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.

6

See the Good Side of Others

It was in the early 1950s, shortly after the establishment of the Youth Division, that members of the division asked Founder Niwano for guidance in the form of a big hoza counseling session. They had detected what they thought was some discord between words and deeds among the organization's leaders and wanted to know how they ought to deal with it.

Rev. Niwano first illustrated his point with a Buddhist parable: "A man once tried to show the moon to another man who had asked him to do so by pointing to it with his finger. The second man, however, failed to see the moon, only looking at the pointing finger. The first man said to the second, "I tried to show the moon to you, but all you did was stare at what was right in front of you, my finger."

Thus Rev. Niwano persuaded the young people to change their attitude, saying, "Since I was a boy, I have always tried to see the good aspects and virtuous side of others, and to appropriate those qualities for my own benefit. When I was an elementary school pupil, others at the school sometimes criticized one of our teachers, claiming that his attitude was not good or that he was known to drink too much, and so on. But I did not care at all about such things. I concentrated only on seeing his good qualities, and learning from them. Thanks to that effort, I have become what I am today. You young people had better not concentrate on the shortcomings of senior leaders, but try to look beyond them and improve your own character by overlooking minor faults in others. If you do that, I think you will not be so bothered by the appearance of things from now on."