Real Life with Ryuei

The Buddha-connection

As human beings we have buddha-nature (the world of buddhahood) within us - but we also have the hell-nature, the hungry ghost nature, and so on. Now besides the buddha-nature all these other natures are a form of slipping away from that part of us that is most clear, in touch with reality, and therefore compassionate. We slip away from it due to a lifetime(s?) of habit, and injury, and misunderstanding, and laziness, and lack of confidence or faith in ourselves, in others, and in reality.

IF WE WERE REALLY ON THE BALL WE WOULD INHERIT THE DHARMA DIRECTLY FROM REALITY ITSELF - WE WOULDN'T NEED A "BUDDHA" OR A "SUTRA" OR ANY KIND OF PRACTICE AT ALL. We would just live non-dual selfless compassion at one with all things 24/7.

Do any of you reading this live that way? I don't. I need my reminders. I need my connections to other human beings to help keep me human, I need people to speak to and write to in order to maintain even my first language - English. As a human beings I feel the need to commemorate and celebrate my highest intutions and values - celebrating them in song and story and even devotional practices alone or with others. They say that a person thrown into solitary confinment for too long will eventually go mad. There are stories of childeren who have grown up in the wild away from people or were so abused and neglected and isolated that they didn't learn any human language. Many just died - and not just from exposure or starvation but from lack of connection. Other not able to be fully rehabiliated. The point is that human beings need human connections and we kid ourselves by thinking we can do without them - and that is just to maintain our humanity - at least in a healthy psychological sense.

So if we need a connection for the full expression and development of our humanity, I think that Buddhahood too is actually not something that just exists in a vacuum (though I suppose it exists in a Void or Sunyata but that is a Void that is no other than Form, Feeling, Perception, Volition and Consciousness).

In Nichiren Buddhism we say that buddhahood is inherited directly from the scrolls of the Lotus Sutra. This is metaphorical language of course. The meaning is that simply by reading or hearing or otherwise giving ear to the Lotus Sutra we open ourselves to the message that we can become buddha, that in fact buddhahood has no beginning or end. We get clued in to the fundamental truth of who and what we are - who and what everything is all about. Except for the Nirvana Sutra that reiterates its points using Buddha-nature rhetoric, there is no other scripture on this world that I know of that is as universal and unequivocal about the universality and immanence of budddhahood - in other words an timeless placeless selfless compassionate illuminated and liberated life.

Every other scripture cuts off some group of people or else puts forth some requirement for an intermediary of some sort - membership in a group, the services of a priesthood or high priest or pope, clinging to a particular savior, the need to performs some ritual or make some type of confession or subscribe to a particular ideology, or some tribal code or patriarchal village morality, or cling to a particular scripture as literal words of the divine (the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra in its own words repudiates its being a single book or scripture).

Of course this all sounds too good to be true - everything for nothing.

Even if it is as it sounds - isn't that worth getting together to celebrate and pass on as a heritage worth sharing? I think so.

But there is another twist to this - one that keeps this promise of the Lotus Sutra from becoming a matter of claiming some divine status and then doing whatever you want. The twist is this:

Buddha is as Buddha does.

Maybe "Buddha" and "Buddhahood" is or can be whatever we want it to be - maybe being a buddha can be about flaming others, slander, killing, stealing, promiscuity, lying, cheatings, destroying and burning. Maybe for some people that is "buddhahood" or at least it is enough to say "Buddha" and the rest doesn't matter.

But when I look at the legend of Shayamuni Buddha to see what Buddha is about I see that being "Buddha" is more than just an empty claim. The Buddha did have an ineffable awakeing experience, but he spent 50 years helping others have it as well, and founded an order of people to pass on those things that he found helpful if one wanted to share or have that experience. The Buddha lived a simple life and did not enrich himself. He established and lived in what he hoped would be a sustainable community. He made friends with the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless but he didn't curry favors with the former or exploint the latter. The Buddha endured pain but transcended suffering. The Buddha with his own hands washed the sick and put his on life on the line to restrain the violent. He sustained his life on offerings but renounced a life of private gain and lived to be a teacher and exemplar for others.

We may "inherit" our own true nature from being exposed to the message of the Lotus Sutra that points out this true nature to us - but what do we then do with this true nature? (Excuse the utilitarian dualism of this question) Do we then put it on our shelf to collect dust, a spiritual prize to show off, or do we attempt to live this nature by reaching out to others to gently share this message and celebrate it?

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

My Journey in the Dharma

In my last entry I talked about the three alternatives I see, and I think it is true that different people require different things at different times, and also true that the same person can be involved with more than one of those alternatives. Again the alternatives I see in terms of Buddhism are:

1. Membership (or at least participation) in a traditional lineage that traces back to Shakyamuni Buddha.

2. Membership (or participation) in a newly created lineage or perhaps creating one from scratch. In this case the new lineage may be at least partly derived from Buddhism but may also contain some or many innovations and yet it still claims the title Buddhism (rightly or wrongly).

3. Participation in an informal group to study and practice Buddhism, perhaps many varieties of Buddhism.

4. There is actually a fourth alternative which is to just practice on one's own or at least to just read about Buddhism and be interested in incorporating it's outlook or perhaps some mindfulness or some other practice or method into one's daily life.

For my part, when I was in high school I was very much involved with that fourth way of being Buddhist - just reading about it and generally identifying with Buddhism. For me personally, I wanted more. I knew what it was to be a Catholic: I had been baptized, confirmed, and occasionally attended mass, and I was going to Catholic school and taking classes in religion, I used to do the stations of the cross with my grandfather - so Catholicism to me was a whole community, culture, worldview, ethical and philosophical stance - a complete package. After discovering Buddhism I wanted to know what the complete Buddhist package was. Reading books for Beatniks and Hippies was not the complete or authentic package I was looking for.

I later ran into Soka Gakkai. My first encounter with them did not leave me impressed. This was back in the old NSA days of the mid-80s. Even as a teenager I knew enough that they raised all kinds of red flags with their intensive recruiting, crass materialism, idolizing of Daisaku Ikeda, and triumphalism and dogmatism. They seemed like Buddhist Evangelical Fundamentalism with a Name-it-and-Claim-it mentality - like the T.V. Evangelists. I was sure it was a cult that would brainwash me and send me to California (as it turns out the Navy did that to me later). Anyway, I wanted nothing to do with NSA.

Despite that I liked the chanting. There was something about it that really resonated with me (and still does of course). Then I started coming across references to it in movies and books (that were about Japan of course). I realized that this might be a legitimate part of Japanese Buddhism. When I started college I sought out the teacher of Asian religions and found out that "Yes, there is a form of Buddhism in Japan that was started by a monk named Nichiren who had his own eccentric way of interpreting the Lotus Sutra." I think that is more or less what he said. He then invited me to take his survey course on Asian religions in the spring, which I did. At the same time, I was getting into the hardcore punk scene and a lot of people in the scene were either members of NSA or had been members. One person in particular impressed me with his intelligence and sincerity - and he convinced me to give NSA a try and to look past the hokiness. This person, BTW, has long since left NSA/SGI in fact all forms of Nichiren Buddhism and even East Asian Buddhism and wiped the dust from his feet. He now has a Ph.D. in Sanskrit studies from Harvard, has published translations of the Buddha's teachings from the Pali, and teaches mindfulness of the breath in accordance with the Buddha's essential teachings in the Pali Canon.

Anyway, I gave NSA a try. That lasted two years and then there was a mutual parting of the ways. I can't really say that it was my first experience with a traditional Buddhist lineage because it was not. At the time, SGI was ostensibly the lay association for Nichiren Shoshu, but the priests were kept far away from us except for the conferral of Gohonzons, pilgrimages to Taisekiji (I did not do that), and other special occasions. SGI was and is a New Religion through and through - they were only using the Shoshu to claim some legitimacy, but beyond that were not interested in anything the priests of Taisekiji had to say about anything. It was all lip service that was paid to Taisekiji. Dasiaku Ikeda's agenda was and probably always was about his own personal vision of Nichiren Buddhism and probably also his own self-aggrandizement (which he either encourages or at least shamelessly allows).

After that I met Rev. Bokin Kim of the Philadelphia Won Buddhist Temple. My association with them was very positive and very much what I needed. With them I learned sitting meditation, different forms of chanting (including dharanis), and aside from a more well-rounded and more tolerant and inclusive practice and teaching I also learned a great deal about traditional Korean Buddhism (with a particular emphasis on the Flower Garland Sutra and the Korean teacher Wonhyo). At about the same time, I met with the Rissho Kosei Kai in New York (who were very helpful) and read the writings of their founder Nikkyo Niwano, particularly his commentaries on the Lotus Sutra (which I was later told were derived from Nichiren Shu commentaries). I practiced sitting meditation with the Shambhalla Center in Philadelphia and read the writings of their founder Chogyam Trungpa (who one teacher of mine at La Salle U said "wrote like an angel and lived like a demon"). I also met and spent a weekend with the Nipponzan Myohoji. Based on these experiences I was able to see how most Buddhists are actually very tolerant, open, kind, generous, not focused on self-promotion and materialism, not triumphalist or dogmatic, and in general very very very (to the umpteenth degree) different from the mindset that is encouraged and cultivated by NSA (or now SGI). I also saw that some New Religions like Won Buddhism and Rissho Kosei Kai are very positive and healthy attempts to simplify, modernize, and reform Buddhism in a progressive way.

After college I did practice Buddhism on my own for many years. And this was before the internet, so I was very much an independent and a solitaire practitioner.

I did eventually discover Nichiren Shu in LA and later the Bay Area. This eventually led to my formally joining Nichiren Shu and in the course of time becoming an ordained minister. As Engyo said in response to my last entry, the experience of Sangha goes beyond anything that can be readily put into words.

At this time, I am involved in various manifestations of the Dharma that cross into the territory of the alternatives I listed above:

1. Obviously I am connected to a traditional lineage and have been accredited as a teacher or lineage holder.

2. I still have a very friendly relationship with Won Buddhism as I mentioned before. I also have friends in Rissho Kosei Kai. While I consider some New Religions to be just vehicles for the egos of their founders or presidents or gurus or masters or whatever, there are others that I have experienced as very authentic spiritual communities who are showing the way to make Buddhism relevant in the modern world. I think the traditional schools have a lot to learn from the New Religions, and in turn I think the New Religions have much to learn from the legacy that is being preserved and maintained by the traditional schools. One thing I really like about Won Buddhism and also Rissho Kosei Kai is that they both seem to be genuinely interested in nonsectarian research and consideration of traditional Buddhist teaching.

3. I also have a great interest in the more informal groups and movements. I think they are necessary, esp. for those who have been burned by dysfunctional and controlling institutions. I don't think any particular informal group is a long-term thing, but I also think that there will always be informal groups arising and ceasing over and over for as long as there are people interested in Buddhism. So for instance, I very much support groups like the Gathering in LA.

I'd also like to note that my San Francisco Sangha that meets at Faithful Fools is in my view halfway between a Nichiren Shu meeting and an informal nonsectarian group. It is obviously Nichiren Shu because I facilitate the meeting and lead the practice sessions. But it is also like the informal groups because only one other person and myself are actually Nichiren Shu members, and no one else who comes is even a Nichiren Buddhist let alone a Nichiren Shu member. I don't ever ask anyone to become a Nichiren Shu member either. Basically, my attitude is that if it is important to them to belong to Nichiren Shu then they will ask me about it - then I'll make them jump through some hoops for 6 months, and after that if they are still up to it I will give Jukai (bestowing the precept to uphold Odaimoku) and also bestow the Omandala if they should want the Shutei Mandala for their practice.

Also, we are kind of nonsectarian in that the first 40 minutes is silent sitting (which is a generic Buddhist practice though in our case we do chant Odaimoku before and after) that Buddhist of just about any stripe or level of interest find congenial. The discussion period that follows can be about any part of Buddhism that whoever is there wishes to discuss - though I will provide the perspective of the Lotus Sutra on whatever topic arises. For the last few months we have been reading and discussing "Conversation Between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man" attributed to Nichiren. We have now begun discussing the idea of Sudden Awakening/Gradual Practice in Chinul's treatise "Secrets of Cultivating the Mind." Other times we have discussed rebirth and karma and other general Buddhist topics. The last half hour is a Nichiren Shu style service. But this is optional as well. Some people may not like chanting and may leave after the discussion. All I ask is that those who come participate in either the sitting or the chanting - not the discussion alone. Most of the time people come for all three parts. So I see my Faithful Fools meetings as on the one hand being Nichiren Shu based, but on the other hand as being congenial to people who have a general nonsectarian interest in Buddhism and who may or may not want to formally become a Buddist or join Nichiren Shu. That is why I would consider my meetings between alternatives 1 and 3.

The Sutra Salon that I have facilitated in San Francisco on and off for the last few years is also an informal type of Buddhist meeting affiliated with no sect or tradition (other than the loose knit guidelines of Dharmajim's Way of the Scholar-Sage and his 16 year cycle of contemplative reading of the entire Buddhist canon in English translation).

So the way I see it, I myself am involved positively with all three alternatives and for many years I followed the fourth alternative of practicing on my own.

Also, some might wonder about my whining about how lonely it is to be a Buddhist and how I wish there were a larger community, blah, blah, blah...

That's just me being wisftul - a passing mood. The bigger consideration to me is what the Nirvana Sutra says about those who uphold the true Dharma are like sand piled on a fingernail compared to those who are deluded who are like the sands of the banks of the Ganges River. I would rather be a lone and even lonely practitioner with my integrity and spirit intact than a member of the biggest megachurch in Texas or of some personality cult run by a remote tycoon with millions of glassy eyed followers.

The thing is that my high school dreams came true - and I was reminded of this quite forcefully this past Monday when I had lunch with an old friend of mine from high school/college who was impressed that I was one of the few in our old crowd who followed my dreams. I have met with Zen Masters (good ones too, and not just one), I have traveled to Japan and Korea and visited temples that are over 1,000 years old, I have been able to study in depth and sometimes in the original languages (to the extent my limited ability allows) the teachings that fascincated, inspired, and gave me direction and hope starting in high school, I have been able to live like a monk in a traditional monastic setting in a temple over 700 years old in one of the most beautiful parts of Japan and witnessed ceremonies that were so moving they brought tears to my eyes, I have been able to share the Dharma with others who have in turn shared their understanding, insights, and generosity of spirit with me. In short, I have had a very rich and full life, and fulfilled my dreams and opened up new dreams - dreams that even now I strive to realize. But even with all these dreams being fulfilled or realized or sometimes delayed or frustrated - the Buddha Dharma has given me something even more wondrous - the realization of the sheer amazing gratuitious nature of life itself - to know that in this marvelous wondroup phenomenal nature of things there is ultimately no-thing that can be added or taken away. This really goes beyond words - the words always end up sounding hokey or Newagey, but however it is expressed it provides the ultimate backdrop or context to everything else and fills me with a feeling of awe and gratitude that overwhelms anyother more transitory mood or feeling. For want of any beter way of recalling, expressing and celebrating this intuition - I just go with Namu Myoho Renge Kyo - and share that with others when I can as best I can.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Why Lineage is Important

Hi everyone,

I am just going to think out loud hear - so I apologize if what comes out is not coherent or ordered or systematized. I just thought I'd "brain-storm" and I might as well do it here.

I just read an article during lunch about how there are only three villages left in the world where the people speak Aramaic. Aramaic is, I believe, the progenitor of modern Arabic. Aramaic was the language that Jesus and his contemporaries spoke. Now it is a language that is all but gone. Recently, an Aramaic language institute was formed in one of the largest of these villages (they are all in Syria) so that people could learn to read and write in Aramaic (it uses the Hebrew alpahabet) and preserve this as a spoken language for future generations. Some might wonder, "Why bother? Who cares?" But the people in these village care - both children and adults are taking classes and they feel empowered and a sense of connection to their ancestors and heritage. Just like, by the way, those in Ireland who have been trying to revive Gaelic. It is an important legacy - and one that scholars also wish to preserve - esp. Bible scholars (I am speaking about Aramaic again, not Gaelic of course).

Buddhism is the same way. There are many schools and sub-schools. There is no such thing as generic Buddha Dharma anymore than there is a such a thing as a generic language. That can't be emphasized strongly enough. Every form of Buddhism is connected to a particular take on the Dharma and has been handed down by a particular lineage. Even those who are trying to create some kind of nondenominational or transectarian Dharma are fooling themselves if they can't acknowledge and recognize that everything they know about the Dharma they either learned from teachers or resources that belong to a lineage or they are just making stuff up (and then it can be legitimately asked why are they calling what they are making up as "Buddhism"?).

As a for instance, for some years I was a member of a New Religion from Korea called Won Buddhism that was founded in 1916. I am still on very friendly terms with them and occasionally I help them out with some of their translations efforts and vice versa. Won Buddhism is not connected to any particular traditional school of Buddhism. In fact, it's original name was the Buddha Dharma Research Society. It's founder was independently enlightened but went on to teach and he is regarded as a Buddha for this age by his followers (sound familiar?). However, he decided that Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment was the predecessor of his own, and he declared Buddha Dharma to be the foundation of his own teachings. He spent many months at a Korean Zen monastery doing research and refining his doctrine and practice and also selecting traditional texts for his new movement to study (they settled on 3 Hinayana sutras, the Diamond Sutra, and the Heart Sutra and a selection of 3 Zen writings). So in spite of the fact that it started out as a nondenominational Buddhist research society - there is no escaping two facts: (1) It became a denomination in its own right, and if it had not it would have disappeared just as the many other Korean New Religions from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that were more loosely organized have disappeared with barely a ripple even in Korea. (2) It is a denomination that has unmistakeable ties in terms of doctrine and practice to the particulars of Korean Zen (and esp. the teachings of Chinul). One thing I appreciate about the Won Buddhists is that they are very much an open, tolerant, and welcoming group to other Buddhists. They give Buddhism (or at least the Buddhist New Religions) a good name. They actually walk their talk. You could do a lot worse than become a Won Buddhist, and I would actually put them on a short list of groups I would recommend people check out - but with the reservation that they don't explicitly uphold, practice, or even acknowledge the Lotus Sutra and that they consider their founder the new Buddha - I do politely disagree with them on those two points.

I bring up the Won Buddhists because at least in Korea they have been very successful and have made positive contributions to society, and they have not engaged in sectarian conflict. However, to do what they have done they needed to both take inspiration from a traditional lineage of Buddhism to remain even quasi-Buddhist and they have had to form their own lineage in order to pass on their particular approach to Dharma. Their founder also did not hide the fact that he went to the traditional lineages for inspiration.

What I see some American Buddhists doing now is making one of two mistakes. One mistake is thinking that there can be a viable form of Buddha Dharma without lineage, or organization, or some form of Sangha that is more than just an informal get together. If Shakyamuni Buddha had not put together a formal monastic Sangha to preserve a way of life and practice and to remember and pass on the teachings - there would be no Buddhism today. If Nichiren, or Dogen, or Chinul, or the many other great teachers of the past hadn't trained disciples and established a lineage - we would not even be talking about Buddhism at all today. At the very least - someone has to put together the money and support to publish books so that people can read the Buddha Dharma or put it out on the internet. Buddhism teaches about causes and conditions - well there would be no Buddha Dharma if people had not stepped up to work together and provide resources for the promulgation of Buddha Dharma. This is why Sangha is the third jewel and why Nichiren and Dogen and so many others stressed gratitude to the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. But I see American Buddhists wanting to dispense with Sangha beyond just informal get togethers with no particular teachings or practices, some just want nothing more than the so-called Cyber-Sangha. But this will not create Sangha in the Buddhist sense of a group of people who can both help each other live the teachings and pass it on in an integral manner to future generations. If this is the best American Buddhism can do - then it will die a quiet death just as Theosophy has.

The other mistake is to set oneself up as the founder of a lineage before one has really earned one's "black belt" or received accreditation from other credible teachers and/or lineages. Maybe this doesn't make any difference to a lot of people out there who just appreciate anyone who comes along and can talk a good game or put on a good show. Who cares whether they have credentials or not? Well, for my part, I do. I have had many teachers and mentors in my life and I am sure that I may end up meeting others. They don't all have to have credentials. I can admire and learn from people who simply have personal qualities I admire and would like to emulate. But when it comes to Buddhism, I have found that the people I trust and who have most helped me are people who made the effort to do their homework, undergo training programs, and have been vouched for by the lineages they claim to represent. Others seem to either be making things up to fill their gaps in knowledge (doctrinal and practical) or to be relying on information cribbed from lineages that they haven't bothered to really learn from or train in other than reading some books or online articles. Again, this isn't to say that a non accredited person can't be very praiseworthy and insightful - even about Buddhism. But to really delve deeply into what Buddhism is all about - I feel my best bet is to check with the lineage holders who have a more complete and well-rounded training in the traditional teachings and practices.

Now I asked myself many years ago when I started getting curious about Buddhism, who do I want to learn from? Someone who has actually been trained in Buddhism by a viable lineage? Or someone who is just setting up shop on their own authority?

Back in high school I knew it wasn't enough to just read a lot of books. I wanted to learn about Buddhism from actual Buddhists so I wouldn't get lost in my own biases, projections, and misconceptions. I first ran in SGI but in two years I figured out that they derived their legitimacy from Nichiren Shoshu, but Nichiren Shoshu wasn't honestly teaching what was in Nichiren's writings or what was in the Lotus Sutra. Just as importantly, their intolerance, dogmatism, and shallow approach to Buddhism (compared to what I had already read) raised many red flags for me.

My next stop was Won Buddhism. There I was very impressed by the spiritual depth and personal qualities of Rev. Bokin Kim and the other members of the Philadelphia Won Buddhist temple. I was also impressed by the teachings of Won Buddhism's founder, Sot'aesan. But still, they were not traditional Buddhism and did not claim to be. As much as I admired Sot'aesan, his teachings still derived from Korean Zen and ultimately Shakyamuni Buddha.

In L.A. and later the Bay Area I finally discovered Nichiren Shu. Here is where it came together for me. At last I could learn Buddhism from people who seemed to have or at least were striving to have the qualities that attracted me to Buddhism in the first place - tolerance, kindness, generosity, an aspiration for spiritual living and not mere material gain, and so on. And at least I could learn from people who had direct lineage ties to Nichiren and ultimately back to Shakyamuni Buddha, people who had grown up Buddhist, been educated as Buddhists, undergone genuine training, and actually showed primary fidelity to what Shakyamuni Buddha taught in the sutras without being dogmatic or fundamentalist about it. These were the modern heirs of the Sangha Shakaymuni Buddha established - and I was and still feel blessed to have finally encountered them.

This is not to take away from other legitimate modern heirs of the Sangha and lineages that all ultimately trace back to Shakyamuni Buddha. But there is a great variety of Dharma out there. In the end, one must make a decision about what lineage or form of Buddhism makes the most sense to you personally - this is also involved with what lineages you have access to and have had positive experiences with.

