 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
14. April
2005: Unhappy with happiness?
|
|
|
|
Shin Yatomi
SGI-USA
Study department leader
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
1)
Nichiren Buddhism explains that all people possess
both the “fundamental nature of enlightenment”
and the “fundamental darkness.”
2) The idea that the high priest—or anyone
else—should possess absolute authority over
others plays no part in Nichiren Buddhism.
3) The process of revealing our innate enlightenment
is a continual struggle against life’s devilish
workings to deny people’s authentic happiness. |
 |
 |
|
Strengthen your faith day by day
and month after month. Should you slacken in your resolve
even a bit, devils will take advantage.
(“On Persecutions Befalling the Sage,” The
Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 997)
Recipient: All believers
Date Written: Oct. 1, 1279
Part of us seems unhappy with happiness—our own
and that of those around us. When we try to reach into
a happier part of our lives by deciding to pursue our
dreams or take responsibility for our actions, fear or
doubt sometimes creeps up from within—I don’t
think I can do this. Moreover, resentment or jealousy
toward someone else’s happiness is more commonly
felt than joy in others’ good fortune as if it were
one’s own.
Similarly, when we try to do something positive for our
lives, some people may seem determined to obstruct our
efforts even if they gain nothing from doing so. On a
collective level, whenever humanity attempted to reveal
its more enlightened nature—as in Mahatma Gandhi’s
cry for nonviolence or Martin Luther King Jr.’s
dream of life’s equality—its efforts were
met with an equally strong, seemingly irrational opposition.
What is this unwelcome, yet ubiquitous element of life
that seeks to deny the happiness of oneself and others?
Nichiren Buddhism explains that all people possess both
the “fundamental nature of enlightenment”
and the tendency to deny it. This primal ignorance of
our innate enlightenment is called the “fundamental
darkness,” and its manifest functions are referred
to as “devils.”
Those devils—both within and without—become
activated when individuals try to reveal their fundamental
nature of enlightenment. Likewise, when there is a collective
movement to awaken people’s inherent enlightenment,
there will be a movement to oppose it. The question is:
Do we allow those “devils” to hold sway, or
do we press on toward the light of life’s dignity?
 |
 |
 |
 |
What steps do you take toward
recognizing and challenging your own “fundamental
darkness”? |
 |
|
|
How has your understanding
of Nichiren Shoshu’s oppresive actions towards
the SGI helped you understand more about Nichiren
Buddhism? |
 |
Nichiren Daishonin wrote the above passage when the peasants
in one rural area were persecuted on account of their
faith. Seven centuries later, the SGI was formed to propagate
Nichiren Buddhism throughout the world. Despite the SGI’s
many decades of dedicated effort, however, the Nichiren
Shoshu priesthood excommunicated the SGI in 1991 for refusing
to unconditionally follow the high priest.
The idea that the high priest—or anyone else—should
possess absolute authority over others plays no part in
Nichiren Buddhism. Yet, to this day, the priesthood continues
trying to intimidate the SGI members and discourage their
faith under the cloak of priestly authority. In spite
of this, the SGI has risen above every obstacle to growth
and development.
Nichiren explains in this passage that the process of
revealing our innate enlightenment is a continual struggle
against life’s devilish workings to deny people’s
authentic happiness. Life’s resistance toward enlightenment
is innate, but retreat is not an option for the committed
seekers of happiness.
To win in this challenge, therefore, is to reveal one’s
Buddhahood, and to achieve victory over life’s innate
darkness, one must refresh and reaffirm one’s faith
in the universality of Buddhahood “day by day and
month after month.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
