Enjoyed attending the Kaji Kito service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church Sunday. By the time the next Kaji Kito service is held on June 27 Rev. Kenjo Igarashi hopes to be able to return to individual blessings. For more than a year now, the group blessings has had to suffice.

Following the blessing Rev. Igarashi gave a sermon that covered a number of points. For me, the most notable point was the difference in the motivation of Nichiren to become a monk in comparison to the other Kamakura-era reformers – Honen, Shinran and Dogen. Nichiren had questions he wanted resolved, most important why people are born into this suffering world. The other reformers were placed by their families or because their parents had died.

That search for answers brought Nichiren to the realization that the greatest sin one can commit is to slander the Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus Sutra, Nichiren found, was the Supreme Teaching. In the Lotus Sutra everyone is equal. Everybody can become a Buddha because everyone has the Buddha nature in their mind.

“That’s why we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo to awaken our Buddha nature,” Rev. Igarashi said. “That’s why we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo so that our Buddha nature will come out some day. Then we can make a paradise in this world.”