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In praise
of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth
To my Indian Friends with My
Deepest Respect
In the quietude of morning
mist
Small birds play out a symphony
And starlight melts into opal skies.
With solemn dignity the dawn approaches.
Ah, dawn in New Delhi!
A refreshing breeze,
The noble rustling of the
Bodhi tree..
Crimson blossoms
Start to shine with a fresh brilliance
The mellow moment of awakening
Envelops this land with its great spiritual heritage.
The radiant dawn of India!
A spiritual giant
Firm and unsaying before
The eternal currents of time
Bearing with composure
The flying spray of history’s cruel assaults-
You entrust yourself to
The moment’s eternity.
In the distant past,
You gave birth to
Shakyamuni Buddha
The ultimate treasure of humankind-
The light of whose wisdom
Illuminated Asia and
became the source
Of a great river of compassion.
India, dear homeland
To whom we are so deeply indebted!
Now is the moment of your grand awakening-
You are about to arise!
The teachings of the Buddha
Surmounted distant, perilous mountain ranges, traversed the
scorching desert,
Crossed seas piled high with
raging billows,
And, after centuries, finally
reached an island nation
On the eastern edge of the
Asian continent.
The rich benefaction of
culture
Which Buddhism brought to bloom
Began in the ancient era of
Ashoka,
In the splendor of its art and architecture,
In the scent of impermanence
And eternity that wafts through
Classical Japanese literature.
Above all, the Lotus Sutra
With its teachings of
Universal equality,
Of human dignity and the Inner liberation of life
- A worldview completely free
From discrimination –
Became an abundant water
vein,
Penetrating history
And now widely benefiting
And enriching the world.
I am
always reminded of the profound gifts of the Buddhist Law
and of culture
which all must gratefully acknowledge.
I am determined to continue
on the
Path of repaying that debt of gratitude
Far into the distant future.
On February 4, 1961,
Nittatsu Shonin, my self and others,
Filled with great emotion,
Committed to
The sacred soil of
Buddh Gaya
A copy of the Sutra, the
Gosho,
And a commemorative stone plaque.
At that moment, on that day
Amidst the green and flowering countryside
Near the great stupa of Mahabodhi Temple
Originally built by King Ashoka
The sound of our voices
chanting daimoku
Rose high in the blue Indian skies,
Repeatedly enveloping the sacred site
Of Shakyamuni’s enlightenment.
Returning to my lodgings in
Patna
I wired the following message:
“We have marked the first step of the kosen rufu of the
East.”
I recall walking alone on the
banks
Of the Ganges
In the approaching darkness,
Fixing my thoughts
On the future of Kosen-rufu.
I thought:“Although there are
no members
Embracing the Mystic Law in India now,
From this point will begin
The historic return of
Buddhism to the west
From Japan to India,
That will continue on into
the distant future
For hundreds, thousands of years.
“Majestic and serene,
This eternal flow starts
From a single droplet of
melting snow Into the unknown depths of the Himalayas.
That drop calls and gathers others,
Growing into a mountain stream
Forged on the trials of
rocks,
Tortured by the burning heat of the sun
Over the flat plains,
Assailed by rain and wind,
But never slowing or stopping
its flow.
Bursting with life, it grows
And expands moment by moment
Until it becomes a majestic current
Like the ocean.
“So our friends will follow
suit
In exact accord with the principle of ‘emerging from the
earth’;
They will without doubt
Become a great river
Through the inexorable workings of time.”
Fondly I recall
Some eighteen years later
An evening in New Delhi
In February 1979,
A gathering of forty friends
Of profound and unfathomable bonds.
It was a gathering of friends who,
Although relatively new to faith,
Assembled joyfully with
shining eyes
From all corners of the vast Indian Subcontinent,
Undeterred by the great
distances.
I expressed my unlimited hopes and expectations
In a short speech:
“Brothers and sisters with
deep karmic ties,
Please grow for the sake of the Indian People,
Always keeping friendly and
harmonious relations among yourselves.
“Our friends throughout the
world
Are watching over you.
Please exert yourselves I your endeavors
Confident of their support,
And of your heart-to-heart ties with them.
“The Ganges also starts from
a single drop.
Believe that you are that
Precious ‘droplet’ and advance
Boldly towards a bright future.
“I wish also to devote myself
To the peace and prosperity of your country”
Unforgettable friends
-Bodhisattvas of the Earth-
With whom I posed for a commemorative
Photograph that day!
