Already held: Sunday Morning Service via Zoom, May 25th from 10am to12pm. Faith and Understanding―To Discover True-self by Breaking Free from Servility
Dharma Talk by Rev. Kohno
“Faith and Understanding – To Discover True-self Breaking Free from Servility”
卑屈から抜け出し真の自分を発見する
・Sutra Recitation/ Skillful Means, The Life Span of the Eternal Tathagata
・Dharma Talk
・Hoza
◎Materials
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IBC Dharma Talk at Sunday Service on May 25, 2025
“Faith and Understanding—To Discover True-self by Breaking Free from Servility” 卑屈から抜け出し真の自分を発見する―信解品
- Introduction
The Buddhism we study is the teaching of the Buddha. That Buddha is Shakyamuni Buddha, who, after a long and diligent search, ascended to unparalleled heights and attained enlightenment. He is the greatest person we can think of. We have spent the last year studying his human image. During his 45 years of life, from the age of 35 to 80, he preached a wide variety of teachings without distinction, but he himself left nothing behind in writing. The Buddhist scriptures that remain today are compilations by later generations of the Buddha’s teachings that were passed down orally by his disciples. After the Buddha’s passing, Buddhism spread to various parts of the world and was interpreted in various ways, and developed in conjunction with folk beliefs. New sutras were compiled and translated into other languages, resulting in the creation of a vast number of sutras. In an attempt to return to the Buddha’s original intention, the Lotus Sutra was compiled from the teachings given by the Buddha on Divine Eagle Peak during the last eight years of his life before his passing.
私たちが学んでいる仏教とは仏の教えです。その仏とは、長い求道の精進のすえ、比類なき高みにまで登りつめて、覚りを開いた釈尊のことです。彼は私たちが考えうる限り最高の人物です。私たちは、昨年一年、その人間像を学んでまいりました。その釈尊は、35歳から80歳までの45年間、さまざまな教えを分け隔てなく説かれましたが、自身は何も書き残しませんでした。現在に残る仏教経典は、弟子たちが口伝した釈尊の教えを、後世の人たちがまとめたものです。釈尊が入滅されたあと、各地に広まった仏教は、さまざまに解釈され、さらに民俗信仰と結びつきながら発展しました。その際、新たな経典が編纂され、さらにほかの言語に翻訳され、膨大な数の経典がつくられました。そこで釈尊の本願に立ち戻ろうと、釈尊が入滅されるまでの最後の八年間に霊鷲山で説かれた教えが『法華経』としてまとめられました。
- Proposition
We began studying the “Lotus Sutra” this year. The Lotus Sutra is said to be the “King of all sutras.” This is because the Lotus Sutra teaches “the way to attain Buddhahood for everyone,” in other words, it teaches the attainment of Buddhahood for all people. It teaches that everyone is equally valuable without discrimination. However, many people do not realize the preciousness of this teaching. Therefore, this time, we would like to learn the importance of being aware that human beings are valuable beings from the Parable of the Rich Father and the Poor Son taught in the chapter of the Faith and Understanding of the Lotus Sutra, and to return to the original form of human existence.
私たちは、今年からこの『法華経』を学び始めました。『法華経』は「諸経の王」と言われます。これは『法華経』が「皆成仏道」、つまりあらゆる人の成仏を説き明かされたからです。誰をも差別しないで平等に価値ある存在と教えているのです。ところが多くの人々はその尊さに気付かずにいるのです。そこで今回は、法華経信解品で説かれる長者窮子の譬えから人間が価値ある存在であることの自覚の大切さを学び取り、本来の姿に立ち戻りたいのです。
- Main Points
<The Meaning of “Faith and Understanding”>
The title of this chapter is Faith and Understanding. If you understand from the bottom of your heart, you will have faith naturally. And if the faith is real, that faith will manifest itself in your actions. Therefore, a “understanding” that does not result in “faith” is not a true “understanding,” and a “faith” that does not manifest itself in “action” is not a true “faith. In the chapter of “Faith and Understanding,” the Buddha taught that “everyone has the potential to become a Buddha,” but his disciples could not easily believe this, no matter how much they were told. However, when they finally came to understand the teaching, the disciples expressed their joy with the “Parable of the Rich Father and the Poor Son.”
<信解の意味>
この品の表題は信解品です。理解して信ずることです。心の底から理解すれば、おのずと信じられるようになります。また本当に信ずれば、その信はひとりでに行いに現れます。ですから、〈信〉とならないような〈解〉は本当の〈解〉ではなく、〈行〉に現れないような〈信〉は本当の〈信〉になりません。この信解品で釈尊は、法華経を説くにあたり、「誰もがみな仏になれる可能性（仏性）を持っている」とおっしゃられましたが、弟子たちは、いくら諭されても、このことが容易に信じられなかったのです。しかし、ようやくその教えが理解できるようになり、弟子たちが「長者窮子の譬え」をもって、その喜びを吐露したのです。
<Parable of the Rich Father and the Poor Son >
There was an elder man who had a boy. The boy left his father when he was very young and wandered around for more than 50 years. The father lived in a large mansion. He had a large and prosperous business, and the mansion was full of treasures, which the father always wanted to pass on to his son.
