The Cost of Reincarnation

Traditional values

I am not sure how many people who are not Japanese get close in to the rituals of death Japanese style. I have a feeling that this is not a very widely experienced aspect of Japanese culture outside of Japanese consciousness so once again it appears that I have managed to sneak in through another cultural gateway.

To get to this portal we journeyed from Meguro to Kotobuki by car, a journey of two and a half hours. Some of you may remember a previous description of my brother-in-law's driving skills and so should be suitably horrified when I say that he was the chauffeur on this appointment with death. For those of you not acquainted with the implications of his being the driver I think I can summise thus: he plays the accelerator like a heavy rock drummer plays the bass pedal, the on board television is on constantly at full volume regardless of how it looses signal and mercilessly turns the inane drivel of Japanese day time television into intense static, and finally, he seems unaware of any relevance in the position or relationship of other vehicles to his own.

Needless to say the prospect of the journey filled me with a deep despair which I tried to mitigate by sitting in the back rather than travelling shotgun up front. Honourable Brother-in-Law (HoBiL) tried to insist that I take the front seat but with all the native guile of someone fearful for his sanity I resisted stoutly with the claim that his sister, my wife, should have the opportunity of sitting with her brother chatting during the drive.

I won my case but it was to be a pyrrhic victory. Not long into the journey I found that my head rested just millimeters away from the television speaker in the back. As we journeyed further from Tokyo so the signal edged away from stability and into off signal hiss, clicks and high pitched whines. A request to turn the sound down, as switching off was never going to be an option, was met with the volume going up a notch: mental note, work harder on your Japanese Jack.

Becalming the stressed traveller

Arrival at the temple in Kotobuki was a blessing and somehow the sight of the tranquil garden in its car park was a welcome sensual transition from the world of Japanese media to that of Japanese spirituality. We left the car and the daytime television behind, absorbed the gentleness of the shaped bushes, sculpted shrubs and pond filled with the golden glimmers of gliding carp. From the raw heat of the day into the cool shadows of the temple, this felt as though someone had pressed the "calm" button.

Old buildings in need of constant repair

The purpose of the visit was to perform the ritual prayers of the 23rd anniversary of the death of my wife's father. To the western mind, such an anniversary is not immediately recognisable on the occidental process of social and physical death. I put this down to the fact that when compared with the Japanese religious establishment our own Christian based franchises are contemptible amateurs in the business of death. Whereas our spiritual corporate profits are taken in one hit at the moment of demise the Japanese spiritual business model provides a substantial, and costly, customer service which is essential if the deceased member of the family is to gain a respectable re-incarnation.

Naturally, a family may choose to ignore this dusty obligation, they may even decide to bin the direct mail reminders issued by the temple "holding" the ash asset however they would then have to deal with the approbation of the ancestors. This is an important underpinning concept that has been written into the mythological psyche of the nation; the ancestors guard the fortune of the family therefore any lack of effort in following the required rituals, with appropriate costs, risks the fortune of that family.

In addition, if the required rituals are not performed then what sort of example does that set to the younger members of the family? After all, no-one desires to be re-incarnated in a low social position of ill fortune because the children didn't perform the correct rituals at your death.

The view from the temple window

I would like to consider the salient point that differentiates the business of death between the eastern spiritual corporate model and the western spiritual corporate model. This crucial differential is the concept of re-incarnation. In the west the spiritual corporations base their business model on the basis of an "entry fee". In order to enter into that most exclusive of private members clubs, heaven, the individual has to accumulate "heaven miles" on the membership card of their chosen corporation; Consolidated Anglican, Catholic International, Baptist Heavy Industries,... etc, etc.

This financial model relies on gathering the most amount of revenue during the lifetime of the customer, cutely referred to in the Christian mythology as "the lamb". Theological economists postulate that once dead and safely buried the lamb no longer has any economic value. Therefore the spiritual corporations of the west seek to maximise profits during the lifetime of the lamb with a whole host of branded consumables; birth rituals, christening rituals, coming of age rituals, marriage rituals, death rituals, pew sales, funding of church up keep, charitable tax breaks etc., etc., etc..

