With regard to the Three Tracks in the Perfect Teaching, Chih-i stresses that they all complement each other, and that the three are integrated in forming a single Buddha-vehicle. This means that the Track of Real Nature denotes constant abiding of the Buddha-nature as the Fundamental Cause of Buddhahood. Based on this true reality—real nature there arouses the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom, which is both quiescent and luminous, and which conveys the Supreme Truth of Emptiness. Chih-i points out that after the bodhisattva of the Perfect Teaching attained Buddhahood, the state the Buddha abides in is not completely still and extinctive but contains the function of saving beings that rises spontaneously without any intentional action. This means that the Buddha abides at quiescence while constantly illuminating. This illumination refers to the spontaneous action of leading sentient beings to achieve universal salvation, which is the ultimate goal of the bodhisattva pursuing the attainment of Buddhahood. Self-liberation does not render the end of function, but only means that the Buddha’s action of saving beings is highly natural, skillful and expedient according to causes and conditions. The Track of Accomplishment concerns the tathāgatagarbha that contains all practices and immeasurable dharma-doors in the Dharma realm. (Vol. 2, Page 245-246)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismMonthly Archives: December 2018
Day 17
Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
Having last month greeted the daughter of the dragon king, we hear Śāriputra’s objection to the daughter of the dragon-king becoming a Buddha.
Thereupon Śāriputra said to the daughter of the dragon-king:
“You think that you will be able to attain unsurpassed enlightenment [and become a Buddha] before long. This is difficult to believe because the body of a woman is too defiled to be a recipient of the teachings of the Buddha. How can you attain unsurpassed Bodhi? The enlightenment of the Buddha is far off. It can be attained only by those who perform the [Bodhisattva] practices with strenuous efforts for innumerable kalpas. A woman has five impossibilities. She cannot become 1. the Brahman-Heavenly-King, 2. King Śakra, 3. King Mara, 4. a wheel-turning-holy-king, and 5. a Buddha. How can it be that you, being a woman, will become a Buddha, quickly [or not]?”
Ryusho Jeffus Shonin in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra has this to say about prejudice:
In the example of the dragon girl, it is worthy of considering how prejudices can enter our way of thinking and influence us in negative ways. Because a woman bleeds, which is the result of giving birth, she was considered impure, and yet giving birth, bringing new life into the world is one of the purest things. I once heard someone say that women bleed giving birth and men bleed killing. Perhaps we should give this some thought. Nichiren wrote a response to a woman believer saying that because a woman bleeds she is considered impure by society, but in the eyes of the Buddha that distinction does not apply.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraThe Oneness of the Buddha-Nature and Its Inexhaustible Manifestations
The Sacred Title of the Lotus had established this standard for oral utterance, and now [Nichiren] proposed to furnish the same for spiritual introspection through visualization, because the vast universe, with all its beings, was nothing but an extension, an outward manifestation of everyone’s Buddha-nature. The visualized standard was made for the purpose of impressing one’s soul with the true and everlasting nature of its own identity with the eternal Buddha and that of every other existence. The Supreme Being meant a perfect union of the individual and the world, the oneness of the Buddha-nature and its inexhaustible manifestations.
History of Japanese ReligionDaily Dharma – Dec. 27, 2018
He will have correct memory and the powers of merits and virtues. He will not be troubled by the three poisons. He will not be troubled by jealousy, arrogance from selfishness, arrogance from self-assumed attainment of enlightenment, or arrogance from self-assumed acquisition of virtues. He will want little, know contentment, and practice just as you do.
