One chants for her friend’s cold to go away, another for a better relationship with a pesky work colleague and another for her mother’s acceptance
“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.”
On Monday night in Eileen Van Dyke’s tiny Rutherford apartment, six women gather to chant for about an hour around a tiny makeshift altar. On it is a candle, a bell, an incense burner, a cup of water and greenery. Dominating the scene is a cabinet containing a scroll. In the women’s hands are prayer beads.
“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” filters out the open window. On the street below, pedestrians hear a slow deep resonate vibrating song and then a tinkling of a bell. The chanting, through vibration and sound, is believed to make one’s mind clearer and therefore capable of making better decisions. Each group member rotates hosting the chants on a weekly basis.
A few times a month, the group meets with about 70 other members in East Orange at the Soka Gakki International (SGI) center. There, the chanting, led by Zone Leader Doug Wassell of Cedar Grove, is louder, deeper and more hypnotic due to the numbers and instead of a bell, a gong is used to break up the chanting. The altar is similar to the ones in members’ homes, but at the SGI center the items are larger and a bit shinier. One would still not describe the items as grand.
SGI was formed in 1995 to promote Nicheiren Daishonin’s Buddhism. It is an American Buddhist association that promotes world peace and individual happiness based on the teachings of the Nichiren school of Mahayana Buddhism. In the 13th century, Daishonin, a Japanese Buddhist reformer, declared the Lotus Sutra to be the highest teaching of Buddhism. The Lotus Sutra is unique among the teaching of Buddhism because it affirms that enlightenment is possible for all people no matter their race, gender, social standing or education. He created a simple practice for all people, the chanting of the Lotus Sutra—“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo”—to a simple article of devotion, the scroll or mandala of the Gohonzon. The Gohonzon scroll is inscribed with Chinese and Sanskrit characters and is the focal point for chanting “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” and reciting the sutra during gongyo.
Members chant twice a day in their homes or at the center, by themselves or with others. It’s the chanting to a scroll on a simple makeshift altar, not at a temple or with a priest, that makes Daishonin’s Buddhism accessible and therefore pleasing to the masses. Today there are 12 million members in 190 countries. In the South Bergenite area there are over 60 members.
Van Dyke, a Catholic, said she began chanting about two years ago and feels it’s brought peace to her hectic life. She describes the chanting as a meditation and a calming part of her day. She also likes the camaraderie of the others and the positive thinking SGI members promote. The small yet diverse group at Van Dyke’s reflects SGI’s philosophy that enlightenment is for all. The women are vastly different in backgrounds, age and race, but the camaraderie among them is apparent as their separate chants become one and their discussions afterwards center on support of one another .
In East Orange, after the group ends the gongyo or chanting, without much pomp and circumstance, but with many cheers, some members are given Gohonzons to enshrine in their own homes. One is given to a member who just began chanting two weeks ago and another to a family who is moving from their parents’ home to a home of their own. The most important “improvement” to their home will be their tiny altar with a new Gohonzon.
By chanting to the scroll, chanters feel energy bouncing back and forth and into them. The chanter and the scroll become like magnets of energy or enlightenment. The chanting allows the chanter a creative harmony with the universe says district leader Edna Dumas of East Rutherford.
Dumas, a former Baptist, began chanting when she says prayer didn’t help her battling children. “I prayed for them to stop fighting, they were driving me crazy,” she recalls. Her aunt had introduced to chanting years before. As a last resort she began chanting and claims her children worked through their sibling rivalry. She said the more she chanted the clearer her life became, even to the point that she was able to get out of bad relationship that later proved a wise decision. Today, she says she is able to tackle any problem because she believes that the chanting will see her through. She rarely gets flustered and is more accepting of others, she says.
The practice is based on individuality, each person is significant and part of the whole workings of the universe. By being enlightened you are better at being part of the universe; you alone can change the world. If you are in harmony, the world will be too. Keith Thomas of Morristown describes how he left a meeting a few weeks ago and met with an automobile accident which made him see his importance in life. “If I wasn’t practicing, I think all I would have thought of was the negativity. But I’m still here unharmed. My work is still not done,” he says.
Another man describes his battle to overcome his blindness after a stroke. Today he’s on the road to seeing again. “Problems are just distractions in a pathway through life that you can overcome,” he says.
Irma Gorman of North Haledon has been chanting for 25 years, from the Caribbean to New Jersey. “We all do gongyo the same way,” she says smiling to a room filled with people from Pakistan, China, St. Croix and New Jersey.
The group has come under some scrutiny as members can chant for anything: wealth, a new car, even a Gucci bag. According to Dumas chanting for material things, or even a husband, is OK “because each experience that works out deepens your faith and taps into the universe. When you’re happy, you’re a better person.”
While chanting twice a day is important, studying Buddhism and meeting with the others is part of the movement. SGI has a very active calendar of events for woman, children and men in many different languages. Classes include drumming and dance and the study of Buddhism.
Source: NorthJersey.com
