Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you.
We're closing in on the end of this chapter and this book. Only half a dozen pages to go.
I've just learned that the Spanish version is about to be published! Which is really great news. It makes the book available to the huge Spanish speaking audience in the US and in South America.
Right well we've been explorign the meaning of the mantra that Nichiren Buddhists chant, nam myoho renge kyo. It is the title of the Lotus Sutra, which contains the key teachings of Mahaayna Buddhism in classical Japanese. Over the past few episodes we've looked in detail at the underlying meanings of nam, and myoho and renge. So you can revisit those episodes if you wish to refresh your memory, and in this one we're talking about kyo.
So justas with myoho and renge, the word kyo embodies many meanings. It is literally translated as ' sutra' or the voice or teaching of the Buddha. But it also measn vibration or sound, so can be taken to represent the vibrations that spread out from someone in the process of chanting. Indeed there is a well-known Buddhist saying that ' the voice does the Buddha's work,' and there is no question that the sound or the vibration that is created by a group of people chanting, even quite a small group, can be very powerful.
I can still recall with great clarity for example, the very first Buddhist meeting I went to, some time before I actually started practising. It was a dark cold winter's evening I remember and we were walking along this street of narrow Victorian houses in West London, with me thinking not particularly positive thoughts such as, ' Oh well, it can't last much more than an hour this meeting!' And then, as we turned up the short garden path to the house, coming through the closed front door was this wonderful resonant sound. Strong. Confident. Vibrant. It actually made the hair tingle on the back of my neck I recall. A sound produced by just a dozen or so ordinary people, chanting nam myoho renge kyo.'
Enough for today I think.
I have to say re-writing that passage I can still recall that first meeting. And I've been chanting every day since then. When I say that this practice has profondly changed my life, I mean precisely that. It has changed my life in more ways than I can recount, all of them immensely beneficial.
See you next time,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available in paperback from Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
Sunday, 20 March 2016
Saturday, 12 March 2016
my buddhist blog number 126
Hi Everybody,
On this beautiful spring day. Well it is in southern England. Clear skies. Soft slightly hazy sunshine. Birds everywhere kicking up a spring-type fuss. Beautiful. Runnning in the park with Gatsby early this morning and we even suprised a few spring baby rabbits back into their burrows! We're in the middle of the detailed explanation of the meaning of the mantra Nichiren Buddhists chant morning and evening, nam myoho renge kyo. We've talked about nam at asome length, and myoho at even greater length, and we're into renge, which means essentially cause and effect.
Basically Buddhism argues that every cause we make, good bad or indifferent, plants a balancingeffect in our lives. Thus there is for all of us an on-going chain of causes and effects. That is if you like the fundamental dynamic of our lives. Good causes good effects. Bad causes bad effects.
I think it's pretty easy to see how even a superficial understanding of this principle can have a powerful effect on our behaviour, on our awareness of the kind of causes that we are making. And since that process of linked causes and effects is going on all the time, you can see that where we are now in our lives, who we are now in our lives, is the sum of all the causes we have made in the past, that have planted effects in our lives.
By the same token the causes that we are making now, Buddhism reminds us, contain the seeds of our future. So you might say, the key factor in shaping our on-going lives is how we respond to the situations and events and encounters that face us now, today and tomorrow and the next day.
What that is saying so powerfully is that however much we might feel it to be the case, we are not simply subject to chance and accident and encounter that come at us out of our environment. The decisive factor is how we respond to those situations. The causes that we make and therefore the effects that we plant in our lives.
The basic message is therefore on eof immense hope and optimism. Whateverhas happened in the past good positive causes made now, will plant good positive effects, into our future.
Enough to absorb for one go I think.
Next time we will be looking at kyo.
All my best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available as a paper back on Amazon and as a downlaod on Kindle.
The good news is that the Spanish version is about to be launched for all those Spanish speakers in US and South America.