The Buddha gives this description of the person who keeps and practices the Lotus Sūtra to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. Powers of merits are what we have when we see things clearly. The three poisons are greed, anger and ignorance. The practice of Universal-Sage is to support and encourage everyone who takes on this difficult practice of the Wonderful Dharma. This is another Bodhisattva who gives us an example of how we can live in this world of conflict.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Absolute Monism And Dualistic Relativism
Tamura [Yoshirō], like Shimaji [Daitō], characterizes Tendai original enlightenment thought as “absolute affirmation of reality” and the “climax” of Buddhist philosophy, a synthesis of Tendai, Kegon, esoteric, and Zen elements that carried to the farthest possible point the denial of any separation between ordinary worldlings and the Buddha’s enlightened reality. Tamura himself terms original enlightenment thought a teaching of “absolute nonduality” (zettaifuni) or “absolute monism” (zettai ichtgen ron), a term now commonly used in Japanese scholarly writing in reference to Tendai hongaku thought. By “absolute monism,” Tamura means not a single entity or essence underlying all phenomena, but that the realm of the Buddha’s enlightenment (i.e., the realm of principle, or ri) and the conventional realm of changing phenomena (ji) are thoroughly conflated. This identification is on the one hand ontological, consistent with classic Madhyamaka teachings about the emptiness of the dharmas and the nonduality of ultimate and conventional truth, as expressed in the phrase “saṃsāra is nirvāṇa.” But in Tendai hongaku thought, the identification holds on the existential level as well: the deluded thoughts of ordinary beings as such are the Buddha’s enlightenment. In Tamura’s terms, both the “existential aspect” and “illusional aspect” of reality are “absolutely affirmed. ” Tamura writes:
Tendai original enlightenment thought … sought to go to the utmost heights, and also to the foundation, in breaking through every sort of relativistic conception. In having reached the ultimate of nondual absolutism, it may be said to encompass the highest level of philosophical principle. However, for the same reason, it gave rise to problems in the realm of ethics and practice. As we have seen, from the late Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō and Muromachi periods, in response to the secularization of society in general, the absolute monism of orig inal enlightenment thought became mere affirmation of reality. The secular realm and secular affairs, even the defilements, were regarded as true. …
While showing respect for the intellectual heights of Tendai original enlightenment thought, in order to revive the dynamism of practice and salvation in the real world, it may be said that the founders of the new Kamakura Buddhism descended from the peak of nondual absolutism to reassert in some way a dualistic relativism. (Page 85-86)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismChih-i’s Three Tracks
Generally speaking, the Track of Real Nature embodies the True Reality that always exists and cannot be destroyed. The Track of the Illumination of Wisdom embodies wisdom that can penetrate truth. The Track of Accomplishment embodies the practice of pursuing liberation. (Vol. 2, Page 242)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 16
Day 16 concludes Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, and completes the Fourth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month watched Śākyamuni Buddha’s replicas take their seats in the expanded purified world, we witness Śākyamuni open the Stupa of Treasures.
Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha, having seen that all the Buddhas of his replicas had already arrived and sat on the lion-like seats, and also having heard that they had told their attendants of their wish to see the stūpa of treasures opened, rose from his seat, and went up to the sky. All the four kinds of devotees stood up, joined their hands together towards him, and looked up at him with all their hearts. Now he opened the door of the stūpa of the seven treasures with the fingers of his right hand. The opening of the door made a sound as large as that of the removal of the bolt and lock of the gate of a great city. At that instant all the congregation saw Many Treasures Tathāgata sitting with his perfect and undestroyed body on the lion-like seat in the stūpa of treasures as if he had been sitting in dhyāna-concentration. They also heard him say:
“Excellent, excellent! You, Śākyamuni Buddha, have joyfully expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. I have come to hear this sūtra [directly from you].”
Having seen that the Buddha, who had passed away many thousands of billions of kalpas before, had said this, the four kinds of devotees praised him, saying, “We have never seen [such a Buddha as] you before.” They strewed heaps of jeweled flowers of heaven to Many-Treasures Buddha and also to Śākyamuni Buddha.
The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra offers this explanation of this scene:
In [Chapter Eleven, Beholding the Stupa of Treasures], the cosmos is so sublimely depicted that we feel as if we are seeing a drama in space. This majestic picture is a symbolic representation of the ideal world of the Lotus Sutra.
Introduction to the Lotus SutraDaily Dharma – Dec. 26, 2018
Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.
