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Shinrikyō Discussion Group; Third Meeting

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The third gathering of the Aum Shinrikyō discussion group reexamined the issues discussed in the first meeting, taking into consideration the various points raised by Rev. Uematsu Sōchū during the second meeting. The discussion also turned to whether Japan’s religious organizations had received any type of concrete reaction from ordinary Japanese society, such as questions, criticisms, or censure.
          The following points came up as essential to any analysis of the Aum Shinrikyō Affair. 1) It is necessary to analyze from a global perspective the social and cultural forces at work in an age where cults similar to Aum Shinrikyō are appearing not only in Japan but elsewhere in the world. And, related to this, 2) it is necessary to comprehend from the Zen school’s point of view the social and cultural background behind the rise of the New New Religions in modern Japan and the historical and social shifts in the functions of the established religions.
          These issues, however, would require a medium- to long-term study and a qualified team of researchers to investigate properly, and although the establishment of such a study would certainly fall within the province of the present discussion group, the more immediate issue to be addressed is what the Rinzai Zen school should do and can do in response to the problems posed by the Aum Shinrikyō Affair, and what approach it should take in its response.
          All of the participants agreed that the proper approach would not be one that—like most of the responses we’re seeing today—attempts to expose all of the ways in which Aum Shinrikyō is a false religion and emphasize all the ways in which our religion is true and orthodox. Contrasting the positions of Aum Shinrikyō and one’s own tradition does, of course, have a certain value, but it risks eliciting a shallow, transitory, “Oh really?” type of agreement from the listener. Even worse, insisting on the truth and orthodoxy of one’s own tradition can easily result in attempts to conceal its weaknesses and present it as perfect in its present form.
          The approach that Zen should take should be one that focuses more on Zen’s own responsibility to address the situation not only of the young people that turned to Aum Shinrikyō as a path to liberation but also of the numberless people in the world today who are wandering in search of a true spiritual home. The latter problem, in particular, is one that the Zen school has neglected for too long. Zen’s response to these issues must be a multifaceted one, requiring contributions by temple priests and the Zen institution, respectively, including approaches to proselytization appropriate to the modern age.
          The Japanese press has reported that, despite the interest in the Aum Shinrikyō Affair at the various institutions associated with Zen (such as Hanazono University and the Institute for Zen Studies), no Zen institution, with the sole exception of the Butsū-ji branch of Rinzai Zen, has responded in any concrete way to the questions posed by this Affair. All that has occurred, according to the reports, have been discussions at zazen-kais and temple services in which the differences between Zen and Aum Shinrikyō have been emphasized. Several reasons have been advanced for this, such as the very nature of Aum Shinrikyō, the striking singularity of which upended ordinary notions of what a religious organization is supposed to be, as well as the way in which the Aum Shinrikyō Affair was viewed by society as a criminal matter rather than a religious one.
          Nevertheless, the inability of the established religions to respond in any meaningful way to the Aum Affair has convinced the Japanese press and Japanese public that these religions have nothing to contribute toward the resolution of the problems involved. The Zen tradition, in particular, has been viewed in this way. It was mentioned during the discussion that the tendency at gatherings of priests and their parishioners has been to discuss the Aum Affair as nothing more than another current event. These perspectives from both inside and outside the tradition suggested that Zen in Japan today is in a state of crisis, viewed by many as having receded into a form of background scenery for Japanese culture.