01/06/2025
Good day from Tokyo!
Do all Buddhist priests have shaved heads? The answer is no, and here is an encounter.
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I went to Okayama on the weekend to attend a Buddhist memorial service. It was held at a temple of Jodo Shinshu which is a kind of Buddhism.
When the head priest came in, I was surprised. I thought all priests had shaved heads, but this priest had a stylish haircut.
I asked him, “Is it okay not to shave your head?”
He said that in Jodo Shinshu, priests don’t have to give up their secular life, so it’s not necessary to shave their heads. They can do their work as a priest with normal hair.
After chanting the sutra, the priest asked us,
“When flowers die, we say sakura falls, camellia drops, plum spills. Then, how do we say the end of a human life?”
Someone said, “Isn’t it ‘to die’?”
But the answer was, “to go.”
In Buddhism, when people’s lives end, everyone equally goes to the Pure Land（極楽浄土）.
In everyday Japanese, “oujou-suru” (往生する) can mean being in trouble, but in Buddhism, “ou” (往) means “to go” and “jou” (生) means “to be born.”
It means going to the Pure Land and being born again.
I learned that in Buddhism, if people believe in Amida Buddha and say the “nenbutsu（波阿弥陀仏）” ,they can go to the Pure Land after death, even if they haven’t done special good deeds.
I thought that this easy way — no need to shave the head, no need to do big good deeds, just believe in Amida Buddha and say the nenbutsu — is why Jodo Shinshu became popular in Japan.
credit MK
