I keep telling myself: Self, ask the priest if his sermon can be recorded. And for some reason I never find the right opportunity. Instead I try to recap what I learned, knowing full well that at best I have only a partial understanding.

Following today’s Kaji Kito service, Ven. Kenjo Irgarashi discussed the importance the Lotus Sutra in this age of Mappo, the Latter Day of Degeneration in which we live today.

The characters on the left say, loosely, the Lotus Sutra benefits all sentient beings. And by all he means all. While the plan of salvation in other religions is designed solely for human beings, not for animals, in Nichiren Buddhism everyone benefits from contact with the Lotus Sutra including those pets who hear the Odaimoku. I have one cat who joins me each morning for gonyo. She’s definitely going to enjoy a better life next time around.

The characters on the right say, loosely again, the Lotus Sutra is the only salvation in the age of Mappo.

And, finally, the center characters retell Nichiren’s lesson that in the age of Mappo few will believe in the Lotus Sutra. As the Daily Dharma from Aug. 22, 2016, explained: “In this world of conflict, it can seem like very few people are practicing the Buddha Dharma with us. Nichiren compared those beings alive in this world of conflict to the amount of soil in the whole earth, while those who keep and practice the Lotus Sūtra are like the dirt under a fingernail.”

Rev. Igarashi reminded everyone that it is the rope of the Daimoku he discussed at the last service that we can use to rescue ourselves in this Age of Mappo.

The Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church is taking orders now for its annual Fall Food Sale. Unlike the June Bazaar, which sold food on a first-come, first-served basis and ran out of popular items such as the barbecued teriyaki chicken halves, this is a presale event. All orders placed before Oct. 1 will be guaranteed for pickup on Oct. 8 between 11am and 2pm.

This year’s menu has Barasushi ($4.50 ea), Bento ($10 ea), Curry Rice ($5.50 ea), Spam Musubi ($4 ea), Teriyaki Beef Sandwich ($5 ea), Teriyaki Chicken ($7 ea) and Udon ($5 ea).

Orders can be placed online and paid securely with a credit card or you can download and print out a form and send that form and your check to the church office. It’s important to place orders as early as possible to guarantee your order can be filled on Oct. 8.

Order Now

The Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church holds three fund-raisers during the year in order to raise money for operating expenses. This is a vital effort considering the many areas where the money is needed right now. The roofs on the main building and the community center are more than 20 years old. (The roof on the priest’s home and the carpark were replaced earlier this year.) The exterior paint has peeled off the eaves of the main roof. If you can’t attend the Fall Food Sale but would like to make a donation click here.

Today was the monthly Kaji Kito purification service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church.

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi discussed his sadness at the passing of an old friend as the thread running through his sermon.

When Rev. Igarashi graduated from college in Japan he and his friend Taikyo Nakamura were assigned to the Los Angeles Nichiren Shu temple as assistant priests to complete their training. Nakamura struggled with the demands of the work. Rev. Igarashi laughed and said he struggled too. In the 1970s, when Rev. Igarashi was assigned a position in San Francisco, Nakamura was sent to Portland. But Nakamura’s struggles continued and his conflicts with the Portland temple’s members finally caused him to leave the priesthood and return to secular life. The two former friends eventually lost contact with each other. They had not spoken for more than 20 years when Rev. Igarashi learned that Taikyo Nakumura had died. (Here’s the Oregonian obituary.)

To continue the thread of his lesson, Rev. Igarashi recalled the Japanese children’s story, The Spider’s Thread.

I like the Wikipedia version:

Shakyamuni is meandering around Paradise one morning, when he stops at a lotus-filled pond. Between the lilies, he can see, through the crystal-clear waters, the depths of Hell. His eyes come to rest on one sinner in particular, by the name of Kandata. Kandata was a cold-hearted criminal, but had one good deed to his name: while walking through the forest one day, he decided not to kill a spider he was about to crush with his foot. Moved by this single act of compassion, the Buddha takes the silvery thread of a spider in Paradise and lowers it down into Hell.

Down in Hell, the myriad sinners are struggling in the Pool of Blood, in total darkness save for the light glinting off the Mountain of Spikes, and in total silence save for the sighs of the damned. Kandata, looking up by chance at the sky above the pool, sees the spider’s thread descending towards him and grabs hold with all the might of a seasoned criminal. The climb from Hell to Paradise is not a short one, however, and Kandata quickly tires. Dangling from the middle of the rope, he glances downward, and sees how far he has come. Realizing that he may actually escape from Hell, he is overcome by joy and laughs giddily. His elation is short-lived, however, as he realizes that others have started climbing the thread behind him, stretching down into the murky depths below. Fearing that the thread will break from the weight of the others, he shouts that the spider’s thread is his and his alone. It is at this moment that the thread breaks, and he and all the other sinners are cast back down into the Pool of Blood.

