BUT...WHAT IS...

ANGER

In this next state, awareness of ego emerges, but is a selfish, greedy, distorted ego, determined to best others at all costs and seeing everything as a potential threat to itself. In this state we value only ourselves and tend to hold others in contempt. We are strongly attached to the idea of our own superiority and cannot bear to admit that anyone exceeds us in anything.

BUT...WHAT IS...

ANIMALITY

Animality is a condition governed by instinct,, in which one has no sense of reason or morality, and lives only for the present. Someone in this state fears the strong and despises and dominates the weak.

BUT...WHAT IS...

HUNGER

Hunger is the state of being controlled by insatiable desire for money, power, status or whatever. While desires are inherent in any of the Ten Worlds, in this state we are at the mercy of our cravings and cannot control them.

BUT...WHAT IS...

HELL

This is a state of suffering and despair, in which we perceive we have no freedom of action. It is characterized by the impulse to destroy ourselves and everything around us.

BUT...WHAT IS...

TEN WORLDS

Ten distinct realms or categories of beings referred to in Buddhist scriptures. 

From the lowest to the highest, the realms of (1) hell, (2) hungry spirits, (3) animals, (4) asuras, (5) human beings, (6) heavenly beings, (7) voice-hearers, (8) cause-awakened ones, (9) bodhisattvas, and (10) Buddhas. 

The Ten Worlds were viewed originally as distinct physical locations, each with its own particular inhabitants. The Lotus Sutra, however, teaches that each of the Ten Worlds contains all ten within it, making it possible to interpret them as potential states of life inherent in each individual being. In other words, from the standpoint of the Lotus Sutra, the Ten Worlds indicates ten potential states or conditions that a person can manifest or experience. The mutual possession of the Ten Worlds is a component principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which T'ient'ai (538-597) set forth in Great Concentration and Insight.

BUT...WHAT IS....

GOSHO

The individual and collected writings of Nichiren (1222-1282).

 

Gosho literally means honorable writings; go is an honorific prefix, and sho means writings. In general the word is used in Japanese as an honorific for certain books and writings, particularly for those of the founders and patriarchs of some Buddhist schools. Nikko, Nichiren's successor, used the word gosho to refer to Nichiren's works and made efforts to collect, copy, and preserve them as sacred texts. As a result, a remarkable number of Nichiren's works have been passed down to the present, and many are extant in his own hand. In terms of content, the Gosho may be divided into four groups: (1) treatises setting forth doctrine, (2) writings remonstrating with government authorities, (3) letters offering advice, encouragement, or consolation to believers, or written in answer to questions (many in this category also include expressions of gratitude for offerings and support received), and (4) written records of Nichiren's oral teachings, including his lectures on the Lotus Sutra.

WHO IS WHO

T'IEN-T'AI, MIAO-LO AND DENGYO

Three men are credited for spreading the LOTUS SUTRA throughout East Asia: T'ien-T'ai, Mia-lo and Dengyo.

T'ien-T'ai founded the Chinese Buddhist school that upheld the Lotus Sutra as Shakyamuni's highest teaching by classifying all of the Buddhist sutras. Mia-lo, revered as a restorer of the T'ien-T'ai school, wrote invaluable commentaries. Dengyo followed in the T'ien-T'ai tradition in Japan and laid the groundwork for Nichiren's emergence in the thirteenth century.

WHO IS WHO.....

NICHIREN DAISHONIN

Nichiren was born in 1222 in Japan, a time rife with social unrest and natural disasters. The common people, especially, suffered enormously. Nichiren wondered why the Buddhist teachings had lost their power to enable people to lead happy, empowered lives. While a young priest, he set out to find an answer to the suffering and chaos that surrounded him. His intensive study of the Buddhist sutras convinced him that the Lotus Sutra contained the essence of the Buddha's enlightenment and that it held the key to transforming people's suffering and enabling society to flourish.

The Lotus Sutra affirms that all people, regardless of gender, capacity or social standing, inherently possess the qualities of a Buddha, and are therefore equally worthy of the utmost respect.
Based on his study of the sutra Nichiren established the invocation (chant) of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as a universal practice to enable people to manifest the Buddhahood inherent in their lives and gain the strength and wisdom to challenge and overcome any adverse circumstances. Nichiren saw the Lotus Sutra as a vehicle for people's empowerment—stressing that everyone can attain enlightenment and enjoy happiness while they are alive.
Nichiren was critical of the established schools of Buddhism that relied on state patronage and merely served the interests of the powerful while encouraging passivity in the suffering masses. He called the feudal authorities to task, insisting that the leaders bear responsibility for the suffering of the population and act to remedy it. His stance, that the state exists for the sake of the people, was revolutionary for its time.
Nichiren's claims invited an onslaught of often-violent persecutions from the military government and the established Buddhist schools. Throughout, he refused to compromise his principles to appease those in authority.
Nichiren's legacy lies in his unrelenting struggle for people's happiness and the desire to transform society into one which respects the dignity and potential of each individual life.

