Chanting Growers Group (2013-∞)

[PassTheDoobie]

“Second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda said: 'Painful times are but an instant when viewed from the perspective of the eternity of life. Just keep doing your best right to the end. You’re sure to see positive results.’ Nothing can match the power of prayer and efforts based on the spirit of oneness of mentor and disciple.

“Nichiren Daishonin writes: “Each of you should summon up the courage of a lion king and never succumb to threats from anyone” (WND-1, 997).

SGI Newsletter No. 9377, Creating the New Era, (9) Today Again, Let’s Strive on the Front Lines of Our Mission, from 20th March, 2016, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, translation released 25th March, 2016

 

[PassTheDoobie]

“Misfortune comes from one’s mouth and ruins one, but fortune comes from one's heart and makes one worthy of respect."

(New Year’s Gosho - WND, Vol. 1, page 1137)

 

[PassTheDoobie]

“When one comes to realise and see that each thing—the cherry, the plum, the peach, the damson—in its own entity, without undergoing any change, possesses the eternally endowed three bodies, then this is what is meant by the word ryō, ‘to include’ or all-inclusive.”

(The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, Six important points, “Point Two, concerning the character ryō” -The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, page 200)

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

On the other hand, not even the wisdom of the Buddha can fathom the blessings that one will obtain by giving alms to Nichiren and by becoming his disciple and lay supporter. The sutra reads, “[The benefits he gains thereby p.385will be such that] even the Buddha wisdom could never finish calculating their extent.”9

Nichiren alone took the lead in carrying out the task of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. He may even be one of them. If Nichiren is to be counted among the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, then so must his disciples and lay supporters. The sutra states: “If one [of these good men or good women in the time after I have passed into extinction] is able to secretly expound the Lotus Sutra to one person, even one phrase of it, then you should know that he or she is the envoy of the Thus Come One. He has been dispatched by the Thus Come One and carries out the Thus Come One’s work.”10 Who else but us can this possibly refer to?

---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/40

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

The important point is to carry out your practice confident that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo alone is the heritage that was transferred from Shakyamuni and Many Treasures to Bodhisattva Superior Practices.

p.218The function of fire is to burn and give light. The function of water is to wash away filth. The winds blow away dust and breathe life into plants, animals, and human beings. The earth produces the grasses and trees, and heaven provides nourishing moisture. The five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo are also like that. They are the cluster of blessings brought by the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, disciples of the Buddha in his true identity. The Lotus Sutra says that Bodhisattva Superior Practices will appear now, in the Latter Day of the Law, to propagate this teaching, but has this happened? Whether or not Bodhisattva Superior Practices has appeared in this world, Nichiren has already made a start in propagating this teaching.

Be resolved to summon forth the great power of faith, and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with the prayer that your faith will be steadfast and correct at the moment of death. Never seek any other way to inherit the ultimate Law of life and death, and manifest it in your life. Only then will you realize that earthly desires are enlightenment, and that the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. Even embracing the Lotus Sutra would be useless without the heritage of faith.

---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/29

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

Thus the Former Day of the Law possessed all three: teaching, practice, and proof, whereas in the Middle Day of the Law, there were teaching and practice but no longer any proof. Now in the Latter Day of the Law, only the teaching remains; there is neither practice nor proof. There is no longer a single person who has formed a relationship with Shakyamuni Buddha. Those who possessed the capacity to gain enlightenment through either the provisional or true Mahayana sutras have long since disappeared. In this impure and evil age, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo of the “Life Span” chapter, the heart of the essential teaching, should be planted as the seeds of Buddhahood for the first time in the hearts of all those who commit the five cardinal sins and slander the correct teaching. This is what is indicated in the “Life Span” chapter where it states, “I will leave this good medicine here. You should take it and not worry that it will not cure you.”

