[The concept of human capacity], often invoked in the context of mappō discourse, refers to innate receptivity or capacity for achieving salvation through a particular teaching. “Capacity” forms an element central to the exclusive nenbutsu teaching of Honen, who argued that the superiority of a teaching depends not on its depth of philosophical content but on whether or not people can actually practice it; hence he maintained that the nenbutsu, readily accessible even to those of limited capacity who predominate in this evil age, is superior. For Nichiren, as for Hōnen, “capacity” was to be understood in universal terms; being advocates of exclusive practices, neither man focused on individual differences in receptivity but maintained that all persons can be saved through a single teaching. However, Nichiren did not base his argument for the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra solely on ease of practice. The Lotus Sūtra is the seed of Buddhahood; that is, encountering the Lotus Sūtra is the condition that enables salvation. Nichiren described the people of the Final Dharma age as “not yet having good [roots]” (honmi uzen), that is, without prior connection to the Lotus Sūtra that would ensure their enlightenment. Thus, persons of this age should, he said, all be instructed in the Lotus Sūtra; whether they accept it or slander it, they will in either case receive the seed of Buddhahood and eventually become Buddhas. Nichiren vehemently rejected the position of exclusive nenbutsu adherents, that the Lotus should be set aside as too profound for the benighted people of the Final Dharma age. He maintained, with Chan-jan, that “the more true the teaching, the lower the stage [of the practitioners it can bring to enlightenment].” It was in part to stress the ability of the Lotus to save even the lowly and sinful that Nichiren would refer to himself, later in life, as “the son of lowly people” and born of a caṇḍāla family.” (Page 253)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismMonthly Archives: January 2019
Liberation for Oneself Is Inseparable from Liberating Others
In terms of the difference between Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna Buddhism over the issue of self-enlightenment and enlightening others, Chih-i’s category of the Ten Subtleties as a whole proves that there are actually no differences, for both issues are interactive. The first five categories of Subtlety center on the issue of enlightenment for oneself, and the last five categories of Subtlety address the Buddha’s activity of enlightening others. In actuality, even in the first five categories, Chih-i reveals that the bodhisattva practice of striving for enlightenment is in the context of helping others. Liberation for oneself is inseparable from liberating others. In terms of the relation between the first and last five categories of the Ten Subtleties, what Chih-i intends to demonstrate is that as a result of attaining Buddhahood, the Buddha’s soteriological activity of saving living beings spontaneously arises. If we say that the bodhisattva practice of attaining self-enlightenment lies in his action of helping others as it is addressed in the first five categories of the Ten Subtleties; likewise, the Buddha’s manifestation of Buddhahood also lies in his action of saving beings. The only difference between these two types of saving others is that the former is the bodhisattva practice with a deliberate action, and the latter is the Buddha’s spontaneous manifestation of his Buddhahood with no-action (i.e., action with complete spontaneity and naturalness), because the Buddha is in a state of quiescence and constant illumination. (Vol. 2, Page 317-318)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 20
Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month heard both Maitreya and the attendants of the replicas of Śākyamuni plea for an explanation about the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground, we hear Śākyamuni’s reply to Maitreya?
Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:
“Excellent, excellent, Ajita! You asked me a very important question. All of you should concentrate your minds, wear the armor of endeavors, and be resolute. Now I will reveal, I will show, the wisdom of the Buddhas, their supernatural power without hindrance, their dauntless powers like a lion’s, and their great power of bravery.”
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he said, sang in gāthās:
Exert yourselves and concentrate your minds!
Now I will tell you about this matter.
Do not doubt me!
My wisdom is difficult to understand.Arouse your power of faith,
And do good patiently!
You will be able to hear the Dharma
That you have never heard before.Now I will relieve you.
Do not doubt me! Do not be afraid!
I do not tell a lie.
My wisdom is immeasurable.
The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!
The Daily Dharma from Oct. 13, 2018, offers this:
Excellent, excellent, Ajita! You asked me a very important question. All of you should concentrate your minds, wear the armor of endeavors, and be resolute. Now I will reveal, I will show, the wisdom of the Buddhas, their supernatural powers without hindrance, their dauntless powers like a lion’s, and their great power of bravery.
The Buddha makes this declaration to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita (Invincible) in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, innumerable Bodhisattvas spring up from underground and vow to the Buddha to keep the sūtra after his extinction. Maitreya, knowing the minds of many others who have come to hear the Buddha teach, asks about these Bodhisattvas, whom he has never seen before. This question from Maitreya then leads to the Buddha later giving his most difficult teaching in Chapter Sixteen. The Buddha’s declaration in this passage shows how important questioning is to our faith.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Five Aggregates
In the Buddhist tradition, it is taught that an individual is made up of Five Aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. In fact, everything that we experience comes under the heading of one or more of these components.
They are not, however, five separate substances, but are different factors or stages in the process of consciously experiencing anything, including the experience of our own self. The process of conscious awareness often begins with form: a visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, or gustatory object. Of course, a thought or feeling can also begin a process of conscious awareness, but even these can almost always be traced back to the memory of a concrete experience. Contact with form gives rise to feeling, which can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. These feelings draw our attention to the form so that we then perceive the form as a specific object of awareness. Perception gives rise to mental formations, such as opinions for or against the object of awareness, as well as subsequent decisions, actions, and reactions. This activity in turn gives rise to awareness of a self-conscious subject acted upon by or acting upon an object.
Lotus SeedsProving The Prediction Of The Buddha
It is stated in the “Parable” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Seeing those who read, recite, copy, and uphold this sūtra, some will despise, hate, envy, and bear grudges against them; in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter, “Many will feel resentment and envy even during the lifetime of the Buddha, even more so after His death;” in the “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra” chapter, “(Such a person) will be killed by a sword, beaten by a stick, or exiled often;” in the “Peaceful Practices” chapter, “All the people throughout the world will feel resentment at the Lotus Sūtra and not believe in it.” These scriptural statements are the prediction of the Buddha, but they do not specify in what ages such difficulties will take place. We can say that such sages as Never Despising Bodhisattva and Monk Virtue Consciousness in the past actually practiced what is stated in these scriptural passages. However, when we limit the scope of consideration to the present Sahā World, putting aside the 2,000 year Ages of the True and Semblance Dharmas for now, I, Nichiren, am the only person who has proven the prediction of the Buddha now in the Latter Age of Degeneration, isn’t it so?
Tenjū Kyōju Hōmon, Lightening the Karmic Retribution, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 30
Daily Dharma – Jan. 31, 2019
When the sun shines brightly in the sky, everything is made clearly visible on the earth. In the same manner, when one knows the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, one will understand the meaning of occurrences in the world.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his great work, Spiritual Contemplation and the Object of Devotion (Kanjin Honzon Shō). When we awaken to our nature as Bodhisattvas who have chosen our lives to benefit others and improve the world, we are freed from the confusion and anxiety around us. By keeping the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra, and following the guidance of Nichiren’s writings, we see what to do to make the world we live in now better for everyone.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Nichiren’s Teaching
Following the traditional T’ien-t’ai classificatory schema of the five periods and eight teachings (goji hakkyō), Nichiren assigned the Lotus Sūtra to the last period of the Buddha’s preaching life and asserted that all other, earlier sūtras are provisional (gon) while the Lotus alone is true (jitsu). For textual support, he often cited the passage from the Wu-liang-i Ching (Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings), the introductory scripture to the Lotus, which states: “In these forty years and more, I [Śākyamuni] have not yet revealed the truth,” and another from the Lotus itself: “Among all those [sūtras] I [Śākyamuni] have preached, now preach, or will preach, this Lotus Sūtra is the hardest to believe, the hardest to understand.” Nichiren, like other T’ien-t’ai/Tendai scholars before him, saw the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra as lying in two teachings unique to this scripture and identified respectively with the trace and origin teachings—specifically, with the second chapter (“Skillful Means”) and the sixteenth (“Fathoming the Lifespan of the Tathāgata”). The first is that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood (nijō sabutsu). Since those practicing the two vehicles of the Śrāvaka and the Pratyekabuddha are followers of the Hinayāna path, a number of Mahāyāna sūtras deny their capacity for the Buddhahood. The Lotus Sūtra’s pronouncement that they can become Buddhas was taken as representing the potential for the Buddhahood of all beings. Second is the revelation of the Buddha’s enlightenment in the remote past (kuonjitsujō). According to the sūtra, all other Buddhas are merely emanations or manifestations of Śākyamuni. Moreover, Śākyamuni is said to have dis played himself as entering final nirvāṇa as a “skillful means” to arouse people’s longing for his teaching, but in reality, he is “always here in this Sahā world.” As noted before, the Buddha’s enlightenment in the far distant past was also widely understood in Nichiren’s time to mean that the Buddha is eternal and constantly abides in this world. Like other Tendai thinkers of his day, Nichiren also associated these two teachings respectively with “principle” (ri) and “actuality” (ji). (Page 253-253)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismChih-i’s Ten Subtleties
From Chih-i’s scheme of the Ten Subtleties, we can clearly see that these Ten Subtleties are elaborated in an interrelated system. With this system, Chih-i offers us an extremely comprehensive scheme of Buddhism as a whole, with the ultimate goal of attaining Buddhahood. None of these categories of Subtlety can be looked at in isolation to others. Chih-i’s comprehensive system provides reconciliation to the two different tendencies in the South and in the North engaged in doctrinal discourse and practical approach respectively. With Chih-i’s system, the exclusive view of either emphasizing the doctrinal or the practical aspect of Buddhism is inadequate and irrelevant, because neither of these two aspects can exist without another; or rather, each aspect is elaborated in relation to the other. (Vol. 2, Page 317)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 19
Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Having last month considered the consider the dream of a Bodhisattva, we conclude Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
He also will dream:
‘I am now in the forest of a mountain.