The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. Given the trauma we have suffered in our previous existences, especially the calamity of death, it should be no surprise that our memories of those lives is dim at best. It can be enough to know that beneficial actions bring benefit and harmful actions bring harm, even if we do not know the specific causes of our condition. Our finding and practicing the Wonderful Dharma in this life is an indication of our great generosity in previous lives, and our capacity to continue practicing that same generosity.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Standing In Opposition To Hongaku Thought
Before moving on to the third theory, we may note one further strand of scholarly argument that, while neither sectarian nor theological, has worked to reinforce the idea of the new Kamakura Buddhism as a reaction against original enlightenment thought. This is the scholarship of historians of the kenmitsu taisei, the system of exoteric doctrine and esoteric ritual that characterized the established schools of Buddhism in the medieval period and served ideologically to support the ruling parties. Kuroda Toshio, who originated this approach, wrote that “kenmitsu ideology in its most archetypical form is found in the Tendai doctrine known as hongaku shiso.” Sato Hiroo has argued that nondual hongaku ideas equating this world with the pure land were employed to legitimize established systems of rule. Taira Masayuki sees hongaku thought as contributing both to aristocratic monopolizing of high clerical offices and to a climate in which strict observance of monastic precepts was devalued:
Novices who were scions of the nobility, having received the secret transmission of arcane rites, were easily able to lord it over the most senior monks accomplished in difficult and austere practices. This was because of original enlightenment thought. The discourse of absolute affirmation found in original enlightenment thought readily translated into an immediate affirmation of personal desires, becoming an excuse for precept-breaking and the excesses of aristocratic monks. It was further employed to rationalize the attack and razing of rival temple shrine complexes and became the intellectual basis for the activities of warrior monks (akusō).
Being concerned primarily with the institutional and ideological aspects of medieval religion, kenmitsu taisei historians have not focused on the issue of what continuities and discontinuities obtain between Tendai hongaku thought and the teachings of the new Kamakura Buddhist leaders. However, in that they have treated hongaku thought as an ideology of the dominant kenmitsu Buddhism, and the itan-ha or marginal heterodoxies as resisting kenmitsu authority, their work has contributed to the picture of the two as standing in opposition. (Page 84-85)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismTruth, Knowledge, and Practice
One may inquire: in what sense does the Threefold Track represent all dharmas? This should be viewed with regard to the three Subtleties (Objects as Truth, Knowledge, and Practice). In Chih-i’s system of understanding Buddhism, these three categories of Subtlety are most significant in outlining the elements required to strive for liberation. These three Subtleties are inseparable: truth as an object has to be perceived in attaining liberation; knowledge is required in order to penetrate truth; and actual practice is the means to attaining knowledge in reaching truth. Chih-i considers truth as substance (T’i), knowledge as gist (Tsung), and practice as function (Yung). All three of these elements are prerequisite for reaching liberation, and the Three Tracks are the representation of these three elements, given that the three Subtleties already signify the characteristics of the Three Tracks respectively. The Track of Real Nature, which concerns the true reality, represents the Subtlety of Objects; the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom, which concerns the knowledge of penetrating the true reality, represents the Subtlety of Knowledge; and the Track of Accomplishment, which concerns the practice of striving to obtain knowledge in penetrating reality, represents the Subtlety of Practice. Therefore, the first three Subtleties are considered by Chih-i to be the cause of attaining Buddhahood, and the Three Tracks the effect of Buddhahood. Although the three Subtleties are the cause, and the Three Tracks are the effect, the cause and effect are contained in each other: cause leads to effect, and effect arises from cause. Fundamentally, the cause and effect are one entity, and both are delineated by the Threefold Track.
What, then, is the distinction between the cause and effect that are named and presented separately? First, Chih-i points out, the three Subtleties that are taken as the Three Tracks can depict the cause of attaining enlightenment, and the One Buddha-vehicle that is formed by the Threefold Track is the effect of Buddhahood. Second, the three Subtleties Objects, Knowledge, and Practice are presented individually in order to describe the process of reaching enlightenment. The Threefold Track is discussed together as one unity in order to portray the effect as the One Buddha-vehicle. Third, the three Subtleties and Threefold Track illustrate respectively the beginning and end of one’s practice of reaching liberation. The three Subtleties are the Threefold Track in terms of virtue of nature (Hsing-te San-kui), and the Threefold Track is the Threefold Track in terms of virtue of cultivation (Hsiu-te San-kui). (Vol. 2, Page 241-242)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism