Nichiren Shonin’s powerful motive to give relief to the people of Japan came from a simple and pure heart. “I would like to save suffering people and make the country peaceful.” This may seem like a simple and common wish – one which everyone has. The major difference is, Nichiren Shonin’s compassion was not common. In those days, the country was full of suffering people. The Shogunate did not have any effective policy for the relief of people’s suffering. Also, the Buddhism at that time taught people about, and particularly emphasized, happiness after death and did not encourage people with regard to their present real lives. Nichiren Shonin had questions about such Buddhism, and sought to find the true answer in Buddhism. In fact, most of his congregation were poor people and low-class samurai. This shows his purpose as giving relief to suffering people well. In order to achieve this, the Lotus Sutra, which had never been taught to ordinary people before, was awoken by Nichiren Shonin.
Summer WritingsMonthly Archives: September 2018
Daily Dharma – Sept. 5, 2018
You, the World-Honored One, are our leader.
You give peace to gods and men.
Hearing that you assured us of our future Buddhahood,
We are relieved and satisfied.
These verses are sung by Maha-Prajāpatī Bhikṣuṇī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣuṇī, and their attendants in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our lives we have many desires, some of which we may not recognize. We believe that when these desires are met, only then can we be happy and peaceful. At the foundation of these desires is the desire for liberation. These women recognize that with this desire, just knowing that it will be fulfilled is enough to bring joy.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Abiding in the Traces and Employing the Origin
The function “Abiding in the Traces and Employing the Origin” (Chuchi Yung-pen) signifies the Subtlety of the Original Life-span and the Subtlety of the Original Retinues. This is because by abiding in the Traces, the Buddha is able to manifest birth and death numerous times, and this life-death is only possible because it is derived from the Original Life-span of the eternal Buddha. Moreover, the Traces are represented by the disciples of the Three Vehicles, and these disciples are actually Original Retinues. Therefore, this function is linked to the meanings of Original Life-span and Original Retinues. (Page 121)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismFive explanations for Causes of Happiness and Unhappiness
At another time, when Shakyamuni was teaching in a town named Devadaha, the issue of karma was being discussed. In those times, in India, there were five explanations for the causes of present happiness and unhappiness:
- Everything, happiness and unhappiness, is determined by karma from previous existences.
- All fate is determined by the will of an all-powerful deity who created and controls the world.
- Human fate is determined by the good or bad ways in which the elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—constituting the fleshly body are combined.
- The fate of the entire life of an individual is determined by the social class and family into which he was born.
- Human fate does not depend on any of these definite causes but is determined, from minute to minute, by completely accidental occurrences.
From the Buddhist standpoint, all of these explanations either are deterministic and fatalistic or rely purely on chance and therefore deny the significance and value of education and training and fail to take into account the importance of free will in efforts to determine and develop fate. For the sake of a correct interpretation of cosmic workings, Buddhism proposed doing away with these explanations and offered in their place the Law of Causation and the Four Noble Truths as accurate explanations of the world and of human life. (Page 127)
The Beginnings of BuddhismDay 31
Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.
Having last month heard the two sons tell their mother that their father now understands the Dharma by faith, we witness the preparations for going to see the Buddha.
“Thereupon the eighty-four thousand people in the harem of King Wonderful-Adornment became able to keep the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
“Pure-Eyes Bodhisattva had already practiced the samādhi for the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma for a long time. Pure-Store Bodhisattva had already practiced the samādhi for the release from evil regions in order to release all living beings from evil regions for many hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas.
“Now the queen practiced the samādhi for the assembly of Buddhas, and understood the treasury of their hidden core. The two sons led their father by these expedients and caused him to understand the teachings of the Buddha by faith and to wish [to act according to those teachings].
“Thereupon King Wonderful-Adornment, Queen Pure-Virtue, and their two sons came to that Buddha. The king was accompanied by his ministers and attendants; the queen, by her ladies and attendants; and their two sons, by forty-two thousand men. They worshiped the feet of that Buddha with their heads, walked around the Buddha three times, retired, and stood to one side.
Something is this tale of two sons who lead their father with expedients and cause him to understand the teachings of the Buddha by faith and to wish to act according to those teachings resonates with me in ways that other parts of the Lotus Sūtra do not. Something to ponder while chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.
The True Joy of Buddhas
Because of the promise of the Buddha we can approach our difficulties with joy knowing that through our faith and our practice in the Lotus Sutra we are certain to accomplish the necessary changes to enable us to become Buddhas. With the joy of the certainty of becoming Buddhas we can live our lives free of fear and worry. With the burden of fear and worry lifted we can experience the true joy of Buddhas deep down in the core of our life.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraDaily Dharma – Sept. 4, 2018
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
Substance and Gist
As the direct use of sign, analogy is also applied by Chih-i to clarify certain issues. For example, to reveal the meaning of the Substance as the Ultimate Truth and its relationship with the Gist as the cause and effect of Buddhahood, different parts of a house are taken as an analogy:
“As with pillars and roof beams, houses are neither beams nor pillars but empty space inside a house. Pillars and beams analogize Cause and Effect; neither beams nor pillars analogize the Ultimate Truth. The Ultimate Truth is the Substance but not beams and pillars. If a house has no empty space, it cannot contain anything. If Cause and Effect have no Ultimate Truth, they cannot be founded.”
This analogy distinguishes different functions the Substance and the Gist exert. Yet, the significance of both is indispensable. The Substance is what the Gist can be founded upon, and the Gist is what can display the Substance. (Page 116)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismMental Motivation
Shakyamuni said he was willing to engage in debate if Upali was truly serious. Upali said that he was. Shakyamuni then proceeded to prove by means of many actual examples that good or bad mental motivation is more important than actual actions and words. Moreover, he proved this from the Jainist standpoint, calling upon examples taken from Jainist teachings.
In one instance, Shakyamuni countered Upali’s insistence that the physical act takes precedence in importance over the mental motivation in the following way. He asked what would happen to a Jainist who, out of respect for the minute living creatures in cool water, refused to drink it, even when suffering from a high fever, and consequently died. Upali said that attachment to the mind at the time of death would result in the man’s being born again in a heaven for those who remain attached to mind. In other words, mental attachment and not the actual act of drinking or not drinking cool water produced the effect.
Jainism strictly forbids the taking of life, even that of the small creatures living in water. But, should a person unwittingly step in a puddle of water on the road and kill some of these creatures, according to Jainism his sin is not grave, since he was unaware of what he was doing. In adopting this standpoint, Jainism tacitly puts greater emphasis on mental motivation than on physical result and thus contradicts itself.
Upali found it impossible to reply to these demonstrations of Jainist inconsistencies and at once became a believer in Buddhism. (Page 125-126)
The Beginnings of BuddhismDay 30
Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs
Having last month concluded Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs, we begin again with Medicine-King Bodhisattva’s question.
Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva rose front his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and said to him:
“World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read, recite, understand or copy the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?”
The Buddha said to him:
“Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?”
“Very many, World-Honored One!”
The Buddha said: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite· even a single gāthā of four lines of this sūtra, understand the meanings of it or act according to it.”
Rev. Ryusho Jeffus’ Lecture on the Lotus Sutra offers this observation:
We learn of the many protections that come to us naturally by merely upholding this sutra in the Dharanis Chapter. Dharanis are special incantations that were given by various beings solely for the protection of those who practice the Dharma. These protections and merits do not come to us merely because we read of them but are in a sense activated because our practice calls forth the changes in our lives that otherwise would remain dormant.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra