Chanting Growers Group

[Bonzo]

Good to see you guys! and thanks!

I havnt got up the courage yet T, i know i have to just do it soon i can feel it, windows only stay open for so long.

i just seem to be wrestling with so many demons at the moment it slips my mind.

nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo
nam myoho renge kyo

peace my brothers and sisters

bonz

 

[Bonzo]

Lets all dance! I love those guys, their so happy it just cant help but be contagious!

peace

bonz

>>>>NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO>>>>

 

[PassTheDoobie]

What the hell happened to SoCal's posts? Oh well, I guess I won't hold back thinking it too much to read at one time then. Besides, SoCal's situation inspired me to share this anyway.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Life and Death - An essay by Daisaku Ikeda

Life and Death - An essay by Daisaku Ikeda

Death is something no one can escape from. It follows life as surely as night follows day, winter follows autumn or old age follows youth. People make preparations so that they won't suffer when winter comes. They prepare so they won't have to suffer in their old age. Yet how few people prepare for the even greater certainty of death!

Modern society has turned its gaze away from this most fundamental issue. For most people, death is something to be feared, to be dreaded, or it is seen as just the absence of life — blankness and void. Death has even come to be considered somehow "unnatural."

What is death? What becomes of us after we die? We can try to ignore these questions. Many people do. But if we ignore death, I believe that we are condemned to live a shallow existence, to live "hand to mouth" spiritually. We may assure ourselves that we will somehow deal with death "when the time comes." Some people keep busily engaged in a constant stream of tasks in order to avoid thinking about the fundamental issues of life and death. But in such a state of mind, the joys we feel will ultimately be fragile, shadowed by the inescapable presence of death. It is my firm belief that facing the issue of death can help bring real stability, peace and depth to our lives.

What, then, is death? Is it just extinction, a lapse into nothingness? Or is it the doorway to new life, a transformation rather than an ending? Is life nothing more than a fleeting phase of activity preceded and followed by stillness and nonexistence? Or does it have a deeper continuity, persisting beyond death in some form or other?

Buddhism views the idea that our lives end with death as a serious delusion. It sees everything in the universe, everything that happens, as part of a vast living web of interconnection. The vibrant energy we call life which flows throughout the universe has no beginning and no end. Life is a continuous, dynamic process of change. Why then should human life be the one exception? Why should our existence be an arbitrary, one-shot deal, disconnected from the universal rhythms of life?

We now know that stars and galaxies are born, live out their natural span, and die. What applies to the vast realities of the universe applies equally to the miniature realms of our bodies. From a purely physical perspective, our bodies are composed of the same materials and chemical compounds as the distant galaxies. In this sense we are quite literally children of the stars.

The human body consists of some 60 trillion individual cells, and life is the vital force that harmonizes the infinitely complex functioning of this mind-boggling number of individual cells. Each moment, untold numbers of cells are dying and being replaced by the birth of new cells. At this level, daily we experience the cycles of birth and death.

On a very practical level, death is necessary. If people lived forever, they would eventually start to long for death. Without death, we would face a whole new array of problems—from overpopulation to people having to live forever in aged bodies. Death makes room for renewal and regeneration.

Death should therefore be appreciated, like life, as a blessing. Buddhism views death as a period of rest, like sleep, by which life regains energy and prepares for new cycles of living. Thus there is no reason to fear death, to hate or seek to banish it from our minds.

Death does not discriminate; it strips of us everything. Fame, wealth and power are all useless in the unadorned reality of the final moments of life. When the time comes, we will have only ourselves to rely on. This is a solemn confrontation that we must face armed only with our raw humanity, the actual record of what we have done, how we have chosen to live our lives, asking, "Have I lived true to myself? What have I contributed to the world? What are my satisfactions or regrets"

To die well, one must have lived well. For those who have lived true to their convictions, who have worked to bring happiness to others, death can come as a comforting rest, like the well-earned sleep that follows a day of enjoyable exertion.

