July 2009

Rissho Kosei-kai Holds Ullambana Ceremony

The annual Ullambana ceremony, in which members transfer religious merit to their ancestors by chanting the Lotus Sutra and making offerings, was held July 15 in the Great Sacred Hall at Rissho Kosei-kai headquarters in Tokyo and Rissho Kosei-kai Dharma Centers throughout Japan. The ceremony in the Great Sacred Hall was attended by some 3,000 members from 96 Dharma Centers across Japan.

In the Great Sacred Hall, sutra chanting led by President-designate Kosho Niwano was followed by an offering at the altar by sixteen women members. Then the president-designate and 255 representative members who were all qualified Dharma teachers of Rissho Kosei-kai read out posthumous Buddhist names of the departed. The president-designate offered a Buddhist prayer of merit transfer on behalf of President Nichiko Niwano.

After one member testified to personal experience of the faith, President Niwano gave a Dharma talk. He said the ceremony was based on Shakyamuni's teaching addressed to his disciple Maudgalyayana on the importance of donation, when Maudgalyayana wished to save his mother from suffering in the realm of hungry spirits. President Niwano emphasized the importance of cultivating compassion through donation. Quoting the words of Shinran in Tannisho (A Record in Lament of Divergences), "For all sentient beings, without exception, have been our parents and brothers and sisters in the course of countless lives in many states of existence," President Niwano explained that all living beings on earth are precious existences sharing one common life. Then, speaking of Shakyamuni's wish to save each and every living being, he emphasized that to walk the Buddha Way is to dedicate our lives to the salvation of all humanity. Since all people are born with the Three Poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, he said, our own sufferings enable us to sympathize with others who suffer.

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