Chanting Growers Group

[PassTheDoobie]

"I am praying that, no matter how troubled the times may become, the Lotus Sutra and the ten demon daughters will protect all of you, praying as earnestly as though to produce fire from damp wood, or to obtain water from parched ground."

(On Rebuking Slander of the Law and Eradicating Sins - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, page 444) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, November 13th, 2007

 

[Hitman]

A friend of mine seems to think if you are a fortune baby, born of a chanting person, that it makes one invincible. I know you have some great feed back on this matter all.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

I'm so delighted to share this with all. I Have recently gotten back on the Kosen Rufu superhighway.
I attended a district meeting. Watched a wonderful film of Pres. Ikeda talking to the young. He is so inspiring and hopeful of the power of the young. You should of seen the river of tears flowing right out of mine eyes from the shear hope I felt. President Ikeda is so full of sincerity. Herbie Hancock was at the meeting in the film and his sincerity was a sight to behold. He just kept bowing to Mr. Ikeda.

In the Gongyo book, when it reads Makaguchi, Toda and Ikeda and how they ceaselessly kept the engine of our organization's propagation (I love that word) going is just incredible.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I day we shall all be together somewhere in Japan maybe, chanting Diamoku - Galloping!

Have the most wonderful day - Be Happy - as Mr. Ikeda wishes for all.

(Clears throught and squirms in chair) sorry to get a little wishy washy on you. I'm a softy when it comes to our potential.

 

[Hitman]

Thank you sooooooooooo much, It is an honor, Dr. Doob.

Thank you sooooooooooo much, It is an honor, Dr. Doob.

Hitman!!! My prodigal son has returned for the holidays! Please don't go away without saying goodbye this time! You are missed when you are not here! Tell 'Mom' we all send our love!

Hey Joe! It was my pleasure to post that up for you. And it was for you! Here are bunches more for you to read if you are so motivated:

http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/daily-life/daily.html

DG, I hope you are still hanging and getting better! Bud I'll be in touch shortly. Easy, keep up the Daimoku! Bonz! Give yourself a break! There isn't anything you can't fix once you decide to do whatever you have to do. Georgia, I hope all is resolved in any current challenge! SoCal keep slugging it out!

We’re all gonna get there.

Best regards to Sleepy and Scegy! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo dudes!

How's it going 3's? Peaceful Mind? iShack? Hendoku? Chaing?

Are you guys chanting your asses off?

That’s what I need to do. I better get after it.

T

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo- There needs to be an awards ceremony given for upkeeping this forum!!!!!!!!
Mama san says Hi! And Happy Holidays to all!
This year's theme "How to become a capable Person"!!!! Yes!!!!

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Q: What if you start following one dream but have a change of heart and want to pursue a different path?

D.I.: That's perfectly all right. Few people end up doing what they planned or dreamed of doing in the beginning.
In my case, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter, but my poor health prevented me from pursuing that profession. Today, however, I have become a writer.
At one point, I worked for a small publishing company. Because of its small staff, I had to work very hard - but, because of that, I gained a great deal of practical experience.
After the war, I worked for another small operation, but what I went through on that job gave me a chance to really look at myself. Everything I learned back then is of value to my life now. The important thing is to develop yourself in your present situation and to take control of your growth.
Once you have decided on a job, I hope you will not be the kind of person who quits at the drop of a hat or is always insecure and complaining. Nevertheless, if after you've given it your all, you decide that your job isn't right for you and you move on, that's all right, too.
Taking your place as a member of society is a challenge; it is a struggle to survive. But wherever you are is exactly where you need to be, so strive there to the best of your ability.
A tree doesn't grow strong and tall within one or two days. In the same way, successful people didn't become successful in only a few years. This applies to everything.


Daisaku Ikeda

 

[SoCal Hippy]

from: Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

from: Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Ikeda: It was in prison that President Toda attained his
enlightenment, which has become the prime point of our movement. This
is a key point. He was imprisoned on account of his faith in the
Lotus Sutra. In light of the Gosho, "The Four Debts of Gratitude,"
this is comparable to reading the Lotus Sutra with one's life
constantly throughout each day without a moment's rest.

It was during the course of his imprisonment that President Toda had
the instantaneous realization: "I am a Bodhisattva of the Earth!" He
carried out his human revolution while undergoing great persecution.
Enduring difficulties on account of faith equals attaining
enlightenment.

