Mahayana/Vajrayana Links and Resources

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Luke
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Re: Zen Buddhism Resources

Post by Luke »

The Soto Zen school's official website:
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Official Site of the Joint Council for Japanese Rinzai and Obaku Zen
http://zen.rinnou.net/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Rokushu
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Rokushu »

Myoho-Nameless, agreed! I don't know why some people insist on chanting in Japanese, and as you pointed out, the Japanese pronunciation nowadays might be very different from hundreds of years ago, like any language. Why don't most Nichiren groups take this approach? SGI claims to be modern-day reformers, like Buddhist Protestants I guess with no priests, so why not translate the liturgy in to everyday spoken language of the followers if they are so reform-minded? Just like the RC church, for hundreds of years the mass was in Latin, now mostly in the language of the followers, to make the teachings more accesible to regular folks.
Masaru
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Masaru »

ylee111 wrote:If I visit NIchiren Shoshu's Myosetsuji in New York, do you think as an outsider, they would let me purchase books on Nichiren Shoshu? Same question in regards to Daiseion-Ji.
If you/'re in New York, you should contact contributor Queequeg / Matt P who set up an independent group in the area. Matt has been a major contributor to the online Nichiren community for a while and would love to hear from a new practitioner. He can give you a run down of the various sects. Myself and illaraza are in Texas and Oklahoma, respectively. It is often more helpful to interact directly with another practitioner rather than simply look over materials.
Myoho-Nameless
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Myoho-Nameless »

Rokushu wrote:Myoho-Nameless, agreed! I don't know why some people insist on chanting in Japanese, and as you pointed out, the Japanese pronunciation nowadays might be very different from hundreds of years ago, like any language. Why don't most Nichiren groups take this approach? SGI claims to be modern-day reformers, like Buddhist Protestants I guess with no priests, so why not translate the liturgy in to everyday spoken language of the followers if they are so reform-minded? Just like the RC church, for hundreds of years the mass was in Latin, now mostly in the language of the followers, to make the teachings more accesible to regular folks.
It is said that the Romans did not trust a healing spell if they understood the language it was spoken in. And now we wont trust an exorcism unless it is IN the language of those Romans. Languages we do not understand have a certain power. Indeed even if you are a Japanese speaker, I think you have to be trained to understand the recitations by audio.

Actually I used to recite the Sutra passages in English once a week, sunday morning, a holdover from my christian past, making one day a week more "religious". Sometimes I consider going back to that. But it worked, I can now recall in gist what is being said. Nichiren Shu gongyo books often give you the option to do English or not. at least for ch. 2. The english is just less rhythmic to me. Plus....it does not have that "magic spell" effect, I may stem more from the Nordic tribe rather than the Latin, but I feel the same way about language as they. Notwithstanding, I would like to be able to do the whole ritual of Gongyo in Sanskrit/Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and I hope I will one day have the capability.

Or Dothraki.
"Keep The Gods Out Of It. Swear On Your Heads. Which I Will Take If You Break Your Vow."- Geralt of Rivia
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Great Sakya Books

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

I'll admit, I'm woefully unfamiliar with the Sakya tradition compared to most in this sub-forum, seeing as the vast majority of my study and practice has been Ka-Nying in orientation. That said, I share my lamas' fondness for the likes of HH Sakya Trizin, HH Jigdral Dagchen Rinpoche, Deshung Rinpoche, and the kindness they've shown. I'm also appreciative of the Sakya school's overall love of Manjushri. Parting From the Four Attachments is nothing short of pith instruction of the highest caliber, if you ask me.

Therefore, in an effort to be a better practitioner of the Rimé view and share the wealth of Dharma that I'm privy to, I'd like to let all of you know about a new book which was just published a mere two days ago. I happen to be friends with translator and long-time student-practitioner Christopher Wilkinson on Facebook, and he just messaged me about the first volume in his Sakya Kongma series. It covers some of Sakya Pandita's work from the Sakya Kabum, and is entitled Poetic Wisdom:

http://www.amazon.com/Sakya-Kongma-Poet ... +wilkinson

His introduction to the volume is extensive, and I recommend you read it in its entirety. In short, the Amazon product description says:
I have translated short works, correspondence, and poetry he wrote over the course of his life in an effort to let my readers see Sakya Pandita’s humanity and enlightened spirit as he himself expressed it.

[...]

The present volume does not contain esoterica for which special empowerments or privileges are considered requisite. There will be content that excites inquiry and discussion, which I consider a good thing.
In case you're unfamiliar with Christopher or his work, a rather thorough bio is also on the above Amazon page. :reading:
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
Nico
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Re: Buddhism Resources

Post by Nico »

Lots of talks on http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - about a thousand I think! Guided Meditations too..
westcountry
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by westcountry »

In terms of Nichiren Shoshu stuff there's plenty to be found here:

http://www.nst.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.nstny.org/Pages/default.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://myohoji.nst.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:twothumbsup:
illarraza
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by illarraza »

Rokushu wrote:Why is Japanese superior in chanting the name of the Lotus Sutra? Why didn't Shakyamuni teach this? Did Shakyamuni chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo? Why not Prakrit, native language of Lord Buddha? Is Japanese better than Sanskrit? So, chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo has more power because it is in Japanese? Why? Who can declare this, and by what authority? Just curious, thanks.
Only Namu Myoho renge kyo is correct because Namu Myoho renge kyo is the personal name of the Supreme Law. Neither Namo Miao Fa Lien Hua Ching, NamasSaddharmapundarikasutra nor Devotion to the Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma is the name of the Supreme Law.

