Monthly Archives: September 2019

WONS

The Secretly Treasured Doctrine of the Buddha

QUESTION: Various sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra also state that an evil person can become a Buddha. It is preached in the Flower Garland Sūtra that five hundred evil people such as Devadatta will become Buddhas in the future. The Fuchō Zammai Sūtra states that an evil king, Ajātaśatru, will become a Buddha in the future and in the Sūtra of Mahāyāna Dhārani is the story of Vāsudeva, who had gone to hell because of his evil deeds but was guaranteed future Buddhahood. As for the enlightenment of women, the Bosatsu Shotai Sūtra says that any woman can become a Buddha. As for the enlightenment of beasts and birds, the Agama sūtras say that a pigeon will be a Buddha in the future. The enlightenment of the Two Vehicles is mentioned in the Sūtra of Mahāyāna Dhārani and the Heroic Valor Sūtra. The enlightenment of bodhisattvas is mentioned in such sūtras as the Flower Garland Sūtra. As for rebirth in the Pure Land by ordinary people bound by evil passions, the Sūtra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life says that even “the lowest grade in the lowest class” will be reborn in the Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Life, no matter how serious one’s sin is. As for a woman turning into a man, the Sūtra of the Buddha of Infinite Life states in the thirty-fifth of its forty-eight vows that a woman can turn into a man by reciting the name of the Buddha of Infinite Life and be reborn in the Pure Land. How are these enlightenments thus revealed in these various provisional sūtras different from the assurance of future Buddhahood of the Two Vehicles, a dragon girl, Devadatta, and bodhisattvas in the Lotus Sūtra? Also, there is no doubt that they all attain Buddhahood in these various sūtras even though there are some differences between them and the Lotus Sūtra. What do you think of this?

ANSWER: It is easy to answer your question based on the teachings passed down to me which I hold dear. After hearing my answer, you will clearly see that the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the various other sūtras and determine whether or not it is indeed possible to become Buddhas in those sūtras. However, I cannot write this down on paper because it is the secretly treasured doctrine of the Buddha.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 88-89

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 18, 2019

If they hear the Dharma, some will attain enlightenment;
Others will be reborn in heaven.
The living beings in the evil regions will decrease;
And those who do good patiently will increase.

The Brahma-Heavenly-Kings of the Southwest sing these verses to Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They are imploring that Buddha to share his highest teaching with them, and demonstrating that they are ready to receive it. Those living in evil regions are in great difficulty, because they do not know how to keep from reinforcing their delusions and truly benefit themselves. When a Buddha appears to show all beings the world as it is, he helps us to shed our delusions. But we must still come to him and show through our respect for him that we are ready for his teaching.

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 concluded Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, we begin again with Śākyamuni telling the congregation to pay attention.

Thereupon the Buddha aid to the great multitude including Bodhisattvas and others, “Good men! Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”
He said to the great multitude again, “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”

He said to them once again, “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”

Thereupon the great multitude of Bodhisattvas, headed by Maitreya, joined their hands together and said to the Buddha, “World-Honor done, tell us! We will receive your words by faith.”

They said this three times. Then they said once again, “Tell us! We will receive your words by faith.”

Thereupon the World-Honored One, seeing that they repeated their appeal even after they repeated it three times, said to them:

“Listen to me attentively! I will tell you about my hidden core and supernatural powers. The gods, men and asuras in the world think that I, Śākyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Śākyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gayā, and attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [forty and odd years ago]. To tell the truth, good men, it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha. Suppose someone smashed into dust five hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds, which were each composed of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and went to the east [carrying the dust with him). When he reached a world at a distance of five hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds [from this world], he put a particle of dust on that world. Then he went on again to the east, and repeated the putting of a particle of the dust [on the world at every distance of five hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds] until the particles of the dust were exhausted. Good men! What do you think of this? Do you think that the number of the world he went through is conceivable, countable, or not?”

Maitreya Bodhisattva and others said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! Those worlds are innumerable, uncountable, inconceivable. No Śrāvaka or Pratyekabuddha could count them even by his wisdom-without-āsravas. We are now in the state of avaivartika, but cannot, either. World-Honored One! Those worlds are innumerable.”

