“New Year’s Gosho Oko and Mokushi-e Address”
Oko Sermon November, 2005
Reverend Shogu Kimura
The pure lotus flower blooms out of the muddy pond, the fragrant sandalwood grows from the soil, the graceful cherry blossoms come forth from trees, the beautiful Yang Kuei-fei was born of a maidservant, and the moon rises from behind the mountains to shed light on them. Misfortune comes from one's mouth and ruins him, but fortune comes from one's mind and makes him worthy of respect. (Gosho, p. 1551; MWND-1, p. 271)
Good morning everyone. Today, on this occasion of the November Oko sermon in our expression of gratitude to our master Nichiren Daishonin and the Mokushi-e Ceremony, 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.
Today, prior to this sermon, I conducted the Shichi-go-san Ceremony. It was during the mid-Edo period (around the 18th century) that the 11th day of the 11th month was established as the day for this ceremony to celebrate boys and girls who are 3 years of age; boys who are 5 years of age; and girls who are 7 years of age. The individual Nichiren Shoshu temples have been celebrating this occasion ever since then.
The Daishonin said the following about children:
[A] sutra passage says that children are a treasure. (Gosho, p. 1552)
For those of us who protect and uphold the True Buddhism of the Daishonin, children are our treasure. Children represent precious individuals of talent for the parents, their country, and for the sake of kosenrufu. Therefore, I have conducted the Shichi-go-san Ceremony today at Myoshin-ji Temple and tapped the heads of the children of the appropriate ages, with the Gohonzon.
I ask all the children who took part in this Shichi-go-san Ceremony today, to listen well to the instructions of your parents and to grow up to become individuals who are able to chant Daimoku everyday to the Gohonzon.
The current gosho represents a letter of thanks from the Daishonin to the wife of Lord Omosu – Lord Ishikawa Shimbei, the steward of the Omosu area of Fuji (presently Kitayama in Fujinomiya City) – who had sent a New Year’s gokuyo offering of rice cakes and fruit to the Daishonin who lived in Minobu.
This gosho is dated, “the 5th day of the 1st month,” and there is no indication of the year. It is considered to have been written in the 4th year of Koan (1281), however, and the original letter exists at the Head Temple Taiseki-ji.
The Daishonin begins this gosho by praising the wife of Lord Omosu for her faith, which enabled her to make a New Year’s gokuyo offering to the Daishonin. He wrote: “New Year's Day marks the first day, the first month, the beginning of the year and the start of spring.” He explained that those who are mindful of the significance of the New Year – the beginning of all things for the year – will be able to enrich their fortune as a result of their sincere conduct; he further explained that they will be loved and adored by others.
Next, the Daishonin revealed that hell and the Buddha “both exist in our five-foot body.” Thus, he instructed that both hell and Buddhahood exist within our lives, and they are manifested through karmic bonds.
Then, he posited the question of how the Buddha can reside within us, when our lives as humans originated from the carnal desires of our parents and when our lives as common mortals are raging with the three poisons of greed, anger and stupidity. The answer to this question is set forth in the gosho passage on which we are focusing this month.
The Daishonin presented the examples of the pure lotus flower that blooms out of the muddy pond, the fragrant sandalwood that grows from the soil, the graceful cherry blossoms that come forth from trees, and the beautiful Yang Kuei-fei who was born of a maidservant. These were examples that clearly explained how the life condition of Buddhahood could be manifested in our lives as common mortals. Moreover, he explained that the positive and negative aspects of our lives were easily manifested in our words and deeds and functioned to bring forth happiness or misfortune to us.
The cause of disorder in this world is the complete lack of understanding for the principle of cause and effect. The cause and effect of the karmic bond are directly associated with the great principle that is characterized by positive causes that produce positive results and the negative causes that produce negative results. This lack of understanding for the principle of cause and effect gives rise to distorted notions, such as the justification of the performance of evil deeds, as long as the immediate and superficial results are good.
The gosho states:
Misfortune comes from one's mouth and ruins him, but fortune comes from one's mind and makes him worthy of respect.
For those of us who protect and uphold True Buddhism, the mouth possesses a tremendous significance. The mouth can function to perpetuate lies and gossip. At the same time, we chant Daimoku with our mouths.
Are you familiar with the principle of the “five cardinal sins” (go-gyaku zai)? One of these five sins is “causing disunity among believers” (ha wa goso). A group characterized by unity (wa go so dan) refers to the congregation of individuals who believe in True Buddhism and practice together with the common objective to achieve enlightenment. Any function that destroys this unity and harmony is characterized as “causing disunity among believers” (ha wa goso). It is set forth as an offense that is as grievous as killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an arhat, and injuring a Buddha and causing him to bleed. In contrast to the other four cardinal sins, the offense of causing disunity among believers produces no immediate physical harm; however, it functions to destroy the human soul. In particular, any deed that causes believers of True Buddhism – who are upholding pure faith and practice, or an organization of such believers – to stagnate or cease their faith characterizes a cardinal sin that is significantly graver than the other four. Behavior that causes people to hold doubts about the temple and actions that cause a rift to develop among fellow believers are causes that will produce consequences that are all the more serious. Such grave offenses could function to eradicate the very life of the believers. A prime example of a gravely slanderous organization that has worked to cause disunity among believers is the Sokagakkai.
