Ties of Karma From the Distant Past

“It must be ties of karma from the distant past that have destined you to become my disciple at a time like this. Shakyamuni and Many Treasures certainly realized this truth. The sutra’s statement, ‘Those persons who had heard the Law dwelled here and there in various Buddha lands, constantly reborn in company with their teachers,’ cannot be false in any way.” (“The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 217)

Background

Our connection to Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and the SGI is not a matter of this lifetime alone. Here Nichiren Daishonin reminds Sairen-bo that it is “ties of karma from the distant past” that brought the two of them together.

The passage he quotes, from the Lotus Sutra’s “Parable of the Phantom City” chapter, emphasizes the deep bonds between mentor and disciple. In that chapter, Shakyamuni tells his disciples that he and they had been born repeatedly together in various places and had practiced the bodhisattva way since the remote past. Hearing this, his disciples recall their original vow and awaken to their mission to save all people in the present and future.

Because we have deep bonds from the past, we can form the relationship of mentor and disciple in the present, and we can continue to work for the happiness of all people into the eternal future. Sairen-bo must have felt Nichiren’s deep concern for him, his hope that his disciple would awaken to his mission. And with deep appreciation, Sairen-bo must have made a new determination to fight together with Nichiren for the sake of the Law. Nothing is better than having a mentor who reminds us of our mission to fulfill “the great vow of kosen-rufu,” so we can lead a deeply fulfilling life.