Attended Sunday service with four others at Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple in Charlotte, NC. Rev. Ryusho Jeffus had a guest at the temple and I joined three others online.

Here’s a minute of Odaimoku.

We live in interesting times, especially this availability of “attending” remote events.

Ryusho Shonin will be hosting the Second Annual Urban Dharma Retreat on August 6-7. I attended this last year and got a great deal out of it.

More information on the retreat is available here, including Frequently Asked Questions and the form for signing up.

Just a note to express my appreciation for having a local temple where I can attend services. And the fact that I actually enjoy the company of the other members of this sangha is icing on the cake.

Couldn’t resist. I am fostering three kittens for the Sacramento SPCA in my home office. It becomes something of challenge when the kittens are awake and trampling over my keyboard as I attempt to work, but then they eventually tire out.

This is a Sunday in which my local temple, the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church, is not holding services. As an alternative, I planned to participate in the online service hosted by Rev. Ryusho Jeffus from Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple, Charlotte, NC.

On these alternative Sundays, I rise early enough to do my recitation of the Lotus Sutra (32 Days of the Lotus Sutra) and then set up my computer in front of my altar and “attend” the Charlotte service, which is scheduled to begin at 7 am my time.

It was after the Charlotte service was over at 8:30 am that my wife came out and asked me what “that thing” was on my bedside table.

And that’s how I received the hand-carved rubber stamp mounted on a surplus USB charger and a personalized Father’s Day card.

This is not the first Buddhist-themed Father’s Day artwork. In 2010, my son offered this Human Revolution-themed framed drawing.

Having an artistic son, I have quite a collection of framed Father’s Day artwork. One of my favorites is this 2007 drawing, which I have on my home-office wall.

It is now after 10:30 am and my son is still sleeping. I’m promised a Father’s Day breakfast. When I do get to eat, I’ll ask my son where he got the idea to use the Nichiren Shu logo for the stamp. I was really surprised by both the gift and the thoughtfulness it represents.

I have the stamp and the card on my altar for now.

This blog post was originally published Feb. 15, 2016. Since I need a place in which to track Ryusho Shonin‘s Lotus Sutra project, I’m going to periodically update this blog post and re-date it so that it appears in the Blog queue in its most recent position.

Last updated, June 19, 2016:

• Added Chapter 5, Part 1, If They Have Not Yet Done So

I’m excited about Ryusho Shonin‘s new project in which he will examine one chapter of the Lotus Sutra each month.

In my daily reading of 1/32nd of the Lotus Sutra – eight scrolls, each divided into four parts – I’m writing down a summary of what I read and what on each day’s reading stands out or seems new or remarkable.

One aspect of Ryusho Shonin’s writing that I have loved in all of his books is his focus on bringing the Lotus Sutra to life. As he explains in this new project:

“[T]his is not a retelling of the Lotus Sutra as it appears on paper in books. We are not replacing someone else’s words with your own in this study; it isn’t paraphrasing. I hope doing this will reveal to you the Lotus Sutra as it has manifested in your life, your life activities, your life experiences. This is not an exercise of expressing your agreement with the ideas or concepts in the Lotus Sutra. I invite you on a journey into what the Lotus Sutra would look like if you told it from your life.”

My daily retelling of what I read lacks this, and I’ve felt that dissatisfaction on occasion.  I can see in  “The Story of the Lotus Sutra of Your Life”  great potential for me and for my understanding and, most important, for my appreciation of the Lotus Sutra in my daily life.

• The Story of the Lotus Sutra of Your Life
• Introductory Chapter 1 Part 1: Leading Up to the Opening of Your Lotus Sutra
• Introductory Chapter 1 Part 2: Who Was In Your Assembly?
• Introductory Chapter 1 Part 3: The Event
• Introductory Chapter 1 Part 4: Conclusion
• Chapter 2 Part 1: Inexplicable by Words
• Chapter 2 Part 2: Even Children in Their Play
• Chapter 3, Part 1, The Greatest Joy
• Chapter 3, Part 2, Peaceful as the Sea
• Chapter 3, Part 3, Rejoice
• Chapter 4, Part 1, Never Had Before
• Chapter 4, Part 2, Treasury of the Buddha Law
• Chapter 5, Part 1, If They Have Not Yet Done So

Attended Sunday services online with Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple, Charlotte, NC. Rev. Ryusho Jeffus has been working on a project where he takes one chapter of the Lotus Sutra each month and creates illustrations and then writes a commentary. I keep a directory of this project here.

