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Asian Buddhism

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Modern contexts have posed challenges to the world religions because they call for religions to adapts to shifting contexts while also maintaining continuity. Indeed, Buddhism serves as an important example about how adaptive religions have become in order to remain culturally relevant and meaningful during the twenty-first century. Asian Buddhism is often associated with specific national and ethnic groups, which often limns it as wholly separate from the West both linguistically as well as politically. Although the cultural and ethnic aspects of Buddhism have remained significant, the ability of Buddhism to speak to speak as a monolith is vital in its modern representation, influence, and legitimacy in the political and social arenas of …show more content…

The logic behind each set of moral codes have been deployed to argue for as well as against the "permissibility of abortion" through the historical as well as textual corpus of Buddhist principles (Hughes 185). Buddhist principles are thus vital for Buddhist ethicists who argue against the practice of abortion according to Buddhist mores. Indeed, one of the top five guiding principles in Buddhists is not to kill another human being, and some ethnic Buddhists view abortion as the intention killing of a human life. They invoke the syncretic belief that the "transmigration of consciousness occurs at conception, and therefore all abortion incurs the karmic burden of killing" despite the fact that prior to modern medicine developing in the West and Buddhist countries Buddhists relied on scientifically inaccurate ideas about when life began (185). Buddhism thus lacks canonical currency and relevant precepts to the issue of abortion from an ethical as well as scientific point of …show more content…

Indeed, Buddhist ethics have played a formative role in configuring these views, and the Japanese have grafted religious ideas into the discussion regarding abortion despite the fact that many decry the "commercialization of abortion" which has fetishized "the fetus as an omnipresent menace" (Harrison 98). More interestingly, abortion did not become a politically divisive issue in Japan and other Buddhist Asian countries in the same way that it did in the West as a result of social pragmatism (LaFleur). The practice of Mizuklo Kuzo, or memorial services given to aborted fetuses, underscores these idiosyncrasies. Ultimately, abortion has not polarized modern Japan, and Japanese Buddhists have articulated a religious view of abortion that embraces the termination of a fetus even though Buddhist epistemologies are saturated with the notion that killing is inherently wrong (1). As such, Buddhism, despite its heterogeneity, has emerged as the only major religion that articulates an enlightened, pragmatic, and sensible view of

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