Wrote this for Katie who is crazy rigid on the formality of gongyo. You are crazy rigid on NOT doing it and are also incredibly wrong.
Reciting the sutra AND THEN chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo with no other phrases of the Lotus Sutra mixed in, is exactly what Nichiren Daishonin is talking about in that quote..
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On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 9:28:37 PM UTC-7, Katie Higgins wrote:
[snip]
Notice your evasive style in refusing to respond to my response to your evil declaration of Nichiren Daishonin as a liar:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.religion.buddhism.nichiren/1fUX4H4ZIaw/V2HnNSsFBwAJ
> But- maybe all of your sideshows really are only effects from your egocentric approach to faith . So, once again I will direct you to the basics - Nichiren's declaring his devotion to the Lotus Sutra and his recommending daily recitation of the Hoben and Juryo chapters of the Lotus Sutra.
> Apparently Noel and co. don't focus much on the Buddha's golden words and have missed the emphasis Nichiren placed on each character , each word of the Lotus Sutra . I think you missed a very straightforward clear concise message regarding FAITH as the only portal to the wisdom of the Buddha -- maybe because you don't know what you're saying or perhaps you don't care to know? At the beginning of the Life Span chapter , Shakyamuni decides to continue preaching even though his disciples admit they cannot fathom the teachings Shakyamuni is sharing from his own enlightenment ; Shakyamuni continues because his disciples pledge three times to accept the Buddha's words with FAITH.
>
Another profoundly incorrect reading of the Gosho. Nichiren talked about reciting PART of the Hoben Chapter sometimes, but talked dozens of times (especially in the "Letter to Hōren") about reciting the 'verse section of the "Life Span" chapter', also known as the Ji-Gage, in many, many situations.
From "Reply to the Lay Priest Soya", written in the "twelfth year of Bun’ei (1275)", well after the Gohonzon has emerged and been propagated as the "supreme object of devotion in all of Jambudvipa", WND I, p.486:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/58#para-0
... I have written out the prose section of the “Expedient
... Means” chapter for you. You should recite it together with
... the verse portion of the “Life Span” chapter, which I sent
... you earlier.
Much earlier (on the seventeenth day of the fourth month in the first year of Bun’ei in 1264, well before the emergence of the Gohonzon as the object of devotion) at the beginning of a Gosho letter to the wife of Daigaku Saburō who was mistakenly chanting Namu-ichijō-myōten for about two and a half hours a day to the cover of the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren Daishonin suggests it would be better to recite the Hoben and Juryo chapters, and he does not say in part, implying all the prose and the verse sections. However, at the end of the letter he states his final guidance:
In the Gosho letter: 'The Recitation of the "Expedient Means" and "Life Span" Chapters', WND I, p. 72:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/9#para-26
... On this basis, even if your menstrual period should last as
... long as seven days, if you feel so inclined, DISPENSE WITH
... THE READING OF THE SUTRA AND SIMPLY RECITE
... NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO. Also, when making your devotions, you
... need not bow facing the sutra.
He states this again clearly in "The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra", WND I, p. 143:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/14#para-19
... To accept, uphold, read, recite, take delight in, and
... protect all the eight volumes and twenty-eight chapters of
... the Lotus Sutra is called the comprehensive practice. TO
... ACCEPT, UPHOLD, AND PROTECT THE “EXPEDIENT MEANS” CHAPTER
... AND THE “LIFE SPAN” CHAPTER IS CALLED THE ABBREVIATED
... PRACTICE. And simply to chant one four-phrase verse or the
... daimoku, and to protect those who do so, is called the
... essential practice. HENCE, AMONG THESE THREE KINDS OF
... PRACTICE, COMPREHENSIVE, ABBREVIATED, AND ESSENTIAL, THE
... DAIMOKU IS DEFINED AS THE ESSENTIAL PRACTICE.
In particular, this shows that Nichiren Daishonin's "essential practice" is chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, and reciting gongyo is a formality, although one I love dearly.
Your statements are CLEARLY IN ERROR, once again Katie Higgins.
There is a line from the "Life Span" chapter that you should think about: "Ga hon gyo bosatsu do", which means "originally I practiced the bodhisattva way", he's referring to his time spent with his father Great Universal Wisdom Excellence and his 15 brothers in the remote past
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/16#para-14
Here is the passage from the Lotus Sutra, where Shakyamuni quotes his father Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Thus Come One talking about the family's Kosen Rufu enterprise:
From the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 7, "Parable of the Phantom City", pp.172-173:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/7#para-282
... “You monks, I will now tell you this. These disciples of
... the buddha, these sixteen shramaneras, have now all
... attained supreme perfect enlightenment. In the lands in the
... ten directions they are at present preaching the Law, with
... immeasurable hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions
... of bodhisattvas and voice-hearers for their retinues. Two
... of these shramaneras have become buddhas in the eastern
... region. One is named Akshobhya and lives in the Land of
... Joy. The other is named Sumeru Peak. Two are buddhas in the
... southeastern region, one named Lion Voice, the other named
... Lion Appearance. Two are buddhas in the southern region,
... one named Void-Dwelling, the other named Ever Extinguished.
... Two are buddhas in the southwestern region, one named
... Emperor Appearance, the other named Brahma Appearance. Two
... are buddhas in the western region, one named Amitayus, the
... other named Saving All from Worldly Suffering. Two are
... buddhas in the northwestern region, one named Tamala Leaf
... Sandalwood Fragrance Transcendental Power, the other named
... Sumeru Appearance. Two are buddhas in the northern region,
... one named Cloud Freedom, the other named Cloud Freedom
... King. Of the buddhas of the northeastern region, one is
... named Destroying All Worldly Fears. THE SIXTEENTH IS I,
... SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA, WHO IN THIS SAHA LAND HAVE ATTAINED
... SUPREME PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.
Did the grandfather have sons other than the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Thus Come One? It is not stated. What is clear is that Shakyamuni is not the entirety of the effort, there are others involved in this enterprise.
So, your statue-worshiping practice of deifying Shakyamuni as God Almighty is made into a great lie by the Lotus Sutra, as preached by Shakyamuni.
In his human form he can only be your God of Gods above all, if he is a great liar, which he is not.
In fact, he is only human, like the rest of us and part of a great enterprise, like the rest of us. And the true entity that we share in that enterprise of Kosen Rufu, has the actual name of "Myoho-Renge", NOT Shakyamuni, NOT Nichiren Daishonin, nor anyone else that is an impermanent human being: according to Nichiren Daishonin.
[snip the rest]
Ricky, deny that Nichiren Daishonin did gongyo recitation of the Lotus Sutra as a daily practice at your LYING PERIL. He also asked his followers to do a daily practice, or chant daimoku if they could not. LIE ABOUT THAT AT YOUR PERIL.
-Chas.