Monthly Archives: December 2018

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 15, 2018

I now expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with great joy. This sūtra leads all living beings to the knowledge of all things. I did not expound it before because, if I had done so, many people in the world would have hated it and few would have believed it.

The Buddha makes this declaration to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. It can be difficult to imagine anyone hating the Buddha’s teachings. We sometimes notice that the true opposite of affection and devotion is not enmity and distrust. It is indifference. When we hear the Buddha’s teaching and do not make it part of our lives, it is because we are so attached to our peculiar ignorance and misery that we are afraid to live any other way. The Buddha shows us that it is possible to exist in harmony with the world rather than in conflict. It is only when we practice his teachings that we can believe them.

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

original

The Story of Yajñadattā

Quote

Here it is appropriate to note some of [the impact of Tendai] thought on the broader intellectual life of medieval Japan. This discourse did not remain confined to Buddhist scholastic circles but was quickly assimilated to other vocabularies and found other modes of expression. It can be found, for example, in didactic tales and poetry of the medieval period. Shasekishū (Sand and pebbles), a collection of setsuwa (tales) by Mujū Ichien (a.k.a. Dōgyō, 1226—1312), relates the following:

The Shou-leng-yen Ching tells the story of Yajn͂adattā, who looked in a mirror one morning and could not see her face because of the way she was holding the mirror. Believing that her head had been taken by a demon, she ran about distractedly until someone showed her how to hold the mirror correctly. Then she thought that her head had been restored. Both her wretchedness and her delight were without foundation. The unenlightened man is like one who looks for his lost head. The mind of original enlightenment (hongaku) is not lost; the loss comes only from thinking that this is so. Thinking that we have discovered and attained something for the first time is what we feel when we experience enlightenment for the first time (shikaku). But how can we attain it for the very first time [when it has been there since the beginning]? (Page 39-40)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Defining Perfect

Quote

Defining the meaning “perfect” (Chien Ming-i), … Chih-i examines the meaning Yiian (perfect) in three perspectives, seeing that the Perfect Teaching as the ultimate embraces the Three Vehicles (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattva), whereby the Three Vehicles are converged into the One Buddha-vehicle. Thus, in Chih-i’s opinion, the meaning “perfect” can be defined in terms of common in name and perfect in meaning (Ming-t ‘ung I-yüan), separate in name and perfect in meaning (Ming-pieh I-yüan), and perfect in both name and meaning (Ming-i Chü-yüan). These three perspectives are explicated in reference to the passages in the Lotus Sūtra.

Ming-t ‘ung I-yüan (Common in name and perfect in meaning) refers to the position of śrāvakas in the Perfect Teaching. Although it shares a common name with the position of śrāvakas in other teachings, it contains the meaning “perfect.” This is evidenced from a passage in the Lotus Sūtra regarding the declaration of śrāvakas:

“We are today true ‘sound-hearers,’ for [we] have made the sound of the Buddha-path heard by all.”

Chih-i argues that the true meaning Sheng-wen (Chinese etymological rendering for śrāvakas, meaning “sound-hearers”) signifies that they are the ones who can benefit all beings with the sound of the Buddha. Therefore, in this context, notwithstanding the position of śrāvakas share the same name with that of śrāvakas in the Common and Tripiṭaka Teachings, the meaning “to make the sound of the Buddha-path heard by all” implies that the position of the former is perfect. The device Chih-i applies for judging whether or not the position is perfect is by evaluating its underlying meaning rather than by its name, rendering the position of śrāvakas in the Perfect Teaching common in name and perfect in meaning. (Vol. 2, Page 216-217)

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


LS32

Day 4

Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 4 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the reason the Buddhas use expedients, we explore how the Buddha knows the natures and desires of all living beings.

Knowing the deeds of all living beings,
And their thoughts deep in their minds,
And the karmas they have done in their previous existence,
And their desires, natures, and powers to make efforts,
And also knowing whether each of them is keen or dull,
The Buddhas expound the Dharma according to their capacities,
With various stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses,
That is to say, with various expedients.

I also do the same.
I show the enlightenment of the Buddha
With various teachings
In order to give peace to all living beings.

I know the natures and desires of all living beings
By the power of my wisdom.
Therefore, I expound various teachings expediently,
And cause all living beings to rejoice.

