Monthly Archives: October 2016

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 21, 2016

In order to save the [perverted] people,
I expediently show my Nirvāṇa to them.
In reality I shall never pass away.
I always live here and expound the Dharma.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This is part of the explanation that his existence in the physical form of Śākyamuni was only one way that he leads all beings to enlightenment. The Buddha described his ever-present nature as the most difficult of his teachings to believe and understand. Recognizing the presence of the Buddha in the world is the same as recognizing Buddha nature in ourselves and all beings. Knowing that the Buddha is always available to help us in this difficult practice of the Wonderful Dharma means we do not need to rely on our own limited abilities. The store of the Dharma is always available to us. We just need to find it and use it.

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

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Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Last month I covered the difficulty of hearing even the title of this Sutra and also the Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Top-Knot.

Keeping this in mind:

Manjusri! This Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the treasury of the hidden core of the Buddhas, of the Tathagatas. It is superior to all the other sutras. I kept it [in secret] and refrained from expounding it for the long night. Now I expound it to you today for the first time.

I hear this instruction:

Be patient, and compassionate
Towards all living beings,
And then expound this sutra
Praised by the Buddhas!

Anyone who keeps this sutra
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.

He should think:
‘They do not hear this sutra.
They do not believe it.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’

With compassion.

Blog

O-Kay Pure Land

Pooh Blustery Day My son celebrated his 25th birthday earlier this month. They’re born and then they’re gone. Left behind are little ghosts, such as the toddler who loved Disney’s animated Winnie the Pooh stories. When he grew older, the Pooh stories were his retreat when anxiety struck.

“I need a Pooh movie,” he would say, and we would gather around the VHS player and watch together.

Last night, after watching the final U.S. Presidential Debate and the CNN commentary – you really can’t polish this turd – I needed a Pooh movie.

Having no personal equivalent of A.A. Milne’s classic tales, I chose instead to listen to an hour-long, four-part lecture about “The Pure Land in Nichiren Shu Buddhism.”

Seriously, this was a perfect Pooh movie.

Link to Youtube playlist
Link to YouTube playlist

The lecture is given by Rev. Kanto Tsukamoto at the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Temple in Dagenham, a suburb of London. (The first of the videos says the lecture was given in 2014 but it was only uploaded on YouTube between Oct. 15 and Oct. 18, 2016.) The videos are the creation of Choeizan Enkyoji, the Seattle Nichiren Buddhist Temple. (YouTube, Temple Website)

The first part of the movie offered a clear explanation of the fundamentals of Nichiren Shu doctrine, along with a very compelling explanation of why we practice both for personal merit and for the merit of others.

Of course, the bulk of the video covers the difference between the Pure Land of Amitābha Buddha and the Pure Land of Sakyamuni as taught by Nichiren Shonin.

The title of this post comes from the explanation of how one gets to the Pure Land after death. Followers of Amitābha Buddha believe one is reborn in a Pure Land far away in the West. This is called O-Jo.

The Lotus Sutra, in particular the 16th Chapter, teaches that there is no Pure Land separate from this Saha World.

The [perverted] people think:
“This world is in a great fire.
The end of the kalpa [of destruction] is coming.”
In reality this world of mine is peaceful.

For Nichiren followers, there is no difference between the pure land of Mount Sacred Eagle, where Sakyamuni preaches the Lotus Sutra, the spiritual land of Mount Sacred Eagle.

Although I always live here
With the perverted people
I disappear from their eyes
By my supernatural powers.

When they see me seemingly pass away,
And make offerings to my sariras,
And adore me, admire me,
And become devout, upright and gentle,
And wish to see me
With all their hearts
At the cost of their lives,
I reappear on Mt. Sacred Eagle
With my Samgha,
And say to them:
‘I always live here.
I shall never be extinct.
I show my extinction to you expediently
Although I never pass away.

Upon death, one is not “reborn” in a distant land. Instead, one passes through to the pure land of Mount Sacred Eagle. This is O-Kay.

The Gohonzon is the link between the real Mount Sacred Eagle and the spiritual Mount Sacred Eagle. It is our anchor. With our practice and study for ourselves and others we build a real pure land in this world.