In truth, he proved with his life the golden words, "If you are of
the same mind as Nichiren, you must be a Bodhisattva of the Earth."
Strictly speaking, unless we encounter difficulties we cannot be said
to be genuinely "of the same mind as Nichiren."

President Toda's enlightenment in prison is our eternal prime point.
At that moment, the Lotus Sutra was revived and the sun of "human
revolution" dawned on the modern age. Although in the deep darkness
of the time no one realized it, dawn had already broken in President
Toda's life.

Saito: President Toda left behind statements of various kinds about
the enlightenment he experienced while imprisoned. It was during the
early winter of 1944. At the time, he was continually pondering the
Lotus Sutra while chanting earnest daimoku in an effort to grasp the
sutra's essential principles.

Endo: He would walk about in his solitary cell saying to himself, "I
have to know! I simply must understand!" Whether asleep or awake, he
continued to seriously grapple with the sutra's text. That is how
President Toda describes the process leading to his enlightenment in
his novel The Human Revolution.

He goes on to relate how one morning, as he was on the verge of
reaching 1,800,000 daimoku since the start of the year, he had a
mystic experience while chanting daimoku in quiet concentration that
seemed to refresh him in both body and mind. As he describes it in
the novel [in the third person]:

It was neither a dream nor an illusion.… In terms of time, it may
have lasted for several seconds or for several minutes, or even for
several hours.… He [Toda] really had no way of knowing. He discovered
himself at the Ceremony in the Air among a great multitude of beings
incalculable in number, reverently bowing to the Dai-Gohonzon that
shone before him with a brilliant golden hue.…

When he tried to cry out, "This isn't a lie! I am here right now!" he
found himself seated in a chair in his solitary cell. The morning sun
shone fresh and bright.

In other words, he perceived himself present in the realm of the
Ceremony in the Air described in the "Emerging from the Earth"
chapter.

Ikeda: President Toda's enlightenment at that moment has become the
prime point of world kosen-rufu. President Toda's great
conviction, "I am a Bodhisattva of the Earth!" is the spring at the
source of the great river of kosen-rufu.

Suda: He also wrote: The Lotus Sutra that I see now is the same Lotus
Sutra that until recently I found impenetrable to my understanding no
matter how I exerted myself. However, now I can read it and draw
forth its meaning as easily and accurately as if I were looking at
something in the palm of my hand.

Sensing the wonder of this, I am filled with a sense of immense
gratitude; it is as though I have recollected a teaching that I
learned in the distant past.

And he made this determination: "My future has been decided. I will
devote the remainder of my existence to spreading this most exalted
of teachings—the Lotus Sutra!"

Ikeda: It was a truly mystic revelation. Yet, for President Toda, it
was an unmistakable experience. He read with his life the
passage, "The assembly at Eagle Peak which continues in solemn state
and has not yet dispersed."

Saito: Nichijun Shonin (1898–1959) praised President Toda as
the "vanguard of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth," and credited him
with having called into appearance in the world the Bodhisattvas of
the Earth making up the Soka Gakkai's membership of 750,000
households. He also recognized the number 750,000 as significant
because of its association with the phrase "the seven characters or
five characters" of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Suda: What is the relationship of President Toda's awakening to the
fact that he is a Bodhisattva of the Earth to his earlier revelation
that "the Buddha is life"?

Saito: President Toda attained his revelation that the Buddha is life
in early March 1944, at a time when he had been contemplating
passages from the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings (Muryogi Sutra).
Specifically, he was pondering the matter of the actual nature of the
Buddha that transcends the so-called thirty-four negations: "His body
neither existing nor not existing, neither caused nor conditioned,
neither self nor other.…" He had his revelation as to his own
identity as a Bodhisattva of the Earth in November of that same year,
or about eight months later. During that interval, President Toda
continued chanting daimoku and pondering the sutras.

Endo: It seems to me his realization that the Buddha is life has
something of an intellectual flavor to it. His awakening to his
identity as a Bodhisattva of the Earth seems to represent a deepening
of this earlier revelation—such that he experienced it, not
intellectually, but at the very core of his being. In that sense, I
think we can see a link between his revelation that the Buddha is
life and his revelation eight months later that he is a Bodhisattva
of the Earth.

Ikeda: While the total content of President Toda's enlightenment is
beyond words, it is a fact that he was thrown into prison on account
of his belief in the Lotus Sutra, and that he maintained his belief
while enduring persecution. This in itself amounts to reading the
Lotus Sutra with one's life—with the totality of one's being.

