[General bukken2010 of HBS]
Rev. Nisso Fukuoka
‘Death is not like putting out a fire, human death is a time of moving from the present life to a future life.’ stated Nissen Shonin, founder of HBS.
Everyone has their own date of birth. This is the date on which your life began. Your date of death will come someday. Everyone is certain to die. There are no exceptions.
What happens to us after death? Does the soul disappear with the extinction of the body? Does the soul continue to exist into the future? Where does the soul go? Does it go to a next world? Does it live in a grave or in a family altar?
These days, many Japanese seem not to believe in the immortality of the soul. Aiko Sato, a famous novelist, was one such person. She never held a ceremony to transfer merits for the souls of her parents. She did not care about the after-death of human beings so, she did not even remember the date of her parents’ deaths. However, after experiencing some horrible incidents she changed her completely.
She wrote her story in one of her books. She had a summer house in Hokkaido, the main island in northern Japan. She had been threatened by mysterious phenomena at her house. These phenomena finally came to an end when she chanted the Odaimoku. (NamuMyohoRengeKyo) repeatedly. The following is an outline of the story.
She wrote, “Death does not mean emptiness. Though our bodies become extinct, our souls never become extinct. The core of human beings is the soul. When we face death, our spirits depart from our bodies instantaneously, and go to a different dimensional world. But not all souls go there. Some souls still remain in this three dimensional world. These souls are called floating spirits who hold a deep-seated grudge against someone or have a deep attachment to this world. There are some souls who still remain in the place where they once lived because of a deep attachment to their house or land. Among the souls that were suddenly killed in traffic accidents, some do not realize they have been killed and remain at the scene and catch and pull people who pass by the place by chance. Places known as dangerous crossroads or noted places of suicide are such places.
“There are other souls who are known as souls of bad destiny. They themselves have not sinned, but they shoulder their ancestors’ mistakes and fortunes. These acts and fortunes of ancestors bring difficulties to their descendants. There is no use complaining that it is outrageous. Descendants have to take collective responsibility for their ancestors’ mistakes and misfortunes.
“The place where I built my summer house was the place where once stood a village of the Ainu people. It is said that they were exterminated by the Japanese people. I wonder if their souls still remain in that place as captured spirits. Also, I am confronted by the influence of my own ancestors’ bad karma, I suppose.”
"Life Between Lives"
According to Buddhist doctrine, a spirit departs from the body immediately after death and it wanders around for 49 days. This is called ‘Chu-u’ in or ‘Chu-in’ in Japanese, or life between lives in English.
‘Chu-u’ or life between lives is an intermediate existence between death and the next life. It is the period from death to rebirth in another world.
The period of intermediate existence is commonly supposed to be 49 days during which memorial services for the deceased are customarily observed every seven days.
There are some medical doctors who are interested in such an intermediate existence and try to research it by putting a person into a hypnotic state.
Doctor Joel L. Whitten, a neurologist and professor at Toronto University’s Medical Department, is one doctor that utilizes hypnosis to treat patients by delving into their past life or past lives. Doctor Whitten began utilizing the technique of hypnotism from a certain period and he found the existence of spirits wandering in space. He expresses this condition as “Life between Lives”. In one of his books, he gave some examples which he found.
There are some other doctors that are conducting experiments on past lives. One of them is Doctor Brian Weiss, author of the book “Treatment for Past Patients”, a best seller in America.
These research papers by various medical doctors coincide with the description described in Buddhist doctrines.
In Japan, there are ceremonies for the deceased held on every year with a ‘3’ and ‘7’ (third, seventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, twenty-third, etc.) until the thirty-seventh year after death of the deceased.
However, people may have some doubt that if the soul of the deceased is reborn after ‘Chu-u’ or ‘life between lives’, if it is necessary to hold ceremonies for so many years.
In Japan, people have believed that the soul of the deceased is divided into ‘Kon’ and ‘Paku’. The Shin Meikai Japanese Dictionary explains ‘Kon-Paku’ with the ‘Kon’ being the soul which goes up to heaven or another realm and ‘Paku’ being the soul that remains in this world.
