The Lifetime chapter of the Lotus Sutra is the second part of Gongyo, as defined by Nichiren Daishonin.
It describes the lifetime of the Buddha an should be studied closely by anyone practicing Buddhism.
In essence it says that the Buddha attained enlightenment in the immeasurable past and has since taught his or her teachings across the face of the world according to the circumstances (expedient means). Sometimes the Buddha “pretends” he has died but the truth is that he is always alive and only dies in order to make people yearn for his appearance.
In the context of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism and, in particular, the practice propagated by SGI, this has a profound effect.
In particular, there is the belief that only when one is chanting daimoku to Gohonzon is one is a state of Buddhahood (enlightenment) and that chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo activates our Buddhahood.
The truth is that the Buddha is immortal and that all our actions are manifestations of it. This is what is at the core of the Lifetime chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
No action you can make can make you any more or less of a Buddha. It’s a reality. To believe otherwise is to be seriously misguided .. hence my strong opposition to SGI’s insistence that Buddhahood only manifests when chanting daimoku to gohonzon.
You enlightenment never dies. All you need to do is to have faith in yourself. It’s that simple
Buddhism From This Point Of View 
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March 15, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Strangely
I don’t know who you are but actually, my sentiments and life from your brief description are, and have been, much as yours. Your last bit is pertinent and about the same as my own.
I’m paraphrasing you where you said:
This ties in with my constant re-reading of Guatama’s last words because when he said these words he knew he was going to die.
He also knew that his words would be recorded and held up for all time (or at least a long time!) as axioms and the like.
he also knew that people would misinterpret his words, as they’d already done in his own lifetime.
So because of this, I just know that he chose his very last words very, very, very, carefully.
Oner translation has them as:
For me, this means seek out your own truth and when you’ve found it, test and test it to ensure that it’s correct. I’m sure my own enlightenment is true and valid, so now I try and impart this, as best as I can, to help others. Truly, the change and interconnectedness of all things is there before us. I have faith in that. It’s very simple, with countless examples all around us, every day. So I do my best and if I think that I haven’t, I try not to dwell on it, as it’s passed. I will not diminish myself becuase as you said, no action you can make can make you any more or less of a Buddha.
Brilliant. Thanks.
Rees
March 26, 2012 at 6:43 pm
britesprite
Hi Rees,
Thank you very much for your comment. I’ve replied privately and so hope you know who I am.
I also love the phrase “All component things in the world are changeable”. I’ve always seen one truth in our lives which I paraphrase as:
“Only one thing is unchanging: the fact that everything changes!” IMHO, if you can grasp this then you’ve grasped your Buddhahood. That includes the sense of humour required 🙂
Life is a fast flowing experience which we need to use to the best of our abilities. If life is like a river: we may have our origin in glacial waters or marshes in a delta. Or we may be the sea, the fish which swim in the sea, or in the river at any point in its navigation.
The point is we are a community and as soon as we understand that and respect one another for our revealed Buddhahood, the closer we are to achieving enlightenment.
Chris
March 27, 2012 at 12:15 pm
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March 27, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Strangely
Hi again. Part of what the SGI, as a Buddhist organisation seeks to do is work for happiness. A Buddhist friend of mine has just popped a video onto FB which I thought I’d share with you here. In it, an interviewer asks Alfred Hitchcock his idea of the definition of happiness…..
I’ve just watched it 3 times, and while initially appearing as almost whimsical, especially as it kicks off, I think it’s a stark revelation about the man and he means every word, quite frankly. Why would he jest around something like that (and he was known for his humour)?
I’ve seen the clip previously, some years back, but had forgotten about it until now. It ties in with the end of what you’ve just said in your reply just above and in our private conversation, proving, yet again, that there are no co-incidences in Buddhism!
In the end, even if Hitchcock is playing with us, the message is the same no matter how it’s told or who tells it. The beauty is felt by the “hearer” and they make their opinion from it. If they find that “the path” is revealed or that it helps in even a small way, then that’s good.
“All good” – as Sensei’s favourite poet says: http://poetry.about.com/od/poems/l/blwhitmansong.htm
“I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-wash’d babe, and am not contain’d between my hat and boots;
And peruse manifold objects, no two alike, and every one good;
The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good.”
March 27, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Strangely
Reblogged this on Strangely Perfect.
April 5, 2012 at 12:37 pm
britesprite
Thank you for continuing the conversation Rees, very much appreciated.
I don’t subscribe to the idea that happiness (or Buddhahood) is essentially “freedom from worry”. You cannot have creativity without destruction, just as a child cannot draw without a pencil or crayon.
