Chanting Growers Group

[MrNiceHigh]

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.


When I was a little younger I painted these words on a narrow canvas. It hangs in my room to this day and I will never forget these words. I believe that it was the Venerable Atisha that set these words into motion.
My mother is a practicing raiki master as well as a woman with strong buddhist beliefs. My own beliefs take root in not only buddhism but also christianity and native american spiritual religions.

I hope this was relevant, I just thought I'd share.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo,
a wonderful law indeed.
-MrNiceHigh

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Some external reasons why we need to chant and do kosenrufu

Some external reasons why we need to chant and do kosenrufu

Extract from; Custodians of Chaos Kurt Vonnegut

Custodians of Chaos

In this exclusive extract from his forthcoming memoirs, Kurt Vonnegut is horrified by the hypocrisy in contemporary US politics
Saturday January 21, 2006

Guardian
"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you."
A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, five hundred years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ.

The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one.

We've sure come a long way since then. Sometimes I wish we hadn't. I hate H-bombs and the Jerry Springer Show

But back to people like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, each of whom have said in their own way how we could behave more humanely and maybe make the world a less painful place. One of my favourite
humans is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native state of Indiana.

Get a load of this. Eugene Debs, who died back in 1926, when I was not yet four, ran five times as the Socialist party candidate for president, winning
900,000 votes, almost 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a ballot. He had this to say while campaigning:
"As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.
"As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it.
"As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

When you get out of bed each morning, with the roosters crowing, wouldn't you like to say. "As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as
there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

How about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly George W Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

"Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

It so happens that idealism enough for anyone is not made of perfumed pink clouds. It is the law! It is the US Constitution.

But I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers.
Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened instead is that it was taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup
d'état imaginable.

I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: "C-Students from Yale".

George W Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. The classic medical
text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr Hervey Cleckley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia, published in 1941. Read it!

Some people are born deaf, some are born blind or whatever, and this book is about congenitally defective human beings of a sort that is making this whole country and many other parts of the planet go completely haywire nowadays. These were people born without consciences, and suddenly they are taking
charge of everything.

PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and
WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And they are waging a war that is making billionaires out of millionaires, and trillionaires out of billionaires, and they own television, and they bankroll George Bush, and not because he's against gay marriage.

So many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.

They might have felt that taking our country into an endless war was simply something decisive to do. What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in
corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin' day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal
people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they don't give a fuck what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilise the reserves! Privatise the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: only nut cases want to be president. This was
true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people ran for class president.

The title of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury's great science-fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. Four hundred and fifty-one degrees Fahrenheit is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury's novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.

While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, who, all over this country, have staunchly
resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And still on the subject of books: our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books do we learn what's really going on.

I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published in early 2004, that humiliating, shameful, blood-soaked year.

In case you haven't noticed, as the result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African-Americans were arbitrarily
disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war-lovers with appallingly powerful weaponry - whostand unopposed.

In case you haven't noticed, we are now as feared and hated all over the world as Nazis once were.

And with good reason.

In case you haven't noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanised millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound 'em and kill 'em and torture 'em and imprison 'em all we want.

Piece of cake.

In case you haven't noticed, we also dehumanised our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.

Send 'em anywhere. Make 'em do anything.

Piece of cake.

The O'Reilly Factor.

So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and a Chicago paper called In These Times.

Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed there were weapons of mass destruction there.

Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn't even seen the first world war. War is now a
form of TV entertainment, and what made the first world war so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun.


Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don't you wish you could have something named after you?

Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now give up on people, too. I am a veteran of the second world war and I have to say this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.

My last words? "Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse."

Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler. What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons
without consciences, without senses of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations, and made it all theirown?

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Kosen-rufu: Literally, to "widely declare and spread (Buddhism)." To secure lasting peace and happiness for all humankind through the propagation of true Buddhism.

http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Buddhism/defn.htm#K

 

[br26]

really?

