Monthly Archives: August 2019

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 16, 2019

Those who seek the enlightenment of the Buddha
Are as various as previously stated.
A kalpa will not be long enough
To describe the variety of them.

The Buddha speaks these verses in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. We may believe that only some kinds of people will hear the teaching of the Buddha. In this passage the Buddha reminds us that we cannot predict who will be able to join us in our practice and who will not. This is why it is so important to maintain our vow as Bodhisattvas to benefit all beings.

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

LS32

Day 22

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Day 22 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month repeated in gāthās the merits of anyone who keeps this sūtra, we conclude Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Anyone who respects the stupa-mausoleum,
Who is modest before bhikṣus,
Who gives up self-conceit,
Who always thinks of wisdom,
Who does not get angry when asked questions,
And who expounds the Dharma
According to the capacities of the questioners,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.

When you see any teacher of the Dharma
Who has obtained these merits,
You should strew heavenly flowers to him,
Dress him in a heavenly garment,
Worship his feet with your head,
And think that he will become a Buddha.

You should think
“He will go to the place of enlightenment before long.
He will be free from āsravas and free from causality.
He will benefit all gods and men.”

Erect a stupa in the place
Where he expounded even a gāthā of this sūtra
While he was standing,
Walking, sitting or reclining!
Adorn the stupa beautifully,
And make various offerings to it!

He is my son.
I will accept his place as mine.
I will be there.
I will walk, sit or recline there.

The Daily Dharma from July 4, 2019, offers this:

Anyone who respects the stūpa-mausoleum,
Who is modest before bhikṣus,
Who gives up self-conceit,
Who always thinks of wisdom,
Who does not get angry when asked questions,
And who expounds the Dharma
According to the capacities of the questioners,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. The merits of which he speaks are not an indication that we are better than other beings, that we deserve more respect than others, or that we are closer to enlightenment. Merits are a measure of clarity. When we lose attachment and delusion, we gain merit. When we see things for what they are, we gain the wisdom to truly benefit others.

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

WONS, Blog

Daimoku Similes

During my recent hour-long walking meditations, I’ve been pondering how to describe the role of the Daimoku in Buddhist practice. Similes – comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid – seem the best bet.

Consider The Simile of the Magnifying Glass

IFTE-NB-001787
Lighting a fire with a magnifying glass

Let’s set the stage with some background from Nichiren’s letters:

The first thousand years following the Buddha’s extinction are called the Age of the True Dharma. During this period, many people kept the precepts and some attained Buddhahood. The next thousand years are called the Age of the Semblance Dharma. During this period, many people broke the precepts, and only a few attained Buddhahood. After the Age of the Semblance Dharma comes the Latter Age of Degeneration. This period is filled with people who neither keep nor break the precepts, but the country is filled with people who have no precepts.

Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 140.

Source

In the Latter Age of Degeneration, the pre-Lotus sūtras and the teaching of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra, which were suitable in the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, no longer enabled the people to shed delusions of life and death and attain Buddhahood.

Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 288

Source

In the Latter Age of Degeneration beginning 2,000 years after the passing of the Buddha, the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna sutras given to Kāśyapa, Ānanda, Mañjuśrī, Maitreya, Medicine King, Avalokiteśvara and others were no longer useful as medicine for living beings. It is because they were no longer effective as cures for the severe ailments of living beings. While the Buddha considered what to do about this, Superior Practice Bodhisattva emerged from the earth. The Buddha then ordered the bodhisattva to give the five characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō to all living beings throughout the Jambudvīpa.

Takahashi Nyūdō-dono Gohenji, A Response to Lay Priest Lord Takahashi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 74-75

Source

So today, more than 700 years later, we are well into the Latter Age of Degeneration, when the Buddha’s teachings have lost their vitality. It is much like the sun in winter in Upstate New York.

During the spring and summer and into the fall, the sun nourishes us with its warmth. But once winter settles in, that warmth is nowhere to be found. The same sun is there in the cloudless afternoon sky, but the temperature is 17 degrees Fahrenheit or even less.

In this endless winter of diminished warmth in the Latter Age of Degeneration, the Daimoku acts like a magnifying glass, focusing the Dharma rays to a single point. That focused energy is enough to set fire to karmic encumbrances or to burn away delusions.

The daimoku has two meanings: the daimoku which was practiced during the Ages of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma, and that which is practiced in the Latter Age of Degeneration. During the Age of the True Dharma, Bodhisattvas Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna chanted the daimoku solely for the sake of their own practice. During the Age of the Semblance Dharma, Grand Masters Nanyüeh and T’ien-t’ai chanted only the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō; they, too, chanted it for their own practices, not to guide other people. Their daimoku was a practice for attaining enlightenment based on the teaching of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. The daimoku which I, Nichiren, recite today in the Latter Age of Degeneration is the daimoku of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, which, unlike that of the previous ages, is not merely the practice for personal enlightenment but it is the practice also for benefitting others. This five-character daimoku is not just a title of the Lotus Sūtra; it contains the five profound meanings of the name, entity, quality, function and teaching.

Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 289-290

Source

Lotus Path

Being Better, Not Perfect

Quote

Embracing the idea of being better and letting go of the need for perfection is one of many keys to becoming happier in our lives. In being better, not perfect, the idea is that by continually making changes, by continually making progress, we actually improve our lives in a much more significant and profound way than if we focused on trying to achieve perfection.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

d13b, WONS

Offering a Bowl of Barnyard Millet Rice

A man named Aniruddha was a disciple of the Buddha. As he gained the supernatural power to see through things, he was renowned for his divine eyesight and counted as one of the ten great disciples of the Buddha together with Mahā-Kāśyapa, Śāripūtra, Maudgalyāyana, and Ānanda.

As we look at his origin, Aniruddha was a prince of King Doroṇodana, second son of King Shimuhahanu. Namely, he was a cousin of Śākyamuni Buddha. He is known by three names: Never in Poverty, Wish Fulfilling, and Never Hunting, each of which originates in a wonderful story.

There once was a noble pratyekabuddha named Venerable Rita who lived during a time of famine. He had nothing to eat for seven days until a hunter living in a mountain village gave him a bowl of barnyard millet rice. Due to this meritorious act, it is said this hunter became a rich man in this life, and upon death he enjoyed a happy life in the realm of human beings and that of heavenly beings for as long as 91 kalpa (aeons). Finally, he was reborn as the crown prince of King Doroṇodana. This is Aniruddha, whose golden rice bowl was always full of cooked rice. He reached the rank of arhat and his eyesight was equipped with the supernatural faculty of seeing through the whole universe. As a result, he was guaranteed by the Buddha to be the future Buddha of Universal Brightness in the Lotus Sūtra fascicle 4.

Grand Master Miao-lê interpreted the story in this way, “Although a bowl of barnyard millet rice is not much in value, offering it meant he gave up all that he had and the ‘field of merit’ was superior. As a result, an especially great reward was gained.” It means that “Although a bowl of barnyard millet rice is not precious, he offered all he had in this world to a hungry venerable Buddhist monk engaged in ascetic practices. With this great merit he gained such a wonderful reward to be reborn as a splendid person.”

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 9-10

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 15, 2019

T’ien’tai, therefore, makes clear that all things and phenomena in the ten realms are manifestations of the ultimate reality. Since ultimate reality is another name of the Lotus Sutra, what he states is that all things and phenomena are equal to the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren wrote this as part of his letter to monk Sairen-bō in his Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality (Shohō-Jissō Shō). This was another way of Nichiren expressing his understanding that the Buddha’s highest wisdom is not something that takes us out of this world, but is found within the everyday experiences of our lives. Even the realms of anger, greed, fear, hostility, calm and pleasure are part of the Buddha’s pure land. The practice of the Wonderful Dharma is not to escape from these difficult places, but to use them to benefit all beings. To be caught up in them is to be deluded about their evanescent nature. To see them for what they are is to know the joy of enlightenment.

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

LS32, WONS

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month repeated in gāthās why the Buddha expediently shows his Nirvāṇa, we conclude Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

I can do all this by my supernatural powers.
I live on Mt. Sacred Eagle
And also in the other abodes
For asaṃkhya kalpas.

The [perverted] people think:
“This world is in a great fire.
The end of the kalpa [of destruction] is coming.”
In reality this world of mine is peaceful.
It is filled with gods and men.
The gardens, forests and stately buildings
Are adorned with various treasures;
The jeweled trees have many flowers and fruits;
The living beings are enjoying themselves;
And the gods are beating heavenly drums,
Making various kinds of music,
And raining mandārava-flowers on the great multitude and me.

[This] pure world of mine is indestructible.
But the [perverted] people think:
“It is full of sorrow, fear, and other sufferings.
It will soon burn away.”

Because of their evil karmas,
These sinful people will not be able
To hear even the names of the Three Treasures
During asaṃkhya kalpas.

To those who have accumulated merits,
And who are gentle and upright,
And who see me living here,
Expounding the Dharma,
I say:
“The duration of my life is immeasurable.”
To those who see me after a long time,
I say, “It is difficult to see a Buddha.”

I can do all this by the power of my wisdom.
The light of my wisdom knows no bound.
The duration of my life is innumerable kalpas.
I obtained this longevity by ages of practices.

All of you, wise men!
Have no doubts about this!
Remove your doubts, have no more!
My words are true, not false.

The physician, who sent a man expediently
To tell his perverted sons
Of the death of their father in order to cure them,
Was not accused of falsehood although he was still alive.

In the same manner, I am the father of the world.
I am saving all living beings from suffering.
Because they are perverted,
I say that I pass away even though I shall not.
If they always see me,
They will become arrogant and licentious,
And cling to the five desires
So much that they will fall into the evil regions.

I know who is practicing the Way and who is not.
Therefore I expound various teachings
To all living beings
According to their capacities.

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

Nichiren discusses this Sahā world being the Buddha’s Pure Land in his Treatise on Protecting the Nation:

QUESTION: Which “Pure Land” should practicers of the Lotus Sūtra pray to be reborn in?

ANSWER: It is stated in the sixteenth chapter on “The Life Span of the Buddha,” the essence of the Lotus Sūtra consisting of 28 chapters, “I will always stay in this Sahā World;” “I reside here always;” and “This world of Mine is at peace.” According to these statements, the Eternal True Buddha, the origin of all Buddhas in manifestation, is always in this Sahā World. Then why should we wish to be anywhere other than this Sahā World? You should know that there is no Pure Land other than the very place where the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra resides. Why should we concern ourselves seeking a Pure Land in any other place?

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 67-68

Blog

A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife

Yasodhara_bookcoverLast week, I traveled to Red Wing, Minnesota, to attend the wedding of my brother’s oldest daughter. I took along “Yasodhara: A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife,” which has been gathering dust on my to-be-read pile of books. It was only later that I realized this was not a random decision.

The publisher, Speaking Tiger Books, offers this summary:

A long time ago, in a far-off kingdom, a boy and a girl, born on the same day, were destined to be together–and then painfully wrenched apart. The boy was Siddhattha, heir to the Sakya kingdom and the future Buddha; the girl was the beautiful and precocious Yasodhara, his friend who became his loving wife.

In this exquisitely crafted narrative, we encounter Yasodhara as a fiercely independent, passionate and resilient individual. We witness her joys and sorrows, her expectations and frustrations, her fairy-tale wedding, and her overwhelming devastation at the departure of her beloved.

It is through her eyes that we witness Siddhattha’s slow transformation, from a sheltered prince to a deeply sensitive young man. On the way, we see how the gods watch over the future Buddha from the clouds, how the king and his ministers try to keep the suffering of the world from him and how he eventually renounces the throne, his wife and newly-born son to seek enlightenment.

Resurrecting a forgotten woman from the origin stories of the Buddha, Vanessa R. Sasson combines the spirit of fiction and the fabulism of Indian mythology with impeccable scholarship, to tell the evocative and deeply moving story of an extraordinary life.

Vanessa R. Sasson
Vanessa R. Sasson
The author, Vanessa R. Sasson, is a professor of Religious Studies in the Liberal and Creative Arts and Humanities Department at Marianopolis College, Quebec. She is also a Research Fellow for the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State in South Africa, as well as Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University, Montreal.

In the author’s introduction, she explains the book in this way:

Yasodhara, the Buddha’s wife, is not the focus of most early Buddhist hagiographies. The literature preserves fragments of her life, but the focus is (unsurprisingly) usually on her husband. In this book, I have tried to bring together some of these early fragments into the shape of a modern novel, to tell her story from her perspective (as I imagine it). As the writing process unfolded, however, I came to appreciate how much information we are missing. The literature is genuinely scant where she is concerned— particularly regarding her youth. She is a key player during a few moments in the Buddha’s life, but otherwise, we know little about her. We know she produced their one and only son, that she was left behind when he made his Great Departure, and that when he returned to the palace seven years later, he took his son back to the forest with him. The Jatakas (past-life stories) refer to her in a number of accounts, suggesting that Yasodhara and the Buddha had been connected for lifetimes, but we do not know much more than that. Indeed, Yasodhara is so marginalized in some cases that she does not even receive a name. She is known simply as Rahulamata—Rahula’s mother. …

The story I have told here is, therefore, a story inspired by later hagiographies. It is not historical fiction, but perhaps what can be more appropriately labelled “hagiographical fiction” (if such a label existed). This book is my attempt at recreating a hagiography, inspired by hagiographies that belong to an earlier time.

The novel stands alone well by itself, “a story inspired by later hagiographies.” But for me the joy was reading each chapter with the notes that detail the sources of her inspiration.

Returning to the topic of my trip, it wasn’t until near the end of the book that I realized why I was drawn to this tale. It was at the point in the story when Siddhattha, now the Buddha, returns to the Sakya palace. Yasodhara, who has felt abandoned by her husband and wears widow’s clothes, must now confront the loss of her 7-year-old son Rahula.

My parents divorced in 1960 when I was 9 years old and my brother 7. My mother threatened to kill herself if my father followed through with his attempt to gain custody. My brother and I lived with my mother and rarely saw our father once he moved away with his new wife. My mother never remarried. Later in life, I blind-sided my first wife with a divorce request because I was, as an acquaintance described it, “feeling my generations” – the male equivalent of the ticking biological clock. I could really relate to the tale of Yasodhara.

This weekend I watched as a lovely young couple married. They lived together for 10 years before exchanging vows. That’s longer than my parents’ marriage and longer than my first marriage. May they have a long and happy life as husband and wife.

WONS

The Gohonzon Treasured by Śākyamuni Buddha

[T]he gohonzon that I revealed was not revealed by any of the many Tripiṭaka masters entering China from India or by those who went to India from China. Looking at such books as the Record of the Western Regions by Hsūan-tsung, the honzon of various temples in many states in all of India are all recorded. I have also exhaustively studied the gohonzon of Chinese temples recorded by Chinese sages coming to Japan and by wise men of Japan entering China. Regarding those in Japan, they are all recorded in the diaries of numerous temples starting with the Gangōji and Shitennōji Temples, the first Buddhist temples in Japan, and many secular books and diaries beginning with a book called Nihongi. Therefore, the gohonzon of each temple is ascertained. The gohonzon that I revealed is not among them.

Some people may have doubts about me saying, “Isn’t it correct to say that the honzon revealed by Nichiren is not based on sūtras or commentaries? Isn’t this why many sages in the past did not portray it or carve it in wood?” Despite this, the honzon is based on the scriptural statements, as clear as day. Those who doubt this should investigate whether or not the scriptural base in fact exists. It is not right to criticize it just because it was not created or portrayed in the previous era.

For instance, when Śākyamuni Buddha went up to the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven in order to make obeisance for his late mother, no one in the entire world (Jambudvīpa) was aware of this. Only Venerable Maudgalyāyana knew this, but it was due to the divine power of the Buddha. Likewise, the Buddha Dharma, which exists before our very eyes, cannot be seen unless one has the capacity for perceiving it, and it cannot be spread unless the time is ripe. There is a natural reason for this. For instance, it is like the ebb and flow of the ocean tide or the waxing and waning of the moon in the sky according to time.

Now this gohonzon had been treasured by Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha in his heart for 500 (million) dust-particle kalpa in the past before appearing in this world. Even after attaining Enlightenment, he did not reveal it for forty years before expounding it in the Lotus Sūtra. And even while preaching the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha passed through most of the theoretical section without referring to it until he began preaching it in the “Beholding the Stupa of Treasures” chapter, revealing it in the truth in the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter in the essential section, and completing it in the “Divine Power of the Buddha” and the “Transmission” chapters.

Many bodhisattvas such as Mañjuśrī of the Konjiki Sekai (Golden World), Maitreya of the Tuṣita Heaven, Avalokiteśvara of Mt. Potalaka, and Medicine King, a disciple of Sun Moon Pure Bright Virtue Buddha, eagerly volunteered to spread it, but they were not allowed to do so. Śākyamuni Buddha then stated, “These bodhisattvas, though widely known for their wisdom and wit, have not placed their faith in the Lotus Sūtra for long and their learning is not deep enough, making it difficult for them to endure the great challenges of the Latter Age of Degeneration. I have instead my treasured disciples whom I have secretly kept in the bottom of the earth since 500 million dust-particle kalpa ago. I am entrusting them with this great duty.”

Thus, the Buddha called out such bodhisattvas as Superior Practice Bodhisattva in the “Emerging from the Earth” chapter and granted to them the five characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō, the gist of the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, declaring:

“Listen carefully! Listen carefully! This dharma should not be spread during the millennium Age of the True Dharma nor the millennium Age of the Semblance Dharma. In the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration, priests slandering the True Dharma will fill the world (Jambudvīpa) evoking the anger of various heavenly beings, causing a comet to appear in the sky, and unleashing a violent earthquake that will shake the great earth like a great wave of the ocean. What is more, severe droughts, huge conflagrations, deluges, storms, widespread epidemics, famines, and the horrors of war will compete with each other. At such time when all the people in the entire world don armor and carry swords and bows, when various Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and virtuous deities have become powerless, and when people all die and fall like heavy rainfall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering, the rulers will be able to save their countries and the people will be able to free themselves from calamities if they carry the great mandala of five Chinese characters with them and put faith in it. Not only will they experience peace in this life but also will be able to escape the suffering of fire in hell after death.”

Now, although I am not Superior Practice Bodhisattva, I understood beforehand nearly everything about Buddhism in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Believing that it was at the discretion of Superior Practice Bodhisattva, I have devoted myself to spreading the five characters of the Lotus Sūtra during these twenty years or so.

Nii-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Younger Nun, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 147-149

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 14, 2019

Anyone who wishes to expound this sūtra
Should give up jealousy, anger, arrogance,
Flattery, deception and dishonesty.
He should always be upright.

The Buddha sings these verses to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. The way we live our lives can either reinforce our delusions or help us gain more clarity about how things really are. In these verses, the Buddha advises against these actions not because he will think less of us when we do them, but because when we find ourselves behaving these ways it is because we are not seeing things for what they are.

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