Sange
From UKExpress October 1992

Sally Ratcliffe asks Barbara Cahill and Debbie Trenchard how and why we do sange.
'Sange is to become aware of your Buddhahood; to look at attitudes which prevent us from realizing we are Buddhas.' (Barbara Cahill)UKE: What does sange mean?

BC: Sange means to awaken to shortcomings and to seek to correct them, or to purify the mind. The Fugen Sutra states, 'If you wish to make amends (perform sange), sit upright and meditate upon the true entity of life and all your offences will vanish like frost and dewdrops in the sunlight of enlightened wisdom.' To wake up to ignorance is, itself, the supreme act of sange.

UKE: Why is sange so often called 'Buddhist apology'?

BC: Sange is to become aware of your Buddhahood; to look at attitudes which prevent us from realizing we are Buddhas. Mr. Tsuji's guidance, 'Victory Through Strong Prayer' clarifies why sange is linked to the word 'apology'. He says we should apologize about any belief other than belief in the Gohonzon - 'belief' meaning not necessarily formal beliefs but any attitude or habitual way of thinking that is other than belief in our own Buddhahood.

DT: I think the term 'Buddhist apology' comes from the Western way of looking at sange, as if it is repenting for sins. I grew up as a Catholic and when I first heard of sange, I thought of confession. In fact, confession is a complete misinterpretation of the term.
On one level, sange is to practise Nichiren Daishonin's teachings continually. By using the Buddhist practice, we become more in tune with life and the life around us. As we practise, we become aware of our karma and the strict law of cause and effect, and genuinely take responsibility for our lives. We begin to realize, through chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and studying the Gosho, that we are generally unaware of our past misdeed - certainly those stemming from previous lifetimes. By acknowledging them even if we can't remember them, we realize that whatever our slander we can change it. Buddhism tells us that we can change poison into medicine. What's more by gaining benefit ourselves from doing sange we can encourage others.

UKE: Why do people do sange? Should everyone do it?

BC: It is most important to realize that our real identity is Buddhahood and that the karma we have built up - the bad karma of slandering others or ourselves - has obstructed us from seeing our true identity. Our suffering comes from not realizing the true entity of Buddhahood in ourselves and everybody and everything.
We hold on to suffering unnecessarily. Say, for example, we have had a great loss: we can go over and over it in our minds so that that actually becomes our identity - the person who 'lost'. Our daimoku tells us who we really are - Buddhas. Our real essence is Buddhahood and it's being obscured by this mistaken way of thinking about ourselves. So that's why we have to apologize about this mistaken way of thinking.
Whenever we chant even one daimoku, it sets us on a fresh course, directing our lives towards Buddhahood. The daimoku we chant wipes out all the past misdeeds or slanders in an instant. However, because we don't believe this and don't believe in the power of daimoku, even while we're chanting we re-establish the power of our negative karma by, for instance, slandering ourselves or slandering someone else; or by trying to control things through our animality or fear or whatever. This is why sange helps. It directs us away from those habitual thoughts and lets us see the true aspect of our lives, which is Buddhahood.
We say something like, 'I'm sorry, I'm holding on to this pain', for example. Then we follow this with a determination: 'But I'm determined to let go of it.' If we are suffering at all we should do sange - it's the quickest way to deal with it!

UKE: Are there times in one's life when sange is particularly recommended?

BC: Yes - when there is something particular that we want to actualize, or if we're feeling some great suffering. We should just apologize about whatever you're hanging on to and we don't even at that point have to know what it is. Then follow it with a determination. We never have to analyze and search for what it is. If we need to know, it will just occur to us while we chant.

DT: As human beings, we sometimes feel that unless we are suffering we cannot see the effects of slander, but we don't have to be feeling this to do sange properly.
Sange also involves expressing our gratitude, even in suffering. We can say: 'Thank you, Gohonzon. Thanks that I am alive and able to see my slander and so can change it.' This act of gratitude allows us to turn that point of suffering into a means to enlightenment.

UKE: Is there a formula to sange? What is it?

BC: I don't think so. People always want to do things right but sange is a much deeper way of becoming aware of something. I don't men analytically: the attitude is in our hearts. We are searching for our true self.

DT: I agree. There are no 'set points' for doing sange. Formulae simply get in the way of the Gohonzon. Nichiren Daishonin said that if we do the three practices every day we can change anything.

UKE: How do we know if we've done sange properly then?

BC: When we feel that we've understood what it is in ourselves that we have to work on or change and we feel that we can do this.

DT: There are no check-lists for how we feel. We begin to see and feel our Buddha nature, as the qualities of wisdom, courage and compassion emerge.

BC: Usually, though, we feel relief, because we've acknowledged the obstruction and secondly, because it's not the overwhelming thing which, before, coloured our whole lives. We see what keeps us back, and then we see our Buddhahood. Apologizing makes the blockage containable because we see we are causing obstruction by our own attitude to it. Doing sange allows us to have compassion for ourselves.

UKE: If we've chosen our karma why do we have to apologize for it?

BC: Because you might not have chosen it consciously, and be aware of the suffering it will cause you and others. Let's say your karma is always to get very angry. Your life goes in a certain direction because of it. By performing sange, you wake up to your anger. You wish to apologize about it, so that your Buddhahood will not be blocked.
In this way, you start to take control of your life, and move it in the direction dictated by Buddhahood, not anger. Usually, you just slander yourself: 'I'm such a bad and angry person.' With sange, you have some control and cut through the anger at that moment.
Certain attitudes in life, which we rely on, can be very powerful. If we're in the grip of an attitude, such as disliking a person, then reckognizing this attitude makes us realize we can also be in control of it, rather than being overpowered or trapped by it.
I think we, who have grown up in the Judeo-Christian traditions, have a deeply ingrained sense of guilt. Because of this focus on guilt we think of ourselves as being much worse than we are. We're afraid to really look at our lives (which is really what Buddhism encourages us to do) because we're afraid of what we'll find. But sange helps us get beyond this guilt (which often causes self-hatred) and allows us the choice of seeing and believing in our best qualities. Sange is not a guilt trip, but allows us to free ourselves from guilt, perhaps for the first time. We don't need guilt to help us regulate our lives because sange and daimoku to the Gohonzon do this. We can always do sange about feeling guilty if the guilt persists.

UKE: Is there any part of gongyo or daimoku that we should do sange in?

DT: No, I don't think so. Sange involves determined action: it doesn't just mean going back to the Gohonzon to report our misdeeds or make excuses for them. Rather, we use the action of sange and then determine not to repeat our slander. The more we practise, the more we are able to feel benfits of sange. Theory is important, but to have faith and confidence in the Gohonzon leads us to understand sange in reality.

UKE: If I have just started to practise, how long is it before I can do sange?

DT: As soon as we begin to practise, we are doing sange, because we have made the first cause (action) to see our Buddhahood. Whether we believe it or not, 'right action leads to right thought'. We have made a cause to erase and to lessen the effects we would otherwise experience.
For a new member, it is important not to worry about apologizing to Gohonzon. The mere fact that you have started to chant is, in itself, a form of sange. For people who have been chanting longer, sange really is for us to show the practice working in our lives.

UKE: I've heard people talk about 'deep' sange. Are there different levels to sange?

DT: No, but we should think about our attitude to chanting. We should not take a careless attitude in apologizing by saying, for example, 'Oh, Gohonzon, I'm so sorry,' but without really determining to change totally. We ensure that daimoku goes to the heart of the problem, giving one hundred per cent.

BC: Nichiren Daishonin teaches that we can change our fate. Doing sange allows us to shape our lives. It's taking the initiative!

UKE: Thank you.

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