Attended the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church service celebrating the founding of Nichiren Shu on April 28, 1253. (Or May 17 for the scientists.) This was also the monthly Kaji Kito service.
The founding of the Nichiren school brought to mind the account contained in “Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet” by Masaharu Anesaki:
The young monk, now no longer a seeker after truth, but a reformer filled with ardent zeal, bade farewell to the great center of Buddhism on Hiei and went back to the old monastery on Kiyozumi, which he had left fifteen years before. He visited his parents, and they were his first converts. His old master and fellow monks welcomed him, but to their minds Nichiren, the former Renchō, was nothing more than a promising young man who had seen the world and studied at Hiei. Keeping silence about all his plans and ambitions, Nichiren retired for a while to a forest near the monastery. Everyone in the monastery supposed that he was practicing the usual method of self-purification, which they themselves employed; but, in fact, Nichiren was engaged in a quite different task, and occupied with his original idea, neither shared nor guessed by anyone else.
The seven days of his seclusion, as the tradition says, was a period of fervent prayer, in preparation for launching his plan of reformation and proclaiming his new gospel. When his season of meditative prayer had reached the stage when he was ready to transform it into action, Nichiren one night left the forest and climbed the summit of the hill which commands an unobstructed view of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. When the eastern horizon began to glow with the approaching daybreak, he stood motionless looking toward the East, and as the golden disc of the sun began to break through the haze over the vast expanse of waters, a loud voice, a resounding cry, broke from his lips. It was “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō” “Adoration be to the Lotus of the Perfect Truth!” This was Nichiren’s proclamation of his gospel to heaven and earth, making the all-illumining sun his witness. It happened early in the morning of the twenty-eighth day of the fourth lunar month 1253.
The proclamation of the Lotus of Truth, with the sun as witness, was, indeed, the first step in translating into action the ideal symbolized in his name, the Sun-Lotus. After this unique proclamation, Nichiren came back among human beings, and at noon of the same day, in an assembly hall facing south, he preached his new doctrine, and denounced the prevailing forms of Buddhism, to an audience composed of his old master and fellow monks, and many others. There was none who was not offended by his bold proclamation and fierce attack. Murmurs grew to cries of protest; and when the sermon had been finished, everyone assumed that the poor megalomaniac was mad. The feudal chief ruling that part of the country was so incensed that he would not be satisfied with anything short of the death of the preposterous monk. This lord, who was Nichiren’s mortal foe throughout the subsequent years of his mission, was watching to attack Nichiren, who was now driven out of his old monastery. His master, the abbot, pitied his former pupil, and gave instruction to two elder disciples to take Nichiren to a hidden trail for escape. It was in the dusk of evening that Nichiren made his escape in this way. The sun, which at its rising had beheld Nichiren’s proclamation, the sun which at noon had witnessed Nichiren’s sermon, set as the hunted prophet made his way through the darkness of a wooded trail; only the evening glow was in the sky. What must his thoughts have been? What prospect could he have cherished in his mind for his future career and for the destiny of his gospel?
As Rev. Igarashi pointed out in his sermon, after this declaration Nichiren suffered years of persecution, but he was not unhappy because he was living out the prediction in the Lotus Sutra that those who propagate this sutra in today’s Age of Defilement are sure to be harassed.
Rev. Igarashi explained that he became a monk on April 28, 1968, 53 years ago.
“At that time I was not happy,” he said. “That’s why I decided to become a monk. Maybe I can get something good, I thought. Becoming a monk completely changed my life. Little by little I studied Nichiren Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra and little by little my mind changed. Then I came to the United States and my life was very hard and not happy. Many priest who come from Japan don’t stay because it is very hard. But I stayed because I was happy to propagate the Lotus Sutra here in the United States.”
Just as Nichiren was happy to experience the persecution foretold in the Lotus Sutra, Rev. Igarashi was happy to be propagating the Lotus Sutra in America. He changed his life with the Lotus Sutra.
Rev. Igarashi explained much of our unhappiness stems from our past karma.
“That’s why we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo and feel happy. That’s why I want all of you to chant the Lotus Sutra and Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. If we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo we can change our lives. If we are happy, then I’m pretty sure happiness is coming.”