By Anthony "Amp" Elmore Sr.

On the labor day holiday of 1998 I had the opportunity get into a religious discussion with a brilliant friend of mind who I call the revolutionary. My revolutionary friend is one of the most formidable and skill debaters I have ever encountered. In addition to his

Intellectual prowess my friend appears to be a very well to do and rich brother. A keen intellect, a revolutionary background coupled with a streetwise whit, and a pimps confidence and a hustler 's demeanor puts forth a very formidable religious debater.

The old SGI going to get a new car if you chant or the Christian goanna burn in hell argument would never work against this brother. Very few religions could stand the evaluation and scrutiny put forth by my friend. The revolutionary quote by socialists karl Mark which state that "religion is the opiate of the mind" enters the debate with my Black revolutionary friend. Not only could my friend trounce the average Christian he would put a bad whipping on any Black Revolutionary Muslim. In my friend's opinion all religions are the opiate of the mind. My friend puts his argument very eloquent when he says that religion is the "ideology of the ruling class or party"

My revolutionary friend postulates religion as nonsense that is designed to trick, fool and control the masses. Further her argues that religion is for the benefit of a group and he sited such as theocracies as the ruling religious class in Iran and other countries. My friend pointed out to me what he describes as nothing personal but all religion including my religion of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism as nonsense.

The 1960's and 70's ushered a new thinking for African/Americans and with the opportunity to attend college many African/American youth developed a revolution of religious thinking and philosophy. Examples of such thinking as Black activist Angela Davis adopting a socialist viewpoint as well as other revolutionary viewpoints. Stokey Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and members of the SNCC (student nonviolent coordinating committee) and Black Panther Party ect. Revolutionary thinking emerged from Black youth at college campuses throughout America.

The Black Revolutionist were correct and the study of history and examination offered conclusive proof that religion as taught was the opiate of the mind. Is my revolutionary friend wrong when he says that religion is the ideology of the ruling class or religion benefits a special group or class. Do religions do as my revolutionary friend says trick, fool and have? Yes! Educated Blacks were able to study and examine slavery and racism and identify how religion kelp people and is today keeping people enslaved.

We at this proudblackbuddhist web site understand our friends skepticism regarding religion and there is no doubt fraud, con, manipulation and misleading ideologies are being perpetrated on the masses as the revolutionary describe. The revolutionary also says that religion should be scientific and quantifiable. In common sense terms a religion should make common sense. My friend boldly declares "I will never get hung up on such nonsense as religion because I know the game". Our friend has every right to be skeptical and mindful of religious manipulation.

In America the Black revolution died and today we only see remnants of the old revolutionary movement. In my city of Memphis, Tennessee many of the old revolutionaries grew to into social deviants regulated to selling incense on the corner and signs of revolutionary rap here and there. One common denominator among the revolutionaries is a religious social outlet. Many revolutionaries found solace in the Christian church, others joined the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims) others adopted to Yaweh, orthodox Islam, Jewish faiths and African religion ect. My revolutionary friend by choice missed the religious bandwagon followed the American dream and by some means achieved an above average level of wealth and material prosperity. Like the 60's youth the flower children, the Hippies and the Black revolutionaries most conformed to organized religions and traditional social values. Although my revolutionary friend posses a revolutionary philosophy today he has emerged as a pseudo-revolutionary who has in every means elevated himself above the proletariat class and thinking.

My revolutionary friend approached debating Buddhism via western rationalist thought with the common western arrogant thinking that was debated over a thousand years ago. It is not a case of western thought being inferior or superior to eastern thought, however eastern thought does deserve in the lease an open minded attempt to understand eastern thinking. My revolutionary friend postulates often the quantitative theory of existence that simply states if something exists it must exist in quantity to measure its existence otherwise it does not exist. This type of argument is used to dispel the concept of a God or Buddha. Approaching Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism via common western logic is non applicable. Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism does not postulate such concepts as a western God or Buddha.

