Putting Others First
Rev. Nichiko Niwano
President of Rissho Kosei-kai

Putting Others First

Most of us probably have strong feelings of our own importance and our appeal to other people. Our wish is to always be happy. Other people generally are the same, they also have feelings of importance and want to attain happiness.

Shakyamuni once said that a person is unable to find anything more dear than himself or herself and his other people are the same. They also can find no greater love than that they have for themselves. Therefore, he taught, the people who know that they love themselves will not do harm to others. This teaches us that people who love themselves must value others as much as they do themselves.

We are given the wonderful blessing of life, precious life, by the great life-force of the universe. When we become aware of the gratitude we should feel and our wonder at having received life as a human being and cherish the gift we have received, then our thoughts and feelings cannot help but embrace all of life in the same way.

We must not wish that we alone will enjoy happiness. Our deepest wish must be that everyone shares happiness with us. That is what we all should wish for. Once we have realized this, the self-centered desire for our own happiness vanishes from our mind and we have the humble feeling that we should put others first. Then, while doing all that we can for others, we will discover our own joy.

Making Joy Our Own

People who genuinely wish for the happiness of others are thankful for every chance to meet other people and can freely accept whatever other may ask of them. They naturally take on such requests and do their best to show others every kindness. Even people who are always busy with their own affairs surely can show some consideration to the wishes of their parents and their siblings. If they can do that, then they can extend the same consideration to their friends and colleagues, and can have kind interactions with all of them.

Let us start by behaving well when we meet other people, doing those things that are easy for us, such as cheerfully exchanging greetings or neatly arrange our shoes when we take them off. The overall result of such actions is the fostering of consideration for other people. One of the teachings of Dengyo Daishi (i.e., Saicho) is "Sustenance is to be found in the will to follow the Way; the will to follow the Way is not to be found in pursuit of the means of sustenance." In other words, once we are able to feel the joy in our hearts of doing all we can for others by putting them first, we can better arrange our own priorities and achieve happiness for ourselves.

As Shakyamuni preached, benefiting others brings true comfort to oneself. Many members are performing various valuable services in our churches. Let us continue to be diligent, and achieve real happiness by forgetting our own self-interest and keeping the goal of putting others first in our hearts.

Kosei 02/2004

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