why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Minobu
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why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by Minobu »

I recall something Rinpoche said to me...there is a point where i can no longer teach you more and you just have to do it yourself.

i feel the same way towards Nichiren practice...it shows you what you are...never seek gohonzon outside yourself....all that stuff is you...

so the chanting only brings me so far...i gave it a two year shot...and stagnated ..

My meditation practice is private and i don;t talk about it...if you are ready the universe shall provide a teaching for you....

things are working out much more rapidly and my growth and understanding is moving along quite nicely..

I think Nichiren's teachings can only actually bring you so far...

Been around too long not to notice...

I Have been shown other "THINGS" and am grateful...things a Nichiren ShoShu priest said was non Buddhist thought and yet years later i found out is taught in a Tibetan setting by qualified teachers...
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Practice for oneself and for others.
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,
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by Minobu »

Queequeg wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:48 pm Practice for oneself and for others.
Well thats what Buddhism is all about eh !

Please do not think or get me wrong ..
Nichiren practice is very beneficial and appropriate for this time.

But...

He could not have produced it without the knowledge of other Buddhist teachings...

the ideas of chanting , mandala practice, etc. all came well before Tien Tai and Lotus Buddhism.

Even You!!! Q ! rely on other sutras and Buddhist teachings to teach...

there is stuff that needs to be done that just isn't even mentioned in Nichiren sects these days..or ever maybe...
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Minobu wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:19 pm
Queequeg wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:48 pm Practice for oneself and for others.
Well thats what Buddhism is all about eh !

Please do not think or get me wrong ..
Nichiren practice is very beneficial and appropriate for this time.

But...

He could not have produced it without the knowledge of other Buddhist teachings...

the ideas of chanting , mandala practice, etc. all came well before Tien Tai and Lotus Buddhism.

Even You!!! Q ! rely on other sutras and Buddhist teachings to teach...

there is stuff that needs to be done that just isn't even mentioned in Nichiren sects these days..or ever maybe...
Yes... and then some.

This is Mappo - the Degenerate Age. To analogize, we are caught under a crashing monster wave - a tsunami - we have no idea which way is up or down. The currents, the rip tide, the under toe, the fast succession of waves gives us no respite and we are left gasping for air, suffocating, panicking. Life, we are told, is as fleeting as a galloping horse glimpsed through a crack in the fence, or sea foam, or dew in the heat of the summer sun. This is so for all beings who appear here at this time.

Nichiren described the teaching he propagates as the Buddhism of Sowing, in contrast to the teachings that spread in the Former and Middle Ages of the Dharma, the Buddhism of the Harvest. In this unrelenting tumult, where the Name of the Three Jewels is little more than the reverberation of an echo, there is scarcely time to learn and undertake the teachings as it was in the Former and Middle Days. If we can Hear the Name, even once, and not slander it, let alone if we can have one moment of joy, the benefits are immeasurable. As Nichiren comments, if you have the time, capacity and opportunity, practice as best you can; for the rest, we do well enough to have find the Daimoku tied around our neck by the Buddha so that we will not be parted from the Sublime Dharma no matter how rough it gets.

Nichiren took what works and works quickly. He didn't have time to add all the footnotes and caveats. He concluded, they'd do no good anyway in these circumstances. It will all be effaced in this Degenerate Age. Enough of those teachings are still around that if you take the time you can reconstruct how Nichiren revealed the Daimoku... but, really, in this circumstance, that's like documenting who shot the arrow, how, and why, and what sort of arrow, how it was made, all the practice that went into the marksmanship... we need to get the arrow out.

To analogize further - this Degenerate Age is like the really not fun part of the Bardo when if we've managed to hold on so far, the rest of us lose our shit.

Practice for others is the practice of throwing out life vests in a turbulent sea. Practice for oneself is making sure ours is secure. Advanced practices? In this circumstance? If you can swing it.
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,
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by Minobu »

Queequeg wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:39 pm
Minobu wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:19 pm
Queequeg wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:48 pm Practice for oneself and for others.
Well thats what Buddhism is all about eh !

Please do not think or get me wrong ..
Nichiren practice is very beneficial and appropriate for this time.

But...

