[General Guideline of HBS]
Rev. Nisso Fukuoka
In December of 1998, I went to Rome, Italy for five days and spent two nights at the home of Nicola Tini to preside over two 'Oko" services at his residence. A Oko service is a religious practice of HBS performed not only at temples but also at residences of lay followers.
The first Oko service was held on December 18 frorn 9 P.M. An earlier time was not possible because several practitioners had to work until late that evening.
I began the Oko service by reciting the Sumnlary Formula of Penitenance and Invocation of the Buddha and the Saints of One Session of the Fine Congregation in Japanese. The practitioners simultaneously recited the Romanized version of the prayers. The chanting of the Odaimoku then followed. Completing the chanting of the Odaimoku, the Homage Formula to the Buddha and Saints (Namukuon No Mon) were recited in both Japanese and English. The Oko service was then concluded. Subsequently, I held a “Ceremony of Vow" before the altar for six practitioners who vowed to become faithful parishioners of HBS who will uphold the principles of the Scripture and devote their time to daily religious practices.
I then held a sermon in English with Nicola translating it into Italian.
The second Oko service was held from 4:30 P.M. on December 21, 1998. A fervid chanting of the Odaimoku was demonstrated during both sessions.
Following was a Question and Answer session held on the first day:
The defference between an original sin and the hinderances
Q: What is the difference between an original sin advocated by Christianity and the sins and hinderances elucidated by Buddhism?
A: It is quite different. Christianity maintains that an original sin was created by Adam and Eve who betrayed the orders of God. Christ then appeared and atoned for the sin. God will save people who believe in Him, but will pass judgement on non—believers.
In contrast. Buddhism does not claim that such sin exists nor does it claim that judgements be made by someone else.
Q: Do Buddha make judgements ?
A: He doesn't. If we possess sins, they were created by oneself rather than being brought about by others. It is only you, who can pass judgements on yourself. Our actions, statements and thoughts, in the course of our daily life, become seeds. These seeds are sowed into our soul, where they are stored as karmas. The bad karmas accumulated over time are referred to as sins (Zaisho).
Q: Some people are born in an extremely fortunate environment. Others carry a heavy doomed fate. Some are healthy, some are sick. Are all of these circumstances caused by karmas?
A: It is a very difficult question to answer. All conditions cannot be claimed as a results of karmas. There is such a thing as karma possessed by each individual. There are common karmas held jointly by families. groups or society. Additionally, matters occur through an interaction complex common karmas of cause and condition. Consequently. it cannot be simply said that it is the cause of karmas.
Q: What is the difference between karma and destiny?
A: Karma is created by oneself rather than by someone else. It is a matter created in the past and in the present for one's future life. After all one's destiny is not determined by someone else who supasses oneselr.
Q: What is the process for building karmas?
A: We see, hear, taste and smell, feel pleasantness, unpleasantness cold and warmth by our body. They are referred to as the five senses and through their process our soul functions. In Buddhism, the process is known as the consciousness or the sixth consciousness.
The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, researched the world of unconcsiousness. Buddhism had also elucidated on it. This unconscious world is called Manashiki, or the seventh conscious. Buddhism states that a soul called Arayashiki or the eighth conscious exists in the inner depth of unconsciousness. Everything that we observe, hear, think about or say during our lifetime all become seeds which are planted, stored and recorded in the Arayashiki. The seeds stored in the Arayashiki becomes a spiritual energy which forms our destiny in the immediate future and over into the future life.
Q: Are the seeds recorded in the Arayashiki carried over into the future world even after death?
A: It is a very important question. After death, the six senses and the Manashiki will cease to exist. However, the energy within the Arayashiki will continue to exist. Therefore, the seeds stored in the Arayashiki are carried over into the future life. The bad seeds carried over from the past world that causes our unfortunate life are referred to as offenses (fault) or sins. All of us possess sins from the past world. From that standpoint, we begin our prayer service before the altar by reciting the Summary Formula of Penitence, “In order to eliminate the sins and hinderances that I have accumulated by disparaging the Dharma since the beginningless past, beginning now from the present bodily existence until I obtain the Buddha body, I will uphold the Primodial Sacred Object (the sacred formula, Namumyohorengekyo), the Primodial Altar and the Primodial Practice (Chanting of the Odaimoku)." We then entered into the chanting of the Odaimoku.
What is Dharma?
Q: You stated that one can recieve “visible merits/benefits"(Goriyaku) through practices of HBS religion. What kind of merit is it? Why is it necessary to recieve visible merits?