My revolutionary friend reminds me of the great Greek King/philosopher Milinda who debated the wise Buddhist Nagasena. In common street language King Milinda was a wise Greek king. Back in the day King Milinda would conquer a country then gather all the religious leaders and philosophers and whip them in debate. My revolutionary friend reminds me so much of king Milinda. In every sense of the word he lives in a kings place adorned with rich art and opulence. The revolutionary prides himself as a philosopher, scholar and enjoys trouncing those with weak philosophical arguments as did King Milinda did over 1500 years ago. The story of Nagasena vs. King Milinda is important for Buddhist to understand because the story match Western thought against Eastern logic. The argument between myself and the revolutionary was the same ago old argument. King Milinda questioned Nagasena about eastern concepts as rebirth, karma and the absence of a permanent soul. In explaining the debate between Milinda and Nagasena I changed the language to common Ebonics or Black street language to illustrate the story.

King Milinda asks Nagasena, Yo Nagasena have you seen the Buddha? No great King replied Nagasena . Then have your teachers seen the Buddha, the kings asked? No great king replied Nagasena. Then the kings replied well respectful Nagasena there is no Buddha. Just as King Milinda questioned Nagasena my revolutionary friend questioned me in a similar way with proof based only on empirical evidence. The revolutionary is quick to say "You can only quantify existence and if something does not exist in quantity it does not exist."

Nagasena dealt with King Milinda in this fashion; Great king have you seen the river Uha in the Himalaya mountains? No sir replied the king. Great King have your daddy seen it? Then has your daddy's daddy seen it . No sir replied the king. Then great king I guess it does not exist but it is show nough there (certainly there). My revolutionary friend and his western arrogance conclude since they do not know something based on empirical evidence it is not real. Western scholars have not found out how certain monuments and pyramids were build so some scholars conclude may someone from out of space built the pyramids.

King Milinda said Yo! Nagasena what do you mean that life is reborn? As my revolutionary friend is quick to say "When you are dead you are done" as he argued in our discussion. Nagasena replied great king Name and form is reborn. Milinda replied What! Is this same name and form that is reborn? No great king by this name-and-form deeds are done, good or evil, and by these deeds (this Karma) another name-and -form is reborn. The king replied "if such things are so would not the new being be released from its evil karma? Nagasena replied that would be true if it were not reborn. But just because it is reborn it is therefore not released from its evil karma.

When Buddhist talk of past existences people get confused because via western thought people visualize a permanent soul. Even in the Christian religion there is this idea of heaven and hell that will eternally be happy or in hell. When the revolutionary says "When you are dead you are done" is partial truth. Buddhism is in concert with that George Benson song that says "Nothing stays the Same". Buddhism postulates no such thing as a permanent soul. There is never a concept of a same body or same mind. Karma simple points out that the generative force for rebirth in one existence provides the generative force for rebirth in another existence. Buddhism teaches that sentient beings are made up of the "Five Aggregates" Shiki (form) the body and the other four is perception, mental conceptions, volition and consciousness of the mind. Two being are never identical nor non identical. A former existence is related to a latter existence through the force of karma or cause and effect. In common sense terms history is shaped by cause and effect and so are the lives of each human. In Buddhism there is no such thing as chance or only cause and effect.

My revolutionary friend is so puffed up on his ego of understanding western empirical logic that he fail to understand that there are different systems of learning. My friends make you want to say as in the old Kung-Fu television series where the master asks Grasshopper pour water in the full glass and the glass runs over. The master replies to grasshopper that in order to learn something first empty your glass (mind) so some new information can be received. It is presumptuous and assuming to categorize Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism with other religions. Famous world scientist Carl Sagan who has written several books , videos television series about the orgin of life and the universe quotes in his 1974 book "Pale Blue Dot" " A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge."

