Taniyama Yujiro, Japan Broadcasting.net Corporation Editor in Chief
Ohio gozaim-ass! （おはようございます/ Good morning）
With due deference, I humbly wish you a delirious yet scrumptious year of solid exhilaration.
Our days on this planet are apparently numbered and limited, hence let us go potty whenever we need to answer calls of nature. Affectation of love, as well as superficial nonsense ought to be omitted in every way possible, if we were to make our lives wholesomely livable.
Budda (or Buddha) once said that there are four predicaments in life.
Birth, growth, suffering and death.
That to be born in this world is already agonizing, and aging consequently becomes synonymous with diseases. Not a single soul is prone to escape this Dharma – the law of nature.
Buddhism in Japan today is irrelevant to primitive form of Buddhism, that dates back roughly 2,500 years ago. While 6 B.C born Budda never spoke a word about life after death (he just remained silent whenever his disciples questioned him ‘What happens after we die?”), the monks across Buddhist temples in Nippon charge exorbitant amount of money (from ¥200,000 to some over ¥1 million!) for just offering posthumous names of the deceased.
This ia a pure fraud, as far as I am concerned.
Budda also never preached on ‘the topic of spirituality’. Whether the notion of the so called spirit actually existed or not, the worldfamous sage mentioned nothing. Sunyata – meaning zero or ‘emptiness’ in Sanskrit was the quintessence of his teachings. The 5th century Chinese translated the term 「空」ku – which can also be defined ‘sky’ in Japanese.
Nontheless, the Nippon Buddhism today de facto condones the existence of the spirit.
Furthermore, quite interestingly, they (most schools, from Kukai’s Shingon school to Nichiren’s Jodo school) threaten commoners by whispering;
“On the 49th day after death, the deceased will be receive a verdict by Enma-sama （閻魔さま/ Originally Yama in Sanskrit), on whether he or she will depart to hell or paradise! So make sure to call me, invite me and pay me and hold a proper ceremony 49 days after death, or else the soul of the dead will remain in this sentinent world and haunt you!”
Hence the ‘capitalist monks’ (virtually merchants) hop on their new model Benz to ardently attend another lucrative ritual, just 6 weeks after funeral. Unsurprisingly, the fees are all exempt from taxation.
The primitive form of Buddhism, as I have reiterated never hosted such an event. Once you were dead, that was it. Sunyata. Emptiness, zero, nothing. Cremated body or the ashes were just scattered across the Ganges or elsewhere; while conversely the Nippon Buddhism unduely dictates the ‘value of the ashes’ – a notion that was later invented by the incorruptible capitalists.
At any rate, let me just conclude by asserting that Buddhism in the Land of the Rising Phallos Festival is pretty much irrelevant to Buddha’s original teachings 2,500 years ago. Just bear that in mind, and the prudent reader shall understand the Buddhist temples in a more adequate, healthy manner when you visit my mangamongering motherland.
All be Auspicious!
Yujiro Taniyama
