From what I have read from my SGI material Nichiren Buddhists belive in a eternal life of sorts. Is this correct of all Nichiren schools?

Eternity in either it is i the Samsara mode or the Nirvana mode

ASN

Hi, LD & all -

I don't generally interpret Nichiren's comments about this to mean that each *individual* will have *eternal life*. He states that "men and their faith will become eternal" in the Nyosetsu Shugyo Sho (Practicing in Accordance with the Teachings of the Buddha). I take it to mean more along the lines of not becoming extinct as a species and a way of life, rather than as individuals. I think this is more in accord with the Lotus Sutra.

While the Sutra talks of very long individual lives, nowhere other than the Eternal Buddha do we find individual life without end. All of the other entities we meet in the Sutra eventually reach parinirvana. Since I don't personify the concept of the Eternal Buddha (no Eternal Buddha-dude sitting forever in cosmic meditation) this doesn't cause me any conceptual problems.

Of course, these are my own personal interpretations; I don't expect others to understand this issue the same way. Your mileage may vary.

Friend Livindesert, how you define Life?

i) If you only considered conscious living alone , or

ii) If you means that life consists of two parts, the manifested part and the unmanifested part ? which consists of both the living and death , or the existence and nonexistence mode?

Then, even if you to merge with the Dharmakaya ( the inherently enlightened mind ) and never to be remanifested again as the existence mode of living . ( The Dharma body ) It is still as eternal abide in the minds of living beings, so long there is an single living being with a conscious mind exist. It'slike the ocean and the bubbles, even the you don't manifested again as white bubble , arised when the condition when the waves hit the rocks , but you are still part of the ocean.

In this respect , both the Shakyamuni Buddha and Many Treasure Buddha presented in the Lotus Sutra are actually a single Eternal Buddha ( Eternal Dharma / Eternal Enghtened Mind ). Respresenting the subjective enligtened mind and the objective enlightened mind.


The Great Teacher Dengyo states, “The two phases of life and death are the wonderful workings of one mind. The two ways of existence and nonexistence are the true functions of an inherently enlightened mind.”

No phenomena—either heaven or earth, yin or yang, the sun or the moon, the five planets, or any of the worlds from hell to Buddhahood—are free from the two phases of life and death. Life and death are simply the two functions of SadDharma ( MHRGK ).

In his Great Concentration and Insight, T’ien-t’ai says, “Arising is the arising of the essential nature of the Dharma, and extinction is the extinction of that nature.” Shakyamuni and Many Treasures, the two Buddhas, are also the two phases of life and death.

WND, p29


Ansanna

Also, just to add, as our lives are, in fact, the levers of causation, there is a pereptual motion of, not a single body, but the various aspects of the unified dharma body (or collective mind if you will). I mean to say, the various aspects of our lives both past present and future, are in constant struggle to work in concert at this very moment. The essence of the Lotus Sutra practice is to hold this concert (together) to the best of our abilities. This means that in life you will get exactly the same that you want in death and vice versa.

nam myoho renge kyo

namaste

peace

I define life as a flame comming from coal. Oce the coal turns to ash the flame is no more. The ash will then go into the soil to start new life.

As far as the rest of your post, I am going to get some sleep because I cannot digest it at the moment

Whenever I think of the eternal Buddha I tend to think of the inherent Buddha nature in people across all time, rather than thinking in terms of some sort of specific being. The original Buddha Shakyamuni was the physical manifestation of this nature.

Same general concept is how I think of eternal life. No individual that lives on forever, but that Buddha nature and the continuity of our karma/actions continue in the holistic relationship everything shares with each other. It's essentially the continuity of the law, which is fundamental to everything.

Again though, I'm new, and people are bound to disagree with this view.

In order to understand the principle of eternal life as taught through the teachings of Nichiren one must first come to understand why it is that Nichiren regards the Lotus Sutra as the highest teaching. There are numerous Gosho that have been translated into English and other languages that address this issue in depth. "The Entity of the Mystic Law" is one. "On the Sacred Teachings of the Buddhas Lifetime", "The True Object of Worship" and Errors of the Eight Sects" and numerous others.

The important point to bear in mind is that according to Nichirens reading with faith, there are no beings who attain the enlightenment of the Buddha apart from having listened and taken faith in the revelations made through the Lotus Sutra, culminating with the revelation of the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sutra known as "contemplating the eternal life span of the Buddha". Nichiren teaches that through this revelation the eternal law of Myoho Renge Kyo itself is revealed in its entirety. This revelation clarifies that the very three bodies, the dharma body, the wisdom body and the emancipation body are all eternal in actuality. Therefore, it is not accurate to simply say that the Dharma body or "Law body" alone is eternal and that the wisdom body and the body that appears through birth are simply temporary expressions of a universal law or Dharma body. This is a false reading of the true Buddhas wisdom that derives from clinging to the provisional teachings. The true Buddha's teaching reveals that Life itself is eternal and that it undergoes two phases of birth and death throughout eternity. Here the term LIFE indicates the mystic law of Myoho Renge Kyo. Only when we awaken to the eternal law that permeates the two phases of birth and death, the two states of Life which all phenomena must undergo, can we awaken to the truth of the eternal three bodies of the Buddha's LIFE. This principle also applies to the truth of living beings as entities of the mutual possession of the ten realms of existence and the three thousand realms in a single moment of LIFE.

Although individuals manifest distinct conditions at any given moment in time. their true nature is that they possess all ten realms in a state of latency. Therefore all persons have the potential to awaken the Buddha wisdom or Myoho Renge Kyo and percieve the eternity of all LIFE as the two phases of birth and death throughout eternity.

In the 16th chapter the Buddhas states" I have always been here in the saha world preaching the Law. Sometimes I appear as myself and sometimes as others. "

The above means that the Law that comprises the Buddhas wisdom in its entirety can be observed through the functions of all phenomena. And because this is so, all people have the potential to awaken the Buddha wisdom and teach it to others. In this respect the Buddha sometimes appears as himself and sometimes as others. Therefore all those who take action in accordance with the Buddhas will and determination regardless of appearance are displaying the Buddha's manifested body.

Therefore all those who chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with the same mind as Nichiren can manifest the three eternal bodies of the true Buddha.

Gassho

My take is that this moment is Eternity. Actually, I think the words used in Buddhism are the unborn, the deathless, and constancy. The Buddha taught that liberation from that which is jatam / born is possible because there is ajatam; an unborn.

Searching for or expecting nicca / niyta {constancy, continuity, eternity}; in that which is anicca / anitya {inconstant} is one of the Four Misconceptions / Vexations {Vipallasa / viparyasa}. The practice of Cittanupassana / Cittasati Satipatthana: Mindfulness and contemplation of Spirituality; which is one of the 4 frameworks of mindfulness, overcomes seeking constancy in that which lacks continuity.

Nitya, or constancy, is one of the four inherent virtues connected with the Buddha Womb / Nature in the Mahayana Nirvana Sutra. In the Lotus Sutra, constancy is personified by 無辺行菩蓮 Muhengyo Bosatsu; mu = no; hen = limit, border, boundary. Sanskrit: अनंतचरित Anantacaritra; an = no anata = end, termination.

The parallel trace gate Bodhisatvva would be Manjushiri: Bodhisattva of Panna / Prajna. Merit of Discernment. 慧 = e = wise. Also of subjective wisdom, gnosis, or awareness -- idna / jnana. 智 = satoru / chi = intellect. This relates to direct perception of Emptiness and Interdependent Origination. Sources indicate his name means gentle glory. Japanese name: 文殊師利菩蓮 Monjushiri; which is a transliteration. One of his alternate names, Kumarabhuta, means forever young or youthful being.

Constancy is something we can connect with, in a real way, right now, in this moment, by chanting Odaimoku.

T'ien-t'ai stated that those who think that the unborn is not to be born, and the deathless is not to die is a mistake. The unborn is to be born fully awakened to your past lives, so that death is in fact deathlessness.

