According to Chih-i, within the special transmission to the bodhisattvas who appeared from beneath the ground is contained four great mysteries which according to Nichiren are Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. The four mysteries are all contained with the Lotus Sutra and they are, 1. All the teachings of the Buddha are here, 2. All the supernatural powers of the Buddha are here, 3. The hidden treasury of the core Buddhist teachings are here, 4. All the achievements of the Buddha are here. By our practice of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, and our determined efforts to know and live the Lotus Sutra we gain access to the four mysteries in this special transmission.

When the bodhisattvas who appeared from beneath the ground made their vow to carry out their practice of the Lotus Sutra in the Saha World after the death of the Buddha, immediately the Buddha gave his assent and praised their vow. There is no place in the sutra where the Buddha gives such a dramatic indicator of his pleasure. The Buddha immediately showed his supernatural powers to all present at the ceremony that is still continuing. His powers were displayed to the worlds of the universe in the ten quarters. He stretched out his long broad tongue, and he also emitted rays of light in various colors from the pores of his skin. All of this is not only seen in the other worlds but allows those in this world to see into those other worlds. All of this causes the other Buddhas, the replica Buddhas, to do the same, as well as coughing and snapping their fingers together. The snapping of fingers and coughing are devices employed by the Buddha to gain attention to an important teaching. And all of the various supernatural phenomena mentioned at this point in the Lotus Sutra serve to further demonstrate the importance of the Buddha accepting the vow made by the Bodhisattvas from Beneath the Ground.

Nichiren said time and again that each character of the Lotus Sutra is a golden Buddha. Imagine if you were to come into contact with the Buddha. How would you react? Would you be casual? How casual we allow ourselves to become when we chant Odaimoku or chant the sutra is something worthy of constant self-reflection.

Chanting Odaimoku is not an activity of quantity but of quality. We should be thinking of how much of our lives we can fill with Odaimoku and not how much of our time. I will not say it is wrong to chant fast, but I will say it is wrong to chant sloppily, lazily, or distractedly. Yes, we may loose our focus at times; we may feel the tug of day-to-day life and distractions. This whole chanting thing is meditation and so just as we do when we are in silent meditation we do when chanting, which is to come back to the present and return our focus whether it is breath or Odaimoku. But if we start out in a rush, in a hurry, or with mixed objectives then it will be more difficult if not impossible to move to a more deliberate, contemplative practice that allows us to nurture and absorb the benefit of the Lotus Sutra.

I am a firm believer in chanting slowly and deliberately, which invites the pronunciation of the whole collection of seven characters Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo. Namu is not an appended sound but a condition of our being. So with the mindfulness and deliberative intent of opening myself, emptying myself, and absorbing, I try to take care of how I pronounce and view not just Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo but also Na Mu. I do not believe we can genuinely and authentically say we “believe” in or “revere,” or “respect” something that we are going to rush through. If I think about being in the presence of someone I respect and admire and wish to learn from, I am not in a rush. I am not looking at my watch. I am not counting the words they say. Instead, I am cherishing each moment, wishing them to linger longer even.

On to which way is correct: Is it Nam, or Namu? First Namu is two characters, so technically there is no such word or character as nam. There is either na or namu. I won’t go into great length here to talk about some of the characteristics of spoken Japanese except to say that frequently a final vowel sound such as ‘u’ is unvoiced. I say unvoiced because Japanese speakers are adamant that the sound still exists. So, though we do not hear it, to them it doesn’t go away. It still remains. From that perspective, no matter how you end up saying it, it still remains Namu. And that is how we should hold it in our minds as well. We should never let go of the whole word Namu, regardless whether we voice the entire word or not.

An ongoing topic of discussion among some folks concerns how to chant the Odaimoku. Is it Nam or Namu that precedes Myoho Renge Kyo? First, it is important to understand something about Namu as Namaste from which it derives. Namu is actually two characters in Chinese consisting of Na and Mu. This Namu is not a prefix to Myoho Renge Kyo, which is the full title to the Lotus Sutra. It is not merely an appending of one word, Namaste, to the other words of the title. Instead, it is a relational marker, which ties us, and our invocation of the title, to the contents of the Lotus Sutra. As such, it is important, regardless of how we say it, to be mindful of the implication of its use in the Odaimoku we recite. … [W]e open our self up in greeting, we empty our self in respect, and we fill our self up with devotion. I am not sure you will necessarily see this exactly the same way as I do, that is fair. I do think though that this is an important issue when one thinks about Namu.

The practice of chanting the Odaimoku was not intended to completely replace either the study of the sutra or the reading of the sutra, though it could replace the practice of reciting each of the twenty-eight chapters as a practice. In one of his letters to a believer he said it was permissible to replace the practice of reciting a chapter a day for twenty-eight days with the single practice of chanting the Odaimoku. It is important to note that he did not say it was wrong to chant the twenty-eight chapters, in fact in Nichiren Shu temples the entire Lotus Sutra is chanted on various cycles of twenty-eight days or in some cases fewer.

Nichiren promoted the single seven-character phrase of Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo as a way of reading, reciting, and keeping the Lotus Sutra. This single phrase is easy to memorize and easy to chant. Nichiren, however, did not invent this phrase, since it had been used before, primarily as a deathbed practice. What Nichiren did that was unique was to advocate it as a universal practice and as a single abbreviated way to practice the Lotus Sutra, accessible to anyone at any time.

So what are the practices of the Lotus Sutra? They are to keep, read, recite, expound, and copy the sutra. …

Keeping the sutra means to embrace it, to hold it in ones heart and then to manifest it in the actions of our lives. Embracing or keeping is not merely being knowledgeable and then acting contrary to the heart of the sutra, which is the equality of Buddha in all things. Reading means that we study the sutra constantly so that we deepen our faith and ability to keep the sutra. Reciting the sutra is the reading aloud or chanting of the sutra, and we do this when we perform our daily prayers. … To expound the sutra is to teach others about the Lotus Sutra, and expounding is done in two ways and they are most effective when they are in alignment, which is through our words and through our actions. Finally the last of the five practices is to copy the sutra. Copying the sutra allows it to be available to others so they can read of the great teaching contained within.