THE FOUR POWERS

THE FOUR POWERS

Buddhism talks about the principle of the 'four powers': the power of the Buddha, the power of the Law, the power of faith and the power of practice. The first two are embodied in the Gohonzon, but are only activated by the powers of faith and practice of the person who chants to it. In other words it is the power of o...ur faith and practice which determines the extent to which the power of the Gohonzon can appear in our lives. Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, said that it is vital to understand this point:

I often hear new members complain that they have not yet received any benefit. I find the majority of those people are preoccupied solely with getting benefit and pay no attention in strengthening their own powers of faith and practice. The statement 'Knock and it shall be opened unto you’ serves as a good illustration of the four powers. For example, if one exerts his powers of faith and practice to a factor of 100, the powers of the Buddha and the Law will also be manifested to the power of 100. Likewise, the powers of faith and practice exerted to a factor of 10.000 will manifest the powers of the Buddha and the Law to a factor of 10,000. We should fix this principle in our minds and dedicate ourselves to faith and practice without reservation.

Ultimately this means that we can see the power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo only by putting it into practice - that is, by chanting sincerely, and taking action based on the wisdom gained from our chanting. What's more, if we do so while bearing in mind the principle of the four powers outlined above, we will begin to see that we can gradually reveal more and more of the power we inherently possess. 

Richard Causton