Oko Sermon September, 2006
Reverend Shogu Kimura
“The Passing of Ishikawa’s Daughter III”
What good fortune had this daughter [of Ishikawa Hyoe Nyudo] accumulated from her past lives? Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo at the moment of her death is like a one-eyed turtle encountering a floating sandalwood log [in the vast ocean] with a proper size hollow to crawl in, or like a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the eye of needle on earth. How amazing! How rare! Moreover, the sutras make it very clear that a person who chants the Nembutsu will definitely fall into the hell of incessant suffering; yet people in their ignorance, believe this is just something I, Nichiren, have made up! As is often said, “To view the heavens is like viewing one’s own eyelashes.” One can neither see his own eyelashes, which are too close, nor the heavens, which are too far. If my teachings had been false, Ishikawa’s daughter, Ama-gozen, could not have achieved a correct and steadfast mind at the moment of her death. (The Gosho of Nichiren Daishonin Vol. I-33)
Good morning everyone. Today, on this occasion of the September Oko sermon and the Tatsunokuchi honan-e – commemorating the Tatsunokuchi Persecution – 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.
If I follow the tradition of past years, I should talk about the Tatsunokuchi Persecution at this point. However, as you are aware, this year, I have been focusing my talks on the life of the Daishonin, during the monthly Okyobi Ceremony; and I spoke to you about the Tatsunokuchi Persecution in July. Please refer to my July talk for information on this topic.
This and next month, my sermon will focus on the gosho, “The Passing of Ishikawa’s Daughter” (Ueno-dono go-henji). First, let me briefly recap the material that I covered in my sermons on this gosho through last month. Nichiren Daishonin addressed this letter to Nanjo Tokimitsu. He thanked Lord Nanjo first for his sincere gokuyo offerings. Then, he talked about the letter that he had received from Lord Nanjo’s niece – the daughter of Ishikawa Hyoe-nyudo, on the 14th or 15th day of the 3rd month. Ishikawa’s daughter had been ill, and she was on her deathbed when he received the letter. She died shortly thereafter, and the Daishonin truly grieved her passing.
The Daishonin explained the benefits of chanting Daimoku on one’s deathbed.
At the time, many believers of the heretical Nembutsu sect chanted Namu-amida-butsu (Hail Amida!) and met a terrible demise. Witnessing this, the Daishonin denounced the erroneous teachings. However, most people believed in the Nembutsu; thus, they taunted the Daishonin and called him a liar. In addition, there were people who refused to embrace the Mahayana doctrines of Shakyamuni and chose to uphold the provisional Hinayana teachings. Given these conditions, the Daishonin provided an increasingly profound explanation of the difference between the pre-Lotus Sutra doctrines and the Lotus Sutra.
Why was the Lotus Sutra considered the supreme teaching? At the time of Shakyamuni, many disciples did not understand whether or not this was, in fact, true. Then, Taho Buddha appeared and revealed that the Lotus Sutra, was indeed, the true teaching. Since then, there were many doctrines that praised the Lotus Sutra, but not one denounced it. In spite of this, however, the believers of the Zen and Shingon sects completely distorted Shakyamuni’s teachings and established their own strange sects.
The Daishonin warned that, if people continued to follow the erroneous masters of religions that opposed the essential doctrine of Shakyamuni, they themselves and their country would fall in ruin.
This leads us to the gosho segment for this month. First, the Daishonin wrote:
What good fortune had this daughter [of Ishikawa Hyoe Nyudo] accumulated from her past lives? Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo at the moment of her death is like a one-eyed turtle encountering a floating sandalwood log [in the vast ocean] with a proper size hollow to crawl in, or like a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the eye of needle on earth. How amazing! How rare!
He stated that the fact that Lord Ishikawa’s daughter chanted Daimoku on her deathbed was as rare as a one-eyed turtle. What is the significance of the one-eyed turtle? Some of you may already be familiar with this. This story is explained in the gosho¸ “The One-eyed Turtle and the Floating Sandalwood Log” (Matsuno dono goke-ama gozen go-henji).
A turtle lived in the bottom of the ocean. This turtle had only one eye, and it had no front or back legs or fins. Under these conditions, life was difficult for the turtle, but to make matters worse, his belly felt as hot as a burning sheet of metal, and his back was as cold as the snow mountains. He was experiencing a double dose of suffering.
What this turtle desired to do most was to cool off his hot belly and to warm his cold shell, and there was only one way to accomplish this. The red sandalwood was the most precious wood in the world, and it could be used to cool off his hot belly. If the turtle could place his belly on top of a hole in the floating piece of sandalwood, he would be able to cool his belly in the water. Thus, the turtle earnestly wished to be able to somehow get on top of this piece of sandalwood, place his belly over the hole so that he could cool off and so that he could warm his cold back in the warm rays of the sun.
To further complicate matters, it was the natural course of life that the turtle could float to the surface of the ocean only once every thousand years. The ocean was incredibly vast, and the turtle was tiny by comparison. It was rare, indeed, that he would encounter a piece of driftwood, and it was almost impossible to find a piece of sandalwood floating in the water.
