As we progress along the Lotus Sutra path – our faith growing with our practice and our practice enhanced by our study – it is important to realize that it’s not just OK to ask questions, but essential.

The benefit of asking questions is repeated throughout the Threefold Lotus Sutra and starts with the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings:

“With that, the Buddha said to the bodhisattva Fully Composed: ‘Well done, you of great good intent! Well done! You have skillfully questioned the Tathāgata regarding this profound, unequaled, all-ferrying, transcendental essence. You should know that you will enable many to benefit, you will please and bring ease to human and heavenly beings, and you will relieve living beings of their suffering. This is great and real compassion—trust wholly and completely that this is true. By this direct cause and its outgrowths, you will surely realize and quickly achieve ultimate enlightenment; you will also enable all living beings, now and in the future, to realize and achieve ultimate enlightenment.”

In the Lotus Sutra itself we have Maitreya Bodhisattva asking in the first chapter why the Buddha had emitted a ray of light illumining all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east. In Chapter 2 we have the Śrāvakas and Arhats and the four kinds of devotees asking, “Why does the World-Honored One extol so enthusiastically the power of the Buddhas to employ expedients?” And when the Buddha’s answer proved surprising, Śāriputra asked in Chapter 3, “In order to cause the four kinds of devotees to remove their doubts, explain why you said all this to them!” In Chapters 6, 8 and 9, we have the great disciples questioning whether they will receive a prediction of future Buddhahood. Even when newly minted Bodhisattvas question in Chapter 9 why the Buddha is focusing so much attention on Śrāvakas rather than Bodhisattvas, the Buddha offers an important lesson on the need to practice what we study.

The arrival of the Stupa of Treasures in Chapter 11 raises a host of questions. In Chapter 12, the question of whether the Dragon King’s daughter can become a Buddha is asked and answered quickly. In Chapter 14, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva asks how ordinary Bodhisattvas should expound this sūtra in the evil world after the Buddha’s extinction. And then there are the questions raised when uncountable numbers of Bodhisattvas arrive in Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground. Following the revelation of the Buddha’s unlimited lifespan and the merits to be received from hearing of the duration of the Buddha’s life, Maitreya Bodhisattva asks in Chapter 18 how many merits those who rejoice at hearing the sutra will receive. Finally, Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, opens with Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva asking a question and closes with Many-Treasures Tathāgata in the Stupa of Treasures praising Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva: “Excellent, excellent, Star-King-Flower! You obtained inconceivable merits. You asked this question to Śākyamuni Buddha, and benefited innumerable living beings.”

We should always keep in mind: There are no stupid questions.

It’s not uncommon for faith to ebb and flow. Certainly that’s to be expected at the start. This can be likened to the divisions of the Ages of the Dharma.

In sutras other than the Lotus Sutra, there is an expectation that the efficacy of the Buddha’s teaching will decline over time. Commonly these phases are referred to as the Age of True Dharma, the Age of Semblance Dharma and the Latter Age of the Dharma. These can also be referred to as the true Dharma, when the teaching is still fresh and has real potency; the merely formal Dharma, when the teachings have devolved into mere rituals; and the end of the Dharma, when the teachings lose all impact.

In Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Gene Reeves offers an explanation of how these same divisions can be applied to our faith and practice “not as an inevitable sequence of periods of time, but as existential phases of our own lives.”

“There will be times when the Dharma can be said to be truly alive in us, times when our practice is more like putting on a show and has little depth, and times when the life of the Dharma in us is in serious decline. But there is no inevitable sequence here. There is no reason, for example, why a period of true Dharma cannot follow a period of merely formal Dharma. And there is no reason to assume that a period has to be completed once it has been entered. We might lapse into a period of decline, but with the proper influences and circumstances we could emerge from it into a more vital phase of true Dharma. A coming evil age is mentioned several times in the Dharma Flower Sutra, but while living in an evil age, or an evil period of our own lives, makes teaching the Dharma difficult, even extremely difficult, nowhere does the Dharma Flower Sutra suggest that it is impossible to teach or practice true Dharma.” [p214]

We should keep in mind that settling into what feels like merely formal practice isn’t without benefit. As Reeves explains:

“The relation between sincere respect and its expressions in gestures and words is something like the relation between true Dharma and merely formal Dharma. And yet expressions of respect even when respect is not sincerely felt can still be good. What we can think of as ritual politeness – saying ‘Thank you’ when receiving something, even if we do not feel grateful; … saying ‘I’m sorry’ when we do not really feel sorry – can all contribute to smoother social relations. Just as true Dharma is greater than merely formal Dharma, being truly grateful is greater than expressing gratitude in a merely formal way, and heartfelt sincerity is greater than merely conventional politeness, but even social conventions and polite expressions can be an important ingredient in relations between people and can contribute to mutual harmony and respect.” [p217]

Mutual harmony and respect is a worthy goal of Buddhist practice.

