The two Vidyarajas represented on the Great Mandala – Achalanatha [Fudo Myo-o (Japanese) Immovable Lord Knowledge King] and Ragaraja [Aizen Myo-o (Japanese) Desire King Knowledge King], have also been viewed as the representatives of the teachings that “birth and death are themselves nirvana” (Japanese, shoji soku nehan) and “the afflictions are themselves enlightenment” (Japanese, bonno soku bodai) respectively. The first principle means that nirvana does not exist in another realm but is actually the true reality of this realm, the world of birth and death. The second principle means that enlightenment is not the eradication of the afflictions, like greed and anger, but their liberation and transformation, via the wholesome energy of the enlightened mind, into positive qualities like devotion and discernment.
Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the GohonzonMonthly Archives: October 2018
A Burial Service
Held a burial service of sorts for my wife’s parents, Richard (April 28 2018) and Mary (April 15, 2016) Buchin. My wife, Mary, and her brother, Robert, each read poems. For my part, I lit two sticks of incense and inserted them in the dirt in front of the cremains. Before reciting the Jiga-Ge verses, I read this excerpt from Nichiren’s Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I,
Pages 56-57:
“As you read and recite the ‘jiga-ge’ verse, you produce 510 golden characters. Each of these characters transforms itself to be the sun, which in turn changes to Śākyamuni Buddha, who emits the rays of bright light shining through the earth, the three evil realms (hell, realm of hungry spirits and that of beasts), the Hell of Incessant Suffering, and to all the directions in the north, south, east, and west. They shine upward to the ‘Heaven of neither Thought nor Non-Thought’ at the top of the realm of non-form looking everywhere for the souls of the departed.”
After completing the Jiga-Ge verses, I chanted Namu-Myoho-Renge Kyo three times.
My wife’s mother was Japanese. She meet and married Richard Buchin in Tokyo in 1950. He was in the Army; she worked as a translator. Neither were Buddhists or particularly religious. Still, one of my favorite aspect of my Buddhist practice is the opportunity to transfer merit to the departed.
I have a traditional memorial tablet for my wife’s mother and a somewhat nontraditional memorial for her father.
Daily Dharma – Oct. 26, 2018
The great multitude, having seen the two Tathāgatas sitting cross-legged on the lion-like seat in the stūpa of the seven treasures, thought, “The seat of the Buddhas is too high. Tathāgata! Raise us up by your supernatural powers so that we may be able to be with you in the sky!”
This description comes from Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. Many-Treasures Buddha has arrived where the Buddha was teaching so that he could endorse this Wonderful Dharma. He invited the Buddha to join him in an enormous stūpa tower hanging in the sky. When the Buddha raises up those gathered to hear him teach, he puts them all on the same level as himself and all the other Buddhas. He shows them that they too have the capacity to hear his teachings and put them into practice. Nichiren depicted this “ceremony in the air” in the Omandala Gohonzon and advised us to use this as the focus of our practice. When we put ourselves into this great multitude we listen for the Buddha teaching and realize the benefit we create in this world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Ultimate Truth of Oneness
[T]he meaning of the subtlety (Miao-i) is concluded by Chih-i as signifying the single reality of the teaching of the Buddha. This is to say that the teaching of the Buddha concerns the Ultimate Truth of Oneness:
- Oneness of principle (Li-i) in terms of the Ten Dharma-realms (that the truth the Buddha intends to convey is one).
- Oneness of teaching (Chiao-i) in terms of the five flavors (that all teachings of the Buddha contain the same goal of leading living beings to attain Buddhahood).
- Oneness of practice (Hsing-i) in terms of contemplating mind (that all practices aim at attaining truth).
- Oneness of person (Jen-i) in terms of the six identities that various transformations of the Buddha (manifested in different levels of attainment) are ultimately one the eternal Buddha, and that all living beings will be able to attain Buddhahood. (Vol. 2, Page 27)
Zaisho
When human beings are born, they shoulder the karma they have created in previous lives, and live their lives under the influence of that karma. Karma is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism, as is the cycle of rebirth. Essentially, karma means action, effect and the activity of being reborn. Put simply, there are two types of karma: good and bad. Bad karma is called “Zaisho.” Most of the time, when people mention karma, they are usually referring to bad karma or Zaisho.
