Seiun Nobeoka

A place to study, Sazanpia, Nobeoka

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What do you do for fun in Nobeoka?
This sutra is beneficial medicine for the illnesses of all mankind.
Good medicine works by itself; there is no need to add other medicine.
You will grow younger, and your good fortune will accumulate.
Once upon a time you dressed so fine.
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
one's immutable karma can be changed
If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death
Best of "Old Town" Trip to Oita on January 4, 2009
Best of "Old Town" Trip to Oita on January 4, 2009 Two
Best of "Old Town" Trip to Oita on January 4, 2009 Three
Best of "Old Town" Trip to Oita on January 4, 2009 Four
Best of "Old Town" Trip to Oita on January 4, 2009 Five
Best of "Old Town" Trip to Oita on January 4, 2009 Six
there are both superiority and inferiority among the sutras
What is the best way to teach English in Japan?
Nobeoka Notes by Howard Ahner July 9, 2008
Michi No Eki Nobeoka
A place to study, Sazanpia, Nobeoka
Rissho Ankoku Ron
Tanabata Nobeoka July 5, 2008 by Howard Ahner
Reply to Followers
Reply to Tokimitsu

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The sky is the limit after you've studied at Sazanpia, Nobeoka.

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Keiko Ahner will be having an art exhibition in Miyazaki city August 28-31, 2008. For more information dial: 090-1169-7639.

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The art of "patchwork" is getting more and more popular.

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The flowers and the building are well tended at Sazanpia, Nobeoka.

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I teach English at Sazanpia, Nobeoka on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Tel: 0982-34-5666

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They even sell goggles at Sazanpia, Nobeoka. The pool is even open on Sundays.

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Reply to Myoho Bikuni Gozen

 

I have received your gift of a light summer robe.

 

You are a woman, and your husband has passed away, leaving you behind. You are separated from your relatives, and your one or two daughters are undependable and provide you with little support. Moreover, you are a woman who has been hated by others on account of this teaching. Thus you are like Bodhisattva Fukyo.

 

The Buddha's aunt, the nun Mahaprajapati, was also a woman. Nevertheless, she attained the state of arhat and gained a name as a shomon disciple. Thus she entered the path by which Buddhahood can never be attained. She transformed her woman's appearance [and became a nun], abandoning her status as royal consort, and honored the exhortations of the Buddha. For more than forty years, she upheld the five hundred precepts. By day she waited by the roadside [begging for alms], and by night she sat beneath a tree [in meditation], aspiring to salvation in her life to come. Yet she was denied the road that leads to Buddhahood, and her name was bruited about as someone who would never become a Buddha - a mortifying thing indeed. Being a woman, she had, whether with or without cause, been the subject of unsavory rumors throughout long kalpas past, which surely caused her shame and vexation. Loathing her [female] body, she clad herself in rags and became a nun, thinking that in this way she had divorced herself from such sorrows. But on the contrary, she learned that, having become a person of the two vehicles, she was never to attain Buddhahood. How wretched she must have felt! By means of the Lotus Sutra, however, she was absolved from the displeasure of the Buddhas of the three existences and was able to become a Buddha called Beheld with Joy by All Sentient Beings. How happy, how joyful she must have been! Thus, no matter what might happen, were it for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, she would surely never turn away.

 

Then the Buddha in a loud voice addressed the four categories of Buddhists at large, saying, "Who can broadly preach the Lotus Sutra in this saha world?" When everyone responded with the thought, "I will, I will!" the Buddha fully three times admonished that nuns and laywomen desirous of repaying their debt to all the Buddhas should persevere through any difficulty to spread the Lotus Sutra in this saha world after his passing. But they did not pay attention, and vowed instead "to declare this sutra widely in the lands of the other directions." Thus these nuns did not clearly understand the Buddha's intent. How exasperated he must have been! Thereupon the Buddha turned aside and instead looked earnestly to the eighty myriad of millions of nayutas of bodhisattvas.

 

I had therefore thought that, although women might tarnish their names and throw away their lives for the sake of insignificant matters, they were weak in pursuing the path of Buddhahood. But now you, born a woman in the evil world of the latter age, have been reviled, struck and persecuted by the barbaric inhabitants of these islands [of Japan], who are so ignorant of reason, and have endured it all to propagate the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha on Eagle Peak surely perceives that you far surpass that nun [Mahaprajapati]. The name of that nun [when she attained Buddhahood], the Buddha Beheld with Joy by All Sentient Beings, refers to none other; it belongs to you, Myoho-ama Gozen of the present time.

 

A person who becomes a king is reputed to be one who in both past and present has observed the ten good precepts. Though the names of individual rulers change, the lion throne they sit upon is only one. Likewise, this name [Beheld with Joy by All Sentient Beings] is the same for you both.

 

Even a nun who went against the Buddha's words received the name Buddha Beheld with Joy by All Sentient Beings. You have not deviated from the Buddha's words; you are a nun who, right here in the saha world, has lost her good name and been willing to discard her life [for the sake of the Lotus Sutra]. The Buddha did not abandon the nun, his foster mother. Were he to abandon you because you are no relation to him, he would be a biased Buddha indeed. But how could that ever be? Moreover, the sutra states, "The living beings in it [the threefold world] are all my children." If we go by this sutra passage, then you are the Buddha's daughter, while that other nun was merely his foster mother. If the Buddha did not abandon his foster mother, then how could he intend to abandon his own daughter? Please understand this thoroughly. Before this letter becomes too involved, I will stop here.

 

Nichiren

  

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Seiun Nobeoka
Tel: 0982-34-5666
English Classes with Howard Ahner

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A-Na-Eikaiwa Yesterday

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