As I said the last time I paused here: Before I became a Buddhist I first had to leave behind the family teachings about a supreme being who not only saw everything but had a plan for everything and fixed everything within that plan. Śākyamuni Buddha is no less omnipotent. Make no mistake. But Śākyamuni perceives my “natures and desires.” He knows my karmas, whether I am keen or dull. And with his teachings, causes me to rejoice.

Summer Writings

Mana-shiki and Alaya-shiki

Quote

Having been created, bad karma is … transferred into and deeply embedded in the spiritual realm. We human beings have “five senses”: those of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. Actually they are only the five senses which we can recognize. Buddhism teaches that there are two more undetectable realms stored deep in our psychological mind, “Mana-shiki” and “Alaya-shiki”.

Mana-shiki is a realm which is dominated by illusion or selfishness. This is an unconscious mind which loves the self and prioritizes self-merit. As proof of the existence of this realm, there is an example: When we see a group portrait, we first check ourselves – where we are in the picture and how we look. We do this whether we’re looking at a family portrait, a reunion picture or even a photo with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Mana-shiki always prioritizes the self, unconsciously.

Alaya-shiki is psychologically deeper than Mana-shiki, so we are unable to sense this realm at all. Because this realm stores information on various experiences and rebirths, it is called the “storehouse-consciousness.” All the information on what we see, hear, speak, think and how we act throughout our life is planted and recorded into this Alaya-shiki. In other words, all behavior carried out by the body, mouth and mind are planted into the Alaya-shiki as data which is used to generate spiritual energy for the future, or karma. This information includes things such as previous lives, memory of rebirth and human birth information too, which we are not consciously able to remember. This information is not erased when we are reborn.

Summer Writings

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 14, 2018

He said to them, ‘Know this! Now I am old and decrepit. I shall die soon. I am leaving this good medicine here. Take it! Do not be afraid that you will not be cured!’

The Buddha gives this explanation in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. It is part of the Parable of the Wise Physician in which a father finds his children have taken poison and gives them an antidote. The poison has caused some of the children to lose their right minds and not trust that the medicine will cure them. By faking his death, the father used an expedient to get the children to realize that there was no other medicine that would cure them, and summon the courage to take it. When we accept the Wonderful Dharma and put it into our lives, we are cured of our delusions and find the Buddha’s wisdom.

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

original

Early Critics of Tendai Original Enlightenment Thought

Quote

While the perspective of original enlightenment dominated the medieval Tendai tradition, it was not universally accepted. An important critic was Hōchi-bō Shōshin (fl. 12th cent.), a scrupulous exegete who was the author of voluminous commentaries on the major works of Chih-i. Shōshin framed his criticism in response to “many among those who study shingon,” hinting at the esoteric roots of Tendai original enlightenment thought. Original enlightenment, he said, was to be understood in terms of the Awakening of Faith, as a potential within deluded worldlings to be realized by the practice of acquired enlightenment. In particular, Shōshin criticized the claim that the ordinary worldling is “originally the Buddha of self-awakening” (honrai jikakubutsu), a position he denounced as a denial of the causality of practice and attainment and “the same as heterodox teachings” (gedō-setsu). Shōshin also opposed definitions of Śākyamuni of the “Fathoming the Lifespan” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra as an originally inherent Buddha, which, he said, clearly went against the sūtra’s statement that Śākyamuni had practiced the bodhisattva way and attained Buddhahood in the remote past. Shōshin’s criticisms form an important external reference point for gauging how far original enlightenment thought had developed by the late Heian period. For convenience’ sake, this book will use the term “medieval Tendai thought” to refer to the tradition’s hongaku-dominated mainstream, but with the understanding that not all medieval Tendai thinkers accepted contemporary notions of original enlightenment. (Page 38-39)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

The Path of Vision

Quote

Sui-hsin-hsing Wei (Position of the practice following faith) is the first of the Seven Saintly Positions. The name of this position Sui-hsin-hsing (Skt., śraddhānusārin) is derived from the person with dull faculties (Ch., Tun-ken; Skt., mṛdvindriya). He enters the Path of Vision (Ch., Ju Chien-tao; Skt., niyāmāvakramapa) by his belief in what he is told by others, but not by his own intellect.