Even if the turtle encountered a piece of floating sandalwood, the odds were miniscule that that piece of wood would have a hole for his belly. Furthermore, if the hole were too large, the turtle would fall through, and he would be unable to warm his back shell. By contrast, if the hole were too small, the turtle’s belly would not fit comfortably and he would be washed off the wood by the high waves of the expansive ocean. By chance, if he were able to find a piece of floating red sandalwood with the perfect opening for his belly, the turtle may confuse directions and mistake east for west, since he had only one eye; in fact, he may have actually drifted away from it, when he meant to go towards it. Since he had no front or back legs or fins, trying to approach the floating driftwood would, in itself, be a difficult feat.
This story illustrates how difficult it is to be able to encounter the Lotus Sutra. The vast ocean symbolizes the difficult world of suffering in the cycle of life and death. The one-eyed turtle refers to us, the general populace. The lack of front or back legs represents the fact that we are not endowed with the inherent karmic benefit of enlightenment. The hot belly signifies the suffering of the eight hot hells, which comes about as a result of our anger, and the cold shell denotes the suffering of the eight cold hells resulting from our greed.
That the turtle remains at the bottom of the ocean for a thousand years means that, if we amass negative karma and fall temporarily into the three evil paths of Hell, Hunger, and Animality, it would be truly difficult to rise once again to the surface. Moreover the frequency of once in a thousand years represents how extremely difficult it is to be reborn as a human being and to encounter the Buddha.
The notion that it is relatively easy to encounter all other driftwoods but it is difficult to come across red sandalwood signifies that, even if we are able to encounter sutras other than the Lotus Sutra, it is, indeed, extremely difficult to come upon the Lotus Sutra.
Furthermore, the story went on to explain how, even if the turtle somehow found a piece of sandalwood driftwood, he would be hard-pressed to find one with the perfect hole in it. This symbolized how difficult it is to chant the essential Daimoku of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
The fact that the turtle lacks front and back legs and fins signifies that people in the Latter Day of the Law possess arrogance – some have more while others have less – and look down upon the supreme teaching. To make matters worse, they frequently consider the inferior doctrines to be the supreme ones.
Thus, the story of the one-eyed turtle teaches us that it is difficult for us to be born as humans; furthermore, even if we are born human, it is extremely difficult to encounter and uphold True Buddhism.
In addition, the Daishonin explained that being able to encounter True Buddhism is as rare and difficult as being able to thread a needle by dangling a thread from the sky.
Next, the Daishonin wrote:
Moreover, the sutras make it very clear that a person who chants the Nembutsu will definitely fall into the hell of incessant suffering; yet people in their ignorance, believe this is just something I, Nichiren, have made up!
The Daishonin used examples from the scriptures to explain that chanting the Nembutsu would cause people to fall into the hell of incessant suffering, but people around him thought that his explanations were nothing but his arbitrary thoughts. They refused to honestly believe his teachings and, to make matters worse, they even harmed and attacked him.
In the next passage he stated:
As is often said, “To view the heavens is like viewing one’s own eyelashes.” One can neither see his own eyelashes, which are too close, nor the heavens, which are too far.
The Daishonin used this illustration to explain how, in spite of the existence of voluminous scriptures and in spite of the documentary and theoretical proofs that were clearly revealed, there were many people who were unable to believe his words. The eyelashes surrounding our eyes are not visible because they are too close to our eyes. The heavens are also not visible to our eyes because they are too distant. In the same way, since the Nembutsu and Shingon doctrines are clearly described in the sutra, people may find it all the more difficult to realize that they are, in fact, erroneous.
The next passage reads:
If my teachings had been false, Ishikawa’s daughter, Ama-gozen, could not have achieved a correct and steadfast mind at the moment of her death.
If the Daishonin’s doctrine was erroneous, then Lord Ishikawa’s daughter would not have been able to chant Daimoku on her deathbed. Conversely, because the Daishonin’s teachings represented True Buddhism, Lord Ishikawa’s daughter, in fact, was able to chant Daimoku and correctly uphold True Buddhism at her final moment.
The principle of correctly upholding true Buddhism at one's final moment represents a person’s ability to avoid confusion and distress in his heart and his ability to believe in True Buddhism without hesitation, when his final moment arrives. How, then, can we ensure a final moment that is peaceful and tranquil? To achieve this, it is most essential for us never to skip gongyo and Daimoku and to continue to put forth our utmost efforts in our performance of shakubuku. Those who continue to chant daily Daimoku would find that they could naturally chant Daimoku, even if their last moment comes upon them suddenly. By contrast, those who chant Daimoku only when it is convenient for them would find that, when they are in their last moment, they are unable to chant Daimoku and correctly uphold True Buddhism at the time.
First and foremost, we must sincerely receive the directions of our High Priest, who leads us to the supreme teaching, based on true faith and practice. Furthermore, we must sincerely give thought to the fact that we are truly fortunate to have been born as humans. We must all understand that we came into this world to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and to propagate True Buddhism.
I sincerely pray that you will seriously uphold the directions of our High Priest to achieve one shakubuku per person each year and to advance forth with increasing devotion, towards our objective of doubling the number of the Boddhisattvas of the Earth who will congregate for the 750th Anniversary of Revealing the Truth and Upholding Justice through the Submission of the Rissho Ankoku-ron.
I plan to continue to focus my sermon next month on this letter. If you have your own copy of the Gosho, please remember to bring it with you.
This has been a lengthy sermon, and I extend my appreciation to you all for your kind attention.