“Strengthen your faith day by day and month after month. If you slack off, the evil will get you”
Long ago, a couple of birds lived in the deep snow mountains of India.
They were called the cold-suffering birds. The mountain was covered with deep snow and when the sun went down the cold air was very severe.
The female bird cried out, “It’s so cold! I’m going to die!”
The male bird said “Let’s build a nest when dawn breaks. Don’t worry.”
But when dawn broke and the weather warmed up, they forgot all about their suffering and did not even try to build a nest. Instead, they slept together in the warm sunlight until evening.
They thought “Why should we go to the trouble of building a nest when we might die tomorrow”.
When night came again and they suffered from the intense cold, they regretted not building the nest during the day and said, “We will definitely build a nest tomorrow morning!”
But the next morning they forgot about it again.
Every morning they continued to forget. They repeated the same behavior every day, and finally, without building a nest, they did nothing but complain about the cold and bitterness. They suffered for the rest of their lives.
Applying this to our faith: When we first started Nichiren Daishonin’s Buppo, we chanted earnestly to ease our suffering and we Shakubuku (sharing Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo). When the suffering was resolved and our circumstances improved, inertia set in, and we became complacent. Our faith weakened and we were not serious about our daily practice. Then our lives became tormented once again.
Wake up call from the Daishonin
A woman used to chant Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo at the Kenshokai, but after a while she became so busy with her life that she stopped chanting. The monthly Kenshokai newspaper sent to her was also piled up in boxes and left unread.
Then the Great East Japan Earthquake happened in 2011.
Although she survived the disaster, her house was completely destroyed by the tsunami. When she visited the site of her house, she wondered about the shed that remained standing next to it. When she peeked inside, she noticed a cardboard box.
When she opened it, she was surprised to find a stack of Kenshokai newspapers inside!
The newspapers showed no signs of being affected by the tsunami, the paper was crisp. The box was completely dry!
It was only then that she realized what was important. It was a wake-up call from Nichiren Daishonin Buddha! She started to chant again from that day forward.
700 safes without owners
From the fourth floor of the police station at the time of the earthquake, Ms. Sasaki saw her town being swallowed up by the tsunami.
The tsunami stopped 20 inches in front of the police station where she worked.
Immediately after the earthquake, she felt extremely lonely because she could not contact her family and team members due to the loss of phone service, but when she chanted Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, she felt confident that she was connected with everyone thorough chanting and gained vitality. She was able to keep going one day at a time.
Everyone searched through the rubble for various items “for the sake of the remaining family members” and brought them to the police station as found objects. Among them, about 700 safes were picked up, some of which contained about 1 million dollars.
During this disaster, she realized that no one can take their titles or material possessions with them when they died.
The key is to yearn for
Nichiren Daishonin Buddha
“The Shoten Zenjin are responding to your prayers.”
Nichiren Daishonin Buddha
Unbreakable Happiness 