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Really!

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"How gratifying! You have associated with a friend in the orchid room and have become as straight as mugwort growing among hemp.'"

*"A friend in the orchid room" indicates a person of virtue. The implication is that the company of a virtuous person works as a good influence, just as one is imbued with fragrance on entering a room filled with orchids. It is said that mugwort supported by hemp plants grows upright.

(On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 23) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, February 8th, 2006

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Gratifying, Indeed!

 

[Guest]

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

the sgi links are very helpful in addition to rereading former posts.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

 

[Guest]

Our inner life-condition changes constantly as we come into contact with different external stimuli, everything around us--people, the weather, a piece of music, the color of the walls--creates some kind of influence on us. A painting can cause the viewer to feel enraptured, calm or disgusted, and a letter can either cause joy or shock and dismay. In order to bring out our highest potential condition of life, our Buddhahood, we also need a stimulus. Nichiren's enlightenment to the law of life enabled him to create a stimulus that would be able to activate the life-condition of Buddhahood within us.

[Note: One can still chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and experience benefit if one is not near, or unable to see a Gohonzon. The most essential element in Nichiren's practice for drawing forth one's Buddhahood, is the strength of one's faith]


from sgi.org

(smiles from ear to ear) {note to self aquire a Gohozon}

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death you have endured since time without beginning and to attain without fail unsurpassed enlightenment in this lifetime, you must perceive the mystic truth that is originally inherent in all living beings. This truth is Myoho-renge-kyo. Chanting Myoho-renge-kyo will therefore enable you to grasp the mystic truth innate in all life.'"

(On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 3) Selection source: SGI President Ikeda's lecture on "On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Seikyo Shimbun, February 9th, 2006

 

[Guest]

Just dedicating a portion of ethreal time, to devoting yourself to a truly personal truth...

Always adknowledging respectfully the seen and unseen,

Remaining pure within external corruption,

brings you into finding oneself intune with the Mystical Continuum.

Your reality is not what it seems until you scratch the surface of

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!



*Special thanks to all*

 

[PassTheDoobie]

easydisco, you delight my ears, my mind, and my heart!

easydisco, you delight my ears, my mind, and my heart!

Thank you! I think you must be one of us! This gosho is for you! Please read it!

http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Nichiren/wnd/concord/pages.view/783.html

If you have any questions to the terms being used, for this and all other gosho, you can always turn to the Buddhist dictionary in the "library" at www.sgi-usa.org :

(the dictionary)

http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/dictionary/browse

peace,

Thomas

 

[Babbabud]

The Gohonzon and our practice

The Gohonzon and our practice

Just thought I would post up something that took me a while to figure out as I was first starting to find my way from taoism to Nichiren Daishonins Buddhism. Just thought I would post up so it is a bit clearer just how our practice works. It really quite simple but takes a bit of discipline. Each morning and evening we sit in front of the Gohonzon and chant nam myoho renge kyo and then recite a part of the Lotus Sutra. Here is a link that will let you listen to a mp3 of the sections of the Lotus Sutra that we recite. Its part way down the page and is labled "Section A Hoben Chapter" and the the second part is Section B the Juryo Chapter".
Ok so I was a bit slow figuring out exactly how the practice worked so i thought I would just post it up just so we are all aware of just how simple it is to work out your karma. We are so fortunate to have met here in the Later Day and so fortunate to be able to chant nam myoho renge kyo. So awesome that our paths should cross.

If you let your desire to recieve a Gohonzon be known before you know it you will have a one. A good place to start is in the phone book by looking up Soka Gakkai International. Another way is for one of our older members to put you in touch with an old friend or acquantance that may possibly live close by and be practicing. Most all areas of population have a local chapter and the ppl are never judgmental and normally turn out to be great and encouraging friends .

