Ojo in the West

Ojo in the West:

A Report on End of Life Issues in the United States of America

By Rev. Clyde Whitworth

Since 1998 Clyde has served Jodo Shu in a number of capacities, first acting as a volunteer at the Hawaii Jodo Mission and working at the interfaith, non-profit, volunteer organization Project Dana. In 2004, Clyde took tokudo ordination from Jodo Shu at the Hawaii Mission. He then lived in Tokyo from 2005 -2007 training to become a minister and working as a research staff at the Jodo Shu Research Institute where he served on the International Relations translation team and helped maintain the JSRI homepage. He also participated in most of the activities of JSRI’s Ojo and Death project, including giving presentations at our public symposia in Kyoto in 2006 and in Calgary, Canada in 2007. This paper is based on these presentations and the research he did for this project.

In mid-July 2006 a nineteen-part questionnaire was given to five non-Japanese Americans who had converted to Jodo Shu Buddhism. The results of the inquiry are quite fascinating in that they very clearly show the many different needs of a cross-section of Americans who have converted to Jodo Shu Buddhism. The purpose of this paper is to report their end of life needs, offer some insights into the teachings of Honen and other Jodo Shu priests on these subjects, and highlight certain issues specifically regarding ritualistic and priestly assistance throughout the process of dying and into Birth (ojo).

In order to maintain the confidentiality of the subjects who participated in this inquiry, no names, locations of residence, or ages will be mentioned. What I can say is that three of the participants are male and two are female. All are of adult age. To my knowledge none of them have ever met in person, and private discussions regarding the questionnaire had not taken place between the five participants prior to the individual questionnaire submittals. I can also say that the five participants live in different cities across the North American continent, and are acquainted with one another only through the Jodo Shu Research Institute’s internet message board.

Preparing for Death

During the course of the questionnaire, I asked the participants how important they thought it would be to have a priest with them in the weeks or days leading up to death, at the moment of death, and for the family after death. Many agreed that having a priest present would be of significant benefit to them. However, there was some reservation that the priests not say things to family members that might confuse or disturb them, even if it is classical Buddha dharma. For example, one participant was very clear that it wouldn’t be helpful if the priest ever said to the family members, “This life is temporary anyway, and we shouldn't be attached.”; or “All attachment leads to suffering.” Since westerners are new to Buddhism, we must be careful in how we use concepts that might be new or alien to them, especially in times of crisis.

Regardless of whether a priest may be available and present during the final stages of life or not, several of the participants mentioned that daily practice is key to preparing for the confusion, anxiety and other issues that might be present during the final moments of life. This is a very important subject for westerners, because the reality is that Jodo Shu priests don’t reside near many of them. Outside of Japan there are only temples in a handful of places, such as Hawaii, Brazil, Los Angeles, Chicago, Brisbane, Australia and Paris, France. The total number of Jodo Shu ministers residing outside of Japan is twenty-eight, with more than half of them residing within the State of Hawaii. Only two Jodo Shu ministers reside on the entire North American continent, and nine reside in South America. In this way, one of the participants said, “I personally feel very alone in my Jodo Shu faith and wish for as much help as possible from the Jodo Shu community.”

The majority of the participants are quite familiar with Honen's teachings on nenbutsu practice. So when the question was asked as to what level of importance nenbutsu practice would be to them at the moment of death, everyone agreed that it is most important we practice the nenbutsu as often as possible throughout our daily lives and also, if possible, in the final moments of life. In this respect, they appear to be in line with Honen’s teachings on this matter:

