At 10:30am Sunday I joined the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada Kito Blessing Zoom service. Why a Kito blessing two days after the New Year Kito blessing? Rev. Shoda Kanai explained that the New Year’s blessing removes the lingering debris from the previous year and today’s service prepares for the month ahead.

In explaining the purpose of his blessing he offered an analogy of clogged shower drain.   While showering, you find yourself standing in water and realize that the drain is clogged with hair. (Have to imagine this since my hair and the Rev. Shoda Kanai’s hair are cut too short to actually do this.)

Here’s my elaboration: Imagine the shower is your daily practice of sutra recitation and chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, washing away the defilements of daily living. The clogged drain hampers your efforts, leaving you standing in dirty water. Clearing the drain restores the effectiveness of your daily practice.

Or as Rev. Igarashi has explained: In much the way you have to empty a tea cup in order to receive more tea, the Kaji Kito ceremony scoops away some of the bad karma in order to make room for good.

The Kito Blessing service is different in other ways.

Instead of reciting portions of Chapter 2, Hoben Pon, and Chapter 16, Ji Ga Ge, we instead recite the gāthās from Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathagata.

Here’s the same portion in Murano’s translation:

The Buddhas, the World-Saviors, have
Great supernatural powers.
They display their immeasurable, supernatural powers
In order to cause all living beings to rejoice.
The tips of their tongues reach the Heaven of Brahman.
Innumerable rays of light are emitted from their bodies.
For those who are seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha
The Buddhas do these things rarely to be seen.

The sound of coughing of the Buddhas
And the sound of their finger-snapping
Reverberate over the worlds of the ten quarters,
And the ground [of those worlds] quakes in the six ways.

The Buddhas joyfully display
Their immeasurable, supernatural powers
Because [the Bodhisattvas from underground]
[Vow to] keep this sūtra after my extinction.

Even if I praise for innumerable kalpas
The keeper of this sūtra,
To whom it is to be transmitted,
I cannot praise him highly enough.

His merits are as limitless,
As infinite, as boundless
As the skies of the worlds
Of the ten quarters.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra
Will be able to see me. He also will be able to see
Many-Treasures Buddha,
[The Buddhas of] my replicas,
And the Bodhisattvas whom I have taught today.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra will be able to cause me to rejoice.
He also will be able to bring joy
To [the Buddhas of] my replicas
And also to Many-Treasures Buddha who once passed away.

He also will be able to see
The present, past and future Buddhas
Of the worlds of the ten quarters,
Make offerings to them, and cause them to rejoice.

The Buddhas sat at the place of enlightenment,
And obtained the hidden core.
Anyone who keeps this sūtra will be able
To obtain the same before long.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra
Will be able to expound
The meanings of the teachings,
And the names and words [of this sūtra].
Their eloquence will be as boundless
And as unhindered as the wind in the sky.

Anyone who understands why the Buddhas expound [many] sūtras,
Who knows the position [of this sūtra in the series of sūtras],
And who expounds it after my extinction
According to its true meaning,
Will be able to eliminate the darkness
Of the living beings of the world where he walks about,
Just as the light of the sun and the moon
Eliminates all darkness.
He will be able to cause innumerable Bodhisattvas
To dwell finally in the One Vehicle.

Therefore, the man of wisdom
Who hears the benefits of these merits
And who keeps this sūtra after my extinction,
Will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
Definitely and doubtlessly.

This is followed by a Prayer of Repentance and the Dharani Jinshu.

All of this does an effective job of setting the stage for the actual purification blessing.

---

At 12:30pm I joined the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area for their weekly service.

Here’s a recording of the Shami Ryugan Herrick’s lecture on Chapter 3 of the Lotus Sutra and subsequent discussion.