ABSTRACT
DAIBUTSU: (pronounced die-boo-tsoo) Japanese for the Great Buddha. DAZAI SHUNDAI (1680-1747): A Japanese Confucian scholar during the Tokugawa Shogunate, and disciple of Ogyū Sorai, Dazai believed there had never been any sign of ethical awareness in the country until Confucianism had been introduced. He developed his philosophy from a naturalistic point of view. The orthodox Chinese interpretation of the love poems in the Book of Poetry had been to change them into moral and political lessons. Dazai opposed this interpretation, and, to drive his point home, declared: “I would rather be an acrobat than a moralist.” Shintoism, he believed, was primitive paganism. DEATH: (Indo-European base *dheu-, to become senseless)
In the west, technologies are currently the most conspicuous feature accompanying death. Kidney machines, pancreas machines, blood transfusions and monitoring devices of various kinds populate the hospitals. Their value in prolonging life is firmly established. Yet, while they are part of the process, they should not be allowed to become the whole. Death, the death of the individual, is natural, not artificial. So, in eastern modes of thinking, these artificial means of life-support should be kept in proper perspective, as servant, not master. The medical technician should not think he has cheated death, merely because he has postponed it for a while. When death does arrive, for the individual, even for the one who has been kept alive for a while longer, the fact of death must be faced honestly. Dying can be done well or badly. Death can be allowed to be natural, or it can be made into a violent confrontation. Dying well ought not to be made impossible by the mechanical rush to prolong life. One important feature of life is its quality. Death should be a quality, too, a good rather than evil one.