If you are feeling anxious about things, this is a wonderful video to watch. We Bodhisattvas are stronger together.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 20, 2016

The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva: “The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: (1) secure the protection of the Buddhas, (2) plant the roots of virtue, (3) reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and (4) resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”

For us who aspire to this difficult practice of the Wonderful Dharma, the Buddha gives this guide in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. For us to have even heard of this sūtra in this life we must have already done these four things. In order to maintain this practice, we need to use the Buddha’s protection for the benefit of all beings, not just for our benefit alone. We need to nourish the virtuous seeds we have already planted, remain steady and confident on the path to enlightenment, and sustain our determination to maintain our respect for everyone.

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

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Day 18

Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Yesterday, I questioned the significance of the fact that Arhats, the Sravakas and the bhiksunis wouldn’t expound the Dharma in the Saha World. Even great Bodhisattvas Medicine-King and Great-­Eloquence only offered a grudging willingness to preach in the Saha World.

And today, we have the 80 billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahasattvas who had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dharanis.

Do not worry!
We will expound this sutra
In the dreadful, evil world
After your extinction.

Ignorant people will speak ill of us,
Abuse us, and threaten us
With swords or sticks.
But we will endure all this.

Some bhiksus in the evil world will be cunning.
They will be ready to flatter others.
Thinking that they have obtained what they have not,
Their minds will be filled with arrogance.

Some bhiksus will live in aranyas or retired places,
And wear patched pieces of cloth.
Thinking that they are practicing the true Way,
They will despise others.

Being attached to worldly profits,
They will expound the Dharma to men in white robes.
They will be respected by the people of the world
As the Arhats who have the six supernatural powers.

They will have evil thoughts.
They will always think of worldly things.
Even when they live in aranyas,
They will take pleasure in saying that we have faults.

They will say of us,
“Those bhiksus are greedy for worldly profits.
Therfore, they are expounding
The teachings of heretics.
They made that sutra by themselves
In order to deceive the people of the world.
They are expounding that sutra
Because they wish to make a name for themselves.”

In order to speak ill of us, in order to slander us
In the midst of the great multitude,
In order to say that we are evil,
They will say to kings, ministers and brahmanas,
And also to householders and other bhiksus,
“They have wrong views.
They are expounding
The teachings of heretics.”
But we will endure all this
Because we respect you.

They will despise us,
Saying to us [ironically],
“You are Buddhas.”
But we will endure all these despising words.

There will be many dreadful things
In the evil world of the kalpa of defilements.
Devils will enter the bodies [of those bhiksus]
And cause them to abuse and insult us.

Today, it occurred to me that this litany of evils these Bodhisattvas saw in the Saha World is exactly why the Buddha did not transfer the Dharma to them. Coming to this point over and over again, I have the luxury of remembering the future. These Bodhisattvas, unlike the uncountable ones waiting in the sky below this Saha World, do not understand that this is the Buddha’s pure land and only our defilements prevent us from seeing that.

That “luxury of remembering the future” is something to ponder as well.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 19, 2016

Excellent, excellent, Ajita! You asked me a very important question. All of you should concentrate your minds, wear the armor of endeavors, and be resolute. Now I will reveal, I will show, the wisdom of the Buddhas, their supernatural powers without hindrance, their dauntless powers like a lion’s, and their great power of bravery.

The Buddha makes this declaration to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita (Invincible) in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, innumerable Bodhisattvas spring up from underground and vow to the Buddha to keep the sūtra after his extinction. Maitreya, knowing the minds of many others who have come to hear the Buddha teach, asks about these Bodhisattvas, whom he has never seen before. This question from Maitreya then leads to the Buddha later giving his most difficult teaching in Chapter Sixteen. The Buddha’s declaration in this passage shows how important questioning is to our faith.

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

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Day 17

Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.

So I was reviewing Day 17, what I wrote last month and the month before and the month before that, and apparently I haven’t said a thing about Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, since January 2016. Go figure.

An important point is made.

We begin Chapter 13 with Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahasattva and Great-­Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahasattva, together with their 20,000 attendants who were also Bodhisattvas, answering the Buddha’s request at the end of Chapter 11 for people to vow to expound this sutra after his extinction:

World-Honored One, do not worry! We will keep, read, recite and expound this sutra after your extinction. The living beings in the evil world after [your extinction] will have less roots of good, more arrogance, more greed for offerings of worldly things, and more roots of evil. It will be difficult to teach them because they will go away from emancipation. But we will patiently read, recite, keep, expound and copy this sutra, and make various offerings to it. We will not spare even our lives [in doing all this].

The Daily Dharma from June 29, 2016, offers this perspective:

Medicine-King Bodhisattva, his attendants and other Bodhisattvas make this vow to the Buddha in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra. Once we awaken to our Bodhisattva nature and resolve to benefit all beings, we may still hold on to the belief that those beings should gratefully receive the teaching and and keep progressing towards enlightenment. We may even become discouraged in our practice of the Wonderful Dharma when these beings do not live up to our expectations. The vow of these great Bodhisattvas reminds us of how difficult is is for us ordinary beings to keep the Lotus Sūtra, and of the determination it takes to create benefit in the world.

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

Underline here our Bodhisattva nature and resolve to benefit all beings and then consider what 500 Arhats who already had been assured of their future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, who offered:

World-Honored One! We also vow to expound this sutra[, but we will expound it] in some other worlds [rather than in this Saha-World].

And then the 8,000 Sravakas, some of whom had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn, who also had been assured of their future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, who vowed:

World-Honored One! We also will expound this sutra in some other worlds because the people of this Saha-World have many evils. They are arrogant. They have few merits. They are angry, defiled, ready to flatter others, and insincere.

Finally, the bhiksunis who are re-assured of their future Buddhahood in this chapter vow:

World-Honored One! We also will expound this sutra in other worlds.

What does it say of the Arhats, the Sravakas and the bhiksunis that only the Bodhisattvas, grudging as they are, can see themselves even attempting to preach in this Saha World?

Waiting in the sky below the Saha-World is the answer to the Buddha’s question, but we’ll leave that for Day 19.

Physicians Good Medicine

Continuous Action

Quote

The lives of the Buddha and Nichiren were all about continuous action. All of the wisdom, all of the enlightenment they attained was transformed from theory into valuable lessons by the actions of those teachers. If they had lived without action and only taught theory, then we would be sorely pressed to manifest enlightenment ourselves. They are our examples and the proof it can be done.

Physician's Good Medicine

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 18, 2016

Truly, truly good men! I am peaceful. I am in good health. The living beings are ready to be saved. They do not fatigue me because I already taught them in their consecutive previous existences, and also because they have already honored the past Buddhas respectfully and planted the roots of good.

The Buddha makes this proclamation to the leaders of the Bodhisattvas from Underground in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. These Bodhisattvas appeared when the Buddha asked who would teach the Lotus Sūtra after the Buddha’s death, and asked about the Buddha’s health and whether those he was teaching could keep what he provided for them. The Buddha assures us not only of the certainty of our future enlightenment, but that for us to receive his teaching, there was an earlier time, which we may have forgotten, when we met him. This awareness of our future and our past helps us to see our place in the world and maintain our determination to benefit all beings.

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

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Day 16

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.

Last month, I focused on the Hotoge verses and the reason why they are embellished with the odd rhythmic reading.

Today, it’s time to get back to the explanation of the Stupa of Treasures and its sudden appearance.

Sakyamuni explains to Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva:

The perfect body of a Tathagata is in this stupa of treasures. A long time ago there was a world called Treasure-Purity at the distance of many thousands of billions of asamkhyas of worlds to the east [of this world]. In that world lived a Buddha called Many-Treasures. When he was yet practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas, he made a great vow: ‘If anyone expounds a sutra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in any of the worlds of the ten quarters after I become a Buddha and pass away, I will cause my stupa-mausoleum to spring up before him so that I may be able to prove the truthfulness of the sutra and say ‘excellent’ in praise of him because I wish to hear that sotra [directly from him].

He attained enlightenment[, and became a Buddha]. When he was about to pass away, he said to the bhisus in the presence of the great multitude of gods and men, ‘If you wish to make offerings to my perfect body after my extinction, erect a great stupa!’

If anyone expounds the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in any of the worlds of the ten quarters, that Buddha, by his supernatural powers and by the power of his vow, will cause the stupa of treasures enshrining his perfect body to spring up before the expounder of the sutra. Then he will praise [the expounder of the sutra], saying, ‘Excellent, excellent!’

Great-Eloquence! Now Many-Treasures Tathagata caused his stupa to spring up from underground in order to hear the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [directly from me]. Now he praised me, saying, ‘Excellent, excellent!’

Excellent, indeed.