UU Buddhist Fellowship of Tampa Bay
A Meditation and Dharma Study Group

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Buddhist Rites for the Unborn Dead in America "Water Baby" Ceremonies to Relieve the Suffering of Parents and Families By True Dharma Frank M. Tedesco As Buddhism in America matures it will naturally enter into all aspects of people's lives, even the most sensitive and intimate. Matters between parents and children in birth, aging, sickness and death require the wisdom of buddhadharma because they are the fields of much attachment, deep and explosive emotions and consequent suffering. When parents lose a child, whether the child is young, or grown-up, or even dies before birth in miscarriage or abortion, they often suffer deep grief that may last for years, even decades, because they have lost part of themselves with the child. Some assert the unfortunate parents "inevitably" suffer remorse albeit suppressed. This prolonged sadness is especially true for mothers who have borne a child or children in their own bodies. Some say they never get over the loss. A son or daughter who has chosen a mother's womb or has been karmically thrust there for whatever reasons is a member of the parents' family, even if the child is known only to the mother herself. The child may have been given a name or perhaps died before being named. These nebulous beings (or streams of consciousness), who have been fortunate to have finally arrived at human conception in the wheel of life, are worthy of our generous prayers and offerings just as any beloved child born alive into a happy family. They have reached the rare and precious realm of human birth in their spiritual evolution and are capable of learning and practicing the dharma and achieving liberation from suffering. They, too, are potential buddhas who can teach others to awaken and realize buddhahood for the sake of all beings. Americans who study Mahayana Buddhism and especially Zen Buddhism are very attracted to this ideal of unconditional, universal love and many have found memorial services for their children lost during pregnancy especially comforting. According to UUBF member and Buddhist scholar Dr. Jeff Wilson, author of Mourning the Unborn Dead, at least a dozen American convert Zen centers spanning the United States have frequently conducted Buddhist ceremo-nies for babies lost during pregnancy. At least four centers conducted a single ceremony as of early 2008. It is my guess that many more dharma centers would offer ceremonies for un-born children if they were commonly known. This particular rite of mourning the unborn dead that follows the Japanese mizuko kuyo form of ritual--has gradually come to the United States over the past four decades according to Dr. Wilson. It was introduced into this country through the practices observed in immigrant Japanese-American temples and American Buddhist interest in the rituals as taught by their foreign teachers and observa-tions during travels in Japan. As abortions in particular have become more frequent with America's increasing population and the liber-alizing of sexual behavior, coupled with the decriminalization of abortion with the Roe de-cision, parents' need for spiritual consolation for their lost babies has risen whether they be Buddhist, secular agnostics or Christian. Mizuko kuyo or "water baby/child offering" seems to appeal to both sides of the culture war over abortion since the ritual can be modi-fied and interpreted with emphasis either on the pain and loss of the baby's life itself or on the suffering of the mother or parents without con-cern for the fetus. The rite itself doesn't require belief in a Buddhist world view or that the in-fant spirits are angry with the mother as in Ja-pan or Korea but rather focuses on remember-ing and/or ameliorating the relationship be-tween the parents and the child. Performing the ritual with its hand-made bib for the bodhi-sattva Jizo, toy offerings to the lost child or children, and prayers and meditation, allows the bereaved parents and friends to relieve pent-up sadness and begin to achieve some degree of emotional resolution or closure with their feel-ings for the lost loved one(s). Jeff notes that about twelve to fifteen participants is the nor-mal attendance level at centers in general ac-cording to his experience, although a single person may request a private rite. As in Korea and Japan, the bodhisattva most closely associated with the dead and lost preg-nancies is Kshitigarbha, Jijang Bosal in Korean or Jizo Bosatsu in Japanese. American Bud-dhists have become most familiar with the Japanese form of Jizo. All varieties of Jizo statues are found in Japan and American Bud-dhists have appropriated or adapted these stat-ues for their own use in Zen centers and Buddhist gardens. They are famously found with small red bibs tied around their necks as offer-ings of protection for the lost babies. In place of a Buddha statue or Avalokitesvara (Kwanseum in Korean, Kannon in Japanese), cute Jizo figures have a special role, almost like the saints in popular Catholicism, for protecting travelers, children and women who are having problems. Jizo carries a bright jewel to illuminate