The Writer, Gemini NotebookWe have seen how Nichiren Buddhism unites the inward perception of innate Buddhahood (Makoto) with the outward commitment to transform society (The Heart of Faith). To prevent this synthesis from evaporating into abstract philosophy, Nichiren established concrete, tangible instruments that anchor awakening in daily human life.
Where the Tiantai master Zhiyi set forth “three thousand realms in a single moment of life” as a theoretical principle (ri no ichinen sanzen) discerned through complex introspective meditation, Nichiren revealed “ichinen sanzen in actuality” (ji no ichinen sanzen). Grounded in the origin teaching (honmon)—the latter half of the Lotus Sutra, which reveals the eternal Śākyamuni Buddha’s constant presence in this world—Nichiren gave this reality concrete form through the Three Great Secret Dharmas (Sandai Hihō) and a revolutionary understanding of sacred language.
The Three Great Secret Dharmas (Sandai Hihō)
In the Final Dharma Age (mappō), the Buddha’s primordial enlightenment is made directly accessible to all people through three core pillars:
The Daimoku (The Invocation of the Essential Teaching):
The active vocal chanting of Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō. Drawing on the Chinese tradition of title exegesis, Nichiren taught that the five or seven characters of the sutra’s title are not merely the name of a text, but “the heart of the eighty thousand sacred teachings and the eye of all buddhas”. In his 1273 masterpiece Kanjin honzon shō (The Contemplation of the Mind and the Object of Worship), Nichiren wrote: “Śākyamuni’s causal practices and their resulting virtues are all contained within the five characters Myō-hō-renge-kyō. When we embrace these five characters, he will naturally transfer to us the merit of his causes and effects”. Chanting the daimoku embodies the spirit of a “single moment of belief and understanding” (ichinen shinge) and a “single moment of rejoicing” (ichinen zuiki). Moreover, through the principle of juji soku jikai (“upholding the Dharma is itself keeping the precepts”), embracing the daimoku bestows the unbreakable “Diamond Chalice Precept,” transferring the merit of all six pāramitās directly to the practitioner.
The Honzon (The Object of Devotion):
The calligraphic mandala (daimandara or gohonzon) devised and inscribed by Nichiren. Rather than depicting anthropometric statues of individual deities, the Gohonzon uses Chinese characters and two Sanskrit glyphs to depict the cosmic ceremony in open space above Sacred Vulture Peak, where the eternal Śākyamuni Buddha and Many Treasures Buddha (Prabhūtaratna) sit flanked by the Bodhisattvas of the Earth (led by Superior Practices, or Jōgyō) and beings of all Ten Worlds. Functioning as an external mirror of the practitioner’s mind, the Gohonzon allows the devotee to “enter” the jeweled stupa of the mandala through faith and chanting, realizing the non-dual union of self and Buddha.
The Kaidan (The Sanctuary or Ordination Platform):
The physical space where the practitioner chants the daimoku before the Honzon. Doctrinally linked to works such as the Sandai hihō shō (“On the Three Great Secret Dharmas”), the kaidan carries both an institutional and an immediate, personal dimension. As Jacqueline Stone’s scholarship illustrates, the institutional concept of the kaidan underwent a dramatic evolution across history:
Medieval Vision: Understood as an ordination platform to be established “by imperial edict and shogunal decree” when secular law (ōbō) and Buddha-Dharma (buppō) unite (ōbutsu myōgō).
Imperial Nationalism: Reinterpreted by Chigaku Tanaka in the Meiji/Taishō eras as a state-mandated “national ordination platform” (kokuritsu kaidan) to be approved by the Imperial Diet.
Postwar Democracy: Reframed by Jōsei Toda as a democratic mandate, and subsequently redefined by Daisaku Ikeda in 1970 as minshūritsu (“established by the people”), culminating in the construction of the Shō Hondō at Taisekiji in 1972. Following the 1991 schism between Nichiren Shōshū and the Sōka Gakkai, Chief Abbot Abe Nikken demolished the Shō Hondō in 1998, returning the institutional kaidan to an indefinite future.
Immediate Living Practice: Beyond institutional politics, the kaidan holds a profound, universal meaning inside the Nichiren tradition: wherever a practitioner faces the Gohonzon with sincere faith and chants Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, that very place transforms immediately into the fundamental ordination platform and the Pure Land of Eagle Peak.
Language as Sacred Embodiment
What gives written calligraphy and vocal sound the power to transform reality? In his treatise Mokue nizō kaigen no koto (“On Consecrating Wooden and Painted Images”), Nichiren articulates a remarkable philosophy of language rooted in shiki shin funi—the non-duality of physical form (shiki) and mental phenomena (shin).
While internal intention belongs to the domain of mind, vocal sound and written words belong to the domain of form. Because form directly manifests mind, the written characters of the Lotus Sutra are not dead ink on paper; they are the living embodiment of the Buddha’s “pure, far-reaching voice” (bonnonjō / brahmasvara), which conveys the Buddha’s awakened mind. This insight underpins three key dimensions of Nichiren’s ritual thought:
Consecrating Images (Kaigen Kuyō): A carved wooden or painted image of the Buddha possesses thirty-one of the Buddha’s thirty-two physical marks, lacking only the thirty-second: the pure, far-reaching voice that expresses mind. Nichiren critiqued esoteric (Shingon) eye-opening rituals that relied on mantras of Mahāvairocana (Dainichi), arguing that because they fail to instill the eternal Buddha’s voice, they leave the statue an inert block of wood—a “masterless house” (nushi naki ie) easily occupied by delusive forces. Placing the Lotus Sutra before an image, however, endows it with the Buddha’s voice and mind, turning lifeless matter into the living Buddha.
The Buddhahood of Grasses and Trees (Sōmoku Jōbutsu): Because insentient nature—including the trees and plants used to make wooden statues and paper scrolls—is fully encompassed within the three thousand realms (ichinen sanzen), consecrating them with the Lotus Sutra awakens the innate Buddha-nature of the physical world itself.
Postmortem Buddhahood (Sokushin Jōbutsu): When the words of the Lotus Sutra are chanted over the physical remains of the deceased (hone no tamashii to naseba), the non-duality of body and mind transforms the physical remains into the Dharma body (hosshin), enabling the practitioner to realize Buddhahood with this very body even in death and continue dwelling in the eternal presence of the Buddha on Eagle Peak.
Synthesizing the Path: A Unified Living Practice
When we step back and view all three parts of our exploration together, the grand architecture of Nichiren Buddhism comes into sharp focus. Practice is built upon two inseparable pillars embodied through the Three Great Secret Dharmas:
The Inward Pillar (Makoto): Continuously polishing the mirror of the mind through chanting Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, dispelling innate ignorance (mumyō), and recognizing that our own life at this very moment encompasses all three thousand realms (ichinen sanzen).
The Outward Pillar (The Heart of Faith): Expressing that inner awakening in the physical world by upholding the Gohonzon, refuting error (shakubuku), and purifying our society and environment (kokudo seken) through compassionate engagement.
