The 5-fold 10-fold comparison - Day 8

Day 8: I wrote this series of articles because I wanted to offer something that had come to me that no one else was talking about (because of the walls we all put up—except me, of course—between the various things we label, such as religions and other touchy subjects) yet which the article in Living Buddhism plus the occurrence of Hanukkah at this time gave me the courage to finally share. I believed that in sharing this secret knowledge—or at least introducing it, as I haven't even begun to scratch the surface—I might set a ball of progressive thought and ideas in motion if even only one person reading this was inspired enough to take me up on it. Every religion lapses into a state of orthodoxy. Once in a very long while, someone courageous enough comes along and challenges that static orthodoxy, and a new religion is born, fresh with genuine ideas for humanity's betterment. And then it too lapses into formality and structure and people, instead of being inspired by its founding ideals to embark on a unique, courageous life, instead cling to its rituals, in effect avoiding the very thing it was supposed to help them accomplish—live uniquely and courageously. This is true of atheism as well as every other form of secular humanism, few people really doing the hard work of maintaining a critical mind about all things, particularly that which they themselves believe, but instead clinging to commonly accepted notions of truth and reality because that's what gets them through the day. Yes, growth is not easy while stagnation is. But struggle, as SGI President Ikeda says, is the nature of all things, and this becomes readily apparent if we observe animal and plant life closely as they struggle every day against the elements and all kinds of vicissitudes. Like Oedipus, we've invented myriad ways to avoid struggle, only struggle stands before us in every direction whether we like it or not.

And yes, even SGI members, as sincere as they are, are more wont to repeat, to parrot the words of their mentors, afraid to reinvent the wheel by being too original in their approach. However, I feel that if we are truly to realize the benefit of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the supreme virtue that we must recognize is that, while actively share the struggles of our mentors and fellow members, we must never look outside of ourselves, to that which other people have said, even if they are completely correct for our own answers. For the whole purpose of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is to realize the truth that is both eternal and unique to each moment and situation from within our own lives and from that contribute something great to humanity. For if we were to depend on another person, as the Catholics do, or a book, as the Protestants do, just to use a couple of examples to describe the whole gamut of these other belief systems, which include atheism and other forms of secular humanism, then we will have thrown away the greatest treasure, the most precious gem that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is—our life, our Buddha wisdom, itself. And then our religion or belief system will have really nothing to stand out from the others. So my quest here was less to convince non-Buddhists of the supreme benefit of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as it was to hopefully open the minds of SGI members to the great treasure in their own lives and traditions from before the embraced Buddhism that they are overlooking, to break down the walls that separate us from others and to open the doors and allow fresh air to circulate inward and outward. In 1272, the same watershed year the Nichiren wrote perhaps his most important work in some respects, The Opening of the Eyes, as he was in the middle of his brutally severe exile in the harsh cold of Sado Island, a monk named Thomas Aquinas wrote his earth-shattering work entitled Summa Theologica, which reversed centuries of the Platonic dualistic orientation of Christianity by stating that everything is God and God is everything. Perhaps the Church did not get the implications of what he was saying when the later canonized him as a Saint, but isn't that the way things usually turn out, eh? Aquinas lived in a very enlightened part of the world at that time, the south of France, in which Christians, Jews and Moslems lived side by side, inspired by each other and coming up with some of the most amazing writings of all time, of which Aquinas' is just one. And we think ours is the enlightened age... A year later, in 1273, also in that part of the world, the seminal work of Jewish Mysticism, known as the Zohar, was written. Finally recognizing, as Aristotle was forced to admit in a sort of footnote, which he coined the “first cause”, that the didactic and the logical has its limits and that there is something that transcends this construct of the human mind (upon which Talmudic Judaism had relied for centuries), the Zohar spoke of the 10 emanations, without mentioning by name to what or to whom they referred, emanations that are essentially all human qualities, but good ones, ones associated with God. The highest, first, of these is called “Ayin” which literally means “nothing”. Like the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings, which is the introductory sutra to the Lotus Sutra, which postulates 34 negations, statements negating the “true entity” as being anything among 17 pairs of opposites, so as to say that the true entity is none of these, this also sets us up for something different that is not anything of this world and can't be described by any human words. However, hidden in this, as the text of the Zohar then pulls the curtain back to reveal, is the true entity, so to speak that is hidden in those 10 emanations of God. And guess what that is called: “Ein sof”. Now the thing you need to know is that Hebrew is not written with vowels, only with consonants, which is why it is possible to say that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo actually contains within it the name of God. The word “Ein”, meaning without, is the same word, i.e. using the same consonants as the word, “ayin” which means nothing. But “Ein sof” literally means without end or no end. Suddenly the negative is transformed into an endless positive. Just as the Chinese character “mu”, the silent character at the end of Nam (which would literally be pronounced Na-mu if it were pronounced, but thank goodness it isn't otherwise the daimoku would be very arrhythmic), which literally means not or without, when paired with the words “ryo” (measure) or “hen” (boundary), means immeasurable and boundless, in other words omnipresent, omniexistent. The Zohar talks about the contraction which God had to perform in order to create the world out of Himself. Hence, it is clear that the Zohar also bridges the gap between man and God, between Buddha and ordinary being. Isn't it curious that these two works came out right after Nichiren, by succeeding in not being executed at Tatsunokuchi Beach when a bright comet or orb flashed across the sky scaring the executioners, revealed himself as the Buddha of the Latter Day (which I believe that his revealing of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo would be enough for him to be the Buddha of the Latter Day)? How connected this world is.

