the economy and technology.
But history has come to a new reflection point. We are now in the beginning of a grand new cycle of 800 years of Saturn Jupiter conjunction in air element. We need to take into account the previous work and rethink our course ahead. Because what works for the past may no longer works for the future. What is the most important? Today humanity’s biggest crisis is the loss of faith being displaced by disruptive energy brought by science and financial engineering. A return to the right path is to return to our humanity. One of the Great Thinkers of the 20th century, 南怀瑾， Master 南怀瑾compared and summarized the two different methodologies of development in the Eastern and West since the 16th century and ending in the 20th-century globalization bringing East and West together. But as a result, humans all over the world are in a hypnosis state, instead of awakening.
从十六世纪以后，东西方文化有两个重大不同。中国文化思想认为，解决贫富差距，安定社会，要用好的文化政治来解决经济问题。西方文化，从亚当·斯密的《国富论》，一直到马克思的《资本论》，到凯恩斯的消费刺激生产，都是认为要用经济来解决政治、文化问题。这两个不是矛盾哦，是两个方法。现在东西方文化的结合，造成今天全世界的人类（不止中国人），只向钱看。而且都在凯恩斯的思想之下，消费刺激生产。
Master 南怀瑾 warned humanity of a huge trap of losing their purpose in life. He said we are buried in the science and economic developments, but lost our mind in a canceled culture and sub-ethical living environment. This is a huge threat to our evolution: “其实生命活着是生存问题，再其次是生活的问题，现在全世界人类在这个科技文明的社会里生存，在全世界受经济、金融影响的环境中活着，大家只为了生活忘记了生存，生存的意义和生活的章义完全不同。你们诸位担心的，也是和我们担心的一样，你们诸位都是为人类生活的问题而担心，再进一步是为人类社会、国家之间的生存而担心。但是全世界人类在今天的文化思想方面，完全是个空白，忘记了生存的意义，忘记了生命的价值，想再进一步讲生命的目的，那就是个大问题了。”
We mourn for Mr. Shinzo Abe, we hope his tragedy brought us a new awakening of the right path forward.