Parables are analogies, but never perfect ones. [The Parable of the Burning House] provides an image of four separate vehicles. But if we follow the teaching of the sutra as a whole, the One Buddha Way is not an alternative to other ways; it includes them. A limitation of this parable is that it suggests that the diverse ways (the lesser carts) can be replaced by the One Way (the special cart). But the overall teaching of the sutra makes it plain that there are many paths within the Great Path, which integrates them, i.e., they are together because they are within the One Way. To understand the lesser ways as somehow being replaced by the One Way would entail rejecting the whole idea of the bodhisattva-way, which the sutra clearly does not do. In fact, the whole latter part of the sutra is a kind of extolling of the bodhisattva-way. Also, in the story itself, in running out of the burning house the children are pursuing the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva ways. In terms of their ability to save, the three ways are essentially equal. They all work.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 191
Monthly Archives: November 2019
A Man of Shallow Faith
A man of shallow faith pretends to have right faith and is contemptuous towards other followers, so as to harm the faith of others. Leave such people alone. By the intention of the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, and other deities, I believe that such a time will certainly come when all the people of Japan will simultaneously believe in the Lotus Sūtra. I am sure that many people then will say, “I have believed in this sūtra all along.”
Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 112
Daily Dharma – Nov. 25, 2019
Today we are not what we were then.
We have obtained
What we did not expect
To obtain
Just as the poor son obtained
The innumerable treasures.
Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana, all disciples of the Buddha, speak these lines in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra as they explain their story of the wayward son. They compare the father’s treasure house in the story to the Buddha’s enlightenment. Until they had been led by the Buddha’s expedient teachings, they could not even imagine themselves as enlightened, any more than the wayward son in the story could imagine the contents of his father’s treasure house.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 21
Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.
Having last month heard Śākyamuni’s expedient efforts in this Saha world and elsewhere, we consider the purpose of the sutras.
“Good men! All the sūtras that I expounded [hitherto] were for the purpose of saving all living beings. I told the stories of my previous lives [in some sūtras,] and the stories of the previous lives of other Buddhas [in other sūtras]. I showed my replicas [in some sūtras,] and my transformations [in other sūtras]. I described my deeds [in some sūtras,] and the deeds of others [in other sūtras]. All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which l do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as [the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly. The living beings are various in their natures, desires, deeds, thoughts and opinions. Therefore, I expounded the dharma with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, similes and discourses, in order to cause all living beings to plant the roots of good. I have never stopped doing what I should do. As I said before, it is very long since I became the Buddha. The duration of my life is innumerable, asaṃkhya kalpas. I am always here. I shall never pass away.
‘One In Many, Many In One’
Two Buddhas, p184-185Chinese exegetes debated how this primordially awakened buddha should be understood. Was he a finite being who had attained enlightenment an incalculably long time ago? Or was he without beginning or end? Zhiyi argued that the Buddha of the “Lifespan” chapter unites in one all three kinds of buddha “body” set forth in Mahāyāna teachings: the dharma body (dharmakāya), or timeless truth conceived as a “body”; the reward or enjoyment body (sambhogakāya), a subtle body endowed with transcendent powers resulting from a buddha’s countless eons of practice; and the manifest or emanation body (nirmāvakāya), the historical person who appears in the world. While the dharma body was understood as having neither beginning or end, conventionally, the reward body was said to have a beginning, and the manifested body, both a beginning and end. For Zhiyi, however, the buddha of the perfect teaching possesses all three bodies in one, interfused and interpenetrating. This concept inflects, in terms of the buddha, the nondual logic of “one in many, many in one” that we have already encountered with the threefold truth and the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. Through this integration, the reward and manifested bodies participate in the timelessness of the dharma body, which does not exist apart from the other two. Notions of the primordial buddha’s constant presence in the phenomenal world were further developed by esoteric Buddhist thinkers, both in China and Japan, who equated the primordial Śākyamuni of the “Lifespan” chapter with the omnipresent cosmic buddha Mahāvairocana (J. Dainichi) who manifests as all phenomena.
Learning from Difficulties
Here [in the story about Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva’s visit] again is expressed the idea that the sahā world, despite its obvious shortcomings, is something special, and that this is related to the presence in it of Śākyamuni Buddha. There may be other reasons for this, but I suppose that the great size and magnificence and accomplishments of the Bodhisattva Wonderful Voice contribute to the enhancement of the sahā world and Śākyamuni, since he comes to the sahā world to pay tribute to Śākyamuni Buddha.