He could not have produced it without the knowledge of other Buddhist teachings...

the ideas of chanting , mandala practice, etc. all came well before Tien Tai and Lotus Buddhism.

Even You!!! Q ! rely on other sutras and Buddhist teachings to teach...

there is stuff that needs to be done that just isn't even mentioned in Nichiren sects these days..or ever maybe...
Yes... and then some.

This is Mappo - the Degenerate Age. To analogize, we are caught under a crashing monster wave - a tsunami - we have no idea which way is up or down. The currents, the rip tide, the under toe, the fast succession of waves gives us no respite and we are left gasping for air, suffocating, panicking. Life, we are told, is as fleeting as a galloping horse glimpsed through a crack in the fence, or sea foam, or dew in the heat of the summer sun. This is so for all beings who appear here at this time.

Nichiren described the teaching he propagates as the Buddhism of Sowing, in contrast to the teachings that spread in the Former and Middle Ages of the Dharma, the Buddhism of the Harvest. In this unrelenting tumult, where the Name of the Three Jewels is little more than the reverberation of an echo, there is scarcely time to learn and undertake the teachings as it was in the Former and Middle Days. If we can Hear the Name, even once, and not slander it, let alone if we can have one moment of joy, the benefits are immeasurable. As Nichiren comments, if you have the time, capacity and opportunity, practice as best you can; for the rest, we do well enough to have find the Daimoku tied around our neck by the Buddha so that we will not be parted from the Sublime Dharma no matter how rough it gets.

Nichiren took what works and works quickly. He didn't have time to add all the footnotes and caveats. He concluded, they'd do no good anyway in these circumstances. It will all be effaced in this Degenerate Age. Enough of those teachings are still around that if you take the time you can reconstruct how Nichiren revealed the Daimoku... but, really, in this circumstance, that's like documenting who shot the arrow, how, and why, and what sort of arrow, how it was made, all the practice that went into the marksmanship... we need to get the arrow out.

To analogize further - this Degenerate Age is like the really not fun part of the Bardo when if we've managed to hold on so far, the rest of us lose our shit.

Practice for others is the practice of throwing out life vests in a turbulent sea. Practice for oneself is making sure ours is secure. Advanced practices? In this circumstance? If you can swing it.
i understand....to be honest i think(correction on rereading the post) "KNOW" the merit and the understanding i received from this practice and study shaped my life..

that being said it led me to other fields of endeavour in my quest for enlightened evolution.

the question is this , for me anyway..

once you understand what Nichiren wanted to have us see...is it not time to develop those aspects of our being.

Take the whole Tantric development and the six yogas of Naropa...many cultures besides Buddhist and Indian Vedic culture have created systems to develop those aspects of our being...the simple practice of Nichiren though incredibly beneficial does not address these .

Unless you see that one gets pointed into the right direction for further development .

and lets be clear here...i am not slandering the practice if i say it can only lead you so far and obviously those who attend this site have been shown there are other venues towards one development as a Buddhist one should indeed consider....it's in your face every time you log on here.
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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The twenty-four characters of Never Disparaging (Skt. Sadaparibhuta, JP. Fukyo)and the five characters of Nichiren are different in wording, but accord with the same principle.
-On the Buddha's Prophecy

The twenty-four characters are: "I deeply respect you. I dare not belittle you. Why is this? Because all of you practice the bodhisattva path, and will become buddhas."

The five characters are: myohorengekyo.

The context of the 24 Character Teaching:
...After the parinirvāṇa of the first Tathāgata Bhīṣmagar jita svararāja, there were excessively proud and overbearing monks in the Age of the Semblance Dharma, after the True Dharma had been extinguished. At that time there was also a monk, a bodhisattva, called Sadāparibhūta (Never Despising).

“O Mahāsthāmaprāpta, why was he called Sadāparibhūta? Because whenever he saw any monk, nun, layman, or laywoman, he would praise and pay homage to them, saying:

I deeply respect you. I dare not belittle you. Why is this? Because all of you practice the bodhisattva path, and will become buddhas.

“Furthermore, this monk did not concentrate himself on reciting the sutras but only paid homage such that, even when he saw the fourfold assembly from afar, he would go up to them, praise, and pay homage to them, saying:

I dare not belittle you, because you will all become buddhas.

