Be a Lamp (Nirvana Sutra)
World Honored One Flicks Dirt with His Toe (Vimalakirti Sutra)
Order of Enlightenment (Maka Shikan)
Calming and Contemplation of Anger (Maka Shikan)
Effect of Thunderbolts on Ivory (Maka Shikan)
Blind Heir of a Wealthy Merchant (Maka Shikan)
Mongolian Wisdom (ancient sayings)
Mighty Bodhisattva Warriors (13th Dalai Lama)
Wu-lung and I-lung (Writings of Nichiren Daishonin)
Parables:
The
Spider Thread
Mr.
Makiguchi and Fudo Myo-o
Taishaku
and the Fine Feathered Bird
A
Little Priest Fable
Shakyamuni
and the Lovers
The
Parable of the Zither
SuShi
and the Buddhist Monk
Wo
and Jah
Stonecutter
(Tao of Pooh)
The
Dancing Monk and the Self-Denying Monk
24
Hours To Die
Essays:
The
Jewel and the Genome
Mantras
of Kitties
The
Mantras of Other Beings
The
Wave Theory of Karma
Water
Karma
Gandhi
on Anger
Buddhas'
Footprints
Connections
The
Great Wish, the DaiGohonzon, and the SGI
The
Gakkai Spirit
Humor:
The
Daimoku Parrot
The
Excommunicated Newlyweds
Seeing Ourselves as Suchness
"If you wish to realize Buddhahood quickly or be born in the Pure Land without fail, you must think that your own mind is precisely the principle of suchness*. If you think that suchness, which pervades the dharma realm, is your own person, you are at once equivalent to the dharma realm; do not think there is anything outside this. When one is enlightened, all Buddhas and all Bodhisattvas of the ten directions of the dharma realm dwell within one's own person."
the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism,
by Dr. Jacqueline I. Stone, p. 192
"When you provide for your
wife, children, and retainers, or even feed oxen, horse, and others of
the six kinds of domestic animals, because the myriad things are all suchness,
if you think that they are precisely suchness, you have in effect made
offerings to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions and to
all living beings without exception.... And this is not only true of offerings
made to others. Because we ourselves are precisely suchness, one's own
person includes all Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions and
three time periods and is endowed with the hundred realms, thousand suchnesses,
and the three thousand realms, lacking none. Thus when you eat while carrying
out this contemplation, the merit of the paramita of giving at once fills
the dharma realm..."
*Suchness is an extremely poor translation of the phrase "Nyo ze" (as in Nyo ze sho, etc.). But this is the way that Western scholars have translated it. SGI has translated this as the 10 aspects, which is closer to the literal meaning. The real meaning is the true aspect of all phenomena or the true entity of all phenomena — the ever-present, all encompassing Buddha reality that exists in each moment. This Buddha (and all phenomena) is interdependent and co-penetrating. Faith equals daily life.
Nichiren Daishonin wrote:
"Shakyamuni who attained enlightenment countless aeons ago, the Lotus Sutra which leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from each other. Therefore, to chant Myoho-renge-kyo with this realization is to inherit the ultimate law of life and death."And:—"The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life"
"Life at each moment permeates the universe and is revealed in all phenomena. One awakened to this truth himself embodies this relationship."—"On Attaining Buddhahood"