Monthly Archives: December 2019

WONS

The Subtle Utility of the Lotus Sūtra

The Lotus Sūtra has two subtleties. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “The Lotus Sūtra explains the two subtleties.” They are (1) relative subtlety (sōdaimyō) and (2) absolute subtlety (zetsudaimyō). The relative subtlety means to compare the Lotus Sūtra with the various sūtras expounded in the first four periods of Flower Garland, Āgama, Expanded, and Wisdom, disparaging those various sūtras as “pre-Lotus.” The pre-Lotus sūtras are called “tōbun (for a while)” meaning that they only assess their own sūtras, and therefore, are nothing but expedients. On the other hand, the Lotus Sūtra is called “kasetsu (across a fence)” meaning that the Lotus Sūtra is the supreme teaching revealing the true intent of the Buddha, which He tried to expound throughout His lifetime. The true purpose of the absolute subtlety is to reveal that all the holy teachings of the Buddha are for the purpose of preaching the Lotus Sūtra. Two things concerning this are mentioned in the Lotus Sūtra: one is that provisional teachings are revealed to show the single path to enlightenment, and the other is the revealing of the single path to enlightenment. For example the “open, show, perceive and enter” passage in the second chapter, “Expedients,” of the Lotus Sūtra explaining why Buddhas appeared in this world, or the passage in the same chapter saying, “All have attained Buddhahood;” and the fact that each of the 69,384 letters of the Lotus Sūtra consisting of eight fascicles is equipped with subtlety are all “revealing the single path to Buddhahood.” Those who study Buddhism without knowing the subtle utility of the Lotus Sūtra will only gain the expedient merits of pre-Lotus sūtras.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 92-93

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 9, 2019

Ajita! Anyone who hears that my life is so long, and understands it by faith even at a moment’s thought, will be able to obtain innumerable merits.

The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Maitreya, also known as Invincible (Ajita) in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sutra. In the previous chapter, the Buddha revealed for the first time that his impending death was merely an expedient, intended to reach those who would take him for granted if they thought they could see him at any time. The Buddha explained that this is the teaching that is most difficult to believe and difficult to understand. Namely that he is always present, leading us and all beings to enlightenment.

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

LS32

Day 1

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

Day 1 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered some of what Maitreya sees, we consider the Bodhisattvas and kings whom Maitreya sees.

Mañjuśrī!
I see and hear
Hundreds of thousands of millions of things
Such as these
From this world.
I will tell you briefly some more of them.

I see as many Bodhisattvas of those worlds
As there are sands in the River Ganges,
Who are seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha
[In various ways] according to their environments

Some of them practice almsgiving.
They joyfully give treasures
Such as gold, silver,
Pearls, manis, shells, agates, and diamonds.
They also give menservants and maidservants,
Vehicles and palanquins adorned with treasures.

They proceed to the enlightenment of the Buddha
By the merits obtained thereby,
Wishing to obtain this vehicle,
The most excellent vehicle
In the triple world,
The vehicle praised by the Buddhas.

Some Bodhisattvas give
Jeweled chariots yoked with four horses,
Equipped with railings and flower-canopies,
And adorned on all sides.

I also see some Bodhisattvas
Offering their flesh or their limbs
Or their wives or their children
In order to attain unsurpassed enlightenment.

I also see some Bodhisattvas
Joyfully offering
Their heads or their eyes or their bodies
In order to attain the wisdom of the Buddha.

Mañjuśrī!
I see some kings coming to a Buddha,
And asking him about unsurpassed enlightenment.
They have renounced the world of pleasures,
Left their palaces,
Parted from their ministers and women,
And shaved their beard and hair.
They now wear monastic robes.

See Familiar and Unfamiliar Appearances

LS32, d1b, 2buddhas

Familiar and Unfamiliar Appearances

Maitreya was the only bodhisattva of the present time familiar to the non-Mahāyāna, mainstream tradition of Buddhism. But he does not understand the Buddha’s miracle and so he is made to ask a bodhisattva unknown to that mainstream. Here again, this would give the traditional reader pause. The question that would typically open a sūtra is a question addressed to the Buddha from an unenlightened person. Here, the question is asked by an advanced bodhisattva, a bodhisattva a mere one lifetime away from buddhahood, and it is addressed to another bodhisattva, one not part of the mainstream Buddhist tradition. As we shall see, such things occur throughout the Lotus Sūtra, where something or someone familiar appears in a way that also seems unfamiliar, evoking recognition but also hesitation. Something is not quite right; indeed, the ground has shifted, and conventional expectations no longer apply.

