About five years ago, I was surfing the web and discovered a Nichiren monastic group called the Nipponzan Myohoji. Basically, what this order of Nichiren Buddhist monks and nuns do is build Peace Pagodas all over the world, with just volunteer labor and donated supplies. They've got a Peace Pagoda at Bodhgaya in Northern India where the Buddha attained enlightenment, and they've got a Peace Pagoda at Eagle Peak, the location where the Buddha is purported to have taught the Lotus Sutra. You can learn all about the Peace Pagodas by just googling "peace pagoda", or by copying and pasting this into your browser:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Pagoda
The group's founder was named Nichidatsu Fujii. Fujii is the same fellow who actually taught Gandhi to chant Daimoku, and who walked with the Mahatma over India, beating a hand drum for peace and chanting. Gandhi apparently gave Fujii the name of "Guruji". He was a contemporary of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the founder of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (forerunner of the SGI). Here is a little bit about Fujii (I am not sure if links come through on this system, so if it doesn't link, just copy and paste into your browser):
http://www.dharmawalk.org/fujii.htm
You can surf around the "dharmawalk.org" site and see some very cool walks they have done, beating their hand drums and chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. One such walk was in memory of the lives lost in the North American slave trade, and one march ended at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland. They also march to prisons and march with Native Americans at Wounded Knee and other sites of atrocities against the people who were native to the land we in the US live on today. That's their practice - they build peace pagodas, they walk, they beat their hand drums and they chant Daimoku while they walk. That is their witness for peace. It's no surprise that Fujii lived to be 100 years old - I'm sure it was all that walking!
I was able to get ahold of some interesting materials about this group. One is a book of Fujii's teachings called "Buddhism for World Peace" - I enjoyed his stories about Gandhi. His perspective on chanting Daimoku for peace was refreshing and made me think about my own practice in a new way. I also got my hands on a Boston PBS documentary made on the Nipponzan Myohoji group. This 30-minute film (I got a VHS tape) was made over 20 years ago, during the height of the arms race. It contained a fabulous shot of these monks, nuns and laypeople standing outside the Reagan White House beating their drums and chanting Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. It also had a sequence where the Nipponzan Myohoji was holding a sit-in at a nuclear weapons plant. It showed the Connecticut State Troopers hauling the chanting protesters off to a paddy wagon. I just loved that. Somehow, I think Nichiren would have been happy with that kind of direct action.
The monks and nuns of the Nipponzan Myohoji actually take vows of poverty and rely on contributions from the laity. I found this out the hard way when I tried to get a speaker from their pagoda-building project in Washington State. These guys don't have two nickels to rub together, but they do have heart. Apparently as of a year ago, they were still chanting for peace outside the White House:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3oUWP3LF-o
I am so much enjoying my own continuing education in Buddhism. It's a relief and an adventure to learn that the world of Nichiren Buddhism is not divided into noble and victorious Us, and pitiful, misguided Them. I am proud of the Nipponzan Myohoji members of the Nichiren family, and I hope to be able to visit one of their pagodas and report here about it some day.
Be broadminded, be peaceful, be cool.
Byrd in LA
Posted by wahzoh at April 18, 2007 05:51 PMThat youtube link doesn't work. If you just go to youtube and search for "Nipponzan" or "myohoji" you will come to a cute, half-minute clip of a monk outside the White House beating his drum and chanting (actually more like singing) the Daimoku. The clip was posted by an activist from some peace center in NY. Thanks for your patience as I get used to this system.
Byrd
Hi Byrd,
The link worked for me and I enjoyed the short little clip of the monk chanting NMRK with hand drum. Are those hand drums only available through Nipponzan Myohoji? How does one go about learning the rhythm/cadence to use when chanting with the drum? It's so different from the rapid Gakkai chanting speed.
Posted by: Michele at April 19, 2007 02:01 PMNo, I don't know where to get those hand drums. It's not just Nipponzan Myohoji. Nichiren Shu uses those drums, too - sometimes they pop up on e-bay. You just have to keep your eyes open.
As far as the rhythm goes, I think it's one syllable per beat, but they chant Nam-mu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo. And they chant a LOT slower than the SGI. And apparently the person chanting in the clip is a nun, not a monk! It's not my sangha, so I can't really explain too much more. I know Michael Mccormick has been on marches with them, so he might have more info than I.
Thanks for the comment, Byrd
Posted by: Byrd at April 19, 2007 02:28 PMMichele & Byrd -
The drums are available in Japan quite easily, or sometimes on eBay. There is a guy here in the states named Mark Miyoshi who makes them, too. His website is at http://www.miyoshidaiko.com/index.html
His prices (for the fan drums, or uchiwa-daiko) are about equivalent to what I paid in Japan for the ones I bought for our temple last fall.
Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett
Posted by: Engyo Mike Barrett at April 19, 2007 02:46 PM"in memory of the lives lost in the North American slave trade"
How about the far more massive and brutal South American slave trade that started earlier and lasted longer? Maybe I might do a blog on that.
Sorry. I know that's off your topic.
Gassho
robin
Posted by: robek at April 19, 2007 07:04 PMActually the South American slave trade has a different time line. But this is not time for a history lesson... www.blackagendareport.com and www.seeingblack.com have excellent archives on the lives of African descended peoples in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Anyway those monks/nuns didn't just do the walk throughout the Eastern Seaboard and the Southern US-- the walk also made it to West Africa. There was a wonderful program on PBS that portrayed the walk. I felt like I was walking with my ancestors as well.
Posted by: Dr. Mimi at April 19, 2007 08:13 PMHi Byrd,
Thanks for the URL to the clip of the Nun chanting in front of the White House. They used to have a temple in Gardena. I visited there once in the late 80's with the Independent Nichiren Association. They chanted the Hoben Pon and Juryo Hon in a beautiful singsong fashion that I have never heard before or since. They had a beautiful altar with a gold statuary arrangement made up of the Treasure Tower carrying the O-Daimoku, flanked by the Buddhas Shakyamuni and Taho, who were in turn flanked by the Four Bodhisattvas of the Earth. Directly in front was a statue of Nichiren and in front of that a statue of Guruji. The arrangement was quite large, taking up an entire wall of the temple room. If I recall correctly, there was supposed to be a Peace Pagoda built somewhere along the Pacific Palisades, but I do not know what became of that project. Its an impressive group on so many levels. Too bad they are no longer in Southern California.
Posted by: Ernesto at April 20, 2007 05:49 PMByrd:
I knew that Mahatma Gandhi had chanted daimoku, along with other prayers and mantras because a relative of his spoke about it at SGI meetings a few years back. What wasn't mentioned was that reverend Fujii - a priest from another sect, and who chanted Namu (vs. Nam) was the one who shared the dharma with Gandhi! What a delightful twist.
Thanks for sharing this. It seems that the longer I practice, the more I learn about the amazing history of the Lotus dharma. What is even more compelling to me about this movement you mentioned is their connection to so many powerful issues and events in our modern history. I wonder their offical positon or past actions in regards to the Tibet issue. I have never read anything about the SGI's position on the Tibet issue.
Thanks, Byrd, and please get a photo of yourself on your masthead so we can all see what you look like.
Charles
Posted by: Charles at April 21, 2007 09:50 AMHiya, Chuck! Thanks for reading - I don't know what the Nipponzan Myohoji's "position" on the Tibet issue is, but I do know what their action is likely to be...walking and chanting!
I'm trying to get a picture up. It may not be for another couple of weeks, due to difficulties in getting my photo to scan. If it's the picture I sent in, though, it's a picture of me at the age of three crawling out of a cardboard box - at first I was going to call the blog "Outside the Box". I doubt that photo would give you any idea of what I look like now!
I'm also meeting up with a photographer pal next weekend, and maybe I'll ask him to take a contemporary shot. We shall see.
Finally, about the Nipponzan Myohoji - I have always thought that Fujii was a true follower in the footsteps of Gandhi and King. Fujii doesn't have much of a PR department, though.
Posted by: Byrd at April 21, 2007 10:33 AMAnd we all know how an effective PR department can make things seem much larger than life:)
BTW there is a debate ongoing.
Byrd are you of the female vs male variety?
Inquiring minds would like to know:)
Posted by: Dr. Mimi at April 21, 2007 01:05 PMI'm a hot-flashin' female. Head firmly wedged in the freezer...
Byrd in LA
Posted by: Byrd at April 22, 2007 02:20 PM