Monthly Archives: November 2019

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 27 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we return to the top and Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha’s passing into Parinirvana.

“Having sung this gāthā, Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! You do not change, do you?’
“Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha said to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, ‘Good man! The time of my Nirvana is near at hand. The time of my extinction is coming. Prepare me a comfortable couch! I shall enter into Parinirvana tonight.’ “Then he instructed Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, saying, ‘Good man! I will transmit all my teachings to you. [I also will transmit] to you all the Bodhisattvas and all my great disciples. [I also will transmit] to you my teachings for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. I also will transmit to you the one thousand Sumeru worlds made of the seven treasures, the jeweled trees, the jeweled platforms, and the gods attending on me. I also will transmit to you the śarīras to be left after my extinction. Distribute my śarīras far and wide and make offerings to them! Erect thousands of stupas [to enshrine them]!’

“Having given these instructions to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha entered into Nirvana in the last watch of that night. Having seen the extinction of the Buddha, Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva was overcome with sorrow. He adored the Buddha all the more. He made a pyre of the candana grown on this shore of the sea, offered it to the body of the Buddha, and burned it. After it burned up, he collected the śarīras. He made eighty-four thousand stupas of treasures[, and put the śarīras therein]. He erected eighty-four thousand stupas[, and enshrined the urns therein]. The stupas were higher than the Third Dhyana-Heaven. They were adorned with yastis. Many streamers and canopies were hanging down [from the stupas]. Many jeweled bells also were fixed [on the stupas].

See The Lotus Sūtra and Its Practice in the Final Dharma Age

LS32, d26b, d27b, d28b, d29b, 2buddhas

The Lotus Sūtra and Its Practice in the Final Dharma Age

Chapters Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five describe how specific bodhisattvas display their powers in the world to benefit sentient beings. As noted earlier, at one point in its compilation history, the Lotus Sūtra probably concluded with Chapter Twenty-Two, “Entrustment.” These three subsequent chapters represent a later stratum of the text, added as devotion to the bodhisattvas in question was gradually assimilated to the Lotus. From Nichiren’s standpoint, the bodhisattvas appearing in these chapters had received only the general transmission described in the “Entrustment” chapter. Either they had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching or shakumon portion of the sūtra. Thus, their work was chiefly confined to the True and Semblance Dharma ages. Yet, as we see, Nichiren drew on these chapters to make points about the Lotus Sūtra and its practice in the Final Dharma age.

Two Buddhas, p236
Kaleidoscope

Buddha-Nature

Quote

While the term “buddha-nature” does not appear anywhere in the Lotus Sutra, the teaching of what would later be called buddha-nature runs through it like a cord, defining one of its central affirmations. It is a clear aim throughout the sutra to persuade the reader that every living being, including and most importantly the reader, has within a potential to become enlightened, to become a buddha.

One’s buddha-nature is developed by following the Buddha-way, doing what buddhas have always done, bodhisattva practice. Central to the Lotus Sutra is the idea that Śākyamuni Buddha himself is, first of all, a bodhisattva. He has been doing bodhisattva practice, helping and leading others, for innumerable kalpas, and will continue to do so into the boundless future.

Because all the living have various natures, various desires, various activities, various ideas and ways of making distinctions, and because I wanted to lead them to put down roots of goodness, I have used a variety of explanations, parables, and words and preach various teachings. Thus I have never for a moment neglected the Buddha’s work.

Thus it is, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of unquantifiable asamkhyeya kalpas, of forever existing and never entering extinction. Good children, the lifetime which I have acquired pursuing the bodhisattva-way is not even finished yet, but will be twice the number of kalpas already passed.

While it is very important that the Buddha and the śrāvakas are also in some sense bodhisattvas, it is even more important that you and I are bodhisattvas — called to grow in bodhisattvahood by leading others to realize that potential in themselves. To develop one’s buddha-nature is to do bodhisattva practice, to follow the role model of the bodhisattvas.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 193

d23b, WONS

The Great Merit of Beginning Practicers

Grand Master T’ien-t’ai … wrote in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 10, “The eighteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra is entitled ‘The Merits of Rejoicing upon Hearing This Sūtra’ because the sūtra’s merit is superior to all other sūtras in every respect.” The Lotus Sūtra, more than any other sūtra, enlightens those whose capacity to understand is limited. Unaware of this, teachers of other sects maintain that only those with superior capacity in understanding can have faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Rebutting this, Grand Master Miao-lê stated in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 10, “Those erroneous teachers probably did not realize that even beginning practicers can have great merit; they insisted that the Lotus Sūtra can be practiced only by those with advanced training, slighting those with little training. Thus, the 18th chapter shows the great merit of beginning practicers, revealing the excellent merit of this sūtra. ”

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 40-41

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 30, 2019

Make offerings to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva with all your hearts! This World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva-mahāsattva gives fearlessness [to those who are] in fearful emergencies. Therefore, he is called the ‘Giver of Fearlessness’ in this Sahā-World.

The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of compassion. When we make offerings to compassion, we show how much we value it. In this world of conflict, we are taught to value aggression and violence rather than compassion. Those who do not dominate others are judged as targets for domination. If we clear away the delusion of our self-importance, and see other beings as worthy of happiness just as we are, we find ways for everyone to benefit together.

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

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 26 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, and learn what is revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra.

Thereupon the Buddha said to the great Bodhisattvas headed by Superior-Practice:
“The supernatural powers of the Buddhas are as immeasurable, limitless, and inconceivable as previously stated. But I shall not be able to tell all the merits of this sūtra to those to whom this sūtra is to be transmitted even if I continue telling them by my supernatural powers for many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas. To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction! In any world where anyone keeps, reads, recites, expounds or copies this sūtra, or acts according to its teachings, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra is put, be it in a garden, in a forest, under a tree, in a monastery, in the house of a person in white robes, in a hall, in a mountain, in a valley, or in the wilderness, there should a stupa be erected and offerings be made to it because, know this, the place [where the stupa is erected] is the place of enlightenment. Here the Buddhas attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Here the Buddhas turned the wheel of the Dharma. Here the Buddhas entered into Parinirvana.”

See The Great Omens of the ‘Transcendent Powers’ Chapter

LS32, d25b, d26b, 2buddhas

The Great Omens of the ‘Transcendent Powers’ Chapter

In [Chapters 21 and 22], Śākyamuni Buddha entrusts the teachings of the Lotus Sūtra for propagation in the future. To make clear the momentousness of the occasion, he first displays his awe-inspiring transcendent powers. According to Zhanran, of the ten powers described, the first five — from Śākyamuni and all other buddhas extending their tongues to the heavens of Brahmā to the buddha worlds of the ten directions quaking in six ways — were intended for beings in his lifetime. The remaining supernatural events — from all beings in those worlds beholding the buddhas present on their lion thrones at the Lotus assembly to the worlds of the ten directions becoming pellucid, as though they were one buddha land (284) — were intended for beings of the future.

Though he acknowledged this reading, Nichiren concluded that ultimately the entire display was directed to the future, when the four leaders of the bodhisattvas of the earth would appear in order to spread the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō. He also assimilated these extraordinary happenings to contemporary portents: “The quaking of the earth in the ‘Introduction’ chapter was limited to a single world system, but in the ‘Transcendent Powers’ chapter the lands of the various buddhas all shook violently, quaking in six different ways. The [earthquakes and other] omens of our own time are just like this. The great omens of the ‘Transcendent Powers’ chapter portend that the essence of the Lotus Sūtra will spread widely after the Buddha’s nirvāṇa, when the two thousand years of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages have passed and the Final Dharma age has begun.”

Two Buddhas, p215
Kaleidoscope

Lifetime Beginners

Quote

What the sutra condemns is not other people, and not the lesser vehicles, but arrogance — especially the arrogance of thinking one has arrived at the truth, at some final goal. Rather, we are called upon by this sutra to be “lifetime beginners,” people who know they have much to learn and always will. The five thousand who walk out of the assembly in the second chapter are said to be like twigs and leaves and not really needed, but in chapter 8 they too are to be told that they will become buddhas.

Thus śrāvakas are also bodhisattvas. In every paradise, or paradise-like Buddha-land, there are countless śrāvakas, indicating that the śrāvaka-way is not to be rejected or discarded, but relativized, seen within a larger context, which is the encompassing Buddha-way. Many śrāvakas, of course, do not know that they are bodhisattvas, but they are nonetheless. The Buddha says to the disciple Kāśyapa at the end of chapter 5:

What you are practicing Is the bodhisattva-way.
As you gradually practice and learn,
Every one of you should become a Buddha.

A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 192
WONS

A Man Called Nichiren Was Beheaded

A man called Nichiren was beheaded at one o’clock during the night of the twelfth day in the ninth month last year. His soul has come to the province of Sado and is writing this in the midst of snow in February in the following year to be sent to his closely related disciples from past lives. As such this writing of mine may sound to you frightening but it should not. How fearful others will be when they read this writing! This is the bright mirror in which Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and other Buddhas in manifestation all over the universe reflected the state of Japan in the future, namely through the conditions of Japan today. Consider this as my memento in case I die.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 91

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 29, 2019

You have a grandson, Lord Jibu, who is a Buddhist priest. This priest is neither an upholder of precepts nor especially rich in wisdom. He neither observes even one of the 250 precepts nor maintains even one of the 3000 solemn rules of conduct. In wisdom he is like a horse or a cow while in dignity he is like a monkey. Nevertheless, what he reveres is Śākyamuni Buddha and what he believes in is the Lotus Sutra. This like a snake holding a gem or a dragon gratefully holding the relics of the Buddha in Dharma Body.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on the Ullambana Service (Urabon Gosho) written to the Grandmother of Lord Jibu. While it may seem to us that Nichiren is criticizing Lord Jibu, he is praising the young man in the highest terms. Our ability to use the Wonderful Dharma to benefit others does not depend on our skill, dedication or wisdom. It depends only on our devotion to the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni, and our confidence and faith in the Lotus Sūtra.

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