The Daimoku
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Ren
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The Imagery of Nichiren's Lotus Sutra: The Gohonzon - The Great Mandala of the True Dharma 
Ge in Chinese  

The ge of renge is hua in Chinese. It is composed of two characters both pronounced hua. 
 
 
Hua1
 
Hua1 is the same hua used in ren of renge. It means vegetation.
 
Hua2
 
Hua2 is a composite. The modern hua2 looks like a square net on a pole. The primitive images yu and hua3 compose hua2. They are unrecognizable in the modern form. 

Yu is breath spreading freely after overcoming an obstruction. It means expansion and liberty. Similar to the English idiom 
"breathing free". 

Hua3 means to change, to convert by teaching, and evolution.

The flower (hua) is the expansion (yu) of vegetal (hua1) evolution (hua3). 

This expansion of evolution in flowers begins with han, the flower bud. Han is composed of characters meaning "the external manifestation of an interior force."  

Flowers are clusters of blessings. The Sutra says "Mandara flowers fall like rain," (U mandara ke, Gongyo book, p. 33), covering the believer in blessings. 

The Fourth Buddha of the Lotus Sutra (hua) is the external manifestation of an interior force, fully evolved, completely expanded, the Buddha of liberation.  
 
 

Updated 6/7/06 
Copyright 2002 Imagery of Nichiren's Lotus Sutra website