Hi whoever reads this stuff,
I'm feeling a bit dismayed of late by the kinds of things I see among American Nichiren Buddhists. Actually, I've been seeing this for quite some time but lately it has just really bugged me more than usual because I've been having a wonderful Christmas with my family and sister-in-law (the tree with the blinking lights in the living room, the pile of presents, the fancy dinners, midnight mass, snarky Xmas songs by the Kinks or Jethro Tull) - all the stuff I grew up with. And yet, it seems that over the holidays the "Buddhists" are concerned about whether and how to convert all their Christian family members that they had the bad karma to be related (or married) to and how to correctly treat a scrap of paper with sumi squiggles so as not to bring bad karma down on oneself and so forth and so on. It seems that Buddhism instead of liberating people has got them all twisted up in knots and burdened with needless superstitions and metaphysical anxieties (as if the regular mundane anxieities were not enough to deal with).
Of course I blame the Nichiren Shoshu and elements of Soka Gakkai for this. You have to have a somebody to blame and be enemies with afterall. And how wonderful that the Shoshu and SGI have provided American Buddhists with a whole host of enemies to fight and issues of Japanese Buddhist doctrinal minutia to fight over. It's not like we American don't have enough enemies (foreign and domestic) to fight or issues to fight over. How generous to import some more! But anyway...
When I was in high school I was already disturbed by Christian dogmatism, triumphalism (both blatant and subtle), sectarianism and so forth and so on.
I was intrigued by Buddhism because as it was first presented to me (in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones and many other books by the likes of D.T. Suzuki, Shunryu Suzuki, Philip Kapleau, and others) it was not about dogmas but actual experience as the outcome of spiritual practice. Here was a way to get beyond the formalities and superficialities of creeds and holy books and get to actual spiritual life.
What did I get in actually hooking up with Buddhists - the Nam or Namu debate!!!
I was intrigued by Buddhism because it seemed to go beyond triumphalism and sectarianism and emphasized compassion and selflessness over joining the right club. Buddhism taught that bodhisattvas can appear anywhere and not just as Buddhists. Other teachings were not condemned but looked upon as potentially being skillful means of awakening compassion and liberation in all people.
But what do I get - Buddhists who have chanting campaigns to magically close their rival's temples down.
I was intrigued by Buddhism because it did not fixate on material objects and formalities but on mindfulness, introspection, and practical guidance for leading a life that would be of benefit to oneself and others as per the Eightfold Path or the Six Perfections.
What do I get - Buddhists who are obsessed with a calligraphic mandala and argue incessantly over which one to use, what ceremonies to perform or not perform to "activate" it, whether or not it can be photographed (will it lose it's soul?), what is th proper way of acquiring one (bestowed or bought and from who?), how big should it be, what kind of border, what kind of butsudan to enshrine it in and how to get it, whether or not it should be magically connected to some uber-mandala at a temple in Japan, and how much bad karma will you get if you make a mistake in any of these things.
Now most of my encounters with Buddhists and Buddhism (including Nichiren Buddhism) have been very positive. Most of the negativity, superstition, and even sectarianism and racism I can write off to certain dysfunctional individuals and in particular a couple of groups that are more dysfunctional than functional (in my view). But it does make me sad that Buddhism which should be so liberating has really enslaved so many with superstitions, enmities, dogmatisms, and sectarian rivalries that they did not have before they embarked on a path to what they thought was Buddha Dharma. Instead of being an agent for healing, their encounter with Buddhism has been actively poisonous, a pernicious influence. This saddens me.
And of course I am not the only one to observe this. It is the reason why all too often when I tell people I am a Nichiren Buddhist and/or that my practice is chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo the person I am talking to recoils slightly and say, "Oh! You're one of those people!" It has gotten to the point where I keep my sectarian affiliation (which is actually not with those people they are thinking of) and main practice to myself until I've sensed that I've won enough goodwill and trust that they will give me a fair hearing when I reveal the awful truth about the kind of Buddhism I practice.
Seriously, who needs this kind of grief? Is this what we all signed-up for when we, as Americans, came to seek the Dharma? And who is really slandering the Dharma or associating with slanderers when you consider why people have these bad impressions and where they got them from?
Anyway, I don't say any of this to reflect badly on Nichiren Buddhism as a whole, and particularly not to reflect badly on Nichiren Shu. My experiences with Nichiren Shu have been very positive. Sure they are not perfect and neither are all its member or ministers, but I am not perfect either. But on the whole I have found Nichiren Shu to be what I was looking for in the first place and more. In fact, if I had found Nichiren Shu first those many years ago I would have been spared a lot of grief - but then I would have still had to encounter those who outside of Nichiren Shu have been more damaged than helped by various forms of Nichiren Buddhism.
Where am I going with this? I don't know. I am justing thinking out loud and blowing off a little steam.
I guess where I'm going with this is that if you are a Nichiren Buddhists and you have found that the way you have been taught it has lead you to take on the burdens of sectarianism, superstition, dogmatism, us against them frames of mind, trusting in some far-off person rather than coming to know your own buddha-nature (good sense and conscience being part of that), materialism, fretting more over rites rituals and religious furnishings than over the development of selfless compassion, than probably you are being poisoned by "Nichiren Buddhism" rather than helped by it. Yes, instead of poison becoming medicine - the medicine has become a poison.
What did you come to Buddhism for? Did you find it, or are you still waiting? What disappointed you about the religious traditions that you grew up in? Did you find more of the same in Buddhism? Why are you putting up with such total bullshit!
Here's the bottom line - don't put up with B.S even if it is cloaked in Buddha Dharma. Find the real thing. Get real about your own life! Look, really look at your own life! If the Dharma is helping you clarify your own actual life than that is probably the authentic Wonderful Dharma. But if it is leading you into all kinds of metaphysical or sectarian concerns that were imported from another culture - then you are being taken for a ride. The Dharma as actually taught by the Buddha (please read Glenn Wallis' book The Basic Teachings of the Buddha) is about clarifying your actual reality. Don't waste your time on some exotic headtrip or imported tribal allegiance. Get real and come back home to your life and your family and your loved ones and the simple joys of life.
When I left SGI (it was NSA back then actually) I was all twisted up about Buddhism too. Thankfully I read two books, On Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. That set me back on the right track of what is Dharma is what is bullshit. Then I met a wonderful teacher, Rev. Bokin Kim, who supported me in really freely exploring Buddhism even as she encouraged me to continue to practice. Then I was fortunate to find many other wonderful face-to-face Dharma friends and mentors, including Dharmajim and Taigen Dan Leighton, and in particular the Ven. Ryusho Matsuda (who is especially adept at tactfully reminding people to cut out the useless speculations and arguments and get back to the reality of this moment with appreciation and gratitude). All of them helped me to get real and to see that the Dharma was about getting real, getting grounded, learning to make efforts, appreciate what my life is and the people and things in it, and to overcome belligerence and cultivate gratitude. That is real Buddha Dharma. That is what I signed-up for.
How about you? Has Buddhism really healed your life or has it poisoned it? Can you even tell the difference? Please don't settle for anything but the real Dharma which is nothing but the reality of your own life.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
So recently a good Dharma friend pointed out that, though a Buddhist teacher, everyone who came here got to see the title "We Kill the Prisoners II" emblazoned here for months on end. It's funny but the irony of that had escaped me until it was pointed out to me.
Just for the record: I don't think people should kill or torture prisoners (even Al Qaida or suspected Al Qaida members), and the themes of those blogs with that title were about how I am trying to teach my daughter about mercy and compassion in the course of playing a D&D game together. Strangely my daughter didn't even know what the word "mercy" meant and associated it only with a game the kids play at school where they try to twist each others wrists until the loser cries out "Mercy!"
So not killing prisoners leads me to my theme for today: Right Livelihood.
It's come to my attention that, at least in the hippy do-gooder bleeding heart Bay Area, right livelihood has come to mean finding a job that more or less directly saves the planet and all life therein or otherwise contributes to social justice, peace, love, and understanding. Now, since I am not Anne Coulter nor even a fan of hers, I think that this is actually quite laudible - a kind of bodhisattva vocational aspiration. The problem with it is that people get way too uptight about this, self-righteous, unrealistic, and don't have a sense of humor about it or the perspective that realizes that not every job can be so exalted - nor need be. I mean basically, unless you are Oprah or a super-hero with powers beyond mortal men or a canvasser for Green Peace living in a one room studio and subsisting on ramen noodles, the odds are that your job description is probably going to be a bit more humble and not so directly involved in saving all life on earth. And that's OK!
