by Masuo Nezu

The Wife of the Chief Priest of a Zen Temple

These days, particularly in urban areas, many babies are raised on powdered milk formula instead of being breast-fed. But years ago, when Rev. Niwano visited a Zen temple in Niigata Prefecture, he heard that the wife of the chief priest was distressed at being unable to breast-feed her infant properly.

Learning this, Rev. Niwano asked her whether she was honoring the spirits of the ancestors of the parishioners.

She indicated that she had not been offering such things as water, boiled rice, incense, or flowers at the temple altars, or reciting sutras.

Rev. Niwano suggested that she should begin to care for the spirits of the ancestors of the parishioners. Not honoring them properly is just like not offering food to those in the afterworld following their deaths. They are spiritually starved. Particularly during the time of her husband's absence from the temple, it was the duty of the wife to read the sutra and make offerings, he told her.

Following Rev. Niwano's advice, the chief priest's wife began chanting sutras and honoring those spirits sincerely. Soon after, it is said, she was able to feed her baby sufficiently with her own milk.

She understood through her own experience the importance of ancestor veneration through sutra recitation. She became diligent in doing so.

It is said that even in a Zen temple, the priests are accustomed to recite some chapters of the Lotus Sutra.

Lectures to Hoju Students

Rev. Niwano gives guidance to students of the Hoju Vocational College for Women in Tokyo on November 21, 1995.

In November 1995, Rev. Niwano addressed the students of Hoju Vocational College for Women in Tokyo, which is affiliated with Rissho Kosei-kai. Before all the students gathered in Serenity Hall, neighboring the college, he first opened the Kyoden: Sutra Readings (extracts of essential parts of the Threefold Lotus Sutra used by Rissho Kosei-kai members for daily recitation) and quoted from chapter 3, "Ten Merits," of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.

His sermon about the "Ten Merits" was very comprehensible and concrete. In it, he enthusiastically taught the students the state of mind that people ought to have. The students were deeply impressed, and many of them said later that they had reported to their parents what they had learned.

Incidentally, around that time, Dr. Gene Reeves, former dean of the Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago and recently retired from teaching at Japan's University of Tsukuba, who was doing research, teaching, and writing on the Lotus Sutra, also lectured to the Hoju students in the same hall. He said in part, "Rissho Kosei-kai teaches the Lotus Sutra. And the Lotus Sutra is a message for the whole world--a message of harmony through respect and generosity which is needed by the entire world.

"For me, Rev. Niwano is one of the great discoverers of the true meaning of the Lotus Sutra," Dr. Reeves added. "In Rev. Niwano we have received a very special gift, very rarely seen." The students were thrilled to hear such words from a scholar born in the United States.

Making the Sutra Understandable

The late Most Venerable Etai Yamada, the 253rd head priest of the Tendai Buddhist denomination, was on very close terms with Founder Niwano. When, at the invitation of Pope John Paul II, more than 150 religious leaders from around the world gathered at Assisi, Italy, to take part in a World Day of Prayer for Peace in October 1986, each religious group prayed according to its own rites. Rev. Yamada observed the Rissho Kosei-kai members' prayer and sutra recitation led by Rev. Nichiko Niwano, then president-designate, who was attending on behalf of Founder Niwano and was much impressed. He said, "Their feelings of reverence and devotion are expressed naturally in the form of their prayer."

About the sutra recitation in the Japanese reading of Chinese characters conducted by Rissho Kosei-kai members, he continued: "What to do in order to make everybody understand and how to implement what one can understand are what Founder Niwano always emphasized. This is apparent even in sutra recitation."

Recently, on occasions such as memorial services for parishioners in traditional Buddhist denominations, the sutras written in the Japanese reading of Chinese characters are used to achieve better understanding. Dr. Reeves' translation of the Lotus Sutra into English is another attempt to increase understanding.

This series of articles was originally published in Japanese in 2000 under the title Kaiso Zuimonki: Egao no Ushirosugata.