Chanting Growers Group (2013-∞)

[Weird]

Much Peace and love to all of my old and new friends here during this holiday season...

As the years pass its always good to reconnect with old friends with similar bad habits.

Good Growin in 2016 to everyone

I anguished my pot use for years, and if we look at some of the original Buddhist (many others as well) doctrine intoxication is undesirable.

For me it became a matter of poison to medicine, that is it helped my mind go from a poisonous state and perspective to one that was positive and healing.

Took a long time but the causation brought me to want to understand Nichiren Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra. So based on causation I no longer anguish my own use. How others are effected may not mirror my reaction so I am not suggesting this dynamic hold true for everyone but rather that if whatever we are doing is bringing us closer to vehicles of enlightenment perhaps we should consider that consequence and its part in the total equation.

I think judgment and comparison of one's self to anyone but one's self is where the those concepts takes us from constructively critical to damnation.

Hope this doesn't come off critical I just felt the stigma of being growers might be a misplaced notion of society, not of the underlying causation and thus our shared reality.

Nam Myoho Rengo Kyo nice to see you here

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[Weird]

If the spirit of many in body but one in mind prevails among the people, they will achieve all their goals, whereas if one in body but different in mind, they can achieve nothing remarkable.

For more on this passage ---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/71

 

[_tessarecting]

Not all Buddhists are against psychoactive substances. Its all about the sect. Some have a LONG history of use. There is one particular in Tibet I was reading an anthropologists work about..these guys have pipes with five bowls. The main one is for cannabis. Then they put opium, tobacco, datura, and oleander in the other 4...and smoke them at the same time!

Zen is 100% compatible with the mindful psychonaut.

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[Weird]

The Embankments of Faith

IN your letter you asked how the retribution varies according to the degree of slander against the correct teaching. To begin with, the Lotus Sutra was taught to lead all living beings to the Buddha way. Only those who have faith in it, however, attain Buddhahood. Those who slander it fall into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering. As the sutra states, “If a person fails to have faith but instead slanders this sutra, immediately he will destroy all the seeds for becoming a Buddha in this world. . . . When his life comes to an end he will enter the Avīchi hell.”1

There are many degrees of slander: shallow and profound, slight and heavy. Even among those who embrace the Lotus Sutra, very few uphold it steadfastly both in mind and in deed. Few are the practitioners who are able to uphold this sutra. But those who do will not suffer serious retribution even if they have committed minor offenses against the sutra. Their strong faith expiates their offenses as surely as a flood extinguishes tiny fires.

For more on this passage ---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/74

 

[easyDaimoku]

Much Peace and love to all of my old and new friends here during this holiday season...

As the years pass its always good to reconnect with old friends with similar bad habits.

Good Growin in 2016 to everyone

SP!! Ayyyyy good af to see you post! Shout out to SocalHippy, Scegy, the Babba clan, Desi, Bonz, GIS, Trichy, Gypsy, DG, and all the friends who havent really posted much in 2015. Shout out to PTD and George for making youtube videos for us to further study together and spread this amazing teaching.

Thank you to Chris and Weird on the Chanting Growers Collaboration! Yo it was righteous, I met Weird a few years ago before he began to practice and reading his personal explanation of the practice was pretty cool. Everyone does there own thing, and the old thread- plus this one helps anyone gain their our point of view on the topic of chanting and growing in every regard.

I just finished my MBA (master in business administration) summa cum laude with a 3.97 GPA!!!!! My story began with zero college credits in the last thread...

Keep making all your dreams come true before the end of today and this year! Let's run together to a glorious end and magnificent start to this year and the next!!!!!

P.S. Please continue to Chant for everyone's happiness!! We're surviving and advancing at the same time, thank you for all your prayers they've been working overtime!

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[Babbabud]

Happy Birthday to my brother Thomas !!!
Hope all things are great with the family and everyone has enjoyed some well spent time together !!
Nam myoho renge kyo !!!

 

[Weird]

But to return to your question. As I said before, though no chapter of the Lotus Sutra is negligible, among the entire twenty-eight chapters, the “Expedient Means” chapter and the “Life Span” chapter are particularly outstanding. The remaining chapters are all in a sense the branches and leaves of these two chapters. Therefore, for your regular recitation, I recommend that you practice reading the prose sections of the “Expedient Means” and “Life Span” chapters. In addition, it might be well if you wrote out separate copies of these sections. The remaining twenty-six chapters are like the shadow that follows one’s body or the value inherent in a jewel. If you recite the “Life Span” and “Expedient Means” chapters, then the remaining chapters will naturally be included even though you do not recite them. It is true that the “Medicine King” and “Devadatta” chapters9 deal specifically with women’s attainment of Buddhahood or rebirth in the pure land. But the “Devadatta” chapter is a branch and leaf of the “Expedient Means” chapter, and the “Medicine King” chapter is a branch and leaf of the “Expedient Means” and the “Life Span” chapters.10 Therefore, you should regularly recite these two chapters, the “Expedient Means” and “Life Span” chapters. As for the remaining chapters, you may turn to them from time to time when you have a moment of leisure

For more on this passage ----> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/9

Expedient means chapter ----> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/2

The lifespan chapter -----> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/16

The Entire Lotus Sutra -----> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/toc/

 

[Weird]

The heroes of the world are unfathomable.

Among heavenly beings or the people of the world,

among all living beings,

none can understand the buddhas.

The buddhas’ power, fearlessness,

emancipation, and samadhis

and the buddhas’ other attributes

no one can reckon or fathom.

Earlier, under the guidance of countless buddhas

I fully acquired and practiced various ways,

profound, subtle, and wonderful doctrines

that are hard to see and hard to understand.

Having practiced these ways for immeasurable millions of kalpas,

in the place of enlightenment I achieved the goal.

I have already come to see and know completely

the meainig of this great effect,

the various natures and appearances.

I and the buddhas of the ten directions

can now understand these things.

p.58This Law cannot be described,

words fall silent before it.

Among the other kinds of living beings

there are none who can comprehend it,

except the many bodhisattvas

who are firm in the power of faith.

The many disciples of the buddhas

in the past have given offerings to the buddhas,

have already cut off all outflows

and now are dwelling in their last incarnations.

But even such persons as they

have not the power needed.

Even if the whole world

were filled with men like Shariputra,

though they exhausted their thoughts and pooled their capacities,

they could not fathom the buddha wisdom.

Even if the ten directions

were all filled with men like Shariputra

or like the other disciples,

though they filled the lands in the ten directions

and exhausted their thoughts and pooled their capacities,

still they could not understand it.

If pratyekabuddhas, acute in understanding,

without outflows, in their last incarnations,

should fill the worlds in the ten directions,

as numerous as bamboos in a grove,

though they should join together with one mind

for a million or for countless kalpas,

hoping to conceive of the Buddha’s true wisdom,

they could not understand the smallest part of it.

If bodhisattvas newly embarked on their course

should give offerings to numberless buddhas,

completely mastering the intent of the various doctrines

and also able to preach them effectively,

like so many rice and hemp plants, bamboos or reeds,

filling the lands in the ten directions,

p.59with a single mind, with their wonderful wisdom,

for kalpas numerous as Ganges sands

should all together pool their thoughts and capacities,

they could not understand the buddha wisdom.

If bodhisattvas who never regress,

their number like Ganges sands,

with a single mind should join in pondering and seeking,

they could not understand it either.

I also announce to you, Shariputra,

that this profound, subtle, and wonderful Law

without outflows, incomprehensible,

I have now attained in full.

Only I understand its characteristics,

and the buddhas of the ten directions do likewise.

Shariputra, you should know

that the words of the various buddhas never differ.

Toward the Law preached by the buddhas

you must cultivate a great power of faith.

The world-honored one has long expounded his doctrines

and now must reveal the truth.

I announce this to the assembly of voice-hearers

and to those who seek the vehicle of the cause-awakened one:

I have enabled people to escape the bonds of suffering

and to attain nirvana.

The Buddha, through the power of expedient means,

has shown them the teachings of the three vehicles,

prying living beings loose from this or that attachment

and allowing them to attain release.

Expedient means chapter ----> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/2

 

[Weird]

How foreign would these concepts be to me if it were not for this thread?

 

[Weird]

Shariputra, you should know

that at the start I took a vow,

hoping to make all persons

equal to me, without any distinction between us,

and what I long ago hoped for

has now been fulfilled.

I have converted all living beings

and caused them all to enter the Buddha way.

For more on this passage ---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/2

 

[Weird]

But those who practice meritorious ways,

who are gentle, peaceful, honest, and upright,

all of them will see me

here in person, preaching the Law.

-

 

[Babbabud]

Happy New Years Everyone !!!
Nam myoho renge kyo !!!

 

[Weird]

Thus faith is the basic requirement for entering the way of the Buddha. In the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, the first ten stages, dealing with faith, are basic, and the first of these ten stages is that of arousing pure faith. Though lacking in knowledge of Buddhism, a person of faith, even if dull-witted, is to be reckoned as a person of correct views. But even though one has some knowledge of Buddhism, if one is without faith, then one is to be p.142considered a slanderer and an icchantika, or person of incorrigible disbelief.

For more on this passage ---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/14

 

[Weird]

On the Treasure Tower


I HAVE read your letter with great care. I have also received your offering to the treasure tower of one thousand coins, polished rice, and other articles. This I have respectfully reported to the Gohonzon and to the Lotus Sutra. Please rest assured.

In your letter you ask, “What is signified by the Thus Come One Many Treasures and his treasure tower, which appeared from beneath the earth?” The teaching on the treasure tower is of great importance. In the eighth volume of his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai explains the appearance of the treasure tower. He states that it has two distinct functions: to lend credence to the preceding chapters and to pave the way for the revelation to come. Thus the treasure tower appeared in order to verify the theoretical teaching and to introduce the essential teaching. To put it another way, the closed tower symbolizes the theoretical teaching, and the open tower, the essential teaching. The open tower reveals the two elements of reality and wisdom.1 This is extremely complex, however, so I will not go into further detail now.

In essence, the appearance of the treasure tower indicates that on hearing the Lotus Sutra the three groups of voice-hearers perceived for the first time the treasure tower within their own lives. Now Nichiren’s disciples and lay supporters are also doing this. In the Latter Day of the Law, no treasure tower exists other than the figures of the men and women who embrace the Lotus Sutra. It follows, therefore, that whether eminent or humble, high or low, those who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo are themselves the treasure tower, and, likewise, are themselves the Thus Come One Many Treasures. No treasure tower exists other than Myoho-renge-kyo. The daimoku of the Lotus Sutra is the treasure tower, and the treasure tower is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

---> http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/31

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo