The chant that changed her life

[Mr. G]

In 2004, Vasuda Arora was feeling hopeless about all aspects of her life. “I was at a stage when I felt like a failure,” says Vasuda, who is married to a Mumbai-based television producer Suresh Mathew. “I had no idea of what I wanted to do with my life.” It was also a time when her parents were going through health and financial problems. “There were family conflicts,” she says. “When this happens, you feel like a victim and wonder why bad things happen to loved ones only?” It was during this difficult period that her sister Nandini spoke to her about the power of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism

Read More Here...

[Nosta]

Such kind of budhism sounds as a cult.
Why?
Tell me more about that Nichiren D. buddhism.

[Mr. G]

Nichiren's various flavors are accepted as traditional schools of Buddhism. Granted back in the day SGI was big into aggressive shakubuku, but I hear they're quite tame now, though they have a bit of materialist bent to them and too much reliance on Ikeda as opposed to the writings of Nichiren. If I were into Nichiren, I'd probably practice with Rissho Kosei-kai, as they seem like a more independent group. I can see how that article seems a bit off. Sigh, it's tough finding up to date Nichiren material online. I remember the blog "Fraught with Peril" being good, but I haven't been there in years.

[Mr. G]

I remember the blog "Fraught with Peril" being good, but I haven't been there in years.

Alive and well:

http://fraughtwithperil.com/

[plwk]

The Lineage of Nichiren Buddhism
The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Nichiren Issues

[Nosta]

Thanks for the links, i will read them later, when i got more time.

Coming back on topic: is it me, or this brench of buddhism sounds to much materialistic? I know that is important to have health and some stability in life if you want to have the conditions to study buddhism, but Nichiren Buddhism sound a little bit exagerated. I´ve read some people talking about the changes in their life, and what they said was like when you see those commercials talking about some miracle-pills or the like.

If we want some peace and health and even some wealth, Medicine Buddha seems much less exagerated and materialistic-centered than Nichiren Buddhism.

BUT, this is what it seems to someone "outside" like me. I am not here attacking, just expecting the opposite: that you convince me that i am wrong lol.

Is there anyone here that practices Nichiren? Tell me about your own experience.

[Ogyen]

This branch of Buddhism appeals to a group of people. It's not for everyone. Just like any other branch of Buddhism.

I'm happy that it's changed those individuals' lives. Awakening comes in many colors and forms, and so long as people become kinder, deeper, and more patient, it does not much matter how they get to the top of the mountain, the view is the same for everyone at the top.

Some people reason in ways that resonate with Ikeda's teachings. He also seems to be regarded by his followers as a living Buddha. I do personally find Nichiren these days a bit much about Ikeda and less about the dharma, but that's just me. I'm not the fondest person of personality-centric traditions.

I recently made a juzu on request for a man who found me online (and then we discovered we're related by marriage... so weird). He's my dad's wife's brother, and neither of us knew of our relation by marriage when he asked me to make him a juzu set, not till much much later after they were nearly complete. He had simply seen some of my work and said, "You! You must be the one to make me these beads." LOL

In the last year, I had to research a great deal about the tradition so I could make the prayer beads correctly (they have to be the most complicated prayer beads I've ever made) and traditionally every part of the juzu has meaning, the beads, shapes, placements, it's a lot more complex than a traditional Tibetan mala. I had to learn the meanings of each component to make them correctly traditional for my patron and get it right.

Now I know a bit more about the tradition than I used to, interesting as it is it's still not my cup of tea, but I at least appreciate it now more than I used to.

The important thing if it resonates, is that you pursue your own realization with the zeal of a scent hound.


D. Ogyen

[Tatsuo]

Nichiren Buddhism is much more than just Soka Gakkai. There is also Nichiren Shoshu, from which Soka Gakkai was a lay organisation and there is the orthodox Nichirenshu. Whereas Soka Gakkai and Nichirenshu have deviating interpretations of Nichiren being a Buddha of the mappo age (declining dharma), Nichirenshu sees Nichiren as a Bodhisattva. That's why Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai call Nichiren with the tile Daishonin (great saint) and Nichirenshu calls him Nichiren Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Nichiren) or Nichiren Shonin (saint Nichiren).
If I remember correctly only Soka Gakkai promotes chanting for earthly desires.
In any way, I think, that Nichiren Buddhism is in fact a true teaching of mappo (meaning, that Nichiren kept saying, that the practice of forms of Buddhism other than his interpretation lead directly to hell and other Sutras than the Lotus Sutra are false - which was characterized as behaviour of the mappo time before Nichiren and that even in the Lotus Sutra) .