Momentdeath

DISCUSSION ON
LIFE & DEATH,
ENLIGHTENMENT & ICHINEN SANZEN
With Reverend Raidou Hirota

Rev.Raidou Hirota (RH): When we look at life and death they appear different. But from Nichiren Daishonin's point of view life and death are the same condition, there isn't any difference between the two.

There are many people in this religion and in other religions who believe in reincarnation. After person "A" dies some people believe person "A" will be reborn as person "A". In the gosho Daishonin recounts 17 different rebirths or past life stories of Shakyamuni Buddha. In one of his past lives Shakyamuni was Bodhisattva Jofukyo, in another past life Shakyamuni was Sessen Doji. Daishonin restated in his gosho what Shakyamuni had stated in the sutras. Because it is written in both the gosho and the sutras people have read about Shakyamuni's past lives. That's why believers are confused, and believe that people will be reborn again, and again. It's a misunderstanding. The telling of these stories was an expedient means of achieving an end quickly. If it was used negatively (for the wrong purpose) it would be considered a lie. But when it is used to facilitate understanding it's good. The purpose for telling these stories was to teach cause and effect clearly. But the truth is I will die and never be reborn as me again. I won't be born to the same parents, in the same family, have the same friends, be born in the same place, during the same time period. Because the environment exists in time and space, you can never be reborn in the same environment.

The human body can be compared to this bottle of water that I'm holding. The form is there and the content is there. If the body dies it would be like the bottle falling over or being destroyed and the water spilling out. This water is never going to return to the way it was before. Water is water. It runs down the mountains to the ocean, evaporates and becomes gas, condenses and becomes rain or snow on the mountains, then flows back down to the ocean. It's a cycle. The property of water--H2O--never changes. But it is never again the same water,the same river, the same ocean. The essence of water is Namu-myoho-renge-kyo . When water changes form its essence stays the same. The same is true for human beings. Humans change form, but their essence never changes. It will always be Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.

If you look at two human eyes before and after death you notice the difference; that a change has taken place--a change from life to death. With the human body there is a difference between life and death, but the essence of life never changes, not even in death. It's constant. It's always the same. In death there is life, and in life there is death. It is a spirit that never dies. Even in death it's alive. And of course, in life it's a life.

CM: What happens to the essence after death?

RT: Doesn't it transmigrate (change forms)?

RH (Rev. Hirota): The essence itself doesn't change. It just takes a different form.

CM: When it takes a different form, what determines what that form is? Is it the past causes of the life? It is the karma? You don't necessarily come back as a human?

KD: Where is this essence?

RH(Rev. Hirota): It's there. This leads back to the discussion of ichinen sanzen which we had yesterday. This discussion is becoming way too philosophical. No matter how many times or how many ways I answer the question, it will lead to another question, then another, and another. You can never get to the answer. It is the concept of ichinen sanzen (a single mind contains three thousand realms) that you have to grasp. We are all connected no matter what our shape or form. We are all one.

AL: I don't understand this, and I don't understand how you can turn the light on about it and make it clear.

CM: The gosho constantly talks about you practicing to be enlightened in this life and for your enlightenment in the next life, and good fortune in your next life. There's a sense of continuity there. If you practice now you assure your enlightenment in the future. It's not that you start over again. It's not that it's up to chance. It's a continuation.

AL: I think that's true. But when you say what form are you going to come back as? We know Rev. Hirota is never going to come back as himself.

RH (Rev. Hirota): The sutras expounded before the Lotus Sutra only spoke to the life of human beings. With the Lotus Sutra comes the teaching that humans cannot exist without the environment. Humans live within air, water, earth, and light. Humans exist within the environment of these four elements. Without these four elements and other beings humans could not exist. The Lotus Sutra is trying to show us that the other things are just as necessary to our existence. Without those others things we would not exist. Humans cannot live without environment. We connect with the environment. That is why we are living at this moment. So when you talk about the enlightenment of human beings you must include the environment in that enlightenment. Everything in the entire universe must be included in that enlightenment.

For example, people eat fish. Once eaten, the fish is no longer a fish, it is part of a human being. Man cannot become enlightened if the fish does not become enlightened. When a person breaths in air, the air becomes a part of that person. The air has to become enlightened if man is to become enlightened. Are we humans so superior that we can live without air?

When I am ichinen (the single mind) all of you are sanzen (everything or three thousand realms). When one of you is ichinen, I and everyone else, including the environment, is sanzen. Life alternates between ichinen and sanzen. The Lotus Sutra is the first scripture to reveal this concept. Each one of us is a little piece of the whole fabric of life. If it weren't for sanzen each one of us would not exist. There is no difference between all the molecules of our body and the environment around us. We are the environment and the environment is us. We are the ichinen and the sanzen.

CM: When you say ichinen sanzen is all part of the same thing, is it because all life comes from the same source? Is that source expressed by Namu-myoho-renge-kyo? There must be a reason why all life is all part of the same thing.

RH (Rev. Hirota): Yes, there is only one source. Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. Namu-myoho-renge-kyo is ichinen sanzen. Namu-myoho-renge-kyo is everything. It is all that there ever was...all that there ever will be. It has always been, and it always will be. Life has never come from any other source. It is only the form of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo which changes.

After the three Atsuhara farmers, Jinshiro, Yagoro and Yarokuro, were beheaded by the Kamakura government, Nichiren Daishonin wrote a letter to his follower, Nanjo Tokimitsu. An excerpt from this letter reads, "One drop of rain returns to the ocean, one speck of dust returns to the earth. These three deceased believers are like the drop of rain and the speck of dust, and will return to ichinen sanzen. They had a stronger faith in Namu-myoho-renge-kyo than most people and they will return again to this earth. This is the result of a lifetime of strong faith."

These three martyrs passed away, but because they had such strong faith, their faith leads others who are still alive, guiding them to become strong believers.

This letter is a condensed discussion of life, enlightenment and ichinen sanzen. Ichinen is the drop of water. Sanzen is the ocean. Sanzen ichinen indicates that because the conditions are different one will be born as a different being.

A drop of water returns to the ocean as our lives will return to the earth. From sanzen we become an individual again. A living thing.

Translated and edited by Udumbara Foundation staff.

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QUESTION: What happens at the moment of death?

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