“In the fourfold assembly there were some whose minds were impure and who became angry, and reviled and disparaged him, saying:

Where does this ignorant monk come from? He says that he himself does not belittle us and predicts that we shall all become buddhas. We do not need such an idle prediction.

“In this way he wandered about for many years and was always reviled. But he never got angry and always said, ‘You will become a buddha.’

“Whenever he spoke these words, people would assail him with sticks or stones; he fled from them yet still proclaimed loudly at a distance:

I dare not belittle you. You will all become buddhas.

“Since he always spoke these words, the excessively proud monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen called him Sadāparibhūta. When this monk was about to die, he heard in the air twenty thousands of myriads of koṭis of verses of the Lotus Sutra expounded previously by the Buddha Bhīṣmagarjitasvararāja and, completely preserving them, he attained the purity of the eye, and the purity of the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind that were described before. After having attained these pure faculties, his lifespan increased two hundreds of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of years and he taught this Lotus Sutra to the people far and wide.

“Then those excessively proud monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen in the fourfold assembly who had despised him and called him Sadāparibhūta saw that he had attained great transcendent powers, the power of joy in eloquence, and the power of great virtuous meditation. Hearing his teaching, all of them believed and followed him.

“Furthermore, this bodhisattva inspired a thousand myriads of koṭis of sentient beings and caused them to abide in highest, complete enlightenment. After his death, he met two thousand koṭis of buddhas, all of whom were called Candrasūryapradīpa. In accordance with his teaching he expounded this Lotus Sutra, and for this reason met another two thousand koṭis of buddhas, all of whom were called Meghasvararāja. He preserved and recited this sutra in accordance with the teaching of these buddhas and expounded it for the sake of the fourfold assembly. Thus he attained purity of the natural eye and purity of the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and taught the Dharma to the fourfold assembly without fear.

“O Mahāsthāmaprāpta, this Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Sadāparibhūta respected, honored, praised, and paid homage to all these buddhas. Having planted roots of good merit, he again met thousands of myriads of koṭis of buddhas; and he expounded this sutra over again in accordance with the teaching of those buddhas. Having perfected his merits he attained buddhahood.

“O Mahāsthāmaprāpta, what do you think about this? Was Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta of that time someone unknown to you? He was none other than I myself. If I had not preserved and recited this sutra and taught it to others in my previous lives, I would not have swiftly attained highest, complete enlightenment. Because I preserved and recited this sutra and taught it to others in the presence of previous buddhas, I swiftly attained highest, complete enlightenment.
There is the path laid out in the Lotus Sutra that Nichiren taught: Honoring all beings as Buddhas.

I am going to challenge you - if you think that the Buddhist path is anything but the gist of the 24 or 5 characters, then you're not practicing the Ekayana and instead you're just polishing turds. All the practices are derivative of this teaching.

All Buddhist practice is, to put it conventionally, to see the Buddhanature in all beings, self and other. Practice for oneself is perfecting that wisdom; practice for others is causing them to hear of the this Buddhanature. Buddhanature is the life vest I referred to.

I'm not going to say what you or anyone does or doesn't do accords with the Ekayana or not. If it accords with the Ekayana, it accords with Nichiren's teachings. If not, then it doesn't. I'm just offering this to sharpen the terms of what you seem to be talking about.
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,
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by Minobu »

:good:

ok i will have a think and try to make a post bereft of dyslexia...lol..

i do hear ya...so it's about agreeing with you and what i have come to see...
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Minobu wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:30 pmso the chanting only brings me so far...i gave it a two year shot...and stagnated ..
There are two options when faced with a wall: find a way to go around/break through it, or give up and go back to where you started from.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
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"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Grigoris wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:23 pm
Minobu wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:30 pmso the chanting only brings me so far...i gave it a two year shot...and stagnated ..
There are two options when faced with a wall: find a way to go around/break through it, or give up and go back to where you started from.
i get what you are saying....and then this happens in my mind....i read your words...see what they are pointing to...

THEN
But i don't see it as a wall.
It's life.
It's the way of the Buddha.
It's the way of the awakened ones.

the way...

the way....
crossing the Great River....

The masters give us direction and show us what we are...

the Gohonzon is a metaphor of what we are...

ok i know what the metaphor is pointing to...

is just chanting going to develope me further.....

thanks for your input Greg.

it's all input...
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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What is the daily Nichiren Practice?
As a daily religious practice, one should recite the daimoku, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. Those persons who are able to do so should further recite a verse or a phrase of the Lotus Sutra. As a supplementary practice, if one wishes, one may offer praise for Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, or the Buddhas of the ten directions, for all the various bodhisattvas or the persons of the two vehicles, the heavenly beings, the dragon deities, or the eight kinds of nonhuman beings [who protect Buddhism]. Since we live in an age when there are many uninformed people, there is no need for believers to attempt at once to practice the meditation on the three thousand realms in a single moment of life, though if there are persons who wish to do so, they should learn how to practice this type of meditation and carry it out.
-On Reciting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra
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,
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Another gloss on the meaning of Myohorengekyo -
The characters Myoho-renge-kyo are Chinese. In India, the Lotus Sutra is called Saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra. The following is the mantra concerning the heart of the Lotus Sutra composed by the Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei (Subhakarasimha):

namah samanta-buddhānām
om a ā am ah
sarva-buddha-jna-sākshebhyah
gagana-sambhavālakshani
saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra
jah hūm bam hoh vajrārakshaman
hūm svāhā


Hail to all the Buddhas! Three-bodied Thus Come Ones! Open the door to, show me, cause me to awaken to, and to enter into the wisdom and insight of all the Buddhas. You who are like space and who have freed yourself from form! Oh, Sutra of the White Lotus of the Correct Law! Cause me to enter into, to be everywhere within, to dwell in, and to rejoice in you. Oh, Adamantine Protector! Oh, empty, aspect-free, and desire-free sutra!

This mantra, which expresses the heart of the Lotus Sutra, was found in the iron tower in southern India. In this mantra, saddharma means “correct Law.” Sad means correct. Correct is the same as myō [wonderful]; myō is the same as correct. Hence the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law and the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. And when the two characters for namu are prefixed to Myoho-renge-kyo, or the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, we have the formula Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Myō means perfect endowment. Six refers to the six pāramitās representing all the ten thousand practices. When people ask to hear the teaching of perfect endowment, they are asking how they may gain the perfect endowment of the six pāramitās and ten thousand practices of the bodhisattvas. In the phrase “perfect endowment,” endowment refers to the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, while perfect means that, since there is mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, then any one world contains all the other worlds, indicating that this is “perfect.” The Lotus Sutra is a single work consisting of eight volumes, twenty-eight chapters, and 69,384 characters. Each and every character is endowed with the character myō, each being a Buddha who has the thirty-two features and eighty characteristics. Each of the Ten Worlds manifests its own Buddhahood. As Miao-lo writes, “Since even Buddhahood is present in all living beings, then all the other worlds are of course present, too.”

The Buddha replied to the request of his listeners by saying that “the Buddhas wish to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings.” The term “all living beings” here refers to Shāriputra, and it also refers to icchantikas, persons of incorrigible disbelief. It also refers to the nine worlds. Thus the Buddha fulfilled his words, “Living beings are numberless. I vow to save them all,” when he declares, “At the start I took a vow, hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us, and what I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled.”

All the great bodhisattvas, heavenly beings, and others, when they had heard the doctrine of the Buddha and comprehended it, said, “Since times past often we have heard the World-Honored One’s preaching, but we have never heard this kind of profound, wonderful, and superior Law.”
(Not sure about that translation of the Sanskrit...)
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,
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by narhwal90 »

One thing the last year or so has taught me, that the more sutras/commentaries I read, the more I practice shikantaza/vipassana/samatha, the more meaningful and transformative I find chanting to be.
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Queequeg wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:20 pmThe twenty-four characters of Never Disparaging (Skt. Sadaparibhuta, JP. Fukyo)and the five characters of Nichiren are different in wording, but accord with the same principle.