 

[Hitman]

SoCal,

Hi, how are you? Thanks for the writing.
Is the Lotus Sutra a book or is it the Gohonzon itself?

 

[Hitman]

easy, socal,doobie - you guys are too much. I'm just soaking it all up like a sponge. New Year's I get my own Gohonzon.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

What a great way to start the New Year Hitman!!! Congrats!

Here is the definition on the Lotus Sutra taken from the SGI Dictionary: http://www.sgilibrary.org/search_dict.php?id=1318

Hope it helps.

Lotus Sutra
[法華経] (Skt Saddharma-pundarika-sutra; Chin Fa-hua-ching; Jpn Hoke-kyo )
One of the Mahayana sutras. Several Sanskrit manuscripts are extant, and Sanskrit fragments have been discovered in Nepal, Kashmir, and Central Asia. There is also a Tibetan version. Six Chinese translations of the sutra were made, of which three are extant. They are (1) the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law, in ten volumes and twenty-seven chapters, translated by Dharmaraksha in 286; (2) the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, in eight volumes and twenty-eight chapters, translated by Kumarajiva in 406; and (3) the Supplemented Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, in seven volumes and twenty-seven chapters, translated by Jnanagupta and Dharmagupta in 601. Among these, Kumarajiva's Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law has known the greatest popularity. Therefore, in China and Japan, the name Lotus Sutra usually indicates the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law (Chin Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching; Jpn Myoho-renge-kyo ).In India, Nagarjuna (c. 150-250) often cited the Lotus Sutra in his Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, and Vasubandhu wrote a commentary on the Lotus Sutra known as The Treatise on the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. In China, Kumarajiva's Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law exerted a great influence and was widely read. Many scholars, including Fa-yyn (467-529), wrote commentaries on it. T'ient'ai (538-597), in The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, formulated a system of classification of the entire body of Buddhist sutras called the "five periods and eight teachings," which ranks the Lotus Sutra above all the other sutras. His lectures on the sutra's text are compiled as The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, and on his method of practice as Great Concentration and Insight. These two works and Profound Meaning are the records of T'ient'ai's lectures compiled by his disciple Chang-an and are together known as T'ient'ai's three major works.In Japan, Prince Shotoku (574-622) designated the Lotus, Shrimala, and Vimalakirti sutras as the three sutras that could protect the country, and he wrote commentaries on each of them. After that, the Lotus Sutra gained wide acceptance in Japan. Emperor Shomu (701-756) built provin-cial temples for priests and nuns throughout the country. In the temples for nuns, the Lotus Sutra was honored above all other sutras for its teaching that women can attain Buddhahood. Dengyo(767-822) established the Tendai (Chin T'ient'ai) school, which was based on the Lotus Sutra and became one of the major Buddhist schools in Japan. Nichiren (1222-1282) also upheld the Lotus Sutra, which describes all living beings as potential Buddhas, and identified its essence as Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, spreading this teaching. In his later years he lectured on the Lotus Sutra, and his lectures were compiled by his disciples, by Nikko as The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings and by Niko as The Recorded Lectures. See also Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law.

 

[EasyMyohoDisco]

YOOOO HITMAN!!! YOUR THE MAN! CONGRATS I'm EXCITED HERE BROTHERMAN!

YOOOO HITMAN!!! YOUR THE MAN! CONGRATS I'm EXCITED HERE BROTHERMAN!

Yes! Like in the new commercial jingle for the Duey Cox movie Walk Hard goes
"WALK HARD, HARD!"

HITMAN! Great amazing news, dude while your working on that I made a new friend here thats got alot in common with me and he started chanting not to long ago and he called the nearest Buddhist Center which is 4 hours away and asked if he could meet with someone in his area and the guy he called at the center said,

"HEY, I LIVE OUT AND I'm Heading Out there for the holidays right now, lets chant!"

The cause our friend just made was HUGE!!!!!! Money in the Bank! Hitman, I'm excited for you and I'm excited for our friend! Congrats, and I'm here if you need me dude, count me in, for real.


Question to Tom:

Tom last night after I read couple short Goshos I read in my Buddhist Dictionary about Nikko Shonin and Nichimoku and then I read about the "26 Admonitions" and I have the Fuji School Book and read into it for the first time a little bit and got a clearer picture of Nikko Shonin.