In other words, ‘Kon’ is a soul which is reborn in another realm.
According to the doctrine of the Lotus Sutra, there are ten realms of living beings such as: the realm of hell, hungry spirits, animals, ashura, men, heaven, Shomon, Engaku, boddhisattvas and Buddha.
‘Paku’ is a soul which remains in this world as an existence without any body which lives in its grave, altar, or the place where its former host body died.
Therefore, as a Buddhist custom, the ceremonies which are held during the forty-nine days are ceremonies for the ‘Kon’, and the ceremonies which are held after one year or more after the death are ceremonies for the ‘Paku’.
Lisa Randall and Tendai – The physical and the spiritual
Lisa Randall is an expert on particle physics, string theory, and cosmology. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship. She has been a tenured professor at Princeton, MIT and Harvard and she is one of the most highly cited physicists in her field. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
One of her works ‘Warped Passages, unraveling the mysteries of the universe’s hidden dimensions’, published by Harper Perennial, was recommended as one of the most provocative and groundbreaking science books of the year 2006, by many book reviewers in the US. The New York Times Book Review said, “An engaging and remarkably clear account of how the existence of dimensions beyond the familiar three (or four if you include time) may resolve a host of cosmic quandaries.”
In the book, Randall refers to the different dimensions of the universe. She points out that the universe has many secrets. It may hide additional dimensions of space other than the familiar three we recognize. There might even be another universe adjacent to ours, invisible and unattainable. It may be called the fifth dimensional world.
About 750 years ago, there was a great Buddhist master who had already pointed out an existence similar to that of Lisa Randall. His name was Nichiren Shonin, the founder of Nichiren Buddhism. He was convinced of the existence of another world which should be called ‘the five-dimensional spiritual world’ based on the teachings of Great Master Tendai.
Great Master Tendai lived during the Sui (Zui) Dynasty (558~597) in China. He systematized all the teachings that Buddha had left. One of his doctrines is called ‘Each of the ten realms mutually contains the other nice’ The ten realms mean the ten kinds of worlds or spiritual states, such as the realms of Hell, Hungry Spirits, Animals, Ashura, Humans, Heaven, Shomon, Engaku, bodhisattvas and Buddha. The realms from Hell to Ashura are referred to as the four lowest states and bad spiritual conditions. The four realms from Shomon to Buddha are called the four pure, holy realms.
Each of the ten realms includes the other nine in itself. Accordingly, the realm of Humans includes Buddhas, by which theory of attainment of Buddhahood is established. The doctrinal principle, ‘Three Thousand Realms in a Single Thought’ (Ichinen Sanzen) was developed on the basis of this theory.
Nichiren Shonin considered, based on this Tendai doctrine, that there are other different dimensional worlds outside this world and he called the highest stage of the different worlds ‘The Eternal Pure Land’.
In the ‘Kanjin Honzon sho’, which was written by Nichiren Shonin,it is stated; “The Eternal Pure Land is free from the three calamities and also from the four kalpas of change. Here the Buddha neither deceased in the past nor be born in the future, and the people to be converted are here identical with Him; that is, each person’s mind encompasses the three thousand realms and the three kinds of worlds (Ichinen Sanzen).
The area enclosed by the circle is the three-dimensional world or the human spiritual world. This is a world of suffering and disasters and where everything is changing ceaselessly and quickly. In Buddhism, this world is called ‘the Saha world’ which means the world where people must endure various afflictions and pain. When the word ‘Saha’ was bought from India to China, it was translated as ‘Shaba’ in Chinese characters to match the sound of the original word.
I think the word ‘Shaba’ in Chinese characters is very suitable to show the meaning of this world. ‘Sha’ of ‘Shaba’ is a combination of the two Chinese characters for ‘sand’ and ‘woman’. ‘Ba’ of ‘Shaba’ is a combination of the two Chinese characters for ‘wave’ and ‘woman’. These Chinese characters show that there are many women in this world, and it goes without saying there are many old women, like the number of the grains of sand on a beach. ‘Ba’ means women who have many wrinkles like waves on their foreheads.