I think that I am thoroughly
aware
Of how much more difficult it is
To carry out our activities in India
Than in almost any other
country.
A country, multiracial as well as multilingual, |
With numerous religions and
cultures,
An extremely complex system
Of social strata,
And a history of confrontation
Between religions.
And that to persevere
In a new faith
In this land
With its rich accumulation
Of history and tradition
Requires hard-won wisdom
Distilled from sufferings, struggles,
Hesitation and contemplation,
All leading finally to determination.
As the Buddha’s will,
You resolved: Rather than seek hasty
Quantitative expansion,
You would work with resolute patience
To consolidate a nucleus of
capable people,
And concentrate on enhancing quality
In order to secure the future
On hundred, two hundred years hence.
You proceeded straight on
This errorless path.
From city to town,
You built a circle of first-rate capable people,
Traveling unimaginable
distances
While struggling with your own karma,
While transforming the karma of your families.
I wish to praise wholeheartedly
The choice you made in
establishing
A proud model of “adapting the practice to the locality.”
This inner-generated light
Serves as a beacon of Soka
Renaissance
For the entire world.
Whenever I receive letters or an album
From my beloved friends in
India
I press my palms together
And send my heartfelt prayers.
Distant India
- peaceful homeland of the eternal soul-
Has fascinated untold numbers of people
In all ages and countries.
Goethe, it is said, was moved and inspired by
The classic drama Shakuntala
To write the prelude to his Faust.
The Laws of Manu was
among the books
That Neitzsche loved to read.
Herder, Schopenhauer, Wagner
and Hesse
Were also enchanted by the
radiance of India.
The sublime enlightenment of Shakyamuni,
Who expounded the magnificent
Inner universe of the human being.
The glorious achievements of
The philosopher-king, Ashoka,
Who sought a rule of
compassion and peace
Based on the Dharma.
The Discovery of “zero”,
A remarkable achievement in
The history of learning,
Exemplifies the profuse flowering of
All disciplines.
This epoch-making insight
Closely related to the Buddhist concept of ku (latency)
Established the foundation
For modern mathematics.
Further, can we possibly forget
Those two towering peaks
Of modern history – Mahatma Gandhi
And Rabindranath Tagore?
In a world of turbulence and strife
With India racked by oppression and welfare,
These two giants were born into a
Century of violent change,
Inheritors of the lineage of this great spiritual land.
Armed with “non-violence”
And courage greater than
Any sword-bearing warrior,
The Mahatma (great soul)
Captured the attention of the
entire world.
Tagore composed wondrous
melodies
Of the universal human spirit
That envelops the entire cosmos.
His divine poetic insight
Won him the East’s first Nobel Prize.
Romain Rolland once
Praised the respective inner qualities
Of Gandhi and Tagore thus:
An apostle and a sage – “a spirit of religious faith and
charity
Seeking to find a new
humanity” and
“an intelligence, free-born,
serene, and broad,
That embraces the totality of
existence.”
You, men and women of wisdom,
“great souls” who have emerged
From the earth of spirituality!
The dawn of a new century for
humanity has broken,
The bright light of the eastern sky
Tinges your smiling faces with gold.
Ah the Himalayas
Shining with with snow
Which I once saw from the air!
These peaks, referred to as the
Snow Mountains in the Buddhist scriptures,
Called by others
“the roof of the Earth” –
These are symbolic of your faith.
Unmoved by violent winds
Unflinching before extreme colds and blizzards,
Soaring upright with supreme dignity,
High, so very high.
The nobility of these peaks
Holds undying allure for people everywhere.
How many mountaineers in days
past
Have accepted the challenge
Again and again
To scale these heights?
My dear friends, never forget
that Buddhism
Is the fundamental law
Through which to create an
inner self
That, like the Himalayas,
Is noble, powerful,
indomitable!
To this end, I urge you –
Be victorious in your daily struggles,
Gain victory over yourself.
Please realize that
The correct path of human
revolution
Is only to be found in
ceaseless effort,
Based on the principle
“faith manifests itself in daily life”
Behold the current of
The sacred Ganges
Flowing for three thousand
kilometers!
Since ancient times Mother Ganges
Has enriched the soils of India,
Promoting nature’s growth,
Nurturing agriculture,
Transporting goods,
Opening the way for civilization.