A: Goriyaku (merits or favorable rewards) must be felt; be conscious (aware) and moved (touched) by it. Some people can feel and become aware of it. Others may be unaware of it. In this case, it is necessary for someone to tell the person that he had received Goriyaku. To recieve merits which can be seen is not the final objective of HBS. By receiving merits one can percieve that the HBS religion is a true religion and become faithful parishioners. In other words, to receive spiritual awakening (enlightenment) is important.As such, a receipt of divine benefits are manifest evidences; benefits which can be seen.
Q: Was the Dharma taught by Sakyamuni Buddha? If not, would the Dharma have not existed in this world?
A: Buddha is a person who was spiritually awakened, or a person who perceived the truth. Dharma is the fundamental true law of this world which Buddha percieved. In this instance, even if Buddha had not appeared in this world, the law would have been perceived since it had existed from the beginningless past. It was Buddha who was awakened to it.
We are fortunate that Shakyamuni Buddha was born in this world. If not we would have been unable to meet the Odaimoku religion based on the wonderful Dharma.
Q: What is the relationship between the Buddha, the Dharma and the Odaimoku?
A: The Lotus Sutra elucidated that the principles of the Dharma, the Eternal Buddha and the Odaimoku were not separate entities. They were one body‐identical. That is what Shakyamuni Buddha perceived and Nichiren Shonin claimed that the Odaimoku should be the object of worship based on the Dharma.
Q: Is the wonderous Dharma possessed in our Arayashiki?
A: Yes. An identical truth is possessed in our soul, which is known as "Ichinen Sanzen" (Ichinen means a life for one instant or a life of exceedingly short period of time, and sanzen refers to all phenomena in this world. Therefore lchinen Sanzen means all phenomena in this world are included both in our thought for one instant and even in a minute grain of sand). By chanting the Odaimoku, the “Ichinen Sanzen" possessed in our soul is activated and the bad seeds are filtered.
Q: Are our wrongdoings, even in thought, become seeds and stored in the Arayashiki? And, are the bad seeds causing our problematic destinies?
A: Your actions, speech and thoughts all become the seeds that are sowed into the Arayashiki. Therefore. to detest or hate someone will create bad seeds. However, try not to see only the minus side of the principle. By accomplishing good deeds one can build good destinies. This is the teaching of Buddhism.
Q: Are you saying that the present world is connected to the past life and the present life to the future life?
A: Yes. Just like yesterday is connected to today, and today is to tomorrow. It is like an extended spider web stretched out into space. Various people and events are all related to one another.
About the Scripture
Q: What is the Primordial altar?
A: Originally, the altar was a place where Buddhist commandments who given to a parishioner to formally become a priest. The “Hommon no Kaidan", or the Primordial altar, in the case of HBS, is a place where the Scripture is enshrined and religious services are held by chanting the Odaimoku in front of it.
Q: Can you describe what Ryojusen is like?
A: Ryojusen is a mountain in Magadha, India, where the Buddha spent eight years in his late life interpreting the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren Shonin referred to Mount Ryjusen as the “Pure Buddha Land". To us, Mount Ryojusen is a place where the Odaimoku can be chanted in front of the Scripture whether it be at the temple or at home.
Q: What is the difference between the Scripture of HBS and other Nichiren Shu Sects?. It seems there is no difference. Why must the Scripture of Nichiren Shu Sect be exchanged for HBS's Scripture when one terminates his relationship with the former and joins HBS?
A: A parishioner of HBS must enshrine the Scripture of HBS. There are three reasons for it. First, Scriptures of Nichiren Shu Sects are not enshrined in a legitimate formality. Some Nichiren Shu Sects place icons of gods or statues of Buddha in front of the Odaimoku Mandala, which are incorrect. Secondly, in many cases the mandala of other sects have not undergone the “Opening the Spiritual Eyes" ceremony or Kaigen. A Scripture which has not undergone “Kaigen" is merely an ordinary scroll. Thirdly, the Scripture must be enshrined in accordance with the fundamental true teachings based on the teachings of Chapters 15 to 22 of the Lotus Sustra. Scriptures that are not based on those conditions are not Scriptures designated by Nichiren Shonin.
Q: Why are there differences in styles of Scriptures?