When human beings are born into this world, the proportion of males to females is 52% to 48%, but the proportion of men and women over 60 years old is reversed. In the case of people over 80 years old, the proportion changes to 30% to 70%. If you visit a home for the aged, you will notice the true meaning of ‘Shaba’.
Let’s return to the subject of discussion. The outside of the circle, the five-dimensional spiritual world exists. This world is called ‘Meido’ or ‘Myokai’ which means ‘the world of darkness’. It is invisible from the three-dimensional world, but the three-dimensional world is visible from there.
Great Master Tendai divided all living existence into 10 spiritual realms based on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. At the same time there are also 10 realms in the five-dimensional spiritual world.
Nichiren Shonin called the higher spiritual world of the five-dimensional world ‘the primordial pure land’. He stated in his writing ‘Kanjin Hinzon’, “The primordial pure land is the eternal land free from the three calamities and also from the four kalpas of change. Here the Buddha neither deceased in the past nor will be born in the future, and the people to be converted are here identical with Him”.
One of the most important purposes of the faith of HBS based on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Shonin is the spiritual communion between the Buddha and boddhisattvas in the higher spiritual world and us.
What should we do to improve this spiritual communion? First of all, we should have determination to set our heart frequency to that of the Buddha and boddhisattvas. Namely, we should make every effort to make our hearts rise to the state of Buddha and Boddhisattva. What then is the state of Buddha and boddhisattva?
Nichiren Shonin stated in his writing ‘Shishin Gohon Sho’ (The Treatise of the Four Stages of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice), “The first stage of the Four Stages of Faith and the first stage of the Five Stages Practice together form a casket containing the treasure of the one hundred worlds and the thousand factors and three thousand realms in a single life-moment. It was the gate from which all the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three existences emerged”.
The first stage of the Four Stages of Faith means to listen to the teachings obediently and to practice the faith with joy. The first stage of the Five Stages of Practice means also being delighted at hearing or expounding the Buddha’s teachings, and at seeing others accumulating virtuous deeds. When we chant the Odaimoku in such a mental and spiritual state, we can be in tune with the souls of the Buddha and boddhisattvas in the higher spiritual world.
In the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sutra there is a strange description as follows;
“All harbor thought of yearning
And their minds thirst to gaze at me.
When living beings have become fully faithful,
Honest and upright, gentle in intent,
single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha,
not hesitating even if it costs their lives,
then I and the assembly of monks
appear together on Holy Eagle Peak.
At that time I tell the living beings
that I am always here, never entering extinction”
The Holy Eagle Peak is the place where the Lotus Sutra (Saddarhma-pundarika Sutra) is said to have been expounded by the Buddha. However, in this Mappo period (the Last Darhma), the place where the Gohonzon is enshrined and the Odaimoku is chanted and the Gohomon (sermon) is delivered based on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Shonin is the Holy Peak for us, HBS practioners.
The Buddha states that he appears with the bodhisattvas in front of the people who uphold the Odaimoku with pure faith and hold an earnest desire to see Him even in the Mappo period. How do they appear? What aspect do they show themselves to the practitioners in the Mappo period? In this Mappo period, the Buddha never appears in of us in the figure of a human being. The Buddha appeared in this world as in the figure of a human being only in the period of 2,600 years ago in India as Ojin or corresponding body who was a body of a Buddha who manifested himself to leave the teachings and to guide the people. How can we recognize the Buddha and bodhisattvas when they appear in front of us? They appear in front of us not as figures but as unseen and strange occurrences. In other words, we can become aware of their existence through religious experiences.
In short, when we receive a favorable reward which was produced by working hard at religious practice, we are awakened to the meaning that the Buddha and bodhisattvas are always here, never entering extinction.
Based on the doctrine of Ichinen Sanzen by Great Master Tendai which is a profound outlook on the world and mind of human beings in accordance with the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, our minds originally have a function to be resonant with all kinds of existences. Our minds can sympathize with various kinds of existences in the natural world and also respond to the souls of the five spiritual dimensional world.
