Writings by Seijun Nagamatsu - "punishment"

 

お知らせとお叱り  Signs and Punishment 　　

妙深寺報2010年4・5月号巻頭言　Myoshinji-Ho  April-May, 2010

By Seijun Nagamatsu, Head Priest of Myoshinji  (translated by Keiichi Yamazaki)

 

　  Immediately after starting to practice this faith of HBS, various signs begin to appear before us. This is because our Buddhism is true Buddhism.  It is because the Lord Buddha and Bodhisattva Nichiren are ‘alive’. It is because our faith in eternal Dharma is correct.

Then we come to realize that all the happenings before our eyes are not incidental events but rather inevitable occurrences.  Think of the timing of our seeing and hearing things, encountering people and receiving phone calls and emails.  Faithful of HBS should know that nothing of these is accidental; everything is consequential. 　In the recent years, more and more religious groups have come to resort to various techniques for making people believe so, I am afraid, considering the “spirituality boom” in Japan for the last several years.  Anyway, in true Buddhism, there is no technique; we come to “know” and “become conscious”, through faith, that the entire Universe is run according to a body of laws that are systematized around the Dharma.
    This is all ‘arigatai.’ (direct meaning: We should appreciate all of this.)  The word ‘arigatai’ in Japanese means ‘rare existence or rare happening’, but we use the term for “Thank you” or “I am grateful.”  We feel grateful of something because we feel that it is a rare thing (or event) and because we appreciate the rare opportunity of experiencing it.  A person who has come to feel the power of Dharma palpitates, thanking the Dharma for the virtues and power that he or she has received.  Impossibilities turn into possibilities thanks to the power of the Dharma. The worst calamity turns into the most wonderful happiness.  Chanting of Namumyohorengekyo, odaimoku transmitted by Bodhisattva Jogyo (or Visista Charitra), gives a person “benefits of actual proof” without exception. Remember such phrases as: “Your praying should automatically lead you somewhere” and “the meaning of the word ‘fine’ of ‘fine Dharma’ is reanimation.” 
   Our belief is outright different from a religion of “benefits in actual life” in which faithful offer “deep-fried tofu to foxes.”  “Offering of deep-fried tofu to foxes” is a common phrase denoting fruitless efforts of worshiping wrong and low-ranking deities.  Note that “benefits of actual proof” is different from “benefits in actual life.” Do not confuse them.  “Benefits in actual life” can be considered to be something convenient to you,  whilst “benefits of actual proof” has a much broader and deeper sense.
   The benefits that we receive from the fine Dharma is much more than those “signs” that are convenient to us greedy persons, as our Dharma is really alive.

   Men harm their health of their entire body because of their desire to satisfy the length of less than a foot around the throat. Medical doctors teach us how stupid we are in so behaving. Likewise, wishes and thoughts of mediocre persons often contradict happiness in life. In other words, Lord Dharma kindly teaches us stupidity of our wishes whilst realizing them for us at the same time.
   True “benefits of actual proof” is something given to us so as to keep us on the right track towards happiness. It sometimes looks like encouragement and praises while on other occasions it looks like an admonishing message to correct our route.  That is what “signs” from our living Dharma are all about.  Some signs are pleasing while other signs are severe and hard for us to accept.  Do you react to the word “punishment” as if you were allergic to it? That reaction, you should know, is incorrect.  You might cry,  “I want to receive benefits, not punishment.  I feel scared of the latter.  I don’t want it.”  I can understand your feelings, but I must say that you are mistaken in thinking so.  

　“Where benefits come rapidly, punishment also comes certainly. Without punishment, there is no benefit.” (Gokyouka or religious poem by Nissen Shonin, founder of HBS)

As this poem indicates, benefits and punishments are both sides of the same coin. Punishment is not anything dreadful. We should not mix up punishment with God’s punishment in the European culture.  I hope that readers will share the meaning of this “punishment” of our true Buddhism which is full of compassion. 
    Here is another religious poem by Nissen Shonin: “If I had not received expostulation in the form of punishment from Lord Dharma, I would not have started to practice faith.”

Guiding hint: “Punishment is benefit.  Your receiving no punishment signifies true punishment.”

    Please take a moment of reflection.  Are you really receiving this “punishment”, “signs” and “admonishment” right now?  In fact, in the Mappo era, we should regard punishment and admonishment rather than benefit as the true barometer for knowing if our faith is good enough in the eyes of Lord Buddha and Great Master Nichiren Shonin.
   “Why does such a disgusting person like him (her) look so happy?”

“I am practicing faith so wholeheartedly but I still face so many troubles. People without faith look much happier.  Why?”

Have you never wondered this way? Is it only I who ponder over these questions?(laughter).  Seven hundred years ago, Great Master Nichiren Shonin posed the same question; over a hundred years ago, Nissen Shonin asked the same query.  They both left answers.

Nissen Shonin left the following guiding hint:

“Why does a faithful not receive punishment despite his or her negligence and lawless behavior?  The answer is as follows: it can be compared to a father or a mother who would not correct errors made by the child after teaching him how to write and read. One admonishes with his subordinates or his pupils because he considers them as promising persons.”

