On Sept. 2, 2018, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi held a followup lesson on Ichinen Sanzen, building upon what he discussed on Aug. 12. The first lesson dealt with the logic; this lesson the character.

“What is our self, our character,” asked Rev. Igarashi. “Where does it come from?”

To set the stage for his lesson, Rev. Igarashi contrasted Western ideas with his own “Oriental” view. (I suppose when a Japanese man describes himself as Oriental it cannot be considered offensive. I’ll stick to Asian in this discussion, however.)

In the west, he explained, a child’s character is molded and shaped by the parents and the immediate environment. It is as if the child is a blank slate or an empty vessel, and character is decoration added from the outside.

In Asia, he explained, “All character comes from the spirit, not from outside.”

Tapping on the chalkboard illustration of Ichinen Sanzen, he said, “That’s why this idea is very important.”

“Our spirit is born in the realm of men and our action is in the realm of men. But also we have Buddha realm, bodhisattva realm,” he said, explaining each person is unique, that our previous life created our current life.

“Perhaps in a previous life our actions were in the realm of asuras or animals, and that’s why we have trouble,” he said. “Or maybe our actions were in the realm of Bodhisattavas or Sravakas and our present life is better.

“Nichiren Shonin said, If you want to know your previous life then look at your present life. If you want to know about your future life, look at your present life.”

“Our character, all our self, comes from our previous life, from our spirit, not just from what happens after we are born,” he stressed. “We cannot make character after we are born through education.”

After the class a young Japanese woman who is new to Nichiren Buddhism asked me whether I agreed with Rev. Igarashi’s comparison of Western and Asian views on character and I said I did.

I feel this is illustrated most clearly by the Western focus on our life as a single event. Nothing happened before therefore only today and tomorrow matter.

The Asian view is nicely illustrated is this quote from the Lotus Sutra in Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva:

“A woman who, wishing to have a boy, bows and makes offerings to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva, will be able to give birth to a boy endowed with merits, virtues and wisdom. [A woman] who, wishing to have a girl, [does the same,] will be able to give birth to a beautiful girl who will be loved and respected by many people because of the roots of virtue which the [newly-born] girl planted in her previous existence.

Underscore a boy endowed with merits, virtues and wisdom and a beautiful girl who will be loved and respected by many people because of the roots of virtue which the [newly-born] girl planted in her previous existence.

I find this view of life so much more appealing than the Western view of a God, loving or vengeful, who controls our fate, or creates a plan for our life or abandons us in the illusion of free will.

The following service included a seven-year memorial prayer for a church member’s deceased relative. Rev. Igarashi used his sermon to explain how Ichinen Sanzen comes to bear on our memorial prayers.

In both of his class lectures on Ichinen Sanzen he explained that these 3000 realms in a single moment are not limited to sentient beings. The entire universe – sentient and insentient – is contained within those 3000 realms.

In his lectures, he used a piece of chalk to illustrate this. Sunday he picked up a pencil.

“This pencil has Ichinen Sanzen, too,” he said. “This pencil can’t act but if I use it to write down something about Buddhism and someone reads what was written and understands Buddhism, this pencil, therefore, makes good actions. If this pencil is used to poke someone in the eye, this pencil’s action is pretty bad. That’s how this pencil has Ichinen Sanzen and bad karma and good karma.”

The deceased relatives can be likened to the pencil. When they die they lose the ability to act on their own behalf.

“This is like the pencil,” he said. “It cannot do anything. But we can pray and pass on our merit. Eventually that spirit will gain our benefit of chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo and reciting the Lotus Sutra.

“That’s why we perform memorial services for deceased people.”