Sui-fa-hsing Wei (Position of the practice following the Dharma) is the second of the Seven Saintly Positions. In opposite to the above one, the person with relatively sharp faculties (Ch., Li-ken; Skt., t̄kyṣṇēndriya) achieves this position Sui-fa-hsing (Skt., dharmānusārin), because he enters the Path through his own contemplation of the Four Noble Truths. The first and this second position are at the initial stage of religious path and are referred to as the “Path of Vision” (Ch., Chien-tao; Skt., darśanamārga) (which entails no practice). (Vol. 2, Page 202-203)

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


LS32

Day 3

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Day 3 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Śākyamuni explain to Śāriputra that the Tathāgatas teach only Bodhisattvas, we hear Śākyamuni explain that the Buddhas teach only Bodhisattvas because they wish to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings.

“Śāriputra! The present Buddhas, the present World-Honored Ones, of many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters benefit all living beings, and give them peace. These Buddhas also expound various teachings with innumerable expedients, that is to say, with stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses, only for the purpose of revealing the One Buddha-Vehicle. The living beings who hear the teachings from these Buddhas will also finally obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

“Śāriputra! These [present] Buddhas teach only Bodhisattvas because they wish to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha.

“Śāriputra! So do I. I know that all living beings have various desires. I also know that they have attachments deep in their minds. Therefore, I expound various teachings to them with stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses, that is to say, with various expedients according to their natures.

“Śāriputra! I do all this for the purpose of causing them to realize the teaching of the One Buddha-Vehicle, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things. Śāriputra! There is not a second vehicle in the worlds of the ten quarters. How can there be a third?

“Lotus Seeds” offers this on the topic of only teaching Bodhisattvas.

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha states that he actually teaches only bodhisattvas. This means that even the voice-hearers who follow the Four Noble Truths or those who contemplate Dependent Origination are not authentic followers of the Buddha until they have the compassionate heart of a bodhisattva. Thus, it is not enough to simply follow the Eightfold Path. One must also follow it with the spirit of compassionate concern for others. The bodhisattvas do not practice only for their own benefit, they practice for the sake of all beings. This is because they are deeply aware of the interdependent nature of all things. That is, they realize that no one is disconnected from the whole. Therefore, the notion of a self-liberation apart from others is just another symptom of the delusion of a separate self.

Lotus Seeds

WONS, Blog

The Need for Study

I recently completed reading Santideva’s The Bodhicaryavatara: A Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening. This book was the subject of the Nichiren Shu service and lecture put on my Rev. Ryuei McCormick in Oakland that I attended on Nov. 25. I’ve already used portions from the introduction to help illuminate some of what I’m learning. (See this post.)

I have more than 200 quotes from the Bodhicaryavatara that I consider inspiring and worth taking the time to input into this website so that I can easily access them, perhaps having them randomly appear in order to prompt consideration of these Mahāyāna ideals.

But as I consider this I wonder whether it can be done without distracting from my primary practice of reciting the Lotus Sūtra and chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

As it happens, I am preparing to start publishing daily quotations from Nichiren’s writings as published by Nichiren Shū. I gathered the quotes during my “100 Days of Study.” In introducing that project I mentioned:

“Over the past few months I’ve been reading books about Bodhisattvas and the Six Perfections from Zen authors, books on the basics of Buddhism and introductions to the Lotus Sutra by authors outside Nichiren Shu. On my to-read pile are books on T’ien-Tai philosophy and the Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, two volumes of dharma talks by the Most Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii and, for good measure, the Vimalakirti Sutra.

“This is all part of my effort to follow Nichiren’s admonition: “Strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning. Without practice and learning, Buddhism will cease to exist.” (Shohō Jissō Shō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 4 p.79)”

This blog post was prompted by quotes from two of Nichiren’s letters. These quotes underline my dilemma, illustrating both the need for study and the danger from study.

The Need

The Lotus Sūtra of the fifth period consists of one fascicle of the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning as an introduction, eight fascicles of the Lotus Sūtra, and one fascicle of the Sūtra of Meditation on the Universal Sage Bodhisattva as the conclusion, bringing the total number of fascicles to ten.

The reason for my commentaries on the Four Teachings (Tripiṭaka, Common, Distinct, and Perfect) and the Four Periods (Flower Garland, Agama, Expanded, and Wisdom) is to help others learn what the Lotus Sūtra is. For one cannot correctly understand the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra without learning the pre-Lotus Sūtras, although one may study the pre-Lotus Sūtras without learning about other Sūtras.

In support of this, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai stated in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “When attempting to spread various sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra, the essential part of the teaching will not be lost even if a doctrinal analysis of all the teachings of the Buddha is not rendered. When attempting to spread the Lotus Sūtra, however, the essence of the teaching may be lost if a doctrinal analysis is not made.” It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter 2, “Expedients”), “Although the Buddhas expound various teachings, it is for the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle.” “Various teachings” here refer to all the pre-Lotus Sūtras. “For the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle” means to expound all the scriptures of Buddhism to reveal the Lotus Sūtra.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 81

Underscore For one cannot correctly understand the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra without learning the pre-Lotus Sūtras.

The Danger

[A]bsolute subtlety (zetsudaimyō) is a doctrine of revealing the truth (single path to enlightenment) and merging all the provisional teachings for bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddha, and śrāvaka (kaie). Here the pre-Lotus sūtras, which are abandoned as expedient by the doctrine of relative subtlety (sōdaimyō), are all included in the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra. Once entering the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra, the pre-Lotus sūtras will no longer be dismissed as expedient. All the sūtras entering the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra take up the one flavor of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō because of the wonderful merit of the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra. There is no reason why they have to be referred to by other names such as nembutsu, Ritsu, Shingon, or Zen. Consequently, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “Just as water becomes salty when it flows into the sea, any wisdom ceases to exist in itself after it is taken in the True Wisdom.” Thus he instructs us that no original names be mentioned. People of the Tendai School generally maintain:

The pre-Lotus sūtras with the first four flavors, which were dismissed in comparing the Lotus Sūtra with other sūtras (relative subtlety), can be kept and any names of Buddhas and bodhisattvas can be recited even after the single path is revealed through the doctrine of absolute subtlety because these sūtras, Buddhas and bodhisattvas are included in the wonderful entity of the Lotus Sūtra. Waters in rivers before entering the sea differ in size, or in cleanliness, but once they flow into the ocean, we can see that it is a serious mistake to distinguish or select water saying that some waters are cleaner than others. Both the dirty water that is undesirable and clean water that is loved stem originally from the same ocean. Therefore, even when we put a special name on some water, water is water wherever it is taken out from, and it is a mistake to think that there is a difference in water. Likewise, it is not a terrible idea to believe in any teaching one likes or comes across.

Thus they accept and believe any teaching which comes to the mind such as the nembutsu and mantras.

When speaking in vague terms, a point of view such as this seems rational, but strictly speaking it is a serious fallacy leading to hell. The reason is that while one person who truly understands the doctrine of kaie may uphold various provisional sūtras or recite any names of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, all other people generally keep or chant them with the usual prejudice without understanding the meaning of kaie. Consequently, such a view can be an evil teaching in which even if a person who understands the doctrine may get enlightened, most people will fall into hell. Any doctrines expounded in the pre-Lotus sūtras and the “ultimate truth” shown in those doctrines are all composed of biased thoughts and convictions. As stated in the second chapter, “Expedients,” of the Lotus Sūtra, “They are astray in the thick forest of wrong views on existence and non-existence.”

Then both those who know the doctrine of kaie and those who do not know it cannot avoid going down to hell if they uphold provisional sūtras and recite the names of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in them and contemplate the “ultimate truth” of the expedient teachings. Those who are convinced that they know the doctrine of kaie are no less wrong than those who believe that it is possible to put the water of the ocean into a puddle made by a hoof of a cattle. How can they escape from falling into the Three Evil Realms (hell, the realm of hungry souls, and realm of beasts and birds)? What’s worse, those who do not know the doctrine of kaie, basically taking in wrong teachings, are so attached to the wrong views or expedient teachings that they are sure to fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering. Even after realizing the doctrine of kaie, they should dismiss such ideas considering them expedient teachings with which enlightenment cannot be achieved. Do not recite or uphold the names and the “ultimate wisdom” of evil doctrines.

Shoshū Mondō-shō, Questions and Answers Regarding Other Schools, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 179-181

This dilemma is especially important here in the United States, where – unlike Japan – there is no foundation of Buddhist understanding. Study is necessary to build that foundation. Or to put it in the context of the Lotus Sūtra, by studying the pre-Lotus sūtras we can correctly understand how these expedient teachings flowed into the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra.

Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō