My morning practice includes recitation of a daily quote from Nichiren. These 31 daily quotes are taken from Raihai Seiten, a Nichiren Shu Service Book Companion compiled by the Los Angeles Nichiren Buddhist Temple’s Nichiren Shu Beikoku Sangha Association in 2001. On Day 4, I read this quote:
“Chanting ‘Namu Myō hōRenge Kyō’ swallows up the functions of ‘Namu Amida Butsu,’ ‘Namu Dainichi shingon,’ and ‘Namu Kanzeon bosatsu’ as well as all the Buddhas, sutras, and bodhisattvas. All these will be of no use without the functions of the Lotus Sutra. This can be seen by everyone, for it has been realized in front of everyone. When I, Nichiren recite ‘Namu Myō hōRenge Kyō’ the function of ‘Namu Amida Butsu’ disappears just as the moon wanes, the tide ebbs, grasses in autumn and winter wither and ice melts under the sun.”
More than once in this 800 Years of Faith project I have pointed out that Nichiren’s method of propagation – actively rebuking attachment to false views – is not necessarily the best practice for today, that leading others gradually without criticizing their present stance is a better fit in this age. But in our effort to accommodate the views of others we must not lose sight of the Lotus Sutra and its position.
All of the rivers of Buddhist thought – the thousands upon thousands of expedient teachings – all flow into the ocean of the Lotus Sutra. As Nichiren writes in Shoshū Mondō-shō, Questions and Answers Regarding Other Schools:
“All the sūtras entering the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra take up the one flavor of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō because of the wonderful merit of the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra. There is no reason why they have to be referred to by other names such as nembutsu, Ritsu, Shingon, or Zen. Consequently, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, ‘Just as water becomes salty when it flows into the sea, any wisdom ceases to exist in itself after it is taken in the True Wisdom.’ ”
Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, p179-181
We are called on to have faith in the teachings of the Buddha from the perspective of the wide ocean of the Lotus Sutra. Viewing the Lotus Sutra shoreside, from the mouth of one of the many rivers flowing into the ocean, is not the same. This is, in part, why not every book about the Lotus Sutra is equal. I first ran into to this problem in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peaceful Action, Open Heart. On several occasions, the venerable Vietnamese Zen priest views the Lotus Sutra through the prism of the Avataṃsaka Sutra [the Flower Garland Sutra].
This is not unlike, as Nichiren said, attempting “to put the water of the ocean into a puddle made by a hoof of a cattle.” [Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 180-181]
Chanting ‘Namu Myō hōRenge Kyō’ swallows up the functions of all the other teachings. It does not eliminate them. It makes them better.
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