We decorate with paper flowers on bamboo branches in remembrance of the cherry tree that bloomed out of season on Oct. 13. 1282, when Nichiren died.

In Japan, Nichiren’s memorial is treated like a festival, with crowds parading with lanterns drapped in flowers, beating drums and ringing bells and dancing.

Why is everyone happy? Nichiren Shonin was a desciple of the original Sakyamuni Buddha, the Eternal Buddha. He was already a Bodhisattva. He chose to be born into this suffering world. It was his intention to enter this world to save people.

Everyone has causes and conditions that bring them to this suffering world. Everyone has a Buddha seed within them. If you don’t practice, you can’t get a good condition. The seed needs condition – soil, water, sun – otherwise it never grows. Everybody has a Buddha nature, this seed. That is why when you chant Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo you can approach enlightenment.

The Lotus Sutra is the supreme teaching of Sakyamuni Buddha. Today we can study the Lotus Sutra and chant Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo because Nichiren Shonin chose to come back to this suffering world. That’s why today the memorial service for Nichiren Shonin expresses our gratitude to him for his gift to us.

Today will begin the 25th time I’ve cycled through my 32-days of the Lotus Sutra and published a portion of that day’s reading. That’s 24 months of 32 days, or two Lotus Sutra years. I’ve taken this milestone as an opportunity to start using quotes from Introduction to the Lotus Sutra in conjunction with each day’s sutra offering.

The book, which covers the full Threefold Lotus Sutra, is more a general introduction than a study guide, offering summaries of each chapter and explanations of the meaning of what is happening. It’s the explanations that I’ll be publishing as quotes. Unfortunately, not all chapters include explanations. For example, the final two chapters are only summarized without explanation. To me that’s unfortunate since I find the message about teachers in King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva well worth exploration. Another complication is that chapters such as Expedients and The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata have much more worth quoting than other chapters. As a result the quotes published will not always be related to that day’s portion of the Sutra.

Here’s an updated illustration of the Hōtōge with the beats now illustrated fully. (See earlier blog post.)

There are no beats for the first two words – Shi Kyō – and then a single beat for each word thereafter until the final Yō, which gets a double beat. There are four beats per line, except those lines that are highlighted, which get three beats. Quick beats are struck where the words are linked.

Each service when I play this recording and recite the words I’m reminded of the reason for the odd beat. The story is told in Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick’s Lotus in the Sea of Flames. The event takes place as Nichiren is being taken away to Izu on his first exile.

“I am no magistrate,” said the official. “I am not interested in your arguments. I am only interested in getting you onto that ship, out of Kamakura, and on to Izu. Now keep quiet!”

As the boat moved away Nichiren began to chant the final verses from the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sutra, “It is difficult to keep this sutra. I shall be glad to see anyone keeping it even for a moment.” The rocking of the waves caused his voice to fade in and out, giving the recitation an odd rhythm. The passage ended with, “Anyone who expounds this sutra even for a moment in this dreadful world should be honored with offerings by all gods and men.” From that point on Nichlren knew that he and his disciples had truly become practitioners of the Lotus Sutra as its predictions of hardships that would be faced by the teachers of the True Dharma began to be fulfilled in their own lives.

In April I published this post. At the time I had been attending the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church since January 2015 and I was still unable to recite the version of Hotoge performed during the service immediately after chanting Daimoku.

I have recordings of the services but the mokusho and the drum overwhelm everything. So I made an appointment with Ven. Kenjo Igarashi and asked him to record the Hotoge so that I can play it during my home services.

But when I reviewed the recordings with the text in the service book used in Sacramento, the words didn’t line up. Two lines were short – three beats instead of four.

It was only this Sunday, Oct. 1, while attending the online service at Myoshoji that I finally found the reason. The highlighted lines above accurately reflect the beats in the recording.

Finally.

Hotoge with mokusho

Hotoge words

The source of the odd beat is explained in Lotus in a Sea of Flames.

