Glossary of Buddhist words/Glossary of devotional words

Hiuchi Ishi is a flint stone, a piece of hard stone used with steel to produce sparks for the purpose of purifying all the offerings to the altar, such as incense sticks, candles, flowers, water, rice, fruit and other things.

Ho is Dharma in Sanskrit which origin’s means the Buddha’s enlightenment or the teachings of the Buddha. In HBS, it is the Odaimoku, NamuMyohoRengeKyo which contains the holy energy of the Buddha’s enlightenment. We call it ‘Goho’.

Hobo means to revile the Dharma, to disobey and disbelieve the true Buddhist teaching. As Nissen Shonin taught; ‘Disparaging the Dharma means acting against the natural laws, disparaging the Dharma is, in a broader sense, to act against the natural order and reason. In our religion, however, it means not to believe and uphold the Sacred Object of the Lotus Sutra which contains all the holy existences and to separately worship other gods and buddhas. Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the heavenly gods are all present in the Gohonzon. Believing in these gods and buddhas separately and they are in other places is to make little of the Gohonzon as imperfect, which is nothing but disparaging the Dharma.

Hogo is a Buddhist name, the name or appellation that that one is given on entering the Buddhist priesthood or taking the precepts. Nowadays, it means a posthumous Buddhist name given to a lay follower immediately after his or her death. Hogo is also called ‘Kaimyo’.

Honmon Happon is the Primoridal Eight Chapters of the Lotus Sutra, from chapter 15 to chapter 22 of the Lotus Sutra. Ippon Nihan is the later-half of chapter 15, the entire chapter 16 (Nyorai Juryo Hon) and the first-half of chapter 17 of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra (Hoke Kyo or Myohorenge Kyo) consists of 28 chapters. From chapter 1 to chapter 14 is called Shakumon (the Provisional Teaching Portion), However, only the eight chapters from chapter 15 to chapter 22 should be considered the Honmon because in these eight chapters (Honmon Happon) the Buddha expounded the important teachings as the Primordial Eternal Buddha (Kuon Honbutsu) not only for the people in Shakamuni Buddha’s era but for the people in the Mappo period. Bodhisattva Jogyo appeared and listened only to the teaching of Honmon Happon and was entrusted with the mission of propagating the teaching to the people in the Mappo period. There are some sects related to Nichiren Buddhism which attach importance to the teaching of Ippon Nihan (from chapter 15 to chapter 17), especially chapter 16, Noyrai Juryo Hon. It is true chapter 16, Nyorai Juryo Hon is an important chapter in the Lotus Sutra because Shakamuni Buddha declared that his original state is the Primordial Eternal Buddha (Kuon Honbutsu) in chapter 16, but to advocate the view that chapter 16 only is important is not a teaching for the people in the Mappo period, because in chapter 16 the way of practices for the people in the Mappp period had not yet been taught. Shakamuni Buddha as the Primordial Eternal Buddha teaches the way of practices through the eight chapters of Honmon Happon. If chapter 16 is not included within the Primordial Eight Chapters of the Lotus Sutra, and if the Buddha did not entrust the spreading of the Dharma to Bodhisattva Jogyo in chapter 21, Nyorai Jinriji Hon, it would not be a beneficial teaching for the Mappo period. Thus, Nichiren Shonin stated in his writing, ‘Kanjin Honzon Sho’, ‘This truth was not revealed in the fourteen chapters of the Provisional Teaching Portion (Shakumon) of the Lotus Sutra, probably because the time was not yet ripe even in the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha did not even entrust the sacred five syllables NamuMyohoRengeKyo, the quintessence of the Primordial Teaching Portion to such great bodhisattvas as Monju (Manjusri) and Yakuo (Bhaisajyaraja), not to mention the lesser bodhisattvas, until he had summoned the bodhisattvas of a thousand worlds welling up out of the earth (Bodhisattva Jogyo and his followers) and revealed to them the Primordial Eight Chapters (Honmon Happon) of the Lotus Sutra.

Hyoshigi are wooden clappers, a pair of two pieces of wood around 20~25cm long and 2~3cm wide. These wooden clappers are beaten in order to maintain rhythm and to coordinate the Odaimoku during a service or chanting the Odaimoku alone at home. You beat the clappers 6 times (Nam – Myo – ho – Ren – ge – Kyo) for each Odaimoku. It is important to beat them correctly with the same speed and strength. (At a chanting session at a temple or at an Oko meeting the Mokkin is used by the conductor and the Hyoshigi are used by the practitioners.)