My Thoughts on Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism

Recently I was handed a small introduction booklet about the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin, so I read it. This post summarises what I learnt about Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism as well as my personal opinions – this post will probably reveal more about my personal beliefs than anything else I have written on this blog.

The cover of the booklet

I am not a religious person nor have I even done much research on any of them. My parents raised me as a Baha’i but I really couldn’t tell you much about it other than it is geared towards the one-ness of mankind and they follow the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and his son Abdu’l-Bahá… and even just this little piece of information may be incorrect. I think I’m fairly well adjusted and although I am not 100% law abiding all the time, nor do I have any noteworthy compassion for my fellow man, I do my best not to hurt others.. which I think is better than most other religious people in the world.

I could keep on ranting about my personal beliefs on the general standing of mankind, but instead let’s get to the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and my thoughts on that.

An Introduction to Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism

When I read the word Buddhism I automatically thought of the movie “7 years in Tibet“, vegetarianism, the masses of Buddhist temples in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the Happy Buddha Statue.

The Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin is none of these.

Taken in Vietnam.

No Set Rules

The thing that kept me reading the booklet (no big feat, the whole thing took less than two hours) was the fact that there are no set rules (such as commandments) that you must follow. In Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism it is up to you to make your own moral and ethical judgements.

This one thing alone makes this religion better (for me) than others.

I do see the value in religions setting a “list of rules” for people to blindly follow. It seems to me that many of the people (not all, but many) that give themselves to these religions probably need someone to tell them what is moral or immoral to do, otherwise they would probably do all sorts of messed up stuff and think nothing of it.

I’m not suggesting that my personal moral code is better than Jesus’s (if he was even a real person) but I feel I have a pretty good grasp of right and wrong without religion – as do billions of people in China, a whole country in which the government basically banned religion. I feel safer walking the streets at night there than I do in the bible belt of the United States where Christian Nazi’s might beat the sh*t out of you, or in certain Muslim countries in the Middle-East where killing others seems to be part of the curriculum.

Anyway, let’s move on…

Buddha is in Everyone

Where many other religeons worship an outer being (Jesus, Allah etc), the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin states that Buddha is in everyone. I like to translate this as Buddha being life-force, or Chi (Qi), or even “the force”, so when I look at it like that, then yes, I totally agree. We are all just energy.

A Way of Thinking – Positive Thinking

Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism is really more a way of thinking than it is a religion, and the way of thinking they promote is very close to my current beliefs.

Basically the idea is that thoughts create. If you have positive thoughts, good things will happen, and if you have negative thoughts then negativity will be created – I agree with this. Nothing bad comes from positive thinking.

Photo Sourced from Twitter.

Cause and Effect – Karma

This is probably the main idea of this (and all) forms of Buddhism and is closely related to positive thinking. Everything you do has a future effect. Negative = negative and positive = positive. Sometimes this is easy to see, e.g., commit a crime = go to jail. Many times it is not so clear.

I do believe in cause and effect, but blind faith in Karma – not so much. When seemingly bad things happen to me I don’t think “oh.. I must have done something to deserve that”. I feel it is much more productive to incorporate positive thinking into the situation. When something seemingly bad happens I think “how can I make this a good situation”. At the very least I can learn a lesson.

Also, what many people consider as “bad”, I do not. I’m really more of a “it just is” kind of person.

Chanting

According to Nichiren Daishonin, in order to offset any bad Karma all you need to do is chant “the one essential phrase” twice a day. The longer/more you chant, the more good Karma you will create. This is the “essential phrase”:

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

Myoho-renge-kyo is the title of the Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the highest Buddhist teaching. Nam is Sanskrit for “devotion”. So basically you are chanting the devotion to the Lotus Sutra. The booklet also gives a more detailed translation of each of the words.

For me the chanting of this one phrase is kind of “iffy”. Luckily the booklet also states that you do not have to believe in it at first. Just do the chanting and good things will start to happen. When you see the proof, you will start to believe, and to be fair, you are not really giving anything up but your time.

Actually, to me the chanting is really just a form of meditation. I already do Yoga Nidra and I can definitely see the similarity. In Yoga Nidra you recite to yourself a Sankalpa which is a short sentence you use to “program” your subconscious. The chanting is the same idea, only they tell you what to say.

Also, chanting in a group appeals to me. Ever been in a temple when everyone is chanting? I like it.

So at the very least, chanting will help to put you in a meditative state which in turn helps to clear your mind, and if there is the chance to build good karma at the same time, then why not give it a go.

Spreading the Word

This is something I do not agree with. I don’t care what religeon you are, don’t push it on others. But I guess “spreading the word” doesn’t necessarily mean pushing it on others. It’s not like these guys are going door to door or preaching in public. Perhaps they mean just talking about your positive experience, like you would if you went to a good restaurant.

The reasoning is that you chant to build karma for yourself. You have good fortune, so why not help your fellow human beings by letting them in on the “secret”. Maybe I just don’t care about my fellow human beings enough. I’ll tell the dog, he’s always been good to me (although I am telling everyone who reads this about it…)

Photo Sourced From Pininterest.comsapnavnichiren-daishonin-buddhism

Ongoing Life

I am not sure if I believe this, because how can anyone really know what comes after our time on earth, but it is a nice idea. There is no heaven or hell (actually, that I do believe). Instead the vessel just dies (your body) and then your energy just kind of waits around until it is “reborn” into a new vessel – sounds pretty close to re-incarnation.

Well this post is getting kind of long so let me quickly wrap up the remainder of the information in the booklet and then give some final thoughts.

The rest of the booklet kind of just talked about concepts such as the ten worlds, the nine consciousnesses and the history of Buddhism which were interesting but nothing I felt I needed to dwell on.

It also talks about the three aspects of the practice being faith, study and practice.

Faith – The act of chanting is the faith. Have faith in the chant and chant once in the morning and once in the evening.

Study – Study the Buddhist teachings. The Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin is not about blind faith.

Practice – Apply the teachings in your life.

Final Thoughts on Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism

Personally I believe that most religions are lies. They were invented and used (and are still used) to control others. Many of them are just elaborate businesses with awesome tax breaks. They create wars although they are supposed to create peace and often people use them as a scape-goat, like some guy murders lots of people and then says God told him to do it.

I do see the value for those that need a moral system, but I feel my personal value system does a pretty good job of that.

If I were to pick a religion the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin would probably be it. Overall the general concepts pretty much line up with what I already believe.

* Everything is connected and we are all just bundles of energy.

* Positive thinking.

* Cause and effect.

* No set rules.

* Meditate daily.

* Improve yourself.

I do realise, however, that just reading the small booklet and going to a couple of chant sessions probably does not really show the depth of the religion, but it is as far as I would like to delve. Any further and I might actually become religious!

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