Shakyamuni witnesses this, knowing all but still with a slightly sad air. In the end, Kandata condemned himself by being concerned only with his own salvation and not that of others. But Paradise continues on as it has, and it is nearly noontime there. Thus the Buddha continues his meanderings.

(Here’s a somewhat expanded version of the story.)

Rev. Igarashi bound the day’s lesson together with the “rope of the Daimoku.” The Daimoku, he explained, is a rope lowered to us in the suffering world by Nichiren. By climbing up the rope of Daimoku we can pull ourselves out of the suffering world.

“Don’t let go of the Daimoku,” Rev. Igarashi repeated several times.

I first heard about Nichiren Buddhism and the power of chanting devotion to the Lotus Sutra in August of 1989. In all of the years between then and now, I’ve never attended a Nichiren Buddhist funeral service. (I don’t consider the post-split Soka Gakkai services for members who pass away formal funeral services.)

Today I participated in my first funeral service. I even had a small role. Ven. Kenjo Igarashi asked me to be the person who lights the candles on the altar and makes the first incense offering before the service begins.

The day before the service I helped set up tables and shade awnings where people could eat refreshments after the service and I helped put everything away at the end of the day.

The funeral was for a Toyoko Nakatogawa, who was a member of one of eight families that founded the church in the 1930s. She had been an active member of the church all of her life. More than 200 people attended her funeral service.

For those of you outside California, you may not be aware that in 1942 all of the Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and sent to camps for the duration of World War II. Toyoko, who was born in Sacramento in 1924, was a Sacramento High School student in 1942. When her classmates graduated she was in a camp. While she eventually received a diploma from the school district, she never received a document saying she had graduated from Sacramento High School.

I can’t pass up recounting the story told by a Chinese gentleman who was a classmate of Toyoko. Before the Japanese were trucked Tule Lake, Californa, they were forced into a temporary camp outside of town. This Chinese gentlemen and several others went out to see their classmates in the camp outside town. Everything was fine until they attempted to go home. The guards wouldn’t let them leave. “We all look alike apparently,” he said.

He did get out and eventually Toyoko returned to Sacramento. Since the class had been unable to graduate together they would celebrate instead their graduation from middle school, which they’d all attended together. He was the last of those classmates at the funeral service today.

Today at noon I start reposting the quotes I’ve selected from the books above. I’ll begin with the book introduction and then follow with a quote from each book every 10 days. As of last count, I have 839 quotes.

The 9 am posting from Lecture on the Lotus Sutra will continue until Sept. 10, when the last quote from the book will be published.

My wife found these Saint Nichiren vases at Sakura Gifts From Japan, a store she frequents in what passes for Japantown in Sacramento. The owner, Nobuko Saiki Pang, is not a member of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and this is the first Nichiren-themed item we’ve found at her store, which contains a wide array of products made in Japan.

The vases, which stand 6 inches tall and are about 3.5 inches at their widest diameter, are hand decorated and stamped “JAPAN” on the bottom.

So personally I had a bad day. For the past few services I’ve been trying to learn the basics of using the uchiwa daiko, a traditional fan drum, during the service when everyone is chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.

It’s not really complicated. Pause on the namu and then strike the drum on myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo. Pause on the namu and then strike the drum on myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo. Pause on the namu and then strike the drum on myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo. Rinse and repeat. Then at the end, after the bell is rung, you strike the drum for every character – na-mu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo.

So today I was sitting between the two women who regularly use the drums and I swear it sounded like they were striking the drum on Na, pausing on mu and myo, and striking the drum on ho-ren-ge-kyo. I was completely flummoxed.

No idea what my problem was.

Each time I’ve sat in the front with the uchiwa daiko ladies, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi has offered his own experiences with the drum. The first time we learned What A Young Monk Did For Summer Vacation and this time he recalled his experiences as a young priest in San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

The San Francisco Nichiren Shu services were held in a small apartment belonging to one of the members. Rev. Igarashi lived in the apartment.

When there were no services he had no other responsibilities. He tried to do his personal services in the morning, noon and evening but soon learned that the walls of the apartment were just too thin. His neighbors would pound on his door, yelling at him to knock it off.

Unable to practice at home, he took to the streets of downtown San Francisco, loudly chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo as he pounded on his uchiwa daiko. He wasn’t soliciting donations, the way he had during his trip from Minobu to Tokyo. He was just spreading the Daimoku.

In Japan, he said, people would understand what he was doing. In San Francisco, not so much. He said he was scared at times. On one occasion a woman came up to him and waved her index finger in his face and shouted “There is only ONE God.” Rev. Igarashi, a firm believer in many deities, found this behavior odd. He also discovered that a restaurant wouldn’t serve him because it was owned by Soka Gakkai members.

