Dharma Flower: The Faith, Teaching, and Practice of Nichiren Buddhism

This “Page” will provide the links to the various parts and chapters of my manuscript Dharma Flower: The Faith, Teaching, and Practice of Nichiren Buddhism. I first wrote it back in the late 90′s as a collection of notes for lectures I was giving in San Francisco. Those notes became Dharma Flower by the year 2000, and since then I have sent out copies of it on request. It has since been translated into Danish, and French, Spanish, and Italian. Someone once requested permission to do a Vietnamese translation. I now wish to make the English version more widely available via this blog.

I wrote it when I was just a Shami (which is to say a novice or minister-in-training in the Nichiren Shū. I had been practicing some form of Nichiren Buddhism since the mid-1980′s and these writings were an attempt to digest everything I had learned and present it in the form of a coherent system. So it is what it is because it is what I needed at the time. Hopefully it will be helpful to others.

Again, I hope that this product of a certain stage in my spiritual journey will be helpful to others and I offer it in a spirit of humility to other Nichiren Buddhists in the hopes that it will illuminate and encourage. Oh but first:

Copyright © 2000 by Ryūei Michael McCormick. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the author except for brief passages quoted in review.

Here you can see the original title page:

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

I. The Lotus Sūtra and the Practice of Nichiren Buddhism – in this chapter I discuss who Śākyamuni Buddha was, the Law of Cause and Effect, and provide an overview of Nichiren Buddhism in terms of the Three Great Secret Dharmas: the Odaimoku (Sacred Title of the Lotus Sūtra that is the chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō), The Gohonzon (the focus of devotion often depicted in the form of a calligraphic mandala that presents the central image or scene of the Lotus Sutra), and the Kaidan (the precept platform that is the place of taking up faith in the Lotus Sūtra).

II. The Wheel of Becoming - in this chapter I discuss the Buddhist view of life in terms of the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion; the four infinite virtues of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; the six worlds of rebirth from the hells to the heavens; and the three obstacles and four devils that obstruct and impede our spiritual efforts.

III. The Wheel of Dharma - in this chapter I cover the foundational teachings of Buddhism such as the four noble truths, the eightfold path, and the three jewels of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

IV. Dependent Origination - in this chapter I explain the Buddhist view of causality in terms of the twelvefold chain of dependent origination that binds us to the cycle of rebirth and also the twelve stages of transcendent dependent origination that show how faith and practice lead to liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

V. Mahāyāna Buddhism - in this chapter I discuss those teachings that characterize the Mahayana, particularly the One Vehicle that leads to buddhahood, the four vows and six perfections of the bodhisattvas, and the three bodies of the Buddha.

VI. The Three Truths - in this chapter I discuss the teachings of emptiness, conditioned existence, and the Middle Way. This chapter also deals with the two great teachers Nāgārjuna and Chih-i and how they both tried to explain the real meaning of the Buddhist teaching of emptiness.

VII. The Nine Consciousnesses - in this chapter I discuss the Consciousness Only teachings of Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Paramārtha and how they provided us with a Buddhist understanding of the deep structure of consciousness and the significance of that in regard to the teachings of karma, rebirth, and the transformation of consciousness that is buddhahood.

VIII. Non-Duality Part 1 – in this chapter I discuss the Buddhist teachings of the non-duality of body and mind and the non-duality of life and its environment.

IX. Non-Duality Part 2 – in this chapter I discuss the Buddhist teachings about changing poison into medicine, how the defilements are themselves enlightenment, how birth and death are themselves nirvāna, and how we can become buddhas in our present form.

X. Ichinen Sanzen - in this chapter I explain the theoretical principle of the three thousand worlds in a single moment of thought that was taught by Chih-i and utilized by Nichiren.

XI. The Three Great Secret Dharmas - in this chapter I explain Nichiren’s Three Great Secret Dharmas (the Odaimoku, Gohonzon, and Kaidan) in more depth now that the previous chapters have laid the groundwork for understanding the basics of Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, and T’ien-t’ai Buddhism that all led to Nichiren’s particular understanding of the meaning and practical significance of the Lotus Sūtra.

Glossary

References