Two Buddhas, p41
Kaleidoscope

The Three Bodies Reveal the “Origin”

Quote

[I]t is debatable whether Chih-i ever conceived the idea of one single Buddha, or found it meaningful. There is, in fact, a fundamental difference between the doctrine that “the three bodies are one body” and the idea that “all buddhas are one Buddha only” (issaibutsu ichibutsu), which would later be put forward in Japanese Tendai. Chih-i acknowledged, and justified, the existence of other Buddhas, and did not eventually reduce them to Śākyamuni Buddha (they are not Śākyamuni’s upāya). In the last analysis, Chih-i regarded Śākyamuni only as the most important Buddha of the Lotus Sutra and only as the Buddha of the present world. He claimed that the three bodies all reveal the “origin,” but he never qualified this original time as the absolute time. His “origin” is just the archetypal movement, the attainment of buddhahood.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 229

d15b, d16b, Lecture on Lotus Sutra

The Living Dharma

Now let me talk about the truth and the living Dharma. The appearance of the great stupa serves as a device or reason for bringing together a great assembly of Buddhas and lands but it also serves as a validation of the truth of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra. Many Treasures Buddha demonstrates to us the truth of the underlying Dharma or the truth of the Lotus Sutra does not change. While the actual words or makeup of the Sutra may take on different appearances or different words the truth that underlies it all is unchanging. The two Buddhas sitting beside each other show us that not only the teacher is to be respected but also the truth of the teaching is equally respectable. We are not really devoting ourselves to the teacher but to the truth of the teaching and that is the real basis of our devotion to the Buddha.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

WONS

Those Without Faith or Wisdom

Grand Master T’ien-t’ai interprets in his Mo-ho chih-kuan (Great Concentration and Insight): “Those without faith in the Lotus Sūtra consider it to be only for sages and to be too difficult for ignorant people like themselves. Those without wisdom become self-conceited considering themselves equal to the Buddha.”

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 96

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 8, 2019

Anyone who expounds this sūtra
Will be able to see me,
To see Many-Treasures Tathāgata,
And to see the Buddhas of my replicas.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. We can hear this teaching with an aspiration to see visions of Śākyamuni Buddha and other Buddhas. But we can also hear the Buddha’s promise that when we keep in mind his assurance that we and all beings have the capacity for enlightenment, we will see the world differently. We will start to interpret the actions of ourselves and others in a new light. We will see many more beings who are helping us to become enlightened, rather than beings who are frustrating our efforts at pursuing our selfish goals.

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

LS32, Innumerable, b4today

Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1

For today’s pass through The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings I will quote from Nikkyō Niwano’s Buddhism for Today. This book, which I will be quoting from extensively in the future, offers a commentary on the full Three-Fold Lotus Sutra.

On this first of the three sutras, Nikkyō Niwano writes:

Of the three sutras mentioned above, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings contains the sermon Sakyamuni delivered on the Vulture Peak (Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa) immediately before preaching the Lotus Sutra. The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, which is inseparable from the Lotus Sutra, is regarded as the introduction to the latter. This is because in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings Sakyamuni states the reasons for the aims and the order of his preaching during the past forty years and also says that he has not yet manifested the truth. This does not mean that so far he had preached untruth but that he had not yet revealed the final truth, although all of his previous sermons were true. In other words, he had not yet manifested the full profundity of his teaching, being afraid that people would not be able to grasp it because their understanding and faith were not sufficiently developed. Therefore he made an important promise concerning his next sermon: “I am now to reveal the real truth.” His next sermon was the Lotus Sutra. For this reason, if we do not read the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings we cannot realize clearly either the position of the Lotus Sutra among all the sermons that Sakyamuni preached during his lifetime or the true sacredness of the Lotus Sutra.

Buddhism for Today, pxxii-xxiii
Kaleidoscope

The Primacy of the Recompense Body

Quote

[Chih-i’s] integration [dharma body, the recompense body and the transformation body] notwithstanding, Chih-i eventually puts the accent on one of the three bodies:

“[Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra] reveals the three bodies. If they are differentiated in a vertical sense, the true one is the recompense body. The wisdom of the recompense body, being one with what is above and in accord with what is below, encompasses the three bodies. … The text says ‘In the very far distant past since I became Buddha, I have benefited human beings in the three worlds.’ What is enlightened is the dharma body, what causes enlightenment is the recompense body. Because the dharma [body] and the recompense [body] become one, things may receive benefits. … Thus, the correct meaning [of the scriptural passage] is to postulate the virtues of the Buddha in his recompense body.”

This is perhaps the most interesting feature of Chih-i’s theory of the three bodies. The saṃbhogakāya represents a Buddha who has a beginning, and thus is finite before attaining enlightenment, but who becomes immeasurable, infinite, after his awakening. It exemplifies a Buddha who encompasses in himself both historical existence and universal principle: not an absolute Tathāgata who assumes for some time a phenomenal form and then goes back to his true nature, but a Tathāgata who is, at the same time, his true nature and his temporal manifestation.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 227