Reverend Greg

Susan, Charles -

If it's of any interest to you. I think there are two personalities posting nasty things under the name Nichiren. The one from Denmark has been banned from posting to my blog AND from my email account.

Rev. Greg

Charles,

He ran out of meds!!!

Mr. Nichiren, dude...

I've got a Nichikan Gohonzon and it's wonderful. I had a Nikken Gohonzon and even though I was duking it out with him and NST on a literary and astral level, I thought his version of the Gohonzon was very powerful. My favorite Gohonzon was my first, the Nittatsu Gohonzon. Awesome. No demons dare come near.

Why don't you write and tell us your story. Blurbs are cool, but some of us would like "the rest of the story." I'm sure a lot of people would like to know how and why you use the handle of Nichiren Daishonin - something that takes cast iron balls or you ran out of meds.

Charles

Great comment Engyo Barrett,valid points throughout.

"I am working on releasing my attachment to being *right* all of the time"

Well, that's thing trick isn't it? This is what I wish for SGI above all things, letting go of the concept that we are the only best Nichiren group. This is what keeps us addicted to the Daigohonzon and Nichiren Shoshu in general.

Nichiren's teachings are universal through time. No one needs to be the Nichiren superbowl champ in order to feel valid.

In the end we have ourselves to deal with, our life experience and our own perceptions and misperceptions and these things will limit to what extent we are able to follow our own path of self-discovery.

Above all, true human revolution is the most painful thing of all.

Rev. Greg

Rev. Greg -

I think you may be generalizing from too small of a sample here. ARBN for an example, is certainly less than 1% of the Nichiren Buddhist community in North America. I would be surprised if the total (active) online Nichiren Buddhist population is greater than 5% of the total North American Nichiren Buddhist community. While we may see a lot of angst online surrounding these questions, I submit that those who aren't suffering this angst aren't online, or aren't anguishing about this online, since these issues aren't compelling for them. What I believe you have is a very vocal minority generating a lot of sound and fury, but that on the whole it is a side issue.

I also submit that this is a changing population over time. The population suffering these problems are primarily ex-NSA/SGI members (or else Nichiren Shoshu members), are they not? As people either choose to give Buddhism up, or move on from NSA/SGI into differing forms of Buddhism (Nichiren or otherwise), this whole issue loses most of the impetus it once had. This is certainly true for me, and for a number of other folks I could mention.

I am no longer worried about whether I am *more* right than someone else in their interpretations of Nichiren's teaching. I am far more worried about continuing to improve my practice and my understanding. I am working on releasing my attachment to being *right* all of the time. The only way I can respond to such questions is with my practice and my life, not by argument and denunciation.

Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett

David asks;

"so what's the big deal?"

The big deal is that as a religious minority, i.e. the Nichiren Buddhist community in the US and other Western nations practicing in a Judeo-Christian society, we SO obviously search for some sense that our version, our object, and our "authority base" (priesthood or leadership) is the correct one. One peek on ARBN confirms this. The Nichiren wars are based on believer's intense need to feel validated that what they are doing is right, and what others are doing in wrong.

Perhaps you David, are free.

My distinction about digital Gohonzons vs. Digital IMAGES of Gohonzons was nitpicking now that I revisit it, not worth reclarifying.

Thanks for your intelligent comments David.

Rev. Greg, Shidoshi

Hello:

I accept your notion that the only purpose of the eye-opening ceremony is to create confidence in the legitimacy of the object and connect it with both the individual and the sangha...are we on the same page here?

But I disagree with the statement that "there is no "digital Gohonzon"...I have chanted to a digital photograph of my SGI Gohonzon while chanting...

When I click on the icon, the information stored on my hard drive causes the liquid crystals on my computer screen to physically change properties and form a physical image of the characters that compose the Gohonzon...

So long as that image is displayed on my computer screen, it is a real, physical Gohonzon...clearly visible to all and formed by a mechanical process...just like paper and brush...only different...when the computer is turned off, the image is erased and the screen is no longer a Gohonzon...but my computer has the real physical potential to transform itself into a real Gohonzon at my instruction...

