i***@gmail.com
2016-09-03 10:28:03 UTC
SGI's problem - "Simplicity" - that's why it uses lots of words.
You may know the problem, if you've ever had partner or friend cheat on you. The relationship may be failing but you're still in love. You've noticed the changes, the little things that unsettle you but you don't want to believe are true.
What do you do? Use words. To tell yourself it's nothing or you're imagining things. You use words to put it out of your mind, to think the best if someone you know deep down isn't playing straight.
And then later, when it gets more obvious, the unexpected lateness, the more frequent "working late" or missed appointments. You use more words "oh where were you, I was expecting you at 8?" or "you're working late a lot recently, they're putting a lot in you". Starting to probe but still not wanting to know the truth.
And then they start using words if they're not wanting to end it with you just yet. "Yeah, we've got an important project, the deadline's looming, I need to be there for my boss...".
It starts to get complex.
And then later still, when all the little things have begun to add up, you know something's not right, perhaps you confront them and they use loys of words to reassure, deny, make it thay you are imagining things, try to make you doubt yourself. "Don't be silly, course I still..."
It gets really complicated.
Chas uses lots of words. So does today's SGI. Faith is now this....kosen rufu means that...Daisaku Ikeda is this..."don't be silly, of course he still loves you, you're imagining it".
Depending on how deceitful your partner is and how adept they are at getting you to believe them and doubt yourself, this can go on for years. Untill maybe you're contacted by the other man or woman who's just found out about you. Even then, maybe you get duped again "they're out to stir it, they couldn't accept the break".
Or worse, the halve truths, a blend of truths used to make the lies believable "yeah we kissed and hugged at a party, we were both drunk but it didn't go anywhere. I didn't want to get involved, I've got YOU. They couldn't accept that now they're making trouble."(when really it was a full blown affair).
The words, the lies get more elaborate, their quantity increases as they work harder to get you to believe in them.
Why do people cheat on each other and then lie?
Because they are getting something from the relationship with the person they're lying to, that person is giving them something they want or need and the truth would put that in danger.
And words get used to convince the deceiver that the lies they are telling are for the best. "I couldn't do that to them (tell them the truth), it would hurt/destroy them" or "It was only a short fling, we've built so much together, they wouldn't thank me for it". Lying words always couched to make it seem that the lier is doing the person they're lying to a favour.
Truth is simple. Yeah there maybe arguments, there may even be a break but the word count stays down. The truth, however unpleasant, is simple, straightforward. This happened and this is why. Discussion quickly shifts to what we're going to do about it.
And that's part of the problem, if you've lied in any relationship, trust is damaged. It's disrespect writ large. How much do you really care for a person if you're willing to take away their ability to decide, to make new choices based on the new information and are cause them to doubt their judgement, to doubt themselves?
Conversely, with truth, you see respect played out. On telling the truth, you hear brave and honorable people being willing to fess up "I've got to tell them, I couldn't do that to them (lie), it's not fair on them."
When I compare the word count, spoken and written, of SGI with other organsations in the World Peace and Buddhist spheres, it's stratospheric by comparison.
So many words telling people how great the SGI and Daisaku Ikeda is, how it is doinh this, that and the other. Simplicity comes in their slick presentation. But why is this needed? Why does SGI need to write so many words about itself? If SGI and Daisaku Ikeda so great, wouldn't that be obvious?
Ghandi, King and Rosa Parks didn't need to write many words about themselves. Nor Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Florence Nightingale or Albert Einstein. Or come to, that Nichiren. They all got on with the doing and let the words take care of themselves.
Daisaku Ikeda's 1979 lecture on Heritage of the Ulimate Law of life took 105 pages. Around 400 words per page, about 42,000 words in all.
Daisaku Ikeda's 2009 lecture on the same Gosho, 30 years later was 183 pages, somewhere up near 63,000 words, allowing for formatting changes. Why all the extra words?
Gohonzon, Daimoku and Nichiren are mentioned less in 2009. "Mentor and disiple" are mentioned much more. The "three presidents" concept never made it into the first lecture but it certainly made it into the second!
What was wrong with the first lecture?
