I need to plan a study meeting (SGI) on this gosho. The meeting is Sunday morning. Since few members will attend and fewer will participate, I thought I would put out some of the points mentioned in the literature and see what you have to say. I hope to get some inspiration from the comments. So here goes...
GREAT HARDSHIPS LEAD TO THE ATTAINMENT OF BUDDHAHOOD
-- Hardships are a part of life; encountering hardships for the sake of the Lotus Sutra is the path that leads to attaining enlightenment
-- Nichiren urges his followers to be united as they advance kosen-rufu during this critical period
(In this section several gosho passages are quoted about giving one's life for the Lotus Sutra)
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HARDSHIPS
-- Nichiren's perspectives"
1. Persecutions represent excellent opportunities for Nichiren's disciples to transform their destinies
2. Those who spread Buddhism will inevitably experience persecution
3. Coming under harsh attack for propagating the Lotus Sutra signifies that Nichiren is a votary of the Lotus Sutra
-- We experience adversity as a means to realize our great inner strenght, thereby achieving true peace in life.
LESSENING ONE'S KARMIC RETRIBUTION EQUALS ATTAINING BUDDHAHOOD IN THIS LIFETIME
-- Nichiren cites two points"
1. Even heavy karma that gives rise to hellish retribution can be expiated immediately by manifesting our innate Buddhahood.
2. Lessening karmic retribution is the gateway to attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime; it implies a fundamental transformation in our lives.
-- How we change our attitude or inner resolve at this moment is crucial. We can freely create our future through our determination and action right now.
THE BENEFIT OF PROTECTING THE LAW
-- Shakabuku - is the driving force for lessening karmic retribution
-- Efforts to defend the Law and protect the Lotus Sutra necessitate battling the destructive influence of slandering the Law.
-- In defeating disbelief and slander, we conquer the ignorance or darkness in our lives, manifest our innate life force as entities of the Mystic Law and erase sufferings that stem from accumulated negative karma.
ACTION IS THE DIRECT PATH TO CHANGING OUR KARMA
-- In Buddhist practice, the important thing is that one's words and actions are in harmony.
-- Nichiren selflessly strove to open the path to Buddhism for all people.
I haven't studied this one in awhile, but assume it was chosen due to the current financial downturn and subsequent hardships it has caused.
The district Greg and I led is slowly declining. The new district leader is a school teacher with lots going on in her life. She has a tendency to play school teacher at meetings which annoys the rest of us. Meetings are not planned. And when I got a little tough with her, she said she wasn't going to be in town during the summer. So where does that leave the district... up a creek, I guess.
I am trying to get a few like-minded people together to have some open discussion about Buddhism. Not SGI meetings, but conversations about our deep feelings, what we have read lately, conversations we've had, that sort of thing. The American members are drifting away because the meetings are just too rigid SGI. No one wants to bring up their questions that might be contrary to the dogma - I mean party-line, well you know what I mean. We have to do something different. We have to give members a chance to talk about anything - to get their questions answered or at least addressed and the local meetings are not open to that. The other district in this chapter are very party-line centric and most longtime members attend the most hard line district meetings. It scares me to think so many members have no idea what Buddhism is about. They think questioning or even thinking of questioning is wrong. That is not Buddhism. Buddhism is critical. What if Nichiren never questioned? Well, you know what I mean.
One of our Japanese members said last week that President Ikeda has finished chanting 500 years in the future and is now chanting toward 600 years. When we asked what she meant, she said he was chanting for the SGI to continue for 600 years. I wonder if it will survive his passing.
So when you think you are having a hard time, think of me sitting in a meeting listening to this stuff!