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  • The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin I/II
    • Volume I
    • Volume II
  • The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras
  • The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings
  • The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism

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Nam-myoho-renge-kyo | Dictionary of Buddhism | Nichiren Buddhism Library
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  • Nadī Kāshyapa

    [那提迦葉] (; Pali Nadī Kassapa;  Nadai-kashō)

  • Nāgabodhi

    [竜智] (n.d.) (;  Ryūchi)

  • Nāgārjuna

    [竜樹] (n.d.) (;  Ryūju)

  • Nāgasena

    [那先比丘] (n.d.) (, Pali;  Nasen-biku)

  • Nagoe, the lay nun of

    [名越の尼] (n.d.) ( Nagoe-no-ama)

  • Nairanjanā River

    [尼連禅河] (; Pali Neranjarā;  Nirenzen-ga)

  • Naivasamjnānāsamjnā Realm

    [非想非非想処] (;  Hisō-hihisō-sho)

  • Nakaoki, the lay priest of

    [中興入道] (n.d.) ( Nakaoki-nyūdō)

  • Nālandā Monastery

    [那爛陀寺] (;  Naranda-ji)

  • Nambu Rokurō Sanenaga

    [南部六郎実長]

  • Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

    [南無妙法蓮華経]

  • namu

    [南無] (;  namas)

  • Namu Amida Butsu

    [南無阿弥陀仏]

  • Nanda

    [難陀] (;  Nanda)

  • Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō

    [南条兵衛七郎] (d. 1265)

  • Nanjō Shichirō Gorō

    [南条七郎五郎] (1265–1280)

  • Nanjō Tokimitsu

    [南条時光] (1259–1332)

  • Nan-yüeh

    [南岳] (515–577) (PY Nanyue;  Nangaku)

  • naraka

    [地獄・奈落] (, Pali;  jigoku or naraku)

  • Nārāyana

    [那羅延] (;  Naraen)

  • Narendrayashas

    [那連提耶舎] (490–589) (;  Narendaiyasha)

  • nayuta

    [那由多] (;  nayuta)

  • near-perfect enlightenment

    [等覚] ( tōgaku)

  • Nembutsu

    [念仏] ()

  • Nembutsu Chosen above All, The

    [選択集] ( Senchaku-shū or Senjaku-shū)

  • Nembutsu school

    [念仏宗] ( Nembutsu-shū)

  • Nen’a

    [然阿]

  • Neranjarā River

    [尼連禅河] (Pali;  Nirenzen-ga)

  • Never Disparaging

    [常不軽菩薩・不軽菩薩] ( Sadāparibhūta;  Jōfukyō-bosatsu or Fukyō-bosatsu)

  • “Never Disparaging” chapter

    [不軽品] ( Fukyō-bon)

  • new translations

    [新訳] ( shin’yaku)

  • nibbāna

    [涅槃] (Pali;  nehan)

  • Nichiben

    [日弁] (1239–1311)

  • Nichidai

    [日代] (1297–1394)

  • Nichigen-nyo

    [日眼女] (1242–1303)

  • Nichigō

    [日郷・日毫] (1293–1353)

  • Nichiji

    [日持] (b. 1250)

  • Nichijū

    [日什] (1314–1392)

  • Nichijun

    [日順] (1294–1356)

  • Nichikan

    [日寛] (1665–1726)

  • Nichikō

    [日講] (1626–1698)

  • Nichimoku

    [日目] (1260–1333)

  • Nichimyō

    [日妙] (n.d.)

  • Nichinyo

    [日女] (n.d.)

  • Nichiō

    [日奥] (1565–1630)

  • Nichiren

    [日蓮] (1222–1282)

  • Nichiren school

    [日蓮宗] ( Nichiren-shū)

  • Nichiren Shōshū

    [日蓮正宗]

  • Nichirō

    [日朗] (1245–1320)

  • Nichiu

    [日有] (1402–1482)

  • Nichizen

    [日禅] (d. 1331)

  • Nichizon

    [日尊] (1265–1345)

  • Nigantha Nātaputta

    [尼乾陀若提子] (Pali;  Nikenda-nyakudaishi)

  • Niiama

    [新尼] (n.d.)