How many times do you need to give a lecture if your purpose is to illustrate the Gosho? Revise it, sure, maybe bring it up to date langauge wise but a whole different lecture? Why? What's the purpose?
If the historical context and basic concepts are the same, which they should be, there should be no need to rework it and add 20,000 extra words. In fact if anything, it should have got shorter, with and improved ability to put it across simply.
It's complicated.
On the other hand Nichiren's Buddhism is simple.
Sure there are complex doctrinal stances but it's not necessary to get into all that stuff for it to be effective. The higher the teaching the more people it can benefit. So Nichiren's teaching, the practice he taught is simple.
What do you need to attain buddhahood? Faith in Namu Myoho Renge-kyo. That's it folks.
As you progress, that broadens a bit to faith in Gohonzon and Daimoku. Still simple.
Then maybe later, you might start picking uo some of the concepts like ten worlds, ten factors, oneness of mind and body, oneness of life and environment, ten factors, three thousand realms etc. And you might start fitting them together.
But do you need to? No. Faith is enough. In fact a person of really deep and sincere faith, could get away without knowing any of these. We find Nichiren taking just that veiw in the Gosho. Chanting Daimoku with faith in Gohonzon is enough. And that's the point. It's simple, it's superior.
What's the process? Chanting with faith brings forth enlightenment as you are, right here, right now. Put another way, the Buddha comes forth from within and teaches the Law. What you need right here, right now. Simple.
You respond to that (or don't) you move and change based on enlightenment (or don't) and the next time you bring forth enlightenment, the Buddha teaches the next bit of the Law you need (or the same bit if you've not listened, maybe in a different way).
Nichiren says this:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/52#para-11
"You should by all means perform as much good as you possibly can for the sake of your deceased husband. The words of a wise man of old also teach that “you should base your mind on the ninth consciousness, and carry out your practice in the six consciousnesses.” How reasonable it is too!"
"Base oneself on the ninth consciousness", enlightenment, the seat of the Buddha within each of us. Reached reliably and made active by our practice of chanting Namu Myoho Renge-kyo with faith. "Carrying out our practice in the sixth consciousnesses" with our everyday minds. In our daily lives.
As we do that, faith deepens and one gets better at it. For sure it's nit always plain sailing. Sometimes when we turn on the light we don't like what we find. Also, we can get blocked by external events or internal doubts. If we don't expect these we can stop or think we're doing it wrong.
That's why we need faith in the first place, it's the tool to get out from the midst of delusion and into our enlightened minds. That's why encouragement, especially in the early stages is also important. But once we've been through those blocks a few times and applied practice in different situations, we should become fairly self reliant and moreover, take over our own learning.
Faith naturally deepens because we've got more examples of "basing our minds on the ninth consciousness, and carrying out our practice in the six consciousnesses" and the results of having done that. The trick is getting the early stages right. For which we need simplicity. Chant regularly with the right focus on faith, be clear what your doing and note the results. Always return to yourself, you and your Daimoku. Simple.
In fact, it can all get a bit confusing if one gets into all the doctrinal stuff, especially if you're not prepared to attempt it properly and keep a firm eye on maintaining faith and that basic process. One can lose oneself in the forest of words.
If someone needs to keep telling you, how deep is your faith? How much have you mastered the practice? And why haven't you progressed to a state of greater self reliance? It eithet doesn't work, in which case it would be better doing something else. Or it does but you've been taught wrong or taught poorly.
So, why doesn't SGI just focus on teaching people to chant and encouraging their faith, just like Nichiren did? Because simple is it's enemy.
SGI needs complex, it needs to make it seem much more difficult that it is. "Ah yes but you also need to do x, y, z to gain buddhahood to" (you don't). It needs that so it has a role, so it can become the indispensible ingredient in your practice. SGI and Daisaku Ikeda needs to insert itself into your practice and become the thing that you will have to rely on to get results and keep getting results.
Simple is giving people the Daimoku and facilitating them just enough in faith and study until they're up and running and ready to go it alone. It's much more like a college course and much less like "the nobel mission for kosen rufu" (for which you can read spreading the SGI).
