President’s Monthly Message

Believing and Following

Nichiko Niwano
President, Rissho Kosei-kai

The Meaning of Faith

The day on which Shakyamuni was born is very significant for those who believe in the Buddha’s teachings, so in Japan, a ceremony to celebrate his birth is mainly held on April 8.

In this haiku by Sumio Mori,*1 “On the day of my birth, / I was also that small— / Bussho-e,” “Bussho-e” is a name for a ceremony celebrating the birth of Shakyamuni—the same as the Kanbutsu-e, Hanamatsuri, and Gotan-e ceremonies. In this haiku, we can feel how moved Mori was on the day of Bussho-e, when he poured sweet tea over the statue of the baby Buddha in the temple’s hanamido*2, and the image of the infant Shakyamuni reminded him of his own birth, making him suddenly realize that he, too, had received the same precious life as Shakyamuni.

Shakyamuni revealed, in the proclamation made upon his birth, that “I alone am honored, in heaven and on earth,” and similarly, Founder Niwano told us that “your ability to deeply appreciate and feel grateful for the preciousness of receiving life as a human being” while also feeling a sense of security and knowing that “your mind is always communicating with the Buddha’s mind and you are breathing together . . . is the mind of faith.” Therefore, it is truly wonderful that, through such a Gotan-e ceremony as the Anniversary of the Birth of Shakyamuni, so many people can appreciate and be grateful for the sanctity of their own lives and other people’s lives.

Moreover, Founder Niwano also stated that “faith teaches us the true way of life for human beings.” This means that faith—religion—teaches us the basics of human life and spirituality and how we should live, and I think that the most basic among these basics is knowing the sanctity of our own lives and being grateful for having been born as human beings.

When we hold firmly in mind the truths of suffering (that is, birth, aging, sickness, and death, symbolized by the passing away of Shakyamuni’s mother, Maya, seven days after his birth), impermanence (that all things in this world are constantly changing), and nonself and emptiness (that all phenomena are mutually interconnected through the workings of cause and condition), we see that the true way of life for human beings is to humbly accept things just as they are and live in harmony with others.

In other words, “faith” means believing in and following, as sacred guidance for personal growth, a way of life learned from the teachings of the God one follows, or from the Buddha, and one way to creatively put this faith to use is through the bodhisattva practices we perform in our daily lives.

Clear-Headedness in Changing Times

A person of faith was having a conversation at home about the so-called “illegal jobs” that have become a social issue in recent years. When that person asked their daughter, “Why are young people OK with committing robbery or murder?” she quite naturally replied, “Because they don’t have faith, right!?”

When faith makes us realize the sanctity of our own and others’ lives, and we understand that none of us are living solely through our own strength, it awakens in everyone the mind of consideration and the desire to help others, which not only stops us from doing wrong, but also helps us develop a core way of life that encourages us to be kind to others, doesn’t it?—and I feel that such an awareness is apparent in the words of the daughter, who was raised in the fertile ground of a family of faith.

However, this certainly does not mean that if you have faith, you will never do anything wrong or that through faith, you will be able to escape poverty or illness. It means that by believing in and following the sacred teachings that show us the true way of life—religion—we can learn many things and aim to improve ourselves as human beings.
In these times of increasing diversity, it is said that society has a harsh view of religion and faith. However, deep down in people’s hearts, there absolutely exists the desire to know, learn, and then grow from teachings that can be believed in and trusted as a foundation for life, and therefore, I think that all people are already “believers” in religion.

Bearing this in mind, what matters most now is not that we try some clever gimmick, but that we interact with others with the heartfelt compassion and thorough consideration that is the basis of the Buddha Way, and that we become individuals who can provide others with emotional support in times of need. If this brings about an indescribable feeling of peace of mind, then inherently possessing the mind of faith, everyone will naturally be guided to the true way of life.

Notes
*1 Sumio Mori (1919–2010) was a renowned Japanese haiku poet, awarded the Yomiuri Prize for poetry (1977) and the Dakotsu Prize (1987).
*2 Hanamido, a small pavilion/shrine placed in the temple’s precinct. See: https://ibc-rk.org
www.gotokyo.org/en/spot/ev025/index.html