Today I attended Rev. Shoda Kanai’s online Shodaigyo practice at the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada. A special treat today was the incorporation of Reidan hand gestures during the Daimoku chanting.
I enjoyed the service and the sermon. I failed miserably at the hand gestures. I’m just terrible at that sort of thing. However, I’m going to see if I can incorporate the three cycles of six movements (see above illustration) as part of my regular daimoku. The six movements with their bad karma out, good fortune in meaning reminds of the earth trembling in six ways. As Nichiren writes:
Interpreting the earth trembling in six ways, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 3:
“The east is blue in color, and it controls the liver, which in turn controls the eyes. The west is white in color, and it controls the lungs, which in turn control the nose. Therefore, saying that the east was raised and the west was lowered means the rise of the merit of the eyes and the decrease in the worldly passions of the nose. In contrast, saying that the west was raised and the east was lowered means that the merit of the nose appears while the evil passions of the eyes decrease. Likewise, the rise and fall of the south and north and those of the center and the four directions mean either the appearance of merit or the decrease of evil passions in the ears and the tongue and in the mind and body respectively.”
Grand Master Miao-lê explains the above in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “As the eyes and nose represent the east and west, the ears and tongue logically represent the south and north. The center is the mind and the four directions represent the body. The body is equipped with the four sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, and tongue) and the mind reacts to them all. Therefore, it is said that the body and mind rise and fall alternately.”
Zuisō Gosho, Writing on Omens, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 121
I can’t decide whether Reidan hand movements remind me more of Patty Cake or Macarana.