Attended the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church‘s fall Ohigan service. This is the third of the regular memorial services held each year in Nichiren Shu – Spring and Fall Equinox and Obon in Summer. When you add in family memorial services to the mix it raised the question of why we have so many services honoring our ancestors. That was the subject of Ven. Kenjo Igarashi‘s lecture after the Ohigan service today.

Rev. Igarashi told the story of a woman who complained that Buddhists have too many memorial services. She decided she’d rather be a Christian – no memorial services.

Each memorial service has special meaning.

“Today I want to explain sandoku – three poisons,” he said. “These three poisons are why we suffer.”

What follows is my paraphrasing of the lecture.

The first of the poisons is greed. And greed is an essential component of living in this world. Everyone is competing with others all the time.

The second poison is anger. Everyone is fighting, fighting. Anger toward other people is easy.

The third poison is traditionallly translated as stupidity or ignorance. Rev. Igarashi suggested describing the third poison as “a lot of complaints. All the time complain. … All the time, I’m right and you’re wrong.”

Since these poisons cause our suffering that’s why Śākyamuni said we must eliminate these. If you don’t, you’ll never get happy in this life and after you pass away you won’t go to paradise or a good realm.

These three poisons are the reason we are born in this suffering world, but most people are ignorant of this fact.

People want to be happy. They want to be rich. They want to be famous. Everybody thinks like that. But we need to think about why we are born into this world.

The purpose of our Buddhist practice is to extinguish these three poisons. We can’t attain enlightenment or go to a good realm after we die without doing that.

It is hard to extinguish these three poisons. That’s why we had today’s pāramitā service.

The Nichiren Shu brochure on Higan offers this explaination of the pāramitās.

1. fuse means to offer one’s self wholeheartedly and unconditionally, without any expectation of its return.
2. jikai is to follow and maintain the general precepts of the Buddha.
3. nin-niku suggests a resilience to persevere through hardship.
4. syojin refers to the necessity of conscientious effort in accomplishing one’s goals.
5. zenjo points to qualities existent in meditation, calling upon one’s concentration, adjoined by calmness and poise.
6. chie is the Buddha’s wisdom, reinforced with its practical application.

How does this apply to memorial services for deceased ancestors?

“Maybe [those ancestors] are still in the suffering world,” Rev. Igarashi said.

Today’s service is called Higan, which means the other shore. The other shore is enlightenment.

“We are living on this shore, the suffering world, so maybe our ancestors are still in this suffering world. That’s why we practice in order to send them to the other shore with us.”

The six kinds of practices – the six pāramitās – are very important. With them we can extinguish the three poisons while at the same time helping our ancestors reach the other shore as well.

This is not a practice twice or three times a year. Every day is Higan or Obon.

I attended the Sunday service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and picked up an omamori that I asked Rev. Igarashi to create for a friend who is pregnant. You can see the omamori in the center of the above picture.

One of the tangible benefits of being a member of a Nichiren Shū church with a priest who has survived five 100-day ascetic trials to gain special merits and knowledge is the chance to call upon all of the resources Buddhism offers. May my friend’s pregnancy be uncomplicated.

And on the topic of babies, Rev. Igarashi’s lecture dealt with just how rare it is that we are born as humans and even rarer that we are born as humans and encounter the Lotus Sūtra.

Nichiren described being born human as rare as the one-eyed turtle finding a suitable hollow in a floating log, or a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the eye of a needle on earth.

The reference to the turtle comes from the Miscellaneous Āgama Sutra. The story is told of a blind turtle, whose life span is immeasurable kalpas. The turtle lives at the bottom of the sea. Once every 100 years, it rises to the surface. There is only one log floating in the sea with a suitable hollow in it. Since the turtle is blind and the log is tossed about by the wind and waves, the likelihood of the turtle reaching the log is extremely remote. It is even rarer, says Śākyamuni, to be born a human being; having succeeded in doing so, one should use the opportunity to master the four noble truths and attain deliverance.

“That is why Nichiren Shonin said, ‘If you are born into this world if you waste your life then don’t regret after you pass away’, ” said Rev. Igarashi.

Unfortunately, many people don’t share their Buddhism for fear of what others might say. This, Rev. Igarashi said, is like the Aesop fable “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey.”

A man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”

“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them: “PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”

Rev. Igarashi said, “You have to think about why you are born into this world. Not just enjoy your life or make money. We are born into this world to practice Buddhism and get enlightenment and then try to save other people. …

“Practice and study the Lotus Sūtra, then if you understand only just a little bit you have to talk to other people and try to save them. That’s why we are born into this world. Now we can chant Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and chant the Lotus Sūtra so we don’t waste our time. We try to get enlightenment and don’t end up regretting after we pass away. …

“Please practice for yourself first, study, then if you understand just a little bit of Lotus Sūtra and Nichiren Buddhism maybe you become a very rookie Bodhisattvas. Then you try to save other people and move up the rungs of Bodhisattvas. …

“Try to practice and study and don’t waste your time.”

Attended the Kaji Kito service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church on Aug. 27. The sermon from Ven. Kenjo Igarashi covered a range of Buddhist concepts but the one item that stuck with me was the inclusive nature of the Buddhist practice.

Today’s quote from Lotus Seeds summarizes this well:

The bodhisattvas are as concerned about relieving the suffering of others as they are about relieving their own. One might even say they know we are all in the same boat, the Great Vehicle of the Mahayana, which takes all people to the other shore of perfect and complete awakening. Thus, the advancement of the individual is impossible without the advancement of all.
Lotus Seeds

But beyond the Bodhisattva practice for oneself and others is the fundamental teaching of 3000 realms in a single moment.

In the time since 2015, when I joined Nichiren Shu, I’ve had to unlearn a good portion of what I thought Nichiren Buddhism taught. The Daimoku is not, for example, solely a wish-granting gem, the more you polish it the more you get.

More subtle, but no less profound, is the meaning of 3,000 realms in a single thought moment, one of the defining elements of Nichiren Buddhism.

The basics are simple enough. Here’s the summary from Lotus Seeds:

Ichinen Sanzen, the Three Thousand Worlds Contained in One Thought, is the theoretical cornertone of Nichiren Buddhism. It is a universal vision of life as rich, dynamic, and meaningful. Ichinen Sanzen reveals thal all life contains all Ten Worlds, including Buddhahood, and that these worlds operate according to the causes and conditions that we all set in motion. In a praclical sense, this theory means that we are able to make the cause that will allow the world of Buddhahood to emerge in our lives when we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.Lotus Seeds

This description works fine for self-inspection but, as the Bodhisattvas teach us, self-inspection is only part of the practice.

I recently finished “Buddha Seed: Understanding the Odaimoku Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,” a 53-page book adapted by the Nichiren Buddhist International Center from the lectures of Rev. Taiko Seno.

Buddha Seed introduced me to the full meaning of 3000 realms:

“What does this number three thousand represent? It represents everything not only of the earth, but also of the universe and includes everything in the past, present, and future. Everything of the universe from animals, plants, other beings, visible or invisible, and their activities, workings, and movements are included in the three thousand realms. Everything of the universe exists within each one of us. Everything influences us, works together as primary cause and environmental cause and brings effects, rewards and retributions. All of us exist in relationship with everything in the universe.”

Or as Rev. Igarashi put it Sunday: Ichinen sanzen holds that each moment contains all of the universe.

To paraphrase Rev. Igarashi:

“There are a lot of people living in this world, more than 5 billion. And each moment of Ichinen Sanzen contains all of these people. That’s why if somebody is fighting I’m not happy. If somebody is unhappy, I’m not happy. That’s why praying for world peace is very important. If the world is at peace, we are all happy. That’s why Shakyamuni warned against focusing on one’s own happiness. Everyone must be happy.

Shakyamuni said everyone is equal but your karmas, your actions, your cause and condition are different. That’s why we have to try to accumulate good karma and help other people and try to extinguish our bad karma which we made in our previous life. That’s why I give you purification so that your karma is different and therefore your life is different.”