She brings together numerous
tributaries
And flows on, embracing and absorbing
Life and death in countless
numbers.
Nichiren Daishonin wrote:
“The farther the source, the longer the stream.”
Our faith must be like
The waters of the Ganges,
Flowing with grandeur,
Enriching people’s hearts and minds,
Never knowing even a moment’s pause,
Flowing from the present into the future. |
Kosen-rufu is an eternal
drama of hope
Proceeding into the limitless future.
Another passage of the Gosho
states:
“Dewdrops accumulate to form a stream.”
Each of you is without doubt
Like the first drops
In the high peaks of Indian society.
You must not be impatient,
You must not attempt to hurry.
Slowly, steadily
Strengthening the bonds between members
Advance brightly and
cheerfully,
Bearing in mind that contributing to society
Is what matters most.
When the time comes,
The current of Kosen Rufu
Will become a great river
Pouring into the ocean, its
banks lined with people
Numerous as the sands of the
Ganges,
Offering you their respect
and trust.
The Bodhi tree that towers
tall
Is a symbol of wisdom,
The sacred tree beneath whose
boughs
Shakyamuni attained
enlightenment.
Since the remote past
The Indian people have called this tree
The “king of the forest.”
Some Buddhist scriptures state
That the Bodhi tree emits a mystic music
When breezes pass through its branches
And that by simply hearing this sound
One can attain spiritual awakening.
The Daishonin wrote:
“One is the mother of ten thousand”
Ten thousand, like any great number,
Begins with one.
The shade of the Bodhi tree
offers protection
From the harsh rays of the sun.
But its thousands of branches,
tens of thousands of leaves,
all stem from a single trunk.
A single person of wisdom
Firmly rooted in society
Has a value and significance
Equivalent to a thousand
Or even ten thousand people.
My beloved Indian friends!
Courageous people of the
Buddhist Renaissance
Standing up unaided in the land of India,
You each have an air of regal spiritual strength
Like the “king of the forest.”
Modern-day Anandas,
Shariputras and
Maudgalyayanas,
You set your sights on the twenty-first century.
As children of the Buddha
with a
Direct relation to Nichiren Daishonin,
You seek to revive the spirit
of Shakyamuni.
Sages of the Mystic Law,
Like the soaring Bodhi Tree
you spread
Branches and leaves of comfort and repose.
In the winds of society
You perform a mystic music,
Arousing the inner wisdom Of those who listen.
Our faith is not abstract,
Our religion not ceremonial.
It is a religion for human
beings,
Its purpose to build peace and prosperity
In the land and throughout the world
Based on the revolutionary
Reform of our lives.
Buddhism does not exist apart
from society.
Faith that ignores people is
meaningless.
Therefore let us polish our wisdom,
Develop our characters,
That we may spread the
Luxuriant branches and leaves
Of our humanity throughout the society.
Never ever forget,
It is in this sure and steady
Movement forward
That the way to a hope-filled Tomorrow is found.
Ah, dear friends of India.
The great poet Tagore
In the very midst of the
darkness
Of an era of upheaval gave voice
To his yearning for the clear air of dawn:
“Perhaps that dawn will come
from this horizon,
From the East where the sun rises.”
The Indian morn!
The glistening sunlight pours
onto the earth,
Waking all living things from their slumber.
Look how the birds dance in skies of hope!
According to Tagore
In Sanskrit, birds are
Described as being “twice born” –
“once in their limited shell and then finally
In the freedom of the
unbounded sky.”
That is exactly true –
True also for the human being.
Born into this world
We must break the closed shell of
The “lesser self
To be born anew,
To fly in open skies of the
“greater self”.
This is the goal that the
essence
Of Buddhism seeks –
That spirit’s shining
renaissance.
The Buddhism of the Sun arises!
Oh, my Indian friends,
Courageous people of
This great spiritual land
That I so love and respect!
In the splendor of dawn
Illuminated by new light,
You awaken and spread
The wings of your wisdom.
Soar into the skies,
My precious friends,
Ride on wings of courage,
Compassion and wisdom
Into the bright rainbow skies
Of the Indian morning.
Into humanity’s firmament
Confident and composed,
And higher, ever higher!
Daisaku Ikeda
Rajasthan
Travel Guide
India
guide
Kerala Travel Guide
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by
Cecilia dos Guimaraes
Bastos
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