Anker's Away

Bill, I am glad you have taken the time to open the doors of your grey room, and pull out tapes of the past. It is part of the SGI/NSA/IRG/YMCA that flew by me. I left in January 1975, and returned to interact with Nichiren Religion members again in 1994. I had no idea of the history of the sects involvement with members, or the drama and trauma. I enjoy the way you present it in a non threatening manner, and no one has rocks thrown at them.

Always the best,
Bruce

When I first encountered IRG, I suspected it was just a power play to replace one group of leaders with another. Now the truth is revealed! Andy wanted to replace Ikeda, and you were his loyal followers! Too bad you lost. We could all be drinking beer instead of chanting.

I do remember talking to Andy, and at that time my diagnosis was that SGI was a business, and you can't tell a man how to run their business, so he was not going to take SGI away from Ikeda, and he was naive thinking it was religion. I told everyone that you cannot change the SGI, it was like trying to change a Zebra into a horse. No one listened to me, even now they don't, they would still rather say there is something wrong with me, than admit there is something wrong with the SGI. Both sides lost Vanya, no one is stopping you from drinking beer instead of chanting.

Maltz

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the laugh! I'm still holding out hope that Andy might make it to one of the Gatherings, though I have no interest in beer myself.

Jean wrote a beautiful article on the memorial yesterday, and we are hoping to get it posted up here on Fraught with Peril very soon. I emailed it to Nancy and asked her about it.

Yeah Bruce, it's often seemed to me that SGI membership primarily exists as captive group to sell their crappy publications to, they are so full od errors and self agrandizement that no one else would want them.

Hi Michele,

I talked to Jean this morning (German time) and she told me that she had joined Byrd's Chicks. Cool! I wish I could have been at the memorial. I'm tempted to ask for details here, but I'll wait till the gang of four provides details on the blog.

Glad I could provide a little laugh for you.

Hi Vanya,

As Bruce insightfully noted (due to his advanced level of enlightenment) you can indeed drink beer instead of chanting. I'm doing that right now. I'm in Germany and it's actually required. You can also drink beer while chanting, which while not required is considered zuiho bini here in Leipzig.

Bill

Clown, clown, clown...

You used to be such a happy SGI clown. What happened to change your perspective?

Bill

I never really agreed with a lot of the things I used to defend about SGI but I didn't see them as deal breakers or essential to the practice. Things like whether Nichiren was a buddha or a bodhisattva, or if a particular scroll was dedicated to all humanity.
At one point I felt that SGI's relationship with the military and SGI's ivestments with Mitsubishi were unbecoming of an otrgaization that declared it self for world peace. I eventually decided the rank and file members had nothing to do with that and I went to some meetings after about a year. Personally I'm still sickened by that, but why should SGI be held to a higher standard of ethics than other religious organizations so I decided to let it go.
The real problem is the adulation of President Ikeda, although it was always present it was possible for me to over look it as cultural, miscommunicated, and the result of the pschophant's deficiencies. In recent years it has become instututional and almost mandatory. SGI as it exists now is a personality cult which is inaacurate in it's history and doctrine. I recently got married and my wife gets all the publications which I can't help looking at with disappointment. I used to have a certain amount of affection for the people I practiced with now I just feel sad that they are so mislead. Even after Ikeda dies I think the three president will still retain their heroic stature so I don't have any hope that they will clear things up in the next couple of decades and by that time it won't matter to me. I can no longer extend to SGI the benefit of the doubt about anything nor can I recommend them for anything other than the translations of the Gosho (which while questionable in places is near complete). Sad but true. I was eventually banned from SGIU for being too strong in my feelings against Ikeda, and unlike all the other times that one stuck. Now I'm an armchair buddhist as Ryuie puts it practicing on my own. I don't mind. The whole world is my sangha, the realization of the buddhahood of all beings is my practice, I don't feel alone. I can practice anywhere with anyone and as far as I know I could attend Value Creation Society meetings if I ever felt so inclined.
ch

Hi Bill,

Jean's elegy for Byrd has been posted on Byrd's Eye View.

We're going to come up with another name for the new blog. Stay tuned.

Bill, not U2?
Advanced Level? It's not an elevator, no muzak, no Min-on band playing in the background Bill! And leave Clown alone, he is not in the SGI Circus any more. In the Burning House the world is a stage and each of us plays a part, and some would rather go on hearing lies, than go on living without the Cockeye, others leave.

