Dharma Talk by Dr. Reeves - Be Full of Joy

"Be Full of Joy"
April 28, 2001

After personal testimony by Mr. Ken Nagata, a staff member of Rissho Kosei-kai's Overseas Mission Section who recently completed missionary training at the Tsu Branch of RKK in Mie Prefecture, Dr. Gene Reeves gave a Dharma talk entitled "Be Full of Joy."

Recently, Dr. Reeves was given a statue of a standing Buddha. The standing Buddha symbolizes the action of the Buddha and Buddhists in the world. Reeves had searched for such an image for a long time, without success. Finally, he received an image of the Buddha similar to the statue enshrined at Rissho Kosei-kai. It was, he said, a gift much greater than he could ever have imagined. He was enormously pleased and ecstatic with joy. He then showed how the Lotus Sutra is filled with expressions of "joy."

In Chapter 2, "Skilful Means" ends that Buddha speaking to shravakas: "But all of you, now knowing that Buddhas, teachers of the worlds, according to what is needed, use skilful means, should have no more doubt. Your hearts hould be filled with joy, for you know that you too will become Buddhas."

Shariputra has been assured of becoming a Buddha in Chapter 2. Then Chapter 3 begins: "At that time, Shariputra, ecstatic with joy, stood up, put his hands together, reverently looked up at the face of the honorable one, and said to the Buddha, 'Hearing this sound of the Dharma from the World-honored One, I am filled with ecstasy, something I have never experienced before.'"

Dr. Reeves continued to introduce portions of the Lotus Sutra in which expressions of "joy" are described. He quotedmore than twenty paragraphs, showing us that the Lotus Sutra is filled with "joy."

He concluded his talk by saying:
"We need to remember this as we design and develop IBC activities--our purpose is not so much to study and educate, though it is that not so much to practice worship, though it is that;not so much to provide a friendly social environment, though it is that;our purpose is to bring joy to the members and participants, and joy to the whole world."