Illarraza
illarraza
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by illarraza »

illarraza wrote:
Rokushu wrote:Why is Japanese superior in chanting the name of the Lotus Sutra? Why didn't Shakyamuni teach this? Did Shakyamuni chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo? Why not Prakrit, native language of Lord Buddha? Is Japanese better than Sanskrit? So, chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo has more power because it is in Japanese? Why? Who can declare this, and by what authority? Just curious, thanks.
Only Namu Myoho renge kyo is correct because Namu Myoho renge kyo is the personal name of the Supreme Law. Neither Namo Miao Fa Lien Hua Ching, NamasSaddharmapundarikasutra nor Devotion to the Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma is the name of the Supreme Law.

Illarraza
To take this one step further, not even Nam Myoho renge kyo is the name of the Supreme Law or Nichiren would have written it as such.

Illarraza
Myoho-Nameless
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Myoho-Nameless »

How sad, I guess deaf people or the tongueless cannot attain Buddhahood then. Sucks to be them. Because if a different language messes the process up, surely such unfortunate people have no chance. :shrug:


luckily of course, language does not matter and I was being sarcastic.
"Keep The Gods Out Of It. Swear On Your Heads. Which I Will Take If You Break Your Vow."- Geralt of Rivia
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Queequeg
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Queequeg »

illarraza wrote:
Only Namu Myoho renge kyo is correct because Namu Myoho renge kyo is the personal name of the Supreme Law. Neither Namo Miao Fa Lien Hua Ching, NamasSaddharmapundarikasutra nor Devotion to the Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma is the name of the Supreme Law.

Illarraza
To take this one step further, not even Nam Myoho renge kyo is the name of the Supreme Law or Nichiren would have written it as such.

Illarraza[/quote]

Mark, you're ignorance of the Japanese written language is complete.

For others who are interested, the Japanese written language incorporates Chinese characters. In some cases, the Chinese characters are pronounced in a way that is derived, but different from, a Chinese pronunciation circa 800 CE. In other instances, they are read with wholly Japanese readings. It would be like adopting the Chinese character for dog, 犬, to write "dog" in English.

In reading, there are often cases where two characters read together are contracted. For instance, this is the character for Buddha: 仏 (the modern, simplified version) read as butsu or alternatively, hotoke, the former being a transliteration of "Buddha" via Chinese, and the latter being the Japanese word for Buddha. This is the character for teaching: 教 read as "kyo" or alternatively "oshie", the former being derived from the Chinese and the latter being the Japanese root for "teach". When read together 仏教, we don't read it butsukyo, which would not be incorrect, but its read bukkyo, and literally means, Buddha's Teachings, and is used to refer to what we know in English as Buddhism. The reason for the contraction is simply convention. Such contractions are not informal or colloquialism, but rather follow formal rules.

The contraction of 南無, which is ordinarily read as namu, and instead pronounced nam by some, is on account of the following syllable being myo. This is another contraction that follows formal rules having to do with to consecutive syllables starting with the same sound, in this case, "m".

The fact is, Nichiren never, as far as I know, wrote out the Daimoku in phonetic characters - which he could have. As such, we don't know how he pronounced 南無妙法蓮華経.

Mark, who goes around the internet making a big deal about this and using it as a basis to condemn others, has no textual basis for his criticism. Its just more rancor. He only has his tradition, which it should be pointed out, traces back to a person who does not have a personal lineage back to Nichiren himself, but comes from reading Nichiren's writings divorced from a personal teacher.

Matthew
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
illarraza
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by illarraza »

Even were Nichiren to have written the Daimoku in brail, it is written Namu Myoho renge kyo. Even in contemplation, Namu Myoho renge kyo is the name of the Supreme Law. Nichiren never once wrote Nam Myoho renge kyo, not on his Gohonzons nor in his writings.

“And when the two characters for Namu are prefixed to Myoho-renge-kyo, or the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, we have the formula Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.” -- The Opening of the Eyes

"The jewels of this jeweled vehicle are the seven precious substances which adorn the great cart. The seven jewels are precisely the seven orifices in one's head, and these seven orifices are precisely the [seven characters] na-mu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo, the essential Dharma for the Final Dharma Age." -- Mounting This Jeweled Vehicle, They Directly Arrive at the Place of Enlightenment

Were believers to chant together and some are chanting Namu Myoho renge kyo while others are chanting Nam Myoho renge kyo, what a discordant mess it would be. Some practitioners chanting Namu Myoho renge kyo and others chanting Nam Myoho renge kyo is one of the principle causes of Nichiren faith disunity. One may spout all the theoretical reasons in the world why Nam Myoho renge kyo is equally correct but reality and actuality trumps them all.

