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7. The Invisible Reflection
– Three Requirements for Seeing Ourselves |
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Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855),
a Danish religious philosopher, knew the importance of
seeing oneself to build a secure foundation for genuine
happiness. So he suggested three requirements for his
fellow Christians to see themselves in the “mirror
of God’s Word” (For Self-Examination and Judge
for Yourself!, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong,
p. 25).
Kierkegaard’s insight into how to gain self-knowledge
may be valuable not only for Christians but also for the
practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism, since Nichiren Daishonin
also stressed the importance of self-knowledge and inscribed
the Gohonzonæthat is, the object of devotion—as
a mirror to reflect our true self, our innate Buddhahood.
The Daishonin, for example, states: “The five characters
of Myoho-renge-kyo mirror all things without a single
exception …. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a mirror to
reflect one’s own image” (Gosho Zenshu, p.
724). The “five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo”
and “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” in this passage
refer to the Gohonzon, which embodies Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
or the universal law of life.
A profound awareness that our lives are originally endowed
with the Buddha’s infinite wisdom and compassion
is so crucial for our happiness that Nichiren Daishonin
goes so far as to say, “No other knowledge is purposeful”
(The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 299). The philosophical
distance between Kierkegaard and Nichiren Daishonin, therefore,
is closer in their emphasis on self-knowledge than one
might expect from their religious difference.
The following are Kierkegaard’s three requirements
as applied to how we may better see ourselves in the mirror
of the Gohonzon.
Why don’t we see ourselves
in the mirror?
The first requirement is that you must not look at the
mirror, observe the mirror, but must see yourself in the
mirror (For Self-Examination, p. 25).
Here, Kierkegaard warns us against “the error of
observing the mirror instead of seeing oneself in the
mirror” (p. 25). One may ask how this could be possible.
How can we look at the mirror and not see ourselves? Kierkegaard’s
first requirement, however, points to the subtle importance
of self-awareness.
Self-awareness is said to develop during the early years
of life. In one psychological study conducted to examine
the development of self-awareness, infants who had had
a red spot applied to their nose were held up to a mirror.
Those who recognized their own reflection and so reached
for their own nose rather than the nose in the mirror
were said to show at least some self-awareness. In this
study, practically no infants in the first year of life
showed clear evidence of self-awareness, whereas about
70 percent of infants aged between 21 and 24 months did
so (Simply Psychology, Michael W. Eysenck, p. 278).
Clearly those infants under one year observed the mirror
but failed to see themselves. Their failure to see themselves
in the mirror is their failure to connect what is reflected
on the mirror to themselves. For those babies, the mirror
served no purpose and became useless. This illustrates
what essentially makes a mirror so valuable that we use
it everyday; it is our self-awareness or our ability to
understand that what is reflected in the mirror is our
own image.
Any adult of sound mind would not make the same mistake
as those babies did. When it comes to the Gohonzon, however,
Kierkegaard’s concern often becomes our reality.
Although we revere the Gohonzon as Nichiren Daishonin’s
enlightened life, we often fail to reflect the same respect
back to our own lives. Or worse—some people may
disparage their lives while admiring the Gohonzon’s
beneficial power. They might glorify the Gohonzon to the
extent they humble themselves. Still others may see the
Gohonzon as life’s mysterious truth beyond their
grasp, accessible only for selected priests.
Those who view the Gohonzon as an external deity or someone
else’s enlightenment may be compared to those infants
reaching for the mirror instead of their own nose. When
we pray to the Gohonzon, rather than reaching out for
the Gohonzon as an external source of salvation, we must
reach into our own lives for the hidden gem of Buddhahood.
The Gohonzon reflects our
invisible self
The second requirement is that in order to see yourself
in the mirror you must remember to say to yourself incessantly:
It is I to whom it is speaking; it is I about whom it
is speaking (For Self-Examination, p. 35).
Down the center of the Gohonzon is inscribed “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo—Nichiren,”
indicating that the potential for absolute happiness exists
within the lives of all people as represented by the Daishonin,
who was born to a fisherman’s family, the lowest
class in Japan’s feudal society. So the Gohonzon
speaks to each of us: “It is you who embodies the
wonderful law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo just as Nichiren
did!”
In this sense, our chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo becomes
our repeated affirmation of this message from the Gohonzon.
As Kierkegaard’s statement suggests, when we pray
to the Gohonzon, we must remind ourselves that with each
invocation we are manifesting our highest potential, full
of strength and hope, no matter how our lives may appear
on surface.
Believing is seeing
Finally, if you want to look at yourself in the mirror…you
must not promptly forget how you looked (p. 44).
Kierkegaard’s final advice is his warning against
our forgetfulness. When we study the Daishonin’s
writings, we may intellectually understand that we are
Buddhas full of courage and compassion. While chanting,
we may feel confident that our lives are essentially no
different from that of the Daishonin.
But minutes after we leave our homes for work or school,
we often start acting in a manner unbefitting Buddhas.
In the course of a day, we may also face one situation
after another in which others disregard us as if we had
not even an iota of Buddhahood.
This is why our consistent Buddhist practice and study
become important as powerful reminders of our innate Buddhahood,
especially when our environment seems to suggest its non-existence.
Our diligent, conscious efforts steadily transform our
intellectual idea of Buddhahood into our action as Buddhas
and our fleeting awareness of Buddhahood into our unmovable
conviction in the face of great hardship. In this sense,
seeing ourselves in the Gohonzon is often a process of
gradual transformation, rather than an epiphany to attain
once and for all.
Kierkegaard’s vision of an ideal Christian was a
“doer of the Word” (p. 25). To this end, he
set down those three requirements for Christians to see
themselves in the “mirror of God’s Word.”
By the same token, genuine Nichiren Buddhists must not
be simply admirers of the Gohonzon who see it with awe
yet fail to see themselves in it. Indeed what those admirers
think of as their pious respect for the Gohonzon is a
kind of fundamental disrespect that perverts its purpose.
Nichiren Daishonin wished us to become “practitioners”
of the Gohonzon who uphold this mirror of ultimate self-knowledge
and appreciate their own reflections. To this end, the
Daishonin stressed the importance of faith, urging us
“to summon up deep faith that Myoho-renge-kyo is
your life itself” (WND, p. 3). So the true value
of this wonderful mirror lies in the heart of the beholder—the
heart that knows believing is seeing.
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(Originally published in the World
Tribune, January 24, 2003)
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