To put it another way, the lotus doesn’t flower without roots in the dark mud, and Myo cannot exist without Ho.
Within this frame of reference, Buddhahood is about understanding that life is a balance of these things, not a greedy existence where you prefer one form of life’s manifestation over another.
However, Buddhahood is not that balance per se. It’s about understanding, or perspective. As an analogy, consider the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
Wanting perpetual “freedom from worry” this is like asking for perpetual summer. This is like saying Myo of greater than Ho, that a Lotus flower is more important than its roots, or that happiness can be experienced without sadness.
However if this was translated into the seasons of the Earth then you’d have one hemisphere in perpetual summer and the other in perpetual winter. Aside from fairness, do you really think the summer hemisphere could exist without rains, monsoon, snow, and the suchlike?
Personally, I don’t seek any kind of heaven which will be great and fantastic and full of joy. “Heaven”, for me, is where I am (“not far, like some distant star”). This is my life, this is where I am … this is my Buddhahood.
April 5, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Strangely
I think we’re all walking the same path here on this one, even though when Hitchcock spoke he probably didn’t think his words would be pulled apart decades in the future on the definition of happiness!
Hitchcock to me seems to recognise the duality of nature and takes it on-board. He just says that he prefers to have an easy ride from the viewpoint of quarrelling and the like.
He also touches on something that Sensei has said is one of the greatest barriers to happiness. Sensei calls it deadlock, and the opposite of this I see Hitchcock calling a “clear road” – a path that allows himself to express his creativity. That mental block, the thoughts that prevent us from decision-making, these are some of the greatest barriers to happiness. I have wasted so much time on pointless worrying, usually to the extent that nothing, as opposed to at least something, gets done.
For me now, taking all the good and bad parts of life is just life itself. However, just because my tooth has crumbled 2 days ago and will cost me about 500 quid to fix doesn’t mean that I have to like it. Obviously I’d like to have a nice, good tooth, doing all the things that teeth do. But I can now think around it and see a bigger picture.
Taking the middle way on that allows me to stand back and think, “hmm, tooth decay, part of the process of ageing and also an effect I’m now seeing of the cause I made earlier of some abuse I made to my body. Hmm, how fortunate to live in a time and place to be able to both fix and afford to fix this issue and thus prolong my life instead of dying early from a jawbone infection.”
No-one is immune to pains and tribulations and their existence allows us to see the black & white, the ying & yang, the myo & ho that our concious existence is. Appreciating them both, the whole, I see that as being part of the Buddha nature, though it also, by definition, means we won’t like the bad parts. Only pain junkies enjoy pain, but I don’t think that that is happiness; and to have a life without pain also in a similar, strange way, does not guarantee happiness. We see examples of this all the time in our lives.
What I’m trying to say is to appreciate all for what it is, but don’t sit silent, uncomplaining, when things are bad, because to do that is to deny our human nature. It’s not greedy to want nice as opposed to not nice. It is greedy to take nice at the expense of others because that’s not the same thing.
April 19, 2012 at 9:02 am
britesprite
Hi Rees,
Thank you as always for your engagement .. my apologies for having taken some time to reply.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. For my own recent experience I “knackered” my leg just before Christmas and the good people at the hospital thought I’d severed a major tendon. As it goes I hadn’t, it was just the mother of all bruises.
Should I get worried about whether it was “bad karma” which caused me to injure my leg, or “good karma” which saved me from an operation? Absolutely not. This is my life and if I have no regrets or guilt about it then I will create no negatives causes for the future.
I intensely dislike the idea of heaven being anywhere else than in our own lives and experiences. This seems obvious to anyone conversant with the Gosho, but I was shocked a few years ago when an SGI member visiting from (I think Thailand) said she hoped that her practice would lead her to enlightenment in several lifetimes’ time. Its rather shameful to think that no one corrected her.
That’s why I bridle at Hitchcock’s “clear path”. You’re right he does appreciate the duality of life but appears to think that one side will be victorious over the other. That can never happen. Just as you say “only pain junkies enjoy pain” so it is that only pleasure junkies enjoy pleasure.
Life in its reality is both pleasure and pain … the enjoy both in equal measure is a hard task for any common mortal 😉
August 9, 2012 at 6:50 pm
lyn666
Wonders of life our Buddha nature exploring through the universe repeating the cycle of birth and death. Creating a new mission for the sake of humanity. Live well treat people with dignity as a human being of your loving heart.
Never forget we are all equal !