Some say that even though one has been saying the nenbutsu, if when one draws near the end of life, one is unable to converse with their religious teacher (zenchishiki), it would be hard for them to attain ojo. And again when one is very sick and one’s mind disturbed, it would be similarly hard. But according to Shan-tao, when a person who has made up their mind to go to the Pure Land repeats the nenbutsu, whether many times or few, comes to die, Amida Buddha with his retinue does come forth to meet them. So in the case of one who makes this their daily practice, even if there is no religious teacher near when they are on their deathbed, the Buddha will welcome them to the Pure Land. The attaining of ojo through the help of one's religious adviser, according to the Meditation Sutra, refers to those who attain to one of the three grades of the lowest class in the Pure Land. Those belonging to the lowest grade of the lowest class did not practice the nenbutsu daily, nor did they have any special intention of attaining ojo, but were sinners of the deepest dye, who on their death-bed conferred with a religious teacher for the first time, and reached ojo by some ten repetitions of the nenbutsu. But those who have made up their minds to go to the Pure Land by daily putting their trust in the power of Amida’s Original Vow, and calling upon that sacred name, which after long ages of contemplation he determined to make efficacious for all, will be welcomed to the Pure Land by the Buddha himself, even though they do not have the advantage of a religious adviser.[1]

From this quote we can see that daily practice of nenbutsu is what Honen recommends to insure Birth in the Pure Land at the end of life. One never knows exactly when, or by what means, one will come to the end of life. In the case of a sudden accident, the individual may not have the opportunity to recite the nenbutsu, nor have a priest immediately present. Honen rejected the concept that the final nenbutsu was superior to the nenbutsu recited with the Three Minds (sanjin) at anytime throughout one’s life. He was clear that the nenbutsu offered in sincerity at any moment within our daily life is of the same value to that offered on the deathbed.

Now it is said that one repetition of the nenbutsu just at the hour of one's death is worth more than all the practice in a long life of a hundred years. Is this because at that moment there is more karmic efficacy than in all others? No. The point is that a passage in the Meditation Sutra says that, “The person possessing the Three Minds (sanjin) will assuredly attain Birth in the Pure Land.” So we affirm that the nenbutsu repeated in this spirit of sanjin at any time has the same value as if said in one's dying hour and is of greater value than all the practice one could do for a hundred years without it, for the passage explicitly says, “assuredly.”[2]

Birth (ojo) and the Afterlife

I asked the participants what they thought would happen to them at the moment of death. Although one participant stated that he was not entirely certain what happens at the moment of death, the others had some definite ideas about what happens. The majority all agreed upon the fact that they would be received into the Pure Land. One suggested that Birth into the Pure Land might happen immediately, yet another thought that, “Amida accompanied by Kannon and Seishi Bodhisattvas [would arrive] and escort us to the Western Pure Land.”

I asked what type of experience one might have if sudden death were to occur, and they had no time to recite the nenbutsu or even think upon the Pure Land. Most agreed that Birth (ojo) is possible under such circumstances, however, some felt that there may be karmic forces at work that will determine their future rebirth in samsara or Birth in the Pure Land. The issue of the importance of daily practice was brought up again, and the power of Amida Buddha's Original Vow was mentioned.

I asked the participants how their family members feel about them having chosen to be Born into the Pure Land instead of being received into a Judeo-Christian heaven. I found the many different answers I received very interesting. One participant said he believes that heaven and the Pure Land are one and the same, while another said that his parents “have already decided in their own minds [even though he had explained differently] that there is no difference between heaven and the Pure Land so they won't have that kind of problem." Another two participants agreed that their parents would respect their choice and beliefs and not have any problem with it at all. Most interestingly, one of the participants wrote the following: “They will hope that God will have mercy and see it only as a phase in my life. I have been baptized and Christian for a long time previously, and they would hope that would be sufficient for God's judgment."

I asked what the participants thought they might experience in the Pure Land. It became clear that they had somewhat similar concepts in this regard. Most agreed that the Pure Land was a place of “ultimate bliss,” and a place where one may study and practice the dharma, eventually awakening to perfect buddhahood. There was mention that the Pure Land would be a blissful place with nothing to distract us from the dharma. One of the participants said that he was not sure what life in the Pure Land would be like, but “hopefully it won't last long, and we can come back quickly to help alleviate the suffering of others.”

