If one is to understand the human condition, one must occasionally venture beyond their own spiritual beliefs and listen to the voices of those from other faiths. Many prophets have given us a wealth of spiritual guidance but by ignoring them, we suffer. A holistic view of the world's philosophies reveals a fascinating paradox in the Japanese belief system. This system, born of faith but discredited by science, explains the Japanese passion for both hard work and relaxation; both of which can be explained by simple processes and faulty logic.
Life is suffering. This is what the Buddha taught. This is what Japanese still believe. Work (or the appearance of work) is paramount. Life is suffering. The source of life is the sun. All of the energy in our universe comes from a steady supply of heat and light from the stars. Jesus once apparently remarked, "I am the light." While he never actually claimed to be a god, many Christians view him as inseparable from God. Many Christians also claim that love in inseparable from God. God is love. God is light. God is life and life is suffering. The only way to release this suffering is through regular trips to the local onsen.
The onsen is a special healing place. It releases the tensions of the day and cures us of suffering. The historic samurai, Shingen Takeda, also used the sulfur from an onsen in Shimobe to cure his wounds after battle. What are the magic properties of sulfur which enable us to go on with our lives? Oddly enough the answer is simple and dovetails nicely with the argument that the Buddha made a small but detrimental mistake.
We have already established through simple logic that suffering, life, light, love and God are all the same thing. Life cannot exist without all of these components. Unfortunately, as often happens in our world, a small but significant scientific discovery has shattered the entire matrix of belief. Through this discovery, we can understand that it is no longer necessary for the Japanese to forgo pleasure in search of pain.
A few hundred kilometers off of the west coast of Ecuador in South America, lies an area called “Galapagos Rift”. It is a deep rift in the ocean floor caused by continental drift. As the continents move away from each other, a large crevice opens in the ocean floor, emitting hydrogen sulfide and heat. These hydrothermal vents have given life to a very curious microbe, which, without a doubt is a living thing on earth. The most curious thing about this microbe is that it can survive in the most inhospitable climate on Earth. There is no light.
If there is no light, there is no love. If there is no love, there is no god. If there is no God, there is no life. If there is no life, there is no suffering. Now, one can obviously see a problem with this logic. Life is one of the things we can all agree upon. So, if life exists, there must be a problem in the chain of logic. The problem is this: Life is NOT suffering.
Most, if not all, Japanese people agree on a very deep subconscious level that this is true. That is why they visit onsens. They are composed of water rich in sulfur. On a deep subconscious or spiritual level, they know that sulfur represents a food source for a small microbe which has foregone suffering. This microbe does not attend meetings. It does not have to wait to ingest its hydrogen sulfide snacks. It doesn't have to wait for the bubbling gaseous life force from which it derives its existence to go flat before it can imbibe. No, this microbe lives a live free from suffering in the most inhospitable places on planet Earth. This is something the Buddha doesn't like to talk about.