As I said above, there is no generic Dharma and even if one tries to create a form of generic Dharma one is merely putting together elements derived from other lineages and then creating just another lineage which claims like all the others to simply be Buddhism. That is what happened to Dogen, by the way, he was just trying to establish Buddhism and wanted to transcend sectarianism. But for Dogen, generic universal Buddhism amounted to what he learned from the Soto lineage plus his own innovations - and so the Soto Sect was formed.

So the way I see it American Buddhists have three choices:

1. Practice Buddhism with a lineage (traditional or "new").

Pros: One can learn traditional teachings and practices from accredited teachers (at least accredited within the lineage), teaching and practices that have at least passed the test of time for several generations (e.g. Won Buddhism almost a century, Nichiren Buddhism 750 years or so, Theravadin Buddhism 2,500 years or so). One can also benefit from practicing with many others with the same basic manner of practice and can learn a lot from lineage resources (publications and so on).

Cons: Some traditional lineages are dogmatic, authoritarian, filled with stuffy self-important people, more tied in to ethnicity then Buddhism, and so on. In short, they have all the problems of dealing with any institution or large group of people - the only solution to which is to just give up on the human race and live in a cave.

2. Make up your own lineage by derivation of established lineages and/or making stuff up and calling it "Buddhism."

Pros: If you are the founder you get to make stuff up as you go along, mix and match anything you want, and basically create a form of "Buddhism" made to order for your own predilictions and then you get to invite like minds to support you in this. If you are the joiner of such a group, you get in on the ground floor of something new and exciting and can potentially have a big influence on how it develops, and you are also likely to get more personal attention from the teacher at least while the group is small.

Cons: If you are looking for Buddhism itself, you might be disappointed as the teacher may not be presenting traditional Buddhism but their own Buddhist derived or flavored innovations (as in Won Buddhism, the Falun Gong, or SGI). In other words, you will not be getting things from the source. The teacher may also have a my way or the highway attitude. Of course, if one cares more about the teacher or founder of such a new lineage than for Buddhism itself, then this is probably not a problem (of course, one is then at the mercy of whatever the teacher decides to or is capable of teaching you).

3. Practice Buddhism in informal allegedly nonsectarian groups.

Pros: Same pros as with the newly minted lineages with the added bonus that how things develop will probably be more by concensus rather than up to the personal predilictions of a single leader. An informal group also has the advantage of drawing upon anything that happens to catch the fancy of any member of the group - as opposed to just being limited to a single lineage or a single leaders point of view and experience. Also, informal groups have no leaders, no rules, no organization, and so on. Informal groups can also be great clearing houses for those who have not settled on a lineage and want to be exposed to many things first in a non-pressure more or less neutral environment. Some informal groups even morph into seed Sanghas of established lineages (such as the Branching Streams network of groups around the world that have begun to affiliate with San Francisco Zen Center).

Cons: How sustainable are concensus group beyond a very small number of people? And how many disparate elements (even within Buddhism) can be harmonized to the satisfaction of all? Should vipassana or zen be the main practice? If there is chanting should it be Odaimoku or Nembutsu, or should it alternate? Should things be restricted to only Buddhism or can New Age, neo-pagan, or occult sources be drawn upon? Another problem is that without any leaders, rules, or organization the informal group will never be anything but an informal group that will in time fade away as members pass on or move away or just move on to other things in life. So if there is any sense that Buddha Dharma should be more than just a special interest club, informal groups may not provide the kind of structure that people sometimes need from religion (weddings, funerals, celebrations or memorials for other key life events, counseling needs, more directed and systematic practices and spiritual education etc...).

There is a lot to think about and discuss here. I obviously favor going with the traditional lineages and then picking one to really commit to and support. But I don't want to be misunderstood. I don't condemn the other lineages even when I might have a different view of things. I don't condemn the newfangled lineages - I actually think rather highly or several of them - esp. Rissho Kosei Kai, the Won Buddhists, and perhaps Reiyukai (though I've only met a couple of members of that group - but they made a very good impression). As for informal groups, I would hope that the Gathering in LA knows that I definately support what they are doing and I have always gained a great amount of encouragement and inspiration from them. My thoughts are often with them, and it is one reason I must from time to time express my concern for their long-term sustainability. But even then, if they don't share that concern that's ok with me. So informal groups very much have a positive role to play as well.

One last thing - I really wish Byrd were still around to comment on this. I used to always look forward to her feedback. She almost always had something insightful and constructive to say.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

For Byrd

Byrd was a true "good friend" in the Buddhist sense. All of my online interactions with her were very encouraging and uplifting - and this experience was apparently very universal. Many many people have remarked upon her tolerance, compassion, gentle wit, and wisdom. I count myself very fortunate that I was able to meet her several times in person at the Gathering - most recently at the weekend retreat at Port Hueneme. Many have also remarked about how she was able to have a strong presence without being overbearing, how she was able to maintain her integrity without being harshly confrontational, how she was a bridge builder. I truly believe she was one of the Boddhisattvas of the Earth who is not bound by any single institutional group but also isn't afraid to work with and within any given group that welcomed her in order to support, encourage, and lead the way to a more wholesome spiritual life.

It is very hard to be a Buddhist, and esp. a Nichiren Buddhist, in North America these days. It is a lonely path, even for someone like me who lives in the Bay Area where there is a seeming glut of Buddhism. But really there aren't that many I run into face-to-face in daily life who share my love of Buddhist values, insights, worldview, and ceremonial practice and expression - let alone the particulars of Nichiren Buddhism. Many are even afraid of and averse to Nichiren Buddism due to past experience. And even online where I have found some congenial groups and forums to participate in there are too many who make me wonder if Nichiren Buddhism isn't somehow inherently toxic or a kind of psuedo-spirituality. It really makes me sad, dejected, even angry - and above all leaves me wondering if I am just deluding myself and others and trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Byrd was one of those people who really encouraged me. She was truly a wise companion on the way who lived the vision and promise of the Lotus Sutra through her deep respect for others, her encouragement, her generosity, and all the efforts she made to support Nichiren Buddhism as an authentic and viable spiritual path and practice.

Even beyond anything specifically Buddhist there are two things, of many, that I hope will be remembered about Byrd. One is that she wasn't all talk and posting. Even while between jobs and trying to make ends meet, she volunteered her time and energy to tutor others in reading - and did so not as some kind of painful austerity or with a spirit of condescension, but with a spirit of going out into the world to both help and inspire and to be helped and inspired. She very eloquently wrote about her experiences both teaching and learning from those she taught. She really payed attention to people and had a heart big enough and eyes sharp enough to reach out to others and to allow herself to learn from and be helped by them.

The second thing was that Byrd was one of those rare people, at least in our culture at this time, who really takes the time and trouble to seek out true mentors in actual life. She truly did seek out wise companions to learn from and be inspired by - and she did not restrict herself to those with a Buddhist lable or a remote spiritual celebrity - she sought for the very selfless compassion and wise authenticity that she herself wanted to live in the people around her. I encourage everyone to read her blogs at fraughtwithperil to see what she had to say about her mentor Maevis, how she met her, and her interactions with her. Byrd really understood what it means to learn from those wiser and more experienced in a very personal way, and how to not follow someone else uncritically but to be inspired by a mentor to really bring out one's own good sense and authentic living.

Even in these two things - Byrd's generous volunteer work and her relationship with her mentor Maevis - encourage me as a Buddhist even though these things go beyond Buddhism. Buddhism doesn't have a monopoly on generosity, volunteer work, or mentors afterall. But it encourages me because if somone like Byrd saw something to learn from and be inspired by in Nichiren Buddhism, and with her big heart and good sense she believed it was worthwhile to chant and teach others to chant the Lotus Sutra - then I should not allow myself to feel dejected. Instead, perhaps I should, like Byrd keep up my faith and optimism both in my own efforts and in those around me. I certainly hope that Byrd's spirit will live on in her true friends, in my own efforts in the Bay Area, and in the Gathering.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

On Byrd's Passing

I just returned from Japan yesterday and learned this morning through mutual friends in the Gathering that Byrd passed away. For more information see the comments section on her last blog entry. That comment was unfortunately not a joke or prank.

I really don't know what to say at this point other than that I will miss her and I know the Gathering will miss her. Byrd was a very compassionate, wise, and selfless person. She was a wonderful exemplar of American Buddhism and all of our sanghas are much poorer without her.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

The Nichiren Shu Yahoo Group

Just in case there is anyone who reads this blog and is not aware of it - I moderate the Nichiren Shu Yahoo group and anyone who sincerely wishes to discuss (not fight about) Nichiren Buddhism is welcome to come over and join us.

Actually, I did not create that yahoo group. It was created by Rev. Kanjin Cederman back when he was still just a shami (novice), and he got really busy with other projects and so I stepped in to moderate it. I basically left it alone for a long time but within the last few months I have decided to make it more active by posting passages from the gosho (I used the 30+ passages that are sometimes read aloud at Nichiren Shu services) and also passages from the Lotus Sutra (taken from my sensei's compilation Lotus Petals). I also add some comments and reflections to these passages to help provide context and perspective.

Fortunately, this is not all that goes on there. People have also posted questions about Nichiren Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra, and Buddhism in general. They have posted experiences and also important information about upcoming Nichiren Shu events (like the weeklong retreat in Huston in August). So it's a good place to get connected.

I do have to approve all memberships, but I approve anyone who wants to be a part of it and join in civil discussion about Nichiren Shu. In fact, here is the description and guidelines for the group:

I hope that we can help to better understand and teach the principles of the Eternal Buddha and Nichiren Shonin's teachings, we welcome all people to come and participate in our discusions or to answer your questions.

Group Policy: This is a pro-Nichiren Shu, pro-Lotus Sutra, pro-Buddha Dharma, and pro-Nichiren Shonin group. This group is not for promoting or attacking any other school or group of Buddhism. Different perspectives are welcome provided it is in a spirit of sharing or respectful dialogue and not sectarian sparring. Flames, spam, and links to agendas that are not in keeping with the spirit of this list will be deleted and after two warnings their authors will be banned. While differences of opinion and even controversy are welcome, provided it is done in a civil manner, it is the hope of this moderator to keep things focused on the positive, the practical, and above all on the application of Buddha Dharma to daily life.

So if anyone reads this and in interested please check it out. We already have over 340 members from all over the world and it is pretty active - but not overwhelmingly so.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

My Living Offline Experience of Buddhism

In reading and hearing about other people's experiences regarding Nichiren Buddhism I have to say that I don't experiece anything like what they seem to have experienced or be experiencing. So I thought I would just share/think out loud about my own experience.

Yes, there are many similarities - I chant the Hoben-pon and Jigage and the Odaimoku. I have a butsudan (home altar where the Omandala is enshrined) and all that. I have to admit that between working full time and family I have as hard a time as anybody doing a regular "gongyo" but I do always try to make time to chant Odaimoku before I leave the house in the morning. The thing is - I do not feel any compulsiveness about it. I don't have any superstitious attachment to rites or rituals (such attachment being considered one of the ten fetters in Buddhism that keep us from being free of the six lower worlds). My spiritual practice/observance is not a symptom of OCD or magical thinking but is rather something carry with me throughout the day. There is hardly a moment that goes by when I don't think of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo and the perspective on life that it conveys to me - a perspective of selfless compassion and boundless freedom and joy. I see myself falling away from that perspective all the time, as we all do, when I get irritable or get obsessive about things that aren't so helpful to me or others, etc... But I always use the Odaimoku as a reminder to bring myself back to what really matters and what is really true - life as an expression of selflessly compassionate awakening.

Here is the thing we are always falling into provisional and even non-Buddhist frames of mind.

Sometimes we strive to act like buddhas but are self-conscious of our failings and how far we have to go. This is the self-conscious "not there yet" mindset of the provisional Mahayana bodhisattvas - whose very self-consciousness and sense of inadequacy is like the flaw in the jewel of their selfless acts.

Sometimes we just take a sour grapes attitude toward life because of its impermanence and unsatisfactory nature (from the ultimate point of view) and we retreat into an aloof detachment. This is the provisional mindset of the two vehicles - the voice-hearers and privately-awakened ones.

Sometimes we take up healthy forms of meditation, yoga, excercise, social engagement, charity, and so forth in order to feel good about ourselves - but there is no disillusionment with worldly goals. This is the non-Buddhist mindset of the heavenly realm.

Sometimes we hope to have a happy life through simply using reason and self-control, cultivating an ethical and responsible life without thought for any bigger perspective or the mystery of life and death. This is the non-Buddhist mindset of the human realm.

Sometimes we give in to arrogance, thoughtless impulsivness, obsessive craving, or despair - these are the mindsets of the lower realms.

Each of these mindsets are a falling away from the perspective of chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra - realizing, abiding in, and acting from the unborn deathless true nature of selfless compassion. Buddhahood has no beginning or end, it is not something we have to wait for or earn or get from someone or work our way up to. It is the true nature. On the one hand, it is always at hand. On the other hand, it seems so far from our grasp and is very hard to believe. So we fall away into the provisional and non-Buddhist mindsets. The Odaimoku and all our other auxiliary practices (reciting the sutra, copying the Odaimoku and/or the sutra, Shodaigyo meditation, and so on) are therefore ways of reminding ourselves and celebrating this simple but elusive and life-transforming truth.

So there you have it - my daily practice is living with the perspective that is hard to put into words but which the Lotus Sutra uses words artistically to point to and express and which the Odaimoku acts as a powerful and accessible way to recover that perspective in each moment.

So I do not experience Buddhism as magic or superstition or a verbal rabbit's foot. I don't experience it as some form of begging to invisible higher beings to change me or bring me luck and help me avoid misfortune. It is, rather, a way of being mindful of what is most important and most true and celebrating that.

Now as far as being a member of a group - what I or anyone who is actually the member of a formal Sangha really experiences is never the group in the abstract. We always experience the local manifestations of the group, but these local manifestations are themselves products of concrete relationships that go beyond the local area.

I experience Nichiren Shu in three ways most weeks:

1. Every Sunday morning I attend the San Jose Temple, wherein I assist my sensei and his son (the head minister) in the services or meditation or Shodaigyo practice. I also help my sensei's son Arnold in facilitating the monthly Lotus Sutra discussion . What I find at San Jose is that the people who attend are very engaged in practice and learning and our practice and study are focused on the Lotus Sutra and always have been. Everyone, minister or layperson, gets turns presenting the material at the study sessions. And after the services we almost always have tea and snacks and people are free to discuss whatever they want. It is a very friendly relaxed atmosphere. It is not like a meeting of the Communist Party or a Southern Baptist Convention or some supersecret Masonic order or spinoff. Basically it is ordinary people who really value the Lotus Sutra as Nichiren taught and practiced it. There are no Dharma police, the ministers don't lord it over the laypeople, we don't have call people and harass them if they don't come to the temple, no one is hounded for money (in fact, I am currently paying my dues going back to 2006 because no one ever bothered me about them and I finally realized I should start paying my dues). Everything is voluntary (well, except for me, as a minister and a disciple of the former head minister I am more responsible for being there and doing support work). And no one is forced to watch videos of lectures from some dignitaries - whether a "high priest" (which we don't really have) nor even of the NONA president or anyone else.

So when people talk about being pressured to get magazine or newspaper subscriptions, or being pressured to uphold a party line, or pressured to join, or having whole meetings dedicated to watching videos of some uber-sensei - I just don't experience that at all. Probably what I experience is not too different from what a Christian in a smallish liberal Church would experience - just good fellowship among friends in the faith. In fact, having visited my grandmother's Church in Chicago I know that is exactly how it feels like. Frankly, I can't understand why anybody would subject themselves to the kinds of things I am consantly hearing about.

2. Every Sunday afternoon I hold a meeting at the Faithful Fool's Meditation Hall. The Faithful Fools are an outreach program/community center created by a Unitarian Universalist minister and a Franciscan nun. They also do work in Nicaragua. As part of their center they have a meditation hall that was set up by a student of Mel Weitzman the former abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. It is now in the care of Janna Drakka, a Zen priest(ess?) from San Francisco Zen Center. Several years ago, the Faithful Fools agreed (enthusiastically too) to let me come in and use their meditation hall on Sundays for Nichiren Shu meetings. So here is where all this arguing, fighting, and sectarianism just isn't part of my experience either. What I see is mutual help and cooperation - with no question of co-opting or compromising. It is just like the late abbot of Mt. Minobu Kuonji told me - "Today we must have dialogue not only between Buddhists but between all religions for the sake of world peace." That is the attitude of Nichiren Shu, and that is the attitude I have met among people of conscience in various forms of Buddhism and Christianity and other religions.

The Faithful Fools meetings are open to anyone. I do not ask that people become Buddhists or Nichiren Buddhists or Nichiren Shu members. If they wish to do so, I am happy to help them and I have a six month (minimum) program for helping them learn enough about Nichiren Shu teachings and practice so that they can make an informed decision to take Jukai in Nichiren Shu (Jukai means to take the precept, in this case the precept to uphold Namu Myoho Renge Kyo). The meetings are open to anyone who wishes to come and participate - it's the same way at the San Jose Temple for that matter.

Our meetings go as follows:

From 3:00-3:40 pm we begin by chanting Odaimoku three times, then we sit quietly in meditation. As one Buddhist teacher Garma C. C. Chang put it, we abide in a state of "clear awareness in the tranquility of no-thought." That doesn't mean being thoughtless or blank by the way. It means not being attached or averse to whatever thoughts may arise, and maintaining an open filed of calm awareness. We do this because as buddhas we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose and so can just be mindful, aware, and caringly attentive to what is. We end with three Odaimoku. This part of the meeting is optional by the way, some people don't like sitting meditation, other people however come specifically because they are drawn to silent sitting and in doing so are introduced to Odaimoku.

From 3:45-4:30 pm we have a Dharma discussion. As the facilitator I keep this period very flexible. I don't usually ever come in with a planned talk, I just see who is there and what is on their mind or what would be most beneficial to talk about. Lately we have been slowly reading over and discussing the writing attributed to Nichiren called "Conversation between an Unenlightened Man and Sage." Now while I do present my own views of the material based on my own research and training, everyone gets a chance to comment and contribute. This is not an indoctrination session but a chance to really dig deep and explore. I feel badly for those who don't experience this in their own Sanghas. Dharma talks and discussions should not be ideological indoctrinations but true dialogue.

Finally from 4:30-5:00 pm we have a Nichiren Shu style service. We chant the Hoben-pon and the Jigage, mostly in Sino-Japanese but occasionally we'll do it in English. We chant the Odaimoku of course, and happily now have a taiko drum to accompany it. I am now beginning to train some of the participants in how to use the various instruments. This part of the meeting is also optional, as some people may just come to the meditation and discussion and then leave. That is ok, we don't force anyone to chant or to stay. They can join us for us much or as little as they wish. I do, however, want people who attend to discussion portion to attend at least either the meditation or the chanting service even if they don't join us for both - because the important thing is to engage Buddhism viscerally and not just talk about it.

3. Most Thursday nights I will be found at the Nichiren Buddhist International Center in Hayward, California. There I have dinner with the general manager Rev. Chishin Hirai and his wife. Usually my daughter comes with me and hangs out with Mrs. Hirai after dinner, they either watch t.v. or Julie helps Mrs. Hirai with her ESL lessons. Rev. Hirai and I work on revising an English translation fo the traditional Nichiren Shu liturgical manual - the manual that up until after WWII was used by Nichiren Shu, Kempon Hokke, and the Honmon Shu. It is basically the book wherein all the traditional practices of Nichiren Buddhism going back to Nichiren's time can be found (though with changes and revisions - but the point is that it is the current form of a 700+ year liturgical heritage, a heritage that has roots going back to Chinese and Indian Buddhism). To work on this is a real privilege and real education. In the past, I have also helped out the NBIC with translations of the gosho for their project of translating the seven volumes of the Nichiren Shonin Zenshu (itself based on the Showa Teihon and academic study of the authenticity of the gosho). Volume 5 of the set has just come out, they are all published by the U of Hawaii. A little more recelty I was involved in editing and revising the new English liturgy book for temples and homes that will be available later this summer. The NBIC is also working on translating a book that contains all the official teachings of Nichiren Shu (including the complex T'ien-t'ai teachings that Nichiren utilized) used to train ministers for the advanced test they have to take if they are to advance their standing and recognition within Nichiren Shu. It is a educational/quality control kind of thing. For my part, I look forward to seeing how these teachings are presented and finding out if there is anything in them that is new and/or clarifying.

Working with the NBIC is really the more international level of my involvement with Nichiren Shu - because their projects are not just for North America but for all English speakers around the world, and they also have projects planned to help those Nichiren practitioners who speak other languages. I feel really blessed to be able to be involved because it is really giving me the chance to do what I dreamed about back in college - to learn as much as I can about the traditional teachings, practices, and heritage of Nichiren Buddhism from the most authentic sources available. I am so glad that I have been able to do this - and don't have to be satisfied with a partial and biased sources or with huge gaps that some have tried to fill using other non-Buddhist sources - like Eckhart Tolle or the The Secret or even New Age sources. There is an integrity to the Buddhist tradition that I really appreciate - and it is not that I always unquestioningly follow traditional sources just because they are traditional sources - but like a martial artist I want to fully master a particular form in th traditional style before tinkering with or adapting it - or before even presuming that tinkering or adapting is needed or warranted.

Throughout the year I have other chances to be involved with Nichiren Shu on a larger scale - national conferences, ministers meetings in Japan, retreats and so on. I usually gripe about having to go to these things - but really if I am honest with myself I love them all. I love seeing old friends, and usually there is always at least one or two interesting discussions or talks (and juicy insider gossip!). I have never had a bad experience at any of these metings - no one's ever treated me disrespectfully or unkindly, no one's ever put pressure on me to conform or be quiet of follow some party line. In fact, what I usually experience is a lot of comeraderie and support - a feeling that trascends even the many language barriers. Now there are always some prickly personalities - but really you will find that in any large (or even small) group of people. And what I find is that everyone understands that we need to be civil and tolerant and supportive and that our various disagreements (personal and otherwise) can be worked out in a mature and constructive way.

Besides my own daily practice and weekly and monthly or yearly interactions with Nichiren Shu I also have many contacts with Buddhists from other groups. I sometimes visit the Won Buddhist Temple in San Francisco where Rev. Yun has graciously helped me with translation questions I have re Sanskrit passages or questions about koan practice in Won Buddhism. There is the monthly Sutra Salon wherein several people including myself discuss our readings in the Buddhist canon. I sometimes give talks at Hartford Street Zen Center or to the Gay Buddhist Fellowship (which also meets at Hartford Street). I was once invited to give a talk to the Buddhist group at San Quentin. What I have found is that other Buddhists do not try to put down other teachings and practices out of sectarianism (though they can be critical when appropriate), they do not try to pushily recruit people to their groups, they do not act paranoid or defensive when Buddhists from other schools come to their centers, and oftentimes are happy to see other Buddhists and share perspectives. What I experience is a general openess and friendliness and maturity. And this is something that is not only on the local level but is an attitude that seems to be modeled by the leaders of these groups and is just a part of either spoken or (usually) unspoken policies.

