To conceive of life and death as separate realities is to be caught in the illusion of life and death.

It is deluded and inverted thinking.

When we examine the nature of life with perfect enlightenment,

we find that there is no beginning marking birth and therefore, no end signifying death.

Doesn't life as thus conceived already transcend birth and death?

Life cannot be consumed by the fire at the end of time, nor can it be washed away by floods.

It can be neither cut by swords nor pierced by arrows.

Although it can fit inside a mustard seed, the seed does not expand, nor does life contract.

Although it fills the vastness of space, space is not too wide, nor is life too small.



[Nichiren Daishonin (1222 - 1282)]