Attended the Fall Higan service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. Rev. Igarashi used the occasion to explain the difference between Obon and Higan, since both involve memorial services for our ancestors.

Rev. Igarashi explained that the two are completely different. For one telling of the story of Obon see Urobon-e or consider this excerpt from Nichiren’s On the Ullambana Service.

For Obon, Rev. Igarashi said, we just invite our ancestors to visit and serve them a lot of food and chanting. Higan, on the other hand, is a full week of focusing on the six paramitas.

As explained by the Nichiren Shu brochure on Higan, the Six Paramitas are:

1. fuse means to offer one’s self wholeheartedly and unconditionally, without any expectation of its return.
2. jikai is to follow and maintain the general precepts of the Buddha.
3. nin-niku suggests a resilience to persevere through hardship.
4. syojin refers to the necessity of conscientious effort in accomplishing one’s goals.
5. zenjo points to qualities existent in meditation, calling upon one’s concentration, adjoined by calmness and poise.
6. Chie is the Buddha’s wisdom, reinforced with its practical application.

In Rev. Igarashi’s telling, jikai or precepts, the 250 or 500 Hinayāna rules governing behavior of monks and nuns, were replaced by Nichiren with chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. In the age of Mappō, the latter age of degeneration, chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō is jikai. “Just chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. That’s the same thing as upholding the precepts,” Rev. Igarashi explained.

“It is very important to understand that precepts is practice,” Rev. Igarashi said. “Of all the paramitas, the most important is practice.”

After a retelling of the Parable of the Magic City, Rev. Igarashi said:

“That’s why we need more practice, practice, practicing. We need to extinguish our bad karma, otherwise we will never get a better life. That’s why we need more practicing.”