Transcript
I’m going to be showing you a video that I originally recorded on Facebook in response to me having posted on TikTok after I took part in the May Day protest in Cleveland. The protests I’m talking about are protests against Donald Trump and how he’s destroying our country. On TikTok, I said that what I felt like on the day of the protest was that Black people needed to be protesting because there weren’t a lot of Black... I was one of three Black people I saw at that protest in Cleveland. And then several people on TikTok were telling me that I was wrong for suggesting that Black people protest.
And to be clear, I wasn’t talking about the Target and the Walmart and the retail protest, which I am doing. I’m not going to Target or Walmart or Amazon. And I’ve started just checking whenever I want to go to any name brand store, big name store, what their DEI policies are, whether they rolled back their DEI. And if they did, I’m just not using them, which means I’m using a lot of smaller retailers now. But bottom line, I wasn’t talking about those. I was talking about actually taking it to the streets. And some people on TikTok really got up in arms about that.
So what I realized, since having posted on Facebook, is that there are many people who don’t feel that way, but they didn’t say anything on TikTok about it, either because they’re not on TikTok or they just didn’t feel like it. And that if I’m going to do something, you know, it’s really up to my conscience. So the video that you’re going to see is about that experience:
Hey, Facebook. So I’m going to read something for my Lotus Sutra Buddhism substack. I kind of got thrown for a loop when I posted here and on TikTok that I think Black people should protest what’s going on with the Trump administration. I had no idea that this would rub people the wrong way. Not everybody’s rubbed the wrong way, but the people that were rubbed the wrong way were the most vocal. And it really threw me for a loop because I was just stating an opinion and it kind of made me think, “Well, am I wrong here? Should we not protest?”
And then a couple of thoughts came to me as I was thinking this way: One, there’s a passage in Nichiren... Nichiren is the founder of the kind of Buddhism I practice, which is chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, which is the title of the Lotus Sutra in Sanskrit and Japanese. Nam is Sanskrit. It stands for devotion. And Myoho Renge Kyo is Japanese. It means “Wonderful Law of the Lotus Flower Teaching of the Buddha.” So basically, when you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, you’re chanting devotion to the Lotus Sutra, which is a Buddhist teaching that the Buddha from India taught 3,000 years ago.
Anyway. So one of the things that Nichiren, who lived in 13th century Japan, said in “Letter to the Brothers” in the The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 1—he quotes T’ien-t’ai, who was a scholar and monk of the Lotus Sutra in China. T’ien-t’ai established the theoretical basis in centuries prior to Nichiren for the teaching that Nichiren ultimately propagated, which took the theory and made it practiceable for everyday people. So this is what T’ien-t’ai said:
“As practice progresses and understanding grows, the three obstacles and four devils invariably emerge in confusing form, vying with one another to interfere. You should be neither influenced nor frightened by them. If you fall under their influence, you will be led into the paths of evil. If you are frightened by them, you will be prevented from practicing the correct teaching.”
Then Nichiren goes on to say about the quote: “This statement not only applies to me, but is also a guide for my followers. Reverently make this teaching your own and transmit it as an axiom of faith for future generations.”
You can go to NichirenLibrary.org, tap on The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 1, and search for “the three obstacles and four devils.”
And what I realized was, you know, I was getting this blowback—which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t even that huge. I mean, you know, there’s real suffering. I wasn’t suffering. I just was embarrassed and didn’t like being told that what I said was really wrong and bad and stupid and all that kind of stuff. And so then I realized it’s just blowback. I could be wrong, but to think that people were just going to automatically agree with me because I said it—that’s not what happens in real life.
And then something else happened: I saw Representative Al Green from Texas. He put forth articles of impeachment against Trump. At first, some Democrats were on board with him. They signed off on it as well. But then, you know, most of them dropped out. It wasn’t a whole bunch of them doing it anyway. And the reason the Democrats didn’t want to do it is because they figured it’s not going to work. Republicans have the House and the Senate all tied up, so they’re not going to go for impeachment.
But as I watched Al Green—and you can look it up on YouTube—the reason Democrats didn’t want to go on board with him was because it’s not going to go anywhere. Trump won’t be impeached by Republicans. They won’t agree. That’s the way it is right now. But you know what Representative Al Green said? He’s not just doing it for that reason. He’s doing it so in the future... people will know that he stood up against injustice.
So then I thought about this and the whole idea of Black people protesting. Yes, it’s dangerous and everything. But you know what? In the future, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to look back at this time and they’re going to say, “Why did those people let that happen? What did they do?” And so some people will be perplexed, but there will also be a record of people saying, “Well, they were afraid of what would happen if they protested.” Black people were afraid because the government, you know, we had a president who was siccing people on us, and the people who had been hating us for centuries had said they were going to kill us. So Black people were straight up afraid, legitimately so. But they’re going to ask: “What did you do?”
U.S. Representative. Al Green Files Impeachment Articles, Cites Trump as Threat to Democracy in ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter
Rep Green: “I believe in the power of one. I believe that one person can make a difference. I believe that one person who has the ability to take a stand to make a difference—I believe that that one person should. Acting now, as was done before, can also become a part of the genesis of a public movement similar to that which led to authoritarian Donald Trump’s prior impeachments and defeat at the polls in the 2020 presidential election year when he was defeated.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed such questions of conscience when he proclaimed: Cowardice will ask the question when you’re confronting these questions of conscience. This is what he said: Cowardice will ask the question, ‘Is it safe? Is this the safe thing for me to do? Can I get hurt physically by doing this? Is it safe for me to traverse my neighborhood, to move across the country? Is it safe for me to do it?’ Cowardice asked this question.
“He goes on to say expediency asked the question, ‘Is it politic? Is this good for politics? Will this help me to ascend to some lofty position? Or will this bring me down? Will this be something that can hurt my career?’ This is what Dr. King is saying. ‘Is it politic?’
“And then he says vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular? Will I lose my smiles that I’m greeted with? Will the people that normally carry on conversations avoid me? Will they seek to make me a pariah simply because I have done what I believe to be right?’ Not telling anybody else what they must do. This is what Dr. King is saying. ‘Is it popular?’
“And then he goes on to say, but conscience—conscience asks the question. And I say the ultimate question: Conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular. One must take it because conscience dictates. Conscience tells one that it is right.”//
And I don’t know how this is going to end because they really do want to come after us. So we really could go right into straight up civil war. My point is that I realized, you know, me holding up a little sign in a protest is a small thing and I don’t even know all the stuff I’m going to do. But I want to know when I meet my last moment, which could be at any time, that I tried. And that’s why I’m doing this video right now, because I really didn’t feel like doing it anymore. I was like, I’m going to just stay offline.
But I made a promise when I made my Lotus Sutra Buddhism substack. When I started it, I said, “This is something I can contribute to what Trump is doing. This is something I can do—let people know about the Lotus Sutra,” Because I’m very passionate about it. And I believe that the teaching of the Lotus Sutra can actually transform your life. It’s transformed mine. I’ve seen it happen for many people. That’s why I want to get it out. And so I really felt like, “I’m not going to say anything else.” But I said, you know, I made a vow about this particular thing right now. I made a vow deep in my life, which transcends time and space, to let people know about the Lotus Sutra. And so I’m going to do it, which is why I’m here now.
Every day I read the Lotus Sutra and I read Nichiren’s writings. In the morning, I read the Lotus Sutra and The Writings of Nichiren [Daihonin], Volume 1. And in the evening, I read The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 2—both are at NichirenLibrary.org.
Nichiren spent a lot of time, a lot of his writings, refuting different types of Buddhism that existed at the time that he was propagating the Lotus Sutra. He lived in Japan during the 13th century and there was no separation of church and state. The state could dictate what type of Buddhism—basically a Buddhist country. So they could say, we want you to do this kind of Buddhism.
So when Nichiren came along, he said that those other types of Buddhism were wrong. Essentially, the reason he did is because the Lotus Sutra teaches that you are a Buddha, that the greatest thing that exists is within you and that all the power you need is within you.
And the other types of Buddhism, which still exist today—there are still different denominations of Buddhism—but other than the ones based on the Lotus Sutra, some of them teach that enlightenment is either something that you achieve at death or, as with Pure Land Buddhism (Nembutsu Buddhism in Japanese), is based on chanting or praying to a fictional person. Amida Buddha is mentioned in Buddhist scriptures, but he was never real. And he’s supposed to live in the Pure Land in the West. You get to go there when you die if you keep chanting his name, which is Namu Amida Butsu.
And so Nichiren said that that’s incorrect. Because the Lotus Sutra teaches that you have this power. You don’t pray to something outside of yourself. You pray to awaken. So when you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, you’re not praying to anything outside of yourself. You’re praying to awaken to your unlimited, boundless, and eternal power. And that was why he was so strongly against the Nembutsu. He believed that it weakened people’s capacity to awaken to their unlimited greatness.
We’re supposed to have separation of church and state in the United States of America. It’s never quite been that way, and it’s even less that way right now. But in Nichiren’s world, there was no separation. So Nichiren really wanted to be clear to people [that they] needed to practice the Lotus Sutra, because the state was saying to do something different. And most people were doing something different.
So when Shakyamuni, who lived in India and founded Buddhism, became enlightened at the age of 30 in India… so when that first happened, he tried to tell the people who’d been following him since he started his spiritual journey at 19, he tried to tell those followers that he’d acquired, “Hey, you know, look, I’ve attained this state and you have it in you, too.” But they couldn’t believe that because at that time, the Indian tradition was that you were reincarnated over and over and over again, serving many, many Buddhas over, you know, incalculable lifetimes until, finally, because of your service and devotion, you were finally able to become enlightened. So that’s what they thought had happened to him. You know, because of his past, his actions in his past lifetimes, he was finally able to be born in that lifetime and attain enlightenment.
So people weren’t ready to hear, “No, this enlightened state is who you are. It’s who you really are.” And that’s why he ended up saying, he ended up stepping back from that and preparing his followers to believe that they were already Buddhas. Yes, you’re already a Buddha.
The word Buddha has two meanings. It means our eternal life state, the true entity of our lives, our enlightenment, which is eternally there, no matter what we’re experiencing. Buddha is also a person awakened to this reality. Again, that’s what Buddha means, an awakened person or the awakened or the awakened one. In a writing titled “The True Aspect of All Phenomena,” Nichiren said:
“A common mortal is an entity of the three bodies, and a true Buddha.”
So the different types of Buddhism that existed during Nichiren’s time and that still exist today that are not based on the Lotus Sutra are based on sutras that the Buddha taught leading up to the Lotus Sutra, the ones that he said are not complete, the ones that were meant to prepare people to be able to accept the Lotus Sutra. So there’s a lot of different types of Buddhism that are based on those earlier teachings.
This is from The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 2, in a writing titled “Sovereign, Teacher and Parent.” It’s on page 35. I like this part because he gives a background on who the Buddha was.
Nichiren says:
“The fact is that Shakyamuni Buddha[, the Buddha from India,] was the son and heir apparent of King Suddhodana of central India. When he, Shakyamuni, was 19 years old, he left family life and went into seclusion at a place called Mount Dandaka. He climbed the high peaks to gather firewood and descended to the deep valleys to draw water, carrying out difficult and painful practices. At the age of 30, he attained Buddhahood and spent the remainder of his life expounding his sacred teachings. Outwardly, he preached various sutras, such as the Flower Garland, Agama, Correct and Equal, and Wisdom Sutras, but in his heart he longed to preach the Lotus Sutra. He knew, however, that living beings differ in their capacities, and therefore he did not preach as his own mind dictated, but instead preached numerous sutras that were suited to the hearts and minds of his listeners. For 42 years, he continued to be troubled by thoughts on this matter. But then a time came when he preached the Lotus Sutra, declaring that he had fulfilled the vows he had taken earlier, and he would now let living beings know how they could become Buddhas like himself.