I would call it the unspoken policy of a mature group of people in a cosmpolitan society. It is not even something specifically religious or Buddhist - though most religions and Buddhism especially does emphasize the cultivation and/or expression of such civility and maturity as a matter of course.

That's all for today I think - but let me say this - if you are not experiencing such maturity, depth, civility, openess, and basic human decency in your own Sanghas - then something is drastically wrong. Maybe just on the local level - or maybe on the higher levels as well. But something is wrong - and red flags should be going up for you. This is not the way mature people or even groups behave - so please don't think it is normal and resign yourself to it.

And I agree with this - Be the change you want to see. And sometimes being the change you want to see means no longer supporting what is unwholesome. Isn't that the message of Rissho Ankoku Ron? And didn't Nichiren remonstrate three times and then retire on principle? And didn't Shakyamuni Buddha try to restore civility on several occasions among the monks of Kosambi, and when they refused his advice he left them to their own devices and went to the woods to hang out with the lone tusker? And didn't the young monks who had become disciples of Devadatta return to the authentic teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha after they got a chance to hear those teachings from Shariputra and Maudgalyayana? Sometimes real bodhicitta (the mind of awakening) means voting with your feet, it means choosing your integrity and dignity and the dignity of the authentic teaching and practice over assocation with those in provisional or even non-Buddhist mindsets. Sometimes the best thing a friend can do is to say, "Sorry, I can't support what you are doing, and I am not going to allow you to treat me like this anymore because it is not good for you and not good for me."

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

My thanks to the Gathering

Hi everyone,

This past weekend I helped facilitate the Gathering's first weekend Buddhist retreat. It was fabulous. As Byrd wrote - the food was incredible, the company was awesome, the house was very nice, and it was the most cushy retreat I have ever led or been to. I got to play pool until midnight, we had a movie night and watched Shakyamuni Buddha's Excellent Adventure (aka The Little Buddha) and we had a wonderful outing to the beach complete with a BBQ.

It was not all fun and games and playing at the beach though. We got a lot of practice time in. I think Byrd will be providing a play by play, but basically from Friday night until Sunday at noon we did lots of recitations of the Lotus Sutra (in Sino-Japanese and English), lots of Odaimoku (with drums including the taiko drum I was able to buy thanks to a donation - thanks Kris!), a few sessions of Shodaigyo meditation, walking meditation in rhythm with Odaimoku, Shakyo (the meditative copying of the Odaimoku), a memorial service for Greg Dilley (aka FWP's late great Rev. Greg), and a couple of Dharma talks and times for group discussion. Everyone really showed their enthusiasm and it was wonderful to chant with a roomful of faithful and sincere practitioners.

I especially want to thank Bill and Jean Anker for making it all possible and letting us use their new house down by the beach and for arranging for the great food. Specifically Bill said that Jean was responsible for all the hard work while he was responsible for taking all the credit.

I also want to thank Terry (I hope that is the correct spelling of her name) who led us all in an invigorating session of kundalini yoga (which meshed very well with the emphasis on practicing from the tanden that we emphasize in Nichiren Shu, or at least at the San Jose Temple). It was really wonderful of her to share her skills and training in what is a very special form of yoga practice (this was not simply stretching and excercise).

But really I have to thank everyone who took the time to come down and attend and add their energy and dedication to making it such a great opportunity to experience a deeper practice in the context of Sangha. I certainly came away from the retreat feeling refreshed and even recharged.

Doing such vigorous practice together and building Sangha is not about getting something (buddhahood) that we don't already have. But it is about expressing what is there fully and in community with each other and all beings. That is what such retreats are all about and this retreat was exactly that - people bringing their buddhahood together and expressing it through their faith in and practice of the Lotus Sutra as a Sangha. This is the ceremony of the air in real life, and in this we all meet the Original Buddha as a living presence at the heart of our faith and practice.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

The Personal Remembrance

Below is the personal remembrance that I gave at Greg Dilley's memorial this past Sunday:

The founder of Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Daishonin wrote to one of his followers upon hearing that the brother of that follower had died, "...until now I thought it was something I had dreamed, a mere dream, an illusion. I doubted that it could be true - a mistake, a false report, I thought." This is exactly how I felt when I heard the new about Greg Dilley’s passing.

I have known Greg for about five years now. I still remember the subject line of his first email to me: "Zen Heretics are destined for Hell!" I remember sighing and debating whether to just delete it or give in to my curiosity to see what this bit of over the top rhetoric was all about. Fortunately, my curiosity got the better of me and I opened it to find that Greg was just pulling my leg. The email actually contained a serious offer. Prior to receiving that email I had been blogging on a Nichiren Buddhist website with several other Nichiren Buddhist bloggers, but that site had come to an end for various reasons. Greg decided to step in and give the bloggers from that site a new forum called fraught-with-peril. He wanted to know if I wanted to join them. And that is how Greg recruited me for one of the many endeavors by which he successfully brought people together.

Greg’s dream, as I understood it, was that this would be a forum wherein the many different voices of the online Nichiren community could come together and be heard. That dream was fulfilled, and fraught-with-peril continues to this day with bloggers covering a wide spectrum of the Nichiren Buddhist practitioners in North America of various affiliations and non-affiliations. Greg really took to heart Nichiren Daishonin’s guidance concerning the unity of all those who uphold the Lotus Sutra and chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo:

"All disciples and lay supporters of Nichiren should chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo with the spirit of many in body but one in mind, transcending all differences among themselves to become as inseparable as fish and the water in which they swim. This spiritual bond is the basis for the universal transmission of the ultimate Dharma of life and death." (WND 1, p. 217)

Now it is 2008 and fraught-with-peril is still going strong and seems to be widely read. I occasionally discover that our blogs are referenced by other Buddhist blog sites on the web and even by those associated with Tricycle. I am honored to be part of it, and very glad be part of the community that Greg brought together.

After fraught-with-peril was up and running I had the opportunity to actually meet Greg and his family in person at the San Jose Nichiren Buddhist Temple for our New Years service and party in 2005. For the next few years we would meet like this at New Years, and each time I really enjoyed the chance to talk with someone as enthusiastic, engaging, and concerned as Greg was in regard to the teaching, practice, and growth of Nichiren Buddhism. My wife got a chance to meet Greg this past New Years and she was very impressed by him. She told me that she had found Greg and Nancy to both be very warm-hearted and such good listeners. On that occasion, Greg even had a photo album from his last visit to Japan. It turns out that he had been in Chiba, Japan and had visited Hondoji Temple, which is a very important temple in Nichiren Shu, and some Shinto shrines in the area. The funny thing about this was the head minister of Hondoji is actually the son of the founder of the San Jose Nichiren Buddhist Temple. I later found out that Greg had been visiting the San Jose Nichiren Buddhist Temple back in the late 80’s and early 90's, long before I showed up there. So it would appear that Greg had a great causal affinity with the lineage that I am a part of. It is funny that we met online first, but I like to think that the causes were such that it was inevitable that we would meet and become friends as fellow disciples of Nichiren Daishonin.

Only two weeks before Greg’s passing, my daughter and I headed out the door to see a movie in Japan-town in San Francisco. As we ran down the street I ran right by Nancy and Kaela. My daughter, though, looked back and pointed them out to me. I called out to them and found out that Greg and Leila were looking at a Zen rock garden just nearby. We got to spend a few minutes saying hello and taking about the various goings-on at fraught-with-peril and then made plans to talk later some more. Little did I know it would be my last chance to see him, and how strange that Greg just happened to be in Japan-town San Francisco and that I would just be passing by where he was at that moment. I have my daughter to thank of course for being so observant. Looking back on this it really makes me appreciate how precious each moment really is that we have with friends, family, and loved ones. I am told that one of Greg’s favorite lines from the gosho was this one: "time passes as quickly as a white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall." (WND, p. 99) This is how fleeting our time here is, and our moments with each other. This is something else that I think Greg deeply appreciated, or so it seemed to me from the brief occasions that I had to be spend time with him. I certainly value those moments, as did all who met him at the San Jose Temple and the online fraught-with-peril community.

Buddhist Perspective - talk given at Greg's Memorial

Hi everyone,

Below is the "Buddhist Perspective" that I gave at the memorial service for Greg Dilley this past Sunday at the SGI's community center in Silicon Valley. This will include the parts that I edited out for the the actual talk, those parts are in italics:

Nichiren Daishonin wrote many letters of condolence and many letters dealing with the crucial issue of life and death. In one letter he wrote: "Once a person is born that person must die - wise men and foolish, eminent and lowly alike all know this to be a fact. Therefore one should not be grieved and alarmed by a person’s death; I know it to be so and teach others to do likewise. And yet when something like this actually happens, I wonder if it is not a dream or an illusion." (WND 2, p. 887)

Nichiren knew very well the Buddhist perspective that life and death are two phases of the Wonderful Dharma, what we call Myo Ho - the sublime or wondrous nature of all phenomena. We usually measure life and death by things that arise and fall due to causes and conditions, things that have a beginning and an end such as our physical forms and mental and emotional states. The changing nature of interdependent causes and conditions is one side, but the other side is the unconditioned true nature of which the passing changes are the superficial expression. The reality of our lives is this Wonderful Dharma that manifests both birth and death but is actually the unconditioned, unborn and deathless true nature of reality. In a key passage from chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha said of his perspective on this triple world of desires, passing forms, and formlessness: "All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear; that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which I do not disappear; that it is not real or unreal; and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way [as the living of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly."

