Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

"Nammiyô! nammiyô!" grateful and reverential.
"Notwithstanding this, it is useless your worshipping Kishimojin, and
professing to believe in her, unless you have truth in your hearts; for she
will not receive your offerings. Man, from his very birth, is a creature of
requirements; he is for ever seeking and praying. Both you who listen,
and I who preach, have all of us our wants and wishes. If there be any
person here who flatters himself that he has no wishes and no wants, let
him reflect. Does not every one wish and pray that heaven and earth
may stand for ever, that his country and family may prosper, that there
may be plenty in the land, and that the people may be healthy and
happy? The wishes of men, however, are various and many; and these
wishes, numberless as they are, are all known to the gods from the beginning.
It is no use praying, unless you have truth in your heart. For instance,
the prayer Na Mu is a prayer committing your bodies to the care
of the gods; if, when you utter it, your hearts are true and single, of a
surety your request will be granted. Now, this is not a mere statement
made by Nichiren, the holy founder of this sect; it is the sacred teaching
of Buddha himself, and may not be doubted."
"Nammiyô! nammiyô!" with profound conviction.
"The heart of man is, by nature, upright and true; but there are seven
passions 98 by which it is corrupted. Buddha is alarmed when he sees the
fires by which the world is being consumed. These fires are the five lusts
of this sinful world; and the five lusts are, the desire for fair sights, sweet
sounds, fragrant smells, dainty meats, and rich trappings. Man is no
sooner endowed with a body than he is possessed by these lusts, which
become his very heart; and, it being a law that every man follows the dictates
of his heart, in this way the body, the lusts of the flesh, the heart,
and the dictates of the heart, blaze up in the consuming fire. 'Alas! for
this miserable world!' said the divine Buddha."
"Nammiyô! nammiyô!" mournful, and with much head-shaking.
"There is not so foul thing under heaven as the human body. The body
exudes grease, the eyes distil gums, the nose is full of mucus, the mouth
of slobbering spittle; nor are these the most impure secretions of the
body. What a mistake it is to look upon this impure body as clean and
perfect! Unless we listen to the teachings of Buddha, how shall we be
washed and purified?"
"Nammiyô, nammiyô!" from an impure and very miserable sinner, under
ten years of age.
98.The seven passions are joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, hatred, and desire.
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