Don’t know exactly what prompted this extravagance but I decided to attend three Nichiren Shu services today.
I got up at 6am to do my own personal service so that I would have time to join Rev. Ryusho Jeffus’ Myoshoji service at 7 am. And I was immediately happy I did so because today was the Jukai, Taking of Vows, for two long-time members of Ryusho’s virtual sangha, Davie Byden-Oaks, from London, and Neal Oldham, from North Carolina.
Joining Ryusho in Syracuse, NY, were Myoshoji regulars from Portugal, Czech Republic, France, England and the United States.
Following that I had time for a quick nap before joining Rev. Shoda Kanai of the Las Vegas Kannon Temple for a Shodaigyo service at 10:30am.
This was my first time visiting Las Vegas. I tried to join last week, but I had difficulty getting the password for the Zoom session right. This time everything went as expected and I enjoyed the change of pace with the Shodaigyo service.
The day’s final service was at 12:30pm with the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rev. Ryuei McCormick and Shami Mark Herrick held the annual Nichiren Shu Founding Day Ceremony, marking the date on April 28, 1253, when Nichiren, from atop Mount Kiyosumi, greeted the rising sun with 10 Daimoku.
As with all services involving Ryuei, guests from as far away as Georgia and Oregon were treated to an excellent discussion of the Vimalakirti Sutra, a part of his ongoing Buddhist Study Program lectures.
Back in 2017 I leased a Chevy Volt, a plug-in electric hybrid sedan, and took it to Rev. Kenjo Igarashi at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and had him purify and protect the car. Now three years later I’ve traded in the Volt for an all-electric Bolt and returned to get my auto insurance renewed.
The ritual involves prayers and purification and a boundary spell made with rice, salt, water and saki. An omamori amulet hangs from the steering wheel.
In considering how to practice the Lotus Sutra, I find it helpful to think of all the Buddha’s teachings as specific pieces of lumber crafted for specific purposes, ridge poles, beams, doors, windows, flooring and roof tiles. It is with the use of the Lotus Sutra that we are able to take those expedient teachings and build our wonderful practice hall, to see the One Buddha Vehicle encompasses and doesn’t replace these teachings, to realize the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha is ever present and ever active performing Bodhisattva practices. Academics who study just the words and miss the meaning of the sutra, complain that there is no actual teaching there. It is just a preface to a sutra that is never delivered. What these academics miss is that the every emptiness of the Lotus Sutra provides the space within the structure of the expedient teachings within which we can pursue the Buddha Way, both for ourselves and all other beings.
“Can someone chant Odaimoku with adoration for the Lotus Sutra (especially with it’s focus on Ekayana (one vehicle) and Upaya (skillfully means)), while also practicing zazen or vipassana, or should one give up all other practices and practice the mantra alone?”
I’ve raised this concept of the Lotus Sutra practice space before and eventually I hope to expand this into a more detailed thesis incorporating Chih-i’s teaching. I’m posting this here so that I can come back to this at that time.
Rejecting idle speculation, Shakyamuni was concerned – as all Buddhists must be – with the present life, its joys, sorrows, loves, hates, and infinite choices. In other words, instead of being concerned with existence as an abstract study, Buddhist philosophy deals with the nature of the human condition in this life and the manner in which human beings respond to it. Basic Buddhist Concepts
Last August, at the suggestion of a good friend, I created a page here where people new to Nichiren Shu could receive some direction. Where to Begin.
I was particularly happy to be able to provide the basic Nichiren Shu service so that those new to the practice could follow along with recordings of the various parts of the service and practice their pronunciation. The Basic Nichiren Shu Service
Today – more than seven months later – I am deeply embarrassed to have discovered that the shindoku text I provided for Hoben Pon was missing words and entire lines. Had I done a simple test of following along with the recording while reading the shindoku, I would have caught this back in August.
These errors in the Hoben Pon shindoku have been corrected along with some additional typos in other areas where words ran together.
I apologize for having failed to adequately check my work.
Today I was scanning my news feed and ran across an article at Buddhistdoor entitled, Frequencies, the Brain, and Wisdom Traditions, which explores the effects of sound frequencies and music on mental states. The take-away point for me was this:
The use of sound has been historically central also in the Buddhadharma. In the Mahayana traditions (which includes Vajrayana), every practice is transmitted first and foremost through sound, irrespective of whether or not the recipient understand the meaning of the words being transmitted. It is said that only hearing the sound of a particular Buddhist teaching initializes the mindset necessary to benefit from Dharma practices.
This is exactly why Nichiren Buddhists chant the Lotus Sūtra in Shindoku. As Ryuoh Michael Faulconer explains in the introduction to Myoho Renge Kyo Romanized:
Around the world, the Lotus Sūtra is traditionally read in shindoku, a reading of the Chinese translation of the Sūtra with a Japanese pronunciation. It is a form of faith reading done as a practice which our inner Buddha nature understands.
And, of course, this is also the foundation of why we chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō:
QUESTION: If someone chanted Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō without understanding its meaning will the benefit of understanding still be received?
ANSWER: When a baby nurses, it does not comprehend the taste; nevertheless, it receives the benefits of the milk naturally. Did anyone know the ingredients or formula for Jīvaka’s wondrous medicines? Water is without intent but it can extinguish fire; and even though fire consumes many things, can we say it does this deliberately? This is Nāgārjuna and T’ien-t’ai’s idea! I am merely repeating it.
Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice,
Volume 4, Page 106-107
Got up this Sunday morning at 6am to do my regular morning service and followed that at 7am with Ryusho Shonin‘s broadcast from Syracuse. Just me and a man from North Carolina today.
Then at 12:30pm I joined the first-ever broadcast service by the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area. The service was led by Mark Ryugan Herrick from his house (right) and followed by a lecture on the Vimalakirti Sutra by Michael Ryuei McCormick. While I enjoy taking Amtrak from Sacramento to Oakland to attend the Bay Area services, it was a treat to do this from home.
Unfortunately, the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church doesn’t have the capacity to broadcast services. Perhaps I can do something about that.
For this evening’s service I welcomed an old friend, my Senchu Murano translation of the Lotus Sutra. For the past 10 cycles through my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice I have been working my way through all of the English translations of Kumarajiva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra, beginning with “The Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma,” the translation of the Lotus Sutra made by Leon Hurvitz, and concluding with Burton Watson’s translation for Soka Gakkai. I suspect that Rissho Kosei-kai’s translation, “The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers,” which was published in 2019, will become the modern standard. The Nichiren Shu Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area intends to use this translation rather than Murano’s for its service booklet. Personally, I’m not convinced that the translators’ aggressive effort to remove gender bias is beneficial. I wrote about this in a January blog post.
In any event, on this 51st cycle through the Lotus Sutra, I’m very happy to return to Murano’s translation.
The COVID-19 precautions are keeping me home and canceling the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church services but that doesn’t impede my virtual sangha. Today I joined Rev. Ryusho Jeffus’ Myoshoji service. Ryusho Shonin is in Syracuse, New York, and the other two attendees joined from different parts of North Carolina, where Ryusho once had a physical temple. The Myoshoji services often include Nichiren Shu practitioners from several European countries.
I had a fun epiphany this morning while doing Gonyo. No, not the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi, but a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. Is there a Buddhist term for epiphany?
Anyway, this revelation involved the Seven Happy Gods on my altar. I discussed the addition of these gods to my practice back in July during my 21-Day Staycation Retreat Encouraged by Universal Sage. Read about it here. What is important to this story is the encouragement Rev. Kenjo Igarashi gave me before he performed an eye-opening for the gods.
“He cautioned, I would need to make them part of my practice. He said the figurines had been eye-opened before but the effect had withered. Basically they had starved to death.”
So, ever since I’ve added the Seven Happy Gods to my daily practice. Each morning and evening I devote a portion of my Daimoku to each god, reciting the god’s name and which virtue the god represents and chanting three Daimoku.
When I first placed the gods on my altar I had them in this order:
I chose this order because that was how they appeared on the cover of their box.
I bring this up because the order plays an important part in all of this.
This order changed in November of last year. I saw water cups with symbols for Daikoku and Kishimojin available at Gasshodo.com. I figured adding these would be another way of involving the gods in my practice.
When I got the cups it necessitated rearranging things. I moved Kishimojin to the left and Daikoku to the right since that is how they appear on the altar of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. I chose Bishamon to be the first god because he appears in the upper-left corner of the Gohonzon. It was only after I had finished arranging that I realized this must have been the order they were designed to follow. The central god, Jurōjin, is the only one in yellow attire. The two gods with orange hats are on the ends. Next are gods with green clothing and on either side of Jurōjin are gods in matching color clothing. (Is this coral or pink?)
Now, finally, we can get to the epiphany. Thanks for hanging in there.
With seven gods I’ve given each one a day of the week and in the morning I recite some details about that day’s god before offering my morning prayer to the Sanjubanshin, the 30 Guardians of the Lotus Sutra.
But seven is also the number of characters in the Daimoku. And when I considered each character and each god’s attribute, I discovered I had the essential arrangement.
Namu — Dignity and Honesty
With dignified and honest reverence, I devote myself.
Wonderful — Joy
Joyfully realizing how wonderful this all is.
Dharma — Wisdom
Realizing the wisdom of the Dharma
Lotus — Longevity
Longevity, the key of the Lotus Sutra: the Eternal, every-present nature of Śākyamuni Buddha
Flower — Happiness
Happiness flowering daily
Sutra — Fortune
Boundless Fortune flowing from this sutra.
Namu Myō Hō Ren Ge Kyō
Dignity, Honesty, Joy, Wisdom, Longevity, Happiness and Fortune
