October–December 2007, Volume 34
Features
Buddhism and Bioethics
Where Bioethics Stands in Relation to Advances in the Life Sciences
by Katsumasa Imai
The role religion is expected to play is providing basic principles that lead people to true happiness and giving medicine and other sciences guidance on the direction in which they should go.
A Bioethics Question for Buddhists: When Does Human Life Begin?
by Masao Fujii
The lack of universal principles of bioethics means that research on related issues must be transparent and comprehensive, and include the viewpoints of fields other than medicine.
Religion and Bioethics: A Chapter in Their Shared History
by William R. LaFleur
Visiting graves in America, although it did not include some of the Buddhist and Confucian components that are part of haka-mairi in Japan, appears to have been fairly common until sometime after World War II.
Transcending a Bioethics of Buddhist Compassion
by Susumu Shimazono
Practicing compassion is not as simple as it may seem. It is not an unlimited good and may cause serious harm or loss to the person trying to demonstrate it.
One Buddhist View of Bioethics
by Carl Becker
The Buddhist critique of the Western-style multinational medical and pharmaceutical industry is that it is less the product of compassion than of the money-making attachment of its purveyors.
Religionists and Care for the Terminally Ill
by Yoshiharu Tomatsu
Since doctors today have such badly crowded schedules, calls are growing for people of religion and specially trained professionals to undertake the spiritual care of patients facing imminent death.
Buddhism and Palliative Care in Japan
by Masahiro Tanaka
The nation’s hospitals are sorely lacking in spiritual-care workers who can help ease the pain of patients facing imminent death.
Building Bridges for the Promotion of Life, Justice, and Peace
by Juan Masia
A Roman Catholic priest describes the basic importance of cooperation among different fields of science, philosophy, and religion for achieving the ultimate benefit for humanity.
Rissho Kosei-kai’s Statement on the Proposed Revision of the Organ Transplant Law
Reflections
The Power to Live
by Nichiko Niwano
With the understanding that we are granted life by the life of the Buddha, we cannot help but feel moved and joyful at each of the teachings.
Achieving Spiritual Peace
by Nikkyo Niwano
Essays
Gross National Happiness and Buddhism
by Dasho Karma Ura
This article presents briefly the relationship between Buddhism, Gross National Happiness (GNH), and the economy. GNH is not exclusively an aspect of Buddhism. However, in this article, which was written especially for Dharma World, the links between GNH and Buddhist understanding of reality are explored. Nonetheless, it must be understood that because of the wide applications of GNH, it can also be discussed in a completely secular context such as health, politics, the economy, education, the environment, communications, and technology. GNH’s relevance is, in fact, mostly in practical public policy fields.
Founders Nikkyo Niwano and Chiara Lubich: An Interreligious Dialogue for Peace
by Donald W. Mitchell
The encounter between two spiritual giants of the modern era has led to lasting cooperation of the most meaningful kind in ways that benefit all of humanity. This essay is based on an address delivered by the author at a symposium held by Religions for Peace and Rissho Kosei-kai of New York at the Japan Society in New York to commemorate the centennial of the birth of the late founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, on December 14, 2006.
Self-Reliance and Liberation from Poverty
by Dhammananda Bhikkhuni
Women are independent and must be responsible for their own spiritual development. This message is supreme, not only in the context of Buddhism, but also in the history of world religions.
“The Flower Opens in the Sheer Drop”
by Notto R. Thelle
One could call Keiji Nishitani (1900-1990), one of Japan’s leading philosophers, a Socratic Buddhist, one who sought answers and got other people to see by means of the questions he put to them.
