2QA2003

QUESTION:   Are you encouraged to chant for earthy desires? Or are you encouraged to chant to free yourself of these attachments.

RH:   I don' know about others, but as for me I don't chant for my earthly desires. I also don't chant to be liberated from my earthly desires. I'm not chanting about anything when I'm chanting daimoku . It's not that I'm not thinking about anything, it's that I try not to think about anything. I try to expose my whole self when I sit in front of Gohonzon. I just show everything to Gohonzon. I might be lying if I say I'm not thinking about anything. By exposing myself to Gohonzon every aspect of my life is revealed because every aspect of every living being is contained within Buddhahood. When I sit in front of Gohonzon I am only chanting for enlightenment.

QUESTION:   Have you always chanted this way, since the beginning of your practice?

RH:   No. But eventually I came to just chant for enlightenment.
         Never chant for personal desires, it is an empty vain pursuit to ask for anything other than enlightenment. When the Kamarkura Shogunate exiled Nichiren Daishonin to Sado Island many of his believers tried to rescue him by any number of devices and illicit means. When Daishonin heard about this he said, "all of those who have participated in these rescue attempts are no longer my disciples." He further explained that what these believers failed to understand was that it is for three reasons that he was exiled to Sado:

1. He was receiving retribution for past slanders he committed against believers of the Lotus Sutra.

2. Anyone who practices the true teachings of the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha taught will confront severe hardship and difficulty that could posssibly cost one one's life.

3. He believed that the Buddhist gods sent him to Sado for a purpose. Had he stayed in Kamakura he would not have attained the realizations which he perceived on Sado. It was only on Sado Island that he could realize the full scope of his enlightenment and mission.

     In questioning the reason Buddhas are born or appear in this world Daishonin found the explanation in the Se-o-ge section of the Hoben (2nd) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. It reveals that all Buddhas appear in this world to open the door of Buddha-wisdom to all beings, to reveal it, to let all know it and enter into it. In Buddhism this is referred to as kaiji gonyu which literally means to disclose enlightenment. The Buddha said kaiji gonyu -- to open (kai), reveal (ji), understand (go) and enter into Buddhahood (nyu) -- is inherent in all life. The passage from the Se-o-ge reads:

Shutsu gen no se. Sho bus-se son /
    Yoku ryo shu jo. Kai but-chiken./Shi toku sho jo ko.
Shutsu gen no se . /Yoku ji shu jo. But-chiken ko.
Shutsu gen no se . /Yoku ryo shu jo ./ Go but-chiken ko.
Shutsu gen no se./ Yoku ryo shu jo. Nyu but-chiken do ko.

(The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the world in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha.)

         The reason Buddhas are born is contained within the above passage from the Hoben chapter as well as in the last lines of the Juryo (16th) chapter of the Lotus Sutra:

        Mai ji sa ze nen.
         I ga ryo shu jo.
        Toku nyu mu jo do.
        Soku jo ju busshin.

The Buddha's wish is for all people to become enlightened. That is the Buddha's constant prayer; his constant thought. It is the purpose of his existence. Implied in this last passage of gongyo is the Buddha's mission. Nen (of mai ji sa ze nen) suggests responsibility.

QUESTION:    You mentioned that with Namu-myoho-renge-kyo you break the cycle of birth, sickness, aging and death -- that you escape this through enlightenment. Perhaps you can speak more on that.

RH:    We own a lot of valuable objects, and we need and desire the things that we have. Everyone has something which is important to them, such as a car, a home, money, work, etc. There are so many things that are important to each of us. But when someone asks if the purpose of life is to accumulate all these things, the answer is, no. The purpose of life is not to acquire material things. Of course, if we don't eat we don't live. But haven't you forgotten that even though we eat we will still die. Think for a moment about the purpose of living. Why are we alive? For what purpose? Buddha's
answer is to be enlightened. The purpose of life is to be enlightened, not just to eat. The purpose for living is Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. Sometimes we remember this, sometimes we forget. Forget... Remember... Forget... Remember. That's how we reach enlightenment. When awareness exists within us, at that stage we will realize that opening, showing, and bringing others to awareness is our only true purpose. And becoming enlightened ourselves to the fact that this is what our purpose is. Eating, sleeping, drinking, procreating are not our only purpose. to reach the awareness of
Buddhahood is our purpose for living.

        Whether you believe it or not this is the reason all Buddhas are born, and why we are born. If you don't believe in Namu-myoho-renge-kyo you will never reach this realization and never attain your purpose. You will just feel that you're here to make money and do whatever it takes to exist. But you may think that if someone doesn't believe in Namu-myoho-renge-kyo and doesn't know about it, then they won't know or believe that they have lost anything, or are missing anything.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
ON BUDDHA, BUDDHAHOOD AND ENLIGHTENMENT
2003

With Reverend Raidou Hirota

This is NOT an official site of
the Nichiren Shoshu Shoshin-kai

QUESTION: What is Buddhahood? Can I attain it?

Rev. Raido Hirota (RH): Those who practice Nichiren Daishonin's teachings correctly are bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are those who pursue the wisdom of Buddhahood for themselves while at the same time teach others. People who are only thinking of themselves are not bodhisattvas, even though they practice Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. One is called a bodhisattva when he or she is happy when others are happy, and sad when others are sad. We all have the ability to eventually realize Buddhahood.