SGI has branded itself that way with 'mentor-disciple" teaching. As Chas once defined the term "mentor", it's a "wise and trusted teacher". So SGI is essentially selling teaching just like a college.
The difference between a good college and the SGI is the quality of it's teaching, the results. Would you sign up for a cookery, car maintenance, computer or accountancy course if at the end of it you knew you wouldn't gain competance in that skill? Would you sign on with a teacher who wasn't able to demonstrate their results in the accomplishment of former students?
Given that Nichiren's teaching is about attaining buddhahood as you are and that itcs a very simple process and practice, one might expect to find lots of people who've been through the SGI academy, graduated and gone on to do great things from what they learned. SGI Alumni would be expected to be crawling out of the woodwork, singing the SGI's praises. But we don't find that. They're either still with the SGI, still ttying to kearn and master a very simple practice, sometimes after decades or if they've left or been expelled, thier voices are mostly negative about SGI.
SGI might answer that it's all about "kosen rufu" but thatcs simply about spreading the Law. Nichiren's simple practice. If SGI was doing it's teaching job effectively, they'd be plenty of SGI graduates out there not only stable in their own faith and practice and showing results but fully able to teach others. I'd argue that's a much more effective means of accomplishing wide spread of Nichiren's buddhism. In fact, it's a direct compliment to the effectiveness of the practice and the quality of the SGI's teaching of it were that to happen, but it doesn't.
Nichiren on the other hand was confident. It's surprising how little he urged his disciples to go out and propogate, or for that matter mentioned kosen rufu or spreading the Sutra. A very quick search in the Nichiren library shows it's refered to just 96 times in volumes 1&2. That's not to say propogation isn' important, it most definitely is, just that Nichiren didn't sweat it as a direct exhortation in his teaching and encouragement.
He seems to have realised that itcs oretty hard to spread someting effectively if you either don't believe in it (faith) or you haven't mastered it sufficiently (practice and study) or if it's not getting results. So he focussed in getting those things right with his students.
Why, he was confident in this approach? He knew he had something that worked. So in one of his most famous phrases he says:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/40#para-11
"At first only Nichiren chanted Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, but then two, three, and a hundred followed, chanting and teaching others. Propagation will unfold this way in the future as well. Does this not signify “emerging from the earth”?"
A very quick word search likewise shows that "Faith" is mentioned as staggering 650 times in volumes 1&2. Both in what you should and shouldn't have faith in.
Myoho renge kyo 148 times, Namu Myoho Renge-kyo 231, times and Daimoku 123 times. So, the Sutra and its daimoku are mentioned 492 times.
It seems clear to me that the focus of Nichiten's writing was faith in the Sutra and the advocacy of embracing it by means if it's Daimoku. Simple.
"Base your mind on the ninth consciousness, and carry out your practice in the six consciousnesses" Get that bit right first. Simple.
That then gives them the means to counter erroneous doctrines depending on their ability. Which was the other theme that's present in his writings, most notably those to othet priests or to lay priests.
For all people, the basis is faith, translated into practice Namu Myoho Renge-kyo, which results in a natural progession in faith, practice and study and the application of thise things to daily life. It's a process.
Once you've learned to ride a bike, you take the stabilisers off and you don't have your teacher running behind you holding the saddle. You ride off and explore, you begin to learn through experience, simple. If you need an advanced course in some aspect, you book it, attend, finish it, then apply it. Simple.
And ut's exactly the same with Nichiren's Buddhism and it spreads naturally as a result. Simple.
Why? Because when you give people a simple practice that effective and encorage faith, you put the Buddha in the driving seat of each person's life.
The Buddha comes forth to teach, naturally. How? By embracing the Sutra through faith. And when that happens, it shows.
Nothing sells like success, with the Buddha in charge, with the benefit of inherant enlightenment working as each person follows the Law, they know what to do to help the Sutra spread. Simple.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/40#para-11
"At first only Nichiren chanted Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, but then two, three, and a hundred followed, chanting and teaching others. Propagation will unfold this way in the future as well. Does this not signify “emerging from the earth”?"
