BO JIKYO Jl

You (Jonin Toki) brought your mother’s ashes to Minobu and placed it at the altar where the Buddha Sakyamuni, our original teacher, is enshrined. Prostrating yourself in front of the altar, holding your hands together in gassho, you paid homage to the Buddha. You have overcome your sorrow at your mother’s death and firmly believed your mother being saved by the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Thus, you were released from your sorrow.

All of your body – your head, hands, legs, and mouth – are all inherited from your parents. This kinship between your parents and you is like the relationship between seed and fruit. Therefore, as your mother is saved, you are also saved by the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

(Background : March 1276, 54 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.1151)

Explanatory note

Blinging with them the ashes of their deceased par. ents, many followers from all over Japan came to Nichiren Daishonin on Mt. Minobu. It was because they wished their parents’ memorial services conducted by Nichiren himself, and have the ashes buried in the sacred grounds of Mt.Minobu, where Nichiren made his residence. Tokuro Moritsuna of Sado, for example, buried the ashes of his father, Abutsubo, after a service by Nichiren there.

Nichiren Daishonin’s words presented here were addressed to Jonin Toki. According to this letter, Lord Toki came to Minobu with the ashes of his deceased mother, and held a memorial service, buried the ashes, and went home. He felt so relieved upon completion of the burial that he left his personal belongings including his sutra book behind, prompting Nichiren to make a joke saying, “You are the most forgetful person in Japan.”

Nichiren was greatly moved by Jonin Toki’s devotion to his mother and explained to him that his mother’s attainment of Buddhahood and his own attainment, while still in the flesh, were one and the same.

The late mother of Jonin was a woman of strong faith who had looked up to Nichiren. She often sent him robes which she herself sewed. Nichiren knew well how grieved Jonin was to have lost his mother.

Each of us has to experience the same grief. We realize that our bodies are inherited from our parents. so are our souls. As Nichiren has often pointed out to us, the Lotus Sutra is the teaching of a lotus: when the lotus blooms, its pedestal is already prepared, and a seed is already in the flower. Likewise, when a parent receives salvation in the world of the Lotus Sutra and has attained Buddhahood, the child is also assured of his own attainment of Buddhahood while still in the flesh. The relationship between parents and children is like that of a seed and its fruit or a body and its shadow.
This indicates the oneness of parents and children, and symbolically shows that the salvation of the Lotus Sutra extends not only to one person but to the world as a whole encompassed by the Lotus Sutra, the world of oneness of self and others.

Let us all seek the salvation in the world of the Lotus Sutra, where our original teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni is. It is attainable through our earnest faith and prayer for the attainment of Buddhahood for our parents and ances-
tors.

Rev. Ikuta

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