by Gene Reeves

International Conferences Begin

About ten years ago, I was able to get support from Rissho Kosei-kai and encouragement from Founder Niwano to initiate a series of international conferences on the Lotus Sutra. Though each of them has been small by intention, these conferences have served to introduce the Lotus Sutra and Rissho Kosei-kai to a large number of scholars, both foreign and Japanese, and Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish, or in some cases to deepen their understanding of the sutra. When we began, very little attention was being given to the Lotus Sutra in America, either by those teaching Buddhism in colleges and universities or by theologians interested in Buddhist--Christian dialogue. Our little conferences have contributed to changing that situation. This was evident, for example, when I participated in the Parliament of the World's Religions held in South Africa in 1999 and attended a panel of Buddhist and Christian scholars discussing interfaith relations. Of the five people on the panel, four brought the Lotus Sutra into their presentations in one way or another. All four had participated in one of our international conferences.

Quite a few of the presentations for those conferences have been collected into a book published in 2002 by Kosei Publishing Company. It's called A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra. The name, suggested by Dr. Shinozaki, is very appropriate, as this large collection ranges over a wide variety of issues related to the Lotus Sutra.

I have often given papers on the Lotus Sutra at conferences in various places around the world, including the Parliament in South Africa, the Buddhist Library in Singapore, temples in Taiwan and China where women study to become nuns, and at various universities and religious organizations in the United States. Some years ago, the Chicago church of Rissho Kosei-kai asked me to do a public lecture under their sponsorship, and it soon turned into an annual event which has continued to this day. I've also given talks on the Lotus Sutra at Congresses of the IARF.

On October 12, 1998, Dr. Reeves (center) gave a Dharma Talk to overseas Rissho Kosei-kai members staying in the Second Group Pilgrimage Hall for a Lotus Sutra seminar during their pilgrimage to the Tokyo headquarters.

In recent years I have been able to participate in Advanced Seminars for English-speaking leaders of Rissho Kosei-kai in the United States. In 2003, it was especially encouraging to hear people from various walks of life speak with understanding and enthusiasm about the Lotus Sutra. Rissho Kosei-kai has not had great success in attracting non-Japanese speaking people to its churches. But there are signs now that this situation may be changing, as some articulate English-speaking leaders arise in the various branch churches overseas.

As I studied the Lotus Sutra more carefully in Japanese and Chinese, it became more and more apparent to me that a more modern, more easily readable English-language version was needed. I was, and remain, convinced that if the vision of Rissho Kosei-kai as the vehicle for spreading the Lotus Sutra and its teachings to the West is to be realized even partially, a new translation is almost desperately needed to replace the one which was the very first full translation into English of The Threefold Lotus Sutra. So I have devoted as much of my time as I could to working on this fresh translation. The basic translating has been completed for some time now, but additional checking and editing still remains to be done before it can be published.

I have been retired from the University of Tsukuba for several years, and am able to give virtually all of my time to making the Lotus Sutra available to the whole world. Now we are trying to develop a congregation for English-speaking people living in the Tokyo area. It's called the International Buddhist Congregation (IBC). It provides me with many opportunities to explain or talk about the Lotus Sutra in the form of Dharma Talks at regular Sunday morning services.

The sutra itself teaches us that we should expect to be faced with many difficulties if we attempt to spread the Lotus Sutra. The progress of my own work has sometimes seemed unacceptably slow, proving perhaps that I have not yet mastered the bodhisattva practice of patience. Yet there are encouraging signs.

IBC services are usually held in a worship hall on the fourth floor of Gakurin and occasionally in the larger former headquarters of the organization. In either case, rather large photographs of Cofounder Mrs. Myoko Naganuma and Founder Niwano are displayed on either side of the altar. Whenever I am about to give a Dharma Talk, I quietly recite the o-daimoku, the title of the Lotus Sutra, and take a good look at the picture of the smiling face of Founder Niwano. I firmly believe that we are enormously indebted to those who came before us and transmitted the Lotus Sutra to us and that this places on us a kind of obligation to pass this sutra on to others.

In this case we are indebted to a long series of devotees of the Lotus Sutra, beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha himself, including such important figures as Kumarajiva, who translated it into Chinese; T'ien-t'ai Chih-i, who both deeply penetrated its meaning and placed it in a systematic context; Prince Shotoku, who was responsible for it becoming an important part of Japanese culture from the beginning; Saicho, Dengyo Daishi, who founded Mount Hiei and the Tendai School of Japanese Buddhism; Nichiren, who popularized the sutra and contributed powerfully to its continuing impact on the lives of everyday people; and to Nikkyo Niwano, the founder of Rissho Kosei-kai. These outstanding and well-known figures are, of course, representative of a whole host of witnesses to and devotees of the Lotus Sutra, the "tens of millions of billions of bodhisattvas" who have sprung up from the earth over many centuries.

In a sense, Nikkyo Niwano, smiling down at me from that photograph, represents that whole bold and rich tradition. In a sense, like Nichiren before him and all of the others, he is a modern Superior Practice Bodhisattva, the leader of the great host of bodhisattvas who spring up from the earth in chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra. When I stand with my back to the congregation looking at his face, if only for a few seconds, he encourages me to do my best to teach the Lotus Sutra to the congregation assembled then before us.

Dr. Gene Reeves is currently studying, teaching, and writing on Buddhism in Tokyo. He was recently a research fellow at Rikkyo University and prior to that retired from the University of Tsukuba. Before coming to Japan in 1989, Dr. Reeves was the dean of Meadville/Lombard Theological School and professorial lecturer in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He is also the international advisor to the International Buddhist Congregation of Rissho Kosei-kai and the Niwano Peace Foundation.

This article originally appeared in Japanese translation in the November 16, 2003 edition of the Kosei Shimbun newspaper.