Last year on Aug. 3, I attended Rev. Shoda Kanai’s Tea Time with a Priest, an informal weekly Zoom gathering from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada in Las Vegas. The meeting is open to anyone with a question. On that day someone asked about faith, and here I am today starting what I call my 800 Years of Faith Project. I am dedicating this work to the 800th Anniversary of the birth of Nichiren Shonin in 1222.
Before I begin I want to put this project in perspective with a quote from the opening verses of Śāntideva’s “A Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening,” The Bodhicaryāvatāra:
“Nothing new will be said here, nor have I any skill in composition. Therefore I do not imagine that I can benefit others. I have done this to perfume my own mind.
“While doing this, the surge of my inspiration to cultivate what is skillful increases. Moreover, should another, of the very same humours as me, also look at this, then he too may benefit from it.” [From Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton’s 2002 translation published by Windhorse Publications.]
I should pin that quote at the top of 500yojanas.org for it speaks directly to why I’m here. This is especially important today.
When I formulated this project last August, I decided to limit my blog posts on the topic of faith to 500 words. As a former newspaper editor steeped in the heritage of inverted pyramids, I have a deep-seated fear of TL;DR. I originally envisioned writing one 500-word blog post each month, but after studying the Lotus Sutra during my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice and reviewing the quotes on this website, I decided to fill all 53 Saturdays in 2022. Then after weeks of gathering quotes and drafting essays on each of the chapters of the Threefold Lotus Sutra, I revised my goal once again. Now I plan to write 106 essays, filling every Saturday and Sunday.
Monday through Friday I will repost quotes on the topic of faith that I’ve gathered over the years from books I’ve read on Buddhism in general and books specifically related to Nichiren Buddhism and its foundations in T’ian T’ai and Tendai thought.
It occurred to me early on that others might want to participate as part of a celebration of the 800th anniversary of Nichiren’s birth. Last year, I invited a number of Nichiren Shu priests and shamis and other individuals to contribute essays on the topic of faith with the same 500-word limit. As of today I’ve had some expressions of interest in participating, but I have received no essays. If I do get any essays, I will post them during the week in place of the quotes I have set aside.
Whether or not I am able to fill all 365 days with content related to the topic of faith is of no concern. What matters is that I have faith and faith is all that is necessary to take the first step along this yearlong journey.
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