SGI members follow the teachings of Nichiren, a Buddhist monk who lived
in 13th century Japan. Nichiren asserted that every individual has the
potential to become enlightened in his or her present lifetime. Buddhist
practice is a vehicle of individual empowerment. Each person has within
the power to overcome life's inevitable challenges, to live a life of value
and become a positive influence in one's community, society and the world.
Nichiren's philosophy is rooted in the teachings of Shakyamuni (Gautama
Siddartha), the historical founder of Buddhism who lived in India some
2,500 years ago. His teachings were recorded as sutras and spread throughout
Asia, giving rise to a number of distinct schools of Buddhism.
Nichiren lived in Japan during a tumultuous time of social unrest and natural
disasters. The common people, especially, suffered enormously in this harsh
feudal society. Appalled by this state of affairs, Nichiren, while a young
priest, set out to find the solution to the suffering that surrounded him.
After intensive study of the Buddhist sutras, he realized that the essence
of the Buddha's enlightenment, and the means to bring an end to suffering
and social turmoil, was found in the Lotus Sutra. This sutra affirms that
all people, regardless of gender, capacity or social standing, inherently
possess the qualities of a Buddha, and are therefore equally worthy of
the utmost respect.
Based on his study of the sutra he established the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
as a universal practice for tapping and manifesting the life-condition
of Buddhahood latent in one's own life. SGI members believe that exerting
oneself in both faith and practice--including taking action in reality
based on wisdom and compassion--is the means by which one is able to realize
one's Buddhahood.
Nichiren strongly believed that the true aim of Buddhism is to enable people
living in the real world and facing real problems to become empowered and
change their lives and society for the better. Nichiren Buddhism is a philosophy
that respects the fundamental dignity of all life and stresses the profound
connection between one's own happiness and the happiness of others.
Shakyamuni
Buddhism began with one person’s search for a solution to human suffering.
Shakyamuni (Gautama Sidartha), known as the Buddha, or “awakened one,” lived
around 2,500 years ago in India. He was born a prince and raised in luxury but
became perplexed at a young age by the inevitable suffering that life entails
(sufferings he summed up as birth into this troubled world, sickness, old age
and death).
At around the age of nineteen he renounced
his wealth and titles, determined to seek an answer to the problem of human
suffering. After years of strenuous effort he experienced a profound
enlightenment to the essential nature of reality, the cause of suffering and how
to resolve it.
Shakyamuni spent the rest of his life traveling throughout India to share with
people the insight he had attained. His life was one of active compassion, very
different from today’s usual image of the Buddha as an otherworldly, detached
figure in an isolated realm of enlightenment.
Shakyamuni’s teachings were later recorded in written collections called
sutras. His key message, contained in the Lotus Sutra, is that Buddhahood
-- a condition of absolute happiness, freedom from fear and from all illusions
-- is inherent in all life. The development of this inner life state enables
all people to overcome their problems and live a fulfilled and active life,
fully engaged with others and with society. Almost two thousand years after
Shakyamuni’s death, Nichiren, the thirteenth century Japanese monk, distilled
the profound theory of the Lotus Sutra into a practice to enable anybody,
within their own lifetime, to reveal their Buddhahood, or highest state
of life, in the midst of day-to-day reality.
