In considering what Nikkyō Niwano has to say about Chapter 17 in Buddhism for Today, I’ve set aside a lengthy discussion on faith and rewards of faith. (Pages 258-260)
I particularly like this use of psychosomatic illnesses to explain why it is “natural occurrence” that true faith brings physical benefits.
Medicine has made remarkable progress in the study of the relation between the human mind and body. Psychosomatic medicine has established the fact that various illnesses, such as eye diseases, skin complaints, heart trouble, hypertension, hives, asthma, morning sickness, and irregular menstruation, can be caused by a person’s mental state. … It is no wonder that man can recover from disease by changing his mental attitude, since his body is inseparable from his mind. I myself know of many such examples, including the case of a person who had lost the use of his legs and who was able to stand up and walk home after receiving a few words of religious instruction. We do not consider such a thing miraculous but a natural occurrence.
It is also not strange that one should become blessed with money and material things owing to a change in mental attitude after entering into a religious life. A person’s changed mental attitude leads him inevitably to change his attitude toward his work and life, and accordingly directs him to the improvement of his life in general. This is not limited to changes in one’s own life. If one earnestly takes refuge in a true faith, he will elicit a different response from other people. He begins to have feelings of optimism, confidence in life, and a positive attitude toward everything. Such feelings will naturally show in his face, speech, and conduct. Because of this change, those around him will be drawn to him because they feel buoyed up and strengthened by him. Accordingly, it is quite natural that his work should progress smoothly and that as a result he should come to be blessed with material wealth.
These merits are the result of religious practice, and when they appear, we should receive them with gratitude and frankness. We need not be tied to the idea that because faith is concerned with the problem of the mind we do not need any merits other than mental ones lest our religious life be tainted by something impure. Such an idea itself reflects an impure, distorted, and prejudiced attitude.
But, of course, this is not how many people view faith.
Many more people belong to another type: “believers with a biased view.” These people do not interpret divine favors in this world as the result of their religious practice but practice in the hope of receiving such benefits from the beginning. Almost all people who enter a religious faith have some form of suffering. It is natural for them to want to free themselves from such sufferings, and they are not to be blamed for this. But when they are concerned only with the desire to recover from illness or to be blessed with money, they are merely attaching themselves to the idea of “disease” or “poverty.” Though they wish to rid themselves of these problems, instead they become their victims because their minds grasp the idea of illness or poverty so tightly that they cannot let go.
Underscore they are merely attaching themselves to the idea of “disease” or “poverty.” Another way of looking at this is to consider which of the 10 realms we occupy. If I’m constantly thinking “I want this” or “I need that” I am trapped in the realm of hungry spirits. Focusing instead on helping others and striving to live in the Bodhisattva realm takes us out of the suffering of the hungry spirits.
And then there’s the question of past karma.
[T]here are some people who cannot receive such merits in this world because of deep and inextinguishable unfavorable karma from their former lives, even if they have faith in a true religion, purify their minds, and devote themselves to the bodhisattva practice for the benefit of others in society.
Nevertheless, people who can believe in the immortality of the Buddha’s life can also feel confident of their own eternal life. Therefore they can live with self-confidence, realizing, “If we only continue this way, we are sure to extinguish our former karma eventually and will approach the mental state of the Buddha step by step.” Even if they do not immediately recover from illness or become suddenly blessed with tangible wealth, their minds will be composed. Even if they seem to outsiders to be suffering, their minds are free of suffering. This is the attitude adopted by a real believer.
As much as I’ve complained about Nikkyō Niwano’s interpretation of portions of the Lotus Sutra, this is an example of where I see his value. He brings to Buddhism a practicality. We are asked to live our faith.
What great hope it gives us to know that we will surely attain Perfect Enlightenment at some time if we only believe in a righteous faith and endeavor to practice it. As long as we have this hope, life is happy and worth living. A person earns or loses money; he falls in love or is disappointed in love; he rises to a higher position in time or he loses his job because of a trifling mistake; he brings up his child successfully or loses it. If we pass through life in this way with no purpose, merely repeating vain feelings of joy and sorrow, even though each moment seems to be substantial and important, we will have an inexpressible sense of emptiness upon looking back over our life. But if our life has the strong backbone of a righteous faith running through it, and if we have a firm belief that we can advance to Perfect Enlightenment step by step even though life has its apparent ups and downs, its various joys and sorrows, we will be able to pass easily through whatever hardships may come, however long life’s journey may be and however many rebirths it may entail.