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Japan is more beautiful than we can think of, remember, or imagine. That's what I felt during the 10-day trip -- where I was guided to visit six famous Buddhist temples and four Shinto shrines, most of which are listed as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. The temple landscapes are as beautiful as fairy tales, as in movies, with many colors of a cherry blossom season. Beautiful gardens, beautiful lakes, beautiful temple landscapes, flowers and bamboo gardens are all very artistic.

My memories of Japan from my childhood until now are the pages of Zen poetry, where I got to know Mr. Dogen and Basho through poetic language. The strange thing: Zen and poetry are very close. Just like the Buddha in the early years of his teachings, in the oldest sutras, when the sutras did not have the opening phrase "Thus have I heard" of Mr. Anan, they were almost entirely poems, like the Sutra Collection, like the Dhammapada. It seems that later, when he had to speak at length, and when Ananda came along, the Buddha used less poetry. I do not understand why all this happened.

In my mind, the image of Japan is of Zen poetry that is very poetic and economical with words. And it brings out the view of the true nature of impermanence and non-self.

For example, the poem of Ryokan (1758-1831):

The wind has calmed, the flowers have fallen;
The birds are singing, the mountains are dark –
This is the wonderful power of Buddhism.

Or the poem of Basho (1644-1694):

Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests that they are about to die.

Or the poem of Ikkyu (1394–1481):

There is a momentary pause
If it rains, let it rain
If the wind blows, let the wind blow.

.

However, in Temples, to get close to the main hall, you have to buy a ticket, and you can't meet any Japanese monks. Because, the monastery is not located in a place where there are many tourists. The problem is, it is beautiful, but the colorful beauty seen is not like what Buddhists often think of a Japanese Buddhism, where many famous Zen sects have been transmitted to the West and the United States.

One point to realize is that famous Japanese temples have become tourist centers, attracting tourists to come in large numbers, and around the temple, the mountain roads are full of shops and vehicles -- that is, a temple like that would support an entire town at the foot of the mountain. This beauty is no longer the beauty of poetry.

Even when I visited the Tenryuu Temple, the ancestral temple of the Japanese Rinzai sect, the impression that remained in my memory was an explanatory board at the entrance, a giant painting of Bodhidharma, the flower gardens behind the temple, the mountainside and a path in the bamboo forest behind. Here, to enter the main hall, you have to buy a ticket. There is no image of a monk leaning on a stick looking at the snow or the moon... like in the poem.

The story is not poetic at all: Many Japanese monks today are allowed to marry and drink alcohol. Although there are still some monasteries and monks and nuns who practice according to strict traditions, there are no statistics that can be relied on accurately on the number of traditional monks. What we read in the past is no longer accurate about Japanese Buddhism, except for the images of beautiful temples that look like fairy tales.

An argument is raised from Japanese monks who live like – not monks, not laymen – because that is the practice of Bodhisattva.

A famous poem written by a Japanese monk around 1980 is reprinted in two works: --- “Religion in Japan: Unity and Diversity” by H. Byron Earhart, on page 269, and the book --- “Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation” by Stephen Grover Covell, on pages 62-63, translated as follows:

I am a monk
Wearing robes, holding a rosary in my left hand, I ride a bicycle
I go from house to house with Buddhists in the area and chant sutras.

I am a monk. I have a wife, I have a child. I drink sake, I eat meat. I eat fish, I lie. Yet, I am a monk… I walk the path of a Bodhisattva. That is to say, completely unlike the Zen poetry of old Japan. It is not that the monks did not know the scriptures. Remember, Japan had a technological civilization that was a century and a half more developed than Vietnam. And the price now is: Buddhism is declining. Or, changing in an unimaginable way.

According to The Guardian on November 5, 2015, an article by reporter Justin McCurry from Chikuma said that Japanese temples are closing en masse: more than 1/3 of the temples nationwide will close in the next 25 years (Japan currently has 77,000 temples, and in the next 25 years, 27,000 temples will close). (1)

It is also worth thinking that, in Japan, for over 150 years, universities have awarded countless PhDs and Masters in Buddhist Studies to graduates, as numerous as trees in the forest. Japan has about 800 universities (86 national universities, 95 public universities not at the national level, and 597 private universities), of which more than 30 universities are of Buddhist sects. (2)

The Soto Order alone has three universities: Aichi Gakuin University in Aichi Prefecture, Komazawa University in Tokyo, and Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai Prefecture. Most Japanese universities were established in the mid-19th century, while Vietnam was still under brutal French rule. That is to say, the knowledge of Buddhist scriptures of Japanese intellectuals could not stop the wave of closing temples; sometimes knowledge does not translate into vitality. That said, for Vietnam to learn from experience: we must bring Buddhism into life, we must do everything possible to enable everyone to live the Dharma, to be able to breathe the Dharma in all times.

That said, it does not mean that there are no spiritual masters in Japan. Because, Tran Nguyen Thang, Director of ATNT Travels & Tours, my childhood friend and also the person who helped me go to Japan to learn about this country (as Thang said: "I want Hai to go, to see what virtues and culture the Vietnamese people have to learn from the Japanese, why they are civilized and progressive while we cannot progress."), said that Thang went to study in Japan in 1970, and got to know many Vietnamese monks who went to Japan to study, including the monk Tri Hien who was very steadfast in his practice, at a famous strict Zen monastery that sometimes gave orders that sounded unreasonable: The abbot (Japanese) once told a student monk from Vietnam to take a broom to sweep the snow in the yard while it was snowing. In reality, how could he sweep all the snow away when the snow was still falling? Later, Master Tri Hien went to Dallas (Texas), built a temple near the Vietnamese community, and now he has passed away (we will talk more about Master Tri Hien and Zen later, maybe another topic).

However, Buddhism in Japan has not flourished in terms of numbers. This is not because other religions have overtaken it. In fact, Christianity is only about 1% to 2.5% of the Japanese population, which is very small.

Many statistics on Japanese religion differ. Two US government statistics also differ.

According to the 2016 US State Department statistics, Japan's population is about 126.7 million (estimated as of July 2016). The Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA) says that the number of members in religions totaled 190 million as of December 31, 2014; that is, some people are registered in more than one religion. Often, Buddhists are also registered as Shinto members. ACA records that Japan has 92 million Shinto followers (48.5%), 87 million Buddhists (45.8%), 1.9 million Christians (1%) and 8.9% (4.7%) of other religions (i.e., including Islam, Bahai, Hinduism, Judaism).

According to CIA Fact Book, Japan's population is 126,451,398 (as of July 2017), of which Shinto followers account for 79.2%, Buddhism 66.8%, Catholicism 1.5%, and other religions account for 7.1%.

Strangely, although Catholicism only accounts for 1% of Japan's population, young people who get married prefer to have their ceremony in a Catholic church, according to Kyodo news published in the Japan Times on June 23, 2017. (3)

The newsletter has a new motto in Japan: Born in Shinto, live an atheist life, marry according to Catholic rites, and die according to Buddhist rites.

Saying so, does not mean that Japanese people live an atheist life. It is possible that young people are busy with studying and working, and have little interest in religion. However, famous temples are still crowded with Japanese Buddhists who come to pray, every exam season, or to ask for good luck in love, or to ask for smart and good children, or to pray for safety from disasters. That is the reason why incense smoke still billows in many temples, and fortune telling is still common in many temples. But when Japanese people ask for fortune telling, if they get a lucky fortune, they take it home; when they get an unlucky fortune, they tie the fortune paper to the temple, to ask Buddha and Bodhisattvas to bear the bad luck for them... It is strange, but Buddhism is very closely related to Shinto in Japan. This is a point worth studying, and may be the topic of the next article.

Here, I would like to thank Tran Nguyen Thang (https://www.atnttour.com) for helping the writer have a wonderful trip to learn about Japan, giving him profound experiences and many thoughts on cultural comparisons between the two countries.

One of the temples that the writer is interested in is the Caodong and Lam Te temples. I don't know why, but I vaguely think that I need to visit. In my mind, I also think that there will be some poems guarding the gate of these temples, and I will ask my friend who studied abroad to translate them into Vietnamese to understand. Not purely because of my love for poetry, but that's how I vaguely think.

I only had the chance to visit the Lam Te temple, the temple named Tenryū-ji, translated into Vietnamese as Thien Long Tu, is the main temple of the Thien Long lineage of the Japanese Lam Te, located in Kyoto. This temple was founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339 and completed in 1345. It is one of the Five Great Mountains of Kyoto. In 1994, it was designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

Another famous temple in Kyoto is Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), founded in 1397, belonging to the Rinzai sect, but the Shōkoku-ji sect.

The original structure built in 1397 was used as a residence for a Shogun named Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The word Shogun means a general who commands many warlords and holds real military power. His son converted the palace into a temple and Zen monastery for followers of the Rinzai sect of Buddhism. During the Onin War (1467-1477), the temple was burned down but was rebuilt.

Kinkaku (Golden Pavilion) in the temple grounds is just one of many architectural structures in the temple. The three-story pavilion reflects on the Kyoko-chi pond. The walls of the upper two floors are covered with gold leaf, shining brightly, so the pavilion is called the Golden Pavilion. The scenery of the pavilion, pond, garden and walkway is known for its artistic harmony.

But when you come to Kinkaku-ji, you can only stand and look across the pond. Because for many years, there have been too many visitors, the government, in order to preserve it, has not allowed anyone to enter this gilded temple. Thang said that four decades ago, when he was an international student, he was allowed to enter here because at that time tourists were allowed to visit the temple.

NOTES:

(1) The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/zen-no-more-japan-shuns-its-buddhist-traditions-as-temples-close

(2) List of Buddhist Universities in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Buddhist_universities_and_colleges

not including Soka University, which has a branch in Orange County.

(3) Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/06/23/national/christian-style-weddings-grow-popular-japan-allure-optics-religion/#.Wul1UojwY2w

PHOTO:



H1: A rickshaw carries tourists along the Do River Bridge to Thien Long Temple in the Arashiyama mountains, Kyoto.



H2: The entrance to Thien Long Temple, the headquarters of Lam Te Tong.



H3: Looking at Thien Long Tu is a giant painting of Bodhidharma, to see it you have to buy a ticket.



H4: Kim Cac Tu in Kyoto.