the darkness of fears in hell and a pilgrim's staff with six rings to warn animals and evil doers to avoid mutual harm of offence and defense. His original name in Sanskrit means "earth store or earth womb" signifying the storehouse of mother nature from which we are born and where we descend when we are buried or de-scend into various hells underground because of our karmic transgressions. At Great Vow Monastery in Klatskanie, Oregon, where Wilson attended the ceremony in 2006 led by the abbess Jan Chozen Bays, the Jizo-inspired water baby ceremony lasted three and a half hours. This time included a twenty-five minute explanation of the history and cul-tural context of the ceremony in Japan, the phi-losophical understanding of causes and conditions in Buddhism, its differences with Western thought, and the passing around of many different pictures of Jizo, so that participants of dif-ferent ages and needs could become more personally involved with the healing mission of Jizo. Chozen instructed participants to make "tokens of remembrance" for the person being honored and to write their name, age, cause of death and a message to them. After sewing or creating these tokens in silence for the most part and sinking into their feelings about the departed, participants walked solemnly to the Jizo garden outside where they chanted in English at an outdoors altar and dedicated merit to the deceased. Each participant would then find a Jizo statue (or Virgin Mary statue) in the woods to dress and give offerings or bring their own to set up alone in solitary worship. All would gather again after their private worship, and listen to a concluding teaching from the abbess, bow to each other, and return indoors to the monastery for tea and brownies. Unlike the practice in many temples in Asia, no fee or do-nation was required by the monastery or the abbess. According to Wilson, Americans attracted to Buddhism for the most part do not believe in malevolent spirits or ghosts as in Asia. They do not fear the dead. Death is not considered polluting in any way. Most do not believe that abortion is a violation of Buddhist morality or precepts but a woman's right to make a difficult decision for herself in a non-judgmental way. Feminist thought strongly influences how Americans "do Buddhism" and many women clergy strongly support women's power over their own bodies and lives. Unlike their male counterparts in the traditional East, according to Wilson, European and American Buddhist clergy do not "shame" women into submissiveness and second-class stature. Water baby rituals American-style are designed to assist liberated women in dealing more adequately with their lost pregnancies losses and go on to live emotionally freer lives in the fu-ture, thanks to Jizo Bodhisattva and the American Buddhist clergy who wisely use him to as-suage the pain of the bereaved and guilt-ridden. I recommend readers take a look at Jeff Wilson's book if they are interested in exploring how Americanized water baby rites may be able to bridge the divide between pro-life and pro-choice factions in our fragmented society. There are many facts and in-depth discussions of the abortion issue in the tome which will help clarify what all the angry noise is about, contextualized in a description of the Japanese- American Buddhist world and American Zen Buddhist converts' permutations. The book is written for historians and theoreticians of American religious life. It is not easy reading for non-academicians. The book does not ex-plore how non-Japanese ethnic Buddhists han-dle the unborn dead and abortion, nor how con-verts to other traditions like the Tibetan, Taiwanese, Korean or Theravada variants approach fetal life and death. There are centuries of historical experience and subtle wisdom yet to imbibe. Jeff Wilson is to be commended for setting a high standard of quality and compre-hensiveness in his study of a more popular American Buddhist sectarian development. Deep bows to Jeff and those grappling with the loss of children who have not seen the light of day. And the millions of unborn "baby buddha" water babies, too. Reading Bays, Jan Chozen Jizo Bodhisattva: Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice, Boston: Tuttle, 2001. Keown, Damien, ed. Buddhism and Abortion, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. LaFleur, William R. Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. McGivern, Patricia S. Angel Babies: Messages from Miscarried and Other Lost Ba-bies, New York: iUniverse, 2008. Tedesco, Frank Abortion in Korea in D. Keown, ed. Buddhism and Abortion op.cit. Wilson, Jeff. Mourning the Unborn Dead: A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Tuesday night Meditation and Dharma Study Group (Temporarily suspended while Frank is teaching at USF in Tampa) You may contact Frank for information about UUBF activities at UUC.
More on Frank's Blog at True Dharma International.	Frank wrote of the Perils of Buddhist Chaplaincy.
Learn about the Maitreya Project. Includes a 56 min. Radio Interview about the Heart Shrine Relic Tour at UUC.	Frank wrote 'The Cries of the World - Did Terri have a Mind Stream or Not?', an article about Terri Schiavo.