A TURKISH MUSLIM AND A JAPANESE CRAFTSMAN
(Un musulman turc et un artisan japonais)
SECTION I: A MUSLIM BUDDHIST POSSIBLE
One Turk wanted to be saved by learning Buddhism, though he was a born Muslim.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhxE3q1fzh7wo9b61be8RmsjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20060709221520AA9DBy6
He posted his question on Yahoo’s Answers site:
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I know some of the Indian and Japanese people's original religion is Buddhism.
So instead of the ones who has converted to Buddhism from other religions, I would like to ask my question to the originally Buddhist people.
I'm Turkish and I would like to understand and learn and practice Buddhism thoroughly.
I have read a couple of books but not directly about the Buddhist teaching.
I know about the Sutras...But don't know how to reach them.
So my question is, what is the best way for a person from another religion to understand and maybe practice Buddhism ??
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Do you think I can understand and become a Buddhist if I learn it from books or any other wise?
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As I often write, the God Almighty or Allah created Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, according to His judgment on situations of people.
It is very possible you can be a Buddhist while respecting Islam so much as to be regarded as a Muslim by other born-Muslims, since the God or Allah created both Buddhism and Islam.
Or otherwise do all the Muslims in the world believe that Japanese have been believing what the God or Allah does not admit to be a religion while Japan is the only nation that can stand against the United States?
Unless Islamic leaders in the world start to teach Muslims that Allah also created the Buddha and Buddhism as well as the Japanese Version of Buddhism, which has enabled Japan to compete with the U.S., say, even in a full scale war in WWII, Muslims cannot compete with the U.S. over hegemony in politics, economy, science, technology, art, and social systems, which means there will be always insurgents among them with a complex to the American culture and success.
Put simply, the key to avoiding the catastrophic danger caused by Islamic terrorists and introducing democracy as a base for the sound social and economic development in the Islamic regions must be their learning Buddhism, especially the Japanese Version of Buddhism.
The solution for problems in the Islamic world today is for Muslims to learn the Japanese Buddhism as another religion Allah created, which does not request them to abandon Islam at all, but to master exercising a higher level of intellectual and spiritual mind to have both the religions act and work for their benefits, since the Japan has proved in these centuries that Buddhism is truly another religion endowed by Allah to South and East Asians far before Islam was vouchsafed to Arabs.
SECTION II: JAPANESE BAMBOO WARE
Yesterday I wrote:
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But in Japan, where Buddhism developed in a very unique manner fitting to the Japanese climate and nature, manual labor and monotonous tasks people are engaged in with pious belief in the Buddha could become an occasion to attain enlightenment only higher priests or saints are believed to reach in the West and Asia.
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I will provide you one great example: a manual laborer or a craftsman highly respected in Japan, since his bamboo ware was highly appraised as works of art, say, by Smithsonian Institution and the Columbus Museum of Art.
http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/exhib/jpbask/pressrel.html
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Baskets displayed in each section are representative of the types of baskets Hiroshima designed specifically for the farmers, fishermen, and residents of Hinokage. Among the unique assortment of baskets on display are: backpack and hip baskets for harvesting and transporting crops such as tea leaves and shiitake mushrooms; baskets and sieves for kitchen and farmyard tasks; rice storage baskets; baskets for holding live eels; fishing traps and creels; trays for raising silkworms; and woven cylinders for making soy sauce.
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The craftsman or the bamboo-ware artist, Mr. Kazuo Hiroshima was born in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, in 1915 and is still active in his profession which is originally a hand laborer.
His legs were partly disabled when he was young, so that he decided to take up a profession suitable for his conditions, a humble bamboo-ware maker.
If his legs had not suffered any damages, Mr. Hiroshima recalled, he would not have been engaged in a job of making bamboo tools and utilities for everyday life of people, since such a job would not make him rich enough to buy a car or a house.
And, the very old active craftsman said in a certain interview that he saw some craftsmen in the past who wanted to buy a car so much that they just wanted to make as many products as possible to earn wages more without minding quality of their products and spirits they were living on and with.
The local town in Miyazaki Prefecture, Hinokage, where Mr. Kazuo Hiroshima is still living and working, presents a homepage advertising its artifacts and other unique traditional works.
http://www.hinokage.jp/therapy/menu/taiken_takumi.htm
For, Hinokage Town:
http://www.ilusha.net/HinokageGuide2/index.shtml
SECTION III: JAPANESE PARADIGM OF CIVILIZATION
In the West, they killed cattle and other animals to eat, used big stones for houses, loved metals for decoration and weapons, and enslaved other tribes and races to meet the needs for labor.
So, the Roman Empire must have been conquered by Jesus Christ and His followers to be truly civilized.
But, as ancient Greeks loved to think logically and abstractly and ancient Romans loved to use and study metals and machines, the West later could develop engineering and science that led to the Industrial Revolution based on the social basement and frameworks bolstered by Christianity.
But, their original inclination to animals, stones, metals, and social hierarchization has hindered full growth of their religious mind and heart, which is why they could not from the bottom of their hearts love and respect the weak, the poor, and mere craftsmen or hand-laborers.
In Japan where people did not kill cattle and other animals so much to eat, did not use big stones so much for houses, did not love metals so much for decoration and weapons, and never enslaved other tribes and races to meet the needs for labor, the Japanese Buddhism taught people to love and respect personality and spirit of the weak, the poor, and mere craftsmen or hand-laborers.
Indeed, until recently, there were hundreds of various types of professional hand work and hand labor in Japan, since Japan is rich in woods, paper materials, plants, animals, insects, fishery products, and even minerals. Japan is ten times richer than Europe in terms of diversity of the nature, though Japan is not a tropical island. Under this natural condition, Japanese craft work business became flourish through its history that could traced back for tens of thousands of years.
Based on this background, the introduction of products of the European Christian civilization made Japan the world’s most advanced industrialized country in the 20th century, which is however no wonder since Japanese culture had been at such a high-quality level though in a different paradigm of civilization of mankind.
SECTION IV: JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY OF HAND LABOR
But, nowadays, those Japanese craftsmen in traditional trade find fewer successors. The basement of the Japanese industry may be being eroded.
It may be because too many young people want cars or buy and sell stocks. And fewer senior persons recommend them spiritual enlightenment through manual labor or monotonous tasks.
It might also mean a serious problem for the Japanese Buddhism as well as its national strength, though there are so many admirers today in the world such as the one in Turk.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%A4%B1%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8C%E3%81%9F%E6%89%8B%E4%BB%95%E4%BA%8B%E3%81%AE%E6%80%9D%E6%83%B3-%E5%A1%A9%E9%87%8E-%E7%B1%B3%E6%9D%BE/dp/4794210744
(Yesterday, in an NHK’s reporting program, they showed improvement of living of manual laborers in San Jose, California, USA.
It is because the local government raised wages by 50% or more for the manual laborers the city hires for cleaning, repairing, and so on.
But, what they need more may be the teaching of the Japanese Buddhism that manual labor leads to spiritual enlightenment if conducted with belief in the Buddha and the God.
And, of course, as a reporter and cameraman wishing to be a holy kind, I am also aiming at the enlightenment.
What about you? Think it over. Be part of God’s glory!)