The discussion of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism as compared to other religions with the average lay person is almost synonymous to discussing quantum physics with a child. My revolutionary friend proudly boast of quantifying things and we suggest that he is referring to the quantum theory that assumes that energy possessed by a physical system is quantized. Many complicated theories as "Matrix Mechanics", Wave Mechanics are never in conflict with Buddhist teachings. The great physicist Dr. Albert Einstien said "Religion without science is blind; science without religion is lame". Although the foremost scientist of the twentieth century could understand that science without religion is lame it is the epitome arrogance and ignorance for my revolutionary friend to spout off about the Nichiren Shoshu a religion he has zero knowledge of. Modern science and Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism do not conflict.

Usually intelligent discussion and debate can take place when debaters examine issues and discuss specific points. My revolutionary friend could not in the lease follow the laws of social protocol by educating himself to the lease an elementary introduction to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Often times I have been in religious discussions with Christians and they concede winning a debate by saying Jesus "Jesus is real the Bible told me so, that is all I know and all I need to know, end of conversation". Such conclusion by a Christian is unscientific and unintelligent. It is just as unintelligent for intellectual pundits to concede winning an argument using karl Mark's religion is the opiate of the mind or concluding that Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is false because other religions contradict science. Further a theory is not necessarily untrue because it cannot be quantified in western scientific terms.

Science investigates the phenomenal world which we human beings live with objective perceptible aspects of existence. The material aspect is only part of life's reality and my revolutionary friend cannot deny the fact that he himself is always espousing concepts of social behavior which is in the realm that we call social science. The approach of science is widening and there are some realms out of reach of scientific cognition. Methodical, objective observation and reasoning is limited by its own nature.

One example of an acceptable science that do not follow the revolutionary rules quantification is the area of Psychology. Psychology is a science about one hundred years old. In the college text Psychology An Introduction by Harvard University professor Jerome kagan and Ernest Havemann in the 1^st page of the college text quotes "psychology is extremely difficult to define". Further the Harvard professors write in defining psychology "As the poet Alexander Pope wrote "The proper study of mankind is man". In the introduction to Psychology 4^th edition by Stanford university professors Ernest R. Hilgard and Richard C. Atkinson they define Psychology as the science that studies the behavior of man and other animals. In their introduction to Psychology text they cover topics as 1. the behaving organism 2. Growth and development 3. Motivation and emotion 4. Learning and thinking 5. Individuality and personality 7. Conflict, adjustment and mental health 8. Social aspects of psychology. The rules of Psychology is not an exact science as material sciences never less it is a science like political science and other social sciences.

In the book "Stolen Legacy" by professor James, professor James point out that in ancient Egypt inscriptions throughout Egypt read "Know Thyself". Although the Greek philosopher Socrates is credited for such words. To "Know Thyself" is the essence of the Buddhist faith.

The word, definition, concept or idea that traditionally defines religion is no where near the Buddhist concept or idea of religion. For all practical purposes Buddhism integrates science and religion. Buddhism qualifies not only as a religion, but is a science as well, in that the basis of Buddhism is based on the universal law of cause and effect. The idea of worshipping to a deity is a foreign concept in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Buddhism rejects faith in an individual being. The object of faith in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is the universal law immanent in both human life and the universe. Buddhism teaches its believers to believe in the law and not the person. The Chinese character that defines faith has two meanings. One meaning is not to deceive and the other is to be truthful and have no doubt. There is no such thing as blind faith in Buddhism. The true Buddha Nichiren Dai-Shonin writes "To believe in the perfect teaching" means to awaken faith through doctrine and make faith the basis of practice" Buddhist develop faith by understanding laws. Phenomenon is explained via studying Buddhist and scientific doctrine. The purpose of the Buddhist faith is to enable people attain the same state of the Buddha; supreme wisdom.

