I Did Not Say Nichiren Daishonin Invented The Gohonzon Or Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo +^

[Chas.]

I Did Not Say Nichiren Daishonin Invented The Gohonzon Or Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo +

On Saturday, December 16, 2017 at 6:12:15 AM UTC-8, Katie Higgins wrote:
> The Gohonzon is not Nichiren's creation - he tells us , that like the daimoku, the Gohonzon is hidden in the depths of three Lotus Sutra-
>
> Chas disregards even the words he mouths doing Gongyo !! How unfortunate !!
>
> ~ Katie

I Did Not Say Nichiren Daishonin Invented The Gohonzon Or Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo +

I said that we got those from him, which is absolutely true, no one else gave us our practice of the Lotus Sutra.

According to the Gosho, where Nichiren quotes T'ien-T'ai extensively (which quotes can be verified, they are not "fake") and where I have upper-cased the critical passages for your focus in the "Entity of the Mystic Law", WND I, pp. 420-421:

... Question: The Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai has explained that
... the term Myoho-renge is used in two different senses, one
... meaning the entity of Myoho-renge and the other being
... figurative in meaning. What are these two kinds of renge,
... or lotus?
...
... Answer: The figurative renge, or lotus, is explained in
... detail in the three metaphors of the lotus blossom
... enfolding the seed, the lotus blossom opening to reveal the
... seed inside, and the lotus blossom falling and the seed
... ripening, so one should refer to them. The lotus that is
... the entity of Myoho-renge is explained in the seventh
... volume of The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra as
... follows: "Renge, or lotus, is not a symbol; it is the
... actual name of the entity. For example, at the beginning of
... the kalpa of continuance, the various things in the world
... had no names. THE SAGE OBSERVED THE PRINCIPLES THAT GOVERN
... THEM AND ON THAT BASIS MADE UP NAMES FOR THEM." HE ALSO
... WRITES: "Now the name renge is not intended as a symbol for
... anything. It is the teaching expounded in the Lotus Sutra.
... The teaching expounded in the Lotus Sutra is pure and
... undefiled and explains the subtleties of cause and effect.
... Therefore, it is called renge, or lotus. This name
... designates the true entity that the meditation based on the
... Lotus Sutra reveals, and is not a metaphor or figurative
... term."
...
... The Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai also writes: "Question: Does
... the term renge in fact mean the renge, or lotus, that is
... the essence of the meditation based on the Lotus Sutra? Or
... does it in fact mean the ordinary lotus that is a species
... of plant?
...
... "Answer: It in fact refers to the lotus that is the essence
... of the Lotus Sutra. But because the essence of the Lotus
... Sutra is difficult to understand, the metaphor of the lotus
... plant is introduced. People of sharp faculties will hear
... the name and immediately grasp the principle. They have no
... need to rely upon a metaphor but can understand the Lotus
... Sutra directly. But people of intermediate or inferior
... perception will not understand immediately. Only through
... the medium of a metaphor will they be able to understand.
... Thus the easily understood metaphor of an actual lotus
... plant is used to make clear the difficult-to-understand
... lotus that is the essence of the Lotus Sutra.
...
... "Thus, in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha employed three cycles
... of preaching in accordance with the respective
... understanding of those of superior, intermediate, or
... inferior capacity. For people of superior capacity, the
... renge, or lotus, that is the name of the Law was taught.
... But, for people of intermediate or inferior capacity, the
... lotus was used as a metaphor or symbol. As long as one
... understands that the word is being used both as a name for
... the Law itself and as a metaphor, depending upon which of
... the three groups of people is being addressed, then there
... should be no reason to argue over it."
...
... THIS PASSAGE OF COMMENTARY MEANS THAT THE SUPREME PRINCIPLE
... [THAT IS THE MYSTIC LAW] WAS ORIGINALLY WITHOUT A NAME.
... WHEN THE SAGE WAS OBSERVING THE PRINCIPLE AND ASSIGNING
... NAMES TO ALL THINGS, HE PERCEIVED THAT THERE IS THIS
... WONDERFUL SINGLE LAW [MYŌHŌ] THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY POSSESSES
... BOTH CAUSE AND EFFECT [RENGE], AND HE NAMED IT MYOHO-RENGE.
... This single Law that is Myoho-renge encompasses within it
... all the phenomena comprising the Ten Worlds and the three
... thousand realms, and is lacking in none of them. Anyone who
... practices this Law will obtain both the cause and the
... effect of Buddhahood simultaneously.
...
... THE SAGE PRACTICED WITH THIS LAW AS HIS TEACHER AND
... ATTAINED ENLIGHTENMENT, AND THEREFORE HE SIMULTANEOUSLY
... OBTAINED BOTH THE MYSTIC CAUSE AND THE MYSTIC EFFECT OF
... BUDDHAHOOD, BECOMING THE THUS COME ONE OF PERFECT
... ENLIGHTENMENT AND FULLY REALIZED VIRTUES.

Hence, the Law and the Gohonzon which is the realization of the enlightenment that is the effect of that Law ... were not "invented," but instead were discovered by the sage who was first enlightened to that Law. Nichiren Daishonin names this sage "Myoho-Renge" as the "actual name of the entity," the entity of the Mystic Law, in that same Gosho.

Nichiren Daishonin gave us Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, the Gohonzon, and the practice of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra and the mentor and disciple principle (by example), but he did not invent them. He "authored" the Gosho, "fostered" his closest disciples Nikko Shonin and Nichinoku Shonin, and he "evolved" the Fuji School they founded by his training of those disciples.

Shakyamuni gave us none of those things, he gave us the 69,384 character Lotus Sutra in Sanskrit and its Sanskrit name "Saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra," which is "Myoho-Renge-Kyo" by reference and intent, but is not the actual sound of the Law in the Buddha's pure and far-reaching voice. That sound is the sound of eternity. Note that we do not recite the Lotus Sutra as Shakyamuni did in Sanskrit (or as T'ien-T'ai did in Chinese), we recite it as Nichiren Daishonin did in the Japanese verbalization of the Classical Chinese characters.

By the way, in case you didn't know, the Japanese are of Korean descent, and the Koreans are Chinese, proven by DNA analysis **. So the Japanese pronunciation of the Lotus Sutra is in just another one of the over a hundred dialects of Chinese, but a very special dialect that contains the sounds of the language of the Buddhas.

** "Who Are The Japanese? - Epilogue" - "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" - by Jared Diamond
http://erenow.com/common/gunsgermssteel/23.html

When I keep saying "it is not determinism, but determination," I am referring in part to how the Buddha's determination got those specific characters into classical Chinese, and those specific sounds into the Japanese dialect that Nichiren Daishonin chanted the Lotus Sutra and the Daimoku in. Some things are not determined, like our victory over evil (WE CAN LOSE THESE BATTLES,) but the appearance of the Gohonzon and the sound of the Daimoku are not accidental: they are the appearance and sound of eternity.

-Chas.
________________________________________

Quoting from "The Entity of the Mystic Law", Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 418 ...

The Complete and Final Teaching on Perfect Enlightenment Sutra declares, "The beginningless illusions and ignorance that beset all living beings are all produced by the perfectly enlightened mind of the Thus Come Ones."