10 Factors of Life

1. 10 Factors of Life Making the Best of Everything Great Lakes RTC Chapel

5. Soka University of America

6. Introduction – 10 Factors • Life is dynamic • Describes the workings of our lives in context of the 10 Worlds and how we manifest change from one moment to the next • Clarifies the functions common to ALL life in any given condition or any given moment

7. NyoZe…

8. Review – 10 Worlds • Hell • Hunger • Animality • Anger • Humanity • Rapture – Heaven • Learning • Realization • Bodhisattva • Buddhahood

9. “Expedient Means” ChapterLotus Sutra “The true entity of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between Buddhas. This reality consists of appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end.”

10. Reality of Life • Appearance • Facial expressions/behavior • Physical, material aspects of life • Nature • Inner quality/tendencies • Spiritual aspect of life • Entity • Life as a whole or essence of life. Manifests both appearance and nature, yet is neither

11. Workings of Life & Their Characteristics • Power – capability latent within life • Influence – when latent power becomes manifest • Inherent cause – our ‘karmic’ orientations or tendencies formed by our past actions (thoughts, words, deeds) - possibilities • Relation – our relationships with external circumstances – ‘external cause’ • Latent Effect – result implanted in life when an ‘inherent cause’ acts in ‘relation’ with an external event

12. Workings of Life & Their Characteristics • Manifest Effect – when latent effect becomes visible • Consistency from beginning to end – when life’s appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect and manifest effect all consistently express the condition that life is at any particular moment

13. “What state or condition of being we manifest at any given moment determines how we experience our environment…” • Appearance • Nature • Entity • Power • Influence • Inherent cause • RELATION • Latent Effect • Manifest Effect • Consistency from beginning to end

14. Relationship On the deepest level, it is not our environment or external circumstances that determine our state of life but the nature of our ‘relationship’ with our environment • Hell • Hunger • Animality • Anger • Humanity or Tranquility • Rapture or Heaven • Learning • Realization or Absorption • Bodhisattva • Buddhahood

15. HELL Power – inherent capacity is usually weak Influence

16. The same event may cause different reactions in different people What state of life are you in now? 10 worlds are potentials within each of us – what we experience differs vastly from one person to another How we relate to our environment largely depends on how we have lived our lives, not only in this lifetime but perhaps from our past lives Past actions, life habits, constitute ‘inherent causes’ React automatically, positively or negatively to stimuli in our environment – sometimes beyond our conscious control or intellectual understanding Every Person is Unique

18. Review – 10 Worlds • Hell • Hunger • Animality • Anger • Humanity • Rapture – Heaven • Learning • Realization / ABSORPTION • Bodhisattva • Buddhahood

19. Forrest Gump • Appearance • Nature • Entity Relation Power Inherent cause Influence Latent effect Manifest effect Consistency from beginning to end

20. Forrest Gump Power – Does what he’s told - “OK” Influence

21. 10 x 10 Hell Hunger Animality Anger Humanity Rapture – Heaven Learning Realization Bodhisattva Buddhahood X 10

22. IchinenSanzen10 x 10 x 3 Realms = 3,000

23. 5 ComponentsRealm of the Individual • The realm of the 5 Components (skandhas) is the 5 elements that temporarily constitute an individual life: • FORM • PERCEPTION • CONCEPTION • VOLITION • CONSCIOUSNESS

24. 5 ComponentsFORM Is the physical aspect of life and includes the five sense organs — eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body—with which one perceives the external world

25. 5 ComponentsPERCEPTION Perception is the function of receiving external information through the six sense organs (the five sense organs plus the "mind," which integrates the impressions of the five senses).

26. 5 ComponentsCONCEPTION is the function of creating mental images and concepts out of what has been perceived.

27. 5 ComponentsVOLITION is the will that acts on the conception and motivates action

28. 5 ComponentsCONSCIOUSNESS Consciousness is the cognitive function of discernment that integrates the components of perception, conception, and volition.

29. 5 Components Form represents the physical aspect of life,while perception, conception, volition, andconsciousness represent the spiritual aspect. • Physical and spiritual aspects of life are inseparable, there can be no form without consciousness, and no consciousness without form • All life carries on its activities through the interaction of these five components. Their workings are colored by the karma one formed in previous lifetimes and at the same time create new karma.

30. Realm of Living Beings The realm of living beings refers to an individual as an integrated whole, but since no living being exists in perfect isolation, it is also taken to mean the collective body of individuals who interact with one another • Family, tribe, clan • Organization, club, association • Society

31. Realm of the Environment • The place or land where living beings dwell and carry out life-activities. The state of the land is a reflection of the state of life of the people who live in it. • A land manifests any of the Ten Worlds according to which of the Ten Worlds dominate in the lives of its inhabitants. The same land also manifests different worlds for different individuals. • "There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds" ~ Nichiren • In making this statement, Nichiren was countering the popular view that there are separately existing impure lands and pure lands.In addition, the three realms themselves are not to be viewed separately, but as aspects of an integrated whole, which simultaneously manifests any of the Ten Worlds.

32. IchinenSanzen • Easier to identify the root of suffering and change the situation so it leads to joy. The ten factors also form part of a broader theoretical framework of "three thousand realms in a single moment of life". • On a deeper level, Nichiren explains that the ten factors are in fact a manifestation of the underlying creative and compassionate life of the cosmos. He expressed this as the Mystic Law or Myoho-renge-kyo. To view all things as the manifestations of the Mystic Law of life is thus to perceive what the Lotus Sutra refers to as the "true aspect of all phenomena".

33. Ten Factors • Teaches us importance of developing good karmic habits • Form positive ‘relations’ with events in our environment regardless of what they are • Through Bodhisattva or Buddhahood, we can transform every hardship into personal growth – inherent causes – solidifying our state of happiness

34. True Aspect of Our Life • The true aspect should be understood as a potential to be realized. • Nichiren taught that it is not enough to be aware on a theoretical level of the true aspect of our lives. Rather, he urged his followers to commit themselves to their Buddhist practice in the midst of the realities that confronted them. It is by transforming ourselves and our surroundings, making them shine with the positive potentials they hold, that we reveal the true aspect of all phenomena -- the state of Buddhahood -- in our own lives.