Buddha Dharma embedded in the Ambience

Shoukei Matsumoto

Ancestorist, Buddhist monk. He is Visiting Professor of Musashino University. He started a
project of “Mirai no Jushoku-Juku” or temple management school for Buddhist priests andmonks. He has published five titles and "A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind” wastranslated into more than fifteen languages. He has also translated "The Good Ancestor: How
to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World" written by Roman Krznaric into Japanese.

※本 PDF は 2023 年 4 月 29 日に発行された作品集（冊子）の英訳を PDF 化したものです。
著者プロフィール含め、2023 年 4 月 29 日時点の情報です。

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1.

From me to us

Capitalism and mindfulness
When we question the origin of mindfulness, we seem to arrive at the Pali word sati whichmeans awareness, what is called physical and mental detachment in Buddhism, a release fromthe self-awareness that binds us to the acquisition of a state of selflessness. Thich Nhat Hanh
who was at the origin of the modern translation of Buddhism, taught human beings manifest

from interbeing, that stands on interconnection. In Mahayana Buddhism, the self isacknowledged as the sky, a symbol of emptiness. Everything is a series of ever-changing edges,
in other words, it is a phenomenon that emerge on our horizon.

In the late 1990s, as we looked for more “enrichment” but felt harried to live their lives in arush and began sensing the limitations of capitalism, those who wanted to distance themselvesfrom the frameworks of society to a certain degree began developing an interest in spirituality.
And as mental health became a social issue, not only medical and psychological symptomatic
treatment, but also yoga, meditation and spiritual narratives that involve somatic sensation
spread in answer to that as ways to care for the mind and body. People at home and abroad
are increasingly turning to Buddhism which shows the origins of the world, for clues andreferences as they seek to learn how to live through world.

With such trends can be seen in many parts of the world, Jon Kabat-Zinn, a Professor of
Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and others, eliminatedthe religious aspects of Buddhist Zen thoughts and practices and suggested the concept of
mindfulness in a merging with Western science. The teachings thus created of Buddhist
worldviews and teachings translated and arranged for people unfamiliar with Buddhism tounderstand easily have been actively incorporated by Western businesses facing issues inhuman resources development and management and spread at once as a tool for competencedevelopment and mental care.

However, when a capitalist system becomes its main user, if spirituality can also be swallowed
up as a consumable, it can go in the opposite direction of the physical and mental detachment.
A precondition for a capitalist system is the idea that capital increases as time goes by, andvalue may be discounted. Thus, people are human resources that are taken in and consumed.
We are inside a system that is constantly urging us to increase our value and secure our place2

in the world so that we can meet its demands. This expansion of self and sense of competition
has supported the homogenized worldview of capitalism.

From me to us
But today, that very capitalism has reached a crossroads. We are confronted by the bloatedresults of the impact on the global environment made by human activity pursuing profit forour selves. Gone is the era where one only needed to think about profit for oneself. The period
for an infinitely scalable scrap and build economy is over, and society is transitioning to asustainable and circular economy where everyone can wisely maintain their limited resources.
Based on the precondition of excessive production and consumption, our consumer societythat has driven modern capitalism forward has overlooked the existence of decomposers.
Kyoto University Associate Professor Tatsushi Fujiwara says in his work, The Philosophy ofDecomposition:“To knock down or smash devices, we imitate those devices and end up being swallowed up.

That has been repeated time and again in history. Instead, accelerate the decomposition

process where the device isn’t being used to its full potential. That way, its massive productionof injustice will give way to the devices for destiny and fate.”

Systemic reforms and the abolition of customs where only conclusions are brought in merely
change the exterior, leaving the same phenomena to be repeated in different ways. Actions ofdecomposition are what are needed to indicate new developments to come.
Starting with our metabolism, where the skin on our bodies peels off daily, some of the trash
produced in our daily living will return to the air and the earth, while others will accumulate
without decomposing. Things go around by decomposing, then rot or ferment to become
other entities. The human acts of cleaning and cultivating are indispensable for various cycles.

