Defining Gongyo
SGI members perform a morning and evening practice known as gongyo, which consists of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra. The Japanese word gongyo literally means “assiduous practice.” In the practice of Nichiren Buddhism it means reciting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and portions of the second and the sixteenth chapters of the Lotus Sutra, ideally in front of the Gohonzon.
Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the primary practice, is like fuel for an engine. Reciting the sutra is a supplementary practice, like adding oil to that engine. It is most effective when the two are combined, and practitioners can feel the confidence of performing in top condition.
The duration of any particular chanting session is up to each individual’s preferences and needs. Regular morning and evening gongyo, however, should become the basis of one’s daily practice, a time to reflect and connect with the deeper rhythms of life.
The Origins of Gongyo
While Nichiren Daishonin emphasized the importance of daily reciting the “Expedient Means” and “Life Span” chapters, he never mentioned a specific format. Over the centuries, the format of gongyo has changed several times. This describes those changes from the Daishonin’s day to the present, to the extent that they are known.
“Our morning and evening practice is an invigorating ceremony of beginningless time that revitalizes us from the very depths of our being. Therefore, the important thing is to chant each day filled with a sense of rhythm and cadence—like a horse galloping through the heavens. I hope you will chant in a way that leaves you refreshed and revitalized in both body and mind.”
–SGI President Daisaku Ikeda
Gongyo and Daimoku
As stated before, chanting daimoku, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, is termed the “primary practice” and reading or reciting the “Hoben” and “Juryo” chapters is called the “supplementary practice” or the “supporting practice.”
The twenty-sixth high priest Nichikan Shonin explains the relationship between the primary and supplementary practices by comparing them to food and seasoning. In other words, when eating rice or noodles, the “primary” source of nourishment, you use salt or vinegar as seasoning to help bring out, or “supplement,” the flavor.
The benefit from carrying out the primary practice is immense. When you also recite portions of the “Hoben” and “Juryo” chapters, it has the supplementary function of increasing and accelerating the beneficial power of the primary practice.
The benefit of chanting daimoku is immeasurable and boundless. Indeed, there is infinite power in chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo just one time. The Daishonin says, “If you recite these words of the daimoku once, then the Buddha nature of all living beings will be summoned and gather around you” (MW-5, 112).
Accordingly, you do not necessarily have to recite the sutra as you usually do in gongyo, if, for example, you are sick. If, as a result of forcing yourself to do a complete gongyo at such times, your condition should worsen, then, rather than increasing your benefit, it may in fact have the opposite effect of destroying your joy in faith and thus generating negative value. Buddhism is reason. The important thing, therefore, is for each person to make wise judgments so that he or she will be able to carry out a practice of gongyo filled with joy at all times.
Gongyo and daimoku are the roots that, as it were, enable you to grow into a great tree. The tree of your life strengthens and grows as a cumulative result of your continuing practice of gongyo and chanting daimoku. While it may not be possible to see any changes from one day to the next, because of the daily nourishment a consistent practice affords, your life will one day become towering and vast like a great tree. As you carry out a steady practice, you will develop a state of life of absolutely indestructible happiness.
I imagine some of you may wonder how reciting sutra passages you cannot understand could bring about any benefit. Let me reassure you that definitely there is benefit from carrying out this practice.
The Daishonin says: “A baby does not know the difference between water and fire, and cannot distinguish medicine from poison. But when he sucks milk, his life is nourished and sustained. Although one may not be versed [in various sutras] . . . if one listens to even one character or one phrase of the Lotus Sutra, one cannot fail to attain Buddhahood.” (MW-7, 104–105)
Just as a baby is nourished and grows naturally of its own by drinking milk, if you earnestly chant the Mystic Law with faith in the Gohonzon, your life definitely will come to shine with immeasurable good fortune and benefit.
At the same time, it is certainly true that if you study the meaning of the sutra based on this practice and with a seeking mind, you can deepen your confidence and strengthen your faith still further.
When we do gongyo and chant daimoku, we conduct a ceremony in which we praise Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the law of the universe, and the Buddha. We also praise the eternal life of the universe, and the world of Buddhahood in our own lives.
[When we chant to the Gohonzon] right then and there the doors of the microcosm within us open completely to the macrocosm, and we can experience a great and serene sense of happiness, as though gazing out over the entire universe. We savor tremendous fulfillment and joy, and gain access to a great and all-embracing wisdom. The microcosm of our lives that is encompassed by the universe in turn encompasses the entire universe.
Gongyo revitalizes us from the very depths of our being. Therefore, the important thing is to do gongyo each day filled with a feeling of rhythm and cadence—like a white horse galloping through the heavens. I hope you will do the kind of satisfying gongyo that leaves you refreshed and revitalized in both body and mind.
—SGI President Daisaku Ikeda
Excerpted from Lectures on the “Hoben” (Expedient Means) and “Juryo” (Life Span of the Thus Come One) Chapters of the Lotus Sutra, SGI-USA, 1996).
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