---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/57

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

The same is true of the Lotus Sutra. It is a lantern in the dark or a boat at a crossing. At times it is water and, at times, fire. This being so, the Lotus Sutra assures us of “peace and security in our present existence and good circumstances in future existences.”3

---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/50

 

[PassTheDoobie]

three types of learning ［三学］ ( san-gaku): Also, three disciplines. Three disciplines that Buddhist practitioners seek to master: precepts (shīla), meditation (dhyāna), and wisdom (prajnā). These three are said to encompass all aspects of Buddhist doctrine and practice. Precepts are rules or disciplines intended to prevent error and put an end to evil in thought, word, and deed. Meditation is a practice designed to focus one’s mind and cause it to become tranquil. Wisdom rids one of illusions and enables one to realize the truth. See also meditation; prajnā; precepts.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Three Great Secret Laws ［三大秘法］ ( sandai-hihō): The core principles of Nichiren’s teaching. They are the object of devotion of the essential teaching, the daimoku of the essential teaching, and the sanctuary of the essential teaching. Here, “essential teaching” refers to the teaching of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and not to the essential teaching, or the latter fourteen chapters, of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren (1222–1282) established these three essential principles to enable people in the Latter Day of the Law to attain Buddhahood. They are called secret because they are implicit in the text of the “Life Span” (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra and remained hidden or unknown until Nichiren revealed them. Nichiren regarded them as the vital teaching that Shakyamuni Buddha transferred to Bodhisattva Superior Practices in the “Supernatural Powers” (twenty-first) chapter of the sutra. He regarded his mission as one with that of Bodhisattva Superior Practices.

The Three Great Secret Laws represent Nichiren’s embodiment of the Wonderful Law, to which he was enlightened, in a form that all people can practice and thereby gain access to that Law within their own lives. He associated the Three Great Secret Laws with the three types of learning set forth in Buddhism—precepts, meditation, and wisdom. Specifically, the object of devotion corresponds to meditation, the sanctuary to precepts, and the daimoku to wisdom. Concerning the three types of learning based on the Lotus Sutra, Dengyō (767–822), in his Questions and Answers on Regulations for Students of the Tendai Lotus School, states, “The spacelike immovable precept, the spacelike immovable meditation, and the spacelike immovable wisdom—these three all together are transmitted under the name ‘Wonderful Law.’” The three types of learning based on the Lotus Sutra are called “spacelike” and “immovable” because they are eternal and indestructible. Nikkō, Nichiren’s successor, stated that in Nichiren’s teachings the object of devotion corresponds to the spacelike immovable meditation, the sanctuary to the spacelike immovable precept, and the daimoku to the spacelike immovable wisdom.

Nichiren mentions the Three Great Secret Laws in several of his writings (all dated after his near execution at Tatsunokuchi and subsequent exile to Sado Island in 1271), and in a work known as On the Three Great Secret Laws, he offers a detailed definition.

At the core of the Three Great Secret Laws is the object of devotion of the essential teaching, or Nichiren’s embodiment in the form of a mandala of the eternal Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which he fully realized and manifested in his life. He writes in The Person and the Law, “Deep in this mortal flesh I preserve the ultimate secret Law inherited from Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, at Eagle Peak” (1097). Because embracing this object of devotion called the Gohonzon is the only precept in Nichiren’s teaching, the place where it is enshrined corresponds to the place where one vows to observe the Buddhist precepts—the ordination platform, or sanctuary, of the essential teaching. The term precept in Buddhism implies preventing error and putting an end to evil. The daimoku of the essential teaching indicates the invocation or chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with faith in the object of devotion; it includes chanting the daimoku for oneself and teaching it to others. Thus, both the sanctuary and the daimoku derive from the object of devotion. Together the Three Great Secret Laws give one the access to Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the ultimate Law of life and the universe.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

So the One Great Secret Law is the The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind Established in the Fifth Five-Hundred-Year Period after the Thus Come One’s Passing, also known as Gohonzon. It establishes the basis for the Three Great Secret Laws, which satisfy the requirements of the three types of learning required to attain Buddhahood in one's present form. To be of the same mind as Nichiren means to have faith in his teachings.

