Hi Everybody,
Easter Sunday. A time for peace and friendship. Lets hope in the next few months we see peace breaking out in Syria and the pain and suffering of so many people brought to an end.
The ground we've covered in the past dozen or so episodes has been a necesssarily brief account of the many meanings locked up within nam myoho renge kyo. But having a more comprehensive understanding of those meanings isn't really the key to unlocking the value that it embodies. The fact is that it's this practice focused around the chanting of this phrase that is Nichiren's great legacy to all of us. Nichiren was in many ways a great modernist, and he makes it clear in his writings that this practice was fashioned for ordinary people no matter what place or period they inhabit, 13th Century Japan or 21st century Europe. People with busy everyday lives and much else to grab their attention, to enable them to get to grips with the values and the principles of Buddhism, and so to understand that even in the very midst of life's difficulties and challenges, it is possible to build lives filled with hope and optimism and resilience, and yes...great happiness too.
That's it. Done for today. It's shorter than normal I know but it brings us to a neat end for the discussion of nam myoho renge kyo, and next time we can launch off into a discussion about the gohonzon.
Hope to see you then.
All my best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
Very soon out in Spanish!!!
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