May, 2006
THE WEIGHT OF LIFE
By Rev. Yushi Mukojima
Spring has come! The insects which hibernated in the soil during the cold of winter began activity
with the arrival of spring. Therefore, many ants in procession now come and go cheerfully into my
house.
However, the other day, my wife found ants which had gathered around a piece chocolate left in
the kitchen and she cried for help. As the man of the house, I was pressed by my wife to handle this
unpleasant situation. But I was unable to simply kill the ants thoughtlessly.
When I was little, I used to do very cruel things to ants when I destroyed an ant nest. There was a
story told by my father frequently back then:
One day, a traveler walked along a mountain path. Suddenly a rabbit ran up to him at great speed
from the opposite direction and said, “Mister! I am being chased by a wolf. Please help me!”
The rabbit hid behind the traveler. Immediately, the wolf came up to the man and said, “Hey, you!
Give me that rabbit hiding behind you! I have eaten nothing for three whole days!”
After worrying over the situation, the traveler said, “I understand. I will give you a part of my body
that’s the same shape and weight as this rabbit.” And he cut off one arm.
Just then, a big balance appeared out of nowhere. The traveler put the rabbit on one scale and put
his arm on the other side. However, neither side moved at all. The rabbit’s side of the balance hung
far below the side with the arm. The traveler was puzzled why the balance hadn’t moved at all. So
then he cut off one of his feet and placed it on the scale next to the arm. But again there was no
indication that the weights were equal.
He was lost in thought for a while, and he was not sure, but he tried to put his entire body on the
scale. Finally, the rabbit’s side of the balance rose to the same height as the man’s, indicating that
both sides were equal in weight.
Although it was such a strange story, what my father wanted to teach me was that no matter how
small an ant is, its life is equal to my own. Regardless of size, each life is irreplaceable, precious and
unique.
First, we have to reflect well on our own lives to realize the preciousness of other lives. When I
went through a period of rebelliousness, I would boast to my parents that I could live by myself
without anyone’s support. When I look back upon that time, I am deeply ashamed at how shallow my
thinking was. We human beings can’t live alone. We should be aware that we are alive because of
the relation of the vertical and horizontal.
The relation of the vertical is the relation of blood. We have parents. Of course, our parents also
have their own parents. If we try to go back to the remote past, we realize that we have an
immeasurable debt to the relation of blood. If even a single one of our ancestors had not existed, we
would not have been born. Think, then, about the difficulty of just being born.
On the other hand, the relation of the horizontal is the other lives that we receive (eat) at meal time
and the great support received from our parents, friends, and others since we were born. We need
many people’s help and our lives depend upon the sacrifices of many others.
We live in the place where the relation of the vertical and horizontal meet. Without one, we would
never be born into this world. Without the other—even if we were lucky enough to be born—we
would die.
One more important thing is that we were born, our existence having been wished by parents and
many others. Our lives are also boundless and limitless as wished upon and received from Amida
Buddha. Amida Buddha made a great vow that he will surely save each of us equally as he would
his own child.
Shinran Shonin said, “The life that cannot realize the true value of all lives is lived in vain.”
Therefore, Amida Buddha always calls: “Please live your lives fully without regret,” so that our lives
will not be lived in vain. Amida Buddha shows us the direction of our lives through Buddha’s wisdom.
I believe that when we begin to hear Amida Buddha’s voice calling, we will realize that all lives are
precious and the world where we Gassho to each other and respect one another will open.
In conclusion, I should tell you I took the chocolate with the ants out to the backyard. However I
have to work on a countermeasure so that ants cannot come into my house.
In Gassho,
| Dharma Message |