Personal enlightenment and social responsibility are never two separate tracks. They are the simultaneous internal and external expressions of the Middle Way (chūdō). By chanting Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō with sincere faith, we shatter the illusion of separation between self and Buddha, mind and land, converting our ordinary daily lives into an enduring realm of wisdom, peace, and light.
The Writer, Gemini NotebookWhile the inward dimension of Nichiren Buddhist practice centers on Makoto—perceiving our innate Buddha-nature and polishing the mirror of the mind—this internal realization is never meant to be a solitary retreat from the world. For Nichiren Shōnin, inward sincerity (Makoto) and outward devotion (The Heart of Faith) are non-dual facets of a single living practice. True faith is a dynamic force that demands visible expression in the physical, social, and political world.
Why must personal contemplation translate into social responsibility? The answer lies in the Buddhist understanding of how human consciousness shapes the physical environment itself.
The Non-Duality of Mind and Land (Kokudo Seken)
The vital link between individual practice and social reality is grounded in the Mahayana principle of eshō funi—the non-duality of the living subject and their environment, or the “realm of the land” (kokudo seken). Because the environment mirrors the life-condition of those who inhabit it, beings perceive and experience their surroundings according to their internal state. Citing the Vimalakīrti Sutra in On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Nichiren emphasizes that if the minds of living beings are impure, their land is likewise impure; if their minds are pure, their land becomes pure. There are not two separate lands, pure or impure in themselves; the difference lies entirely in the good or evil of our minds.
This principle forms the backbone of Nichiren’s famous 1260 admonitory treatise, Risshō Ankoku Ron (Treatise on Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land). Confronted by a relentless wave of thirteenth-century catastrophes—rampant pestilence, devastating famines, violent earthquakes, comets, and unseasonable storms—Nichiren rejected the notion that these were arbitrary natural disasters. Instead, he demonstrated through scriptural evidence that social collapse and environmental upheaval stem directly from hōbō, or “disparaging the Dharma”—the rejection of the all-encompassing truth of the Lotus Sutra in favor of provisional, one-sided teachings.
To substantiate his diagnosis, Nichiren cited four core Mahayana scriptures in the Risshō Ankoku Ron:
The Golden Light Sutra (Konkōmyō kyō): Explains that when a ruler ignores the true Dharma, the four heavenly kings and benevolent deities abandon the realm, cutting off the sweet dew of truth. Consequently, pestilence spreads, comets appear, two suns shine side by side, and foreign invaders plunder the nation.
The Great Collection Sutra (Daishitsu kyō): Describes how the decay of the Dharma causes the earth to shake like a waterwheel, city walls to crumble, and natural elements to lose their vitality and medicinal properties, while drought withers crops and the ten evil acts flourish.
The Benevolent Kings Sutra (Nin’ō kyō): Outlines the seven severe disasters (shichi nan) triggered by societal disorder, including unseasonable winds, red or black suns, freak floods, monstrous fires, internal revolt, and foreign aggression.
The Medicine Master Sutra (Yakushi kyō): Enumerates the seven calamities that befall a nation, specifically highlighting widespread disease among the populace, foreign invasion, internal rebellion, and irregularities among the stars and constellations.
Nichiren traced the root of this spiritual crisis in his own time to Hōnen’s (1133–1212) Pure Land treatise, Senchaku hongan nembutsu shū (Senchaku shū). By urging people to “discard, close, ignore, and abandon” (shiki-hei-kaku-datsu) the Lotus Sutra and all other Mahayana practices in favor of exclusive reliance on the Amida Nembutsu, Hōnen’s teaching negated the innate dignity of the present world in favor of rebirth after death in a distant land. Nichiren argued that turning away from the supreme vehicle of the Lotus Sutra caused the tutelary deities (shoten zenjin) to desert the country, allowing destructive forces to enter. Purifying the objective environment, therefore, requires purifying the subjective human mind through faith in the Lotus Sutra.
Shakubuku, Shikidoku, and the Mountain of Gold
Because attachment to misleading doctrines inflicts tangible suffering on society, Nichiren viewed shakubuku—an assertive method of propagation that directly refutes attachments to inferior or erroneous views—as an act of bodhisattva compassion. Rather than adopting a passive stance, the practitioner confronts ideologies that devalue human potential or teach people to seek liberation outside their own lives.
Naturally, challenging established religious and political authorities invited fierce opposition, exile, and persecution from the Kamakura military government (Bakufu). Yet Nichiren found deep soteriological meaning in enduring these hardships. He termed this shikidoku—”bodily reading” of the sutra—living out the scriptural prophecies with one’s own body and life rather than merely reciting the words with the mouth.
To sustain this commitment, Nichiren distinguished between two qualities of faith in the Recorded Lectures (Onkō kikigaki):
Faith like Fire: Passionate and intense at the outset, but easily extinguished when confronted by external obstacles or intellectual doubts.
Faith like Flowing Water: Quiet, steady, and continuous, flowing day and night without ever slackening in its course.
True faith, Nichiren declared in The Opening of the Eyes (Kaimoku-shō), must stand like a mountain of gold, which only shines brighter when a wild boar brushes against it. Vowing to remain unmoved even if threatened with execution, he famously proclaimed: “I will be the pillar of Japan; I will be the eyes of Japan; I will be the great ship of Japan.”
The Historical Continuum of Social Engagement
As scholar Jacqueline Stone has documented, Nichiren’s vision of transforming the present world into a Buddha land (risshō ankoku) inspired diverse lay and monastic movements in the modern era, each interpreting his call to social engagement through vastly different lenses:
Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939) and Nichirenshugi: Founding the Risshō Ankokukai (later the Kokuchūkai, or “Pillar of the Nation Society”), Tanaka rejected quietist temple formalism in favor of active lay proselytizing. However, he reconfigured Nichiren’s medieval concepts to align with modern Japanese imperial nationalism (kokutai), equating the Three Great Secret Dharmas with national principles drawn from the Nihon shoki and founding the Rikken Yōseikai political party in 1923.
Toda Jōsei (1900–1958) and the Postwar Sōka Gakkai: After founder Makiguchi Tsunesaburō (1871–1944) died in prison for opposing wartime Shinto state controls, Toda rebuilt the Sōka Gakkai in the postwar democratic era. Through grassroots discussion groups (zadankai) and the “great march of shakubuku,” Toda reframed kōsen-rufu (wide propagation of the Dharma) as a democratic movement to eliminate human suffering and establish Buddhist humanism in society.
Ecumenical Peace and Pacifist Movements: Other modern expressions took markedly different paths. Risshō Kōsei-kai, co-founded by Niwano Nikkyō, built a massive lay movement dedicated to interfaith dialogue, environmental preservation, and United Nations relief work. Meanwhile, the monastic order Nipponzan Myōhōji, founded by Fujii Nittatsu, embraced absolute pacifism, conducting global peace marches and anti-nuclear campaigns while chanting the daimoku.
Whether in thirteenth-century Kamakura or the modern world, the Heart of Faith refuses to leave enlightenment in the realm of theory. Yet for this union of inner sincerity and outer action to endure in daily life, it requires concrete ritual instruments.