Catholic International cunningly cornered the market in the so called death bed conversion option which allowed the most dreadful of sinner to make a last ditch confession, kiss the cross and with a fat codicil to the will, achieve a v.i.p. fast track system through celestial immigration control. Other than that the range of product available is remarkably consistent across all of the western spiritual corporations.

The faithful prepare lamb for dinner in Catholic International's Haitian Division

I appreciate that there may be some dissenters to the point of view I am putting forward here but I wont call for them to be burnt at the stake! You may also be wondering if I am drifting away from the key interest in this blog which is Japanese culture but I would ask your indulgence for just a moment and would hope all will become clear, and relevant, in due course. In respect of the dissenting voices I would offer the following quote from THE VATICAN BILLIONS by Avro Manhattan:

"The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars."

source: Chick Publications

Franchise opportunities in sales to middle class socio-economic groups

The importance of understanding this balance sheet in the western spiritual economic sector is that once you are able to see past the marketing campaigns run by the corporations involved you are better placed to understand the Japanese business model.

Note: If you cannot see past the western sales pitch then perhaps I can interest you in the latest version of New Age Buddhism which provides you with a superior moral ascendancy, the ability to maintain a rich western lifestyle guilt free and a rather fashionable new spiritual guru all for the cost of a weekend workshop (£499) in a cosy country house in the English counties. Just mail here to complete your order: wellrippedoff@newage.con

Whilst you may perceive a certain flavour of cynicism in my writing on western spirituality any such literary approach would simply fail in describing Japanese faith based business models. This is because the Japanese people are not blind to the "corporate nature" of faith practice in their culture. They see no contradiction because in their belief system poverty isn't a spiritual issue for the rich it is a spiritual issue for the poor.

If your life is mostly occupied by vigourously scrapping the bottom of the barrel then clearly your family in your previous incarnation failed miserably in their duty to provide the correct rituals, at appropriate cost, for your re-incarnation. Perhaps this now helps to make the picture a little clearer!

Quality after life customer service

The Japanese spiritual business model doesn't see the death of the customer as a barrier to levying charges to his or her account. On the contrary, death merely increases the value of the customer's account and enhances the possibility of premium rate services. All of this is possible because the process of re-incarnation is not immediate at the point of death, rather it takes the form of a journey to the new life, a journey fraught with challenges and dangers. These obstacles are best overcome with the assistance and prayers of the relatives led by a monk, at an appropriate cost, from the temple where the ashes are located.

As an historical note and in order to be able to cite established business precedent, the history of re-incarnation in Tibetan Buddhism, a brand much loved by the western spiritual consumer, is instructional. Sometime before the 10th century the King of Tibet enacted a tax law which meant that all property of anyone who died without an heir would become part of the royal estate. Obviously if you want to keep the cash in the family then best get married and have children, simple, but not if you are a buddhist monk!

Worst still was the position of the senior monk in each temple for in the eyes of the law they owned the temple and all its properties. Clever old King eh, he is the sort of chap who would be on a good bonus in an investment bank today. However the monks were not to take this threat without the appropriate spiritual response. Such an unpopular take over bid had to be resisted as the shareholders were not happy with handing over their assets to a private owner (see Glazier takeover of Manchester United for reference). The response was devastating and demonstrates the power of the spiritual business model over the temporal estate.

There was an odd tradition which was not all that popular at the time but practised the idea that when people died they were born back into life again. The monks quickly realised the tax advantages of this system for if the head monk was reincarnated then he was, de facto, his own heir and the king could have no claim on his assets. This was the critical business stimulus the odd eccentric practice needed to go mainstream. Once nicely branded and presented as a package the possibilities to mass market the product were obvious. As the journey from Life to Death to Life was in the hazardous realm of the great beyond, which no-one but the monks can chart properly, then the risks and rewards are high.

Fortunately, the temples are able to calculate exactly when these moments of re-incarnation crises are at their most crucial. These calculations allow the temples to provide a timetable of rituals to follow after the death of their client. As we had journeyed to the temple for the most important ritual of the 23rd year anniversary of the death of my father-in-law you are able to get some idea of the extent and regularity of these important functions of faith. And lets look at the business model here, being able to charge for services to someone who has been dead for 23 years, boy have our churches missed an opportunity!

Reception

Once in reception within the temple we were offered a cold drink and a very nicely wrapped and presented biscuit. The monk joined us as he robed up. There is something quite wonderful about the buddhist monks for they have a truly cheerful disposition when you meet them in such circumstances. Well that is my experience so perhaps it is not sound practice to generalise but the ones I have met all appear to have a cheeky smile and a fine sense of humour. We discussed the various pleasantries of life and then moved into the adjacent temple where four stools were already prepared for us as the monk took pole position in front of all the the accoutrements required for this ritual; bells, drums, beads, incense burners and a selection of appropriate effigies and scrolls.

Addressing the infinite cost of reincarnation

If you have never been within the real space of a buddhist monk chanting then you have missed out on a real art form. The low, highly paced, almost guttural sound of the seemingly circular chants really does draw the listener to a connection of something that lays beyond the everyday. In this temple, within this space, enveloped in the sound and fragranced with an air rich with incense, the twenty first century simply evaporates from your consciousness. This is utempora.

Where the ancestors rest

Honourable Mother-in-Law (HMil) takes her faiths seriously and equally meets the responsibilities those faiths require.

It should be clear that the Japanese mindset in particular (if not oriental cultures in general) is capable of holding two sets of mythic belief structure simultaneously in a way the western myth systems fundamentally deny as a possibility; you are either Jewish, Christian or Islamic (and they are the same myths simply with variant market branding) let alone the possibility of being Jewish and a follower of say, the New Guinea Pig Cults etc.. Consumer brand loyalty is the absolute essential condition of the western spiritual business model. Such is its intensity people are prepared to kill each other simply because they cannot agree on God's name; is he Yaweh, God or Allah (they all do agree however that he is actually the same one and only God).

At the heart of western mythology is the idea of the separation of humanity from god, the eden myth, and the positioning of human beings as "having dominion over" creation, in other words different to and separate from all that is "creation". God is external to the western brands. In the eastern mythologies the human experience is part of the universal experience, they are inclusive belief systems, God is in everything and is everything even us. Such a fundamental difference creates a very different cultural psyche. For if we are part of everything and everything is part of us then anything we do in the spiritual practice department is all part of the same thing just a different way of looking at it. Therefore there is no problem with being a buddhist, a zen follower and even a christian all at the same time.

This ability of allowing for a multiplicity of interpretations of the human experience also allows for the fact that business is a part of life. An inclusive viewpoint which accepts that religion has a business aspect and sees no conflict of interest because the values of the the belief system do not separate the worldly from the spiritual.

So when HMil readily accepts the rituals of the death process and the costs those entail she might mutter about how wealthy temples are but she sees no hypocrisy in it. In the west our major accusation against the wealth of the churches is precisely the hypocrisy because for us our Christian and Islamic teachings specifically injunct us against the temptations of wealth. In Japan the poor are poor and that is the way of things, if you don't work you don't eat and as we all are able to work then your poverty can only be because your karma is not good. Someone in your past scrimped on the fees!

So in the temples of the west glittering with gold, as Popes and Immans travel in air conditioned limousines whilst they measure time on their gold Rolex's, we see a disparity in what they preach and what they do.

In Japan, as with all aspects of life, everything has a cost and if you want the best, in this case a higher status monk, then it will cost you more, naturally!

Coming up next; The Mystery of the Head in the Pacific. Japanese police are investigating the mystery of the head of a foreign blog writer that was seen floating in the surf of a beautifully sunny Pacific beach. They are following up the theory that he may have upset certain religious business interests.