A Byrd's Eye View

Gongyo in English

I asked a couple of people who attended this past weekend's Gathering of Friends retreat in Port Hueneme what they felt was the most interesting or rewarding aspect of the experience for them.

One feature of the retreat which has gotten generally rave reviews was the experience of reciting the Lotus Sutra together with a group of people in English. We did a service twice a day (as usual), but sometimes we recited the sutra in Shindoku (the way it's normally done in SGI), and sometimes we recited together in English. Apparently, reciting the sutra together in the native language of believers is a common practice outside Nichiren Shoshu and the SGI.

I remember when I first joined the SGI (back then it was NSA) in 1984. One of the first things I did was find an English version of the Lotus Sutra and write the English translation into my old burnt-orange prayer book (remember those?) That way, I knew what I was chanting while I did gongyo. But until I started hanging out with members of the more traditional Nichiren Shu, I never said the prayers aloud in English. And I certainly had little experience reciting the sutra in English with a group.

One of the retreatants wrote to me of this aspect of the program (reciting the sutra together in English):

I think that we chanted so much in English is interesting. And how easy that was when we used the particular intonation and rhythm that we followed. And how faith-deepening that was, being in our native language, so that we could understand the sutra's meaning. Quite different from chanting it in Shindoku and then later going back and reading the translation from a book. It's more immediate and visceral (am I using the right word here?) when you chant it in English. Not that I don't love Shindoku. I like chanting that way, too.

VISCERAL.....yeah, you're using the right word. That's a very good word for the feeling I got from this practice.

Anyway, when we chanted the sutra together in English, we followed a version which broke the words down into syllables. The asterisks (*) represent where a bell is rung as part of the ceremony. Here is what we recited in English as a translation of the Jigage, or Poetry Section of the Life Span Chapter of the Lotus Sutra (one of the Chapters which Nichiren considered most important):

Won-der-ful Dhar-ma Lo-tus Flow-er Su-tra
The Du-ra-tion of the Life of the Ta-tha-ga-ta
Chap-ter Six-teen

It is man-y hun-dreds of thou-sands
Of bil-lions of tril-lions
Of a-sam-khyas of kal-pas
Since I be-came the Bud-dha

*For the past in-nu-mer-a-ble kal-pas
I have al-ways been ex-pound-ing the Dhar-ma
To man-y hun-dreds of mil-lions of liv-ing be-ings
In or-der to lead them in-to the Way to Bud-dha-hood.

*In or-der to save the con-trar-y peo-ple,
I skill-ful-ly show my nir-va-na to them.
In re-al-i-ty I shall ne-ver pass a-way.
I al-ways live here and ex-pound the Dhar-ma.

*Al-though I al-ways live here
With the con-trar-y peo-ple,
I dis-ap-pear from their eyes
By my su-per-nat-u-ral pow-ers.

When they see me seem-ing-ly pass a-way,
And make of-fer-ings to my sha-ri-ras,
And a-dore me, ad-mi-re me,
And be-come de-vout, up-right and gen-tle,
And wish to see me
With all their hearts
At the cost of their lives,
I re-ap-pear on Vul-ture Peak
With my San-gha,
And say to them:
“I al-ways live here.
I shall ne-ver be ex-tinct.
I show my ex-tinc-tion to you skill-ful-ly
Al-though I ne-ver pass a-way.
I al-so ex-pound the un-sur-passed Dhar-ma
To the liv-ing be-ings of the o-ther worlds
If they re-spect me, be-lieve me,
And wish to see me.
You have ne-ver heard this;
There-fore, you thought that I pass a-way.”

I see the con-trar-y peo-ple sink-ing
In an o-cean of suf-fer-ing.
There-fore, I dis-ap-pear from their eyes
And cause them to ad-mi-re me.
When they a-dore me,
I ap-pear and ex-pound the Dhar-ma to them.

I can do all this by my su-per-nat-u-ral pow-ers.
I live on Vul-ture Peak
And al-so in the o-ther a-bodes
For a-sam-khya kal-pas.

The con-trar-y peo-ple think:
“This world is in a great fi-re.
The end of the kal-pa of de-struc-tion is com-ing.”
In re-al-i-ty this world of mine is peace-ful.
It is filled with gods and hu-mans.
The gar-dens, for-ests, and state-ly build-ings
Are a-dorned with var-i-ous trea-sures;
The jew-eled trees have man-y flow-ers and fruits;
The liv-ing be-ings are en-joy-ing them-selves;
And the gods are beat-ing heav-en-ly drums,
Mak-ing var-i-ous kinds of mu-sic,
And rain-ing man-da-ra-va flow-ers on the great mul-ti-tude and me.

This pure world of mine is in-de-struc-ti-ble.
But the con-trar-y peo-ple think:
“It is full of sor-row, fear, and o-ther suf-fer-ings.
It will soon burn a-way.”

Be-cause of their evil kar-mas,
These sin-ful peo-ple will not be a-ble
To hear e-ven the names of the Three Trea-sures
Dur-ing a-sam-khya kal-pas.

To those who have ac-cum-u-la-ted mer-its,
And who are gen-tle and up-right,
And who see me liv-ing here,
Ex-pound-ing the Dhar-ma,
I say:
“The du-ra-tion of my life is im-mea-sur-a-ble.”
To those who see me aft-er a long time,
I say, “It is dif-fi-cult to see a Bud-dha.”

I can do all this by the pow-er of my wis-dom.
The light of my wis-dom knows no bound.
The du-ra-tion of my life is in-num-er-a-ble kal-pas.
I ob-tained this lon-ge-vi-ty by a-ges of prac-ti-ces.

All of you, wise men!
Have no doubts a-bout this!
Re-move your doubts, have no more!
My words are true, not false.

The phy-si-cian, who sent a man skill-ful-ly
To tell his con-trar-y sons
Of the death of their fa-ther in or-der to cure them,
Was not ac-cused of false-hood al-though he was still a-live.

In the same man-ner, I am the fa-ther of the world.
I am sav-ing all liv-ing be-ings from suf-fer-ing.
Be-cause they are con-trar-y,
I say that I shall pass a-way al-though I shall not.
If they al-ways see me,
They will be-come ar-ro-gant and li-cen-tious,
And cling to the five de-si-res,
So much that they will fall in-to the e-vil re-gions.

I know who is prac-tic-ing the Way and who is not.
There-fore, I ex-pound var-i-ous teach-ings
To all liv-ing be-ings
Ac-cord-ing to their ca-pa-ci-ties.

*I am al-ways think-ing:
“How shall I cause all liv-ing be-ings
To en-ter in-to the un-sur-passed Way
*And quick-ly be-come Bud-dhas?”

Posted by wahzoh at July 2, 2008 12:17 PM