Armchair, is a sociology term, btw, doesn't mean practicing on your own, Ryuei was wrong to use that term. They use that for observation. We have deluded minds in the burning house, so we think we are not deluded, but we are deluded. Nichiren wanted you to chant Nam Mu (but that was too much to ask of you, so you chant Nam) Myoho Renge Kyo to realize the merits of the Lotus Sutra, the entrustmust of the 22nd Chapter, that I bet you didn't read about, and don't believe you have in your body, because if you did, you would consider, like I do, there is no need to practice anything, you just live and tell people about their Buddha Nature.

People are in a deluded state and think they need to practice not realizing they have Buddha Nature, right Bill?

OK, I will now duck, and put on some catchers gear, for protection. Maybe even a cup.
Bruce

Hey Bruce, not sure what you're asking. Or what you got out of my reply to Clown. I was just curious why he had decided to leave the Gakkai. Doesn't mean I am "ONE OF THEM".

I do agree with you about the buddha nature, but take a bit more embracing approach. You seem to beleive that only without any religion can people find their buddha nature. I think they can find it with or without religion, and beleive that we can become people who are sure enough in our ultimate nature that wee can be agents of the buddha no matter what our affiliations may be.

I beleive in entering the burning house and showing others that it is possible to convert the flames of illusion into the healing power of buddha nature. Abiding in empty space does not in my opinion mean abiding nowhere. It means that we abide in empty space in the now here. Wherever that happens to take us.

There is not pure land, not in the Gakkai, or the Armchair. There is no place that does not need cleaning, and we must take our cleaning tools with us wherever we go.

Right Bruce?

Bill

Bill, I thought you said I had superior enlightenment?
This is Mappo, there is no religion it is the illusion of the Burning House, you cannot throw water on a fire that does not exist. Religion in ones mind is a cancer eating up ones ability to think logically, and so how can I be more embracing of that? Would a doctor in a hospital say, let's allow this cancer to continue to eat up our patients a little more, let's embrace the disease?

The Lotus Sutra is WAY different than what you are talking about. Buddha Nature doesn't have to be cultivated, or developed, or practiced or located. People don't believe they have it, because they believe in things like religion. You believe in religion (I guess??). I don't really know you, so it is not fair for me to say that.

There is not my burning house, your burning house, bob or sally or jim's house. There is the Saha World. We see problems in our world, we don't analyze the problems, just pull out the poison arrow. Break the illusion of Religion.

Shakyamuni never once in the second half of the Lotus Sutra told anyone to pray for anything, or chant, or worship, belief, join a religion, start a sect, practice more, the Bodhisattvas of the Earth had already accomplished the Buddha Way, they were given the lifetime of Buddha's merits. We don't believe it, so we run to Relgion. We were sent here to the Saha World to wake people up.

Wake Up Bill.
Bruce

For some reason I'm reminded of this nonsense verse:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

I also think we all have buddha nature and I don't think we needed a buddha to give it to us or awaken us to it. What is just is.
ch

Hey Clown,

I love Talking Heads (or is that David Byrne on his own?)

Bruce,

Let's assume that the water flowing underground is buddha nature. Always there, always available. So what is the ground? The Saha world? Illusion? The ground is barren and hard, polluted. Knowing there is water doesn't get it above ground. Knowing there is water does motivate us (me at least) to find ways to crack through the gound, to open and flow. I use daimoku and compassion as my drill. I think the daimoku is optional. You use "No Religion" and compassion (even though you sometimes seem like an arrogant sob you work hard at reaching out to people and you open yourself up.)

I think faith in buddha nature is what happens when we break through to that water. But I don't beleive that the break is sustained on it's own. It get's filled in quickly unless we (at least me) work hard at keeping it open. I don't think that religion is required, and I agree that religion is often an excuse for not continuing to seek, for not beleiving in the preeminence of our own journey of seeking the water.

So, like Ryuei said in his blog today, I need reminders. I need a practice. Or maybe I don't need it but I like it. It's not the practice I'm attached to it's what it reminds me of. I'm sure you have your own ways to remind yourself to have faith in your buddha nature and to never stop digging, and having reached the water, to never assume that the well will maintain it's self without effort.

Same as it ever was.

Bill

Bill:

Welcome. Byrd told me so many wonderful things about you and your wife. Like everyone else who knew her, even on an e-level, the less of loss upon her death was profound. I do know that your home was a refuge from the storm and the meetings there, a dose of sanity in her beloved sangha gone mad.

I look forward to your perspective and tales of irony. Again, welcome.

From the Phantom City rec room,

Charles

Being knowledgeable in religion means the ability to impose irrational beliefs on gullible people. Religious leaders become experts at destroying some people's capacity for sound evaluation of other people's ideas. Every year the hierarchy of absurdity increases and is more intricately woven into the fabric of human behavior.

Theologians talk gobbledygook as matter-of-factly as others discuss the weather or the opera, or any other fact of daily life. All religionists become so accustomed to lies, duplicity, deceit, and fakery that they deal with them as if they were normal behavior. It no longer occurs to people steeped in religions that pronouncements should be tested before they are believed, or that words should have meaningful referents if they are to be taken seriously.

I don’t need reminders, I don’t a need a practice, if you take the time to read the Hokkekyo, you will see your body is drenched in austerities taught by masters in the past to prepare you for this visit here now, but if you prefer to believe Ryuei that is your right and your business, but seems like you actually did not read a word of what I wrote to you based on your SOB remark.

At least subconsciously, most religionists understand that they live in a world of sham and that to avoid discord, religion, as a topic of conversation must be considered taboo.

U will write and defend Ryuei, and miss my point.
Bruce

Ryuei is right. Ryuei is always right. Ryuei is my idol. Ryuei is the smartest person in the world. He is the buddha of this time period. His robes make me feel so secure. He is a great drummer, and he has excellent (though deviant) taste in music.

Sorry about the sob remark it was meant in jest and come on dude, you know you do tend to be a bit crusty.

I really do understand and sympathise with your take on religion. I guess I don't see it as any different than the general problem we all have with conditioned reality. We confuse the symbols of reality with reality itself. And while I might agree that many professional religionist are useless I can't make the balnket accusation that all are.

I beleive that there are people who maintain the integrity of their search for ultimate reality and manage to cast aside the bullshit of religion while remaining within it's fold. I also beleive that theere are people who maintain the integrity of their search and manage to cast aside the bullshit of secular/nonreligion.

The tendency to get carried away and to glorify the path we have chosen seems like a universal trait of human beings. This is the loop of existence. Trodding the path and protecting it when the path is simply an expedient. My view is that just becasue something is an expedient doesn't mean I should or must avoid it. I guess I wonder how we can fulfill our function as BOE if we refuse to walk with people on their chosen path? I would like to be able to walk all paths, to see the underlying motivation that people have for walking that path and by walking with them show them that it is possible to walk the path without being attached to the path.

I have probably missed your point again. And I am sorry. Please forgive me.

Bill

Dear Bill:

You write:
"...I guess I wonder how we can fulfill our function as BOE if we refuse to walk with people on their chosen path? I would like to be able to walk all paths, to see the underlying motivation that people have for walking that path and by walking with them show them that it is possible to walk the path without being attached to the path."

I don't understand what you are saying. To take an extrme example, Islamic fundementalism is a path and as a BOE I refuse to walk with these people on their path. To me, SGI is worse than islamic fundementalism and I will never again walk with these people on their path. There are many paths and I have no desire to walk them. Are you saying that by our refusal to walk certain paths we are NOT fulfilling our function of BOE?

I think you have it backwards. By refusing to walk the various multitude of paths and steadfastly adhering to the Supreme path, then and only then are we BOE.

Mark

I'm not sure there is a path. A path would imply a destination, that there was somewhere to get to. What would be the path that leads to the here and now? I don't think there is anywhere else to try and go to, or anyone else to try and please. Some wise crack once said, "And doing nothing seems hardly worth the effort." Being who you are is all there is to do. If you must think in terms of paths then I suggest you follow the Lotus Sutra's proclamation thta there is only one path. So you are on the same path as Islamic fundamentalists, SGI memebers, Born Again Christians, Communists, murderers, rapists, theives, and anyone else you don't like. All of them are human and all of them are on the same path as you. There is no way for you or them to get off of the only path there is, that's the truth. That's reality. You can pretend it's something else and imagine divisions if you like, it's a very broad path and many things come to pass.

You were taught by the Buddha. In your deluded mind, you forgot. It has nothing to do with going along with refusal to walk certain paths, that is expedient thinking, archaic, and denial that everyone has Buddha Nature. Even Daibadatta became a Buddha. Everyone in all Religions will be a Buddha, religions are illusions that do not exist, they cannot destroy your merits from the entrustment from Buddha.

You can walk with anyone, anywhere, anyplace, any crusty time, but none of those SOB things will have any thing to do for your enlightenment until you realize you are deluded, but since you are deluded you think you are not deluded and think everyone else is. My sect is right, everyone is wrong. That is delusion.

I beg you to read the end of Chapter 22, the same chapter Nichiren read, for those of you attached to Nichiren, and read that we were asked to spread the Lotus Sutra. Not start a religion. Not practice anything!

