The acceptability of "Nam"

Myoho-Nameless
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Myoho-Nameless »

It doesn't get more Mexican than that I suppose. though in my neck of the woods, they tend to be evangelical types.

Also, we get a few "Reasons Greetings" billboards and other attempts to have Richard Dawkins give out little golden sticker stars to the good children around the holidays.
"Keep The Gods Out Of It. Swear On Your Heads. Which I Will Take If You Break Your Vow."- Geralt of Rivia
Masaru
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Masaru »

Myoho-Nameless wrote:It doesn't get more Mexican than that I suppose. though in my neck of the woods, they tend to be evangelical types.

Also, we get a few "Reasons Greetings" billboards and other attempts to have Richard Dawkins give out little golden sticker stars to the good children around the holidays.
It gets a lot more Mexican, but I hear there are different "flavors" to the practices and beliefs of Catholics, which I'm not entirely sure would affect how similar or dissimilar a given Catholic's faith would be to Nichiren Buddhism on the level Reciproque is talking about. It's no big news that Buddhism in general and Roman Catholic Christianity outwardly appear similar. The first Christians who went to the East actually thought that Buddhism was some kind of mockery of the Christian faith devised by Satan.

But then, most things Christians didn't understand were blamed on Satan... They still are where I live. Lol. Most of the Mexican Americans here are Americanized Catholics who are well adjusted to the lifestyle of self loathing and insecurity driven one-upmanship that is the hallmark of that faith as I am familiar with it. Far removed are they from boisterous, frank, kind-hearted alcoholics who come from south of the border, who tend to take mass as a kind of ritualistic pilate exercise and organized religion with block of salt large enough to sustain a horse. Off topic, but there is a tendency here to side strongly with the Catholic Church over the priest sex abuse issue that is so intense that it's more than a bit... horrifying.
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nichirenista
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by nichirenista »

Masaru wrote:
But then, most things Christians didn't understand were blamed on Satan... They still are where I live. Lol. Most of the Mexican Americans here are Americanized Catholics who are well adjusted to the lifestyle of self loathing and insecurity driven one-upmanship that is the hallmark of that faith as I am familiar with it. Far removed are they from boisterous, frank, kind-hearted alcoholics who come from south of the border, who tend to take mass as a kind of ritualistic pilate exercise and organized religion with block of salt large enough to sustain a horse. Off topic, but there is a tendency here to side strongly with the Catholic Church over the priest sex abuse issue that is so intense that it's more than a bit... horrifying.
I'm sorry to butt-in here, but … my God! I have never read a more succinct description of Mexican Catholic culture in my life! Either that, or it's just gratifying to see someone else articulate my observations gleaned from growing up in Mexican American culture. I don't think I'd ever seen anyone else articulate it so well, so much so that I guess I had thought I was the only one who noticed this stuff. This isn't the sort of stuff people talk about openly in the culture, at least not in my experience.

About the similarities between Buddhism and Christianity…. I've read that Nichiren Buddhism in particular resembles Christianity, all the way down to the persecution of the founder, Nichiren. A while ago I read an account of Nichiren being dragged through the street as bystanders spat on him, and it felt like I was back in Catholic grade school. The first time I entered a Nichiren temple -- I almost knelt before I sat down. And sitting there with Juzu beads in my hands as I recited the Juryo and Hoben chapters, I had a flashback to reciting the rosary as a child (I've read the rosary beads are based on mala/Juzu beads).

About the child abuse in the Catholic Church, I remember reading about a decade ago that it is likely that it was/is just as bad in Latin America as it is here, but that due to the fact that the continent of South America is something like 80% Catholic, it's nearly impossible to speak out. No one would believe you if you said a priest abused you, and accusing a priest of such a thing would render one a complete social outcast. That happened in the US for a while; I've heard stories of children being slapped by their parents for saying such "awful" things about priests…. And I've also heard the abuse was an open secret in the US to decades….

(I describe my upbringing in Mexican American culture in the fourth post down on this page of another thread: http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... &start=100" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Grigoris
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Grigoris »

I draw people's attention to the Terms of Service clause that reads:

"This is not a "comparative religion site..."

As such, can we please return to discussing the subject of the thread?

Thank you.
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nichirenista
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

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Some friends of mine suggested that maybe I was a Buddhist in a past life, because I taught myself the Hoben and Juryo chapters. I responded that the Japanese language is simply very similar to the Spanish language, and because I speak Spanish it was easy for me to learn the chapters.
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Masaru »

nichirenista wrote:Some friends of mine suggested that maybe I was a Buddhist in a past life, because I taught myself the Hoben and Juryo chapters. I responded that the Japanese language is simply very similar to the Spanish language, and because I speak Spanish it was easy for me to learn the chapters.
Transliterating the liturgy is easy. Translating the mindset is hard.
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nichirenista
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by nichirenista »

Masaru wrote:
nichirenista wrote:Some friends of mine suggested that maybe I was a Buddhist in a past life, because I taught myself the Hoben and Juryo chapters. I responded that the Japanese language is simply very similar to the Spanish language, and because I speak Spanish it was easy for me to learn the chapters.
Transliterating the liturgy is easy. Translating the mindset is hard.
Oh, absolutely.
Masaru
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Masaru »

nichirenista wrote:
Masaru wrote:
nichirenista wrote:Some friends of mine suggested that maybe I was a Buddhist in a past life, because I taught myself the Hoben and Juryo chapters. I responded that the Japanese language is simply very similar to the Spanish language, and because I speak Spanish it was easy for me to learn the chapters.
Transliterating the liturgy is easy. Translating the mindset is hard.
Oh, absolutely.
And I'm not even sure I've got the right mindset. If I did, maybe the suffering attending some of my difficulties would dissolve. The Buddha appears to enter Nirvana to draw us towards Him. Some of us have a deep reservoir of Buddhist tradition and affiliation to draw from. Some of us must keep digging through the bedrock to fill our wells with the waters of faith.
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nichirenista
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by nichirenista »

I think I've mentioned before that it was a childhood trip to Japan that served as my introduction to the Buddha, the figure of the Buddha, that is. No one explained the religion to me, of course. Anyway, I have that to draw on, even though my upbringing was in Mexican culture.
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Masaru »

nichirenista wrote:I think I've mentioned before that it was a childhood trip to Japan that served as my introduction to the Buddha, the figure of the Buddha, that is. No one explained the religion to me, of course. Anyway, I have that to draw on, even though my upbringing was in Mexican culture.
Almost everyone I know who has come to this practice has a unique story about how they came to it. A sense of destiny, even. The reason is that we all have a karmic connection to this practice.
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by JazzIsTvRicky »

I judge the Chanting of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo by how I feel after I offer my Daimoku and Prayers to The Gohonzon of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Every time I do I feel as though I have taken a shower and refreshed my life thoroughly.

The real question is the acceptability of 'The Gohonzon of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo'?

Sincerely
A فوتاري أوف ذي غوهونزون أوف نام ميوهو رينج كيو
kilowatt
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by kilowatt »

Lately, I've been adding "mu" while chanting to see if it makes a difference from what I was taught in the SGI tradition. Personally, I like it more because it sounds more complete. In Chinese, the "mu" word gets said anyway without silence.

Of course, my bias is that I'm Chinese, but hey, I may as well use Cantonese (the language / dialect has origins from the Tang dynasty) for reciting daimoku while I'm at it.

Ultimately, we'll never know what's right because Nichiren isn't here to tell us. I think the spirit of it matters more though.
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Caoimhghín
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Re: The acceptability of "Nam"

Post by Caoimhghín »

kilowatt wrote:Lately, I've been adding "mu" while chanting to see if it makes a difference from what I was taught in the SGI tradition. Personally, I like it more because it sounds more complete. In Chinese, the "mu" word gets said anyway without silence.

Of course, my bias is that I'm Chinese, but hey, I may as well use Cantonese (the language / dialect has origins from the Tang dynasty) for reciting daimoku while I'm at it.

Ultimately, we'll never know what's right because Nichiren isn't here to tell us. I think the spirit of it matters more though.
You might be interested in the phonological gloss of Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sútra that I started (but haven't completed yet). It compares contemporary Chinese (Mandarin), with a prestige court dialect of Middle Chinese (the Baxter-Sagart reconstructions of 2014), with contemporary Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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