Gratitude and Treasuring Lives: Eating Animals in Contemporary Japanese Buddhism

The department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Religious Studies program announce the Inaugural Robert Morrell Memorial Lecture in Asian Religions. 

Over the past ten years, an increasing number of Buddhist publications and public events in Japan have drawn attention to the fact that humans must rely on animal lives for food. The moral principle at the center of this discourse is gratitude. While the connection between animals and gratitude has a long history in Buddhism, in modern Japan the meaning of repaying a debt of gratitude has shifted from an emphasis on liberating animals to consuming animals with gratitude.

A reception will follow the lecture.