Spring WritingsIt seems difficult to transmit faith to our children and others, but it is no more difficult than transmitting our life experiences to them. The teachings of the Buddha have a strong character as a “way of life,” a way to live as it is, rather than being a religion. We seek universal truth for enlightenment, cultivate our own nature by ourselves, and raise our own spirit by ourselves, in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings, which will lead all human beings and living things to attain Buddhahood. This is the way to live life in order to become a Buddha.
Category Archives: 800years
800 Years: Chanting With A Sense of Faith
Spring WritingsNichiren Shu teaches people to chant Odaimoku, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo on a daily basis. The Lotus Sutra, which is the Buddha’s final teaching, expounds the essence of the Buddha’s enlightenment based on the universal law underlying all things in nature. It is said traditionally, that when we chant the Odaimoku (the title of the Lotus Sutra), with all our hearts, and a sense of faith, the Buddha-nature within our minds will fuse with the Buddha’s mind, and we are able to receive the Buddha’s rewards unconsciously – wisdom, compassion, supernatural powers and enlightenment.
800 Years: Expressing Our Deep Faith
Lotus SeedsThe practice of chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo expresses our deep faith and joy in the inexpressible true nature of reality, which embraces all things without exception. Ultimately, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo expresses the realization that we ourselves are the embodiments of the Wonderful Dharma, and thus capable of transforming every aspect of our lives into the life of a Buddha.
800 Years: The Practice of Faith
Lecture on the Lotus SutraFaith and practice in the Lotus Sutra are often presented in similar manner. I believe this is because faith is an actual practice for us. Faith is not simply the absolute belief in the teaching but is an experience of the truth of the teaching. Faith takes root in and grows from our daily practice and study. And yet, faith while growing from practice also nurtures that very same practice. In this way, faith and practice are not two separate activities but one constantly evolving cycle of activity.
800 Years: Pregnant faith
The moon does not reflect on dirty water, and birds do not build nests in dead trees. Likewise, Śākyamuni Buddha does not reside in the body of a woman without faith. However, a woman who believes in the Lotus Sūtra is like a body of pure water. The moon, Śākyamuni Buddha, reflects upon it.
To put it figuratively, a woman can’t feel her pregnancy in the beginning, but after a while she begins to suspect it until she knows for sure that she is pregnant. An attentive woman can even tell whether she has conceived a boy or a girl.
The same could be said about the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra. If we believe in the merit of “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” Śākyamuni Buddha will be conceived in our hearts before we know it, just as a woman is pregnant before she knows it. We can’t feel it in the beginning, but as the months pass we begin dreaming of the Buddha residing in our hearts, until we feel happiness within us. There are many doctrines, but I will stop talking about them for now.
Matsuno-dono Nyōbō Go-henji, A Response to the Wife of Lord Matsuno, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 242-244
800 Years: Bodhisattva Children
One of the things that I’ve always enjoyed about Buddhism is how it changes the binary concept of procreation to include an active role for the future child. It takes three to make a baby. This is famously illustrated in the story of Venerable Kāśyapa as told by Nichiren in his Kangyō Hachiman-shō [Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 270-271].
In the story, a childless Brahman named Nyagrodha threatens to burn down a forest god’s shrine after the god fails to answer Nyagrodha’s prayer for the good luck of having a child. The difficulty turns out to be that the gods couldn’t find anyone worthy of being Nyagrodha’s child. Eventually the gods find a heavenly being in the Brahma Heaven who was about to die. That child became Venerable Kāśyapa.
Getting back to the topic of faith, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings offers this explanation of how Bodhisattva children are created:
“O you of good intent! So it is also with one who keeps faith with this sutra. The convergence of the buddhas and this sutra – the union of ‘king’ and ‘queen’ – gives birth to this bodhisattva child.”
Without our faith and practice the Buddha and his teaching would be childless. This is emphasized in Chapter 2 of Nichiren: The Buddhist Prophet by Masaharu Anesaki:
“The revelation of the eternal past is thus followed by the assurance for the everlasting future. The past and the future are united in the oneness of the Truth, by the unity of purpose, methods, and power, in all the Buddhas of all ages – in short, in the Sole Road of Truth [One Vehicle]. This is the cardinal teaching of the Lotus, as in other Buddhist books or systems; but the special emphasis laid by the Lotus, particularly in the last twelve chapters, is upon the question, Who shall really be the one who will perpetuate and realize this truth of the Sole Road? The Truth abides eternally, but it is an abstraction, a dead law, without the person who perpetuates the life of the Truth. The Buddha Śākyamuni, in his human manifestation, was the one, the Tathāgata par excellence; but who shall be the one in the future, nay in the present, in these days of degeneration and vice? This was the question of Nichiren, who at last, as the result of his hard experience and perilous life, arrived at the conclusion that he himself was the man destined to achieve the task of the Tathāgata’s messenger.”
