Why is Nichiren Buddhism marginalized in the American Buddhist community?

[markatex]

The subject of my post was actually about the lack of resources for study.

Perhaps we could have a spin-off thread on this topic. I'd be curious to know what sorts of materials people would find helpful.

[Queequeg]

I feel that I need an "organized curriculum," and I'm envious that other schools have exactly that. I'm envious that the mainstream Buddhist press in this country, in a way, supports an organized curriculum for other schools. It would be wonderful to open "BuddhaDharma" magazine, for example, and read an article about Three Thousand Worlds in a Single-Thought -- an article not intended for a graduate student but a practitioner! It would be wonderful to be able to read an article that would show how to apply this practice directly to my life (other than simply how to chant for material possessions). It would be wonderful to read a Nichiren Buddhist daily meditation book

The 3000 in 1 is a tough one.

NSA Quarterly was a publication of SGI-USA when they were still called NSA (Nichiren Shoshu Academy). If you can get a hold of those, you can find some excellent and challenging resources that are still practical and not too difficult. Seikyo Times (the previous name of Living Buddhism) was also pretty good. I think you can find these come up on ebay or amazon from time to time.

They of course include the sectarian views of Nichiren Shoshu, but you can just kind of take it with salt. Overall, they covered basic ideas and concepts in Nichiren Buddhism.

Nichiren's writings in translation themselves are pretty good sources, too. The Five or Ten Major Writings will present a pretty good picture, though, without the background a lot of it can be hard to penetrate.

At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I am sick-and-tired of hearing about his persecution at the hands of Japanese authorities. Funny thing that, but I just can't relate…

Without simplifying it too much, what I think you should take from Nichiren's story is if you wish to attain enlightenment, it is indispensable that you seek and uphold Dharma with unrelenting determination and diligence. This is a broadly Buddhist message. Any efforts made for Dharma are significant, but attaining enlightenment is a tremendous tour de force that is not achieved by dilitantes or casual Buddhists.

"In my experience, with Nichiren Buddhism it is best to stick with the Daimoku. Go any further than that and you are headed for trouble. You will be told that some Gohonzons are good but others are demon-filled, some schools are correct and others will lead you to hell, certain juzu prayer beads are wonderful and others are evil counterfeits…."

It doesn't matter where you look, the world is awash in bull shit. The thing is, you have to dig through the bull shit if you want to find the jewels. There is no other way.

(I recently heard someone relate a story about Ronald Reagan about his optimism - he told a story about this kid who was always optimistic. His parents worried that he was too optimistic and not realistic enough, so they gave him the chore of digging out a barn that was packed to the roof with horse manure. The kid set about the work joyfully, and even as the days past his joy didn't fade. They asked him why he was so happy and he responded, "somewhere in here is a horse!")

At this point, I'm sorry to say but it seems that my practice of Nichiren Buddhism is simply reduced to chanting. At base, it is a form of Buddhism built around a chanting. But I just get a sense that there is something more, something that I'm missing out on…. Maybe that "something" was lost in the centuries of persecution that you referred to.

Keep your eyes on the prize. Samsara is deep and turbulent. In my experience, the Daimoku is like a life vest that will keep you from drowning. What's lost can be found.

(By the way, what do you think Niwano compromised in his attempt to put a smilie face on Nichiren Buddhism?)

Just my impression from reading his works - I have no first hand knowledge of what its like inside RKK. To me, its too protestant. His approach is a little too, Thomas Jefferson's Bible. Too philosophical.

[illarraza]

There is no organized curriculum, by any Nichiren groups AFAIK, that can provide an accessible and practical approach starting with basics through the higher levels of practice. Japan was so unstable in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and the Nichiren community immediately after Nichiren's passing more or less struggled. Nichiren's description of the Daimoku as an amulet tied around our necks really bore out. Through those centuries of turmoil, little survived except the Daimoku. We certainly lost the curriculum Nichiren taught which appears to have been heavily loaded with study of Zhiyi, Zhanran and Saicho, and without that foundation, I don't think you can really understand him.

At this point, the curriculum needs to be reconstructed. I don't see anyone in a position to do that. SGI is stuck and lost without Ikeda. Shoshu has gone back to being their closed off sect. Nichiren Shu, while pleasant and open does not seem to have the inspiration, content to be the managers of historic temples. To the extent that they've innovated practices, it seems to be in the direction of Japanese style asceticism. Everyone else seems like they are sleep walking through the performance of the traditional rites.


My best advice is, in this age when Buddhism as a whole is on the decline, hold fast to the Daimoku as that amulet that will keep you grounded in the storm. Seek out Buddha Dharma wherever you can. Keep in mind the stern message Nichiren would have delivered with a piercing look right into our eyes:

we suffer because we turn away from the True Aspect of Reality, our real nature; we must unflinchingly resolve to uphold the wisdom of the True Aspect, no matter what.

Thank you. What you write here is exactly the issue I am facing. I feel that I need an "organized curriculum," and I'm envious that other schools have exactly that. I'm envious that the mainstream Buddhist press in this country, in a way, supports an organized curriculum for other schools. It would be wonderful to open "BuddhaDharma" magazine, for example, and read an article about Three Thousand Worlds in a Single-Thought -- an article not intended for a graduate student but a practitioner! It would be wonderful to be able to read an article that would show how to apply this practice directly to my life (other than simply how to chant for material possessions). It would be wonderful to read a Nichiren Buddhist daily meditation book -- that wasn't written by Ikeda! (I find Ikeda's writing boring, and I am skeptical that he even writes things attributed to him; he most likely has a ghostwriter.)

And I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Nichiren's aura looming over Nichiren Buddhism and stifling innovation. At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I am sick-and-tired of hearing about his persecution at the hands of Japanese authorities. Funny thing that, but I just can't relate…. While the struggles of the historical Siddhartha (the quest to put an end to suffering) are universal and timeless, Nichiren's struggle is so idiosyncratic and specific to such a remote time-and-place. Try as I may (and at one point in my practice I quite literally did try very hard), I just cannot get too worked up about a monk being persecuted by Japanese authorities in the 1200s. It just has absolutely nothing to do with my life…. Further, it's stressful to hear endlessly about Nichiren's suffering. As I posted before on this forum, it reminds me a little too much of Jesus Christ in Catholicism who died for my sins -- you know, I'm trying to get away from all of that ugliness. And then add to it the constant fighting between the different Nichiren sects. And before long I have lost sight entirely of the fact that Buddhism is, at least allegedly, supposed to be about being "peaceful." A lot of fighting and suffering going on in this particular branch of Buddhism….

And I was once a given exactly the advice you offer here: to stick with the Daimoku. Someone once said: "In my experience, with Nichiren Buddhism it is best to stick with the Daimoku. Go any further than that and you are headed for trouble. You will be told that some Gohonzons are good but others are demon-filled, some schools are correct and others will lead you to hell, certain juzu prayer beads are wonderful and others are evil counterfeits…."

And your suggestion to seek out the Buddha Dharma wherever I can, is actually what I have been doing lately…. Relatively early in my practice (which is probably the time that behavior like this will show up), I tried very much to stay strict to Nichiren Buddhism -- which meant never reading any material about other schools. In extreme form, it even occasionally meant looking down on the material of other schools. But lately, I'm back to reading the works of Thich Naht Hanh, and even -- gasp -- the Dalai Lama. A vague interest in Tibetan Buddhism is reemerging, and I'm even looking into Theravada Buddhism.

At this point, I'm sorry to say but it seems that my practice of Nichiren Buddhism is simply reduced to chanting. At base, it is a form of Buddhism built around a chanting. But I just get a sense that there is something more, something that I'm missing out on…. Maybe that "something" was lost in the centuries of persecution that you referred to.

(By the way, what do you think Niwano compromised in his attempt to put a smilie face on Nichiren Buddhism?)

It's not so much in the persecutions, its the overcoming of persecutions and hardships that would have destroyed a lesser man. Thanks to Nichren's "miraculous" survival, 35,000,000 people chant the Daimoku.

Illarraza

[illarraza]

"Nichiren was a charismatic and inspiring person, but his legacy is like an overbearing father who cows his children into being afraid of breaking the rules." -- Queequeg

Right. Lets follow Joe Shmoe...

"This brings to mind a story. A father, anxious about his son’s future, thrashed the boy with a bow made of zelkova wood because he refused to study. At the time, the son resented his father’s action and hated the zelkova bow. However, he applied himself to his studies so much that eventually he [mastered Buddhism], thereby achieving emancipation himself and benefiting others. In retrospect, he saw that he owed his achievements to his father’s thrashings. It is said that he erected a memorial tablet made from a zelkova tree for the repose of his deceased father." -- Persecution by Sword and Staff

Selective quoting is really another form of dishonesty.

