Here's a link to Board member John Makransky's recent book Awakening Through Love.

Buddhist Responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
Miriam Levering

Poem Composed Following A Terrible Earthquake
Day after day after day, 
At noon and midnight, the cold was piercing. 
The sky was thick with black clouds that blocked out the sun. 
Fierce winds howled, snow swirled violently. 
Wild waves stormed heaven, buffeting monster fish. 
Walls trembled and shook, people shrieked in terror. 
Looking back at the past forty years, I now see that things were racing out of control: 
People had grown lax and indifferent, 
Forming factions and fighting among themselves. 
They forgot about obligations and duty, 
Ignored notions of loyalty and justice, 
And only thought of themselves. 
Full of self-conceit, they cheated each other. 
Creating an endless, filthy mess. 
The world was rife with madness. 
No one shared my concern. 
Things got worse until the final disaster struck— 
Few were aware that the world was star-crossed 
And dreadfully out of kilter. 
If you really want to understand this tragedy, look deep inside 
Rather than helplessly bemoan your cruel fate. 

1. Utu Niyama – physical inorganic order, e.g. seasonal phenomena of winds and rains. The unerring order of seasons, characteristic seasonal changes and events, causes of winds and rains, nature of heat, etc., all belong to this group.
2. Bija Niyama – order of germs and seeds (physical organic order), e.g. rice produced from rice-seed, sugary taste from sugar-cane or honey, peculiar characteristics of certain fruits, etc. The scientific theory of cells and genes and the physical similarity of twins may be ascribed to this order.
3. Kamma Niyama (Skt. Karma niyama) – order of act and result, e.g., desirable and undesirable acts produce corresponding good and bad results. As surely as water seeks its own level so does Karma, given opportunity, produce its inevitable result, not in the form of a reward or punishment but as an innate sequence. This sequence of deed and effect is as natural and necessary as the way of the sun and the moon.
4. Dhamma Niyama – order of the norm, e.g., the natural phenomena occurring at the advent of a Bodhisattva in his last birth. Gravitation and other similar laws of nature. The natural reason for being good and so forth, may be included in this group.
5. Citta Niyama – order or mind or psychic law, e.g., processes of consciousness, arising and perishing of consciousness, constituents of consciousness, power of mind, etc., including telepathy, teleasthesia, retro-cognition, premonition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought-reading and such other psychic phenomena which are inexplicable to modern science.

Every mental or physical phenomenon could be explained by these all-embracing five orders or processes that are laws in themselves. Karma as such is only one of these five orders.”

            Like the Reverend Tesshu Shaku quoted above, one could point out that the earthquake and resultant tsunami were results of the Utu niyama, physical causal processes, and not of the Karma niyama.  Physical plates of the earth’s solid crust interacted.  Even though some Buddhist friends insisted that the five niyamas are only descriptive distinctions, and the various processes of causation are united, making karma affect all the other processes, and others insisted that disasters arise co-dependently with disturbances in the mind, among my Buddhist friends in Japan the view that the earthquake and tsunami were merely natural phenomena was widespread.  Does one really want to say that the people who live in earthquake or tsunami zones all have worse karma and therefore suffer worse karmic fruits than those who live in geologically more tranquil zones?

            My Buddhist friends rather focused on compassion, how we could open ourselves to feel and respond to the pain and the needs of others. As Rev. Tesshu Shaku also said:

“The Japanese are more focused on relationships as opposed to faith, feeling the pain of others. I have witnessed this at the time of the Hanshin Awaji earthquake. [In 1995, the Great Hanshin earthquake on the island of Awaji, known in the West as the Kobe earthquake, killed about 6,500 people.] There were many people who came to the affected area to help and volunteer.  There is a word, “earthquake children,” for people whose perspectives were affected by the disaster. They became very active in community service or became Buddhist monks. So people will be more spiritual, feeling the pains and joys of others.”

Undamaged Buddhist temples belonging to the traditional Japanese Buddhist sects and the Dharma Centers of Buddhist groups among the “new religions,” such as Rissho Kosei-kai and Soka Gakkai, opened their spaces to the refugees left homeless by the tsunami or the nuclear-related evacuation.  Large traditional Buddhist denominations and Buddhist new religions delivered massive donations of needed goods and sent volunteer teams to the Northeast to help with the refugees and the cleanup.  These efforts continue and will do so for some time.

            Since March 11 for Japan’s Buddhist priests in the Northeast region the most compelling need has been for services and prayers to benefit the dead--those who died in the earthquake and tsunami and those who have died since in evacuation centers.  In Japan the overwhelming majority are buried according to Buddhist custom: cremation and interment in a family plot.  With many bodies swept away in the tsunami, many Japanese have had to come to terms with having to forego rituals that they know help the dead.  For one thing, without a body or definite news one doesn’t feel right giving up hope that the loved one is still alive.  Japanese Buddhist priests are doing what they can to offer collective services for survivors who lack the comfort of seeing the body and holding a cremation. American scholar John Nelson said:

“In the days ahead, you’ll see people praying, with hands folded, for the spirits of those killed,” he says. “It goes back to a really early understanding of human spirits and rituals designed to control those spirits, which can take 49 days or, depending on the type of Buddhism, could go on for up to seven years.”

            One sad fact of the harsh conditions in the Northeast has been that bodies are so numerous and electricity so lacking that bodies have been buried in mass graves or cremated without the full Buddhist ceremony. Reporter Steven Jiang met a Buddhist priest at the centuries-old temple Senryuji just outside the 20-kilometer perimeter that defines the “no-go” or evacuation zone around the First Fukushima Nuclear Plant.  He wrote:

Sweeping its immaculately kept ground – complete with a sand garden and a fish pond – was Shinkoh Ishikawa, a 58-year-old Buddhist monk who offers a rare sanctuary to a community ravaged by a succession of disasters.
The government had advised residents between the 20- and 30-kilometer zones to move away or remain indoors.