Thereupon the Buddha said to the great multitude of Bodhisattvas:

“Good Men! Now I will tell you clearly. Suppose those worlds, whether they were marked with the particles of the dust or not, were smashed into dust. The number of the kalpas which have elapsed since I became the Buddha is on hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhyas larger than the number of the particles of the dust thus produced. All this time I have been living in this Sahā-World, and teaching [the living beings of this world] by expounding the Dharma to them. I also have been leading and benefiting the living beings of one hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds outside this world.

Nichiren comments on what happened when the Eternal Buddha was revealed in his letter, A Treatise :Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One:

[W]hen the Eternal Buddha was revealed in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, this world of endurance (Sahā World) became the Eternal Pure Land, indestructible even by the three calamities of conflagration, flooding, and strong winds, which are said to destroy the world. It transcends the four periods of cosmic change: the kalpa of construction, continuance, destruction, and emptiness. Śākyamuni Buddha, the Lord-preacher of this Pure Land, has never died in the past, nor will He be born in the future. He exists forever throughout the past, present, and future. All those who receive His guidance are one with this Eternal Buddha. It is because each of our minds is equipped with the “3,000 modes of existence” and the “three factors,” namely, all living beings, the land in which they live, and the five elements of living beings (matter, perception, conception, volition and consciousness).

This truth was not made clear in the first fourteen chapters of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. Perhaps it was because the time was not ripe at this stage of preaching the Lotus Sūtra; and capacity of comprehension on the part of the listeners was not yet sufficient.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 148

Saicho

Two Types of Bodhisattva

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[In Saichō’s Shijōshiki (Regulations in Four Articles) submitted in 819, he writes:]

I have pondered upon how the Lotus Sūtra calls the bodhisattva the nation’s treasure and how the Mahāyāna sūtras preach the Mahāyāna practice of benefiting others. If we do not employ Mahāyāna sūtras to prevent the seven calamities which affect the world, then what shall we use? If the great disasters to come are not vanquished by the bodhisattva monks, then how will they be forestalled? The virtue of benefiting others and the power of great compassion is that which the Buddhas extol and that in which gods and men rejoice. The hundred monks (who chant the) Jen wang ching draw upon the power of wisdom (hannya). The eight worthies who practice The Sūtra Used in Asking for Rain (Ch’ing yü Ching) follow the Mahāyāna precepts. If the bodhisattva is not the treasure of the nation or the benefactor of the nation, then who is? In Buddhism he is called a bodhisattva; in the secular world he is called a gentleman. These precepts are broad and extensive; they have the same import for layman and monk (shinzoku ikkan).

Two types of bodhisattva are mentioned in the Lotus Sūtra. The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī and the bodhisattva Maitreya are both bodhisattva monks. Bhadrapāla and the five hundred bodhisattvas are lay bodhisattvas. The Lotus Sūtra fully presents both types of men but considers them to be one group. It distinguishes them from Hinayāna monks and considers them to be Mahāyāna practitioners. However, this type of bodhisattva has not yet appeared in Japan. I humbly ask His Majesty to establish this Great Way and transmit the Mahāyāna precepts beginning from this year in the Konin era and continuing forever, and thus benefit (the people and the nation).

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p144
d19b, d20b, WONS

The Four Bodhisattvas from Underground

Among those great bodhisattvas, appearing out of the earth of the whole world, four great sages of Jōgyō (Superior Practice), Muhengyō (Limitless Practice), Jōgyō (Pure Practice), and Anryūgyō (Steadily Established Practice) were outstanding in appearance. Awe stricken by these four, those great bodhisattvas and others who had come to listen to the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle and up in the sky could not even gaze upon them nor understand who they were. Standing in front of these four who had come from underground, four bodhisattvas in the Flower Garland Sūtra, four bodhisattvas in the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra, and sixteen bodhisattvas in the Diamond Peak Sūtra seemed to be men squinting at the sun or fishermen facing the emperor. These four bodhisattvas from underground were like the four sages such as T’ai-kung-wang living with the people, or four elder statesmen of Shang-shan waiting on Emperor Hui, the second emperor of the Former Han dynasty. The four bodhisattvas from underground, indeed, appeared commanding and awe-inspiring. With the exception of Śākyamuni, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and Buddhas in manifestation, they would have been looked up to by everyone as “good friends.”