[ studied and practiced good teachings.
[ attained the truth of the reality of all things.
I am now in deep dhyāna-concentration.
I see the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.’He also will have a good dream:
‘The bodies of the Buddhas are golden-colored.
They are adorned with a hundred marks of merits.
Having heard the Dharma from them,
I am now expounding it to others.’He also will dream:
‘Although I was a king,
I gave up the five desires
And the most wonderful pleasures.
I left my palace and attendants,
And reached the place of enlightenment.
I sat on the lion-like seat under the Bodhi-tree,
And sought enlightenment.
After seven days, I obtained the wisdom of the Buddhas
And attained unsurpassed enlightenment.
I emerged [from dhyāna] and turned the wheel of the Dharma.
I expounded the Dharma to the four kinds of devotees
For a thousand billion kalpas.
I expounded the Wonderful Dharma-without-āsravas
And saved innumerable living beings.
Then I entered into Nirvana
Just as a flame dies when smoke is gone.’Anyone who expounds
This supreme teaching
In the evil world after [my extinction]
Will obtain great benefits as previously stated.
The Introduction to the Lotus Sūtra offers this explanation of Peaceful Practices of Resolution:
This is to resolve solemnly to make every effort to realize and spread the Lotus Sutra in the Age of Degeneration, or the evil world of the future. There are three points.
- The Bodhisattva should have great loving-kindness toward both clergy and laity, and great compassion toward those who are not Bodhisattvas. (This is called the subject of resolution.)
- The reason is that people do not understand that the Buddha expounded expedient teachings according to the capacities of living beings, and they neither believe it nor understand it. (This is the reason for resolution.)
- Therefore, when a Bodhisattva attains supreme-perfect-enlightenment, he or she will resolve to lead all people to the Lotus Sutra, and by means of his acquired supernatural powers and wisdom, cause them to understand the law (p. 220).
Abandoning Provisional Sūtras
Now, when you decide to convert your faith to the Lotus Sūtra, you may be puzzled whether you should abandon the pre-Lotus sūtras preached in the first forty years or so, or whether you should still keep them and continue to chant the name of the Buddha of Infinite Life. We ordinary people should not decide this issue on our own. We should follow what our father Śākyamuni Buddha tells us. He declares in the “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Having abandoned all expedient teachings, I will expound only the unsurpassed way (Lotus Sūtra).” Expedient teachings here means the expedient means mentioned in the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning stating, “The truth has not been revealed for forty years or so as an expedient means.” All words of all sūtras such as the triple Pure Land sūtras are included in the word ‘expedient’ defined by Śākyamuni Buddha.
Therefore, those who do not abandon the various sūtras preached during some forty years or so and convert themselves to the Lotus Sūtra must be called the most impious in Buddhism, no matter how proud they may be in secular society. This is the reason why it is preached in the “Parable” chapter of the second fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra, “This triple world is My domain, where all living beings are My children. There are many sufferings in this world and only I can save all living beings. Although I taught and told this to all living beings, they did not believe in me because they are at a loss.” Those who refuse to abandon the provisional sūtras preached during forty years or so or practice them along with the Lotus Sūtra do not follow the wishes of the ruler, teacher, and parent. The word ‘taught’ in the citation from the “Parable” chapter means what is taught by a teacher or a parent, and the word ‘told’ means what is ordered by the emperor. The Buddha is the wisest king, the most venerable teacher, and the smartest father in the world. Therefore, those who do not convert themselves to the Lotus Sūtra by abandoning the various sūtras preached during the forty years or so or those who do not abandon the provisional sūtras even after converting themselves to the Lotus Sūtra are those who do not follow the instructions of our father Śākyamuni Buddha, who has the three virtues of the ruler, teacher, and parent. They should not live in this world.
Hōmon Mōsaru-beki-yō no Koto, The Way to Refute the Evil Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Desciples, Volume 5, Page 142