I know I'm probably treading on a lot of toes in presenting all this and I also know that I'm making a lot of people uncomfortable. Perhaps the one saving grace is that very few people are likely to be reading this so most that receive it or see it posted won't get offended. And, after all, haven't I already stated in my Essential Teaching or Secular Humanism lecture on Day 4 that the gap between man and God, between man and Buddha has already been eliminated? Well, not quite. The Essential Teaching does not reveal how we can make use of this fact that we already possess Buddhahood, nor does secular humanism offer any hope for humanity, merely an alternate way of looking at truth. I know that to many, my presentation of Nichiren Buddhism as the thought system offering a better solution—in fact, the only solution—must seem quite illogical because isn't religion what we're moving away from? But that's where the scientific reasoning of secular humanism can be deceptive (although scientific reasoning can also prove the validity of Nichiren Buddhism using both empiric and deductive methods). Because by identifying it as religion versus non-religion, you are only shedding light on one of many parameters that need to be looked at to investigate a belief system before you're able to definitely come to a conclusion about it. And, as I said I think quite a few times, we're not looking for an extreme but a middle ground, one that embraces the essential truth that is really at the heart of all the teachings.

Thus, I hope that what I have presented gives all of you, whether SGI member or non-SGI member some new ideas to ponder on. While of course I don't want you to close the door to this conversation, nonetheless, rather than diving in the deep end, all I ask—and this is meant for all of you—is that you ponder, entertain the thoughts I am sharing, with this one other thought in mind: What will really save humanity from the humongous problems we are all now facing? And, if you are convinced that nothing will save humanity and that we are doomed to undergo Armageddon within a year or two or three or ten or fifty, ask yourself this: What have I got to lose by speculating on this and seeing if maybe I'll prove myself wrong? Every day, a million things come up to give me a reason to believe I have been a great fool for following the path I am following. But you know what keeps me going? Not the full knowledge that despite what my circumstances seem to be trying to tell me, I'm right anyway, but that as long as I have nothing to lose fighting these voices, I'm doing what seems to be the most meritorious thing prized among people—I am waging the good fight. For that, like Jesus, Martin Luther King and the many others who no one would consider a loser, even should the worst present itself as my mortal end, I will still have won if at least one other person is inspired by my example of not letting go of hope. And for that, I know that whatever belief system, crazy as it may seem to you to be, I use to inspire me to go on, that indeed is the winning belief system. For now, I will end this, go back to my job, my movies and the other endeavors of my life and leave the rest of this discussion to you. Thank you for taking the time to listen.