Bruce Maltz, the 11th World

SEPARATE RITUAL FROM THE PATH

I strolled on over to the Kempon site,
Mark Rogow post some things about me,
He thinks those things are going to hurt me, or something?
Actually I have no idea what he thinks anymore.
I am not even sure if he does.

First of all, I cannot control what other people think.
I am not responsible for what other people think.
I will not go to war over misconceptions and rumors.

I left America to go to Japan to find out exactly what Nichiren Buddhism is all about.
To separate the fat from the bone, to separate the ritual from the path.
Far from that goal, it is clear to me know that each and every person has their own idea what the path is and is not.

When I read the Lotus Sutra, I see Buddha is still alive today.
I see the Buddha, to me and for me there is no path other than the Law of the Lotus Sutra.
No sect, no group, no guru, no special this or that will provide anyone with the tools for becoming a Buddha, other than the Lotus Sutra itself.
Was Nichiren’s message anything different?

Truth in Buddhism is not determined by human judgment but by the Buddha’s words alone, as recorded in the true scriptures.
The Lotus Sutra was not established by a human teacher, but by the Buddha himself.
Only a Buddha and another Buddha understand what Buddha is, therefore we have to discard anyone and everything that they say when they try and explain Buddhahood.
They are fools trying to convert other fools.
In Lamont’s efforts to spin and twist Nichiren, he wants to be the issue.
This is Mappo, and it is easy to do.
It’s easy to put on an Elvis jumpsuit and want to be Elvis,
It’s easy to shave your head, or speak Japanese and want to be Nichiren,
But Nichiren was only a man.
A man of skin, blood, urine, bones, dung, birth and death.
A human being.

I am not Nichiren nor Buddha, just a human trying to sort out Buddhist Law from Human Law.
In Buddha’s day and in Nichiren’s day, normal everyday humans trying to uphold to law did so at the risk of their own life.
I don’t think waking up in the morning, and logging on to the Internet and slandering and spreading rumors is the same as upholding the law with one’s life.
Does attaching oneself to a sect of cult make one go crazy, or do crazy people attach themselves to sects and cults?
Mark Rogow writes his masters and writes them the SGI is attacking him?
Attacking? Where and when? Steve Polito went so far to tell me Nichiren entered his life, and only he upholds the law,
And everyone slanders him because he protects the law.
No, Steve, please don’t like you because you are quite reprehensible.

Those people that want to say bad things about me, make up rumors and lies, spread gossip will only suffer because of what they are doing.
But I don’t think they are attacking me.
My family was kidnapped by a sect in Japan and taken to Izu.
People in Kempon did conspire to have my wife expelled from her university, and that might be called an overt attack, I don’t know.
I just have considered the people involved total idiots.

To Mark Rogow: I don’t reject Rev. Kubota or Lamont, the new so-called priest, or anyone in the Kempon.
I reject the idea of following a person.
I have not lied to anyone, and yet I am being called a liar, even by those that know the truth. Are memories really that selective and short?

There would not be a Kempon Hokke in America if Stephanie and I had not brought their teachings here.
And now we are cast aside like junk.
I am sure Rev. Honda would not cast us away.
Kempon Hokke kicked him out of the Sect.
Even though I left, he wold still consider me a good friend.
Nichiju treasures me.
Lamont and Rogow just don't understand Buddha's heart.

In 2000 my wife and I had lunch with Senchu Murano a believer that has translated the Lotus Sutra into several languages.
There was another believer from another foreign country there, and in front of me and my wife, they asked him,
“Why is Bruce the most hated person in Nichiren’s Buddhism? “
My son who was 9 yrs old at the time, broke out laughing.
Senchu Murano, put down his bowl of soup, and looked at the believer and said, “it is very simple, he broke the piñata and now everyone can pick up all the candy and toys, but it is not enough, they wanted to be the one to break the piñata. I have always wished he and his wife would have been a Nichiren Shu member.”

Even the guy who runs the Nichiren Coffeehouse would throw me out of one group after another, but then tell people, I saved his life.

With a somewhat broken heart,
because of the weak nature of the human being,
Bruce Maltz

Posted by chogenki at April 25, 2008 01:01 AM