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 70-71

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 17, 2019

It is useless to stack up a pile of treasures in your storehouse if you are in poor health. Therefore the value of a healthy body is more important than treasures in the storehouse. At the same time, however, a healthy body means nothing if your mind is not pure. This is why we can say that our most precious treasure is our mind itself. Upon reading this letter, please try to accumulate the treasure of your mind.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his “Emperor Shushun” Letter (Sushun Tennō Gosho) addressed to his disciple Shijō Kingo. We can become so focused on acquiring material resources to meet the needs of our bodies, that we neglect to care for our health. A sick man in a mansion cannot be happy. Nichiren points out that even when we have physical health, if our minds are clouded by delusion, we cannot be happy either. The practice of the Wonderful Dharma can bring great physical and material benefits. But more importantly, this practice helps us prepare our minds to appreciate what we have and use it for the benefit of all beings.

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

LS32, WONS

Day 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.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Maitreya Bodhisattva’s puzzlement about the great Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground, we consider further Maitreya’s puzzlement.

Some great Bodhisattvas are each accompanied by attendants
Sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges.
They are seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha
With all their hearts.

The number of these great teachers is sixty thousand times
The number of the sands of the River Ganges.
They came together and made offerings to you.
Now they protect and keep this sūtra.
The attendants or disciples accompanying
Each [of the other great Bodhisattvas] number
Fifty thousand times or forty thousand times
Or thirty thousand times or twenty thousand times
Or ten thousand times or a thousand times
Or a hundred times as many as the sands of the River Ganges,
Or a half, a third, or a quarter
Of the number of the sands of the River Ganges,
Or as many as the sands of the River Ganges Divided by a billion;
Or ten million nayuta, a billion or fifty million,
Or a million, ten thousand, a thousand or a hundred,
Or fifty, ten, three, two or one.
[The great Bodhisattvas] who are accompanied
By less attendants are even more numerous.
Some [great Bodhisattvas] have no attendants
Because they prefer a solitary life.
They are the most numerous.
They came together to you.

No one will be able to count
All [these great Bodhisattvas] even if he uses
A counting wand for more kalpas
Than the number of the sands of the River Ganges.

These Bodhisattvas have
Great powers, virtues and energy.
Who expounded the Dharma to them? Who taught them?
Who qualified them to attain [perfect enlightenment]?

Under whom did they begin to aspire for enlightenment?
What teaching of the Buddha did they extol?
What sūtra did they keep and practice?
What teaching of the Buddha did they study?

These Bodhisattvas have supernatural powers
And the great power of wisdom.
The ground of this world quaked and cracked.
They sprang up from under the four quarters of this world.

World-Honored One!
I have never seen them before.
I do not know
Any of them.

They appeared suddenly from underground.
Tell me why!
Many thousands of myriads
Of millions of Bodhisattvas
In this great congregation
Also want to know this.

There must be some reason.
Possessor of Immeasurable Virtues!
World-Honored One!
Remove our doubts!

Nichiren addresses these doubts in his letter Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching:

Grand Master Miao-lê further explained in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “Wise men know things in advance as a snake knows that it is a snake.” The meaning of these words in the Lotus Sūtra and annotations by T’ien-t’ai and Miao-lê are clear, that is to say, nobody had ever seen or heard of those bodhisattvas from the earth after Śākyamuni’s enlightenment under the bodhi tree till today, either in this world or in any of the worlds in the universe.

So the Buddha answered the question of Bodhisattva Maitreya: “Maitreya! It was I who taught and guided those great bodhisattvas whom you said you had never seen. After I attained perfect enlightenment in this Sahā World, I taught, guided, and controlled them, and encouraged them to aspire for enlightenment.” He continued, “After I sat in meditation under the bodhi tree near the town of Gayā and was able to attain perfect enlightenment, I taught and guided them, while preaching the supreme dharma and caused them to aspire for enlightenment. Now they have all been proceeding to the highest enlightenment without falling back I have taught and guided them since the eternal past.”