Ok so heres the link to the mp3's http://www.sgi-usa.org/thesgiusa/downloads/index.html
nam myoho renge kyo

http://www.sgi-usa.org/thesgiusa/downloads/index.html
Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[PassTheDoobie]

I want to also send my love out to my Brothers, SoCal, Babbabud, and BOG, who are in my thoughts constantly. I am most greatful, because without them, we might not still be here. We all have each other, and I am also deeply greatful for all of those of you speaking out in behalf of the Law! My deepest respect to all of you! Thank you!

Let us all pray for each other's protection from the Devil of the Sixth Heaven's influence. When we defeat our own Fudamental Darkness, we will have achieved the freedom of Buddhahood. Beware of the efforts of the Devil of the Sixth Heaven. WE are all our most cunning adversaries! The Devil of the Sixth Heaven is nothing other than our own Fundamental Darkness! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

devil king of the sixth heaven
[第六天の魔王] (Jpn.: dairokuten-no-mao)

Also, devil king or heavenly devil. The king of devils, who dwells in the highest or the sixth heaven of the world of desire. He is also named Freely Enjoying Things Conjured by Others, the king who makes free use of the fruits of others' efforts for his own pleasure. Served by innumerable minions, he obstructs Buddhist practice and delights in sapping the life force of other beings. One of the four devils.

fundamental darkness
[元品の無明] (Jpn.: gampon-no-mumyo)

Also, fundamental ignorance or primal ignorance. The most deeply rooted illusion inherent in life, said to give rise to all other illusions. Darkness in this sense means inability to see or recognize the truth, particularly, the true nature of one's life. The term fundamental darkness is contrasted with the fundamental nature of enlightenment, which is the Buddha nature inherent in life. According to the Shrimala Sutra, fundamental darkness is the most difficult illusion to surmount and can be eradicated only by the wisdom of the Buddha. T'ien-t'ai (538-597) interprets darkness as illusion that prevents one from realizing the truth of the Middle Way, and divides such illusion into forty-two types, the last of which is fundamental darkness. This illusion is only extirpated when one attains the stage of perfect enlightenment, the last of the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice. Nichiren (1222-1282) interprets fundamental darkness as ignorance of the ultimate Law, or ignorance of the fact that one's life is essentially a manifestation of that Law, which he identifies as Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. In The Treatment of Illness, Nichiren states: "The heart of the Lotus school is the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which reveals that both good and evil are inherent even in those at the highest stage of perfect enlightenment. The fundamental nature of enlightenment manifests itself as Brahma and Shakra, whereas the fundamental darkness manifests itself as the devil king of the sixth heaven" (1113). Nichiren thus regards fundamental darkness as latent even in the enlightened life of the Buddha, and the devil king of the sixth heaven as a manifestation or personification of life's fundamental darkness. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings reads, "Belief is a sharp sword that cuts off fundamental darkness or ignorance."

From source: The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism

 

[PassTheDoobie]

The Oneness of Good & Evil: Developing the Courage To Accept our Innate Good and Evil

The Oneness of Good & Evil: Developing the Courage To Accept our Innate Good and Evil

The evil of destruction is like a shadow cast by the good of creation. Nature gives and takes life. Even on the cellular level of the human body, the evil of decay and death exists side by side with the good of growth and health.

For example, while the precise mechanism of cancer remains unknown, research has demonstrated that the malignant transformation of a cell is linked to cancer-causing genes called oncogenes. In normal cells, oncogenes are called proto-oncogenes, which promote cellular growth and are regulated by cellular genes called tumor-suppressor genes. Tumor-suppressor-genes, in other words, control growth-promoting genes, which could potentially turn malignant. ("Cancer: Causation.""The Cause of Disease: Abnormal Growth of Cells." Encyclopedia Britannica, CD 1999). Thus, the potential for cancer not only exists in every cell of the body, but also supports cell's growth and health.

