葬儀的真義=the meaning of funeral rites; 種性社會與印度佛教=caste society and Indian Buddhism; 日本人的思想、願望、哀求=thoughts, wishes and pleading of Japanese; 佛教的靈活性與堅韌性=Buddhist flexibility and resiliency
The “Funerary Buddhism” is often employed as a derogatory term to critique Japanese Buddhism. However, such a critique derives from a misreading and misunderstanding of the original Indic textual sources. Indeed, in ancient India, funeral services were conducted by monastics, not ordinary householders. Nonetheless, this has yet to be proven, due to the unique situation of India having a caste-based society. Since ancient times, Japanese have always had a sense of reverence towards the deceased deep inside their hearts. Through sincere mourning and veneration, the deceased are transformed into virtuous deities, from which in turn people seek blessings, and obtain a sense of inner peace. At the time, people eagerly anticipated Buddhism as having the “most advanced incantation techniques and occult methods from India.” But under the restrictions of the Ritsuryō-sei legal system, it could only disseminated within the imperial court, and was constantly maintained as a secret unknown to the common populace. However, in order to respond to the wishes of the common populace, some monastics began to engage in funerary work for them. After the imperial court lost political power in the Kamakura period, this tendency began to develop very rapidly. By responding to the thoughts, wishes and pleading of the Japanese people, Buddhism became accepted and preserved by the Japanese up until the present time. The state in which it was preserved may have major differences from Indian Buddhism. At the same time, we cannot forget that Buddhism has no fixed dogmas but possesses flexibility. Due to this flexibility, it has resiliency.