There are those who clear rough terrain to restore destroyed land. Some plow the hardened
earth so seeds may be planted. Decomposers who connect the imagination with destruction
and production with consumption are the ones we should note. Thanks to them, the worldcontinues, but they generally function in areas that have nothing to do with heroism. We
should be aware that everyone continues to repeat production, consumption, destruction, andregeneration while fulfilling their roles as decomposers.
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Nurturing together with open-minded peers
The axis will not stabilize when the root sways and the harvest may be poor. Buddha
Shakyamuni suggests practicing admonitions (practices) with peers to spread our roots. Many
customs we practice with peers, previously a part of units such as families, villages, andcommunities, have been lost in modern society, particularly in urban areas where individuality
is respected. However, as the world experiences various crises together, we are reconsidering
associations between public and personal spaces on what to share with whom. These days, we
see broad movements on a global level attempting to spread mindfulness that focuses on us
rather than me. Such a perspective is what will create the commons of the future.
Regarding the units I mention here, the way around belonging can be left for individuals. For
example, some people, such as nomads, may be on the move and use technology to share asus, while others will take root in their regions. The important thing is not to settle withincertain frameworks provided by others but to use individual thoughts, values, andembodiment to create just the right connections for each individual.
To live is a series of such creations, and connections unfold beyond one’s actions. We arealways linked with others and are together with the past and the present. Yet at the same time,

we also live in absolute solitude as the embodiment of We’re born alone, we die alone; wecome alone, and go alone. And that solitude has served as the horizon to unite like-minded
individuals who understand that sadness. While being a part of a community, we are foreveralone. Buddhism has accepted that contradiction of refraining from invading one another inmulti-layered ways. The Japanese Buddhist world has indeed nurtured a rich sense of us.

2.

Japanese Buddhism and Good Ancestors

Japanese temples are two stories highJapanese Buddhism opens the way for us. Meanwhile, as a monk who has been active withJapanese temples, I chiefly engage in matters to do with services conducted for the deceased,such as funerals, memorial services, and paying respects for the departed at their gravesites
4and have felt that we may be apt to leave behind the [us] that exist in the here and now. How
should we perceive this aspect of Japanese Buddhism that focuses on the deceased who lived
in the past, which it might be called ancestor religion?

Japan’s Buddhism is easier to understand if we see it as a two-floor structure. The groundfloor is a venue for ancestor worship for mourning the departed, and the second floor is for

Buddhist teachings, where the living question how to live and the ways of the world throughmindfulness and Zen. For Japanese people today, Buddhism as a religion focuses on comings
and goings to and from the first floor, where memorial rites are performed for their ancestors.
Having maintained family registries in the past, temples exist with support from a parishioner
system that considers family lineages as units. So, it was natural to embrace words of gratitudeand compassion with thoughts of cherishing one’s ancestors and passing on sentiments ofheart to their children and grandchildren. However, religious perspectives and family values
are beginning to crumble, and change is happening to the social structure that has supported
that first floor. Moral values based on unified beliefs on how the structure should exist, withthe family system as a backdrop, may now risk becoming exclusionary.
Meanwhile, more people are feeling discomfort with today’s social systems and individual
limitations in answering them, starting to appreciate Buddhist worldviews, and proceeding to
the second floor through mindfulness, re-imported from the West, as a gateway. Buddhism isbeing liberated from religion and shared broadly through diverse methods and expressions asa universal worldview that is spiritual but not religious, going beyond philosophy, thoughts,

and attachments. This is a trend of the times that I have called Post Religion.

As long as Mahayana Buddhist temples comprise the first-floor space for ancestor worshipand that for Buddhism on the second floor, the essential worldview of auspiciousness and thesky that goes beyond time and space will maintain its collectiveness. However, the first andsecond floors cannot help being separated if they are constrained within frameworks such as

family lineage, self, the past, and the present. Then how can the first and second floors ofJapanese Buddhism coexist?

Encountering Good Ancestors
We live in an age where we can expect to live to be a hundred. Now that we have more timein this world, are we living in a more leisurely way? On the contrary, I feel that as time passes,
5more is pressing in smaller increments. Is it possible to see the world from a broad perspective
living like that?
Debate is going on today in all areas of society about the future while questioning diversity,

coexistence, and sustainability. But to what extent are we genuinely turning our attention toothers and respecting worlds that exceed the scope of our own experiences? Businesses arechased with quarterly results, while politicians are hounded by steps to achieve results in thenext election. From children to adults, everyone is desperately trying to meet their obligations,
responsibilities and values that are being asked of them. At the same time, digital terminals
indicate to-do tasks in the tiniest increments, stimulate desires, and issue alerts on dangers.
Tasks, desires, and risks may seem to be created endlessly within us while notices continue totell us what to do next.
In his book, The Good Ancestor, Australian-born public philosopher Roman Krznaric sounds
an alarm on the overwhelmingly short-term thinking in modern society. As we live amid
frenetic short-termism, Krznaric speaks to us about the need for long-term thinking to live in
the now with a perspective that spans beyond generations. I had an opportunity to translate
the work into Japanese, and it was published as “The Good Ancestor: Watashitachi wa Yoki

Sosen ni Nareruka?” in autumn 2021 (Asunaro Shobo). Through this experience, I could
recapture the relationships between Japanese Buddhism and ancestor worship, using the

keywords “Good Ancestor.” It was a discovery of how the first floor of a temple (ancestor
worship) and the second floor (Buddhist teachings), which seem separated, are connected.

From ancestors as family lineage to forebearers
Honoring one’s ancestors and thinking about the past is an act to open the self, which tends

to be closed in the present. The same may be said of thinking of one’s descendants and thefuture. We will eventually become ancestors of the past for future generations. Through the

ceremonial rite of holding memorial services for the deceased, Japanese Buddhism has
continued to reflect on the past, and folding one’s hands in prayer to the past equated tolooking toward the future. That was the biggest awareness I achieved by translating The Good

Ancestor. I wonder if praying at a Buddhist altar each morning, which reminds us that we will

eventually go to the other side, might be a daily practice of a meditation of death type ofmindfulness with the deceased as a medium.

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For example, in Buddhism, directing our wishes to all beings is called a transfer of merit, andits closing recital text is indispensable for chanting a Buddhist sutra. The objects of our wishes
include human beings who live in the present and expand to all living things, past, present,
and future. Such a custom should bring long-term thought for seeing the world with an eternal

time axis to everyday life, which Roman calls Deep time, to our daily lives. The Japaneseclimate is such that the Buddhist belief goes around seeking to find spirituality in all things,
not only humankind but also the mountains, rivers, trees, and plants. Perhaps that has invitedus into a realm of Deep time beyond time and space without our realizing it.

In working on Roman’s book, I translated the word ancestor as Sosen that means forebearer
rather than Senzo, the literal Japanese term for ancestor which is limited to the family lineage.

The word Senzo is limited to people related by blood, although the ancestors the author
discusses are not limited to those with blood ties. We are the open entities that create thefuture. Without limiting ourselves to the diversity of beings who live in the now, we should
bring in stakeholders transcending time and space, from our ancestors to future generations.

From ancestor worship limited to the family lineage to worship for forebearer. I believe sucha shift will smooth the path for preventing Japanese Buddhism as ancestor worship frombecoming faith in one’s bloodlines and open the way for ties that exceed blood ties.

How can we become good ancestors?
How can we become good ancestors? To answer that question, I think the starting point toconsider is not to ponder the ways of our ancestors but to be aware of the blessings we areendowed with. We can see traces of countless individuals walking the paths we now walk andbecome aware of the history made through repeated trial and error.
It is by receiving blessings from countless entities whose ties make up the now that we exist.
Being aware of that means we are one of those nameless ancestors, a dot within the things
that happen, pass on, and leave blessings for others.
Despite the roles and responsibilities that seem to chase us daily, our days will not deviate

from the fact that we co-exist with countless others, regardless of the when or where. The here

and now do not belong only to us in the now. Is it not a simple human sense to learn that weare part of a series of related occurrences and live feeling companionship with thatconnection? I would like to suggest a stance that responds to Roman’s call to question how to
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be good ancestors in the Buddhist worldview of interdependent co-arising.

3.

Ambient Buddhism

A custom of ancestor worship extending our selves
Today’s times are called the Anthropocene, a geological term for the era based on significant
human impact on the earth’s geology. It is a concept that seeks restraint among humanity,
which substantially impacts the global environment. While it’s true that humanity greatly
impacts the natural environment, we can also see traces of self-recognition that humanity
controls the earth. Even a single life is full of unsolved mysteries, and we can hardly control

our own bodies. The initial Buddhist spirit had been to open up the idea of me to a horizonof us from a neutral perspective where the earth is considered a common asset, and nature,humans, and everything is a part of it.

Success, as lauded by capitalist society, is a bloating of the self that forever seeks unceasingmaterial proliferation and prosperity. And capital that is thus multiplied may be considered
private property that will be enjoyed and inherited by blood relatives who are an extension ofself that is closed only to family and does not circulate. However, I wonder if the self may havebeen more open and relaxed, based on interdependent co-arising, before the idea ofindividualism was introduced to Japan for modernization in Meiji Era. I imagine it had been
supported by daily habits such as folding our hands in prayer for ties transcending time andspace—our ancestors, forebearers, Gods, Buddha, and deities. Mindful customs connecting
countless interdependent co-arisings that create the self with higher beings have been anatural part of Japanese life and culture, reminding people of the open connections available
as a regular part of their lives.
We should now bring back and rebuild such interdependent co-arisings that we have shunned.
These are connections with our ancestors, the past, ties with the future yet to come, ourneighbors, other individuals, different species, and the planet Earth. No matter which part oftime and space we slice in whatever way, there is no denying that the self is a part of that.

