Kyo literally means sutra and here indicates the Mystic Law likened to a lotus flower, the fundamental law that permeates life and the universe, the eternal truth. The Lotus Sutra overturns this idea, teaching that all the traits of the Buddha are present within our lives from the beginning. Sutras other than the Lotus Sutra taught that people could attain Buddhahood only by carrying out Buddhist practice over several lifetimes, acquiring the traits of the Buddha one by one. The principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect clarifies that our lives are fundamentally equipped with the great life state of the Buddha and that the attainment of Buddhahood is possible by simply opening up and bringing forth this state.
This illustrates the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect we do not have to wait to become someone perfect in the future, we can bring forth the power of the Mystic Law from within our lives at any time. The fruit of the lotus plant, however, develops simultaneously with the flower, and when the flower opens, the fruit is there within it. In most plants, the fruit develops after the flower has bloomed and the petals of the flower have fallen away. Similarly, the beauty and dignity of our humanity is brought forth amidst the sufferings of daily reality.įurther, unlike other plants, the lotus puts forth flowers and fruit at the same time. The lotus flower is pure and fragrant, unsullied by the muddy water in which it grows.
Renge, meaning lotus blossom, is a metaphor that offers further insight into the qualities of this Mystic Law. The Mystic Law transforms the life of anyone-even the unhappiest person, at any time and in any circumstances-into a life of supreme happiness. What exactly is it that is difficult to comprehend? It is the wonder of ordinary people, beset by delusion and suffering, awakening to the fundamental law in their own lives, bringing forth wisdom and compassion and realizing that they are inherently Buddhas able to solve their own problems and those of others. This law is called mystic because it is difficult to comprehend. Myo can be translated as mystic or wonderful, and ho means law. The individual characters that make up Myoho-renge-kyo express key characteristics of this law. At the same time, it is a vow to help others reveal this law in their own lives and achieve happiness. It is a pledge to oneself to never yield to difficulties and to win over one’s suffering. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is thus a vow, an expression of determination, to embrace and manifest our Buddha nature. Nam comes from the Sanskrit namas, meaning to devote or dedicate oneself. Nichiren designated the title of the sutra as the name of the law and established the practice of reciting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as a practical way for all people to focus their hearts and minds upon this law and manifest its transformative power in reality. Awakening to the law of life himself, Nichiren was able to discern that this fundamental law is contained within Shakyamuni’s Lotus Sutra and that it is encapsulated and concisely expressed in the sutra’s title-Myoho-renge-kyo. Over a thousand years after Shakyamuni, amidst the turbulence of 13th-century Japan, Nichiren similarly began a quest to recover the essence of Buddhism for the sake of the suffering masses. In Japanese, “Lotus Sutra” is rendered as Myoho-renge-kyo. The culmination of these teachings is the Lotus Sutra. The record of Shakyamuni’s teachings to awaken others was captured for posterity in numerous Buddhist sutras. It is because of this that he is known as Buddha, or “Awakened One.” Discovering that the capacity to transform suffering was innate within his own life, he saw too that it is innate within all beings.
#Namo definition free#
Shakyamuni, first awoke to this law out of a compassionate yearning to find the means to enable all people to be free of the inevitable pains of life.
Nichiren, the 13th-century Buddhist monk upon whose teachings the Soka Gakkai is based, awakened to this law, or principle, and named it “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” Through the Buddhist practice he developed, he provided a way for all people to activate it within their own lives and experience the joy that comes from being able to liberate oneself from suffering at the most fundamental level.
Our lives possess this power because they are inseparable from the fundamental law that underlies the workings of all life and the universe. The essence of Buddhism is the conviction that we have within us at each moment the ability to overcome any problem or difficulty that we may encounter in life a capacity to transform any suffering.
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