BUT....WHAT IS....

THE LOTUS SUTRA

The Lotus Sutra is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential sutras, or sacred scriptures, of Buddhism. It is highly valued in the Mahayana tradition, which spread throughout East Asia.

Its key message is that Buddhahood--a condition of absolute happiness, freedom from fear and from all illusions--is inherent in all life. The development of this inner life state enables all people to overcome their problems and live a fulfilled and active life, fully engaged with others and with society. Rather than stressing impermanence and the consequent need to eliminate earthly desires and attachments, the Lotus Sutra asserts the ultimate reality of the Buddha nature inherent in all life. It is therefore a teaching which profoundly affirms the realities of daily life, and which naturally encourages an active engagement with others and with the whole of human society.

The Lotus Sutra is also unique among the teachings of Shakyamuni in that it makes the attainment of enlightenment a possibility open to all people, without distinction based on gender, race, social standing or education. In this way, it is seen to be a full expression of Shakyamuni's compassionate intention of opening the way to enlightenment to all people.

Six Chinese translations are recorded as having been made of the Lotus Sutra (Skt Saddharma-pun-darika-sutra; Chin Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching; Jpn Myoho-renge-kyo). Among these, the fifth-century translation of Kumarajiva (344-413), the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, is considered to be particularly outstanding and is the basis of the teachings that spread in China and Japan.

The Chinese Buddhist teacher T'ient'ai (538-597) divided the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law into two parts: the first 14 chapters, which he called the theoretical teaching, and the latter 14 chapters, which he called the essential teaching. The theoretical teaching records the preaching of the historical Shakyamuni who is depicted as having first attained enlightenment during this lifetime in India. In the essential teaching, he discards his transient role as the historical Shakyamuni and reveals his true, eternally enlightened identity. The most important doctrine in the essential teaching, T'ient'ai says, is the revelation of this originally and eternally enlightened nature in the depths of Shakyamuni Buddha's life.

Almost 2,000 years after Shakyamuni's death, a 13th-century Japanese priest called Nichiren Daishonin distilled the profound theory of the Lotus Sutra into a practice which could enable every individual to reveal their Buddhahood, or highest state of life, in the midst of day-to-day reality.

WHO IS WHO.....

SHAKYAMUNI

Buddhism originates in the teachings of Shakyamuni (Gautama Siddartha), who was born in what is now Nepal some 2,500 years ago.

Shakyamuni was born a prince, but from a young age he became aware of and was profoundly troubled by the problem of human suffering. He became increasingly possessed by a longing to abandon the secular world and go out in search of a solution to the inherent sufferings of life. Buddhist scriptures describe four encounters which served to awaken in him an awareness of four sufferings common to all people--birth, aging, sickness and death--and a desire to seek their solution. Eventually he renounced his princely status and embarked on a spiritual quest to understand how human suffering could be overcome.

For several years, he subjected himself to ascetic disciplines but found it impossible to reach emancipation through such self-mortification, and eventually rejected these practices. Then, near the city of Gaya, he seated himself under a pipal tree and entered meditation. There he attained an awakening, or enlightenment, to the true nature of life and all things. It was because of this enlightenment that he came to be called Buddha, or "Awakened One." After his awakening, Shakyamuni is said to have remained for a while beneath the tree, rejoicing in his emancipation yet troubled by the knowledge of how difficult it would be to communicate what he had realized to others. At length, however, he resolved to do so, so that the way to liberation from the sufferings of birth and death would be open to all people.

According to tradition, Shakyamuni then traveled widely throughout the Indian subcontinent sharing his enlightened wisdom, promoting peace and teaching people how to unleash the great potential of their lives. His compassionate intention was to enable all people to attain the same awakened state of life that he had attained.

It is thought that Shakyamuni died at age 80. Following his death, his teachings were recorded by his disciples in the form of sutras and spread throughout Asia, giving rise to a number of distinct schools of Buddhism, generally characterized by an emphasis on peace and compassion.