A Guide to the - Rissho Kosei-kai

Cold Birds and Barrels of OilEffort and assiduity are the most fundamental ways to improve ourselves. The significance ofthese basic virtues is the same in study, work, management, and life in general, but becausethey are so basic, we on occasion neglect them. In the same way, despite the fact that air andwater are absolutely vital for our existence, people do not seem to notice them.Although we realize that we cannot accomplish anything by working halfheartedly, we oftentake the easy way out, thinking that it does not matter whether we apply ourselves today ortomorrow or neglect our work. The Buddha admonishes us to shun this attitude by way of theparable of a mythical bird in the Himalayas. The Himalayan nights are extremely cold, and thefemale of the species seems to cry all night long, "I'm dying of cold. I'm dying of cold." The maleseems to cry through the night, "Build a nest at dawn. Build a nest at dawn." With no nest tokeep them warm, the night is unbearably cold, and they wait for dawn to build a nest forshelter. However, when morning comes and the sun shines, they are carefree in the warmth ofits rays. They forget about building a nest and pass the day leisurely. Predictably, when nightfalls, they suffer from the extreme cold and take up their cries again. They continue this untilthe end of their lives.We should not laugh at their folly. There are many people who neglect to build "a nest for thespirit" in which they can always be at ease, no matter how the world around them changes.Engrossed in what is right in front of them, they tell themselves, "I'll get around to it sometimesoon, sometime before long." They completely neglect to make consistent efforts toward thatend. When things get tough, they become a bit more serious, but when things lighten up, theybecome neglectful again. They never build a nest that would give them peace of mind. Any nestthey do manage to build is the kind that is blown away in the first strong wind or leaves themsoaked in the first rain. This is the weakness of not being consistent. If only they were thorough,that nest would be a secure fortress lasting their whole lives. But they are unable to take thatone step forward.There was once a Standard Oil Company employee named John D. Archbold (1848‐‐1916),whose colleagues never called him by his real name. Instead they always called him "Fourdollars a barrel." The reason was that when he traveled and registered at a hotel, he wouldalways write under his name "Four dollars a barrel, Standard Oil." He did the same when signingletters and receipts. When John D. Rockefeller, the president of Standard Oil, heard about thisunusual employee, he was so impressed that he invited him to dinner. Archbold came to enjoyRockefeller's confidence, and many years later he became the company's second president.That he came to be recognized and relied on by Rockefeller was neither chance nor mere goodfortune. It resulted, rather, from his being so thorough in his daily efforts that he earned anickname for it. There are many such success stories in America, but this one has a particularlyvaluable moral, that thoroughness creates the real thing.Tettei, the Japanese word for thoroughness, originally was a Buddhist term. The BodhisattvaUniversal Virtue appears in the Lotus Sutra as a symbol of the preeminence of thoroughgoingpractice. He is always mounted on a white elephant, because an elephant crossing a riveralways steps firmly. Universal Virtue would have us understand that this kind of steadiness isimportant in carrying out any action.During the early eighteenth century in Japan, there was an eminent mathematician namedNoda Bunzo. Hearing of his abilities, Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun, consulted OokaTadasuke, the commissioner of Edo, about giving Noda some appointment. Ooka summonedNoda and asked him, "I hear that you are quite learned in calculations, so tell me, what is onehundred divided by two?" From his bosom Noda took out his abacus, did the calculation, and41