Dharma World Buddhist magazine

In Gratitude for Their Guidance

by Nikkyo Niwano

As I look back on my life, I am deeply aware that I must be one of the most fortunate men alive. Through the wonderful workings of karma, though born deep in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture, I have come into contact with many people whose help has been invaluable to me. And today I am able to walk, hand in hand, with millions of fellow believers as we move forward together.

Once, taking a large number of his followers with him, the Buddha went to the top of a mountain near Gaya and there pronounced the following teachings, which can be applied to my own life.

Freedom from illness is the supreme advantage.
Knowing what is sufficient and being satisfied with it are supreme wealth.
Good friends are supreme favor.
Immutable naturalness is the supreme tranquillity.

I am very blessed to enjoy good health. The man of great wealth who is never satisfied and always driven by a desire for more is actually impoverished, whereas the man who wants little and is satisfied with whatever modicum he obtains is truly wealthy. In this connection, too, I have been fortunate. Faith has enabled me to enjoy the supreme wealth of satisfaction with what is sufficient. Insofar as friends are concerned, I fully appreciate the great favor I have found in the five million and three hundred thousand members of Rissho Kosei-kai and in the many highly respected people of religion at home and abroad that I am able to count among my good friends.

The final teaching is most difficult to understand and indicates a state that is most difficult to attain. The Sanskrit term here translated as immutable naturalness, asamskrita, means that which is not created and is free of the influence of causal relations. In Buddhist terms this condition is called truth or nirvana; but, in ordinary language it may be interpreted as the state in which all things are done in a natural, unforced fashion.

In my youth, when I had no idea whatsoever of becoming a religious leader, I exerted my best day by day in working for several neighborhood stores, serving in the navy, and later running my own business. In all these instances, I was merely following the counsel of my parents, my grandfather, and the principal of the school I attended. Later, after coming into contact with the Lotus Sutra and realizing that its teaching is the one way to save humanity and the world, I devoted myself to it entirely thereafter. But in this too, instead of setting out to achieve a deliberately established goal, I was pliantly following the teachings set forth in the sutra.

Living in accordance with what I have called immutable naturalness means discarding the smaller self and obeying the rationale of heaven and earth: the Universal Law. Merely following the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, in which that Law is most lucidly explained, leads to the state of immutable naturalness and supreme tranquillity.

Throughout my lifetime I have come into contact with many bodhisattvas who helped me bring out the good in me with their own virtues. My grandfather, who carried me on his back and constantly advised me to strive to do good for others, was such a bodhisattva. So was my father, who gave moxa treatment to the many villagers who flocked to our house morning and evening for his therapy, and my mother, who raised us lovingly and, in spite of pain caused by stomach trouble, cultivated silkworms and wove cloth in addition to carrying out her many other domestic chores. Chief Warrant Officer Nakano, who watched over me like an elder brother when I was in the navy, and Mr. Ishihara, the owner of a pickles shop, who first introduced me to the world of the mystical and imponderable--all were bodhisattvas leading me in the right direction. So was Sukenobu Arai, who first explained the Lotus Sutra to me and who said it would be enough even if I were the only person who attended his lectures, and Myoko Naganuma, who shared with me the hardships of the formative period of our organization. In more recent times, Dr. Dana McLean Greeley and other people I have met in work connected with the World Conference of Religions for Peace and the International Association for Religious Freedom have been my mentors and guides. I can only bring my hands together in prayerful gratitude to the gods and buddhas who brought me in contact with all these bodhisattvas, without whose help I could have achieved nothing.

(Excerpts from Rev. Nikkyo Niwano's "In Gratitude for Their Guidance," in Dharma World, February 1983.)

This article was originally published in the April-June 2006 issue of Dharma World.

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