As I think about the various parables I tend to divide them up into three different kinds. One type of parable teaches a new concept in an illustrative way, the primary one of this category is the Burning House, and Simile of Herbs. Another category consists of parables which highlight the discovery of something that was always present; a realization, if you will. In this category I would put The Rich Man and the Poor Son, Gem in the Robe, Gem in the Top Knot, and perhaps the Physician and his Ill Children. The last category deals with difficulty of practice and in this category I would put the Magic City.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraMonthly Archives: February 2017
Daily Dharma – Feb. 21, 2017
They will be able to recognize all the sounds and voices inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, although they have not yet obtained heavenly ears. Even when they recognize all these various sounds and voices, their organ of hearing will not be destroyed.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. As we shed our delusions and see the world more for what it is, we begin to see and understand things not visible or comprehensible to those still mired in their suffering and attachment. Knowing the suffering we have left behind, we may be lured into abandoning this world and those in it. In this chapter, the Buddha shows that all of the sense organs we have in this life, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought, all of these can be used either to increase our delusion or bring us towards awakening. The Buddha reached enlightenment in this world, and so do we.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 14
Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.
Having last month covered the prediction of future Buddhahood for Ananda, we repeat what was said in gathas:
Now I announce to the Samgha:
Ananda, the keeper of the Dharma,
Will make offerings to Buddhas,
And then attain perfect enlightenment.He will be called
Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power-King.
His world will be pure, and called
Always-Raising-Banner-Of-Victory.He will teach as many Bodhisattvas
As there are sands in the River Ganges.
He will be exceedingly powerful and virtuous.
His fame will extend over the worlds of the ten quarters.The duration of his life will be immeasurable
Because he has compassion towards all living beings.
His right teachings will be preserved for twice as long as his life;
The counterfeit of them, for twice as long as his right teachings.Under him, as many living beings
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Will obtain the seeds
Of the enlightenment of the Buddha.
The importance of Ananda is underscored by his position as one of the 10 great disciples.
“Voice-hearers” (Sanskrit, shravaka) refers to those monastic disciples who heard the voice of the Buddha in person. From the standpoint of Mahayana Buddhism, the voice-hearers are Hinayana disciples who listened and followed the teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. … Traditionally ten major disciples are listed. They are representative of the different qualities that were valued by Hinayana Buddhism:
Śāriputra, foremost in wisdom
Mahakashyapa, foremost in ascetic practices
Ananda, foremost in hearing the sutras
Subhuti, foremost in understanding emptiness
Purna, foremost in expounding the Dharma
Maudgalyayana, foremost in supernatural powers
Katyayana, foremost in explaining the Dharma
Aniruddha, foremost in clairvoyance (the divine eye)
Upali, foremost in observing the precepts
Rahula, foremost in inconspicuous practice
The Buddha’s Deep Understanding of Cause and Effect
The doctrine of Dependent Origination is the key insight upon which the entire teaching of the Buddha rests, because it describes the Buddha’s deep understanding of cause and effect.
As we have seen, the night the Buddha attained awakening, he reflected upon his own life and past lives; upon the lives, past lives, and future destinies of all other beings; and then upon causality itself. He observed, beginning with himself, how all beings forge their destinies through their own actions. He also saw how all phenomena arise and pass away as part of a network of mutually supporting causes and conditions. The Buddha shared this insight with others in many different forms, the best known being the Twelve-fold Chain of Dependent Origination.
Lotus SeedsDaily Dharma – Feb. 20, 2017
Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sūtra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings.
The Buddha gives these instructions in Chapter Twenty-Two of the Lotus Sūtra. In this transmission, the Buddha bestows his highest teaching not just on those gathered 2500 years ago. He gives it to all of us who hear and keep his teaching today. When the Buddha revealed his true nature as existing through all time and space, he assured us that he is always teaching us, and that the Lotus Sūtra is the vehicle by which he comes to us. By giving us this teaching, he does not lose it. In the same way, when we benefit other beings, we should not be afraid of losing anything, other than our delusion and attachments.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 13
Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.
Having last month covered how Sakyamuni’s disciples are performing the Bodhisattva practices secretly, we hear of Purna’s past efforts.
Under hundreds of thousands of millions of past Buddhas,
This Purna practiced strenuously what he should do.
