What's Nichirin all about then?

[Spiny le Norman]

I'm going to visit a local Nichirin group soon and would be interested to know a little bit about it.  I gather the main practice is chanting?

Spiny

[Monkey Mind]

I suggest doing your research first. PM me. I will say I have friends who are very happy with the Nichiren practice; I also have friends who left it feeling very disgruntled.

[Wonky Badger]

I have a friend that used to be Nichiren also. We only had a short discussion about it, but he said that they spent a lot of time chanting for "things they wanted". We never got around to talking about what those "things" were though and we didn't talk about why he left either.

[GoGet]

Spiney,

You might look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Buddhism

[Caz]

Alot of chanting. I dont know much else. 

[Spiny le Norman]

Thanks for the responses, I will keep an open mind.  I am happy with my own school / practice and have no intention of converting to Nichiren, rather I'm doing some Buddhist networking locally. 
The British PM David Cameron keeps talking about the "big society", so I thought I should contribute...

Spiny

[t]

The Lineage of Nichiren Buddhism
The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Nichiren Issues

Soka Gakkai....now that's another story...that's your homework  

[Spiny le Norman]

The Lineage of Nichiren Buddhism
The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Nichiren Issues

Soka Gakkai....now that's another story...that's your homework  

Thanks.  There seems to be a lot of politics involved...fortunately I don't have to get involved in all that.  Politics is just boring.

Spiny

[Jikan]

I have a friend that used to be Nichiren also. We only had a short discussion about it, but he said that they spent a lot of time chanting for "things they wanted". We never got around to talking about what those "things" were though and we didn't talk about why he left either.

This is a contested issue among Nichiren Buddhist schools.  What you're describing sounds less like mainstream Nichiren Buddhism and more like Soka Gakkai; this isn't the purpose of practice in, say, Nichiren-shu or Rissho Kosei-Kai.

[Spiny le Norman]

I have a friend that used to be Nichiren also. We only had a short discussion about it, but he said that they spent a lot of time chanting for "things they wanted". We never got around to talking about what those "things" were though and we didn't talk about why he left either.

This is a contested issue among Nichiren Buddhist schools.  What you're describing sounds less like mainstream Nichiren Buddhism and more like Soka Gakkai; this isn't the purpose of practice in, say, Nichiren-shu or Rissho Kosei-Kai.

It turned out to be an SGI group.  They seemed to be sincere practitioners but I found them somewhat insular, with virtually no knowledge of the wider Buddhist world.

Spiny

[Monkey Mind]

It turned out to be an SGI group.  They seemed to be sincere practitioners but I found them somewhat insular, with virtually no knowledge of the wider Buddhist world.

Spiny

Yep, that's their schtick. No need to study classical Buddhism, because Daisaku Ikeda is a fully enlightened being, perhaps the reincarnation of Nichiren.

[Jikan]

Yep, that's their schtick. No need to study classical Buddhism, because Daisaku Ikeda is a fully enlightened being, perhaps the reincarnation of Nichiren.

A further wrinkle:  one of the contested doctrinal points in the broader umbrella of Nichiren Buddhism is the position taken in some corners that Nichiren himself was a Second Buddha, or a rebirth of Shakyamuni.  This in the context of Nichiren's form of Buddhism being presupposed as most appropriate to the present age (mappo)...

Backstory:  in medieval Japan, Tendai was the dominant school of Buddhism.  It was quite diverse in practice, encompassing sitting meditation, pure land practices, and Lotus Sutra study and devotion, esoteric (mikkyo or Vajrayana) practice.  At a certain point in history, the "single-practice" schools emerged from this baroque and complex Tendai umbrella, each of them claiming to some extent that only one of these practices is most appropriate to the time.  Honen advanced Pure Land (nembutsu) as the best; the Rinzai and Soto schools of Zen have their origin at this time (hence the importance of the Lotus Sutra in Japanese Zen); and Nichiren emerges at this time too, promoting a particular way to venerate the Lotus Sutra as the final and best teaching.  This was a time of substantial social upheaval in Japan; the different forms of practice were intended for particular social strata that weren't well served by the old institutions.

All that to say:  if you want to understand how Nichiren got from point A to point B (quite a distance actually, more like point X or Y), take a look at Tendai doctrine and practice, and you can see the continuity from the mainline of Mahayana practice.  It's a very interesting phenomenon, and it's not an accident that some forms of Nichiren Buddhism (SGI for instance) appeals to working-class and African American Buddhists in North America.  It's a fact that the only Buddhist center here where you'll find representative numbers of people of color is a Nichiren center. 

[Monkey Mind]

thank you, Jikan, that explanation helps my understanding a lot. The SGI in my community are also effectively recruiting in LGBT and recovery/ AA circles.

[Jikan]

thank you, Jikan, that explanation helps my understanding a lot. The SGI in my community are also effectively recruiting in LGBT and recovery/ AA circles.

Yeah, that's one other thing about SGI in particular that distinguishes them from mainstream Buddhism:  they get out there and *recruit*!  I don't think anyone in or out of SGI would disagree with that.

Meanwhile, check this out.  I think this is a very positive contribution to the world:

http://www.soka.edu