Oh, after having a torrid exchange with an old Kempon member, I was reminded why I left and why I started and brought Kempon Hokke to America. My wife and I brought Kempon Hokke to America to bring a new safe place for people who wanted to learn about Nichiren's works, and we didn't want it run by leaders with agenda. Those that were around my wife and I that want to give us credit, thank you, those that want to forget and turn you head and believe lies and spun stories and lies shame on you and I personally harbor no hard feelings, but as a human being with Buddha Nature, it means showing that you are person that were at the ceremony in space, were taught by Buddha, and have Buddha Nature. Shame on all and any of you that think just because you may be in some sect, you should spin lies about people, publicly lie and make up stores that are not true and think it is all in the name of Nichiren Buddhism, and that is why I left Nichiren Buddhism. The perversion it perpetuates, the hate, the jealousy, the acting with no shame all in the name of the law.. what law? I read Mark's story about his daughter, and I was there and went through hell with him at the time, and that is what I think a Human Being with Buddha Nature does. A person in a Sect, says, yes you were there, but Fuck you because you left the sect and now i believe all the lies my priest told me. That to me, is not a teaching of the Buddha, that is why I left Nichiren Buddhism.
In 1999 I started to receive faxes from Japan that were sent to Japan by people in the United States. Then I started to receive the answers that the people in Japan were sending the people in America. Then I got the answers the people in America were sending back. Holy Shit! And no one was saying anything to me, everything was going on just like nothing was wrong, everything was ok. Rev. Kubota was coming in April for his visit, but this time his sidekick Yasuhara was not coming and there was no reason why. I knew why, but pretended I didn't know, and I knew the agenda, but of course acted as though I didn't. We had a network of people all across the United States I felt responsible for, and started chanting five hours a day. The notes up and back got worse, they were talking about me, specific plans were made, and so I felt relieved. OK, now we can get back to business as normal. NO WAY. While I was gone, my wife received a phone call from a dear friend in Japan, who regularily talks to Kubota and he wanted to alert her that Kubota wanted to have me removed because he was afraid I would become like Daisaku Ikeda, since I was responsible for the entire development of the Kempon Hokke overseas, and he had plans to hurt me, with no remorse. My friend also told her, that he was not such a nice man, and she should be very careful of him, it was a well known fact in Japan. What the hell did I get myself in to!!!
OK, I had a pretty decent relationship with Rev. Yasuhara, and even though he was telling this other American, some pretty wild stuff, I asked him for some advice not letting on that I knew what was happening. He wrote me a letter saying that I didn't need Kubota, that I did all the work, he was holding me back, I needed a priest that spoke English, that Kubota was really Pure Land and Lamont too, and Kubota was talking behind my back to other American members and that was unforgivable.
Are you as stunned as I was at this point? BTW, I was still chanting five hours a day, not the words FIVE HOURS A DAY, but chanting five long hours a day. Well the meetings came, they became a disaster, my wife walked out on a dinner with Kubota telling him to confess or she will leave his temple, and he said, "ok leave".. So, I stayed took them back to their hotel, and that was about it. The new Americans muscled in, I walked away and wanted no part of this mess and wanted only one thing. I did not want to be part of this group any more, not that I didn't like or love the people. The Sect became more important than Humans having Buddha Nature. It was more important to lie and start making up stories, and twist events than to recognize truth. There was one member in particular, Steve Polito, who had a friend that called me and said, "Steve is so great the priest gave him a book that has pictures of all Nichiren's Gohonzon", I said, "I gave that to Steve, not the priest. "Oh, I heard you got a Temple Gohonzon from Nichiren Shu? and its wrong to have a Nichiren Shu Gohonzon in Kempon Hokke". OK, the lies were in full swing, "No, i did not have temple Gohonzon, and second there no such thing as a Nichiren Shu Gohonzon and a Kempon Hokke Gohonzon, there is only a Gohonzon." and why would Steve make up those stories. And why would people like my old good friend Mark Rogow, who knew all the pains and problems I had with the Kempon, and in fact, I brought him to the Kempon now treat me with scorn as well.
They were believing in a sect, a chant, a priest, a dream, a this or that, but what exactly is this Buddhism and why is not working? How dare this 90 year old Kempon Priest make up lies about me to the Americans that I brought into his temple, what kind of world is this, what is Nichiren Buddhism?
