"Hi all,
Recently I was wandering around the e-sangha and came across this
Quote from user XXXX from Sept 22:"
"..the core teachings are not expedient means, but a gateway to
Enlightenment. The Daimoku and Gohonzon are not expedients because
they are the law, whereas an expedient is only a means to get people
to practice the law."
"Do you all agree with this? Why or why not? Is, in your opinion, the
Gohonzon skillful means, and furthermore would you consider the online
gohonzons as skillful means?"
I personally don't like when people over-analyze anything, especially Buddhism. This quote is a perfect example of that. When people massage and manipulate "doctrine" in Nichiren's Buddhism they're usually trying to work their way to around proving some ulterior doctrinal motive.
The Gohonzon is an embodiment of the Lotus Sutra, and a mandala illustrating more clearly than those that came before it the functions of the universe and human life.
The problem with us modern-day believers with our ready access to images of the Gohonzon on the internet is that the Gohonzon is also a physical piece of paper and as a physical object gets shrouded in magic and mystery, which is just plain natural human behavior.
There is no "digital Gohonzon", rather digital images of Gohonzons, and there is a difference. When an individual is able to have a paper Gohonzon enshrined in such a way that they are able to sit and chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with meaning and purpose, than that Gohonzon serves its purpose. 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.
This is Ten Chi Jin, the workings of Heaven, Earth and Man.
Enlightenment exists only in individual self-discovery and self-knowledge and cannot be the exclusive property of any one religious group or the benefit arising from the possession of any one object or another.
Buddhism is reason. Knowledge is power.
Rev. Greg Dilley, Shidoshi
By Rev. Greg Dilley, Shidoshi
I am Greg Dilley, Minister, Buddhist and licensed teacher in the Bujinkan of Masaaki Hatsumi, the last living Ninja on Earth.
My regular readers will be wondering why the formality and introduction?. The answer is that this latest installment is meant for an audience I normally don’t write for, a completely different religious sect.
I was previously a snare drummer in the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps in the years 1978, 1979 and 1980. If you happen to be a hard-core drum corps fan you know these were very significant years in drum corps history and marching percussion development.
But this isn’t about me; it’s about Ten Chi Jin, the workings of Heaven Earth and Man. And its about rudimental snare drumming.
Snare drumming in history
Snare drummers in military bands, marching bands and drum and bugle corps, prior to 1977, uniformly and unquestionably utilized a left-handed grip totally exclusive to rudimental snare drumming and universally referred to as “traditional grip”. "Traditional", as it’s commonly called, came from a practical origin. This is how it worked;
The snare drum came from pre-revolutionary war times and was used as a military musical instrument to provide a rhythmic “cadence” for marching troops. This is illustrated in the famous painting of the patriotic young and old snare drummers and their senior head-wounded fife player.
In this picture we can view the origin of the “traditional grip”. It was created out of necessity. In order to march with a drum one had to suspend the drum by way of a strap. Originally the strap hung over the drummer’s head but in more modern times the strap was worn over the left shoulder. The drum was connected by a clip onto one of the lug screws. The bottom line was that in order to march with the drum, the drum naturally slanted sharply to the right or left.
In order to stabilize the snare drum in later eras a “leg rest” was developed that connected to the bottom of the drum and allowed it to rest securely on the left leg, meaning the drum would naturally slant sharply downward and to the right. Playing the snare with the natural “matched” grip (the grip that a tympani player would use) was not practical because the left hand would have to be raised and cocked downwards in an uncomfortable manner.
The answer to this anatomical quandary became known as the “traditional grip”. The stick would be held and operated in the crotch of the left thumb and fore finger. This grip would remain the standard for the “trained drummer” for decades, long past its practical usefulness.
Modern traditional-grip drumming
During the era of the development of the drum set in ragtime jazz and later as jazz developed into modern forms, drummers continued to use traditional grip, compensating for their unequal anatomical positioning by slanting their snare drums and tom-toms in a direction that accommodated the obsolete technique. The reality now was, from as far back as the turn of the century, that drums were mounted on mechanical stands and could be slanted at angles to accommodate matched as well as traditional grip. Yet as jazz drummers progressed into the 50’s and 60’s traditional grip became the “mark” of the trained drummer.
As rock and roll came onto the scene self-taught drummers very naturally played with the more natural matched grip and were labeled as such – “self-taught” and "untrained".
