Analysis of Japanese Buddhism

In fact, in the beginning I faced a difficulty that where I should go for my final assignment. Until one night when I was having dinner, I talked this problem to my host mother, who is a Japanese woman. She asked me what religions I had learned from this class. Then I said that I had learned about Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. She was surprised that Buddhism was not included in this class. Plus, she knew that Buddhism is one of the most popular religions in China. Thus, she suggested me that I go to visit a Japanese Buddhist Temple, where is located closely in my house. When I first heard this suggestion, I was pretty interested in it. It was because I do not really know much about Buddhism, even although I am a Chinese, and I am very interested in Japanese culture. Also, I knew that Japan culture had been influencing not only in my hometown, but every corner in the world. Hence, I accepted my host mother suggestion to visit this Japanese Buddhist Temple in the following Friday, because I thought it would be a great opportunity to understand this influential culture and religion, which we did not discuss in this class.

Although I am not a Buddhist, I basically know what a Buddhist would do before the visiting of the Buddhist Temple. It is because in Macau, my hometown, most of the older generation believes in Buddhism, like my grandmother. She burns incense every day, and goes to temple to offer chickens and some fruits to her idols on the first and fifteenth of every lunar month. In addition, she is also on vegetarian diet in these two days every lunar month. Besides the old generation, there are also some people who claim themselves as Atheists, but they also go to temple to thank the idol blessing them throu...

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...ple claimed them as the adherents of the religion and did bad things. It did not mean all adherents would do the same at all. Therefore, I learned that examination is really important in life, because if we believe others’ saying and unexamine them, we will easily misunderstand a lot and make our lives meaningless. Through the class and this visiting, I can conclude that, there is no good or bad religion in the world. All religions aim to share love and peace to others. Hence, I found that, even though I do not believe in any religion, I can learn their belief which is benefit to my life. In order to understand more about religion, I decided to visit more religion services in the future, and examine more about it. Through these examinations, I believe that, I could improve my critical thinking ability, which will benefit and make my life more meaningful than before.