Illarraza
Myoho-Nameless
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Myoho-Nameless »

Nope, Nichiren did not write in in braille, ergo it does not work. Otherwise he would have written it as such, remember? Signing does not work either, what a shame! And you? You write in in Romaji, nichiren did not use romaji either. Or really anyone, because even if we write it in Japanese, there exists a real chance that the way Japanese was spoken back then is not the same as it is today.

I guess we should all quit the practice because we don't know how to write or pronounce the daimoku, so no one can attain awakening. :tantrum:

perhaps we have hope because when this topic is brought up to Japanese people, they facepalm most profoundly.
"Keep The Gods Out Of It. Swear On Your Heads. Which I Will Take If You Break Your Vow."- Geralt of Rivia
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Queequeg
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by Queequeg »

Myoho-Nameless wrote:
perhaps we have hope because when this topic is brought up to Japanese people, they facepalm most profoundly.
Exactly. Mark just reinforced the proof of his ignorance of the Japanese written and spoken language.

The disunity in chanting as a group is a good point, but this is a matter of practicality, not essential doctrine. Much easier to deal with. My solution is I chant however the fellows I am chanting with want to chant. Once we stop making pronunciation a matter of orthodoxy, this becomes a much easier issue to resolve.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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nichirenista
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Re: Nichiren Resources?

Post by nichirenista »

This is an awesome post. Thank you for explaining how "Namu" became "Nam."

I started this thread on this topic in case you have more to share:

http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=16751" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Queequeg wrote:
illarraza wrote:


Only Namu Myoho renge kyo is correct because Namu Myoho renge kyo is the personal name of the Supreme Law. Neither Namo Miao Fa Lien Hua Ching, NamasSaddharmapundarikasutra nor Devotion to the Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma is the name of the Supreme Law.

Illarraza
To take this one step further, not even Nam Myoho renge kyo is the name of the Supreme Law or Nichiren would have written it as such.

Illarraza
Mark, you're ignorance of the Japanese written language is complete.

For others who are interested, the Japanese written language incorporates Chinese characters. In some cases, the Chinese characters are pronounced in a way that is derived, but different from, a Chinese pronunciation circa 800 CE. In other instances, they are read with wholly Japanese readings. It would be like adopting the Chinese character for dog, 犬, to write "dog" in English.

In reading, there are often cases where two characters read together are contracted. For instance, this is the character for Buddha: 仏 (the modern, simplified version) read as butsu or alternatively, hotoke, the former being a transliteration of "Buddha" via Chinese, and the latter being the Japanese word for Buddha. This is the character for teaching: 教 read as "kyo" or alternatively "oshie", the former being derived from the Chinese and the latter being the Japanese root for "teach". When read together 仏教, we don't read it butsukyo, which would not be incorrect, but its read bukkyo, and literally means, Buddha's Teachings, and is used to refer to what we know in English as Buddhism. The reason for the contraction is simply convention. Such contractions are not informal or colloquialism, but rather follow formal rules.

The contraction of 南無, which is ordinarily read as namu, and instead pronounced nam by some, is on account of the following syllable being myo. This is another contraction that follows formal rules having to do with to consecutive syllables starting with the same sound, in this case, "m".

The fact is, Nichiren never, as far as I know, wrote out the Daimoku in phonetic characters - which he could have. As such, we don't know how he pronounced 南無妙法蓮華経.

Mark, who goes around the internet making a big deal about this and using it as a basis to condemn others, has no textual basis for his criticism. Its just more rancor. He only has his tradition, which it should be pointed out, traces back to a person who does not have a personal lineage back to Nichiren himself, but comes from reading Nichiren's writings divorced from a personal teacher.

Matthew[/quote]
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DechenNamdrol
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Re: All Things Chod--Links and Upcoming Events

Post by DechenNamdrol »

Ven Chödpa Lama Rinpoche in Calgary, Alberta Canada this year.

http://pureground.ca/ven-chodpa-lama-ri ... 014-visit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
With wishes for your happiness and good health,

Karma Tsewang Gyurmey
@aYYCmonk
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: All Things Chod--Links and Upcoming Events

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

Silent Bob..they don't seem to have that retreat listed on the website..
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
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dzogchungpa
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Re: All Things Chod--Links and Upcoming Events

Post by dzogchungpa »

Fa Dao wrote:Silent Bob..they don't seem to have that retreat listed on the website..
That retreat was four years ago..
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: All Things Chod--Links and Upcoming Events

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

LMAO..oopsie..my bad..sucks getting older
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
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dzogchungpa
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Re: All Things Chod--Links and Upcoming Events

Post by dzogchungpa »

Fa Dao wrote:LMAO..oopsie..my bad..sucks getting older
Nah, it's just like Saraha and his radish stew. :smile:
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
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