Wisdom Of Lotus Sutra
①
*Eternally
Advancing with Great Life Force*
Ikeda: Let's continue to explore eternal life. I hope we can confirm our theory beyond any
shadow of a doubt within this lifetime!
Endo: There recently appeared in Japan a rather unusual book titled Shisha no Honne: Eikoku
Bohimei no Sekai (The Truth about the Dead: The World of English Epitaphs). The author
discusses numerous epitaphs on graves in British cemeteries.
Saito: Could you give some examples?
Endo: Well, one epitaph for instance reads, 'Here lies my wife/ Here let her lie! / Now she's at
rest / And so am I'
Ikeda: That's brutally honest!
Suda: From the sound of it, she must have been quite a taskmaster!
Endo: There are also epitaphs expressing a wife's feelings of bitterness at having been
preceded in death by her husband.
'To follow you I'm not content. / How do I know which way
you went?"
Saito: She's saying, 'I don't know whether you've gone to heaven or hell.' Her words are filled
with emotion.
Ikeda: just because people are married doesn't guarantee that they will be together in the
afterlife. The fact remains that we are born alone and we have to die alone. It's harsh, but true.
Buddhism, however, expounds that through the power of the Mystic Law we can be born
together with our loved ones in lifetime after lifetime over eternity.
Suda: Surely there are also many epitaphs expressing endearing sentiments.
Endo: Yes, of course.
Ikeda: What kind of epitaph is most common?
Endo: I don't know the exact statistics, but according to the book the following is typical of
many of the epitaphs found on English graves dating over more than two hundred years: "As I
was so are you and as I am so shall you be."
Saito: That's quite philosophical. It says to the person viewing the headstone: 'Someday you
will be dead, too.'
Endo: Along the same general lines another epitaph reads: "Don't stare, Pass me by. / You'll
soon lie here, Same as I."
