In The Infinity Option I describe a thought Deepak Chopra asks his audience to focus on as their first experience in meditation, “I am.” He says the incompleteness of the thought is what causes the mind to be tricked into focusing on itself. The book’s character, Shinjiro Miroku, a Soka Gakkai Buddhist asks his girlfriend, Jennifer Long, a Christian if Christianity justifies wrong by justifying its adherents being less than they can be.

Nichiren Daishonin teaches a chant, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which once understood, means to the practicer that he or she is cause itself or is at least capable of being such a powerful causative force that he can influence not only his own life dynamically, but the whole of society, and can determine the course of history. If cooperating with others to achieve a happier society, all the more power is put into force. It might be said the eventual meaning of the phrase for a practicer is “I am cause itself,” or “I am cause itself if I am determined enough.”

A practicer views a Christian’s world view as a lamantation, “If I am not ______ enough, I will be forgiven. Therefore I can give up on being _____.” When the blank word may be anything praiseworthy in accordance with Christian belief.