Right Livelihood in the Buddhist sense basically comes down to this: earn your living in an honest and honorable fashion that does not harm or exploit others. And if you are a monk or nun, you should be living as a medicant and not trying to set yourself up as a fortune teller, quack doctor, channeler, guru, or any of the other money making scams that the Buddha felt he had to specifically name as dishonest, undignified, and detrimental to the life of a mendicant (in the Samanaphalla Sutta which is discourse 2 in the Digha Nikaya or Long Discourses of the Buddha should anyone wish to look up the specifics). The Buddha does not say that one has to have a job that saves all sentient beings. Should one be able to have such a job - then great. But it is not a pre-requisite.
When it comes to right livelihood, the Buddha's instructions to laypeople were pretty sparse. He simply told them that right livelihood is to earn your living in a way that does not involve selling other living beings (whether human slaves or livestock), making or selling arms, or poisons, and other such things. So if you are a cowboy, an arms dealer, or a pimp and want to take up right livelihood you are going to have to find a new line of work and start scouring the classified ads. For the most part, the Buddha expected his layfollowers to already have a profession - whether as a king, or a Brahman priest (who were the religious and secular educators of their day), or farmer, or a merchant, or even a nightsoil handler (the most humble of professions left to the outcastes). He never told any of these people that, "Your job isn't good enough - you better quit and go work for Greenpeace if you really want to be an authentic Buddhist."
Another thing is this: in the Buddha's day the caste system was in place though not as ironbound as in later times. However, people didn't have to search through classified ads and go to job interviews. They took up the profession of their parents and/or became an apprentice to a master craftsman. Women took care of the home. Simple as that. That people would have to pick a profession would have been unimagineable in the time of the Buddha.
Here is what I would (and have) advised people about right livelihood:
1. Evaluate your work - do you personally feel it is harmful to others and/or soul-killing (not that anyone has a soul - but just go with this as a figure of speech)?
2. On the other hand - in contemplating your work, can you try to see how it contributes to others and helps other people earn right livelihood and/or helps maintain a basically civil, sane, and responsible society. It may not be direct, but even indirectly most jobs are making a contribution. (I am Marxist enough to recognize that most of us are "alienated" from the products of our labor - but really I think a little mindful contemplation can help us realize that most jobs do contribute something positive to others and society in general - I know my job does).
3. Try to see your job and the time you spend at work as an opportunity to practice mindfulness, honesty, right effort, kindness and compassion towards others (your co-workers and/or clients and/or co-workers).
4. Most of us spend most of our days at work. If we could view that time as a kind of meditation-in-motion the way monastics working on their monasteries do, then we would have all that much more time to practice.
5. Work, like meditation, can be a focus just as the breath or the Odaimoku or a koan. You attend mindfullly to what needs to be done - and when the mind starts drifting into neurotic headtrips, daydreams, excessive grousing, acid flashbacks, or whatever - just take note of it, let it go, and bring the attention back to the task at hand. This is just what one does in meditation - except in meditation the task at hand is to sit still and be mindful of the breath or one's chanting or the koan or whatever the subject of meditation is.
6. For Nichiren Buddhists in particular Namu Myoho Renge Kyo is not just a meditation subject but an expression of the very spirit of Buddha Dharma itself. So how can we best embody that spirit in everything we do - esp. on the job.
7. The final part of the Eko or Transfer of Merit used in Nichiren Shu could be a good thing to keep in mind while on the job:
"With this prayer, we endeavor to increase our understanding and appreciation of what others have given and contributed to us, and to develop constant, mindful consideration of how our thoughts and actions will beneficially contribute to others!"
One last thing - if one is between jobs - consider that the search for a new job is itself your current work. Consider that finding new work is your current form of right livelihood. In the case of those who are retired or who do not need to work, consider using your free time to do volunteer work. So no matter what, right livelihood is something everyone can practice.
I look forward to any thoughts, responses, or questions anyone might have.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei