Sakyamuni indicates the path to true happiness by first pointing out that suffering in this world surely exists. Then in the last verses of Chapter 3 he gives the remedy.
I am the father of this world, the best of the sages. All living beings are my children. They are deeply attached to the pleasures of the world. They lack wisdom. The triple world is not peaceful. It is like the burning house. It is full of sufferings. It is dreadful. There are always the sufferings of birth, old age, disease, and death. They are like flames raging endlessly. I have already left the burning house of the triple world. I am tranquil and peaceful in a bower in the forest. This triple world is my property. All living beings in it are my children. There are many sufferings in this world. Only I can save all living beings.
It is based on this passage that Nichiren formulated his doctrine of the three virtues of the Buddha: he is our master, our teacher, and our parent.
[O]ne must not deplore the real world because of the degradation and disorder. Don’t think about a next unknown world, even heaven, because what is definite is that we must live in this sensuous real world now. We should see this world as it is, and make more effort to change it into the ideal world, the “Buddha’s World.” Even if we don’t achieve this during our lifetimes, after death we will enter into the Buddha world automatically.
No, no, I will not say any more.
My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.
If arrogant people hear me,
They will not respect or believe me.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. This was his response the first time Śāriputra asked to receive the Buddha’s highest teaching. The Buddha knew we must be prepared for his wisdom. We must discern clearly the difference between what we know and what we do not know. Because all things are impermanent, the truths we cling to may no longer apply. The ignorance and confusion at the root of our suffering will disappear as we set aside what is no longer true and gain wisdom.
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Having last month heard in gāthās Śāriputra’s understanding that the Buddha expounds the Dharma according to the capacities of all living beings, we hear Śāriputra’s realization.
I once was attached to wrong views,
And became a teacher of the aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.
You expounded to me the teaching of Nirvāṇa,
And removed my wrong views because you understood me.
I gave up all those wrong views,
And attained the truth that nothing is substantial.
At that time I thought
That I had attained extinction.’
But now I know
That the extinction I attained is not the true one.
When I become a Buddha in the future,
I shall be adorned with the thirty-two marks,
And respected
By gods, men, yakṣas, and dragons.
Only then I shall be able to say
That I have eliminated all [illusions].
In the midst of the great multitude,
You said to me, “You will become a Buddha.”
Hearing this truthful voice,
All my doubts are gone.
Sariputra was the first among the Ten Great Disciples and the numerous other “hearers” and arhats who were personally assured by Sakyamuni of future Buddhahood. The congregation rejoiced to see that Sariputra was assured of his future Buddhahood, took off their outer robes, and offered them to the Buddha. (The monks, who had practically no possessions, were offering their only “luxury.” Wealthy followers made more costly offerings.) They venerated the Buddha and exalted him, saying, “The Buddha first turned the wheel of the law at Varanasi a long time ago. Now he turns the wheel of the unsurpassed and greatest law.”
Thinking about ourselves and the Simile of the Herbs, if we say we are Buddhist but have no practice or don’t follow the precepts we are like a plant with no stem or tree without a trunk. It won’t be possible for us to support our faith and wisdom without the connection the stem provides. So too our practice, our chanting Odaimoku, is the connection that allows our faith and our wisdom to grow. Our faith harmoniously supports our practice and wisdom. You could say that study is our mind, which is the branches holding the leaves or wisdom of our lives. Our manifestation of enlightenment is dependent upon our faith, our practice, and our study. Without all three we cannot effectively maintain the kind of life that is capable of manifesting our innate Buddha potential.
Having sung this gāthā, Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! You do not change, do you?’
This description of the life of Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva comes from Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In a previous existence, this Bodhisattva had given up his body and his life for the sake of teaching the Wonderful Dharma. He was then reborn into a world in which the Buddha he served previously was still alive and benefitting all beings. Recognizing this unchanging aspect of the Buddha despite his changing appearances helps us see into our own capacity for enlightenment.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 4 finishes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month concluded Chapter 2, Expedients, we return to the start of Day 4’s portion.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Some bhikṣus and bhikṣunīs
Were arrogant.
Some upāsakās were self-conceited.
Some upāsikās were unfaithful.
Those four kinds of devotees
Were five thousand in number.
They could not see their own faults.
They could not observe all the precepts.
They were reluctant to heal their own wounds.
Those people of little wisdom are gone.
They were the dregs of this congregation.
They were driven away by my powers and virtues.
They had too few merits and virtues
To receive the Dharma.
Now there are only sincere people here.
All twigs and leaves are gone.
[W]ords function only if commonly understood within a given society. If they are clearly understood, they bear objective meanings. This objectivity, however, is not absolute. It depends on conventional practices mutually agreed upon within a particular society. Something acceptable or commonly understood within one society may be neither acceptable nor understood in another society. Words, by themselves, cannot express the truth in full. If someone wants to expound the truth in words, his explanation will naturally have the characteristic of an expedient. The truth of enlightenment is beyond all our normal experience. There are no words to describe it. Therefore it can be expressed only partially, by expedients. Moreover, each expedient can be presented only in a limited form and on a case-by-case basis. (What makes good sense to one person may make no sense at all to somebody else.)
Emptiness is a way of pointing to the ungraspable nature of reality. It is not a denial or existence or being, but is a way of seeing things in accord with the Middle Way.
