My father is dead. He died in 2009. Now I have no role on Father’s Day other than to be appreciative of whatever my wife and son cook up to mark the occasion. At least that was my outlook before Rev. Shoda Kanai’s Shodaigo service from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada.
Following the service, Rev. Kanai discussed our other father, the Eternal Śākyamuni, who has been teaching us since the remotest past. The sermon was something of a revelation for me. While I am very familiar with Chapter 7’s lesson about our link to Śākyamuni when he was among the 16 śramaṇeras who were the sons of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata, the lens of Father’s Day brought this relationship into focus.
“These sixteen Bodhisattvas willingly expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Each of them taught six hundred billion nayutas of living beings, that is, as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those living beings were always accompanied by the Bodhisattva[, by whom they were taught,] in their consecutive existences. [In each of their consecutive existences,] they heard the Dharma from him, and understood it by faith. By the merits [they had thus accumulated], they were given a privilege to see four billion Buddhas, that is, four billion WorldHonored Ones. They have not yet seen all of them. …
“Those living beings who followed me, heard the Dharma from me in order to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Some of them are still in Śrāvakahood. I now teach them the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. They will be able to enter the Way to Buddhahood by my teaching, but not immediately because the wisdom of the Tathāgata is difficult to believe and difficult to understand. Those living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges, whom I taught [ when I was a śramaṇera], included you bhikṣus and those who will be reborn as my disciples in Śrāvakahood after my extinction.
As Śāriputra says in Chapter 3:
Today I have realized that I am your son, that I was born from your mouth, that I was born in [the world of] the Dharma, and that I have obtained the Dharma of the Buddha.”
Rev. Kanai used a quote from Chapter 28 to illustrate his point:
Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sūtra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’ He should be considered to be caressed by me on the head. He should be considered to be covered with my robe.
Happy Father’s Day.