Then, by chance, the poor son came to the gate of his father’s mansion. The boy, of course, did not know it was his father’s house, but his father instantly recognized him as the long-awaited child he had never forgotten. Immediately, he sent his attendants to bring him back. The boy, however, was so despondent that he felt he was in danger and that he would be captured and killed, so he fainted.
The father, upon seeing this, thought better of it and decided to wait for the son’s mind to gradually mature, instead of immediately announcing his name. So, he first sent two shabbily dressed messengers to lure him with wage jobs. Over the years, they educated him, helped him, and eventually, they used him so much that they entrusted him with the management of all their property, and came to trust each other. But even so, the child could not shake off his mean heart. Finally, the father, seeing that the son’s heart had improved and grown, finally announced himself as father and son at the end of his life, and presented his inheritance of property and occupation before all the princes, ministers, and other people.
<長者窮子の譬え>
一人の子どもを持つ長者がおりました。子どもは幼いとき父のもとから離れ流浪すること50余年、父も初めは尋ね歩きましたが見つけられず、断念して大邸宅を構えて暮らしていました。広く商売をし、繁盛していた長者の屋敷には財宝が溢れており、この財産を子に譲り渡したい、と常に心にかけていました。そこへ偶然、落ちぶれた子が父の邸宅の門前にやってきました。子はもちろん、父の家とは知りませんでしたが、父は忘れたことのない待ちに待った子どもで直ぐに分かりました。すぐに側近の者にあの者を連れて参れと呼び寄せます。ところが、子はとても心卑しくなっており、自分のような者がいるべき所ではないと身の危険を感じ、捉えられて殺されてしまうと思い、気を失ってしまいます。
その様子をみた父は考え、すぐには名乗ることをせず、子の心がだんだんと成熟していくのを待つこととしました。そこで、まずみすぼらしい格好をした二人の使者をやって、賃金仕事で誘引しました。そして長年、それとなく教育し、助け、ついには重用して、すべての財産の管理まで任せ、互いに信頼しきるようになっていったのです。しかし、それでも子は、卑屈な心を拭い去ることが出来ませんでした。それでもやがて、子の心が向上し成長したことを知り、父は命終に臨んで、ついに父子の名乗りをあげ、自分の財産・職業の相続を、王侯・大臣はじめ一同の前で披露したのです。
<The Father’s Wish and the Wandering Son>
We learned in the previous parable that the Buddha compared human life to the burning house and taught the necessity of liberation from covetousness. He taught that we should quickly escape from the life of the burning house and get on the great vehicle of the Mahayana. In other words, not only to be free from all afflictions and attain the state of individual peace and tranquility (arhatship), but also to attain the Buddha’s state of enlightenment, which is more than that. This was the wish of the father (i.e., the Buddha) in the Parable of the Rich Fater and the Poor Son.
“You should know, Shariputra, /… / Truly let go of skillful means (of three vehicles)/ To speak solely of the unsurpassable Way. / Bodhisattvas who hear this Dharma / Completely sweep away the web of doubts, / And you twelve hundred arhats / Will all become buddhas.” (Chapter 2, Skillful Means)
The disciples were surprised and pleased to hear the Buddha’s clear statement, but they could not hide their apprehension. Some of them did not believe in the Buddha’s teaching, saying, “We can become arhats, but we cannot become buddhas like Shakyamuni Buddha. It is a false teaching.” One example of this is the five thousand people who left the assembly immediately where Shakyamuni Buddha was preaching. The mental state of the poor son must have been like this.
