NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO

A recent post at God4suckers.net brought back an old memory.

I was training with this fellow in my first year of doing Tai Chi (he was Shaolin/Praying Mantis/external stylist), when he dragged me to this meeting. I don't recall if he gave me any back story on it or not: but it's a fairly interesting anecdote.

So he and I end up walking up this stairwell, right off of Alcosta Blvd in San Ramon, and I heard this...chanting. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo - Nam Myoho Renge Kyo - Nam Myoho Renge Kyo - I coulda sworn it was a recording - it was perfectly synchronized, sounding all the world like a deep, powerful droning you'd hear in a monastery. And this was an apartment complex.

Turned out, it was about twenty people. Seated in front of a shrine. No yellow robes: a diverse group.

After they were done, we were welcomed, the usual amenities (no, no vacuous drooling, everyone named 'Albert', none of those cultic trappings and whatnot).

There was a group thing, where individuals were invited to step up, and tell about their experiences with said chant. It's an old memory, so bear with me on this. I'm fairly sure that more than one person stepped up: my clearest memory, was a nice looking Asian woman (T-shirt and jeans), who recounted spinning out in her car on the freeway, and attributing her survival (she appeared to be all in one piece) to the mantra I'd heard on the steps.

So after the testimonials were all said and done, I approached the head of the local group, an attractive older Asian lady (late 30's? Early 40's? It IS hard to tell. Us white folk don't age very well, so it's easier). I asked her if the chant could be called a mantra? I was rewarded with a blank look. I was directed to a large white fellow, approximately my own age (white shirt, tie, short hair), who was the scholar of the group. We had a bit of a natter about it.

The basic story is: it's a sect of Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism to be exact, a variety of sutra, "The seven characters na-mu-myo--ho--ren-ge-kyo- are written down the centre of the Gohonzon, the mandala venerated by Nichiren Buddhists." I had to look all that up, here.

He and I began discussing Eastern philosophy (again, fairly fuzzy, but I recall getting a number of blank looks, but Johnny Scholar knew what I was talking about). I do recall having some discussions with other folks, too. One fellow, swarthy, bearded, older than myself (I was 29 at the time) was describing how he got a raise (he worked in prosthetics) by using the chant. At some point, I began pointing out the differences between needs and desires. This opened a (small) can of worms: most there denied there was any differential whatsoever.

Let me go into this just a tad, and we'll get back to the story:
Needs = Food, shelter, warmth, basic essentials.
Desires = New car, toys (yepper, grownups too!), books (man, I HATE copping to that one!), prestige, all those material things we use to fill ourselves up.

Anywhoways, at one point, approached by a pair of Asian ladies, who insisted I at least try it out, it would change my life, etc, etc.

We left. I don't recall if I was bemused, bewildered, whatnot.

Odd thing, though:
For a couple of days after that, I'd be doing my Tai Chi form, and I could hear that bloody chant in my head.
I was kind of a New Agey semitheist at the time, so I ascribed it to someone directing energy at me, all that claptrap. Of course, it was subliminal suggestion. Honestly? I think anyone who walked up those stairs would've had that tune (catchy or no) in their heads for a few days. My buddy, who took me there, mentioned that it had happened to him as well.

I think it was a month or two later, that said buddy (who I haven't seen in well over a decade: old Murphy's Law - "Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.") told me about the 'dark side' of the Sutra worship. Mind you, only hearsay. "Some guy accidentally wrecked his shrine, and in one week, he lost his job, girlfriend, became an alcoholic, and got a venereal disease." I started laughing as I typed that.

Each adherent has their own personal shrine. No harm must come to it (this reminds me of Dion Fortune's Psychic Self Defense book, and yeah, I'm laughin' again, not only 'cause I read the bloody thing, but I believed it at the time), or the worshipper will be in harms way. Obviously.

The deepest impression I got out of the whole experience, was that I attended a spiritual Amway meeting.

See? I am too an EOB (Equal Opportunity Blasphemer).

I'm debating which one to put in my crosshairs for the next time. The Kabbalah? Buddhism? I'm semi-familiar with those as well. So I'll be taking suggestions from the peanut gallery on that one (that's only gentle mockery, troops: so no hard feelings. I love ya all.).

So read. Ponder. Till next post, then.