A: Today. there are over 130 known Scriptures which were written by Nichiren Shonin. Actually, there may be more. These Scriptures are not identical in writing styles. There are some Scriptures written with the names of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and the Guardian Kings of Heaven to the right and left of the Odaimoku in the center. Others are just plain Scriptures with the Odaimoku in the center. Styles of Scriptures are not inportant. The core of the scriptures is the Odaimoku which embraces all things.
Q: What is Shoten Zenjin?
A: Shoten Zenjins are the various guardian kings of heaven who appear in the Lotus Sutra. They are the kings who vowed to protect the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra.
Q: Why does the Odaimoku have the power to cure illnesses?
A: It is because the Odaimoku contains the merits of enlightenment of Buddha and the power of Buddha's spirit to protect practitioners. It is elucidated in Chapter 21, The Supernatural Power of the Tathagata, of the Lotus Sutra: “The supernatural power of the Buddhas are immeasurable, limitless, and inconcievable as previously stated. But I will not be able to tell all the merits of this sutra to whom this sutra is to be transmitted, even though I continue to tell them by supernatural powers for many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas of kalpa". It is difficult to explain in words. It can only be understood by actual experiences.
Q: Why is Nichiren Shonin's honorific a Saint?
A: It is because it is an honorific accoustomed in America and Europe. However, it is better to use the Japanese honorific of Shonin.
Q: Why does Soka Gakkai Sect refer to Nichiren Shonin as Nichiren Dai Shonin?
A: Soka Gakkai considers Nichiren Shonin as the Eternal Buddha. The honorific for the Eternal Buddha is Dai Shonin. Nichiren Shonin is revered by HBS as the Great Master, who had transmitted and spread the Odaimoku in the Mappo Period. Therefore, HBS does not utilize the honorific of “Dai Shonin". HBS refers to him as Boddhisattava or Daiji, which means Great Master. Therefore, I believe the honorific of Great Master may be more appropriate in English.
Practitioner: I believe so. Saint is an honorific associated with priests of Christianity.
What is transmigration between the six realms
Q: What is Rokudo‐rinne? (Transmigration between the six realms). Is there such a thing as an animal being reborn as a human being or vice versa?
A: Our world is fixed in ten boundaries (realms). The highest is the world of Buddha. followed by the realms of Boddhisattava, Engaku (a self‐enlightened Buddha), Shomon (Disciples of Buddha), Tenjo (the heavenly realms), Ningen (humans), Shura (Demi—Gods), Chikusho (animals), Gaki (hungry spirits), and Jigoku (hell). Ordinarily, we are reborn somewhere within the six realms from Hell to Heaven in cycles.
Following is a true story: A man with a tattoo on his arm died. His family was a farmer who raised cows. A year after the death of the man, a cow gave birth to a calf. This calf had on its back the same tattoo pattern which was on the dead man's arm. I believe you can ascertain what that meant.
There is also a reverse case. Dogs and cats can be reborn as human beings through the supporting power of the Odaimoku they heard during their stay with a parishioner.
Q: Isn't the thought of transmigration between the six realms of Buddhism and the Theory of Evolution (Darwin's theory) contradictory?
A: The Theory of Evolution explains the process of living things on this planet. Transmigration between the six realms, explained by Buddhism, stems from a broader viewpoint beyond the space and evolution of time of living things.
Q: How does Buddhism view time? Does time have a beginning and an end?
A: In Nichiren Shonin's “Kanjin Honzon Sho" it states: “Buddha neither deceased in the past or will be born in the future". The life span of Buddha is beginningless and endless.
Q: Is it a flow of one straight line, or is it endless as in cycles?
A :It is spiral.
Heaven and the Land of Tranquil Light
Q: What is the difference between Heaven in Christianity and the “Pure Buddha Land" or the “Land of Tranquil Light" in Buddhism?
A: I do not know how heaven is explained by Christianity. Buddhism explains heaven to be the “Land of Tranquil Light" or as the “Pure Buddha Land", but there are some differences among other sects. The “Land of Tranquil Light" or the “Pure Buddha Land" are referred as the spiritually best world for the souls of people who had attained enlightenment of Buddhahood. The “Land of Tranquil Light" is not only the world where one proceeds to after death but also HBS looks upon it as a land we visit during the chanting of the Odaimoku in front of the Scripture (Gohonzon) whether it be at home or at the temple.
04. HBS Chapter in Italy
- [TOP]
- The defference between an original sin and the hinderances
- What is Dharma?
- About the Scripture
- What is transmigration between the six realms
- Heaven and the Land of Tranquil Light