This brings me to 2000, I saw that Nichiren as a monk was trying to figure out why there were so many sects in Japan, so began to study the Sutra, and when he came to the Lotus Sutra, he saw that only the Lotus Sutra had the answer to all life's puzzle, only the Lotus Sutra was actually preached by the Eternal Buddha Sakyamuni and all the other Buddha were his emanations, and in that sutra he saw that he was perhaps the leader of the Bodhisattva of the Earth. He saw the concept of ichinen sanzen that all life contain Buddha (NOT ORIGIONAL ENLIGHTENMENT) nature, so wrapped in all of our emotions is the life of Buddha, and in the Lotus Sutra, he saw that Buddha gave us that life in the Ceremony in Space.
Nichiren came to that conclusion without chanting, without having a Gohonzon, without going to meetings, without Lamont, without inscribing the DaiGohonzon, without Nikko, whithout the Shohondo, without Ikeda, and without any practice. Everything was concocted afterwards. In fact he concluded that everything that everyone was practicing was causing all the horrible things in Japan. My point..THERE IS NO PRACTICE.. if Nichiren came to those realizations, so can we. It means anyone can read the Lotus Sutra and understand about the Buddha, you don't have to chant, or worship anyone.
In conclusion, we are all HUMANS with BUDDHA NATURE we are not SECT people. Mark Rogow shame on you for never writing me and saying hello after a long friendship, shame on all of you for not just treating each other as HUMANS with BUDDA NATURE. There are no sects, there is no Nichiren Buddhism, he didn't start anything, he just realized a truth in the sutra.
Maltz just thinking today with Buddha Nature
This evening I was forced to remove a post from someone who felt it was ok to enter my private space, my private blog, and have a tantrum like a little school girl. He was ranting and raving about things without offering any substance, he was exactly the reason I left Nichiren Buddhism and realized that there was no Buddhism in the Nichiren Sects.
People who say they are Buddhists should exhibit some sort of behavior that I would recognize, but Jon and others like him just close their eyes and swing. They talk about Original Enlightenment when they have no idea what enlightenment is, it is all just a game, a game that their noggin has originated. A game without end, a game that breeds anger and hate, and wars, and enemies.
We think of the hate religion engenders, the fanaticism it breeds, the debilitating fear, dependency, sense of insignificance, and stultification it instills. We see the witch hunting, crusades, inquisitions, human sacrifices, satanic cults, ritualistic stupidities, superstitions, dogma, prejudice, massacres, genocide, and wars perpetuated in its name. We also see the part it plays in obstructing reason, science, and sane behavior. The list could go on and on.
I don’t have hate toward Jon Petry, he is a victim of not believing what is in the Lotus Sutra.
When Montherlant called religion "the venereal disease of mankind," he is not exaggerating. We will not return to sanity, peace, and fruitful lives until we rid ourselves of those aspects of religion that are pure inventions of human minds.
MALTZ
How did Nichiren come to learn about the Lotus Sutra, and the secret contained in the Sutra?
Did he read his own letters?
Did he worship himself?
Did he get guidance from Daisaku Ikeda?
Did he receive guidance from the High Priest?
Did he read the holy translations of Lamont?
Did he chant all night, and go to meetings, become a leader at his local HQ and do Human Revolution?
Did he have a Gohonzon from the SokaGakkai the pure lineage, or did he chant to the DaiGohonzon which had not been inscribed?
Nichiren arrived at his understanding and benefit from devotion to the Lotus Sutra.
What do the Nichiren sects tell you to do? All the things but that! If that is all Nichiren did, that is all we would have to do.
No other practice led him to his understanding, Nichiren read the Lotus Sutra not his own letters or the Human Revolution.
Everyone joins a Buddhist sect for the same reason, they are looking for the teaching of Buddha. They think they will find the teaching that will free them from the pain and suffering that has haunted them in this lifetime, and at the same time, they could spread that peace to their friends and family. No one joins a Buddhist group to become unhappy, or to start fighting with other people, or to rub beads, or worship a piece of paper.
In the Lotus Sutra, the sutra says it only be understood between a "Buddha and a Buddha"??
In the Ceremony in Space the Eternal Buddha talks to the other beings for the first time, in any teaching. For the very first time we hear the Buddha. All other Sutras were being taught by a Human, Human to Human, not Buddha and a Buddha. Before entering the Ceremony in Space, Sakyamuni the human incarnation says, "Everyone thinks I became a Buddha under the Bodhi tree, but that is not true, I was always the Buddha. I will now tell you the truth." He also tells the people there that before this he taught people according to their ability, but now, in the Ceremony in space, there is not that need, because the sutra can be understood between a Buddha and a Buddha. He never says when you go back to Earth start chanting these special words, or do shakubuku like a crazy person, become a religious zealot, alienate your neighbors, sit souza or on your knees its very important and become Japanese because its the center of the world, he doesn't say to write a mandala and give them out and hang them on walls and pray to them, he doesn't say to develope Zen, or Ritsu, or Tentai, or the other sects either, he did not say he was sending his son to Mappo for his sins, or there would be a Japanese man to spread Human Revolution and rewrite the Sutra, in fact, he left no insctruction for the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, but to come home and tell everyone that they will become a Buddha. There was non practice defined.
Only a Buddha and a Buddha can understand the Lotus Sutra.
Only a Human and a Human can understand the Nichiren Buddhist Sects. All the practice, all the rules and regulations were invented by Humans, have limitations and the avarice, anger and stupidity of humans, no Buddha. So, we have fighting, competition, worship, praying, bead rubbing, bowing to the priest, bowing to the statues and pieces of paper, sitting on the knees, divisions of sects, etc... It's hard to find Bodhisattva-ism in Nichiren Groups, it's more like any other human grown religion from human minds, with human powers and people are led into the desert of regret.
In the eye of the Buddha from the Lotus Sutra there are no Nichiren Sects, there are only Human beings that will some day become a Buddha. All the human practice and rules are just that, HUMAN RULES. Every now and then, there are those like myself that come out of this mess, we get clear headed and know that the only way to practice Buddhism in our time, the only thing a Buddha would do, is tell another person that someday they will be a Buddha. As a person with Buddha Nature everything we do, is clarified as a person doing something with Buddha Nature. When someone from Nichiren Shoshu Spams my blog, it is a person with Buddha Nature wasting their time by spamming my blog, because they have the illusion that their Nichiren Sect run by Humans is led by a Buddha.
Maltz
I am not part of any Nichiren Buddhism Group, there is no such thing as Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a man, who was born in Japan, who by reading the Lotus Sutra learned that he had Buddha Nature he inherited from the Eternal Buddha and not from the other Buddha’s that were being worshiped in Japan during the time that were popular in his lifetime. By reading his very popular Rissho Ankoku Ron, you can get a very powerful glimpse of his anguish and awakening of this message.
The Ceremony in Space was the commonly known object of worship, as we have been known to call it, and not the statues of Amida or the other Buddhist Deities. Everyone in his environment was reciting the sutras of Pure Land, or inferior texts, and he started to recite the Lotus Sutra and its Title, and found passages in the Lotus Sutra, and other text by Buddha to justify this. But, maybe he was just looking for a practice to replace the other Religions, and this was not necessary at all. I cannot imagine, Buddha, a man of wisdom telling people to say words over and over again, and having faith in that, as a means to accomplish an end. In fact, that practice alone has led to very effects that bring a person alien to the message of what is in the Lotus Sutra. If people start to chant a magical mantra, they become dependent on that practice, it is self defeating.
Everyone had statues they prayed to, they burned incense, and offered flowers, so of course Nichiren did the same, and placed a statue of Buddha on the Lotus Sutra. Later he inscribed what we call now a Gohonzon, which has turned into something of a magical religious entry into God. Where in the Lotus Sutra can we see this instruction? Why did Nichiren go to the level of the people around him, and try to compete at their level? There is no one to pray to! In Buddhism there is no God, no one to pray to, and yet we are told to develop faith, and sincerely ask the Gohonzon for this and that. This is Christianity, not what is in the Lotus Sutra.
We can see, in the transfer chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Buddha makes everyone equal to him, everyone now has Buddha Nature. We are sent back to earth, to tell everyone about this. There is no instruction to develop your Buddha Nature, chant all night, fight for world peace, follow your Sensei, join the SGI, or any other of the common terms used now, then and in the future. There is no practice given because as a person with Buddha Nature, everything you do is as a person that will become a Buddha. Your actions are those of a person that will become a Buddha. I hardly think fighting with priests, or burning down a temple is something that Buddha would have instructed anyone to accomplish.
People want to fight with me about this, just as the right wing fight with the left political group, and Muslims are ready to die to see their virgins. Truth is, after all the chanting, after all the years of the Nichiren Shoshu, Soka Gakkai, Kempon Hokke, Nichiren Shu all we have is Religious groups and that’s all. There is no peace, no enlightened people, no Buddhism being spread, there are just people walking around being a slave to other people because they want Christianity in their life.
Everyone alive has Buddha Nature, everyone will be a Buddha, there is no practice in our time period, there is no object of worship, there is no chant, there is no Sensei, there is no special this or that, or Priest. There is nothing to fight, nothing exists, you cannot blow out a flame that does not exist.
Nichiren Sects just repeat book slogans, just like Christians
Maltz