Real Life with 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

Posted by Ryuei at May 7, 2008 04:52 PM