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"Mr Bradley, I am very interested, if I am not imposing too much on your time, in what the ideograms for Nam, Myo, Ho, Renge, and Kyo mean in terms of basic characters. I remember quite awhile ago I asked you what the ideogram for the "faith" was and you explained, if I remember correctly,..." it is two characters...Man and speak" ...this made a lot of sense to me.....so in a similar fashion would you please have the time to explain exactly what each "character" is composed of..? Thanks so much..!!"
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Nam:
I promised a friend of mine that I would explain what the title and subject matter of the Dharma Flower Sutra means as it is inscribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration for most of the Nichiren Schools. Along with this title and theme, I also would be clarifying the significance of the individual Chinese ideograms concerned. Although in a number of cases the meaning and purport of these signs has changed over the millennia that separate the Buddhist language of Nichiren Daishônin and the inscriptions on the oracle bones of the Hsia (Xia) dynasty 2205 BCE. Also I would like to underline the fact, in spite of what some scholars say, that without the Oral Transmission of the meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra it might be impossible to reach a real understanding of what this profound teaching is about. As for the archaic definitions of the Chinese ideograms concerned I have solely relied on Mr. Chang Hsüan's book "The Etymologies of 3000 Chinese characters in common usage' that was published by the Hong Kong University Press in 1968.
The Buddhist term for devotion is written with two ideograms "nan" which means south and "mu" which means "to come to nothing" or obliterate. Both these Chinese ideograms are used only for their phonetic value to represent the sound of the Sanskrit word "namas".
The first ideogram "nan" which as I said before in the present day languages that either use or refer to Chinese ideograms it means "south". In one of the oldest glossaries of the Chinese language, the Shuo wên chieh tzû (setsu mon ge ji) or "Discerning the signs and explaining the ideograms", it says, "The branches of trees and plants grow in a southerly direction." The next ideogram that is used in this phonetic representation of "Namu" is in the "Discerning the signs and explaining the ideograms", means "to come to nothing" and it is pronounced (in present day Chinese) as wu. My teacher in Buddhist studies the Venerable Hsin Kuang explained this character as being a picture of a thicket of trees being consumed by fire and coming to nothing.
However if we are to understand this word "nam(u)" properly then perhaps it might be better to quote what Nichiren Daishônin had to say about it. "The Oral Transmission of the meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra" states that namu(u) is a word that comes from Sanskrit, here when rendered into Chinese it means to devote and establish one's life. The Object of Veneration upon which we devote our lives and establish them is both the person of Nichiren Daishônin and the Dharma which involves the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces. The person is the eternal Shakyamuni who is present within the text of the Sutra on the Lotus Flower of the Utterness of the Dharma [The Dharma Flower Sutra]. The Dharma is the Dharma Flower Sutra as the recitation of its title and subject matter (Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô) and its Fundamental Object of Veneration upon both of which we dedicate and establish our lives. Again devotion means to turn to the principle of the eternal and unchanging reality (shohô jissô) which must entail the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces as it is expounded in the teachings derived from the external events of Shakyamuni's life and work (shakumon). The establishment of one's life means that it is founded on the wisdom of the original archetypal state (honmon) which is reality as it changes according to karmic circumstances.
This introduction to the Sutra on the Lotus Flower of the Utterness of the Dharma [The Dharma Flower Sutra] later on states that the Nam(u) of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is derived from Sanskrit and that Myôhô, Renge and Kyô are words of Chinese origin.
In the inscription on the Fundamental Object of Veneration the Daishônin uses a style of writing that is referred to as "Calligraphy with whiskers" (hige monji). In the case of Nam(u) the ideogram for "south (nan)" sits straight on top of the ideogram "to come to nothing (mu)" which may imply that those two characters are pronounced as a monosyllable. When the question is raised why such a peculiar writing? Then I would suggest that even outside of our teaching, prayers and mantras are often recited and intoned in a particular way. This is simply because they are too important to utter in an ordinary conversational voice. In China, Taoist talismans and charms are often written in what also might be described as "whiskery writing (hige monji)" because the content is supposedly too profound for an ordinary calligraphic style.
MYO:
Myô, in the text of Discerning the Signs and Explaining the Ideograms there is a small addendum that says, "It is unthinkable since it is known that the book of Hsü (Xu) must have originally had this ideogram. I can only suggest that it had been overlooked. It seems to have been derived from the category of ideograms (radical) under feminity and the ideogram for few (Hsiao), serves as an indication of how this ideogram was pronounced." However from a Buddhist point of view the Universal Teacher Tendai defined the ideogram myô as that which cannot be pondered over nor can it be discussed (fushigi). Nichiren Daishônin in his thesis on "The Real Aspect of All Dharmas" states that the real aspect of existence (hô) has to be all dharmas (i.e. include the whole of existence). Then all dharmas have to include the ten ways in which dharmas make themselves present to any 1) of our six sense organs [1) eye, 2) ears, 3) nose, 4) tongue, 5) body and 6) mind] (Nyoze sô), 2) their various inner qualities (Nyose shô), 3) their substance or what they really are (Nyoze tai), 4) their potential strength and energy (Nyoze riki), 5) the manifestation of that energy and strength which is their influence (Nyoze sa), 6) their fundamental causes (Nyose in), 7) along with their karmic circumstance (Nyoze en), 8) the effects they produce (Nyoze ka) and 9) their apparent karmic consequences (Nyoze hô). 10) Also in any way dharmas make themselves present to any of our six sense organs have a coherence with their "apparent karmic consequences" which are present in every instant of life. These ten ways in which dharmas or existence can become apparent must involve the ten psychological dimensions of existence or what it is called in Buddhist terminology the ten realms of dharmas [1) hell and suffering, 2) hungry ghosts or craving or wanting, 3) animal instinctiveness, 4) shuras or the bombastic extravaganza and anger of titans, 5) human equanimity, 6) impermanent ecstasies and joys, 7) intellectual research, 8) partial enlightenment due to affinities with the arts, literature, music and philosophy, 9) benevolent beings and people who think of others, 10) the enlightenment of the Buddha. These ten realms of dharmas have to posses some kind of embodiment and an objective environment or as beings in the intermediary dimension between dying and being reborn or the realms of the imagination.
Later on in the same thesis the Daishônin says that the whole of existence or all dharmas are (Myôhô Renge Kyô). I suggest that if we read over these two passages carefully we will come to understand that the ideogram (myô) is an utterness or an entirety that infers the simultaneousness of cause and effect by simply being the whole of its own existence. So that it is the common denominator and the motivating force of this thing we call life. This is probably the reason why people who do the practices of the various Nichiren schools concentrate on the ideogram (myô) when they chant the title and theme (daimoku).
Although there are schools that would prefer to translate the ideogram (myô) as having meanings such as "mystic, wonderful" or "without equal" in the sense that this concept is beyond comprehension. In this context the Universal Teacher Tendai explains the meaning of this ideogram from two points of view in order to demonstrate the depth of the Dharma Flower Sutra. The first meaning is comparative (sotai myô). This means that when the Dharma Flower Sutra is measured up to all the other sutras, then it is this sutra that surpasses all in its underlying profundity. Then there is the concept of (myô) as an absolute which is not only the common denominator of all existence but also its dynamism (zettai myô). This vision of the Dharma Flower Sutra cannot be compared to any other Buddha teaching because it integrates every aspect of the Dharma.
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