Even though the Buddhism of the Harvest historically precedes the teaching of the Buddhism of the Sowing, the source of that teaching is the Original Law taught by the Original Teacher. If Shakyamuni were the original teacher, his Buddhism of the Harvest would be based on Kuon Ganjo and not "Numberless Major World System Dust Particle Kalpas." The Original Teacher is the Nam-myoho-renge-kyo Thus Come One and the Original Law is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Sowing precedes Harvest regardless of sequence of revelation. And revelation must also also provide consistency from beginning to end. That is why the Buddhism of the Sowing is the only teaching appropriate for the Latter Day of the Law, and the Buddhism of the Harvest is appropriate for those whose relationship is with their teacher Shakyamuni.

Since in truth the Buddhism of the Harvest only leads one to the truth of the Buddhism of the Sowing, the Buddhism of the Harvest is ultimately an EXPEDIENT MEANS. But to be clear, the Buddhism of the Harvest is based on the Buddhism of the Sowing--the original teaching by the original teacher that is basis of the enlightenment of ALL Buddhas throughout the three existences of past present and future. It isn't the other way around (although one may think it is, based on it being historically revealed first).

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Gohonzon ［御本尊］ (): The object of devotion. The word go is an honorific prefix, and honzon means object of fundamental respect or devotion. In Nichiren’s (1222–1282) teaching, the object of devotion has two aspects: the object of devotion in terms of the Law and the object of devotion in terms of the Person. These may be described as follows: (1) The object of devotion in terms of the Law: Nichiren’s mandala that embodies the eternal and intrinsic Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. That Law is the source of all Buddhas and the seed of Buddhahood for all people. In other words, Nichiren identified Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as the ultimate Law permeating life and the universe, and embodied it in the form of a mandala. In his Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion, Nichiren refers to the object of devotion for people in the Latter Day of the Law as “the title (daimoku) of the Lotus Sutra.” He further describes the title as the essence of the Lotus Sutra, or Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to be found only in the depths of the “Life Span” (sixteenth) chapter of the sutra. The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind reads, “Myoho-renge-kyo appears in the center of the [treasure] tower with the Buddhas Shakyamuni and Many Treasures seated to the right and left, and, flanking them, the four bodhisattvas, followers of Shakyamuni, led by Superior Practices. Manjushrī, Maitreya, and the other bodhisattvas, who are followers of the four bodhisattvas, are seated below” (WND/pg. 366). In this passage, Nichiren clarifies the relationship between the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the Buddhas Shakyamuni and Many Treasures, and the various bodhisattvas depicted on the Gohonzon. In this way he emphasizes Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as the fundamental object of devotion. The Real Aspect of the Gohonzon explains that all living beings of the Ten Worlds “display the dignified attributes that they inherently possess” (WND/pg. 832) through the benefit of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. The object of devotion in terms of the Law is explained in greater detail in Nichiren’s writings such as The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind and The Real Aspect of the Gohonzon.

(2) The object of devotion in terms of the Person: In his Reply to Kyō’ō, Nichiren writes, “I, Nichiren, have inscribed my life in sumi ink, so believe in the Gohonzon with your whole heart. The Buddha’s will is the Lotus Sutra, but the soul of Nichiren is nothing other than Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (WND/pg. 412). Nichiren here expresses his realization that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the origin and basis of his life, which he embodied in sumi ink in the form of the mandala he calls the Gohonzon. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says, “The object of devotion is thus the entity of the entire body of the votary of the Lotus Sutra.” “The votary” here refers to Nichiren. It also says, “The Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law is an ordinary person and an ordinary priest.” “An ordinary priest” here refers to Nichiren. Because Nichiren revealed and spread Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is manifest as the Person and the Law, he is regarded by his disciple and successor Nikkō and his followers as the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law. Nichiren himself writes in The Opening of the Eyes: “On the twelfth day of the ninth month of last year [1271], between the hours of the rat and the ox [11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.], this person named Nichiren was beheaded. It is his soul that has come to this island of Sado and, in the second month of the following year, snowbound, is writing this to send to his close disciples” (WND/pg. 269). He states that he “was beheaded,” though actually he survived the execution at Tatsunokuchi, implying that the ordinary person Nichiren ceased to exist. In this context, the passage “It is his soul that has come to this island of Sado [his place of exile] “ means that Nichiren described himself as having revealed a deeper, true identity in the course of his attempted execution. Again Nikkō and his followers equate that identity with the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law.