As a man of reason, I do not need the reassurance of an eye opening ceremony to know that I am chanting to the Gohonzon...which is neither a piece of paper nor a digital screen...rather, it is my own life and the enlightened life of all living beings...I need no one's approval or authorization to see and know this immutable fact...so what's the big deal?

David

Thanks Danna for your motherly scolding. It was needed.

Engyo Barret - I think you did read me correctly. My jump from "which Gohonzon" to the eye-opening ceremony revolves around the principle that the Gohonzon exists only in the lives of believers.

Put simply, whatever Gohonzon one chants to and whether or not it "works" has to do with the person, not the image. To think otherwise is just not reasonable in my opinion.

Many believers, maybe even most, still need "permission" from a priest or organization in order to feel that they have the correct scroll or image, and are empowered to use it. This validation of "correctness" is still very important to most.

I'm not saying this is wrong or right, it's simply natural. *I* feel these functions inside myself though I enjoy calling myself "free". This is the way of Ten Chi Jin. It's who we are and afterall, we're not really that much different then when we were huddled in caves around a fire.

All I advocate, time and time again, is the individual path of self-discovery and the ultimate human freedom is creates...

Rev. Greg

Rev. Greg -

I agree with and support your last two sentences. I am curious, however, about some of the preceding ones.

"So often however inside our hearts and minds we are poorly convinced of a Gohonzon's validity when it is purchased from a store, or printed from a website.

This is the power, and the ONLY power of the eye opening ceremony. In otherwords, the power lays only with each individual."

I am curious who the "we" you refer to above is (are)? I am also curious regarding the leap from questioning the validity of an Omandala depending on where one acquired it, to commenting on the power of the eye-opening ceremony, and where that power is derived. I'm not necessarily questioning the statement regarding the ceremony, mind, just how you got from point "a" to point "b".

I have several mandalas currently. One of them is a reprint I made of a digital image. One was purchased from a retailer, and two (or three) were issued to me from a particular Nichiren school. Of all of these, three (or four) are replicas of two different Nichiren originals, and one is the work of a calligraphic artist. I also have an amulet mandala laser-cut into a slice of bamboo, that I carry in my pocket in a small case.

To my current understanding, all of these Omandalas are interchangeable, and I don't actually need any of them in order to practice. I like all of them, and use different ones in different circumstances. None of them, however, are essential to my practice of Nichiren's Buddhism, or to my progress on the Path.

Some of these have been eye-opened, and some haven't. It doesn't make any of them any more or less functional; I don't treat the ones which have had the ceremony performed any differently than the ones which haven't.

If your statement that "the power lies only with each individual" is intended to refer to the "power" of the Omandala itself, rather than the "power" of the ceremony, as referenced in the preceeding sentence, then it makes much more sense to me. Did I read this correctly?

Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett

Wow! Why do some Nichiren Buddhists just get so looped out? Time to go back to first grade and reread the Dhammapada. - Brian

The last I checked this is a free country and we are free to worship in whatever way we choose. I am NOT SGI never have been and don't intend to be. I am a buddhist though. Rev. Greg has never even suggested I join SGI.

I don't enjoy the profanity.... I will chant for you. Also if you don't have something nice to say you shouldn't say anything at all. That comes from the mother in me.

Danna

"(puking sounds) There I go... thinking of you again... You (SGI) don´t know how sick you make me. You make me fucking sick to my stomach. Everytime I think of you I puke (puking sounds).
You must just not know - you might not think I do - but I do - everytime I think of you I puke."
- Marshall Matters

We all know that SGIs policy is one of burning and destroying all other gohonzons except its own demon-infested banner. Besides the myth of the Dai-Gohonzon is (besides being just a flat-out lie which has little or nothing to do with Nichiren Daishonin) is spiritual materialism at its worst making people into Idol-Worshipers and setting them directly against the First Commandment while making them beggars in front of the... (puking sounds)...

An intelligently thought-out reply, thank you.

Rev. Greg

The Nichikan-Gohonzon issued by SGI is infested with demons! Don´t use it!

Sincerely,
Nichiren