Journey to Meet the Buddha

I had the opportunity for a BQH session led by another Nichiren Buddhist Lili McGovern.

I decided I’d like to focus on the “Ceremony in the Air” referenced to in The Lotus Sutra, our foundational text.

Lili’s comforting voice guides me to the most relevant time and place:

I am a monk walking on a rocky mountain path with my spiritual brothers. Some are wearing red and some are wearing yellow. I am wearing a white robe, am about 20, male, brown, and very small. We are watching small animals, particularly goats, walking parallel to us. We are going to Holy Eagle Peak to see the Buddha and hear his message.

We don’t know what we are going to see, but we sense something is special about this place, this meeting, and this message.

As we arrive at the summit, dimensions blend seamlessly. Air becomes richer, and time and space itself become more meaningful and dense as we approach where the enlightened one will be speaking.

It is a garden, shaped like an amphitheater. As we file in, the space accommodates ALL of us, nearly 3,000 men and women. I can feel the space expand as more and more people come. It is visibly MULTI dimensional.

The murmuring dies down, as if we can anticipate that something is beginning.

The Buddha is an idea, a concept, in the back of our minds at that point. But within a few moments a light manifests, and a physical form comes into being: The “Thus Come One,” as some texts refer to the Buddha.

His form shifts, taking on the characteristics of many familiar faces. I am being shown that each of us is seeing something similar, but something catered specifically to our own needs.

Then something happens. We become uncomfortable. There is a tear, a shift. There is a sense of disbelief among many members of the crowd as their egos are challenged. Others like myself seem to be left in a state of awe and wonder, even though the change in perspective isn’t 100% comfortable.

Those who refuse to believe just disappear, as if popping out of existence. I see them appearing back, one by one, on the mountain.

But… those of us who STAY, the ones who accept this “new truth,” are in for quite an experience…