by Masuo Nezu

These are personal reminiscences about the late founder Rev. Nikkyo Niwano from his former chief secretary, Masuo Nezu, now in retirement. During his years of service, the writer accompanied Rev. Niwano on dissemination tours, interreligious cooperation activities, and peace promotion work, both in Japan and overseas. This series recalls not only heartwarming episodes from the founder's everyday life, but also the spiritual insights derived from his words and deeds.

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"Let's hold a hoza for the Rissho Kosei-kai family"

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.

(Right to left) Rev. Nikkyo Niwano; Rev. Masataka Uchida, director of Rissho Kosei-kai's External Relations Department; and Mrs. Niwano observed the Lotus Sutra chanting ceremony on Sacred Eagle Peak on November 18, 1964.

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.)

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.

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.