My ideas about faith and what faith entails are best illustrated in the concluding paragraph of Shōho Jissō Shō, Nichiren’s “Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality” [Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 4, Page 79-80]. This is the lone writing of Nichiren’s that I have memorized.

Seated before my altar, I look at the top row of the Mandala Gohonzon with Śākyamuni and Many Treasures Buddhas flanking the Daimoku, with the four great bodhisattvas on either side and all within the protection of Bishamon and Jikoku, the guardian kings of the North and East. Focused on the Mandala Gohonzon I say:

“Have faith in the Great Mandala Gohonzon, the most venerable one in the entire world.

I imagine picking up the medicine left behind by the wise physician.

Looking at the row below, which in my mind looks like the strong shoulders of the Mandala Gohonzon, I say:

“Earnestly endeavor to strengthen your faith”

It is the striving that strengthens faith.

Looking now at the stupa statue in front of the Mandala Gohonzon, I say:

“So that you may be blessed with the protective powers of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and Buddhas in manifestation throughout the Universe.”

I welcome this help.

Looking now at the statue of Nichiren, I say:

“Strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning.”

For me, Nichiren epitomizes practice and learning.

Looking now at the small Mandala Gohonzon amulet made for me by Ryusho Jeffus Shonin, I say:

“Without practice and learning, Buddhism will cease to exist.”

I remember Ryusho stressing that actualizing our practice in our daily lives brings Buddhism to life.

Looking at the left side of the altar, first at the Kishimojin amulet and the painting, both created by Ryusho, and then up at the Kishimojin Fuda I received from Shoda Kanai Shonin in Las Vegas, I say:

“Endeavor yourself”

I seek to secure the protection Kishimojin and the 10 rākṣasas daughters promised to the person who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra.

Looking beneath the statue of Nichiren at the Seven Happy Gods I say:

“and cause others to practice these two ways of practice and learning, which stem from faith.”

The more I recite sutras, the more daimoku I chant, the more I feed these protective deities and the more their influence grows.

Finally looking at the three memorial tablets, I say:

“If possible, please spread even a word or a phrase of the sūtra to others.”

Each time I consider Nichiren’s words:

The great virtue of Venerable Maudgalyāyana having faith in the Lotus Sūtra not only made himself a Buddha but also his parents Buddhas. Moreover, all the parents in seven generations above and below, and all the parents in the limitless generations above and below became Buddhas unexpectedly. In addition, sons, husbands and wives, their retainers, devotees, and an incalculable number of people all were emancipated from the three evil realms. [Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 4, Page 175]

I want to explain at this point in this yearlong journey a little about my personal experience with faith. You see, faith has always come easy to me.

Well, not just any faith.

Born and raised in a suburban Protestant Christian environment in Southern California, I spent my late teen years proclaiming myself a born-again Christian. I imagined myself a member of the Jesus Freaks, a 1960s and 1970s counterculture evangelical movement. I remember a day in my senior year of high school when I had ditched classes to hang out at the beach in Santa Monica. A young woman tried to shakabuku me. “Not interested,” I said. “I have everything I need in Jesus.”

But my youthful Christian faith failed to grow, crushed by the weight of my doubts.

That has not been my experience with Nichiren Buddhism.

Perhaps a seed was planted when I first heard the Daimoku on that Santa Monica beach. During the time it was germinating I had a vague interest in Buddhism. I remember reading Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and some other popular discussions of Buddhism. But I never attempted to make Buddhism a part of my life.

It was not until my marriage of nine years fell apart in 1988 that I felt compelled to act on my interest in Buddhism. My marriage had lacked any spiritual aspect and I longed to fill that void. I knew that a co-worker was a Buddhist, and I asked her about her practice. I don’t recall how I knew she was Buddhist. I don’t believe she ever approached me. She was a reporter on the newspaper where I worked as one of the editors.

With this co-worker I attended a meeting in February 1989 at the home of a guy who lived in a apartment across the street from the California Capitol. There I was introduced to Nichiren Shoshu of America, the lay arm of Nichiren Shoshu, and heard again the Daimoku.

After the meeting, as I was leaving, the host asked me if I had any questions.

“No,” I remember saying. “Chant and have faith in the Daimoku. Easy enough.” I thanked him and left.

Unlike my fiery teenage Christian zeal, this faith started as a spring rain, rinsing over me. Over the years as I established my daily practice and participated in activities my faith grew into a powerful river.

Even when I became disappointed with Soka Gakkai and began my search for an alternative, I never had a moment’s doubt about the Daimoku, the Lotus Sutra or Nichiren. My faith was never linked to anything outside me. What others do or do not do doesn’t shape my faith. I have experienced the taste of the Dharma and, as promised, it does taste good. Each day the river of my faith grows deeper and stronger.

I don’t know why, but today my faith in the Daimoku, the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren seems so natural. It feels easy.

Last year, after deciding to take on my 500-word blog challenge on faith, I contacted Rev. Ryuei McCormick and asked him to give me the definition of faith from his as yet unpublished Nichiren Shu dictionary of Buddhism. Here’s what he provided:

faith: (S. śraddhā; J. shin; 信) The Sanskrit term śraddhā can also be translated as “confidence” or “trust.” It has also been translated as “belief,” though śraddhā does not have the connotations of “blind belief.”

According to the Treasury of Abhidharma Treatise, faith is the clarification of the mind and adherence to the doctrine of karma and the Three Treasures. (AKB1, p. 191)

According to the Mahayana Abhidharma Compendium Treatise, faith indicates a full and firm conviction regarding what is real, tranquility relating to virtue, and eagerness for capability. It functions to give a basis to wholesome desire. (AS, p. 10)

According to the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only Treatise, the nature of faith is to purify the mind through a profound acceptance, happiness, and desire for what is real, what is virtuous (such as the virtues of the Three Treasures), and for the ability to attain mundane and supramundane wholesome dharmas. Its activity is to counteract lack of faith and enjoy what is wholesome. It is present in all wholesome mental states. (DCOT, pp. 173-174; CWL, pp. 389-391)

Faith is included as the first of the five faculties(1) and the five powers. As part of those groups it appears twice among the thirty-seven requisites of awakening. As one of the five faculties(1), it is counted among the twenty-two faculties, wherein it is considered predominant in regard to purification. (AKB1, p. 155)

As one of the mental concomitant dharmas it is counted among the omnipresent wholesome factors of the seventy-five dharmas in five categories of the Abhidharma Treasury school and the eighty-four dharmas in five categories of the Completion of Reality school. It is also one of the mental concomitant dharmas counted among the wholesome dharmas of the one hundred dharmas in five categories of the Dharma Characteristics school. It is also one of the fifty-two mental concomitant dharmas counted among the eighty-two dhammas in four categories of the Theravada.

In the Daily Readings of Nichiren’s Words in the Los Angeles Nichiren Buddhist Temple’s Raihai Seiten service book companion is a quote from Nichiren’s letter, Myoho Ama Gozen Gohenji. The quote is entitled “Faith and Odaimoku”

“Faith is nothing special. A wife loves her husband, the husband devotes his life to her, parents do not give away their children and children do not desert their mother. Likewise, believe in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha Sakyamuni, the Buddha Taho, all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and deities. Then chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. This is faith.”

I read this quote on the eighth day of each month during my morning practice. Nothing in a formal dictionary definition’s dry, academic explanation of Buddhism approaches the penetrating lesson found in Nichiren’s words. I hope my yearlong efforts to explain faith will advance this discussion further.

Before I go further in this yearlong journey of faith I want to explain why that initial discussion of faith during the Tea Time with the Priest led me to devote an entire year to this topic.

I began my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice in March 2015 and have continued to cycle through the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra daily without interruption. In 2019 I added the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva to the cycle. In all that time nothing has surprised me more than the definition of faith revealed in the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children. T’ien T’ai is said to have attained awakening through a phrase of the “Medicine King Chapter” of the Lotus Sūtra¹. I consider this to be my equivalent.

In the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children in Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, the physician’s children drink poison while he is away from home on business. When the physician returns home, he finds his children writhing in agony on the ground and pleading to be cured. The physician concocts a medicine that has a good color and smell and tastes good and offers it to his sick children.

“The sons who had not lost their right minds saw that this good medicine had a good color and smell, took it at once, and were cured completely. But the sons who had already lost their right minds did not consent to take the medicine given to them, although they rejoiced at seeing their father come home and asked him to cure them, because they were so perverted that they did not believe that this medicine having a good color and smell had a good taste.”

In reading this, I realized that the sons who had “lost their right minds” lacked faith. All of the sons could see the good color of the medicine. They could even check and confirm the good smell. But taste required faith. They could not know how the medicine tasted without taking it.

I remember being very excited about this realization. I even made a point of sharing my understanding with Rev. Igarashi at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. This was early in my practice with Nichiren Shu, and I was hesitant then to discuss doctrine with Rev. Igarashi. That’s one measure of how special this was to me.

Throughout the Lotus Sutra we are told to understand by faith. Chapter 16 famously begins, “Good men! Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!” Through the remainder of this year, I hope to illustrate and reinforce my understanding of faith and invite readers of 500yojanas.org to consider their faith.

1

T’ien T’ai’s special phrase: “The Buddhas of those worlds praised him, saying simultaneously, ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! All you did was a true endeavor. You made an offering to us according to the true Dharma.’ ” return

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.

At 8:27 am on Aug. 11, 2020, I received word that Ryusho Jeffus Shonin had died at the Syracuse, New York, VA Medical Center. It has now been 500 days since.

In Ryusho’s book, The Parable of the Magic City, he explains that a yojana is both a measure of distance – the distance an oxcart can travel in a day – and a measure of time – one day for each yojana. And as used here, it is a measure of endurance.

As Ryusho put it in his book, “I wonder what you could accomplish in your life if you made a commitment from today for 500 days to practice on a regular consistent basis towards the achievement of some change in your life? Would you be able to travel the entire 500 days without giving up or abandoning or forgetting your goal and effort?”

Currently I am working on what I call my 800 Years of Faith project. I am marking the 800th anniversary of the birth of Nichiren in 1222 with a yearlong discussion of the topic of faith. On weekdays I will re-publish quotes from Nichiren and other writers that I have gathered here from books I’ve read. On the weekends I will publish 500-word essays on the topic.

As of today I have drafted 77 of these essays. Most of these are products of my 32 Days of Lotus Sutra practice. Using the background and commentary I’ve gathered here, I’ve worked my way through the entire Threefold Lotus Sutra to craft essays on faith related to each chapter.

There are 106 weekend days in 2022 and so I have invited a number of Nichiren priests, shami and others to contribute. I’ve had some interest expressed but haven’t received any essays.

The goal is to fill all 106 weekend days. Ryusho would appreciate this project.