The “Supreme Being”, according to Nichiren, is Buddha in his metaphysical entity, the enlightened soul in full grasp of the whole truth of existence. This entity, the Buddha-nature, is inherent in every being, whether human or celestial, or even bestial and infernal, and can be, ought to be, realized in every soul when it enters into full communion with Buddha. This truth was embodied in the person of the historical Buddha and his eternal life revealed in the Lotus of Truth.
History of Japanese ReligionMonthly Archives: December 2018
Daily Dharma – Dec. 17, 2018
I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. At the beginning of this Sūtra, the Buddha held back from teaching because he thought people might not be ready to hear it. He also said that the Dharma he teaches cannot be understood by reasoning. We need both faith and understanding to practice the Wonderful Dharma. The Buddha also reminds us to appreciate how difficult faith and understanding are, both for ourselves and others.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Hongaku Thought
“Hongaku thought” is best understood not as a monolithic philosophy, but as a multivalent discourse, albeit one that included among its many forms some highly developed doctrinal formulations. It was, moreover, a discourse embodied in specific practices, lineages, and concerns about authority and legitimacy. “Original enlightenment thought” is a convenient designation for the great range of concepts, perspectives, arguments, and doctrinal formulations informed by ideas of original enlightenment, but it was by no means either unified or an exclusively philosophical enterprise. The term will be used in this study based on this understanding. (Page 52)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismPositions of the Perfect Teaching
In order to support his classification about the number of positions of the Perfect Teaching, Chih-i quotes citations from the Lotus Sūtra to demonstrate that this is not his own creation. In actuality, the Fourfold Teaching is his own system of classifying the teaching of the Buddha, and his illustration of the position of the Perfect Teaching is certainly derived from his own understanding of Buddhism.
With regard to the Position of the Five Preliminary Grades of Disciples, Chih-i argues that the chapter on Fen-pieh Kung-te P’in (Distinguishing Merits and Virtues) in the Lotus Sūtra provides a description of these positions. In the chapter on Fang-pien P’in (Expedient Means), the phrase about “to cause sentient beings to open the Buddha’s knowledge and insight” (Yü-ling Chung-sheng K’ai-fo Chih-chien) denotes the Ten Dwellings; “to reveal the Buddha’s knowledge and insight” (Shih-fo Chih-chien) signifies the Ten Practices; “to be awakened to the Buddha’s knowledge and insight” (Wu-fo Chih-chien) indicates the Ten Merit transferences; “to enter the Buddha’s knowledge and insight” (Ju-fo Chih-chien) denotes the Ten Stages, and the Stage of Preliminary Enlightenment. The Stage of Subtle Enlightenment is revealed in the citation “only Buddhas and Buddhas can exhaust the Ultimate Truth of all dharmas” (Wei Fo-yü-fo Nai-neng Chiu-ching Chu-fa Shih-hsiang). These associations of various phrases in the Lotus Sūtra with various positions are made by Chih-i according to his teacher Hui-ssu’s explanation. Moreover, Chih-i stresses that the number of positions of the Perfect Teaching in severing and destroying ignorance is for an expedient purpose only. By nature, positions of the Perfect Teaching are inconceivable: integrated, they can become a single position; divided, they can be of various levels. (Vol. 2, Page 222-223)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 6
Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month considered who was attracted to the sheep cart, the deer cart and the bullock cart, we consider the reasoning behind Śākyamuni’s decision to distribute the store of the Dharma.
“Śāriputra! Seeing that all his children had come out of the burning house safely and reached a carefree place, the rich man remembered that he had immeasurable wealth. So without partiality, he gave them each a large cart. I am also a father, the father of all living beings. Seeing that many hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings have come out of the painful, fearful and rough road of the triple world through the gate of the teachings of the Buddha, and obtained the pleasure of Nirvāṇa, I thought, ‘I have the store of the Dharma in which the immeasurable wisdom, powers and fearlessness of the Buddhas are housed. These living beings are all my children. I will give them the Great Vehicle. I will not cause them to attain extinction by their own ways. I will cause them to attain the extinction of the Tathāgata.’
