Monthly Archives: December 2018

buddhaseed

Ichinen Sanzen of Ji

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Diagram 1BEnlightenment means awakening to the truth of Ichinen Sanzen and realizing a great life transcending the limits of time and space. Ichinen Sanzen is the wisdom of the Buddha’s enlightenment and the circumstances obtained with His enlightenment. Ichinen Sanzen of Ri is awakening to Ichinen Sanzen as the Buddha’s enlightenment through meditation or mental practice, and the enhancement of one’s own wisdom.

In contrast, our own lives are connected with the Buddha’s life through faith and the Odaimoku. If one can imagine connecting a pipe between the Buddha’s life and ours, Ichinen Sanzen as the Buddha’s wisdom and circumstance of His enlightenment flows naturally into our lives and becomes our own wisdom. We receive Ichinen Sanzen from the Buddha through our chanting of the Odaimoku. This is Ichinen Sanzen of Ji.

Buddha Seed: Understanding the Odaimoku

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 19, 2018

I know the Way. I have opened the Way. I will expound the Way. Gods, men and asuras! Come and hear the Dharma!

The Buddha makes this declaration at the beginning of Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. If anyone besides the Buddha had said this, we would accuse them of arrogance: pretending to know what they do not. The Buddha does not separate himself from us. Because he knows we can become as enlightened as he is, he does not place himself as superior. He also knows that unless we hear him, he cannot help us to become enlightened. To accept this help means taking responsibility for our progress on the path. We cannot continue alone but we must make our own effort.

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

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The Distinction Between Ri And Ji

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Among the large corpus of writings traditionally attributed to Nichiren (1222-1282) are many that deal with original enlightenment thought. In 1926, when Shimaji published “Nihon ko Tendai kenkyū no hitsuyō o ronzu,” it was generally accepted both inside and outside Nichiren Shū that Nichiren had taught the doctrine of original enlightenment. Some difference of opinion existed as to whether he stood closer to the doctrinal position of the Eshin or the Danna school, but the influence of medieval Tendai on his thinking was virtually unquestioned.

Nonetheless, within Nichiren Shū, scholars had for some time been engaged in attempting to establish the existence of clear differences between medieval Tendai hongaku thought and the hongaku thought of Nichiren, making use of the distinction between ri, or “principle,” and ji, meaning “phenomena” or “concrete actuality.” Over and above their importance to East Asian Buddhism generally, these categories held a time-honored place in the Nichiren tradition, having been used by Nichiren himself to distinguish between the “contemplation of the mind” (kanjin) set forth by the Chinese T’ien-t’ai founder Chih-i (538- 597) and his own form of practice. Where Chih-i’s form of meditative discipline was that of “principle,” or introspective contemplation to perceive the true aspect of reality in one’s own mind, Nichiren’s was that of “actuality,” or the chanting of the daimoku, the title of the Lotus Sūtra, said to embody the reality of the Buddha’s enlightenment and the seed of Buddhahood. Nichiren’s usage reflects the strong influence of esoteric Buddhism, in which ri refers to formless truth that is contemplated inwardly, and ji, to its expression in outwardly manifest practices involving concrete forms. (Page 67-68)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Positions Of The Four Teachings

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Chih-i’s argumentation of the arising of different positions demonstrates an ascending order of the positions of the Four Teachings. Each position functions as the step for the later position to arise. The later position aroused is based on the previous position to further server delusions and realize truth. Among various positions, positions of the Tripitaka and Common Teachings are concerned with emptiness as the Absolute Truth. As these two positions cannot transcend the truth of emptiness, they can only originate wholesomeness in terms of the facts and principle within the three realms and destroy evil in terms of the facts and principle within the three realms. Positions of the Separate and Perfect Teachings advance to be concerned with the Middle Way that embraces both the truth of emptiness and the provisional existence. Thus, they transcend the three realms, originate the wholesomeness in terms of the facts and principle beyond the three realms, and destroy evil in terms of the facts and principle beyond the three realms. Apparently, positions of each of the Four Teachings are closely connected: the previous position leads to the later position, and such a progress enables one to eventually conceive the principle of the Middle Way. Consequently, position of the Perfect Teaching is confirmed to be the ultimate position that eradicates fundamental ignorance and enables one to attain Buddhahood. This is Chih-i’s dialectic approach in highlighting the supremacy of the position of the Perfect Teaching while confirming the indispensable value of various tentative positions of other three teachings. According to Chih-i’s view, tentative and ultimate are fundamentally the same entity: without the tentative, the ultimate cannot be manifested; without the ultimate, the tentative loses its value of existence. (Vol. 2, Page 226-227)

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


LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month begun The Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son in gāthās, we consider the expedients the Rich Man used to lure his frightened son to his house.

From his lion-like seat,
The rich man saw the poor son in the distance,
And recognized him as his son.
But he did not tell this to the others.

