For my Buddhist site visit, I visited Nichiren Shoshu Myosenji Buddhist Temple in Silver Spring, Maryland. I choose to visit this temple because it was relatively close to my house and the service was on Sunday, which is my only day that I have time not occupied by other commitments. From my site visit, I learned that Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is different than Historical Buddhism and that chanting is an important part of reaching Enlightenment. They emphasis that all people can practice the religion, regardless of race, gender, age, or intelligence. The three essential parts of the religion that are important for achieving Enlightenment the are: faith, practice, and study. The representative with whom I conversed was Reverend Murata who …show more content…
Also, before visiting the temple, I did not realize their there are different types of Buddhism that are practiced.
I visited the Nichiren Shoshu Myosenji Buddhist Temple on April 23 with Jacqueline Kerlin and Emma Falkenstein. Upon arriving, I was surprised to see that the temple building was just a normal looking building. I had expected the architecture of the building to be similar to that of the Hindu temple. Once inside, all of the people there for the introduction to Buddhism session where lead inside their worship space. The room was plainly decorated , except for at the front of the room there was the altar. The altar was made of gold and dark wood. At the back of the altar there was the Gohonzon. The Gohonzon is the Object of Worship, or the Dai-Gohonzon, which the founder of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, Nichiren Daishonin, infused his his enlighten life into. The Gohonzon is piece of wood or paper on which the Chinese and Sanskrit, characters infused with the life of Nichiren Daishonin, the phrase “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” is written and around the edges the Ten Worlds of the original Buddha’s Life were …show more content…
He began the conversation by introducing himself and telling some basic facts about himself. He grew up in Japan practicing Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and joined the head Nichiren Shoshu Temple, the Temple Taiseki-Ji. There are over 700 branches of this temple all over the world. Over 20 years ago, Reverend Murate was transferred to the US to their temple in New York. He recounted that when he first came to the US he knew very little English and living in New York City was very different. Several years later he was transferred to the temple in Silver Spring where he is the head priest. One of my goals for the conversation was to understand the difference between Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and other types of Buddhism. He explained that it is a form of Buddhism that originated in Japan in the early 1200s as a result of Nichiren Daishonin. After joining the Buddhist temple in his village, Nichiren Daishonin began learning about the various sects of the religion and their teaching, until concluding Tate Lotus Sutra was the highest. Nichiren Daishonin was surprised to learn who superficial the leaders understanding of Lotus Sutra was. Nichiren Daishonin then realized that he was the fulfillment of Shakyamuni’s prediction 2,000 years earlier and he embarked on the spiritual journey of correcting the corruption that existed in Buddhism and overcoming extreme amounts of persecution. Rev