Monthly Archives: October 2019

LS32

Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Day 19 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered why Śākyamuni teaches this sūtra lastly, we repeat in gāthās the Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Top-Knot.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Be patient, and compassionate
Towards all living beings,
And then expound this sūtra
Praised by the Buddhas!

Anyone who keeps this sūtra
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.
He should think:
‘They do not hear this sūtra.
They do not believe it.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’

I will tell you a parable.
A wheel-turning-holy-king was powerful.
Some of his soldiers
Distinguished themselves in war.
He was glad to honor them.
He gave them elephants or horses,
Vehicles or ornaments,
Paddy fields or houses,
Villages or cities,
Garments or various treasures,
Menservants or maidservants,
Or other valuables.

He took a brilliant gem
Out of his top-knot
And gave it to the bravest man
Who had done the most difficult feats.

I am like the king.
I am the King of the Dharma.
I have the great power of patience
And the treasury of wisdom.
I save all living beings in the world by the Dharma
Out of my great compassion towards them.

The people were under the pressure
Of various sufferings.
They were fighting with the Maras
In order to emancipate themselves
From suffering.
Because I saw all this,
I expounded various teachings to them.
I expounded many sūtras with skillful expedients.

Now I know that they can understand the Sutra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Therefore, I expound it to them lastly
Just as the king took the brilliant gem
Out of his top-knot
And gave it [to the bravest man lastly].

See Drawing Phrases and Passages from ‘Ease in Practice’

LS32, d18b, d19b, 2buddhas

Drawing Phrases and Passages from ‘Ease in Practice’

Nichiren knew the Lotus Sūtra thoroughly, and, as he did with other chapters, drew occasionally on phrases and passages from the “Ease in Practice” chapter to support his teaching. For example, he cited the statement following the parable of the jewel in the topknot) — “This Lotus Sūtra is the secret treasure house of all the buddha tathāgatas, and the foremost among all the sūtras” — to argue against claims that the secret or esoteric teachings surpassed the Lotus Sūtra. He quoted the passage, “Even the title of this sūtra cannot be heard in incalculable lands,” to stress the immense good fortune of being born in a country where, although far from Buddhism’s birthplace in India, one could encounter the Lotus Sūtra and chant its daimoku. He also cited the “Ease in Practice” chapter’s reference to “the troubled world to come,” which his predecessor Saichō had identified specifically with the age of the Final Dharma, and frequently invoked the statement that the Lotus is “treated with hostility by the entire world and is difficult to believe in.”

Two Buddhas, p168-169
WONS, 2buddhas, Blog

Bodhisattvas from Other Worlds

The book Two Buddhas Seated Side By Side presents a chapter by chapter look at the Lotus Sutra, with Donald S. Lopez Jr. offering a description and anti-Mahayana commentary on each chapter and Jacqueline I. Stone following with an explanation of how Nichiren used the chapter in Medieval Japan.

I’ve found Stone’s contribution excellent and Lopez’s effort so disappointing that I hesitate to suggest anyone purchase the book. See this blog post.

That’s not to say that Lopez has contributed nothing worthwhile. It’s just that I have bags of salt handy when taking in his contribution.

The latest example is his opening paragraph for Chapter 15, Bodhisattvas Emerging from the Earth:

The dramatic tension that has been building since the “Jeweled Stūpa” chapter continues to build here. At the end of that chapter, the Buddha calls for those who are willing to step forward and, in the presence of the assembled buddhas, vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra after his parinirvāṇa. In the “Perseverance” chapter [Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra], billions of great bodhisattvas who have arrived from other worlds vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra throughout the ten directions. The theme of volunteers vowing to preserve the Lotus Sūtra after the Buddha is gone continues in this chapter, which opens with the bodhisattvas who have arrived from other lands to witness the opening of the stūpa now offering to preserve, recite, copy, and pay homage to the Lotus Sūtra in this Sahā world after the Buddha has passed into final nirvāṇa. However, the Buddha replies that there are sufficient bodhisattvas in his own world, the Sahā world, a statement that would be imbued with great meaning by Nichiren. The Buddha’s polite refusal of the offer of assistance from the foreign bodhisattvas, that is, the bodhisattvas who have arrived from other worlds, sets the scene for yet another dramatic event.

Two Buddhas, p161

What jumped out at me here was the characterization of Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, together with their twenty-thousand attendants who were also Bodhisattvas, as bodhisattvas “who have arrived from other worlds.” These are the great Bodhisattvas who are listed in Chapter 1, Introductory, as being present at the start. And in Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva asks the Buddha: “World-Honored One! Why does Medicine-King Bodhisattva walk about this Sahā-World?” Where in the Lotus Sutra does it suggest all of the Bodhisattvas have all arrived from other worlds?

And yet, judging from Stone’s description of Nichiren’s writings, the other-worldly nature of these Bodhisattvas was well known.

Based on his understanding of the Buddha’s teaching process, Nichiren argued that [the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth] could only appear in the Final Dharma age. During the two thousand years following the Buddha’s passing, that is, the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages, persons who had received the seed of buddhahood from Sakyamuni Buddha were led to the stages of maturation and harvesting through provisional teachings. Had the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth appeared and spread the daimoku during that time, many of those people would have reviled it, thereby destroying the merit gained through the maturing of the seeds that they had already received. During those two thousand years, Nichiren said, some of the bodhisattvas from other worlds remained to teach the Lotus Sūtra in this world. Specifically, Zhiyi and his teacher Huisi, long revered as manifestations of the bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyarāja [Medicine-King] and Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver], respectively, had taught the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment from the abstract perspective of the trace teaching.

