Real Life with Ryuei

This is from a note on my facebook page:

This is just thinking out loud. To me a genuinely North American Nichiren Buddhism would be like this:

1. Egalitarian and democratic like other mainstream churches/synagogues/temples with a Board of Directors and all that. Of course the temples and sanghas of the Nichiren Order of North America is already set up like this fortunately.

2. Women and men will share in tasks and responsibilities – it won’t be women doing the dishes while the men talk and make decision. It will be more like how Zen Center functions with chores being delegated fairly and without regard to sex.

3. The membership and clergy will be open to all ethnicities, genders, gender preferences and so on. There will be no glass ceilings.

4. Values will be addressed, clergy and laity may even join in political demonstrations (like the Nipponzan Myohoji monks do), BUT we will not engage in partisan politics or tell people how to vote.

5. Silent sitting meditation will have a place among other supporting practices (like sutra copying, walking meditation, perhaps yoga and other such healthy and equilibrium cultivating activities) because this is basic to all forms of Buddhism and is important to North Americans seeking Buddhism and also because even scientific studies show that this practice is efficacious. It is also a very universal and non-sectarian practice. It is also part of our own tradition via Tendai Shikan practices and teachings.

6. We will avail ourselves of all practical and insightful teachings of the Buddhist heritage, though of course in our tradition/lineage the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Shonin’s teachings and perspective will inform all the rest (or else we wouldn’t bother being Nichiren Buddhists would we?). Of course we will focus (in the following order from highest to lowest priority) on the Lotus Sutra, other Mahayana sutras, the Pali Canon, other canonical material (like Vinaya and Abhidharma), Nichiren Shonin’s authenticated writings, writings and oral traditions attributed to Nichiren, the teachings of T’ien-t’ai, the teachings of Miao-lo, the teachings of Saicho, the teachings of Nagarjuna, other Buddhist teachings that are consistent with the above.

7. When it comes to core practice this will of course be the Odaimoku as the primary essential practice. As supporting practice we will continue to recite chapters 2 and 16 and other passages from the Lotus Sutra in either Sino-Japanese or English. Other dedications, vows, invocations and hymns that are part of the Nichiren Shu lineage will also be practiced as appropriate in either Sino-Japanese but most often in English.

8. It is my hope that this practice will be a daily home practice and not just a Sunday go-to-meeting practice and that practitioners will also get together for longer retreats (NONA already offers annual retreats).

9. It is my hope that this will more and more become a family friendly community (but remain friendly to those without families or who belong to non-traditional family structures) and that people will socialize after formal services and practices just as other mainstream churches do after services. This will not be a community of overly serious adults who only get together to practice and do not speak to one another – but a real community.

10. Drumming. By this I mean the drumming used in Shodaigyo, during the chanting of Odaimoku during services, and the use of hand-drums for Hokke Wasan (Dharma Flower Hymns). And I needed a number 10 to round things off.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,

Ryuei

Mettanando, Bhikkhu. “Did Buddha Die of Mesenteric Infarction?” http://www.lankalibrary.com/Bud/buddha_death.htm (web site). Accessed March 27, 2007.

Nanamoli, Bhikkhu, The Life of the Buddha. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1992.

Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research Editorial Staff. Buddha-Dharma: The Way to Enlightenment (Revised Second Edition). Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2003.

Schumann, H.W. The Historical Buddha: The Times, Life and Teachings of the Founder of Buddhism. New York: Arkana, 1989.

Thomas, Edward J. The Life of Buddha: As Legend and History. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 2000.

Walshe, Maurice, trans. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Boston, Wisdom Publications, 1995.

Ananda and Aniruddha spent the night discussing the Dharma, and then Aniruddha sent Ananda to the Mallas to inform them that the Buddha had died. The Mallas were distraught, but eventually they gathered together in the sal grove to pay their respects to the Buddha with perfume, incense, dancing and music. In fact they set up tents and kept putting off the cremation until a full week of dancing and singing in honor of the Buddha had gone by.

At the end of the week they prepared the body and after some deliberation decided to carry it to the north of Kushinagara, then going in through the north gate they processed to the middle of the town and then out through the east gate. Ananda then instructed the Mallas in what to do, just as the Buddha had told him. First they wrapped the body in linen, and then wrapped it again in teased cotton wool, and then in a new cloth. This was repeated 500 times. Then they placed the body in an iron vat that was then covered with an iron pot. They then prepared to cremate the body on a scented funeral pyre.

As this was being done, Mahakashyapa was traveling to Kushinagara with a large company of 500 monks. On the road a wandering ascetic informed them that the Buddha had passed away. As before, the unenlightened monks were distraught and Mahakashyapa consoled them just as Aniruddha had consoled the monks at Kushinagara. One unenlightened monk named Subhadra (not the same Subhadra as the Buddha’s last disciple) did not need to be consoled.

And sitting in the group was one Subhadra who had gone forth late in life, and he said to those monks: “Enough, friends, do not weep and wail! We are well rid of the Great Ascetic. We were always bothered by his saying: ‘It is fitting for you to do this, it is not fitting for you to do that!’ Now we can do what we like, and not do what we don’t like!” (Ibid, p. 274)

One has to wonder why someone like Subhadra would have even joined the Sangha in the first place with an attitude like that. It is curious that there is no record of Mahakashyapa rebuking Subhadra for saying this, though it has been pointed out that one of the reasons Mahakashyapa convened the first council of 500 arhats after the Buddha’s passing was to ensure that such licentiousness would not prevail, and that instead the Buddha’s Dharma and discipline, recited by Ananda and Upali respectively, would be preserved just as he had taught it.

Back in Kushinagara the Mallas discovered that they were unable to light the funeral pyre. Aniruddha informed them that the gods were preventing them from doing so until Mahakashyapa arrived. When Mahakashyapa did arrive he circumambulated the funeral pyre three times, then he uncovered the Buddha’s feet and paid homage with full prostrations. When this was done the pyre ignited by itself. Once the body was cremated and the fires had burned out, the Mallas honored the relics for another week with more music, singing, dancing, and the offering of incense and garlands.

Once the word got out that the Buddha had passed away and that his relics were in Kushinagara, the surrounding kingdoms all laid claim to the relics. King Ajatashatru of Magadha, the Licchavis, the Shakyas (whose survivors had built a new Kapilavastu), the Bulayas of Allakappa, the Koliyas of Ramagama, the brahmin of Vethadipa, and the the Mallas of Pava all demanded the relics.

On hearing all this, the Mallas of Kushinagara addressed the crowd saying: “The Lord passed away in our district. We will not give away any share of the Lord’s remains.” At this time the brahmin Dona addressed the crowd in this verse:

“Listen, lords, to my proposal.

Forbearance is the Buddha’s teaching.

It is not right that strife should come

From sharing out the best of men’s remains.

Let’s all be joined in harmony and peace,

In friendship sharing out portions eight:

Let stupas far and wide be put up,

That all may see – and gain in faith!”

(Ibid, p. 276)

Then Dona divided the remains of the Buddha. Dona kept the urn for himself. A little later the Moriyas of Pipphalavana requested remains so that they too could build a stupa, but the remains had already been divided. Instead they had to be content with the embers from the fire. Then each of those who had received relics and also Dona and the Moriyas built a stupa so that there were ten in all. These would become centers of pilgrimage where people could come and honor the Buddha and take faith in the fact that a Buddha had come and taught the Dharma and established the Sangha so that it would be possible for all people thereafter to join the Sangha, practice the Dharma, and attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.