“From remote ages in the past up to the present, he explained, he had at times appeared as a deer, at times as a bearer, at other times he had offered his body as food to a demon. He would now take the merits he had acquired through these acts and bestow them on living beings who put faith in the Lotus Sutra, stating that they were true sons of the Buddha, truly his own children.
“If, when Shakyamuni Buddha has been such a thoughtful parent as this, one should regard him with contempt and fail to put faith in the Lotus Sutra he preached, the one great reason which the Buddhas appear in the world, then how can such a person ever attain Buddhahood? You should ponder this question very carefully.
“In the second volume of the Lotus Sutra, we read, ‘If a person fails to have faith, but instead slanders this sutra, immediately he will destroy all the seeds for becoming a Buddha in this world.’ And later are the words: ‘Not accepting a single verse of the other sutras.’ These passages mean that in order to become a Buddha, one should seek to accept and uphold only the Lotus Sutra and should not accept a single verse or phrase of any other sutra.”//
So when the Lotus Sutra says that you’re going to suffer if you don’t practice the Lotus Sutra, the reason is because of what the Lotus Sutra teaches:
The Lotus Sutra teaches that all the power you need, all the happiness you seek, all the answers to your prayers exist within your own life. So the reason you suffer when you don’t practice that belief is because you think all those things are outside of you.
So, when you’re, what they call in psychology, your locus of control — like where you think your control is coming from — when you place that outside of yourself, then you suffer because you have no control over what happens outside of you. But if you believe that you are the driver in your life and you create what your life will be, then now anything’s possible because you have the capacity to choose. That doesn’t mean that bad things aren’t going to happen or things that you don’t like are not going to happen. What it means is that you know that you have the power that whatever happens, you’re able to transform it.
That’s why I practice—not because, you know, I’m chanting so nothing bad will happen. It’s because I know that whatever happens, I can turn it into a benefit. And I know that because I’ve done it. And because I’ve done that, when it seems like everything’s bleak and dark and things are going to go bad, I have something to remind myself of: “Remember when you felt that way at this time?”
And I’ve been doing this since 1987. So this year it’ll be 38 years. So I have plenty of evidence, proof, that as long as I keep chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, I am going to break through. Then even the things that seem really impossible, I have proof to say, “No. Remember, that felt really impossible? And look what you were able to do. So just keep going.”
And so my point in saying that is [Nichiren’s] not just saying, “Believe in the Lotus Sutra because I say so or because it’s great.” He’s saying believe in the Lotus Sutra because the Lotus Sutra teaches that you have the power to change your life, to create the life you want, no matter what happens. And that’s true whether you’ve ever heard of the Lotus Sutra or not. That is the teaching of the Lotus Sutra.
So when you’re believing that about yourself and about others — that you can change anything and that everyone has the capacity to do that and that you are the universe itself and so is everyone else — then in that moment that you’re thinking that, even if you’ve never heard of the Lotus Sutra, you are practicing the Lotus Sutra.
To get more encouragement from the Lotus Sutra by me, M. Lavora Perry, subscribe to my Substack: LotusSutraBuddhism.substack.com. Also follow Lotus Sutra Buddhism by M. LaVora Perry on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, Quora, and Instagram. Again, subscribe at LotusSutraBuddhism.substack.com.
Free Lotus Sutra Study Guide
Over the years that I’ve practiced Nichiren Buddhism, I’ve lived Nichiren’s words: “Without practice and study, there can be no Buddhism.” I created a Lotus Sutra study guide that contains sutra chapters and concepts that Nichiren emphasized.
Download the study guide here.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
“Devotion to the Wonderful Law of the Lotus Flower Teaching of the Buddha”
Hear Deva Pramal, Mitten, and Manose chanting:
Read The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Chapters, Translated by Burton Watson (2009), Nichiren’s writings, and the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism at NichirenLibrary.org.
Connect
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