How To Read Ryuei.net

by Ryuei Michael McCormick

It has come to my attention from online and offline interactions that my website may be confusing people in that some may read articles that present Buddhism from the perspective of the Pali Canon, others deal with specific Buddhist topics in a scholarlsy way and other are on general Buddhism, or specific to Nichiren Buddhism, or good for beginners, or only for advanced study or practice. There is nothing to indicate which is which other than the general tone of the articles and some but not all of the intros to them. The site needs to be redesigned and there are people working on that, but we haven't gotten to it quite yet.

Until then, I'd like to suggest which articles would be good for beginners and for Nichiren Buddhists, and in what order I would recommend people read them:

Meditation Instructions

The Life of the Buddha

What is Buddha Dharma

The Deer Park Sermon

An Overview of Buddhism

Life of Nichiren Shonin (a more complete version than the one in Lotus Seeds which was pared down a bit)

How to be a Buddhist

The Three Refuges & Threefold Training

Three Great Hidden Dharmas

For those who are concerned about the difference between Buddhism and Christianity and/or other monotheistic religions I would like to offer my FAQ for Christians.

For those who are wondering about the difference between the SGI, Nichiren Shoshu and Nichiren Shu, I would recommend reading the articles in the section entitled History of the Hokke Schools, esp. the articles on the Senior Disciples of Nichiren, the Fuji Lineage articles, and the Rise of the Soka Gakkai articles. For those who are not wondering about the differences, continue to not worry about
them.

Finally, the article Buddhism in America might also be of interest in that it covers the general state of Buddhism in the U.S. and particularly the position of Nichiren Shu within the general trend of American Buddhism.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, Ryuei.