Dharma Wheel

Of course he did. All Buddhists traditionally have believed so. They have also been understood metaphorically, but certainly literally.

I am inclined to take it literally, but not all do.

This forum is so much more enjoyable with Illaraza on ignore, you guys.

I hate to say it and it's not very PC, but you probably should have found one of the American born Nichiren Shu priests and gotten instruction from one of them. Nichiren Shu isn't really an organization, but a loose confederation of temples. The Nichiren Order of North America (NONA) is a Nichiren S...

Oh, there's drama everywhere. I've seen it in Zen centers, and it's definitely present in Thich Nhat Hanh groups. Wherever people are, there is drama.

I'm sorry that experience seems to have turned you off of Nichiren Shu completely. At this point, I believe all of the Japanese Nichiren Shu temples on the west coast have officially dropped their membership with the Nichiren Order of North America. I would suggest anyone interested in Nichiren Shu ...

This is probably a subject for a different thread entirely, but a challenge that I face is that while I do practice a form of Japanese Buddhism, I've come to accept that there are certain aspects of Japanese culture that I actually do not like (to be fair, there are aspects of THIS culture that I d...

My entire reason for wanting to practice with a group or a temple is for the teachings. Going to a group just to be around other people who are also chanting isn't something I'd do, but I'm very introverted. I suspect that SGI has mellowed out over the years, but they used to frequently go out in gr...

Tendai Buddhism is more along the lines of what you're proposing. I don't think this thread needs to take an antagonistic turn, but according to Nichiren, the practice of chanting the daimoku subsumes all other practices, including the Pure Land ones.

Sing it with me...

"Trollin'....trollin'....trollin' on the river..."

Oh come on, it was a joke.

I'm a Nichiren Shu practitioner, but without a local sangha. I have very little experience with SGI, but I don't think they could ever meet my needs. It doesn't sound like they have real teachers, and that could end up being terminally frustrating. Yes, I often wish there were other Nichiren Shu pra...

I'm pretty much in agreement with rory and Queequeg with regard to ichinen sanzen & the daimoku, and the meaning of faith. These are big topics, and I haven't had the time or attention span to type it all out. is this a reasonable overview? it's from an SG site Faith In Buddhism, faith is based ...

They're all excellent and important questions, and they require thoughtful answers, so I'll try as best as I can. :) Insofar as I understand, Nichiren takes the Lotus Sutra as being the definitive scripture. Is that correct? Yes. If yes, how are Nichiren practitioners required to regard other Buddhi...

Nichiren lived under specific circumstances and was interpreting the LS through the lens of his own experience. We all have to uphold the Sutra in our own ways. Is this a SGI and Nichiren Shoshu interpreting? Yes, most definitely. Nichiren, at most, thought of himself (after Tatsunokuchi) as the rei...

What is a prayer gohonzon? I've never understood this.

I've never met him, only interacted with him online. He seems very cerebral. That's interesting reasoning, to be sure. I'm not as black and white in my thinking as some people, so I'm not about to sit here and say he's going to roast in the fires of hell as some here are wont to do (illaraza).

nichirenista wrote:I don't mean to start "trouble" here.

Oh sweetie, can we just dispense with this little pretense?

rory wrote:Kindly don't comment on someone's veracity if you are ignorant of the issue.

Anyway, I'm a bit surprised and find it off-putting, but I'm not the world's biggest fan of Ryuei Shonin to begin with. I'm sure some people wouldn't appreciate me saying that, but I don't really care.

I have no idea, but I can't imagine that he does. I usually ignore any posts with illaraza's name at the top; i wish everyone would do the same.