現代日本の医療文化と仏教文化

概要

論文の詳細を見る
People live, get old, and get ill in the course of their lives and then die in the end. Medicine takes care of people who are suffering from illness and helps them prolong their lives. Religion or Buddhism has a long history of taking care of people's fear against aging, illness, and death. Both parties have been　taking care of the same thing but still there is no cooperation between them in Japan. Many Japanese medical people today regard Buddhism as something that comes after death, but aging, illness and death are what both medicine and Buddhism take the most concern about. Since modern medical treatments in Japan are being done without Buddhism, medical people, patients and their families do not know how to cope with aging, illness and death when problems arise. Medicine being practiced with the cooperation of Buddhism is not enough in order to solve problems. It would be better if medicine as a scientific rationaIism is practiced where a concrete Buddhist cultural foundation exists. When medicine fulfills its aims with a Buddhist foundation, every one of the patients wiIl live in peace and content until the last day of his/her life thinking that he/she is happy to have been born as a human being. At the same time both medical people and Buddhists who take care of suffering patients will learn a lot from the patients and their satisfaction with the work will be improved.
2012-03-01