Philosophical study of life, death, and nature

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This is a book that proposed a third way between religion and science, as a response to Aum Shinrikyo cult's sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway systems in 1995 as a result of their pursuit of "truth" and "awakening."

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. In the beginning, Aum Shinrikyo was a small religious group seeking the "meaning of life" seriously. However, they began to consider our society as a dirty place, and planned to destroy our society 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 should be interpreted as a kind of pathology of the modern age, and that all of us shared this pathology with the members of Aum Shinrikyo. Actually, they and I shared the same aspiration, that is, the aspiration to acquire 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 proposed the research field, "life studies," in which we pursue the meaning of life, death, and nature without using religious language.

This book was 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.

My major at university was physics, just like Aum's young researchers. At that time, I was thinking that the mystery of the universe and that of humans would be solved by physics and mathmatics. Then 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 I finally found that I could not believe in religion. In Chapter 1, I described my inner journey from physics to religion, and I explained why I decided to follow a third way between science and religion. In Chapter 2 and 3, I pointed out some traps of a closed religious community by taking the examples of Aum and the well-known Japanese singer, Yutaka Ozaki. In Chapter 4, I proposed a new way of grasping spirituality and the meaning of life without using religious language.

Preface 

Chapter 1  How to Live in a Post-religious Age

1. A Sense of Discomfort with "Religious Belief"
2. A New Way of Thinking about Life and Death
3. Why did Scientists in the Making Become believers in Aum?
4. Disappointment of Science
5. Something that Science Cannot Deal With
6. How did "New New Religions" Invite Scientists
7. The Reason Why I Cannot Believe in Religion
8. Problem of "Spirituality"
9. A Message for You

Chapter 2  What is Mysterious Experience?

1. Meaning of Mysterious Experience
2. "When I Transform Myself, the World also Transforms"
3. Yearning for Enlightenment
4. Desire for Power
5. Between Mysterious Experience and Religious Belief
6. Mysterious Experience of my Own
7. Experience in a "Kiko" Community
8. Psychology in a Closed World
9. Sweet Lure of the Idea, "Only We are Right"
10. Enemy Resides within Us
11. The Philosophy of Worldly Desires

Chapter 3  The Trap of Healing and Salvation

1. Aum Shinrikyo and Yutaka Ozaki
2. Ozaki's Music Heading for Religion
3. Searching for the True Self
4. Rock'n'roll as Healing
5. Who Killed Ozaki?
6. Community that Passes the Buck to Someone Else

Chapter 4  Courage Necessary for Me to be Myself

1. A Prescription that does't Work
2. Methods Other than Religion
3. The Gap between Religion and Reality
4. "Blindfold Structure" on Our Side
5. The Question Feminism Poses
6. The Real Meaning of the Aum Incident
7. Opening Myself to a "Mystery"

Postscript

Book Reviews

Shin'ichi Nakazawa, Chuo University - "This book contains a great possibility. ..." (Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper, 1996)

Ryuichiro Matsubara, University of Tokyo - "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.

Publication Data

Hozokan, Tokyo, Mar.10, 1996, 229 pages, 1942 yen, written in Japanese.

Japanese website of this book