Dear friends and members of the Unitarian Fellowship
Date January 11, 2015
Time: 3pm
Venue:#402 of International House of Japan.
Our speaker:
Dominick Scarangello
(A scholar of early modern Japanese
Buddhism and religion)
Title of the speech:
The laity can’t really practice or can they?
The history of the early Meiji period Buddhist ‘church’
movement.
‘In
the early 21st century, Buddhism is commonly seen as an egalitarian faith that
offers practices such as meditation for all and holds the promise of Buddhahood
and liberation for both monastic and lay alike. However, this was not always
the case. Even in many strands of Mahayana Buddhism, living an active life of
Buddhist practice was once thought to be the prerogative of renunciant
monastics.
In
this presentation I will talk about the early to mid-Meiji movement to develop
lay soteriological teachings, creeds and practices from the traditions of
Japanese Buddhist groups that had historically privileged renunciant, ascetic
practitioners. In addition to eludicating an understudied episode in Buddhist
modernism, I hope that the history of this movement will also provide context
for understanding successful Buddhist lay movements that developed later in the
20th century.’
Gassho
Dominick
Scarangello
