Bøger af Jonathan S. Watts

These volumes are the culmination of sixteen years of research and engagement in the growing Socially Engaged Buddhist movement in Japan by the International Buddhist Exchange Center (IBEC) @ Kodosan in Yokohama, Japan. They follow its two publications dedicated to the Northeast Japantsunami and nuclear disaster in This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsunami Relief and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Post 3/11 Japan (2012) & Lotus in the Nuclear Sea: Fukushima and the Promise of Buddhism in the Nuclear Age (2013).Volume II presents the new Socially Engaged Buddhist activities of 21st century Japan, a dynamic movement arising out of the social crisis of Japan's "disconnected society" (mu-en shakai). It focuses on five sub-movements in end-of-life care, suicide prevention, disaster relief and Buddhist chaplaincy, poverty and homelessness, and anti-nuclear activism and holistic development. An Afterword ponders the possibility of a new movement for gender justice.Volume I provides an essential presentation of historical themes and a comprehensive survey of Socially Engaged Buddhism in the modern era.

This volume is the culmination of sixteen years of research and engagement in the growing Socially Engaged Buddhist movement of Japan. Volume I provides an essential presentation of historical themes that make Japanese Buddhism so unique and hard to understand for even other Buddhists in Asia. Volume I also provides a critical and comprehensive survey of Socially Engaged Buddhism in the modern era, which for the postwar period has never been fully documented.Volume II presents the new Socially Engaged Buddhist activities of 21st century Japan, a dynamic movement arising out of the social crisis ofJapan's "disconnected society" (mu-en shakai).These volumes are the third major publication of the Engaged Buddhism Project of the International Buddhist Exchange Center (IBEC) @ Kodosan in Yokohama, Japan. They follow its two volumes dedicated to the Northeast Japan tsunami and nuclear disaster in This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsunami Relief and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Post 3/11 Japan (2012) & Lotus in the Nuclear Sea: Fukushima and the Promise of Buddhism in the Nuclear Age (2013).

The tragic triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that occurred in northern Japan on March 11, 2011 hit a nation already in crisis; both economically and spiritually. This Precious Life takes us through the unfolding events of 2011 documenting efforts by Japanese Buddhist priests, temples, and organizations to respond to both the sudden disaster of the tsunami and the ongoing disaster of the nuclear power plants. While Japanese Buddhism has been struggling to recover its meaning for people in this highly modernized nation, the past year has shown its great ability to serve people in times of crisis and trauma. Meanwhile, Japanese Buddhism is slowly starting to take on the nuclear issue and deeper structural problems that face the nation. This Precious Life is filled with many moving stories from this epoch making year; provides a variety of critiques of both Japanese society and Japanese Buddhism; and a presents the work of a small group of Buddhist visionaries already working to create the new Japan of post 3/11.