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Buddhism is generally regarded as the religion established by a man known as Shakyamuni,
born Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in India nearly 3,000 years ago. However, Buddhism 
includes not only Shakyamuni's sutras or teachings, but also all subsequent treatises
and commentaries on what he taught. After his death, differing interpretations 
naturally arose. As Buddhism spread to many different countries, doctrines of varying 
degrees of profundity came into being. But the original purpose of Buddhism remained the
same: to remove human suffering and to give people happiness.


When Shakyamuni was young, he observed people suffering as a result of birth, old age,
sickness and death. He wondered why they had to undergo such suffering. This question
plagued not only Shakyamuni nearly 3,000 years ago, but continues to be a fundamental
and universally human concern today. Today, we continue to ask: "What is life? Where 
does our life come from? Why must we age, sicken and die? What happens to us after 
death? How can we escape this suffering? How should we live? How can we become 
absolutely happy?"


The tenets of Buddhism answer these questions. Shakyamuni's teachings say that all the
things that we see, feel, hear or otherwise experience are impermanent and subject to 
change. This includes our own lives. Yet at the core of all these human experiences is
something eternal and immutable. That something is called the eternal law of life, or 
the law of causality. Everything in the universe, including human life, is borne out of
it, has been borne out of it many times in the past, and will continuously be born out 
of it in the future. When a person dies, what is permanent and immutable in his or her
life returns to its source and will continue to do so repeatedly after each lifetime.


In this way Shakyamuni clarified the eternity of life. In another way, his teachings
clarified the individual circumstances of our day-to-day lives. According to Buddhism,
each time we die we take with us the causes and effects of each finished or unfinished 
deed. Upon the occasion of our birth they come back with us as determinig factors as we
live out this lifetime. This is the principle of karma, which states that everything 
that is happening now is the result of our previous causes. Further, the causes we make
now shape our future. Thus our lives encompass the three existances of past, present and
future. It is the failure to understand the eternal essence of our lives and our ignorance
of the law of cause and effect that are the source of human suffering.


In this way, Shakyamuni clarified the source of our unhappiness. He taught that people
could achieve happiness by becoming enlightened to the true nature of life, but that it 
could only be done with great difficulty and after many lifetimes of austerities. What 
Shakyamuni revealed about the universal nature of life was important. He presented a 
theoretical approach to understanding our human suffering, but he did not leave behind a
universal practice to achieve human happiness. This did not happen until 750 years ago
with the advent of Nichiren Daishonin. He was enlightened to the true nature of all
phenomena and to the essential nature of human life. Moreover, he established a practice,
universal in nature, that people could utilize to break the inexorable chains of karma so
that absolute happiness in this lifetime could become a reality.

Nichiren Daishonin was born in Japan in 1222. He entered the priesthood when he was 12. 
After some 20 years' intense study of the entirety of Buddhism, he reached the conclusion
that the Lotus Sutra was supreme among all of Shakyamuni's teachings. The most important
revelation of the Lotus Sutra regarding human beings is that all phenomena manifest the 
true entity of life, and that all phenomena are contained in human life. Of equal
importance is the realization that human life pervades all phenomena, and that human 
beings have the potential to awaken to the true aspect of all phenomena, which is 
simultaneously the entity of their own lives. The implication of this teaching is that 
all people have the potential for enlightenment, and that the "life" or condition of 
Buddhahood is eternally present in the lives of common mortals.


Of paramount importance, regarding this revolutionary view of the universe and humanity's
place in it and influence on it, is the prophecy contained in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus 
Sutra prophesied the appearance of the True Buddha, who would come some 2,000 years after
after Shakyamuni's death. The True Buddha is the one who reveals the True Law directly to 
the people. The True Law enables people to understand the eternal source of their lives 
and dispells their ignorance of causality. With these two fundamental causes for human 
suffering removed, a pathway to human happiness in this world begins to open.


Specifically, the True Buddha is Nichiren Daishonin, and he did directly declare the 
True Law and establish the practice that is universally applicable. As he fulfilled the 
imperative to put the teachings and spirit into practice, he met many persecutions, just 
as the Lotus Sutra predicted. Through his life and experience, he established not only the 
truth of the Lotus Sutra, but his own identity as the True Buddha.


Nichiren Daishonin concretely revealed the essence of all phenomena and the true entity
of life in the universe as being Myoho-renge-kyo. But the deepest purpose of Buddhism
as the means to universally relieve human suffering was finally achieved when he
established the way through which every person could realize that for himself or herself.
He established the true practice of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which brings humanity and all
phenomena in the universe together, and left behind the Gohonzon, or object of worship,
so that human beings could begin to call forth the highest enlightened state that has
always existed in the depths of their lives.


The Gohonzon embodies the true entity of all phenomena, and the life of Nichiren
Daishonin. One begins the Buddhist practice by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to it. Down
the center of the Gohonzon is the inscription, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo - Nichiren. We
common mortals begin to manifest our innate Buddhahood when we fuse the core of our
lives with the eternal and immutable core of the universe. In truth, however, these two
are one, even though in human beings it is overlaid and obscured by our problems and
desires. By fusing our subjective lives with the true objective reality of life, our
lives begin to respond.


This is the true and correct object of worship for human beings. It carries with it no
value judgement regarding race, social status or life condition. It represents a simple
statement of a profound truth: "Every person is a potential Buddha and consequently
worthy of the deepest respect." This is the precept which Nichiren Daishonin's followers
embrace. By embracing this object of worship, inscribed for all humanity, and by abiding
by the Daishonin's teachings, they learn to live wisely and well in this lifetime.


It should be noted here that the practice of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism differs
substantially from the meditation taught by some other Buddhist sects, which offer their
practitioners only temporary spiritual peace. It also differs from those teachings which
allow human beings to ignore the reality of their inner weaknesses and errors in the
pursuit of some other-worldly paradise. Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism teaches us to
honestly confront the reality of our lives based upon cause and effect. It enables
individuals to reveal their great inherent potential as they practice the fundamental
Law of Life. Furthermore, people can establish an absolute state of happiness within
themselves, and at the same time spread to others the great spirit of compassion
inherent in this Law.


The establishment of true individual happiness and world peace are both definitely
possible through the practice of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism of the Three Great
Secret Laws.


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