The web is bursting with Buddhist brainiacs who've read all the teachings and know all the shizz. I'm not one of them. I'm ignorant, and that's OK. When it comes to practicing Buddhism, there can be value in knowin' squat.
Lots of people are intimidated by the obscure vocabulary of Buddhism. They're flummoxed by intricate theories and doctrines. Worse, they worry that they need to have the "right attitude" (some kind of reverence?) or feel a deep sense of meaning or personal connection to Buddhism to benefit from chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.
To them, I say: It's so basic and simple. Just chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. Why complicate it?
Many times I've seen people go around and around arguing about whether to chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, or whether to chant an English translation of the phrase. Proponents of chanting in English say their approach offers more meaning, more of a connection to their own culture. That's probably true.
I'd rather stick with the relative meaninglessness of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, though. The first time you hear it, it sounds like a collection of nonsense syllables. This "nonsense" serves a valuable purpose, I think.
Enlightenment -- or "awakening to the true nature of reality" -- is not an intellectual exercise. The most brilliant, gifted Buddhist scholar is no closer to enlightenment -- and no farther from it -- than someone who has never even heard of Buddhism.
As one practices and studies Buddhism, knowledge and understanding grow. Still, "understanding" in the sense of knowing the theory of ichinen sanzen, say, is not the same as living fully in the present moment. In my opinion, the latter has nothing to do with intellectual capacity or study.
Besides, sometimes its beneficial to stop making sense. Chanting or thinking the "nonsense" phrase Namu-myoho-renge-kyo throws a monkeywrench into the machinery of discursive thought. It interrupts the narrative of the story you tell yourself about yourself. If only temporarily, it breaks your pattern of interior chatter.
Suppose you're thinking about your rotten boss and your rotten co-workers and the rotten thing that happened at work. You start spinning an interior monologue that reinforces your sense of worthlessness (or your sense of inflated worth.) You justify your resentment, and cast aspersions on everyone and everything.... Your sour thoughts and feelings just snowball into an avalanche.
Sitting down and chanting can derail this line of thought. Sometimes it takes several days and several chanting jags to "get over it." Reciting "nonsense" can break your pattern of thought and move your mind to a more relaxed and perhaps more objective state.
You might be able to recognize a destructive habit of mind before it gets rolling too fast. It took me 18 years of chanting to get here, but now when negative thoughts take hold of my internal narrative, I can recognize it and think, "Namu-myoho-renge-kyo." It's not as if I eradicate the negative habit in that instant, or resolve all the hurt feelings (or whatever) associated with the situation. But that one, small Namu-myoho-renge-kyo is a helpful, hopeful intervention.
It's sort of like when you sneeze and someone says, "God bless you." It's a prayer that something small like a sneeze doesn't turn into something huge and life-endangering like pneumonia -- a prayer that one snide observation doesn't turn into a speeding freight train of ill will.
None of this is to say that you shouldn't find a better job and get away from that rotten boss and those rotten co-workers. Heh.
If nonsense is so beneficial, why bother with Namu-myoho-renge-kyo? Why not chant Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious instead?
Granted, it worked for Mary Poppins, and I'm not gonna diss anyone's mantra.
Still, the roots of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo go back centuries, even pre-dating Nichiren. While it may sound like nonsense -- and while its effects may extend beyond the grasp of even the finest intellect -- Namu-myoho-renge-kyo actually means something.
What it means to historians, scholars and priests may vary depending on who you ask. What it means to me is personal and hard to explain. What it means to you...I don't know what it means to you.
Chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo is it's own little crash course in life, tailor-made just for you. All I can say is, just chant and find out for yourself. You don't have to believe anything about it. You don't have to know anything about it. You don't have to adopt any particular attitude. The main thing is just to stick with it.