This brings up an important issue about what really happens in the Pure Land. The classical teaching emphasizes it is a place from which to become a buddha and gain final enlightenment (nirvana), thereby forever ending rebirth into others realms (samsara). Another interpretation which is found more strongly in the Jodo Shinshu rather than the Jodo Shu teachings is the notion of going for Birth (oso) and returning to this realm (genso) to aid others, as in the classical Mahayana notion of the bodhisattva path. There is also the more popular Japanese understanding of the Pure Land which conflates it with the indigenous notion of an ancestral sprit realm. In this popular and widespread understanding, the Pure Land is a place to go and reside forever with our previous loved ones.

In this context, I asked what the participants thought might happen after the Pure Land experience had come to an end. Most agreed that they would hope to go on to help all sentient beings. Yet one participant stated that he would prefer to stay in the Pure Land forever in order to “study and spiritually guide others back in the saha world.” Most notable is the western Jodo Shu Buddhist’s dedication to fulfilling the bodhisattva ideal. Where awakening to buddhahood is the ultimate goal, assisting others along the path is an incredibly important part of the process.

Actually, Honen did not put emphasis upon oso-genso, because he was concerned that practitioners might confuse it with samsara. However, the following quotes from Honen’s personal letters and his guidelines for Birth in the Pure Land may offer different insight.

The real purpose is not only your personal salvation as Birth in the Pure Land but also for people's salvation in the world. Therefore, firstly, it is important for you yourself to attain Birth in the Pure Land in one of its higher realms so as to be able to guide others as soon as possible.[3]

After gaining Birth in the Pure Land and subsequently enlightenment, as soon as possible by using your spiritual powers, guide people regardless of their relation with yourself and regardless of whether they believe or criticize the nenbutsu teaching.[4]

If we practice the nenbutsu sincerely, we will go to the Pure Land as soon as we die and will attain enlightenment. Then we can guide to the Pure Land, in our own way, the beings of the six realms and also visit the realms where our deceased loved ones have transmigrated.[5]

While the ancestral aspect of Jodo Shu teachings are more mainstream within Japan and the Japanese American temples, westerners tend to be less interested in ancestor worship, and are more interested in the oso-genso bodhisattva ideal.　

The Function of Ritual at Death

In Japan, many people born into Jodo Shu families seem to not have a very clear understanding of the teachings of and the nenbutsu practice subscribed by Honen. For example, one important practice general to all Japanese Buddhism is receiving a dharma name (kaimyo) at the time of death. Receiving such a dharma name is a common practice throughout the Buddhist world as part of confirming faith in the Buddha and entering the dharma by receiving the lay precepts. Traditionally in Jodo Shu, a dharma name (kaimyo) may be given during three different times over a person’s lifetime. The first is when the person takes the lay-precepts (jukai-e). The second is if the person receives ordination as a priest or nun (tokudo-shiki). And the final occasion would be at the time of death, where if the person had already received a kaimyo before, then the name would have additional posthumous titles added to the name. In Japan, most people only participate in the third occasion, gaining a dharma name at the time of death.

I asked the participants if receiving a dharma name (kaimyo) was important to them. All agreed that it was. However, some mentioned that receiving the kaimyo posthumously would be unimportant and perhaps even unnecessary. Having a kaimyo offers a sense of connection with the denomination, its teachings, practices, teachers and congregation members. For new convert Buddhists, like the participants in this survey, such a connection is important, and they clearly expressed the desire to receive a kaimyo as soon as possible.

Recently, Jodo Shu has attempted to offer more often to western lay-members this precepts ceremony (jukai-e) at which followers receive a kaimyo. It was offered to nearly 100 people in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2006. Prior to that it was offered to 410 people in Brazil in 2005. As there is a growing number of very serious Jodo Shu students in the west, I hope that their spiritual needs will continue to be met. Hopefully alternate locations (like the temple in Los Angeles) may be added, and more frequent jukai-e be offered.

When the average Japanese Jodo Shu parishioner passes away, the priest will perform services and recite the nenbutsu for them. During the pre-funeral service (makuragyo), the precepts and dharma name are given to the deceased, very rarely before while they are still living. During the funeral, a ritual called indo is performed, representing the witnessing of Amida Buddha leading the deceased into the Pure Land. As the participants offer incense, they bid farewell to the deceased. These rituals after death are thought to insure the deceased’s Birth into the Pure Land. Yet it confuses the teaching that one must, while still alive, sincerely dedicate one’s self to the practice in order to attain Birth. These customs appear to elevate the power of the priest to a level above the practice itself. Many find this fact to be on one level compassionate to the family who wants to insure the deceased is in the Pure Land with the ancestors and will be waiting there for them when they also pass.

Yet on another, quite disturbing level, it brings into question the actual importance of one’s daily practice, if the priest can come in after death and insure Birth for the deceased. It also brings into question the ethical nature of one’s life in general if one can get into the Pure Land without ever having embraced the dharma. The teaching of bonbu is not supposed to be a cop-out on living an ethical and spiritual life. It is more of a way to learn self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. While Japanese Buddhist priests and their denominations are usually blamed for spreading a type of “funeral Buddhism” (soshiki bukkyo) where expensive kaimyo, funerals and memorial services are valued, the followers also share responsibility for neglecting their spiritual lives while they are alive and trying to make up for them at death. This is an issue that may also extend to the nature of Birth, and what would appear to be the more ethical notion of oso-genso as opposed to a seemingly more selfish sense of the Pure Land as a place to enjoy eternity with one’s own ancestors.

This issue deeply concerned Rev. Shiio Benkyo (1876-1971), one of the most important Jodo Shu priests of the last century. He was the seventy-eighth abbot of the Zojo-ji Main Temple, and the founder of the Co-existence Movement (kyosei-kai), which centered on applying Honen's teaching to daily human life for the betterment of society. Rev. Benkyo was very much opposed to the practice of memorial services precisely because he felt they do not conform to Jodo Shu teachings. According to the Meditation Sutra, even the lowest level believer is instantaneously Born into the Pure Land at death. He thereby called into question the efficacy of seven-day memorials for forty-nine days.

Concerning the participants of the survey, they were unanimous that Confucian ancestor worship, as found in Buddhist funeral traditions in Japan, does not play any role in their lives. As one participant pointed out, “Honoring of ancestors is important, but not in a way that I would consider as being 'ancestor worship'. I would recommend something like a 'memorial day' where we remember them and speak of them, but don't actually 'worship' them in any sense.” I asked the participants, “Regarding memorial services, since most of our ancestors who have passed away did not intend to enter into Amida Buddha's Pure Land, what kind of memorial services could we do for them that would best respect their families own religious beliefs? Are memorial services for our ancestors even necessary?” Most were concerned about maintaining respect for the religions of their ancestors, yet there was mention that memorial services for those of our ancestors who were not Buddhist need not take place in a Buddhist context. One participant mentioned, “Certainly among converts, there is no need for memorial services.” Another participant said, “We could do memorial services that mention their (the family's) faith, but ask that Amida Buddha welcome them and have compassion on them.”

In response to these comments I would like to quote what Honen once had to say concerning funerals and memorial services:

… you ought therefore to say masses for yourselves while you are still living. You should not depend on those who ought to pray for you after you are gone, but exert yourself to practice the nenbutsu now, and so hasten on to the Land of Perfect Bliss. Here you will attain the five supernatural faculties (gotsu, Skt. pancabhijna) and the three kinds of knowledge (sanmyo, Skt. trividya), with which you may be able to save all sentient beings who wander through the four modes of birth and the six transmigratory states, and with which also you may find out where your parents, teachers and elders are now living, so as to be able at will to come and welcome them to the Land of Bliss. Then having so done, you ought also to direct the benefits of your daily nenbutsu repetitions to the souls of the dead. If you do, Amida Buddha will illumine with his own light the three worlds of hell, hungry ghosts and animals, the miseries of those who are sunk therein will be mitigated, and when they have finished their lives there, they too shall attain to perfect deliverance. It says in the Meditation Sutra, “When those dwelling in the three places of torment behold this light, they shall all obtain relief therefrom, and, after ending their lives there, shall obtain perfect deliverance.”[6]

While, personally, I do believe memorial services may serve the purpose of honoring the deceased and encouraging family members to begin sincerely practicing nenbutsu, I would hope that the families would not be confused as to where the deceased was during the forty-nine day period of time. If they were led by the priest to believe that the deceased was still in limbo on earth, then this would clearly be in contradiction to the teachings of Pure Land Buddhism.

A final question to the participants was concerning whether deathbed ceremonies, wakes, funerals and memorial services should be performed in the language of the family members of the deceased or not. This brought about a general consensus that they should be in the native language. The participants expressed their opinions that in order to be comforting to their family members, the language of the services would necessarily have to be that of the family. Otherwise the family members would not understand the meaning of the services and might become more disturbed as a result. One alternate suggestion offered was that some key prayers might be done in Japanese, with their explanations offered in English. One participant pointed out that as Buddhism had spread from India throughout Asia, much of the chanting was translated into the languages of the host country. He said, “It is only a question of time, before the same thing happens here in America. Some day in this country, the priests will be American and the prayers will be in English.” Rev. Yoshiharu Tomatsu offers an insightful perspective on this subject:

Attempts have already been made both in Jodo Shu and in other sects to modernize and to make more readily understandable the rituals of funerals and memorial services. For example, the sutras have been translated from classical Chinese into contemporary Japanese. However, these innovations have not struck an emotional chord with followers. It is my contention that these rituals are transformed when formalization is replaced by sincerity on the part of the temple, specifically the priest. What seems to be the essential difference between a meaningful and an empty ritual is not whether it has been modernized or not, but, rather, whether the priest who performs it is truly sincere or not. When a priest understands the meaning of the ritual himself, can synchronize this understanding with performance of the ritual, and then impart some of this meaning to the lay followers, the ritual becomes what it was essentially created for - a deep experience of the truth of the teachings. Unfortunately, this can often not be the case these days. This is fundamentally due to the outmoded and inappropriate methods of developing young priests in Japan, as mentioned earlier. Without going further into this complex issue, the cultivation of priests is a central concern amongst all sects in Japan today. In conclusion, I would like to put forth that well trained and committed priests would have the depth and confidence to not only attend to the basic religious needs of the people but to also develop new meaningful forms of ritual as well as teachings that confront pressing modern issues.[7]

Conclusion

As a result of this questionnaire, a couple of themes have become evident. One is that western Jodo Shu priests are direly needed in more locations around the United States. The allocation of funding by Jodo Shu to train and support these western priests is crucial to the future of Jodo Shu Buddhism in the west. Without the dedication of Jodo Shu to make a concerted effort in the direction of globalization of the teachings and practice illumined by Honen Shonin, then people like the participants of this inquiry will remain left to the relative isolation of their geographic locations. For the first 100 years of Jodo Shu Buddhism in the west, the approach to only assist Japanese American immigrants has been greatly successful. However, in these rapidly changing times, remaining an entity that is relevant to western society necessarily requires an opening of the temple gates to welcome any and all even remotely interested in receiving Honen’s gift.

The other major theme that became apparent was the type of rituals and the spiritual focus participants found to be critical to the application of Jodo Shu Buddhism to westerners in the United States. It is clear that western spiritual focus is more upon going for Birth and then returning to this realm to aid others (oso-genso), and not in the least about the worshiping of our ancestors. The monthly Special Nenbutsu (betsuji-nenbutsu) ritual of extended nenbutsu practice is a very important part of the life of many western Jodo Shu Buddhists, while the memorial rituals have little to no significance in the least. Perhaps the development of new rituals would best suit the needs of western Jodo Shu Buddhists. My hope is that with the support and guidance of the Jodo Shu, these issues will be addressed and the needs of western Buddhists will finally be met.