  • Niida Shirō Nobutsuna

    [新田四郎信綱] (n.d.)

  • Niike Saemon-no-jō

    [新池左衛門尉] (n.d.)

  • Nikke

    [日華]

  • Nikkō

    (1) [日興] (1246–1333); (2) [日光] ()

  • Nikō

    [日向] (1253–1314)

  • Nikō’s Records

    [日向記] ( Nikō-ki)

  • nine arrogances

    [九慢] ( ku-man)

  • nine consciousnesses

    [九識] ( ku-shiki)

  • nine divisions of the scriptures

    [九分経] ( kubun-kyō)

  • nine divisions of the teachings

    [九分教] ( kubun-kyō)

  • nine great ordeals

    [九横の大難] ( kuō-no-dainan)

  • nine great persecutions

    [九横の大難] ( kuō-no-dainan)

  • nine honored ones on the eight-petaled lotus

    [八葉九尊] ( hachiyō-kuson)

  • nine mountains and eight seas

    [九山八海] ( kusen-hakkai)

  • nine schools

    [九宗] ( ku-shū)

  • ninety-five non-Buddhist schools

    [九十五種の外道] ( kujūgoshu-no-gedō)

  • nine types of arrogance

    [九慢] ( ku-man)

  • nine worlds

    [九界] ( ku-kai or kyū-kai)

  • Ninshō

    [忍性]

  • ninth period of decrease in the kalpa of continuance

    [住劫第九の減] ( jūkō-daiku-no-gen)

  • nirmāna-kāya

    [応身] (;  ōjin)

  • nirvana

    [涅槃] (; Pali nibbāna;  nehan)

  • nirvana of no remainder

    [無余涅槃] ( muyo-nehan)

  • nirvana of remainder

    [有余涅槃] ( uyo-nehan)

  • Nirvana school

    [涅槃宗] (Chin Nieh-p’an-tsung;  Nehan-shū)

  • Nirvana Sutra

    [涅槃経] (Chin Nieh-p’an-ching;  Nehan-gyō)

  • Nishiyama, the lay priest of

    [西山入道] (n.d.) ( Nishiyama-nyūdō)

  • Nissen

    [日仙] (1262–1357)

  • Nisshō

    [日昭] (1221–1323)

  • Nisshū

    [日秀] (d. 1329)

  • Nitchō

    (1) [日頂] (1252–1317); (2) [日澄] (1262–1310)

  • noble eightfold path

    [八正道] ( hasshō-dō)

  • non-duality of body and mind

    [色心不二] ( shikishin-funi)

  • non-duality of delusion and enlightenment

    [迷悟不二・迷悟一体] ( meigo-funi or meigo-ittai)

  • non-duality of good and evil

    [善悪不二] ( zen’aku-funi)

  • non-duality of life and its environment

    [依正不二] ( eshō-funi)

  • non-duality of living beings and Buddhas

    [生仏不二・生仏一如] ( shōbutsu-funi or shōbutsu-ichinyo)

  • Nōnin

    [能忍] (n.d.)

  • non-returner

    [阿那含・不還] (, Pali anāgāmin;  anagon or fugen)

  • non-substantiality

    [空] ( shūnya or shūnyatā;  kū)

  • Northern Buddhism

    [北方仏教・北伝仏教] ( Hoppō-bukkyō or Hokuden-bukkyō)

  • Northern school of Zen

    [北宗禅] ( Hokushū Zen)

  • numberless major world system dust particle kalpas

    [五百塵点劫] ( gohyaku-jintengō or gohyaku-jindengō)

  • Nyagrodha

    [尼倶律陀] (;  Nikurida)

  • nyagrodha tree

    [尼拘律樹・尼倶類樹] (;  nikuritsu-ju or nikurui-ju)

  • Nyohō

    [如宝] (d. 814 or 815) (; Chin Ju-pao)