Following the service, Ryusho Shonin showed off one of his illustrations for Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and then discussed this quote from the conclusion of the chapter:

Some living beings planted the roots of good
In their previous existence.

A core concept of Nichiren Buddhism is Ichinen Sanzen, or 3,000 Worlds Contained in One Thought.

In each moment of our existence, we have the potential to manifest any of the 10 worlds, including the world of the Buddha.

From Rev. Ryuei McCormick’s book “Lotus Seeds“:

Before 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.”

As a Nichiren Shu practitioner I chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo with the goal of manifesting my Buddha nature.

Each moment is unique. What I do in each moment plants seeds that grow and eventually bear fruit.

Today’s quote from Ryusho Shonin’s “Lecture on the Lotus Sutra” underscores everything I’ve come to appreciate about this practice:

When it comes to the reward of practicing Buddhism, it lies solely in the change that takes place first in our own lives and then manifests in our environment. Buddhism is not about being rewarded with riches or material goods; those things are temporary and destructible. What we seek in our Buddhist practice is the indestructible enlightenment of the Buddha; something that the Lotus Sutra teaches us is possible.

As Ryusho Shonin explains in the video above, I am not the same person I was yesterday, of last year. Each day is a new existence. Each moment I plant the roots of good for my next existence.

Sunday, May 22, was the monthly Kaji Kito service in which Ven. Kenjo Igarashi personally prays for and purifies each parishioner, taking on the bad karma of one after another so that each can be happier.

It’s an evil practice.

At least that is how some priests apparently describe this Gosho, or honored teaching of Nichiren.

Ven. Igarashi earned the merit to perform this practice through aragyo, a 100-day ascetic practice. He has performed this 100-day practice five times over the more than 40 years that he has been a Nichiren Shu priest serving in the United States.

That accomplishment is nothing.

At least that is what some priests would have one believe.

As Ven. Igarashi explained during his Sunday sermon, there are plenty of examples of Nichiren praying for others, the most notable being Nichiren’s prayers for his mother, which extended her life four years. And, of course, the Lotus Sutra speaks repeatedly of the power of faith.

This Gosho of praying for the happiness of each church member is Igarashi’s way of propagating the Lotus Sutra. Each happier person inspires people to ask, “Why is he so happy?” and to learn of the Lotus Sutra.

Happiness, however, is not material gain. It is not a better job, or a prettier girlfriend. It is not financial wealth or a larger house. This is a message that Ven. Igarashi repeats often in his sermons.

For me, personally, with my past association with the Soka Gakkai of the 1990s, this concept of chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo for happiness has been one of the great joys of my Nichiren Shu practice.

When I was first introduced to Soka Gakkai and knew nothing of the Lotus Sutra, I was encouraged to chant for things. Need a job? Chant. Need a girlfriend. Chant. Not getting what you crave? Chant more. And I won’t even get into the “activities” and the threatened consequences of failing to participate.

One of my stated purposes for maintaining this website and, in particular, my collection of quotes from books I have purchased and read, is to be able to recall those quotes in a situation like this.

On the topic of happiness, I can cite my two favorite American sources, Rev. Ryuei McCormick and Rev. Ryusho Jeffus

Ryuei Shonin writes:

A person in the grip of undeveloped, immature, and ignorant desires usually tries to fulfill these desires by acting in a way that only serves to reinforce them. That is, that person attempts to find some form of lasting satisfaction and security in material or spiritual things. However, there is nothing short of Buddhahood that can bring the kind of true happiness that can fully quench ignorant desires. In this sense, these desires are actually the workings of the Buddha-nature: they cause us to unwittingly seek out our own Buddhahood. One could even say, “that which we seek is that which causes us to seek.”

Lotus Seeds

Ryusho Shonin writes:

Perhaps it is the reality of our modern advertisement saturated media that has led many to believe that only after buying and using every product known to man, after every single penny is spent that has ever been earned in the entire history of man- and womankind then and only then will somehow perfection and happiness be possible. Somehow by doing something so unlikely to produce indestructible happiness as buying a product is more realistic than the realization that each one of us is already all we need to be. We are as complete as we need to be in order to become indestructibly happy. All we need to do is simply wake up to this reality in our lives, and the Buddha is telling us that the Lotus Sutra is the most efficacious way of doing this.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

I look forward to each Nichiren Shu service I can attend, both at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and online with Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple, Charlotte, NC.

I am happier today.