enoshima buddha 江ノ島の仏 (kamakura, japan)

Posted by timothy sullivan (Tokyo, Japan) on 26 December 2008 in Lifestyle & Culture.

(continued from the previous day)

So it becomes rather interesting for me to see how ordinary people address the current global financial crisis, and how they push forth with their lives. While it would seem that the meltdown of sections of the American economy has triggered a worldwide depression, it seems to me that common people seem relatively unfazed. Sure, we all pinch our respective currencies.

But at the end of this year I have noticed something rather intriguing: charitable giving is up. And not just because it's at the end of the year, in my opinion. It seems that many people have finally realized that capitalistic selfishness is poison to our humanity; that unselfish acts of giving and supporting the weak and the frail in our societies is not merely essential- -it is our duty. And in this state of pre-enlightenment we seek to pitch in.

Some turn to religion at the end of the year. A week before the New Year, temple priests in Japan go out each night, walking down the quiet streets and clapping wooden blocks at paced intervals- -ostensibly to ward off evil spirits (in much the same way as the small trays of salt left to the corners of homes are meant to do). But the quiet sound compels us to consider something else: individually we are small, and part of something much much bigger; collectively we have the ability to reroute human destiny.

(photo taken inside the cave within Enoshima Island in Kamakura)

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