Faith Like Fire, Faith Like Water

Those who come to Buddhism, perhaps especially Nichiren Buddhism, can be very enthusiastic at the start. The promise of this practice can be intoxicating. All you have to do is chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo and you can overcome hardships, bring about miraculous transformations in your life, manifest your buddha-nature, and even contribute to world peace. I have encountered many people who immediately want to take the precepts to uphold this teaching and practice (this is called jukai or “reception of the precepts"), receive a Gohonzon-Mandala, and become formal members of Nichiren Shu, or they immediately want to volunteer their time and resources to the Sangha, or to begin training for the priesthood. This kind of enthusiasm is wonderful.

Nichiren, however, cautioned his followers to have what he called faith like water rather than faith like fire. In a letter to his supporter Nanjo Tokimitsu he wrote:

Of the people who put faith in the Lotus Sutra today, some have faith like fire while others have it like water. Those who have faith like fire refer to those who become enthusiastic upon listening to the preaching, but their passion cools down as time goes by, and eventually they forget the teaching. On the other hand, those whose faith is like water are those whose faith is like a ceaselessly flowing stream, namely those who retain their faith without retreating. You have consistently sent me donations and asked me questions about the way of faith. Your faith is like water, is it not? How precious you are!

(WNS4, p. 132)

The introduction to this letter in the Writings of Nichiren Shonin: Faith and Practice, Volume 4, says:

Nichiren divides proper faith into two types: “faith like fire” and “faith like water,” stating that the faith that quickly heats up but also quickly cools down is not the true faith, which should be like calm and ceaselessly flowing water. Nichiren thus criticizes what he saw as a trend towards a kind of emotional, short-lived faith, and cherishes instead the faith that is constant and continuous.

(WNS4, p. 131)

Keeping all this in mind, when people come to practice with our Sangha, I certainly want them to feel welcome and valued, whether or not they intend to join Nichiren Shu. I am happy to share this teaching and practice that I have found so enriching to my own life with others, but I do not feel the need to push it onto others or use a hard-sell approach. For that matter, it is not my intention to use a soft-sell approach either. Buddhism, including Nichiren Buddhism, is not some product that we are trying to get people to buy into. Rather, it is a wisdom tradition that has brought peace, consolation, and even joyful liberation to millions of people for over two millennia. I feel immensely grateful that it was shared with me, and I enjoy being able to share it with others. It is also very rewarding to feel that by sharing the Dharma I can help people to lead better lives, overcome suffering, find true happiness, and go on to share what they have found with others to make this a better world. So it is a matter of sharing and not selling, of helping people open their minds and hearts to what the Buddha discovered and not getting people to buy into an ideology or “ism.”

Because Buddhism is to be shared, and because in Nichiren Shu we want to foster in those who come to the Dharma a joyful confidence that is more like water, a constant current, rather than a fiery enthusiasm that will just burn out, we try to take things slow and steady. When a person asks to join, I, and most other priests (at least here in the U.S.), usually ask that they practice with the Sangha for at least half a year before taking jukai. During that time they can see how we do things in our tradition, learn how to do the regular daily service, learn how we teach the Dharma (which may or may not be significantly different from what they have learned before), and have a chance to ask questions and resolve any doubts that may arise. This initial period is also long enough that any initial over-enthusiasm will have time to fade, and the prospective member will be able to see things more clearly and realistically. Once someone has taken jukai and become a member of Nichiren Shu, then they can begin taking steps to become a lay leader or priest. Those programs in themselves require many months or even years of additional learning, service to the Sangha, and deepening of one’s faith and practice.

In connection with developing a faith like water, I thought of something that Buddha is reported to have taught in the Dhammapada. He taught:

6. Do not disregard evil, saying, “It will not come to me;” by the falling of drops even a water-jar is filled; likewise the fool, gathering little by little, fills himself with evil.

7. Do not disregard merit, saying “It will not come to me;” by the falling of drops even a water-jar is filled; likewise the wise man, gathering little by little, fills himself with good.