Not exactly the persecutions of Nichiren, which was the subject of the day’s services. The Matsubagayatsu Persecution recounts the attack that followed shortly after Nichiren submitted his famous Rissho Ankoku-ron. Nichiren’s efforts to promote reform aroused the resentment of the Buddhist establishment and members of the shogunate. On the night of Aug. 27, 1260, an angry mob burned down Nichiren’s hut in Kamakura. A protective deity in the form of a white monkey warned Nichiren of the danger and led him to safety.

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Here are some photos from this weekend’s 2nd Annual Urban Dharma Retreat.

Below is dharma talk following the Sunday service at Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple, Charlotte, NC.

This post is in part a response to the discussion about anger during this weekend’s Urban Retreat and at the Sunday service at Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Budhdist Temple, in Charlotte, NC.

Recently I came across a book originally published in 1893. According to the introduction it is the first translation into English of the foundational doctrines of Nichiren. The introduction describes this as the “Englishing” of a lecture series first given by the Most Learned and Virtuous Archbishop Nissatsu Arai, at the temple of Ikegami.

This book, THE DOCTRINES OF NICHIREN WITH A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE (1893), is short. It is also free from Google Play or you can download a PDF copy here.

The late Archbishop of Ikegami’s focus is significantly different than the focus you see in the writings of native English writers who, in effect, offer a double “Englishing” of Nichiren’s teachings and his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra.

This is not meant to anger those who have rendered the Japanese experience into something an American could begin to contemplate. I have nothing but deep and sincere appreciation for their efforts.

I know, you are waiting for the “But…” but I don’t want to frame this discussion in that manner.

First, this is my post. I’m offering something from my self-discussion that I hope might be of use in your self-discussion.

Self-discussion is my name for the self-exploration that I see as the ideal of this Buddhist practice.

The principal difference between the late Archbishop of Ikegami’s focus and the Western interpretation is illustrated in this quote:

This world, so full of evils as to appear like a fiery furnace in the eyes of the vulgar, is perceived by the Buddha to be a peaceful and happy realm inhabited by beings of high spiritual order. What is the truth of it? Is the world pure and full of pleasures, or foul and full of pains? The solution will be this or that according to the confusion or the enlightenment of each in dividual mind. The world seen by the Buddha and the world seen by the multitude are not two, but one. When enlightenment is attained to, all worlds are found to be equally glorious and splendid. The first and greatest mission of Sakyamuni in this world is to help the multitude to unfold and develop their Buddha-intellect, and cleanse and purify their nature. When they are once able to unfold this Buddha-intellect of theirs, they will perceive the real nature of this world of evils, that is, the glory of that eternal reality which underlies the world of outward sense. Hence, to proclaim the identity of the evil or phenomenal world with the glorious underlying reality, or noumenon; to point out the way to Buddhahood; to open the path of salvation; above all, to convince the people that one and all of them may become Buddhas, here and now—this is the mission of the sect of Nichiren.

This focus on unfolding and developing our Buddha-intellect, and cleansing and purifying our nature offers an avenue for self-discussion.

The fact that I get angry is my failure — my “vulgar” nature.

I can go through any number of intellectual exercises to illustrate how someone else cannot make me angry. Clearly, only I allow myself — my vulgar nature — to let me wander into the world of anger. And, as Ryusho Shonin said during the discussion after today’s service at Myosho-ji, only I can find enlightenment. No one can do that to me just as no one can make me angry.

Each moment we are offered the opportunity to choose between the confusion or the enlightenment.

Following today’s Kaji Kito service, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi offered a chalkboard lesson on the need to subdue our passion and use the sword of wisdom to cut through our delusions. Or that’s what I came away with. Someone really needs to record these lessons. And before I continue I apologize if I’ve messed this up in my translation.

The central player in this lesson is Fudo Myo-o. Fudo Myo-o is depicted on the Mandala Gohonzon on the right side in the center. According to Rev. Ryuei McCormick’s book Lotus World, Fudo Myo-o is one of two esoteric deities on the Mandala Gohonzan who are the kings of mystic knowledge and represent the power of the buddhas to vanquish blind craving. They are known as “kings of mystic knowledge” because they wield the mantras, mystical spells made up of Sanskrit syllables imbued with the power to protect practitioners of the Dharma from all harm and evil influences. They appear in terrifying wrathful forms because they embody the indomitable energy of compassion that breaks down all obstacles to wisdom and liberation.

The image at right is standard depiction. For Ven. Igarashi’s lesson, the flames in the background are our worldly passions. The rope represents the Six Paramitas, with which we are able to bind up those passions. The sword represents the wisdom gained from chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. That wisdom cuts through the delusions.

The three parts – Six Paramitas, the dharma (Namu Myoho Renge Kyo) and wisdom – are required to subdue delusions.

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In a postscript to last week’s blog post, the photo from the April 28, 1934, dedication of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church has been hung on the wall of the church below the photo of Nichiren Shonin’s Mausoleum at Minobu and next to the Nichiren Shu Creed.