Both the Middle Way as practice and the Middle Way as insight are dependent on each other. By practicing the Middle Way, we attain the insight of the Middle Way, and through the insight of the Middle Way, we are able to live in accord with the practice of the Middle Way. Ultimately, the Middle Way is the unity of practice and insight.
Lotus SeedsQuotes
The Pure and Beautiful Flower of Enlightenment
All living beings have the potential for Buddhahood. All people possess that seed, as explained in the concept of Inga Guji [both cause and effect are mutually possessed]. So when we recite Namu Myoho Renge Kyo in front of the Mandala Gohonzon, the pure and beautiful flower of enlightenment contained within our lives blossoms, develops and flourishes.
Odaimoku: The Significance Of Chanting Namu Myoho Renge KyoSculpting an Image of the Buddha
When we think of carving an image of the Buddha I suspect that generally we think in terms of taking some material and simply carving a Buddha. But if we think about this in terms of our lives and sculpting our day and lives we can see another meaning to this.
If we want ourselves to be like the Buddha, an image of the Buddha, we need to carve it out of our lives. Every day, slowly and carefully, chipping away at all the things in our lives that are keeping us from being Buddhas.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1The Six Difficult Things
The Six Difficult things are: 1) Expound this Sutra, 2) Copy and keep this Sutra, 3) Read this Sutra, 4) To keep this Sutra and expound to even one person, 5) To hear and receive this Sutra, and 6) Keep this Sutra after the death of the Buddha. In other words it is extremely difficult to keep, read, recite, copy, and teach the Lotus Sutra in this age so far removed from the historical Buddha. These things are more difficult than “putting the great earth on the nail of a toe and go up to the Heaven of Brahman.”
Physician's Good MedicineBehold, the Kingdom of God
‘Behold, the kingdom of God is within you!’ This was the creed of Nichiren also, witnessed by his life, confirmed by the Scripture, and supported by his metaphysical speculation. When he concentrated his thought on his own calling, he was in communion with the saints in the Lotus; when he expressed anxiety about his country, yet with confidence in its destiny, he was a prophet and an ideal patriot; when he reflected on his tranquil life among the mountains, he was almost a lyric poet, glorifying his surroundings by his religious vision; he was a scholastic philosopher when he interpreted the truths of existence and the nature of the religious community; and he was a mystic in his vision of the future realization of Buddhahood in himself and in the Kingdom of Buddha.
Nichiren, The Buddhist ProphetLotus Sutra Meaning in Your Life
[A]s we begin to study the Lotus Sutra – not just from a theoretical point but from a life embracing point – the critical thing is what creates meaning for you in your life. It may be at first the divisions are simply nice to know about, but have little relevance to your day-to-day practice. Eventually though you may come to feel a stronger personal connection to the sutra and wish to understand more deeply where our practice comes from and the reasons for Nichiren’s adoption of the object of veneration, or even things like why recite the two chapters we do over others in the sutra.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraEmerging from the Muddy Water
The lotus grows in muddy ponds and stagnant waters. It is often said that the dirtier the water, the more beautiful the flower. If we establish an analogy between this and everyday life, it illustrates that with pure Buddhist faith and practice, the problems and sufferings we experience every day are transformed into the pure and wonderful conditions of Buddhahood, in the same way a beautiful and pure lotus emerges from muddy water.
Odaimoku: The Significance Of Chanting Namu Myoho Renge KyoChanting with Joy
When we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo let us do so with great joy welling up from within our lives, with the mind of praise for the Lotus Sutra and with the desire to enable not only our own self to become enlightened but for everyone to attain enlightenment.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1Ingredients of the Physician’s Cure
The ingredients of the Physician’s Cure are the five practices of the Lotus Sutra – to keep, read, recite, copy, and teach this Sutra. All of these are simple enough except they are indeed very difficult.
Physician's Good MedicineThe Particular and the Universal
Nichiren’s thinking always aimed, as we have seen, to unite two opposites, and to explain either by reference to the other. This method was applied to the relation between the particular and the universal, between the world and the individual, between human nature and Buddhahood. So also with the Kingdom of Buddha. It is individual and universal at the same time; either aspect is incomplete apart from the other; individual perfection is inconceivable without the basis of the universal truth, while the universal community cannot exist apart from the spiritual enlightenment of every individual. The Kingdom means the complete working out of the harmonious relation of these two aspects of perfection — Buddhahood.
Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet