LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās why the Śrāvakas didn’t take to heart the Bodhisattva practices, we considered in gāthās the benefits gained by the Śrāvakas.

Today we are not what we were then.
We have obtained
What we did not expect
To obtain
Just as the poor son obtained
The innumerable treasures.

World-Honored One!
We have attained enlightenment, perfect fruit.
We have secured pure eyes
With which we can see the Dharma-without-āsravas.

We observed the pure precepts of the Buddha
In the long night.
Today we have obtained the effects and rewards
[Of our observance of the precepts].
We performed the brahma practices for long
According to the teachings of the King of the Dharma.
Now we have obtained the great fruit
Of the unsurpassed Dharma-without-āsravas.

We are Śrāvakas in this sense of the word.
We will cause all living beings
To hear the voice telling
Of the enlightenment of the Buddha.

We are Arhats
In the true sense of the word.
All gods and men,
All Maras and Brahmans
In the worlds
Should make offerings to us.

The Daily Dharma offers this:

Today we are not what we were then.
We have obtained
What we did not expect
To obtain
Just as the poor son obtained
The innumerable treasures.

Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana, all disciples of the Buddha, speak these lines in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra as they explain their story of the wayward son. They compare the father’s treasure house in the story to the Buddha’s enlightenment. Until they had been led by the Buddha’s expedient teachings, they could not even imagine themselves as enlightened, any more than the wayward son in the story could imagine the contents of his father’s treasure house.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Tamura-Intro, Blog

The Buddha’s Practices

Yoshiro Tamura has a curious interpretation of the Lotus Sutra’s Chapter 16 in his book, “Introduction to the Lotus Sutra.”

Tamura writes:

Chapter 16, “The Lifetime of the Tathagata,” as it has been traditionally understood, reveals the eternal life of Shakyamuni Buddha. But the occasion for doing this was provided by a question raised in the previous chapter: How could the innumerable bodhisattvas who have emerged from below the earth have been taught and led to the Buddha way over the short span of the Buddha’s life? The answer is given that the innumerable bodhisattvas have been authentic disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha. That is, in view of the fact that Shakyamuni Buddha only recently became awakened and became a buddha, how could he have so many disciples? Chapter 16 reveals that in reality Shakyamuni Buddha became a buddha an infinitely long time ago, thus an infinite amount of time has passed since he became Buddha. In this way we can see that the advocacy of the Buddha’s universality is related to bodhisattvas.

The important thing to notice in chapter 16 is the way in which the Buddha’s everlasting life is revealed. The text says:

Thus, since I became Buddha, a very long time has passed, a lifetime of innumerable countless eons of constantly living here and never entering extinction. The time that I have devoted to walking the bodhisattva way is not finished even now, but will be twice as many eons as have already passed.

This means that the eternal life of the Buddha is shown through infinite, never-ending bodhisattva practice. The everlasting or eternal life is realized by endlessly doing bodhisattva practice in this actual world.

Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p52-53

Tamura’s quote from Chapter 16 has a note indicating that it comes from Reeve’s 2008 English translation of the Lotus Sutra. However, it is not a direct quote from Reeve’s translation, which states:

Thus, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of innumerable countless eons of constantly living here and never entering extinction. Good sons, from the beginning I have practiced the bodhisattva way, and that life is not yet finished, but will be twice as long as what has already passed.

I stumbled over Tamura’s quote because this is not how Senchu Murano translates this portion of Chapter 16. Murano offers:

“Good men! The duration of my life, which I obtained by the practice of the way of Bodhisattvas, has not yet expired. It is twice as long as the length of time as previously stated.

Clearly, the Bodhisattva practices preceded Śākyamuni’s enlightenment. There’s no suggestion that he continued these Bodhisattva practices.

Leon Hurvitz’s 2009 translation is even clearer on this point:

O good men ! The life-span I achieved in my former treading of the bodhisattva path even now is not exhausted, for it is twice the above number.

None of the other English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra suggests an unceasing practice of the bodhisattva way by the Buddha.

The BDK English Tripiṭaka translation offers:

O sons of a virtuous family! The lifespan that I first attained through practicing the bodhisattva path has not yet expired. It is twice as great as the number previously mentioned.

The Rissho Kosei-Kai Modern Translation says:

Good children, the life span I gained through my long practice of the bodhisattva way is still unending and will continue for twice the duration that I described before.

Burton Watson, in his translation for Soka Gakkai in 1993, offers:

Good men, originally I practiced the bodhisattva way, and the life span that I acquired then has yet to come to an end but will last twice the number of years that have already passed.

Tamura declares that the eternal life of the Buddha is shown through infinite, never-ending bodhisattva practice. That seems too narrow to me. The entire Lotus Sutra – Myōhōrengekyō – is realized by endlessly doing bodhisattva practice in this actual world. This is how Namu Myōhōrengekyō is put into practice daily.

As for the Buddha:

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

The eternal life of the Buddha is realized in this vow.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov.20, 2024

You, the World-Honored One, are our leader.
You give peace to gods and men.
Hearing that you assured us of our future Buddhahood,
We are relieved and satisfied.

These verses are sung by Maha-Prajāpatī Bhikṣuṇī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣuṇī, and their attendants in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our lives we have many desires, some of which we may not recognize. We believe that when these desires are met, only then can we be happy and peaceful. At the foundation of these desires is the desire for liberation. These women recognize that with this desire, just knowing that it will be fulfilled is enough to bring joy.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded Chapter 3, A Parable, we begin Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and consider the comments of the “men living the life of wisdom.”

Thereupon the men living the life of wisdom: Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana felt strange because they heard the Dharma from the Buddha that they had never heard before, and because they heard that the World-Honored One had assured Śāriputra of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. They felt like dancing with joy, rose from their seats, adjusted their robes, bared their right shoulders, put their right knees on the ground, joined their hands together with all their hearts, bent themselves respectfully, looked up at the honorable face, and said to the Buddha:

“We elders of the Saṃgha were already old and decrepit [when we heard of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. We did not seek Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi because we thought that we had already attained Nirvāṇa, and also because we thought that we were too old and decrepit to do so.’ You have been expounding the Dharma for a long time. We have been in your congregation all the while. We were already tired [when we heard of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. Therefore, we just cherished the truth that nothing is substantial, the truth that nothing is different from any other thing, and the truth that nothing more is to be sought. We did not wish to perform the Bodhisattva practices, that is, to purify the world of the Buddha and to lead all living beings [to Buddhahood] by displaying supernatural powers because you had already led us out of the triple world and caused us to attain Nirvāṇa. Neither did we wish at all to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, which you were teaching to Bodhisattvas, because we were already too old and decrepit to do so. But now we are very glad to hear that you have assured a Śrāvakas of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. We have the greatest joy that we have ever had. We have never expected to hear such a rare teaching all of a sudden. How glad we are! We have obtained great benefits. We have obtained innumerable treasures although we did not seek them.

See Not Only the Śrāvaka But Also Śākyamuni Buddha Is Within Us

Tamura-Intro, original, Blog

Yoshiro Tamura and Original Enlightenment Thought

Search for Yoshiro Tamura on this website and you’ll find that he is “famous” for his views on Original Enlightenment. (He’s also one of the translators of Rissho Kosei-kai’s 1975 edition of The Threefold Lotus Sutra.)

The publisher’s description of Jacqueline Stone’s “Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism” explains what’s meant by “original enlightenment”:

Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan’s medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is.

In Tamura’s “Introduction to the Lotus Sutra,” he explains original enlightenment in this way:

Saicho skillfully merged the Lotus Sutra’s comprehensive and unifying view of truth with the Flower Garland Sutra’s fundamental and purifying view of the truth. In his thought, the Lotus Sutra’s worldview, which encompasses the actual world, is united with the worldview of the Flower Garland Sutra, which shines with the ideal. This is a unity of the ideal and the actual. In further developments along this line, thinkers after Saicho combined typical Mahayana Buddhist ideas from the Lotus Sutra, the Flower Garland Sutra, the esoteric sutras, Zen, and so forth, eventually achieving the ultimate in philosophical theory—the Tendai doctrine of original enlightenment. The Tendai doctrine of original, innate or intrinsic, enlightenment is the culmination of Buddhism, subsuming all Buddhist teachings on the basis of Tendai Lotus Sutra doctrine. In general, it makes it clear that breaking through the bounds of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness—human relative and dualistic thought and judgment—so thoroughly breaks through that barrier that it discloses a very different absolute and monistic world. Here, the boundary between heaven and earth vanishes, the distinction between above and below disappears, and only infinite cosmic space and eternal absolute time remain. From this standpoint, there is a radical affirmation that the actual world is like a dynamic pulsation of ideal light in which a moment is like an eternity. Life and death and everything else come to be affirmed as the activity of eternal life. Tendai doctrine includes such teachings as “The eternal sun and moon, today’s sun and moon, and the future sun and moon are all one sun and moon,” “The wonderful coming of noncoming, the true birth of nonbirth, the perfect going of nongoing, and the great death of nondeath,” and “All things in the universe have the life span of the original Buddha.”

Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p121-122

In “Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism,”Stone explains her understanding of Tamura’s theory:

Tamura [Yoshirō] … characterizes Tendai original enlightenment thought as “absolute affirmation of reality” and the “climax” of Buddhist philosophy, a synthesis of Tendai, Kegon, esoteric, and Zen elements that carried to the farthest possible point the denial of any separation between ordinary worldlings and the Buddha’s enlightened reality. Tamura himself terms original enlightenment thought a teaching of “absolute nonduality” (zettaifuni) or “absolute monism” (zettai ichtgen ron), a term now commonly used in Japanese scholarly writing in reference to Tendai hongaku thought. By “absolute monism,” Tamura means not a single entity or essence underlying all phenomena, but that the realm of the Buddha’s enlightenment (i.e., the realm of principle, or ri) and the conventional realm of changing phenomena (ji) are thoroughly conflated. This identification is on the one hand ontological, consistent with classic Madhyamaka teachings about the emptiness of the dharmas and the nonduality of ultimate and conventional truth, as expressed in the phrase “saṃsāra is nirvāṇa.” But in Tendai hongaku thought, the identification holds on the existential level as well: the deluded thoughts of ordinary beings as such are the Buddha’s enlightenment. In Tamura’s terms, both the “existential aspect” and “illusional aspect” of reality are “absolutely affirmed. ”

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


The controversy surrounding this theory is summarized in the publisher’s description of Stone’s book:

Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According to other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japan’s medieval period.

In Gene Reeves’ Introduction to Tamura’s book, he writes:

Some might think that the section of this book dealing with Tendai thought should be updated somehow to reflect how Tamura would have responded to recent critiques of Tendai original enlightenment thought. In fact, we can only speculate on how Tamura might have responded to such developments. My own guess is that he would have rejected any form of monistic ground, while supporting the affirmation of the reality of all things, a notion found both in the Lotus Sutra and some forms of Tendai original enlightenment thought. But, since this is simply speculation on my part, it would seem inappropriate to change Tamura’s text to reflect developments of which he was not a part.

Though Tamura does discuss Tendai thought in this book, it is really about the Lotus Sutra, and very little of what is known about the Lotus Sutra has changed since Tamura wrote it.

Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p5
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov.19, 2024

Suppose one sets up a needle on top of Mt. Sumeru and throws a piece of string on a windy day from another Mt. Sumeru standing too far to see. It is impossible to thread the needle set up on the first Mt. Sumeru. It is, however, even more difficult to experience the great title of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore you should realize that being able to chant the great title of this sutra is more wonderful than a blind person gaining his eyesight and seeing his parents for the first time.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Chanting the Great Title of the Lotus Sūtra (Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō). Those with great talents, or who have worked hard and made great accomplishments, tend to think that what they have done is normal. They can lose any appreciation for what they have and focus only on what they lack. This passage reminds us of the treasure we enjoy in the five syllables of Myo Ho Ren Ge and Kyo. Just hearing this Great Title is the result of great efforts we have made in the past, whether we appreciate and remember those efforts or not.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 6

Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 6 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the gift of the large cart used to get his children out of the burning house, we consider the gift of the large cart, we conclude today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable

(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
I am like the father.
I am the Saint of Saints.
I am the father of the world.

All living beings are my children.
They are deeply attached
To the pleasures of the world.
They have no wisdom.

The triple world is not peaceful.
It is like the burning house.
It is full of sufferings.
It is dreadful.

There are always the sufferings
Of birth, old age, disease and death.
They are like flames
Raging endlessly.

I have already left
The burning house of the triple world.
I am tranquil and peaceful
In a bower in a forest.

See Our Spiritual Parent

Tamura-Intro, Blog, Books

Yoshiro Tamura’s Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

tamura-introduction-bookcover
Available at Amazon

Yoshiro Tamura’s Introduction to the Lotus Sutra was originally published in 1969 in Japan. Michio Shinozali and Gene Reeves translated the book into English, which was published in 2014. Rissho Kossei-kai holds the copyright.

Reeves offers this about Tamura in his Introduction:

Tamura was not a popular writer. When we met (in 1983) he was a professor at Rissho University, Nichiren-shu’s university in Tokyo. This followed his retirement from the University of Tokyo in 1982, where he held the chair in Japanese Buddhism. He was an academic and a historian. Yet he also had a kind of layman’s love of the Lotus Sutra, which is reflected in his Preface to this book. He knew as well as anyone that the Lotus Sutra was not merely something fit for academic scrutiny, but a religious text very much alive in the contemporary world.

His small book, first published in Japan in 1969, was intended for a popular audience. It introduces the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, some of the scholarly work on its composition, and the role it has had in East Asian, especially Japanese, history. Part of a popular but sophisticated series, the book was intended to inform educated, nonspecialist Japanese readers about the Lotus Sutra and its uses and evaluations in history. Since the Lotus Sutra is the primary Buddhist text for several traditional Japanese Buddhist denominations of the Nichiren and Tendai traditions, as well as for several new Buddhist organizations that emerged in the twentieth century, particularly for the Reiyūkai, Rissho Kosei-kai, and Soka Gakkai, the number of potential readers in contemporary Japan would have been very substantial. Well over twenty million Japanese recite regularly from the Lotus Sutra.

