I recently came across this blog post about Buddhism in the West:
This article confirms for me that Nichiren Buddhism is the right way to do Buddhism. He makes three points I'd like to reflect on:
1. Hospitality: "Frankly, a lot of problems could be solved if we got off our high horses and treated newcomers with respect, and not just cold politeness."
I am happy to say that my Sangha, and the Sangha's I am connected with in Nichiren Shu do make sure that people are warmly welcomed and shown around and made to feel comfortable while being introduced to the practice. So I'm not worried on this point.
2. Passion: "Passion is the one thing that teachers can offer that people can't find somewhere else. If we aren't passionate about our work, if we don't make people feel something before they walk out the door, why would they bother coming back?"
Passion, even of the problematic kind, is what Nichiren Buddhism has in spades. Defilements are recognized, after all, as the very suchness of awakening in our tradition. Without passion, no awakening. In a writing attributed to Nichiren he wrote: "Chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo during the physical union of man and woman is indeed what is called “defilements are awakening,” and “the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana.” He also was not shy about criticizing corrupt religions and the political authorities and stating outright that even if his body were forced to obey them his heart never would. He was a bad ass plain and simple. So we have the passion - tempered by common sense and thoughtfulness which Nichiren also taught his disciples to have though he was often more than a little fiery in his own writings.
3. Praxis: "In short, praxis in the Buddhist-context consists of using specific Dharma teachings to solve real-world problems for our students. ... Sadly, this common-sense approach is becoming rare in Western Buddhist sanghas. In fact, I've seen teachers smile while telling students that Buddhism is a useless practice! Yes, this is correct teaching in terms of the absolute and everything being resolved in the unborn."
Here is something I've been going on about for quite some time. In the Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise attributed to Nagarjuna it is taught that there are four aims in teaching the Dharma. The first three aims are provisional but lead the way to the fourth which is the ultimate. The first aim is to teach how Buddhism can help with worldly issues and problems. The second aim is to help people maintain and build on their personal strengths. The third aim is to help people overcome personal weaknesses and problems. The fourth aim is to realize the ultimate directly. I've found that many Western Sanghas almost exclusively focus on the fourth aim, as if the first three were just "popular Buddhism" for ignorant peasants. Whereas some Buddhist groups seem to actively pander only to the first aim (maybe the second and third) and only pay lip service (if at all) to the fourth. What is needed is to be aware of and apply all four aims judiciously.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei