If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sūtra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) makes this vow to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sutra. Out of his gratitude for the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma, Universal Sage promises to encourage anyone who may be struggling in their practice of the Buddha Dharma. This is a reminder of how no matter what obstacles or difficulties we may encounter, great beings are helping us and we are in harmony with things as they truly are.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Having last month covered Maitreya’s reaction to the ray of light illuminating the worlds to the east in prose, we repeat in gathas.
Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva, wishing to repeat what he had said, asked him in gathas:
Mañjuśrī!
Why is the Leading Teacher
Emitting a great ray of light
From the white curl between his eyebrows?
[The gods] rained mandarava-flowers
And manjuaka-flowers.
A breeze carrying the fragrance of candana
Is delighting the multitude.
Because of this, the ground has become
Beautiful and pure;
And this world quaked
In the six ways.
The four kinds of devotees
Are joyful.
They are happier than ever
In body and mind.
The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.
I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest Heaven
Of each of those worlds,
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.
I’m pondering, as I always do at this point, what it would be like to “see the living beings of the six regions, extending down to the Avici Hell and up to the Highest Heaven” and to know “the region to which each living being is to go, The good or evil karmas he is doing, And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.”
One question that may come up for some as they read [the parable of the burning house] and think of the Buddha as the old man is why was the house in such bad shape, especially since the man in the story was wealthy. If we think of the house as representing the universe and all the things that make up the universe and we realize that nothing avoids the process of decay then even though the house is now rundown and falling to pieces, at one time it was a very nice dwelling. Everything in the universe is subject to the change and eventual decay. The old man could not stop it from occurring; the Buddha cannot stop it from occurring. But through our Buddhist practice, the practice of the single vehicle taught in the Lotus Sutra we can exit the cycle of birth and rebirth and thereby escape the four sufferings.
Listen! World-Voice-Perceiver practiced
According to the conditions of the places [of salvation].
His vow to save [people] is as deep as the sea.
You cannot fathom it even for kalpas.
The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Kuan Yin, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. As the embodiment of Compassion, World-Voice perceiver demonstrates the boundlessness of our ability to benefit others. We can often feel overwhelmed by the problems in the world, and believe that we are not capable of doing everything that is necessary to lead beings out of their delusions. This chapter reminds us that we are not working alone, and that by depending on wisdom rather than power, we learn to see the wonders that surround us.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month covered Sakyamuni’s instructions to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we come to the prediction of those who keep, read and recite the sutra.
“Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sutra [in the later five hundred years] after [my extinction], will not be attached to clothing, bedding, food or drink, or any other thing for living. What he wishes will not remain unfulfilled. He will be able to obtain the rewards of his merits in his present life. Those who abuse him, saying, ‘You are perverted. You are doing this for nothing,’ will be reborn blind in their successive lives in retribution for their sin. Those who make offerings to rum and praise him, will be able to obtain rewards in their present life. Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sutra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives. Therefore, Universal-Sage! When you see the keeper of this sutra in the distance, you should rise from your seat, go to him, receive him, and respect him just as you respect me.
The Buddha makes this promise to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. When we who are living in this latter age of Degeneration keep and practice this Sūtra, we change the focus of our own existence. We lose our dependence on the things we thought we needed to make us happy, and thus learn to appreciate them for what they are. We set aside our fear of losing these things and gain the courage to handle situations we previously thought were impossible. We stop focusing on what we need to live and find gratitude for what sustains our lives.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Most people find that pursuing lofty goals such as achieving wisdom and living in accord with the Middle WaY are easier with some structure and community. These are provided by the Three Treasures in which all Buddhists take refuge: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
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
Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.
Having last month met Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, King Wonderful-Adornment learns of his future Buddhahood.
“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to the four kinds of devotees, ‘Do you see this King Wonderful-Adornment standing before me with his hands joined together, or not? This king will become a bhiksu under me, strenuously study and practice the various ways to the enlightenment of the Buddha, and then become a Buddha called Sala-Tree-King in a world called Great-Light in a kalpa called Great-Height-King. Sala-Tree-King Buddha will be accompanied by innumerable Bodhisattvas and Sravakas. The ground of his world will be even. [King Wonderful-Adornment) will have these merits.’