So the audience Tamura intended for his book was not made up of his fellow academics—at least not primarily—but of serious lay Buddhists who already had some familiarity with the Lotus Sutra.

Underscore Reeves description of Tamura as an academic and a historian. Yet he also had a kind of layman’s love of the Lotus Sutra….

Tamura’s Preface offers an academic overview of the Lotus Sutra and its development, but what I want to focus on is this:

Soon after entering university in December of 1943, I was sent to the front as a student soldier. I wondered if I were allowed to bring but a single book on the trip, possibly to my death, which would I want to bring? Many of my fellow student soldiers were thinking the same thing. We all worked at part-time jobs in order to be able to buy books, and we often lent them to each other. Yet we were perplexed by the idea of selecting only one. One fellow insisted on bringing Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Some Christian students, not surprisingly, chose the Bible, as was natural for Christians.

Since in those days my own interest was shifting from Western philosophy to Buddhist thought, I decided to select one appropriate book from among the many related to Buddhism. It was the Lotus Sutra. …

Leaving ten soldiers behind, my military unit was moved to the Philippines and suffered a crushing defeat just before landing there. I was one of the ten who remained behind. As he was leaving, the commander of my company asked me to teach him a few passages from a sutra that would be suitable for mourning the dead. I gave him some famous verses taken from chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, “The Lifetime of the Tathagata.” I imagine that that company commander died with his soldiers before he had time to mourn them. Later, I was ordered to transfer several times, and I sometimes had to face death. But I was never without the Lotus Sutra. When I was discharged, my copy of the sutra was more worn out than I was.

I am filled with deep emotion as I set out to explain the Lotus Sutra, the book that has been the most important in my own life.

End of June 1969
Yoshiro Tamura

Tamura’s book has a great deal of background on the development of the Lotus Sutra. I’ll be posting quotes which I want to keep available. After that, I’ll be posting his chapter-by-chapter comments on the Lotus Sutra, which I’ll also incorporate into my annotated Lotus Sutra.

Before that, I want to address two topics:

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov.18, 2024

The great multitude, having seen the two Tathāgatas sitting cross-legged on the lion-like seat in the stūpa of the seven treasures, thought, “The seat of the Buddhas is too high. Tathāgata! Raise us up by your supernatural powers so that we may be able to be with you in the sky!”

This description comes from Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. Many-Treasures Buddha has arrived where the Buddha was teaching so that he could endorse this Wonderful Dharma. He invited the Buddha to join him in an enormous stūpa tower hanging in the sky. When the Buddha raises up those gathered to hear him teach, he puts them all on the same level as himself and all the other Buddhas. He shows them that they too have the capacity to hear his teachings and put them into practice. Nichiren depicted this “ceremony in the air” in the Omandala Gohonzon and advised us to use this as the focus of our practice. When we put ourselves into this great multitude we listen for the Buddha teaching and realize the benefit we create in this world.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 5

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 5 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Śāriputra’s concern about persistent doubts in the congregation, we consider the fire in the burning house.

“Śāriputra! Suppose there lived a very rich man in a certain country, in a certain village, in a certain town. He was old. His wealth was immeasurable. He had many paddy fields, houses, and servants. His manor house was large, but had only one gate. In that house lived many people, numbering a hundred or two hundred or five hundred. The buildings were in decay, the fences and walls corrupt, the bases of the pillars rotten, and the beams and ridgepoles tilting and slanted.

“All of a sudden fires broke out at the same time from all sides of the house, and it began to burn. In this house lived children of the rich man, numbering ten or twenty or thirty. The rich man was very frightened at the great fires breaking out from the four sides of the house. He thought, ‘I am able to get out of the gate of the burning house safely, but my children are still inside. They are engrossed in playing. They do not know that the fires are coming towards them. They are not frightened or afraid. They are about to suffer, but do not mind. They do not wish to get out.’ Śāriputra! He also thought, ‘I am strong-muscled. I will put them in a flower-plate or on a table and bring them out.’

“But he thought again, ‘This house has only one gate. Worse still, the gate is narrow and small. My children are too young to know this. They are attached to the place where they are playing. They may fall [out of the plate or table] and get burned. I had better tell them of the danger. This house is already burning. They must come out quickly so as not to be burned to death.’

“Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.

The Daily Dharma offers this:

Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.

This passage is part of the Parable of the Burning House, told by the Buddha in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In this story, he compares us living in this world of conflict to children playing in a dangerous house. As the children in the story were too distracted by their games to hear their father’s warnings, we are often too distracted by the attachments of our world to hear the voice of the Buddha.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

On the Journey to a Place of Treasures