The Writer, Gemini NotebookWhen we examine the religious praxis established by Nichiren Shōnin (1222–1282) in thirteenth-century Japan, we encounter a path that demands a seamless bridge between internal self-realization and external devotion. At the heart of this inward dimension is Makoto—sincere, inherent truth. Far from being a passive moral sentiment or abstract goodness, Makoto is the radical, lived recognition that our ordinary life, at this exact moment, is inherently the Mystic Dharma (myōhō).
To understand how an ordinary practitioner awakens to this truth amidst the illusions of daily life, we must look closely at how Nichiren synthesizes the architecture of reality, the nature of the mind, and the transformative power of faith.
The Epistemology of Myōhō-renge-kyō
In his foundational treatise On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime (Ittai motai sokushin jōbutsu gi), Nichiren establishes that Myōhō-renge-kyō is neither an external deity nor a distant philosophical abstraction. Rather, it is the mystic truth originally inherent in all living beings:
Myō signifies the mysterious, incomprehensible nature of life from moment to moment. Transcending the binary concepts of existence and nonexistence while exhibiting the qualities of both, it is the mystic entity of the Middle Way (chūdō) that words cannot fully articulate.
Hō represents the phenomenal manifestations of life that continuously arise from this incomprehensible essence.
Renge (the lotus flower) symbolizes the wonder and simultaneity of cause and effect (in’ga tōji) inherent within the Dharma, where the cause of practice (the nine realms) and the effect of enlightenment (Buddhahood) exist at the exact same moment.
Kyō represents the sutra, or the ongoing realization that one’s life at every moment is intrinsically the Mystic Dharma.
The Trap of External Seeking
If the Mystic Dharma is our very life, how do we access it? For Nichiren, faith is the cognitive and spiritual engine that unlocks this reality. To exercise faith means summoning unyielding conviction while chanting Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, recognizing that the Dharma is never separate from oneself.
Nichiren draws an uncompromising line between seeking the Dharma within one’s own entity versus seeking it outside oneself. He warns that even if we chant Myōhō-renge-kyō and engage in sacred practices, if we regard the Dharma as existing outside our own lives, we reduce the Mystic Dharma to an “inferior teaching” (kejō). Nichiren classifies non-Lotus Sutra doctrines as expedient, provisional teachings (hōben gonkyō) precisely because they fail to disclose the direct, mutually inclusive relationship between the individual mind and ultimate reality.
Seeking enlightenment outside oneself turns Buddhist practice into an endless, painful austerity. Nichiren famously compares such external seeking to a poor person who spends day and night counting a neighbor’s wealth without ever gaining a single coin—a deluded, non-Buddhist (gedō) approach that remains blind to the treasure already residing within. As he similarly reminded his follower Nichinyo regarding the Gohonzon: “Never seek this gohonzon outside yourself. It exists only in the fleshly heart within the breasts of us ordinary persons who embrace the Lotus Sūtra and chant Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō.”
Ichinen Sanzen: The Universe in a Single Moment of Life
To explain how ultimate truth is contained within an ordinary person, Nichiren draws upon the Tiantai principle of ichinen sanzen—”three thousand realms in a single moment of life” (or thought-moment). First set forth by the Chinese master Zhiyi, and described by Nichiren as “the father and mother of the buddhas,” ichinen sanzen articulates the holistic interrelation of the mind and all phenomena.
A single moment of life is never an isolated mental state. It simultaneously encompasses body and mind, self and environment, and all sentient beings across the Ten Worlds—from hell-dwellers and hungry ghosts up to bodhisattvas and Buddhas. Furthermore, it contains all insentient entities across the three thousand realms: plants, the sky, the earth, and the minutest particles of dust. Because the smallest phenomenon (a single thought-moment) and the entire cosmos (three thousand realms) mutually interpenetrate without losing their individual identities, there is no ontological separation between the internal subject and the external universe. Awakening to this mutual inclusion makes Buddhahood accessible in the immediate present rather than after countless kalpas of effort.
Polishing the Tarnished Mirror
If we are inherently endowed with the Buddha-nature, why do we experience suffering and delusion? In On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Nichiren answers this through the vivid metaphor of the tarnished mirror. A Buddha and an ordinary being (shōji) are not two distinct entities, but two states of a single entity:
Dimension
Deluded Mind (Tarnished Mirror)
Enlightened Mind (Polished Mirror)
Ontological State & Self-Perception
Clouded by the illusions of fundamental ignorance (mumyō or ganbon no mumyō). The individual views themselves as an ordinary being (shōji) separated from ultimate reality, mistakenly seeking the Dharma outside their own life.
Cleared of obscurations through diligent practice. The practitioner recognizes their own life as the inherent Buddha, understanding that the entity of their mind is intrinsically Myōhō-renge-kyō.
Perception of Reality
Distorted and fragmented; views subject, environment, and external phenomena as separate, dualistic entities, remaining blind to the interpenetration of the three thousand realms.
Accurate and non-dual; brilliantly reflects the essential nature of phenomena (hōshō) and the true aspect of reality (jissō), seeing self and environment as mutually inclusive.
Soteriological Method & Outcome
Engages in external practices and provisional disciplines, resulting in an endless, painful austerity that fails to eradicate grave offenses or achieve liberation.
Continuously polished day and night solely by chanting Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō with deep faith, directly realizing Buddhahood in this lifetime (sokushin jōbutsu).
Polishing the mirror does not mean replacing our mind with something foreign. By chanting the daimoku with deep confidence, we wipe away the accumulated dust of fundamental ignorance (mumyō) to reveal the inherently pure mirror of Buddhahood that has been shining within us all along.
Yet in Nichiren Buddhism, internal sincerity (Makoto) can never remain an isolated, private contemplation. Because self and environment are fundamentally nondual, polishing the inward mirror naturally demands outward expression in how we engage the world around us.
After reading Gemini Notebook’s “Becoming the Very Manifestation-Body” and “All Within the Five Characters of Myō-Hō-Ren-Ge-Kyō” I’m forced to concede that what I want to see in Nichiren Shu Buddhism, a focus on acting consciously toward being more Buddhalike, radiating the Four Sublime Attitudes or even emulating the Six Perfections, is just not what Nichiren taught in 13th century Japan.
What does it mean to say, “When you chant Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō with sincere faith, your daily conduct becomes the very manifestation-body of the Buddha”? Does it really transform Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity from abstract ideals into a living, social reality? Or what about “by embracing the Odaimoku, these Four Sublime Attitudes naturally emerge from within your own Buddha-nature and illuminate your daily thoughts, words, and actions”?
I was introduced to the Daimoku through Sōka Gakkai, and I attended meetings and did SGI activities for more than 35 years. In all of that time, I simply do not recall ever being instructed that “the inner transformation achieved through chanting Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō must express itself in tangible daily behavior—fostering community harmony, promoting peace education, and engaging in grassroots volunteerism.”
Need something? Chant. Didn’t get what you want? You didn’t chant enough. That’s what I remember of SGI instruction. I did read a little about Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’s Value Creation Education Study Association, but I never read any of Daisaku Ikeda’s Human Revolution books. I was simply unable to get past my own dislike for the cult of personality that surrounded everything SGI. My loss apparently.
