On my altar is a quote from Nichiren’s letter, Hōren-shō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 56-57.
As you read and recite the ‘jiga-ge’ verse, you produce 510 golden characters. Each of these characters transforms itself to be the sun, which in turn changes to Śākyamuni Buddha, who emits the rays of bright light shining through the earth, the three evil realms (hell, realm of hungry spirits and that of beasts), the Hell of Incessant Suffering, and to all the directions in the north, south, east, and west. They shine upward to the ‘Heaven of neither Thought nor Non-Thought’ at the top of the realm of non-form looking everywhere for the souls of the departed.
This was originally created to honor the wife’s father. At my request, Rev. Igarashi decorated this with the Daimoku and characters for Fudo and Aizen. After the memorial service for my father-in-law, I made this an object of devotion for all of the dead.
When the wife and I heard a few weeks ago of the death of Caleb Bodine she wrote his name and date of death on a Post-It note and I attached it to the frame holding the Hōren-shō quote.
Morning and evening each day thereafter I concluded my Daimoku chanting with three Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo especially for his spirit.
What did I expect to happen? In his Hōren-shō letter, Nichiren explains the effect of chanting for the souls of the departed.
Upon finding the spirit of your father, they politely say, “Whom do you think we are? We are the characters of the ‘jiga-ge’ of the Lotus Sūtra chanted by your son Hōren every morning. We will be your eyes, ears, legs, and hands.” Then your father’s spirit will say, “My son, Hōren, is not my son but a ‘good friend’ who leads me to Buddhahood,” and worship you toward the Sahā World. This is indeed true filial piety.
In another letter, Nichiren tells what happens when a calligrapher writes the characters for the title of the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sutra.
Thus I-lung was forced to copy the titles of the sūtra, namely, from “The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, Fascicle One” to “The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, Fascicle Eight.” Returning home in the evening, I-lung lamented, “I was unable to disobey the Imperial order, and went against the will of my father by copying the Buddhist sūtra. Both the heavenly gods and terrestrial deities must be furious with me for being an unfilial son.” He then went to bed.
During the night he had a dream in which a great light appeared. While wondering whether or not it was the morning sunlight, a heavenly being accompanied by many attendants was standing in the garden, and there appeared 64 Buddhas in the sky above this heavenly being. Pressing the two palms of his hands together in gasshō, I-lung inquired, “What kind of heavenly being are you?” The heavenly being answered:
“I am your father Wu-lung. Due to my sin of slandering the Buddhist Dharma, my tongue split into eight pieces, my five sense organs bled, my head was broken into seven pieces, and I fell into the Hell of Incessant Suffering. I thought the torment at my death was unbearable indeed. Nevertheless, the pain in the Hell of Incessant Suffering was one hundred, one thousand, one hundred million times more severe. Even the pain a human being experiences when his nails are removed by a dull knife, his neck is sawed off, he is forced to walk on a charcoal fire, or crammed into thorns cannot compare to the torment in the Hell of Incessant Suffering. I tried in vain to inform my own son of this. One could not measure the regret I felt that I willed to you at my death not to copy the Buddhist sūtras. However, regret does not mend matters. It did not do any good no matter how much I regretted and blamed myself.
“Starting yesterday morning, however, the character myō at the beginning of the Lotus Sūtra came flying over the tripod kettle in the Hell of Incessant Suffering, transforming itself into the golden colored Śākyamuni Buddha equipped with the 32 marks of physical excellence and a peaceful face like the full moon. The Buddha preached in a resounding voice, ‘All the evil persons, as many as to fill the heaven and earth, will not fail to attain Buddhahood if only they hear the Lotus Sūtra once.’ Then heavy rain began to fall from those characters, extinguishing the blazes in the Hell of Incessant Suffering. As a result, King Yama, though strict as he is, bowed his head in respect, the guards of the hell stood still without their iron sticks, and the sinners all panicked wondering what was happening. Then came flying the character ‘hō,’ appearing just like the ‘myō.’ It was followed by the characters ‘ren,’ ‘ge,’ and ‘kyō.’ Altogether 64 characters thus came flying to become 64 bodies of the Buddha. The 64 Buddhas appearing in the Hell of Incessant Suffering seemed as though 64 suns and moons appeared in the heaven. Nectar rained from the heaven bathing the sinners in hell, who asked the Buddha the reason why this merry occurrence had taken place. The 64 Buddhas answered: “Our golden bodies did not come from the mountain of sandalwoods and treasures; they are the titles of the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sūtra, each consists of eight Chinese characters and therefore 64 in total, written by Ilung, son of Wu-lung, who is in the Hell of Incessant Suffering at present. The hand of I-lung is a part of the body begotten by Wu-lung, therefore, the characters written by I-lung are as though they were written by Wu-lung.’
“Upon hearing this the sinners in the Hell of Incessant Suffering lamented in vain: ‘We also have children, wives, followers in the Sahā World. Why do they not hold memorial services for us? Or, is it that even if they hold services, they don’t help us here because there is not enough merit of good acts?’ One or two days, one or two years, a half or one kalpa (aeon) have passed since we fell into this hell. I am now happy to encounter a ‘good friend,’ who will lead me out of hell while my fellow sinners are glad to follow me to go up to the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven led by you. Therefore, we came to worship you first of all.”
Upon listening to his late father’s account, I-lung was overjoyed to be able to see his father, whom he did not expect to meet again, and to worship the figures of Buddhas, though in a dream.
The 64 Buddhas then spoke to I-lung, “We do not serve any Buddha. As you are our patron, beginning today we will protect you as our parent, therefore please do not forget to help us. In the life hereafter, we will without fail come to lead you to the inner palace of the Tuṣita Heaven.” In response, I-lung respectfully vowed never to write the characters of non-Buddhist scriptures. It was similar to the vow made by Bodhisattva Vasubandhu who pledged not to read the Hinayāna sutras and Nichiren who vowed never to chant the nembutsu.
Today was the Higan service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. Before the service I gave Rev. Igarashi my list of relatives for whom I was requesting prayers and a separate paper I had prepared with a photo of Caleb and asked Rev. Igarashi to include Caleb in the prayers today.
