Prologue
The Vision of Chiharu
It all began when Mr. Daiki Kitatani showed his eight-year-old daughter, Chiharu, a video of the Flame of Hope Chanting being practiced in Kyoto.
As she watched the video, Chiharu suddenly said:
“This place is protected by a huge ball of light.”
Surprised by her words, Mr. Kitatani listened as she continued:
“When you recite this chant—the Flame of Hope Chanting—all the dead people become good souls.
You should do it too, Daddy.”
Startled, Mr. Kitatani blurted out,
“Wh-what?! Really?!”
He asked her how she could possibly know such a thing.
Chiharu paused for a moment, as if searching for the right words, and then replied:
“I just felt it somehow.”
She then went upstairs, where an image of Amida Buddha was enshrined, to ask Amida Buddha about what she had seen.
A little later, she came back and said with confidence:
“I knew it. It was true.”
From that day on, Mr. Kitatani began practicing the Flame of Hope Chanting with even greater devotion.
And Chiharu began talking more and more about the mysterious things she could see.
On days when her father practiced the chanting upstairs, she would sometimes say:
“Today, there were so many amazing balls of light flying around.”
When he asked her where they were, she replied:
“Everywhere.”
Then she added:
“But there were especially a lot of them upstairs.”
That was exactly where her father had been practicing the Flame of Hope Chanting.
A Shift in Perception
One morning, soon after waking up, Chiharu said:
“Something changed starting today.”
She explained that the lights around the house had begun to appear blue, pink, and purple.
She also said that the area around the family’s Shinto altar was especially intense.
“I can see it right now, too.”
She said that a dragon sometimes appeared near the altar as well.
In a drawing Chiharu made of the dragon, the creature was so enormous that its neck alone formed a great sweeping arc.
The dragon Chiharu drew
Yet when her father asked her about it, Chiharu showed no fear at all.
She simply said:
“I’ve talked to it before. It feels gentle.”
Chiharu also says that she can see a deity in the sun.
Once, she asked the deity about the meaning of life.
The deity did not answer.
It simply smiled warmly at her.
The ball of light she had seen at the Kyoto dojo, where the Flame of Hope Chanting was being practiced, seemed to have made a particularly strong impression on her.
Chiharu described it simply as:
“Super golden.”
She also told her father about a dream in which Amida Buddha was giving different-colored balls of light to various deities.
Mr. Kitatani once asked her whether there was anything else they should be doing.
Chiharu simply replied:
“I don’t know.”
And then she added:
“It’s not like I know everything about God.”
Her words showed both the innocence of a child and an honest awareness that there were things she did not know.
A Heartwarming Affirmation
Sometimes, Chiharu joins her father when he practices the Flame of Hope Chanting.
When he asked her how she felt while chanting, she answered without hesitation:
“I feel warm inside, and I feel like I become a good person.”
Finally, Mr. Kitatani asked her:
“So, if this is good for both the dead and the living, does that mean everyone should do it?”
Chiharu nodded.
Seeing her nod, Mr. Kitatani looked gently at his daughter and said:
“Daddy started doing this because you told me to, Chiharu.
And it really was true.
It’s all thanks to you.”
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