With regard to sūtra that can be translated as the Wholesome teaching (Fan Shan-Y’ü-chiao) in terms of teaching, practice and principle, Chih-i asserts that the teaching of the Worldly Siddhānta is the teaching of wholesome words (seeing that the Buddha, in order to suit the capabilities of beings, focuses on encouraging sentient beings to cultivate wholesomeness within them for obtaining good effect); the Siddhānta for Each Person, and the Siddhānta of Counteraction are the teaching of wholesome practice (as the Buddha teaches sentient beings the methods of cultivating wholesomeness and destroying evil within them); and the Siddhānta of the Supreme Truth is the teaching of wholesome principle (as the Buddha addresses beings truth of liberation). (Vol. 2, Page 394)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismMonthly Archives: February 2019
Day 6
Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month considered why the rich man gave the largest carts to his children, we begin the Parable of the Burning House in gāthās with the condition of the house.
Thereupon the Buddha, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
I will tell you a parable.
A rich man had a manor house.
It was old, rotten,
Broken and ruined.
The house was about to collapse.
The lower parts of the pillars were rotten;
The beams and ridge-poles, tilting and slanted;
The foundation and steps, broken;
The fences and walls, corrupt;
The plaster of the walls, peeling;
The rush thatched on the roof, falling;
The rafters and eaves, slipping out of each other;
The hedges around the house, bent;
And refuse and debris, scattered all over.In this house lived
Five hundred people.
Kites, owls, crested eagles,
Eagles, crows,
Magpies, doves, pigeons,
Lizards, snakes, vipers, scorpions,
Millipedes, wall lizards, centipedes,
Weasels, badgers, mice, rats,
And poisonous vermin
Were moving about.Maggots and other vermin
Assembled on the excretions
Scattered all over
In the house.Foxes, wolves, and small foxes
Were crawling on corpses,
Biting them, chewing them,
And dismembering them.Many dogs were scrambling for their prey.
Weak and nervous from hunger,
They were seeking food here and there.
They were fighting with each other,
Snapping at each other,
And barking at each other.
The house was
So dreadful, so extraordinary.Mountain spirits, water spirits,
Yakṣas and other demons
Lived here and there.
They fed on people and poisonous vermin.Wild birds and beasts
Hatched their eggs,
Suckled or bred.
They protected their offspring.
Yakṣas scrambled for their young,
Took them, and ate them.
Having eaten to their hearts’ content,
They became more violent.
They fought with each other.
Their shrieks were dreadful.The demons called kumbhandas
Crouched on the ground
Or jumped a foot or two above the ground.
They walked to and fro
And played at their will.
They seized dogs by the legs,
Or hit them
Until they lost their voices,
And held their feet against their necks.
They enjoyed seeing them frightened.Some demons,
Tall, large,
Naked, black, and thin,
Lived in the house.
They were crying for food
With loud and evil voices.The necks of some demons
Were as slender as needles.
The heads of some demons
Were like that of a cow.
They ate people or dogs.
Their hair was disheveled
Like mugworts.
They were cruel and dangerous.
Always hungry and thirsty,
They were running about, shrieking.Yakṣas, hungry spirits,
And wild birds and beasts
Were unbearably hungry.
They were looking out of the windows
In all directions for food.
The house was so dangerous, so dreadful.
The Introduction to the Lotus Sūtra offers this on the suffering world that is the burning house:
Another important point of the parable [of the Burning House] is that we humans are allegorically illustrated as living in a burning house. The burning, of course, symbolizes our suffering. From the Buddhist viewpoint, suffering is an inescapable fact of life, as illustrated in the dictum, “All existence is suffering.” Many people think this view is too pessimistic, but that is not the case. The dictum is presented as a bare fact, neither good or bad. Biological suffering is a part of life. The question is, What can we do about it?
Introduction to the Lotus SutraRight Effort
Primitive Buddhist scriptures describe four kinds of right effort – the sixth step of the Eightfold Path – designed to cultivate good and suppress evil. These are the effort to prevent evil from arising, the effort to abandon evil when it has arisen, the effort to produce good, and the effort to increase good when it has been produced. Right effort alone promotes realization of one’s goals.
