The Buddha In Me, The Buddha In You
David Hare
|
Everyone's a Buddha that includes you, your best mate, your lover, your beautiful kids, your gorgeous grandma and your favourite teacher from school. But you knew that already , right?
The thing is, it also includes the colleague who b****es about you, the friend who betrayed you, the lover who stopped loving you, the driver who cut you up at a roundabout, the father who judged you, the boss who sacked you, and that snotty little kid down the road who you feel like strangling sometimes! Although this may be hard to believe, Nichiren was adamant that everyone has Buddha-potential, explaining that fire can be produced by a stone taken from the bottom of a river, and that a candle can light up a place that has been dark for billions of years.Of course, the qualities of Buddhahood wisdom, courage, joy , life force and compassion are more manifest in some people than others, but the big and bold claim of the Lotus Sutra was that everyone has Buddhahood somewhere deep inside, in a latent state waiting to be tapped.
In the 13th century Japan into which Nichiren was born, this spirit of equality had long since disappeared, with priests acting as intermediaries between ordinary people and the `divine'. There is no better example of this than the belief, vehemently opposed by Nichiren, but taught in preLotus Sutra teachings, that women were unable to attain enlightenment and deserved no better treatment than animals ... He writes that the only way to repay the debt one owes one's mother is to follow the Lotus Sutra because all the other sutras `speak disparagingly of women'.
This is not a `pick and mix' religion the challenge is that the teaching of everyone having Buddhahood, like the principle of cause and effect, is all or nothing. It's either true or it isn't, this Buddha in me, this Buddha in you.Nichiren Buddhism is not one of those religions where you can `pick and mix' the bits you agree with tempting as that may sometimes be because they're all ultimately inseparable, they're intertwined and, i believe, watertight.
To get back to the main point i want to emphasise: everyone's Buddha.
Everyone's life can be more magnificent right here, right now, in the midst of daily reality. This was a revolutio nary teaching in feudalistic 13th century Japan and still ruffles a few feathers now.
I'm a Buddha, you're a Buddha ... and so what? Well, to me this is a message of great hope. It means that you and everyone else can become indestructibly happy , that we have enormous untapped potential, that we are capable of progress even in the most difficult of circumstances, often in ways that we never imagined. Again, so what? Don't all the modern personal development books say the same thing? Yes, they do. But 750 years ago, Nichiren took it a step further. If everyone's a Buddha, it means that you and everyone else are worthy of respect, so it's more inclusive than a self-help philosophy . It's also more democratic than any political system ever will be. If everyone's a Buddha, it means that we can overcome the differences that separate us; it means, in short, that the destiny of the human race is completely and totally in our hearts and our hands. The fundamental spirit of Buddhism is that all people are equal. A person is not great simply because of his social standing, fame, academic background or position.(Abridged from The Buddha In Me, The Buddha In You: A Handbook For Happiness, Rider, Penguin Random House.)
The thing is, it also includes the colleague who b****es about you, the friend who betrayed you, the lover who stopped loving you, the driver who cut you up at a roundabout, the father who judged you, the boss who sacked you, and that snotty little kid down the road who you feel like strangling sometimes! Although this may be hard to believe, Nichiren was adamant that everyone has Buddha-potential, explaining that fire can be produced by a stone taken from the bottom of a river, and that a candle can light up a place that has been dark for billions of years.Of course, the qualities of Buddhahood wisdom, courage, joy , life force and compassion are more manifest in some people than others, but the big and bold claim of the Lotus Sutra was that everyone has Buddhahood somewhere deep inside, in a latent state waiting to be tapped.
In the 13th century Japan into which Nichiren was born, this spirit of equality had long since disappeared, with priests acting as intermediaries between ordinary people and the `divine'. There is no better example of this than the belief, vehemently opposed by Nichiren, but taught in preLotus Sutra teachings, that women were unable to attain enlightenment and deserved no better treatment than animals ... He writes that the only way to repay the debt one owes one's mother is to follow the Lotus Sutra because all the other sutras `speak disparagingly of women'.
This is not a `pick and mix' religion the challenge is that the teaching of everyone having Buddhahood, like the principle of cause and effect, is all or nothing. It's either true or it isn't, this Buddha in me, this Buddha in you.Nichiren Buddhism is not one of those religions where you can `pick and mix' the bits you agree with tempting as that may sometimes be because they're all ultimately inseparable, they're intertwined and, i believe, watertight.
To get back to the main point i want to emphasise: everyone's Buddha.
Everyone's life can be more magnificent right here, right now, in the midst of daily reality. This was a revolutio nary teaching in feudalistic 13th century Japan and still ruffles a few feathers now.
I'm a Buddha, you're a Buddha ... and so what? Well, to me this is a message of great hope. It means that you and everyone else can become indestructibly happy , that we have enormous untapped potential, that we are capable of progress even in the most difficult of circumstances, often in ways that we never imagined. Again, so what? Don't all the modern personal development books say the same thing? Yes, they do. But 750 years ago, Nichiren took it a step further. If everyone's a Buddha, it means that you and everyone else are worthy of respect, so it's more inclusive than a self-help philosophy . It's also more democratic than any political system ever will be. If everyone's a Buddha, it means that we can overcome the differences that separate us; it means, in short, that the destiny of the human race is completely and totally in our hearts and our hands. The fundamental spirit of Buddhism is that all people are equal. A person is not great simply because of his social standing, fame, academic background or position.(Abridged from The Buddha In Me, The Buddha In You: A Handbook For Happiness, Rider, Penguin Random House.)
