Many people misconstrue Buddhism as a mystical practice best undertaken in the quiet hush of a white or red Zen-themed loft crammed with ash-caked incense burners and Asian idols. Prayers are offered to monkey gods, fish gods, Starbucks gods and small crouton- or plumb-shaped demigods. The practitioner must be bald or at the very least “one of those demonic yoga people” and they must at all times remember that their Buddha god (the fat or thin one) is in control of their happiness.

I haven’t a clue what all the various Buddhist branches, practitioners and organizations teach. I have encountered only a few groups and my memories of them don’t hold much water. This is not to say that I find them deficient; I am confident that millions of people profit from their spiritually strong Buddhist walks. I personally do not believe in praying to a god in order to change things that cannot or should not be changed. To devote all of one’s energy into demanding the world change to fit our needs is to stand on top of the world itself and rebuke the sun, if not the entire universe, for failing to revolve around the Earth. Why should we strive to go against God’s or the gods’ will?

I can spend hours filling pages of what I do know about Buddhism from an historical or philosophical point of view. I chose to refrain from doing that here. I will say this: to obtain enlightenment is to be a Buddha. The word itself is Sanskrit for “the enlightened One” and usually refers to Gautama Buddha; it has become a commonplace word used to describe those people who strive to reach their center and then to go beyond it, to transcend.

I belonged to an organization known know as Soka Gakkai International (SGI - USA division) in the late 1980s. It was Nichiren Shoshu of America (NSA) during my time. The 1990s split (NSA to SGI-International) was anticipated for quite a while. What remained afterward became, in my opinion, a lost puppy with good intentions. Yes, we can bring about world peace. Yes, by chanting we find our focus. Yes, we can be instruments of change. No, we should not have given the teachers (Buddhist priests) the boot. No, the Gohonzon (scroll, to simplify) is not worthless if handwritten by a priest. (Old Gohonzons were replaced with newer ones. They were just as pretty but did not have the same deep meaning for many people.) SGI broke down into a pissing contest between the old and the new. I left when it started to pick up a religious fervor (prior to the beginning of constant Gongyo revisions.)

Gongyo is integral to NSA/SGI. The word is Japanese and means “studious practice” and Gongyo itself is the chanting (recitation, repeating a mantra) of certain parts of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren Daishonin, a Buddhist monk from thirteenth century Japan, studied this sutra and determined that “it contained the essence of the Buddha’s enlightenment and that it held the key to transforming people’s suffering and enabling society to flourish”. Certain groups state that the Lotus Sutra allows one to find inner peace in order to be more effective in the world at large, a pebble dropped in a pond. Nichiren’s Gohonzon can be seen below.

Gohonzon translation

Gongyo (chanting portions of the sutras) is meant to harmonize our individual existence with the universe(‘s). I found it odd when most of my American friends began to chant for changes in their lives, almost pleading with the Gohonzon as if it were a god. One can not find harmony with the universe if one is begging for changes to take place.

“Chant to the Gohonzon for a boyfriend! Chant for a car. Chant for a new job!”

This practice seemed futile to me.

I am a philosophical Taoist at heart. This is not the same as Buddhism. Taoism emphasizes the Three Jewels of the Tao: compassion, moderation and humility. There is action through inaction. To find inner peace, one must accept life for what life is and move beyond it, becoming one with the universe, as a blade of grass bending in the wind (the blade is still a blade no matter how the wind blows and thus it finds harmony. When the lawn mower comes along, part of it continues to grow while the other part moves beyond to become nourishment and shelter – mulch – for other things, thus it is still accepting of its fate and continues to be in harmony and balanced.)

Example: My laptop sits on my favorite table. I accidentally knock the laptop over. It breaks beyond repair or salvage:

A. I rage. I scream. I wail, lamenting the loss of my tool. I get angry. I blame the dog or invisible things (surely I would never be so careless
as to knock it over.) I grieve the loss. I become angry again because it will be expensive to replace. I kick my favorite table over, then become more irate over that bit of destruction.

~ or ~

B. I accept that it is broken. I mourn the loss. I vow to replace it and to be less irresponsible next time around. Nothing will bring my laptop back. Accept: allow yourself the dignity of having a response and then move on. Material things are immaterial in the grand scheme of life.

I digress.

I found the practice of begging a scroll (made somewhere in the world) for life changes absurd in comparison with the sutra being chanted to that scroll. Daimoku (the repetition of nam-(mu)-myoho-renge-kyo) for personal material or relationship gain was also pathetic. I can see where one chants to center one’s self in order to set out to make a difference, however. I have not met many SGI practitioners who do so. Somewhere the practice of sitting in front of the Gohonzon and meditating on the lessons/passages/encouragement become paper worship. The message of Nichiren Daishonin became elevated to more than it was intended. One can not become enlightened if one can not accept that the world is as it is, unless we allow ourselves the ability to let go and move to a higher level of thinking. To ask for material things is to remain grounded to material things, making them more important than inner peace (because, by that misguided logic, one can not obtain happiness until one is granted the material thing that one wishes to have.) You will hear this mantra from me frequently.

Please understand that I hold no ill will towards SGI. I simply do not agree with them. Current SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, on the other hand, is an incredible man who has championed for world peace without pause for breath. I hold him in the same high regard that I give to distinguished pacifists such as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. No human is perfect yet each of these people ventured to rise above the din to help others obtain some freedom from their personal hells.

I have included two YouTube vids below. One is of Gongyo (chanted at a normal pace); the second is Gongyo in a format that is easy to understand and follow. You should turn off any musical applications that I have running (it will be a box on the side, under profile. If you do not see it, then I have removed it once again.)

~ Enjoy ~


Gongyo (normal pace) with proper repetitions in place.

Gongyo (slow version; text) basic without repetitions. This version is hard to chant if you are accustomed to a much swifter pace (see above); it is like pulling fingernails. The words are broken down from Japanese kana (their letters). Each "word" represents a letter, just as each sound is a "letter" (and vice-versa) in Japanese. My name, in this confusing form, would be Au Trice Del Dra Go. This explanation is intended to be simple.


Links:
SGI-USA: About Nichiren Buddhism


SGI-Canada translation - fairly accurate, if this is were SGI is finally coming to rest in the sutras. Well done, Canadians. The full Lotus sutra can be found online. Please do not assume, "Oh, evil, the writer acts as if he is God. There is great depth to the Lotus Sutra and this small portion of it does not explain the whole of the work; a thorn in my side as it pertains to SGI.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 and is filed under Buddhism, Taoism . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .