This was originally posted back in Nov in one of the Nichiren folders. I am a Nichiren Buddhist. There may be some terms here unfamiliar to you. If have listed them at the bottom with their meaning.
10 Nov 94 7:13 PM
I am wondering if anyone has ever had the feeling of being totally connected. I'm not talking about feeling like your in rhythm and things are flowing well. Maybe my experience will shed some light on what I mean.
My mom started practicing when I was 2 yrs old. She's Japanese and I'm half. I started at age 14 in 1972 in Seattle. People said to chant for "things", but I chanted for enlightenment. I wanted to experience this absolute happiness that the people said chanting would bring me. Three years later, we moved to LA. When I was 19, I went to Japan and lived with relatives for 6 months. While there, I spent a lot of time reading, mostly books by Pres. Ikeda, as well as goshos. I also practiced with a fantastic group of people.
To make a long story short (too late) ;-), after many years and many tribulations, I began reading the Leon Hurvitz English translation of the Lotus Sutra. I would read it while chanting daimoku-I seemed to get the most out it that way. Then, on 2-29-92, I was rereading the chapters on the Treasure Tower (11th), and the Lifetime of the Buddha (16th) when I suddenly had the most intense experience of my life. I lifted my eyes off the page to gaze at the Gohonzon when suddenly it was like my vision went through it, beyond the wall, and out into the universe. I felt directly connected to the universe. My life merged with it: I expanded beyond all space and time until it and I were one. I no longer had individuation. I was no longer a separate entity confined within my skin. I realized that truly there is no real birth and death. Merely the comings and goings of physical phenomena, like waves on an ocean. In a flash it all made sense and the consistency from beginning to end was all there. Having learned some Japanese I can read a little of the Gohonzon. I could see that the Gohonzon is itself the Lotus Sutra. The title is the core, the core exists within the person, and the universe is the manifestation of that core.
A few days later I went to Kosen-rufu gongyo at the World Culture Center. During sansho before gongyo, I was overcome by the fact that their were so many Bodhisattvas here on the earth. The one thought that kept passing through my mind was: There is a Gohonzon here. We have Gohonzons here, in this time. How marvelous, how wonderous and wonderful this is! I felt we are living in the best of all times. I truly felt like I was attending the Ceremony in the Air. I spent all of gongyo too choked up to utter the words while tears of absolute joy streamed down my face.
The feeling did abate several weeks after that and I returned to the other nine worlds. Since then, I have had that experience many more times, and it gets easier to attain everytime. It does take effort, though not all of it is necessarily in front of the Gohonzon. Daimoku IS the driving force, but only as it is translated in everyday life and action. I was once told that "wisdom is cumulative, fortune is cumulative, but life-condition is not cumulative." Just as the body must have fuel to drive its machinery, so too the individual life must plug into the universal to do the Buddha's work.
I'm now living in the Siberia of America: Minnesota; many miles from the nearest member. If anyone has ever had this kind of experience or would like to talk about it, please email me.
Respectfully,
LotusB5
Glossary:
daimoku=chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
gongyo=recitation of the 2nd & 16th chapters of the Lotus Sutra
Gohonzon=true object of respect. The original was inscribed by Nichiren Daishonin in 1272 to represent the essence of the teaching in the Lotus Sutra.
Kosen-rufu=world peace based on the practice of Buddhism.
