Daily Guidance - The Relationship between you and the Gohonzon

Thanks to the lovely @LolzHeart for sharing this guidance...hope you enjoy it...

The following guidance is by Soka Gakkai Vice President Takehisa Tsuji that appeared in the 16 May 1986 issue of the World Tribune and is so significant to our practice and meaningful to our lives that it should be read, reread and shared with all. This is a great read but, more importantly, it needs to be utilised!

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND THE GOHONZON

Today I would like to explain the relationship between you and the Gohonzon. The telephone was invented by Mr Bell and it enabled people to communicate. The electric light, invented by Thomas Edison, is used everywhere in the world. Although he invented it, it is not the property of a single person. It already existed in life. Telephones and electric lights were possible because of the existence of the natural laws of sound and light. Nichiren Daishonin explained the law of life in the form of the Gohonzon. It is applicable to any person: anyone who chants to this Gohonzon becomes happy. A baby doesn’t know how to use electricity but if he pushes the switch, it works. In the same way, when we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for the first time, it is like a baby putting on the light of the Law of Life.

It seems as if we are chanting to an external object, but actually you are switching the light on within yourself. If you look at a beautiful picture, it doesn’t speak to you and tell you how beautiful it is. You feel its beauty by looking at it: you experience it inside. One you feel beauty inside, you can enjoy the beauty of beautiful flowers, etc, outside. Similarly with music, although it is external, you enjoy its beauty inside yourself.

In the same way, when you do gongyo, the highest state of life wells up from within you. You make a connection with the Gohonzon in your heart. When we talk of faith, we mean developing our connection with the Gohonzon. Try bringing forth that highest state from within you every time you do gongyo.

It is said that with the Gohonzon we can become healthy and rich. When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we make an invisible connection to and from the Gohonzon, like radio waves. If you receive electric waves, you die, but if you make a connection with the Gohonzon through chanting daimoku, you’re able to circulate Nam-myoho-renge-kyo within your body and attain enlightenment at that moment. You’re rejuvenated. Two people having a love affair have this special connection. Try to develop a similar seeking attitude for the Gohonzon. The Lotus Sutra mentions gen kai e renbo: seeking the Gohonzon as though it were your lover. If the Gohonzon could speak to you, probably you feel it would be easier. The Gohonzon is like a parent which listens to all your prayers and tries to bring you to an equal life condition.

Everyone has a cycle of emotions within including Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, but we can’t see their existence. As the Gosho says: your eyebrows are too close to be able to see them. Your life-states only occur in relation to an external cause. For example, when someone lies to you, anger fills your entire body - every physical aspect is imbued with anger. When you chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, you achieve kosen-rufu in your body. Your entire body is filled with joy.

The Gohonzon doesn’t give you medicine, but you are able to connect the invisible Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in yourself with the visible Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in the Gohonzon and we obtain the same benefit and healing power as is contained in the Gohonzon. When you are chanting, do not chant as if to some external object, but to bring forth Nam-myoho-renge-kyo from within and let it circulate through your entire body.

Seek the Gohonzon as your parent. When we do this, our entire body absorbs Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. It reaches the brain and cures mental illness. It reaches the ears and cures hearing problems, it reaches the eyes and cures eye troubles, as our vocal chords make this beautiful sound. It reaches the lungs and cancer of the lungs or breast is cured. It reaches the stomach, the tips of the hands and feet, everywhere. Chant with the attitude of devoting your life to kosen-rufu, of becoming healthy for kosen-rufu.

Gongyo is bringing forth Nam-myoho-renge-kyo from within yourself which cleanses and purifies the body. It is not asking for benefit from some external object. Gongyo purifies your life from within. Try to taste the daimoku and circulate it through your body to reach the bones and the blood. Express your appreciation to the Gohonzon that you can attain the same life-state as the Gohonzon. There is a phrase in the Lotus Sutra, shiki ko mimi, which means practice faith as though enjoying delicious food. Gongyo done out of force of habit is nothing like this. Chanting with an appreciative attitude as though enjoying delicious food enables you to overcome illness and other problems.

When you take off in an airplane, the crew makes flight checks. When you chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, make an inspection of your life by letting it reach all parts of your body right to the extremities. Then our bodies become the treasure tower of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. The head is MYO, the throat HO, the breast and stomach RENGE, and the legs, KYO.

Recently I met a woman who couldn’t walk properly. She had to walk to tiptoe. I told her about this treasure tower of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and that the feet were KYO. I told her to chant for kosen-rufu, to pledge to cure her feet so that she could run around and do shakubuku. She felt she had not been doing gongyo correctly and changed her attitude. Her feet started to move and the pain went away. Actually, she understood immediately and because of this, was cured right away.

I met a 66-year-old grandmother who was blind. She said she didn’t mind if she didn’t see, but she wanted to see the Gohonzon just once. I told her the same thing, to send Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to her eyes. She changed her attitude in gongyo and determined to work for kosen-rufu. She started to see the light in the room at that moment. She jumped up and shouted! She wrote to me saying that now she chants for hours on end.

These experiences are not because of me; I am not a doctor. I merely told these people the Correct Method of Chanting. The Gohonzon is not just a piece of paper. A dollar bill has value. The Gohonzon has incomparable power to cure any disease or problem. Change yourselves into being magnets of good fortune. Love the Gohonzon above all else and circulate Nam-myoho-renge-kyo through your body. We all have the ultimate Law within us, but only Nichiren Daishonin could bring it forth without external help. This is why he inscribed the Gohonzon for us. A parent yearns for her children to become equal to herself. If all people could chant and live based on Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, there would be no conflicts or wars in this world. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo can harmonise all conflicts.

The invention of the telephone and electric light are praiseworthy indeed. However, these do not enable us to overcome disease and change our karma. Only the Gohonzon enables us to attain happiness. It enables people from all over the world to live happy lives. Telephones and lights have become popular throughout the world because they are so useful. In the case of religion, it is not so easy to let people all over the world know that the Gohonzon enables them to live happy lives. We make daily efforts to do shakubuku. You may have difficulty trying to shakubuku your family, but it is much more praiseworthy than inventing the electric light.

Question: Can we overcome any illness?
Answer: Yes, all diseases. The Gohonzon is almighty. There are four large characters on the Gohonzon in the corners, The Four Heavenly Kings. The one on the bottom left is Zojoten which has the meaning of increasing and enlarging. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo enlarges and increases through the body, allowing any illness to be cured.

Two things are important. Firstly, is one’s practice really joyful? Secondly, make sure we are not chanting for mercy from an external object. It is the difference between chanting like a beggar or bringing Nam-myoho-renge-kyo forth from within and tasting the daimoku. Maybe some people’s attitude is swaying this way and when they are chanting they are not able to obtain full benefit. The Gosho says that if the faith of the believer in the Lotus Sutra is not deep, then it is like a crescent moon. Deep faith is like a full moon. A crescent moon gives some light, but a full moon gives much more. The Gosho likens faith to the ocean. Shallow faith is like bubbles on the waves and deep faith is the ocean itself. Bubbles can disappear, but the water of the ocean always exists. Life in this world is like the bubbles on the surface of the ocean. When we die we still exist like the water itself. In any case, whether you have weak or strong faith, you will be able to be born with the Gohonzon as a human being wherever you want. Make yourself happy, whether you are asleep or awake, living or dead. Soka Gakkai President Ikeda encourages us to become victors in the eternity of life. We are repeating the cycle of life and death. It is important to be born as a human being.

When Nam-myoho-renge-kyo works strongly in your life, you can overcome problems much more quickly than when your faith is weak.

Question: If the power of the Gohonzon is infinite, does that mean we shouldn’t see doctors?
Answer: No, of course not. Medicine is included in the realm of Buddhism. All people mentioned before consulted doctors, but their diseases could not be cured purely by medical science. Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo makes medical treatment more effective.