I attended the Sunday service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and picked up an omamori that I asked Rev. Igarashi to create for a friend who is pregnant. You can see the omamori in the center of the above picture.
One of the tangible benefits of being a member of a Nichiren Shū church with a priest who has survived five 100-day ascetic trials to gain special merits and knowledge is the chance to call upon all of the resources Buddhism offers. May my friend’s pregnancy be uncomplicated.
And on the topic of babies, Rev. Igarashi’s lecture dealt with just how rare it is that we are born as humans and even rarer that we are born as humans and encounter the Lotus Sūtra.
Nichiren described being born human as rare as the one-eyed turtle finding a suitable hollow in a floating log, or a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the eye of a needle on earth.
The reference to the turtle comes from the Miscellaneous Āgama Sutra. The story is told of a blind turtle, whose life span is immeasurable kalpas. The turtle lives at the bottom of the sea. Once every 100 years, it rises to the surface. There is only one log floating in the sea with a suitable hollow in it. Since the turtle is blind and the log is tossed about by the wind and waves, the likelihood of the turtle reaching the log is extremely remote. It is even rarer, says Śākyamuni, to be born a human being; having succeeded in doing so, one should use the opportunity to master the four noble truths and attain deliverance.
“That is why Nichiren Shonin said, ‘If you are born into this world if you waste your life then don’t regret after you pass away’, ” said Rev. Igarashi.
Unfortunately, many people don’t share their Buddhism for fear of what others might say. This, Rev. Igarashi said, is like the Aesop fable “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey.”
A man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”
Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.
“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them: “PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”
Rev. Igarashi said, “You have to think about why you are born into this world. Not just enjoy your life or make money. We are born into this world to practice Buddhism and get enlightenment and then try to save other people. …
“Practice and study the Lotus Sūtra, then if you understand only just a little bit you have to talk to other people and try to save them. That’s why we are born into this world. Now we can chant Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and chant the Lotus Sūtra so we don’t waste our time. We try to get enlightenment and don’t end up regretting after we pass away. …
“Please practice for yourself first, study, then if you understand just a little bit of Lotus Sūtra and Nichiren Buddhism maybe you become a very rookie Bodhisattvas. Then you try to save other people and move up the rungs of Bodhisattvas. …
“Try to practice and study and don’t waste your time.”