Monthly Archives: November 2019

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 18, 2019

When he sat on that seat, the Brahman-heavenly-kings rained heavenly flowers on the area extending a hundred yojanas in all directions from that seat. From time to time withered flowers were blown away by fragrant winds and new flowers were rained down. [The Brahman-heavenly-kings] continued this offering to him for fully ten small kalpas. [After he attained Buddhahood also,] they continued raining flowers until he passed away.

The Buddha describes the life of an ancient Buddha named Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, when that Buddha took the seat from which he would become enlightened, the gods who created his world recognized the immense benefit all beings were about to receive and showed their joy by filling the skies with these beautiful flowers. After that Buddha became enlightened, gods from innumerable other worlds came to his world to make offerings, giving up the pleasures of their own worlds. The enlightenment of any being extends beyond the personal contact we have with any that being. It changes the entire universe.

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

LS32

Day 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 14 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Ānanda’s reaction to the prediction of his future buddhahood, we hear the Buddha’s prediction for Rāhula:

Thereupon the Buddha said to Rāhula:

“In your future life you will become a Buddha called Walking-On-Flowers-Of-SevenTreasures, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. [Before you become that Buddha,] you will make offerings to as many Buddhas, as many Tathāgatas, as the particles of dust of ten worlds. [Before you become that Buddha,] you will become the eldest son of those Buddhas just as you are now mine.

“The adornments of the world of Walking-On-Flowers-Of­Seven-Treasures Buddha, the number of the kalpas for which that Buddha will live, the number of his disciples, the duration of the preservation of his right teachings, and the duration of the preservation of the counterfeit of his right teachings will be the same as in the case of Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power­King Tathāgata.

“After you become the eldest son of the [Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power-King] Buddha, you will attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [, and become Walking-On-Flowers-Of-Seven­Treasures Buddha].”

See The revelation of this universal ground

LS32, d3b, d4b, d5b, d6b, d7b, d8b, d9b, d10b, d11b, d12b, d13b, d14b, 2buddhas

The Revelation of the Universal Ground

According to Zhiyi’s parsing, Chapters Two through Nine of the Lotus Sūtra comprise the main exposition of the “trace teaching,” or shakumon, the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra. These chapters assert that followers of the two “Hinayāna” vehicles can achieve buddhahood. For the sūtra’s compilers, this message subsumed the entire Buddhist mainstream within its own teaching of the one buddha vehicle and extended the promise of buddhahood to a category of persons — śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas — who had been excluded from that possibility in other Mahāyāna sūtras. In Nichiren’s day, however, the idea of the one vehicle, that buddhahood is in principle open to all, represented the mainstream interpretive position, and his own reading therefore has a somewhat different emphasis. For Nichiren, the sūtra’s assertion that even persons of the two vehicles can become buddhas pointed to the mutual possession of the ten realms and the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, without which any talk of buddhahood for anyone, even those following the bodhisattva path, can be no more than an abstraction. The revelation of this universal ground, he said, especially in the “Skillful Means” chapter, constitutes the heart of the shakumon portion of the Lotus. Nonetheless, he regarded Chapter Two through Chapter Nine, the main exposition section, as having been preached primarily for the benefit of persons during the Buddha’s lifetime. The remaining chapters, Chapter Ten through Chapter Fourteen, which constituted the remainder of the trace teaching, he saw as explicitly directed toward those who embrace the Lotus after the Buddha’s passing, and therefore, as having great relevance for himself and his followers.

Two Buddhas, p127-128
Blog

Practicing with Ryusho in the Hospital

Ryusho Jeffus from hospital
Rev. Ryusho Jeffus hosted a Lostus Sutra Service from his hospital room in Arizona.
Ryusho's bedside altar
Ryusho’s hospital beside altar setup for the online Myosho-ji Temple service.

Had a rare opportunity to attend online Lotus Sutra service broadcast from a hospital room. In particular, the hospital room of Rev. Ryusho Jeffus, who has been hospitalized in Arizona since Nov. 6, when he suffered a collapsed lung during a flight from Syracuse to California.

I’ve been attending the online Myosho-ji Temple services since 2015, when Ryusho was located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ryusho moved to Syracuse in 2017, and last month, he formally retired.