I'm pretty sure I quoted this before, but no one read it anyway, or most likely couldn't fathom it.

i can agree with this since when unborn ,all is whole undifferantiated ... which is to me ,the state of buddha-hood .
When parted ,there becomes disbalance and then life and death occur .
When whole , no death nor ,life occur since they fall outside of the parting ... there is nothing to be parted either ..

Correct me if i might have mistaken this passage ...

Gassho ,
Ries

I would have to see that quoted in context. I also do not know if you agreeing or disagreeing with. I do not know if you were able to even fathom what I posted. :


I do think we are agreeing that the unborn, the deathless, or 'eternity' is something to realize in the present moment. I do not think hardly anyone thinks it means we shall live forever as our present identities.

The Buddha taught that liberation from that which is sankhatam; the compounded or conditioned, bhutam; the originated, jatam; the born; and katam; the fabricated; is possible because there is an asankhatam; the uncompounded / unconditioned, an abhutam; the un-originated or not come into being, ajatam; the unborn, and akatam; un-fabricated. This is found in the "Unborn: Sutta; See Link Nibbana Sutta Total Unbinding {Ud 8.3}. See also Parinibbana (3) link. . The unborn is also referred to, elsewhere, as amatapada; the deathless state, or accutapada; the imperishable state. Anatadhatu; the deathless realm or element, is also mentioned.


The Power of Fours and the Deathless

One of the most common ways of describing Shakyamuni's insight in the early canons is known as the three knowledges (tevijja). That is, three things were integral to his realization: the ability to reflect his his manifold past lives, the ability to perceive the passing away away and disappearance of beings and an understanding of how beings pass on according to their actions, and finally, the seeing with direct knowledge (abhinna) that that he has destroyed all negativity.

So , therefore, rebirth was a critical dimension of enlightenment. Although one of the difficulties in talking about rebirth is that we can assume the erroneously thinking notion of a permanent self that is reborn. Where there is a conditioned relationship between one life and the next - one being dying another reborn. The relationship is not one of absolute identity, or difference, but of conditioned arising.

It's better to think in terms of the inheritors of a particular genetic disposition (karmic) rather than physical - although being analogous to our physical being. In discussion like this it's easy to take a non Buddhist position that there is an unchanging essence (reincarnation) that is manifest from lifetime to lifetime - an identity that carries on from one life to the next: "I Will Surive."

Rebirth on the other hand, rather than being likened to a string of beads on which each life is linked to the next on the same thread, is more like a pile of coins with each one stacked on the next, and conditioned by its place in the pile - by what has gone before - but with no unchanging thread connecting them.

The problem with such evidentially scant and unbiased hypothesis concerning the original question posed, is that we lose sight of the world that we are building around us according to our habits and how we confront the challenges of everyday life. Speculation around rebirth - as interesting as that is - should not become a distraction from our fundamental responsibilities in the very present - the way in which we live our lives now.

I wasn't disagreeing with you, but needed to put that in the discussion since it is a topic that is easily misunderstood.

I'll have to try and look up the quote again, but don't hold your breath cuz I'm pretty busy.

It is well to keep the doctrine of anatta {anatman} in mind. Seeking self in that which is not not-self is also one of the 4 vexations. The Buddha also described all conditioned phenomena as sunnata. The sanskrit is shunya-ta; which is the adjective meaning empty {shunya} plus ta {ness}, making it the noun form emptiness. However, the pali term is thought to be a compound word sunna {empty} + atta {self}. This would indicate that nothing has a fixed self nature, ever. It is all a process of interdependent co-arising.

The Mahayana Nirvana flips the 4 vexations, by proposing that there is constancy and a true self {and purity and bliss} in the unconditioned. From what I understand, the authors go to lengths to make it clear that their authentic self is not the same as the Hindu atman. Again, I think this authenticity of self; as with eternity, is only found in the moment; being mindful of forms, sensations, spirituality, and mental conditioning; which takes care of: