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 nor one more, that make up the Lotus Sutra. This number of the Chinese characters is 3,684 characters, again, not one more nor one less. Each of those Buddhas, which are represented by Chinese characters is required to completely write out the correct full name of the Eternal Buddha, of the mystical Buddha of the Lotus Sutra.
While those characters are divided into chapters and can be analyzed and considered in various combinations to illuminate doctrinal teachings and lessons the intent of the unity of the Sutra is that it not be limited to these partial subsets of understanding. The mystical understanding and entry takes place within the whole of the Lotus Sutra and not from the perspective of looking out from the smaller ways we can divide the Sutra.
The various ways to break the Sutra down, whether it be the Sutra in Three Parts, or the Three Assemblies in Two Places, the Two Gates Six Parts, or Seven Parables, or individual lessons and actions contained in various locations of the Sutra, are all merely expedients to a greater more deeper understanding of the Sutra as a whole.
In some regards they can become hindrances to this understanding that the focus is on the entirety of the Sutra and not the parts themselves. The parts do not stand alone, yet the entirety stands regardless of the parts.
When I speak about Name of Buddha being the sum total of all the characters making up the Lotus Sutra I am not referring to the conventional usage of the term name. This is not like a name with which we would use to call out to someone. We have that name already as Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha who awakened to the teaching by which all Buddhas attain enlightenment and who manifest that teaching as the Buddha for our time and realm.
The Name I am speaking of is the primordial name of Buddha, not tied specifically to one Buddha or another. This is the primordial essence of all Buddhas, the primordial essence of the teaching which all Buddhas awaken to. We, in Nichiren Shu often use the term Eternal Buddha, yet that term is confusing to some people and the usage with which we put it to often sounds like and misleads to a belief in something similar to the Christian God, the creator.
But the primordial essence of Buddha is not the creator of the world or the universe, nor is it situation where any one Buddha created this primordial essence, this Mystical Name of Buddha. The mystical primordial essence, this Mystical Buddha Dharma is equally present from the infinite past to the infinite future, it is fundamentally unchanging, it is fundamentally indestructible, it is fundamentally un-create-able. It is neither arising nor not arising. It simply is. It isn’t a force acting upon anything. It isn’t a thing being acted upon. It is there abiding. And it is a mystical experience waiting to be partaken of by any being. Our tool for experiencing this and being influenced by the infinite power of Buddha is through the Lotus Sutra.
Through the Lotus Sutra here is not through the intellectual breaking down of the Sutra into seemingly more manageable and comprehendible sections. Rather through here means by taking the Lotus Sutra and experiencing it as a whole indivisible teaching.
Picture if you will, the removal of all the spaces so that what is left is a single long ‘word’ which contains all the characters run together or all the roman letters run together in a single incomprehensible word. Of course there is really no way to do this, we must breathe and we simply can not scan such a long string of letters with our eyes. So the seemingly impossible act of a single concept of Lotus Sutra is the key to the Name of Buddha. The mystical name of Buddha is likened to this hugely long impossible to say word.
So if the mechanics of saying this impossible word prevents us from doing the saying, then how can we achieve the saying of the Name of Buddha, how can we call out to the Mystical Primordial Buddha? It isn’t through intellect, nor is it through the impossible action of trying to pronounce this long string of characters without pause or space. It is rather to enter into the heart of the Sutra to transcend rational understanding and realize that intellect is a barrier to this entry.
When you recite the sutra in Shindoku, does it cause a transformation or a transcendental shift within your life? Perhaps it does not, perhaps it does. Perhaps you become annoyed with saying something you do not comprehend. Perhaps you enjoy the experience and are able to transcend the need for rational comprehension. Perhaps you can do it for a long time, or only a short duration. All of these mechanical things are still not what we are trying to get too, although they help.
Let me diverge here a little and tell you that there is no speaker of any modern language that can easily understand the Lotus Sutra as it is currently written using Chinese characters. The modern Chinese reader/speaker has a slight advantage, but even still there are many obscure characters which would cause the reader to stumble. For a Japanese reader the number of obscure characters increases. Many people who are from countries which use Chinese characters to some degree mainly use smaller phonetic characters above to guide in producing the sound of the character, though it does nothing to indicate the meaning.
To some degree the average reader of any language will insure some level of difficulty reading and understanding the Sutra written in Chinese characters. For those readers who are familiar with roman characters we now have the complete Sutra in the Shindoku pronunciation transcribed using roman characters. With a little practice it is possible for an English speaker to recite the Sutra as proficiently as any Japanese or Chinese speaker. The level of comprehension may even be similar. There are many young Japanese who while being able to make the corresponding sounds of the Sutra do not understand the words of the Sutra, much less know their doctrinal interpretations.
So, being an English speaker is no handicap to transcending the meaning and entering into the Mystical Name of Buddha. Rather, it can be a liberation enabling a more rapid transcendence.
If enlightenment or if this Mystical entry into Buddha required intellect then the Lotus Sutra would be a falsehood. The Lotus Sutra teaches that all beings posses equal potential to becoming Buddhas. All beings equally possess the ability to experience the same enlightenment, this primordial mystical enlightenment that is Buddha. I also believe that length of practice can often be an impediment, that from day one it is possible to have such a mystical experience of Buddha. I believe it is possible from day one with no prior knowledge or experience to partake of the Mystical Dharma.
(this section will be continued, I’m giving you a break due to length)
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