ほんもんぶつりゅうしゅう
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Glossary of Buddhist words/Glossary of devotional words

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Y
Yobo
要法
‘Yo’ of Yobo means essential and ‘bo’ (or ‘ho’) is the Dharma. Thus, Yobo is the Odaimoku, NamuMyohoRengeKyo, which we should uphold and chant as the sole and most precious Dharma. Nissen Shonin stated; ‘Our founder (of Nichiren Buddhism) focused on the quintessence which includes everything. It is the Odaimoku which is the essential Dharma (Yobo) planted in our minds. While Nichiren Shonin was on Sado Island, he described the Mandala (Gohonzon) as the sole and most precious Dharma that includes everything. I (Nissen) write the Gohonzon based on the intention of Nichiren Shonin and Nichiryu Shonin. That is why I write the phrases, “The one great precious Dharma which is revealed in the Primordial Eight Chapters of the Lotus Sutra (Honmon Happon Shoken), entrusted to Bodhisattva Jogyo (Jogyo Shoden), beside NamuMyohoRengeKyo in the Gohonzon, instead of the various names of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and gods. I have recommended enshrining such a simple type of Gohonzon to my followers of HBS. Some priests of other sects criticize me, ‘When the names of the Buddhas, the bodhisattvas and various names of the gods (Shiten Zenjin) are not written on the hanging scroll, just NamuMyohoRengeKyo, it is not considered the Mandala. In the Gohonzon, then names of the four great heavenly kings (Shiten-no) and other gods of the ten realms should be written.” Nichiren Shonin stated that it (NamuMyohoRengeKyo) is a word in Sanskrit in India which means the essence of the holy merits. All of the holy merits of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and other great heavenly kings dwell within the Odaimoku Gohonzon. Great master Tendai stated in his writing, Hokke Gengi ‘The holy merits of enlightenment are included in NamuMyohoRengeKyo as the quintessence and the essential Dharama.’ We, as ordinary followers in the Mappo period, should uphold the Odaimoku, NamuMyohoRengeKyo as the Gohonzon. The Odaimoku is the Yobo (essential Dharma), the Primordial Dharma as the holy seed of enlightenment which had never been spread in any period before entering the Mappo period.’