Spreading the Lotus Sutra means what Buddha did, telling people about his lifespan, and telling them they have Buddha Nature, etc, etc. People are deluded, they think they need practice, they think they need to join a sect and chant, they think they need daily worship, they think they need a priest, they think they need a hero.

We think Billy Bob is chanting now he is saved! Jimmy Jones is sick and I will chant for him! Sure go ahead, practice Christianity, that is what you are doing, it is not what Buddha Shakyamuni taught. Not what Nichiren taught.

Insanity is to keep doing over and over the same thing year after year and expecting a different result.

Nichiren wondered why there were so many different forms of Buddhism, I wondered why everyone was so sick after practicing Nichiren Buddhism 20-30 years.

I am throwing rocks at no one.
Bruce

Ok, I'm not really sure what I'm saying. As I wrote the word path, I had the exact same thought that Clown expressed about it implying a destination. And then I thought that to me a path doesn't imply a destination it implies a journey and to me the idea of journey is all about being in the here and now, at each moment, enjoying the path. Maybe that's the backpacker in me. I don't Backpack to get somewhere, I do it for the beauty of the trailand the unknown over each ridge or beyond each turn. And then I am happy to reach a place I can rest, eat and sleep. The resting eating and sleeping is not the goal, although my appreciation for it enhanced by having walked all day with a heavy burden.

To be a bit more specific about my thoughts regarding people on other paths, the reality is that I only meet those people when our paths cross. By definition. When our paths cross I will not refuse to walk with anyone. If I were invited to go to a Muslim service I would go. And I would try to keep in mind that these people are also doing their best. I would try to keep in mind the buddhas words of the 2nd chapter and that he teaches according to the capacity of the people. In participating in that ceremony, I would try to keep my life open to all the energy of the people participating in that ceremony and would pray that somehow I cna be a conduit for all that energy to flow to the buddha nature and to return to those people in a way which allows them to grow, to accomplish their deepest desires for happiness. Becasue I beleive that we all have the same goal.

When I go to SGI meeting, and even in business meetings I try to open my life to allow all the information and energy in that moment to flow to the buddha nature and to be returned to wherever it came from in a way which allows them to accomplish their deepest desires, to be happy and to be free.

I feel like I am making a great cause for the enlightenment of the people in my environment by doing this. And when I have the chance to talk to people about my own faith, having respected theirs, they seem to be much more open to mine than they would be otherwise. Poison drums might be fine, but I think that infiltrating people's walls through the insidious nature of respect for other people is far more effective than throwing rocks at those walls.

I don't know if this makes any more sense, and I don't know how to explain how powerful it feels to beleive in my ability to draw all phenomena to me and to let it flow to buddha nature. It may sound kind of passive, but to me it is like the power of emptiness in relation to water. It is emptiness that creates a waterfall.

Anyway thanks all for forcing me to clarify my thoughts. It's extremely valuable to me to get your feedback.

Bill

Hi All:

Your views are not in accord with the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren. That is the bottom line. Why is it the bottom line? Because instead of being liberated by your words, people will be confused. They might think that your words represent the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Daishonin (Bruce, please just ignore the latter).

I will spare you the proof texts but if you study the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren, You will see, over and over again written,

"This Sutra", The direct path to Buddhahood",
"The only Path to Buddhahood.", "Abandon the expedient paths.", etc.

A simple excercize is to go to SGI Library and type in path and see what Nichiren thought. If your thoughts even remotely resembled the Lotus Sutra's and Nichiren's, I think I could overlook these errors. But they don't, and I can't.

Mark

O.k. Marc, I did as you suggested and these were the firdt two results
On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime
No expedient or provisional teaching leads directly to enlightenment, and without the direct path to enlightenment you cannot attain Buddhahood, even if you practice lifetime after lifetime for countless kalpas.

Skillful practices are of no help in attaining buddhahood. I think that everyone is in agreement
for various reasons on that point.
There is a direct path,realizing the law is not outside yourself. I seriously doubt anyone here is in dispute with that either. Different people may express it differently but I don't find any of the posters here in dispute with that claim.

On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime
The Lotus Sutra is the king of sutras, the direct path to enlightenment, for it explains that the entity of our life, which manifests either good or evil at each moment, is in fact the entity of the Mystic Law.

As far as I know every person who has commented here would agree with this statement by Nichiren,

It's funny to me that you see heretics where I see devoted followers of the lotus sutra and proponents of the direct path.

