Joe Isuzu's Daily Slander

Here is an entire article from a web site dedicated to chanting for animals:

Chanting for animals leads to shakabuku

Every one wants to shakabuku someone. But what most Nichiren believers don’t realize is the fact that chanting for animals can lead to shakabuku. In every part of society there are people who either love animals or have deep compassion for animals. When people are trying to shakabuku other people , they never talk about chanting for animals. Even in situations where the Nichiren bliever knows the person either has an animal or else is deeply compassionate towards animals, nothing is ever said about chanting for animals. Some how the animals are left completely out of the picture by Nichiren believers who are trying to shakabuku other people.

There are a great many people in society who love and trust animals more than they do with humans. When Nichiren believers try to shakabuku these kinds of people, again they mention nothing about chanting for animals. Yet, if these Nichiren believers were to explain to these people that animals also have Buddha nature and they can chant for their animals or for animals and any concern they have with animals then they would have a far better chance of shakabukuing them.

But don’t fool your self.

Nichiren believers who do not chant for animals, who try to shakabuku people who love animals or are compassionate towards animals are going to have a harder time trying to shakabuku people who love animals or else who have compassion for animals. But those Nichiren believers who actually chant for animals will have a better chance to shakabuku those who love animals and those who are compassionate towards animals. Nichiren believers would be able to reach and relate to those who love and trust animals more than they do humans and would have a far better chance of shakabukuing these people.

If any Nichiren believer seeks to shakabuku others, then they are going to need to chant for animals through time. When they chant for animals, they increase their chances of being able to shakabuku other people.

Chanting for animals does lead to shakabuku.

My response:

Chanting For Bacon

I like some animals because they instinctually look to me as head of the pack giving me the job nurturing them into my realm and depend on me for food and shelter. (That would be, my dogs.) I like other animals because they are more independent, need less attention and come to me when they damn well feel like it. (That would be, my cats.) All of my pets have been rescue pets.

I like other animals because they are delicious.

It’s a lot easier being a vegetarian if you live where vegetables grow. It’s harder if whale blubber is a big part of your diet. It also doesn’t make sense to wear saffron robes under your polar bear skins. Unless you consider them to be celestial garments like the Mormons do. Don’t want to be caught with your pants down when you die without the right day of the week on your underwear. I spend a great deal of time in Utah and I saw a TV commercial that at first glance I thought it a SNL take off. It was for a “Crazy Larry” type of store and if you came in that week, you’ll get a great deal on your cloths with their Missionary Starter Kit: “two wash-n-wear suits, two wash-n-wear shirts (pocket protectors not included), two pairs of walking shoes, two wash-n-wear ties, and if you mention this add we’ll throw in another pair of pants all for only $375! At this price, we must be crazy!”

I was once arguing the “don’t take a picture of a gohonzon” topic to a top SGI leader. I had this particular person painted into a logical and reason based corner with no other recourse except to pull out the ole “we just ask you to respect our beliefs” catch phrase used by every faith based world view. Of course I responded with the issue that as a humanist you have my respect for being part of humanity and also part of the entire cosmos. But if you want my respect for your beliefs, you have to earn that. You do not get a buy on beliefs. Beliefs are dearly bought because they predicate behavior and behavior affects the environment of which we are all a part.

There at least 30 Nichiren sects all claiming authentic heritage. Within Buddhism there are thousands of sub sects within each major school, 6 to 10 ish depending on who makes the list. And every religion has reformations that swing and sway many directions due to the proclivities of the reformer. But let’s look at the claims made by Chanting For Animals because it is a very good microcosm of the capriciousness of any faith-based religion.

The title of the page is “Chanting for animals leads to shakabuku”.

It begins with “Every one wants to shakabuku someone.” That’s a false premise even within the Nichiren sects. The author who refers to “Nichiren believers” assumes her definition of shakabuku is everyone else’s. But even if I agreed with her definition, I personally do not want to “shakabuku” anyone so I can unequivocally state that the author is incorrect.

“There are a great many people in society who love and trust animals more than they do with humans.”
Hello author, that’s actually one clinical symptom of a sociopath. Hey wait a second,…hello author!

“But don’t fool your self….”

“If any Nichiren believer seeks to shakabuku others, then they are going to need to chant for animals through time.”

I said “capricious”!

Are you having trouble in your life? Are you not getting the benefits you expected? It’s because you’re not shakabukuing anyone and that’s because you are not practicing correctly because you are not chanting for animals! But if you come in this week, not only will you get my personal reading on what your individual animal spirit is and what animals you should be chanting for, but we’ll throw in a beautiful “Nichiren Swimming With Dolphins” medallion (available in necklace, bracelet, or anklet) plastic laminated for the look of real wood all for only $375. At this low price, we must be crazy!

http://www.chantbuddy.com/

Mello Yellow: Oh Yeah

“The fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states, “The offense of uttering even a single derogatory word against the priests or laity who believe in and preach the Lotus Sutra is even graver than that of abusing Shakyamuni Buddha to his face for an entire kalpa.” (Chapter 10 LS) The Lotus Sutra also states, “[If anyone shall see a person who embraces this sutra and try to expose the faults or evils of that person, he will in the present age be afflicted with white leprosy,] whether what he speaks is the truth or not.” (Chapter 28 LS)
The Fourteen Slanders WND

White leprosy
Vitiligo: Pronounced vit-uh-LIE- go. A condition in which the skin turns white due to the loss of melanocytes.
As the skin gradually loses its color, patch by patch, other people may treat someone with vitiligo like a leper, thinking they have a contagious skin disease. In fact, vitiligo is called “white leprosy” in India. Women with it are often discriminated against in marriage. If they develop vitiligo after marriage, it can be grounds for divorce.

“Information is not just an abstract concept, and it is not just facts or figures, dates and names. It is a concrete property of matter and energy that is quantifiable and measurable…And everything in the universe must obey the laws of information, because everything in the universe is shaped by the information it contains.”
Decoding The Universe, Charles Seife

What Now?

I’ve reached a point in my skeptical Buddhist practice where instead of nodding in approval, or worse nodding in approval after being cajoled to nod in approval, I do not. I guess I have been priming myself these last ten years or so to make myself aware when I have either been lazy in accepting a given notion or actually looking for that which confirms what I already believe or want to believe regardless of a lack of reason or evidence to the contrary.

Print The Legend

Some Christians in this country will point at our national motto IN GOD WE TRUST as proof that our nation was founded upon Christian ideals. After all, it’s been on our coinage since the 1860’s, on our paper money since 1957 and the phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge Of Allegiance that same year mostly as a reaction to conflicts with the threat of worldwide domination from godless communism. The US Supreme Court interprets these references to GOD as losing any contextual significance and is not in conflict with the US Constitution as to not establishing a state church. I wonder how they would feel about the phrase GOD IS GREAT on a nickel?

Ask most devoted Christians about Jesus and they will tell you that they have put their trust and their eternal salvation in his divine hands and that the Holy Bible is the WORD of GOD. Although I doubt that most of them have read the whole bible. And even if they have, they mostly cherry pick out what they agree to believe in. Most Christians have little information about the origins of their religion or it’s relationship to paganism. Nor how much scholarly investigation has cast doubtful shadows over how much of Christian lore is valid or apocryphal. That kind of information really gets in the way of belief.

From the time the man know as Jesus supposedly preach his teachings, was crucified on the cross, came back to life and ascended into heaven, there is a gap of about four decades or more before the gospels, starting with Mark along with the derivative Mathew, Luke and John, were written. A man known as Saul who became Paul had a spiritual revelation where the Lord came to him and commanded him to start spreading the word of Jesus Christ. Except in all the letters of Paul, which is the bases for the Christian religion, he doesn’t mention any of the stories we commonly associate with Jesus: the Virgin Mary, Herod, John The Baptist, wise men, miracles, or anything that Jesus supposedly said. He only speaks of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. And all this writing by Paul depicts Jesus not as a real person, but in a mythical realm. And he’s the link between the disappearance of Jesus and the writing of the gospels, the start of the Christian religion. The compilation of the scriptures of the bible took centuries. And there was plenty of time to add, subtract, adjust and justify what was said, when and by whom. In other words, a whole lot of redaction.

One of my favorite movie westerns is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. For my money, the story is timeless, and I have seen variations on its’ theme from many cultures. There are also about a zillion lines in it that are quotable, if you know what I mean Pilgrim. Almost at the end of the movie we hear a statement about the truth of an event that changed the lives of everyone. It’s an interesting comment on the human condition regardless of culture:

“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”.

The Buddha Wasn’t A Buddhist

It’s not much different with Buddhism as it was with Christianity. But let’s work backwards. I have to admire Nichiren for at least trying to distill what he had to work with. Even if the Kumarajiva translation is the best, it is information orally transmitted  400-450 years after the fact before being written down. Even so, schisms arose as to what was to be written as to meaning even then.

One of my all time favorite shows was called Connections, by James Burke. In one episode he relates that in England people would be called upon to give their version of situations so as to reach a conclusion about one thing or another. This was all done verbally and the term “a hearing” is derived from the fact that since a select few could read and write during the middle ages, the system of government relied upon the verbal recollection of the populace. It was important to hear what they had to say to get a consensus to form a judgment. Apparently we were much better at it then than we are now because it was a valuable mental tool that was exercised by everyone because of necessity. I can imagine that like in the novel Fahrenheit 451 where in the dystopian future books are burned and individual people memorized them and became the living repository of a certain book, disciples of the Buddha would become a living sutra. The Chinese whisper game, or telephone as it is sometimes called, where each player successively whispers what that player believes he or she heard to the next, is a testament to cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumors or gossip spread, or, more generally, for the unreliability of human recollection.

The very first entry in this blog is a translation of a letter from Nichiren called the Fourteen Slanders. Of course, that is not a title Nichiren gave it but some followers later. In it Nichiren not so much quotes Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sutra, but paraphrases it:

The fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states, “If there were a person who spoke only one word to curse the lay persons or monks or nuns who uphold and preach the Lotus Sutra, then his offense would be even graver than that of cursing Shakyamuni Buddha to his face for the space of a kalpa.”

“O Medicine King, should an evil person with unwholesome mind appear before the Buddha, slandering and scolding him constantly for the length of an aeon, his offenses would be relatively light compared to the offenses of a person who speaks even a single evil word reviling one who reads or recites The Dharma Flower Sutra. That person�s offense would be very grave.

“Medicine King, if there should be an evil person who, his mind destitute of goodness, should for the space of a kalpa appear in the presence of the Buddha and constantly curse and revile the Buddha, that person’s offense would still be rather light. But if there were a person who spoke only one evil word to curse or defame the lay persons or monks or nuns who read and recite the Lotus Sutra, then his offense would be very grave.

And in many versions I’ve read sometimes the Buddha refers to the sutra by the title given to it, which is like Nichiren referring to his letters by the names given to them.  Did the Buddha really predict white leprosy to those who call attention to faults, regardless of the egregiousness’ of the fault to followers of the Lotus Sutra? (Hey Bob, I really shouldn’t say anything to you because of the Lotus Sutra curse, but would you mind stop molesting my daughter? Thanks.) I seriously doubt that. But that’s what happens over time and the telephone game: embellishment. And I’ve heard all kinds of interpretations for things as varied as snowflakes. SGI calls it the MYSTIC LAW. Others refer to it as THE WONDERFUL DHARMA. So far as I can tell, only the SGI calls that spot EAGLE PEAK. Everyone else calls it VULTURE PEAK or ROCK. (Positive reenforcement marketing)  Robert Thurman, Columbia University professor and Uma’s papa, has a unique interpretation of our ole friend the one eyed turtle and the floating piece of sandalwood. He’s stated that single celled life created merit by rubbing up against each other eventually creating enough credit to evolve into humans. That deserves a hearty Saturday Night Live News Editorial exclamation “REALLY? REALLY, REALLY?” It’s a statement worthy of than charlatan Deepak Chopra. Does he realize, do any Buddhists realize, how much in common they have with Evangelical Creationists?

I think I’m much more skeptic now than Buddhist. I still chant to enjoy my day regardless because it might be my last. It is more of a list making device and I’ve been doing it so long it’s like knocking on wood, apologies to Pascal. I do not believe in karma just as I do not believe in an external deity. Not enough evidence. I accept the preponderance of evidence for evolution. In the same vain I accept the evidence for causality but not in a metaphysical realm. And the second law of thermodynamics will take care of everything else. Oh and if anyone wants to bring entropy or quantum physics into this discussion to justify a metaphysical belief, please read this blog I’ve been participating in for the last few years before you do:

Biocentrism Demystified: A Response to Deepak Chopra and Robert Lanza’s Notion of a Conscious Universe | Nirmukta