Reverend Shoshin Kawabe

Nichiren Daishonin states:

"Thus we can see that it is a great mistake to assert that the teachings are invariably expounded according to the listener's capacities." (MW3- 114)

Good Morning. Once again, I sincerely thank you for making a pilgrimage to the temple to express gratitude to the True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin. I have respectfully offered your gokuyo to the Gohonzon and I prayed for your peace and happiness, the elimination of slander, increasing faith, strong shakubuku effort, good health and happy families.

Today I granted the Omamori Gohonzon to many members who had eagerly awaited this moment. I would like to extend to them my congratulations. Everyone who received the Omamori Gohonzon today swore to Nichiren Daishonin, both in mind and body, never to discontinue this practice for the rest of their lives. So you must never forget the pledge you have made. Remember too, the happy feeling you have today.

From now on you must show more effort to set a good example in faith and practice for the other members. Other members will be watching and they will pay attention not only to your faith and practice but also m your daily life, attitude, speech and behavior. When you wear the Omamori Gohonzon you are carrying visible proof that you are a disciple of the True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin and a member of Nichiren Shoshu. For this reason, never forget that people will judge Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism by your behavior in society.

The Gosho states:

"This life is like a dream. One cannot know if he will live until tomorrow. Even if you should become the most wretched of beggars, never disgrace the Lotus Sutra" (MW4-283)

This passage cautions you not to tarnish the reputation of the True Buddha through your ordinary speech and behavior. From today on, you will not only be responsible for yourself in your daily life, but you will be carrying the Gohonzon, too. Again, I congratulate you.

I will continue my lecture on the "Letter To Nikke"after August. Today I would like to speak about zuijii (true teaching) and zuitai (expedient or provisional teaching). Zuijii means teaching the Law according to (the Buddha's) own mind. Zuitai means teaching the law according to the minds of others. This Buddhist concept is very important and all kinds of slander and unhappiness can arise from misunderstanding this teaching. Let me paraphrase what Nichiren Daishonin said about this concept:

'Among the teachings of Buddhism, there are both zuijii and zuitai. For example, zuitai [provisional teaching] is like a parent who follows the wishes of the child while zuijii [true teaching] is like a child who follows the wishes of the parent. All of the other sutras are zuitai. suiting the capacity of the people's mind, but the Lotus Sutra alone is zuijii. expounded directly from the mind of the Buddha without regard for the capacity of the people. If you take faith in the other sutras. you will never attain Buddhahood because they are based on the mind of the common mortal But the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha way and the Buddha wisdom. If you believe deeply in every word and part of it, you will attain Buddhahood immediately.' (GZ1437)

I will try to explain this further. Zuijii means preaching in exact accordance with the enlightenment of the True Buddha without mixing any impurities into the teaching. It means teaching people he true practice even if it meets with great resistance or obstacles. This is the pure mind of the True Buddha with only one thought. That is why the Lotus Sutra is called "the one vehicle". Ultimately, the Lotus Sutra is the only effective teaching.

Zuitai is a teaching that is not the "truth" and is not the true reaching for enlightenment. This kind of teaching is similar to a parent giving a child its own way. The child presses the parent to give it something and the parent obliges just to calm the child temporarily. Although this teaching may come from a Buddha. it does not reveal the true mind of the Buddha because it is not the true law of enlightenment.

To continue the example, if a child always wants candy and you give it to them every day, the child will be very happy at the moment but eventually this practice will destroy the child's health. Giving candy to a child may seem very kind, but such activity will actually lead to unhappiness. I think that a parent who would do this is not qualified to bring up a child.

In the same vein, if a person has a serious accident we must take emergency measures right away. But after that, the person must receive qualified medical care as soon as possible. If someone thinks that just first aid alone is enough and they don't need a doctor, then they would be allowing the injury to become worse, increasing the suffering and hastening the end. Other religious teachings have the power to create illusions for human beings who believe them to be like good medical care instead of just first aid. If you receive good qualified medical attention first, you won't have to receive first aid. It would be silly to perform an emergency procedure on someone who is getting full medical attention. It would only stand in the way of real treatment.

The Daishonin's Buddhism is zuijii. It is like the full medical treatment compared to temporary first aid. As you know, the fundamentals of this Buddhism are Gongyo, Shodai (daimoku) and shakubuku, but it is a mistake to think that this is where Buddhist training ends. This is the concept of Kaie (opening up and merging). This means that when we have faith and practice chanting to the Gohonzon our Buddhist training becomes our actual daily life. Nichiren Daishonin wrote:

"There is a passage from the Great Teacher Fu that states. 'We wake up with the Buddha in the morning and we go to bed with the Buddha at night. We are always attaining Buddhahood and we are always manifesting the original state [of being]." (GZ-737)

We must not forget that every phenomenon, is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo; eating, working, studying, relaxing. sleeping. Of course it is not Buddhist practice without chanting and shakubuku. If we can learn to make every aspect of our daily life a part of our Buddhist practice then out lives will open up like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. As your lift begins to open, you may look back and say, "those old ideas I used to have really seem a bit silly now."

Enlightenment is a constant reshaping of one's character based on an indestructible center. Don't try to be in such a hurry. Even if you are experiencing suffering, you must believe precisely in the Gohonzon and wait calmly for your good fortune.