On this beautiful spring day. Well it is in southern England. Clear skies. Soft slightly hazy sunshine. Birds everywhere kicking up a spring-type fuss. Beautiful. Runnning in the park with Gatsby early this morning and we even suprised a few spring baby rabbits back into their burrows! We're in the middle of the detailed explanation of the meaning of the mantra Nichiren Buddhists chant morning and evening, nam myoho renge kyo. We've talked about nam at asome length, and myoho at even greater length, and we're into renge, which means essentially cause and effect.
Basically Buddhism argues that every cause we make, good bad or indifferent, plants a balancingeffect in our lives. Thus there is for all of us an on-going chain of causes and effects. That is if you like the fundamental dynamic of our lives. Good causes good effects. Bad causes bad effects.
I think it's pretty easy to see how even a superficial understanding of this principle can have a powerful effect on our behaviour, on our awareness of the kind of causes that we are making. And since that process of linked causes and effects is going on all the time, you can see that where we are now in our lives, who we are now in our lives, is the sum of all the causes we have made in the past, that have planted effects in our lives.
By the same token the causes that we are making now, Buddhism reminds us, contain the seeds of our future. So you might say, the key factor in shaping our on-going lives is how we respond to the situations and events and encounters that face us now, today and tomorrow and the next day.
What that is saying so powerfully is that however much we might feel it to be the case, we are not simply subject to chance and accident and encounter that come at us out of our environment. The decisive factor is how we respond to those situations. The causes that we make and therefore the effects that we plant in our lives.
The basic message is therefore on eof immense hope and optimism. Whateverhas happened in the past good positive causes made now, will plant good positive effects, into our future.
Enough to absorb for one go I think.
Next time we will be looking at kyo.
All my best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available as a paper back on Amazon and as a downlaod on Kindle.
The good news is that the Spanish version is about to be launched for all those Spanish speakers in US and South America.
Sunday, 28 February 2016
my buddhist blog number 125
Hi Everybody,
Thanks so much for visiting my blog. It's really appreciated when there is so much else to grab your attention. We're in the middle of a detailed discussion on the meaning of nam myoho renge kyo, the mantra that we chant as Nichiren Buddhists morningn and evening. It is the title of the Lotus Sutra written in classical Japanese, with the addition of what is called the committal word, nam, which means basically I commit to, or I believe in. So we've talked about nam. We've talked at some length about myoho. And we've come to renge.
Renge means lotus flower, but most significantly it also means cause and effect. The lotus flower adopted as the title of Shakyamuni's ultimate teaching is an immensely significant symbol in Buddhism for many reasons. It is a plant with a particularly beautiful flower and it happens to grow and flourish with its flower and leaves floating on the surface of the water and its roots dangling into the mucky muddy conditions on the bottom of the pond. In this sense it is seen to symbolise the great potential locked up in every human life; the promise that we can build strong and positive and flourishing lives, however difficult the circumstances and environments we find our lives rooted in. Moreover the lotus happens to carry both blossoms and seed pods at the same time, simultaneously today's flower and the seeds of tomorrow's plants. In this sense it is seen to symbolise one of the fundamental and most important principles of Buddhism known as the simultaneity of cause and effect.
Once again it is a principle with which Buddhism asks us to challenge the way we are accustomed to thinking about everyday lives and relationships. Basically it argues every cause we make, good bad and indifferent, plants a balancing effect in our lives. That effect Buddhism argues, will, sooner or later, make itself felt in our lives, without fail. Thus there is for all of us an on-going chain of causes and effect. That is if you like thr fundamental dynamic of our lives. It ties together for each one of us, the past, the present and the future.
Buddhism argues that it is only be coming to understand this constant linkage, that we can grasp fully what it means to take responsibility for our actions, and to seek to change those inherent tendencies in our life that are causing us to suffer. So it is a fundamental teaching that carries with it all sorts of implications, since we are of course, making causes all the time, both within our own lives and in relation to those us, all day every day, in everything we think and say and do. Good causes, good effects. Bad causes, bad effects.
Enough I think to chew over for today.
Back during the week to conclude the renge section.
All my best wishes, and gratitude for your being here.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available as a hold in the hand paper back from Amazon or as a read-on-the-screen download from Kindle.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog. It's really appreciated when there is so much else to grab your attention. We're in the middle of a detailed discussion on the meaning of nam myoho renge kyo, the mantra that we chant as Nichiren Buddhists morningn and evening. It is the title of the Lotus Sutra written in classical Japanese, with the addition of what is called the committal word, nam, which means basically I commit to, or I believe in. So we've talked about nam. We've talked at some length about myoho. And we've come to renge.
Renge means lotus flower, but most significantly it also means cause and effect. The lotus flower adopted as the title of Shakyamuni's ultimate teaching is an immensely significant symbol in Buddhism for many reasons. It is a plant with a particularly beautiful flower and it happens to grow and flourish with its flower and leaves floating on the surface of the water and its roots dangling into the mucky muddy conditions on the bottom of the pond. In this sense it is seen to symbolise the great potential locked up in every human life; the promise that we can build strong and positive and flourishing lives, however difficult the circumstances and environments we find our lives rooted in. Moreover the lotus happens to carry both blossoms and seed pods at the same time, simultaneously today's flower and the seeds of tomorrow's plants. In this sense it is seen to symbolise one of the fundamental and most important principles of Buddhism known as the simultaneity of cause and effect.
Once again it is a principle with which Buddhism asks us to challenge the way we are accustomed to thinking about everyday lives and relationships. Basically it argues every cause we make, good bad and indifferent, plants a balancing effect in our lives. That effect Buddhism argues, will, sooner or later, make itself felt in our lives, without fail. Thus there is for all of us an on-going chain of causes and effect. That is if you like thr fundamental dynamic of our lives. It ties together for each one of us, the past, the present and the future.
Buddhism argues that it is only be coming to understand this constant linkage, that we can grasp fully what it means to take responsibility for our actions, and to seek to change those inherent tendencies in our life that are causing us to suffer. So it is a fundamental teaching that carries with it all sorts of implications, since we are of course, making causes all the time, both within our own lives and in relation to those us, all day every day, in everything we think and say and do. Good causes, good effects. Bad causes, bad effects.
Enough I think to chew over for today.
Back during the week to conclude the renge section.
All my best wishes, and gratitude for your being here.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available as a hold in the hand paper back from Amazon or as a read-on-the-screen download from Kindle.
Saturday, 20 February 2016
my buddhist blog number 124
Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. Thanks for coming to the blog. I try hard to keep it going at least once a week, but it's been really busy this week completing a script. So to recap, we're in the middle of what I think is a really important section exploring the meaning of myoho in the mantra we chant, nam myoho renge kyo. I notice I give fully 5 pages to this section which is an indication of how important an understanding of this phrase is to the practice. Anyway, we've reached the cart and horses!! This is an analogy that is often used because it presents such a graphic picture of the relationship between the myo and the ho aspects of our life.
So, our life is the cart and it's pulled along by our myo horse, or our deepest spiritual energy, and our ho horse, our physical life. In general it's true to say that we are accustomed to spending a great deal of time and effort nurturing the strength and the well-being of our ho horse, because of course it is so visible and so accessible to us. We can look at it in the mirror for example and worry about its shape! We can feed it three times a day and take it to the gym to work out and off to play sports to ensure that it is kept fit and healthy and suitably diverted. As a result we tend very much to equate our happiness and our sense of satisfaction with life with how well we are getting on with looking after our ho horse.
By contrast we tend to spend relatively little time, if any, nurturing and exercising our myo horse, because of course it is wholly unseen and and in general has a less powerful presence. The result is a gross imbalance in the pulling power of these two dimensions of our life. The wagon of our life is pulled off strongly in one direction dictated by our physical needs, our strong ho horse. Indeed it is often pulled round in circles, repeating patterns of behaviour, because the spiritual side of our make-up hasn't been nurtured enough to influence, to change that is, our habitual behaviour. We can, as we all know so well, become very much creatures of habit, tending to repeat patterns of thought and behaviour even when they lead to considerable pain and suffering in our lives. People very often for example, go through a whole series of similar relationships each one of which might follow a very similar pattern of rise and fall.
