Happy Mother’s Day! This year Mother’s day was on May 12th. I would like to talk about the essay written a while back by an elementary school student that won the Prime Minister Award in Japan.
The essay starts off like this: “No matter how much of an important or famous person you become, if you rely on different people and cause trouble, no one will like you, so grow up to be a good person that everyone will like,” said my mother while grasping my hands tightly while lying in the hospital bed. A few days later, she passed away. Being a preschooler at that time, I did not understand the true meaning of those words. Death was something unusual to me and I repetitively confused my grandmother, asking her why my mother had died. Seven years have passed now and Mother’s Day has come again. For farmers, May is a busy month. My father was getting weaker and sicker everyday so he could not work out in the fields and my grandmother was left to worry about the 1-hectare of land that lay barren. My brother and I continued to worry about leaving our grandmother to take care of the fields and we helped her. While helping my grandmother, I suddenly recalled my mother’s last words. I finally understood that relying on different people was something more serious than what people normally thought it was. People would probably say, “oh, it’s just what your mother said. You shouldn’t think too deeply about it.” But those last words were spoken by my mother, the only person in this world to have given birth to me. To those whose mother still exists, they would not be able to understand how lonely I am without my mother and for that reason, my mother’s last words are my treasure. I read the newspaper and cannot help to notice how many people are nonchalant about relying on others or causing trouble with the public. Since last year, I have joined a history club and every weekend, have traveled to different places on my bicycle. From that, I have started to become curious about the smallest things, even little tiny rocks lying on the sidewalk. While cutting the weeds in my family’s field, I picked up a remnant of an ancient earthenware pot. I rushed to show it to my teacher, who told me that it was a fragment from a “sueki” pot, which led to the discovery go an ancient tomb in my field. I rushed to let my mother know about the discovery. The most important thing in my life is something that I cannot grasp. It is my mother’s spirit that continues to live in my heart. Not relying on people includes also, to go ahead and do what makes people happy from the bottom of your heart. My mother’s spirit is a treasure that can continue to accumulate.”
From listening to this story, we need to learn that we need to pray and study the Lotus Sutra, compared to just paying your membership fee for this church and not coming once to the temple. By doing such, your treasure, which is the teachings of Nichiren Shonin and Sakyamuni Buddha, will continue to accumulate in your heart, the same way that the mother’s spirit continues to accumulate in the little boy’s heart. Every one of you has a good deity that is always protecting you. However, if that deity does not have power, it cannot continue to save you. That is why we need to pray in the same way that we have our three meals everyday, to gain the strength in the same way we gain energy, to protect you. So, let’s practice to our fullest potential this whole year. Thank you.
Ven. Kenjo Igarashi
May / June 2024