“To those who have left the triple world, I will give the dhyāna concentrations and emancipations of the Buddhas for their pleasure. These things are of the same nature and of the same species. These things are extolled by the saints because these things bring the purest and most wonderful pleasure.
The Daily Dharma from April 1, 2018, offers this:
Śāriputra! Seeing that all his children had come out of the burning house safely and reached a carefree place, the rich man remembered that he had immeasurable wealth. So without partiality, he gave them each a large cart.
The Buddha tells the parable of the Burning House in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, a man tries to warn his children who are playing in a dangerous house of the harm that will come to them if they do not set aside their preoccupations and come out. The children did not listen to him, so he told them about nonexistent toys outside the house. The Buddha then compares himself promising an end to suffering to the father promising nonexistent toys, and himself leading all beings to Enlightenment to the father giving his children toys more wonderful than they could imagine.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Daily Dharma – Dec. 16, 2018
He will be able to know by smell
What a man or a woman is thinking of,
Or whether he or she is greedy, ignorant or angry,
Or whether he or she is doing good.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. As Bodhisattvas we chose to come into this world, as frightening and dangerous as it is, to make things better for all beings. We do not lose any of the six senses we have, but learn to use them in ways that may seem impossible to others. Any of our senses can be deluded. When we remove our attachments and delusions, we see with the Buddha’s eye the world as it is.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Buddhas and Kami
[O]riginal enlightenment thought influenced a shift in how the unity of kami and Buddhas was understood. During the Nara and Heian
periods, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, who transcend time and space, had increasingly come to be identified with specific local deities and thus grounded, as it were, in the temporal and geographical realities of Japan. The logic of these identifications was eventually expressed in terms of honji-suijaku, language borrowed from T’ien-t’ai/Tendai Lotus Sūtra exegesis. The Buddha of the latter fourteen chapters of the sūtra, or “origin teaching” (honmon), who attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, is the Buddha in his original ground (honji), while the Buddha of the first fourteen chapters, or “trace teaching” (shakumon), is the “manifest trace” (suijaku) who appeared in this world as the historical Buddha. Chih-i had likened the relation of the two to that of the moon in the sky and its reflection on a pond. When this relation was applied to that of Buddhas and kami, it became possible to conceive of the deities, not merely as protectors of Buddhism or as suffering beings in need of Buddhist salvation, but as local manifestations of the transcendent Buddhas and bodhisattvas, compassionately projected as a “skillful means” to lead the people of Japan to enlightenment. (Page 41)
Five Preliminary Grades of Disciples of the Pertfect Teaching
According to Chih-i, at the initial grade of the Five Preliminary Grades of Disciples of the Pertfect Teaching “Preliminary Grade of Joy Following the Truth” (Sui-hsi-p’in Wei), the person has already conceived the perfect faith and understanding (Ch’i Yüan-hsin-chieh). With a single mind, one embraces the Ten Dharma-realms (I-hsin-chung Chii Shih-fa-chieh). The cultivation of the practice of the Perfect Teaching enables one to incorporate all practices with a single practice, owing to the fact that one’s mind is constantly quiescent and reflective (Tz ‘u-hsin Ch ‘ang-chi Ch ‘ang-chao). With such a state of mind, all dharmas are eliminated as a result of one’s recognition that all dharmas are identical to Emptiness, the Provisional, and the Middle Way. Consequently, every thought in one’s mind is always correspondent with various pāramitās. At the second grade “Preliminary Grade of Reading and Reciting Sūtras” (Tu-sung p’in Wei), Chih-i illustrates that the practitioner, in order to enhance his faith in the Perfect Teaching, internally, continues to contemplate the Middle Way as the principle; externally, accepts, upholds, reads, and recites Mahāyāna scriptures. Being informed with knowledge derived from the scriptures, one is able to exert power of function to assist one’s contemplation. At the third grade “Preliminary Grade of Expounding the Dharma” (Shuo-fa-p’in Wei), one’s internal contemplation and external aid enhances, one