What Mark doesn't understand is that the people here in the Saha World have in their life inherited the lifetime of merits from the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, Nichiren (Mark you have ignored Nichiren, not me) just uses that expedient of chanting so people will understand the exchange in chapter 22 Entrustment. You however think it is some magical transmission, you just don't seem to get it. Nichiren even says, for those that DON"T UNDERSTAND ICHINEN SANZEN BUDDHA LEFT the five characters for people to chant. So what if you understand? Myo Ho Renge Kyo of the Lotus Sutra is nothing more than the lifetime of merits than the Eternal buddha hands to the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, because when they come to the Saha World in Mappo, they cannot practice anything, the times are too corrupt to make any cause large enough to affect their condition.

We come to the Saha World from under ground, with Buddha Nature, Buddha 2B, with all the merits of the Eternal Buddha, and we have a human body and deluded human mind, so we think we are not deluded so we forgot about being trained by Buddha so we think Graham Lamont is hot sh*t and we need the Kempon, but all the Sects are corrupt.

We are already Buddhas 2B, not yet a Buddha, we have been trained by Shakyamuni himself!! Holly Cow! I am honored, and no one is going to take that away from me, not even in a deluded mind is a stupid Salmon going to make up some strange doctrine to confuse me.

I am here as a BOE to be clear, and make the message of the Lotus Sutra as clear as I can. Nichiren Sects have demonized the message. All of us have Buddha Nature, there is nothing more to practice, or chant, or kneel on the ground. There no Ceremony to Worship, there is nothing to Worship, Buddha never said Worship, don't chant for me, don't pray for me, don't pray, don't be a priest. Be free, be a Buddha, let go of the burning house inside your mind.

Bruce

Dear clownhidden;

You wrote:

"So you are on the same path as Islamic fundamentalists, SGI memebers, Born Again Christians, Communists, murderers, rapists, theives, and anyone else you don't like. All of them are human and all of them are on the same path as you. There is no way for you or them to get off of the only path there is, that's the truth. That's reality. You can pretend it's something else and imagine divisions if you like, it's a very broad path and many things come to pass."

I must respectfully disagree. it is a narrow path with only one door. Nichiren states:

"Therefore, even the great bodhisattvas of the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings and the theoretical teaching arrive at the realization of the lotus of the Buddha only when they are exposed to the essential teaching, and achieve a true cutting off of delusion only when they hear the teachings of the “Life Span” chapter."

One reason the Buddha taught the Lotus Sutra was to cut off delusion that all paths are the same. He didn't teach it so his disciples could then denigrate it as just another of the myriad teachings.

"For forty years I have not yet revealed the truth" (Sutra of infinite meaning)

"If I convert by a smaller vehicle
Even but one human being,
I shall fall into grudging
A thing that can not be."(Lotus Sutra Chapter 2)

"Honestly discarding the provisional teachings, I will now expound the Supreme Way".(ibid Ch.2)

"Wherefore? [Because] there is no such thing as a bhikshu who has really obtained arhatship if he has not believed this Law."(ibid Ch.2)

"These nine divisions of my Law Preached according to the [capacity] of all creatures
Are [but] the introduction of the Great-vehicle
Hence I preach this sutra."(ibid Ch. 2)

"[if} sravakas or bodhisattvas
Hear the Law which I preach
Even be it one verse,
all, without doubt, become buddhas...:

Not the preaching (Law) of Christ, Mohammad, or Ikeda.

In the appearing of the buddhas in the world
Only this One is the real fact."(ibid Ch. 2)

"There is One only and no second vehicle."(ibid. Ch 2)

"The reason why the Tathagata appears
Is for preaching the Buddha-wisdom;
Now is the very time.'
Know, Sariputra!
The stupid and those of little wit,
The tied to externals and the proud
Cannot believe this Law
But now I am glad and fearless;
In the midst of the bodhisattvas
Frankly put aside tactfulness
And only proclaim the Supreme Way."(ibid Ch. 2)

Once again, I must forcefully assert that Bill's and your assertions are in error.

Mark

"For forty years I have not yet revealed the truth" (Sutra of infinite meaning)

He was not talking to the people of today was he?

No No No...

You got the Question and the Answer upside-down.

Now open your ears!!!! Clean them out!!!
You don't need any path, you have walked them all the Lotus Sutra says that, you have practiced with the Eternal Buddha in the eternal past, then he gave you all his merits at the entrustment, MARK ROGOW and everyone else does not need to follow the middle, right, left, old, ancient, new or any path.

YOU HAVE BUDDHA NATURE. YOU ARE A BUDDHA TO BE.
YOU WERE TAUGHT BY THE ETERNAL BUDDHA, HE IS YOUR FATHER.
Now you have a deluded mind, you think you are not deluded, you think I am wrong, but you neglect to read the Sutra that says I am correct.
At least I know I am deluded, I don't look west for the Sun to rise, I look in the Sutra to see the Buddha. You look at phony humans and therefore you mind is still in the burning house.

Slap yourself a few times, or ask Nancy if that helps. I will come over if you want and slap you, if it helps. For heaven sakes, don't be so lazy, read the damn Lotus Sutra, read what I have posted on FWP from the Sutra. Look at life with the Buddha in your mind.

It is so great knowing there is no Middle Way, the whole way is fine. Don't listen to religion crap. Crap is Crap. Fry it and dip in mustard, and trow it away.
Bruce

Mark you quote Nichiren but you don't understand him. Rather than make an argument let me ask you a question. What is the difference between a buddha and an unenlightened person? If you think about that maybe you will come to an understanding of the universality of buddhahood as opposed to thinking there is a path or activity that you must perform.
What austerity must someone perform in order to be alive?
Nichiren confuses you. If a man is walking down an old dirt road with a group of blind men he will tell them where to walk to avoid falling into a ditch. Sometimes he will say to move to the left, sometimes to the right. One of the blind men may think,"This guide dosen't know where he is going. His instructions are contradictory! Why should I listen to him?"
But the man who can see is correct, the blind man just can't comprehend.

When people use expedients, truth is not in mind. Take a look at the Sutra. When children are coaxed out of the Burning House they are promised something, but they did not get what they were promised. An expedient was used to get them out of the Burning House. They did get something better.

Since we do not have the mind of Buddha, we need words as expedients, and when Nichiren said chant "Nam Mu Myoho Renge Kyo" it was an expedient to have people hold the merits of the Original Buddha. He says that in several of his letters. His Kanjin says the mandala is the Ceremony in Space.

We already have the merits, but we forgot, and we were at the Cermony in space. He was doing what the sutra says. But look how screwed up the message got! It's not his fault, Buddha said in Mappo the time is corrupt. Buddha never said to follow Nichiren, to make him Master Nichiren, that is all Relgion Horse Nonsense. Throw it away, every priest take off your robe and burn it, you are a fraud!

There is no such thing as a Priest, no such thing as a Religious person, no worship, no belief, no practice, no prayer, no chanting for cars or money, those are expedients that belong in another time.

In our day, we just cure the deluded min, we are fully endowed with Buddha Nature. We are Buddha2B, we were sent her by the Original Buddha, and our commission is in Chapter 22 of the Lotus Sutra. Read them for yourself.

If you think you are here to build a stupid Japanese Buddhist Sect, you are aiming for the Moon and hitting New Jersey.

Bruce

Dear Clown Hidden:

One enters through faith, faith in the words of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren. If one believes that a suicde bomber is a Buddha just as he is, who it that misunderstands the teachings? Nichiren talks about those who teach non-duality but don't even have a grasp of duality.

There are ten honorific titles of a Buddha. One of them is Understander of the World. Another is Teacher of Gods and Men. If everyone were a Buddha just as they are, everyone would be an excellent Teacher of Gods and Men, every streetcorner preacher and Imam, every so-called prophet no matter how violent and destructive their teachings, every con artist and crook. To deny their Buddha-nature is a "sin". To affirm that one is a Buddha merely by virtue of living in this world without having the conduct, behavior, practice and teaching of a Buddha, is equally a "sin".

Bodhisattva Fukyo never said "you are Buddhas just as you are". He said, "you will all become Buddhas."

Mark

Bodhisattva Fukyo never said "you are Buddhas just as you are". He said, "you will all become Buddhas."

And we are not saying you are a Buddha as you are. Your idiot salmon priest has twisted our words into that, and you are stupid enough to believe him. I dare you, and will pay you $5,000.00 today if you can find where I ever say that. But you will never apologize for your slander of me, because you are a bunch of gangster bully Kempon punks.

Kempon Hokke Yakuza

If not proof it.

I said you are a Buddha To Be. Just as you Are. You have Buddha Nature. You have those merits when you practiced with the Original Buddha, not with your Master Nichiren, that you were brainwashed into believing. I will debate your priest, Lamont , you anywhere anytime anyplace makes no difference I have always said that you call the Lotus Sutra a fraud and a fake, I say it is true! I will always defend the Lotus Sutra over some phony Nichiren sect.

Bruce

Rely on faith if you like. I think it's defective. Those Islamic fundamentalists that you rail against have faith, why should I feel yours is any more reliable. I don't have faith and I don't wish to obtain it. I consider it detrimental.

4 Mark: Who are we?

WHO ARE WE? THE ORIGINAL BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI SAYS, "these Bodhisattvas are my sons"

When we look up into space we are looking at the origin of earth's reality. We are it and it is we. When we look up we see Buddha's Three Thousand Worlds or actually his Thousand million fold worlds form a major world system. This major world system comprises one billion worlds. There are thought to be countless major world systems in the universe, the end has no beginning and the beginning has no end, it is infinite universes.

Why is the human race so disconnected from actual corporeal reality and instead living in its own spirit world of virtual deluded reality? How did humans find themselves in this deluded dead-end situation? The group mistakes allow humans to build up safe ports in the storm of life in which they hide, they have institutionalized themselves. The Original Buddha tells the story of institutionalized flawed thinking within which the human race in his parable of the "Burning House."

The Bodhisattvas of the Earth are magnificent, powerful, and are described in the sutra sections below…….. We have no business marching in parades and playing the clowns and playing the fool for parasite leaders and priests. We are the Sons and daughters of the Original Buddha Shakyamuni.
Bruce

The Lotus Sutra
Translated by Burton Watson

Chapter Fifteen: Emerging from the Earth

At that time the World-Honored One, having spoken these verses, said to the bodhisattva Maitreya: "With regard to this great multitude I now say to you. Ajita, these bodhisattvas and mahasattvas who in immeasurable and countless asamkhyas have emerged from the earth and whom you have never seen before in the past - when I had attained anuttara-samyak-sambodhi in this saha world, I converted and guided these bodhisattvas, trained their minds and caused them to develop a longing for the way. These bodhisattvas all have been dwelling in the world of empty space underneath the saha world. They read, recite, understand the various scriptures, ponder them, make distinctions and keep them correctly in mind.

Ajita, these good men take no delight in being in the assembly and indulging in much talk. Their delight is constantly to be in a quiet place, exerting themselves diligently and never resting. Nor do they linger among human or heavenly beings, but constantly delight in profound wisdom, being free from all hindrances. And they constantly delight in the law of the Buddhas, diligently and with a single mind pursuing unsurpassed wisdom."

The Chant:

TRANSMISSION

The Lotus Sutra
Translated by Burton Watson
Chapter Twenty-two: Entrustment

At that time Shakyamuni Buddha rose from his Dharma seat and, manifesting his great supernatural powers, with his right hand patted the heads of the immeasurable bodhisattvas and mahasattvas and spoke these words: "For immeasurable hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of asamkhya kalpas I have practiced this hard-to-attain Law of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Now I entrust it to you. You must single-mindedly propagate this Law abroad, causing its benefits to spread far and wide."
Three times he patted the bodhisattvas and mahasattvas on the head and spoke these words: "For immeasurable hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of asamkhya kalpas I have practiced this hard-to-attain Law of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Now I entrust it to you. You must accept, uphold, recite, and broadly propagate this Law, causing all living beings everywhere to hear and understand it. Why? Because the Thus Come One has great pity and compassion. He is in no way stingy or begrudging, nor has he any fear. He is able to bestow on living beings the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Thus Come One, the wisdom that comes of itself. The Thus Come One is a great giver of gifts to all living beings. You for your part should respond by studying this Law of the Thus Come One. You must not be stingy or begrudging.

We tell people they already have Buddha Nature. Nichiren's way was to have people chant. My way is different. I understand it different. chanting doesn't mean magic. The benefits come from the merits already in your life.

Mark's salmon says, no what Bruce says is a lie, but what the Salmon says is foul, it is stinky fish. He is way out of line. What the Sutra says is true. Not only Nichiren received the entrustment, all the Bodhisatvas received the merits, and not only when we chant, we just don't realize because our mind in deluded, that is why we tell people their mind is deluded. The Burning House is not a house, it is a mind.

Bruce

"We have no business playing the clown..." Hey c'mon now!The Clown seeks to bring lightness into the hearts and spirits of their audience. This is most often interpreted as laughter, however poetry, charm, beauty are also a form of light that the clown seeks to share with their audience. In their most powerful moments, the clown brings light into the darker emotions such as anger and sadness. One goal in the practice of buddhism is reaching enlightenment, which perhaps could be interpreted as being full of light? En-lighten, to bring in the light. Could one be so bold as to suggest that these are similar?

1). Dear Clown Hidden:

That is fine. There never was any doubt in mind that you lacked faith. You confirmed my suspicions. You are entitled to disagree with Nichiren and me. But don't assert that I don't understand Nichiren when you don't even understand the importance he placed upon faith. Anyway, you won't have to worry about having faith in this lifetime because you will not generate enough resistance to have to rely upon faith.