After completing “Becoming the Very Manifestation-Body” and “All Within the Five Characters of Myō-Hō-Ren-Ge-Kyō” I asked Gemini Notebook to write a simulated debate between a person who relies solely on Nichiren’s writings and another who seeks a more socially engaged Buddhism. I didn’t like the results of either attempt so I took the Gemini Notebook debate drafts and asked Gemini Flash to convert those into a story in the style of Kenji Miyazawa.
Kenji-Miyazawa-cottage
Beyond the edge of the blue-black larch forest, where the autumn wind whistled through the telegraph poles like the reed pipes of an invisible organ, stood an old wooden schoolhouse painted the pale color of mountain mist. Inside, the kerosene lamp cast a warm, round pool of amber across the cedar floorboards.
Three figures sat near the hearth, listening to the crackle of pinecones.
The first was Arata, whose dark robes were brushed clean and whose posture was as upright and unyielding as a basalt pillar. The second was Ren, whose sleeves were rolled high, smelling of river mud and freshly turned field soil, his eyes reflecting the sharp, restless twinkle of the evening stars. Between them sat Sensei, an aged monk with salt and pepper hair, quietly rubbing his tea bowl between his weathered palms.
Upon the table lay an open scroll, where the ink of Nichiren’s letter to the samurai lay bold and clear. Sensei traced the characters with one slender finger, reading aloud the words that burned with ancient urgency: “The true purpose of Śākyamuni Buddha appearing in this world was to teach us how to behave ourselves on a daily basis.”
Arata folded his hands, pressing his palms together in gasshō, his voice ringing like a deep bell in a frosty valley.
“Sensei,” Arata began earnestly, “to know what conduct is required of us, we must look nowhere other than the sacred foundation left by Nichiren Shōnin. The writings of the founder are the controlling standard for daily conduct. Nichiren taught that human life is not an airy, subjective drifting, but an altar. When one kneels before the Gohonzon and chants Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, the physical body becomes the Dharma-body, the mind becomes the reward-body, and daily behavior becomes the living manifestation-body of the Tathāgata. Therefore, if we ask what Śākyamuni or Nichiren would do each day, it means acting as explicitly commanded in the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren’s Gosho writings. It means submitting every morning and evening to the Three Great Secret Laws, guarding against the eight winds of worldly delusion, and refusing to dilute the diamond chalice precept for modern convenience. Without strict fidelity to the sacred texts, religion dissolves into mere secular humanism and moral laxity. True compassion cannot merely fawn; it must preserve shakubuku, fearlessly rebuking error to protect the Dharma from slander!”
The wind shuddered outside, tossing the dry birch leaves against the paper screens.
Ren leaned forward across the hearth, his breath clouding softly in the cool room. “Arata, my dear friend,” Ren said gently, his fingers still dusted with the loam of the village gardens. “Look out into the street. The world today is not Kamakura, nor are we feudal retainers carrying broadswords for our lords. If you bind the Living Dharma only to the letters of the thirteenth century, you make the Buddha a dusty relic trapped in an ancient cabinet. The spirit of the Lotus Sutra must be liberated from 13th-century feudal norms!”
Ren looked toward the window, where the constellation of the Swan was ascending like a river of silver quartz into the night sky.
“Nichiren himself upheld zuihō ni’ni—the principle that one must adapt to regional customs and changing times so long as the fundamental truth is preserved. Nichiren taught that the time governs propagation. In an era of global division, weapons that can turn cities to ash, and deep ecological tears across our shared earth, how can we reduce conduct to imitating medieval social hierarchies or shouting polemics? When I consider the Buddha’s daily conduct, it means living the practice of Bodhisattva Never-Despising. It is Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta, who bowed low before every beggar, farmer, and passerby on the dusty road, seeing their luminous Buddha-nature even when they threw stones and sticks at him. Because of eshō funi—the nonduality of living beings and their environment—our daily behavior must step out of the shrine room to heal the world, ending war, feeding the hungry, and respecting every human being as an equal child of the Buddha.”
The hearth was quiet. The shadows of the three men swayed gently against the wall like three traveler pines.
Sensei set his tea bowl down upon the wooden board. A soft smile gathered at the corners of his eyes, warm as an ember beneath the winter ash.
“Listen, Arata. Listen, Ren,” Sensei whispered, gesturing toward the dark night outside. “Above the roof, the great geese are flying south across the Milky Way. Do you see them?”
The two disciples looked up toward the sound of faint, wild cries traveling high through the crystal atmosphere.
“A wild goose cannot cross the frosty mountains without steady mind and a compassionate heart,” Sensei said softly. “These empower the two wings.”
He turned first toward Arata.
“Arata, your devotion is the bird’s mind. It holds steady amidst the roaring whirlpools of worldly vanity and shallow fashion. Without the sacred chant—Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō — without reverence before the Gohonzon and the iron resolve of the founder’s vows, the mind drifts into confusion, mistaking its own fleeting whims for the voice of the Buddha. You remind us that our roots must run deep into the bedrock of faith and correct practice.”
Then Sensei turned to Ren, his eyes shining with profound tenderness.
“And Ren, your compassionate labor is the bird’s heart. You remind us that the seed of Buddhahood was never meant to be locked inside a wooden storehouse, but sown into the muddy furrows of human suffering. Without Bodhisattva Never-Despising’s bow, without standing up against cruelty and working to build a peaceful land—Risshō Ankoku—in the living present, the Dharma becomes an empty shell, oblivious to the tears of our neighbors.”
Sensei reached out, placing one hand over Arata’s folded palms and the other over Ren’s work-worn fingers.
“There is ample room for both tradition and reform in our daily footsteps,” Sensei said. “They are not adversaries; they are the inner breath and the outer deed. When you sit before the Gohonzon, let Arata’s faithful mind secure you in the ancient truth. And when you step out through the wooden gate at sunrise, into the kitchen, the rice field, the school, or the bustling city street, let Ren’s heart guide your hands to revere the Buddha-nature in every soul you meet. When you chant Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, the mind and the heart become one. That is how ordinary people in this fragile world live out the true purpose of the Buddha’s appearance.”
Outside, the autumn wind blew clear and sweet over the mountain ridge, carrying the fragrance of damp soil and dried silver grass beneath the endless sea of glittering stars. The two disciples bowed their heads together, their breath rising as one gentle mist in the quiet schoolhouse.
This is the prompt used to generate this Gemini Notebook article: What did Nichiren have to say about the Four Sublime Attitudes?
Four_Infinite_Virtues
The Writer, Gemini NotebookIn the Buddhist tradition, the Four Sublime Attitudes—often referred to as the Four Infinite Virtues (Brahmavihārās or ji, hi, ki, sha in Japanese)—are Lovingkindness (ji), Compassion (hi), Sympathetic Joy (ki), and Equanimity(sha). Throughout his writings, Nichiren Shōnin reinterpreted these classical virtues through the lens of the Lotus Sutra, demonstrating how they transition from gradual, theoretical meditations into an active, living force accessible to everyone in the Latter Day of the Dharma (mappō).
Lovingkindness (Ji) and Compassion (Hi)
In traditional Buddhist commentaries, lovingkindness (ji) is defined as the desire to bestow happiness upon living beings, while compassion (hi) is the drive to relieve them of their suffering. Nichiren Shōnin notes that in pre-Lotus teachings, cultivating these states was often presented as a specialized practice aimed at attaining rebirth in the Brahmā heavens. However, in the era of mappō, Nichiren Shōnin taught that the supreme expression of great compassion (daijihi) is not merely offering temporary material relief, but bestowing the ultimate medicine of the Dharma—Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō—which strikes at the root of human suffering and awakens the inherent Buddha-nature within all people.
Nichiren Shōnin emphasized that true compassion frequently requires courage and firmness. Citing the Nirvāṇa Sutra and the commentaries of Chang-an, he explained that correcting spiritual errors and refuting distortions is the highest form of parental love:
“If one befriends another but lacks the compassion to correct him, one is in fact that person’s enemy. But one who reprimands and corrects an offender… is the Buddha’s true disciple. In removing the offender’s evil, he acts like that person’s parent.”
By admonishing fundamental errors that lead to spiritual misery, a practitioner acts out of deep, protective compassion to guide living beings toward lasting peace and liberation.
Sympathetic Joy (Ki)
In classical formulations, sympathetic joy (ki) refers to rejoicing in the happiness, virtue, and liberation of others without envy. In Nichiren Shōnin’s Lotus Sutra hermeneutic, this virtue is elevated through the concept of responding with joy (zuiki).
In Chapter 18 (“Benefits of Responding with Joy”) and Chapter 10 (“Teacher of the Dharma”) of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha declares that even a single thought-moment of joy (ichinen zuiki) upon hearing the Lotus Sutra or its title guarantees eventual Buddhahood. Furthermore, Nichiren Shōnin often spoke of immense joy (daikangi) in the context of personal practice. For a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, experiencing hardships or opposition for the sake of the Dharma is not a cause for despair, but an occasion for profound joy, as it confirms that one is actively living the prophecies of the sutra and fulfilling the mission of a true votary.
Equanimity and Impartiality (Sha)
Equanimity (sha) represents an unshakeable, balanced mind that has released attachments to hatred, favoritism, and worldly fluctuations. In the Lotus Sutra, this impartiality is manifested as the universal transmission of the One Vehicle.
Nichiren Shōnin emphasized that the Lotus Sutra acts as an equal “Dharma rain” (ichi-mi no u) that falls indiscriminately upon all living beings—men and women, wise and unlearned, good and evil—guaranteeing universal enlightenment without exception.
In daily life, equanimity is expressed by remaining unmoved by the eight winds (happū):
Prosperous gain and decline
Disgrace and honor
Praise and censure
Suffering and pleasure
Nichiren Shōnin taught that a true sage neither takes arrogant delight in worldly triumph nor falls into despair during times of hardship. To wear the “robe of gentleness and forbearance” is to maintain serene equanimity and patience while upholding faith amidst all life’s trials.
Direct Realization Through the Odaimoku
While traditional paths required eons of arduous meditation to perfect these four infinite states, Nichiren Shōnin revealed that all the virtues, causes, and effects of Śākyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment—including the Four Infinite Virtues and the six pāramitās—are fully contained within the five characters of Myō-Hō-Ren-Ge-Kyō.
When you chant Namu-Myōhō-Ren-Ge-Kyō with sincere faith, the Buddha spontaneously transfers the merit of all these virtues to your life. You do not need to seek Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, or Equanimity as distant, external ideals; by embracing the Odaimoku, these four sublime attitudes naturally emerge from within your own Buddha-nature and illuminate your daily thoughts, words, and actions.
This is the prompt used to generate this Gemini Notebook article: Considering Charles Sheldon’s 1896 novel “In His Steps,” are there any similar movements in Nichiren Buddhism that seek to have those who chant Namu-Myoho-renge-kyo embrace the four Sublime Attitudes or other fundamental Buddhist practices?
Person_chanting_and_community_activism
The Writer, Gemini NotebookCharles Sheldon’s 1896 Social Gospel novel In His Steps introduced the famous question, “What Would Jesus Do?”, inspiring believers to move beyond passive theology and apply Christian ethics directly to economic inequality, poverty, and social reform. In Nichiren Buddhism, a remarkably parallel impulse exists—one that seeks to translate faith in Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō into active social transformation, human rights, and the alleviation of suffering.
This social imperative is rooted in Nichiren Shōnin’s foundational principle of Risshō Ankoku (“Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land”). Based on the Mahāyāna doctrine of the nonduality of life and environment (eshō funi), Nichiren Shōnin taught that personal spiritual practice cannot be separated from the state of society. Where the Lotus Sutra is embraced, the physical and social world is transformed into a peaceful Buddha land.
Throughout the 20th century and into the present day, several key movements within Nichiren Buddhism have sought to operationalize this vision, challenging practitioners to embody the four sublime attitudes—Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity—in direct response to societal crises.
Girō Senoo & The Emerging Buddhist Youth League (Buddhist Socialism)
The closest historical parallel to Sheldon’s Social Gospel movement arose in the 1930s with Girō Senoo (1890–1961) and the Emerging Buddhist Youth League (Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei).
Deeply moved by the plight of impoverished tenant farmers, urban laborers, and economic crises during the Interwar period, Senoo declared that he wished to “throw off Saint Nichiren’s old coat”—by which he meant stripping away stagnant, institutional clericalism to revive Nichiren Shōnin’s radical, compassionate spirit for the modern era.
Under the banners of “faith and love” and social justice, Senoo argued that preaching abstract sermons while ignoring real-world exploitation was contrary to the Buddha’s intent. He mobilized young Lotus Sutra followers to intervene in labor disputes, defend impoverished agricultural workers, and critique rampant greed, seeking to establish an earthly Buddha land founded on economic equality and human dignity.
Nipponzan Myōhōji & Ven. Nichidatsu Fujii (Active Pacifism & Civil Rights)
Founded by Ven. Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), Nipponzan Myōhōji is a monastic and lay movement that takes the chanting of the Odaimoku directly into the streets as a form of non-violent social protest (shugyō).
Appalled by the devastation of World War II and the atomic bombings, Fujii embraced absolute non-violence, taking the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta (Jōfukyō or “Never Disrespectful”) as the ultimate model for daily behavior. In the Lotus Sutra, Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta bowed in reverence to every person he met—even those who reviled or attacked him—recognizing their innate Buddha-nature.
Nipponzan Myōhōji monastics and lay followers embody “What Would A Buddha Do?” by conducting long peace marches, beating hand-drums (uchiwa daiko) while chanting Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, actively opposing nuclear proliferation, supporting Native American civil rights struggles, and building Peace Pagodas worldwide as beacons of universal harmony.
