Thank you very much. Today
I will explain Shinsokan to Visualize the
Four Immeasurable Minds. The original version of this meditation was created
by Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi, who wrote this Shinsokan to embrace
humankind with God’s love and the Buddha’s Four Immeasurable Minds. Rev.
Masanobu Taniguchi revised this meditation to expand this love not only to
humankind but also to all sentient and non-sentient beings, i.e., all minerals,
water, wind, sunlight, and Mother Nature. The prayer is as follows:
My mind is one with
God’s infinite love and the Four Immeasurable Minds of the Buddha, and it
spreads throughout the skies, permeates the universe, and reaches out to all
living beings, seeking to remove their suffering, lessen their pain, bring ease
and comfort to their life, and give them joy. (Repeat)
All
living beings have been relieved of their suffering, their pain has been
lessened, ease and comfort have been brought to their life, and they have been
blessed with joy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Repeat)
My mind is one with God's
infinite love and the Four Immeasurable Minds of the Buddha, and it further
spreads throughout the skies, permeates the universe, and reaches out to all
lives and minerals on earth, seeking to remove their suffering, bring them ease
and comfort, protect their diversity, and give them joy. (Repeat)
Already, all lives on
earth have been relieved of their suffering, ease and comfort have been brought
to their life, their diversity has been protected, and they have been blessed
with joy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Repeat)
Founder Rev. Masaharu
Taniguchi introduced this original Shinsokan
to Visualize the Four Immeasurable Minds in Seiko Roku (Record of
Holy Light). Most Japanese Seicho-No-Ie members have this book and practice the
contents of it every day. Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained this
Shinsokan in this book as follows:
All
living beings have been relieved of their suffering, their pain has been
lessened, ease and comfort have been brought to their life, and they have been blessed
with joy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Then visualize intently that all of mankind have
been completely relieved from pain and suffering, and get the feeling that you
are now leaving everything to God and become grateful. This is not a Shinsokan
to seek blessings for your own self but a prayerful meditation to remove the
pain and suffering of all of mankind. Therefore, it is not egotistical at all,
as a result of which the benefits to you will be greater than in a
self-centered meditation. (Seiko Roku, p. 119)
As Rev. Taniguchi wrote, this Shinsokan is
not egotistical at all. We pray for all humankind. Remember that this Shinsokan
was written 70 or 80 years ago. Considering the current world environment, it
is not enough to think only about humankind. We must think about all living
beings and the earth itself. As of August 22, 2019, there were 1,954 active
wildfires (show the map) in the United States. And, there is a bigger problem
because the Amazon rainforest has had continuous wildfires for many months.
Since January 2019 there have been 72,843 wildfires in Brazil. The Amazon
rainforest produces about 20% of the world’s oxygen, so the current Amazon
rainforest wildfires may dramatically accelerate global warming and climate
change.
Why do these negative incidents happen so
often? It is because human beings think only about human beings. We must
expand God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds of the Buddha to all
creatures and nature. But, the reality is that still many human beings only
think about themselves. For example, according to CNN news, it reported that
“Environmental organizations and researchers say the wildfires blazing in the
Brazilian rainforest were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear
and utilize the land, emboldened by the country’s pro-business president.” “And
99 percent of the fires result from human actions ‘either on purpose or by
accident,’ Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at INPE, said.” (August 22, 2019)
We need to change our thinking from focusing
only on human beings to focusing on all creatures in nature. This is why Rev.
Masanobu Taniguchi slightly revised the prayer.
What is the Four Immeasurable Minds? In
Buddhist scripture, it is stated, “The Mind of the Buddha is, indeed, the four
immeasurable minds of the Buddha,” and these four minds are benevolence,
compassion, joy, and equanimity. Benevolence is the mind that feels sympathy and
that wants to release people from their sufferings. Compassion is the mind that
empathizes with someone’s sorrow and wants to change this sadness to joy. Joy
is the state of mind where we can see someone else’s joy and rejoice as if it
were our own joy.