-On the Buddha's Prophecy
I just stole that quote for SuttaCentral: https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/st ... n/11020/12
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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Coëmgenu wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:22 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:20 pmThe twenty-four characters of Never Disparaging (Skt. Sadaparibhuta, JP. Fukyo)and the five characters of Nichiren are different in wording, but accord with the same principle.

-On the Buddha's Prophecy
I just stole that quote for SuttaCentral: https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/st ... n/11020/12
How to realize such a practice? Universal reverence. A difficult task.
Yeah, man. And the more you understand about Buddha, the more you understand about one's nature, the more difficult and yet compulsory (in a voluntary, self actualized way) that practice becomes.
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,
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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narhwal90 wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:31 pm One thing the last year or so has taught me, that the more sutras/commentaries I read, the more I practice shikantaza/vipassana/samatha, the more meaningful and transformative I find chanting to be.
Yes indeed, I heartily agree.
They didn't teach that back in the pioneer days. I imagine that's because meditation is kind of a given in Asian culture; everybody does it; it's cultural as well as religious.
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by Shijo Kingo »

I've been in SGI for almost 2 years and it's been very beneficial to me. I've also read most of this forum and have learned a lot from you all.

I was a little surprised and very curious about the admissions of QQ, Minobu and Narwhal that they do other practices.

My questions:
1. What can other practices provide that Nichiren Buddhism cannot?
2. What are the benefits of having a Master?
3. Can chanting provide the same benefits as meditation?
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by PeterC »

Minobu wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:30 pm ...if you are ready the universe shall provide a teaching for you....
Perhaps. But life is short, and only a fool waits for the universe to help them out.
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by narhwal90 »

Shijo Kingo wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:46 am I've been in SGI for almost 2 years and it's been very beneficial to me. I've also read most of this forum and have learned a lot from you all.

I was a little surprised and very curious about the admissions of QQ, Minobu and Narwhal that they do other practices.

My questions:
1. What can other practices provide that Nichiren Buddhism cannot?
2. What are the benefits of having a Master?
3. Can chanting provide the same benefits as meditation?

1. I'm not sure that Nichiren Buddhism lacks anything fundamentally, though the comparative lack of instruction compared to something like Zen could be an impediment. Or in other circumstances that might be an advantage.

2. Someone to talk with, to provide an example of practice & conduct. Such relationships help me avoid falling prey to interpretation and storytelling in my own head.

3. The party line is probably something like "yes, but more effectively". Personally I'd say yes but given the undeniable results of other practices I'm not so sure about general statements about difference in effectiveness. In some quarters that is probably considered heterodox.
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

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narhwal90 wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 4:26 am 1. I'm not sure that Nichiren Buddhism lacks anything fundamentally, though the comparative lack of instruction compared to something like Zen could be an impediment. Or in other circumstances that might be an advantage.
This is perhaps the biggest impediment I find to maintaining a Nichiren practice. It just doesn't seem to have been 'translated' sufficiently at this point. I believe I read somewhere on this forum that there is a lot of good stuff, just that it's in Japanese. It's hard as hell to find anything online or even in online forums that isn't SGI. And I don't mean that as a dig against SGI, I just wish there were more diversity in dialogue and literature on Nichiren Buddhism. Zen, on the other hand, has a ton of academic material and resources to anyone interested.
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Re: why i stopped a daily Nichirenesque practice

Post by Caoimhghín »

justsomeguy wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 4:08 pm
narhwal90 wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 4:26 am 1. I'm not sure that Nichiren Buddhism lacks anything fundamentally, though the comparative lack of instruction compared to something like Zen could be an impediment. Or in other circumstances that might be an advantage.
This is perhaps the biggest impediment I find to maintaining a Nichiren practice. It just doesn't seem to have been 'translated' sufficiently at this point. I believe I read somewhere on this forum that there is a lot of good stuff, just that it's in Japanese. It's hard as hell to find anything online or even in online forums that isn't SGI. And I don't mean that as a dig against SGI, I just wish there were more diversity in dialogue and literature on Nichiren Buddhism. Zen, on the other hand, has a ton of academic material and resources to anyone interested.
The French Nichiren Buddhists also have amazing resources, and French is close enough to English that GoogleTranslate handles it with minimal scrambling.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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