Gongyo and the Shape of Daily Practice

Daimoku names the chant itself, gongyo names the fuller daily liturgy built around it. A practitioner recites portions of the Lotus Sutra's second and sixteenth chapters, the Expedient Means and Life Span chapters, facing an object of devotion called the Gohonzon, a paper mandala inscribed with Nam Myoho Renge Kyo at its center surrounded by the names of Buddhist and Shinto figures. That recitation is normally followed by daimoku itself, repeated chanting of the title alone, for a length of time each practitioner sets. Soka Gakkai, the lay movement now the largest body descending from Nichiren, revised gongyo's format in 2004 and again in 2015, each time shortening the sutra recitation portion and simplifying the accompanying silent prayers, changes the organization explained as making the practice more accessible to new members while leaving the daimoku chanting at its center untouched. Nichiren Shoshu, the priestly denomination that excommunicated Soka Gakkai's ten million members in November 1991, kept the older, longer liturgical form and requires a Nichiren Shoshu priest to inscribe a Gohonzon; Soka Gakkai has instead conferred its own Gohonzon, reproduced from a version transcribed by an earlier high priest, Nichikan, since 1993. The two bodies still agree on the object of the practice even where they now disagree sharply on who has authority to produce one.