Category: Lotus Sutra

Chapter I: Part 1 – Leading Up to the Opening of Your Lotus Sutra

This chapter opens with the Buddha seated in meditation. As I think about this, I am reminded that we all began our practice of Buddhism from some place in our lives. Before our first exposure or our first acceptance, we were living in various ways. We had different approaches and understandings of life. We possibly had different emotional feelings about life in general. Perhaps we were unhappy, or discouraged, or maybe depressed. Maybe everything was…

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The Story of the Lotus Sutra of Your Life

(I apologize in advance for this long post. I belive the content could not be broken up into multiple posts.) What follows is the beginning of a new study program that will take at least two years to complete. The framework will be the examination of one chapter of the Lotus Sutra per month. The one per month seems most likely workable from this viewpoint of beginning, it may look different as it unfolds towards…

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Rituals

(Revised from a blog post originally appearing January 20, 2013) In Nichiren Shu, there are rituals as part of the practice. For some these rituals can seem to be limiting. There may come times when we ask why do we do the same thing over and over? Nothing to changes, and it is annoying. Why don’t we do something different? Buddhism talks about a path to enlightenment. The Buddha revealed the destination through his personal…

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Myth of Free Dharma: The Lies People Tell Themselves – 30 December 2015

This Dharma teaching is prompted by an email I received recently though it is a comment I’ve heard numerous time directed either to myself or other Buddhist teachers. I hesitate to bring up the particular situation except for the depth of the harm of the myth and the lie that is told to make a person feel good about themselves while trying to make me feel guilty. I will not participate in this game. As…

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