Nichiren Buddhism

[Silent Wind River]

I'm curious as to what this denomination of Buddhism actually IS. Whenever any Buddhist is listing the schools of Buddhism, I never hear about this one. I only hear about it completely independantly, and it is never compared to any other denominations, and so leaves out what i really want to know. In some lists of world religions, Nichiren Buddhism is a completely different category from Buddhism. So what is this religion all about? How does it differ from the other schools of Buddhism? And why do other Buddhists never bring it up?

[zenmonk_genryu]

Mostly because Nichiren is to Buddhism what the Jehova's Witnesses are to Christianity. Nivhiren proclaimed himself a Buddha and that his insight was more relevant than Sakyamuni Buddha's. He also called for the killing of the followers of other sects several times and was generally a thoroughly unpleasant character. Nichiren Buddhism, particularly the sub division known as Soka Gakkai have many cult like characteristics and information about them can be found on most cult information sites. In general I'd steer clear of any tradition, Buddhist or not that has it's own victims association. No other Buddhist tradition accepts Nichiren as being Buddhist as they do not follow the Noble Eightfold Path and tend to use practice for material gain, although they make excuses for this.

[Vajradhara]

Namaste Silent Wind River,


Nichiren Buddhism is a sect of Buddhism in the Mahayana school.

actually the word "yana" means "vehicle" so, the proper translation of Mahayana is Great Vehicle.

in any event... all sects of Buddhism belong to one of three yanas or vehicles: Hinyana (lesser vehicle), Mahayana (greater vehicle) and Varjayana (diamond vehicle).

Nichiren Buddhism places all it's emphasis on the Lotus Sutra to the exclusion of the others. this is is method of practice that i do not find to be compatible with my understanding of the matter. they engage in some chanting practices and things of this nature.

generally speaking, Nichiren Buddhism began at the end of the 1200's. in 1288 Nichiren passed teachings down to his successor and the lineage took off from there.

[Vapour]

For the sake of some accuracy, I should clarify few points.

Firstly, Nichiren himself did not claim to be a Buddah. However, he did accuse Zen and Pure Land of be heretics.

Nichiren sect together with Zen and Pure Land are parts of new Buddhist movements started in 12 century. One coule even say that Japan become a buddhist country only after these groups brought Buddhism to ordinary Japanese. Previous Buddhist schools were mainly for nobility class and were mainly concentrated near Japanese capital.

This may be an extrem simplicfication but they did tackle one issue which was problem with Oriental Mahayanan buddhism, that is the massive quantity of sutras and commentary which the previous 1000 years has produced. Zen and Pure Land distanced itself from sutras, Zen concentring on meditation while PureLand focusing on chanting. Nichiren basically decided to focus on just one sutra, Lotus Sutra, as the manifestation of supreme Dharma. Nichiren in turn criticise Zen and Pureland for the lack of Dharma which isn't too unfair criticism given that they move away from Buddhist cannons. You might consider Nichiren as Japanese version of Luther.

Anyway, Nicihren had 6 diciples and after Nichiren dies, there is a split between the leader and the rest of 5 diciples. The Nichiren sects formed by these 5 diciples are called Nichiren Shu and they are, in general, quite o.k. The other one which was set up by the leadercalled Nichiren Shoshu. Nichiren Shoushu consider Nichiren as Buddah of Dharma ending era. According to Nichiren Shoushu Triple gems are Nichiren (Buddah), Lotus Sutra (Dharma) and Nishiren Shoushu (Sangha). They accuse every other buddhist sects of heresy destined to hell. Consequently, they were banned during Tokugawa Shogunate as a cult. Sokka Gakkai is a lay organisation of Nichiren Shoshu which was excommunicated about 10 years ago.

[Vajradhara]

Namaste all,


the interested reader is directed to this site for more information on the Soka Gakkai:

http://www.sgi.org/english/SGI/sgi.htm


and this site for more information on the Nichrien Buddhist sect:

http://nichirenscoffeehouse.net/Ryuei/NichirensBio.html

[Vapour]

I could add this link as well

http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte...ism/index.html

It appeared to be written by an ex-sokka gakkai member (or possibly still a member) who is accutely aware of the problem sokka gakkai face and are somewhat very sympathetic to it. He also appear to be quite fluent in Japanese and some of the material, even I found it to be insightful. Excellent introduction to the Japanese buddhism from historical perspective.