|
Ushitora Gongyo
is a Buddhist liturgy service conducted in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. The service is traditionally held at 2:30 AM at the Kyakuden building of Taisekiji Head Temple, located within the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan. It is the morning prayer service which is indirectly offered to the Dai Gohonzon image, approximately one mile away from a distance area in accordance to the sect and beliefs of wide propagation. The Buddhist sect claims that the reputed ceremony has been rigidly observed for over 700 years without fail, since the death anniversary of Nikko Shonin on 7 February 1333. Overview Among Nichiren Shoshu believers, several pious customs and folk beliefs are often associated with the reputedly auspicious hours of the daylight prayer service: * The hours mark the transitional time range when Shakyamuni Buddha entered the state of Nirvana under the Bodhi tree. * Pious beliefs which claim that between these auspicious hours are when Buddhas are said to gain Buddhahood. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra
The ''Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra'' (or ''Infinite Life Sutra'', Chinese: ''Fóshuōwúliàngshòujīng'' 佛說無量壽經; Vietnamese: Phật Thuyết Kinh Vô Lượng Thọ; Japanese: Taisho Tripitaka # 360) is one of the two Indian Mahayana sutras which describe the pure land of Amitābha. Together with the ''Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra'', this text is highly influential in China and Japan where it is revered by the Jōdo-shū and Jōdo Shinshū congregations. History and translations Some scholars believe that the ''Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra'' was compiled in the age of the Kushan Empire in the first and second centuries by an order of Mahīśāsaka monastics who flourished in the Gandhāra region.Nakamura, Hajime. ''Indian Buddhism: A Survey With Biographical Notes.'' 1999. p. 205 It is likely that the longer ''Sukhāvatīvyūha'' owed greatly to the Lokottaravāda sect as well for its compilation, and in this sūtra there are many elements in common with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soka Gakkai
is a Japanese Buddhist religious movement based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese priest Nichiren as taught by its first three presidents Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, Jōsei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda. It is the largest of the Japanese new religions and claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhist groups. The organization bases its teachings on Nichiren's interpretation of the ''Lotus Sutra'' and places chanting "Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō at the center of devotional practice. The organization promotes its goals as supporting "''peace, culture, and education''". The movement was founded by educators Makiguchi and Toda on 18 November 1930, and held its inaugural meeting in 1937. It was disbanded during the Second World War when much of the leadership was imprisoned for violations of the 1925 Peace Preservation Law and charges of lèse-majesté. After the war, it expanded to a claimed total of 750,000 households in 1958 through explosive recruitment, held to be unpr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tennin (Japanese Angel)
, which may include , , and the specifically female version, the , are a divine kind of spiritual beings found in Japanese Buddhism, the equivalent of Angels. They were seemingly imported from Chinese Buddhism,An Overview of Japanese Folklore at th Mukashibanashi Library which was itself influenced by the concepts of heavenly beings found in and Chinese . History ''Tennin'' are mentioned in Buddhist |
Japanese Clock
A is a mechanical clock that has been made to tell traditional Japanese time, a system in which daytime and nighttime are always divided into six periods whose lengths consequently change with the season. Mechanical clocks were introduced into Japan by Jesuit missionaries (in the 16th century) or Dutch merchants (in the 17th century). These clocks were of the lantern clock design, typically made of brass or iron, and used the relatively primitive verge and foliot escapement. Tokugawa Ieyasu owned a lantern clock of European manufacture. Neither the pendulum nor the balance spring were in use among European clocks of the period, and as such they were not included among the technologies available to the Japanese clockmakers at the start of the isolationist period in Japanese history, which began in 1641. The isolationist period meant that Japanese clockmakers would have to find their own way without significant further inputs from Western developments in clockmaking. Neve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kosen-rufu
Kōsen-rufu (広宣流布), a phrase found in the Japanese translation of the Buddhist scripture Lotus Sutra, is informally defined to as "world peace through individual happiness." It refers to the future widespread dissemination of the Lotus Sutra. The term derives from Lotus Sutra's 23rd chapter: "Propagate this chapter widely throughout the Jambudvīpa in the last 500-year period after my death." Nichiren (1222–1282), the founder of Nichiren Buddhism, took this statement to indicate that the Lotus Sutra is the Law to be declared and widely spread during the Latter Age. ''Kōsen'' means to "widely declare." "Widely" implies speaking out to the world, to an ever-greater number and ever-broader spectrum of people. "Declare" means to proclaim one's ideals, principles and philosophy. The ''ru'' (flow) of ''rufu'' means "a current like that of a great river," and ''fu'' (cloth) means "to spread out like a bolt of cloth." This requires an active and engaged approach of ''sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nichimoku
, Buddhist name: ''Niidakyo Ajari Nichimoku'', was a junior disciple of Nichiren who sided with Nikkō Shōnin after Nichiren's death. Nikkō Shōnin later appointed Nichimoku as his successor as Head Priest (''Kancho'') of Taiseki-ji temple. Pious beliefs claim that he will someday leave the state of Nirvana to usher conversion of the Emperor of Japan and the widespread propagation of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Today, the ''Mokushiza'' seat inside the Dai-Kyakuden (English: Grand Reception Hall) of Taisekiji Head Temple is named in honor of Nichimoku Shōnin. In 1333, Nichimoku died at age 74, and his cremated remains are stored within Taisekiji, while the anniversary of his death on November 15 coincides with the Shichi-Go-San tradition for young children called ''Mokushi-E ceremony'', later popularized during the Edo period. The symbol crest attributed to Nichimoku is the Three Friends of Winter combination, and in Buddhist iconography he is often portrayed with a flattened sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka.", "Modern human beings—''Homo sapiens''—originated in Africa. Then, int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rajgir
Rajgir, meaning "The City of Kings," is a historic town in the district of Nalanda in Bihar, India. As the ancient seat and capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty and the Mauryan Empire, as well as the dwelling ground of such historical figures as The Buddha and The Mahavira, the city holds a place of prominence in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain scriptures. As of 2011, the population of the town was reported to be 71,459 while the population in the community development block was about 88,500. Rajgir was the first capital of the ancient kingdom of Magadha, a state that would eventually evolve into the Mauryan Empire. It finds mention in India's renowned literary epic, the Mahabharata, through its king Jarasandha. The town's date of origin is unknown, although ceramics dating to about 1000 BC have been found in the city. The 2,500-year-old cyclopean wall is also located in the region. The town is also notable in Jainism and Buddhism. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lotus Sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. It is the main scripture on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established. It is also influential for other East Asian Buddhist schools, such as Zen. According to the British Buddhologist Paul Williams, "For many Buddhists in East Asia since early times, the ''Lotus Sūtra'' contains the final teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha—complete and sufficient for salvation." The American Buddhologist Donald S. Lopez Jr. writes that the ''Lotus Sūtra'' "is arguably the most famous of all Buddhist texts," presenting "a radical re-vision of both the Buddhist path and of the person of the Buddha." Two central teachings of the ''Lotus Sūtra'' have been very i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Tennin (Japanese Angel)")
_of_Taiseki-ji.jpg "Click for more on -> Nichimoku")
