1st installment of the World of the Gosho dialog with President Ikeda. Particular theme:
The "Target of Faith", "Honzon"
Mark A. Grasso

In the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra dialogue, President Ikeda makes the point that all living beings are equally endowed with the Buddha potential. Human beings however have the unique ability to manifest the power of Buddhahood in their personality and character.

Faith, the power of the heart, our ability to uphold and act upon a principle or ideal, is a unique quality of human beings. President Ikeda says that the Lotus Sutra is a teaching of the heart, "It awakens us to the truth that a change in our heart or attitude can transform everything."

The crux of the matter is contained in the Buddhist concept of ‘honzon’ or ‘fundamental object of respect or devotion’, or perhaps we can say, the ‘target of our faith’.

What do we believe? In our heart, what do we expect?

All religions or philosophies offer a ‘target of faith’. There are religions that worship a god or some transcendent deity as the ultimate reality of life. Others worship nature or a philosophical concept and there are even religions that use an animal such as a fox or some other symbol as their object of devotion. And of course, regardless of religion, consciously or unconsciously, people will often make money, or their job or their intellect or even other people their object of worship and the foundation for their happiness. And although there is an endless multitude of ‘honzon’ in the world, it all comes down to a rather simple choice.

Essentially, our faith or determination is either directed toward a limited view of ourselves -- you can choose your ‘flavor’ -- or it is directed to the truth revealed in the depths of the Lotus Sutra and manifested by Nichiren Daishonin as the Gohonzon; there is no intrinsic difference between a ‘common mortal’ and a Buddha.

The ‘truth’ embodied in the Gohonzon inscribed by Nichiren Daishonin is that we are unlimited beings. We practice this Buddhism with the Gohonzon as the foundation or as the ‘target of our faith’ in order to awaken to that same truth which exists within our own hearts.

This is the the practical meaning of the principle of ‘ichinen sanzen’; ‘three thousand realms possessed by a single moment of life’; that the Buddha potential, or as President Ikeda says, "the fundamental power to create value" is available to us regardless of who or where we are, at any moment.

SGI-USA Women's leader Linda Johnson puts it this way:

...when we study the Gosho I believe that when Nichiren Daishonin is saying, “we are a Buddha”, what he's really saying is, "everything we need to accomplish any goal, any dream, we ever set for ourself, we already
have."

We have it right here, right now just as we're sitting here, without first having to change anything about ourselves. We already have it! It's always been inside of our life! I think the problem is that most of us don't believe it. Most of us deny our potential.

And every time we deny our potential, by that cause, we suppress it. So no wonder it can't come out. But it's like that parable of ‘the gem in the robe’. We have always possessed that gem. It's our life. [Linda Johnson, SGI-USA, "Never Ever Give Up On Your Dreams"]

An important point to understand is that it is the ‘target of our faith’, the belief we hold in the depths of our heart that determines how and how much of our potential is revealed.

The Gosho, "Kanjin No Honzon Sho", "The True Object of Worship" was given its title by Nichiren Daishonin himself. In fact the full title is, "The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind Established in the Fifth Five-Hundred-Year-Period After the Thus Come One's Passing".

In a lecture by the Soka University English Academy they explain,

The Gohonzon exists for the sake of ‘kanjin’ -- so that we can observe our own minds. And what we can see by doing this is far beyond our imagination.
Residing in the depths of our lives is the Buddha nature, our true identity from time immemorial. This Buddha nature allows us to solve the riddle of death, to lead lives of peace, harmony, happiness and mutual respect. Nothing can take away the dignity and joy of life that our Buddha nature bestows upon us.
["A Study of the True Object of Worship", Soka University English Academy, 1980, p.9]

When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, whether or not we sit in front of Gohonzon, the crucial issue for our prayers and the realization of our dreams is the ‘target of our faith’.

The Gohonzon embodies the manifest truth that we are unlimited beings. Our struggle to surmount our obstacles and sufferings and fulfill our dreams is always finally the struggle to overcome the limitations that we have accepted within our own heart.

Again from the Soka University English Academy:

Nichiren Daishonin was the Buddha who was one with the Law. That is, in his enlightenment, Nichiren Daishonin realized that his own life was Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. He later inscribed it in the form of the Gohonzon. Thus the Gohonzon too embodies the oneness of the person [Nichiren Daishonin] and the Law [Nam-myoho-renge-kyo].

The Dai-Gohonzon is a manifestation of his own enlightened life-condition. By chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to the Gohonzon with strong faith, we can attain the same life-condition as Nichiren Daishonin... Thus there is no essential difference between his life and the life of a common person. This is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism, and we believe that no other religion can surpass it; it is unsurpassed in bridging the "ultimate reality" and the common person. ["A Study of the True Object of Worship", Soka University English Academy, 1980, p. 4]

In order to allow us to ‘see’ the Buddha potential in our life [‘kanjin’], Nichiren Daishonin inscribed the Dai-Gohonzon. It is our own determination that "we are a Buddha" that we put into practice by chanting daimoku that awakens us to this truth within our heart.

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This page was last modified on Sunday, August 20, 2006.