Mulher Soka em terras santas: a propagação do budismo em Aparecida do Norte e Juazeiro do Norte

• Ano de defesa: 2014
• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Maria de Lourdes dos
• Orientador(a): Nunes, Maria José Fontelas Rosado
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Ciência da Religião
• Departamento: Ciências da Religião
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Divisão feminina; BSGI; Mulheres; Soka Gakkai; Budismo
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Womens division; BSGI; Women; Buddhism
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::SOCIOLOGIA::OUTRAS SOCIOLOGIAS ESPECIFICAS
• Link de acesso: https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/1932

This research focuses on Buddhist women ー members of the Brasil Soka Gakkai International (BSGI) who live in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara, and also on those who live in Aparecida do Norte, Sao Paulo, in Brazil. The purpose was to find out how these women practices Buddhism within such Christianity-based societies. In Juazeiro city, cults are around Father Cicero. In Aparecida, Our Lady of Aparecida also attracts millions of people. Two cities which are so similiar, but, at the same time, so different when manifesting their religious ways one is popular; the other, institutionalized. Similarly, each local BSGI also differs in the way they develop their proselytist activities, which turns unique the participation by the women, and the organization s leaders speeches, especially in Juazeiro. The geographical distance between Juazeiro and Sao Paulo where the BSGI headquarters is located and also the little experience of the leadership in Juazeiro, based on this Buddhist organization s guidelines, seem to us the reasons for developing, in the district, a differentiated way of supporting the local members compared to the other BSGI local communities. At the same time, such differentiated way may be one of the causes for the decrease in the number of followers shown by the district in the last years, associated with the Womens Division s relationship problems and the abandonment of this faith by top leaders of such Division. In Aparecida, thanks to the support they receive and the more experienced leadership by the Womens Division of Sao Jose dos Campos, the Buddhist Aparecida women are favored with the existence of a stronger Soka Gakkai identity. The Christianity-Buddhism syncretism was born in Japan, country where the religious loyalty is not essential. The Buddhism as practiced in Brazil takes Christian elements. Although Japanese-based, the BSGI does not permit double belonging due to doctrinal reasons. Even though the religious loyalty is a requirement, it is not always possible, and the discourse differs a lot from the action of many women who were converted to Buddhism. The way they were converted their counsciouness level at conversion is one aspect that we present. As it is very difficult to create a Brazilian Buddhism , we propose a Buddhism of frontier , where everything may happen. The space between two fluid frontiers, Buddhism and Christianity, favors the transit through their domains, which are limited by cultures and identities. For this reason, when a frontier retreats, as it is happening with the Christianity s, others advance, as it is happening with the Pentecostalism s, and the same is happening with many other Buddhist schools. Among them, the BSGI is developing, but the religious spaces will always be limited. The BSGI Womens Division exists within this universe. In order to transit, even though indirectly, within these frontiers for they are in a country with an 80 per cent of Christian population , they need a social structure (provided by the Buddhist fellow members) and a religious one (provided by the Buddhist leaders). At the absence of one of them, these women will not be able to sustain their Buddhist practice