Summer WritingsDaily Dharma – Oct. 25, 2018
When they come to him
With good intent
In order to hear
About the enlightenment of the Buddha,
He should expound the Dharma to them
Without fear,
But should not wish to receive
Anything from them.
The Buddha makes this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. In our zeal to practice this Wonderful Dharma we may come to expect that because this is such a wonderful teaching, we deserve to be rewarded for providing it to others. With this expectation, we then lose our focus on using the Dharma to benefit others and instead use it to benefit ourselves. When we show how to give freely, without expectations, we embody generosity, the same generosity the Buddha himself demonstrated when he provided the teaching to us.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Subtle Lotus
The three aspects of “subtle” are completely possessed by the Lotus Sūtra. In contradistinction to the views of Kuang-chai, who only assigns “fine” to the “present”, Chih-i argues that the Buddhist scriptures of the “past” contain both “fine” and “coarse” in terms of the cause and effect of Buddhahood. He goes through the teaching of the Buddha in the five periods that correspond with the five dairy flavors, and classifies the causes and effects that are contained in the teaching of the five periods into coarse or subtle. For Chih-i, the uniqueness of the present Lotus Sūtra as the ghee flavor (T’i-hu-ching) that is expounded in the fifth period is that it contains no coarse elements. The Lotus Sūtra presents only one kind of cause and effect of Buddhahood, which is the representation of a single unified entity. This one cause and effect of Buddhahood as the essential teaching of the Buddha is defined by Chih-i as “all-embracing in substance” (T’ikuang), “superior in position” (Wei-kao), and “eternal in function” (Yung-ch’ang). The substance of this essential teaching is all embracing, because it refers to the Ultimate Truth that permeates everywhere. The position of this essential teaching is superior because it refers to the Buddhahood that occurred in an incalculable past in the Origin. The function of this essential teaching is long because it refers to the Buddha’s activities in the Traces that can benefit sentient beings in the three periods of time, due to the fact that the Traces are derived from the Origin in an incalculable past. (Vol. 2, Page 66)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismNature Practice
Of the five practices of a Bodhisattva – saint practice, Brama practice, nature practice, child practice, and sickness practice – Nature practice is being aware of the true reality of things, as well as the beauty and wonder of nature. This is a state of perfect mindfulness being, as if at one with all of nature, which is the actual truth of reality. There is no real distinction between self and environment. … It is our false perception of reality that says this world is one of suffering and prevents us from realizing that in fact this world is the pure land of the Buddha.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraDaily Dharma – Oct. 24, 2018
They also will be able to locate the Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas by smelling their bodies from afar. Even when they recognize all this by smell, their organ of smell will not be destroyed or put out of order. If they wish, they will be able to tell others of the differences [of those scents] because they remember them without fallacy.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. Our sense of smell is often unconscious. We associate smells with places, experiences or even people that we like or dislike. These smells can even cause an emotional reaction by causing us to relive a situation associated with that smell. In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha teaches that our everyday experiences are no different from enlightenment, that his great wisdom is not about how to escape from this world. It is about how to use the senses and abilities with which we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Three Aspects of “Subtle”
The three aspects of “subtle” are illustrated in terms of the effect of Buddhahood. From the three perspectives of the effect of Buddhahood, the “vastness of substance” refers to an all-embracing nature of the substance, because this substance “permeates everywhere and is inclusive of everything in the universe. The “superiority of position” refers to the immeasurable length of time in the past when the Buddha had attained Buddhahood. The “length of function” refers to the Traces (activities of the historical Buddha) that are manifested by the eternal Buddha from the Origin (the moment the Buddha initially attained enlightenment in an incalculable past) (Ts’ung-pen Ch’uichi), that benefit sentient beings in the three periods of time in terms of past, present, and future. (Vol. 2, Page 66)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism