The final "add on" to Nichiren Buddhist practice is something called gongyo, which involves the daily recitation of the Lotus Sutra.

I have repeatedly stated that the beauty of the Daishonin's teaching is in its accessibility to every human being, in any condition of life. Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to the Gohonzon will yield results without fail. Gongyo is perhaps less accessible.

Although I personally find gongyo to be one of the loveliest features of the practice, it is also the most difficult to integrate into one's daily life. If the Gohonzon can be said to be the largest theoretical hurdle that one must clear in approaching the practice of the Daishonin's Buddhism, then gongyo is the greatest practical hurdle.
Gongyo literally translates as "assiduous practice." It is a prayer performed both morning and evening by practitioners of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. It consists of reciting the second and sixteenth chapters of the Lotus Sutra, followed by the chanting of daimoku.

The recitation takes somewhat longer in the morning because there are five repetitions as opposed to the three that are done in the evening. When the recitation is mastered, we're talking about twenty-five minutes in the morning as compared to fifteen in the evening. Mastery, however, is somewhat difficult and that is the problem for many new people attempting this practice.

In the Nichiren tradition, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is designated the primary practice, while gongyo is referred to as secondary. However, this shouldn't necessarily be construed as meaning that gongyo is optional.

Particularly in the beginning of the Buddhist practice, I believe it is critical that people focus on the chanting and efficacy of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in order to build momentum in the development of their faith. Gongyo may be learned over a period of months, or even years, and should naturally become an enhancing and stabilizing factor in the practice.

Frankly, I'm not exactly sure where the present-day form of gongyo originated. It is generally thought that Nichiren Daishonin daily, and with great fervor, recited the entire Lotus Sutra as part of his regular routine. This would be time prohibitive, however, for those of us living in the present-day real world, so modifications of the sutra reading were probably made over the years by consensual agreement between priestly and lay Nichiren believers.

The largest lay organization of Nichiren believers, known as the Soka Gakkai International, claims that the aforementioned five-in-the-morning and three-in-the-evening form of gongyo originated with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and was adopted for lay believers by second SGI President Josei Toda in the late forties and early fifties.

This is the way I learned gongyo (yes, The Org to which I refer is SGI, though when I belonged it was called Nichiren Shoshu of America or NSA) and that is the form I continue to practice.

As I mentioned earlier, the second and sixteenth chapters of the Lotus Sutra are considered the heart of the sutra from the perspective of the Daishonin. In gongyo, what is recited most of the time is simply the summarizing verses from those chapters, although the entire sixteenth chapter is chanted once in the morning and once in the evening. Recently, absent the sanction of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, the SGI has altered and shortened the format of gongyo.

I will not, at this point, comment on the SGI's shortening of the sutra-reading, except to say that I can certainly understand their contention that it may (or may not) make the teaching of Nichiren more accessible to the masses. What I can personally say is that I have never regretted even one second spent practicing or performing gongyo and that I absolutely believe each and every moment spent reciting the sutra yields more than equivalent harmonious and fruitful time spent in the conduct of my daily activities.

In other words, why would I begrudge 20 or 30 minutes spent in the pursuit of something that makes every hour of my life two or three times as productive as it might have been? Now, 20 or 30 minutes in rush-hour traffic or waiting in line at Chili's on a Friday night -- that's a whole different matter.

Most people, upon hearing gongyo for the first time, have fairly ambivalent reactions. The first is that it can sound quite beautiful. The second, as with almost anything you hear in a foreign language, is that it sounds quite alien and certainly difficult to learn.

All I can say is that I really want to handle this subject with kid gloves for the following reason. Although I believe gongyo to be an essential part of the teaching of Nichiren Daishonin, I also believe there may be far greater flexibility in its practice than exists either with Nam-myoho-renge-kyo or the Gohonzon.

I think it goes without saying that the mantra, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, is the absolute core of the Daishonin's teaching and he makes it very clear, in "On Attaining Buddhahood" and many other writings that chanting this is the key to unlocking the door of enlightenment.

Similarly, in the creation of the Gohonzon as his one unique invention -- the object of worship which he said actualized Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in the environment -- the Daishonin set out the process by which one fuses with one's surroundings in order to achieve tangible results both within and without.

Gongyo is subtler.

Essentially, I believe that its performance ultimately requires and involves (or at least should) some notion of, dare I say it, faith. I'm talking here about faith defined as belief in that which is unknown and which engenders a warm, fuzzy, feel-good, determined kind of feeling that comes from the heart. Faith in the sense of merely trying, of taking a "leap of...," is not going to motivate the kind of sustained effort required to learn gongyo.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that new Buddhist practitioners should know that the daily performance of gongyo is something definitely looming down the road, but they should not let that discourage them from initial efforts made to learn about the effectiveness of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Since I've already explicitly described the benefit of chanting daimoku, it would behoove me to similarly clarify the purpose of gongyo, particularly since its performance would seem to require even more time and effort than simply chanting a mantra.

In a way, I must once again to defer to my own experience because, in all my studies, I have not really read something that knocked my socks off when it comes to why we do gongyo and what it accomplishes. I am confident that my understanding of gongyo is correct, however it is filled with personal nuance, which you can take for what it's worth.

I say I am confident of the correctness of my understanding only because gongyo is the one thing I have done consistently, morning and evening, without fail, since November of 1968. In those thirty years I have gone without food, sleep, sex, and even an adequate amount of daimoku, but I have not missed gongyo. There are times I have told people this and they have responded that it was intimidating information for them, particularly if they were having trouble getting into gongyo.

However, I assure them that I am not setting myself up as an example -- I am not the norm when it comes to gongyo. (As a matter of fact, I have met no one else who matches my claim.) It's just that from the very beginning I found I really enjoyed the recitation of the sutra and, quite early in my practice, I consciously decided that I could do this without fail -- as big a screw-up as I might be -- and this would be my one claim to fame. Put it on my gravestone, folks -- "He loved to chant da sutra."

So what do I get out of it? If Nam-myoho-renge-kyo provides benefit and transforms karma and the Gohonzon is the object by which we bond with the environment and become synchronous with our surrounding, what exactly does gongyo do? Why is it worth the effort?

The best explanation I can give is found in our own consciousness of things. If you think about what the Lotus Sutra has to say, then the second and sixteenth chapters form its core teachings. The second chapter essentially says that all human beings contain the potential for enlightenment. The sixteenth chapter says that enlightenment, rather than a destination, is something eternally contained within. Therefore, reciting these chapters becomes an affirmation of their teachings.

When one does gongyo, he or she is fundamentally affirming the potential for his or her own enlightenment together with the recognition that said enlightenment already exists, although perhaps not consciously.

I feel that when I recite gongyo, I am saying "I can be a Buddha, I have always possessed Buddhahood within and what the Buddha does is to chant 'Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.'"

I don't believe I mentioned it before, but gongyo always concludes with the chanting of daimoku.

For those of you are already into the concept of affirmation, I believe it is relevant to the process involved in doing gongyo. For those of you who are not, perhaps I can put this another way.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is viewed, in the eyes of the Daishonin, as the source of enlightenment for all Buddhas. It is, as he puts it, "the secret shared between Buddhas." Another way of looking at it might be to call Nam-myoho-renge-kyo the actual "work" of the Buddha -- it manifests the essential life-condition and has the power to transform reality.

The chapters of the Lotus Sutra, on the other hand, reveal the consciousness of the Buddha, or what is in his or her mind with respect to all human beings. The performance of gongyo, then, even though it is in another language, subtly, and over the long term, creates the consciousness of the Buddha within each of us. As consciousness develops, we are better able to take advantage of the very real changes being wrought by the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

The other, more mundane, function of gongyo is that its performance is, in and of itself, as I mentioned earlier, a show of faith.

As an "assiduous practice," it is a cause that demonstrates the seriousness of the Buddhist practice. This is not a demonstration for the benefit of some external deity. It is, as with everything else in Buddhism, a cause which further deepens and enriches the texture of our karmic effects.

I keep thinking of cliches such as "cream for the coffee" or "spices for the food" that might somehow explain the relationship of the gongyo ritual to the daily practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. However, none of them serve to convey either the import of the sutra recitation or the very real symbiosis that exists between it and the daimoku.

Doing gongyo does not enhance the power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Rather, it enhances our ability to take full advantage of that power.

For me, soon after my determination to do gongyo morning and evening, no matter what, the whole ritual became fairly easy for me. This was simply a matter of my good fortune. I know many people who have agonized over learning how to recite the sutra as well as making time to do it each morning and evening. For me, learning how to recite it was not too difficult. This was surprising because I generally sucked at language study -- had seven years of Cs and Ds in high school and college French and Spanish to prove it. Nevertheless, with help from my friends, I got the hang of the pronunciation and rhythm.