We are each of us, in life and in death, expressions of the unconditioned true nature that transcends birth and death. This true nature we name after the sutra or scripture that awakens us to it - the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra, in Japanese: Myoho Renge Kyo. We express our faith and conviction that this is so by chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo - "Devotion to the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra." In this regard, Nichiren wrote: “Shakyamuni Buddha who attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, the Lotus Sutra that leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from one another. To chant Myoho Renge Kyo with this realization is to inherit the ultimate Dharma of life and death. This is a matter of the utmost importance for Nichiren’s disciples and lay supporters, and this is what it means to embrace the Lotus Sutra." (WND 1, p. 216)

And yet, Nichiren Daishonin knew that the rather lofty perspective of the Buddha and all the doctrinal explanations of Buddhist philosophizing fall rather flat when a family member, loved one, or good friend is suddenly taken away from us. I honestly couldn't bear to read them now to you, but there are many passages in Nichiren's writings where he expresses his understanding of the shock and loneliness that those left behind feel. In light of this, Nichiren Daishonin began to convey his understanding of the vision of the reality that transcends birth and death in terms of the pure land of Eagle Peak. Eagle Peak is where Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Lotus Sutra, and in the Lotus Sutra it is the scene of a huge assembly that takes place beyond time and space as we normally understand it wherein the truth is revealed fully to all beings. The pure land of Eagle Peak is conveyed warmly and poetically but it is ultimately a state of awakening where we all meet one another in truth. As Nichiren Daishonin wrote: "The way of attaining Buddhahood is just like this. Though we live in the impure land, our hearts reside in the pure land of Eagle Peak. Merely seeing each other’s faces would in itself be insignificant. It is the heart that is important. Someday let us meet at Eagle Peak, where Shakyamuni Buddha dwells." (WND 1, p. 949)

To a woman who had sent him offerings for a prayer service for her late husband Nichiren Daishonin wrote: "Surely your late husband is in the pure land of Eagle Peak, listening and watching over this Saha world day and night. You, his wife, and your children have only mortal sense, so you cannot see or hear him, but be assured that you will eventually be reunited [on Eagle Peak]." (WND 1, p. 456)

What kind of place is this pure land of Eagle Peak, this state beyond birth and death? How do we reach it? How do we awaken to it? Nichiren explains to one of his lay followers: "As a lay believer, the important thing for you is to chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo single-mindedly and to provide support for the Sangha. And if we go by the words of the Lotus Sutra, you should also teach the sutra to the best of your ability. When the world makes you feel downcast, you should chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, remembering that, although the sufferings of this life are painful, those in the next life could be much worse. And when you are happy, you should remember that you happiness in this life is nothing but a dream within a dream, and that the only true happiness is that found in the pure land of Eagle Peak, and with that thought in mind, chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Continue your practice without backsliding until the final moment of your life, and when that time comes, behold! When you climb the mountain of perfect enlightenment and gaze around you in all directions, then to your amazement you will see that the entire realm of all phenomena is the Land of Tranquil Light. The ground will be of lapis lazuli, and the eight paths will be set apart by golden ropes. Four kinds of flowers will fall from the heavens, and music will resound in the air. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas will be present in complete joy, caressed by the breezes of eternity, happiness, true self, and purity. The time is fast approaching when we too will count ourselves among their number." (WND 1, p. 761)

Each moment we live is a moment encompassing the reality of life and death. How can we meet this moment of life and death? In answer to this, Nichiren Daishonin wrote: "For one who summons up one's faith and chants Namu Myoho Renge Kyo with the profound insight that now is the last moment of one's life, as the sutra proclaims: ‘When the lives of these persons come to an end, they will be received into the hands of a thousand Buddhas, who will free them from all fear and keep them from falling into the evil paths of existence.’ How can we possibly hold back our tears at the inexpressible joy of knowing that not just one or two, not just one hundred or two hundred, but as many as a thousand Buddhas will come to greet us with open arms!" (WND 1, p. 217)

Greg lived his whole life practicing Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, living Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, and sharing Namu Myoho Renge Kyo with others. There is no doubt in my mind that a thousand Buddhas greeted him as the Lotus Sutra promises. In time, if we maintain our faith and awaken to the deathless, a thousand Buddhas will also greeted us, and one of those Buddhas is Greg.

For Greg and his family and friends

Hi everyone,

I am very shocked and saddened to hear of my friend Greg's passing on Tuesday. When I first heard about it I thought it must be one of his jokes - but sadly it was not. I really don't know what to say or write at a time like this other than to express my shock and sadness for Greg and for his family.

A few years ago my sister-in-law passed away and my own family was touched by this kind of abrupt and tragic change. It is very wrenching.

As Nichiren Buddhists we have faith that death is not the end - that it is part of a grander scheme of the unfolding of buddhahood that goes beyond any individual birth and death. The Lotus Sutra envisions this as a grand ceremony embracing all time and space. Nichiren believed that for those who have faith in the Lotus Sutra this ceremony will become even clearer and their participation in it is gauranteed. He wrote to one woman that her deceased husband would be with her - watching from the sun and moon. This is all very poetic - but it expresses what I, we, all hope is true - that life doesn't just end it continues on and those have passed will still be present to us to help and support in their own way.

Yumi keeps asking me what happens to people when they die. I get annoyed and tell her, "I don't know. Why do you think I should know that anymore than anyone else?" She points out that I am a Buddhist minister and its my job to know. I tell her, "Well yes, I can tell you what the Buddha said about what happens to us, but that's just passing on second hand information." Granted, it's a good source and not just an idle rumor for us Buddhists. Still, I can't pretend to knoweldge I don't have. I only know that I don't know, but that as I grew up and heard all the theories it was the Buddha's teaching that made the most sense to me. It still does. So I don't know but I can hope. I can hope that death isn't the end of my friend Greg anymore than his birth was really the beginning. Greg is and always was ineffable and that this ineffable, ungraspeable reality of Greg is only apparently absent. If our faith is correct, his presence and participation in our lives, in all life, is birthless, deathless, unconditional.

Despite what my wife and some others might think, I don't think that it's my job to know or to pretend to know. I have taken it upon myself to give consideration to these things in light of the Buddha's teaching, to cultivate faith and to share whatever hope or insight I may find with others and to be open to what they have to share with me. Greg shared a lot with me, with all of us. So that too is something that it is now my role to share if I can. So I don't know where or how Greg is, but I have faith and hope that his love and care will continue to be really present for all of us - but especially for his family.

I don't know what else to say, I hope I have not said too much or too little or spoken nonsnense. But I have tried to express what is really in my heart to express now, and I offer that for what it is worth to Greg, to Nancy, Kaela and Leila, and to all Greg's friends here at fraughtwithperil and elsewhere. He will be greatly missed.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Sharon Stone's "Karma"

What can I say about Sharon Stone's comments about "karma"? The popular Hollywoodized understanding of karma is something I find very embarrasing, sad, and even needlessly callous.

Some people may have felt put off when I posted all those articles
on karma and rebirth a couple of months ago in the Nichiren Shu Yahoo group and which is still in the file section of that group. They complained that
this material from the Pali Canon was too academic or complex or too
tied in with provisional Budhdism or the historical Buddha that
supposedly we don't need to care about. But the fact is that the
Lotus Sutra itself assumes that we already know about the Buddha's
teachings of karma. In fact, the Mahayana sutras in general assume
this knowledge and perspective on the part of the reader. They
assume that their readers have already properly digested the
material that can be found in the Pali Canon. But in fact many drawn
to the Mahayana and the Lotus Sutra do not know this material and so
make assumptions that the Hollywood Buddhist make - and Hollywood
Buddhism is not the Buddhism that the Buddha taught.

Nichiren taught a good standard for judging whether a teaching is
authentically Buddhist:

1. What do the sutras that are our only source for what the Buddha
taught actually say?

2. Is the teaching in accordance with reason?

3. Most importantly, how does the teaching play out in real life?
Does it bring liberation? Does it point to things we can verify for
ourselves if we make the effort?

If we want to know what Buddhism actually teaches about karma we
need to go to the Pali Canon. Nichiren alludes to these teachings in
his letters by referencing T'ien-t'ai's teaching but doesn't go into
detail, and the T'ien-t'ai sources have not been translated and in
any case reference back to the sutras. As Nichiren himself said, why
should one choose commentaries (this would include the gosho too)
over the sutras anyway?

So what do we find in the Nikayas?

We find that the Buddha repeatedly taught that we should not presume
to judge anothers karma or even our own. He even said that one could
go mad trying to figure it out by speculating. He repeatedly said
that karma is only one strand of causality - and that the laws of
cause and effect pertaining to inanimate processes, biological
processes, non-volitional mental processes, and the general Dharmic
unfolding of life must also be taken into account. Not everything
can be reduced to the karmic portion of cause and effect. The Buddha
also taught that we cannot even judge whether a good or bad effect
can be traceable back to any good or bad causes in this life that we
can observe. The true causes may be imperceivable or from a life or
many lifetimes ago.

I posted all of that material exactly because of how the Hollywood
version of karma and Buddhism has been assumed by too many for too
long to an embarassing and even callous degree. I posted it as a
medicine and innoculation.

So what Sharon Stone said may have been on many people's minds. I
also wondered about the karmic connection between the actions of the
Burmese military and the Chinese government and the disasters that
befell their countries within mere weeks of their violent
persecutions of Buddhist monks. But then I remembered the Buddha's
warnings against such presumptuous judgement. I recalled that I am
morally repelled by any religious dogmas that "blame the victim." I
observed that it wasn't the government or military that were hurt in
either case but the common people who had been innocent of
wrongdoing in the first place.

I observed that the exacerbation of the disasters were in fact due
to causes made by those governments - but there was no observable
direct causal connections between their abuse of Buddhist clergy and
the horrible tragedies that befell hundreds of thousands of innocent
people. Those government are culpable due to their negligence of the
common people and even outright oppression of them - and their
treatment of Buddhists is part and parcel of that. If they had
treated their own people with care and respect they would not have
been at loggerheads with the Buddhist community, and they would be
the types of governments that would ensure ample warnings of
flooding, would ensure proper building codes and standards, would
ensure that help got to the people who needed it when they needed
it. So in general the types of governments you find in China and
Burma are the types that makes causes that exacerbate tragedies for
those nations - particularly among those who are already in poverty
and oppressed. This is to assign blame where blame can be assigned.
It is to point out actual observable causal connections. But it is
not to blithely say "all those people died because they mistreated
Buddhism" which is to blame the victim and isn't even accurate and
is not in fact even in accord with what the Buddha actually taught
about the complexities of karma and the law of causality in general.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

The Inevitable McCain Presidency and War with Iran

For the past few weeks I have been brooding over my firm belief that a McCain presidency is inevitable and that a war with Iran is inevitable. But I honestly don't follow politics closely enough to make a reasoned argument. So today I decided to see what the pundits have to say. So I googled McCain-presidency-inevitable. Lo and behold as of 5/20 at 11:28 am the first entry that came up was on the inevitability of a war with Iran:

John McCain: Maverick Man who thinks war with Iran is inevitable

The very next article is about the inevitability of a McCain victory in November:

Is the McCain presidency inevitable?

I am not joking or just trying to be an alarmist (or maybe I just am an alarmist). But I don't think this benighted country is ready for anyone but a conservative male heterosexual WASP as president (yes, I know, Kennedy was Catholic - but look what happened to him). And I think the powers that be have always wanted to fix Iran's wagon and it seems they will have to in order to stop Iranian support for the Shiite militias and to prevent them from developing their nuclear program the way North Korea did under the current regime's watch.

Perhaps I should pay more attention to politics. I guess the next time I have some time to read a couple of articles I will see how the inevitable McCain presidency will impact other issues that are important to me - the environment by far topping the list, also some form of universal healthcare that won't bankrupt our economy or beauracratize medical treatment, immigration reform that will provide responsible routes to citizenship and will stop the breaking up of families due to deportations, and also equal rights for those with minority sexual orientations (excluding of course pedophiles and fundamentalist Mormon polygamists and suchlike whose activities harm others and/or are nonconsensual).

Oh, and just to be clear: I am not looking forward to a McCain presidency. I am simply resigned to it - though I'll cast my vote in November to at least do my civic duty and to make sure that it is registered that not all of us are in favor of it. Likewise, whether or not Iran has it coming to them (and to see how thoroughly sick and depraved their society under the Mullahs is read Persepolis or go see the movie) I am convinced that a war against them would not meet the criteria for a just war anymore than the Iraq invasion did, though of course any form of modern warfare violates the tenets of the Western definition of a "just war" so it is virtually impossible for there to ever be a just war in this day and age.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

The Dharma is all right in the daily service

Michele asked in re to the previous entry:

"How do we go about teaching Buddhism to folks who have ADHD or other learning disabilities, who have trouble focusing on more than a paragraph reading?"

