Revenge of Nichiren!

Study/Understanding

Hi Brooke -

The only way I know to counter this impression and this habit or feature of some of the more prominent Nichiren groups is to study.  

If Nichiren is studied in context (that is within the framework of his society and times) much of his rhetoric softens some.  If one reads the details and not just the sound bites, one will find that he is condemning specific individuals and specific interpretations of teachings, not just wholesale condemnations of everything in sight.

If one studies Nichiren Buddhism as a whole, and not just a couple of the schools more prevalent in the West, then one finds that many Nichiren Buddhist schools do not make vengeance and wrath central in their practices.  This just isn't as obvious since the ones which do are also the ones which tend to be most visible or prevalent, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.


Namaste, Engyo

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by: Engyo @ Thu Aug 14, 2008 at 11:34:13 AM UTC

Persecution and victimhood

Engyo is quite right that study is crucial. At the root of Nichiren Buddhism is liberation and profound lovingkindness. In my own life, I have witnessed the heart-transformative power of chanting daimoku.

Still, there is history.

We continue to feel the aftermath of the Atsuhara Persecution, which happened during Nichiren's lifetime. Nichiren's followers were accused of arson directed at critics, but the followers insisted that they had been framed. Mostly peasants and farmers, these followers were threatened and harassed by the military police over the course of a few years. At one point, twenty were arrested on what they said were trumped-up charges. Three were put to death. There were said to be additional acts of violence directed at Nichiren's followers.

Violence, threats, persecution and victimhood have been a part of Nichiren Buddhism since the earliest days.... Not because Nichiren or the Lotus Sutra teach violence or vengeance -- but, then, why?

I'm willing to grant that this history of persecution/vengeance is a karmic inheritance of Nichiren Buddhists, and we cannot fully know the "whys" and "wherefores." Rather, it is our duty to change this karma in our current lifetime.

Speaking as an American, I know that our cultural memory in the U.S. is quite short and shallow. In Japan, cultural memory is long and deep. Tribes and factions can carry grudges for centuries, and can even export them, as I believe has happened in the case of Nichiren Buddhism.

In America, we're not used to the role of victimhood. Our history is not the history of our wounds. Perhaps 9/11 was the first time we ever felt that our nation had been victimized. ...Ah, but how quickly I forget! Perhaps the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was our first taste of victimhood -- and most younger Americans know nothing of this event. As a culture, we do not indoctrinate our progeny about our wounds and the need for revenge. If it were otherwise, a Japanese religion could not have taken root in the U.S.

This is the crux. In the U.S., Nichiren Buddhism needs to cease being a Japanese religion. I don't mean to slight Europe or Asia or South America -- those regions and cultures, too, need to adapt Nichiren's practice to their climates.

The way to change the historically violent, misunderstood, persecuted karma of Nichiren Buddhism is to start from this moment forward, and refuse to empower the darker tendencies in our own hearts that thirst for righteousness and revenge, and that nurture a debilitating sense of victimhood. This is also why it is crucial that we all strive to move beyond wounds inflicted by self-serving sanghas.

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by: auntie @ Thu Aug 14, 2008 at 19:21:42 PM UTC

Nichiren and negativity

Brooke, Engyo, Auntie, and others,

I am listening intently to what you have had to say and
am processing.  So profound, you thinkers/scholars!  

Later, in contemplation,

Thank you!
Armchair

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by: Armchair @ Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 07:05:24 AM UTC

re: Vengence in the Nichiren Community.

I think that the tools to refute such behavior (or validate it in the unlikely case that it is 'merited') are missing from all of our repertoires .  Specifically all of the Goshos in English (not "Jinglish") and accessible to all.  
That being said, the First Person Possessive Singular tense is rarely used (Nehongo) ... and so a great deal of metaphysical empty air passes between English translations and the small subset that are available (as Chris Roman says) from the "Org" much less from "Taho Fuji Dainichirenge-zan Taiseki-ji"

Until such a point as there is common understanding of ALL of the goshos, and to whom they were addressed ... and the reality that they were personalized documents given to specific individuals not "universal guidances" then we don't really know what Nichiren Daishonin actually 'meant' in the sum of his life's teachings ... do we?  

And until then, The Count of Monte Cristo is fun reading right?  Too bad the Nichiren Shu Priest on the Left Coast (Michael McCormick) isn't part of the discussions as well  (still wading through his immense treatise on reincarnation ... another subject treated differently on any given moment (toss a coin) by Nichiren Shoshu, and "the Org".
How's that for a batch of run-on sentences? snicker
jccampb

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by: jccampb @ Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 00:54:24 AM UTC