All Are Precious

by Nichiko Niwano

If we were able to appreciate, from the bottom of our hearts, that each of us is equally wonderful without any exceptions, then how very pleasant our lives would be. The key to achieving this lies in developing an awareness of the truth of the Dharma.

Our lives are interconnected with everything in the world and are sustained in the here and now through the infinite interrelations of the causes and conditions that are so numerous no one can perceive them all. All things and phenomena arise from these unlimited interrelationships fusing with one another and becoming one. The wildflowers that bloom in the field, the animals, human beings, indeed, all sentient beings, essentially arise from the truth of the Dharma.

When we awaken to this fact, we also become aware of just what a foolish and self-centered, narrow viewpoint it is that judges things only by their appearance or that is paralyzed by fixed ideas or prejudices.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata (Calcutta), known as "the saint of the gutters," devoted her life to caring for the destitute, ill people that society had abandoned to life in the streets. When such people were close to death, she would say to them, "You were born into this world because you were needed." Their faces would become relaxed and they would respond to her, "I am grateful that I was born."

Despite their poverty and illness, these people realized, because of Mother Teresa's loving intervention, that they were not alone in the world, that life is precious, and that indeed they were interconnected with other people.

Humbling Ourselves Is Relaxing

People have different natures and abilities, and their faces and bodies differ as well. Everyone has an individual character and distinguishing features that are an expression of his or her own life. The life that each of us has is precious and irreplaceable.

When we realize that our own life is precious, we also will realize that the lives of others are equally precious and that therefore we are all connected as one. When we become as one, then we can understand that respecting and supporting the individual character and distinguishing features of others is the way to enrich each other.

From this kind of awareness, if, for instance, at the workplace a coworker makes a mistake, instead of criticizing that person or passing judgment we can recognize humbly that we might have the potential to make the same kind of mistake. We then are able to listen to what that person has to say, and we can give appropriate advice.

In Rissho Kosei-kai, we use the Japanese word sagaru (to go down) for our religious practice of humbling ourselves. When we humble ourselves, we feel relaxed; but when we cannot humble ourselves, we become arrogant. If our arrogance becomes aggressive, we end up suffering when we clash with other people.

Let us continue in our efforts to grow spiritually so that we can take deeply to heart the understanding that everyone---not only ourselves but all others as wellﾑhas been given a precious life that is uniquely individual, so that we become the kind of gentle human beings who can draw deeply from the feelings and pain of others.