From, "Buddhism in New Light": Chapter 8: The Invisible Reflection;
by Shin Yatomi - SGI-USA Study Department Leader
Soren
Kierkegaard, a Danish religious philosopher,knew the importance of
seeing oneself in order tobuild a secure foundation for authentic
happiness. So he suggested three requirements for his fellow Christians
to see themselves in the "mirror" of "God's Word" (For Self-Examination
and Judge for Yourself!, Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, trans., p.
25).
Kierkegaard's insight into how to gain self-knowledge may
be valuable not only for Christians but also for the practitioners of
Nichiren Buddhism, since Nichiren Daishonin also stressed the
importance of self-knowledge and inscribed the Gohonzon-the object of
devotion in Nichiren Buddhism-as a mirror to reflect our true self, our
innate Buddhahood.
Nichiren, for example, states: "The five
characters Myoho-renge-kyo similarly reflect the ten thousand
phenomena, not overlooking a single one of them.... A mirror that
allows us to see our own image and reflection-such is
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" (ott, 51-52). The "five characters
Myoho-renge-kyo" and "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" in this passage are
synonymous with the Gohonzon, which embodies Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, or
the essential Law of life and the universe.
A profound awareness
that our lives are originally endowed with the Buddha's infinite wisdom
and compassion is so crucial for our happiness that Nichiren goes so
far as to say, "No other knowledge is purposeful."
The
philosophical distance between Kierkegaard and Nichiren, therefore, is
closer in their emphasis on self knowledge than one might expect from
their religious difference. The following are Kierkegaard's three
requirements as applied to how we may better see ourselves in the
mirror of the Gohonzon.
Why Don't We See Ourselves in the Mirror?
"The
first requirement is that you must not look at the mirror, observe the
mirror, but must see yourself in the mirror" (For Self-Examination, p.
25).
Here, Kierkegaard warns us against "the error of observing
the mirror instead of seeing oneself in the mirror" (ibid, 25). One may
ask how this could be possible. How can we look at the mirror and not
see ourselves?
Kierkegaard's first requirement, however, points to the subtlety of self-awareness.
Self-awareness
is said to develop during the early years of life. In one psychological
study, infants who had had a red spot applied to their nose were held
up to a mirror. Those who recognized their own reflection and so
reached for their own nose rather than the nose in the mirror were said
to show at least some self-awareness. In this study, practically no
infants in the first year of life showed clear evidence of
self-awareness, whereas about 70 percent of infants between twenty-one
and twenty-four months did so (see Simply Psychology, Michael W.
Eysenck, p. 278).
Clearly those infants under one year observed
the mirror but failed to see themselves. Their failure to see
themselves in the mirror is their failure to connect what is reflected
on the mirror to themselves. For those babies, the mirror served no
purpose and became useless. This illustrates what essentially makes a
mirror so valuable that we use it everyday; it is our self-awareness or
our ability to understand that what is reflected in the mirror is our
own image.
Any adult of sound mind would not make the same
mistake as those babies. When it comes to the Gohonzon, however,
Kierkegaard's concern often becomes our reality. Although we revere the
Gohonzon as Nichiren's enlightened life, we often fail to reflect the
same respect back to our own lives. Or worse-some people may disparage
their lives while admiring the Gohonzon's beneficial power.
They
might glorify the Gohonzon to the extent that they humble themselves.
Still others may see the Gohonzon as life's mysterious truth beyond
their grasp, accessible only for select priests. Those who view
the Gohonzon as an external deity or someone else's enlightenment may
be compared to those infants reaching for the mirror instead of their
own nose.
When we pray to the Gohonzon, we must reach
into our own lives for the hidden gem of Buddhahood rather than reach
out to the Gohonzon as an external source of salvation.
Our Invisible Self
"The
second requirement is that in order to see yourself in the mirror...you
must...remember to say to yourself incessantly: It is I to whom it is
speaking; it is I about whom it is speaking" (For Self-Examination, p.
35).
Down the center of the Gohonzon is inscribed
"Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nichiren," indicating that the potential for
absolute happiness exists within the lives of all people as represented
by Nichiren, who was born to a fisherman's family, the lowest class in
Japan's feudal society. So the
Gohonzon speaks to each of us: "It is you who embodies the wonderful Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo just as Nichiren did!"
In
this sense, our chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo becomes our repeated
affirmation of this message from the Gohonzon. As Kierkegaard's
statement suggests, when we pray to the Gohonzon, we must remind
ourselves that with each invocation we are manifesting our highest
potential, full of strength and hope, no matter how our lives may
appear on the surface.
Believing Is Seeing
"Finally, if you want to look at yourself in the mirror. you must not promptly forget how you looked" (ibid., 44).
Kierkegaard's
final advice is his warning against our forgetfulness. When we study
Nichiren's writings, we may intellectually understand that we are
potentially Buddhas full of courage and compassion. While chanting, we
may feel confident that our lives are essentially no different from
that of Nichiren.
But
minutes after we leave our homes for work or school, we often start
acting in a manner unbefitting Buddhas. In the course of a day, we may
also face one situation after another in which others disregard us as
if we had not even an iota of Buddhahood.
This is why our
consistent Buddhist practice and study become important as powerful
reminders of our innate Buddhahood, especially when our environment
seems to suggest its non-existence. Our diligent, conscious efforts
steadily transform our intellectual idea of Buddhahood into our action
as Buddhas and our fleeting awareness of Buddhahood into our unmovable
conviction in the face of great hardship. In this sense, seeing
ourselves in the Gohonzon is often a process of gradual transformation
rather than an epiphany to attain once and for all.
Kierkegaard's
vision of an ideal Christian was a "doer of the Word" (ibid, 25). To
this end, he set down those three requirements for Christians to see
themselves in the "mirror of God's Word." By the same token, genuine
Nichiren Buddhists must not simply be admirers of the Gohonzon who see
it with awe yet fail to see themselves in it. Indeed, what those
admirers think of as their pious respect for the Gohonzon is a kind of
fundamental disrespect that perverts its purpose.
Nichiren
wished us to become practitioners of the Gohonzon who uphold this
mirror of ultimate self-knowledge and appreciate our reflections. To
this end, he stressed the importance of faith, urging us "to summon up
deep faith that Myoho-renge-kyo is your life itself." So the true
value of this wonderful mirror lies in the heart of the beholder-the
heart that knows believing is seeing.
Image sources: Deviantart