Now, let’s reread the section from the Lotus Sutra,
“All harbor thought of yearning
And their minds thirst to gaze at me.
When living beings have become fully faithful,
Honest and upright, gentle in intent,
single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha,
not hesitating even if it costs their lives,
then I and the assembly of monks
appear together on Holy Eagle Peak.
At that time I tell the living beings
that I am always here, never entering extinction”
When we activate the holy function of our minds which is called the Buddha and bodhisattva mind and when we become truly faithful, honest and upright, gentle in intent, single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha, He appears in front of us as a favorable reward or marvelous incident.
So, we have to be careful of what position our minds are in. If our minds are in a position of the realm of hungry spirits praying to satisfy only our selfish desires, it is impossible to sympathize with the souls of the Buddha or bodhisattvas. When we pray and chant the Odaimoku to the Gohonzon when the mind’s position is in that of the Buddha and bodhisattvas, our mind can easily be resonant with the minds of the Buddha and bodhisattvas in the five spiritual dimensional world.
Nissen Shonin stated in one of his short instructive teachings,
“Chant the Odaimoku even over10,000 times only for our own desires does not sympathize us with the soul of the Buddha,
Chanting the Odaimoku for the propagation of the Fine Dharma for the benefit of other people is the short way to receive benefits for ourselves.”
As mentioned before, the soul of a deceased person is divided into the ‘Kon’ and ‘Paku’. ‘Kon’ is the soul which is reborn in another spiritual world. ‘Paku’ is the soul which remains in this world as an existence without a body.
The ‘Kon’ is, so to speak, the core energy of the transmigration of the soul. This soul goes to a higher spiritual realm or a lower spiritual realm according to the state of the soul which is the result of the deeds the person had accumulated during their lifetime.
The ‘Paku’ is the soul which lives in the grave, altar or in the place where its former host body died.
We as Buddhists hold memorial services for a deceased soul every seven days during the 49 days after a person has passed away. This is a service for ‘Kon’, to send merits to the soul so it will enter a higher realm. Memorial services which are held on the third or seventh anniversary are services for the ‘Paku’ soul which remains in this world.
How is the ‘Kon’ reborn in another spiritual dimensional world and how does ‘Paku’ remain in this world? First, in the case of ‘Kon’, its whereabouts is decided by the law of karma. This means that the soul’s whereabouts is decided by how the owner’s lived and what deeds he or she accumulated during their life time. Or instance, if they devoted themselves to religious activities with their body and mind to accumulate good deeds and to eliminate the sins and hindrances which they had accumulated by their bad acts, they or their ‘Kon’ soul will enter a higher realm of the spiritual dimensional world, the so-called Buddha land.
On the other hand, if they did many wrong acts with their body and mind, these will create bad karma, and because of this, the ‘Kon’ soul will be led to a lower realm of the five spiritual dimensional world, the so-called three kinds of hell; Jikoku, Gaki, or Chikusho.
However, these souls that go to the higher realm or lower realms do not always remain in these realms. In the case of the holy and pure souls in the Pure Buddha Land, they do not content themselves with the comfortable state of the Buddha Land. Because they are holy spirits and have great mercy and compassion for all living beings, they always have the desire to practice the boddhisattva path in the Saha world, the three dimensional world, to save and lead the people. To do this, they come down to this world from the Pure Buddha Land as ‘Gan Sho Shin’. ‘Gan Sho Shin’ is a Buddhist term which means ‘the incarnation of the holy spirits who hold pure desires. Shakamuni Buddha, Nichiren Shonin, Nichiryu Shonin and Nissen Shonin are such ‘Gan Sho Shin’.
Nissen Shonin stated in his short teachings;
‘I do not want to live in comfortable retirement for a long time in the Pure Land, practicing the bodhisattva path in the Saha world to save people is my true happiness.’
‘There are many people in the Saha world who are suffering and seek salvation, We, as bodhisattvas, should be reborn in the Saha world to save and lead them. Those who have such desires should be called enlighten ones. Such holy souls descend to the earth choosing the time, place and opportunity to accomplish their purposes. Shakamuni Buddha was born in India about 2,600 years ago as the son of queen Maya. It was destined for him to be born in such a time and place s the reincarnation of the Primordial Buddha.
