by Hiroe Kikuchi

In this world, some problems are simply beyond our power to solve. Indeed, our world seems to be just the sort of place where things do not work out in the way we planned. When we come up against trouble without remedy in this contrary world of ours, for many of us there is only one recourse in the face of the inevitable - prayer. The fact that we pray may be considered as evidence of our belief in the action of invisible gods and buddhas. I think that we pray because, deep in the bottom of our hearts, we firmly believe in the existence of the gods and buddhas who have given each of us life and continue to watch over us. However, prayer does not mean just asking the gods and buddhas to save us or grant our wishes.

In the case of Buddhists, from the depths of our prayers for salvation, a state of mind emerges in which we are willing to leave everything to the discretion of the Buddha. This means that we are ready to place our spirits in the Buddha's hands and act in accordance with the Buddha's teachings. The results of such acts tend to throw even greater light on those teachings, and our own spirits begin to reflect that light as we start to live as the Buddha taught us.

Also, through prayer we can reach deeper levels of introspection and loosen our attachments, and this gives us peace of mind. Studying the Dharma also helps us progress toward abandoning our own subjective values and accepting the Buddha's worldview as a natural part of our existence. This helps us recognize that even in the here and now we have already been granted salvation. This recognition gives rise to gratitude for the gift of life, and the prayers we raise to the gods and buddhas become prayers of thanks.

All the various religions of the world include prayer and worship as parts of everyday life. In the case of Rissho Kosei-kai, members carry out regular morning and evening sutra chanting and devotional services, which can be said to correspond with the daily prayer practices of other religions. In the morning we sit before our home Buddhist altars, pray to the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, and offer prayers of thanks to our parents and ancestors who transferred the precious gift of life to us. In the evening we reflect on what we said and did during the day, and offer prayers of repentance and gratitude to the people we encountered. Performing these devotions nurtures compassionate hearts that sincerely desire to transfer to others any merit gained through practicing the Buddha's teachings, and this is what brings salvation to ourselves.

Rissho Kosei-kai also carries out what we call the Donate-a-Meal Movement, in which members skip a meal and donate its cost to help those who are suffering. This movement is grounded in the spirit of feeling the pain of others; it is essentially an offering of sympathy for the sorrows and suffering of people affected by poverty or armed conflict and of prayers that happiness will come to all people of the world. To further members' understanding of the significance of the movement, field trips are organized mainly for young people to let them meet the people involved and see for themselves how the activities supported by the fund are progressing on-site. Many young people who go on these tours learn by direct observation why there is a world peace movement.

Writer Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) breathed life into the teaching of the Lotus Sutra in his many poems and children's stories. One of his best-known statements is: "Unless the world as a whole can achieve happiness, there can be no happiness for an individual." All of us possess the buddha-nature, that is, the spirit that makes us sincerely wish to help others. The Donate-a-Meal Movement involves everyday actions in the context of the family or local community that are essentially prayers for the happiness of people around the world, and this serves as one way to help us awaken to the buddha-nature in ourselves and in others. This is our peace movement, and what makes it work is hearts that are praying for the happiness of the whole world.

The annual Week of Prayer for World Peace, held in October, started out as a series of yearly events held by various religions around the world to pray for world peace, and Rissho Kosei-kai also participates in this movement. If all the various religions truly pursued the aims of religion, world peace would finally be achieved. However, in reality, religious differences still fuel unending conflicts in many regions of the world. It is important to transcend the confines of religions or religious sects to pray together, because through such prayer, people can awaken to the fact that, even though we might have different viewpoints, we are all human beings, living proof of the precious gift of life, and thus we can share a common desire for the happiness of all the people of the world and work together toward that end. As people one by one build up peace in their hearts through prayer, in time a great tidal wave of peace will be created - this is the hope that drives us on.