"I never felt burdened by Takashi's handicap. He was my first child and I just thought that was the way things were. Takashi was so cute; I was happy to be his mother."

Mayumi Umeda speaks with remarkable ease about her thirty-year-old son, Takashi, who has cerebral palsy. Takashi's birth was difficult. At ten months, he suffered severe seizures, and he has shown little mental or physical development since then.

Mayumi loved Takashi dearly, but as the bride of the eldest son of the Umeda family, it was a terrible misfortune to have presented her husband, Mitsuo, with a disabled first child. Both husband and mother-in-law were gentle with Takashi and actively helped with his care and the many necessary trips to the hospital, but it only took a word here and a frown there to let Mayumi know that they were both very disappointed. Mayumi was ashamed that she had not fulfilled her job as a bride and this made her feel bad.

It was around this time that Mayumi joined Rissho Kosei-kai at the invitation of a friend from her high-school days. Every time she felt herself slipping into depression, Mayumi would strap Takashi onto her back and go to see Yurie Ishizeki, her neighborhood group leader at the time. She would pour out her pain to Ms. Ishizeki: "It's my fault my son is like this. It's my fault that I have brought sorrow to my family." Every time, Ms. Ishizeki would console Mayumi with gentle words, "I see. It has been hard for you, hasn't it."

Mayumi's friends at the Rissho Kosei-kai church would also console her: "Takashi knows that you love him and that's the best thing a parent can do for a child."

"I don't remember much about my sad feelings of the past," Mayumi says now. As she says, "Everyone in the Sangha shared my feelings and I was healed by their sincere good wishes-that's why I've been able to get this far"; a smile plays on her lips.

Even as Mayumi's pain has been healed little by little, she has been blessed with two more sons, Yuji (now twenty-four) and Shinya (now twenty-one), and her family has become closer than ever. These are happy years.

Two years ago, however, something happened that compelled Mayumi to re-examine her faith. It all began with a telephone call.

Transmitting the Law

"Mayumi, what should I do?" The voice on the other end was that of Hiroko Onishi, Mayumi's friend of fifteen years. Mayumi and Hiroko had come to know each other at the day care center in which Mayumi had enrolled her third son. Shinya and Hiroko's son were in the same class. The two mothers remained friends even after Hiroko moved to Hiroshima and the two often called and visited each other. This time, Hiroko related an unbelievable story.

Hiroko's only son, Kotaro, twenty-one years old, had moved to an apartment in Kanagawa Prefecture where he was to attend university. The day after the university's entrance ceremony, Kotaro was attacked by two thugs. They hit him repeatedly on the head and stole his wallet and student ID card. Kotaro telephoned his father to tell him to cancel his bank card, but after he hung up they heard nothing more from him. His parents telephoned the apartment landlord and the police in a panic but it was not until two hours later that Kotaro was found bloody and unconscious in his apartment. Kotaro narrowly escaped death but the doctors gave a bleak prognosis: "His nerves have been badly damaged," they said. "He is paralyzed from the neck down and probably will never be able to show any kind of emotion."

Mayumi put down the telephone receiver in shock. She immediately went to the family Buddhist altar and began to chant the sutras. All she could see were the clear, bright eyes of the happy and lively Kotaro she had known as a child. She had last seen Kotaro a few years ago. He had been a typical gruff teenager then, but his eyes had held the same intelligent gleam of his childhood. To think such a terrible thing had happened to this child. Mayumi's heart filled with pain.

Mayumi prayed for Kotaro. Hiroko moved into Kotaro's apartment and went to visit him at the hospital every day. Seeing this, Mayumi decided one day to invite Hiroko to join Rissho Kosei-kai. Mayumi wanted Hiroko to have the same refuge she herself had found in Rissho Kosei-kai.

Both Hiroko and her husband were quick to join. They were haggard and worn by their son's plight and were eager to grasp at any help that might be offered. From that day on Hiroko chanted the sutras with unmatched fervor.