All Our Experiences Are for the Purpose of Awakening
Dr. Dominick Scarangello
International Advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai
For the past several columns, we have been studying the principle of the Ten Suchnesses with an eye toward eliminating suffering. It goes without saying that as Buddhists, we seek to free ourselves and others from suffering. However, in sincerely pursuing this noble aspiration, we may overlook an important aspect of the wisdom of the Lotus Sutra. Last time, we touched on this when we referred to Founder Niwano’s teaching that “All causes are good causes.” Let us explore this more deeply.
Rev. Kosho Niwano says that “By putting the teachings into practice, we were indeed liberated from the sufferings we faced in the circumstances of our lives, and this greatly transformed our lives. However, the teachings of Rissho Kosei-kai are not for the purpose of eliminating our suffering” (“Rissho Kosei-kai’s Fundamental Vision 2018–2037” 16).
At first this might sound surprising. Don’t we turn to the Buddha because we want to eliminate suffering and find happiness? Isn’t suffering the problem, and isn’t Buddhist practice meant to uncover and remove its causes?
Rev. Kosho Niwano continues: “Rissho Kosei-kai is a teaching in which suffering becomes the very occasion for our liberation, just as a great lotus flower blooms precisely in the mud” (“Rissho Kosei-kai’s Fundamental Vision 2018–2037” 16).
This expresses the paradox of suffering. While we seek liberation from suffering, it is through encountering and engaging with suffering that awakening becomes possible. From this standpoint, suffering can become a condition that propels us along the path toward the perfection of our character and toward lives that are more meaningful and fulfilling.
Many of you have seen the lotus garden at the Great Sacred Hall. The lotus is one of the most beautiful flowers, symbolizing purity and awakening. Yet lotuses do not grow in clear, sparkling water. They grow in muddy, stagnant water that would make us sick if we drank it. The very conditions that appear impure or unpleasant are what allow the lotus to grow and bloom.
We are the same.
The Lotus Sutra teaches that anyone can become a buddha—that “The seeds of buddhahood sprout from proper conditions” (The Threefold Lotus Sutra 77). Yet those conditions may include the suffering we encounter in life. Shakyamuni Buddha illustrates this in chapter 12 when he explains that one of the conditions that enabled him to attain buddhahood was his encounter in a previous lifetime with the hermit Asita, a former life of Devadatta. For many years Asita created extremely difficult circumstances for him.
Many of us know the story of Devadatta, but the Lotus Sutra radically challenges us to rethink how we understand adversity. Devadatta was not merely troublesome; he was a malicious person who committed terrible acts and caused immense suffering for many people, like other infamous villains in history. Yet Shakyamuni declares that Devadatta ultimately served as a bodhisattva who provided conditions for his awakening.
How could someone who caused such suffering be described as a bodhisattva? What made the difference?
The difference was Shakyamuni’s heart and mind.
Many of us have experienced great suffering because of difficult circumstances or the actions of others. It can feel impossible to find anything meaningful or beneficial in what we have been through. Some forms of suffering are unavoidable: sickness, aging, the loss of loved ones, and ultimately, our own mortality.
The Buddha teaches that when we accept these realities—not by giving up or losing heart, but by embracing them as opportunities for awakening—their significance is transformed.
How do we do this? It is not easy to put into words, but two loved ones helped me understand the importance of this truth. Both passed away from cancer. One could not accept the diagnosis and became consumed with anger at the universe. That anger overshadowed any gratitude for having received the gift of life and for the blessings they had experienced, and it prevented them from appreciating the time that remained with family and friends. They passed in great anguish with a heart full of bitterness and resentment.
The other person responded very differently. He accepted the reality of his illness and chose to make being sick his spiritual practice. He used that time to deepen his relationships with those dear to him, and he discovered that his life was full of love. Never before had he experienced such warmth and affection. Even while facing death, he was filled with gratitude—for life and for everything it had given him. His way of accepting the situation allowed him to experience sickness itself as a condition for awakening.
Both of these people became bodhisattvas for me. Through their lives, they taught me the importance of embracing every experience for the purpose of awakening.
My hope is that I can internalize this truth and live each day with gratitude, recognizing that all the circumstances of our lives—even the most difficult—can become the conditions through which our own seeds of buddhahood blossom, beautifying our lives and the lives of those around us.
Field Report from the Sangha
Rev. Nick Ozuna
Minister, Rissho Kosei-kai of Seattle
Around this time last year, a wonderful member of deep faith and commitment to the Seattle sangha experienced a life-transforming hardship. While bike-riding on an unseasonably warm spring day, he had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. However, due to a momentary cardiac arrest, he was placed on life support in an induced coma. Meanwhile, his family stayed close by his side, and the sangha came together in prayer for him each day.
Miraculously, while being taken off life support one month later, he awoke! Everyone in the sangha was deeply inspired by his regaining consciousness, and once again, we held a special prayer for a speedy recovery, this time with the member on Zoom from his hospital bed. He later shared with me how grateful he had been to receive this powerful prayer during his ordeal and how it gave him strength to believe he could make a full recovery.
After some time spent regaining his ability to walk and speak, he attended a service at our Buddhist Center. The oneness shared by the sangha in seeing his presence there evoked palpable joy. He shared his immense gratitude to the Buddha, his family, the sangha, and his doctors at being alive. He said that he wanted to use his precious life to further benefit others.
He has done just that over the last several months, although still undergoing rehabilitation. However, he has noticed some setbacks with his health, both physically and mentally. Recently, he revealed to me that because of these setbacks, he questioned himself. He had done so many good deeds for years, and made sincere prayers daily, that he wanted to know why he was experiencing these hardships.
In our discussion, I asked him to recall his feelings from immediately after his recovery. This reminded him of the deep gratitude he had felt for simply being alive here and now. The reality, as his doctor told him, is that only 10 percent of patients that undergo what he went through survive. Further, there are many patients with less serious cases who, though they survive, struggle with their recovery due to feelings of anger or resentment.
Because of his challenging experience, he became aware that he can help and inspire many others who are living with such conditions. In this way, his experience has transformed from unfortunate to priceless. Surely, he has endured great hardship, but because of his lifelong faith in the Buddha’s protection and guidance, he transformed his suffering into an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be given this irreplaceable life by the Buddha. This is true liberation!
Through these reflections, he regained the mind of awareness that all experiences, fortunate or otherwise, are for the purpose of awakening and therefore are precious gifts from the Buddha.