The only things it seems are worthy of noting above and beyond the simplicity of the practice are that something so liberating inevitably arouses opposition. People and organisations can seek to take advantage or try to block practioners from meeting, using and benefiting.
Powerful people or organisations especially are threatened by the other people gaining their own self reliance, their own liberation, their own power and freedom. It doen't generate profits for the few and it dissolves the hold that such rely on to maintain their status and position.
People who actively spread such a simple liberaring teaching are often subject to opposition and in some cases persecution. But that's OK, the enlightened mind, The Buddha can handle it. All we need to do is make sure they're always on hand, faith & practice. Simple.
As Nichiren writes elsewhere:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/33#para-6
"When I look at the situation in Japan, I find that the devil king of the sixth heaven has taken possession of the bodies of wise persons, transforming correct teachers into erroneous teachers, and good teachers into bad teachers. This is what the sutra means when it says, “Evil demons will take possession of others.”
"Although I, Nichiren, am not a man of wisdom, the devil king of the sixth heaven has attempted to take possession of my body. But I have for some time been taking such great care that he now no longer comes near me. Therefore, because the power of the heavenly devil is ineffectual against me, he instead possesses the ruler and his high officials, or foolish priests such as Ryōkan, and causes them to hate me."
So in a way, if you want a really quiet life, don't practice. If you dinct want to face the baggage you've been carrying and clear out your closets and transform the root causes of stuff that happens to you, don't practice. If youcd rather turn off the light and remain in darkness, with the junk still there but hidden, don't practice.
However, it's unlikely that if you've met the Law, you're going to get a quiet life anyway. It's your time, your chance, your opportunity to break free, liberate yourself. Your own life is saying you're ready to get sorting and clearing. So my take is that you might as well embrace it and take faith and explore a whole deeper and richer life. But if you do, keep it simple, watch the words and those who use lots of them, me included.
Are they being honest and true or lying and deceitful? Keep close to your faith and Daimoku and for study, read Sutra and Gosho directly, without guidance and interpretation and chant about them first. Let the Buddha teach you.
Keep it simple, trust yourself. And in the forest of words, always remember to.
I hope this helps.
Namu Myoho Renge-kyo
Be well :)
You may know the problem, if you've ever had partner or friend cheat on you. The relationship may be failing but you're still in love. You've noticed the changes, the little things that unsettle you but you don't want to believe are true.
What do you do? Use words. To tell yourself it's nothing or you're imagining things. You use words to put it out of your mind, to think the best if someone you know deep down isn't playing straight.
And then later, when it gets more obvious, the unexpected lateness, the more frequent "working late" or missed appointments. You use more words "oh where were you, I was expecting you at 8?" or "you're working late a lot recently, they're putting a lot in you". Starting to probe but still not wanting to know the truth.
And then they start using words if they're not wanting to end it with you just yet. "Yeah, we've got an important project, the deadline's looming, I need to be there for my boss...".
It starts to get complex.
And then later still, when all the little things have begun to add up, you know something's not right, perhaps you confront them and they use loys of words to reassure, deny, make it thay you are imagining things, try to make you doubt yourself. "Don't be silly, course I still..."
It gets really complicated.
Chas uses lots of words. So does today's SGI. Faith is now this....kosen rufu means that...Daisaku Ikeda is this..."don't be silly, of course he still loves you, you're imagining it".
Depending on how deceitful your partner is and how adept they are at getting you to believe them and doubt yourself, this can go on for years. Untill maybe you're contacted by the other man or woman who's just found out about you. Even then, maybe you get duped again "they're out to stir it, they couldn't accept the break".
Or worse, the halve truths, a blend of truths used to make the lies believable "yeah we kissed and hugged at a party, we were both drunk but it didn't go anywhere. I didn't want to get involved, I've got YOU. They couldn't accept that now they're making trouble."(when really it was a full blown affair).
The words, the lies get more elaborate, their quantity increases as they work harder to get you to believe in them.
Why do people cheat on each other and then lie?
Because they are getting something from the relationship with the person they're lying to, that person is giving them something they want or need and the truth would put that in danger.