(3) The oneness of the Person and the Law: This means that the object of devotion in terms of the Person and the object of devotion in terms of the Law are one in their essence. The Law is inseparable from the Person, and vice versa. The object of devotion in terms of the Law is the physical embodiment, as a mandala (the Gohonzon), of the eternal and intrinsic Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nichiren writes in his Reply to Kyō’ō “I, Nichiren, have inscribed my life in sumi ink, so believe in the Gohonzon with your whole heart” (WND pg. 412). This passage indicates that Nichiren embodied in the Gohonzon the state of life he enjoyed as the eternal Buddha who personified the Law, so that people could attain the same state of enlightenment. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings reads: “The ‘body that is freely received and used [also, the Buddha of limitless joy] ‘ is none other than the principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life. The Great Teacher Dengyō says: ‘A single moment of life comprising the three thousand realms is itself the “body that is freely received and used”; this Buddha has forsaken august appearances. The Buddha who has forsaken august appearances is the Buddha eternally endowed with the three bodies.’ Now Nichiren and his followers who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo are just this.” “The Buddha who has forsaken august appearances” means a Buddha who is no different from an ordinary person in form and appearance.

(4) The core of the Three Great Secret Laws: The Gohonzon, or the object of devotion of the essential teaching, is the core of the Three Great Secret Laws in Nichiren’s doctrine that represent the purpose of his life. The Three Great Secret Laws are the object of devotion of the essential teaching, the invocation, or daimoku, of the essential teaching, and the sanctuary of the essential teaching. Here, “essential teaching” refers to the teaching of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, not to the essential teaching (latter half) of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren expressed the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo he realized within his own life in these three forms, which correspond to the three types of learning in Buddhism—precepts, meditation, and wisdom. The object of devotion corresponds to meditation, the invocation to wisdom, and the sanctuary to precepts. Sanctuary is a translation of the Japanese word kaidan, which is also translated as “ordination platform.” This is a platform where practitioners vow to uphold the Buddhist precepts. In Nichiren’s teaching, to embrace the object of devotion is the only precept, and the place where one enshrines the object of devotion and chants the daimoku is called the sanctuary. Again to keep faith in the object of devotion and chant the daimoku while teaching others to chant it is called the invocation. Both the sanctuary and the invocation derive from the object of devotion. Hence the object of devotion is the core of all three.