What we need to do, Buddhism tells us, is to become aware of the effects of this gross imbalance between the strength of our physical and spiritual lives, and so allocate more time and energy to keeping both horses, the myo as well as the ho, in a fit and active and healthy state.
That is very much the role that is played by the daily Buddhist practice, it is the regular daily work out for our myo horse.
That's plenty enough for this episode.
Next time we are on to renge.
Hope to see you then.
With all my best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle and if you read it and enjoy it, I would be immensely grateful if you would be prepared to put a few words into into the review section. Readers reviews are apparently a very powerful factor in encouraging new readers. And please accept my gratitude in advance!
Hope all is well with you. Thanks for coming to the blog. I try hard to keep it going at least once a week, but it's been really busy this week completing a script. So to recap, we're in the middle of what I think is a really important section exploring the meaning of myoho in the mantra we chant, nam myoho renge kyo. I notice I give fully 5 pages to this section which is an indication of how important an understanding of this phrase is to the practice. Anyway, we've reached the cart and horses!! This is an analogy that is often used because it presents such a graphic picture of the relationship between the myo and the ho aspects of our life.
So, our life is the cart and it's pulled along by our myo horse, or our deepest spiritual energy, and our ho horse, our physical life. In general it's true to say that we are accustomed to spending a great deal of time and effort nurturing the strength and the well-being of our ho horse, because of course it is so visible and so accessible to us. We can look at it in the mirror for example and worry about its shape! We can feed it three times a day and take it to the gym to work out and off to play sports to ensure that it is kept fit and healthy and suitably diverted. As a result we tend very much to equate our happiness and our sense of satisfaction with life with how well we are getting on with looking after our ho horse.
By contrast we tend to spend relatively little time, if any, nurturing and exercising our myo horse, because of course it is wholly unseen and and in general has a less powerful presence. The result is a gross imbalance in the pulling power of these two dimensions of our life. The wagon of our life is pulled off strongly in one direction dictated by our physical needs, our strong ho horse. Indeed it is often pulled round in circles, repeating patterns of behaviour, because the spiritual side of our make-up hasn't been nurtured enough to influence, to change that is, our habitual behaviour. We can, as we all know so well, become very much creatures of habit, tending to repeat patterns of thought and behaviour even when they lead to considerable pain and suffering in our lives. People very often for example, go through a whole series of similar relationships each one of which might follow a very similar pattern of rise and fall.
What we need to do, Buddhism tells us, is to become aware of the effects of this gross imbalance between the strength of our physical and spiritual lives, and so allocate more time and energy to keeping both horses, the myo as well as the ho, in a fit and active and healthy state.
That is very much the role that is played by the daily Buddhist practice, it is the regular daily work out for our myo horse.
That's plenty enough for this episode.
Next time we are on to renge.
Hope to see you then.
With all my best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle and if you read it and enjoy it, I would be immensely grateful if you would be prepared to put a few words into into the review section. Readers reviews are apparently a very powerful factor in encouraging new readers. And please accept my gratitude in advance!
Monday, 8 February 2016
my buddhist blog number 123
Hi Everybody,
We've been exploring the meaning of the mantra nam myoho renge kyo that we chant as a central part of our practice as Nichiren Buddhists. We've talked about nam which is the committal word which has a range of meanings such as I summon up or I make great effort. And we went on to talk about the meaning of myoho which essentailly describes the relationship between the myo or spiritual aspects of our life and the ho or physical aspects. And we touched upon the way in which the regularity of the practice strengthens the vitality of this spiritual diemnsion in our lives. That's basically where we pick up the theme today.
Rather more difficult to accept, indeed one of the most difficult concepts to understand, particularly if you have a background in science I suspect, is the Buddhist belief that all material existence, everything on Earth both animate and inanimate hasa physical and a spiritual aspect. Everything but everything we are told, has both myo and ho; the tree, the rock, the river, the mountain.
