The Precept of Non-Killing

Here at the Sewagrahm Ashram on October 4th over fifty years ago, I was able to encounter Gandhi-ji for the first time. The length of our meeting was fifteen minutes. There was hardly any time to talk much in depth. I sat quietly facing Gandhi-ji. He was intently turning the charkha, spinning cotton yarn. He was totally absorbed in it, as if he had forgotten that there was a visitor before him.

There is a phrase in a sutra that says:

The Buddhas, the Saviors of the world,
Dwelling in their great transcendental penetrations,
In order to gladden living beings,
Display incalculable transcendental powers.

(Chapter XXI, The Transcendental Powers of the Tathagatas, The Lotus Sutra)

It refers to the invisible powers of the spiritual world that are exerted in the material world. It did not matter even if Gandhi-ji was the only person who believed that the independence movement would succeed through spinning yarn. A helping hand is extended in unpredictable ways in the spiritual world that cannot be seen. My chanting of Na-Mu Myo-Ho-Ren-Ge-Kyo and the beating of the drum is from my single wish to make nations tranquil and the world peaceful. It has become my lifework. If I am asked about whether there are any precedents in which political revolutions were realized through chanting Na-Mu Myo-Ho-Ren-Ge-Kyo and beating the drum, the answer is "no.: However, I have dedicated my whole life to it because I believe in it. Gandhi-ji believed that India would be an independent nation through the spinning of yarn. This was what we had in common.

Gandhi-ji observed a day of silence once a week. One of his attendants said to him, "Since tomorrow is your day of silence, you would not be able to talk to this Japanese bhiksu even if he came." Gandhi-ji replied "that's true". "But", he said as he took up my drum and started to beat it, "I like the sound of the drum this bhiksu beats." He spoke highly of it saying that although all religions use musical instruments for their rituals and prayers, this prayer of the Japanese Buddhist sounds very courageous.

Gandhi-ji kept on beating the drum. It was the first time an Indian person had beaten the drum and chanted a word of prayer that manifests the essence of Japanese Buddhism. I have met with innumerable people of many different countries. However, never have I met anyone who rejoiced in the sound of my drum and the chanting of Na-Mu Myo-Ho-Ren-Ge-Kyo more than Mahatma Gandhi-ji.

The Teachings of the Buddha fostered in Japan were bequested to India through this very man. My last stay in Wardha was at the time prayers were offered for the liberation and independence of India.

This Sarvodaya Convention is held at a time when the non-violent and peaceful movement demonstrated by India must become the principle and the fountainhead to liberate six billion members of humanity from the danger of annihilation.

I have been traveling to different countries of the world. I have also visited different places in Europe and the United States. The people who are raising their voices against nuclear weapons and the arms race are the followers of the non-violent movement taught by Gandhi-ji, regardless of their religious faith. The world witnessed the victory of a non-violent movement over violence. It was the independence of India. India did not sacrifice a single person in the midst of the tragedies of World War II, and persistently walked through its right path. That was why it was successful. Therefore I believe that the coming deliverance of world humanity will be through the spiritual non-violent movement.

Teachngs of Nichidatsu Fujii.