When I was new to Nichiren Shu I read several of his books and was inspired by Ryusho’s focus on putting the Lotus Sutra into practice in one’s daily life, making the Lotus Sutra relevant in a universal, modern context. Personally, I imagine the Lotus Sutra creating a foundation, walls and roof of a beautiful house. You enter this house in faith and within this structure make this house a home with your practice. Contrary to those who criticize the Lotus Sutra for having no central teaching, it is the very emptiness left by the Lotus Sutra that provides the space for personal practice.

Ryusho plans to hold additional services. He maintains a service calendar on the temple website, Myoshoji.org.

Service guests
Attending the service were friends from Portugal, France, the Czech Republic and both coasts of the United States.
Kaleidoscope

Subordinating Everything to the Lotus Sutra Dharma

Quote

[The arrival of the Stupa of Treasures] is a marvelous story, full of special imagery, cosmological in scope. But clearly such imagery is not so much for the purpose of explaining the nature of the cosmos as it is for extolling, first the Lotus Sutra, second Śākyamuni Buddha, and thirdly this sahā world.

Extolling the Lotus Sutra is both explicit in the chapter and implicit in the story. Many Treasures and the buddhas of the ten directions all come to the sahā world at least in part to hear the Lotus Sutra preached. In this way the Stupa is subordinated to the preaching of the Dharma. I take this to mean that the construction and worship of stupas and the remains of the Buddha are not rejected but are relativized, made subordinate to the Dharma and in particular to the Dharma expressed in the Lotus Sutra.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 181

Lotus Seeds

The Ten Worlds: Privately Awakened Ones

Quote

Of the Four Higher Worlds – voice­ hearers, privately awakened ones, bodhisattvas, and buddhas – the world of privately awakened ones is the world viewed from the perspective of Dependent Origination. Those who abide in this state of mind are able to realize the impermanence, suffering, and selflessness of the world for themselves through their own observations.

Lotus Seeds

WONS

The Competition of the Four Devils

The Record of Western Regions by Hsüan-chuang states the following: A recluse lived in the Deer Park in Vārāṇasī, India, trying to master the art of wizardry. He was able to transform rubble into treasure or change the shape of a human or a domestic animal but was still unable to come and go out of the wizard palace by riding on the wind and clouds. For the purpose of attaining this art, the recluse recruited an honorable man to stand at a corner of the earthen platform carrying a long sword and to stand there holding his breath without saying a word. The art of wizardry would be gained if no word was uttered from the evening to the following morning. The recluse who was seeking the art was sitting in the center of the platform, holding a long sword in hand and chanting the magic words. They promised not to utter a word even if faced with death, and the honorable man swore not to say a word at the cost of his life. When midnight passed and the daybreak was approaching, the honorable man, for some reason, suddenly let out a shout. Thus, the practice of silence failed, and the recluse failed to attain the art of wizardry. The recluse reproached the honorable man saying, “Why did you break your promise? This is deplorable.”

The honorable man sighed and answered:

“When I slept for a while, the lord whom I served in the past appeared and chastised me for my silence. Nevertheless, I kept silent because I considered my promise to you important. Then my former lord became angry and said that he would behead me. Still I remained silent and was beheaded. I felt sorry and sad looking at my dead body wandering in the intermediate state between death and the next life, yet I kept silent. Then I was reborn in a Brahman family in Southern India. The pain upon conception and birth were unbearable, but I did not breathe out nor utter a word. After growing up, I got married, my parents died, and my child was born. I experienced both sadness and joy of life without saying a word until I became 65 years old. My wife then told me that she would kill my child whom I loved if I did not speak. Then I thought that if my child were killed I, at this old age, would never have a chance of having another child, and uttered a word involuntarily. I was awakened from my sleep by my own voice.”

The recluse master answered, “It cannot be helped. Both you and I were unable to attain the art of wizardry due to the deception of a devil.” The honorable man apologized to the master, “I am sorry that my resolution was not strong enough to help you attain the art of wizardry.” Then the master replied, “It is my fault. I should have forewarned you.” Nevertheless, the honorable man blamed himself for being unable to repay the master’s favor to such an extent that he ultimately died from his grief. Thus, it is recorded in the Record of Western Regions.

