Musings on Nichiren Buddhism

I am now venturing into the Nam vs Namu debate and feel that something has been missed for a very long time that has been staring us in the face everytime we look at our Gongyo book.  Verbal contractions of Japanese phonetics go beyond whether or not we are pronouncing Namu as 'Nam' as is done in the Nichiren Shohu and Soka Gakkai tradition.  It should also include how we pronounce the words in the Gongyo book. Having read through the Gongyo book downloaded from the Nichiren Shu Bay Area website ( link here ) there are clearly a few small differences in how the Kanji in the Nichiren-shu Gongyo book are pronounced compared to the Nichiren Shoshu / Soka Gakkai Gongyo books.  In different cases, each lineage abbreviates the pronunciation of some of the kanji where the other do not and vice versa. Two examples from the Hoben chapter: Go jū jō-butsu i-rai (Nichiren Shoshu / SGI) Go jū jō but^chi rai (Nichiren Shu) Nyo ze hon-mak^ku-kyō tō (Nichiren Shoshu / SGI) Nyo ze hon-mat...

Hello, I have had a number of thoughts over the years about Nichiren Buddhism and want to share them if anyone cares to read. My background: I am a middle aged American man, who was born into a family practicing Nichiren Buddhsim with the Soka Gakkai.  I grew up going to SGI meetings and to the Nichiren Shoshu Temple for occasional Gojukai Ceremonies up until the excommunication in the 90s, when my family continued to practice with the SGI to this day.  As a kid, I first learned all about the Gohonzon's power was passed down from the Dai-Gohonzon by way of the successive High Priests of Nichiren Shoshu, and then almost overnight, it was not - the Gohonzon's power is inside of each of us that we reveal with a direct connection with the Lotus Sutra, to help sweep away our fundamental darknesses to reveal the true and the Gohonzon (scroll mandala) is just a physical depiction of the Gohonzon inside of us and has no real power but to serve as a mirror and visual aid to focus our v...