And words get used to convince the deceiver that the lies they are telling are for the best. "I couldn't do that to them (tell them the truth), it would hurt/destroy them" or "It was only a short fling, we've built so much together, they wouldn't thank me for it". Lying words always couched to make it seem that the lier is doing the person they're lying to a favour.
Truth is simple. Yeah there maybe arguments, there may even be a break but the word count stays down. The truth, however unpleasant, is simple, straightforward. This happened and this is why. Discussion quickly shifts to what we're going to do about it.
And that's part of the problem, if you've lied in any relationship, trust is damaged. It's disrespect writ large. How much do you really care for a person if you're willing to take away their ability to decide, to make new choices based on the new information and are cause them to doubt their judgement, to doubt themselves?
Conversely, with truth, you see respect played out. On telling the truth, you hear brave and honorable people being willing to fess up "I've got to tell them, I couldn't do that to them (lie), it's not fair on them."
When I compare the word count, spoken and written, of SGI with other organsations in the World Peace and Buddhist spheres, it's stratospheric by comparison.
So many words telling people how great the SGI and Daisaku Ikeda is, how it is doinh this, that and the other. Simplicity comes in their slick presentation. But why is this needed? Why does SGI need to write so many words about itself? If SGI and Daisaku Ikeda so great, wouldn't that be obvious?
Ghandi, King and Rosa Parks didn't need to write many words about themselves. Nor Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Florence Nightingale or Albert Einstein. Or come to, that Nichiren. They all got on with the doing and let the words take care of themselves.
Daisaku Ikeda's 1979 lecture on Heritage of the Ulimate Law of life took 105 pages. Around 400 words per page, about 42,000 words in all.
Daisaku Ikeda's 2009 lecture on the same Gosho, 30 years later was 183 pages, somewhere up near 63,000 words, allowing for formatting changes. Why all the extra words?
Gohonzon, Daimoku and Nichiren are mentioned less in 2009. "Mentor and disiple" are mentioned much more. The "three presidents" concept never made it into the first lecture but it certainly made it into the second!
What was wrong with the first lecture?
How many times do you need to give a lecture if your purpose is to illustrate the Gosho? Revise it, sure, maybe bring it up to date langauge wise but a whole different lecture? Why? What's the purpose?
If the historical context and basic concepts are the same, which they should be, there should be no need to rework it and add 20,000 extra words. In fact if anything, it should have got shorter, with and improved ability to put it across simply.
It's complicated.
On the other hand Nichiren's Buddhism is simple.
Sure there are complex doctrinal stances but it's not necessary to get into all that stuff for it to be effective. The higher the teaching the more people it can benefit. So Nichiren's teaching, the practice he taught is simple.
What do you need to attain buddhahood? Faith in Namu Myoho Renge-kyo. That's it folks.
As you progress, that broadens a bit to faith in Gohonzon and Daimoku. Still simple.
Then maybe later, you might start picking uo some of the concepts like ten worlds, ten factors, oneness of mind and body, oneness of life and environment, ten factors, three thousand realms etc. And you might start fitting them together.
But do you need to? No. Faith is enough. In fact a person of really deep and sincere faith, could get away without knowing any of these. We find Nichiren taking just that veiw in the Gosho. Chanting Daimoku with faith in Gohonzon is enough. And that's the point. It's simple, it's superior.
What's the process? Chanting with faith brings forth enlightenment as you are, right here, right now. Put another way, the Buddha comes forth from within and teaches the Law. What you need right here, right now. Simple.
You respond to that (or don't) you move and change based on enlightenment (or don't) and the next time you bring forth enlightenment, the Buddha teaches the next bit of the Law you need (or the same bit if you've not listened, maybe in a different way).
Nichiren says this:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/52#para-11
"You should by all means perform as much good as you possibly can for the sake of your deceased husband. The words of a wise man of old also teach that “you should base your mind on the ninth consciousness, and carry out your practice in the six consciousnesses.” How reasonable it is too!"
"Base oneself on the ninth consciousness", enlightenment, the seat of the Buddha within each of us. Reached reliably and made active by our practice of chanting Namu Myoho Renge-kyo with faith. "Carrying out our practice in the sixth consciousnesses" with our everyday minds. In our daily lives.
