A temporary "ending" for Nam-myoho-renge-kyo: A Personal Exploration of the Wonderful Buddhist Mantra by Cris Roman

The fourteen chapters that have thus far been published were all written in 1999, after I had moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Occasionally, I get letters from some of you who have read this asking why I don't more forcefully address issues like the shortening of Gongyo by the Org or what my feelings are about certain current events in both the world of Nichiren believers or even the world at large. I must reiterate the fact that all of this was written in 1999 would explain, I hope, why there is so little reference to events in the present.
Also, I had consciously hoped, when writing the book, that what I had written would be fairly timeless. At the time it was written, it represents the totality of truths I had come to in the 30 years of practicing Nichiren Daishonin's teachings. These truths, to me, were unchangeable and, in the years since this book was written, I would alter very little of what I wrote, except perhaps to make it more clear or entertaining.

Additionally, these fourteen chapters represent what, to me, are the core teachings of the Daishonin. There can be many arguments about how many angels (bodhisattvas?) can dance on the head of the pin, but I merely meant to convey something absolute about the practice and nature of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the Gohonzon, Gongyo and the Three Thousand Worlds.

Of course, there is much more that remains to be written by both others and myself. However, in the heartwarming response I have received from many of you, there is a sense that what has already appeared herein has served as both encouragement and, for some, the impetus to begin or resume the practice of Nichiren Daishonin's wonderful teaching.

Since I would often proclaim as I was writing this, "If even one person is moved to chant as a result of reading this, I will consider it a success," I suppose I could rest on my laurels.

Nevertheless, there is so much more to say. In fact, these fourteen chapters represent about three-quarters of what I wrote in 1999. The last twenty-five percent or so dealt with more personal observations about my life, my thoughts about the Nichiren community in general and my hopes and dreams for the future. However, in the last several years, everything has changed.

In 1999, I was twenty years into my second marriage, living the idyllic life of a writer in the Black Hills of South Dakota and on my way to what I thought would be a life of contentment and graceful aging in the bosom of my family and rural America. However, none of that was to pass.

In Buddhism there is a concept that "you choose your karma" (gankenogo.) The idea is that if, in your heart of hearts and soul of souls, you conceive, even unconsciously, of some long-range vision of who you want to be and what you want to do, then the effect is that life will lead you on a journey meant to facilitate and actualize that vision.

This is the process of becoming enlightened or, as more cynical types might phrase it, "be careful what you wish for."

It was in October of 2001 in South Dakota that my 21-year marriage to wonderful Julie came to an end as she and I mutually (perhaps with a bit more prompting on her side) parted ways. It had been a long, rewarding educational journey for both of us, but sometimes things grow a bit cold and stale and even the revitalization that comes from chanting manifests as the need to chart a new course.

Over the next two years, I crisscrossed the country several times, driving over 100,000 miles as I sought to piece together a new life and future for myself -- not exactly what I had been anticipating at age 55. Along the way, I wrestled with issues of what I had done wrong to "destroy my castle from within," missed the hell out my youngest, 8-year-old child, who continued living with Mom in South Dakota as Dad left to seek greater fortune out-of-state in order to keep two households going.

Ultimately, I ended up in Minnesota by way of Maine in a bizarre vocational odyssey that had me attaining my graduate degree in psychology and has me presently working with SPMI (severe and persistent mentally ill) homeless adults. In a Tatsunokuchi Beach-like confluence of events -- at least from my perspective -- both Julie and my beloved youngest son live ten minutes away from me here in Minneapolis.

All of this has been against a background of what I perceive as de-evolution of social and political realities on a national, if not global scale.

In addition, I continue to grieve over the continuing, exacerbating impotence of Nichiren Shoshu and other Nichiren believers to make any dent whatsoever in the mainstream of Western religious affairs. For people who supposedly possess a practice at the apex of Buddhist teaching, in terms of both universal accessibility and efficacy, Nichiren believers have managed to keep it a very big and embarrassingly esoteric secret.

