[The Way of HBS]
How to practice, How to live
as a HBS Practitioner
Rev. Nisso Fukuoka
There is no thankful and wonderful rule on health practices other than by chanting the Odaimoku repeatedly. In doing so, one's health will spontaneously become healthy and it will lead to possessing a sound soul.
A Fascicle on Health (Shoshikan)
Approximately l, 400 years ago, a gifted Buddhist named Great Master Tendai Chigi, elucidated in his Fascicle, “The Tendai Shoshikan", the following:
“When a potter wants to make various receptacles, he first inspects the nature of the soil for its material and carefully regulates the water to be used. Or, as an orchestra conductor carefully checks the strings of the string instruments prior to a performance, votaries of Buddhism must constantly keep in mind to maintain a healthy body and soul. Otherwise, it will be difficult to accomplish religious practices. As such, votaries of Buddhism must control consumption of food, liquid, sleep, body, breathing, and soul".
What is breathing?
HBS's practice of chanting the Odaimoku is a healthy rule. In the first place, why do people and animals breathe?
To run an automobile, gasoline is needed. Similarly, energy is needed to live. However, air is needed to burn off energy. Without air, the nourishment absorbed will not turn into energy.
Breathing is controlled by the respiratory center in the brain stem. Breathing is a process by which air passes into and out of the lungs to allow the blood, pumped from the heart, to take up oxygen and dispose of carbon dioxide. No conscious effort is needed to inhale and exhale air. This is breathing.
Slow and Deep Breathing
Great Master Tendai's “Shoshikan", elucidated that to maintain a healthy body, one must keep in mind to breathe from the bottom of the stomach in a regulated, slow and correct manner. This view coincides with the views of present medicine.
For example, Doctor Hirai Tomio, former Chief of Neurology, Tokyo University Hospital, explains abdominal breathing in the following manner:
By exhaling slowly, air is emptied from the lungs and a disparity of pressure arises and, thereby, in the next movement a large amount of air enters the lungs.
On the contrary, a rapid respiration will shorten exhaling causing intake of oxygen to be lessened. The breathing ratio of exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide by lung breathing is small, but is large by abdominal breathing.
As a result, blood tends to become acidic by lung breathing, whereas, by abdominal breathing, the blood will turn into weak alkaline causing the blood vessels to function in a brisk manner to allow a smooth blood flow, and, thereby, will lessen burden on the heart function and cause the muscles to relax. This will improve health. Through habitual abdominal breathing, tension will loosen causing the brain wave to become smooth and turn it into an alpha wave, and the soul will relax.
Other medical journals indicate that abdominal breathing will result in the following
- The activity of the autonomic nerve system will become vigorous, and the liver and kidney functions will become lively.
- As result, waste materials are quickly disposed and recovery from overwork will heighten and vitality will increase.
- Gastritis, constipation, diabetic illness caused by nervousness will be restrained.
Although respiration is an unconscious effort, is there a way to practice abdominal breathing?
Chanting is an ideal respiration method
Abdominal breathing can be accomplished by repeatedly chanting the Odaimoku. It is an ideal method of abdominal breathing. Chanting the Odaimoku causes one to naturally breath in a deep and slow fashion. In chanting the Odaimoku, respiration occurs 5 to 7 times per minute. In comparison to a normal respiration, it is 3 to 4 times longer and it is a slow, deep respiration.
Above all, to regulate the rhythm of the chanting by HBS's practitioners, wooden xylophones, drums, and wooden clappers are used. Pounding on ones lap by hand, is also a way to chant the Odaimoku with a pleasant tempo. This is indeed a way to practice abdominal respiration.
The primary objective of chanting the Odaimoku is to receive the merits of Buddha's enlightenment that is imbedded in the Scripture, and to filter and eradicate the sins of the soul.
By chanting the Odaimoku loudly with a strong, deep and long breathing for thirty to sixty minutes daily, one can gain a healthy body and soul.