Then Bodhisattva Maitreya and other great bodhisattvas began to doubt the Buddha. At the time the Flower Garland Sūtra was preached, numerous great bodhisattvas such as Dharma Wisdom gathered. While wondering who they were, Maitreya and others were told by Śākyamuni Buddha, apparently to their satisfaction, that Dharma Wisdom and other great bodhisattvas were Śākyamuni’s “good friends.” The same thing happened to those great bodhisattvas who gathered together at Daihōbō where the Sūtra of the Great Assembly was preached, and to those who gathered at Lake White Heron upon the preaching of the Wisdom Sūtra. The great bodhisattvas appearing from underground now, however, seemed incomparably superior to them, and it appeared probable that they were teachers of Śākyamuni Buddha. Nevertheless, the Buddha declared that it was He who caused them to aspire for enlightenment, as if the Buddha taught and guided immature people as His disciples. It was only natural, therefore, that Bodhisattva Maitreya and others had serious doubts about Śākyamuni Buddha.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 72

Blog

Rissho Peace Movement

SaveTheEarth-cover
Children’s anti-war brochure published by Nichiren Shu headquarters

Today I completed my recent project of adding old brochures found in the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church classroom to the church website’s collection of brochures. This final brochure is entitled Save the Earth. The roughly 4-inch by 6-inch pamphlet unfolds into a seven panel brochure with comic-book-like illustrations on one side and a text-only article on the other.

Japanese postwar pacifism is one of the things I find very foreign, especially as it relates to Nichiren Buddhism. After all, my father fought in Europe in World War II, earning a bronze star for valor for holding his position during the Battle of the Bulge. My wife’s father served in counterintelligence in Tokyo during Gen. McCathur’s post-war occupation of Japan. That’s where he met my wife’s mother, a translator who had been a teenager in Tokyo during the war. I served in the US Navy in the Vietnam War, although that was mostly because I was going to be drafted into the Army. Being a self-proclaimed anti-war Christian at the time, I toyed with flight to Canada or principled jail time, but ended up joining the Navy. While I thought that would keep me out of the war, I ended up spending 11 months in and out of the Gulf of Tonkin on the aircraft carrier USS Midway. I worked in squadron maintenance administration, shuffling papers related to the maintenance of F4 Phantom jets.

Anyway, the thought of teaching children that war is bad, especially in our current age of endless war in Afghanistan, seems both inspiring and naive.

The Save the Earth brochure concludes:

To realize peace we must abandon greed and make the “principle of thankfulness” the basis of civilization. Buddhism teaches that “all phenomena are produced by causation.” This means that nothing—be it living or non-living things, natural or artificial phenomena—can exist by itself. The existence of anything is dependent on the existence of others. When we become thankful for others, we learn to be contented. Here arises dialogue, mutual understanding, the spirit of tolerance and friendship.

In his writings Nichiren repeatedly stresses the importance of peace. He says,

“You must be awakened promptly to the true teaching of Buddha Sakyamuni. Then the world will become the land of the Buddha. How can the Land of Buddha decline or be destroyed? If the nation does not decline and the land is not destroyed, we can be safe and calm:”
Uphold Righteousness and Bring Peace to the Country

We are promoting the “Rissho Peace Movement” in accordance with Nichiren’s teachings. Peace will never be realized while we are standing idly by. Let’s join hands and speak out worldwide for the realization of peace.

My Google search for background on “Rissho Peace Movement” failed to turn up any references to Nichiren Shu activities. However, it did point me to Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historial Cases, a collection of essays published by Syracuse University Press in January 2000. In this book, Jacqueline Stone writes in an article entitled Japanese Lotus Millennialism: From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements:

During Japan’s modern imperial period, intense nationalism, militarism, and war were assimilated to new millennial visions of a world harmoniously united under Japanese rule. Certain elements in the teachings of the medieval Buddhist teacher Nichiren were appropriated to these visions. His discourse about Japan as the place where a new Dharma would arise to illuminate the world was given an imperialist reading; his advocacy of assertive proselytizing or shakubuku—which for Nichiren had meant preaching and debate—was adopted as a metaphor for armed force; and his emphasis on giving one’s life for the Lotus became a celebration of violent death in the imperial cause. Such millennialist appropriations inspired not only extremists committed to political assassination or coups but also broadly legitimated the violence that pitted Japan as a whole against other Asian countries and the West.

A World Without War

It is little exaggeration to say that ultranationalistic Lotus millennialism died in August 1945 in the flames of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But even before these ruined cities had been rebuilt, a new Lotus millennialism had risen to take its place. Postwar Lotus millennialism envisions a time when, by awakening to the universal Buddha nature, people everywhere will live in harmony and with mutual respect. Different Nichiren-and Lotus-related religious groups offer variations on this basic theme, but on one point they all agree: in that future time, there will be no war. Nuclear weapons, in particular, will be abolished.

Download full article

I suppose the use of Nichiren’s writings to take both sides of the question of war shows the universality of his message. Or, perhaps more to the point, it shows how the one True Dharma is subverted by innumerable meanings.

Basics

The Function of Faith

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The three (or four) seals of the Law, the law of dependent origination, and the Four Noble Truths express basic Buddhist views, all of which are closely related. From the theoretical viewpoint, the law of dependent origination, which describes life and society as they actually exist, is central. The focal point of religious practice, on the other hand, is the Four Noble Truths, which embody not only the logical truth of dependent origination but also moral values and the path of action whereby the Buddhist ideal can be attained.

The insight gained through an understanding of the law of dependent origination makes it possible to see the true condition of the world. Once the vast gap separating the actual world and humanity from the ideal is realized, the individual begins to yearn to abandon the flawed and sullied and to seek perfection. Realistic observation of life inspires the pursuit of the ideal once a person has come to see that actuality and the ideal, though apparently different, are not two totally separate things after all. To inspire this realization is the function of faith.
Basic Buddhist Concepts

Saicho

Petitions Concerning Intermediate Students

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During the week after Saichō submitted the Rokujōshiki, he wrote two more memorials, adding details about the training program for those who aspired to be yearly ordinands. He proposed a rigorous training course for candidates (called intermediate students or tokugō gakushō) for the examinations which would qualify them to become government-sponsored yearly ordinands. Saichō was thus both providing his school with able candidates for ordination and responding to the court’s attempts to improve the quality of yearly ordinands.

Regulations For Intermediate Students
Of The Tendai-Lotus Hall On Mount Hiei
(Heizan Tendai Hokkein tokugō gakushōshiki)

How difficult it is to reside in conditioned existence, in the cycles of life and death. Without wisdom, how can we wake from the slumber that is ignorance? (I hear) the faint sound of spring thunder; it is time to be resolute. (I see) the glimmer of summer lightning; time is short. The roots of great compassion may begin to grow this morning. The aspiration to attain enlightenment may arise this very day.

Thus we must permanently establish regulations for our halls which are in this dream-like world. By forever establishing these regulations, we shall open the sources of the Dharma. Above, we shall serve all the generations of emperors. In the middle, we shall protect all the people of the world. Below, we shall save all sentient beings. Thus we would like to install nine intermediate shikangō (Meditation Course) students who will lecture and turn the Lotus Sūtra, Chin kuang ming Ching, Jen wang Ching and other sūtras daily. They will not miss even one day. We would also like to install nine intermediate Esoteric Course students who will turn and meditate on the (Ta p’i lu) che na(ching), (Fo mu ta) k’ung ch’iao (ming wang Ching), Shou hu (kuo chieh chu t’o lo ni ching) and other sūtras everyday.

Youths who are fifteen years or older, and believers who are twenty-five years or younger should take their identification documents to be verified. Next they should have their names added to the register, be assigned positions, and thus become intermediate students. Those who are able to read three works will form the highest rank. Those who are able to read two will form the middle rank. And those who are able to read only one will form the lowest rank. The top rank shall consist of those with minds of the Middle Way. Among the students, they are the resolute ones, excelling in both ability and achievements.

The students will be tested after nine years and all those who fail the test will be expelled (from the monastery). Those who pass shall reside on Mount Hiei continuously in both body and mind for twelve years. They shall follow the monastery’s rules and advance in their studies. (By becoming a) treasure of the nation, a teacher of the nation, or an asset of the nation, they will benefit both themselves and others. They will rapidly advance through the six stages (roku soku) and long reside in the three virtues.

From now on, those who reside in my halls shall purge themselves forever of the three poisons. They shall follow the rules of the Lotus Sūtra and not rely on the sheep or elephant vehicles; rather, they shall board the latter three vehicles.

The fifteenth day of the fifth month of the ninth year of the Konin era (818).

Written by Saichō, Head of the Tendai School.

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p126-127