Over the past several years, I have proclaimed to all who would listen that the power of the Gohonzon no longer informs or infuses the efforts of any organization which tries to spread Nichiren's teachings because the members of all those organizations seem so intent on decrying each other's approaches and techniques.

These organizations, be they the "Org" or the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood or any number of splinter groups, have all turned their backs on Nichiren's admonition that his believers "should always talk with one another and surmount the sufferings of life and death to attain the pure land of Eagle Peak, where you may agree to speak in one mind."

In fact, in another writing wherein Nichiren purports to speak of the ways in which his teachings can retain their eternal vitality and relevance for those who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, he says:

All disciples and believers of Nichiren should chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with one mind (itai doshin), transcending all differences among themselves to become as inseparable as fish and the water in which they swim. This spiritual bond is the basis for the universal transmission of the ultimate law of life and death.

The vast majority of Nichiren's priestly and lay believers these days are not particularly good at dealing civilly with one another, let alone "transcending all differences" or "speaking with one mind."

Is it any wonder why, despite the diamond teaching they possess, their ranks are not swelling?

To me at least, standing here on the outside, reeling from the 9/11 of my own life (strangely, those twin towers came crashing down the same week as my marriage) and viewing a nation which in its polarity directly reflects that found among Nichiren believers, the answer to the above question is a no-brainer.

The Gohonzon will not inform the efforts of human beings, Buddhas all, who slander one another. It is impossible to slander Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nichiren or his Gohonzon -- those realities are too powerful. It is in our slander of each other as common, fallible mortals that we neutralize the redemptive power of our own internal Buddha-nature.

So here I sit in the frozen tundra that is Minnesota, appreciating the Daishonin's suffering in the Sado Island winters during his exile, and determined to follow his example as one man trying to make a difference.

At present, I am pursuing a career as an Adlerian therapist. Alfred Adler was a psychologist who believed that man's well being depended largely on what he termed "social interest." I find an interesting confluence of ideas between what Adler taught and the Buddhist notion of what it truly means to be a "bodhisattva." So, to that end, and frankly, to increase my net worth in an increasingly difficult and competitive marketplace, I will probably be trying to enhance my vocational abilities over the next few years. For this reason, and because I really don't believe in the human ability to multi-task, I am placing the completion of this book -- my true life's work -- on hold for a couple years...hence, this "provisional ending."

As I mentioned earlier, I really have said all I wanted to about the basic teaching and practice of Nichiren Buddhism. I have determined that I want my new, final ending to be an inspirational and practical collaboration between myself and a member of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, symbolizing the unity of laity and priesthood that Nichiren so often stressed. For this I must chant, because although I have a priest in mind, accomplishing the partnership will be no easy matter. In the meantime I have enough to keep me busy.

In closing, there are just a couple of issues I want to address -- mostly because these have been running threads in the correspondence I have received from those who have read this far.

The first has to do with the organizations -- Am I affiliated with any of them or do I have a preference? The answers are no and no. I have, though not for many years, been active in both the Org, as you know, and its priestly lay counterpart known as the Hokkeko. Because neither of them, nor numerous other splinter groups, has unilaterally eschewed their criticism of other Nichiren believers or organizations, I cannot in good faith participate.

I believe that whatever intolerance Nichiren himself may have exhibited in his day came from:

1. His belief that it was literally him against a corrupt Buddhist world and;

2. His understanding that he had to appear intransigent in order to assure the permanence of his teaching.

I have often said that, to me, the strength of Nichiren's persona and statements was analogous to a mountain climber driving pitons into rock -- his survival, both personal and religious, depended on driving home his teachings in a completely unambiguous manner.

However, we are not Nichiren and these are not his times. In point of fact, those of us in the West need have no worry at all about the impurity of the Buddhist world...there is no Buddhist world here to speak of.

If we simply, quietly and joyfully just expound the wonder of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to the Gohonzon, there will be plenty of people to listen and try it.

