Mystical Buddha The Lotus Sutra is a unity, it is as Nichiren teaches a collection of individual characters each of which is a Buddha. When all these individual characters are strung together in unity it becomes the Lotus Sutra, it also becomes the name of the Eternal Buddha, or the mystical name of Buddha. The characters are finite and infinite at the same time. There are a definite required number of characters, not one less…
Righting the Ship – Sangha Building Sometimes even with our best intentions and our most skillful actions situations arise which affect the entire Sangha in a negative and potentially harmful way. What I am mostly thinking of in this moment as I write this is about harmful behaviors either from a group of members, single individuals, or leadership including the priest or lay-leader of the Sangha. There needs to be a way to manage these…
Exile and Banishment – Sangha Building These two words and the many synonyms of these words may seem to be contrary to some of my posts about Sangha Building. In past posts I’ve written specifically about actions I believe the Sangha should embrace. These two words and this post will address some of the complicated reasons which may impact and affect the nature of individuals who wish to approach the Sangha. People are exiled and…
Refugium Sangha Building I ran across this word the other day and it got me to thinking once again about Sangha, taking refuge, and being a refugee. The classical Latin definition of refugium is a place or means of shelter, a place to flee or retreat. The modern definition has a more biological or ecological usage. In modern usage refugium means an area where special environmental circumstances have enabled a species or community of species…
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