Monthly Archives: December 2018

Profound

Knowledge Points to the Place Where Truth Resides

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The significance of knowledge lies in its relation to objects as truth. According to Chih-i, with knowledge, truth can be manifested, for knowledge points to the place where truth resides. With the manifestation of truth, knowledge is entitled to be subtle. In view of the fact that they are complementary to each other as one entity, any one of these two categories is indispensable. Chih-i asserts:

“The ultimate principle [truth] is abstruse and profound, and it cannot be manifested without knowledge. [Although] knowledge is capable of knowing the place [where truth resides], it would not be merging without objects [as truth]. Since objects [as truth] are merging and subtle, knowledge is also entitled to be merging and subtle.” (Vol. 2, Page 132-133)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


LS32

Day 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Day 25 Full Text

Having last time met Never-Despising Bodhisattva, we meet the four kinds of devotees had impure minds.

“Some of the four kinds of devotees had impure minds. They got angry, spoke ill of him and abused him, saying, ‘Where did this ignorant bhikṣu come from? He says that he does not despise us and assures us that we will become Buddhas. We do not need such a false assurance of our future Buddhahood.’ Although he was abused like this for many years, he did not get angry. He always said to them, ‘You will become Buddhas.’

“When he said this, people would strike him with a stick, a piece of wood, a piece of tile or a stone. He would run away to a distance, and say in a loud voice from afar, ‘I do not despise you. You will become Buddhas.’ Because he always said this, he was called Never-Despising by the arrogant bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās and upāsikās.

The Daily Dharma from Aug. 25, 2018, offers this:

Although he was abused like this for many years, he did not get angry, He always said to them, ‘You will become Buddhas.’

The Buddha tells this story of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva did not read or recite sutras. His practice was simply to tell all those whom he encountered, “I respect you deeply. I do not despise you.” Despite his pure intentions, the deluded minds of those who heard him caused them to be angry with him, beat him, and chase him away. While he did not stand fast and endure their abuse, he did not lose his respect for them. This is an example for us who aspire to practice the Wonderful Dharma to show us how we can learn to treat all beings.

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

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

The Reality of Cause and Effect

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When people ask me about what it is like being a Buddha, or they ask me about some of the supernatural things in the sutras, I first have to remind them I am not a Buddha or enlightened, yet. But here is my understanding on this. If we take a look at the reality of cause and effect and if we know the true nature of causes and effects, then it is possible for a person to be able to discern many things in life. Science is based upon the principle of cause and effect, though those words are not used specifically. Because scientists know what will happen when a certain action is made they are able to predict the outcome. Now that may not sound too supernatural to us, but there are many things scientists do that seem like magic to me. Heck, my cell phone is magic, my computer certainly is magic, especially since it is simply a collection of ones and zeros.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 3, 2018

Ajita! Anyone who[, while he is staying outside the place of the expounding of the Dharma,] says to another person, ‘Let us go and hear the sūtra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma which is being expounded [in that place],’ and causes him to hear it even for a moment, in his next life by his merits, will be able to live with the Bodhisattvas who obtain dhāraṇīs.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Maitreya (whom he calls Ajita – Invincible) in Chapter Eighteen of the Lotus Sutra. The dhāraṇīs are promises made by Bodhisattvas to protect those who keep and practice the Lotus Sūtra. They are included in the sūtra so that we can use them to remind these Bodhisattvas, and ourselves, of the protection we enjoy from our practice. This protection is not just meant for us. It is for all beings. When we share the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma with others, we help them become aware of their potential to become enlightened.

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

original

A Reconception of the Empirical World

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Both T’ien-t’ai and Hua-yen [Flower Garland School, Kegon] can be seen as attempts to reconceive Indian Mahāyāna insights about the empty and dependent nature of the dharmas and express them in terms of Chinese intellectual categories such as principle (li) and phenomena (shih), essence (t’i) and function (Yung), or nature (hsing) and outward form (hsiang). This involved a significant shift away from the apophatic language of Indian Madhyamaka—which maintains, in its extreme wariness about the limitations of language, that truth can be verbally illuminated only by stating what it is not—to more kataphatic modes of expression. These new modes attempt neither to reimport into Buddhism notions of metaphysical essence nor to claim that there can be adequate verbal descriptions for truth, but to employ positive language in soteriologically effective ways. Moreover, since principle and phenomena are seen as nondual, and this nonduality is expressed in every particular form, the Huayen and T’ien-t’ai totalistic visions also entailed a reconception of the empirical world. No longer was it the product of delusion or a place of suffering to be escaped, but the very realm where truth is to be realized and liberation achieved. This reconception was critical to the sinification of Buddhism and exerted an immense impact on the subsequent development of Buddhism in East Asia. (Page 10)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Chih-i’s Objects as Truth

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In Chih-i’s discourse of Objects as truth, truth is elaborated in terms of various conceptions of truth. This means that Chih-i’s concern is not merely the issue of truth itself, but also how truth is conceived. This is because truth is objective reality, and the attainment of truth is associated with one’s subjective mind. Therefore, correctly presenting what truth is and addressing various conceptions of truth are equally vital.