I am well aware that for some, I hope many, of you reading this book, there may be a desire to try chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo or reciting gongyo. In alluding to my own experience, I indicated that total absorption in The Org was the way in which I built the foundation of my own Buddhist practice during my first ten years. I have also spoken extensively of my own convictions, borne of the last two decades, that this practice is universally accessible to every individual and need not be conducted as part of some ongoing, lifelong entanglement with some religious organization, either sacred or secular.

Nonetheless, I am well aware of fact that much of what I am describing may require a degree of tutelage or, at the very least, gentle help. Towards the end of this book I will give you an honest, very personal assessment of what options are available to the reader who wishes to pursue the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin a bit further.

Meantime, just know that I am aware of the quandary all this new information creates, particularly when I start throwing in sutra recitation and the like. I promise not to leave you hanging.

I mentioned earlier that I wish a lot of the information contained herein had been available to me in my early days of practice. I am similarly determined that you will not be left with the exceedingly constraining limitations that I faced when I first started to chant.

If nothing else, I am putting forth this effort in order to convince people that this is a teaching of universal applicability. If I'm going to put my money where my mouth is, I had better come up with a way that any of you out there, regardless of circumstance or belief, can pursue this wonderful teaching if you so desire.

I want to conclude this discussion of gongyo by making a couple of points. One is that, although I said earlier that the recitation of the sutra is ultimately a critical part of the practice, I am convinced that progress toward that point should be both informed and joyous.

If indeed repeating the second and sixteenth chapters of the Lotus Sutra, both morning and evening, creates some trans-linguistic awareness of the Buddha-consciousness, it is not something to be done by rote or sense of obligation. Just as with receiving the Gohonzon, the performance of gongyo should at least be partially motivated by the sense that chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo works.

If the power of daimoku is not becoming evident, then any of the add-ons so important to the Buddhist practice may feel like burdens.

I am convinced that, on the basis of the Daishonin's mercy, he was determined to create a religious practice that would serve to reduce -- never add to -- the stress and difficulties of life.

He often said that the Buddhist teaching is "easy to receive, yet difficult to continue." I firmly believe he was referencing the natural doubt we all feel when confronting that which seemingly cannot be changed.

The Daishonin wasn't stupid. He understood the infinite complexity of the human condition and the way it manifests in each person's life. Nevertheless, from April 28, 1253 until his dying day, he maintained his conviction that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo would work for every human being, regardless of circumstance.

Ask yourself why he would complicate the teaching in such a way as to make it impracticable for some. The answer is simple -- he wouldn't.

For me, gongyo has become the song of my life. For whatever reason, Nichiren Buddhism has not given birth to the wealth of gorgeous music and art that its Western counterparts have. I believe that may have something to do with the internal nature of its inspiration. Because the Buddhist practice works so well, environmental cantatas and tapestries are not needed to make the believer's heart soar.

Years ago, I don't remember when, but well over twenty, I was doing gongyo and it became the intensely personal symphony of my life. There is almost never a day when I don't hear at least one movement of that glorious music as I recite the sutra.

Then, when I'm finished, I sit before the Gohonzon and reaffirm the "secret shared between Buddhas" with my good buddy, Nichiren Daishonin.

I do this morning and evening, winter and summer, in good health and poor. In so doing, I set the stage for the next twelve or so hours of my life to be as perfect as they can be, given my karmic condition.

I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me, "How do you make the time?" or "I just don't have the time."

If the entire universe could move at your behest in exchange for twenty minutes or so of chanting, wouldn't it be wise to make the time?

To suffer under the delusion that the minutes just aren't there for one to spare is, to me, the saddest decision of all -- a real surrender to the ridiculous, nanosecond-inundated consciousness of our spiritually impoverished technological age.

That said, I should mention that I hold no inherent objection to the SGI's shortening of gongyo. If I were to find myself at one of their meetings (a rare occurrence), I would be more than happy to "do as the Romans do" and chant the sutra a single time through with them. Then, I would go home and do the other two or four sutra recitations in order to conclude my own "unfinished symphony."

However -- and I cannot stress this enough --- that's just me.

*

Chapter 1: Looking for a Bridge

Chapter 2: Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra

Chapter 3: Defining Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

Chapter 4: The Benefits of Buddhist Practice

Chapter 5: A Focal Point for One's Faith

Chapter 6: The Gohonzon and Bodhisattva Practice

Chapter 7: A Personal Relationship with the Gohonzon

Chapter 8: Theoretical Underpinnings of the Gohonzon

Chapter 9: Theoretical Underpinnings of the Gohonzon, Part Two

Chapter 10: Gongyo, An Intensely Personal Symphony