I was impressed a few years ago to learn of the attitude of a friend of mine, David Norton, professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware, toward his own approaching death.

When he was only seventeen, the young David had become a "smoke jumper," a volunteer fire fighter who parachuted into inaccessible areas to cut trees and dig trenches to keep fires from spreading. He did this, he said, in order to learn to face his own fear.

When, in his mid sixties, he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, he faced death head-on and found that the pain did not defeat him. Nor did he find dying a lonely or solitary experience, according to his wife, Mary. She later told me that he felt he was surrounded by all his friends and said that her husband had faced death without fear, regarding it as "another adventure; the same kind of test as facing a forest fire."

"I guess the first thing about such an adventure," Mary said, "is that it's an opportunity to challenge yourself. It's getting yourself out of situations that are comfortable, where you know what goes, and where you don't have to worry. It's an opportunity to grow. It's a chance to become what you need to be. But it's one that you must face without fear."

An awareness of death enables us to live each day—each moment—filled with appreciation for the unique opportunity we have to create something of our time on Earth. I believe that in order to enjoy true happiness, we should live each moment as if it were our last. Today will never return. We may speak of the past or of the future, but the only reality we have is that of this present instant. And confronting the reality of death actually enables us to bring unlimited creativity, courage and joy into each instant of our lives.

(from: http://www.ikedaquotes.org/contents/short_essays/life_and.html )

 

[SoCal Hippy]

I deleted them before I completed the entire text. I didn't like the way it was laid out and was trying to insert things to complete but it became too tedious and didn't feel it would contribute much here.

Now that essay by Ikeda is awesome. Thanks for sharing!

 

[PassTheDoobie]

So if that's the case SoCal, I'll add this and go to bed. This is for anyone who still is not aware of who we are talking about--who ultimately inspired ALL the thinking you see posted here, Nichiren Daishonin. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the core teaching of Nichiren Buddhism.

But who is this dude Nichiren? Here ya go.

T (Hitman, I'll have an answer for you by tomorrow. So far it isn't looking good.)

 

[PassTheDoobie]

The Life of Nichiren

The Life of Nichiren

Nichiren (1222-1282), the priest who established the form of Buddhism practiced by the members of the SGI, is a unique figure in Japanese social and religious history. In a society where great emphasis has often been placed on keeping conflict hidden from sight, Nichiren was outspoken in his criticism of the established Buddhist sects and secular authorities. His chosen method of propagation was "shakubuku"--a sharp and relentless dialectic between different perspectives in quest of truth. The appraisal offered by Uchimura Kanzo, the renowned Japanese Christian thinker and writer, in his 1908 Representative Men of Japan, expresses the ambivalent reaction Nichiren continues to provoke: "Nichiren minus his combativity is our ideal religious man."

While Nichiren demonstrated a severely critical stance toward what he regarded as distortion or corruption of the core message of Buddhism, his letters of guidance and encouragement to his followers record a tender concern for people who were disregarded within medieval Japanese society. For instance, he wrote many letters to female lay believers in which he showed a remarkable understanding of their sufferings and emphasized the Lotus Sutra's message that all people can become enlightened as they are, men and women.

Nichiren's sympathy for the downtrodden in society is related to the circumstances of his birth. His father was a fisherman on the seacoast to the east of what is now Tokyo, and as such Nichiren identified himself as "the son of a chandala [untouchable caste] family." Life in feudal Japan was harsh and brutal, especially for the masses at the bottom of the strict social hierarchy. Experiencing firsthand the misery of the common people, Nichiren had from an early age been driven by a powerful desire to find a way of resolving the problem of human suffering.

What we know of Nichiren's life and thought comes to us principally through his voluminous writings. In addition to major treatises on doctrinal issues, he penned many hundreds of letters addressed to his followers. Some of his most important writing was done under dire circumstances--in exile, for example, on a snow-blown island in northern Japan.

Announcing the Teachings

When Nichiren was 12, he began studying at a temple near his birthplace. There he was tutored in the teachings of the major schools of Buddhism of the time. And there he prayed with the earnest wish and vow to become, in his words, "the wisest man in Japan." In response to his prayer, Nichiren writes, he was bestowed with a "great jewel" of wisdom.

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda has noted that the wisdom we are able to unleash from within is proportionate to our sense of responsibility. The young Nichiren was moved by a burning sense of responsibility to alleviate the enormous misery he saw about him, and it was this that enabled him to gain insight into the essential nature of human life and reality.

Nichiren began an exhaustive study of the multitude of often contradictory teachings and sutras of Buddhism. From age 16 to 32, Nichiren traveled to Kamakura and Kyoto, visiting the major centers of Buddhism, studying the massive volume of sutras, treatises and commentaries. The conclusion he reached was that the heart of Shakyamuni's enlightenment is to be found in the Lotus Sutra and that the principle or law to which all Buddhas are enlightened is expressed in the phrase "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo," from the title, or daimoku, of that sutra.

At the same time, he understood clearly that to promote faith in the Lotus Sutra as the exclusive vehicle for enlightenment would be to engage in public criticism of existing schools of Buddhism, many of which taught that access to the Buddha Land was only possible after death. While Nichiren advocated using Buddhist practice to challenge one's circumstances and develop inner strength, the traditional schools encouraged resignation and passivity. A strong counterreaction could be anticipated, and Nichiren writes of his own inner struggle over the question of whether or not to speak out.

Persecution

Deciding that to remain silent would be to lack compassion, on the 28th day of the fourth month (according to the lunar calendar) of 1253, Nichiren made a public declaration of his beliefs. As anticipated, his insistence on the sole efficacy of the Lotus Sutra--with its core tenet that all people are in fact Buddhas--in the present era of confusion and corruption was met with disbelief and hostility. The steward of the region, a devout follower of the Pure Land school, took steps to have Nichiren arrested. And from this point on, Nichiren's life would be a succession of harassment, persecution and abuse.

One reason for this is that the authorities recognized Nichiren's uncompromising insistence on the equality of all people as a direct threat to the established power structure, which victimized the impoverished majority. The established schools of Buddhism had been incorporated into this structure, providing an effective means for the feudal authorities to strengthen and extend their power over the populace. Priests of these schools, who occupied a privileged position within the social hierarchy, were deeply implicated in this exploitative system and had no reason to challenge the status quo. This is a further reason why Nichiren was able to attract a significant following despite the risks that such allegiance would entail.

The Lotus Sutra predicts that those who attempt to spread its teachings in the corrupt latter days will meet severe trials. Nichiren interpreted the persecutions that befell him as evidence that he was fulfilling his mission in life.

In 1260, in the wake of a series of devastating natural disasters, Nichiren wrote his most famous tract, the Rissho ankoku ron (On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land). In it, he developed the idea that only by reviving a spirit of reverence for the sanctity and perfectibility of human life through faith in the Lotus Sutra could a truly peaceful order be restored and further disaster forestalled. He presented this treatise to the highest political authorities of Japan and urged them to sponsor a public debate with representatives of other schools of Buddhism. The call for public debate--which Nichiren would repeat throughout his life--was ignored, and he was banished to the Izu Peninsula.

The years that followed brought further banishment and the decisive crisis of his life--an attempt to execute him on the beach of Tatsunokuchi. By his account, moments before the executioner's sword was to fall, a luminous object--perhaps a meteor--traversed the sky with such brilliance that the terrified officials called off the execution. Nichiren was banished to Sado Island where, amidst extreme deprivation, he continued to make converts and write treatises and letters.