Each person of faith breathes life into the Truth.
As Anesaki writes in Chapter 7:
“Noble and sublime may be the conception of the Supreme Being, but it is but an idol or image, a dead abstraction, if we ourselves do not participate in its supreme existence and realize in ourselves its excellent qualities. Thus, worship or adoration means a realization of the Supreme Being, together with all its attributes and manifestations, first through our own spiritual introspection, and second in our life and deeds.”
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800 Years: Only a Buddha and Another Buddha
In Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra we are told only a Buddha and another Buddha — Yui Butsu Yo Butsu – can fathom the ultimate reality, but the foundation for this was laid in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the preface of the Lotus Sutra.
“And so, you of good intent, starting from when I established the Way and first began to expound the Dharma, until this moment in which I am discoursing on the all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, there has never been a time when I have not expounded suffering, emptiness, ever changingness, nonexistence of self, non-reality, non-unreality, non- greatness, non-smallness, intrinsic non-origination, continuing non-cessation, the formlessness of all things, that aspects and natures of phenomena neither come nor go, and that the four modes are the dynamic of living beings.
“O you of good intent! What all this means is that the buddhas have but one message: they are able to conform universally to all voices by means of a single sound. From a single body they are able to manifest embodiments as countless and immeasurable as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each embodiment, manifest various shapes as countless as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each shape, display appearances as countless as some millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands. O you of good intent! This, in fact, is the profound and unimaginable realm of all of the buddhas! It is neither knowable by those of the two vehicles nor reachable by bodhisattvas in the tenth development stage! Only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom it completely!”
This unknowable and unreachable understanding is the realm of faith. A gate is held open by the Buddha and we are invited to enter and to walk along the path.
As the sutra promises:
“If there are living beings who can hear this sutra, they will reap great benefit. Why is this so? If they are capable of practicing it, they will surely realize and quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. As for those living beings who cannot hear it, it should be known that they are ones who miss out on great benefit: even after the passing of innumerable, unimaginable, infinite myriads of kalpas, they still will not realize and achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. What is the reason for this? It is because, not knowing the great direct route to enlightenment, they travel an uphill path full of hardships that detain them.”
But those whose faith brings them to practice and study the Dharma develop great strength.
“A person with great strength can bear and carry all manner of heavy things. So it is also with people who keep faith with this sutra: they can shoulder the great responsibilities of ultimate enlightenment, and they can carry living beings away from the path of recurring births and deaths. They are capable of ferrying others even though they still cannot ferry themselves.”
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800 Years: Establishing Faith in Buddhism
Spring WritingsThe teachings of Buddhism seem difficult, but really it is easy. The faith of Buddhism seems complicated, but truly it’s simple. When you think that Buddhism is difficult or complicated, your mind is not yet open to Buddhism, and so it is difficult to receive the teaching properly. The reason for this is because you still remain cautious in your mind. Please do not feel uneasy or worried. Since Buddhism began, over 2500 years ago, it has a history of distributing peace and hope without conflict to others. Please open your mind if you want to study Buddhism. A mind willing to believe, and willing to understand, is very important in establishing faith in Buddhism. The Lotus Sutra, Chapter IV, “Understanding by Faith”, indicates how to have faith.
800 Years: When You Chant Odaimoku Faithfully
Spring WritingsWhile Odaimoku consists of only seven Chinese characters, when you chant Odaimoku with all your faith, you will receive many of the Buddha’s rewards. Tradition says that when you chant Odaimoku faithfully, all gods and goddesses gather around you, tempted by the sound of the universal teaching. They will listen to your chanting and protect you from any harm. This tradition comes from a story about when the Buddha achieved perfect enlightenment – a god, the creator of the universe, appeared in front of the Buddha and requested the Buddha teach him about enlightenment. Gods might be almighty, but they are thirsty for universal enlightenment.
800 Years: Ichinen Sanzen and Faith
Lotus SeedsBefore Nichiren Shonin, Ichinen Sanzen was a theory that Buddhist practitioners attempted to understand through meditation. Nichiren Shonin, however, taught that Ichinen Sanzen could be realized through faith in the Odaimoku. At the very end of the Kanjin Honzon-sho, he wrote:
For those who are incapable of understanding the truth of the “3,000 worlds contained in one thought,” Lord Shakyamuni Buddha, with his great compassion, wraps this jewel with the five characters of Myo, Ho, Ren, Ge, and Kyo and hangs it around the necks of the ignorant in the decadent Latter age of the dharma.