Concerning the nature of good and evil, Nichiren Daishonin states: "Good and evil have been inherent in life since time without beginning...The heart of the Lotus school is the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which reveals that both good and evil are inherent even in those at the highest stage of perfect enlightenment. The fundamental nature of enlightenment manifests itself as Brahma and Shakra, whereas the fundamental darkness manifests itself as the devil king of the sixth heaven" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 1113). The Daishonin explains that all people are endowed with supreme good and evil, as well as all the possible life states in between. We can be either as godly as "Brahma and Shakra" or as devilish as the "devil king."

Good and evil, in other words, are innate, inseparable aspects of life. This Buddhist concept is called the "oneness of good and evil." This teaching however, does not mean that evil is good, nor does it imply that the distinction between good and evil is irrelevant. Instead, it teaches us to perceive and triumph over evil inside - thereby conquering evil on the outside - through faith in the universal goodness of life.

In the context of the Daishonin's teaching, good means the "fundamental nature of enlightenment," or absolute freedom and happiness resulting from profound self-knowledge. Evil indicates the "fundamental darkness," or life's innate delusion negating the potential of enlightenment and causing suffering for oneself and others. This inner darkness echoes with the despair that our lives are ugly and meaningless; it drives a wedge of fear that splits the hearts of people into "us" and "them." The Daishonin's concept of good and evil, in this sense, may be better understood as the dynamic, innate workings of life that become manifest or dormant, rather than the external moral codes determined by cultural and social conditions.

A Buddha is someone who has the courage to acknowledge those two fundamental aspects of life. As the Daishonin states, "One who is thoroughly awakened to the nature of good and evil from their roots to their branches and leaves is called a Buddha" (WND, 1121). Buddhas accept their innate goodness without arrogance because they know all people share the same Buddha nature. Buddhas also recognize their innate evil without despair because they know they have the strength to overcome and control their negativity. Buddhas understand the hearts of people in myriad conditions and circumstances. Buddhas are capable of guiding others to their own awakening. This is because Buddhas share the same conditions as others, yet have the strength and wisdom to control their own evil.

Much of our difficulty in discerning the workings of good and evil is due to our unwillingness to acknowledge the potential of both supreme good and evil within our own lives. We don't want to see ourselves as either very good or very bad, hiding instead behind a collective moral mediocrity that requires neither the responsibility of goodness nor the guilt of evil. To flee from the responsibility to realize the full potential of our innate goodness, we say, "I can't be as good as..." (Fill in the blanks with the names of those whom you think supremely good and bad respectively, or "Buddha" in the former blank and "devil" in the latter.)

For some of us, our moral ambiguity of the self, however, seems to demand quick judgment of others - those who serve our interest as "good people" and those whom we dislike as "bad people" - as if to counterbalance our inner confusion with our forced clarity outside. Others seem unable to denounce the clearly manifest evil of humanity for fear of being judged in return. Such people fear the judgment of others because they themselves lack the courage to see their own potential for good and evil. As a result, our view of the world becomes narrow, if not distorted.

Paul Tillich, a noted philosopher and theologian of the last century, said, "The courage to affirm oneself must include the courage to affirm one's own demonic depth" (The Courage to Be, p.122).

In the same regard, Carl Jung said, "Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is" (Psychology and Religion, p.93). Jung also made the following observation of a person who develops the courage to face the potential of evil within: "Such a man knows that whatever is wrong with the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow the he has done something real for the world" (ibid pp. 101-02).

The Daishonin had the courage to see his own "demonic depth," as he candidly wrote: "Although I, Nichiren, am not a man of wisdom, the devil king of the sixth heaven has attempted to take possession of my body. But I have for some time been taking such great care that he now longer comes near me" (WND, 310). The Daishonin had the courage to see his own fundamental darkness. In spite of this sober reality, he summoned forth faith in his innate Buddhahood and thus overcame life's tendency to deny its own highest reality. As he said, "A sharp sword to cut through the fundamental darkness is to be bound in faith alone" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 751).

The faith that enables us to experience the freedom and happiness of Buddhahood is synonymous with the courage to see our potential for both good and evil. The process of accepting and challenging our fundamental darkness is necessarily the process of revealing our innate enlightenment. Likewise, our efforts to help others become aware of their own self-negating delusion must be accompanied by our efforts to help them become aware of their own self-affirming power of enlightenment. Without one, another is impossible.

To see our innate good and evil is to experience the joy of accepting our whole being. As Tillich said, "Joy is the emotional expression of the courageous Yes to one's own true being" (The Courage to Be, p.14). Such honest and courageous acceptance of the self also marks the beginning of the essential transformation of our lives and the world around us.

By Shin Yatomi, based in part on Yasashii Kyogaku (Easy Buddhist Study) published by Seikyo Press in 1994.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"If you do not know your enemies, you will be deceived by them."

(Letter to Konichi-bo - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 931) Selection source: "Suntetesu", Seikyo Shimbun, January 26th, 2006

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Nichiren Daishonin writes: “There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds” (WND, 4). Our mind, our inner resolve, is what determines the state of our environment. When people uphold the correct teaching of Buddhism and strive with strong, pure, and good intentions to make their home a better place, the place where they are, wherever it is, can become a Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. This is what true Buddhism teaches."

SGI Newsletter No. 6715, The New Human Revolution—Vol. 18: Chap. 2, Gratitude for One’s Mentor 23, translated Feb. 2nd, 2006

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"The Saha World Is the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light"

"The Saha World Is the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light"

THE DRAMA OF SUFFERING LEADS TO ENLIGHTENMENT

Each of us possesses infinite lie force. We are individual “gold mines” with limitless resources embedded within our lives that need only be tapped. These stores of riches have always been there and are ours for the taking—if we use our Buddhist faith and practice to “mine” them. When times are good and we’re riding high, this may make perfect sense. But what about when we’re facing difficulties? When problems arise, do we remember our potential, our internal treasures?

The purpose of faith is to reveal that potential whether life gives us roses or thorns. It’s during difficult times that our faith is tested. It is when we’re facing seemingly colossal problems and feeling overwhelmed that it’s most challenging to squarely face our hardships. Losing sight of our Buddhahood, we can start to unravel and begin to doubt ourselves. Or we sometimes give in to complaint and blame others or the environment for our problems. We long for a more carefree existence, a life without problems. We want to escape.

As Buddhists, we learn that amid the challenge of facing and overcoming our problems, while painful at the outset, exists the opportunity to tap our most precious resources that will eventually lead us to our greatest happiness. This chaotic world we live in is fertile earth for the revelation of our enlightenment. This concept in Buddhism is known as “the saha world is the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light.”

The Sanskrit word saha means to endure. This endurance refers to a life filled with suffering that stems from greed, anger, foolishness and other earthly desires. The “Land of Eternally Tranquil Light” connotes the Buddha’s land. The Buddha’s enlightened wisdom is often compared to light. Together the phrases imply that the mundane world in which we live is, itself, the Buddha land.

According to the pre-Lotus Sutra scriptures, Shakyamuni taught that the world we live in was an impure land filled with suffering and earthly desires, completely separate from the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light in which Buddhas were said to have lived. There was no hope of attaining enlightenment unless we were reborn into a “pure land.”

So why did Shakyamuni teach this? At the time, it was an expedient means or a way to arouse the seeking spirit of the believers who were interested only in secular desires.

In a world riddled with problems and earthly desires, is it really possible to ever become happy, let alone enlightened? How do we counteract our escapist tendencies?

Later in the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni clearly refutes his previous teaching: “Ever since then I have been constantly in this saha world, preaching the Law, teaching and converting. And elsewhere I have led and benefited living beings in hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas and asamkhyas of lands” (LS16, 225).