QUESTION: What is a Buddha?

RH: In the cosmos there is a Law which is Myoho-renge-kyo. One who understands this Law is called a Buddha. When the Law and the person are fused and the person embodies the Law (ninpo-ikka), this is Buddha. A Buddha teaches everyone without discrimination. When the Buddha teaches the tenets of the Law to the people, and the people are learning and practicing as the Buddha has taught, master and disciple are fused and become the one Law of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. This state is known as shitei-ikka.
Down the center of Gohonzon is written NAMU-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO NICHIREN. The nin of ninpo-ikka refers to the person. This person is Nichiren Daishonin. Po, which is the same as Ho, means Law and refers to the Law of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. The act of each of us chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo to Gohonzon is equivalent to shitei-ikka, the oneness of us, the disciples, with the teacher, the universal Law of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.
Gohonzon itself has a Buddha nature; it has all the ten worlds. The Gosho "The True Object of Worship" reveals Gohonzon as the embodiment of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, the true reality of all things. Daishonin sent this letter to his disciple Toki Jonin and asked him to discretely show it to people of faith. The cover letter to "The True Object of Worship" reads, "I hope those who read it will remain firm in their faith in the Lotus Sutra so that both master and disciples of the past, present and future can climb Eagle Peak together." A non-believer will look at the Gohonzon and see it as just a piece of paper. It is people chanting and practicing to it that make it a Gohonzon. Together, the people and Gohonzon are one.

QUESTION:   Everybody experiences birth, sickness, aging and death. Can you explain further what you mean by that? If you believe that your life is the same as Buddha, what does that mean? How is your experience of birth, sickness, aging and death different from others who do not believe that your life is Buddha? As you go through those stages how is it different?

RH:   Whether you believe that your life itself is Namu-myoho-renge-kyo or not you will experience these four phases of life. The difference is that if you recognize that your life itself is Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, you will know or be aware that birth, sickness, aging and death are not all that there is to life. These stages are just symptoms of this mortal body. Within the four stages exists Buddhahood, and life extends beyond this existence. If you don't believe, then all you know is what your body experiences and you suffer.
         In life the body and the spirit are fused and, whether you have belief in this religion or not you can't escape the natural law that determines that the body and soul will separate and you will die. Let's say the body is a container. The spirit is like water which will take whatever shape the container is. The spirit, which is synonymous with mind , does not experience age, sickness or death; neither is it born. Even if the container breaks or disappears, it doesn't mean that the contents are bad or ruined.
It only means that the shape will change.
         It is not coincidental that a particular container has a particular content or spirit. For those who believe in this Buddhism the knowledge, which that spirit accumulated during life, is never going to dissipate or dissolve as though nothing was ever there, even after the container is destroyed or disappears. This is the difference between knowing and not knowing.
         Everything in existence, every man, woman, child, bird, insect, etc. -- everything is contained within the spirit within that container. It's the awareness of that that makes the big difference between dying with belief and dying without. Dying knowing that you will continue on and that you are a part of everything, compared to dying thinking that that's the end. It's a big difference.
          Pre-Lotus Sutra teachings taught that Buddha was a separate state of being, and all people could not attain it. Pre-Lotus Sutra teachings also taught that it was only human beings who were the objects of enlightenment. The Lotus Sutra, taught in the last eight years of Shakyamuni Buddha's life, reveals that a single mind or a single life moment contains all existence, the entirety of the universe. This is known as ichinen sanzen -- one mind, three thousand realms of existence.

QUESTION: If your practice consists of chanting, does that mean a deaf mute cannot attain enlightenment?

RH:   Grass and trees cannot chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo themselves, nevertheless they can become enlightened after hearing Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. I made a stupa with Namu-myoho-renge-kyo written down the middle for the 9/11 victims of the World Trade Center disaster. Even though Namu-myoho-renge-kyo is written on a piece of wood, that wood still enjoys the same effect of enlightenment as the grass and trees that hear Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.
        After Nichiren Daishonin left the remote island of Sado and settled in Minobu a child of one of his believers, who lived on Sado, became sick and died. The father made a wooden stupa and wrote his child's name on it, and took the stupa to the Daishonin in Minobu. Daishonin wrote Namu-myoho-renge-kyo down the center of the stupa. The man returned to Sado with the stupa and erected it at his child's gravesite. In a letter written to this man Daishonin explained to him that by placing this
stupa with the inscription of Namu-myoho-renge-kyo in the cemetery for his deceased child the wind alone, which blows from east to west, will carry Namu-myoho-renge-kyo to the fishes in the ocean, to the birds which might fly overhead, to the deer, to the bears, and to all other animals living in the forest and mountains. This stupa alone is one way that the awakening of the Buddha-spirit in all living things can come about.
       There are some people who are healthy and can hear and chant Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, there are others who are not. But what has primacy over the sound that your voice makes is what is in your heart. Chanting in your heart with faith is what matters. The audible sound is not important, it's what you say and hear inside your heart, inside yourself, that is paramount. To say Namu-myoho-renge-kyo but not have it in your heart is equivalent to not saying it, or anything at all. The important point is that you say it with your heart and not just with your throat.

I always think:
How shall I cause all the living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And to become Buddhas quickly?

Translated and edited by Udumbara Foundation staff.

Bridalveil Falls

Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte,
By George Seurat

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