[A Guide to HBS -part2-] The Teachings and Practices of HBS

15. Chant the Odaimoku With Your Prayer Wholeheartedly

On the 27th of March, 2007, the meeting for reading research papers of HBS was held at the headquarters of HBS in Kyoto and was cosponsored by The HBS Institute and the HBS Buddhist School.

On this opportunity, we invited Dr. Kazuo Murakami, an honorary professor at Tsukuba University in Japan who makes a special study of genetics. He gave a very interesting lecture on DNA to the audience. However, for me, the topic he discussed with me personally in a waiting room was more interesting for me. He told me that "In my lecture, I will explain about effectiveness of laughter for our health. This is my proposition, I think that praying for others and good deeds are more effective than laughter. So, I will try to examine the effectiveness of prayer on our physical and mental health as my next research work".
Alexis Carrel, who received the Nobel Prize in physiology and medical science also mentioned the effectiveness of prayer in his work "MAN, THE UNKNOWN" (1935) that some kind of mental activities may have a good influence on our organs, especially prayer. However prayer should be unselfish prayer for others. So prayer of a man of modesty, ignorance, poverty, can be more effective than the man of intelligence or a man of riches.
By the way, recently, I began to get the impression that Japan is changing to a strange, unhealthy country. Parents killed their children, children kill their parents impulsively, still more grandparents kill their grandchildren, grandchildren kill their grandparents. Such events have been in the news papers lately. Major food companies and restaurants famous for their quality shops go into liquidation, executives of these companies or stores try to put the responsibility on their employees when their evil deeds come to light. These higher officials look after their own interests. These days, in Japan, even such men in responsible posts do not seem to have a moral guide to measure themselves.

Then what is the reason that brought this about?

I think it has been brought about by the lack of religious guidance.
The Michigan University Institute of Social Investigation investigated the sense of values of the people who are over 18 years old in 73 countries. There was one question "Is religion important or not for your life?" In the case of USA, 73 percent of the people answered "Yes, religion is important and necessary for my life". In Italy it was 66 percent, in Canada, 66 percent. We can see many people feel religion is important for their life. On the other hand in the case of Japan, only 19 percent of the people answered "Yes, religion is important for me" and 81 percent of the people answered "No".
Japan was ranked second lowest of the 73 countries. The lowest ranked country was China. Needless to say, China is a communist society and people are educated that religion is useless, so that is a natural result. However, Japan is not a communist country and its people have respected religion since ancient times.
In the first place, each country has its own ethics and morals to measure people and to maintain public order. And such ethics and morals are related to native religious ideas which are generally accepted by ordinary people. Generally, in Europe and America, Christian teachings correspond to this. In Middle and Near East countries, it is Islamic teaching. In Japan, Buddhist teachings have been the Japanese guiding principle for many years. However, Buddhism has gradually lost its strong influence on Japanese society and people believe in scientific thought and think that Buddhism is old fashioned. As a result, some Japanese people have lost something which can discipline them. I think this is one cause of the disruption of morality.

15. Chant the Odaimoku With Your Prayer Wholeheartedly

Then, how should people accept Buddhist teachings to measure their life and to change their way of living?

Every action produced through our body, mouth and mind, whether it is good or evil is a cause and will have a result or an effect. That is what you have done whether good or bad, will be returned to you. This is a fundamental concept of Buddhism.
However, the result of this cause and effect occurs after a long time. The law of cause and result or effect extends over three lives; from past life to present live then to future life. So, what you have done in your past life may influence your present life. What you do in your present life may influence your future life whether it will be a good act or bad act. Therefore, sooner of later if someone who has done an evil deed, even if it goes unknown to others, he or she will pay for it. This is called the law of Karma. Japanese people for many generations have believed in such law of Karma. However many people of today in Japan no longer believed in such law.
If you would like to read about actual examples of how the law of Karma works, I recommend Prof. Ian Stevenson "Unlearned Language" University Press of Virginia or Dr. Braian Weiss "Many Lives, Many Masters".

15. Chant the Odaimoku With Your Prayer Wholeheartedly

How did Shakamuni Buddha teach us to create good Karma?

He pointed out the importance of the cultivation of our mind. He always stated, "Cultivate your mind to produce good Karma", because, our acts or behavior are based on the workings of our mind, good will produces good acts, ill will produce bad acts, as a result, this makes ourselves or others unhappy or it brings good luck, good fortune to us or others. Therefore, we must nip our bad buds to cultivate our mind and make the good buds grow to fruition.

If that is the case, how should we cultivate our mind? Before thinking about this, let us consider the question, “Where is the mind?"

In our brain? Have you ever heard of a doctor who looks into the human brain and say, Look! This is the mind". I have never heard of such story.
In our heart? I never read of a doctor who performed surgery of the heart and found the mind there. Then where is our mind? The mind exists, not as a visible thing but as a function. It is a kind of mental energy that influences our body and our environment.

15. Chant the Odaimoku With Your Prayer Wholeheartedly

What kind of mental energy can have good influence on our body and our environment?

It is a mind of prayer. Through prayer for others the energy of prayer cultivates kindness, compassion in our mind and then purifies our environment. In reverse, the cruel minds of the cruel, merciless and insincere make their homes, society and country unhealthy.
Nissen Shonin, the founder of HBS stated in his short teachings, “our minds influence our bodies, not only the bodies but also the society and the nation."
Dr. Murakami also refers to the importance of prayer from the same point of view.
Praying aloud or chanting is more effective than silent prayer, because the voice or sounds can be a mediator to create sympathy, or resonance between our minds and the minds of others and objects.
Here is an example. Mr. Masaru Emoto, a researcher of the crystal form of water took pictures of many kinds of crystal forms of water with a special camera. Through taking pictures of them, he examined how water responds to sounds or voices. For example, he wrote the word "Thank you" on paper, then put it on a bottle of water and call out to it "Thank you" many times, after that he took a picture of its crystal form. Then he wrote the word "Stupid", "Foolish" on the paper and put it on another bottle of water, then he called out to the water "You are stupid", "You are foolish". The crystal form of the water changed to a very ugly one.
Through this experiment, we understand that the crystal form of water changes its form in response to our approaches and we can say that not only water but also trees, flowers, and other plants sympathize with our voices and feelings.
When we, HBS believers offer prayer to the Gohonzon, we chant NamuMyohoRengeKyo (the Odaimoku) repeatedly based on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Shonin. We believe that through chanting the Odaimoku, our voices can synchronize with the soul of the Buddha, Bodhisattvas and gods in the Gohonzon. Therefore, our prayers will be granted.
So, let us chant the Odaimoku wholeheartedly to purify not only our soul but also our environment.

15. Chant the Odaimoku With Your Prayer Wholeheartedly