By Dan Bloom

NARA CITY, Japan — When you get ready to meet your Maker, do you want to die a long slow, painful, costly death, a burden on the family and loved ones — or do you just want to "pop off"? I don't know the Yiddish or Hebrew word for this, but in the Land of the Rising Sun, where the concept originates, "pop off" is spoken like this: pokkuri..

If you ever visit Japan, and you want to have a unique experience, you might want to make a pilgrimage to a unique Buddhist temple where thousands of elderly people go to pray each year
— that they will just pokkuri when they die and not be a burden on their families during their final days.

They ask the Shinto gods and Buddha Himself to please let them "pop off" and die a sudden death, preferably on a quiet night in their sleep, or via a sudden heart attack, without spending a long time in a sickbed at home or in a nursing home or hospital. Sounds like a Jewish idea!

When I read about the Buddhist temple near Nara, about equidistant between Tokyo and Osaka, I was fascinated. An elderly Japanese housewife was quoted in an article as saying, "I
want to pop off (''pokkuri''). I think more and more people feel the same way in a graying society."

This Buddhist temple was set up over a thousand years ago by a monk whose mother had passed away peacefully after she wore clothes that he had prayed over. A tradition was born, and ever since then, elderly pilgrims across Japan have been coming to the Kichi-denji
Temple in Nara City to pray for a discreet, quick, popping-off kind of death.

"Let me pokkuri," they say. "I hope I can just pop off when I go."

The Japanese Emperor Tenchi founded the unique temple, and a Buddhist priest named Eshin rebuilt it in 988. On the temple grounds, there is a two-story pagoda that has been designated as an Important Cultural Asset by the government .

To reach Kichi-denji temple, which is about three hours south of Tokyo, take a train or bus to Nara and get off at the Tatsutajinja-mae stop in Ikaruga. From the station, it's just a 3-minute walk. Admission is 300 yen for adults, with public access to the temple from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

Maybe pokkuri is a good word that we ought to borrow from the Japanese— as we have done with sushi and sashimi and wasabi — and make part of our American vocabulary.

"God, grant me a good life, a useful (and meaningful) life, and when it's time, let me pokkuri in a dignified, discreet way. Amen."

A Buddhist priest at the temple suggests that it's natural for children to wish that their parents have a long life. However, seeing aged parents anguishing in bed or too senile to recognize their loved ones makes many people come to hope that their parents will die quiet, quick, discreet deaths.

According to news reports, around 10,000 people come to this temple every year to pray the Pokkuri Prayer. They pray that they will not be a burden to their families when they meet their
Maker. Devotees believe that if they put their underwear in front of a huge Buddhist statue on the temple grounds, and then say the Pokkuri Prayer, they will be able to pop off.

Nowadays, Jews around the world, religious and non-religious alike, are debating such issues as assisted death and assisted suicide.

One of my uncles, Benny Fleischmann, is almost 90. He's in a good health, more or less, except that he doesn't really know what he did yesterday, he's basically blind, he can't hear too well, and well, you know, he's getting ready to meet his Maker — God Almighty, the God of our Fathers,
Melech HaOlom.

I hope that Uncle Benny will have a pokkuri moment and leave this Earth in a quick, quiet way — preferably in his sleep, in a dream state, headed back to the stars from which we all came.


FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact the author of this article at: danbloom@gmail.com