In the initial stages of producing good or preventing evil, tremendous deliberate effort is essential. But as the effort becomes habitual it grows easier. In other words, willingness to make the effort to prevent evil from arising and to produce good is the crux. In religious faith, ethics, morality, politics, economics, health, or any other area of life, people who continue making right efforts are certain to advance step by step toward success and attainment of their goals.
Basic Buddhist Concepts
The Dependable Lotus Sūtra
If women, who believe in the Lotus Sūtra, should be sent to the evil regions because of sins of envy, malice or greed, the precept against lying that has been observed strictly by Śākyamuni Buddha, Buddha of Many Treasures and Buddhas all over the universe would be broken. This would be a crime more serious than the sin of lying committed by Devadatta and Kōkalika. How can there be such a thing? How dependable the upholders of the Lotus Sūtra can be! How grateful we are!
Gassui Gasho, A Letter on Menstruation, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 32
Daily Dharma – Feb. 18, 2019
Our palaces are beautifully adorned
Because we accumulated merits in our previous existence.
We offer [these palaces] to you.
Receive them out of your compassion towards us!
The Brahma-Heavenly-Kings of the East sing these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sutra. In the story, they came to the world of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence-Buddha from their worlds of beauty and pleasure when that Buddha became enlightened. Their offering shows their understanding that while they can enjoy the results of the merits they have created, these results are meant to be shared with all beings. No matter how much or how little we have, being grateful for what we have, rather than being resentful for what we lack, is an expression of the Buddha’s wisdom.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Practice in Actuality
To say that “the nine realms possess the Buddha realm” is a statement about ontology; it does not mean that deluded persons experience or perceive the world as Buddhas do, or that they act as Buddhas act. To transform consciousness, practice is necessary. The “three thousand realms in one thought-moment” represents not only the ontological basis for the actualization of Buddhahood, but also a “contemplation method” (kanpō). In this sense, as we have seen, Nichiren distinguishes his method of contemplating ichinen sanzen as that of “actuality” (ji), from the method of Chih-i and Saichō, which he terms that of “principle” (ri).The latter of course refers to the introspective method set forth in the Mo-ho chih-kuan, in which the practitioner’s (deluded) thought of one moment is taken as the object of contemplation. But what did Nichiren mean in saying that his was the method of “actuality”? While the notion of “actuality” or ji in Nichiren’s thought has undergone extensive interpretation, there is one particular sense of ji to which Nichiren himself calls attention in this context. In the Kanjin honzon shō, he writes that while Hui-ssu and Chih-i had established the teaching of three thousand realms in one thought-moment, “[T]hey only discussed it as inherent in principle (rigu)” and did not reveal “the five characters of Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, which represents concrete practice (jigyō), or the object of worship of the teaching of origin. “141 Here, ji clearly carries the Mikkyō connotation of jisō, or “actual forms”—the mūdras, mantras, and mandalas employed in esoteric practice. In Nichiren’s Buddhism, the three thousand realms in one thought-moment takes concrete, “actual” form as the daimoku and a specific object of worship (honzon). These two, together with the ordination platform (kaidan) or, more broadly, the place of practice—constitute what Nichiren called the “three great matters of the ‘Fathoming the Lifespan’ chapter of the origin teaching” (honmon juryōhon no sandaiji) or, as the later tradition would call them, the “three great secret Dharmas” (sandai hihō). In Nichiren’s system, these three form the content of the transmission conferred by Śākyamuni Buddha upon Bodhisattva Superior Conduct at the assembly in the air above Eagle Peak and are destined expressly for the Final Dharma age. All three are entailed in the moment of “embracing” the Lotus Sūtra. (Page 266-267)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismSūtra as Defined as a Thread
With regard to sūtra that literally means thread (Fan-hsien) signified by the Chinese word Ching, Chih-i explains that thread can function to link teaching, practice and doctrine, so that these aspects are not scattered. In addition, thread also conveys the meaning sewing. By sewing up teaching, sentences and phrases can be put in order, so that one can expound the dharma accordingly. Thread can also function to sew up practice. When one follows the warp, one’s practice is correct. When one disobeys the warp, one’s practice is deviant. Thread can also sew up the principle. What is not coherent with the principle falls into sixty-two kinds of evil. What is coherent with the principle integrates with the ultimate Path as the One Buddha-vehicle. (Vol. 2, Page 394)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month heard Śāriputra’s dancing joy in gāthās, we consider Śāriputra’s fear that he was listening to Mara in the form of a Buddha.
In the midst of the great multitude,
You said to me, “You will become a Buddha.”
Hearing this truthful voice,
All my doubts are gone.When I had heard this from you,
I was much frightened and perplexed; I thought:
“The Buddha troubles me.
Isn’t he Mara in the form of a Buddha?”You skillfully expound the Dharma with various parables and similes,
And with various stories of previous lives.
Now my mind is as peaceful as the sea.
Hearing you, I have removed the mesh of doubts.You said:
“The innumerable Buddhas in the past
Expounded the Dharma with expedients.
The numberless Buddhas at present
Also expound the Dharma
With expedients.
So will the countless Buddhas
In the future.”You appeared in this world,
Left your home, attained enlightenment,
And now turn the wheel of the Dharma,
Also with expedients.You expound the true teaching;
Papiyas does not.
Therefore, I know
That you are not a transformation of Mara.
I thought that the Dharma was expounded by Mara
Because I was in the mesh of doubts.I hear your gentle voice.
Your voice is deep and wonderful.
You expound the Pure Dharma.
My heart is filled with great joy.
All my doubts are gone.
I have obtained true wisdom.I shall become a Buddha without fail.
I shall be respected by gods and men.
I will turn the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma,
And teach Bodhisattvas.
This expedient lesson is discussed by Nichiren in his letter on Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods:
When Śāripūtra, a man of the Two Vehicle considered unable to attain Buddhahood in the pre-Lotus sūtras, was guaranteed future Buddhahood, he expressed his astonishment in the third chapter, “A Parable,” “Is this not a devil pretending to be the Buddha, trying to trouble and confuse my mind?” The Buddha preaches in the fifth chapter, “The Simile of Herbs,” “Regarding this essential doctrine, I kept silent for a long time without revealing it at once.” These make clear that the sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra are all expedient; only the Lotus Sūtra is the True Dharma.
Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 243
Learning From Our Mistakes
In this Sahā world it is difficult to eliminate earthly desires completely. Even so, we learn from our mistakes while we are living in the Sahā World full of suffering. We merge into the Original Buddha’s life, become involved in the Buddha’s life and live in the Buddha’s life. Thus, both good and evil deeds are reflected upon and can help us not to create these mistakes again. This is called Kai-ye, which re-evaluates things from the point of view of the Buddha’s enlightenment, gets them involved in the world of the Lotus Sūtra and finds the value of the things. As a result, everything is unified with the Lotus Sūtra and becomes an object of appreciation and respect.
Buddha Seed: Understanding the OdaimokuPast Lives Of Śākyamuni Buddha
Medicine King Bodhisattva burnt his elbows as a light to be offered to Lotus Sūtra for 72,000 years. Whenever Never Despising Bodhisattva saw anyone, he always recited the 24-character verse: I respect you deeply. I will never despise you because you are destined to practice the way of the bodhisattva and become Buddhas.” For many years he was the object of abuse of numerous men and women, priests and nuns, who beat him with sticks and threw stones at him.
This Never Despising Bodhisattva is the current Śākyamuni Buddha. What is more, King Suzudan in the past was so eager to learn the teaching of the five written characters, Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō, that he enslaved himself to the hermit Asita for a thousand years until he became the current Śākyamuni Buddha.
Nichimyō Shōnin Gosho, A Letter to Nichimyō Shōnin, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 138