The Living Mandala: Understanding the Gohonzon of Nichiren by Nichiryu Mark Herrick, Renshi The Gohonzon is not a thing to be gazed upon—it is a relationship to be entered. Few elements of Nichiren Buddhism have been more misunderstood than the Gohonzon. Too often reduced to superstition or ritual habit, it has been treated as a charm for protection or fortune rather than what Nichiren intended: a living mirror of awakening. The Living Mandala restores the Gohonzon to its true meaning—a dynamic field of participation where the Dharma reveals itself through voice, form, and awareness. In this contemplative and accessible work, Nichiryu Mark Herrick—Renshi, teacher, and lifelong practitioner—explores how Nichiren’s calligraphic mandala embodies the timeless revelation of the Lotus Sutra . The Gohonzon is not a symbol of awakening, he explains, but awakening itself taking visible form—the Ceremony in the Air written in ink and enacted through sound. When we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo , the boundary between self and Buddha, form and emptiness, dissolves. Blending scholarship with lived experience, Herrick draws from Nichiren’s own writings ( Gosho ), classical Tiantai doctrine, and modern Buddhist scholarship, including the insights of Jacqueline Stone, Lucia Dolce, Luigi Finocchiaro, and Ryuei McCormick. He situates the mandala within its wider historical and artistic evolution—from Indian and Chinese cosmological diagrams to Nichiren’s radical innovation of transforming the mandala into a performative Dharma itself. Readers are guided through: • The Paradox of Sacred Form – how the formless is made visible through art and ritual. • The Ceremony in the Air – the Lotus Sutra’s living template of awakening. • Nichiren’s Innovation – the Gohonzon as Dharma embodied in calligraphy. • The Three Great Secret Dharmas – Body, Voice, and Field as expressions of awakening. • Material Presence and Living Resonance – how practice animates the mandala through sound and faith. • The Global and Digital Mandala – how the Ceremony in the Air continues across cultures and technologies today. Throughout, Herrick invites practitioners, scholars, and seekers alike to experience the Gohonzon not as an artifact of devotion but as a living practice— the Dharma doing itself through us . His writing bridges historical insight, philosophical depth, and meditative reflection, showing that Nichiren’s vision remains profoundly relevant in an age longing for connection and meaning. The Living Mandala is both study and offering: a meditation on how ink, sound, and awareness converge into awakening itself. About the Author Nichiryu Mark Herrick, Renshi, is co-founder of Myokan-ji (Temple of Sublime Contemplation) in Oakland, California, and co-leader of the Two Buddhas Meditation Community. A lifelong practitioner and teacher of the Lotus Sutra, he draws upon decades of study in both Nichiren and Tiantai traditions. His previous works include Dharmakaya and God and Parables of the Lotus Sutra: A Modern Personal Introspection .