Wizardry was born of Confucianism in China and it has been a part of non-Buddhist teachings in India. Its worth does not even amount to the Hinayāna Āgama sūtras, which are not worth mentioning in Buddhism, let alone the Common, Distinct, and Perfect teachings of Buddhism, to say nothing of the Lotus Sūtra. When we try to accomplish a shallow doctrine such as this, “the four devils” compete with each other to interfere with us. How much more so when the disciples and followers of Nichiren try to spread the seven Chinese characters of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, the secret doctrine of the Lotus Sūtra, for the first time in Japan! It is inevitable that the followers will be confronted with such great difficulty that it is impossible to express in words and can only be guessed in mind.

Kyōdai-shō, A Letter to the Ikegami Brothers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 81-82

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 17, 2019

She said, “Look at me with your supernatural powers! I will become a Buddha more quickly.”

These are the words of the young daughter of Dragon-King Sāgara in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva knew that she was capable of becoming a Buddha, but none of the other Bodhisattvas or anyone else gathered to hear the Buddha teach believed that she could attain enlightenment. Before making this statement, she offered a priceless gem to the Buddha. In less time than it took for the Buddha to accept her offering, she herself became a Buddha before the eyes of all who doubted her. This story shows that all beings can become enlightened, male and female, young and old, human and non-human. When we lose our doubts about others’ enlightenment, we also lose our doubts about our own.

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

LS32

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Day 13 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sing in gāthās the prediction for Kauṇḍinya Bhikṣu, we consider the reaction of the five hundred Arhats and hear the Parable of the Priceless Gem.

Thereupon the five hundred Arhats, having been assured by the Buddha of their future Buddhahood, felt like dancing with joy, stood up from their seats, came to the Buddha, worshipped him at his feet with their heads, and reproached themselves for their faults, saying:

“World-Honored One! We thought that we had already attained perfect extinction. Now we know that we were like men of no wisdom because we were satisfied with the wisdom of the Lesser Vehicle although we had already been qualified to obtain the wisdom of the Tathāgata.

“World-Honored One! Suppose a man visited his good friend. He was treated to drink, and fell asleep drunk. His friend had to go out on official business. He fastened a priceless gem inside the garment of the man as a gift to him, and went out. The drunken man did not notice what his friend had given him. After a while he got up, and went to another country. He had great difficulty in getting food and clothing. He satisfied himself with what little he had earned. Some time later the good friend happened to see him. He said, ‘Alas, man! Why have you had such difficulty in getting food and clothing? T fastened a priceless gem inside your garment on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year so that you might live peacefully and satisfy your five desires. The gem is still there, and you do not notice it. You are working hard, and worrying about your livelihood. What a fool you are! Trade that gem for what you want! You will not be short of anything you want.’

“You, the Buddha, are like his friend. We thought that we had attained extinction when we attained Arhatship because we forgot that we had been taught to aspire for the knowledge of all things by you when you were a Bodhisattva just as the man who had difficulty in earning his livelihood satisfied himself with what little he had earned. You, the World-Honored One, saw that the aspiration for the knowledge of all things was still latent in our minds; therefore, you awakened us, saying, ‘Bhikṣus! What you had attained was not perfect extinction. I caused you to plant the good root of Buddhahood a long time ago. [You have forgotten this; therefore,] I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa as an expedient. You thought that you had attained true extinction when you attained the Nirvāṇa [ which I taught you as an expedient].’

“World-Honored One! Now we see that we are Bodhisattvas in reality, and that we are assured of our future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, we have the greatest joy that we have ever had.”

See Nichiren’s reading of the Lotus Sūtra

LS32, d7b, 2buddhas

Nichiren’s reading of the Lotus Sūtra

Nichiren’s fierce insistence on the sole efficacy of the Lotus Sūtra has not endeared him to modern scholarly commentators, who have often dismissed him as narrow and intolerant. Yet another aim of our volume is to show how Nichiren’s reading of the Lotus Sūtra made compelling sense in the context of his received tradition and his understanding of his own time; it illustrates how much can be at stake in the interpretation of scripture. Through his example, we demonstrate how what Lotus followers regard as an ancient and timeless revelation came to be deployed in a specific time and place – thirteenth-century Japan – in an effort to understand, and to transform, that time and place. Focusing on Nichiren allows us to provide a kind of case study of how an ancient Buddhist text was appropriated by someone in a very different historical and cultural context to address questions undreamed of by the sūtra’s compilers.

Two Buddhas, p9