  • nyūdō

    [入道] ()

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo [南無妙法蓮華経]: The ultimate Law or truth of the universe, according to Nichiren’s teaching. Nichiren first taught the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to a small group of people at Seichō-ji temple in his native province of Awa, Japan, on the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month in 1253. It literally means devotion to Myoho-renge-kyo. Myoho-renge-kyo is the Japanese reading of the Chinese title of the Lotus Sutra, which Nichiren regards as the sutra’s essence, and appending nam (a phonetic change of namu) to that phrase indicates devotion to the title and essence of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren identifies it with the universal Law or principle implicit in the meaning of the sutra’s text.
  The meaning of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is explained in the opening section of The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, the record of Nichiren’s lectures on the Lotus Sutra compiled by his disciple and successor, Nikkō. It states that namu derives from the Sanskrit word namas and is translated as devotion, or as “dedicating one’s life.” What one should dedicate one’s life to, he says, are the Person and the Law. The Person signifies “Shakyamuni,” which means the eternal Buddha, and the Law is “the Lotus Sutra,” which means the ultimate truth, or Myoho-renge-kyo. According to Orally Transmitted Teachings, the act of devotion (namu) has two aspects: One is to devote oneself to, or fuse one’s life with, the eternal and unchanging truth; the other is that, through this fusion of one’s life with the ultimate truth, one simultaneously draws forth inexhaustible wisdom that functions in accordance with changing circumstances.
  Orally Transmitted Teachings further states: “We may also note that the nam of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a Sanskrit word, while Myoho-renge-kyo are Chinese words. Sanskrit and Chinese join in a single moment to form Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. If we express the title [of the Lotus Sutra] in Sanskrit, it will be Saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra. This is Myoho-renge-kyo. Sad (a phonetic change of sat) means myō, or wonderful. Dharma means hō, Law or phenomena. Pundarīka means renge, or lotus blossom. Sūtra means kyō, or sutra. The nine Chinese characters [that represent the Sanskrit title] are the Buddha bodies of the nine honored ones. This expresses the idea that the nine worlds are none other than the Buddha world.
  “Myō stands for the Dharma nature, or enlightenment, while hō represents darkness, or ignorance. Together as myōhō, they express the idea that ignorance and the Dharma nature are a single entity, or one in essence. Renge stands for the two elements of cause and effect. Cause and effect are also a single entity.
  “Kyō represents the words and voices of all living beings. A commentary says, ‘The voice carries out the work of the Buddha, and it is called kyō.’ Kyō may also be defined as that which is constant and unchanging in the three existences of past, present, and future. The Dharma realm is myōhō, the wonderful Law; the Dharma realm is renge, the lotus blossom; the Dharma realm is kyō, the sutra.”
  As Nichiren states, namu derives from Sanskrit, and Myoho-renge-kyo comes from Chinese. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is, therefore, not simply a Japanese phrase, but a Japanese reading of a Sanskrit and Chinese phrase. In this sense, it contains aspects of the languages of three countries in which Mahayana Buddhism spread. According to Nichiren’s treatise The Entity of the Mystic Law, Nan-yüeh and T’ien-t’ai of China and Dengyō of Japan recited the invocation meaning devotion to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, or Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, as their private practice, but they did not spread this practice to others.
  In On the Three Great Secret Laws, Nichiren states that the daimoku Nichiren chants today in the Latter Day of the Law is different from that of the previous ages—the daimoku T’ien-t’ai and others chanted in the Former Day and Middle Day of the Law—because the practice of daimoku in the Latter Day of the Law involves chanting it oneself and teaching others to do so as well. Nichiren not only established the invocation (daimoku) of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo but embodied it as a mandala, making it the object of devotion called Gohonzon. In Reply to Kyō’ō, he states, “I, Nichiren, have inscribed my life in sumi ink, so believe in the Gohonzon with your whole heart. The Buddha’s will is the Lotus Sutra, but the soul of Nichiren is nothing other than Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (412).


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