Modern Lay Movements & “Buddhism in Daily Life” (Risshō Kōsei-kai & Sōka Gakkai)
In the postwar era, large lay organizations emerged to bridge the gap between sacred chanting and civic responsibility:
Risshō Kōsei-kai: Co-founded by Nikkyō Niwano, this organization interprets the parables of the Lotus Sutra as direct directives for peace, human rights, and personal development. They instituted the “Donate One Meal” campaign—where members regularly skip a meal and donate the savings toward UNICEF, disaster relief, and international poverty alleviation—and engage extensively in United Nations peace initiatives.
Sōka Gakkai: Championed the concept of “Human Revolution” (ningen kakumei) and the ethos that “Buddhism is daily life.” This framework teaches that the inner transformation achieved through chanting Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō must express itself in tangible daily behavior—fostering community harmony, promoting peace education, and engaging in grassroots volunteerism.
The Core Principle: Faith Expressed as Daily Behavior (Shugyō)
All of these movements draw their ultimate legitimacy from Nichiren Shōnin’s insistence that true faith is measured by how one treats others in daily life. Citing the Sushun Tennō Gosho, Nichiren Shōnin reminded his follower Shijō Kingo that “the true purpose of Śākyamuni Buddha appearing in this world was to teach us how to behave ourselves on a daily basis.”
Just as Charles Sheldon called on Christians to ask “What Would Jesus Do?” in every social decision, Nichiren Shōnin taught that when you chant Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō with sincere faith, your daily conduct becomes the very manifestation-body (niryāna-kāya) of the Buddha—transforming Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity from abstract ideals into a living, social reality.
I’m convinced there are no coincidences. Just as I was considering What Would A Buddha Do and Charles Sheldon’s Social Gospel, a book arrived in the mail. I had ordered this book a month before from the Princeton University Press and forgotten about it.
The book is “How to Truly Love: An Ancient Guide to a Life of Kindness.” This is a translation of the 5th century Indian Theravada scholar Buddhaghosa’s ninth chapter of his Path of Purification. Maria Heim offers an introduction followed by a Sanskrit and English bilingual explanation of the Four Sublime Attitudes – Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity.
In her introduction, Heim points out that these attitudes are a vehicle that delivers genuine freedom:
Love, and related experiences like compassion and sympathy, not only benefit others–they also free our own minds from the constrictions and distortions of anger, hatred, envy, discontent, cruelty, and indifference that otherwise enslave us and make us miserable. Love, sympathy, and compassion can cast off these painful shackles and replace them with the freedom to flourish in solidarity with others.
How To Truly Love, Page xiii
The best way to imagine the Four Sublime Attitudes is to consider a mother with four children.
She feels lovingkindness toward the little one, wanting him to flourish; she feels compassion toward the sick child, wanting him to get well; she feels sympathetic joy toward the youth, rejoicing in his beauty and success; and she feels equanimity toward her grown-up son as he manages his own affairs (though she has, of course, never stopped loving him). The challenge is to take these very natural dispositions that we already feel toward our loved ones and extend them further and further out toward mere acquaintances, and then even hostile people, extending them eventually in every direction universally. The more we can do so, the more both we and those we encounter in the world are flooded with these happy and peaceful experiences.
How To Truly Love, Page xv-xvi
It is the expansion of these attitudes beyond immediate family to the entire world that is the challenge. In the context of Nichiren’s teachings, this is what’s meant by concentrating on the 3,000 Existences in a Single Thought Moment.
As we will see with all of the sublime attitudes, the attitude must be directed toward a specific someone, a living flesh-and-blood person toward whom you can get the emotion flowing. There is nothing abstract about this practice: it involves real emotions toward specific beings (“beings” is mentioned advisedly, as it is not just humans toward whom we will want to feel universal friendliness).
You’ll want to start where it is easy and the emotion comes naturally. We will see that Buddhaghosa does not think that you should start with enemies or even neutrals, because feeling lovingkindness toward them is just too hard at first. Instead, you should start by feeling lovingkindness toward yourself since it is very easy to long for your own happiness. The idea is to get kindness flowing, for a mind full of kindness can’t at the same time hold hate or anger. There may also be deeper psychological truth in his insisting, against possible detractors, on starting with loving yourself. He perceives that those who hate themselves can never truly love another. It may be that much hatred, cruelty, and apathy are, at bottom, the result of self-loathing.
How To Truly Love, Page 3-4
It is also very interesting how the concept of Emptiness – no self – is utilized here.
Persons are real up to a point, but on closer analysis they are only a collection of constantly changing momentary events. So the person I am angry with now is not the “same” person who initially caused me distress. Like me, they are changing all the time, and like me, they are conditioned by a complex set of processes that I can disaggregate and analyze. In fact, looking for the stable, unchanging essence of this person on which to target my anger (and anger always wants a target), I find that they dissolve into these changing parts. Toward whom, toward what, am I actually angry?
How To Truly Love, Page 10
Lovingkindness negates anger and compassion seeks to eliminate the suffering of others.
Compassion is wanting that someone suffering will be relieved of it. As with lovingkindness, one works gradually to feel compassion universally toward all beings. But to start, one begins with where it is easiest, and again with a concrete and specific person. Buddhaghosa thinks that even the most hard-hearted among us will be moved when we see a truly wretched person with hands and feet cut off and begging on the street, so we should start here to get the feeling flowing. But failing to find such a person (and we should hope such sights never occur!), we still need an actual being to focus on as the object of our compassion.
Here he takes a perhaps surprising turn: start with a guilty criminal being led to his death. Buddhaghosa thinks that reflecting on this person, who may seem to be happy as he eats the delicacies of his last meal, will be an easy object of compassion. No one will think he is actually happy as he faces his executioner; anyone considering the horror of his impending death will react with dismay. Unlike many Western conceptions of compassion, there is no sense that compassion should be directed only toward innocents, those who do not “deserve” their suffering.
How To Truly Love, Page 126-127
Sympathetic joy is simply sharing with the joys of others, even your enemies.
It is your genuine delight when good things happen to others, even to your enemies. Sympathetic joy is the removal of envy and discontent, both of which can be ubiquitous and often largely unrecognized features of our lives.
Western moral sense theorists also note that we often sympathize with happy others. We can readily shift from a sour mood when arriving at a joyful party or hearing a friend’s good news. Parents enjoy unalloyed happiness at their children’s success. What would life be like if we expanded these feelings, and shared the pleasure of all beings? Buddhaghosa recommends starting with the fun-loving pal whose easy cheerfulness is infectious. Once the feeling flows, we can extend it to others, with each new embrace of joy breaking down the walls of our own narrow self-regard, envy, and discontent.
How To Truly Love, Page 142-143
The final Sublime Attitude is equanimity. This should never be confused with apathy.
Equanimity is to be built on the foundation of the other three – only when one has flooded all beings equally with lovingkindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy should one step back from these warm feelings and aim for a less reactive and more peaceful attention to beings. Since the first three attitudes involve sizing up the experiences of other beings with strong feelings about them, they involve judgments. Such judgments of “resentment and approval” are, Buddhaghosa says, “too close.” In contrast, equanimity involves stepping back and cultivating a feeling of impartiality, equality, and neutrality toward others. It stays unruffled through the ups and downs of beings’ experience. And it reminds us of the Buddhist aspirations to achieve, perhaps above all, the freedom that comes from a truly peaceful mind.
How To Truly Love, Page 150-151
In Nichiren Buddhism, the ideal way to practice is demonstrated by Never-Despising Bodhisattva. Can we truly see the Buddha nature in all beings without manifesting Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity? Without the Four Sublime Attitudes, are we truly bowing to the inherent Buddha nature in all beings?
That work prompted a visitor to tell me, “I don’t understand how chanting the Odaimoku substitutes for the Eightfold Path.” I answered with my Faith and Practice in Nichiren Buddhism, which included four Gemini Notebook discussions of what Nichiren taught about practice. The final article included this:
Strict practice is not a works-based means to attain a future Buddhahood, but rather the active, necessary expression of a Buddhahood that is already inherently present within you.
But what constitutes an expression of that inherent Buddhahood? How should my life display this expression of Buddhahood?
For many years I have suggested Nichiren Buddhists should focus on demonstrating the Six Perfections – charity, morality, patience, vigor, meditation and wisdom. But my work in Gemini Notebook convinced me that Nichiren would not have focused there. For the Fall Higan week I explained why followers of Nichiren don’t need to adhere to these provisional teachings. (See “Nichiren Shōnin’s Teachings on the Six Perfections”)
And so I’m still trying to visualize how followers of the Lotus Sutra can express this inherent Buddhahood that is activated by chanting Namu-Myoho-renge-kyo.
This is all a way of introducing why I recently explored the “What Would Jesus Do?” movement. Not the 1990s evangelical fad, but the original Social Gospel movement spawned by Congregationalist minister Charles Sheldon’s 1896 bestselling novel “In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?”
There are many parallels between the end of the 19th century and today.
The visitor to the church who inspired the movement was a homeless man:
“I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on account of those machines. Of course, I don’t blame the newspapers for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I never learned but the one trade, and that’s all I can do. I’ve tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a good many others like me. I’m not complaining, am I? Just stating facts. But I was wondering, as I sat there under the gallery, if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as what he taught. What did he mean when he said, ‘Follow me?’ The minister said” here the man turned about and looked up at the pulpit “that it was necessary for the disciple of Jesus to follow his steps, and he said the steps were obedience, faith, love and imitation.”
In His Steps, Page 13
Henry Maxwell, the pastor in the novel who starts the “What Would Jesus Do?” crusade, offers this after the movement starts applying Christian ethics directly to social problems like poverty, labor exploitation, and economic inequality, seeking to improve the material conditions of the marginalized:
“What would Jesus do?” Suppose that were the motto, not only of the churches but of the business men, the politicians, the newspapers, the working men, the society people – how long would it take, under such a standard of conduct, to revolutionize the world? What was the trouble with the world? It was suffering from selfishness. No one ever lived who had succeeded in overcoming selfishness like Jesus. If men followed Him, regardless of results, the world would at once begin to enjoy a new life.”
In His Steps, Page 251
As a child in the 1950s and 1960s I attended the Pacoima Congregational Church in Los Angeles. This church still taught Charles Sheldon’s Social Gospel. On one memorable occasion the pastor of the church, Paul Kittlaus, organized a can drive to benefit the Delano Grape Strike workers. I collected cans and traveled with other members of the church to The Forty Acres, the community center headquarters of the 1965 strike in Delano, California. I don’t remember much about this event. I was just 13 years old. Still, it is possible this Social Gospel ideal lingers in me today as I consider how best to express my inherent Buddha nature.
In Sheldon’s book, a wealthy heiress who is considering how she can better direct her legacy to help the poor ponders:
“I think we are beginning to understand,” said Virginia, “the meaning of that command, ‘Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ I am sure I do not know all that He would do in detail until I know Him better.”
In His Steps, Page 153
In reading the book, I was struck by the realization that I don’t wonder what a Buddha would do. I mean, that’s what all of that provisional teaching was designed to instill in the Buddha’s followers. And Henry Maxwell’s suggestion that “No one ever lived who had succeeded in overcoming selfishness like Jesus” overlooks that man who lived 500 years earlier in India, a man whose teachings may have inspired Jesus during the “Lost Years” between ages 12 and 30.
I woke today an hour early. An hour lost. Why did I lose that hour? AI. Artificial intelligence has become such a topic of discussion that even Rev. Kenjo Igarashi spent his Sunday Dharma talk at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church railing against the failings of AI.
This is all wildly misdirected.
Here’s how AI (Google Gemini) explains Artificial Intelligence:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a field of computer science dedicated to creating systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include learning from experience, recognizing patterns, understanding natural language, solving complex problems, and making decisions.
Rather than a single technology, AI is an umbrella term that encompasses several distinct approaches and capabilities.
And what constitutes “Human Intelligence”? Again, Gemini explains:
Human intelligence is typically defined by five core dimensions that AI cannot fully replicate:
The 5 Dimensions of Human Intelligence
General Adaptability (Contextual Learning): Humans can learn a concept in one domain and immediately apply it to a completely unrelated situation (transfer learning). A human can read a book about leadership and use those insights to resolve a dispute between friends. Current AI requires specific retraining or prompt adjustments to switch contexts.
Intuition and Common Sense: Humans possess a massive, unwritten database of “how the world works” acquired through physical existence. We instantly know that an open umbrella won’t protect us from a falling bowling ball, or that a crying person might need space rather than logic. AI lacks this lived experience and must approximate it through statistical patterns in text and media.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Empathy: Human intelligence includes the ability to feel, interpret, and mirror the emotions of others, as well as understand our own internal motivations. AI can simulate empathy by generating comforting words, but it does not experience emotional states or genuine interpersonal connection.
Intrinsic Motivation and Intentionality: Humans act out of desires, survival instincts, curiosity, and existential purpose. We decide what goals are worth pursuing. AI has no intrinsic intent; it is entirely reactive, executing tasks based on external prompts, reward functions, or objectives programmed by humans.
True Creativity and Innovation: While AI can recombine existing data into novel configurations (generative AI), human intelligence can create entirely new paradigms, art movements, or scientific theories out of emotional breakthroughs, existential crises, or accidental observations.
So, when Rev. Igarashi was telling the story of how the “AI” tool he uses to send his propagation report to Nichiren Shu headquarters in Japan doesn’t identify the correct kanji character for the word “propagation”, what was the lesson his listeners were supposed to take away about Artificial Intelligence?
I’m a technology early adopter. I think I inherited it from my father, who was a pioneer in computer hardware engineering and inertial guidance systems. When dial-up Internet access first became available in Sacramento in 1993, I signed up immediately. I loved the concept of meeting and interacting with people around the world. I spent many hours at night online playing Go with players in Asia.
I’ve taken a similar attitude toward the tools that have become available in the very short period since the first modern “Generative AI” app launched in 2022.
Notice that what I like – what really attracts my attention – is the tools that take advantage of generative artificial intelligence.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has coined the phrase “Revenge of the idea guys.” In the world of Silicon Valley startups before AI, the idea guys were the people who had great ideas but lacked the skills to implement them. Now, with the tools becoming available through Artificial Intelligence, the idea guys are suddenly able to put their ideas to work by themselves.
I’m an idea guy.
Using Google’s Gemini Notebook I am able to use generative AI to digest and interpret the writings of Nichiren Shonin, the academic papers published on the topic and the brochures and other publications of Nichiren Shu. I’ve uploaded several translations of the Lotus Sutra and commentaries to gain better understanding of the Lotus Sutra. When I ask questions, the answers come from these curated sources.
Each day I use Gemini’s image generator, Nano Banana, to create an illustration for that day’s Daily Dharma lesson. The image isn’t essential, I just think it gives the lesson an added dimension.
Google’s suite of AI tools have allowed me to gather together resources to create these websites:
Yes. These tools can make mistakes. These are still machines and if you don’t specify exactly what you want, they can make things up. Conversely, when you want to imagine something out of the ordinary they balk. I still can’t get Google’s Nano Banana to draw Universal Sage’s Six-Tusked White Elephant with six tusks. It just can’t do it.
What really bothers me about all this “AI is bad” talk, is that they might take away my toys.
In the teachings and practice of the Nichiren Shū tradition, the modern view of shakubuku (assertive refutation of provisional or incomplete teachings) has evolved from a rigid, literal requirement of confrontational debate into a highly compassionate, inward-facing, and dialogue-driven practice.While the historic, hardline lineages once viewed confrontational shakubuku as the only permissible method for the Latter Day of the Dharma (mappō), the mainstream Nichiren Shū tradition prioritizing the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha has embraced a balanced, gentle, and modern approach based on the alternative method of shōju (leading others gradually with compassion and good example).
This profound shift is understood through key historical developments, the reinterpretation of the “time,” and the redefinition of propagation in a globalized, pluralistic world.
Doctrinal Balance: Shakubuku and Shōju in Context
In his authenticated writings, the founder, Nichiren Shōnin, established that both shakubuku and shōju are valid, compassionate tools for spreading the Dharma. He explained that these two methods are like “water and fire”—each has its appropriate season:
Shakubuku is the severe method used to directly rebuke attachment to erroneous teachings.
Shōju is the gentle, lenient method used to lead others gradually in accord with their capacity.
Nichiren clarified that the choice of method is not absolute but must be determined by evaluating the country, the capacity of the people, and the specific characteristics of the time. While he determined that the corrupt and chaotic landscape of medieval Japan demanded the severe intervention of shakubuku, he explicitly acknowledged that even in the Latter Day of the Dharma, shōju is the appropriate method to use in countries or times when the population is merely ignorant of the Dharma, rather than actively slandering it.
The Bakumatsu Transition: Udana-in Nichiki and the Shift to Shōju
The primary theological shift toward a modern, shōju-centered orthopraxy was led by the pioneering Nichiren Shū scholar Udana-in Nichiki (1800–1859). Confronted with the decline of the shogunate and the rapid introduction of foreign ideas, Nichiki argued that traditional, confrontational shakubuku was no longer appropriate or effective for the age. He proposed several landmark ideas that continue to guide Nichiren Shū today:
The Expiration of the “Fifth Era”: Buddhist cosmology divides the post-extinction history of the Dharma into five consecutive five-hundred-year periods. Nichiki calculated that the fifth period—the peak of the degenerate “age of quarrels and disputes” in which Nichiren Shōnin lived and when confrontational shakubuku was strictly called for—had actually ended in the year 1551.
A Change in National Capacity: Nichiki argued that since the turning point of 1551, Japan had transitioned from a country actively “destroying the Dharma” to one that was simply “evil out of ignorance.” Therefore, the historical circumstances that once justified harsh refutation had passed, making shōju the natural and proper path.
The Danger of Causing Slander: Nichiki warned that aggressive, debate-style shakubuku was easily misused by practitioners who lacked the necessary patience, scholarship, and genuine compassion. Arrogant attacks on other traditions, he noted, served only to provoke anger, alienate educated people, and drive well-meaning individuals to commit the severe sin of slandering the Lotus Sutra out of sheer resentment.
For these reasons, traditional Nichiren Shū communities today do not engage in confrontational, debate-style shakubuku. Instead, the modern tradition embraces a stance of interfaith cooperation, mutual respect, and pluralistic dialogue.
Inner Purification: Ogawa Taidō’s “Shakubuku of Self-Cultivation”
Another key modern perspective emerged from the influential lay scholar and reformer Ogawa Taidō (1814–1878). Looking at the internal corruption and laxity within the Buddhist institutions of the late 19th century, Taidō argued that before practitioners could hope to admonish others, they had to address their own spiritual failings.
Taidō drew a profound distinction between two aspects of shakubuku practice:
Teaching Others (Keta): Aggressively rebuking the misconceptions of the outside world, as the founder did in the 13th century.
Self-Cultivation (Jigyō): Rigorously purifying and solidifying one’s own faith and practice.
Taidō asserted that the modern era demanded that priests and lay followers together dedicate themselves to the “shakubuku of self-cultivation.” Rather than directing the “breaking and subduing” outward at other denominations, practitioners must direct it inward. True shakubuku in the modern world is realized when you rigorously guard your own practice, diligently chant the Odaimoku, study the scriptures, and refuse to allow the “three poisons” of greed, anger, and ignorance to defile your daily conduct.
Post-War Developments and the Semantic Shift in Lay Movements
The modern rejection of confrontational shakubuku as the “sole” way of propagation is also reflected in the evolution of modern lay movements:
The Repudiation of “Nichirenism” (Nichirenshugi): In the early 20th century, the lay activist Tanaka Chigaku attempted to revive aggressive, confrontational shakubuku, unfortunately merging it with militant Japanese imperialism and nationalistic expansion. Modern Nichiren practitioners, including those in Nichiren Shū, strongly repudiate this nationalistic, exclusivistic reading of the Dharma.
The Post-War Lay Shift (Sōka Gakkai): In the post-war era, the Sōka Gakkai initially launched an aggressive, highly confrontational campaign of shakubuku that drew significant public backlash. However, since the 1970s, even this lay organization has undergone a massive semantic shift. Today, they have largely replaced aggressive, exclusive conversions with a focus on peace, cultural exchange, and conversion by good example (shōju). In modern lay practice, the word shakubuku has largely been softened to serve as a simple synonym for sharing the benefits of the practice and peaceful proselytizing.
The Compassionate Voice of the Modern Messenger
In the modern Nichiren Shū tradition, confrontational shakubuku is recognized as a time-specific, historical method rather than an eternal, rigid dogma. The true “messenger of the Buddha” in this age is not one who seeks to tear down other faiths or wage verbal warfare. Rather, you carry out the ultimate intent of the Lotus Sutra when you emulate Bodhisattva Never Disparaging (Jōfukyō)—patiently honoring the inherent Buddha-nature within every person you meet, embodying the “treasures of the heart” in your daily behavior, and utilizing the gentle voice of shōju to invite others to hear the healing sound of the Odaimoku.
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