June 2026 Issue: Suffering as a Friend of Life

The Chairman's Dharma: Suffering Is Also a Friend of Life The Chairman of the Nichkou Risshō Kōsei Kai Garden, Suffering Is Made from Water I have often asked you all before: when a glass is half full of water, how do you see it, how do you receive it? Mr. Masakan Kobayashi, a psychologist, says that there are those who see it with complaints and dissatisfaction, saying "there is only half"; those who are happy, saying "there is still half in it"; and those who receive it with gratitude, saying "someone left half for me, how thankful." However, whichever way one receives it, it is oneself who is assigning such meaning, and the fact is only that the glass is half full of water. Whether one feels dissatisfaction or receives it with joy or gratitude, it is all one's own mind, he says. For us laypeople, I think it is important that the Buddha's teachings be as easy to understand as possible so that one can live by them. But this Mr. Kobayashi's psychology, based on the teaching of form is emptiness and emptiness is form, teaches that whether things are pleasant or painful, all phenomena are something we ourselves arbitrarily assign meaning to and take as real. In particular, phenomena that we think are the cause of suffering and distress are often made into seeds of suffering by ourselves through dogmatism, prejudice, assumptions, desires, delusion, and attachment, and if we change the way we see or receive them, we can live more easily. This is an example of a life-oriented Buddhist way of seeing, and I believe it is shown in this glass analogy. Suffering Is Also an Important Moment in Life To say that birth, aging, sickness, and death are to be endured—this is not suffering for me but rather a foundation. These are the words of Professor Takahashi Hirazawa, former president of Kyoto University. Life, when one changes one's way of seeing, is a succession of joy and pleasure. The late Mr. Kamimichi Sakamura, who is generally said to have suffered from illness, read it with a warm sense of gratitude, saying that illness opened yet another world for me. The novelist Mr. Kojin Shimomura has stated: "The world I want to live in is one where suffering does not become a cause of despair but rather a stimulus to courage." Regarding the teaching of emptiness that the aforementioned Mr. Kobayashi showed in his talk about the water in the glass, it is a training in how to find joy and pleasure in the same phenomenon, and I think that is what the Buddha wanted to convey to us. As the saying goes, the way of seeing is the way of the universe, and phenomena that one thinks are painful can connect to the courage to live or to new ways of living through various ways of seeing and receiving them. If one merely sees them one-dimensionally as only painful and difficult, one may remain trapped in that suffering and miss a precious opportunity for growth. That said, this is not about forcing oneself to accept painful phenomena in a positive way. It is about seeing things from multiple perspectives. And no matter how great the suffering, when measured against the teachings of impermanence and non-self, it is a coincidence or inevitability of life, and moreover it is connected to an imaginative future, such as a child growing into an adult. Even if it takes a little time, we have the power to transform suffering into the joy of living. In a certain novel, there was a passage that said: "Good things and bad things, all of them have shaped who you are now. Without the bad things, you would not be who you are now. Without the good things, you would not be who you are now." Suffering and sorrow are important moments in one's own life and precious life experiences. If the accumulation of the past has made the present, then by how one designs the present while looking toward a distant future, one can change both the future and the past. These are the words of Professor Haruyuki Tachibana, a theoretical physicist. In that sense as well, it is important that we live the present, taking both the light and the darkness accumulated from the past as lifelong friends, for the sake of our future selves, future adults, and the future of the Earth. With this, I will conclude the Chairman's Dharma talk. The Dharma gathering of the Nichkou Risshō Kōsei Kai Garden is hereby ended.

会長法は 苦しみも人生の友 庭の日光立昇公正会会長 苦労は水から作っている 私はこれまで皆さんにしばしば コップに水が半分入っている時 それをどのように見るか受け取るか という問いかけをしてきました 徐術家の小林正官氏は 半分しかないと不平不満で見る味方 半分も入っていて嬉しいと喜ぶ味方 誰かが半分残してくださった ありがたいと感謝で受け取る味方が あると言います ただどの味方受け取り方も そのような意味付けをしているのは自分であって 事実はコップに水が半分入っている ということだけ 不満を感じるのも喜びや感謝で受け取るのも すべて私自身の心だというのです 在家の私たちにとって仏様の教えは できるだけわかりやすくて生活ができることが大事だと 私は思っていますが この小林氏の徐術は 半夜深夜でとかれる色即絶空の教えをもとに 楽しいことも苦しいことも すべての現象は私たち自身が勝手な 意味付けをして一気一有していると教えるものです 特に苦しみや悩みの原因だと思う現象 は独断や偏見思い込みや願望 そして迷いや集着などによって 自ら苦の種にしていることが多く その味方や受け取り方を変えれば もっと楽に生きられますよという 生活に目指した仏教的なものの味方の一例が このコップの例えには示されていると思うのです 苦も人生の大事な一瞬 昇老病子を敷くというが 私にとっては仕苦ではなく 敷きであるとは平沢高先生 京都大学元総長の言葉です 人生は味方を変えると喜びと楽しみの連続だというのです 死人の坂村神民さんは 一般的には痛苦とされる病気を 病がまた一つの世界を開いてくれた 桃柵とむしろほのぼのとした感謝の意味合いを にじませて読まれ 小説家の下村個人は 私の住みたい世界は苦能が絶望の原因と ならず勇気への刺激となるような世界 と述べています 先の小林氏がコップの水の話で示した 空の教えについて 同じ現象についていかに喜びや楽しさを見出していくかの訓練なんですよ ということをお釈迦様は私たちに 伝えたかったのでは 宇宙が味方の味方道 公園者というとおり苦しいと思う現象も 生きる勇気や新たな生き方につながる いろいろな味方受け取り方ができるのです それをただ一面的に苦しい辛いとだけ見ているとずっとその苦にとらわれて せっかくの成長の機会を逃すことにもなりかねないのです とはいえ辛い現象を無理に前向きに受け止めようというのではありません 物事を多面的に見るということ そしてどれほどの苦能も無情の心理や演技の教えに照らしてみれば 人生の巡り合わせや必然であって しかもそれは例えば幼子が大人へと成長していくような 想像的な未来へも結ばれるものです 少し時間がかかっても苦能を生きる家庭や喜びに変える力が 私たちにはあるのですある小説に良いことと悪いこと そのすべてが今の自分を形作っているんだ 悪いことがなければ今の君にはなっていない 良いことがなければ今の君になっていないのと同じだ という一説がありました苦しみも悲しみも 自分の人生の大事な一瞬であり貴重な人生経験です 過去の収積が今を作っているとしたら 遠い未来を見据えて今からをどうデザインするかによって 未来も過去も変えることができるとは 理論物理学者の差次春尾先生の言葉ですが そのような意味でも過去から積み重ねた暗くのどちらをも一生の友として 未来の自分未来の大人そして未来の地球のために 私たちは今を生きることが大切なのです 以上で 厚生例は8年6月後 会長先生ご法和の労働を終了させていただきます