Text:
Point Two, regarding the passage "Suppose there was a man, still young in years, who abandoned his father, ran away, and lived for a long time in another land, ..."

Lecture:
The sentence, "One who rids the offender of evil is acting as his parent" by the Great Teacher Chang-an was his comment on the Nirvana Sutra. In a previous sentence, it states, "If one befriends another person but lacks the mercy to correct him, one is in fact his enemy." Together, these sentences express the significance of shakubuku.

The parent referred to here is not something as simple as a "brotherly friend" that the heretical Nichiren Sects are saying. Above all, we must know that it is the virtue of the parent that the true Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin possesses from the three virtues of sovereign, teacher and parent. As a whole, we must be aware that our compassionate act of doing shakubuku is the Buddha's decree itself and we are fulfilling this honor by graciously acting as an emissary of the Buddha.

However, people who bad mouth those who do shakubuku without knowing the correct Law must know that they become the enemy of all living beings. The term "round of transmigration" means the cycle of birth and death and it is the same as transmigrating in the six paths. It is to find oneself in the miserable and endless realm of the three worlds and six paths. This will result if one were to go against the great Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin who is the true Buddha and father of all living beings.

SGI Vice President Takimoto said, "Transmigration means that our life is in a state of confusion. Confusion stands for fundamental darkness. To break through the fundamental darkness, we have to take faith in the Gohonzon and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And once we break through the fundamental darkness, we can manifest enlightenment."

Copyright (c) 2006, Soka Gakkai International of the Philippines, All rights reserved