As we do that, faith deepens and one gets better at it. For sure it's nit always plain sailing. Sometimes when we turn on the light we don't like what we find. Also, we can get blocked by external events or internal doubts. If we don't expect these we can stop or think we're doing it wrong.
That's why we need faith in the first place, it's the tool to get out from the midst of delusion and into our enlightened minds. That's why encouragement, especially in the early stages is also important. But once we've been through those blocks a few times and applied practice in different situations, we should become fairly self reliant and moreover, take over our own learning.
Faith naturally deepens because we've got more examples of "basing our minds on the ninth consciousness, and carrying out our practice in the six consciousnesses" and the results of having done that. The trick is getting the early stages right. For which we need simplicity. Chant regularly with the right focus on faith, be clear what your doing and note the results. Always return to yourself, you and your Daimoku. Simple.
In fact, it can all get a bit confusing if one gets into all the doctrinal stuff, especially if you're not prepared to attempt it properly and keep a firm eye on maintaining faith and that basic process. One can lose oneself in the forest of words.
If someone needs to keep telling you, how deep is your faith? How much have you mastered the practice? And why haven't you progressed to a state of greater self reliance? It eithet doesn't work, in which case it would be better doing something else. Or it does but you've been taught wrong or taught poorly.
So, why doesn't SGI just focus on teaching people to chant and encouraging their faith, just like Nichiren did? Because simple is it's enemy.
SGI needs complex, it needs to make it seem much more difficult that it is. "Ah yes but you also need to do x, y, z to gain buddhahood to" (you don't). It needs that so it has a role, so it can become the indispensible ingredient in your practice. SGI and Daisaku Ikeda needs to insert itself into your practice and become the thing that you will have to rely on to get results and keep getting results.
Simple is giving people the Daimoku and facilitating them just enough in faith and study until they're up and running and ready to go it alone. It's much more like a college course and much less like "the nobel mission for kosen rufu" (for which you can read spreading the SGI).
SGI has branded itself that way with 'mentor-disciple" teaching. As Chas once defined the term "mentor", it's a "wise and trusted teacher". So SGI is essentially selling teaching just like a college.
The difference between a good college and the SGI is the quality of it's teaching, the results. Would you sign up for a cookery, car maintenance, computer or accountancy course if at the end of it you knew you wouldn't gain competance in that skill? Would you sign on with a teacher who wasn't able to demonstrate their results in the accomplishment of former students?
Given that Nichiren's teaching is about attaining buddhahood as you are and that itcs a very simple process and practice, one might expect to find lots of people who've been through the SGI academy, graduated and gone on to do great things from what they learned. SGI Alumni would be expected to be crawling out of the woodwork, singing the SGI's praises. But we don't find that. They're either still with the SGI, still ttying to kearn and master a very simple practice, sometimes after decades or if they've left or been expelled, thier voices are mostly negative about SGI.
SGI might answer that it's all about "kosen rufu" but thatcs simply about spreading the Law. Nichiren's simple practice. If SGI was doing it's teaching job effectively, they'd be plenty of SGI graduates out there not only stable in their own faith and practice and showing results but fully able to teach others. I'd argue that's a much more effective means of accomplishing wide spread of Nichiren's buddhism. In fact, it's a direct compliment to the effectiveness of the practice and the quality of the SGI's teaching of it were that to happen, but it doesn't.
Nichiren on the other hand was confident. It's surprising how little he urged his disciples to go out and propogate, or for that matter mentioned kosen rufu or spreading the Sutra. A very quick search in the Nichiren library shows it's refered to just 96 times in volumes 1&2. That's not to say propogation isn' important, it most definitely is, just that Nichiren didn't sweat it as a direct exhortation in his teaching and encouragement.
He seems to have realised that itcs oretty hard to spread someting effectively if you either don't believe in it (faith) or you haven't mastered it sufficiently (practice and study) or if it's not getting results. So he focussed in getting those things right with his students.
Why, he was confident in this approach? He knew he had something that worked. So in one of his most famous phrases he says:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/40#para-11
"At first only Nichiren chanted Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, but then two, three, and a hundred followed, chanting and teaching others. Propagation will unfold this way in the future as well. Does this not signify “emerging from the earth”?"