He immediately dispatched a messenger
To chase, catch, and bring him back.
The poor son cried out with fright,
And fell to the ground in agony, thinking:
“He caught me. I shall be killed.
What use was it coming here
For food and clothing?”

The rich man thought:
“He is ignorant, narrow-minded, and mean.
If I tell him that I am his father,
He will not believe me.”

He thought of an expedient.
He called
Some squint-eyed, short, ugly, powerless and virtueless men,
And said to them:
“Go and tell him:
‘You will be employed
To clear away dirt and dust.
You can get a double day’s pay.”‘

Hearing this from them,
The poor son came joyfully with them.
He cleared away dirt and dust,
And cleaned the buildings.

The rich man saw him from the window.
He thought:
“He is ignorant.
He willingly does mean work.”
Thereupon the rich man
Put on old and dirty clothes,
Picked up a dirt-utensil,
And walked towards his son.
With this expedient he came to his son,
And told him to work on, saying:
“I will pay you more.
You can use twice as much oil for your feet.
You can take food and drink as you like.
You can use more matting to warm yourself with.”

Sometimes he chided him, saying:
“Work hard!”
At other times he coaxed him, saying:
“I will treat you as my son.”

The Introduction of the Lotus Sūtra offers this explanation of Presenting The Truth In Stages:

[T]he son improved his mental attitude by stages. As Great Master Chih-i put it, the parable illustrates how Sakyamuni presented the truth in stages, giving us (1) the Garland Sutra [Avatamsaka-sutra, wherein the Buddha’s enlightenment is seen as too dazzling for most people to understand], (2) the Agama sutras of the Lesser Vehicle, wherein we enter the path of labor and discipline, (3) expanded sutras according to people’s capacities [Vaipulya], (4) the Wisdom sutras [Prajna-paramita], and finally (5) the Lotus Sutra, which makes us all children and heirs of the Buddha. Buddhism as a whole consists of these five stages of teachings. It could be said that the son’s fainting dead away upon first seeing his wealthy father suggests the ignorance of the “hearers,” who, according to the Garland Sutra, were unable to appreciate this highest and most difficult teaching among the five.

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

Lotus Path

Seeing Our Lives as Buddhas and Our Land as the Buddha’s Realm

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I have frequently remarked that it would be nice to see a movie version of the stupa that arises from the ground and the emergence of the Bodhisattvas from underground. I think it could be a truly epic production, and certainly would be epic in its message. But we do not have to wait for some creative person to take on the task. It isn’t necessary to depend on someone else to generate the visuals or the music. We can see that play out any day we choose if we awaken to the reality of it in our present lives. When we chant Odaimoku, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, we can begin to see our lives, and our environment in new ways. We begin to recreate our own emergence from the dirt of suffering and rise up to bow before the Buddha and greet him. We see our lives as Buddhas and our land as the Buddha’s realm. When we see all this then we can show it to others.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 18, 2018

It is useless to stack up a pile of treasures in your storehouse if you are in poor health. Therefore the value of a healthy body is more important than treasures in the storehouse. At the same time, however, a healthy body means nothing if your mind is not pure. This is why we can say that our most precious treasure is our mind itself. Upon reading this letter, please try to accumulate the treasure of your mind.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his “Emperor Shushun” Letter (Sushun Tennō Gosho) addressed to his disciple Shijō Kingo. We can become so focused on acquiring material resources to meet the needs of our bodies, that we neglect to care for our health. A sick man in a mansion cannot be happy. Nichiren points out that even when we have physical health, if our minds are clouded by delusion, we cannot be happy either. The practice of the Wonderful Dharma can bring great physical and material benefits. But more importantly, this practice helps us prepare our minds to appreciate what we have and use it for the benefit of all beings.

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

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The Moral Danger In An Originally Inherent Tathāgata

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Although Shimaji characterized original enlightenment thought as the “climax” of Buddhist philosophy in Japan and the “matrix” of the new Kamakura Buddhism, he perceived a moral danger in an idea that affirmed all activities of life as precisely the activities of the originally inherent Tathāgata. Tendai thought concerning an inherently enlightened Buddha, Shimaji said, had proceeded in two major directions: “One took form as the bright Kamakura Buddhism that purified original enlightenment thought, while the other sank to a naturalistic, corrupt thought and brought about the deterioration of the Buddhism of Mt. Hiei.” Elsewhere using “original enlightenment thought” in a very broad sense to encompass all the immanentalist forms of Buddhism that had developed in East Asia—Shimaji suggested that the notion of all things as inherently enlightened had encouraged an incorporation of non-Buddhist elements that inevitably brought about the destruction of Buddhism. In the case of Japan, he said, this process had fortunately been halted at the critical moment by the emergence of the new Kamakura movements, which “were able to remove the danger that inevitably accompanies original enlightenment thought, purify and actualize it, skillfully harmonizing it with the idea that enlightenment is acquired.” Scattered throughout Shimaji’s writings are indications that, despite his conviction of their philosophical indebtedness to Tendai hongaku thought, he considered the Kamakura thinkers superior in the areas of practice and ethics. In the case of Nichiren, for example, while judging that “the content of his doctrine scarcely differs from medieval Tendai thought,” Shimaji wrote that Nichiren had brought the vitality of faith to a medieval Tendai that had not transcended philosophical conceptualizing and introduced national concerns to an original enlightenment doctrine that had hitherto been concerned purely with individual salvation. (Page 64-65)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Chih-i’s Herbs

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Chih-i gives an overview of different levels of positions in terms of their coarseness or subtlety. Among the three herbal grasses and two trees, the four are coarse, except the big tree that can be considered as subtle. However, the position of the big tree is coarse as well, compared with the position of the Perfect Teaching, because the door of the former entails expedient means, and the door of the latter is straightforward without any expedient means. Therefore, only the position of the Perfect Teaching is subtle. With regard to the position of the inferior grass of human and heavenly vehicle, Chih-i states that because of the defilement of the four destinies, this vehicle stays within the three realms of transmigration without moving and outgoing. With regard to the position of the intermediate grass of the Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha), Chih-i confirms that it can move in and out (e.g. transcend the three realms) by severing defilements within the three realms. Nevertheless, the knowledge of the Two Vehicles only concerns emptiness, which does not exhaust the nature of truth, and what they pursue is only for self-liberation, which does not benefit others. As for the position of the superior grass of the bodhisattva of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, Chih-i comments that though this bodhisattva practices the Six Perfections by means of helping others with kindness and compassion, this position is still coarse as his goal is to extinguish forms, e.g. cannot identify emptiness with the provisional existence. With regard to the position of the small tree, Chih-i illustrates that by perceiving emptiness within dharmas, one’s knowledge of entering emptiness is skillful, but this type of knowledge functions to eliminate false views and wrong attitudes within the three realms, which cannot manage to sever delusions beyond the three realms. Thus, this position is coarse. With regard to the position of the big tree of the Separate Teaching and that of the Perfect Teaching, Chih-i asserts that both positions practice the contemplation of the Middle Way, whereby the knowledge of the Middle Way functions to destroy ignorance beyond the three realms. Therefore, both positions are subtle. Nevertheless, to make further distinction, Chih-i points out that the Separate Teaching enters truth through the door of expedience, e.g. by means of going through immeasurable practices before reaching the Middle Way. Furthermore, its knowledge of the Middle Way does not enable one to perceive all dharmas as an integrated whole, since all dharmas are viewed as separate. Thus, the ignorance the bodhisattva of the Separate Teaching destroys is not so penetrating and complete as that in the Perfect Teaching. Compared with the Perfect Teaching, Chih-i regards the door of the Separate Teaching as unskillful (e.g. winding and roundabout) and its position as coarse. On the other hand, Chih-i claims that the bodhisattva of the Perfect Teaching penetrates the principle of the Middle Way and understands that all flavors and fragrance of the phenomenal world are nothing else but the manifestation of the Middle Way. One’s knowledge of the Middle Way is perfect and integrated starting from the initial practice of the Perfect Teaching. One’s every thought corresponds with the Ten Dharma-realms, and one is mindful of the Ultimate Truth. Thus, the door of the Perfect Teaching is straightforward without any expedience in reaching truth and attaining ultimate enlightenment of Buddhahood, whereby its position is subtle. (Vol. 2, Page 224-225)

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


LS32

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered why the expedient message in the Parable of the Burning House was necessary, we consider the purpose of the Buddha’s appearance in the world.

I am the King of the Dharma.
I expound the Dharma without hindrance.
l appeared in this world
In order to give peace to all living beings.

Śāriputra!
I expound this seal of the Dharma
In order to benefit
[All living beings] of the world.
Do not propagate it carelessly
At the place where you are!

Anyone who rejoices at hearing this sūtra,
And who receives it respectfully,
Know this, has already reached
The stage of avaivartika.

Anyone who believes and receives this sūtra
Should be considered
To have already seen the past Buddhas,
Respected them, made offerings to them,
And heard the Dharma from them
In his previous existence.

Anyone who believes what you expound
Should be considered
To have already seen all of us,
That is, you and me,
And the Saṃgha of bhikṣus,
And the Bodhisattvas.

The Daily Dharma from June 15, 2018, offers this:

Anyone who believes and receives this sūtra
Should be considered
To have already seen the past Buddhas,
Respected them, made offerings to them,
And heard the Dharma from them
In his previous existence.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. Whatever view we may have of our past lives, we can agree that it is difficult to remember what happened in them. In these verses the Buddha reminds us that our joy in hearing his teaching in this life indicates that we have already heard and practiced what he taught, no matter how difficult it may seem to us now. This also means that by believing and receiving the Lotus Sūtra we are respecting and making offerings to all Buddhas.

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