In fact, there seems to be an implication here, and in other instances where bodhisattvas come from outside the sahā world to visit Śākyamuni Buddha, that the sahā world is especially important because it is a more appropriate, that is, more difficult, place for bodhisattva practice. One of the repeated themes of the sutra is that one can and should learn from difficulties. Salvation, in this world, is not a matter of freedom from suffering and distress, but rather an ongoing process of overcoming evil by helping others. In this sutra, for example, Śākyamuni Buddha simply thanks Devadatta, well known elsewhere as the personification of evil, for being his teacher, and predicts that Devadatta too will become a buddha. In this sense, this world offers many opportunities for one to enter the Buddha-way through bodhisattva practice.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 188-189
11th Day of the 11th Month
On the 11th day of the 11th month this year, on the thoroughfare of Matsubara in Tōjō, Awa Province, about four to six o’clock in the afternoon, hundreds of nembutsu followers ambushed me. I was accompanied by about ten people, of whom only three or four were strong enough to fight. Arrows shot by nembutsu followers were falling like rain, and their swords were attacking us like lightning. One of my disciples was killed at the spot and two others were seriously wounded. I also was hit and wounded, and faced mortal danger, but somehow I escaped death and am still alive today. My faith in the Lotus Sūtra has been strengthened as I experienced persecutions such as this.
It is said in the 10th chapter of “The Teacher of the Dharma” in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, “Many people hate it (the Lotus Sūtra) with a passion, even in My lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after My death.” And in the 14th chapter of “Peaceful Practices,” fascicle 5, it states, “Many people in the world would have hated it (the Lotus Sūtra) and few would have believed it.” There are many people in Japan who read and study the Lotus Sūtra. Many people are punished because they steal or commit adultery, but no one has been punished due to his faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, none of the followers of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan have practiced the Sūtra as is preached. Only I, Nichiren, have truly read it. This is what the chapter of “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra” states: “We will not spare even our lives. We treasure only unsurpassed enlightenment.” Therefore, I, Nichiren, am the foremost practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan.
Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 145-146.
Daily Dharma – Nov. 24, 2019
All living beings are suffering.
Being blind, they have no leader.
They do not know how to stop suffering,
Or that they should seek emancipation.
In the long night fewer people go to heaven,
And more people go to the evil regions.
They go from darkness to darkness, and do not hear
Of the names of the Buddhas.
The children of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha proclaim this to their father in a story told by Śākyamuni Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They understand that when beings are so preoccupied with their own happiness, and so convinced that this happiness comes from what they can acquire, that they need an enlightened being to lead them to see the world as it is. With the Lotus Sūtra as the embodiment of the Buddha’s highest teaching, we have the same wisdom present to us as those children’s father was to them. A Wii
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
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.
Having last month heard from the attendants to the Buddhas who had come from many thousands of billions of worlds outside this world, we hear Śākyamuni urge Maitreya and the others to pay close attention..
Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:
“Excellent, excellent, Ajita! You asked me a very important question. All of you should concentrate your minds, wear the armor of endeavors, and be resolute. Now I will reveal, I will show, the wisdom of the Buddhas, their supernatural power without hindrance, their dauntless powers like a lion’s, and their great power of bravery.”
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he said, sang in gāthās:
Exert yourselves and concentrate your minds!
Now I will tell you about this matter.
Do not doubt me!
My wisdom is difficult to understand.Arouse your power of faith,
And do good patiently!
You will be able to hear the Dharma
That you have never heard before.Now I will relieve you.
Do not doubt me! Do not be afraid!
I do not tell a lie.
My wisdom is immeasurable.
The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!
‘One Chapter and Two Halves’
Two Buddhas, p173In Zhiyi’s parsing of the Lotus Sūtra, Chapter Fifteen begins the “origin teaching” (J. honmon) or second fourteen chapters of the sūtra, so called because in this latter section of the Lotus the Buddha casts off his transient guise as someone who first gained enlightenment in the present lifetime, and he reveals his true identity as the primordial buddha awakened immeasurable eons ago. As he had with the preceding “trace teaching” (shakumon), or first fourteen chapters, Zhiyi divided this section of the sūtra into three parts. The “introduction” corresponds to the first part of Chapter Fifteen, up to the Buddha’s response to Maitreya’s question about the identity of the bodhisattvas who have emerged from the earth (223). The “main exposition” consists of the remainder of Chapter Fifteen, the whole of Chapter Sixteen, and the first part of Chapter Seventeen (up to the end of Maitreya’s verses on 245). The remaining chapters then correspond to the “dissemination” portion. Though quite short – “one chapter and two halves,” as Nichiren termed it – the main exposition section of the origin teaching was revered by many Japanese Tendai teachers as the very heart of the sūtra and inspired great doctrinal innovation, especially in Nichiren’s own teaching.