That is undoubtedly a difficult idea to take on board, although Buddhism is by no means alone in holding this view. Throughout the length and breadth of human history, artists and poets have been constantly seeking to open our eyes to this view of reality, in all languages and in all cultures. Wordworth for example, the great English romantic poet, when he famously described the myoho of a lake and a bunch of daffodils.
The waves beside them danced but they outdid the sparklin g waves in glee,
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company,
I gazed...and gazed..but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought;
For oft when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon my inner eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Buddhism simply stresses this aspect of the continuity and the close association that runs through all things, so it teaches that we are not separate from, but closely linked to everything around us. Thus in Buddhist terms, statements such as being in harmony with, or being at odds with one's environment are not simply figures of speech. They are held to represent a fundamental truth, a truth that is the basis for the Buddhist principle of oneness of self and environment. Essentially this argues that as we change, as we gradually strengthen and reveal our Buddha nature through our practice, so that change resonates through our environment.
Right. Enough said I think for one day!
I'll be back mid week to continue the thread.
I nust say I'm really enjoying going over the ground again.
I learn somethingnew every time I do it.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon and on Kindle.
We've been exploring the meaning of the mantra nam myoho renge kyo that we chant as a central part of our practice as Nichiren Buddhists. We've talked about nam which is the committal word which has a range of meanings such as I summon up or I make great effort. And we went on to talk about the meaning of myoho which essentailly describes the relationship between the myo or spiritual aspects of our life and the ho or physical aspects. And we touched upon the way in which the regularity of the practice strengthens the vitality of this spiritual diemnsion in our lives. That's basically where we pick up the theme today.
Rather more difficult to accept, indeed one of the most difficult concepts to understand, particularly if you have a background in science I suspect, is the Buddhist belief that all material existence, everything on Earth both animate and inanimate hasa physical and a spiritual aspect. Everything but everything we are told, has both myo and ho; the tree, the rock, the river, the mountain.
That is undoubtedly a difficult idea to take on board, although Buddhism is by no means alone in holding this view. Throughout the length and breadth of human history, artists and poets have been constantly seeking to open our eyes to this view of reality, in all languages and in all cultures. Wordworth for example, the great English romantic poet, when he famously described the myoho of a lake and a bunch of daffodils.
The waves beside them danced but they outdid the sparklin g waves in glee,
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company,
I gazed...and gazed..but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought;
For oft when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon my inner eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Buddhism simply stresses this aspect of the continuity and the close association that runs through all things, so it teaches that we are not separate from, but closely linked to everything around us. Thus in Buddhist terms, statements such as being in harmony with, or being at odds with one's environment are not simply figures of speech. They are held to represent a fundamental truth, a truth that is the basis for the Buddhist principle of oneness of self and environment. Essentially this argues that as we change, as we gradually strengthen and reveal our Buddha nature through our practice, so that change resonates through our environment.
Right. Enough said I think for one day!
I'll be back mid week to continue the thread.
I nust say I'm really enjoying going over the ground again.
I learn somethingnew every time I do it.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon and on Kindle.
Wednesday, 27 January 2016
my buddhist blog number 121
Hi Everybody,
We're exploring the meaning of the mantra that we chant in our daily daimoku, nam myoho renge kyo and we're talking about the various meanings of myoho, and we've talked about examples from music and painting. If we think about ourselves, then ho refers to all the elements in our physical make up that can be observed with our senses, so that includes of course our appearance, the way we happen to stand and walk and talk, the way we gesture with our hands, and the various facial expressions we use to communicate. All the elements in fact that enable someone to recognise us as who we are, even from some considerable distance away. But what is quite clear is that so many of those external physical attributes, those gestures and movements, the expression in our eyes for example, and the tone and modulation of our voice, the animation in the face and the postures of the body, are also an expression of our inner life, our myo. These two aspects of ourself are so clearly inextricably interwoven.
