Here's my latest cache of Nichiren-related links... I caught this blurb regarding one-pointedness of mind:
As luck would have it, some years later I happened to attend a lecture at San Jose State College conducted by Bishop Nippo Shaku (1910-1991), of the Nichiren tradition. ...He began the lecture by showing us this crazy, poster size ink brush painting he had made with black ink. It looked liked something Jackson Pollock might have done if he had been born and raised in Japan.
Bishop Nippo went on for a long time talking about the ordinary mind represented by the heavy, wild black lines. Then with a grin, looking at the class he said, "And here is your pure Mind" pointing to the white paper...
A "crazy, poster size ink brush painting"? I wonder if he's referring to the Gohonzon. Interesting....
Every time there's a natural disaster -- earthquake, flood, famine, tsunami -- I brace myself for the inevitable inrush of stupidity from commentators who claim to speak for Nichiren. You know, people who say things like this:
Getting back to Nichiren, he went so far as to say that earthquakes are effects of the beliefs that the leaders of the land disseminate.
Nichiren knew nothing about plate tectonics. He didn't know even half of what the average Fifth Grader today knows about geology. That's not Nichiren's fault. If he knew these things, he likely would have revised his opinions somewhat.
As a devotee of Nichiren, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that his teachings weren't intended as victim-blaming cudgels. But that won't stop the Nichiren Fundamentalists from pointing fingers and claiming that erroneous beliefs caused destruction in Haiti. These people remind me of Christian Fundamentalists who deny evolution. Read A Fault Is Not a Sin for a general rebuttal of religious stupidity.
I just read about Monks With Guns. This isn't exactly a response to that article, just an aside...
Not long ago, I was working on contract in an office when my colleague pulled out a pistol. He was showing me where the guns were hidden around the office just in case I needed to use one to defend myself. In his line of work, guns are an occupational necessity.
When I saw the pistol, I almost fainted. I felt dizzy and nauseated. It freaked me out. As a Buddhist, I should want nothing to do with guns, right? My fear was understandable. But I saw that my attitude could put others at risk. I imagined my colleague depending on me to pick up a gun in defense, and I pictured myself going all to pieces. I had to get over my phobia....
Fox news commentator Brit Hume seems to think Buddhism is inferior to Christianity in its capacity to offer forgiveness to Tiger Woods. Rev. Danny has a rundown of reactions to Hume. Here's the clip, h/t Sunspace:
I've bookmarked lots of random stuff over the past couple of weeks.
Do you love Phoebe Snow's music? I do. From a recent write up:
Phoebe Snow spent last New Year's Eve chanting. Snow, the recording artist and Teaneck native best-known for 1975's "Poetry Man," is Buddhist (more on that later). To usher out 2008, she chanted for 10 hours at her temple.
This one is for Mr. Oaks. A rundown of wacky fringe religions, including Happy Science, whose founder has predicted the reincarnation of Nichiren.
Some Nichiren Buddhists have received an email message asking them to download a copy of the Kempon Hokke Gohonzon, which is supposedly attached to the message. Caution is always called for when asked to download mystery files from email. I downloaded the file with no ill effects. It's a hi-res scan suitable for printing. If you're curious what the Kempon "Gohonzon for the Transmission of the Dharma" looks like, you can see a lower-res copy of it here.
Interesting article about the role of ritual in religion. Now in Nichiren Buddhism we have repetitive, low-stress ritual. Also in the old days we had conventions and pilgrimages to Japan which were for most participants traumatic or peak experiences, or both (well they were for me, anyway). How do you overcome the tedium of our daily ritual? How do you have peak experiences when your sangha does not organize them?
He was all excited about how science was catching up to Buddhism. I always have a brisling reaction to a statement like that. Science has been under the yoke of superstition and religion for millennia and one needed to be very careful about who you revealed any insight to lest you be burned at the stake for contradicting the belief system de jure.
...and dealing with it. Pema Chodron in this video talks about the value of being provoked, because it shows us what we have to work with and work on in our Buddhist practice.
I'm trying to see my family and certain, specific loved ones (argh) in this light and regard them as wonderful spiritual teachers. The alternative is to go out of my mind with annoyance and frustration.
I'm embarking on round two of my massive self-improvement project, also known as The Holidays 2009. If I don't have time to post again soon, merry merry, everyone.
Today we commemorate the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni means the "Sage of the Shakya Clan." Buddha is a title which means "Awakened One." Out of all the millions and millions of people who have lived upon this earth, we believe that he, at least, awoke from the dream of life's all too frequent sufferings and all too fragile joys and saw the Truth for himself. This Truth that he awakened to was the Truth which resolved all his previous concerns about the meaning of life and death. This Truth was the solution to the problem of suffering that he had been seeking. All of his subsequent teachings and all the efforts of the 2,500 year old community that has passed on those teachings to the present day are all for the purpose of helping us to see the Truth for ourselves as well, the very same Truth that the Buddha realized.