It is important that we feel others’ joy as
if it were our own joy. Rev. Seicho Taniguchi once talked about this in his
grand seminar. He said, “When you find that your neighbor has bought a new car,
be delighted and grateful as if you have bought a new car. If you can do this,
a new car already belongs to you.” When I listened to this lecture, I wondered
how the neighbor’s new car belongs to me. Of course, he did not mean that the
neighbor’s car actually belongs to me. But, if I can be delighted with my
neighbor’s happiness as if it were mine, then I already have joy in my mind.
Since our minds create everything in our lives, a joyous mind will create joy
in our lives. Being grateful and being delighted that you already have
everything are basic but important ways to realize happiness.
All of you are Seicho-No-Ie leaders in the
United States and Canada, so you clearly understand the teaching that the mind
creates all. This universe is filled with energy or God’s life that gives life
to all things. Although this energy cannot be seen with our naked eyes, we have
this energy to use in our daily lives. Human beings have a mind which is a
precious gift from God. When we have a thought in our mind, we have shaped this
thought into a pattern, model, or mold similar to a mold to make chocolate.
Once melted chocolate is filled into these molded shapes, eventually it becomes
solid. The universe is filled with creative energy. When we shape thoughts in
our mind those thoughts materialize. This creative energy changes and
materializes into this world in accordance with our thoughts in the mind.
The important thing here is the kind of
thoughts you have in your mind. If you become attached to something, this means
your thoughts are attached to something and you lose your freedom of thoughts.
In Buddhism, realizing the three virtues of
benevolence, compassion and joy are important, but if we don’t discard the mind
of attachments, we cannot live the life of a child of God. Discard attachments
including these three virtues. You are leaders, so it is natural for you to
have strong desires to want to save other people. We need to discard this
attachment to save others, or our thoughts lose flexibility. If we are able to
release our attachments, we will feel our true nature that is one with God’s
love. This is true love. In the Bible it is called Charity. If we are bound
by our own thoughts of charity, unlimited loving vitality and joy to help
others won’t bubble up from within. Christianity and Buddhism teach you the
same Truth, which is to love others and work for others, but this is
accomplished only without attachment or with unconditional love. We must never
forget that we must discard all attachment in order to accomplish our love for
others.
Our Seicho-No-Ie President, Rev. Masanobu
Taniguchi said that some of us practice God’s love and the Four Immeasurable
Minds towards human beings and some animals like our pets. However, those
people need to show the same love to monkeys, deer, rats, skunks, etc. In other
words, it is not enough to show our love only to those we choose or like. That
is not unconditional love but mere attachment. Human beings find it difficult
to practice the last immeasurable mind, “equanimity,” because they create
attachments to acquire certain things from nature such as rare resources,
diamonds, uranium, and other rare minerals. Human beings destroy nature to
acquire coal, oil and natural gas even though these underground resources
contribute to global warming. People kill elephants, foxes, and mink to acquire
tusks or to make a fur coat. People want to collect these expensive and
beautiful things. In other words, they have not attained the last immeasurable
mind “equanimity.”
It may take a long time for all human beings
to attain God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds; however, we must not
forget that we should practice “equanimity” during our lifetime because sooner
or later all of us will die ultimately discarding our physical bodies. Practice
“equanimity” so that we can attain God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds.
When you experience “equanimity” your spiritual merits are beyond your imagination.
As Founder Rev. Taniguchi said, “This is not
a Shinsokan to seek blessings for yourself but a prayerful meditation to remove
the pain and suffering of all of mankind.” And this new version of Shinsokan is
not only for humankind but also for all sentient and non-sentient beings.
“Therefore, it is not egotistical at all, as a result of which the benefits to
you will be greater than in a self-centered meditation.” To help all living
beings and everything in nature, your mind needs to be able to be one with
them. As our concerns regarding the environment and Mother Nature are growing,
it is pertinent that we practice this Shinsokan Meditation daily. With this
understanding, let us practice this Shinsokan Meditation. Thank you very much.