People always say, "I can't see any results even though I've practiced this Buddhism for many years." "I'm determined to get this such and such a benefit right NOW!" When you think like this, it is no longer a Buddhist practice.

Nichiren Daishonin one said:

"A person who refuses to admit his own faults and never self-reflects is an ugly and shameless person." (GZ-718)

Nichiren Daishonin warned us severely that a "shameless person" is guilty of the slander of "not believing".

You must chant Daimoku very seriously but first you must honestly reflect on the past. If you don't start with self-reflection, you will never create benefit or actual proof even if you wait for a hundred years or more. Enlightenment and benefit are not automatically given to us. You must grasp the enlightenment and benefit from your Buddhist training through humility and strong conviction.

Why do people have suffering and unhappiness? The answer is that people made a multitude of bad causes due to a wrong view of life in the past and that effect is now appearing in the present Also, people still haven't learned the truth so they continue to make bad causes now in the present. This incorrect view of life is based on zuitai, provisional religious beliefs. Therefore, we must shakubuku people so that they can learn the correct way of life.

One more thing that we must consider very carefully is that even though one is chanting to the Gohonzon, he may still have a practice of zuitai. What I mean by that is we must obey the teachings and the mind of the True Buddha both in our faith and in our practice. Sometimes people do the exact opposite. In faith, they make their own minds up first or remain attached to their own personal views and then try to make the True Buddha obey their own desires.

For example, although they firmly do Gongyo and Shodai, they make up their own minds as to what their benefit is based solely on their own desires and not on Buddhist teaching. "My benefit is getting money to become a very rich man!" This is like commanding the Gohonzon instead of praying to it. They say, "this is what the Gohonzon must give me!" This circumstance is like trying to make the Gohonzon your slave. This kind of idea comes from the mind of the common mortal not the mind of the Buddha. So this is a practice of zuitai, a provisional practice.This practice will never lead to enlightenment. If a practice is based on your own mind, then it is not a Buddhist practice. It is your own religious teaching and becomes the "John Doe" sect. We must be very careful about this.

I think by now you understand that Hokkeko activities, too, are part of Buddhist practice and training. Hokkeko is the name given to those who practice the Daishonin's Buddhism correctly. Hokkeko is the very name inscribed on the Dai-Gohonzon. There is no other name used for true believers on the Gohonzon or in the Gosho. For this reason, the name Hokkeko is very important.We must not allow our way to diverge in the slightest from Buddhist teaching in any Hokkeko activity. If we conduct or attend Hokkeko activities clinging to our own ideas and opinions, or perform selfish acts based on our egos, then the chance for enlightenment of all Myogyoji Temple's members will completely disappear.

We must consider only the way of Buddhist training in order to run our Hokkeko organization. Of course we want to be democratic, but as I've tried to explain today, our organization must be based an the mind of the True Buddha, not the minds of its many different members. If it is not, then it ceases to be an organization of Buddhist practice. Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism is very democratic because, as the true teaching, it allows everyone to attain enlightenment equally without discrimination. I will speak more about the details of how we can administer the Hokkeko group and organize its activities at the Hokkeko General Meeting on June 25. But most importantly. Myogyoji Temple Hokkeko members must practice zuijii on all points. Some people may feel discontented about this but I ask them to reflect and think about it deeply. In the end, it will be the best thing for all members.

The other day the High Priest gave guidance to a group of student priests. I will try to paraphrase his comments.

'When we think about daily life and Buddhist practice, it's very important to have a clear goal or purpose. We must set our goal correctly [on our Buddhist practice] and then proceed towards it. But when setting our goal we must distinguish between two different kinds. One kind of goal is the goal of worldly ambition and the other kind is the goal of the Buddha's way. The goal [which arises from] worldly ambition is very foul and eventually lends to unhappiness for oneself and for others. For example, "I'll be a big rich man in the future," or "I'll get promoted to president of the company" etc. When you have a greedy or ambitious goal. you will use subterfuge or manipulations to attain it. The goal itself is tainted. Therefore, people who are very attached to such goals and methods never succeed in the true sense. People who take the goal of forgetting themselves and devoting themselves to the service of others will naturally open their lives. 'To have a profound knowledge of this world is itself Buddhism.' (MW2-75) This Gosho passage is significant here. According to the principle of cause and effect, one who forgets himself and thinks of others is already on the Buddha's way. If your desires are centered only on yourself you will encounter many failures in life and never become a true success. The biggest example of his is the Devil King of the Sixth Heaven. He is very powerful and difficult to overcome. He never reveals his true identity and he never gives up. A devilish person will see great evil karma appear at the time of his death.' (Dainichiren No. 77, June 1994)

Although this lesson was given to the student priests, it applies to everyone. We should completely harmonize the faith of priest and layman. There is no difference in the mind of correct Buddhist training.

This summer we will be holding the Tozan of 60,0000. This Tozan is deeply significant and will probably turn out to be a historic ceremony in our Buddhist history. That is because the Devil King of the Sixth Heaven is be coming very strong and trying very hard to crash this event. So we must overcome every obstacle that appears and never lose our way in doing earnest Shodai and shakubuku.

As a goal or purpose for this tozan, we must carefully reflect on what we did in the past and swear to the Dai-Gohonzon to make a new resolution for the sake of true Kosen-rufu.

I know I have spoken a little strictly today, but it was meant for the sake of everyone's enlightenment. Please forgive me. I sincerely pray for your strong faith and good health.

Thank you.