Education of Rebirth
“Education of Rebirth” means
that a person or a parent realizes one’s divinity and practices to be reborn
mentally and spiritually. To apply this principle to a child, it is called
“Education of Having Rebirth of a Child.” This is for a youth and young adult child
who has many problems, and his or her parents have done the best that they can
do but cannot teach their child anymore. The more the parents work to change
their child, the worse he or she behaves. In such a case this “Education of
Having Rebirth of a Child” will help improve your child.
The basic principle is this:
Do not resist evil because evil phenomena is part of the process of getting rid
of the delusion. Do not dwell on your negative thoughts. Release your child
from your mind. Abandon your attachment toward your child. If you are a mother,
visualize that you are pregnant with your child again with love and gratitude
as a child of God and at the same time re-start your child fetus education
again.
For example, when Mariko’s (not
her real name) son became a middle school student, he started to get into
trouble and became rebellious. Mariko had a consultation with a Seicho-No-Ie
minister and he said that the first reason a child has problems is because his
or her parents were not sincerely happy and joyous for their pregnancy.
In Mariko’s case, she did not
want to get pregnant because her superior of her company asked her to restrain from
getting pregnant while she was on a particular project. However, she later
found out that she was pregnant. She worried about the circumstance. When she thought
about it, she realized that in the beginning she did not enjoy and was not happy
about her pregnancy. However, she decided to have the baby.
In accordance with the
suggestion of the minister, Mariko practiced “Education of Having Rebirth of a
Child.” She placed a maternity belt around her belly and visualized that she
was pregnant again with her son. First, she sincerely expressed from the bottom
of her heart her gratitude to God, her ancestors, and her husband for her
pregnancy. Every day she talked with her imaginary baby with joy saying:
“Hello, my baby. Thank you
very much for staying in my belly. You are an angel. I have an extraordinary
wondrous love that I’ve never felt in my heart. It might be the same happy
feeling that my mom and dad felt when I was born. Mom, Dad, thank you very
much. Dear my husband, thank you very much. Your love brought a precious life
in my belly. Let us find a great name for the baby.
My dear baby, you are a great
child and bring joy and happiness to my family. I will talk to you with joy and
great stories every day from now on. I pray for your health. I love you!”
“Education of Rebirth” can be done anytime. It
doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We are all children of God, and our
essence is life, spirit, and divine nature. Therefore, we are unable to damage our
essence. When our essence shines, it is recognized as genius and talents. And
that genius will appear when we realize our divinity. That time is “now.”
Seven Days Rebirth
It is important to give rise
to thoughts of praise and gratitude “now.” In order to live now, you need to
have objectives and goals and focus on them to achieve them. The following is a
one week plan for rebirth.
Sunday: A
day of gratitude for your child.
Monday: A
day of thanking your parents.
Tuesday: A
day of gratitude to your spouse/partner.
Wednesday: A
day of warm and gentle words.
Thursday: A
day of absolute “Yes.”
Friday: A
day of full of smiles.
Saturday: A
day of praising and being grateful to yourself.
<< Sunday: A day of gratitude for your child
>>
Sunday
is the day to be grateful to your child. Visualize him or her with God’s love.
God’s love in Buddhism is the Four Immeasurable Minds which are benevolence,
compassion, joy, and equanimity.
Benevolence is the mind that feels
sympathy and that wants to release people from their sufferings. Observe your
child to see if he or she is worrying or suffering from something. If so, pray
to remove it from your child, find out a solution for him or her, and perform
it as much as you can.
Compassion is the mind that sees
sorrow become joy. Give joy to your child in whatever he or she enjoys.
Joy is the state of mind
where you can see your child’s joy and rejoice as if
it were your own joy. What is the most joyful thing for your child? Whatever it
is, on this day, please be joyful for your child’s joy as if your own joy.
Equanimity or non-attachment is to
believe in your child’s divinity and free your child from your attachment. Let
your child do whatever he or she likes with a strong faith in their child of
God nature. To execute this is the first step to deeply feel the appreciation
of “Thank you very much, my dear child.”
<< Monday: A day of thanking your parents >>
Monday
is the day to be grateful to your parents. The voice of your parents is the
voice of God. You cannot see God here or there. The manifestation of God is
your parents. They are like a mirror to show you your mind. By being grateful
to your parents and everything will turn out better. At the same time you will
find in your mind fulfillment. Your child’s rebellious attitude will vanish and
you will establish good terms between you and your spouse. This is the power of
gratitude to your parents. Write in your Sundial Diary, “Thank you very much,
Father! Thank you very much, Mother!” as much as possible. Today is the day to give
rise to thoughts of gratitude.
<< Tuesday: A day of gratitude to your spouse >>
For this day, in the
beginning, you will stop binding your spouse in your thoughts. The usual
thoughts between a husband and wife are “I will be happy if he or she does this
or that.” Husbands and wives have an intimate relationship that our parents
and siblings cannot enter. Because of this sometimes we forget moderation or
constraint and we become too frank or without reservation and we restrain the
partner with our mind. Stop wishing for them to do this or that and start
practicing praising your spouse as much as possible. You cannot praise your
spouse too much. Write positive things about your spouse in the Sundial Diary.
<< Wednesday: A day of warm and gentle words >>
Wednesday is a day to focus
on your words. Words are vibrations of your character. When your character
becomes sublime, your words also become purified. If your mind has thorns, your
words are acrimonious because your mind creates your words and attitude. On the
other hand, when you control your words and try to use warm and gentle words
with love and joy, your relationship with your spouse becomes lovely and joyous
and there is no apprehension between you. First, chose a word to describe your
spouse and use an endearing
tone.
<< Thursday: A day of absolute “Yes” >>
Absolute
“yes” is the state of the highest realization of enlightenment because there is no
bad thing in the world of God. We always visualize the True-Image World and
practice, unconditional “yes,” “thank you,” and “sorry.” If someone asks for
something from you, it is very different when you reply with a joyful “yes” or a
gloomy “yes.” Practice “yes,” “thank you,” and “sorry” as much as you can.
<< Friday: A day of full of smiles >>
Having a good smile requires
practice. You cannot see your face because your face exists for other people.
Your face is not for you, but for others. Remember this. Who will see your face
the whole day? Not you but other people. Let us practice smiling before a
mirror. When you can find the best smile, close your eyes and inscribe that
best smiling face in your mind. Open your eyes again and see your best smile in
the mirror. Then, close your eyes and keep that image in your mind. Then, say
to yourself, “I am happy.” Again, open your eyes and do the same thing and this
time say, “I am joyful.” This will change your character and yourself. If you
practice before going to bed, you may not realize it but you are practicing
smiling while sleeping.
<< Saturday: A day of praising and being
grateful to yourself>>
This day is the completion of
the week. Praise yourself as much as you can. Write a lot of positive comments
in your Sundial Diary. The fundamental moral of life is to believe that you are
precious life, a wonderful child of God.
Why do you hate yourself or
have an inferiority complex? It is because you believe that you are your physical
existence. If your fundamental thinking is that you are a physical body, then you
will suffer from diseases and physical desires, and consequently you have negative
thoughts and subconsciously dislike yourself. Many saints practice fasting,
torturing their bodies, or avoiding sleeping in order for their spirit to overcome
these desires. The best way to praise yourself is to realize that you are not a
material existence, not a physical body but life and spirit. For this practice, the Three Important Practices of Seicho-No-Ie and read more the Seicho-No-Ie
books to understand the truth logically. This day, Saturday, praise yourself,
read the SNI books, and believe that you are a wonderful child of God.