“Thereupon the king abdicated from the throne in favor of his younger brother, renounced the world, and with his wife, two sons, and attendants, practiced the Way under that Buddha. After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samadhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’
In the story of King Wonderful-Adornment in Chapter 27, the two sons who vow to practice Buddhism and then vow to convert their father do so because they are able to manifest the benefits of their Buddhist practice. The truth of the teaching enables them to change their lives, giving them the joy of life and the capacity to turn around and save their father. Their faith and seeking spirit led them to Buddhism and their benefit enables them to share it. Lecture on the Lotus Sutra
Attended the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church service on April 9. In a addition to the regular service, 35-day prayers were said for a member of one of the church’s founding families. This was also the one-year anniversary for my wife’s mother’s death and memorial prayers were said for her. My wife and son both attended.
During Ven. Kenjo Igarashi‘s sermon, he told the story of a modern-day priest in Japan who was publically bemoaning that his temple didn’t have enough members to make it financially viable. Financial viability has been something of a personal concern for me as a member of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church because a bunch of church maintenance needs have all come due at the same time.
Rev. Igarashi said he read a newspaper article by the priest. Priests in Japan, he explained, have a difficult time, especially in the rural areas where young church members have moved to cities leaving fewer people to care for the church. Rev. Igarashi admitted he couldn’t relate to the troubles of a minister’s life in Japan because he has been preaching in America “for a very long time.” (He left Japan for training in Los Angeles in the 1970s, moved to San Francisco for a period and took over the duties in Sacramento in 1986.)
The priest in Japan was bemoaning that with fewer than a thousand members it is very hard to maintain the church. In reading this, Rev. Igarashi thought about our church. “How many people support the church? Only 20 or 30 people do. So if we were in Japan, it would already [have closed.]”
Rev. Igarashi pointed out that the priest in Japan was not of the Nichiren faith. The priest was finding it very hard to manage with only 100 members, surviving on memorial and funeral services. The priest said he needed a minimum of 300 members.
“This idea is completely different for me because church business is not like ordinary business, about making money,” Rev. Igarashi said. “Most important is faith. We have Nichiren Buddhism faith. Only Nichiren Buddhism faith support temples, not money. If only money supports this church [it would have already closed.] But everyone who attends this church has firm faith and that is why faith maintains our church.”
For Rev. Igarashi, the plight of the priest in Japan is completely foreign.
“Nichiren Shonin gave me this place for my practicing, the chanting and preaching, everything. Nichiren Shonin gave me this place. Therefore, I have to support this temple until I retire. But if I retire I would worry about this church. Some minister told me, ‘Rev. Igarashi do not worry. If you retire you do not care about your church.’ But I’m not [like that] because Nichiren Shonin gave me this place for my practicing.”
Rev. Igarashi underlined that he considers himself a member of the church as well.
Bottom line: “Only religious piety supports our church and keeps up our church and spread Nichiren Buddhism and try to save other people not by ourselves. If you understand the meaning of Nichiren Buddhism, you have to try to teach other people and save their spirit too.”
The effort to save other people, to act beyond one’s one happiness, is the true Nichiren Buddhism, he said.
“If members want to practice Nichiren Buddhism and try to study Nichiren Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra, then we can keep our church,” he said. “Only religious piety support our church, not only money.”
It cannot be that the good man or woman who obtained merits [by understanding my longevity by faith even at a moment’s thought] falters in walking the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”
The Buddha makes this declaration to the Bodhisattva Maitreya in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. We all have experiences that take a long time either to understand or to realize what affect they have had on our lives. We may even forget the experience and not be able to connect it with a present situation. This is also true with the experience of hearing the Buddha teach. We hear him declare that he is ever-present, always leading us to enlightenment. Then the memory of that teaching becomes obscured by our daily pursuits and attachments. By reminding ourselves and each other of this highest teaching, we regain our right minds and walk confidently on the path to the Buddha’s own enlightenment (Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi).
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
