Mysterious customs that are not part of the religion of Buddhism in Japan
Mysterious incantations
Japanese Buddhists chant long sutras and incantations. They are not in Japanese. The content may be in Chinese, written by Chinese monks, or the names of Indian Hindu deities, but the strong Japanese accent of all of them has been historically entrenched for so long that the Japanese listening to the sutras do not understand the meaning. Of course, the Chinese do not understand it, nor do the Indians, and it is a text that no longer has any linguistic function.
There is little Buddhism in Japan that ordinary people can imagine. This is true not only for ordinary Japanese but also for those who are set up as monks.
Outside of India, such as in Thailand and China, Buddhism was commonly introduced with certain rules. What about the island nation of Japan? The serious Chinese monk Ganjin managed to bring the authentic teachings to Japan, despite losing his sight due to repeated failed attempts to travel there. The regime of the time also actively learnt from foreign countries with advanced Buddhism.
At that time, that is, more than 1,000 years ago, Buddhism in Japan was the same as that of the surrounding China and the Korean peninsula.
So what about now?
A small number of monks are righteous Buddhists who follow the precepts.
But there is a major group of monks who do everything: meat, alcohol, women, even though they are Buddhist.
I have heard hostesses at fancy drinking clubs in Tokyo where women serve women talk about it in the media.
She said that the main customers of such establishments are doctors and monks.
Similar to this, but on a completely different occasion, a person from a securities company told me that. He said that doctors and monks are by far the most common customers for securities sales, except for retired old people. The reason, he said, is that they have stable incomes and have overwhelmingly large savings.
It is not unusual to see monks with faces glistening with grease and looking fat up to their chins. What about China and Thailand? They are usually thin, although it is said that they are fatter these days than in the past due to fast food offerings. I have never seen anyone with a face glistening with oil.
In fact, I myself have seen three luxury foreign cars parked in a monk’s large house next to the temple. Apart from that, the temple itself was of a general size, about the size of three private houses.
How much income would a large temple earn? The big temples, to my surprise, still function as lobby groups for national political parties. Incidentally, the monks themselves are of course taxed on their income, but not on the temple’s income. This is another area where the taxation system is similar to that of politicians.