starts to expound the teaching of the Buddha to others. At the fourth grade “Practicing Six Perfections in a Concurrent Way” (Chien-hsing Liu-tu), while the practitioner’s priority is still concerned with contemplation, he starts to carry out concurrent cultivation of the Six Perfections for the purpose of benefiting others. The last grade “Primary Practice of the Six Perfections” (Cheng-hsing Liu-tu) signifies a further progress in religious practice. Chih-i says that the practitioner’s priority is to practice the Six Perfections. As his contemplation (that is in accordance with the Perfect Teaching) is maturing, the principle and the facts become integrated. The practice of the Six Perfections enables him to realize that the Ultimate Truth is embedded in mundane affairs, and that these two are not contradictory: “Involving in the facts does not hinder [one to perceive] the principle, and residing in the principle does not isolate [one] from [perceiving] the facts.” Obviously, the empirical world entails an interpretation revealing the knowledge and insight of the Buddha. (Vol. 2, Page 218)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month completed today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable, we return to the top and Śāriputra, who felt like dancing with joy.
Thereupon Śāriputra, who felt like dancing with joy, stood up, joined his hands together, looked up at the honorable face, and said to the Buddha:
“Hearing this truthful voice of yours, I feel like dancing [with joy]. I have never felt like this before. Why is that? We [Śrāvakas and the Bodhisattvas] heard this Dharma before. [At that time] we saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood, but not that we were. We deeply regretted that we were not given the immeasurable insight of the Tathāgata.“World-Honored One! I sat alone under a tree or walked about mountains and forests, thinking, ‘We [and the Bodhisattvas] entered the same world of the Dharma. Why does the Tathāgata save us only by the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle?’
“Now I understand that the fault was on our side, not on yours, because if we had waited for your expounding of the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, we would have been saved by the Great Vehicle. When we heard your first teaching, we did not know that that teaching was an expedient one expounded according to our capacities. Therefore, we believed and received that teaching at once, thought it over, and attained the enlightenment [to be attained by that teaching].
“World-Honored One! I reproached myself day and night [after I saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood]. Now I have heard from you the Dharma that I had never heard before. I have removed all my doubts. I am now calm and peaceful in body and mind. Today I have realized that I am your son, that I was born from your mouth, that I was born in [the world of] the Dharma, and that I have obtained the Dharma of the Buddha.”
The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra offers this explanation of the Three Stages of Preaching:
This chapter is named “A Parable” because it contains a well-known story called, “The Burning House and the Three Carts” or “The Burning House of the Triple World.” The Lotus Sutra contains seven parables, commonly called the Seven Great Parables, and this is the first of them.
The first half of the Lotus Sutra (“Shakumon” or the “Theoretical Section”) is characterized by three stages of preaching. That is, the same subject is presented in three different ways according to the capacities of the hearers: first by a theory, then by a parable, and finally by means of a story from some previous existence. The teaching of the One Vehicle, for instance, is first presented theoretically in Chapter Two. Then it is illustrated by parables in Chapters Three, Four, Five, and Six. Finally its reason and purpose is clarified in Chapter Seven by a story from a previous existence.
Introduction to the Lotus SutraThe Devas and Buddhism
Louis Frederic in “Flammarion Iconographic Guides: Buddhism” gives the following summary of the position of the devas within Buddhism: “The gods of Buddhism are not saviours, but beings with more power than humans. They live in pleasure for extremely long lives, but are nevertheless ultimately subject to the cycle of rebirth and suffering. They may be worshiped for material gain, and the earliest Buddhist literature contains stories of their service to the Buddha, and their promotion and protection of Buddhism. Thus we find the gods of the Indian pantheon assisting at all the major events in the life of the Buddha, more as attentive servants than as followers.”
Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon