In order to prove his classification of the sequence of the Buddha’s teaching, Chih-i quotes the passages from the “Chapter On Expedient Means” in the Lotus Sūtra, such as “When I first sat at the bodhimaṇḍa, whether observing or practicing, throughout three weeks, contemplating on such a thing: ‘The knowledge and wisdom I have gained is the uttermost subtle thing. Living beings with their dull faculties … . How can they be saved? I had rather not teach the dharma but enter rapidly into nirvāṇa. When I think back on the Buddhas of the past, on the power of the expedient means put into practice by them, I know that in the Path I have now gained, I too must teach the Three Vehicles.” Chih-i explains that the phrase “when I first sat at the bodhimaṇḍa” expresses the teaching that is characterized by Sudden. In Chih-i’s theory, at the beginning of the teaching career upon the Buddha’s enlightenment under the bodhi tree, the Buddha teaches the Greater Vehicle to the bodhisattvas, and this teaching belongs to the Sudden teaching. Moreover, the assertion of the Buddha that he must teach the Three Vehicles proves that after the initial teaching of the Sudden, the Buddha’s teaching of the Three Vehicles can be characterized as the Gradual teaching. (Vol. 2, Page 456)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismMonthly Archives: April 2019
Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month heard Śākyamuni’s prediction of the future Buddhahood of Śāriputra, we complete the prediction of Śāriputra future.
The kalpa in which he appears will be called Great-Treasure-Adornment. Why will it be called Great-Treasure-Adornment? It is because in that world Bodhisattvas will be regarded as great treasures. The number of the Bodhisattvas [in that world] will be countless, inconceivable, beyond any mathematical calculation, beyond inference by any parable or simile. No one will know the number except the Buddha who has the power of wisdom. When those Bodhisattvas wish to go somewhere, jeweled flowers will receive their feet and carry them. Those Bodhisattvas will not have just begun to aspire for enlightenment. A long time before that they will have already planted the roots of virtue, performed the brahma practices under many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, received the praises of the Buddhas, studied the wisdom of the Buddhas, obtained great supernatural powers, and understood all the teachings of the Buddhas. They will be upright, honest, and resolute in mind. The world of that Buddha will be filled with such Bodhisattvas.
“Śāriputra! The duration of the life of Flower-Light Buddha will be twelve small kalpas excluding the period in which he was a prince and had not yet attained Buddhahood. The duration of the life of the people of his world will be eight small kalpas. At the end of his life of twelve small kalpas, Flower-Light Tathāgata will assure Resolution-Fulfillment Bodhisattva of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, saying to the bhikṣus, ‘This Resolution-Fulfillment Bodhisattva will become a Buddha immediately after me. He will be called Flower-Foot-Easy-Walking, the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha. His world will be like mine.’
“Śāriputra! After the extinction of Flower-Light Buddha, his right teachings will be preserved for thirty-two small kalpas. After that the counterfeit of his right teachings will be preserved also for thirty-two small kalpas.”
Continuing with the content from Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan, we learn of A Priest Who Scorned a Hokekyō Reciter.
A Priest Who Scorned a Hokekyō Reciter
Long ago, when a man of Yamashiro Province was playing a go game with a priest, a Hokekyō reciter came by and begged for food while reciting the Hokekyō. Hearing the recitation, the priest sneered at and scorned the reciter. Immediately, the priest’s mouth became twisted; he was losing his voice and became useless.
Seeing and hearing about the priest, people were all frightened and awestruck saying, “Since he scorned the Hokekyō reciter, he was punished right in his present life.”
The annoyed priest went to an herbalist who tried to give the priest some medicinal treatment, but all was of no avail. The priest’s mouth became more twisted, his voice became fainter, and he was unable to speak.
Since retribution in one’s present life can be like this, the suffering and pain in one’s future life cannot be calculated, just as can be noted in the Hiyu Chapter of the Hokekyō. This story appears in the Ryōiki. (Page 118)
Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient JapanOur Connecting to the Buddha
I can’t stress this enough that we who practice today have been given a promise that fundamentally is greater than any promise given to the contemporary disciples of the Buddha. With this promise by the Buddha those who practice today actually have a stronger more direct connection to the Buddha than those who lived during the lifetime of the Buddha. We will, by the merit of our practice of the Lotus Sutra, be able to be present with Shakyamuni, Many Treasures as well as all the replica Buddhas. For anyone who practices the Lotus Sutra to lament they were not born in the time of the Buddha some 2500 years ago it will be like saying they would rather have a lesser teaching of the Buddha than the fundamental truth of all Buddhas as revealed in the Lotus Sutra.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraThe Debt Owed to the Eternal Buddha
The Pure Land Sect considers the Buddha of Infinite Life, who is merely a manifestation of Śākyamuni in the Pure Land to the West, to be the lord of this world and abandons Śākyamuni, who is the real lord of this world. The Zen Sect, just like a lowly man with a little virtue despising his parents, despises the Buddha and His sūtras.
They are all confused about the Most Venerable One. It is analogous to the situation before the time of the Three Emperors, when people did not know who their fathers were and behaved like beasts and birds. Those Buddhist schools that do not know of “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter in the Lotus Sūtra are the same as beasts and birds; they do not know the debt they owe to the Eternal Buddha. Grand Master Miao-lê declared in his Hokke gohyaku monron (500 Inquiries into the Lotus Sūtra): “Eternity in the life of the Buddha, who is our parent, has not been revealed in the pre-Lotus sūtras. (…) If one does not know the eternity in the life of his father, the Buddha, he is also confused about the Buddha land his father governs. Such a man, no matter how capable he may be, is not at all worthy of being a human.”
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 76-77
Daily Dharma – April 22, 2019
Medicine-King! Erect a stūpa of the seven treasures in any place where this sūtra is expounded, read, recited or copied, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra exists! The stūpa should be tall, spacious and adorned. You need not enshrine my śarīras in the stūpa. Why not? It is because it will contain my perfect body.
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. In ancient India, stūpas were tombs built as memorials to those who had enjoyed a superior position in their lives. After the Buddha died, small relics of his body were distributed so that many great stūpas could be built to his memory. Even today all over Asia, stūpas hold the physical remains of the Buddha. In this chapter, the Buddha reminds us that when we have the Lotus Sūtra with us, it is as good as having the Buddha himself.
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The Superiority of the Lotus Sūtra
In this first part, Chih-i addresses that the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the teachings in other sūtras. He states that various types of the teaching of the Buddha are equally beneficial to various living beings, from the viewpoint that each of them suits certain capabilities of beings. Nevertheless, respecting the methods of the teaching, there exist differences among them. The teachings of other sūtras do not express the real intention of the Buddha, as they are the product of suiting the understandings of listeners. The teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, with the true knowledge of the Buddha, directly conveys the real intention of the Buddha, and leads all beings to attain Buddhahood. Therefore, the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the teachings of other sūtras. (Vol. 2, Page 453-454)
Day 4
Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered why Śākyamuni laid aside all expedient teachings, we hear Śākyamuni’s prediction for Bodhisattvas who hear the Dharma.
The Bodhisattvas who hear the Dharma
Will be able to remove the mesh of doubts.
The twelve hundred Arhats also
Will become Buddhas.All the Buddhas in the past, present, and future
Expounded, are expounding, and will expound
In the same manner the Dharma beyond comprehension.
I also will expound it in the same manner.The Buddhas seldom appear in the worlds.
It is difficult to meet them.
Even when they do appear in the worlds,
They seldom expound the Dharma.It is difficult to hear the Dharma
Even during innumerable kalpas.
It is also difficult to meet a person
Who listens to the Dharma attentively.
It is as difficult as seeing an udumbara-flower.
This flower, loved by all living beings,
And treasured by gods and men,
Blooms only once in a long time.Anyone who rejoices at hearing the Dharma
And utters even a single word in praise of it
Should be considered to have already made offerings
To the past, present, and future Buddhas.
Such a person is rarely seen,
More rarely than the udumbara-flower.
Continuing with the content from Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan, we learn of Priest Ezō of the Daigoji Temple
Priest Ezō of the Daigoji Temple
Ezō was a priest of the Daigoji Temple. Since taking the tonsure, he had a close relationship to the Hokekyō. He only recited the Hokekyō. He neither read other sūtras, nor studied secular writings. He did not maintain the Shingon teachings, nor learn the Tendai doctrines. But he fervently recited and memorized the Hokekyō. Yet he could not memorize two characters in the Verse of the Priest in the sūtra’s Chapter of Skillfulness. For several years, Ezō tried to learn these characters in vain. While looking at the text, he knew and understood the characters very clearly, but as soon as he left the text and tried to recite from memory, he could not remember the characters. He mourned over his past sins which might cause this hardship, and wished to know the reason.
Finally, he visited the Hatsusedera Temple, sequestered himself for seven days and prayed, “Great Merciful Kannon, please let me learn these two characters in the sūtra!” Seven days had passed and Ezō dreamed that an old priest appeared behind the sacred hanging in front of the altar and said to Ezō, “Priest, I will let you learn the two characters with the Buddha’s expedience and explain why you have not remembered these characters.
“You were born as a human being both in this and your past lives. In your former existence, you were born in the Kamo District of Harima Province, where your parents still live. In the past of your former life, you recited the Hokekyō, facing a fire whose flames burned the two characters in the text. You had not written and supplied these burned characters in the text at that time. Due to this mistake, you are not able to learn them in this life, no matter how hard you have tried. Your old text is still extant in Harima. You should go there, pay your respects to the old text, write the missing characters in the text, and atone for your past sins.”
The awakened Ezō recited the sūtra. This time, he recalled the two characters with no difficulty. To learn the truth, he went to the Kamo District of Harima Province. As the master of the house came out and saw Ezō and heard his voice, the master said to his wife, “Our child has returned! His face and voice are no different than those of our child.”
Hearing this, Ezō explained to the couple why he had come. The parents were tearfully overjoyed. As Ezō read the old text of the sūtra, he saw that the two characters were missing. He added them to the text and kept it for a long time. Thus, in his present life, Ezō had four parents whom he served well and treated with filial piety. Ezō devoted himself to the Way and was never negligent in practicing good deeds. (Page 57-58)
Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient JapanSuffering and Nirvana
The radical Mahayana principle that “the sufferings of birth and death are themselves Nirvana” is another application of the Buddhist teaching of non-duality. This principle indicates that the ultimate goal is not outside of the world but is instead the real aspect of the world’s kaleidoscopic array of ever-changing aspects.
Specifically, “the sufferings of birth and death” refers to this world, wherein we must endure the constant cycle of birth and death. It is the world of temporary heavens, fighting demons, hungry ghosts, unthinking animals, numerous hells, and also the daily challenges of ordinary life. It is the world of karmic rewards and punishments. It is the world dominated and kept in perpetual motion through the energy of greed, hatred, and delusion. It is the world where all that is born to life must also die, with all of the suffering and loss this entails.
Lotus Seeds