Zen Dialogues

Reflections from Japan's Buddhist Traditions

Is it bad to have a cremation ceremony without chanting sutras?

One of my relatives was the vice president of an internationally renowned company. He was so rich that he was super rich, had both his home and villa in a super high-class residential area, and had a very wide circle of friendships. He passed away the other day due to a chronic illness. They...

4 responses

I worry about what I'm told & I hate myself

The other day, I was talking with friends from the university I attended until I was in second grade, and one of them made a fool of me about the occupation I would work for next year. Specifically ・Will I get that job even though I'm inexperienced and not good at that field? ・Hiring an...

4 responses

What is one of the six haramitsu, “humiliation”?

　I'm always indebted to you. What kind of act is an act of humiliation? According to dictionaries and Buddhist scriptures, There is a saying “to endure even when things are hard.” Even if this is dangerous, for example, so-called irregularity An act that could lead to a situation, sudden...

4 responses

The need to go to college, the pain of studying for entrance exams.

I'm in my second year of high school. Since I was little, my parents' fights and bad talk, hospitalization and rehabilitation due to an accident, and tinnitus due to depression and the sequelae of deafness have overlapped, and I have a feeling that “I have lived without time to rest my mind.” It...

4 responses

Play fishing or clam digging.

It is natural for people who do clam digging or fishing for a living to kill, but there is a sense of guilt about what they do for fun. Taking other lives in order to maintain one's life is a matter of the world. However, even though people involved in the primary industry are killing people...

4 responses

About a passage from “Shoho Genzo Zuibunki”

I was very moved by my meditation at Eiheiji Temple, and I was also given an opportunity to aim in a good direction, albeit slightly, when it came to stumbling every day. I wanted to know more about Buddhism and the Soto sect, so after returning home, I started zazen in my hometown and also...

4 responses

To my father who passed away before I was born

My father passed away from cancer 3 months before I was born. She was a very hard worker, and although she married her mother in her late 30s, she passed away at age 40. Since I was born, I grew up receiving a lot of love from my mother, grandparents, and relatives, so there was no way I...

4 responses

I don't have any friends

I want a friend I can talk to without hesitation. There are many people around me who seem like friends that I usually talk to and eat with, but I really don't have anyone around me that I enjoy spending time with. I don't have a good taste with most people, so I can't keep up with the...

4 responses

About debts from acquaintances

I'm worried about my parents' debts. My parents ran the company, I got stuck a few years ago, and my parents got into debt from various financial institutions, relatives, and acquaintances. Eventually the company went bankrupt. My father also passed away. It seems that the mother left...

4 responses

I'm dying to meet my husband

I've posted the same content several times I celebrated my husband's 3rd anniversary last year The feeling that I want to meet my husband is increasing more and there is nothing I can do I spend my time crying every day Why did you leave me alone in front of the portrait? Why didn't you...

4 responses

How to do memorial services for ancestors

Hello. I have a question about how to do memorial services for my ancestors. My paternal ancestors made money in dirty ways that people around them were envied Maternal ancestors were also pretty sloppy of the opposite sex (not at the level of being slightly sloppy, but at a level where...

4 responses

How to recover from a love affair with a childhood friend

　This is the student who made the call in question. Please lend us your wisdom. I have had a romantic relationship with my childhood friend over the past few years, with whom I have been together for close to 15 years. We both fell in love with each other and were so dependent on each other...

4 responses

I can't feel safe talking to my husband

I'm worried about my relationship with my husband. Before I got married, I thought she was a kind and safe person, but little by little after I became pregnant, my feelings of “not being safe” increased. For example, even if I say “I didn't like it” or “I was sad,” people sometimes say “I...

5 responses

About raising children in this society

I have 5 and 2 year old toddlers. It's been about 2 months since I recently returned to work, and during those 2 months, my children caught colds frequently and I was often absent from work. There is a thing, but it's hard to work while continuing to apologize. My friends are all struggling with...

5 responses

How can I get rid of the pain of flashbacks?　

　Now that I've learned the teachings of Buddhism, I think I can understand the importance of living in the present in my head. However, at an unexpected moment in everyday life, memories that you are about to forget come back to life in flashbacks and are suddenly dragged into the past....

4 responses

About religious solicitations

About 4 months ago, I was invited to join an emerging religion by a colleague at work. Meanwhile, they repeatedly refused to go to religious institutions, and even though they told them they weren't interested, they invited me over and over again. My ancestors' causal relationships have an...

4 responses

I'm afraid of happiness. I'm tired of life

Am I just a person who can't be happy anymore? I'm a 37 year old woman. I'm still in my 30s, but my father died suddenly, and my mother died by suicide. At this point, I think a normal person would be unhappy at the level where they would kill themselves, but when something good always happens...

4 responses

“Feeling emotions” and “not appreciating things”

Your questions have been answered before, and thank you very much for that section. As I study the teachings of Buddhism on a daily basis at hasunoha, there are points where I don't know what to think about, so let me ask you a question. I'm currently going to a psychiatrist due to depressive...

4 responses

The meaning of life

Please tell me the meaning of life! I'm not thinking about suicide or cutting my list, but I don't really understand the meaning of being alive. In 100 years, most of the people alive today will surely be dead. Certainly, there are sad things and fun things when you're alive. However, in this...

4 responses

I haven't been able to grow anything I want to commit suicide

My teens and twenties haven't put much effort into anything. Even if I live like this, I can't see any hope, and it seems that Buddha attained enlightenment in 34th place, but in my case, it doesn't seem like it will last that long. I'm now an empty, empty old man. I've heard over and over...

4 responses

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