Daily Study - making it our passion!

In Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism, we often hear the phrase 'the three practices' - faith, practice and study. Faith - the conviction that we can transform our circumstances through chanting; Practice - our own chanting and the encouragement we give to others and Study - developing our understanding of this practice.

Each one is vital and helps develop the other two practices simultaneously. When we chant, our faith deepens as we gain actual proof and benefits. When our faith deepens, we can practice even more earnestly for ourselves and others. And through study, our knowledge and confidence increase, giving us an even stronger faith, helping us to practice with the absolute determination to win. We begin to understand the deeper meaning of Nichiren Daishonin's teachings and President Ikeda's guidance and can use this knowledge in our daily life.

At times, it can seem difficult to carry out each of the three practices every day, and you may find that throughout your practice, that there is an emphasis on one of the three at one point or another. SGI-UK Vice General Director Kazuo Fujii gave recent guidance at our HQ course that the way to lead a truly victorious life was to do these three things a day:

Chant an hour a day

Study for half an hour a day

Make three people happy a day

Each of us, I'm sure, find some of these easier to achieve than others!  Or maybe that's just me!

Personally, I found study difficult throughout the early years of my practice. I had the time - I just didn't have the inclination! But Sensei urges us to make study part of our daily life so I started back at the basics. I re-read The Human Revolution with a view to deepening my understanding of the mentor-disciple relationship and the history of SGI.

As part of my responsibility for hosting our Basics of Buddhism meetings, I've really had to push myself to study Buddhist theory, and create material which will be of great value to our members.

I started to search for Gosho quotes which would help me challenge the difficulty I was facing.  On this point, Sensei says 'study means engraving in our lives the Daishonin's writings, which pulse with the Daishonin's powerful spirit to lead all people to enlightenment and to withstand any hardship in order to propagate the Law.' I discovered that my study needs to have a relevance to my daily life so that I can put the practice into action.

Sensei also gives us the guidance that study shouldn't be for study's sake, or that we should become arrogant about our expertise and superior knowledge. We study to develop our three practices. It's no good being an expert on Buddhism, but not carrying out our daily practice, or having weak faith. We need all three! As Sensei tells us, 'The purpose of Buddhist study is so that we can develop into truly exemplary practitioners of the Daishonin's Buddhism, courageous champions of faith and practice. We must never err on this point."

We can talk about this practice to others so much more passionately if we have the confidence and knowledge to answer anybody's questions concisely and precisely.

What great good fortune for us that there is so much study material available for us to use!

Let's discover how we can incorporate study into our daily life and the different resources available to us. We can gain inspiration from many different forms of material and different ways of studying, both on our own, and with other members:

Reading the Gosho (Writings of Nichiren Daishonin) and using phrases in our daily life to strengthen our three practices

Art of Living Magazine (SGI-UK)

President Ikeda's guidance

Signing up for daily guidance emails

Basics of Buddhism meetings at district level 

Study meeting at chapter level where we study a selected Gosho. It's worth preparing any questions you may have on the study material and asking the study lecturers

SGI-UK Study exams (Grades 1,2,3)

Supporting the members who have applied to take a study exam.

Some think of Buddhist practice as retreating to a quiet place and leading a life of calm and contemplation, but you should know that from its earliest origins Buddhism was a philosophy of practice, of living and energetically engaging with others in dialogue.

Buddhism is a teaching for helping all living beings, and especially the people who are suffering the most. Therefore, study needs to be rooted in daily life and serve as a guide for action. Study becomes a revitalizing force when it provides assurance and self-confidence in the power to overcome life’s difficulties and tribulations. The Soka Gakkai’s emphasis on study has achieved just this in the real world.

(Daisaku Ikeda, The New Human Revolution, Volume 24, Chapter 2, ‘Vigilant Safeguarding 38’,SGI Newsletter No. 8208, 12 April 2011)

Do you have a favourite Gosho quote? Is there a particular phrase that you use when times are difficult? How do you fit study into your daily life? Would love to swap notes!