In our precious harmonious unity of believers, it is possible that a few careless words spoken by a Hokkeko member could cause tremendous damage to the faith of individual fellow members. Such careless words could cause those members to move away from the organization. This could further lead to increasingly serious problems. In extreme cases, such behavior could alienate an entire segment of the Hokkeko group.
Society, in general, disparagingly refers to those who have no real abilities as those who are all talk and no deed. All forms of rumor, sarcasm, slander, lies, and criticism originate at the mouth in the form of words, and these could lead to incredible problems. Moreover, people are essentially opening forth their own passage to Hell, when they engage in behavior that causes disunity among believers.
Speaking of Hell, the Daishonin explained in this gosho that Hell and the Buddha both exist within our own hearts.
The common conception concerning Hell was that it was a realm that existed in the deep underground. The Buddha’s pure land was believed to exist as a paradise located at an infinite distance to the west. These were the established doctrines of the pre-Lotus Sutra provisional teachings. However, the Daishonin revealed the following in this gosho:
[A]s to the question of where exactly hell … exists … closer examination reveals that both exist in our five-foot body.
Furthermore, in “Hell is the Land of Tranquil Light” (Ueno dono goke-ama go-henji), the Daishonin stated that both the land where the Buddha resides and hell are entirely contained within our lives as common mortals:
Neither the pure land nor hell exists outside ourselves; both lie within our own hearts. Awakened to this truth, one is called a Buddha; deluded about it, one is called a common mortal. (Gosho, p. 336)
Although we inherently possess the Buddha nature within our lives, we do not realize this, since we are common mortals. However, when we uphold the Gohonzon as a clear mirror to manifest our lives, we will realize, without fail, that our Buddha nature exists within us.
Therefore, in the present gosho, the Daishonin used the analogy of the pure lotus blossom that grows out of the muddy pond – as set forth in the segment on which we are focusing this month – to explain that the supreme life condition of Buddhahood exists within our lives as common mortals, characterized by the three poisons of greed, anger, and stupidity.
When we embrace these words of the Daishonin, we can understand that both hell and the Buddha exist in our individual mouths. In other words, the karmic causes that we make, through speech spoken with our mouths, can determine whether we will achieve Buddhahood or fall into Hell. Words spoken or actions performed out of malice or resentment will inevitably cause us to amass evil karma. They will eventually cause our own suffering. By contrast, words spoken out of compassion and caring for others will enable us to amass good causes, and they will eventually bring forth our own happiness. We must constantly uphold our conviction as the Bodhisattvas of the Earth and engage others with words and deeds of compassion.
Our High Priest Nikken Shonin stated the following:
Indeed, now, 700 years following the passing of the Daishonin, the time has come for True Buddhism to be propagated through kosenrufu not only in Japan but throughout the entire world. As we profoundly consider the true significance of this time, we must thoroughly uphold and propagate True Buddhism. The most important issue for accomplishing this is “unity.”
When people destroy this unity, they engage the five elements consisting of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. They say a variety of negative words with their mouths; they listen to such words; from the ears, they absorb those harmful words into their bodies; they then further allow those words to move their hearts. As a result, they engage in negative speculations and harmful thoughts and proceed forth to destroy the harmonious unity. Accordingly, in order to correctly maintain true unity, you must continue to preserve a true and pure life condition, based on your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. In the Latter Day of the Law, you must continue to singularly chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to achieve the life condition of truth and proceed to uphold your faith and practice. Then, without fail, you will be able to achieve that life condition. (Dai Nichiren, February 1988)
While the mouth is the source of negative karma, it has the single redeeming quality that enables us to chant Daimoku. As individuals who embrace the faith of the Daishonin, we must strive to make the best karmic use of our mouths. The True Buddhism of the Daishonin enables us to achieve the life condition of Buddhahood through chanting Daimoku with our mouths. When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with our mouths, we strive to achieve enlightenment by amassing karma through the use of our mouths. This, then is the source that is directly linked to the amassing of karma through ones thoughts and physical action. Ultimately, we will attain enlightenment through chanting Daimoku.
I would like to conclude my sermon for this month by sincerely praying for you to achieve great benefits for your attendance today and for you to use this precious opportunity of the Mokushie Ceremony to strive forth with increasing vigor in your performance of gongyo, Daimoku, and shakubuku.
I sincerely appreciate the efforts that you have made to attend this ceremony today.