He clarifies that the saha world is where the Buddha preaches the Law to help people overcome their sufferings. Renouncing his princely status, Shakyamuni spent his entire life traveling throughout India talking with people and sharing his enlightenment.

Similarly, Nichiren Daishonin states in the “Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings”: “It is not the case that he [the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra] leaves his place and goes to some other place…. Now the places where Nichiren and his followers chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, be they ‘mountain valleys’ or ‘wilderness,’ are all the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light” (Gosho Zenshu, p. 781).

Here the Daishonin teaches that in order to attain enlightenment, rather than seek fulfillment in some other realm, we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo where we are and make that place the Buddha land. As we each grapple with our reality, “the saha world thereupon immediately changed into a place of cleanness and purity” (LS11, 173).

In spite of numerous death threats, nearly being beheaded and exiled, Nichiren Daishonin tirelessly devoted his life to the cause of human happiness. He revealed the Mystic Law as the way all people could also become enlightened, and one by one encouraged his disciples through letters, leaving behind his written teachings for all generations to come.

In prison, second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda thoroughly studied the Lotus Sutra as well as Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings and chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Prison was where he attained enlightenment, making his place of confinement the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. When he was released, he spent the rest of his life teaching others how to apply Buddhism to overcoming their problems in daily life.

Josei Toda wrote the following poem in prison:

My master left this world,
offering his life like Yakuo
How can I who remain
serve the Buddha’s will?

All that is left to me
--the pure flower of life itself--
I will break from its stalk in offering
to repay my country and my friends.

(The Human Revolution, vol. 1, p. 160)

Shakyamuni and Nichiren Daishonin—and in fact, the three founding Soka Gakkai presidents Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Josei Toda and Daisaku Ikeda--have shown how ordinary human beings can transform their sufferings into joy. And by remaining in this world and “preaching the Law” they helped other people find happiness. They did not shrink from their sufferings. Instead, they recognized their difficulties as the means to prove the existence of the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. As SGI members and Bodhisattvas of the Earth we have the same potential and many have and still are brilliantly transforming their lives. Winning over our problems is the way to prove the power of our Buddhist practice to our friends and families and all suffering people.

SGI President Ikeda often reminds us that we are enacting a great drama on the stage of kosen-rufu. He quotes his mentor: “President Toda often said: ‘Someone who is too exemplary from the outset cannot go among the people. To spread Buddhism, we intentionally chose to be born as people who are poor or sick.’ ‘Life is like appearing in a play,’ he would say” (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. 2, p. 208).

No matter what struggles we are currently enduring, the key is to face them with a positive attitude and confidence that they are part of our “drama for kosen-rufu.” Since we can never divorce ourselves from this suffering world, no matter how hard we try, why not stop suffering as “escape artists” and become the protagonists in our personal dramas? As we learn to transform the reality of suffering with a sense of purpose, we can also develop a tremendous sense of freedom and power in that we are in control of how we act in relation to our environment. In doing so, we develop total fulfillment because everything is a source of growth. It is not a relative happiness, but a long-lasting one that emerges from the deeper regions of the self through faith. It is not dependent on one’s external circumstances or environment.

As we go about our everyday business in the saha world, our Buddhist practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and helping others is the way to enlightenment. And no matter how difficult our lives may become or painful our experiences in the world around us, we challenge our difficulties with the determination to turn our lives and society into the “Land of Eternally Tranquil Light.”

June 2001
Living Buddhism
By Stephanie Celano, based on Yasashii Kyogaku (Easy Buddhist Study) published by Seikyo Press in 1994.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"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."

(WND, 384)
The True Aspect of All Phenomena
Written to Sairen-bo Nichijo on May 17, 1273

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"I am praying that, no matter how troubled the times may become, the Lotus Sutra and the ten demon daughters will protect all of you, praying as earnestly as though to produce fire from damp wood, or to obtain water from parched ground.'"

(On Rebuking Slander of the Law and Eradicating Sins - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 444) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, February 10th, 2006