Pundits today characterize our modern society today as an information age. Via the use of computers and the internet, knowledge regarding almost any subject can be assessed in minutes. Knowledge for Knowledge sake is a relative value and is more or less like a computer just simply raw data. It is only when humans process and apply data does the value of data emerge. Objective knowledge is processed subjectively. Often times we hear the phase common sense which refers to common basic knowledge. Common sense knowledge is growing to be less common in our modern era. What we call common sense knowledge eludes the rich as well as the poor and common sense is eluding all classes of our society. One case of common sense breach recently involved a sex case with the highest ranking government official in the world with a sexual encounter with a young woman.

The way that we as individuals respond to our environment is based on our subjective capacities and our relative circumstances. Two people in similar objective circumstances will respond to stimuli differently. If two people were standing outside and a beautiful car passed by you would get different responses depending on each individuals subjective capacity and individual circumstances. One example of different responses would be between myself and my rich revolutionary friend who inspired this article. If my revolutionary friend saw a luxury car he would more or less not get excited about a luxury car in itself however his business savvy perhaps would motivate him to give the driver a business card to encourage the driver of the luxury car to have his car washed , cleaned and waxed via his newly built automated hand car wash. Myself looking at the same luxury car would more than likely process the information via my Buddhist wisdom with balanced emotions. On the other hand you might have one who would be willing to sacrifice the majority of his monthly earnings to have such a vehicle. Back in the hustler and pimp days a pimp could even entice a woman to sell her body because of the status of a car driven. Certainly sexual favors are sometimes earned by one owning a luxury vehicle.

The question that the reader of this article may ask at this point where am I going with this article? What does cars, religion, psychology have to do with a religious response Reply To The Revolutionary? My revolutionary friends says that all religions are designed to con, trick, and fool the masses. I challenge my friend on his assertion regarding Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism as a religion designed to con, trick and fool the masses. In modern psychology if someone went into the mountains and revealed that God talked to them or they come up with a case of divine revelation in the scientific community such behavior would be deemed as an aberrant mental condition and the person would be considered mentally deranged. Our society is filled with so called soothsayers, profits, Apostles, and many so called men of god. There are numerous religions in the world and most religions uphold the fundamental object of worship as a God or an absolute entity.

First and foremost the Buddha in Buddhism and Gods in other religions are fundamentally different. The Buddha never claimed to have come from the heavens he was simply a sage enlighten to the truth. Fundamentally the doctrines and characteristics of Buddhism is based on human nature and no discrepancies will emerge between Buddhism and advancements made in science and civilization. The Buddhist religion has no contradictions with science.

One concept that delineates Buddhism from other religions is responsibility thinking. In Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism each individual learns to take responsibility for his or her life. Individuals who practice Buddhism correctly looks not only at the environment for solutions to problems, but also they look inside themselves as the result of responsibility Buddhist teaching. The question that I ask the revolutionary is how can you trick, con, and fool people who take responsibility for their own lives? The world famous promoter P.T. Barnam wrote "You cannot cheat an honest man". It is naturally human nature for people to take the lease line of resistance when dealing with circumstances. In today's society everybody has a con, a quick fix and instant solution. It is easy to con a distressed human by telling them that you have a quick fix. Even non distressed humans are victims of the "Pigeon Drop" due to their own selfish greed.

The great Black revolutionist Fredrick Douglass wrote that the answer to the problems of Black people were not in the stars but inside ourselves. Fredrick Douglass wrote over one hundred years ago that Black people were looking to the heavens and not into themselves for liberation. Fredrick Douglass was famous for his quote "Power concedes nothing without struggle, never have and never will." The first recorded Historical Buddha Shakyamuni taught the concept of responsibility thinking 3000 years ago. The African and African/American community is full of cons, tricks and schemes from shysters of all types and colors. It is not just White people who have conned Black people it is Black people who are conning themselves with misguided ideologies and teachings.

