Dharma Wheel

I'd suggest finding a soto center you like for some reason which has regular zoom or whatever sessions, start showing up and participate. By participate, follow along in whatever the study material is; read it, participate in the discussion. You don't have to stay or commit to practice until/unless ...

Thats true, happened some time ago actually. There is no prohibition against reciting from older gongyo books or studying the Lotus Sutra itself, should one wish to. Chanting for something achievable ie the car or similar, is an expedient to help with practice early on. After gaining some experience...

Nice Many thanks John

There is always a choice of what views to adopt, Nichiren's or otherwise. How important is exclusivity or triumphalism vs practice?

A do-it-yourself gohonzon as MInobu does is one of the methods independent practitioners use. I've heard of a local independent who came into SGI having done it as well; in this case they had found a gohonzon image online, printed it and hung it on a wall. Back in the 80's Nichiren Shoshu around her...

https://nichirenmandala.weebly.com/

Well worth the money as a Nichiren practitioner, learn something about the who/what/when/why of gohonzons.

FWIW, gohonzons have been given, conferred, bought, sold, and stolen and forged (both piously and otherwise) for centuries, perhaps back to Nichiren's era for all I know. I even recall once reading the tale of the "flying Gohonzon," which allegedly escaped destruction from fire by miraculously flyi...

I believe the Mandala Workshop addresses that story to some extent, I will look into the books...

Don't know about those things, but it is interesting to see how old some of the gohonzons are.. for instance, right now there are at least three N.Shu gohonzons from the 1600's AD, which is pretty cool. I suppose such things might have difficuty with authentication and so on but presumably that coul...

I'm curious about N.Shu doctrine on the gohonzon sale question too- if for no other reason that old Shu gohonzons come up regularly on ebay, some of them quite old.

Friends like that are always missed...

One of my favorite goshos! Thanks John- I've not read it for a while.

The 10 Factors (being one of the factors of the Ichinen Sanzen 3000 realms) address the latent vs expressed aspects of phenomena eg viewing a seed as a latent plant, needing appropriate factors in order to manifest. Of course there are the difficulties associated with making the distinctions and dec...

If it is the case there is no fundamental distinction between a buddha and a deluded being then both incorporate all 10 Worlds. A difference might be seen in their actions; to what extent each is driven by greed, anger, ignorance and so on.

The "True Buddha" business has been associated with the Fuji schools for hundreds of years now, its hardly an SGI innovation. I don't buy it personally, so generally I skip that prayer and instead offer one to all the teachers in all the schools. Whatever- far as I'm concerned its not a big deal. If...

Not arguing that the "Bible of Shakabuku" exists, apparently from where those quotes are taken, but its copyright 1951, and is not published or distributed by SGI these days. Its been almost 70 years since it was published, things have changed since then. Daibyakurenge is indeed a SGI publication, ...

Not arguing that the "Bible of Shakabuku" exists, apparently from where those quotes are taken, but its copyright 1951, and is not published or distributed by SGI these days. Its been almost 70 years since it was published, things have changed since then. Daibyakurenge is indeed a SGI publication, s...

It has also been a wake-up call about the fragility of supply chains in our globalised economy, and a number of countries are moving to be more self-sufficient. In turn, that has been community-building and employment-building, although we shouldn't expect too much from it. :namaste: Kim Around her...

Where is the proof the transfer docs are a forgery? I see allot of opinion but no proof. Word soups besides. What's the difference in your mind anyway between a copy and a forgery? In what way is the Burton Lotus Sutra coarse and not scholarly? Is it It's readability? If so why is readability a neg...

I don't have any problem at all with your faith in his perspective, but do with presenting it as fact, particularly to correct others. I apologize for not understanding what you're trying to get at relating fear to methods of reasoning, or what "faith certainty" is- but thats fine. I have experience...