2). Bruce, I already told you several times, I will not engage you except in formal debate.

Mark

I most certainly do assert that you don't understand Nichiren, the Lotus Sutra, or even buddhism generally. You have faith, or at least you think you do. I don't need faith, I'm convinced of my own buddha nature. You seem to think that were I to meet resistance faith would be more useful than self reliance, I see it just the opposite. Your faith is in something outside yourself that is greater than you, I have no need of such a thing. Nichiren would agree with me, but you can play all the delude word jugglery games with his words that you like. His intent and mine are precisely the same, though you can't see it.

Dear Clownhidden:

I rely on the Buddha and the Buddha's enlightenment, the Lotus Sutra. Since what I say accords with the Lotus Sutra, the true self of Shakyamuni Buddha, Philip Brett, and Mark Rogow and your's do not, who is one to believe? My words match the Sutras' and Nichirens' as the print matches the ink-block. From whence your words derive, I haven't a clue but they are not the words of the Sutra or Nichiren Daishonin. If you refuse to grasp the rope that I am handing you, that is in no way my fault.

Mark

If you won't engage me, then tell your bully coward Salmon to take my name off your page. What a bunch of punks. Formal debate my ass. You keep using my name in your blogs. You use my old posts. You lie about me without end, making up stories about Senchu Murano, you sound like Polito and Kubota, you are an idiot. You are being used by Japanese wolves in priest robes. I don't want to debate you, I want you to wake up and see you have Buddha Nature and have you wake up Lamont and Salmon and tell them they are full of Sh*t.

Mappo is not the era of debate, it is the era to tell people they have Buddha Nature. You are completely bass ackwards.

Bruce

That is it in a nutshell Mark you are attached to a certain form that you think is the truth, and if someone states the truth in a different way you can not understand that the same truth is being represented. You are attached to the words but seem unable to ghrasp the meaning.
Didn't you know that Nichiren taught that all people have the potential for buddhahood within them? Why do you find fault with Mr. Maltz for saying the same thing. I think this is where your faith leads you astray, you seem to hold as an article of faith that if Bruce says it it must be wrong, as well as whatever interpretation you make of Nichiren's words must be correct. I think at least that when I agree something is true I do it with respect to the truth and not whose words are being used. I fail to see how your faith is any different from the narrow minded arrogance of Daisaku Ikeda who you revile so.

In Buddhism, that teaching is judged supreme that enables all people, whether good or evil, to become Buddhas. - The great Sage Nichiren in "Reply to Hoshina Goro Taro". That will be acceptable to you, so why then when Bruce says the same thing in other words do you reject it. The truth is the truth regardless of who says it or what words they use.

Clown, it is because Mark's words do not match the Sutra as he says. They match the religious context of some sect that says they match the Lotus Sutra. example:
"Shakyamuni preached the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren revealed the Gohonzon and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, therefore Nichiren is the True Buddha, can't you see, it makes perfect sense no one has revealed that truth before!"

That is the logic Mark is trying to use.

Nichiren is Jogyo, you must follow Jogyo, without Jogyo you slander the Sutra and there is only one door, and you will not be born with your master. This makes sense only to people that believe crazy logic, or only Jogyo received the merits from the Eternal Shakyamuni. Its all human nonsense and if you don't accept it, you are like someone walking into a Sunday Church and saying you don't believe in God. People defend lies, and fabricate more lies to defend the lies they defend. Mark is an example.

Bruce

That's the problem with faith as soon as you start believing something you become incapable of thinking about it because your intelligence becomes inactive.

And this is All Bill's fault!!!!!

hahahahhaa...
Bruce

Speaking of Andy, where is he? A couple of people posted stupid comments where he hangs out, and not a peep!

Hi Robin,

I sure hope Andy is on vacation. I don't know if I could bear another loss in our online community.

Michele

Hi all. Thanks for your concern. I'm okay. A death in the family (my brother) and then a family vacation has taken up some time.

But good grief! A three-way between Maltz, Rogow and Brett (AKA Clown)? Wow! A cure for insomnia, for sure!

Cheers!

Andy

And by the way, Bill, wow! I never saw your piece (written 4/27/05?) before. I am deeply moved. I assure you that, had I seen it at the time, I would have made it to your meeting for sure. Maybe. Depending on how many beers I had consumed. And how many you had cold. I bow in deep appreciation of your perfect understanding of my essential nature.

Eternal Cheers!

Andy