In December of last year, I attended an online lecture by Dominick Scarangello, PhD, international advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai. The subject of the lecture was “Actualize Your Inner Potential By Modeling the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattvas,” but that was not the focus. Instead, he offered a discussion on how the rise of western scientific thought destroyed faith in the west, and how we might restore faith without giving up science. (A recording of the lecture is available here.)

For me, the takeaway was something described as the “faith frame,” a frame of reference adopted by the faithful that coexists with our perceived real world and within which we enrich and strengthen ourselves.

Dr. Scarangello introduced the “faith frame” by first discussing the importance of play among bear cubs.

“Play allows for the permanent extension of competence and confidence through pretense. … Play creates a world in ‘rule-governed’ fantasy – in episodic or imagistic representation – in which behavior can be rehearsed and mastered, prior to its expression in the real world, with real-word consequences. Play is another form of ‘as-if’ behavior, that allows for experimentation with fictional narrative – pretended descriptions of the current and desired future states of the world, with plans of action appended, designed to change the former into the latter.” [Psychologist Jordan Peterson]

That “play frame,” Dr. Scarangello explained, is essential to the development of the cubs. Without it, they would not survive on their own.

When done as religious practice, Dr. Scarangello said, such serious play is accomplished within the “faith frame.” Quoting from Stanford University anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann:

“To choose to think with the faith frame is a decision to enter into another mode of thinking about reality that calls on the resources of the imagination to reorganize what is fundamentally real. … This involves a shift in perspective similar to the shift in and out of imaginative play – except that the play claims are also serious claims about the world.”

This “imaginative play” is not fanciful as much as it is “imaginal” – “as if…” As Scarangello explained:

“Founder Niwano was convinced that Buddhism is rational and compatible with modernity, but there is very much of the imaginal in his approach to practice, and I think it’s those aspects of his teachings and guidance that prove difficult for people in other cultures today.”

As Luhrmann explains in her 2018 article “The Faith Frame: Or, Belief is Easy, Faith is Hard”:

“People of faith want to live as if the faith frame is really true, and it is hard, because faith is always under assault by the small (and large) unfairnesses and brutalities of life.”

For me, this “faith frame” is the domain of our Buddhist practice, an essential environment necessary to our development as Buddhists. Within this “faith frame” we can actualize our inner potential by modeling the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattvas and by so doing surmount the small and large unfairnesses and brutalities of life.

Without the “faith frame” we would not survive on our own.

Yesterday I offered my view of the concluding paragraph of Nichiren’s Shōho Jissō Shō, which I have memorized and recite daily before chanting Daimoku. But that’s not the only translation of that paragraph or even the only interpretation.

Ryusho Jeffus Shonin preferred this translation:

Have faith in the Great Mandala Gohonzon, the Most Venerable One in the world.
Endeavor! Endeavor to strengthen your faith, so that you may be blessed with the protective powers of all the Buddhas. Pursue the two-fold path of practice and study. Without practicing and studying there is no Buddhism. Follow these yourself and influence others to do the same. Study and practice come from faith. Even if it is only a word or a phrase, please spread it to others.

Ryusho was adamant that this was the better translation. The difference is subtle. If anything, this translation best emphasizes that study and practice are linked to faith. But it is also true that faith is linked to practice and study. That’s something Rev. Ryuei McCormick has explained: “Faith inspires practice and study. Study informs faith and practice. Practice actualizes faith and study.” Faith, practice and study are the three legs of the stool upon which I sit before my altar.

There’s another aspect of this quote from Nichiren that I wish to comment upon. That’s the idea that faith in the Lotus Sutra encourages divine protection.

The Daily Dharma published here on Oct. 8, 2021, offered this:

Have faith in the great Mandala Gohonzon, the most superlative in the world. Endeavor! Endeavor to strengthen your faith, so that you may be blessed with the protective powers of all Buddhas.

Nichiren wrote this as part of his letter to monk Sairen-bō in his Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality (Shohō-Jissō Shō). One way of reading this passage is that as we develop our faith in the Omandala Gohonzon, the Buddhas will provide more protection for us. Another way to read it is that as our faith develops, so does the power we have to protect others, free them from suffering and help them to awaken their Buddha nature. Either way, Nichiren shows us the practical results of our faith.

I understand that modern Buddhists might wish to downplay divine protection and instead emphasize the Buddhist law of dependent origination and personal responsibility, but I’m happy to accept all the help I can get. Clearly, that’s what Nichiren felt.

In Hokke Shoshin Jobutsu Sho, a letter written by Nichiren in 1277, he says:

A singing bird in a cage attracts uncaged birds, and the sight of these uncaged birds will make the caged bird want to be free. Likewise, the chanting of Odaimoku will bring out the Buddha-nature within ourselves. The Buddha-nature of Bonten and Taishaku will be summoned by the chanting and will protect the chanter. The Buddha-nature of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will be pleased to be summoned.

For me, this is an example of the interconnectedness of everything – Ichinen Sanzen.

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