The Two Way of Practice and Learning that Stem from Faith

In the Ceremony called “Entering Faith and Returning to Rectitude” which is used when a person receives the precept to uphold Namu Myoho Renge Kyo and formally join Nichiren Shu, there is a passage from the end of Nichiren’s Shoho Jisso-sho (Treatise on All Phenomena as the Ultimate Reality) that is often read just before the chanting of the Odaimoku. It reads:

Have faith in the Gohonzon, the foremost in Jambudvipa. Earnestly endeavor to strengthen your faith, so that you may be blessed with the protective powers of the three buddhas (Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and the emanation buddhas of the ten directions). Strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning. Without practice and learning Buddhism will cease to exist. Endeavor yourself and cause others to practice these two ways of practice and learning, which stem from faith. If possible, please spread even a word or phrase of the sutra to others. (See WNS4, pp. 84-85)

This is excellent guidance for those who are just beginning to learn about and practice Nichiren Buddhism. The most important thing is to have faith in the Gohonzon, to earnestly endeavor to strengthen one’s faith, and to cultivate the two ways of practice and learning that stem from faith. What does it mean to have faith in the Gohonzon? Does this mean we are to put our trust in the saving power of a calligraphic mandala or a set of statues? Certainly, the term gohonzon is often used to refer to that which is enshrined within the main hall of a temple or at a home butsudan or Buddhist altar. If one is taking the precept to uphold the Odaimoku, one may also be receiving the Shutei Gohonzon to enshrine, which is a mounted print of a mandala in Nichiren’s calligraphy. However, Buddhism, even Nichiren Buddhism, does not teach that one should look to finite and conditioned things as a source of refuge, for all conditioned things are impermanent and ultimately unsatisfactory. So Nichiren is not saying to trust in a material object but to have faith in what the object represents. That is the real Gohonzon or Honored Focus of Devotion. At the end of Hoon-jo (Essay on Gratitude), Nichiren provides a concise definition of what should be regarded as the Honored Focus of Devotion:

All the people in Japan as well as the rest of Jambudvipa should revere the Lord Teacher Shakyamuni the World Honored One of the Original Gate as the focus of devotion. This is to say, Shakyamuni [Buddha] and Many Treasures [Tathagata] in the Stupa of Treasures. The other buddhas standing outside the stupa and the four bodhisattvas [leaders of the bodhisattvas appearing from underground] should be their attendants. (WNS3, p. 52)

In Buddhism generally, we take refuge and put our trust in Shakyamuni Buddha as the one who awakened and overcame suffering and the cycle of suffering and who then taught the Dharma so that others could do so as well. In this case, what we trust is that at least one human being was actually able to overcome suffering and therefore we can too if we follow his guidance on how to do it. The problem, however, is that the historical Shakyamuni Buddha passed away or “attained final nirvana” over two thousand years ago. He is no longer available to take refuge in. Also, if the Buddha passed away, then buddhahood is finite, conditioned, and impermanent. In the Lotus Sutra, however, Shakyamuni Buddha clarifies that as a Buddha he does not view things in terms of birth and death, appearance and disappearance. His buddhahood is the true nature of all things and the true nature of all things is always nirvanic, which is to say ungraspable, unborn, and deathless. The Buddha of the Original Gate of the Lotus Sutra, who sits within the Stupa of Treasures of Many Treasures Tathagata, therefore, is not the historical Buddha who passed away but the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha - the one who presents to us the true nature of buddhahood that is the true nature of ourselves and all things. This true nature of all things is unborn and deathless, empty of all that is finite and impermanent but full of buddha-qualities such as selfless compassion. It is the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha, who skillfully conveys to us all the true nature of all things and represents to us our own buddhahood, that we take refuge in as Nichiren Buddhists. The Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha who transmits the Wonderful Dharma of the true nature of all things to us is who we have faith in. By strengthening that faith we overcome our alienation from and distrust of our own nature. Through faith, we discover our own buddhahood that does not appear or disappear but is closer to us than our own flesh and blood, bones and marrow.

Genuine faith, as opposed to superficial belief or mere intellectual assent, should lead to an actual transformation of the mind and heart and, at the very least, a sincere motivation to bring one’s life in accord with what has become a matter of ultimate concern. Nichiren says that the two ways of practice and learning stem from faith and without these, there can be no Buddhism.  So what does it mean to “strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning”? For Nichiren, the practice is chanting the Odaimoku, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, which means “I devote myself to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.” At the end of his Essay on Gratitude, he wrote regarding practice, “All the people in Japan, China, India and everyone in Jambudvipa, regardless of being wise or foolish, should single-mindedly chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo forgetting everything else.” (See WNS3, p. 52). In an earlier writing called Sho Hokke Daimoku-sho (Treatise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra), he specified what the daily practices of a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra should consist of:

Next, regarding the daily practices, the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra should be chanted, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. If possible, a verse or phrase of the Lotus Sutra should be read respectfully. As an auxiliary practice, one may say a prayer to Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, the numerous Buddhas throughout the universe, various bodhisattvas, adherents of the two vehicles, the heavenly kings, dragons, gods, and the eight kinds of supernatural beings who protect Buddhas as one wishes. (WNS4, p. 20, adapted)

In another early writing, Hokke Daimoku-sho (Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra), he wrote:

Upholding, reading, reciting, and defending with delight the entirety of the Lotus Sutra consisting of twenty-eight chapters in eight fascicles is the comprehensive practice. Upholding and keeping the important chapters of the Lotus Sutra such as “Expedients” and “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata” is the abbreviated practice.  Chanting only the four-phrase verse of the “Supernatural Powers of the Tathagata” chapter or the daimoku or protecting those who do so is the essential practice. Of these three kinds of practices, to chant only the daimoku devotedly is the essence of the essential. (WNS4, pp. 41-42, adapted)

The chanting of the daimoku as the essence of the essential must be more than lip service to the Lotus Sutra, however. It must be the practice that stems from faith.  As Nichiren points out in Essay on Gratitude, one can seemingly read and admire the Lotus Sutra while killing its spirit. He cites Great Master Denyo’s assessment of  a commentary on the Lotus Sutra written by Great Master Ci’en of the Dharma Characteristics school who wrote, “Though he admired the Lotus Sutra, in effect he killed its spirit.” (WNS3, p. 32) In Shishin Gohon-sho (The Four Depths of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice), Nichiren describes daimoku practice as an expression of the spirit of rejoicing in the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching and understanding it by faith:

Beginners should refrain from giving alms, observing the precepts, and the rest of the five bodhisattva practices, and for the present should instead take up the practice of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo which is the spirit of the single moment of understanding by faith and the stage of rejoicing. This is the true intention of the Lotus Sutra! (WNS4, p. 110)

Along with chanting the daimoku in a spirit of faith and rejoicing in the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching in the Original Gate of the Lotus Sutra concerning the unborn and deathless nature of buddhahood as the true nature of all things, there is also the matter of study that also stems from genuine faith. What is it that Nichiren hopes that his followers will study? The best answer to this is probably the following statement from his Treatise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren wrote, “Since we have many ignorant people today, the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment doctrine may be difficult to contemplate from the beginning. Nevertheless, those who wish to study it are encouraged to do so from the start.” (WNS4, p. 20, adapted)

For Nichiren, the Tiantai school doctrine of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment is closely connected, even integral, to the deepest meaning of the Lotus Sutra and the practice of daimoku. I am not going to describe this complex doctrine at this time, except to say that for Nichiren its key point is that all beings embrace the realm of buddhahood and are embraced by the realm of buddhahood. Buddhahood is not something alien and remote, though because of our ignorance it certainly seems that way. According to the doctrine of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, all of reality is present in every moment of awareness. This means that buddhahood is also part of the integrated totality of our lives in every moment. Nichiren believed that this affirmation of buddhahood as already and always present in our lives is conveyed by the five characters of the title of the Lotus Sutra: myo, ho, ren, ge, and kyo. As Nichiren says at the end of Kanjin Honzon-sho (Treatise on the Contemplation of the Mind and the Focus of Devotion): “For those unable to realize the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, the Buddha arouses great compassion, wraps this gem within the five characters, and directs that it be hung upon the necks of the childish in the Latter Age.” (CMFD, 133)

Nichiren does assert that we can benefit from our practice of the Odaimoku even without having a conceptual understanding of it or the Tiantai doctrine of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment derived from it. He explains in The Four Depths of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice that practitioners benefit from Odaimoku practice even without understanding just as a baby benefits from nursing without understanding what milk is, or how a sick person can be cured by medicine even though they do not know what the ingredients are. He wrote:

The five characters myo, ho, ren, ge, and kyo are not the text of the sutra nor a mere explanation. Rather they are the sole intent of the whole sutra. Beginners may practice this without knowing the heart [of the Lotus Sutra], but their practice will naturally harmonize with its intention. (WNS4, p. 113)

Nichiren’s idea is that even for those who cannot conceptually learn and contemplate the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, and particularly the doctrine of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, through practice they will naturally come to understand these teachings through personal observation of their own lives.

Still, we should try to learn as much as we can about the power of the Odaimoku, the Lotus Sutra, and the teachings given to us by Nichiren and his Tiantai predecessors so that we can deepen our appreciation of our practice, understand our lives better, and work with rather than against the Wonderful Dharma and its workings. Nichiren himself drew upon all the Buddha’s teachings (as systematized by the Tiantai school) to deepen the understanding and strengthen the motivation of his followers. In Ichidai Shogyo Tai-i (Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha) he explained:

The reason for my commentaries on the Four Teachings (tripitaka, shared, distinct, and perfect) and the Four Periods (Flower Garland, Agama, Expanded, and Wisdom) is to help others learn what the Lotus Sutra is. For one cannot correctly understand the teaching of the Lotus Sutra without learning the pre-Lotus sutras, although one may study the pre-Lotus sutras without learning about other sutras. (WNS3, p. 75)

What Nichiren means is that while the other sutras may address particular issues and can stand alone, the Lotus Sutra is a discourse by the Buddha about the true purpose of all the other sutras. It is the key to the other sutras, and without them, it would be a key without a lock. All the other sutras prepare the way for and lead to the Lotus Sutra, while the Lotus Sutra reveals the true purpose of all the other sutras.

The true purpose is the realization that we are all capable of attaining buddhahood, furthermore, that buddhahood, the buddha-nature, is always and everywhere at work in the lives of all beings. Through joyful confidence, which is to say faith, we acknowledge and express buddha-nature in our lives through our thoughts, words, and actions. We especially do so by taking time each day to cultivate our faith through Odaimoku practice and continuing to deepen our understanding of our lives and of what the Buddha has taught us about our true nature.

In Nichiren Buddhism, we understand that learning informs practice, practice actualizes the principles of the Wonderful Dharma in our lives, faith is thereby confirmed and deepened, and this in turn motivates further practice and learning.