One comment I hear from folks who attempt to read the Lotus Sutra is about the long listing of names at the very beginning. The list extends over two pages. Most of the people have asked what they were supposed to do with such a list. The names are weird, they are long, and frequently they are unpronounceable at least not in one breath or smoothly. Some have either proudly or in desperation laid claim to skipping the section altogether. They would skim ahead until it looked like some action was taking place and then re-engage with the scripture text.
If you are one of those people, guess what so was I when I made my first, second, third attempt to read the sutra straight through. I am sure there are some who soldiered on through or who with the aid of a study companion made it through in one pass. I’ve not met one, that however doesn’t mean one does not exist. Most people, myself included, either didn’t have or presently do not have a well-informed guide as they study. That has been one of my aims as I’ve published various books on the Lotus Sutra. The reality is most of the people who have been and who may become interested in Nichiren Buddhism do not live near a Nichiren Shu temple. I am not sure when those in higher up positions will awaken to this fact, so I plow on in the hopes it will be someday. I do hope someday there will be a coordinated and well-planed vision for the spreading of Nichiren Buddhism deep into the heartlands of the United States and other countries as well. For now, you and I are stuck doing it this way.
Hopefully, you’ve done some thinking about what your life was like before the first contact with the Lotus Sutra. Let me emphasize I’m talking about the Lotus Sutra specifically, not Buddhism in general or some other denomination of Buddhism. I do this because my single focus is on the Lotus Sutra and how that has manifested in your life. I am not responsible for other schools, nor do I know the details of what they taught or what your experience was. You are here now, and you are considering the Lotus Sutra and its practice. Yes, this is exclusive, but please do not feel I am discounting or disrespecting other schools or other teachings. I’m glad for you if you had that opportunity. I’m also aware most people do not, and that is where I’m beginning.
Who were you before the Lotus Sutra? Were you out of work, unhappy, discouraged, or hopeless? Or were you successful in your endeavors, reasonably secure in all aspects of your life, carefree, and firmly on your path to achieving all of your life goals? I am encouraging you to define in detail your story of the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, your pre-Lotus Sutra life. This will help you remember where you entered the stream of Lotus life.
You’ve done that I hope. I also am reminding you that it is intended to more than merely a recounting historical facts. I hope you will practice looking deeper, and to do so with brutal honesty. Sometimes we do need to be brutal with the notion of honesty. Often honesty doesn’t want to be tugged out from under the rock it is hiding behind. Honesty doesn’t like for you to see it, perhaps because it thinks it is ugly or shameful. In those cases, we will need to befriend honesty, help it understand that there is nothing for which we need be ashamed. Give honesty the assurance that it is useful and we need it to be present to us so we can change what needs changing. Offer it tea and cookies, invite it to a conversation at a nice coffee shop one which is clean quiet and perhaps a little funky. I know just the place in Portland, Oregon called Rimsky’s. My favorite coffee/tea/dessert place, but bring cash because they don’t accept cards.
The Lotus Sutra as I mentioned begins with naming a large group of people who are present with the Buddha while he sits in Samadhi I wonder who was in your life pre-Lotus Sutra? Who remained in your life after you began your practice and study? Did some of your friends or family abandon you? Was the transition difficult? Was there turmoil? Were the characters in your life supportive or not. If you were to draw this picture would there be a lot of people, would the picture be bright? Or would there only be a few individuals, and the tone of the image dark and dreary?
My picture would be perhaps me sitting on my rack[2] bed, the blanket I am sitting on is green, dark green. The wall locker that contains my entire life possessions other than my guitar and a few mementos which I left with my parents when I enlisted in the Marine Corps. There would be row after row of similar racks, some with other Marines sitting on them some not. There would be naked florescent lights hanging from the open bare wooden ceiling which was painted white. The setting was Memphis TN at the US Navy base in Millington TN. I had only recently arrived after my transfer from basic training. At the time boot camp and training after boot camp was a three-month long ordeal, perhaps I should in honesty say, Hell.
I had gone home after boot camp to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents. My brother was stationed in California, also in the Marine Corps. My memory of him was someone who was exactly where he needed to be and who loved every minute of it. He did retire from the Marine Corps, did exceptionally well, exceeded everyone’s expectations, and I believe found a certain level of happiness. Certainly he found respect, and I think he deserved it. I was not where I wanted to be nor where I felt I belonged. I was coerced into joining the Marine Corps. My choices were to flee to Canada, to go to jail for avoiding the draft, be drafted, or this new life in the Marine Corps for four more years.
The only thing I had done wrong was being draft eligible and a US citizen. When people thank me for my service it irritates me because I only did it because of coercion. The same thing continues to happen today with young folks enlisting because there are no jobs. Ok, I don’t want to get too far away from where I would like to go. You can see hopefully a little bit of who I was at the time, not just what I was doing.
The only friends I had were either getting stoned, going back to college after a summer of tripping and going to Woodstock. I was on the way to Woodstock, hitchhiking, taking lots of acid and some other chemical substances. I had one friend I was supposed to hook up with in Connecticut as we hitchhiked from New Orleans. He later said he didn’t know what happened until he got a letter from me from boot camp saying I was in the Marine Corps.
Since I had just transferred to Memphis less than two weeks before my first contact wth the Lotus Sutra, I had not developed any ties to any of the other guys; I had no friends. When you’re the new guy, it is tough to find your way into the established group, and being more of an introvert becoming embedded in groups was challenging.
In my picture of the moment, there would be a tall Gunny Sergeant walking through the barracks asking if anyone wanted to go to a Buddhist meeting and in that picture everyone from the front door to my rack would be pointing at me. They all knew. As I write this, I realize they knew more about me than I knew about any of them.
The picture changes when we move to my first contact with the Lotus Sutra. The previous painting or photograph would be dark, discouraging, forlorn, hopeless. Shift forward only a few hours and my life was forever changed. If I painted in florescent glowing plasma oozing colors, almost trippy acid colors it still would not quite be bright enough. Being in that room with roughly 30 guys, all Marines, crammed together, hot, even sweaty hot, and everyone chanting some strange phrase repetitively, it was a feeling which even now I can still feel the vibration, the energy, the opening of doors of hope, of joy, of a future.
I’ll leave off here with my story and shift to you and your story. How would you paint, write about, photograph, or sew your story. What would the quilt panel for this moment look like? Who would be the people you want to stand still as you take a group photograph? Would you be painting with bright, bold colors, or would they be similar to the colors of your life before with little change.
I look forward to hearing about your story, of seeing your story drawn, or seeing the quit panels as you create them. Perhaps you might think about illustrating a zine and serialize it. I could see this as a stick figure manga book. If you haven’t broken down any resistance to be creative, I hope you will now as we begin in earnest to enter the Lotus Sutra story.
Come on join with me won’t you? Again, you don’t need to share it publicly if you don’t want. If you did though share it with me I would be your biggest fan, and eagerly wait for the rest of your Lotus Sutra, the Lotus of your life.
