Monthly Archives: December 2017

LS32, d21b, LS Introduction

The Deepest Desire of the Buddha

I am always thinking:
How can I cause all living beings
To enter the supreme way
And quickly become Buddhas?

These are the final words of the verses of eternity. The verses themselves are a summary of the entire chapter. These final words represent the deepest desire of the Buddha: his innermost heart of compassion. Ordinary people see the world as a defiled land, but the Buddha leads such people and saves them from the agonies of defilement, transforming their concept of reality as a lotus rises above the muddy water. And just as the Buddha’s lifespan is eternal, so also is his yearning to save all beings from sufferings. “I am always thinking” is his eternal wish. “The supreme way” is perfect enlightenment, and that means the same enlightenment which he himself enjoys—the enlightenment of a Buddha, which is to say, omniscience and its accompanying omnipotence. He concludes by desiring that all of us “quickly become Buddhas,” and attain this highest state for ourselves.

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

Physicians Good Medicine

Making Change

Quote

Attempting to implement change in someone else’s life is going to yield the least amount of improvement in your life. The place where you have the most leverage and effectiveness for making change lies within yourself.

Physician's Good Medicine

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 12, 2017

I see the [perverted] people sinking
In an ocean of suffering.
Therefore, I disappear from their eyes
And cause them to admire me.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. With the story of the wise physician in this chapter, the Buddha explains how he disappears from our view even though he is always present to us. The children in the story would not accept the remedy their father prepared for them to counteract the poison they had taken. Some of them hoped for another remedy, some believed the remedy would be worse than the poison. It was not until the father left and told them he would not return that the children realized the value of what they already had. When we take the Buddha for granted, as the children in the story took their father for granted, and ignore the path he has laid out for us, we lose sight of the Buddha. It is only when we realize we are lost that we look for a guide. When we bring the Buddha’s teachings to life, we find him everywhere.

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

LS32

Day 20

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month concluded the chapter, we start at the top of Day 20’s portion of Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to them in the presence of the great multitude of Bodhisattvas:

“Truly, truly good men! I am peaceful. l 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. As soon as they saw me and heard my teachings, they received my teachings by faith and entered into the wisdom of the Tathāgata, except those who had previously studied and practiced the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. Now I am causing [the followers of the Lesser Vehicle] to hear this sūtra and to enter into the wisdom of the Buddha.”

Thereupon the [four] great Bodhisattvas sang in gāthās:

Excellent, excellent, Great Hero!
World-Honored One!
The living beings are ready to be saved
Because in their previous existence
They already asked the [past] Buddhas
About their profound wisdom,
And having heard about it, understood it by faith.
We rejoice at seeing you.

Thereupon the World-Honored One praised the leading great Bodhisattvas, saying, “Excellent, excellent, good men! [l am glad that] you rejoice at seeing me.”

See Qualifications Necessary

LS32

Qualifications Necessary

It is important to note that the Bodhisattvas who sprang up from beneath the earth, who first appear in this chapter, are not recognized by anyone in the congregation, not even by Maitreya, who is destined to be our next Buddha. These great Bodhisattvas appear only in this sutra and not in any other. Only these Bodhisattvas, who sprang up from beneath the earth, have the qualifications necessary to spread the Lotus Sutra in the evil and degenerate World of Endurance. Later on, in Chapter Twenty-one, “Supernatural Powers of the Tathagata,” Sakyamuni will transmit the Lotus Sutra directly to them.

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 11, 2017

Great-Power-Obtainer! What do you think of this? The Never-Despising Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself. If I had not kept, read or recited this sūtra or expounded it to others in my previous existence, I should not have been able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi so quickly. Because I kept, read and recited this sūtra, and expounded it to others under those past Buddhas, I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi quickly.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Great-Power-Obtainer Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. The practice of Never-Despising Bodhisattva was to approach all beings and tell them, “I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why? Because you will be able to practice as a Bodhisattva and become a Buddha.” When the Buddha explains that Never-Despising Bodhisattva was one of his previous lives, he equates this respect for all beings with the practice of the Wonderful Dharma.

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

LS32

Day 19

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

Having last month considered the Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Topknot, we hear the merits of anyone who reads this sūtra.

This is the most honorable sūtra.
It is superior to all the other sūtras.
I kept it [in secret]
And refrained from expounding it.
Now is the time to do so.
Therefore, I expound it to you now.

Anyone who seeks
The enlightenment of the Buddha
And wishes to expound this sūtra
In peaceful ways after my extinction,
Should practice
These four sets of things.

Anyone who reads this sūtra
Will be free from grief,
Sorrow, disease or pain.
His complexion will be fair.
He will not be poor,
Humble or ugly.

All living beings
Will wish to see him
Just as they wish to see sages and saints.
Celestial pages will serve him.

He will not be struck with swords or sticks.
He will not be poisoned.
If anyone speaks ill of him,
The speaker’s mouth will be shut.
He will be able to go anywhere
As fearless as the lion king.
The light of his wisdom will be
As bright as that of the sun.

See Four Kinds of Peaceful Practices

LS32, d18b, d19b, LS Introduction

Four Kinds of Peaceful Practices

“Peaceful practices” designates ways to preach and spread the Sutra while keeping your body and mind relaxed and peaceful. The chapter discusses four kinds of peaceful practices: those of body, mouth, mind, and resolution (vows).

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

The Buddhist Prophet

The True Life

Quote

Neither is birth the beginning, nor death the end of life; the true life extends far beyond both of these commonly assumed limits. Things come and pass away, but truth abides; men are born and disappear, but life itself is imperishable. Buddhahood is neither a new acquisition nor a quality destined to destruction. The One who embodies the cosmic Truth, Buddha, the Tathagata, neither is born nor dies, but lives and works from eternity to eternity; his Buddhahood is primeval and his inspiration everlasting. How, then, can it be otherwise with any other beings, if only they realize this truth and live in full consciousness of it?

Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 10, 2017

Good men! I think that the Buddha, the World-Honored One, wishes to expound a great teaching, to send the rain of a great teaching, to blow the conch-shell horn of a great teaching, to beat the drum of a great teaching, and to explain the meaning of a great teaching.

Mañjuśrī declares this to Maitreya and all others gathered to hear the Buddha teach in Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha had just produced the light from between his eyebrows illuminating the worlds of the ten directions, a sight none but Mañjuśrī had experienced. The great teaching the Buddha was about to expound is the Lotus Sutra. This statement awakens our interest and shows us how to listen to this teaching, as if it were a great cooling rain or the loud call of a conch-shell or drum.

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