Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Sariputra is happy to learn he will become a Buddha but he wants everyone to know that he felt betrayed:

I walked about mountains and valleys,
Or sat under a tree in a forest, thinking this over.
I reproached myself with a deep sigh:
‘Why was I deceived?
We also are sons of the Buddha
[Just as the Bodhisattvas are].
We entered the same [ world]
[Of the] Dharma-without-asravas.
But we shall not be able to expound
Unsurpassed enlightenment in the future.
We are in the same [ world of the] Dharma.
But we shall not be given
The golden body with the thirty-two marks,
The ten powers, and the emancipations [of the Buddha].
We are deprived of the hope
To have the eighty wonderful marks,
The eighteen unique properties
And the other merits [of the Buddha].”

But Sakyamuni is having none of it:

Now I will tell you in the presence of this great multitude including gods, men, sramanas, and brahmanas. Under two billion Buddhas in the past, I always taught you in order to cause you to attain unsurpassed enlightenment. You studied under me in the long night. I led you with expedients. Therefore, you have your present life under me.

Sariputra! I caused you to aspire for the enlightenment of the Buddha in your previous existence. You forgot all this, and thought that you had already attained extinction. In order to cause you to remember the Way you practiced under your original vow, I now expound to the Sravakas this sutra of the Great Vehicle called the “Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.”

If only we could remember.

Day 4 finishes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sutra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Recently I’ve been reprinting the contents of a “The Doctrines of Nichiren with a Sketch of His Life.” The book was first published in 1893 and it has been thought provoking to see the difference in focus while maintaining the teachings of Nichiren.

Take for instance this statement:

Now the real state of visible things is one of emptiness and relativity. All phenomena, mental and material, in all times and spaces, are to be conceived of as existing subjectively in the consciousness of every individual, as his own physical and mental states, and thus only; so that the differences and varieties which distinguish things from one another must be regarded as purely imaginary and misleading, without any foundation in fact. Grasp this, and you have the Truth, and everything will then appear to you as it is in reality; you will see it as it is in itself.
Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)

This concept is underlined in today’s reading in several places in the last half of Chapter 2, Expedients:

All things are from the outset
In the state of tranquil extinction.

And…

They know the Highest Truth of Tranquil Extinction.
They have the power to employ expedients.
Although they expound various teachings,
Their purpose is to reveal the Buddha-Vehicle.

And…

I thought:
“I appeared in the defiled world.
Just like the other Buddhas,
I will expound the Dharma
According to the capacities of all living beings.”
Having thought this, I went to Vārāṇasī,
And expounded the Dharma to the five bhiksus
With expedients
Because the state of tranquil extinction of all things
is inexplicable by words.

The Doctrines of Nichiren goes on to say:

[T]he multitude, being still unenlightened, are unable to perceive the great truth that this present world is the world of Buddhas and of Glorious Light, and are unconscious of the Paradise into which they have already actually entered. Their minds being thus confused, they give rein to the four passions of avarice, anger, folly, and pride, and find themselves in the painful regions of birth, old age, disease, and death; so that they are obliged to pass through a series of transmigrations in the world of evils, which is ever a prey to Great Fire in times past, and present, and future. But all these pains and miseries are, in fact, voluntarily incurred by the people themselves; they are not proper and natural to the real state of the world, which is, in itself, free from them altogether.
Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)

Something to meditate on while chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Having covered the Ten Suchnesses last month, I want to underline that you can’t just understand the dharma.

The Dharma cannot be shown.
It is inexplicable by words.
No one can understand it
Except the Buddhas
And the Bodhisattvas
Who are strong in the power of faith.

Even the Buddhas’ disciples who made offerings
To the [past] Buddhas in their previous existence,
[Even the disciples] who eliminated all asravas,
[Even the disciples] who are now at the final stage
Of their physical existence,
Cannot understand [the Dharma].

As many people as can fill the world,
Who are as wise as you, Sariputra, will not be able
To measure the wisdom of the Buddhas,
Even though they try to do so with their combined efforts.

As many people as can fill the worlds of the ten quarters,
Who are as wise as you, Sariputra,
Or as many other disciples of mine
As can fill the ksetras of the ten quarters,
Will not be able to know [the wisdom of the Buddhas]
Even though they try to do so with their combined efforts.

As many Pratyekabuddhas as can fill
The worlds of the ten quarters, or as many as bamboo groves,
Who are wise enough to reach
The final stage of their physical existence without asravas,
Will not be able to know
Even a bit of the true wisdom of the Buddhas
Even though they continue trying to do so with all their hearts
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas.

As many Bodhisattvas as rice-plants, hemps, bamboos or reeds,
Or as can fill the ksetras of the ten quarters,
Who have just begun to aspire for enlightenment,
Who made offerings to innumerable Buddhas in their previous existence,
Who understand the meanings of the Dharma [in their own ways],
And who are expounding the Dharma [as they understand it],
Will not be able to know the wisdom of the Buddhas
Even though they continue trying to do so with all their hearts
And with all their wonderful wisdom
For as many kalpas as there are sands in the River Ganges.

As many never-faltering Bodhisattvas
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Will not be able to know the wisdom of the Buddhas
Even though they try to do so with all their hearts.

(He said to Sariputra again:)
I have already attained
The profound and wonderful Dharma,
The Dharma without asravas, the inconceivable Dharma.
It is known only to me
And to the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.

Sariputra, know this!
The Buddhas do not speak differently.
Have great power of faith
In the Dharma expounded by the Buddhas!
As a rule, the Wo rld-Honored Ones expound the true teaching
Only after a long period [of expounding expedient teachings].

You can’t intellectualize, analyze or otherwise rationalize the dharma. The key is the great power of faith and practice and study and faith and practice and study and again and again.