A very quick word search likewise shows that "Faith" is mentioned as staggering 650 times in volumes 1&2. Both in what you should and shouldn't have faith in.
Myoho renge kyo 148 times, Namu Myoho Renge-kyo 231, times and Daimoku 123 times. So, the Sutra and its daimoku are mentioned 492 times.
It seems clear to me that the focus of Nichiten's writing was faith in the Sutra and the advocacy of embracing it by means if it's Daimoku. Simple.
"Base your mind on the ninth consciousness, and carry out your practice in the six consciousnesses" Get that bit right first. Simple.
That then gives them the means to counter erroneous doctrines depending on their ability. Which was the other theme that's present in his writings, most notably those to othet priests or to lay priests.
For all people, the basis is faith, translated into practice Namu Myoho Renge-kyo, which results in a natural progession in faith, practice and study and the application of thise things to daily life. It's a process.
Once you've learned to ride a bike, you take the stabilisers off and you don't have your teacher running behind you holding the saddle. You ride off and explore, you begin to learn through experience, simple. If you need an advanced course in some aspect, you book it, attend, finish it, then apply it. Simple.
And ut's exactly the same with Nichiren's Buddhism and it spreads naturally as a result. Simple.
Why? Because when you give people a simple practice that effective and encorage faith, you put the Buddha in the driving seat of each person's life.
The Buddha comes forth to teach, naturally. How? By embracing the Sutra through faith. And when that happens, it shows.
Nothing sells like success, with the Buddha in charge, with the benefit of inherant enlightenment working as each person follows the Law, they know what to do to help the Sutra spread. Simple.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/40#para-11
"At first only Nichiren chanted Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, but then two, three, and a hundred followed, chanting and teaching others. Propagation will unfold this way in the future as well. Does this not signify “emerging from the earth”?"
The only things it seems are worthy of noting above and beyond the simplicity of the practice are that something so liberating inevitably arouses opposition. People and organisations can seek to take advantage or try to block practioners from meeting, using and benefiting.
Powerful people or organisations especially are threatened by the other people gaining their own self reliance, their own liberation, their own power and freedom. It doen't generate profits for the few and it dissolves the hold that such rely on to maintain their status and position.
People who actively spread such a simple liberaring teaching are often subject to opposition and in some cases persecution. But that's OK, the enlightened mind, The Buddha can handle it. All we need to do is make sure they're always on hand, faith & practice. Simple.
As Nichiren writes elsewhere:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/33#para-6
"When I look at the situation in Japan, I find that the devil king of the sixth heaven has taken possession of the bodies of wise persons, transforming correct teachers into erroneous teachers, and good teachers into bad teachers. This is what the sutra means when it says, “Evil demons will take possession of others.”
"Although I, Nichiren, am not a man of wisdom, the devil king of the sixth heaven has attempted to take possession of my body. But I have for some time been taking such great care that he now no longer comes near me. Therefore, because the power of the heavenly devil is ineffectual against me, he instead possesses the ruler and his high officials, or foolish priests such as Ryōkan, and causes them to hate me."
So in a way, if you want a really quiet life, don't practice. If you dinct want to face the baggage you've been carrying and clear out your closets and transform the root causes of stuff that happens to you, don't practice. If youcd rather turn off the light and remain in darkness, with the junk still there but hidden, don't practice.
However, it's unlikely that if you've met the Law, you're going to get a quiet life anyway. It's your time, your chance, your opportunity to break free, liberate yourself. Your own life is saying you're ready to get sorting and clearing. So my take is that you might as well embrace it and take faith and explore a whole deeper and richer life. But if you do, keep it simple, watch the words and those who use lots of them, me included.
Are they being honest and true or lying and deceitful? Keep close to your faith and Daimoku and for study, read Sutra and Gosho directly, without guidance and interpretation and chant about them first. Let the Buddha teach you.
Keep it simple, trust yourself. And in the forest of words, always remember to.
I hope this helps.
Namu Myoho Renge-kyo
Be well :)