Is it really necessary to contemplate the gohonzon in daimoku practice?

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narhwal90
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Re: Is it really necessary to contemplate the gohonzon in daimoku practice?

Post by narhwal90 »

When posing a question its polite to qualify it, perhaps some assumptions or experience as context .

That said, my experience is that it is not necessary to contemplate or even have a gohonzon for daimoku practice, but they are helpful and support the practice. For instance, having an altar and gohonzon in the butsudan, candles and incense aid in consistency and encourage determination.
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Minobu
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Re: Is it really necessary to contemplate the gohonzon in daimoku practice?

Post by Minobu »

For me the Gohonzon not only depicts but actually is.

for instance : Indra and Brahma are depicted using characters.
Due to the ODaimoku it gives "life" , if you will, to the character there by allowing it to become Indra.

Also it depends on what form of contemplation. All are beneficial.

So when you sit in front of Gohonzon and recite the Lotus Sutra the Gohonzon actually becomes those sentients , and you commune with them.

very Tantric!
ronnymarsh
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Re: Is it really necessary to contemplate the gohonzon in daimoku practice?

Post by ronnymarsh »

The gohonzon mandala is a "scene" taken from the Lotus Sutra, the "air ceremony". The, shall we say, orthodox practice of the Lotus Sutra is to experience the various scenes that are narrated in the text, to be immersed in them, to reach a state of unification between them and you.
In Shakyamuni's teaching, as expressed in the Sutra, this practice is carried out through the five practices:
1. Receive and Embrace (i.e., Listen attentively) to the Sutra
2. Read the Sutra
3. Recite the Sutra
4. Teach the Sutra
5. Copy the Sutra
All of these practices require the Lotus Sutra to be expressed and the practitioner to place his or her attention on it, and reaching the stage of "mindfulness" of the Sutra occurs this internalization, the fusion between the expresser and the being expressed.
Nichiren, in turn, taught a simpler practice that makes the same realization possible, even without going into detail about it (for to a Tendai scholar this would have been evident in his time): To observe a specific scene while expressing the Sutra's title.
The idea is to pacify the mind and see that at that moment you are in the very scene of the Lotus Sutra, on the Eagle's Peak itself at the very moment when the Buddha is preaching the "Lotus Sutra", having the same enlightened mind as him.
The mandala is a way of aiding this understanding and is the central point of the practice, but it is not indispensable in terms of a "personal object". Nichiren had thousands of lay followers, but he only wrote just over a hundred mandalas.
SageProtector
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Re: Is it really necessary to contemplate the gohonzon in daimoku practice?

Post by SageProtector »

thanks for the clarification! :namaste:
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