Contest seeks to demystify Buddhist monks, nuns

TOKYO —

Japanese monks competed based on their inner beauty at a funeral expo to compete in the second annual “Most Handsome Monk Contest” on Monday.

Only in Japan. Brilliant and depressing at the same time.

"The distance between Buddhism and people have widened. For example, they would only meet monks during funerals or a memorial service. If that chasm were to remain, the purpose of Buddhism, which is something that should affect our daily lives, will become something more and more distant," said Hayashi.

He's got a point. I used to think it was cool that many Japanese people don't let religion run their daily lives, but nowadays, I'm thinking that's what they need a little more of in this day and age of desensitization, mixed priorities, and lack of human to human interaction.

“The distance between Buddhism and people have widened.

I'm going to take a wild guess that one reason is that a good deal of people here have become disillusioned with the extortionate and continuing "fees" expected to be paid for funeral services, memorials and so on. It has been an eye-opener seeing how much the funerals and various Buddhist services for my parents-in-law have cost in the past few years.

There is a disconnect in pretty much all developed nations between people and organised religion, and I cant see that ever going back to what things were 100 or so years ago.