A few years ago I considered what Nichiren saw in his surroundings when he wrote Rissho Ankoku Ron and it spurred the following thoughts:
Today, we face similar problems with drug & alcohol abuse, AIDS, violent crime, terrorism, political and social injustice, including genocide, and of course wars and famines and natural disasters that continue to sweep through the world. Basically we have just as many reasons or more to lament as the traveler. Even in the supposedly wealthy and civilized USA, walking around in many areas of the inner city at night you can hear the crack addicts shouting at each other in the street, drunkards hooting and hollering, the sound of sirens from fire trucks, ambulances, or police cars signaling that somewhere nearby is a fire or people dying of either disease, disaster, or foul play. This is dukkha, the Buddhist term for the suffering, anguish, or even simple discontent that characterizes life in this world, and not just for individuals but also on the level of the whole society, the whole world. Dukkha is part of a self-perpetuating system of suffering that Nichiren explored in the Rissho Ankoku Ron.
In Nichiren's time people practiced various forms of rituals to ward off misfortune or attract fortune, either for themselves or others, for this life or the afterlife. Today, in the USA, people look to Jesus Christ to save them, or to the sacraments of the Catholic Church, or various New Age or Neo-pagan rituals for healing or liberation. But rituals or appeals to divine saviors have yet to bring about a peaceful world, and it should be noted that one of the first obstacles to enlightenment overcome through Buddhist practice is the false belief that rites and ceremonies can bring about liberation from suffering in and of themselves. Buddhist practitioners who really begin to enter the stream of the Dharma come to realize it is a change of heart and genuine insight that brings about liberation and not just pious gestures or a complacent reliance on some deity or savior to do the inner work for us.
Zen style meditation as an attempt to perceive the emptiness of all things, is also mentioned in Rissho Ankoku Ron. Various forms of silent sitting meditation and/or yoga are very popular even today among those with the time, money, and education to participate in such practices. Though silent sitting practices focusing on mindful observation of all phenomena starting with the breath would appear to be easy enough, it is actually a very difficult task for many people to approach and sustain, and even more difficult for people to actually attain any real insight without hours of dedicated practice. This kind of meditation often involves a support system of retreats, practice halls, access to good teachers, a fair amount of leisure time, and the ability to pay for such things. As a result only a small portion of people are ever drawn to or even exposed to this kind of meditation. The practice of sitting meditation is indeed a healthy one that can lead to greater concentration, peace of mind, mindfulness and even great insight. It is not meant to be an indulgent "abiding in emptiness." It is in fact taught as a supporting practice in some Nichiren Buddhist temples and is a part of Shodaigyo meditation. Nichiren Buddhism does not, however, promote it as an end in itself, or even as the primary practice of Buddhism.
Benevolent government and the tradition of Confucian humanism are also mentioned among the many solutions Nichiren's contemporaries used to rectify or at least ameliorate the tremendous suffering they were facing. Unfortunately, even the most powerful and wealthy of governments only has finite resources, and not only natural disasters but also the deep anguish that fills life are far beyond the scope of what any government can ever prevent or adequately deal with.
The solution then must be something that strikes deeper than any of the supernatural or humanistic methods the traveler observed. All of the above methods of dealing with suffering are shown to be partial and limited in their scope. Even the practice of sitting meditation does not necessarily resolve people's suffering because the practice of silent sitting can also lead to getting lost in one's own random ruminations or perhaps stuck in a mental blankness which is not the same thing as the Buddhist understanding of emptiness (though often mistaken for it by those without good teachers).
The problem is that people have taken a false view of reality and have committed themselves to points of view that perpetuate suffering for themselves and others. They may not even be aware they are holding any particular point of view, but everyone does and the trick is to become conscious of the unexamined assumptions we base our lives on so we can determine if they are helping or harming us. Suffering is caused by ignorance and the selfish craving stemming from ignorance; and the way to end suffering is to examine and change one's life starting with the relinquishing of wrong views in order to discover and uphold right views.
The original of this article is here:
To be continued...
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
On this note, I noticed that Nichiren Shu had new ads in the current issue of Tricycle, side by side, both in color (as opposed to the previous single black and white ad). One was about Nichiren Shu, the other was about the relevance of the Rissho Ankoku Ron for our society.
I was thinking about your post about the influx of people from SGI, and I was thinking about the limited number of temples and ministers in the West, and the lack of an online ministry for isolated folks, and so I then wondered - how is this going to work out? I don't necessarily think that the ads or this blog post are going to get hundreds or thousands of people to suddenly express an urgent desire to go Nichiren Shu, but I was curious what the general goal/plan was considering the current resources available.
I was curious about your thoughts on the matter.