This is an important question. Actually there is a story about the Buddha dealing with a person who had exactly that problem - he could not focus enough to take in and understand any of the Buddha's discourses. His name was Chulapanthaka. Here is a simplified retelling of the story of Chulapanthaka by Nikkyo Niwano:

There was once a somewhat dimwitted young man named Chulapanthaka who, with his more intelligent brother, went to the Jetavana Monastery to join the Buddhist Order. During his training, however, he could not memorize even a single verse of a sutra and was driven out by the older followers of the Buddha. As he stood sobbing at the gate, the Buddha appeared and led him back inside, handed him a broom, and told him to recite over and over as he swept, "Sweep away the dust," and "Take away the dirt." Day after day as he swept the rooms clean, Chulapanthaka tried his best to recite these phrases, but if he remembered "Sweep away the dust," he would forget "Take away the dirt." As months passed, however, he succeeded in remembering both phrases, and after doing that for several months eventually attained enlightenment. One day his brother, whom he had not seen for a long time, came to the monastery to visit him and saw a new light in Chulapanthaka's eyes and radiance in his face. Struck by these facial changes, the elder brother incredulously exclaimed that Chulapanthaka had attained enlightenment. Among the Buddha's followers were many great figures like Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, but nothing they did inspires us with as much courage as Chulapanthaka's transformation.
from Invisible Eyelashes

The original story from the Pali commentaries on the Dhammapada (I think that is where it is from) is more complex and much more fantastic, but the point is the same. All the teachings are to guide and encourage practice, they are not metaphysical propositions to be remembered and believed in. And the practice simply comes down to making good causes, avoiding bad causes, and purifying the mind. Even a phrase, or a sentence with two clauses, as in the Chulapanthaka story, can direct the mind, calm and focus the mind, elevate it into a more wholesome sphere, and then allow one to gain direct insight and see for oneself how things are, just as the Buddha did. Once one has directly seen the true nature, one can understand the true intention and point of all the complex teachings and methodologies of Dharma practice - but not from a conceptual acadmic point of view as doctrines to be memorized and passed on but as existential realities. One will see the Dharma and know it as easily as one can know the back of ones' hands.

Now granted there is, I believe, the danger of mistaking a shallow insight for a deeper one, or a temporary exaltation of mind for an insight. That is why some teachings point more directly than others in my view. But the principle doesn't change. Even the most sublime pointer does not need to be a difficult concept - it simply needs to point one in the right direction to see for oneself in one's own life what is the case. Nichiren taught that the Lotus Sutra boiled down in one age to Bodhisattva Never Despises simple greeting (in translation no more than 24 Chinese characters) of respect for all he met. In our age, Nichiren believed the pointer needed no more than the seven Chinese characters of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Take that pointer to heart, let it be one's compass guide for contemplation - and all that matters will be revealed.

Still, that is not to say that there is no content at all to the insight that Namu Myoho Renge Kyo leads to. The content is elucidated in the eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra, the Lotus Sutra refers to other Lotus Sutras that are far larger. The content seems to be something ineffable that can't be encapsulated or exhausted by words. And yet, words are used nevertheless to inspire, guide, evoke a sense of how sublime and boundless the actual unborn and deathless awakening is. But how many words are really necessary? How few are too few? What do we need to assist pointing the practitioner in the right directions insofar as right view and right intentions and so on are concerned with respect to the fundamental practice of just chanting Odaimoku and upholding its spirit?

Do we need to know the ins and outs of ichinen sanze? Do we need to know how to authentically translate bonno soku bodai? Do we need to know all about the history of the Nichiren lineages in medieval Japan? Do we need to know how to discern the authenticity of gosho? How much scholarly work do we need to do before having a correct practice? Does one need a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies, or a bit of study, or simply a mentor one trusts? Or no study at all? Nichrien rules out that last option, by the way. He said that without practice and study there is no Buddhism. But how much is too much?

The liturgy of Nichiren Shu, I believe, really expresses what needs to be expressed about our teaching, practice, and understanding. I think it really lays out the most important view, intentions, attitudes, and way of life of a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra. In my view, one would do well just to really contemplate what the parts of the liturgy are saying, and when necessary to follow up on the allusions and references to make sure that one understands what the prayers, dedications, refuges, and vows are all about. These are all the most important of the facets of the jewel of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.

So my answer to people who may have trouble studying more abstract forms of Buddhism is to just study your own practice. Make sure you understand what it is that you are saying each day. Don't just say things by rote or without meaning them. Really mean what you say and make sure you are saying what you mean. I think this study of the practice itself is the most important study, and in many ways it is the beginning and end of study - to understand the practice and thereby to understand, open up, and awaken to the buddha-nature itself that the practice is leading one to, intimating, and expressing. Most importantly the practice is inviting one to see for oneself and to actualize for oneself this true nature. That is what needs to be studied.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Buddhism's Two tracks - the clinical and the heart approach

Hi everyone,

As Byrd noted, my response to Glenn was rather on the eggheady side of things.

But after thinking it over - my response really came down to some core convictions of mine that I don't think are all that complicated.

1. I think that the Buddha took advantage of all the spiritual methods of his day that dealt with calming and being at peace but he took it in a revolutionary direction. He used that calm peaceful mind to just see how things actually are and by awakening to that freeing oneself of the mental and emotional poisons that ruin our life. This awakening allows us to express the love, joy, compassion, and true peace that is our actual birthright.

2. This method the Buddha uses boils down to samatha (stopping) and vipassana (looking). We say, "stop and smell the roses." It's the same idea but taken to a rutheless clinical extreme of dropping all our self-interest, preoccupations, attachments, aversions, and assumptions and just nonjudgementally being presently aware of what is. This is easier said than done of course. It takes courage, maturity, and self-discipline.

3. The Buddha realized that there does need to be a way to facilitate the maturity, stability, self-discipline needed to just stop and look. That is why he prescribed a program consisting of a holistic healthy lifestyle called the eightfold path or the Middle Way. This can be explained in a simpler way as the threefold training of morality, meditation, and wisdom, or broken down into a system of 37 aids to enlightenment. But these all come back to the Middle Way of the eightfold path. The Buddha unequivocally stated that the only way to liberation is through following this path. I believe that. But I don't think it necessarily needs to be followed self-consciously, and in some cases it would be detrimental to do so.

4. Now there are some elements that the Buddha taught which do not fit into the eightfold path. One of these is faith, or sraddha, which means "trust" or "confidence." Faith is one (actually two in different modes) of the 37 aids to enlightenment. The Buddha realized that in order to take up the Middle Way and follow through with it, one must be motivated and must have deep trust and confidence in this Way and one's ability to accomplish it. The Buddha also realized that some people have a more simplistic and devotional orientation and if that could be utilized in the direction of faith in the Middle Way then such people could awaken as well, just as their more detached and intellectual counterparts - maybe even more easily because they wouldn't have to contend with so much conceputalizing and intellectualizing and second-guessing. I believe those who strongly emphasize just silent sitting or mindfulness to the exclusion of the role of faith are overlooking an imporant element of the Way - perhaps the key element as without faith one cannot even begin the Way let alone conclude it in the face of difficulties both internal and external.

5. The Buddha also taught the six recollections as a way of fostering faith, confidence, and to enhance one's motivation to practice. These are recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and of the merits of generosity, morality, and aspiration to the heavenly realms. Perhaps the six recollections cannot in and of themselves lead to right view and the rest - mindfulness and insight. But they strengthen, direct, and inspire the faith that does lead to the emulation of the Buddha, the practice of the Dharma, and so on. I believe the recollection of the Buddha eventually evolved into Nembutsu, whereas the recollection of the Dharma can be seen as the prototype of Odaimoku. In fact, I think the recollection of the Dharma can be said to be the Buddha's own practice in a very fundamental sense - but that is another article.

6. The Buddha also taught the cultivation of the Brahmaviharas - boundless loving-kindness, boundless compassion, boundless sympathetic joy, and boundless equanimity. He taught these to those who wanted to be reborn in the heavenly realms in union with Brahma (the creator God). He taught them to those who needed to overcome hatred and ill-will. He taught them to the Kalamas so they could directly experience wholesome states of mind. In short, the Buddha realized that some people need to work on their emotional life and bring it into a more wholesome balance before embarking on the more detached and clinical method of stopping and looking. There are some hints in some discourses that the Buddha believed these could lead to awakening itself if taken to their ultimate conclusion. Others, the Mahayanists, came to believe that an awakened person would not have transcended these states, as though leaving them behind or outgrowing them; but rather the Buddha had consummated these states and naturally expressed them in his interractions with others without any trace of self-consciousness, self-serving purposes, or even any duality between self and other. I think these Brahmaviharas should not be underestimated or neglected, even though they are not part of the 37 aids to enlightenment or explicitly part of the 8-fold path.

So in short I see the Mahayana as a blossoming of the importance of the Brahmaviharas, an further awakening into the no-self nature and the non-duality of the conditioned and the unconditioned, and in many of its forms as a realization that if Buddhism is to be a Way of awakening for more than an elite few, the element of faith can be the Dharmagate that unselfconsciously allows for the development of the rest. Can faith and the cultivation of devotional methods be misused or misdirected to further exacerbate greed, hatred, and delusion? Sure. But that is when these skillful methods are no longer skillful and no longer an effective method. But that does not mean that Buddhism should not try to be skillful and should not try to use those methods that speak to the heart of the common person as well as the mind of the skeptical detached observer.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

"Is Buddhism an anything goes affair?" asks Glenn Wallis. My response

Some of you might remember that I have written about an old friend of mine (well he's not "old, old" just a friend from way back) named Glenn Wallis.

Glenn recently asked for my reaction to an article that he wrote regarding whether Buddhism is an anything goes affir?

It is quite a challenging article, and it is something that I have thought long and hard about from time to time. Glenn invited me to post my comment about this on his blog as well.

But I'd also like to share my comments here as well. So here they are:

The question you ask in the article is "We say Buddhist, but on what grounds, what basis?"

I think this is a very fair question. My own question has been: "When is an alleged skillful methods neither skillful nor an effective method of helping people understand suffering, cut off its causes, realize freedom, and cultivate the path?"

I don't think skillful methods can be dispensed with. I think that Buddhism does have just one taste, the taste of liberation, but to get to that requires many different methods and the liberation itself is a "you have to be there" kind of experience that cannot be pinned down. I do think its fruits or traces can be described. One can, in a sense, triangulate authentic awakening by looking for things like selflessness, equanimity, compassion, nonattachment, and so on.

I find Buddhism to be a living breathing culture whose aim is supposedly that awakening or liberation. That culture is certainly wheezing and gasping and in some of its forms is either dead or perhaps undead (by which I mean a rotting thing that moves though it should have been buried long ago and that sucks the life out of others rather than bestowing life). This can be said of any religious tradition though - they are cultures based on some awakening or liberation (on some level - or at least the appearance of some kind of salvation) that changes, evolves, mutates, dies, passes on old insights or values(sometimes way past the expiration dates), as well as old biases and prejudices, breaks up other biases and prejudices, and occasionally picks up new insights and values or picks up new biases and prejudices.

You start your investigation with an overaching premise: that Gotama was an unsurpassed scientist of the real. I don't know enough about scientific method, and I have never even read Thomas Kuhn's book (though probably I should), but it seems to me, judging from the Pali Canon that is all I have to go by, that Siddhartha Gautama was at least a deep empiricist. By this I mean that he did not arrive at awakening through some mystical revelation or scripture, nor through logic or speculative reasoning, but through his own direct experience based on meditative praxis (samatha and vipassana). This is empiricism but not in the sense of the materialistic or positivistic sense of people today - but more in a yogic sense. If meditation is an experiment and the meditation room is a laboratory, then yes I guess we could say Gautama was a scientist. I looked up "scientific method" on wikipedia though, and it states that it is a method of observation and experimentation based on testable hypothesis and able to be objectively verified. But was what Gautama awakened to objectively verifiable? Or was his awakening the fruit of a spiritual maturity that is inherently a subjective matter?

I like your way of expressing the four noble truths - that in itself is a skillful means. I see the four noble truths themselves as a skillful means of setting up a method whereby we can discern how things are really and be liberated by that insight.

I also agree that the four foundations of mindfulness are an effective means of awakening to our situation. I think all Buddhist practice should boil down to samatha (necessary to overcome negativity and cultivate enough focus and clearheadedness to observe impartially how things are) and vipassana (and this is when meditation becomes truly Buddhist when it leads to actual insight). I think when you get past the hype, spin, and packaging it can be seen that Zen, Mahamudra, Dzogchen and the rest all boil down to samatha vipassana.

But what about the six recollections (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, dana, sila, devas) or the recitation of the Metta Sutta or the Brahmaviharas (the divine abodes of boundless friendless, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity)? These are also found in the Pali Canon though they are not given the importance of the four foundations or the other 37 requisites of enlightenment. For that matter, was it the Buddha or later redactors that put the emphasis on the 37 factors over and above the Brahmaviharas or the six recollections? For my part I agree that vipassana or insight into the conditioned nature of dharmas that leads to detachment and liberation trumps the Brahmaviharas or the more devotional six recollections. Without that insight each of the Brahmaviharas can lead to its near or far enemies, and the six recollections can lead to increased attachment (and their corollary aversions) rather than less. And yet, I have to wonder about three things:

1. In terms of the outcome of the practice of the 37 qualities: Is the detachment of seeing that all dharmas are unsatisfactory, impermanent, and selfless all that we are looking for? Is equanimity really a supreme value that supercedes compassion? Or is compassion somehow integral? And if so, how does it fit into this detached empirical investigation leading to disenchantment and detachment?

2. In terms of helping people actually practice the 37 requisites: What about all those for whom the five hindrances of sensual desire, hostility, heavy lethargy, agitated worry, and debilitating doubt are so overpowering that they are not able to give this bare bones practice a try? Shouldn't other wholesome practices be introduced to help get people to the point where they are able to appreciate and take up the practice of being fully awakened to the real? Isn't this the point of the Buddha's "graduated discourse" wherein he taught people about the value of generosity, self-discipline, and aspiration to the heavenly realms, and then the value of renunciation? He taught all this and only then taught the four noble truths. So the Buddha himself apparently knew that some groundwork needed to be laid before getting into his core teaching and practice - at least according to the Pali Canon. If skillful methods are the downfall of Buddhism, then the Buddha himself is as much to blame as anyone else. And who is to say that the 37 requisites are themselves not just another skillful method, though a deeper and more comprehensive presentation? In the case of Bahiya, the Buddha simply taught, "In the seen only the seen, in the heard only the heard..." That seems to be the most direct teaching of all. If one is looking for "no-nonsense, no-frills, clutter-free methodology" the teaching to Bahiya makes the 37 qualities seem like a lot of busy work and self-conscious all too deliberate analysis and parsing.

In terms of bringing the entirety of ourselves to the practice: The practice of the 37 qualities assumes that we bracket or put aside our imaginative and emotional life (except perhaps as bugs to put under the lens of mindfulness until they evaporate away with the flow of causes and conditions). It certainly does not indulge the imagination or the emotions, and that is its strength. And yet, I think there is great wisdom, found as far back as the Abhidharma at least, of looking at particular types of people and helping them direct these parts of themselves to Buddhist practice. Why not utilize our imagination and emotions to, on the one hand, facilitate samatha and, on the other hand, to bring to the fore qualities that should be examined in greater depth? This is tricky, of course, because this can lead to catering to delusions and rationalizations of all kinds of conduct and base motivations. At the same time, if done skillfully, why shouldn't the hostile person cultivate friendliness? Why shouldn't a warmhearted person but simple person of faith use the six recollections to put their mind on wholesome inspirational models that will lead them to actual practice of vipassana? Why not have practices that can counteract specific character traits or hindrances, and other practices that can utilize a person's inclination and abilities and channel them in such a way that they lead to the development (perhaps even unwittingly) of the 37 qualities that lead to awakening? These methods are not even Mahayana innovations, nor are they only found in the Abhidharma. They too are found in the Pali Canon and I don't see why they shouldn't be given credence. Evidently those who created the current rescension of the Buddha's teachings that became the Pali Canon with its emphasis on the 37 requisites also saw fit to include things like the six recollections and the Brahmaviharas as well.

It is very fair to ask of all the Buddhist paraphenalia and procedures that have since arisen "how proximate are they and all that they involve to the zero point of wise investigation?" But I have to wonder, is a clinical detached investigation of how empty everything is really the zero point? Chih-i didn't think so. Chih-i thought the analytical analsis (and direct observation) of how all dharmas are empty is just the beginning. I think Chih-i was right.

You go on to say that "skillful means" are just a "clever ploy of later Buddhists to say and do, in the name of the Lord, whatever they wanted." Perhaps philologically upayakusala does mean "clever ploy" but I think that is an unecessarily cynical way of looking at it. As I mentioned, Gautama himself would be to blame for using them in the form of his "graduated discourses." Can skillful means go too far? Can they be used to rationalize and justify things that controvert the Dharma? I certainly agree they can. But primarily I think they are the pedagogical methods of a skillful teacher. That they have been and occasionally are used unskillfully does not mean that one should not try to use skillful means.

You mention the so-called "three turnings of the Wheel of the Dharma", I can understand that they help provide a certain perspective - but I agree that they are the passing off of an opinion as the Buddha's word. All the Mahayana sutras are that. I prefer the T'ien-t'ai schema of the five periods and eight teachings which are another opinion. I am not afraid to admit that these are opinions that arose as Buddhism developed and later teachers had to try to come to terms with what is and is not important, what is preliminary and what is vital. Your article is itself another attempt at this - cutting away the dross, pointing to what is vital and essential and what is merely of subordinate value or perhaps none at all. For my part, just as I am not afraid to admit that these are matters of opinion, I am also not afraid to embrace the ones that seem to be helpful to me insofar as clarifying practice and wholesome motivation and avoiding pitfalls and oversights. But certainly I reserve the right to second-guess, double-check, and keep a certain healthy skepticism. That is why I see myself as a modern Buddhist and not just a traditionalist taking everything at face value.

"Certainly, there is room for movement, adjustment to circumstance, intelligent application. Certainly; but to what extent? Is there a limit? Where is it? Where do the extreme points lie? Where is the responsible middle?"

This is the key question. When is a skillful method neither skillful nor effective as a method, and perhaps even detrimental? That is how I think of the question. You then lay out some premises so let me comment on those:

Premise #1: Gotama was a man. - I think this is unfair to the Gotama Buddha of the Pali Canon, the only one that we can really know. He was not a superhuman or a god or anything like that. But he also stated quite plainly that he was not simply a human to the brahmin Dona. Yes, I know, his actual response was something more like, "I will not become a human." The point is that he defined himself as one who is awake. This is the crucial difference. He attained a level of spiritual maturity beyond our usual experience of what it is to be human. A human capacity, yes. And no, I don't believe it was supernatural. But he no longer viewed himself in terms of the aggregates the way we do. There was a qualitative and revolutionary difference between Gotama the awakened one, and the way we usually think, act, and relate to ourselves, others, and the world. There are, I suppose, very down to earth and clinical, I suppose psychological or developmental, ways of describing this. But would they do that qualitative difference between a person still caught up in becoming and an awakened one justice?

Yes, the mythological portraits with their superpowers and freakish 32 and 80 signs are not really anything I can relate to literally. I view those who take them literally as a bit out of touch with reality. But I can appreciate that the folklore of ancient Indian culture was utilized to try to convey a very real revolution from becoming to being awake - the difference between Siddhartha the enlightening being and Gautama the Awakened One. I think we need to honor the old folklore for what it is, myth and poetry, but at the same time find a modern way to describe that qualitative revolution in a way that will continue to inspire people to take up the Way and awaken themselves without the drawback of having to cling to old myths in a fundamentalist way.

Premise #2 Gotama was an unsurpassed scientist of the real. - I already responded to this above. I agree with what you say here: "His basic teachings concerning these matters are irreplaceable and non-negotiable." I have the same conviction - even though unlike yourself perhaps - I do think it possible to candy coat them to make the medicine go down smoother. In addition, by basic teachings I would include the six recollections and Brahmaviharas and even the "graduated dicourse" which I often refer to as generic spirituality 101.

Premise #3: Gotama prescribed meditation, not religion. - I kind of agree with this, but I believe Gautama was wise enough to appreciate and utilize the aesthetic impulse just as he allowed for the ascetic one. The Buddha did not permit ascetic practices like starvation or acting like a dog or cow, but he permitted the dhutas as a more constructive middle way of utilizing the ascetic impulse. Likewise, the Buddha never set up a priesthood or asked to be worshipped, but apparently taught the six recollections and the graduated discourse which both have what some might call a religious element or at least the seeds of such. I do find it problematic when the religious impulse overrides and even does away with the meditative.

You say, "Religion tells stories and show pictures; it is narratological." That is fine with me, I think that is good and necessary. In the Buddha's day they had the Buddha's living example to guide and inspire, to attract and lead the way. Now we use stories and images to inspire and arouse bodhicitta. The problem is when the next step is not taken - the meditative step. Religion is also a way of celebrating and sharing how wonderful it is to have taken that next step and to see what there is to see. I don't know about you, but one of the nice things about being out walking around on the ground is to have fresh air and clear sky above. Do we want a sky with no earth to land on, or an earth with no sky overheard?

Premise #4 Gotama is not the Buddha. - The way I read this, you seem to see the Buddha as a strictly mythological construction. I don't see it that way. I see "Buddha" as the "Awakened One." The mythical Buddha is a personification of selfless compassion, but wasn't that what the humble Gautama was all about? Selfless compassion. If he was not, then there was nothing so special about Gautama at all that we should bother with him or his methods or insights or values. "Buddha" is a way of highlighting what it was that made Gautama worth listening to, and why his teachings and experiences resonate so deeply with us even now - because the Buddha is also our own selfless compassion when we do the work and awaken.

Premise #5: Gotama was an ironist; his compilers, strategists. - You say, "Coming from the mouth of Gotama, on the other hand, such supernaturalism doesn't make sense - at least not supernaturalism." I don't think it sounds strange at all. Gautama was a man of his times. Later you say, "One final possibility: maybe he was just dead wrong about some things. After all, Gautama was not the Buddha." Frankly, I do think he was just mistaken about some things. I think he mistook the unconscious narrative making function of the mind and in accord with his cultural assumptions believed them to be actual past lives of himself and the actual past and future lives of others. But I do think he was an Awakened One to that which is essential. He utilized this raw narrative material to reflect on life's essential nature and thereby awakened to the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and selfless nature of all dharmas, and then went even further to the more postive awakening to the unborn, the deathless. I can forgive him his quaint patriarch pre-industrial worldview, because what he awakened to, what made him Buddha, was this insight into the conditioned and the unconditioned.

I have to bring this to a close now, but I look forward to any response you may have to this response.

In many ways I agree with you. In other ways, my approach is very different as you know. I just hope that I can make the approach I take (and the experiences I have had which led me to it) intelligible.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei