Sustaining Our Lives "Life Appreciation for Our Ancestors" by Mae Takamoto

Ordinarily, people think life is having a good education, finding a job which
pays lots of money, to buy your nice car, house, clothes, travel, get married, have a
family then retire enjoying your grandchildren then passing on. We all need food,
clothing, and shelter just to exist in this world.....This, I feel is how most people think.

During the period from birth till death we are all on this earth existing among many people and many things. We all live in the same world, but, our lives are all different. With the great american dream in mind we run into obstacles and have many difficulties causing us to suffer.

"Life is not suppose to be like this................" We would say.
So how do we sustain this life or in other words how do we endure or withstand this so
called "life"????????????
Have you ever wondered why you are here today..... what your purpose on this earth
really is........or what is the true meaning of your existence.......??????
Are you merely existing............living day to day.......just going through life
aimlessly???????

Well, I think we all have pondered on one of these questions at some point in our lives.
Before I encountered Rissho Kosei-Kai I often wondered about my life.

When we are born we are all dependent on our parents or adults around us to
survive.....we then grow up and become independent, creating our own lives........

One of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra is that we are all interrelated or inter-dependent.
Based on the teaching of "cause" and "effect", we come into this world with our
ancestors karma of the past and we are making karma in the present for the future.....
This statement alone has a very deep and significant meaning of our lives.
We try to enhance the good karma and the bad ones we try to change. The primary
practice the Founder taught was ancestor appreciation. Our lives was not created by
ourselves. We have many many inherited karmas from our ancestors whether our
situations are good or difficult. Founder Niwano taught us the way to appreciate our
lives through ancestor appreciation. Although we cannot see our ancestors here on earth
they do exist in the invisible/spiritual world.

In Rissho Kosei-Kai Kai, one of the first things we do when we become a member is to
enshrine a Sokaimyo/Symbol of Faith in our home. This has our family name on it and
welcomes all of our ancestors into our home. We recite our daily prayers in front of the
altar and transfer the merits of our sutra recitation to them with appreciation. This is like
food or energy for them.

Looking at the tree...... This is the physical world/visible world where the trunk represents you, the branches represents your children and the fruits or flowers represents your grandchildren. The roots of the tree represents all of your ancestors. They exist in the spiritual/invisible world. Ancestor appreciation is to awaken our gratitude towards the preciousness of our life. Our prayers are the fertilizer for the soil so that the roots will become strong. ... It is very important to do prayers so that we can purify our own spirit and am able to transfer this merits to our ancestors. Besides prayers, we must also have positive actions and experiences. We also create merits by donations. Whether it be monetary donations, donating your services or body, and donation of spreading the teachings with others. We accumulate all these merits and transfer them to our ancestors...in return our ancestors will be happy and support us spiritually, which has a very positive result in our lives. Creating a strong foundation is very important towards our lives and the future generations. We should not worry whether we transfer all our merits to our ancestors and not have anything for ourselves. It will return in double or triple fold. Our appreciation and gratitude towards our ancestors is necessary in order for us to truly appreciate our own lives.

Founder Niwano guided Co-Founder Myoko during her many life difficulties. Co-
Founder Myoko entered into various religions to ask the Gods to save her. During her
illness with her internal organs, Founder said to her that she is here on earth because of
her ancestors. He questioned her about whether or not she ever showed her heart felt
appreciation to them. Founder said to believe in the Buddha and the universal truth to
answer your prayers, you need to be aware of your causation as to why you were given
life on this earth. Co-Founder quickly enshrined the "symbol of faith" and received
posthumous names for her ancestors. She held appreciation services to her ancestors and
miraculously her illness* showed much improvement.

One of our basic practices is that whenever we get angry or mad at a particular person, we should first reflect back to ourselves and ask, what is the Buddha trying to teach me?

The other person is a reflection of myself. Most of the time we cannot accept this fact

It is easier to blame others and judge them, but instead we should take a moment to reflect and see what we should be learning about ourselves from this situation.

When we change the other changes. This is how the Buddha helps us.

With this practice you can also apply the same reflection towards our many ancestors.

We may have a particular problem in our lives and we wonder why is this happening to me.?????? Or why am I this certain way???? We can apply this same practice........

Through our problem or suffering, we can look at our ancestors and find someone who had suffered the same situation or have some relations to your problem...... We offer prayers to them so that they too can be guided to the Eternal Buddha and attain Buddhahood. They become happy and in turn they support us overcome our problems.

This is a very positive and important practice of our church.

For the past four years several members have been conducting ancestor appreciation
services once a month in their homes. Because of their dilemmas they were guided to
hold these services and have had many positive life changing results ...........

There is a member who has lost both parents and found herself all alone. She had failures in relationships and her life was faced with many difficulties. By doing monthly prayers for her ancestors, her life is slowly becoming more concrete and stable. I have seen the change in her as she learned to practice appreciation for her parents and ancestors. Her behavior is positive and she is much more responsible for her life. Because of her sincere heartfelt appreciation for her ancestors she can now appreciate the preciousness of her own life.

There are other families who have become very supportive of each other through the
preparation of this monthly service. Their homes have become more orderly and I can feel the warmth in the family.

In conclusion, to sustain our lives we need to have strong faith so that we will be aware that our ancestors are always with us spiritually sending lots of support and goodness towards our lives. " sustaining your life

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