Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Since I picked the Bodhisattvas for the day’s focus yesterday, I’ll continue with that topic today and again pass over the Peaceful Practices for future months, including The Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Top-Knot.
Thereupon the Bodhisattva-mahasattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, who had come from the other worlds, rose from among the great multitude, joined their hands together towards the Buddha, bowed to him, and said:
World-Honored One! If you permit us to protect, keep, read, recite and copy this sutra, and make offerings to it strenuously in this Saha-World after your extinction, we will [do so, and] expound it in this world.
Thereupon the Buddha said to those Bodhisattva-mahasattvas:
No, good men! I do not want you to protect or keep this sutra because there are Bodhisattva-mahasattvas sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges in this Saha-World. They are each accompanied by attendants also numbering sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges. They will protect, keep, read, recite and expound this sutra after my extinction.
These Bodhisattvas from other worlds who fretted yesterday so greatly about how they would be received in this Saha world in the evil times after the Buddha’s extinction need not have worried themselves. That job has already been filled by a vast crowd of not only a greater number but of a greater stature. Just how great we’ll see tomorrow.
Understanding the Truth of Provisionality can help us to overcome indifference and carelessness. We overcome indifference when we acknowledge the beauty of things as they are. We overcome carelessness when we recognize that our own existence influences and is influenced by the world around us. The Truth of Provisionality ensures that we do not focus solely on the Truth of Emptiness and thus lose sight of the fact that phenomena actually do exist, though impermanently. The Buddha Dharma does not ignore the world and the sufferings of its inhabitants simply because of their provisionality.
These good men and women are great Bodhisattvas. They should be considered to have appeared in this world by their vow to expound the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma out of their compassion towards all living beings, although they already attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [in their previous existence].
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Nine of the Lotus Sūtra. In the teachings of Nirvāṇa, the goal is to remove suffering so that we can be reborn in a peaceful realm. In this Sūtra, the Buddha reminds us that we who keep this Sūtra have given up the privilege of higher realms so that we can benefit beings where we find ourselves now. We do not fear rebirth in lower realms since our compassion takes us even there so we can benefit beings in those realms.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Hanamatsuri (flower festival) decorations in front of the altar on April 10, 2016 During the service parishioners use ladle to pour sweet tea over the statue and bathe the baby Sakyamuni.
Today was Hanamatsuri, the flower festival service honoring the birth of Sakyamuni Buddha. The beautiful flower arrangement covering the statue of the baby Sakyamuni was done by Ven. Kenjo Igarashi using flowers grown on the grounds of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church.
According to tradition, when Sakyamuni was born he immediately walked seven steps and declared, “I alone am honored in heaven and on earth” as he pointed up with one hand and down with the other to indicate he would unite heaven and earth.
Rev. Igarashi’s sermon covered why it is important to make good causes, using the tale of a selfish junior priest as a lesson in the cause and effect consequences of being greedy.
Following the service, everyone was invited for “refreshments” – sushi rice, pasta salad (I’m sure there is a Japanese term for that dish but I don’t know it), barbecue chicken and three different dessert cakes.
Making the gathering even more enjoyable was the welcome provided to two guests who were attending services for the first time.
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
This day’s content lends itself well to the idea of limiting myself to single topic. On this first time with the limit I’ll leave the Peaceful Practices for coming months, each one on a separate month. For today, I’ll stick to the “eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahasattvas” present at this time in the congregation.
These great bodhisattvas – they’d “already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dharanis” – were waiting for the Buddha to tell them what to do.
If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sutra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.
They also thought, ‘The Buddha keeps silence.’ He does not command us. What shall we do?
In order to follow the wish of the Buddha respectfully, and also to fulfill their original vow, they vowed to the Buddha with a loud voice like the roar of a lion:
World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will go to any place [not only of this Saha-World but also] of the worlds of the ten quarters, as often as required, and cause all living beings to copy, keep, read and recite this sutra, to expound the meanings of it, to act according to the Dharma, and to memorize this sutra correctly. We shall be able to do all this only by your powers. World-Honored One! Protect us from afar even when you are in another world!
And despite their willingness to brave the perils of the “dreadful, evil world after your extinction,” the Buddha has other plans.
The Truth of Provisionality is the teaching that all things do have a provisional existence determined by causes and conditions. Even if nothing has an unchanging or independent existence, everything we experience, including ourselves, does exist provisionally as part of the ever-changing and interdependent process of life. Holding a ripe, red tomato in our hands, biting into it, and enjoying its flavor and texture is appreciating the provisional existence or a tomato.
Thereupon the Buddha said to the great multitude including Bodhisattvas and others, “Good men! Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”
With these words, the Buddha prepares those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. “Understanding by faith” can be a difficult idea for those of us who believe faith is opposed to understanding; that it means believing something even though we do not understand it. The Buddha does not ask us to set aside our curiosity or our comprehension to practice his highest teaching. But he does say that it takes more than understanding to reach the wisdom he attained. As we apprehend more of what the Buddha teaches us, our confidence in him grows. As we set aside our doubts about the benefits of the Buddha Dharma, we increase our ability to see the world for what it is.
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Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
So, again, my one-topic-a-day vow forces me to ignore the Dragon girl who defies all convention concerning female virtues, animal or otherwise, and quickly becomes a Buddha and also the reassurance given to Sakyamuni’s aunt and the mother of Rahula that when Sakyamuni said all sravakas would eventually attain enlightenment he meant all, both men and women. I’ll return to these in the coming months.
Today, what grabbed was the role that the teacher played in the king’s search for bodhi. This king, of course, was Sakyamuni in a previous life and the seer, Devadatta. Hear is what the teacher did:
Devadatta was my teacher. He caused me to complete the six paramitas. He caused me to have loving-kindness, compassion, joy and impartiality. He caused me to have the thirty-two major marks and the eighty minor marks [of the Buddha]. He caused me to have my body purely gilt. He caused me to have the ten powers and the four kinds of fearlessness. He caused me to know the four ways to attract others. He caused me to have the eighteen properties and supernatural powers [of the Buddha]. He caused me to have the power of giving discourses. I attained perfect enlightenment and now save all living beings because Devadatta was my teacher.
Devadatta was a good friend of Sakyamuni, at least he was in that lifetime.
Enemies find it difficult to attack when two people are together. Therefore, do not keep your brothers at a distance even for a brief period, regardless of what faults they may have; always be close to them. Whenever you get angry, it is clearly written on your face. Please remember that at no time do gods or deities protect those who are short tempered. It is true that you are destined to become a Buddha, but isn’t it regrettable for you to get hurt, pleasing your enemy and causing us grief?
Nichiren wrote this passage in his “Emperor Shushun” Letter (Sushun Tennō Gosho) addressed to his disciple Shijō Kingo. Nichiren knew the temperament of this Samurai warrior, and gave him detailed instructions for how to navigate the political hazards he faced. No matter how vindictive his Lord Ema became, Nichiren reminded him to persist in leading Ema by the Buddha Dharma and to rely on those who kept the Lotus Sūtra with him. As a result, Kingo outlived both Ema and Nichiren himself and is well known as one of Nichiren’s first followers.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 16 concludes Chapter 11, Beholding the Stupa of Treasures, and completes the Fourth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
In the grand scheme of things – as in that giant stupa of treasures – something about Many Treasures and his vow and his role proving the veracity of what Sakyamuni has preached in the Lotus Sutra should be the top issue here. If not that, then the wonderful examples of easy and difficult things to do, e.g. the easy task of grasping a Mt. Sumeru and hurling it to a distance of countless Buddha-worlds vs the difficult task of expounding this sutra in the evil world after the Buddha’s extinction. But today I want to reiterate the Hotoge versus and the reason why they are embellished with the odd rhythmic reading.
First the verses:
It is difficult to keep this sutra.
I shall be glad to see
Anyone keeping it even for a moment.
So will all the other Buddhas.
He will be praised by all the Buddhas.
He will be a man of valor,
A man of endeavor.
He should be considered
To have already observed the precepts,
And practised the dhuta.
He will quickly attain
The unsurpassed enlightenment of the Buddha.
Anyone who reads and recites this sutra in the future
Is a true son of mine.
He shall be considered to live
On the stage of purity and good.
Anyone, after my extinction,
Who understands the meaning of this sutra,
Will be the eye of the worlds
Of gods and men.
Anyone who expounds this sutra
Even for a moment in this dreadful world,
Should be honored with offerings
By all gods and men.
“I am no magistrate,” said the official. “I am not interested in your arguments. I am only interested in getting you onto that ship, out of Kamakura, and on to Izu. Now keep quiet!”
Nichiren put his palms together and bowed. His disciples cried out to him, some in tears. The guards kept back all but one. Nichiro, now a strong young man of 16, would not be cowed. He slipped past the guards and ran down to the boat just as it was being pushed off into the surf.
“Get back!” screamed the official.
But Nichiro would not get back. Crying for his master as he reached out to him, he waded out into the bay after the boat. Nichiren exhorted him to be calm, but his disciple was too overwrought and would not listen. “Take me with you!” He shouted again and again. Exasperated, the official took an oar and struck the young monk with bone shattering force. Clutching at his broken right arm, Nichiro finally backed away, his face white with pain.
Tears fell from Nichiren’s eyes as he saw his faithful disciple so brutalized. “Nichiro! Calm yourself. Is this how a disciple of the Buddha should act? From now on, when you see the sun setting in the west behind Izu, think of me. When I see the sun rising from the sea, I shall think of you.”
Nichiro nodded. “Forgive me, master.” Becoming faint, he went down on his knees in the water, sweat and tears coursing down his face. One of the guards finally reached him and escorted him back to where Nissho and the other monks were gathered.
As the boat moved away Nichiren began to chant the final verses from the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sutra, “It is difficult to keep this sutra. I shall be glad to see anyone keeping it even for a moment.” The rocking of the waves caused his voice to fade in and out, giving the recitation an odd rhythm. The passage ended with, “Anyone who expounds this sutra even for a moment in this dreadful world should be honored with offerings by all gods and men.” From that point on Nichlren knew that he and his disciples had truly become practitioners of the Lotus Sutra as its predictions of hardships that would be faced by the teachers of the True Dharma began to be fulfilled in their own lives.
