Curing Karmic Disease
Oko Sermon July 2004
Reverend Shindo Imafuku
The eighth volume of the Maka Shikan explains, “Vimalakirti utilized his sickbed in Vaishali to expound his teachings . . . The Tathagata used his death to teach the eternity of life and clarified the power of Buddhism through sickness.” Another passage from the Maka Shikan says, “There are six causes of illness: 1) disharmony of the four elements; 2) immoderate eating or drinking; 3) poor posture; 4) an attack by demons from without; 5) the work of devils from within; and 6) the effects of karma.” (Gosho, p. 910; MWND-2, p. 247)
Good morning everyone. Today, on this occasion of the July Oko sermon in our expression of gratitude to our master Nichiren Daishonin, I have sincerely recited the sutras and chanted Daimoku together with you. Moreover, I have sincerely prayed for you to eliminate your sins and negative karma from this and infinite past lifetimes; for you to redouble your faith; for you to enjoy a safe and long life; for peace and harmony to reign in your home; for all matters to proceed forth smoothly; and for the successful achievement of all your great objectives in this and future existences. I am certain that the Daishonin would be truly pleased to see so many of you in attendance today.
Summer has arrived in the American northwest. This is my first summer in San Francisco, and I am amazed at the great difference in temperature between the hot afternoons and the cool nights. I had heard of the temperature difference, but I could not have imagined the tremendous extent of this difference. Therefore, when I visit various areas and conduct home visitations in the evening, I have learned not to forget to take along a jacket, even though it is summer. Since I am not accustomed to the weather, I am trying my best to avoid catching a cold. Even so, I may be unable to avoid a cold or two, since I am only human.
The Gosho passage that we are focused on today is from “Curing Karmic Disease.” This Gosho was written on the 3rd day of the 11th month of the first year of Kenji (1275). Nichiren Daishonin, who was living in Minobu, was 54 years of age, and he addressed this letter to Ota Nyudo, who lived in Yawata-no-sho, in Katsushika County in Shimofusa. Ota Nyudo was a man of the samurai warrior class. He renounced the Shingon sect and became the Daishonin’s disciple. Later in his life, he became a priest and took the name Jomyo. “Nyudo,” which literally means “entering the Way,” signifies the entry of a person into Buddhism and the embracing of the Buddhist doctrines. It originally represented a person who entered the priesthood. From the Heian period, around the 9th to 10th centuries, in Japan, people made a distinction between those who continued to live a secular life, but who shaved their heads and became priests, and those who became priests and lived in the temples. The former priests in secular residences were called “nyudo,” and the latter priests in the temples were referred to as “shukke.”
This Gosho represented the Daishonin’s response to a letter written to him by Ota Nyudo. In it Ota Nyudo wrote that he had been ill. Anyone who hears the word “illness” would immediately have a rejection response, since no one wants to be sick. However, I am certain that there are some among you who are already ill and some who are combating disease. I am also certain that there are many among you who are enjoying good health.
Human beings tend to think light of illnesses when they are young and healthy. As such, it is human nature not to be terribly sympathetic towards those who are sick. In the Gosho, “Letter to Konichi-bo,” the Daishonin wrote the following:
No matter what malady one may suffer from, as it worsens, he will think that no illness could be more dreadful than his. (Gosho, p. 962; MWND-4, p. 155)
Here, the Daishonin described the spiritual weakness against disease that we possess as common mortals, as we convince ourselves that there is no condition worse than what we are experiencing in our current illness. As humans, we will inevitably fall ill. There is no one who never becomes ill during his lifetime. In the Gosho, “On the Buddha’s Behavior,” the Daishonin wrote:
If you try to treat someone’s illness without knowing what the cause of the illness is, you will only make the person sicker than before. (Gosho, p. 1067; MWND-1 p.)
The Daishonin instructed that arbitrarily treating an illness without knowing the cause would only aggravate the illness.
When you hear the word “illness,” there may be many among you who only think of physical illnesses. However, the Daishonin wrote the following in his Gosho:
The Lotus Sutra represents a good elixir for the maladies of both the body and the mind. (Gosho, p. 1222)
Thus, there are illnesses of the body and the mind, and the Lotus Sutra is the supreme medicine that can cure these various diseases. The following passage appears in the Juryo chapter of the gongyo that we recite every morning and evening:
Zeko ryoyaku. Konru zai shi. Nyo ka shu buku. Mottsu fu sai.
I will leave this good medicine here. You should take it and not worry that it will not cure you.
“This good medicine” refers to the Great Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo from the infinite past of kuon-ganjo, which Nichiren Daishonin, as the True Buddha from the infinite past of kuon-ganjo, practiced, enlightened to, and revealed. Today, it signifies the Dai-Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of True Buddhism. The location referred to in the phrase “I will leave . . . here” represents the Head Temple Taiseki-ji. The sentence, “You should take it,” means that we must chant the Daimoku of the essential teaching and save every person in the Latter Day of the Law. Our High Priest stated, “It is alright, if, during Daimoku, you feel that you would like to use some means to effect a change. Even such people who are in a life condition that causes them to seek their own means would be saved through chanting Daimoku, as it is set forth in the Nyorai Juryo chapter of the Lotus Sutra.” The Daimoku is a truly precious doctrine.
I would now like to refer to this month’s Gosho passage and explain the karmic cause of why illnesses occur. According to the passage, we see that there are six causes of illness. I will describe each such cause.
The first cause is the disharmony of the four elements. The human body and the formulation of the universe possess characteristics that are solid, fluid, warm, and mobile. It would seem that fluidity and mobility appear to be similar, but the fluid is exemplified by water. The warmth is represented by fire. In this world, everything seems to possess a nature that causes it to solidify. For example, let us try to imagine the structure of the universe. The universe represents the gradual congregation of the various elements that were present throughout space. Dust particles accumulated and caused fire to create fixed stars or planets. There are many elements that solidify in this way. The wind represents moving air. The entire world is made of the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. The earth and its people are all a part of this. The nature to solidify caused the composition of our physical body. The fluid blood that flows within us represents the fluidity of water. Our breathing denotes the action of the wind. And our warm body temperature represents fire. In other words, the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space constitute our physical bodies and give us life. When these five elements begin to fight with one another, we experience illness. When the fire intensifies, we experience fever. When the wind intensifies, we experience colds and joint problems. When the water content increases, we find kidney diseases. The illnesses associated with fire target the heart. We can come down with various other illnesses as well. The karmic sins of killing living things, using abusive language, engaging in immoral behavior, drinking alcohol in excess, and stealing function to transform the five elements to cause illnesses.
The second cause is immoderate eating or drinking. If a person eats and drinks because he enjoys the taste but overindulges in ingesting foods and beverages, he destroys moderate harmony and balance. In tangible form such immoderate behavior is manifested as illnesses; however, in essence, this behavior is caused by greed and stupidity within that individual’s heart. In other words, it is caused by a foolish heart that fails to understand the causal relationship among things. A person in this state eats and drinks excessively as a result.
The next cause is poor posture. This refers to the fact that a spirit that remains unstable leads to various maladies. In recent times, there are many illnesses with unknown causes. In spite of advancements in medicine, doctors cannot detect the causes of quite a few diseases. Such illnesses may be caused by instability of the spirit. There is a saying, “The source of an illness lies in one’s spirit.” We can say that the condition of a person’s spirit lies at the source of his illness.
The next cause is an attack by demons from without. Evil aspects within our hearts function to attract these demons. Evil intentions will call forth various demons. Demons possess a boundless and infinite nature, and they give rise to various causes for diseases, based on the negative karmic causes created by people. Through various forms of greed, the demons draw forth many types of diseases.
The next cause is the work of devils from within. The demons that I previously mentioned only destroy the physical body; they do not tear down the spirit. These devils, however, destroy the spirit. The devils completely destroy every virtue within us that is associated with being born as humans, and they function to pull us down into Hell. This is the frightening aspect of illnesses caused by these devils.
The sixth and final cause represents the effects of karma. Let me present you with a story about a certain new believer. He was relatively healthy before he embraced True Buddhism. Shortly after he became a believer and started to chant Daimoku, he came down with an illness that he had never previously encountered. This individual possessed karmic sins from his past lifetimes, and the karma emerged as the manifestation of the benefits gained from chanting the Daimoku of the True Law. If he did not have the opportunity now to embrace True Buddhism and amass benefits, he may have fallen into Hell in the future. We are truly fortunate to be able to uphold True Buddhism in this lifetime and expiate our karmic sins through chanting Daimoku. When this type of illness is thoroughly cured through our faith and practice, we can completely extinguish our negative karma from our past.
When we look upon the six types of karmic causes for illnesses cited above, we can see that there is a great variety of ailments. We found that, while these illnesses were actually manifested as imbalances and malfunctions of the physical body, the source of such illnesses was in the spirit.
There are three major types of attitudes, manifested by Nichiren Shoshu believers, concerning illnesses:
- Those who are done in by illnesses, who abandon their faith, and who lose themselves in despair.
- Those who become ill, who sincerely repent the conditions that they had maintained in their faith and daily lives, and who rise to strengthen their faith.
- Those who use their illnesses as opportunities to increasingly strengthen their life condition in faith, and who proceed forth to perform shakubuku on others.
The first type of believers – those who are done in by their illnesses and who abandon their faith – is found mostly among those who have taken faith in Nichiren Shoshu but who do not perform regular gongyo and Daimoku. They plead to the Gohonzon to help them only after they have fallen ill. Regular, steadfast practice is essential. Believers in this category may feel that they did three hours of Daimoku today, so they do not need to do any more for a while. They are those who think that performing gongyo is too stringent for them, so they only chant Daimoku three times. They may attend functions at the temple but they reason that the procedures at the temple are not to their liking, and they blame the temple for distortions in their faith. They may also decide not to visit the temple because they do not want to run into certain people they do not like. People who display attitudes such as these would easily abandon their faith in the Gohonzon as soon as they fall ill.
The second group of believers – those who sincerely repent the conditions that they had maintained in their faith and daily lives, and who rise to strengthen their faith – represents people who regularly visit the temple, listen to the Oko sermons, participate in the Shodai-kai ceremonies, and perform daily gongyo and Daimoku without fail. It is essential to always believe in the Gohonzon and to maintain strong faith without ever slackening.
The third group of believers – those who use their illnesses as opportunities to increasingly strengthen their life condition in faith, and who proceed forth to perform shakubuku on others – includes those who, even before they fall ill, are always protecting and supporting the temple, never miss gongyo and Daimoku, and put forth their efforts into performing shakubuku. People in this group never speak ill of others, and they never complain about activities in faith. They constantly protect the temple by upholding the spirit of different bodies but one mind, and they always encourage their fellow believers. Those who seriously exert forth their utmost efforts in their practice have no time to voice any complaints. Therefore, they do not allow the devils the opportunity to influence them. In other words, the devils that bring forth illnesses are frightened away by sincere Daimoku.
When you become ill, what procedures should you follow in your daily practice? It is most essential for those who fall ill to recover as quickly as possible to resume their activities in faith. How then should we encourage those who are ill and how should their caretakers deal with them?
Ryosei-bo Nichijo was one of the disciples of the Second High Priest Nikko Shonin. During his time, it was the custom in Japan for priests to abstain from eating fish and other meats. But Nikko Shonin instructed Nichijo in the following way:
When you are sick, you must eat nourishing foods such as fish and fowl, to regain your health. It is essential to live a long life to propagate the Daishonin’s Buddhism. If a sick man did not eat a nourishing meal, how can he expect to get cured?
He further instructed Joso-bo, who suffered from a severe chilly constitution:
It is essential to know your illness and to seek treatment. You must first seek the care of a doctor, rest well, and receive his expert care.
Thus, Nikko Shonin gave him sincere and compassionate encouragement.
It shows an extreme lack of compassion to treat an ill person as though he is healthy, by making him sit upright to perform gongyo when he has a high fever and by pushing and dragging him to activities by telling him that he cannot be done in by the disease. With due reverence, I must say that both the Daishonin and Shakyamuni, at the time of their deaths, were both lying down, as they performed gongyo and Daimoku and as they presented their sermons. It is important to get ample rest when you are sick, even as you perform gongyo and Daimoku.
Illness represents an obstacle that any practitioner of Buddhism cannot avoid. When we amass years of practice, exert ourselves in the performance of shakubuku, study Buddhist doctrines, lead a well-balanced daily life based on faith as a strong Nichiren Shoshu believer, are conscientious of our health, and yet fall ill, there is no doubt that we have encountered the hindrance of illness characterizing the three obstacles and four devils. Everyone becomes ill. Eventually, we will all encounter death. Birth, old age, sickness and death represent the unchanging law of life for humans.
Unfortunately, we, as people in the Latter Day of the Law, by nature, do not sincerely embrace our faith unless we encounter difficulties and hardships. Thus, the Daishonin stated:
Vimalakirti and Nirvana sutras both speak of sick people attaining Buddhahood. From illness arises the mind that seeks the Way. (Gosho, p. 900; MWND-5, p. 279)
Precisely because of the difficulty of illness, it is possible for people to seriously practice for oneself and for others, to attain enlightenment. Therefore, those who are ill must appreciate the fact that the Buddha brought forth this opportunity for them to achieve Buddhahood. With this in mind, they must never give in to the illness, as they embrace this notion, to overcome the illness, to further exert forth their efforts in their faith and practice.
In the Gosho, “Reply to Takahashi Nyudo,” the Daishonin wrote:
The people of this world of ours, the continent of Jampudvipa, are suffering from illness. (Gosho, p. 886; MWND-6, p.123)
This passage asserts that all people in the entire world suffer from illness. Ordinarily, we do not consider those who are active and working in society to be suffering from illness. However, from the perspective of the Buddha, everyone is ill. Herein lies the function of the great medicine of the Lotus Sutra. We frequently hear the phrase “benefits,” but true benefits are characterized by the fundamental cure of various physical illnesses and by the achievement of true happiness in life. If we choose to characterize benefits by matters to be avoided or manipulating things to our advantage, then we would force ourselves to evaluate all matters through the three poisons of greed, anger, and stupidity; we would cultivate an ego-centered perspective; and we would associate this perspective with all our evaluations of good and evil. By so doing, we would fall into the pitfalls of seeking self-profit and greed. Under such conditions, we would not recognize the importance of chanting Daimoku, if we should become ill. We must first realize that all people in the world are ill. Based upon this, we must understand that the true benefit lies in truly curing that illness on a fundamental level.
This month, I talked about the causes of illnesses and our attitude in faith to overcome them – based on the current passage from the Gosho, “Curing Karmic Disease.”
The summer heat will continue to intensify. I ask each of you to pay particular attention to your health, as you advance forth everyday, without ever stalling, in your efforts in your performance of shakubuku for the propagation of True Buddhism. I would like to conclude my address for today by sincerely praying for your further advancement and your continued good health.
I sincerely appreciate your efforts to attend this sermon today.