(5) The inscriptions on the Gohonzon: In the center of the Gohonzon are written the Chinese characters “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo Nichiren.” On either side there are characters for the names of beings representing each of the Ten Worlds. At the top of the Gohonzon, the names of Shakyamuni Buddha and Many Treasures Buddha appear respectively to the immediate left and right (when facing the Gohonzon) of these central characters. They represent the realm or world of Buddhahood. The four bodhisattvas—Superior Practices, Boundless Practices, Pure Practices, and Firmly Established Practices—who lead the other Bodhisattvas of the Earth are positioned to the left and right of the two Buddhas. They, along with other bodhisattvas in the second row from the top such as Universal Worthy and Manjushrī, represent the realm of bodhisattvas. Also in the second row are persons of the two vehicles—voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones, such as Shāriputra and Mahākāshyapa—and flanking them are representatives of the realm of heavenly beings, such as Brahmā, Shakra, the devil king of the sixth heaven, and the gods of the sun and moon. In the third row appear a wheel-turning king, representing the realm of human beings; an asura king, representing the realm of asuras; a dragon king, representing the realm of animals; Mother of Demon Children and the ten demon daughters, representing the realm of hungry spirits; and Devadatta, representing the realm of hell. Moreover, the four heavenly kings are positioned in the four corners of the Gohonzon: (again, when facing the Gohonzon) Vaishravana in the upper left, Upholder of the Nation in the upper right, Wide-Eyed in the lower right, and Increase and Growth in the lower left. While all other figures on the Gohonzon are represented in Chinese characters, the names of the wisdom king Craving-Filled and the wisdom king Immovable are written below Vaishravana and Upholder of the Nation respectively in Siddham, a medieval Sanskrit script. Here the wisdom king Craving-Filled represents the principle that earthly desires are enlightenment, and the wisdom king Immovable, the principle that the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. Other characters on the Gohonzon include the names of Great Bodhisattva Hachiman and the Sun Goddess. All these names express the principles that the Ten Worlds exist within the eternal Buddha’s life, and that living beings of the Ten Worlds can attain Buddhahood. Not all of the above names appear on every Gohonzon, but whichever ones do appear represent all of the Ten Worlds.

The names of the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai and the Great Teacher Dengyō are inscribed in the lower part of the Gohonzon representing those who transmitted the true lineage of Buddhism. There are two inscriptions gleaned from Miao-lo’s Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra,” which Nichiren used to describe the power of the Gohonzon and the Law it embodies. One, placed in the upper right (facing the Gohonzon), reads, “Those who vex or trouble [the practitioners of the Law] will have their heads split into seven pieces.” The other, in the upper left, reads, “Those who give alms [to them] will enjoy good fortune surpassing the ten honorable titles.” The ten honorable titles are epithets applied to the Buddha expressing his virtue, wisdom, and compassion. In the lower right is Nichiren’s declaration that “This is the great mandala never before known in the entire land of Jambudvīpa in the more than 2,230 years since the Buddha’s passing.”

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

On Offering Prayers to the Mandala of the Mystic Law

Background

I HAVE offered prayers to the Gohonzon of Myoho-renge-kyo. Though this mandala has but five or seven characters, it is the teacher of all Buddhas throughout the three existences and the seal that guarantees the enlightenment of all women. It will be a lamp in the darkness of the road to the next world and a fine horse to carry you over the mountains of death. It is like the sun and moon in the heavens or Mount Sumeru on earth. It is a ship to ferry people over the sea of the sufferings of birth and death. It is the teacher who leads all people to Buddhahood and enlightenment. This great mandala has never yet been propagated anywhere in Jambudvīpa in the more than 2,220 years since the Buddha’s passing.

[The prescription of] medicine differs according to the illness. A slight ailment can be treated with ordinary medicine, but for grave illnesses, an elixir should be used. During the more than 2,220 years since the Buddha’s passing, the people’s illnesses of earthly desires and negative karma were not serious, and a succession of wise men appeared in order to act as physicians and dispense medicine appropriately as these illnesses required. These men came from the Dharma Analysis Treasury school, the Establishment of Truth school, the Precepts, Dharma Characteristics, and Three Treatises schools, as well as the True Word, Flower Garland, Tendai, Pure Land, and Zen schools. Each of these schools prescribed its own medicine. For example, the Flower Garland school set forth the principle of the six forms and the ten mysteries, the Three Treatises school advocated the middle path of the eight negations,1 the Dharma Characteristics school stressed the perception that all phenomena derive from consciousness only,2 the Precepts school upheld the two hundred and fifty precepts, the Pure Land school invoked the name of Amida Buddha, the Zen school expounded the “perceiving one’s true nature and attaining Buddhahood,” the True Word school propounded the meditation on the five elements,3 and the Tendai school taught the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life.