As we continue with our daily practice and seek to strengthen the vitality of the myo or spiritual aspect of our lives, it can have a very considerable manifest effect upon our physical persona, the general expression on our face for example, the light in our eyes, our tone of voice, our readiness to smile and greet others warmly and generously. The more active our inner spiritual life, the more readily it becomes apparent in our external appearance.
That's quite a big thought so I think we'll leave it there for today, to enable you to do a bit of rumination on that thought. We do want to greet others warmly and generously don't we? And we do want to have a persona that is vital and alive. Chanting nam myoho renge kyo is a genuine way of achieving those goals.
See you next time.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism, is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
We're exploring the meaning of the mantra that we chant in our daily daimoku, nam myoho renge kyo and we're talking about the various meanings of myoho, and we've talked about examples from music and painting. If we think about ourselves, then ho refers to all the elements in our physical make up that can be observed with our senses, so that includes of course our appearance, the way we happen to stand and walk and talk, the way we gesture with our hands, and the various facial expressions we use to communicate. All the elements in fact that enable someone to recognise us as who we are, even from some considerable distance away. But what is quite clear is that so many of those external physical attributes, those gestures and movements, the expression in our eyes for example, and the tone and modulation of our voice, the animation in the face and the postures of the body, are also an expression of our inner life, our myo. These two aspects of ourself are so clearly inextricably interwoven.
As we continue with our daily practice and seek to strengthen the vitality of the myo or spiritual aspect of our lives, it can have a very considerable manifest effect upon our physical persona, the general expression on our face for example, the light in our eyes, our tone of voice, our readiness to smile and greet others warmly and generously. The more active our inner spiritual life, the more readily it becomes apparent in our external appearance.
That's quite a big thought so I think we'll leave it there for today, to enable you to do a bit of rumination on that thought. We do want to greet others warmly and generously don't we? And we do want to have a persona that is vital and alive. Chanting nam myoho renge kyo is a genuine way of achieving those goals.
See you next time.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism, is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
Monday, 18 January 2016
my buddhist blog number 120
Hi everybody,
Had wonderful news from Italy this week where one of my books, The Reluctant Buddhist, or Il Buddista Rilutante as it is called in Italian has sold over 5500 copies in the past year which just blows me away, that it has touched so many people's lives. Don't know how to express my gratitude.
But here we are in this Approaching the Practice chapter launching into a slightly more detailed and yet wholly practical account of the meanings locked up in these characters nam myoho renge kyo. Not one that carries us off into the deeper realms of Buddhist philosophy perhaps, in case we get lost without trace, but one that might serve as a working reference, bearing in mind that if it stimulates you to know more, you can seek out one of the references in the bibliography. So, goggles on, here we go.
Nam. The word nam comes from the Sanskrit word namas and although it is commonly tranlated as, to devote one's life to, it has a multiplicity of overlapping meanings. Perhaps the most important among these meanings are ' to summon up,' or ' to awaken,' or, ' to draw forth,' or ' to make great effort.'
Why is knowing about these other meanings so helpful? Because they express subtle differences in our life state or state of mind when we are chanting at different times. When we are faced with a major challenge for example we may be thinking about summoning up or making great effort to draw out this inner resource rather than just awakening.
Myoho
Myoho is seen to describe the profound relationship between the very essence of life, or the life force that is inherent throughout the universe, and the literally millions of physical forms in which that life force is manifest or expressed at any given time. As Nichiren Daishonin defines that idea,
' Myo is the name given to the mystic nature of life, and ho to its manifestations.'
Thus in the Buddhist tradition, everything that exists, both sentient and insentient, is an expression in some way of that life force, and is subject to the eternal rhythm of life, formation, continuation, decline and disintegration. Everything but everything is subject to that process of change or impermanence as it is so often described in Buddhism.