From the standpoint of responsibility thinking it is not only the slave master who is responsible for slavery but the also slave himself. It was Martin Luther King who said that only a man can ride a back that is not bent over. In Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism there is the concept of Esho Funi the concept of oneness between human life and its environment. Esho is a contraction of the Japanese terms eho and shoho. Eho indicates the insentient environment or objective world, and shoho, is the living self or subjective world. The syllable ho means manifest effect or the results of karma. The effects of a persons past karma (cause & effect) manifest themselves in both subjective life and its objective environment. Just as the environment can effect an individual, an individual can effect an environment. The True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin explains Esho Funi as a man and his shadow when the man moves so does his shadow. The shadow does not move by it self. Nichiren Daishonin also writes that if you bow at the mirror the mirror bows back. Man and his environment are one.

The word religion comes from a Latin word which means to "Bind too". The essence of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is the concept of practice or devotion to the ultimate law of life in the universe. Other religions break down universal laws or concepts with the representation of laws in the form of a being as a God, Jesus, Allah, or Buddha. Many of these religions describes lands beyond verifiable cognitive perception. In very simplistic terms the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist religion is about developing ones inner power through practice and devotion.

Unlike other religions and philosophies that look outside for power and strength Buddhism teaches one to tap the ultimate potential within . Contrary to what my Revolutionary friend who postulates that the purpose of religion is to fool, con, trick and control the masses Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism teaches each individual to realize his or her inner potential or inner power through the practice of Buddhism. In Buddhism there is never a magic solution or power outside the realm of human life. Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism postulates the concept of Kyochi Myogo. Kyo indicates the objective reality or the Buddha nature inherent in one's life and Chi means the subjective wisdom to realize that truth. It is the fusion of objective reality and subjective wisdom that one's Buddha nature from within emerges. The true Buddha Nichiren Daishonin embodied his enlightenment----the fusion of reality and wisdom in the form of an object of worship (Gohonzon). Faith in the Gohonzon or practice to a Gohonzon is the process of fusion of reality and wisdom. One example of the fusion of objective reality and subjective wisdom is the use of an instrument. A human practices or devotes himself or herself to use an instrument or a tool (objective reality) each day. A musician may practice with a piano, a doctor may practice with surgical instruments and a businessman my practice with business tools. Via devotion and practicing the instrument whether one believes it or not the wisdom or the harmonious application of the subject (person) and the instrument (object) emerges. In common sense terms a coach or a teacher can help a human to bring out dormant potential.

The Websters Dictionary of the English Language defines object as a perceptible body or thing, a thing or conception towards which the action of the thinking mind, considered as subject, is directed. Further definition---- reads a person or thing exciting attention or emotion. Whether one is in a former religion or a practicing atheist or one is just passing through life every person has an object of devotion or practice whether conscience or unconscious. Some people sit at home every Sunday in front of the tube with a cold one watching their favorite sporting game, while on the other hand some people are in their favorite place of worship every Sunday. No matter what action or non action a person make take, both action and non action is a cause and end in a resulting effect (karma). Whether my revolutionary friend agrees or not with formal or informal religion in his life he has a practice or action or thought which he is "binds" too is in essence his religion. We in Nichiren Shoshu simply devote ourselves to the science of the universal teachings (cause and effect).

Every religion and non religion has an object of worship or practice. Some men worship women and some women worship men. Some men worship drugs, alcohol or gambling while others worship or practice the art of making money. The Christian object of worship is Jesus Christ and his father God, the Muslins worship Allah. Practicing Atheists practice not getting involved in no religion. In Christianity and Islam you cannot see Jesus or Allah however both faiths do have objects of reverence. In Christianity objects such as the cross and photographs of Jesus is revered. Many materialist practice Pantheism or a form of worshiping nature of the universe. The true Buddha for the latter day of the law Nichiren Daishonin defined an object of worship we call in Nichiren Shoshu a Gohonzon. With the tool of a Gohonzon you simply look into the essence of your own mind. Nichiren Daishonin defined the essence of the Buddha's teachings in the Gohonzon.    To be continued........