Become a specimen (2)

Last time, in “Becoming a Specimen,” we talked about organ transplantation, and the answers were divided between supporters and opponents. After reading the book you recommended, I decided to take a while to share my opinions and intentions again...
By the way, before that, could you tell me a little bit about it? I understand that the Otani faction is in the position of “opposing organ transplantation.” You're opposed to “transplanting” an “organ,” so what about “blood donation” and “blood transfusion” in terms of Buddhism? A “blood transfusion” is like a “simplified version of a transplant.” A “blood transfusion” is also like receiving kindness from a living person, and if you don't get a “blood transfusion,” there is a possibility that you will die. There are also patients who “refuse blood transfusions” for religious reasons. In that case, it is necessary to discuss and explain what kind of treatment to take when a “blood transfusion” is required, and this is a material file called “Jehovah's Witnesses.” In the Buddhist world, if there are opinions for and against organ transplantation, do some people want to “refuse blood transfusions”? You can also choose a method called “autologous blood sampling,” where you collect your own blood for transfusion in advance in preparation for surgery, etc., but in the event of an emergency, there are cases where the only method is to “transfuse” someone else's blood. If there were people who “refused blood transfusions,” I wonder what they would do... Also, “blood donation” is made up of the kindness of everyone who is alive, but “blood donation” itself is in a critical situation due to a decrease in the number of young people and an increase in the number of elderly people. Furthermore, if you have a specific blood type, register at a blood center and feel free to do so! Instead, there are also people who are called to “donate blood” when necessary in order to have their blood drawn for that blood type. It's a bit confusing, but based on that, I wanted you to explain it to me, so I decided to ask the question again. I look forward to hearing from you.

5 Zen Responses

There is someone suffering right in front of you, what should you do?

I was also given an answer during an organ transplant. Speaking of Buddhism, I don't think I can give an accurate answer because I haven't learned it as an academic discipline, but I'll answer it as a person.

Whether it's a blood transfusion or an organ transplant, if your child is saved by it, I think many people will provide it unconditionally. It's kind of sad that you won't be able to do that when it comes to others. Don't you think it's painful to have someone suffering right in front of you and you can't even have a blood transfusion?

I think it's okay to do something that benefits people, if the conditions are in place to do it.
That may not be the answer.

There were no organ transplants or blood transfusions during the time when the Buddha was there, so I don't think this is correct in terms of Buddhism.
For me, I place importance on the words said by Honen Shonin, the founder of the Jodo sect.
“Live so you can recite Nembutsu”
Honen Shonin said this.
After you die (in the Jodo sect), you'll be born in the Pure Land, so it doesn't matter what you do with your body after that.
Also, if organ transplantation or blood donation does not interfere with chanting Nembutsu while alive, it is OK to perform it. Furthermore, I would be happy if those who have been transplanted will be able to recite Nembutsu.
However, if you are unable to recite Nembutsu due to an organ transplant or blood donation, it is better not to perform it.
There are various opinions depending on denominations and individuals. Please guide your own decisions by thinking slowly.

Not that, but a more fundamentally Buddhist feeling

I've never heard of Buddhists refusing blood transfusions. They also had blood transfusions in Tezuka Osamu's “Buddha” (laughs), but I'm sure people from the relevant denomination will answer about blood transfusions...

As a major premise, Buddhism is a religion that is relatively flexible, on a case-by-case basis.
Buddhism is called “medicine for the sick” (obyo yoyaku). Hospitals also prescribe drugs to lower blood pressure to people with high blood pressure, and drugs to raise blood pressure to people with low blood pressure. Raising and lowering blood pressure... is the exact opposite in itself. But it's not a contradiction. This is because the one core of “maintaining a healthy mind and body” runs through it.
Buddhism sees the other person's condition in this way and sometimes says the exact opposite.

Well, I'm a scrupulous person when it comes to donating (not a denier). My husband, who is a parishioner in my house, offered a body donation. That husband's daughter was crying in tatters at that funeral. “The remains haven't been returned in years, and I don't feel like offering a memorial service for my father. Where should I go to worship? No matter what I do, I don't think I'm connected to my father, and it's so painful that it can't be helped. He said, “I asked you to stop it like that...”

It's not limited to body donations, but when I'm a monk, I often witness “self-righteousness that overcomes them by thinking it's good.”
But that depends on the person, and it also depends on the circumstances around you, and “it's not about whether body donation or blood donation itself is good or bad,” right? Yes, “it changes depending on that person or situation.” This is called “everything is empty” (all at once) in Buddhism.

In terms of Buddhism, both body donation and blood donation are empty (empty). In other words, body donation or blood donation itself is not meaningful. It means that meaning for better or worse occurs depending on the circumstances around them and the mind and actions of each person.
Therefore, you should make decisions in your own environment and make adjustments by communicating with various people. Somehow, the important thing is not a theory of principles, but caring for people within reach.

In your case, you are trying to guarantee the meaning of your existence by donating a body, so I think it may be important whether or not the body is donated is correct.
In Buddhist terms, this is not a way to find a way to salvation. What does that mean? Please take a look at Hasunoha for a while. Both Kunimoto and Yoshimushi often explain this very well on a daily basis.

What is the essence of the problem -- beyond “binary opposition/correctness” and standing at a loss

Organ transplants, specimens, blood transfusions, etc... well, there is a dependency on “correctness” in the background of simply falling into the dualism of “for” or “against” every issue.

What the monk wants to preach is not “what is right,” but “it is in dependence on correctness that there is hesitation, and there is no salvation there.”

And the monks' individual responses are not sectarian opinions. Of course, there is an official denomination opinion, and this is not the case if the answer is based on that.

So, when it comes to whether the Otani faction opposes organ transplantation as a sect, it's not that simple. I think what the Otani faction opposes is “to stand in a position where people think this is correct and can be measured on the issue of life and death.” Please enjoy the nuances in that area by referring to the following sectarian statements, etc.

“Statement on the House of Representatives Passing the Organ Transplantation Bill · Views on the First Brain-Dead Organ Transplantation
http://www.relnet.co.jp/relnet/brief/r21-6.htm

Chief Minister of State's comments on movements related to the “Organ Transplantation Law Amendment”
http://www.higashihonganji.or.jp/news/declaration/390/

Also, in the books introduced earlier, Professor Ogawa wrote, for example, about living-donor liver transplantation between mother and child, “should it not be tolerated,” and when it comes to what they are concerned about, it creates dependency and coercion on “correctness” that “parents should do something wrong.”

Now, the desire to save lives that can be saved cannot be denied. However, it is just a human heart (= numanism: love for humanity), and it is unreasonable to seek a basis for affirming that human heart in Buddhism, as Master Miyake said. However, it is Daijishi who explains that you want some basis for your decisions, and that is where the essence of your problem lies.

What Buddhism makes clear is not “this is correct,” but “the way I am lost in search of correctness.” So you can feel safe and get lost while being illuminated by Buddhism.

What humans think of as “correctness” has limitations such as creating “something that is not right.” Buddhism is not a teaching that makes me the right person; it is a teaching that illuminates the dangers of trying to hold one's own righteousness forever.

It's a bit complicated when brain death tests are involved

Blood transfusions do not require brain death tests, so I don't think there is a problem.

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