During my years of service, I accompanied Founder Niwano on dissemination tours, interreligious cooperation activities, and peace promotion work, both in Japan and overseas.

There are not only a lot of heartwarming episodes from the Founder's everyday life, but also the spiritual insights derived from his words and deeds.
My major mission, as I understand, is to share spiritual insight with you, Dharma friends. Today's topic is "spreading good news."

The UN Special session on Disarmament (SSD I) was held in its' headquarters in New York in 1978. Founder Niwano was asked to give an address there representing WCRP (World Conference on Religion and Peace) as an NGO.

He first declined saying that there must be a better person to do that. However, Dr.Homer A. Jack, then Secretary General of WCRP insisted that he should accept. After pleading three times, Founder Niwano finally accepted. There was not sufficient time before his departure for New York.

Upon arriving at New York, there was a briefing by UN officials for NGO speakers. Each of the representatives was allotted 12 minutes to speak. It was warned that there would be the first bell when 11 minutes passed and at 12minutes sharp, regardless of whether he or she could cover the speech or not, it was to be stopped.

During the short stay in New York, the founder was busy meeting with the chairman of the session, the editor of Disarmamnet Times, hosting a luncheon for NGO and UN people.

Meanwhile, members of Rissho Kosei-kai in the area visited him. Speaking to an international couple, with a baby soon to be born to them, Founder Niwano became the child's godfather, saying "if the baby is boy, you'd better name him such and such, and if it's a girl, you should name her such and such," which easily be called in the English speaking society.

One evening, he took those who were accompaning him from Tokyo to a nearby Japnanese restaurant. Among them was a reporter of Kosei Shimbun. Through out their meal, Founder Niwano patiently and warmly heard him talk about how he became a member of Rissho Kosei-kai, how he was excited about coming to New York as his very first overseas trip, etc, etc. Founder Niwano encouraged him in various ways.

Dr. Jack was an expert in the field of disarmament. He visited with Founder Niwano to make various additions and deletions to the already completed text of Founder Niwano's speech. Dr. Jack was a stubborn, tough-skinned person. This time, he insisted that the founder, as a WCRP representative, needed to appeal to this and that. Finalization of the text first in it's original Japanaese and then also in English was rather time consuming.

It may have been the first time that Founder Niwano practised reading the text, measuring the time with a watch beside him. I taped his reading and through listening to it, practised to interprete it into English simulataneously within the same length of time.

The very day of the address at the disarmament session came. Founder Niwano stood at the podium in the General Assembly Hall, with o-juzu in his hand and wearing the sash. The speech was well received by the audience who filled the huge hall.

On that very evening, after the session was over, the Secretary General of the UN Kurt Waltheim was going to host a reception inviting all NGO speakers as well as many UN-related people. Before that, there was two hours to spare.

Founder Niwano wanted us to arrange a press interview with Japanese journalists stationed in New York. The only possibility was on the following day. I quickly made a list of their names, office addresses and telephone numbers. I asked the Kosei-shimbun reporter to cooperate with me, giving him one half of that list and several copies of the Founder's address to be handed individually to the journalists as a resource.

With the list in hand, the reporter dashed to the business area of Manhattan by taxi. Since it was his first time in New York, he was quite unaware how to get to the sites on the address list. Quite at a loss, he tried to contact them by a public phone.

Unfortunaletely, those who picked up the phone were not Japanese media personnel, but were either their secretaries or the operator. Responding to fast and difficult English, he began to panick. Taxi driver is said to have said to him, " Let me do it on your behalf." The Kosei shimbun reporter had barely managed what he had to do.

There was a sequel. After returning Japan, the reporter was unable to forget this miserable experience. It is said that he had nightmare. While sleeping, he shouted
in English, startling his wife, who was sleeping beside him. He was always a humorous and joyous man.

At a gathering of all employees of Kosei Publising Co., he made a report on his persoal experience during the trip. There were repeated blast of laughter. But many of the audience were envious of his opportunity to go to NY accompanying the founder. They also recognized that it was not an easy job for him.

Going back to the days of the founder in New York. When he was to leave New York, a sudden Japan Airline strike made it impossible for him to fly back to Japan right away.

He said that this was a good opportunity presented by the Buddha to visit Rissho Kosei-kai churches on the U.S. Pacific coast. So we flew to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles by a domestic flight. It was a great joy for the members there to welcome their revered teacher so unexpectedly.

In addition to delivering sermons and giving other guidance, the founder talked in turn with a Japanese lawyer working in the U.S. and a Japanese missionary of a traditional Japanese buddhist school to learn from them the cultural differences between U.S. and Japan and also visiting a catholic archbishop of the diocese in the area to recruit local religious leaders to the WCRP movement. He didn't waste any time throughout the tour.

When the strike was finally over, we were able to fly back to Japan. Now that the trip was over, I was able to relax. When the plane was approaching to Narita Airport, I was thinking what kind of work was waiting for me in my office to deal with once I returned.

At that time, Founder Niwano asked me whether I arranged a press interview at the airport and if there would be reporters coming. I was very upset. The press interview was over in New York!! Was it really necessary another one in Japan?　Until then, I had made no preparations for this interview.

The lesson I learnt from this experience was that Founder Niwano had always thought of the next thing one has to deal with. At that time he was 72 years old; the same age I am now.

Four years later, in 1982, the SSD II was held and Founder Niwano gave an address for the second time, this time representing IARF (International Assocition of Religious Freedom), as another NGO. At that occasion, NHK televised his speech in the nation-wide news.

It caused much stronger support from many more fellow members of Rissho Kosei-kai as well as wider cooperation from many various religious leaders and their organizations as well as leaders of various other field for interreligious activities for the casue of world peace.

The reason why he had been so enthusiastic for publicity was, needless to say, not for his self advertisment but, through spreading good news, he could make the important movement much more influencial and make desirable trends much more stable.

Incidentally, when SSD III was held, Founder Niwano delivered an address for the third time representing Rissho Kosei-kai, also a NGO. There was no other single person who spoke at SSD on three occasions.

In his book, "A Buddhist Approach to Peace", Founder Niwano begins his writing with the following words:

"The direction of my life was decided by the fact that I encountered the Lotus Sutra in the days of my youth. During the first half of my life, I devoted wholeheartedly to the dissemination of the Lotus Sutra. In the second half of my life, my activities deepened in the social sphere, widening to an international
scope, as I became convinced that the Lotus Sutra is the vehicle of world peace.
There is no difference at all in essence, and it is quite a natural process for me as a practicer of the Lotus Sutra, that I devoted myself to disseminating faith during the first half and have focused my energy on the peace movement during the second half."

One may recgnize that, through spreading good news, he endeavoured, through his whole life, on one hand to make as many individuals as possible happier, and on the other hand, to be conducive to making the world peaceful.