Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism/Part 9
| February 11, 2000 |
| By: John Ankerberg, John Weldon; ©2000 |
| A comparison of NS Buddhism and Christian Scripture. |
Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism vs. Christian Scripture Chart
| Nichiren Shoshu | Christian Scripture |
| In Buddhist thinking, each of us alone is responsible for our destiny, individual and joint. We are not in God’s hands; we are in our own.[1] | But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified. (Daniel 5:23) |
| The Gohonzon [altar] is the only True Object of Worship in the World.[2] | You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. (Luke 4:8) |
| Anyone with the Gohonzon is already a perfect and beautiful human being, …[3] | If we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 2:8) |
| Christianity must not be our guiding philosophy of life.[4] | I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)
“Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37) |
| Let us resolve to chant a million more Daimoku. Two million–that would be fine of course.[5] | And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. (Matthew 6:7; See Isaiah 29:13) |
| You can see how much more demanding and full of conditions Christianity is, when you compare this with Buddhism, where you have only one condition: to believe. It shows the difficulty of practice and the inferiority of the teachings of Christianity.[6] | These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you might know you have eternal life. (1 John 5:14) |
| If we simply worship the Gohonzon…we will surely become rich.[7] | Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. (Luke 12:15)
What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul. For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37) |
| The truth itself is no standard of judgment because truth doesn’t invariably lead to human happiness.[8] | We know the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. (Romans 2:2)
No lie is of the truth. (1 John 2:21) |
| If you give up now, all your efforts will be meaningless.[9] | For God is not so unjust to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and still ministered to the saints. (Hebrews 6:10) |
| The Buddhists would find no objection in the cult of many gods because the idea of a jealous God is quite alien to them.[10] | You shall have no other gods before Me….You shall not make for yourself an idol….You shall not worship them or serve them; for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me. (Exodus 20:3-5) |
| If you seek enlightenment outside of yourself, any kind of practice or good acts will be completely meaningless.[11] | Thus says the Lord, Cursed is man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:5) |
| A person who says “I keep faith”…when he is poor, I don’t consider him my pupil.[12] | Turning His gaze on His disciples He said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20) |
| In contrast, the Lotus Sutra holds that worldly affairs are the entity of Buddhism.[13]
|
Be ye not conformed to the world….Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. (Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2) |
| Nothing in the universe is immune to the dynamics of the cycle of jo-ju-e-ku (constant change and flux–i.e., birth, growth, maturity, waining stage, return to the void).[14] | Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) |
| Everything undergoes constant change and this is the real aspect of the universe.[15] | For I am the Lord; I do not change. (Malachi 3:6) |
| There is in Buddhism no myth of creation nor any idea of an original beginning…the universe is itself an eternal existence without beginning or end.[16]
Life has no beginning, therefore it was not created by God….[17] |
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
“It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it….” (Isaiah 45:12) |
| With our total devotion to the Gohonzon, we should promote Kosenrufu [prosleytization] since…this, and only this will assure us of eternal happiness.[18] | And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourself from idols. (1 John 5:20-21) |
| In Buddhahood, one “experiences eternal life in its true sense.”[19] | This is eternal life; to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. (John 17:3) |
| There is no other way to be enlightened except by receiving Nam-myoho-renge-ky [Buddhist mystical chant].[20] | But as many as received Him [Jesus] to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name….(John 1:12) |
| It is only Daishonin’s Buddhism that can save modern man.[21] | And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) |
| There is no danger of damnation.[22] | Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice and shall come forth. . .those who committed evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:29)
He that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16) |
Notes
- ↑ Seikyo Times, October 1982, p. 55.
- ↑ The Seikyo Press, The Soka Gakkai, revised edition (Tokyo: The Seikyo Press, 1962), p.144.
- ↑ George Williams, The Gosho Reference, Vol. 1 (Los Angeles: The World Tribune Press, 1976), p. 137.
- ↑ The Soka Gakkai, p.79.
- ↑ Daisaku Ikeda, Lectures on Buddhism, vol. V (Tokyo: The Seikyo Press, 1970), p. 117.
- ↑ Y. Kohira, Shakubuku Kyoten (1954 ed.; rev. Tokyo, 1967), pp. 340-343, from Thomsen, p. 102.
- ↑ The Soka Gakkai, p. 141.
- ↑ Seikyo Times, Dec. 1978, p. 45.
- ↑ NSA Quarterly, Fall 1975, p. 72.
- ↑ Edward Conze, Buddhism Its Essence and Development (New York: Harper Torch Books, 1959), p. 42.
- ↑ Nichiren, “On Attaining Enlightenment,” The Gosho Reference, p. 13.
- ↑ Josei Toda in Kiyoaki Murata, Japan’s New Buddhism: An Objective Account of Soka Czakkai (New York: Walker/Weatherhill, 1969), p. 108.
- ↑ Nichiren Daishonin, On the Gift of Rice in Williams, The Gosho Reference, p.130.
- ↑ Yasuji Kirimura, Fundamentals of Buddhism (Tokyo: Nichiren Shoshu International Center, 1977), p. 110.
- ↑ Daisaku Ikeda, Complete Works of Daisaku Ikeda, Vol. I (Tokyo: The Seikyo Press, 1968), p. 541.
- ↑ Fundamentals of Buddhism, p. 65.
- ↑ Ikeda, Complete Works I, p. 395n.
- ↑ Seikyo Times, April 1971, p. 61.
- ↑ Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhism: The Living Philosophy (Tokyo: The East Publications, 1974), p. 38.
- ↑ World Tribune, Sept. 10, 1966, p. 2.
- ↑ The Soka Gakkai, Preface, p. 3.
- ↑ Seikyo Times, November 1982, p. 59.
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