Shinmon Aoki > Quotes

“In fact, no form of death places a greater burden on society than suicide, for the act of suicide is the way a person seeks to resolve his alienation from a cooperative society.”
― Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician

“I would contend that it is more accurate to say there's no good person or evil person among those who die...Many [Shin commentaries] say the good person relies on self-power in an effort to achieve birth in the Pure Land, while the evil person does not operate in that way. Various explanations are brought forth, but the peaceful composure of the faces of the dead are completely oblivious to these weary arguments.”
― Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician

“When you die, you want to die a beautiful death. But what makes for a beautiful death is not always clear. To die without suffering, to die without causing trouble to others, to die leaving behind a beautiful corpse, to die looking good -- it's not clear what is meant by a beautiful death. Does a beautiful death refer to the way you die or the condition of your corpse after death? This distinction is not clear. And when you start to stretch the image of death to the method of how to dispose of your corpse as befitting your image of death, everything grows completely out of hand.”
― Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician

“Intruding upon a dimension rightfully ours, modern medicine robs us of the dignity of what people in the past regarded as most precious: that final moment of death.”
― Shinmon Aoki

“If we never shift our perspective from the standpoint of life, no matter how much we want to think on death, it will only be an extension of our thinking on life”
― Shinmon Aoki

“A maggot is just another life form.”
― Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician