Reverend Raido Hirota (RH): How does everyone feel about organ donation? Giving or receiving?

Believer 1: I don't know if I would want someone else's karma. Maybe blood, but nothing else. I don't know. I won't be giving anyone my body parts; they're too weak.

RH: There are people who want organs, but don't want to give them. And there are also people who want to give organs but don't want to receive them.

Believer 2: I don't want to give or receive. I've given blood. Considering the state of my health, I won't be doing that again. And I won't give body parts, and I don't want anyone else's body parts. What is the Buddhist position on organ donorship?

Believer 3: In the past it was taboo to be an organ donor. My wife was taught in Asia that that was something one did not do. If I wanted to be an organ donor is there anything wrong with that? The deeper question is when does life end? Does it end when one is considered brain dead? At that point is when we're talking about organ donorship. Would it be okay as a Buddhist to be an organ donor?

RH: What do you think?

Believer 4: I think it's fine.

Believer 5: So it's a personal decision based on one's personal belief?

Believer 4: Exactly. It's something else. The body doesn't mean anything.

Believer 3: Well, that's the question. Does it make a difference? By giving a body part aren't you extending a part of your karma? Is it good or is it bad? Let's say you give your heart. Isn't your karma being extended?

RH: The heart is in each cell. In Buddhism there is nothing that does not have heart. Everything has heart in Buddhism. The heart is in each cell and everything is connected. But each cell does not have the capacity to move your hands or your feet, and does not have the capacity to think. Those functions exist in the brain. So it is the Buddha's teaching that to separate the heart from anything is not Buddhism.

To place too much emphasis on the body is wrong to begin with. If you place that much importance on giving and receiving body parts, then already you are off base, already you are thinking incorrectly. The body doesn't mean much.

Believer 5: So it's up to you to decide? In other words, if you want to donate that's fine. If you don't, that's fine too?

RH: After the embryo is conceived in the womb the first thing that develops is the heart. It is not the brain that develops first. The embryo evolves and becomes more formed, and eventually the brain forms as well as all the other parts. Everything starts from the heart. For that reason each cell has a part of the heart in it. This is the way mitosis works. Therefore, each cell in your body has a piece of your heart - I mean this actually and metaphorically.

The heart is partially immutable and partially mutable. Part is your karma, and part is free will, or what you do in life. The genetic part is in each cell. Even if you chant to want a newly conceived baby to be a boy, it won't happen because in each cell it is already genetically determined based on the genetic input from the mother and the father. That half is there. Genetic diseases are already a part of the cell. So half of your life is that; whether you become sick or get injured, it is already determined.

Believer 4: What's the other half? What is the half I get from my mother?

RH: 50% is fixed, and 50% is what you do in your life. Part of it is fixed karma and part of it is mutable or changeable.

Believer 2: What is the definition of karma? Is karma suffering or does karma mean fate? You used the Japanese word unmei which is not karma, but destiny - your fixed life that you have to deal with. What is karma?

Believer 4:arma is your baggage. The baggage you carry from life to life. It's everything that you do.

RH: Go (Jap.) - karma is raw material or substance that comprises your life. These materials are both good things and bad things. They are both physical and of the heart. You have bad karma and good karma. Often when one thinks of karma he or she thinks that it's a bad thing.

Believer 2: Yes. When you mention karma most people think it's bad. They look only at the bad side.

RH: It's not that. Again, it's 50/50. Good and bad.

Believer 2: Is karma related to unmei -- fate?

RH: Unmei (Jap.) -- fate -- is a part of it, but not all of it. Fate is not everything that someone is.

Believer 3: Fate is just 50%. And karma is the other 50%?

RH: Fate and karma have the same meaning.

Believer 5: They are both 50/50.

Believer 4: They are the opposite sides of a coin. You can't talk about one without the other.

RH: What do you think Believer 2?

Believer 2: I agree with what you just said. I understand.

RH: What do you think life is? If you receive an organ transplant your life can be extended, who knows maybe someday 200, 300, 400 years. Do you wish to live that long?

Believer 2: I have a different view of that. Let's say I need a kidney right now. In order to stay on this earth, to chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, to stay here as long as possible being a Buddhist, I don't think it's such a bad idea if you have that attitude. The donor is dying anyway. To borrow that person's kidney so that I am able to chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo maybe one more day, I think it's worth it. That's my view. I want to know what your view is, and views of the other believers.

RH: In Japan, organ donorship is viewed like a person riding a train. When the person gets off someone else takes the seat he was occupying. This is the mindset in Japan. Donating organs is nothing more than giving someone your seat. Once you reach your station you won't need it anymore. So fine, you give up your seat. It really shouldn't bother you that much.

Believer 4: We get back to the point where the body doesn't mean anything.

RH: But there are many people who also feel the other way too, that they don't want to donate.

Believer 4: The priest is being noncommittal. He's just saying there are people who think both ways.

Believer 2: So it's okay to receive and it's okay to give?

Believer 6: It's a personal preference.

RH: People from different countries, different cultures, may think differently about transplants and organ donation.

Believer 5: What is the Buddhist view?

RH: It is not within the doctrine of this faith to decide for you, or to dictate that you do one or the other. From the beginning it has always been a personal choice.

Believer 3: What is the purpose of life?

RH: Is it okay to offer a transplant to someone who chants Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, and not to offer a transplant to someone who believes in Christianity?

Believer 3: That is not my view. What ever your karma brings, must be dealt with, that is my view.

Believer 6: My uncle is in his sixties. He had an eye transplant, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, from a 24-year-old who was killed in an accident. Now my uncle can't see out of that eye. His sight is totally gone, and he wasted all that money on a transplant.

Believer 3: That was his karma. This is what I mean.

Believer 6: It was a complete waste.

RH: In Christianity the idea of volunteering is held in high esteem. The idea of volunteering and doing good works is appreciated by many. But mainly what is in the back of people's mind is that, "Wow, I'm doing these good deeds, helping people, and God's going to favor me and let me into Heaven." Is that the reason behind all this charity? Is that the proper way to view it? However, unless you give from your heart it has no value.

Believer 2: What if you want to help someone?

RH: What is motivating you to do it? Is it because you want a reward? Or is it because you really, truly feel it is the correct thing to do?

What is your idea of doing charity work, or doing good? Does it mean that because you did something good you're going to get something in return? What is the motivation in your heart? Just because you're giving someone something, whether its money, or time, or whatever it happens to be -- just the idea of giving -- if you're giving it with the idea that you are in control, you are going to get something in return, you have the control, you have the choice of giving this needy person something, and you expect someone to say, 'job well done,' or you expect a pat on the back, ask yourself, "What is the reason behind my charity?" You have to be careful about what motivational factors are behind everything you do. You must be motivated from the heart without any notion of receiving anything in return. That's the basic premise of Buddhism.

If I am chanting and I give my eye in the spirit of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, and the person who receives it thinks it's because of God's blessing that they received it, I can not complain about that. I have no control over how someone else receives my eyes. You can not limit your giving only to people who chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. You don't know whether the person who is Christian today won't be chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo in the future. So even if I donate my eye and somebody receives it and still can't see out of his eyes, and he decides that he doesn't want to live any longer and kills himself, there's nothing I can do or say about that. That's what organ donorship is about.

The first person to receive a transplant in Japan came to America for the operation, then returned to Japan. Lots of people in Japan donated money so that this man could receive the operation. When he came to America he was sick; when he returned to Japan he was well. An article appeared in the newspaper complaining that this person was gambling. When I read that article I thought, what's wrong with that? There are healthy people gambling. Because this man received the transplant does that mean that we have the right to decide how he should live his life after it has been extended? In the news article the judgment was that since this person received a transplant, and so many people contributed to his surgery, then they have decided how this person should live his life.

There are some that think that just the fact that you have lengthened someone's life is important. But you should not think of a transplant as away of lengthening someone's life. Rather than lengthening someone's life, what is more important is the content of someone's life. The amount of time you spend on earth is of very little importance -- whether it's two days or 200 years. It's what you do while you're alive. Whether a person dies at the age of 20 or lives for 30 more years, the content of one's life is more important than the length of one's life.

One group of people thinks that the length of life is more important. A second group of people thinks that the content of life is more important. This second group are people who want to leave a legacy or have something written about them. A third group, which is the most important way of thinking, thinks that the kind of heart you have while alive is more important. Do you have the same heart as Namu-myoho-renge-kyo? Do you have the same heart as Nichiren Daishonin? This is what is written in the Lotus Sutra on how to attain enlightenment.

A doctor can extend the amount of time you spend on this earth, but that doesn't change anything.

When you donate an organ to someone, you don't know what he or she will do with their life. It's not important that you have done a good deed. Nor is it important what that person does with his or her life afterwards. What is important is your thinking when you donate, that maybe I've made a connection between this person and Namu-myoho-renge-kyo sometime in the future. That's the extent of what you can think about your donation to that person. Other than that, you have no control.

With regard to making money off of transplants, it's making money off of death. It's not doing anything worthwhile with your life. It has no meaning at all. There are things people are doing that just should not be done. Transplanting brains or transplanting the heart is wrong.

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