Now, however, we have entered the Latter Day of the Law, and the medicines of these various schools no longer cure the people’s illnesses. Moreover, all the Japanese have become icchantikas and people of grave slander. Their offense is even worse than that of killing one’s father or mother, fomenting a rebellion, or causing a Buddha to bleed. Japan is filled with individuals whose respective offenses exceed even those of one who were to gouge out the eyes p.415of all the human beings of a major world system, or raze all temples and pagodas in the worlds of the ten directions. Consequently, the heavenly deities glare down furiously upon our nation day after day while the earthly deities tremble in continual rage. Nevertheless, all the people of our day believe themselves to be without fault, and none doubt that they will be reborn in the pure land or attain Buddhahood.

The blind cannot see or know the shining sun, and someone who is sound asleep will not feel even an earthquake that is reverberating like a great drum. So too it is with all the people of Japan [who do not realize their own offenses]. The offenses committed by the men are heavier than those committed by the women. In like manner, the nuns’ offenses are heavier than the laymen’s and the priests’ more serious than the nuns’. Among the priests, the offenses of those who observe the precepts are worse than those of priests who violate them, and those of learned priests are graver still.4 Such priests are like those with white leprosy among lepers and, among those with white leprosy, the most malignant.

Then, what great physician or what efficacious medicine can cure the illnesses of all people in the Latter Day of the Law? They cannot be cured by the mudras and mantras of the Thus Come One Mahāvairochana, the forty-eight vows of the Thus Come One Amida, or the twelve great vows of the Thus Come One Medicine Master, not even his pledge to “heal all ills.” Not only do such medicines fail to cure these illnesses; they aggravate them all the more.

Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, brought together the Thus Come One Many Treasures and all the emanation Buddhas of the ten directions, and left one elixir—the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo—for the people of the Latter Day of the Law. He refused to entrust it to any of the bodhisattvas such as Dharma Wisdom, Forest of Merits, Vajrasattva, Universal Worthy, Manjushrī, Medicine King, and Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, let alone to Mahākāshyapa, Shāriputra, [or any other person of the two vehicles]. Rather, there were four great bodhisattvas, including Superior Practices, who had been disciples of the Thus Come One Shakyamuni since [he first attained Buddhahood] numberless major world system dust particle kalpas ago. Not even for a moment had they ever forgotten the Buddha. Shakyamuni summoned these great bodhisattvas and transferred Myoho-renge-kyo to them.

A woman who takes this efficacious medicine will be surrounded and protected by these four great bodhisattvas at all times. When she rises to her feet, so too will the bodhisattvas, and when she walks along the road, they will also do the same. She and they will be as inseparable as a body and its shadow, as fish and water, as a voice and its echo, or as the moon and its light. Should these four great bodhisattvas desert the woman who chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, they would incur the wrath of Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the emanation Buddhas of the ten directions. You may be certain that their offense would be greater than even that of Devadatta, their falsehood more terrible than Kokālika’s. How reassuring, how encouraging! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Nichiren

---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/46

 

[TrichyTrichy]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Smiling from ear to ear,thankful for the blessings that have revealed their light and thankful for the blessings we've not yet realized

borrowing this from my brother who just posted:

Three Great Secret Laws ［三大秘法］ ( sandai-hihō): The core principles of Nichiren’s teaching. They are the object of devotion of the essential teaching, the daimoku of the essential teaching, and the sanctuary of the essential teaching. Here, “essential teaching” refers to the teaching of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and not to the essential teaching, or the latter fourteen chapters, of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren (1222–1282) established these three essential principles to enable people in the Latter Day of the Law to attain Buddhahood. They are called secret because they are implicit in the text of the “Life Span” (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra and remained hidden or unknown until Nichiren revealed them. Nichiren regarded them as the vital teaching that Shakyamuni Buddha transferred to Bodhisattva Superior Practices in the “Supernatural Powers” (twenty-first) chapter of the sutra. He regarded his mission as one with that of Bodhisattva Superior Practices.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!