‘Greening Dharma’
Contemporary Japanese Buddhism and Ecology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v7i3.334Keywords:
Japanese Buddhism, environmentalism, glocalization, public religion, residual problemsAbstract
Buddhist environmentalism in Japan during the last few decades manifests through various discussions and forms of activism and is characterized by the use of popular Buddhist ideas, such as aversion to greed, interdependence, and the universality of buddhahood. This movement gained strength after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, when several Buddhist organizations publicly expressed their disapproval of nuclear energy. I argue that rather than a timeless ‘green Dharma’ inherently close to nature, contemporary Japanese Buddhism is a ‘greening Dharma’ that for different reasons is gradually becoming engaged in environmentalism. Although the presence of sincere religious concern and a doctrinal anchorage cannot be overlooked, a crucial role is played by Japanese Buddhism’s need to reassert its presence in the public sphere, and by the involvement of this religious tradition in global dynamics related to residual problems, cultural ?ows, and glocalization.
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———. 2005. ‘Kyo_to giteisho hakko_ iwau heiwa ko_shin o’, 20 January.
———. 2012. ‘Tendai zasu Handa Ko_jun-san: “jibun yori hito” yutakana kokoro’, 18 April.
Beyer, Peter. 1994. Religion and Globalization (London: Sage Publications).
Bruun, O., and A. Kalland (eds.). 1995. Asian Perceptions of Nature: A Critical Approach (Richmond: Curzon).
Casanova, José. 1994. Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Chu_o_ Gakujutsu Kenkyu_sho (ed.). 1999. Kyo_sei to heiwa no ikikata o motomete: Ho_kekyo_ kara no mess_ji (Tokyo: Ko_sei Shuppansha).
Covell, Stephen. 2005. Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press).
Dessì, Ugo. 2006. ‘The Critique of Anthropocentrism and Humanism in Present-day Shin Buddhism’, Japanese Religions 31.2: 111-25.
———. 2010. ‘Shin Buddhism and Globalization: Attitudes toward the Political Subsystem and Pluralism at the Organizational and Individual Levels’, in U. Dessì (ed.), The Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism (Leiden and Boston: Brill): 241-66. Doi: 10.1163/ej.9789004186538.i-286.60.
———. 2011. ‘Japanese Religions, Inclusivism, and the Global Context’, Japanese Religions 36.1-2: 83-99.
———. 2012. ‘Religion, Hybrid Forms, and Cultural Chauvinism in Japan’, Journal of Religion in Japan 1.2: 168-87. Doi: 10.1163/221183412X649629.
———. 2013. Japanese Religions and Globalization (London and New York: Routledge).
Freiberger, Oliver, and Christoph Kleine. 2011. Buddhismus: Handbuch und kritische Einführung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht).
Fujimura, Ken’ichi. 2010. ‘Nihon ni okeru Kirisutokyo_, Bukkyo_, Shinto_ no shizenkan no hensen: gendai no kankyo_ mondai to no kanren kara’, Rekishi chirigaku 52.5: 1-23.
G8 Religious Leaders Summit. 2008a. ‘A Proposal from People of Religion to Leaders of the Group of Eight’. Online: http://www.relnet.co.jp/g8/english/Declaration.pdf.
———. 2008b. ‘Greeting’. Online: http://www.relnet.co.jp/g8/english/greeting.htm.
Hannerz, Ulf. 1987. ‘The World in Creolisation’, Africa 57.4: 546-59. Doi: 10.2307/1159899.
Howard, Theodore E. 1999. ‘Japan’s Green Resources: Forest Conservation and Social Values’, Agriculture and Human Values 16: 421-30. Doi: 10.1023/A:1007647600563.
Ichigu_ o Terasu Undo_. 2006. ‘Ningen no toribun’. Online: http://ichigu.net/pillar/life02.html.
———. 2012. Ichigu_ o Terasu Undo_ so_-honbu dayori (of_cial bulletin, 15 July).
Ikeda, Daisaku. 2002. ‘The Challenge of Global Empowerment: Education for a Sustainable Future’. Online: http://www.sgi.org/sgi-president/proposals/environmental-proposal.html.
———. 2011. Ikeda Daisaku zenshu_, vol. 101 (Tokyo: Seikyo_ Shinbunsha).
———. 2012. ‘Human Security and Sustainability: Sharing Reverence for the Dignity of Life’ (2012 Peace Proposal). Online: http://www.sgi-usa.org/newsandevents/docs/peace2012.pdf.
Isa, Kyoko. 2012. ‘ “Anti-Nukes” Remains Fixed on Life: Declarations from the Religious World Come One after Another’, in Watts 2012: 165-67.
Izuta, Aso and Sato Kei. 2012. ‘Explaining the Sin of Nuclear Power: Symposium at Soto Zen’s Main Temple Eiheiji Spreads the No Nuke Movement among the Buddhist World’, in Watts 2012: 157-62.
Jippo_. 2009. ‘2009-nen shichi-hachigatsu Chu_goku Naimo_ko jichiku shuccho_ ho_koku’. Online: http://jippo.or.jp/html/090904_1.html.
Jo_do Shinshu_ Honganji-ha. 2011. ‘Honganji no mori’ (lea_et).
———. 2012a. ‘Ju_ten purojekuto kihon keikaku’. Online: http://www.hongwanji.or.jp/news/_les/2012_jyuten-project_kihon_keikaku.pdf.
———. 2012b. Honganji shinpo_ (of_cial bulletin, 16 January).
Published
2013-11-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Dessi, U. (2013). ‘Greening Dharma’: Contemporary Japanese Buddhism and Ecology. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 7(3), 334-355. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v7i3.334