In part because the predictions he had made in the Rissho ankoku ron had come true, after almost two and a half years on Sado, Nichiren was pardoned and returned to the political center of Kamakura. It is said he was offered a temple and official patronage if he would desist from his criticism of other schools of Buddhism, but he refused. Nichiren retreated to Mount Minobu, and there he wrote copiously and trained his successors.

Transmission

During this period, the priest Nikko, who had accompanied Nichiren throughout his tumultuous career and would inherit the teachings, was gaining converts in nearby Atsuhara village. The priests of a Tendai temple in the area, angered at this, began harassing the converts. Eventually, they instigated an attack by samurai against unarmed peasant converts and their arrest on false charges of theft. Twenty of the peasants were arrested and tortured, and three were executed in 1279.

Where earlier persecutions had targeted Nichiren himself, this time it was the lay believers who were the victims. Despite their lack of an in-depth theoretical knowledge of their newly adopted faith, these peasant followers remained steadfast in the face of the ultimate threat. For Nichiren, this signaled a crucial turning point, inspiring his confidence that his teachings would be maintained and practiced after his own passing. Where he had to date inscribed sacred mandalas (Gohonzon) for individual believers, he now inscribed the mandala explicitly dedicated to the happiness and enlightenment of all humankind. This symbolized the establishment of Nichiren Buddhism as a universal faith. Nichiren died of old age three years later, his mission complete. Transmission of his teachings and the fulfillment of his vision of peace founded on respect for the sanctity of life is the central inspiration for SGI members worldwide.

(from: http://www.sgi.org/english/Buddhism/more/more26.htm )

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"For what I have done, I have been condemned to exile, but it is a small suffering to undergo in this present life and not one worth lamenting. In future lives I will enjoy immense happiness, a thought that gives me great joy. "

(The Opening of the Eyes - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 287) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, July 17th, 2006

 

[Hitman]

Wow, good stuff. All true. I still would like to know if anyone has ever seen the movie "The Human Revolution"

When I was a growing boy my mother and her group went to see it in a theatre. I remember only parts of it. I was too young to be interested. I went outside to throw rocks or something. I sure would like to see it again. It tells us the story of some of the things that are on written on this thread.

Someone must have seen it. Think back. It was in the 70's. Peace

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

It was a full length feature film. Thank you for your help.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

So much confidence and conviction in those words. Can you imagine his pressure to maintain the highest life condition in order to not let his followers at that time to lose faith while he was going thru so much shit (persecutions)?; many still did abandon their practice.

I must have the same mind and faith as Nichiren.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

I saw it a couple times Hitman. and yes, it was back in the 70's. I recall going to a theatre in SoCal that the SGI bought out a couple of nites and we had to pay to get in. At different times thruout the yrs I have heard members requesting to see it again. Not sure if it is true, but I think I heard that there is issues of copywrites, royalties, etc. in showing it again in public. Alot of the actors were not SGI members.

 

[Guest]

Tonight at my 2nd Meeting this week had an amazing breakthrough!

Tonight at my 2nd Meeting this week had an amazing breakthrough!

First much love to you all.

Tonight after a Toso for a member in our district we had a general discussion and someone pulled out the new World Tribune which has a two and a half page article on Ted Osaki, who I chant for every single time I do gongyo including; Tony Matsuoka and three others plus all my family on this thread including Socal and his loved ones, Hitman and his loved ones, Bonz, Always, Scegy, Mr.Wags, Baccas, Dutchgrown, Gypsy, "smiley"aka delta, plus everytime you request my prayers rest assure we are BOTH CHANTING A FIGHTING DAIMOKU!

So after I mention specifically I chant for my mentor's mentors my buddhasister Marni says "i knew them both very well.." and told us how much they touched her life. And how Mr. Osaki's wife passed shortly after he passed since in life they always held hands and had a magnificent love for each other and all of us but especially each other in the everlasting stories and history regarding this great man (who I will transpose the article onto the thread either via pdf or something else). The fact that Mr.Osaki's inspiration dedication and sincerity was so very powerful its still present that she could not help but spend 10 minutes honoring one of her former mentors. Well, I have chanted earnestly with deep respect for their everlasting impact on my mentor and my mentor's students, including myself. To have my prayers answered by knowing they were already manifested and everyone who comes into contact with me shall also part-take in my Mentor's Mentor's Mentor's etc. teachings/guidance/encouragement and those in my very own district are already and have been benefiting for the efforts of both Mr. Matsuoka and Mr. Osaki and Nichiren Daishonin. The benefit is our independance and emancipation from the lasting models of their exsistence in the Saha World. All three taught/teach Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is the Ultimate Truth.

Another benefit is your awareness of this story and countless others layered in this thread.


I will briefly discuss things I chanted for which I have recently received:

1. (after hoping for years to) Spend Time with my Family living very far away and in a comfortable setting Chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with them. (I LOVE YOU GUYS!)

2. Work harder each day and be more successful at work and my personal life ending years of neglect and finally really "taking advantage". (I encourage my superiors daily now, and reap what I sow! MORE RESPECT!)

3. Meeting someone in our area that chants and TOKES! (OHH YEAH!) Next month we will get together with her and her man and toke then have a meeting or afterwards! Chanting Tokers Group! All are welcome.

4. My mother to chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo! ( GOO MOM!)

5. Eat healthy consistently and goto a doctor and have a check up including blood test. (incredibly healthy after many years of neglect)

6. Accompanying two members in our Young Men's division to the Youth Festival or as I chanted to inspire and help the youth I was able to really enjoy their company and now look forward to helping them stay focused and stick to their plan to chant their way to success, including any other person that may come along. Yes I chanted to have an impact on humanity with my chanting. and I have had significant progress with this one!

THEN the more private benefits which keep multiplying with my continuing practice. But now I have taken the confusion I have had about outright chanting for something and taken the liberty to write down exactly what I want to chant for and putting it by my altar. I'll let you know how it goes....


I am 75% complete with my presentation on "It All Begins With Me"...

 

[Hitman]

Future Chanting Grower's TOZO

Future Chanting Grower's TOZO

SoCal, Thanks, I wasn't sure if I remembered correctly , had to ask my mom , I knew someone had to have seen it - Kosen Rufu all the way!

Easydisco- Thank you for your whole hearted effort. I will chant for everyone's happiness to come to full fruition.

PTD- I feel it now. I believe that we one day shall meet in front of the Gohonzon. My eyes are swelling up. Thank you for your steady encouragement and warm heart.
When we all finally get to meet and do gongyo and diamoku together at a TOZO it will be a dream come true, beyond belief.

**I'll foreworn everyone now- I'm smoking all your budz up! Just kidding.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo infinitely


Thank you Gohonzon for connecting me with these wonderful souls and I promise to chant more and have to confidence to shakabuku whoever I meet in the future.

 

[Babbabud]

**I'll foreworn everyone now- I'm smoking all your budz up! Just kidding.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Should be a great time trying You have not met the chimney yet!!
nam myoho renge kyo!!

 

[Babbabud]

I dont find the word Tozo or Toso in my Dictionary of Buddhism??
Im sure every word is not in it though. Just curious.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

What can we say, then, of persons who are devoting themselves to Buddhism? Surely they should not forget the debts of gratitude they owe to their parents, their teachers and their country. But if one intends to repay these great debts of gratitude, one can hope to do so only if one learns and masters Buddhism, becoming a person of wisdom.

[ On Repaying Debts of Gratitude, WND Page 690 ]

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Bud--You won't find words coined by the SGI in there--like "Kaikan" (community center), or "kofu" (as in "kofu gongyo", the abbreviation for "kosen-rufu gongyo"), or "san-cho" (chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo three times when you close a meeting or enter or exit your home) or "tozo/toso" (chanting as a group for a specified amount of time. I have always thought it to be toso, but Hitman would know better than me)--because all of these terms are Japanese, and came into our Buddhist vocabulary via the preponderance of Japanese "NSA" members who pioneered this Buddhism in the U.S.

You WILL find Japanese words that are the Japanese equivalents of Buddhist terms that originate in India, China and Japan; based on the source of the particular concept (i.e.: Nagarjuna, T'ien-t'ai, Dengyo). But these are issues of clarification of the essential meanings of teachings that have their roots in the teachings of Shakyamuni (Buddhism). Examples of this are "esho-funi" (the oneness of life and its environment), or "kyochi-myogo" (the fusion of reality and wisdom), "hendoku-iyaku" (changing poison into medicine), or “shikishin-funi” (the oneness of body and mind).

As a rule of thumb, if it’s from SGI, it’s not in there. If it’s from a source in the Buddhist canon--sutras, abhidharma, and vinaya (teachings, commentaries, and rules of discipline for monks and nuns) it is in there. Also be aware and proud of the fact that due to the serious coin represented by the SGI as one of the richest (maybe richest) LAY organizations in the world, the facts are completely gone over by experts whose understanding and expertise are beyond reproach. There is no one-sided bullshit lacking objectivity to be found in any of the entries. The SGI is not the kind of organization to leave issues to chance that might cause interpretive embarrassment. You can count on what you read as being, within objective parameter, unassailable.

Additionally, be aware that it is sometimes easier to use the online version because the Japanese equivalents are merged in alphabetical order with their English translations. For an old-timer like me, the Japanese term is memorized (as in "etched" in my brain), and I sometimes have to look up the Japanese term to see how they have determined to translate the "name" of the concept into English, so I can cut and paste it here without having to type out my explaination of what it means.

T

 

[SoCal Hippy]

The Buddha Nature Is Inherent In All People

The Buddha Nature Is Inherent In All People

Living Buddhism
Buddhist Concept for Today's Living

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. (The Lotus Sutra, ch. 2, p. 39)

In this famous passage from the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha presents one of the sutra's revolutionary principles. It is the fact that all people can attain the same state of life as he did, indicating the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds.

The Ten Worlds are states of life that all beings experience from moment to moment. They are Hell, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Humanity, Heaven (or Rapture), Learning, Realization, Bodhisattva (Compassion) and Buddhahood (enlightenment or absolute happiness). Earlier sutras depict the Ten Worlds as separate and distinct realms where people dwell. It was inconceivable that the pure state of Buddhahood could exist in the defiled lower worlds.

Shakyamuni's statement that all people can become equal to the Buddha, "without any distinction between us," attests to the superiority of the Lotus Sutra over provisional sutras. It indicates that the Buddha returns to the realm of the lower nine worlds to lead people to enlightenment, and that while existing in the lower nine worlds, ordinary people have the potential to attain Buddhahood.

In "Letter to Niike" Nichiren Daishonin explains: "As the sutra says, 'hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us 'you can readily become as noble a Buddha as Shakyamuni. A bird's egg contains nothing but liquid, yet by itself this develops into a beak, two eyes, and all the other parts, and the bird soars into the sky. We, too, are the eggs of ignorance, which are pitiful things, but when nurtured by the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is like the warmth of the mother bird, we develop the beak of the thirty-two features and the feathers of the eighty characteristics and are free to soar into the sky of the true aspect of all phenomena and the reality of all things. This is what is meant by the sutra passage that says in essence: 'All people dwell in the shell of ignorance, lacking the beak of wisdom. The Buddha comes back to this world - the land where sages and common mortals live together, the latter undergoing transmigration with differences and limitations -just as a mother bird returns to her nest, and cracks the shell of ignorance so that all people, like fledglings, may leave the nest and soar into the sky of the essential nature of phenomena and the reality of all things... (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 1030).

In the Daishonin's thirteenth century japan, dominated by Buddhist sects that followed provisional sutras, Buddhas were thought to be transcendent savior figures. They were adorned with thirty-two extraordinary features, such as golden skin, Dharma-wheel markings on the soles of their feet, light radiating from their bodies, and so forth.

In this passage, Nichiren declares that Buddhahood is in fact inherent in the lives of all ordinary people. The role of the Buddha is not that of a supernatural being to which others are subservient.

By stating that "attaining Buddhahood is nothing extraordinary," he indicates that, remarkable as it may seem, we are originally endowed with the potential to do so. He uses the analogy of an egg to illustrate this fact. An egg is a common object, unremarkable on the surface and containing nothing but a sort of gooey liquid. Yet it possesses the potential to develop into a bird that can fly freely in the sky. Our lives are just like this. Outwardly we may be common mortals, yet we are naturally endowed with the potential to develop the state of absolute freedom of Buddhahood.

Although the Lotus Sutra attests to the existence of our Buddha nature, Nichiren Daishonin gave us the method to develop it by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. In doing so, the Daishonin says we can develop the Buddha's thirty-two distinguishing features. These are interpreted to be compassion, insight, wisdom and other human qualities, and not as physical attributes that set the Buddha apart from other people. The ultimate reality of life lies nowhere apart from ourselves. We attain Buddhahood in our present form.

Even though we possess the potential for the supreme state of Buddhahood, unless we encounter the proper external relationship - the object of devotion, the Gohonzon - we remain "in the shell of ignorance, lacking the beak of wisdom." The role or function of the Gohonzon as the embodiment of Nichiren's Buddha nature, is to "crack the shell" or furnish the proper external cause by which we can bring forth our innate Gohonzon or Buddha nature.

In The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, SGI President Ikeda explains how this passage from the sutra applies to our practice in the Buddhist community of believers: "Propagating the teachings as well as fostering and raising capable people are all activities that accord with the Lotus Sutra's spirit. Other SGI cultural and social activities only take on profound significance when they contribute to developing people of ability and bring more and more people into contact with Buddhism.

"The Buddha vows to elevate all people to the same state of life as his own. This is the spirit to raise capable people, to enable people to develop to their fullest potential. This is also the spirit underlying the mentor-disciple relationship.

"Of course, since we also strive to keep growing and developing ourselves, the determination to bring others not only to our level but above and beyond is the true spirit of the Buddha's vow to 'make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us

"The true essence of humanism lies in our compassion and earnest commitment to pray and exert ourselves for the growth of our fellow members, particularly those newer in faith. The SGI is a humanistic organization. It isn't run on authority or orders from above. It moves forward with the joy of being in contact with genuine humanity" (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. 1, p. 134-135).

This passage from the Lotus Sutra also illustrates the concept of the "oneness of mentor and disciple." Previous to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, the view was that "the disciple is the disciple" and "the Buddha is the Buddha." But as indicated by the passage "hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us," mentor and disciple are equal and united in their compassion for humanity and efforts to propagate the Law.

By Dave Baldschun, SGI-USA Study Department, based in part on Yasashii Kyogaku (Easy Buddhist Study) published by Seikyo Press in 1994.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

EasyD, looking forward to that article on Mr Osaki in the WT when you have time to post it. I was also able to form a close relationship with him in the 80's when he took responsibility for the growth of the Long Beach, CA area where I joined and practiced.
Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Hitman]

I dont find the word Tozo or Toso in my Dictionary of Buddhism??
Im sure every word is not in it though. Just curious.

Maybe it's an informal word where you come together and chant to go forward. You can come and go as you want. Might go 24 hrs. Someone will lead for an hour. You can come whenever you want and chant when you want. People sign there names on a chart that they will lead. It's a jumpstart forward on everybody's life. The diamoku continues and continues and you can hear it in your head. It really sets up a vibratioin. A Diamoku Tozo. My mom's an old timer and told me all this. Chant on brothers and sister as we strive toward Kosen Rufu, Worl Peace!