“Religion is not something distant, it stays next to you,” Ishikawa explained his decision to stay after seeing hundreds of bodies of tsunami victims cremated at the local funeral home without a proper Buddhist ritual. “I hope people understand that death is not the end of one’s life, but a revolving step where lives meet again.”

Jiang continues:  “Lighting a candle in the temple’s main hall where eight boxes of cremated remains lay on a table, Ishikawa chanted prayers for the dead.”

            One concern at death is that the deceased receive an ordination name or “kaimyo” after death.  Rissho Kosei-kai, a Buddhist “new religion,” for example, immediately gave those known and unknown who died in the Northeast from the Great East Japan Earthquake, as it is now known, a collective posthumous ordination name so that merit from prayers and sutra chanting could be sent to them in the realm between death and rebirth, or, in another way of thinking, during their transition from living being to ancestor. The transfer of merit that occurs at the end of every Rissho Kosei-kai service throughout the country usually sends the merit from the service to various Buddhas and bodhisattvas, gods, spirits, the founders of the lineage, current teachers, one’s own ancestors and those of other members.  Since March 11, the transfer of merit portion of the recitation now sends all the merit from the service to all of the above except the members’ own ancestors and others on the members’ family tree, and those spirits of the dead whose memorial day (i.e., death anniversary) falls on this day.  Instead, the service is defined from the beginning as a memorial service for the collective dead of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and an occasion of prayers for the safety of those in Fukushima and those in all the Northeastern prefectures burdened by sorrow, loss or fear.  For resumption of transfers to them, one’s own ancestors and deceased members of one’s family tree will have to wait till the dead of the earthquake and tsunami have been helped to reach a peaceful and happy state as “hotoke,” Buddha ancestors.  The transfer of merit to the victims is carried out so that “they may delight in the taste of the Dharma and quickly accomplish the wonderful fruit of supreme awakening,” that is in other words, become “hotoke.”

            One aspect of Japanese Buddhists’ response to the Great East Japan Earthquake is an appreciation of the reminder it provides that everything is impermanent.  The “normal” life we take for granted is fragile, and thus not really “normal,” as one of my Buddhist friends in Tokyo pointed out.  This became abundantly clear immediately in Tokyo, where trains stopped running, bread, toilet paper and milk disappeared from store shelves, and cell phone networks stopped working.  For me too the quake left behind a strong awareness that everything and everyone is precious.  Buddhists around the world teach that life in this moment is both infinitely valuable and the only life we have—at least as far as this life goes. Thich Nhat Hanh is quoted as saying, when asked about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan:

“An event such as this reminds us of the impermanent nature of our lives. It helps us remember that what’s most important is to love each other, to be there for each other, and to treasure each moment we have that we are alive. This is the best that we can do for those who have died: We can live in such a way that they can feel they are continuing to live in us, more mindfully, more profoundly, more beautifully, tasting every minute of life available to us, for them.”

Japanese Buddhists would not agree that this is the best we can do for our beloved dead, or our compatriots who died in the tsunami: ordination names and merit transfer are important.  But they would agree with the first half of Thich Nhat Hanh’s statement.  Accepting the truth of impermanence and interconnectedness, but also the goal of living together as one family, treasuring each other, opening our hearts in compassion, treating each moment of our life as an opportunity to see, act and value truly, relying on a teaching that points to values grounded in truths that lie beyond this world, these are Japanese responses as well.  This is relatively easy to do when living a prosperous and secure-seeming life, and must seem nearly impossible when overwhelmed by disaster.  Yet the principles apply there as well.  President Nichiko Niwano of Rissho Kosei-kai wrote about cheerfulness, kindness and warmheartedness in his report on his experiences while visiting the disaster areas:

  “Cheerfulness is part of the Buddha wisdom and means never being swayed by emotion but living bravely by making the Dharma our light.  Kindness includes sympathy, and warm-heartedness includes compassion. That phrase means that we should go forth on the path of mutual liberation in the light of the Buddha wisdom, cultivating compassion and human warmth.…[These are] things that  we have to care about in the situation we are in right now.

“Among the people in the disaster areas being evacuated from their own neighborhoods because of the tsunami or nuclear accidents, some have lost family members, homes, or jobs, and have no hope for the future.  However, they can carve their future by living a day at a time.  I urge them to encourage and help one another, making the most of the people and things around them.

There is a saying, ‘The muddier the water, the bigger the lotus flower.’  No one has any idea how long it will take for the disaster victims to overcome their burden of hardship or sorrow.  However, I believe that if we remember sayings like the one about the lotus flower, we will think of this catastrophe not only as a great tragedy but accept it as an opportunity for everyone to grow as human beings.  I think this is exactly the right way to honor those who perished and to live as they would wish us to live.”

            When asked what kind of growth he had in mind, President Niwano said: 

“In the nearly seventy years since the Second World War, Japan has become materially advanced as one of the world’s great economic powers.  However, we have forgotten our true heritage and have indulged in excesses of every kind, with overconsumption and waste.  We need to reflect on our sense of values and lifestyle and think anew to move forward into the future.”

            And so we come back full circle to Ryokan’s mood, if not exactly Ryokan’s point.  In President Niwano’s thought, the earthquake was not blamed on our excesses.  But in light of our heightened awareness of impermanence and the suffering of others, and our new desire to be one family with each other, we may not choose to go on as we have done, somewhat thoughtlessly as it now seems. We have been given an opportunity to reflect, a chance to reshape the future.