＜父の願いと放浪する息子＞
私たちは、先の譬喩品で釈尊が人生の火宅になぞらえて、愛欲からの解放の必要性を説いたことを学びました。火宅の人生を早く脱出して、大乗という大きな教えの車に乗りなさいと説かれました。つまり、それまでの煩悩を断ち切り個々の安穏な境地（阿羅漢）を目指すだけではなく、それ以上の釈尊.の覚られた仏陀の境地を目指すのです。「長者窮子の譬え」での父（すなわち釈尊）の願いはそこにあったのです。
『舎利弗當に知るべし…正直に（三乗の）方便を捨てて 但無上道を説く 菩薩是の法を聞いて 疑網皆已に除く 千二百の羅漢 悉く亦當に作佛すべし』（方便品第二）
釈尊がこのように明確に説かれ、弟子たちは驚き、喜びもしましたが、危惧の念も隠せません。「われわれのような者は、阿羅漢にはなれても、釈尊と同じ仏陀になれる訳がない。それはまやかしの教えだ」と信じない者もいたのです。前述のように、釈尊の説法の座から五千人もの人たちが一斉に退場したのも、その一例です。窮子の心境もこのようなものであったに違いありません。
<The Unerasable Self-Abasing Mentality>
Those who have trained to become arhats are not all arrogant people. In fact, some are so humble that they become servile. In other words, when a practitioner reaches the state of an arhat and becomes trained (Skt., asaiksa = having nothing left to learn), they satisfied that they have acquired the character and culture to be respected and worshipped by people. They do not even think of becoming a buddha that is beyond an arhat, as they assume that they will never become a buddha, and they look down on themselves. Even when the poor boy was familiar with everything in the house of the chief, he still thought of himself as a servant, and he was still stuck in the spirit of servility. Even though he was entrusted by his elder to manage the family’s property, he could not believe that the property belonged to him. In Rissho Kosei-kai, especially in the Age of the Skillful Means, the phrase “hikkomi zojoman” or superficial humility was used as well. When members at the Dharma Circle would say, “I have not yet attained the level as I should…” as an expression of humility, this attitude was referred to as “hikkomi zojoman.”
<拭い切れない卑屈な心>
阿羅漢を目指して修行をした人々は、傲慢な方々ばかりではありません。むしろ謙虚すぎて卑屈になる人もいます。つまり、修行者は阿羅漢の境地に至って、学を究めて無学（学ぶものがなくなった状態）となると、人々から尊敬され、拝まれる人格・教養を身に付けたと満足してしまうのです。そして上限の阿羅漢以上の仏陀になろうとも思わなければ、なれる訳がないと思い込んで、卑下してしまうのです。窮子が長者の館のすべてに精通していても、自分はまだ使用人だと思って、卑屈の精神が抜けきれない状態であったのです。長者から家の財産管理を任されても、その財産がまさか自分のものとは思えなかったのです。本会でも、とくに方便時代と呼ばれていた頃、『引っ込み増上慢』という言い回しが使われていました。法座で信者さん方が謙虚のつもりで「私はまだ至りませんので…」と口をついて出たとき、その姿勢を『引っ込み増上慢』として戒められていました。
<Declaration of being a child of Buddha>
In the parable, the father, knowing that his son’s mind has improved and grown, finally announces himself as a father and son at the end of his life, and announces his inheritance of property and occupation in front of princes, ministers, and all others. What is important here is not so much that the elder gathers all concerned to make the declaration, but rather that the self-awareness of the self receives the arrangement from the Buddha.
＜仏の子である宣言＞
譬え話では、窮子の心が向上し成長したことを知り、父は命終に臨んで、父子の名乗りをあげて自分の財産・職業の相続を、王侯・大臣はじめ一同の前で披露したように展開しております。ここで大切なのは、長者が関係者を集めて宣言するというより、自己の自覚が仏さまからお手配を頂くということです。
- Conclusion
Through the “Parable of the Rich Father and the Poor Son,” I have learned that all of us are children of Buddha and can become Buddhas. But like the poor son, I cannot deny my own self-abasing feeling in me. But I must not keep such mentality anymore. Therefore, I would like to conclude my Dharma Talk with my determination to fulfill the mission given by the Founder whatever it takes.
今回「長者窮子の譬え」を通して、私たち皆が仏子であり、仏に成れると学びましたが、自分の根性が窮子と同様、まだまだ卑屈な気持ちがあります。だからといって、いつまでもそんな根性を引きづってはおれません。そこで私は、開祖さまから頂戴した使命の全うの決意をもって、今回の結論にさせて頂きます。
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Founder’s Teaching of the Dharma for May 2025
Calling
Rissho Kosei-kai Founder Nikkyo Niwano
Max Weber (German sociologist) called work a “calling,” which means work called and commanded by God. In Shinto, too, work is called “yosashi or anointing,” which again conveys the concept of being entrusted by God. Whatever the job, we should devote ourselves to it with the hope that we can be of service to others through our work.
Quote from “Jinsei Kokorogake”
開祖さま ご法話
召命
立正佼成会開祖 庭野日敬
マックス・ヴェーバー（ドイツの社会学者）は、仕事のことを「コーリング（召命）」と呼んでいますが、これは神に召され命じられた仕事という意味です。神道でも仕事のことを「任（よさし）」と呼ぶそうですが、やはり神さまから任されたというコンセプトが感じられます。どんな仕事であれ、この仕事を通して人びとのお役に立ちたい、という願いを持って仕事に打ち込みたいものです。（『人生、心がけ』）
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