"Are the voice-hearers protecting those who disparage the Lotus Sutra as a mere written teaching and who put forth their great lies about what they call a special transmission?" -- Nichiren
"People belonging to that school insist that it represents a separate transmission outside the sutras. The Buddha’s final testament states that if someone were to claim that the correct teaching exists outside the sutras, it would be the view of the heavenly devil. How then can the statement about a separate transmission outside the sutras escape this judgment?"
"The Great Teacher Dengyō states: 'If it is not a decree of the ruler of the nation, it should not be honored and obeyed. If it is not the teaching of the Buddha, the Dharma King, it should not be accepted and believed.'”
"The exponents of this school are very arrogant, claiming to possess a “separate transmission outside the sutras,” and look with contempt on all the sutras. This school is the invention of the heavenly devil."
great reply katie....as you know dave c has a huge ego and his alligence is to GMW. he thinks nsa was real buddhism. he has his own little cult,
ReplyDeleteThis is not *concrete* thinking, Dave. Literal interpretation of the Lotus Sutra was Nichiren's forte and it went beyond his thinking to the way he chose to live. I am amazed to find that so few of you sat down with the Gosho and read it cover to cover--How long does it take? Less time than reading J.k. Rowling's , 7 book series," Harry Potter." There are a few things that emerge from reading Nichiren's large body of work--without the Gakkai or Shoshu footnotes:
1) Nichiren was NOT a *concrete* thinker-- He poses nearly every other interpretation that could be made from passages of the sutra, treatises and commentaries and illustrates every possible mistake a *reader* of the Buddha's "golden words" could make. Nichiren teaches what literal interpretation means and he bases it on Shakyamuni's golden record for telling the truth.
2) Nichiren's single minded focus on the literal meaning of the Lotus Sutra sustained him through, poverty, persecution and ongoing agonizing ordeals. One can encounter and even manifest this impertubable life condition just from reading the Gosho in its entirety while chanting daimoku.
3) There is a stark contrast between the life and teachings of Nichiren and the teachings and practice of EVERY school of so-called Nichiren Buddhism. It is readily apparent that the founders of the most prominent schools Nichiren shoshu and Nichiren Shu did NOT want to undergo poverty and persecution-- in fact, their divergence from Nichiren's teachings can be best understood from the perspective of "maintaining personal comfort" and/or "seeking personal gain" both of which are diametrically opposed to everything Nichiren said and did.
Was Nichien obsessed ? One might think so reading him from *start to finish*-- because the same themes that are argued here are consistently brought up, often repeated and thoroughly detailed-- The main one being the debt of gratitude we own to Shakyamuni Buddha. When Mark scratches the surface of the quotes appearing in Nichiren's writings he leaves off at least 200 more passages! And not once has a commenter her shown any real appreciation for what this means. Immediately they begin to quote from the *disputed* writings that are their *main corpus*-- but what can you also discern about this group? They consider personal comfort and/or personal gain to be *benefits* of their correct practice of Nichiren's Buddhism-- Is it wrong to howl with laughter at them? Nichiren did the same toward the heretical priests of his time.
part two:
Delete"The Opening of the eyes" Nichiren writes:
"The Buddha, from the time of his enlightenment at the age of thirty until his passing a the age of eighty. expounds his sacred teachings for a period of fifty years. Each word, each phrase he spoke is true, not a sentence, not a verse id=s false. the words of the sages and worthies preserved in the scriptures and teachings of Confucianism and Brahmanism, as we have noted, are free of error, and the words match the spirit in which they were spoken. But how much more true is this in the case of the buddha, who had spoken not a false word for countless kappas? In comparison to the non-Buddhist scriptures and teachings, the doctrines that he expounded in a period of fifty or so years represent the great man. Everything that he preached, from the dawn of his enlightenment until the evening that he entered into nirvana is none other than the truth."
"Shakyamuni Buddha appeared in the saha world, Kumaraiva journeyed to the Ch'in dynasty in china and Dengyo likewise went to China [all for the sake of the Lotus sutra]. Aryadeva and Aryasimha sacrificed their bodies. Bodhisattva Medicine King burned his arms in an offering, and Prince Jogu stripped off the skin on his hand [and copied the sutra on it] . Shahyamuni, when he was a bodhisattva, sold his flesh to make offerings, and another time, when he was a bodhisattva named the aesthetic Aspiration for the Law, he used one of his bones as a pen [to write down the buddhas teaching].
"T'ien-t'ai has said that "the method chosen should be that which accords with the time." the propagation of the Buddhist teachings should follow the time. for what I have done, i have been condemned to exile, but it is a small suffering to undergo in this present life and not worth lamenting. In future liv I will enjoy immense happiness, a thought that gives me great joy."
If you want to grasp what *bodily reading* of the scriptures means, or discover the difference between literal interpretation and *concrete thinking* first read Nichiren's writings without footnotes from the popular schools of our time-- and uphold any one of them without desisting--. You will find refuge if you seek it through daimoku --in The Lotus sutra, and all of the strength and courage you will need from Nichiren's own writing.
OR-- you can continue to wage intellectual battles in defense of the personal comfort personal gain practices that one can only truly hate when one grasps the truly horrible fate that is the ultimate effect of widespread propagation of these teachings. And how does one arrive at that conclusion? Through faith-- in the literal interpretation of Nichiren's teachings. Those who are the strongest opponents of SGI/NST/Shu have also gained the true benefit of correct faith following Nichiren.
Is their [SGI/NST/Shu] slander accidental or contrived?
Consider the Gakkai/Shoshu translation here:
"And hence the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. 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 , NAM-myoho-renge-kyo." (WND vol 1 pg. 250)
part three:
DeleteTWO characters = NAM? Pretty slick, hey? And though you say Chas and the Gakkai don't *worship* Ikeda, all chant their truncated daimoku with single minded purpose-- fulfilling their own personal dreams and desires AND have no connection whatsoever to the Lotus sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha? By design--
Devoting one's life to the Lotus Sutra is the practice for attaining perfect enlightenment-- using "parts" of the teachings for personal comfort and gain is the *way* to having the devil king as one's parent-- a doting parent who will gladly bestow worldly spoils and status on those who diverge from the True teachings--
I won't take seriously any of your deprecating remarks, Dave--. Over the course of my 28 years of seeking the Law through Nichiren's own writings, I have had the great fortune of learning that taking Nichiren *literally* means not being perturbed by the malicious attacks from those for whom the truth is a subjective exercise in egoistic banter.
Best~
~Katie
the issue above is.....as with the many who will not or can not follow the teacher for the latter age, nichiren; like ikeda, all become great slanderers of the law and develop their own version of real buddhism. hence.....the world greives.
Deletei re-read katies reply again today.........excellent reply katie. bravo !
DeleteThank you so much for your insights Greg!
ReplyDeleteand Katie too!
ReplyDelete