Having spent this past week celebrating my 40th anniversary of practicing Nichiren's Buddhism, I thought it might be appropriate to out myself as the person who suggested that Jesus as Buddha might be an appropriate way of teaching Buddhism to Westerners to such distinguished people as DearDenver, Ellen and a couple of others.

Although I was a lapsed Jew and professed atheist when I first encountered Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in 1968 -- and had little use for Jesus in my life, heart or anywhere else -- I cannot deny the power and influence (nyoze riki and nyoze sa) that his life had on his environment and the development of Western culture over the past 2,000 years.
I don't know who or what the man was. However, whether historical figure, myth or legend, the power of his existence has impacted billions of people over the millennia and, as such, cannot be ignored -- even by crusty old BuJus such as myself.

To me, it is not a matter of chanting with or to Jesus. I chant to the Gohonzon. To me it is a matter of understanding and hopefully realizing the penultimate condition of the Buddha within...it's a matter of role model.

To me, it is also a matter of "teaching others to the best of my ability," about what I believe I know (if one can truly "know" anything) about Nichiren's Buddhism.

I will admit that I was programmed with passionate dreams of shakubuku and kosen-rufu (my God, what a bastardization that concept has become through its translation as "world peace") during my 15-year tenure with the Gakkai from 1968 until 1983. However, I truly believe that by 1999 (the year I wrote my book) I was pretty well de-programmed from both the agenda of the lay organization and the dogma of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood.

Nonetheless, to me, as I have stated before, it was all pretty simple to me with regard to Nichiren's standing within the pantheon of Buddhist teachers.  He wrote it all down. He advocated the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as a prayer of universal applicability and efficacy. He created a mandala -- a graphic representation of the theory of the three thousand worlds in a momentary state of existence -- as an environmental focal point for meditation, perception of the Mystic Law and harmonious fusion with the world around us.

To me, the only shortcomings of Shakyamuni and Jesus lay in their operational deficiencies, NOT their enlightenment or their teachings. In other words, they didn't write anything down.  This being the case, their teachings rest entirely on an oral tradition which may or may not resonate exactly with what they hoped to convey with their lives.

The prevailing belief is that Jesus was crucified. Strangely, Nichiren himself faced a similar fate but seems to have had either the fortune or the harmonious unity with the universe around him to have been able to escape his execution. It was Nichiren's "resurrection" that led directly to the greatest of his writings and the manifest reality of the Gohonzon.

So, here we now sit...in the dark age of Mappo, the end times, nearing the final date of the Incan calendar, arguing about which of these beings, along with many others, may have delivered us the truth.

In my suggesting to several Westerners I have met that Jesus is the life which resonates most with their background and culture -- even Jews cannot escape the archetype (he's so much more welcoming than Moses) -- what I have also suggested is that his is the consciousness that might most help us access a sense of who the Buddha is.  

All I want is for people to chant. Period. End of story. If approaching Jesus as a Buddha makes it easier for them to understand the goal of Nichiren's practice, then what's the problem? This approach is so much easier for people of our ilk -- the inheritors of a dualistic world view created through language and the damnable separation between ourselves and the world around us encouraged by Aristotle.

Nichiren, Nichiren Shoshu and even the Gakkai, by dint of their Japanese roots, were forced to promulgate Nichiren Buddhism by insisting that those who might practice it must eschew all previous beliefs. This was not because of the tremendous bad power of those beliefs. It was because of the tremendous bad karma created by those who believe themselves chosen, be they Japanese, Jewish or any number of fundamentalist believers. The fundamental belief that one is somehow special, chosen or exempt from the foibles of any other human being must be pulled out by its roots.

Yes, we are unique -- each and every one of us.  Yes, especially blessed as we are to be human, we each have a very particular function with regard to the universe around us. But no, there is not one of us so special as to elevate his or her being or belief system above that of any other.

Jesus understood that. He understood the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, whether he had read that sutra or not.

The framers of the Old Testament created a very ugly God and an even uglier notion of original sin. They were followed by the more self-righteous, power-hungry Jesus disciples whose lineage inspired the organizational geniuses who created the Catholic Church. This lineage helped to turn the spiritual teachings of the Jesus of the Beatitudes and the Gnostic Gospels into religious organizations that bred ultimate fear based on reinforcing belief in our own imperfection before some separate, omnipotent judge. All in the name of garnering power and wealth...never with a collective notion of universal human salvation, i.e. enlightenment.

This, then, is why I move people who would like to chant toward the archetype I believe is Jesus. If an historical Jesus existed, I suspect he did not look like some placid, bearded, white hippie any more than Nichiren may have looked like Daisaku Ikeda.

There is a big difference between enlightened spirituality and charisma. The latter may be informed by the former but the former is never dependent on the latter.

By dint of true Christianity, we have the potential to be a real nation of bodhisattvas.  We just have to get rid of the martyr complex often implicit in the notion of the Samaritan.

It is hard for Americans to ask, especially when they are just getting started in the practice: "What would Nichiren or Shakyamuni do?" It is very easy for many to ask: "What would Jesus do?"

There is nothing wrong with Nichiren Buddhists asking this question or dialoguing with their Christ as they chant, particularly if it makes the whole process less foreign to them. What's the problem?

This approach may be the key to ultimately allowing Buddhism to take root in the Judeo-Christian world, and I'm all for that. Too much time has already been spent arguing and tearing each other down -- time we simply don't have to spare.