Precepts refer to good habits
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Habits are ingrained in our daily physical behavior. There is nothing complicated about it;
cleaning, cooking, having tea with someone, and consuming seasonal items are examples oflife practices many can share. These lifestyle habits, which have essentially remained
unchanged since ancient times, are the things that have fostered mutual trust between
individuals and served as a foundation for maintaining genuine peace beyond confrontation.
In Buddhism, such life practices (habits) are called Precepts, and such practices conductedwith peers have been at the root of all types of Buddhist teachings, which are based on threecore teachings: Precepts, Meditation, and Wisdom. Precepts are commandments foracquiring good habits. Meditation stands for maintaining a calm mind, which we may call

mindfulness. Wisdom is for achieving enlightenment to see the self and the world accurately.
One spreads one’s roots through Precepts, nurtures the stems with Meditation, and bears fruitwith Wisdom. While strict precepts in a Monastic Buddhist way are said not to have fully takenroot in Japanese Buddhism, characterized by its breadth and tolerance, their habits havecontinued to be embraced.

Precepts are not for judging oneself or others and are not obligatory to protect in fear of
judgment. Phra Yuki Naradevo, who became a monk in Thailand, said, “We do not protect

Precepts. They protect us.” So, if we were to see Precepts as habits, it is easy to reflect onourselves and know that they protect us. Habits make human beings. Our behavior, the way

we combine words, our way of thinking—many of things we do regularly, we have acquired
through repetitions since childhood, as well as for protecting the mind and body.
Modern living environments have diversified from person to person. It is fine to handle life
practices on one’s own, and it is also fine to share experiences with others through exchange.
Is it not fair to say that everything begins by practicing good habits in various ways for various
situations so that each of us may maintain those good habits and live with peace of mind? It

is so obvious that the idea has been given little attention, but I feel that going through theordinary daily is the only way to become good ancestors.

A taste for Ambient Buddhism through pilgrimages
We have embraced habits with various rhythms. Daily routines, such as praying at a Buddhist
altar, monthly practices of speaking at village gatherings, seasonal traditions of visiting our
9ancestors’ graves at the end of the year, during the spring and autumn equinox, and the August
homecoming period are all a part of our lives. Rhythms with different wavelengths converge
as our lives change dramatically while maintaining harmony. There will be times, however,when our rhythm becomes irregular, weakens, or loses balance, and we lose sight of the whole
picture. That is when we have taken trips to escape from our daily lives and cherishedexperiences to immerse ourselves in the extraordinary—which, from a religious standpoint,
we call pilgrimages.
If we were to see the temples in towns and villages alongside our everyday living as training
venues for acquiring better habits, I think avenues for extraordinary experiences thatoccasionally shake them up and bring change to the overall rhythm of our lives are thepilgrimage paths and culture of pilgrimages the Japanese climate has subsumed.
Many pilgrimage routes have been developed in Japan since ancient times. Not limited to
expeditions from Mount Koya to Kumano, Ise Grand Shrine, or Shikoku, one can climb any
mountain, walk the paths our ancestors have walked, and stop to find traces of the prayers
they have offered. While many pilgrimage routes exist in the world, a particular appeal ofJapan is its safety for any individual who wishes to walk such a path. One can settle down,
listen carefully, and begin to hear the voices of the nameless.
Even in a metropolis such as Tokyo, one can climb Tokyo Tower, look down at the cityscape
below, and be surprised by the many shrines, temples, and cemeteries scattered throughout
the city. It reminds us that we are always alongside entities that transcend time and space.
The custom of remembering and feeling ties with things invisible to us had once been afundamental part of Japanese living. Buddhist worldviews had been ingrained in our lives, andpeople had lived with that without realizing it.
If ambient music, pioneered by the British composer Brian Eno, blends into its environment,

I wonder if we can’t call Japanese Buddhism Ambient Buddhism, or Buddhism that blends

into its surroundings. Ambient music is often translated into Japanese as environmental music.

However, as one who feels it should be translated as cultural music for its richer texture, I

think Japanese Buddhism might also be called Cultural Buddhism.

How can we become good ancestors for future generations born a hundred years from now?
The time that we dedicate ourselves to Ambient Buddhism and together deepen our questions
is when the winds of Buddha Dharma will surely blow.

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