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The delegation that went to India with the Niwanos consisted of thirty people, from both traditional Buddhist sects and new Buddhist organizations in Japan. "While making a pilgrimage to the sacred places associated with Shakyamuni Buddha, I will talk with members of the group about the future of religion in Japan." With such an aspiration, Rev. Nikkyo Niwano added the following at the airport before embarking on the flight to India: "I will walk the difficult path of a true pilgrim, with a pilgrim's simple straw sandals and stick." On the afternoon of November 21, the delegation left Gorakhpur for Lumbini, the birthplace of Shakyamuni Buddha in what is now Nepal. It was a 200-kilometer bus drive one way. Either because of the age of the bus or the bad road, or both, the whole bus shook and clouds of dust rose from the road. When the group arrived at Lumbini Garden, the sun had already reached the horizon and dusk was closing in. Lumbini Garden is said in Buddhist texts to have been a picturesque park with many-colored flowers in bloom, pure streams in a beautiful forest, and scattered ponds. But in 1964 no trace of a beautiful forest or ponds remained. According to legend, while Queen Maya was strolling in the garden, she suddenly felt labor pains, and when the queen reached out to pluck a flowering branch from an ashoka tree, a perfect child, Siddhartha, was born. (This was the personal name of the historical Buddha before his renunciation of the world.)
Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha became enlightened, was a quiet woods. Huge trees grew here and there. We members of the group looked up at the great stupa with the autumn sunlight behind it. People prayed at the Diamond Seat, the place of the Buddha's awakening. Founder Niwano said, "One can surely believe that Lord Shakyamuni became enlightened in this place." Transcending a lapse of two thousand and several hundred years, the noble figure of Shakyamuni at the moment of enlightenment seemed to have come to Rev. Niwano's eyes. Touching the trunk of the huge bodhi tree near the Diamond Seat, he submitted for a while to the deep emotion. Nine people from Rissho Kosei-kai were on this trip. At Gaya near Bodh Gaya all of the delegation took breakfast and dinner at a rest house and stayed at night in a train sleeping car parked in the station. After the evening meal and their return to the station, the Rissho Kosei-kai members entered Rev. Niwano's compartment. "Now, let's hold a hoza session for the Rissho Kosei-kai family," he said. Following the bright voice of Rev. Niwano, an instant hoza counseling session was formed and for some time there was joyous conversation in the family-like atmosphere. Rev. Niwano spoke in the small box-like compartment, filled with the nine people sitting knee to knee, about his impressions of the sacred places, his sentiments after many years of practice of the Lotus Sutra, and his dreams and hopes for the future. Nine people from Rissho Kosei-kai were on this trip. At Gaya near Bodh Gaya all of the delegation took breakfast and dinner at a rest house and stayed at night in a train sleeping car parked in the station. After the evening meal and their return to the station, the Rissho Kosei-kai members entered Rev. Niwano's compartment. "Now, let's hold a hoza session for the Rissho Kosei-kai family," he said. Following the bright voice of Rev. Niwano, an instant hoza counseling session was formed and for some time there was joyous conversation in the family-like atmosphere. Rev. Niwano spoke in the small box-like compartment, filled with the nine people sitting knee to knee, about his impressions of the sacred places, his sentiments after many years of practice of the Lotus Sutra, and his dreams and hopes for the future. After worshipping at Sacred Eagle Peak, where Shakyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra, Rev. Niwano led a party of Rissho Kosei-kai members in descending the mountain. On Sacred Eagle Peak, where Shakyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra, Rev. Niwano lit incense he had brought from Japan and offered it at the "seat of preaching." Without stirring an inch, and with his palms joined, he prayed for a time. Then he chanted the sutra with all of the nine members. "We were able to see with our own eyes and walk with our own feet in the footsteps of Shakyamuni Buddha. It was really good to come to India," he said. "We heard that, counting from the Edo period, some 300 Japanese had made pilgrimages to the sacred places of the Buddha. With this tour, we have made the total 330," Founder Niwano said. "When I stood in front of the place on Eagle Peak where Shakyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra, I was moved beyond words." On the one hand, Rev. Niwano was excited about the pilgrimage and his impressions of India; at the same time, he gradually deepened friendships with members of the traditional Buddhist sects in the party. At the beginning of the tour, they were like strangers to each other. As the tour progressed, however, this changed day by day. By the end of the pilgrimage, they actually felt close to each other. Some continued the friendly contact through correspondence, mutual visits, and exchanges of periodicals of their respective organizations for many years. Rev. Niwano, who asserted that "the Lotus Sutra is the supreme way to peace" and that "the Buddha is an exemplar of peace," visited Nepal, the country where Shakyamuni Buddha was born, for the second time in 1991, to attend the fourth assembly of the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace in Kathmandu. Soon after he returned from that trip, the Ceremony of the Inheritance of the Lamp of the Dharma, celebrating the transmission of the Dharma from Founder Niwano to the second president, his son Nichiko, was held for the first time by Rissho Kosei-kai.
This series of articles was originally published in Japanese in 2000 under the title Kaiso Zuimonki: Egao no Ushirosugata. Copyright © 2008 by Rissho Kosei-kai. All rights reserved. |
In the autumn of 1964, Founder and Mrs. Niwano visited India with their son Nichiko to pay their respects at the great sacred places associated with Shakyamuni Buddha. In that year, the Great Sacred Hall of Rissho Kosei-kai in Tokyo was completed and an image of Shakyamuni Buddha was enshrined there as the central focus of worship.
Members of the party hurried to worship at the main temple and saw the Ashoka pillar and the well where the baby prince was bathed for the first time. Then they drove back to Gorakhpur, where it was almost midnight when they arrived. With the dust blown up from the road, everyone was covered in gray. They couldn't recognize each other's faces and burst out laughing as they tried to do so. There was neither bathtub nor shower at the rest house where they stayed, so it was even difficult to wash one's face.