Two Buddhas, p175-176

Understanding that Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva and World-Voice-Perceiver are from other worlds does offer an explanation why the Buddha keeps silence when “[E]ighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas … rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together [towards him] with all their hearts, and thought, ‘If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sūtra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.’ ”

See A Variable Transmission for the One Vehicle

Saicho

Observance of All Three Elements of the Threefold Learning

Quote

The Perfect precepts were much more than mere rules of conduct. All elements of the Perfect threefold learning were essentially expressions of the Buddha. They were grounded in one’s own inherently pure nature (jishō shōjō). Complete adherence to the precepts would result in complete mastery of meditation and wisdom. Perfect observance of the precepts in which the practitioner would never even be tempted to violate a rule would necessarily entail a profound understanding of the nonsubstantiality of all things. In such a case the practitioner’s observance of all three elements of the threefold learning would be immovable and unhindered (kokū fudō) by any obstacle.

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p194
d20b, Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Actualize Our True Identities

We learn in the Lotus Sutra that these Bodhisattvas who appear from beneath the ground have trained with the Buddha since the remotest past. This is our relationship with the Eternal Buddha, not with the historical Buddha. As Bodhisattvas from underground we read the Lotus Sutra from the perspective of an infinite bond with the Buddha, as lifelong practitioners of the Eternal Buddha who have in this lifetime manifested as the beings we currently are but who underneath it all are in fact golden-hued Bodhisattvas. We have received training and are eminently qualified to carry out the lives we have and attain enlightenment in our present form. Everything we need is within us, and the Lotus Sutra is our activation code to actualize our true identities.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

WONS

Teaching Suitable to a Country

When spreading the Dharma in a country, it is important to take into consideration the type of country it is. One cannot assume that a teaching suitable in one country will necessarily be suitable in another country.

Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 143.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 19, 2019

In order to save the [perverted] people,
I expediently show my Nirvāṇa to them.
In reality I shall never pass away.
I always live here and expound the Dharma.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This is part of the explanation that his existence in the physical form of Śākyamuni was only one way that he leads all beings to enlightenment. The Buddha described his ever-present nature as the most difficult of his teachings to believe and understand. Recognizing the presence of the Buddha in the world is the same as recognizing Buddha nature in ourselves and all beings. Knowing that the Buddha is always available to help us in this difficult practice of the Wonderful Dharma means we do not need to rely on our own limited abilities. The store of the Dharma is always available to us. We just need to find it and use it.

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

LS32

Day 18

Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Day 18 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and hear the vow of eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One looked at the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. These Bodhisattvas had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dhārāṇis. They rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together [towards him] with all their hearts, and thought, “If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sūtra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.”

They also thought, “The Buddha keeps silence.’ He does not command us. What shall we do?”

In order to follow the wish of the Buddha respectfully, and also to fulfill their original vow, they vowed to the Buddha with a loud voice like the roar of a lion:

“World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will go to any place [not only of this Sahā-World but also] of the worlds of the ten quarters, as often as required, and cause all living beings to copy, keep, read and recite this sūtra, to expound the meanings of it, to act according to the Dharma, and to memorize this sūtra correctly. We shall be able to do all this only by your powers. World-Honored One! Protect us from afar even when you are in another world!”

See Jikyōsha vs. Gyōja

LS32, d18b, 2buddhas

Jikyōsha vs. Gyōja

In Nichiren’s time, those who devoted themselves to reciting or copying the Lotus Sūtra as their primary practice were known as jikyōsha, “one who holds the sūtra.” Nichiren instead used the term gyōja (literally, “one who practices”; translated in this volume as “practitioner” or “votary”). Gyōja was often used to mean an adept or ascetic, denoting those who performed harsh austerities, such as going without sleep, fasting, and practicing in isolation in the mountains, with the aim of acquiring spiritual powers. Though Nichiren did not endorse ascetic practice for its own sake, his use of the word gyōja, like that of “bodily reading,” suggests both that he was “living” the Lotus Sūtra, personally encountering the hardships it predicts, and also that he had committed his life to its propagation. The term reflects his self-understanding as one entrusted with the task of spreading the Lotus in the Final Dharma age. He wrote, “None of the jikyōsha of Japan have encountered the trials predicted in these passages. I alone have read them. This is what is meant by the statement [in the “Perseverance” chapter], ‘We will not be attached to our bodies or lives. We only desire the highest path.’ This being the case, I am the foremost votary of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan.”

Two Buddhas, p164-165
Saicho

Perfect Precepts Protect Nation

Quote

[T]he precepts could be practiced by anyone. Even people who were too slow witted to understand doctrine or who did not have enough time to practice meditation could observe the precepts. Saichō repeatedly argued in the Kenkairon that the Fan wang precepts and the Anrakugyō [Peaceful Practices chapter of Lotus Sutra] were for everyone, including monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen. They could even be conferred between husband and wife. If people with Perfect faculties (enki) would follow Perfect practices, then they would be able to ameliorate the calamities which might befall the state. Conferring the Perfect precepts would protect the nation (denkai gokoku).

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p193