Why Is Education of Rebirth Important?: Day 34

 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.