(Dhammapada IX.6-7, p. 60, translated by Bhikkhu Pesala)

Here is power, told in terms of the steady accumulation of drops of water, of a continuous and steady practice. While it might be commendable to chant for hours every day, attend meetings and services every day of the week, and read through all of the sutras and the writings of Nichiren and Tiantai, if this cannot be maintained over a lifetime and if it causes one to neglect one’s actual life (family, work, friends) then it is perhaps more along the lines of a neurotic obsession rather than genuine consistent cultivation. One will eventually burn out or become arrogant and proud of one’s practice and identity as a Dharma practitioner without actually having a mind and heart that is awakened, selfless, and compassionate. It is much better to take time in the morning and evening to just read a few pages of the Lotus Sutra or perhaps Nichiren’s writings, reflect upon what you have read quietly, and then chant the Odaimoku for ten to twelve minutes. Try to do this consistently at around the same time each day. This will build up a steady daily practice. It will also allow you to begin and end the day in a calm, peaceful, and thoughtful way by reflecting on the Dharma and engaging in the practice of Odaimoku. As time goes on, and you feel ready, then it is commendable to learn and perform gongyo, the full daily service in the morning and evening, or to practice Shodaigyo Meditation. There are also other practices that one may learn and engage in, but one should always remember that the point of these practices is to support the primary practice of consistent daily Odaimoku.

In his Shishin Gohon-sho (The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice), Nichiren cites the teachings of Tiantai Zhiyi in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra about how a beginner should practice:

Fascicle nine of the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra says, “The beginner is afraid that getting drawn into the myriad activities that are supporting conditions will hinder their practice of right action. At this time, they should solely uphold this sutra which is the best kind of offering. By dispensing with other matters to uphold the principle they will gain enormous benefit.”

This commentary says that the supporting conditions are the first five of the six bodhisattva practices. A beginner who tries to practice them as well will hinder his own right action of faith. For instance, if a small boat overloaded with treasure tries to cross the ocean, both the boat and the treasure will sink. The phrase “solely uphold this sutra” does not even refer to the whole sutra but only to upholding the daimoku, not any other passages. If even reading and writing the whole sutra is not allowed, then still less [should a beginner attempt to practice] the first five bodhisattva practices.

The phrase, “dispensing with other matters to uphold the principle” means to give up the observation of the precepts and other matters and only practice the daimoku which is the principle. “They will gain enormous benefit” means, conversely, that a beginner who tries to practice everything else and the daimoku at the same time will lose all the benefits of their practice.

Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra also says, “Question: If this is so, then upholding the sutra is the foremost of right precepts. Why, then, does the sutra also talk of those who ‘also observe the precepts.’ Answer: This is a clarification of the first stage of practice. We should not make things difficult by requiring the practice of what should only develop later.”

(WNS4, pp. 111-112)

Note that here the beginner is being counseled to set aside the first five perfections of generosity, morality, patience, energy, and meditation, as well as other more elaborate formal practices (such as reciting the entirety of the Lotus Sutra) and to focus only on the right action of faith by upholding the Odaimoku practice which is the verbal symbol of the principle behind all the other practices. This does not mean that we should indulge the six obscurations of stinginess, immorality, ill-will, indolence, distraction, and foolishness. That would be to fill the vessel of our life with drops of polluted water. What is meant is that we begin by filling our vessel with the steady drops of daily Odaimoku practice. What Nichiren teaches is that by doing that we will naturally begin to manifest the virtues of buddhahood without making them a formal practice. He says later in the same writing about the Odaimoku practice: “Beginners may practice this without knowing the heart [of the Lotus Sutra], but their practice will naturally harmonize with its intention. (WNS4, p. 113) And of course in Kanjin Honzon-sho (On the Contemplation of the Mind and the Focus of Devotion) he says that all the merit of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha’s causal practices and virtuous effects “…are perfectly contained in the five characters [in the title of the] Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. When we accept and uphold these five characters, the merits of these causes and effects are naturally transferred to us.” The five characters of course are the title of the Lotus Sutra, myo, ho, ren, ge, and kyo. (CMFD, 64)

As Nichiren Buddhists and those who are being introduced to it, we should know that Nichiren taught us to consider ourselves humbly as beginners to Buddhism. In the depths of our lives, we may indeed be the bodhisattvas who are to appear from the depths of the earth or their followers, and according to the Buddha, we are all buddhas who do not realize we are buddhas. However, in terms of our deluded consciousness and our mission in this world, we are encountering the Lotus Sutra and its Odaimoku for the first time. This is a precious opportunity! How many people are taught and able to accept being taught what the Lotus Sutra is saying: that we are all traveling together on the One Vehicle to buddhahood and that buddhahood does not begin or end but is present in our lives even through its seeming absence? All we are advised to do as beginners is to joyfully take confidence in this good news and uphold it by means of the practice of Odaimoku. We are to develop this with a faith that is like water: cool and clear, and coursing steadily like an underground stream running through our lives. We may also think of the practice of this faith, the daily practice of reflecting on the teaching of the Lotus Sutra and chanting its Odaimoku, as the steady drops of water that will fill the vessel of our faith, and this vessel is what will water the seeds of buddhahood in our lives so that they will come to bloom as the unsurpassed, perfect, and complete awakening that is buddhahood.