“Those who are capable of embracing
the Lotus of the Wonderful Law
relinquish their claim to the pure land
and out of pity for living beings are born here.
Know that persons such as these
freely choose where they will be born,
and choose to be born in this evil world
so they may broadly expound the unsurpassed Law.”
– Chapter 10 : The Teacher of the Law.
Please remember that this passage comes from the Theoretical section of the Lotus Sutra. In reality, this is the Buddha's Eternal Pure Land:
ReplyDeleteThe masses of beings see the kalpas exhausted,
When they are burned by the great fires;
This land of mine is peaceful and secure;
Gods and humans ever fill it. Gardens
and forests and various halls and pavilions,
With various types of jewels adorned; On the
jewelled trees many flowers and fruit, Wherein
the masses of beings take their pleasure
and rejoice. The gods strike the celestial drums,
Ever making instrumental music.
Raining mandara flowers. Scattering them
Over the Buddha and the great assemblies.
Though My Pure Land is not destroyed,
Yet the masses see it burned up,
Worrisome fears and agonizing sufferings
And such things all filling it up. These
beings of various sins, Because of the causes
and conditions of their evil karma, Though
they pass through asemkheyas of kalpas,
Do not hear the name of the Three Jewels.
Those who have performed merit,
Who are gentle and pliant, simple and upright,
Then all see my body." LS chapter 16
Yes, yes, yes,yes,yes!
ReplyDeleteClown Hidden, have you been over to the "new" arbn. Things are heating up. I believe Chas, Richard, Julian, and Space Treasury [SGI and NST] are getting crushed. Would like your opinion.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"“Those who are capable of embracing
the Lotus of the Wonderful Law
relinquish their claim to the pure land
and out of pity for living beings are born here.
Know that persons such as these
freely choose where they will be born,
and choose to be born in this evil world
so they may broadly expound the unsurpassed Law.”
– Chapter 10 : The Teacher of the Law."
There is no mention of that *these people* are Buddhas-- Yet, SGI and other Nichiren Shoshu followers claim they are "originally Buddhas"--and also call themselves "bodhisattva Buddhas"-- Where did they get this idea?
Who are the living beings that inhabit the Saha world ? SGI and other Nichiren shoshu followers would have you believe that Buddhas reside here-- just waiting to be tapped on the head by the high priest or the eternal mentor's minions.
Nichiren describes us living beings here like this :
"Since all the lands in the ten directions, with the exception of this sahā world, are pure lands, their people, being gentlehearted, neither abuse nor hate the worthies and sages. In contrast, this world is inhabited by people who were rejected from the pure lands in the ten directions. They have committed the ten evil acts or the five cardinal sins, slandered the worthies and sages, and have been unfilial to their fathers and mothers or disrespectful to the monks. For these offenses they fell into the three evil paths, and only after dwelling there for countless kalpas were they reborn in this world. Yet the residue of the evil karma formed in their previous existences has not yet been eradicated, and they still tend to perpetrate the ten evil acts or the five cardinal sins, to revile the worthies and sages, and to be undutiful to their fathers and mothers or irreverent toward the monks." {"The Four Debts of Gratitude")
Again-- No mention of the Buddha reunion SGI claims to be celebrating--
And how did Nichiren view himself amongst all living beings in this saha world?
"There is one other thing for which I am most grateful. While transmigrating in the six paths for the duration of countless kalpas, I may have encountered a number of sovereigns and become their favorite minister or regent. If so, I must have been granted fiefs and accorded treasures and stipends. Never once, however, did I encounter a sovereign in whose country the Lotus Sutra had spread, so that I could hear its name, practice it and, on that very account, be slandered by other people and have the ruler send me into exile. The Lotus Sutra states, “As for this Lotus Sutra, throughout immeasurable numbers of lands one cannot even hear its name, much less be able to see it, accept and embrace, read and recite it.”6 Thus those people who slandered me and the ruler [who had me banished] are the very persons to whom I owe the most profound debt of gratitude." ("The four Debts of Gratitude")
Does this sound like the confessions of *The Original Buddha*?-- or does it bring into sharp focus the extent to which SGI and other followers of Nichiren Shoshu have fabricated and distorted Nichiren's teachings?
Time to "Send in the Clowns?" -- :-D
~Katie