HOKKE SHUYO SHO

Since the time immemorial all the people on the earth have been the Buddha Sakyamuni’s beloved children. We had not realized the relationship, because we had been undutiful children. It is a unique relationship. As the moon reflects on calm water, the Buddha appears in our calm mind.

(Background : 1274, 52 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.812)

Explanatory note

Although people think that the Buddha Sakyamuni was born in India (today’s Nepal) about 2,500 years ago, He has been stretching His hands to save us from the eternal past. According to chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, it was five hundred dust-particle kalpa ago that the Buddha Sakyamuni became the Buddha. Suppose a person —smashes a world into dust particles and deposits one of the particles in a world which he comes across after he passes many worlds. By putting one of the particles in another world at the same distance, he passes countless worlds until the dust particles are exhausted. The five hundred dust-particle kalpa means much longer time than the number of dust-particles are distributed in this way.

Thus, the Buddha has been trying to have us attain Buddhahood since that many kalpa ago, and even now He is preaching to us on Mt. Sacred Eagle. But we have not listened to His words and have not realized the compassion of the Buddha.

Nichiren Daishonin said that all beings originate from the Eternal Buddha, and that if the people do not realize the relationship of the Eternal Buddha and His children, they are undutiful children of the Buddha. We must appreciate the great compassion of the Buddha.

Rev. Kanai