Posted by: tinythinker at June 7, 2009 09:38 AMNamu Myoho Renge Kyo X3 Dear Mike, your piece about Rissho Ankuko Ron brought to mind my time living in the city in the Tenderloin on Taylor Street, just by the backdoor of the Warfield. This was during the time when the verdict for the police charged in the Rodney King beating came in, starting all the riots. Each night spent there I witnessed new horrors, and on needle exchange day the line was 2 blocks long. Mike everyday, you live in the cities reality, at times it can be very grim, beings fighting over what amounts to shadows and smoke, as it happens all over this Saha world, which is where our Dharmawork is most needed. Yet, even in the midst of a late friday night in the Tenderloin, you can find the Buddha's Pure Land, or some goofy illumination. One night I was mugged in a dark alcove on Jones Street. The Mugger took the twenty dollars AND my bus transfer I had in my top shirt pocket. "C'mon," I said, "please don't take my bus transfer!" And as the mugger handed me my transfer our eyes met, and we laughed. "Nothing personal." the mugger said, and was gone, BUT, I had my transfer. Every moment, I find strength in Shakyamuni Buddha's teaching, but at the time I was living in the "Loin", Buddhadharma was but a sleeping seed in me, and I was a sick addict (3 days clean), and I was going to score with that twenty. The mugger WAS a Bodhisattva, I made it to another day.
Posted by: Roger at June 7, 2009 11:05 AMLooking forward to the continuation.
Posted by: Marcus Barlow at June 8, 2009 05:02 AMMike,
I see it even more broad than drug dealers, innner city crime, etc. I grew up in the inner city and the environment is manageable, if you live there. otherwise you have no knowledge. I have been acosted in the suburbs on many occasions by police and residents merely because of my skin color or lack of skin color.
I think the Rissho Onkoku Ron is even more expansive than perhaps observed here i n terms of suffering of the people.
Political strife, a two party political system that benefits the rich and provides TARP funding, but no benefit to the little guy, excessive incarceration rates for the poor; highest in the world; and the list of ailments is long and endless, just as in NIchiren's time, people are still suffering.
People are not just sufering in the inner city, but all over. In the suburbs there are sex crimes, corruption, political graft, foreclosure, and the list is long there as well.
People are suffering everywhere, and not just crimes of the inner city.
A lack of humanity exists throughout the US as the US until refcently was anti-Muslim and pro-Christian and pro-Israel. These attitudes are also within the context of securing the peace of the land.
I think the Rissho Onkoku ron is just as poignant today as it was seven hundred years ago!
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick at June 9, 2009 10:25 AMHi everyone,
Thanks for your comments.
Lest anyone think that I was somehow restricting my notion of suffering to the inner city - at the time I wrote that I happened to be writing it at night at the edge of the Tenderloin. So I wrote about what was around me. Certainly suffering goes beyond the inner city, beyond the urban environment and is in fact pervasive. That is simply the first noble truth - all conditioned existence is dukkha. It doesn't matter what color you are, what nation you live in, what religion you follow, what gender or sex preference you have, or whether you live in the city or the country or whatever. Suffering is universal wherever there is greed, hatred, and delusion whether on the level of the individual or society, and whether the three poisons are pscyhological or systematic.
There will indeed be more excerpts coming regarding my thoughts stemming from reading Rissho Ankoku Ron.
As for people showing an interest in Nichiren Shu, I honestly don't care that much.
I am vaguely interested in people being interested in sharing the practice of Odaimoku and faith in the message of the Lotus Sutra. I think Nichiren Shu is the best vehicle for facilitating Nichiren's faith and practice. (Should anyone be surprised by that?).
What I am mostly interested in is continuing to develop and deepen my own faith and practice so that I have something worth sharing or rather so that I can transmit the Dharma without error and with some personal experience and insight to testify to.
And I am especially interested in those who actually are able to practice with me face-to-face, side-by-side at the San Jose Temple and at Faithful Fools in the Tenderloin. Outside of that - it is just too abstract.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Rev. Ryuei,
Could you contact me offsite? I seem to have lost all my contact info, and I'd like to set up a visit to San Jose.
Thx!
Michele
Mike
Thought provoking as ever - but I tend to see the world more optimistically myself. I mean this is a great time to be alive. Life expectancy is going through the roof - at the very moment of writing there are the protests going on in Iran - which makes you realise that all the gains that human beings have made over time (such as democracy) cannot be taken for granted. And yet, look now! Most of the world is democratic. It is the autocracies who are the odd ones out these days. Also the sheer availability and transparency of information. I think evil is much more likely under conditions of secrecy. Much of the world has evolved robust institutions capable of scrutinizing holders of power. These are all extraordinary gains.
However, you are also right that there remains a group of the population for whom all this has hardly touched at all (you mention the arguing crack addicts). As I grow older I tend to despair of there ever being much hope for those people. And probably the simplicities of born-again christianity is probably a more efficacious cure for people like that - than are the mysteries of buddhism.
But buddhism is a wonderful thing for the young - I wish I had been exposed to a more gentle buddhism when I was younger (non-attachment style buddhism) rather than the goal oriented one which snared me and so many others.
But on the other hand it did give me fellowship - and perhaps all those determinations may have been a bond to connect me with others.
Oh dear - I'm not making myself very clear. Suffice to say: yes, there are loads of people who suffer terribly - and yet the world is as good as it has ever been. Lets contribute where we can.
Steve
Posted by: Steve at June 15, 2009 12:44 PM