仏教信仰の前提となるもの
The prerequisites for Buddhist faith
2024-06-07 18:00:00
For a person to attain true happiness, they must practice Buddhism, accumulate merit, and achieve enlightenment.
This is because there is no path to Nirvana, the ultimate state of happiness, other than walking the Buddhist path.
However, not everyone in the world practices Buddhism.
So, what kind of people are able to practice Buddhism?
In essence, the question is, “What are the prerequisites for Buddhist faith?”
To answer this, it would be as follows.
- A person who earnestly seeks happiness and strives to understand how to attain it.
- Someone who has been exposed to the Buddhist worldview, has gained a certain understanding of it, and is convinced that the ultimate state of happiness they seek lies within this worldview.
- Someone who has not been exposed to the Buddhist worldview but believes that simply following the various worldviews they have encountered in their upbringing will not lead them to the happiness they seek.
- A person who has at least some recognition that it is likely difficult to attain true happiness through religion.
Now, when such a person encounters Buddhism, they will develop a desire to engage in Buddhist practice.
Of course, at the beginning, they may sometimes engage in practices that miss the mark and cannot truly be called Buddhist practice.
Nevertheless, a person with the right mindset will gradually find and practice methods that align with the true principles. As they accumulate more merit, they eventually join the mainstream of Buddhist practice.
Thus, they finally attain enlightenment (= liberation) and achieve their initial goal.
The important point here is that one does not come to practice Buddhism simply by being told, 'Now, believe in this Buddhism,' and following that instruction.
Practicing Buddhism arises and is established entirely based on one's own free will.
For this reason, it is taught in the Lotus Sutra, Expedient Means Chapter 2, as follows:
"…It is extremely rare for Buddhas to appear in the world. Even if they do appear, it is difficult for them to preach this teaching. It is rare to hear this teaching even after countless aeons. Those who can listen to this teaching are also very rare. It is like the Udumbara flower, which all people love and cherish, and which heavenly beings and humans value highly, blooming only once in a very long time. If one hears this teaching and rejoices, and even speaks a single word of it, it is as if they have already offered reverence to all the Buddhas of the three periods of time. Such people are exceedingly rare, even rarer than the Udumbara flower. …"
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