Monthly Archives: June 2017

LS32

Day 19

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

Having last month witnessed the arrival of Bodhisattvas from Underground, we conclude this portion of the chapter with the introduction of the leaders and their greeting to Śākyamuni.

Those Bodhisattvas had four leaders: 1. Superior-Practice, 2. Limitless-Practice, 3. Pure-Practice, and 4. Steadily-Established-Practice. These four [great] Bodhisattvas were the highest leaders [of those Bodhisattvas]. In the presence of the great multitude, they joined their hands together towards Śākyamuni Buddha, looked up at him, and inquired after him saying:

“World-Honored One! Are you in good health? Are you peaceful or not? Are the living beings, whom you are to save, ready to receive your teachings or not? Do they not fatigue you?’

Thereupon the four great Bodhisattvas sang in gāthās:

World-Honored One, are you peaceful?
Are you in good health?
Are you not tired
With teaching the living beings?
Are they ready
To receive your teaching,
Or are they not?
Do they not fatigue you?

Rev. Ryusho Jeffus offers this observation in Physicians Good Medicine:

The Bodhisattvas who arose in Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, did not go to the Buddha and say, “What will you give us?” They went to the Buddha and asked him how he was, if he was in good health, and if he was well enough to teach. They did not sit and wait for things to come to them. They vowed to spread the Lotus Sutra in this Sahā world. They promised the Buddha that they would work tirelessly to teach others no matter the difficulty they faced.
Physician's Good Medicine

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

The Potential in Yourself

Quote

Even if you are not sure of the truth or the reality of Buddhahood inherent in your life, if you chant Odaimoku, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, if you carry out the practice and study of the Lotus Sutra, it is possible to awaken within you that spark which will allow you to see the reality of your own enlightened nature. Just as the arhats thought it not possible and so they chose not to try, and just as this son in the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son did not in the beginning think he was worthy of staying in the house, eventually through the compassion of the Buddha and the compassion of the father each of those people were able to elevate their life conditions to enable them to see a potential in themselves they had not seen before.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 1, 2017

Evil people in the future will doubt the One Vehicle
When they hear it from a Buddha.
They will not believe or receive it.
They will violate the Dharma, and fall into the evil regions.

The Buddha declares these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren wrote that while some people think hell is below the earth, it is really contained in our own bodies and minds. If we cannot believe or accept the Dharma the Buddha teaches us, then we are not seeing the world for what it is. We are creating worlds of our own separate from the Buddha’s world. We create worlds of greed, anger and ignorance, in which it is even more difficult to hear the Dharma. But even in these difficult worlds, the Buddha exists and works to benefit us. If we remember to look for him, he will show us the way out.

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