Nichiren Shonin was born in Japan about 790 years ago as the son of the Nukina family, an ordinary family. It was also destined for him to be born in such a time and place as the messenger of the Eternal Buddha.
In the case of souls who are in the lower spiritual realms of the other world, how can they be saved? We as HBS members, offer prayers chanting the Odaimoku, NamuMyohoRengeKyo for these pitiful souls to send them merits of enlightenment which are contained in the Odaimoku. The souls in the three kinds of hell can be given the chance to be reborn in this world as human beings and to change their bad karma to good karma and engage in Buddhist practices. These souls are called ‘Goh Sho Shin’, or spirits who carry bad karma.
A Paku Spirit in Sri Lanka
Mr. A is a devoted leader of HBS Sri Lanka. His is around fifty years old and works at the Sri Lankan army college as a chief office worker.
Several years ago, he heard neighbors had been frightened by a ghost. They were a woman and her son. The woman was in her fifties and her son was around thirty years old.
Mr. A visited her house and listen to their situation. The woman told him about her experiences. A ghost whose face was bloody occasionally appeared in her house, and sometimes her son was possessed by a ghost. When this happened her son’s changed to a terrible looking face and his voice became rough. He also used violence on his mother even though he was usually a gentle person.
The woman thought she could do nothing but rely on an exorcist to drive out the evil spirit from her house. She invited an exorcist, but he had no effect. So she asked another exorcist, then one after another. But the ghost still followed her and her son.
Mr. A explained about his religion, H.B.S., and recommended her to receive the Gohonzon and chant the Odaimoku in front of it. She accepted his advice. Later, he visited her house again with his wife and son to enshrine the Gohonzon. Mr. A enshrined the Gohonzon on the wall in one of the rooms and started chanting the Odaimoku together with the other members.
There was a door between the room where the Gohonzon was enshrined and the next room. This door was opened so everyone could see into the adjoining room except Mr. A because he sat close to the wall just in front of the Gohonzon.
After finishing chanting the Odaimoku, Mrs. A said to her husband, “Shall we leave right now.” “Why?” asked Mr. A. “I want to leave this house right away,” said Mrs. A as she hurried to leave. On the way back to their house, Mr. A asked his wife, “What on earth happened to you?” His wife replied. Before visiting their home, you told me there were only the mother and son in their house. But another man who had a bloody face was in the next room. While we were chanting the Odaimoku, the man looked into our room from behind the door to the next room. I was so afraid to look at him as he stared at us. Mr. A said, “I’m sorry, I hesitated to tell you about that man, because if I had told you, you would have been afraid of visiting the house.
Mrs. A then told her husband about another experience at the house. “Just when we were finishing chanting the Odaimoku, the man in the next room left through the window even though the doors of the window were closed. That was another reason I was scared and that is why I asked you to leave the house immediately.”
Several days later, Mr. A visited the woman’s house again to hear about the latest situation. The woman said, “My son and I have been quite fine since the day you enshrined the Gohonzon for us. Nothing has happened to us since then. My son has not been possessed by the evil spirit. I am not frightened by the figure of the ghost. Mr. A, you are great. I am very grateful to you.”
Mr. A said to her, “I am not a great person. It is not through my power that you could escape the suffering and detestable phenomena. It is through the power of chanting the Odaimoku and the Gohonzon’s protection.”
The woman then asked Mr. A, “By the way, did you have an accident or any trouble on the way home from your house after enshrining the Gohonzon?” “No, nothing happened,” he replied. “Oh, that’s good. I was afraid you might meet with an accident because every exorcist who visited had a terrible accident on the way back from my house. One of them had a traffic accident and was seriously injured. Another one was knocked down from behind by someone who did not have any figure. That’s why I thought you also might have had some trouble.” Mr. A said, “Don’t worry. I am also protected by the Gohonzon.”
This story became well-known among neighbors. It is one case of a spirit (Paku) who had bad intentions to do something bad to someone.