The issue of truth itself is laid out by Chih-i in his elaboration of Objects as the Ten Suchnesses, as the Threefold Truth, and as the One Truth. The Ten Suchnesses describe concretely the characteristics of the Ultimate Truth. The Threefold Truth describes the three aspects that constitute the Ultimate Truth. The One Truth is synonymous with the Ultimate Truth, i.e., the One Truth is the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Truth is the One Truth, which conveys that true reality underlies all dharmas, and can include all categories of Objects as truth. (Vol. 2, Page 131)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


LS32

Day 24

Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 24 Full Text

Having last time considered the twelve hundred merit of the tongue, we repeat the twelve hundred merit of the tongue in gāthās.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they at will become
As delicious as nectar.

When they e pound the Dharma to the great multitude
And lead them
By telling them the stories of previous lives, parables, and similes
With their deep, pure and wonderful voices,
The hearers will rejoice
And make excellent offerings to them.

All gods, dragons,
Yakṣas and asuras
Will come together
And hear the Dharma respectfully.

Anyone who expounds the Dharma, if he wishes,
Will be able to cause the living beings
Of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds
To hear his wonderful voice.

The wheel-turning-kings of great and small [countries],
Who have each one thousand children,
Will come with their children and attendants,
And join their hands together respectfully to hear the Dharma.

Gods, dragons, yakṣas,
Raksasas and pisacakas
Also will come joyfully,
And make offerings to him.

The Brahman-Heavenly-King,
King Mara, Freedom [God],
Great-Freedom [God],
And the other gods also will come to him.

The Buddhas and their disciples who hear
The voice of the expounder of the Dharma,
Will think of him, protect him,
And sometimes appear before him.

The Daily Dharma from Jan. 27, 2018, offers this:

Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they eat will become
As delicious as nectar.

The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. With food and drink it is easy to see how different people will find the same food either delicious or disgusting. Our experience and beliefs shape what we are comfortable putting into our bodies, and whether we do so for the sake of our health or the pleasure that comes from experiencing their flavor. But when we find that something with good flavor is bad for our health, or vice versa, we can change our tastes. This is another example of how the Lotus Sūtra teaches us how to live in the world. We learn to embrace situations we once found frightening or intolerable. We increase our capacity with our focus on benefiting others. As a wise teacher once said, we learn to enjoy problems the way we enjoy ice cream.

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

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 2, 2018

All this time I have been living in this Sahā-World, and teaching [the living beings of this world] by expounding the Dharma to them. I also have been leading and benefiting the living beings of one hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds outside this world.

The Buddha gives this explanation to all those gathered to hear him in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In the parable of the physician and his children, the Buddha explains how if he were to reveal himself explicitly to those still focused on their own suffering, they would take him for granted and not believe the Wonderful Dharma he provides for him. It is by learning to recognize the Buddha living with us here today, who is helping us all awaken from our delusions, and taking on his work of benefiting all beings, that we lose our suffering and attachment, and realize the potential for enlightenment that is at the core of our true being.

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

original

The Culmination of the Buddha’s Teachings

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The Lotus Sūtra is central to the T’ien-t’ai/Tendai tradition, which regards it as the culmination of the Buddha’s teachings, preached during the last eight years of his life. Some Mahāyāna sūtras deny the validity of the two “lesser vehicles” (Hinayāna)—the vehicle of the Śrāvaka or voicehearer, culminating in the state of the arhat and, at life’s end, in final nirväqa, and the vehicle of the Pratyeka-buddha or independently enlightened “private Buddha,” also culminating at death in final nirvāṇa—and supplant both with the bodhisattva vehicle, which leads to supreme Buddhahood. The Lotus, however, while maintaining the superiority of the bodhisattva vehicle, subsumes all three within the “one Buddha vehicle.” “Within the Buddha lands of the ten directions,” it says, “there is the Dharma of only One Vehicle. There are not two, nor are there yet three. ” The sūtra acknowledges that the Buddha did indeed teach three paths or vehicles, yet this threefold division of the Dharma was apparent, not real; it represents the Buddha’s skillful means (upāya, hōben) set forth in response to the varying capacities of his followers. His true intention was to lead all beings to the supreme enlightenment represented by the one Buddha vehicle. (Page 12)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


original, Books

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism

orig_enlightenment_bookcoverFrom Amazon

Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan’s medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is. Seen in its true aspect, every activity of daily life—eating, sleeping, even one’s deluded thinking—is the Buddha’s conduct. Emerging from within the powerful Tendai School, ideas of original enlightenment were appropriated by a number of Buddhist traditions and influenced nascent theories about the kami (local deities) as well as medieval aesthetics and the literary and performing arts.

Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japan’s medieval period.

Jacqueline Stone’s groundbreaking study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional, and social contexts, illuminating its importance to the maintenance of traditions of lineage and the secret transmission of knowledge that characterized several medieval Japanese elite culture. It sheds new light on interpretive strategies employed in pre-modern Japanese Buddhist texts, an area that hitherto has received a little attention. Through these and other lines of investigation, Stone problematizes entrenched notions of “corruption” in the medieval Buddhist establishment. Using the examples of Tendai and Nichiren Buddhism and their interactions throughout the medieval period, she calls into question both overly facile distinctions between “old” and “new” Buddhism and the long-standing scholarly assumptions that have perpetuated them. This study marks a significant contribution to ongoing debates over definitions of Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185–1333), long regarded as a formative period in Japanese religion and culture. Stone argues that “original enlightenment thought” represents a substantial rethinking of Buddhist enlightenment that cuts across the distinction between “old” and “new” institutions and was particularly characteristic of the medieval period.

Book Quotes

 
Book List

For a discussion of Nichiren’s writings and the question of authenticity, see this Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1999 article by Sueki Fumihiko, Nichiren’s Problematic Works.