I don’t normally attend the Myosho-ji services when there is a local service, but being the first from Ryusho Shonin‘s new home in Syracuse, N.Y., I felt compelled. Why not.
This post is prompted by yesterday’s reading from The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra.
Suppose a man rejoices at hearing this sutra
Or at hearing even a gatha of it
In a congregation,
And expounds it to a second person.The second person expounds it to a third person.
In this way it is heard by a fiftieth person.
Now I will tell you of the merits
Of the fiftieth person. …The merits of the [fiftieth] person
[Who hears this sutra] are immeasurable.
Needless to say, so are the merits of the first person
Who rejoices at hearing it in the congregation.
In all of the time I was a member of Nichiren Shoshu and, after the split, Soka Gakkai, I never was comfortable expounding my Buddhist beliefs. That all changed when I came to Nichiren Shu and began my study of the Lotus Sutra. I’m both the 50th person and the first.
Today I had an email exchange with a man who asked, “What is the eternal Buddha?”
I suggested reading Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, but the guy said he had read that and needed it broken down in layman’s terms. So I offered this:
Are you familiar with the three bodies of the Buddha? In the Lotus Sutra Sakyamuni represents all three, not just the historical Buddha who lived 3000 or so years ago. All other Buddhas are emanations of the eternal Buddha (as explained in Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures). For Nichiren Buddhists the eternal Sakyamuni Buddha and the Bodhisattvas he has been teaching since the remotest past (see Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground) are the focus of devotion. Nichiren Buddhists believe that each person has an inherent Buddha nature (and all of the other 9 natures or worlds from hell to Bodhisattva) at any given moment. (See http://fraughtwithperil.com/ryuei/2010/06/18/chapter-10-ichinen-sanzen/)
All of this is gathered together and enclosed within the title of the sutra, Myoho-Renge-Kyo. Chanting devotion to the sutra – Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo – is the principle practice for this age and allows the individual to awaken this Buddha nature.
The question of how to describe Nichiren Buddhism is something I’ve been puzzling over recently. It was after I sent this email that I did evening gonyo and read today’s section from the Lotus Sutra, the conclusion of The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.
He will be able to expound the Dharma
With tens of millions of skillful words
Because he keeps
The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Maybe not yet, but in time, yes.