 First of all, it is because the faithful is still at a premature stage for appreciating instructions. Second, it is a matter of potentiality of the person. “Is he somebody who understands my admonishing words, or somebody who would not?”, Lord Dharma may wonder.
    Great Master Nichiren Shonin goes as far as to the core point as follows:

“A man of一闡提 (Ichisendai in Japanese, or Icchantika in Sanskrit) does not receive punishment because he is destined to fall to the eternal hell after his current life.” (from 開目抄 [Kaimokusho], one of the most important writings by Great Master Nichiren Shonin)

This phrase is so severe that it leaves us speechless. This is the biggest reason for my saying that punishment can be a barometer. 
    Here is another guiding hint by Nissen Shonin: “Some men cannot see reward or punishment.  Why? Because they will fall to the hell after the current life.  That is why they do not receive admonishment from the Lord Dharma during this life.”

Indeed, I share an impression that the world looks much wealthier than ever before and that human beings have apparently become wiser.  But we should also remember that the Mappo era is an era when people with dreadful bad Karma get born. Such people waste life by repeating lies and troubling friends while they themselves become hurt. They would never make efforts for improvement. These people of the Mappo era are called “Icchantika,” people most far away from the Dharma.  They are destined to fall into a horrible environment immediately after breathing the last breadth due to the deeply bad Karma.  There is no escaping.  No sings are given to these people who make no efforts to correct their bad Karma.

  You may find yourself in a peaceful state free of accidents.  Your life may be easy and comfortable at the moment.  You may be leading calm days.  Generally speaking, that’s the best thing we wish for.  But let us suspect if there is not a pitfall there. If you are being happy today only because you are putting off adversity as is the case with the fable of Ants and Grasshoppers, and if what will be in store for you is a stroke of misfortune,  I bet you would not be able to sit down calmly. 
　  “Receiving no punishment is true punishment.”

　If you receive no signs, the cause may possibly be your negative Karma that you have accumulated as an Icchantika.  The reason may be that the Lord Dharma has abandoned you.  Rather than wanting benefits and hating punishment,  we had better feel happy about signs and punishment that Lord Dharma kindly gives us to correct our path.  Signs arrive at you because the Lord Dharma regards you as promising.  As far as you are receiving this kind of signs,  you may not end up in a dreadful place.  The opposite is indeed a scary course.
  Why did Lord Buddha with eternal life enter extinction (enter Nirvana) ?  The reason is revealed in如来寿量品(Nyorai Juryo Hon or The Life Span of the Tathagata, Chapter 16 of Lotus Sutra) as follows:

“For if they see me constantly,
arrogance and selfishness arise in their minds.
Abandoning restraint, they give themselves up to the
five desires and fall into the evil paths of existence.”

(Cited from the translation of Lotus Sutra by Burton Watson, available at

 http://lotus.nichirenshu.org/lotus/sutra/english/watson/lsw_chap16.htm)

  If we mediocre people see that the Thus Come One is constantly in the world and never enters extinction, we will grow arrogant and selfish, or become discouraged and neglectful.　So that we will harbor a longing in our mind and will thirst to gaze upon the Buddha, and so that we will then continue to endeavor towards Buddha-hood,  the Thus Come One entered extinction.

Luckily we are bestowed with the capability （果報、kaho）of “always seeing and worshiping Him” through the gateway of Gohonzon.  In the house of a faithful of HBS, there is Gohozen (alter); members of the house can see and worship Gohonzon any time he or she wishes to see it.  I am afraid that people tend to settle for that comfortableness and to carelessly drop their guard. Here goes the pitfall.  “We idle around and give ourselves up to five desires.”  That’s the moment when our living Lord Buddha retires. He gives us up. Punishment stops then.  
　   “Among the faithful is found an incurable disease, which is called as Disease of Furu-Hokke (played-out faithful of Lotus Sutra)” (cited from名字得分抄[ Myouji Ebun Sho ]).

One can become Furu-Hokke ( played-out faithful of Lotus Sutra) even in your teens and twenties, not to speak of senior faithful who have been practicing faith for decades and those children from an old family which has the history of faith for many generations. They start to separate their private and public selves, tend to lose humbleness and finally become arrogant. Their behavior can also be characterized by such words as self-depreciation, egoism, and double-vehicle.  On some occasions they behave with much respect to other people, but on other occasions they put you under their control. They make judgment out of nepotism as well as tentative emotions and act accordingly. There is a common phrase “No benefit for Furu-Hokke”.  Well, we should be aware of the horribleness of the Lord Dharma’s not giving even “punishment” as a prompt for improvement of your faith, not to speak of “benefits.”    

One who lives in this corrupt society of the Mappo era full of suffering mass might boast that he is happy and that it is a clear sky on the day of an important religious ceremony of the temple, but he may look lucky simply because Lord Dharma has abandoned him after deciding that he is so careless a person.  Don’t lose the sensibility for keeping careful. That is what faith is all about.  When punishment stops, that’s the end.  Don’t let go a chance for improving your faith. 
　 “We can escape from a calamity caused by the Heaven.  We cannot escape from a trouble which we ourselves have caused.”