Drum and bugle corps and rudimental drumming developed along different lines than popular or classical musical evolution and emerged from its military roots to become a product of high-performance musical pageantry. By the 1970’s drum and bugle corps had, quite frankly, become an awesome production, marching bands on steroids, pageantry in motion including mind-bending rudimental drumming that was really rather unbelievable to behold. Although technology enabled the snare drum to be mounted in a more level fashion, by way of the multi angle bar, traditional grip prevailed for no other reason than simply no one questioned it and teachers themselves had learned with it – until 1977.
In 1977 a phenomenal snare drummer named Rob Carson who had previously marched in the Santa Clara Vanguard snare line made the leap into the future by switching the snare line he both instructed and played in to matched grip. It was a pioneering decision. In 1978 the Santa Clara Vanguard won the DCI (drum corps international) competition. In 1979 the drum line, including tenors, basses and tympani, had reached a level of excellence that had never before been witnessed. In 1980 the corps experienced catastrophic inner politics that brought it to its knees and while the 1980 drum line remained state-of-the-art, the corps ranked low in the international standing.
Nonetheless the Santa Clara Vanguard drum line had pioneered the use of matched grip for snare drumming for all time to come, or so it seemed. In truth the very next year, lead by a new instructor whom himself was not fully comfortable with matched grip for snare drumming, the SCV snare line de-evolved back to the use of the traditional grip from revolutionary war times. The drum corps snare drumming world, to the amazement of many, remains largely committed to this archaic and unnatural technique even though other sections of the drumline; basses, tenors and tympani as well as keyboard percussion, had always used matched.
An overview of matched grip
In the late 70’s there was much written about the snare drum matched grip revolution. Drumming “authorities” had pointed out that the right hand grip uses 13 muscles while the traditional left-hand grip uses a mere 4. Authors on the subject pointed out that children, given drumsticks and the invitation to bang on something naturally used the matched grip. The historical fact was that traditional grip was an abomination, an adaptation to a technological shortcoming which was the snare drum suspended crudely from a belt or strap.
By 1979 the use of fiberglass snare drum harnesses had been pioneered and made commercially available. This absolutely provided the ability to mount and carry the snare drum in a totally symmetric and level fashion. This new carrying technology totally embraced the use of matched grip for snare drum. Nonetheless in the following decades drum lines insisted on traditional grip even though the grip itself had to be adapted to the new equipment. Players had to lean their left shoulders lower in order to play the traditional grip on a level surface.
That was 25 years ago. There is only one reason that this ridiculous technique has prevailed and it is the same reason that Muslim woman themselves still advocate having their daughter’s clitorises surgically removed; because they did it and it is simply tradition, or even worse, religious tradition.
Of course there are those who will still advocate traditional grip and even claim that it is “faster, once one masters it”. In reality traditional is simply the grip they originally learned and are accustomed to. They have become attached to it and like any religion try to defend what makes them comfortable. I have mastered both grips at various times in my youth and very simply matched grip is superior.
Anyone can test this comparative theory by simply holding up your hands in front of your face. Look at both hands from the back, look at both hands from the front. See any similarity? Of course the majority of human beings are “right handed”, meaning that their right hands are more dominantly dexterous, however this difference is found in the brain and not in the actual flesh and bone. For all practical purposes, our hands are the same.
Well, all this being said we are now approaching the year 2005 and the news is that the Santa Clara Vanguard, once again after 26 years, will be using matched grip for their snare line. Is this common sense or a complete religious RE-revolution? In fact I have been unable to think of any other example in musical development where the favored technique actually makes playing the instrument more difficult. This is simply unheard of in music, though common in martial arts and religion. Music simply does not favor form over function.
The persistence of drummers and instructors throughout the decades in using something that simply doesn’t work as well says a lot about who were are as a race. It certainly is a perfect example of where religion and religious customs go so very wrong.
Rev. Greg Dilley, Shidoshi and ex-SCV snare drummer
I have been reflecting…. In the worst way….
As a minister I reflect on Christianity often, more so after this last election. Christianity is nothing to mess with, and Christians, if there was any doubt before November of 2004, are a force to be reckoned with.
My wife rented “Jesus Christ, Superstar” from Netflicks. Not the original one that I really love but the newer one. It was actually quite excellent. It is the 2001 redo, the “inner city, Broadway” version.
It would have been interesting to meet Jesus, or at least have been an observer of the events that lead to his death, if he in fact actually died and wasn’t rescued from horrible crucifixion. It would have been enlightening to have been able to learn if he in fact had traveled to India or Tibet to study Buddhism during his thirty lost years. Even more interesting would have been to learn of Jesus' actual physical appearance and whether or not he really looked like a white long-haired Peter Fonda.
For my thinking though, as a minister and as a Buddhist, the only true comparative religious study would have to come from being able to study the cultural history of another inhabited world system and in it a completely different alien species.
What I suspect is that Christianity is a function of life, and a manifestation of the emerging intelligence of any self-aware species and not the unique appearance of a human prophet or the son of an omnipresent cosmic being.
I also suspect that the function (emphasis on the word function, if you haven’t already noticed I use it often) of Christianity is a naturally occurring phenomena when any species achieves, or arrives at the point of self-awareness, i.e. Eve eating and feeding the apple of intelligence to Adam leading to expulsion from Eden.
Self awareness leads to the path of self discovery which, if avoided, leads simply and naturally to self-loathing which is, in my opinion, the very basis of Christian faith. Christianity, the fundamentalist or evangelical kind, simply doesn’t tolerate the possibility that there can be other religions or faiths, and this kind of intolerance is based on self-loathing and the need to make everyone the same in order to achieve validation. When this doesn’t happen everyone else simply becomes wrong, or even evil. Yet again I digress….
My real point is that if we were able to study alien civilizations I suspect that we would find similar appearances of murdered prophets and their coorsponding self-loathing religious traditions. I mean, think about how many religious leaders and prophets have come and gone without leaving any lasting impression, all because they failed to get themselves horribly murdered.
Sure, there’s Nichiren, but the Buddhist tradition doesn’t seem to seek it’s validation through the hanging of its pioneers up on planks of wood.
It’s all just food for thought really, and that’s my job so there it is.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi
The Day the Enlightenment Went Out
By GARRY WILLS
Published: November 4, 2004
Evanston, Ill.
This election confirms the brilliance of Karl Rove as a political
strategist. He calculated that the religious conservatives, if they
could be turned out, would be the deciding factor. The success of
the plan was registered not only in the presidential results but
also in all 11 of the state votes to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Rove
understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans
believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution.
This might be called Bryan's revenge for the Scopes trial of 1925,
in which William Jennings Bryan's fundamentalist assault on the
concept of evolution was discredited. Disillusionment with that
decision led many evangelicals to withdraw from direct engagement in
politics. But they came roaring back into the arena out of anger at
other court decisions - on prayer in school, abortion, protection of
the flag and, now, gay marriage. Mr. Rove felt that the appeal to
this large bloc was worth getting President Bush to endorse a
constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (though he had opposed
it earlier).
The results bring to mind a visit the Dalai Lama made to Chicago not
long ago. I was one of the people deputized to ask him questions on
the stage at the Field Museum. He met with the interrogators
beforehand and asked us to give him challenging questions, since he
is too often greeted with deference or flattery.
The only one I could think of was: "If you could return to your
country, what would you do to change it?" He said that he would
disestablish his religion, since "America is the proper model." I
later asked him if a pluralist society were possible without the
Enlightenment. "Ah," he said. "That's the problem." He seemed to
envy America its Enlightenment heritage.
Which raises the question: Can a people that believes more fervently
in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened
nation?
America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of
Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for
evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders
differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then
modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the
Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the
opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any
more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75
percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely
with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.
The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the
fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had
experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble
those nations less than we do our putative enemies.
Where else do we find fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity,
religious intolerance, fear of and hatred for modernity? Not in
France or Britain or Germany or Italy or Spain. We find it in the
Muslim world, in Al Qaeda, in Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists.
Americans wonder that the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous,
so single-minded, so impervious to international appeals. They fear
jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed.
It is often observed that enemies come to resemble each other. We
torture the torturers, we call our God better than theirs - as one
American general put it, in words that the president has not
repudiated.
President Bush promised in 2000 that he would lead a humble country,
be a uniter not a divider, that he would make conservatism
compassionate. He did not need to make such false promises this
time. He was re-elected precisely by being a divider, pitting the
reddest aspects of the red states against the blue nearly half of
the nation. In this, he is very far from Ronald Reagan, who was
amiably and ecumenically pious. He could address more secular
audiences, here and abroad, with real respect.
In his victory speech yesterday, President Bush indicated that he
would "reach out to the whole nation," including those who voted for
John Kerry. But even if he wanted to be more conciliatory now, the
constituency to which he owes his victory is not a yielding one. He
must give them what they want on things like judicial appointments.
His helpers are also his keepers.
The moral zealots will, I predict, give some cause for dismay even
to nonfundamentalist Republicans. Jihads are scary things. It is not
too early to start yearning back toward the Enlightenment.
Garry Wills, an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern
University, is the author of "St. Augustine's Conversion."