Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

What is the meaning of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo? (南無妙法蓮華教) It is a
mantra recited by the diverse followers of the Nichiren based school of
Buddhism. It is sometimes called Daimoku (“sacred title”) and is used
as a form of meditation.

(p.s. if you want to see the Japanese characters in the text please
choose Japanese encoding in your browser settings, otherwise they will
appear as gibberish)

Nam Myoho Renge KyoYou
can see to the left a calligraphy done by an unknown artist of the
Chinese characters composing Nam (actually written Namu in Japanese)
Myoho Renge Kyo.

From top to bottom we have:

南 : Na: South,

無 : Mu:no, nonexistent,

妙 :Myo: wonderful, sublime,

法 :ho: Law or Dharma in Buddhism

蓮 :ren: Lotus

華 : ge: flower

教 :kyo: scriptures, sutra

Of course, like in many languages, we cannot translate literally the
words one by one as they would not make any sense. Let’s then explore
the meaning of the phrase.

Namu is actually a Buddhist term used as a prefix to many mantras.
It means approximately :”I take refuge in …” It is a Japanese
pronunciation of namas in Sanskrit.

Myoho: This one is easier:” In the sublime Dharma”

Renge : this is a lotus Flower

Kyo : as mentioned before, the scriptures.