My questions are-
1)Tom I'm chanting very much and lately I have been really wondering a lot about the Dai-Gohonzon. What's going on with a dude like me that has Gohonzon and feels I need the Dai-Gohonzon too? Am I ****ing up, I don't want to mess up and create a slander in my home if I'm taking a shower imagining ways to try and figure out (a) how will I see The Dai-Gohonzon and (b) what do I do so everyone can see The Dai-Gohonzon too? "Trust me I'm not looking past Nichiren Daishonin enshrined in my home! I just know the original is the original and well, you saw The Dai-Gohonzon, I want to as well. I do not want to **** up and avoid making mistakes, understanding this a little better would be sweet, if you could find a couple moments to just shed a little bit of light on this matter, or at least your opinion in any abbreviated manner would be really appreciated over here.


2)Tom in the "26 Admonitions" Nikko Shonin states to protect and spread the Daishonin's Buddhism is of the utmost importance. How important is this writing to a lay believer like me, how valuable and important is it for me Tom to read the Ongi Kuden, I never thought it was safe material since it was not written by Nichiren Daishonin himself? I follow Nichiren and I've been your Pupil for almost two years now and perhaps you have answered this to me but for the record I would greatly appreciate even an abbreviated answer to this query.

Thanks brother for keeping the fire burning and we'll keep flowing like water, I had a great day hope everything is bubbling out there too. Also everyone and anyone that feels that they could share some words on the above comments I'm curious about I would be really happy to hear from anyone.

My friends, I'm starting a new job, things are on the track for me to do my most effective moves for kosen-rufu to date, I'll be sure to keep everyone posted as I hope you will have the time to share similar circumstances with me. I am chanting and rooting for each of you here, we are a catalyst, we are Bodhisattvas of the Earth!

p.s.- Tom please enjoy your days and nights and do not feel obliged to answer, I just wanted to put that out there because we must not begrudge our lives with anything that distracts from kosen-rufu. Thanks everyone for participating in a great week with me!

 

[EasyMyohoDisco]

Further questioning the veracity of my thoughts I did research and came up with this...

The Ongi Kuden, also called the Shu Chu Hokkekyo Ongi Kuden, or the Nikko Ki [Nikko's record]. It is a record of oral lectures, on the Lotus Sutra, given by Nichiren Daishonin to his six senior disciples. One of them, Byakuren Ajari Nikko, the founding high priest of Taiseki-ji, recorded these lectures and obtained Nichiren Daishonin's seal of endorsement on the first day of the first month of 1287. The text is divided into two portions, the main portion of which consists of an introduction of the meaning of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and of two hundred thirty one important matters. These 'matters' are phrases, symbols, and passages selected from the Lotus, Muryogi, and Fugen Sutras. The second portion [betsuden] of the Ongi Kuden consists of commentaries upon a portion of a particular chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which the Daishonin felt summed up the essence of that chapter. Excerpts of this main section and specific are set forth on this site. Sections of the main transmission are numbered consecutively from 708-786. Sections of the specific transmission are numbered from 790 to 813. I included both portions in each chapter commentary for greater ease of reading by the viewers of this material.

and

January 7, 2005
Soka Gakkai Publishes English Translation of Ongi kuden (The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings)
The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, an English translation by Dr. Burton Watson
Soka Gakkai recently released The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, an English translation by Dr. Burton Watson of the Ongi kuden. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, represents the notes on Nichiren's lectures on the Lotus Sutra that were recorded and put into order by Nichiren's close disciple and successor, Nikko, and, with Nichiren's permission, were handed down for posterity. Dr. Watson, a former professor of Asian Studies at Columbia University, USA, is an eminent translator from Chinese and Japanese to English. He is known for his deep understanding of Chinese literature, including his translation of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Records of the Historian, and had earlier translated Kumarajiva's Myoho-renge-kyo (The Lotus Sutra). SGI President Daisaku Ikeda and Dr. Watson first met in 1973 and held a dialogue on the Lotus Sutra and Buddhist philosophy. When they met again in 1992, Dr. Watson expressed a deep interest in the manner in which Nichiren interpreted the Lotus Sutra, and he agreed to undertake an English translation of the "Ongi kuden."

In the book's foreword, Mr. Ikeda writes: "What is the basic philosophical outlook of Orally Transmitted Teachings? Various interpretation are possible, but my view is that ultimately it resides in the concept of the dignity of the human being and the dignity of life. In specific terms, it is the belief that ordinary people are capable of attaining Buddhahood, that ordinary people are in fact Buddha."

He also writes, "The solidarity of men and women who are wakened to the true dignity of life will continue to expand and make it possible that war and terrorism be wiped out, and that poverty, destruction of the environment, and other global problems that now threaten humankind be solved. I firmly believed that that day will come, and my one great desire is that it may come as quickly as possible."

The book is available at Seikyo book corners located in all Soka Gakkai centers throughout Japan.

from: http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/recent-event/2005/events050107.html

I guess my query now shifts to: Whats your general take on the Ongi Kuden? Any pointers, I'm thinking of getting the Second Volume of The Goshos and have yet to complete reading The First Volume, I'd like some study guidance with respect to understanding this better? Thanks



Daily Wisdom: From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin

December 09""How great is the difference between the blessings received when a sage chants the daimoku and the blessings received when we chant it?" To reply, one is in no way superior to the other. The gold that a fool possesses is in no way different from the gold that a wise man possesses; a fire made by a fool is the same as a fire made by a wise man. However, there is a difference if one chants the daimoku while acting against the intent of this sutra."
Reference:

WND Page 756
Page 755 The Fourteen Slanders
Written to Matsuno Rokuro Saemon on 9 December 1276 from Minobu

 

[Hitman]

I have always chanted to Mom's Gohonzon or my Grandmother's at her house ( My mom shakabukued her own mom about 30 years ago).

After attending a meeting and meeting with all of the people that my mom used to chant with and travel to meetings in other states when I was knee high to a grasshopper. She has continued to practice just not travel but I have bridged her back with these great leaders and I had to laugh because I am too old to be in the young men's division - I am in the men's division material. Her old friend just returned from Japan. Yes!

Anyway, I have a friend that I wrote the letters of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo on a piece of paper for and told him to say these words when he feels things are getting too difficult- He has marital strife, money probs because of his no-where job and so on and so forth. Negativity trying to hold us back from ourselves and others' good fortune.

The next thing I know -he's calling me saying " I have been saying those words that you gave me , I have been saying them a lot, and I even told some of my friends!" I was shocked and also really expected it! It's mystical magic. I like how I just read on the site from EASY or one of our members that you just can't spend time trying to figure it out, this magic runs on the power of belief. I am excited to tell my other lady friend about this so she can start to reap the benefits to make her kids and family safe.

Then he told me he now has a new job and a new position that pays more money and gives him more opportunities- A managerial position with the chance to grow. Can't get too specific, you know how small the world is. :-I

He's on the rise! We are on the rise. Every form of human life is precious. I just love how it propagated itself to this dude and beyond! Kosen Rufu.

As I try to organize my thoughts and communicate to all here, I find myself not knowing if I have heard what I want to tell you on this thread or from the immortal words of President Ikeda.

Thank you all! This thread is an international E-District meeting. We are all members of the IC-------E-District- Sokka Gokai!

This is awesome!

If it was not for the undying spirit of the members of IC- This goodness would not be happening!

I also have a good feeling about meeting one of these beautiful women at the meetings!

 

[Hitman]

EasyDisco,

I thought the Dai-Gohonzon was being held captive right now by an evil priest? The original that is. I do not understand this because Ikeda on the film I just saw was there chanting in front.

 

[Hitman]

Great Luck at your new job! I can't wait to also buy one of your books, EasyMyohoDisco!

Hit

 

[Babbabud]

This is from President Ikeda's Words of Wisdom.

Life without hardships may seem more attractive, but it is a shallow, lackluster thing

 

[Hitman]

Sad but true- We should expect the hardships...

Hi Babbabud, hope you're okay-nice to see you.

Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo! Man this life is hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Dudes! I'm busy! I'll compose whenever I get composed! Thanks for your patience.

T

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"The stronger one's faith, the greater the protection of the gods."

(The Supremacy of the Law - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, page 614) Selection source: Soka Gakkai member's experience, Seikyo Shimbun, December 1st, 2007

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"How great is the difference between the blessings received when a
sage chants the daimoku and the blessings received when we chant it?"
To reply, one is in no way superior to the other. The gold that a
fool possesses is no different from the gold that a wise man
possesses; a fire made by a fool is the same as a fire made by a wise
man.

(WND, 756)
The Fourteen Slanders
Written to Matsuno Rokuro Saemon on December 9, 1276

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"Faith means infinite hope, and infinite hope resides in the SGI. As
long as your faith is sincere, infinite glory, boundless good fortune
and endless victory will unfold before you. You will never find
yourselves at a dead end."

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[Hitman]

The hardest part is keeping the faith no matter what hits you. You give me hope, SoCal Hippy. You all do!

Mr. Ikeda is awesome. I hope I get to shake his hand one day. Until then I'll keep his picture.