Upon learning that I am a Nichiren Buddhist, an acquaintance asked me what I "believe." I said that I chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo because I believe it is a summation of the Lotus Sutra. Also, it feels good to intone; I enjoy it. Afterward, I tried to sketch out what my "beliefs" regarding Nichiren Buddhism actually are right now. My views have changed somewhat over the years.
Here is a partial list of what I "believe." Please feel free to chime in with your own beliefs or rebuttals.
1. Nichiren did not inscribe the DaiGohonzon. It's lovely, and I am glad I once was able to see it. But it's not a super-special Gohonzon to be lorded above all others.
2. If you can obtain a copy of a Nichiren-inscribed Gohonzon, do it. Chant to that. I have no rational basis for claiming that Nichiren-inscribed scrolls are "better" than those inscribed by Nichiren's followers. But I believe, irrationally, that they are better....
3. The daimoku is correctly intoned as Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. SGI leader Josei Toda urged Nichiren Shoshu priests to drop the "mu" so SGI members could chant faster. Otherwise, daimoku had a soporific effect. Well, I have chanted both ways quite a bit. Chanting "namu" does not make me sleepy. I believe Nichiren chanted Namu, therefore I believe Namu is correct. Telling me that it makes no semantic difference is pointless; I believe there is a difference in rhythm and sound, and that makes all the difference to me.
4. Priests. They're nice. I have no quarrel with their existence. However, I do not believe that a formal, professional priesthood is necessary for the practice, study and propagation of the dharma.
5. That said, I believe a professionally trained priesthood with an enforced code of ethics and peer review is far preferable to amateur leaders bolstered by and propagating the dogma of a wealthy religious corporation.
6. I believe that Namu Myoho Renge Kyo is an all-encompassing, self-contained, incorruptible prayer to be uttered in any situation by anyone with any intention. "Hate chanting" or chanting for the destruction of others will always fail because daimoku just doesn't "work" that way.
I have more beliefs, to be sure. What are some of yours?
7 comments
I've tried chanting Namu. Just can't do it. Too many years of chanting Nam, I guess. Does that make me a bad Buddhist? Is there any evidence Nichiren chanted Namu? Shouldn't we be chanting it in Chinese or Sanskrit anyway?
It took me a long time to be able to chant Namu automatically (without having to think about it) instead of Nam. I deliberately had to retrain myself. Was it worth the effort? I don't know. I think the most important part of the phrase is probably "Myoho Renge Kyo." So I don't think "nam" makes anyone a bad Buddhist.One friend tried replacing Nam with Amen. "Amen! Myoho Renge Kyo." That doesn't work for me. Sounds not quite right, somehow.
Hi auntie. It has been a while since I tried to inventory my beliefs as a Nichiren Buddhist. Belief can be a shifting target, as you said. I need to think about this a little more.There's a distinction between belief and faith, I suppose. Nichiren often urged followers to deepen their faith, strengthen their faith. But faith in what? Faith that daimoku will fulfill their wishes, or that they will be protected somehow if they chant?If I ask myself, "What do I have faith in as a Nichiren Buddhist?" hmmm. It's not very Nichiren specific.Ultimately I have faith that, even though the world is terrible and rife with all kinds of suffering, life is worth living, and how you choose to live -- the small choices and efforts you make -- really do matter, even if no one seems to notice.That sounds pretty generic -- like a greeting card. But that's all I have to contribute to this discussion right now.
It seems to me that existence is a kaleidoscope of chaos with no meaning other than that superimposed by the perceiver.Chanting the daimolu is an embracing and identifying with that chaos.It makes no difference whether you believe in supernatural planks of wood or the authority of some "knowledgable" elite.It doesn't really matter whether you realize you are part of the chaos or not,you are anyway. Accepting that makes for a smoother ride.
Everything works through causality and conditions. The conditions that make you believe what you believe are merely an interpretation by your mind. It is in no way a clear perception, but one based on a mind that is influenced by conditions. Start seeing the causality in the conditions and you can start seeing what is true and what is not true. Till then, it really doesn't matter what anyone "believes".
But markp, isn't "seeing the causality" also conditioned, a matter of belief? E.g. the belief that slandering the Lotus Sutra creates painful karma?I've known a few people who claimed they could "see the causality" of walking away from SGI, or walking away from NShoshu, or abandoning their chanting practice entirely. Some folks claimed that these actions unmistakably "caused" suffering and, in some cases, death.To me, that's superstitious belief masquerading as insight into cause and effect.It seems to me that Nichiren was very concerned that his followers not buy into what he considered false beliefs, such as believing in a pie-in-the-sky Buddha who answers our prayers, which is how he saw Amida/Pure Land practice. Or believing that the sutras do not transmit the dharma -- rather dharma can be transmitted only from mind to mind, which was a belief of one school of Zen during his day. Nichiren was harshly critical of these beliefs.Nichiren urged his followers and the entire nation of Japan to "reform the tenets" in their hearts and revere the Lotus Sutra above all other teachings. Nichiren never dismissed belief as irrelevant. He also said that it's impossible to fathom one's karma. You can't always gaze into the past and accurately discern, from the state of your present troubles, how you screwed up in the past.In many passages in his writings, Nichiren expressed uncertainty about whether he was doing the right thing, whether he is really upholding the Lotus Sutra. The attitude I take from all this: it's important to constantly question your beliefs and motives, rather than fall into the mental trap of thinking that you understand the depths of Myoho Renge. It's a comfortable trap, I think, to believe you have some control over how karma manifests in your life because you think you can see causality. Reality is a lot more complicated than that, IMO.
"But markp, isn't "seeing the causality" also conditioned, a matter of belief?"It could be argued that seeing the causation is conditioning, but it would be the conditioning onto the path toward enlightenment. Commonly, this doesn't exist in most people. All people have a perception of reality that is born from their conditioning, but that perception has its basis in their own conditioning, not in reality. You can see this everywhere; people disregarding the reality and coloring it with there own ideas of how they think it should be, but that is not the reality. Reality as-it-is is a matter of fact thing. It has no color of perception. It is causality."I've known a few people who claimed they could "see the causality" of walking away from SGI, or walking away from NShoshu, or abandoning their chanting practice entirely. Some folks claimed that these actions unmistakably "caused" suffering and, in some cases, death."That is not understanding causality, but dogma, and even though some do not like it, it has its purpose; albeit born from the superstition that you mention. The purpose would be to scare you into continuing to practice, and this is true of a lot of forms of Buddhism, not just Nichiren Buddhism. In the end, it turns out to be an ineffective form for westerners. We just don't like being threatened. :)I quit SGI back in the early 80's and I can attest that my life did not go to hell. It didn't go as far as I would have liked at the time, but I had quit practicing. I wasn't in hell, but I consistently came up against brick walls.That wasn't because I left SGI, but because I wasn't practicing. Silly me, I didn't know you could be independant. :)"In many passages in his writings, Nichiren expressed uncertainty about whether he was doing the right thing, whether he is really upholding the Lotus Sutra."I have these thoughts also, although I wouldn't compare my situations with Nichiren's. My thoughts are as to the unification of Nichiren sects and whether it is the right thing to do. My practice says yes, and the causality in my life agree's. Nichiren was way beyond that, but his life also agreed.So now I will get a bit into conditioned response, because that is how the world actually works. A persons response to their environment has its basis in their conditioning. In the middle east revenge is the rule. Revenge must be taken, and this bit of conditioning has caused the whole region to fall into a cycle that is very hard to break. Understand conditioned response and you're half way there. Pavlovs dog, baby.