He expounded and protected
The teachings of those Buddhas.In order to obtain unsurpassed wisdom,
He became the most excellent disciple
Of those Buddhas.
He was learned and wise.
He expounded the Dharma without fear,
And made his listeners rejoice.
He was never tired
Of helping those Buddhas do their work.He obtained great supernatural powers
And the four kinds of unhindered eloquence.
Seeing who was clever, and who was dull,
He always expounded the Pure Dharma.He expounded the dharma of the Great Vehicle
To hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings,
And caused them to dwell in the Dharma
So that the worlds of those Buddhas might be purified.
To underline this idea of causing listeners to dwell in the Dharma so that the worlds of those Buddhas might be purified, I offer this quote from Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1:
Sometimes uncovering or showing a small part of something enables us to see the potential of something even greater. Protecting something that is small or encouraging a fledgling effort can result in unimaginable outcomes. As our lives are slowly freed from illusions and then our eyes purified we are able to see the truth in the sutra, the truth in our lives and become Buddhas.
It might be eye opening for you to actually make a list of improvements in your life, both big and small, since you began practicing Buddhism.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1
Daily Dharma – Feb. 19, 2017
Expound it
To those who make efforts,
Who have compassion towards others,
And who do not spare their lives!
The Buddha sings these verses to all those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. These are instructions for us to know who will benefit from the Wonderful Dharma. It is difficult for those who are absorbed in their own suffering to realize the benefit of helping others. It is difficult for those who are distracted by their preoccupations, or who do not believe they can become enlightened, to maintain their efforts to lead all beings to enlightenment. These insights also help us keep our minds open to the Buddha’s teachings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 12
Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month covered the teachings of those sramaneras Bodhisattvas, we come to the Buddha’s intent and the setup before the Parable of the Magic City.
Bhiksus! I will collect Bodhisattvas and Sravakas and expound this sutra to them when I realize that the time of my Nirvana is drawing near, that the living beings have become pure in heart, that they can understand the truth of the Void by firm faith, and that they have already entered deep into dhyana-concentration. No one in the world can attain [true] extinction by the two vehicles. [True] extinction can be attained only by the One Buddha-Vehicle.
Bhiksus, know this! I can enter skillfully deep into the natures of all living beings. Because I saw that they wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and that they were deeply attached to the five desires, I expounded the teaching of Nirvana to them. When they heard that teaching, they received it by faith.
The Daily Dharma from March 17, 2016, offers this:
Bhikṣus, know this! I can enter skillfully deep into the natures of all living beings. Because I saw that they wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and that they were deeply attached to the five desires, I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa to them. When they heard that teaching, they received it by faith.
The Buddha gives this explanation to the Bhikṣus (monks and nuns) gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. As difficult as it is to hear the Buddha’s highest teaching, he would not give it to us unless we were ready to receive it. Still, we who would receive it must set aside his earlier teachings as a means to our personal happiness, and see them as preparations to learn how to benefit all beings. Our faith in the Buddha is the confidence that we will become as enlightened as he is, and that he is helping all of us on the path to that enlightenment.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Truth
In Mahayana Buddhism, Dharma means the Buddha’s teachings, and also indicates the fundamental cosmic or universal law. This law, however, does not mean a law established by legislative and social duties, but indicates a natural law of life, just as in the law of gravity or other natural phenomena. It is the pulse of life that permeates the entire universe and, in turn, is identical to the truth: the doctrine and the essence of all the Buddha’s wisdom, insight and subsequent teachings.
Odaimoku: The Significance Of Chanting Namu Myoho Renge KyoDaily Dharma – Feb. 18, 2017
Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One! Now I will give dhāraṇī-spells to the expounder of the Dharma in order to protect him.”
This promise to the Buddha from Medicine-King Bodhisattva comes in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sutra. The dhāraṇīs are given in a language that nobody understands any more. But this does not reduce their effectiveness. In the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha declared that his wisdom cannot be reached by understanding alone. There is another, nonverbal aspect of his teaching that we must comprehend. The dhāraṇīs not only give us reassurance that beings we cannot comprehend are helping us to become enlightened, they also remind us to look for the unspoken teachings that are part of the Buddha Dharma.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com