Nichiren was a charismatic and inspiring person, but his legacy is like an overbearing father who cows his children into being afraid of breaking the rules. His authority looms and stifles innovation and development, adaptation. This is not to say that we should have a free for all, but the tradition needs the flexibility and scope to move with the trends of history. Ikeda tried to do that. Niwano at Rissho Kosei Kai tried to do it. I think they failed in that they departed too radically from the main message. In trying to make the teaching practical, they compromised too much, dressed the teaching in a warm smile and downplayed the more poignant aspects of Nichiren's message.

The subject of my post was actually about the lack of resources for study.

If you beat a child for not studying while not bothering to provide a course of study, you're just cruel.

if you are going to criticize me for responding to your assertion, then you shouldn't have invited me to respond, "I'm going to write something that is going to get blasted by the likes of Illarraza". You wrote that Nichiren was like an overbearing father. I corrected you, "like a strict father" and you didn't like it. Here is another teaching from the strict Nichiren:

"Now, the same could be said of disciples of Nichiren. If they believe in, respect, follow, and obey me in name only without heart, they will no doubt suffer in the Hell of Incessant Suffering for the period of one, two, ten, or one hundred, if not one thousand, kalpa. If you wish to be saved from this, you should each practice just as the Medicine-King Bodhisattva did; he set his arm afire to offer it as a light to the Buddha; or Gyobo Bonji, who skinned himself to write the dharma on his own skin. Just as Sessen Doji and Suzu Danno did, you should sacrifice your own life or serve your masters from the bottom of your heart in search of the dharma. Otherwise, you should beseech the Buddha for help, bowing to Him with your four limbs and face touching the ground, dripping with sweat. Otherwise, you should pile up rare treasures in front of the Buddha as an offering to Him. If that is not possible, you must become servants to the upholders of the dharma. Or you should practice some other ways according to the principle of the four ways of teaching. Among my disciples those whose faith is shallow will show at the moment of death the sign of falling into the Hell of Incessant Suffering. Do not blame me for it then! (A Tract Revealing the Gist of the Rissho Ankoru-ron)

Illarraza

[Queequeg]

if you are going to criticize me for responding to your assertion, then you shouldn't have invited me to respond, "I'm going to write something that is going to get blasted by the likes of Illarraza".

That is typical of your attitude. You feel entitled to the last word. I can invite you to a discussion, though it was not really an invitation so much as a prediction, but that would imply a back and forth. I responded to you by pointing out you selectively quoted me, misrepresented my argument, and then responded with an off base retort.

You wrote that Nichiren was like an overbearing father. I corrected you, "like a strict father" and you didn't like it.

I can go with characterizing Nichiren as strict. No disagreement. However, his legacy has been overbearing, too. In stating that, I'm talking about the effect on others.

"If they believe in, respect, follow, and obey me in name only without heart... you should practice some other ways according to the principle of the four ways of teaching.

There is nothing incompatible with following Nichiren and applying wisdom to determine the best course as circumstances demand.

What Nichiren urges is rigor and dedication to the Dharma, not aping his words and deeds. Hence he gives varying examples of practice. He does not set forth one course of action and refers to "the four ways of teachings", AKA the four siddhantha. This doctrine concerns methods of relating Dharma to others. Sometimes, one relies on worldly conventions, sometimes we address a person's individual circumstances, other times one gives corrective advice, and of course sometimes, the highest teaching is appropriate. Of course it is hard for us to determine which is the case as we are not awakened. But that is beside the point. The point is energetic and devoted effort in Dharma practice which can be expressed any number of ways.

To emphasize that Nichiren urged us to adapt to circumstances he wrote in Kaimoku Sho-

In the Latter Day of the Dharma, however, both shōju and shakubuku are to be used. This is because there are two kinds of countries, the country that is passively evil, and the kind that actively seeks to destroy the Dharma.

Outside of places on this planet where Buddhists are actively persecuted, there are no countries actively seeking to destroy Dharma. The United States is not such a country. Its evil is ignorance and apathy. We need to use our sense in which method of practice is appropriate, not just model our speech and behavior on what was appropriate in 13th c. Japan.

The problem with your approach is that you don't understand the time and place. I also stand by my criticism of you that you don't really understand Nichiren because you don't study. Copy pasting passages is reflective of your approach to Dharma. And yes, I am criticizing you because you make yourself a public figure with your claim to carry the banner of the Lotus while doing more damage than you realize with your poorly informed views.