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Masahiro Morioka
Book reviews and commentaries Shin'ichi Nakazawa - "This book contains a great possibility. ..." (Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper, 1996) >> Read more Ryuichiro Matsubara - "An example can be found in a recent book by Morioka Masahiro that tries to come to terms with Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) and the crimes this doomsday cult has committed. As a person who has shared the kind of experience Aum's young followers are going through, Morioka has no patience for the so-called religious experts who have been roundly thrashing this sect from the sidelines. To the charge that Aum is a devil bent on destroying civil society, he responds that when civil society is so obsessed with competition that nobody has time for pondering questions of life and death, it is bound to develop cracks through which groups like Aum step forth. (.....) Whether one subscribes to a religion or an agnostic or atheist, Morioka holds, philosophy is necessary for life. It is acquired by "thinking through with your own head and in your own words what meaning you, as an individual who will only live and die once, will attribute to the world and to your life over the course of your existence."" (Japan Echo, 1996, 23:2) >> Read more Book reviews also appeared in Asahi Simbun Newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper, Sankei Shimbun Newspaper, Kyodo Tsushin, etc.. Summary In 1995, members of the Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, launched a sarin nerve gas attack in crowded subways in Tokyo. 12 people were killed and more than 5,000 people were injured. At first, they were members of a small religious group seeking the "meaning of life" seriously. However, they began to consider our society as a dirty place, and planned to destruct the whole world and then reconstruct a clean one. After this tragic event, mass media began to criticize the madness and cruelty of Aum Shinrikyo. However, several researchers, including me, realized that this was a kind of pathology of the modern age, and that all of us share this pathology with the members of Aum Shinrikyo. The members of Aum Shinrikyo and I shared the same aspiration, that is, aspiration to get the real meaning of life. They believed in religion, and used advanced scientific technology as a tool for acquiring enlightenment. But I did not become a scientist, nor I did not believe in religion. Instead, I coined the words "life studies," in which we can seek the meaning of life, death, and nature without using religious language. This book was written just after the Aum incident, and published in 1996, a year after the incident. This book is regarded as one of the most important books on the Aum incident. This book has been supported by many young readers who are interested in the question of the meaning of life and spirituality inside and outside religious circles. When I entered the university, my major was physics, just like Aum's young researchers. I thought that the mystery of the universe and humans would be fully solved by physics and mathmatics. However, I realized that this idea was completely wrong. I was disappointed by science, and changed my major to philosophy. I became interested in religious approaches, but in the end, I found that I could not believe in religion. In Chapter 1, I described my inner journey from physics to religion, and made clear why I decided to follow the third way between science and religion. In Chapter 2 and 3, I pointed out some traps of a closed religious community by taking examples of Aum and the well-known Japanese singer, Yutaka Ozaki. In Chapter 4, I propesed a new way of seeing spirituality and the meaning of life without using religious language. This is the most loved book I have ever published. This book is at the top of the popularity list being conducted on our Japanese website. I believe this book is extremely interesting to readers around the world who are worried about the problem of religion and the meaning of life. This book can be read as an introduction to my later book, Painless Civilization, 2003. Table of Contents and Translation Preface Chapter 1 How to Live in a Post-religious Age Chapter 2 What is Mysterious Experience Chapter 3 Trap of Healing and Salvation Chapter 4 Courage for Me to be Myself Postscript * Samples of the contents will be uploaded. Translation to other languages
(c) 1999- International Network for Life Studies >> Back to Home
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10,000 copies have been sold. Many book reviews and commentaries appeared.