Zen Dialogues

Reflections from Japan's Buddhist Traditions

My adult daughter went on to college

My daughter (23) said she would like to go to a vocational school next spring. My daughter didn't match the vocational school she went to when she was 18 and dropped out of school after half a year. After that, I lost my confidence, became unwell and had a mood disorder, and I was hospitalized...

4 responses

My current situation

I'm currently depressed, and I was working, but I quit. When I think about the economy, I'll have to work again soon, but I plan to relax until I get unemployment insurance. However, when I do housework, I don't have anything else to do, and I often fall asleep, watch TV, and get lazy, so I...

4 responses

Intellectually and mentally disabled people and Buddhism

I was writing a question about physically weak people and becoming a monk the other day, and I suddenly thought, What is the position of people with severe intellectual disabilities in Buddhism? I can understand that people with severe mental or intellectual disabilities cannot be employed as...

4 responses

Will I go to hell when I die?

I have depression, and I'm a person who doesn't know when to do it because I want to die. But I feel like I want to be alive, but I don't want to live. There are things I quickly wonder about in my everyday life. It was said, “If you commit suicide, you'll go to hell.” If that's really the...

4 responses

Criticism of “funeral Buddhism”

Hello. This is a question about criticism of “funeral Buddhism.” Sometimes on the internet, etc., “Buddha denied having a funeral or making a tomb. So Japanese Buddhism is far from the original Buddhism.” I see comments such as, but did the Buddha really deny making funerals and graves? I...

4 responses

I'm not good at remembering faces

I'm not good at remembering people's faces and names. My name didn't come up all of a sudden during this time either, and I was very worried later that it was disrespectful to the other person. There are times when I made mistakes due to assumptions. I desperately apologized. I don't...

4 responses

I was told that my father didn't attain Buddhism

The other day, I was examined by a Chinese medicine doctor due to an unwell condition. Then, I was told that you possessed something, and when I told them that my father had passed away three months ago, I was told that my father was obsessed with you and wouldn't leave. Then, the Chinese...

6 responses

Life plan with the guy who finished the temple ascetic training

I've asked this question before. Thank you very much for that section. Currently in his mid-twenties, he has been in a relationship since college and came out after 3 years of training. He was born in a temple and has been training for 3 years to qualify to work under his father. However, I...

4 responses

It's hard not knowing why they were born

I'm in my first year of high school, right? My mom got divorced and I'm a single mother, and my family is poor, so I can't put up with it or take on the challenge I want to do. I can't say that the study environment is good either. I want to go on to college, but the environment is such that even...

4 responses

are you happy?

Is the monk happy?

4 responses

Should I run for office?

I have a serious illness and I'm in a wheelchair. From the city councilor, whom I have always been close to, “Please run for office!” I've been invited. ▪ I don't pay the deposit, and the city council pays for it ▪ Since it's a by-election, other city councilors will support me in my place ▪...

4 responses

Where do I get my feelings for my grandmother

I don't really understand the feelings I have for my paternal grandmother who lives with me. When I was young, my house was a farmhouse, but my parents went out to work, so my grandmother took care of me when nursery school and school were closed. I remember that it was fun back then, such as...

4 responses

It makes life seem like a digestive game

I'm a 30 year old woman. There are no major inconveniences in particular, but there is no such fun either. I don't have many friends, and I've never had a boyfriend. I changed my job to a new job in February of this year, but this was a failure. I wish I hadn't quit. I've been able to work...

4 responses

About the circumstances that led to the idea of suicide

Hello. Continuing from the previous question, I would like to write about the circumstances that led to my suicide. I'm now an 18 year old high school student. When I looked back on my life for 18 years since I was born, nothing good happened. Always unhappy. When I was in elementary school,...

4 responses

What is the goal if we can deal with death

Since I was little, I have taken a negative view that life is finite, and I have become obsessed with living. I feel that following the teachings of Buddhism stabilizes this kind of mind. However, on the other hand, it also makes me think “it's futile to have no choice but to accept...

4 responses

Presence at work

I work as a part-time cook at a nursery school. I'm studying to get my chef's license. You are currently ineligible. It's so empty because of the nursery teacher's attitude towards me (it's as if I don't exist nearby, I can't help but say it to this person). I will go out of my way to communicate...

4 responses

I don't have the confidence to live...

I'm a second-year high school student attending a correspondence high school. There are so many social nonconformists that I don't want to live anymore. However, I have absolutely no intention of committing suicide. But I want to die, and I wish I could die. It always makes me...

4 responses

I want to become a monk, but I want to aim for another job

I am a person who has recently been blessed with a blessed law and is thinking about becoming a monk. Living in Buddhism is not only good for me, but I think spreading it to the world has great significance. Reading the teachings, I was deeply moved that this is a teaching that should be spread....

4 responses

Why do you think that?

I don't have a mother. So grandma is doing the housework for me. I know very well that doing housework is difficult. That's why I have to help them. But even if Grandma helps, she says “don't help me” and “don't do anything” when there's even the slightest thing she doesn't...

4 responses

How to deal with multiple denominations

This is my first time asking a question. It's about mantras and sutras from different denominations. My father's parents' house was of the Shingon sect, and my mother's parents' house was of the Yutsunenbutsu sect. My paternal grandfather, who cared about me when I was very weak when I was...

5 responses

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