Question: If a person simply chants Namu-myoho-renge-kyo with no understanding of its meaning, are the benefits of understanding thereby included?
Answer: When a baby drinks milk, it has no understanding of its taste, and yet its body is naturally nourished. Who ever took the wonderful medicines of Jīvaka knowing of what they were compounded? Water has no intent, and yet it can put out fire. Fire consumes things, and yet how can we say that it does so consciously? This is the explanation of both Nāgārjuna and T’ien-t’ai, and I am restating it here.
Question: Why do you say that all teachings are contained within the daimoku?
Answer: Chang-an writes: “Hence [T’ien-t’ai’s explanation of the title in] the preface conveys the profound meaning of the sutra. The profound meaning indicates the heart of the text, and the heart of the text encompasses the whole of the theoretical and essential teachings.” And Miao-lo writes, “On the basis of the heart of the text of the Lotus Sutra, one can evaluate all the other various teachings of the Buddha.”
Though muddy water has no mind, it can catch the moon’s reflection and so naturally becomes clear. When plants and trees receive the rainfall, they can hardly be aware of what they are doing, and yet do they not proceed to put forth blossoms? The five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo do not represent the sutra text, nor are they its meaning. They are nothing other than the intent of the entire sutra. So, even though the beginners in Buddhist practice may not understand their significance, by practicing these five characters, they will naturally conform to the sutra’s intent.
Question: When your disciples, without any understanding, simply recite with their mouths the words Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, what level of attainment do they reach?
Answer: Not only do they go beyond the highest level of the four flavors and three teachings, as well as that attained by practitioners of the perfect teaching set forth in the sutras that precede the Lotus Sutra, but they surpass by a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million times the founders of the True Word and various other schools of Buddhism, such as Shan-wu-wei, Chih-yen, Tz’u-en, Chi-tsang, Tao-hsüan, Bodhidharma, and Shan-tao.
Therefore, I entreat the people of this country: Do not look down upon my disciples! If you inquire into their past, you will find that they are great bodhisattvas who have given alms to Buddhas over a period of eight hundred thousand million kalpas, and who have carried out practices under Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Hiranyavatī and Ganges rivers. And if we speak of the future, they will be endowed with the benefit of the fiftieth person, surpassing that of one who gave alms to innumerable living beings for a period of eighty years. They are like an infant emperor wrapped in swaddling clothes, or a great dragon who has just been born. Do not despise them! Do not look on them with contempt!" The Four Stages of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice
"...by practicing these five characters" is a bodily reading of the Lotus Sutra. Embracing SGI's mentor/disciple is to NOT have a bodily reading of the Lotus Sutra.
Certainly every last one who chants the Daimoku will attain Buddhahood. Even those who merely hear the Daimoku one time and those who revile the Lotus Sutra. Some will attain Buddhahood in this lifetime or within several lifetimes. Others within a thousand kalpas and others in the far distant future. It all depends on the strength of one's faith, the erroneous beliefs in one's heart, and adhering to what is correct.
ReplyDeleteRegarding what SGI leaders and members think of Ikeda, all one has to do is read their periodicals and myriad of testimonies. It is not a difficult to know what SGI leaders and members think of Ikeda. You are complicit in their slander. Wake up.
I read dozens of experiences of SGI leaders and members daily and have had direct experience with hundreds of leaders and members over the years. I know their views of SGI mentorhood quite well on an individual and collective basis, Yes they will attain Buddhahood in the future, the DISTANT future. Should the world or the individual have to wait so long? Embracing the shingon co0ncept of Guru Yoga, they are no better than those who persecuted Bodhisattva Never Despise, or you who slander me.
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