So myoho is made up of two elements, myo which refers to the unseen or the spiritual element which is beleived to be inherent in all things, and ho, which refers to the physical manifestation that we can observe with our senses. In Buddhism all things, all phenomena, have a myo aspect and a ho aspect. They are the two different but inseparable aspects of all life, ' two but not two' as Buddhism often expresses it, as inextricably interlinked as the two sides of a sheet of paper.
Thus the ho aspect of a painting for example, is made up of the canvas and the paint that is spread across it. The myo aspect is the feeling or the emotion or the creative energy within the artist as he applies the paint in a particular way, and the emotional impact on us as we view it. Music similarly has a clearly recognisable ho aspect in the arrangement of the black and white strokes or the notes on the page, and the physical vibrations in the air caused by the instruments as they interpret them. The profound myo aspect is the effect the music has upon our emotions and feelings as we receive the sounds produced by the instruments in that particular way. As Shakespeare expressed it so pithily in Much Ado About Nothing, it is wholly inexplicable that a sequence of sounds produced on violin strings made out of the guts of a sheep...can move our hearts so readily to tears!
Enough for today.
Next episode we'll deal a little bit more with myoho and then move on to renge.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and on Kindle.
Had wonderful news from Italy this week where one of my books, The Reluctant Buddhist, or Il Buddista Rilutante as it is called in Italian has sold over 5500 copies in the past year which just blows me away, that it has touched so many people's lives. Don't know how to express my gratitude.
But here we are in this Approaching the Practice chapter launching into a slightly more detailed and yet wholly practical account of the meanings locked up in these characters nam myoho renge kyo. Not one that carries us off into the deeper realms of Buddhist philosophy perhaps, in case we get lost without trace, but one that might serve as a working reference, bearing in mind that if it stimulates you to know more, you can seek out one of the references in the bibliography. So, goggles on, here we go.
Nam. The word nam comes from the Sanskrit word namas and although it is commonly tranlated as, to devote one's life to, it has a multiplicity of overlapping meanings. Perhaps the most important among these meanings are ' to summon up,' or ' to awaken,' or, ' to draw forth,' or ' to make great effort.'
Why is knowing about these other meanings so helpful? Because they express subtle differences in our life state or state of mind when we are chanting at different times. When we are faced with a major challenge for example we may be thinking about summoning up or making great effort to draw out this inner resource rather than just awakening.
Myoho
Myoho is seen to describe the profound relationship between the very essence of life, or the life force that is inherent throughout the universe, and the literally millions of physical forms in which that life force is manifest or expressed at any given time. As Nichiren Daishonin defines that idea,
' Myo is the name given to the mystic nature of life, and ho to its manifestations.'
Thus in the Buddhist tradition, everything that exists, both sentient and insentient, is an expression in some way of that life force, and is subject to the eternal rhythm of life, formation, continuation, decline and disintegration. Everything but everything is subject to that process of change or impermanence as it is so often described in Buddhism.
So myoho is made up of two elements, myo which refers to the unseen or the spiritual element which is beleived to be inherent in all things, and ho, which refers to the physical manifestation that we can observe with our senses. In Buddhism all things, all phenomena, have a myo aspect and a ho aspect. They are the two different but inseparable aspects of all life, ' two but not two' as Buddhism often expresses it, as inextricably interlinked as the two sides of a sheet of paper.
Thus the ho aspect of a painting for example, is made up of the canvas and the paint that is spread across it. The myo aspect is the feeling or the emotion or the creative energy within the artist as he applies the paint in a particular way, and the emotional impact on us as we view it. Music similarly has a clearly recognisable ho aspect in the arrangement of the black and white strokes or the notes on the page, and the physical vibrations in the air caused by the instruments as they interpret them. The profound myo aspect is the effect the music has upon our emotions and feelings as we receive the sounds produced by the instruments in that particular way. As Shakespeare expressed it so pithily in Much Ado About Nothing, it is wholly inexplicable that a sequence of sounds produced on violin strings made out of the guts of a sheep...can move our hearts so readily to tears!
Enough for today.
Next episode we'll deal a little bit more with myoho and then move on to renge.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and on Kindle.
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