5 comments
One of the most nonsensical things I was told was to never chant in my pajamas. I was instructed to get dressed and groom myself before sitting in front of the Gohonzon. If you look at the Gohonzon as a house guest, this makes sense, but I do not anthropomorphize the scroll to that degree.In Shambhala.. part of the training is to bring your mind back to your breath. The in-out of breathing is the "object" to focus on rather than a Gohonzon. Your thoughts can run in all directions, but you don't judge your thoughts. You label them as "thinking" and return to the breath. I do something similar when I am not in front of the Gohonzon. When I get stuck in a thought loop I try to bring my mind back to the Gohonzon. Even if I just touch base with the Gohonzon in my mind's eye, I think it grounds my subsequent thoughts and actions in a larger view.That is the point of chanting or meditating on the Gohonzon IMHO..to open your thoughts and feelings to a larger perspective..larger than just you and your self-centered concern.
Saw this just now on the Tricycle site. Right along with this topic.
One of the first platitudes I was told is that "Buddhism is reason." Buddhism is logical and therefore can and must be grasped intellectually. This belief is based on the idea that the law of cause and effect is observable and predictable. Therefore, the Buddhist law of cause and effect must be observable and predictable.Yet this assumption is fatally flawed. It assumes that the laws of the universe accord with neurotic human mental processes. When misfortune befalls someone or ourselves, how often do we assume that it is punishment resulting from misdeeds or misunderstanding? Our reasoning in this case is quite petty. Nichiren himself explains that misfortune befalls even saints and sages, and that it is impossible to fathom one's karma. This would seem to confound human logic and reason.Namu Myoho Renge Kyo is a powerful mantra. I would not dare to predict how it will affect another person's life. Although in my experience, I have never known there to be a negative or hurtful effect of chanting.Why does it have to make sense? Why must we insist on knowing why?
I didn't mean to diss logic/reason and knowledge. Analysis is great. But analysis fails at some point in the "spiritual journey." That's when you're thrown back on faith. Faith is not an intellectual thing. I didn't mean to imply that everyone should be as ignorant as I am about Buddhism, just that "unknowing" serves a purpose, too.
This discussion has been most refreshing for me as I am able to hear informed and intelligent opinions from folks I would never hear from otherwise. That is always interesting, as my environment is bringing me light from windows that I would never see otherwise. I am so single-minded, so purposeful, most of the time when I chant. I was trained from early on, though they never really said this, it was implied: "You chant for those members!! You see to it that if they are suffering, that you at least find out why and help them as best you can and especially help them find their own way, to develop their own strength, or..." It wasn't a threat, really, more of an expectation. This stuff is as deep as my bones now. I don't know if we *really thought "world peace was 20 years away" in 1972 but by gad nuclear war sure had us scared and we were motivated somehow. We thought we were making a difference!!But now, years later, you remind me that many times, single-minded though I tend to be, I don't have a coon's tail of an idea what needs to happen to help something turn from "poison into medicine". I just envision the problem and send it daimoku (chanting), sometimes as if there is a reservoir that needs fortune to fill it so that the protective entities have fuel to work with and people feel okay, maybe even inspired. Does this work? I dunno. I am too dense to know. The thought seems sound to me.However, I guess I should say at this point, partly because of input from you all, I have, in the last few weeks concentrated on an independent meditative practice (facing a different direction than my mandala/Gohonzon) addressing the Mystic Law and the protective entities. I do a sort of ceremony where I formally give up my bad karma (where I have caused suffering in this life and before), determine to be mindful of thought, word, and deed in the from now on so as to try and not cause anyone future suffering and give up my personal pain while I am doing this. I have never been a "meditator" before, so this is odd for me, but after the pain/disharmony leaves, I feel a profound resonance with the Mystic Law and that nourishes me. I wait while this goes on for awhile, a distinctly different part of my philosophical practice, before I end that part of the session. At that time, I turn to the Gohonzon and then do the recitation of the sutra and chanting. It kind of sounds like to me that some of you are already capable in a way of doing some of this conceptually at the same time you are chanting, but this something I am sure I could not do simultaneously.The breadth of your lives, how you think about things, life, examine your feelings and thoughts. I think it is remarkable and refreshing. It is like having a beautiful telescope with which to look here and there.Thanks, as ever, for making me think!Armchair