-Nichiren, Myōmitsu Shōnin goshōsoku 妙密上人御消息, The Blessings of the Lotus SutraI, Nichiren, am not the founder of any school, nor am I a latter-day follower of any older school. I am a priest without precepts, neither keeping the precepts nor breaking them. I am an ordinary creature like an ox or a sheep, who is neither particularly wise nor ignorant.
When one is studying the Lotus Sutra, unless one also studies the sutras that were preached prior to it, one can never hope to understand its true significance.
-Nichiren, Ichidai shōkyō taii 一代聖教大意, The Meaning of the Sacred Teachings of the Buddha’s Lifetime
-Nichiren, Shōhokke daimoku shō 唱法華題目抄, On Reciting the Daimoku of the Lotus SutraAs a daily religious practice, one should recite the daimoku, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Those persons who are able to do so should further recite a verse or a phrase of the Lotus Sutra. As a supplementary practice, if one wishes, one may offer praise for Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, or the Buddhas of the ten directions, for all the various bodhisattvas or the persons of the two vehicles, the heavenly beings, the dragon deities, or the eight kinds of nonhuman beings [who protect Buddhism]. Since we live in an age when there are many uninformed people, there is no need for believers to attempt at once to practice the meditation on the three thousand realms in a single moment of life, though if there are persons who wish to do so, they should learn how to practice this type of meditation and carry it out.
In the intervening years since Nichiren appeared in Japan, factors originating within the community and outside the community have converged to establish a clearly demarcated Nichiren School which is in turn divided into sects and sub-schools.
-Shakyamuni Buddha, Samannaphala SuttaHousehold life is confining, a dusty path. The life gone forth is like the open air. It is not easy living at home to practice the holy life totally perfect, totally pure, like a polished shell. What if I were to shave off my hair and beard, put on the ochre robes, and go forth from the household life into homelessness?
While I'm not taking up the path of the renunciate, those lines have rung true to me since I first read them. "Life gone forth is like the open air."
In seeking the meaning of Myohorengekyo, I've sought people who could explain it to me. I've never found anyone so far who could. It seems the ones who could, are dead. And so, I take the counsel of the sages to heart:
-Guanding, Introduction, Mohezhikuan, The Great Samatha and VipasyanaThe perfect-and-sudden [method of practicing cessation-and-contemplation] involves taking the true aspects [of reality] as the object from the very beginning. Whatever is made to be the object [of contemplation], it is the Middle; there is nothing that is not truly real. [When one attains the state of contemplation wherein] reality itself (dharmadhatu) is fixed as the object [of contemplation], and thoughts are integrated with reality itself, [then one realizes that] there is not a single color or scent that is not the Middle Way. It is the same for the realm of the individual, the realm of Buddhas, and the world at large. All [phenomena experienced through] the aggregates (skandha) and senses (ayatana) are thusness; therefore there is no [substantial] suffering that needs to be removed. Since ignorance (avidya) and the exhausting dust [of passionate afflictions (kleša)] are indivisible with bodhi-wisdom, there is no origin [of suffering; i.e., craving] to be severed. Since the extreme [dualities] and false [views] are [indivisible with] the Middle and what is right, there is no path to be cultivated. Since [this cyclic world of] samsara is [indivisible with] nirvana, there is no extinguishing [of craving] to be realized. Since suffering and its causes do not exist [substantially], there is no mundane world [to be transcended]; since the path and the extinction [of craving] do not exist [substantially], there is no transcendent world [to be gained]. There is purely the single true aspect [of reality-as-it-is]; there are no separate things outside this true aspect. For things in themselves (dharmata) to be quiescent is called samatha; to be quiescent yet ever luminous is called vipasyana. Though earlier and later [stages] are spoken of, they are neither two nor separate. This is called perfect-and-sudden cessation-and-contemplation.
Myohorengekyo is the True Aspect itself, and in Myohorengekyo I take refuge. I listen to teachings as I encounter them, however they appear to me, consider them, and take or leave them as they seem conducive to the path. This path has taken me beyond the confines of the Nichiren School as it is now. I'm not inclined to share more about my path, and I don't think it really matters.
I'm sharing this only because over the years, people who have found me here in this forum have thanked me for what I've written here and how that has supported their own paths. I don't want my remark about no longer identifying as one thing or another to cause any discouragement for others. My path now is in no way a rejection of anything in my past - it has led me here and so it could not be any other way.
We all follow the Buddha's counsel, "All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!"
Anyways, I'm here at DW for now. Catch you on the road.
And will keep participating here as long as I'm still at DW.
