Hello. This is Yukihiro Shima of Oubaitori.com. Today I held my 152nd YouTube Live from our Oubaitori showroom in Omitama, Ibaraki. How has your week been? This week, an earthquake struck Kumamoto, and difficult disaster conditions continue there. To everyone affected, and to those working with all their strength on rescue and recovery, I offer my heartfelt sympathy. Power cut off, water cut off — in the midst of such hardship, I pray for the earliest possible recovery, and I will do what I can.
August: an electronic piano, and showing my grandchildren a living example
Today is August 1st, 2026. This morning I practiced the electronic piano I started only three days ago, for about ten minutes. As August begins, our family’s yearly “summer camp with the grandchildren” is about to start. A piano that was never in our home is now sitting there, and this grandpa — who never used to play — hopes that even just a single bar, even just the first verse, he might manage to play. Just imagining how the grandchildren will delight in it fills me with excitement.
To show that to the grandchildren right in front of me — and to my own children — is, I believe, one of the best things I can do. Not keeping my distance in silence, nor bracing myself as if saying what needs saying would make me disliked, but simply letting them see the feeling that “I am truly alive, right now.” That way of living, I feel, is what matters. In my own case, I have been blessed with family; thanks to my wife I have come this far; my daughter has married, and I have been blessed with the treasure of grandchildren. Truly, I am grateful.
Before the Gohonzon: the Ceremony in the Air, and life as it truly is
Within the Gakkai, I have at last reached a state of life where I can chant Daimoku with the Gohonzon as my foundation. This morning, too, I gazed intently at the Gohonzon. As I joined my hands, thinking, “Now I take part, with my own being, in the Ceremony in the Air,” a single image rose up within my heart.
At the center of the Gohonzon stands the treasure tower of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, with the many figures arranged around it. The one I revere is what I might call a beautifully essential form — the Gohonzon transcribed by Nichikan Shonin. In this Gohonzon, the figures that appear are not excessive. Because of that, an ordinary person like me is not pulled away by needless distraction, and can simply turn toward prayer. Over three years, through more than ten million Daimoku, it struck my very life: “This Gohonzon of Nichikan Shonin is enough. It is wonderful.”
The Gohonzon, I have come to feel, is not a finished, motionless picture from the start. It begins from Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and through prayer the many figures gather to it. Within a single scroll, a living ceremony is inscribed. When I chant Daimoku before it in the morning, I too am taking part in that ceremony, as one of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. I stand up in vow — “Today, again, I will chant” — and I switch it on myself. Then the figures rise as if joining their strength together, and the Gohonzon appears, here and now. This was the conviction that came to me while chanting, just yesterday and today.
My true heart: to live honestly — everything depends on me
In this morning’s Daimoku I asked it too: what is your true heart? Mine is this — I want to live honestly, and to keep living honestly. To be true to my own heart is, in the end, the heart of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo itself. Not piling stress on myself, not shrinking my self-worth until I lose all confidence, but walking my own path in my own way, as the bodhisattva I originally am.
I take part in the ceremony by my own will, and I switch it on with my own hand. It is my life, after all. When I decide, and pray as I have decided, and act as I have prayed, a reality appears that turns the impossible into the possible. To simply declare on my own that something is “impossible” — that, Buddhism teaches, is not the way. That is why the heart grows clear. Are you clear in your heart right now? Is it not ruled by anxiety or fear? The way is, in truth, very simple. Just chant Daimoku. That is all.
Sixty-six years, and then three years and three months — from here, my real work begins
To be honest, there was a long time when Daimoku would not rise in me. For sixty-six years I did not, of my own accord, try to offer such precious Daimoku. As long as I took it as words coming from outside — “you should chant” — I did not understand. But because I hit a wall myself, I came to feel, with my own being, “It really is Daimoku.” So over these three years and three months, chanting ten thousand Daimoku each morning, I have come to be able to send this out to the world. A person who was poor at Daimoku learns to offer it. A person who did not understand English enters an age where he can publish books in English. Everything depends on you.
Opening many small, small doors, clearing hurdle after hurdle, I have at last reached the starting line. From here, I feel, my real work begins. You can start at any time, from anywhere. Because I have walked a life on the edge of a cliff, I understand well the feeling of those for whom it is not easy. And at the same time, because I have experienced it, I know that “whether it opens or not depends on you.” Why? Because the Gohonzon is there, and the Soka Gakkai is there.
The visible world is severe, and hard conditions continue at home and abroad. That is exactly why I want to live through it all with faith as my axis and Daimoku as my foundation — for the sake of your mission, and mine. “Mission,” in Japanese, is written as “using one’s life.” Let us use that life fully, without regret. Once more, my heartfelt sympathy goes to all those affected by the disaster. As fellow comrades, let us surely overcome this hardship together. Thank you sincerely for watching today. I look forward to seeing you again next week.
🙏 From Yukihiro Shima — Oubaitori.com
Bloom your own way, at your very best.
Oubaitori.com — Japan’s specialist in Soka Gakkai Buddhist altars
44 years, one specialty (est. 1982). 17,113 Soka Gakkai Buddhist altars delivered to date. Japan’s No.1 in restoring Soka Gakkai altars, 1,500+ restored. Registered trademark: “Butsudan Revolution — Kokū Zushi.” We ship worldwide.
📱 Talk directly with us (LINE)
Comments