What do Lay Priests do?
What do Lay Priests do?
My understanding is that they do not have to renounce secular life, but is that the only difference between Lay Priest and Priest?
In his writing, Hokkemongu (Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra), The Great Master Nichiren said, “If the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra wholeheartedly devote their life to the Lotus Sutra and practice according to its golden words, it is certainly needless to say that not only in the next life, but also in this lifetime they will overcome severe difficulty, prolong their life, receive the great, good fortune of unsurpassed enlightenment, and accomplish the great vow of the widespread, propagation of True Buddhism.”
Re: What do Lay Priests do?
They're all lay priests.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
Re: What do Lay Priests do?
I was told otherwise and that there is a difference.
In his writing, Hokkemongu (Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra), The Great Master Nichiren said, “If the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra wholeheartedly devote their life to the Lotus Sutra and practice according to its golden words, it is certainly needless to say that not only in the next life, but also in this lifetime they will overcome severe difficulty, prolong their life, receive the great, good fortune of unsurpassed enlightenment, and accomplish the great vow of the widespread, propagation of True Buddhism.”
Re: What do Lay Priests do?
It depends on the school I think- no priests at all in SGI, but N.Soshu, N.Shu do ordain- subject to correction.
Re: What do Lay Priests do?
Actually Narwhal, SGI has priests where Buddhist priests are highly respected. They have priests in Ghana and Singapore for example. Italian SGI leaders are known as "Ministers of Worship." Daisaku Ikeda taught, "At the present time, the Soka Gakkai itself is the one and only group of united priests which receives and inherits the 'lifeblood of faith.'" -- Daisaku Ikeda, Seikyo Shinbun, 9/18/93
Mark
Re: What do Lay Priests do?
I think what QQ means is that most who are considered priests today are no longer celibate. There may be a few Nichiren priests who are celibate and who desire little? Nipponzan Myohoji priests uphold a vow of poverty.
Mark