Our only obligation is to show actual proof ourselves, within our own (not our organizational) lives, and to teach people as best we can.

This leads me to the practice of Gongyo, another issue. If you have read my chapter on Gongyo as a symphony, then you might guess that I consider the shortening of Gongyo by the Org to be a very sad thing. Does that mean I think everyone should do all of it, as I do it, five prayers every morning and three every night? Absolutely not!

However, it does mean that I think Gongyo is a critical part of the practice that should not be toyed with as a marketing ploy to make Nichiren's practice more palatable to busy post-modernists.

There is room to play around here. We are all different and we can all spend the amount of time we chant differently. Nonetheless, there is a gravitas to the practice of Gongyo which I'm not convinced can be grasped by presenting it as a perfunctory five-minute practice. Is it hard to learn? Absolutely. For no other reason than to help teach it, an organization may be necessary.

However, this is my point: If there is any need for organization at all, it is to educate people to the daily practice of Nichiren's teaching. The last 20 years have proven to me that it (an organization) is not necessary to teach me how I should live, believe, or behave.

Should we all study, as Nichiren mandates, and learn more about the underpinnings of how he arrived at Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and the Gohonzon? Absolutely!

Should we buy into any one person's agenda or dogmatic pronouncements about what constitutes the correct way to practice Nichiren Daishonin's teachings? Absolutely not!

We should, each and every one of us, chant Daimoku to the Gohonzon and learn, through trial and error, to trust the Buddha-wisdom that wells up within us as the result of our daily practice. This will invariably lead us to the lessons we need to learn and the path we choose to follow.

Finally, I address the Gohonzon -- Nichiren's grandest invention and an incomparable object with which to fuse and reveal the universe within us. Since the schism between the Org and the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, both have been producing Gohonzons that, in my opinion, accurately reflect the Daishonin's intent in his original creation.

For those who would like to receive a Gohonzon, therefore, I would submit that either the Org or the Priesthood is a fine place to do so. I personally would never consider a Gohonzon that came from an organization which does not regard Nichiren as the "Dai" Shonin (great priest) because those groups tend to place him in a subordinate position to the historical Shakyamuni Buddha and, more importantly, place his Gohonzon in an equivalent, or even subsidiary, position to many other so-called mandalas or objects for meditation.

This, I believe, is totally contrary to Nichiren's intent and diminishes the import of his masterpiece, his Gohonzon.

A couple last thoughts about the Gohonzon: Because, as Nichiren said, and I reflected upon in earlier chapters, "I inscribe my life in sumi ink," I would be loathe to use a Gohonzon reproduced by electronic or digital means. This is because, at the depths of my being (and I stress this is only my opinion), I believe the Gohonzon is best created through the sincere efforts of a human being -- not by machine or computer. Call me a purist, but it is just what I feel and I would be lying if I said I could shake the feeling.

Also, because the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood has some 700 years of experience and tradition dating back to Nichiren in their production of the Gohonzon, I would give their scrolls a slight edge over the Org's with regard to the intent, the spirit, with which they are created.

The Org's Gohonzons look very nice, but the truth is their inception came from a schism that was borne of great animosity. To continue to spread Nichiren's teachings, the Org was forced into a situation where they had to create their own Gohonzon.

Though I have no dispute with the correctness or efficacy of their creation, I am concerned that it emanated from such disharmony. Nonetheless, because the Gohonzon itself is such a perfect, objective manifestation of the Three Thousand Worlds and the essence of the Lotus Sutra, believers who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to a scroll obtained from either the Org or the Priesthood should derive the full benefit of which Nichiren so eloquently spoke.

This final point, to me, crystallizes the argument for why I believe it is so crucial that Unity become the battle cry of all Nichiren believers.

It is tragic there has to be so much confusion over such a wonderfully simple teaching -- the mystic law is manifest by the fusion of a human's chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to a Gohonzon.

Even though individuals will certainly derive incalculable benefit and wonder from their Buddhist practice, I absolutely maintain that the organizations that continue to argue with one another will never be imbued with either power or influence. Therefore, all their attempts at true expansion, impact and influence within any society will be to no avail.

And so I close this provisional ending with a prophecy. In 20 years, my writings will either be discarded on the heap of millions of other words written about Nichiren, Buddhism and religion in general or I will be regarded as a great sage.

My prophecy is this: Until all believers in Nichiren's teachings truly learn to love and unite in all their multifaceted glory as manifest by their individual practice, their respective groups and factions will have no more impact than a feather against a hurricane.

This may be the saddest fact of all. I absolutely believe that all the turmoil of this world we live in today stems from humankind's erroneous beliefs about the true nature of life and death and existence, as expounded by any number of shallow and incomplete religious dogmas.

Because of these mistaken beliefs, the vast majority of the world's peoples live in absolute fear of that which they know they do not understand. That fear begets anger, violence and war.

This was a core message of Nichiren's writings about how to achieve peace -- admonitions which his believers are impotent to convey to the general populace because of their own fear and disunity.

Until human beings learn to embrace each other despite all their faults and differences and mistakes and betrayals, they will never find the peace that is the key to preventing the destruction of our species.

I'm not talking Armageddon here. I'm talking simple cause and effect. The world is overpopulated and we're running out of resources. Human beings continue to squander their one birthright: The power of God/Buddha that exists within and that, in union with our fellow humans, can transform our planet.

When I first started writing op/ed pieces on the old BuddhaJones site, numerous scholars, all more highly educated than me, attacked my claim that there were far more similarities between Buddha and Messiah, God and Dharma, than there were differences.

Some of you may recall -- I felt the differences were more in the languages and semantics of the countries of origins for all these different religions than in the actual concepts or realities. I cannot back up these claims with all kinds of scholarly references. All I can say is that they are predicated on my absolute, unshakable belief in the true nature of things and, as Kant might say, "Because it is beyond reason, it is simply a matter of faith."

Over 30 years ago, I decided that I would practice Nichiren's Buddhism with the spirit that it had to be the religion -- the faith -- that I wanted it to be. Now, all these decades later, I realize that's exactly what it has become for me. I feel blessed.

I hope all those who read this might similarly hope for a religious faith that they might personalize and make their own, the stuff that dreams are made of. Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to the Gohonzon is the gift Nichiren Daishonin left for those with such hope -- the religion you want it to be.

I have always told people that I would quit chanting if:

1. They could come to me after three months of sincere daily effort, look me in the eyes and deny its efficacy; or

2. They could come up with an easier, more accessible chant and less alien object for meditative fusion.

Almost 40 years later and I'm still practicing exactly as Nichiren taught. I am firmly convinced that no one has given humanity a better set of tools -- the key to our universal redemption.

In a few years, hopefully with my priestly friend at my side, I'll try to expand on this a bit and complete this book while publishing it in traditional paper form.

For now, I thank you for reading this. I encourage you to communicate with me via this blog, and hope you will all pray with me that we can hold this species together until we arrive at the greater truth that will allow us to stop tearing at and hurting one another.

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Read the interview, Catching Up With Cris Roman.

Read Cris' book, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo: A Personal Exploration of the Wonderful Buddhist Mantra:

Chapter 1: Looking for a Bridge

Chapter 2: Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra

Chapter 3: Defining Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

Chapter 4: The Benefits of Buddhist Practice

Chapter 5: A Focal Point for One's Faith

Chapter 6: The Gohonzon and Bodhisattva Practice

Chapter 7: A Personal Relationship with the Gohonzon

Chapter 8: Theoretical Underpinnings of the Gohonzon

Chapter 9: Theoretical Underpinnings of the Gohonzon, Part Two

Chapter 10: Gongyo, An Intensely Personal Symphony

Chapter 11: The Moment of Death, and Changing Karma

Chapter 12: Total Responsibility

Chapter 13: Propagating an Individual Practice in America

Chapter 14: Ethics and Morality in Nichiren Buddhism