One Daimoku Is Enough, and a Million Is Not Enough

Is chanting really enough? Shouldn't I understand more of this first?Everyone asks it sooner or later. The answer is yes, and that is not the whole answer.This talk sits with a saying that will not resolve: one daimoku is enough, and a million is not enough. One is enough because nothing is missing from it, and nothing is being held back from us. A million is not enough because a life takes a lifetime, and knowing we are on the path is not the same as being done with it. The Buddha kept sitting, kept walking, kept teaching, right up to the last night under the trees.Along the way: why understanding comes through practice rather than before it, how something small enough to fit in our mouth can hold the whole of a teaching, why counting is fine but is not what we are doing, and why nothing is outside this.From Reflections in the Pond, the podcast of Myokan-ji Temple and the Two Buddhas Meditation Community in Oakland, California. Written version at: https://www.twobuddhas.org/post/one-daimoku-is-enough-and-a-million-is-not-enough