Monthly Archives: December 2019

WONS

Mt. Minobu Scenery

Regarding the mountain scenery at Minobu, there are Mt. Shichimen in the west, Mt. Tenshigatake in the east, Mt. Minobu in the north and Mt. Takatori in the south. These four mountains are so steep and as high as the heavens that birds can barely fly over them. Through the narrow spaces between these mountains four rivers flow: Fujigawa, Hayakawa, Ōshirogawa and Minobugawa. In an open-space about one hundred meters square my retreat was built. The mountains are so tall that I can barely see the sun in the day or the moon at night. There is heavy snowfall in the winter and grasses grow high in the summer. Few people visit me, as it is difficult for anyone to travail through the grasses and make their way. Especially since the snow is deep this year, no visitors have come to see me.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 45-46

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 28, 2019

Ajita! They need not build a stūpa or a monastery in my honor, or make the four kinds of offerings to the Saṃgha because those who keep, read and recite this sūtra should be considered to have already built a stūpa or a monastery or made offerings to the Saṃgha.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita – Invincible, in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our zeal to emulate the great deeds of the Buddha, or even of our founder Nichiren, we might believe that only by extraordinary accomplishments can we show our gratitude for this teaching. The Buddha reminds us in this chapter that because we are practicing his Dharma in this world of conflict, we have already made these extraordinary accomplishments. He also reminds us that others who practice with us should be treated with the same admiration we have for anyone who has done valuable work.

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

LS32

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.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Śākyamuni urge Maitreya and the others to pay close attention, we hear Śākyamuni tell Maitreya that he is the one who taught these Bodhisattvas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, having sung these gāthās, said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:

Now I will tell all of you in this great multitude, Ajita! [I know that] you have never seen these great, innumerable, asaṃkhya Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground. After I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi in this Sahā-World, I taught these Bodhisattvas, led them, trained them, and caused them to aspire for enlightenment. They lived in the sky below this Sahā-World. When they were there, they read many sūtras, recited them, understood them, thought them over, evaluated them, and remembered them correctly. Ajita! These good men did not wish to talk much with others [about things other than the Dharma] but to live in a quiet place. They practiced the way strenuously without a rest. They did not live among gods and men. They had no hindrance in seeking profound wisdom. They always sought the teaching of the Buddha. They sought unsurpassed wisdom strenuously with all their hearts.”

See Who Are These Bodhisattvas?

LS32, d19b, d20b, WONS, 2buddhas

Who Are These Bodhisattvas?

Who are these bodhisattvas who emerge from beneath the earth? One interpretative move, current in medieval Japanese Tendai circles in Nichiren’s day, was to associate their four leaders — Viśiṣṭacaritra (J. Jōgyō, “Superior Conduct”), Anantacāritra (Muhengyō, “Boundless Conduct”), Viéuddhacāritra (Jyōgyō, “Pure Conduct”), and Supratisthitacāritra (Anryūgyo, “Firm Conduct”) — with the four universal elements of fire, wind, water, and earth, which were believed to constitute and benefit all beings. In a sense, Nichiren also understood these bodhisattvas as innate, for example, when he writes that they represent the bodhisattva realm within us; they are “the followers of the Śākyamuni Buddha who dwells within ourselves.” However, he also took them to be historical agents, entrusted by the Buddha with the mission of propagating the Lotus Sūtra specifically in the Final Dharma age, that is, his own time. “And what is this dharma that was entrusted to them?” he asked. “From within the Lotus Sūtra, it discards the broad to take up the condensed and discards the condensed to take up the essence, that is, the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō.”

Two Buddhas, p174-175
Kaleidoscope

The Awakening of the Mind

Quote

When, through the mysterious concurrence of external and internal causes, the individual directs all his energies toward the Buddha, and the Buddha turns to that person, there occurs the awakening of the mind that aspires to enlightenment (bodhicitta) and to follow the Way of the Buddha and the path of spiritual discipline (bodhicitta-utpāda). It is the moment of “conversion” or great resolution, in which the bodhisattva, sustained by faith in enlightenment, takes great vows and is ready to set out on the path, to begin the journey of pāramitā practice.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Riccardo Venturini, A Buddha Teaches Only Bodhisattvas, Page 333

Lotus Seeds

The Four Higher Worlds

Quote

The only real escape from the vicissitudes and uncertainty of the Six Worlds – hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting demons, humanity and heaven – is to move into the Four Higher Worlds through the practice of the Buddha’s teachings. These four worlds are not actually different worlds or forms of rebirth like the first six. Instead, they indicate different ways of relating to and living within the first six. These Four Higher Worlds consist of the voice ­hearers, the privately awakened ones who take up the path of individual liberation, the bodhisattvas who compassionately strive for Lhe awakening of all beings, and the buddhas who have perfect, unsurpassed wisdom and infinite compassion.

The Four Higher Worlds, however, can also indicate levels of insight or compassionate activities that are associated with these various types of Buddhist practitioners. This broader interpretation of the Four Higher Worlds can be applied to anyone and everyone, even those who may not know about Buddhism or identify themselves as Buddhists.

Lotus Seeds

WONS

The Basic Way to Buddhahood Lies in Faith

The Lotus Sūtra enjoins us to give up the provisional teachings, saying that with faith we can enter the Way to Buddhahood. The Nirvana Sūtra preached last in the śāla forest states that there are numerous ways to get the seed of Buddhahood, but as faith in the Three Treasures include all those ways, it is faith in the Three Treasures that matters most. The basic way to Buddhahood thus lies in faith. The foundation of the Fifty-two Ranks is the ten stages of faith which those who practice Buddhism should live up to. Of the ten stages of faith, the belief in the Three Treasures comes first. Those with faith in the Three Treasures are considered to have the right view even if their caliber is low and they cannot perceive much. Those without belief in the Three Treasures, on the other hand, are considered to have abandoned the seed of Buddhahood even if they are talented and can perceive many things.

Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 36-37

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 27, 2019

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

The Buddha sings these verses at the end of Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this chapter he revealed his existence as the Buddha who lives throughout time and space rather than in the limited human body in which we recognize him. When we realize that all the moments of our lives, all the joys and grief we face, all the people and other beings we encounter are in truth the Buddha leading us towards his own enlightenment, we see the Buddha in his true form, and we see the world for what it is.

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

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 the benefits of the peaceful ways of expounding the this sutra, we dream of wonderful things and conclude today’s portion of Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

He will see only wonderful things in his dream.
He will dream:
‘Surrounded by bhikṣus,
The Tathāgatas are sitting
On the lion-like seats,
And expounding the Dharma.’

He also will dream:
‘As many living beings, including dragons and asuras,
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Are joining their hands together
Towards me respectfully,
And I am expounding the Dharma to them.’

He also will dream:
‘The bodies of the Buddhas are golden-colored.
They are emitting innumerable ray of light,
And illumining all things.
The Buddhas are expounding all teachings
With their brahma voices.
I am among the four kinds of devotees
To whom a Buddha is expounding
The unsurpassed Dharma.
I praised the Buddha
With my hands joined together.
I heard the Dharma from him with joy.
I made offerings to him, and obtained dharanis.
I also obtained irrevocable wisdom.
The Buddha knew
That I entered deep into the Way to Buddhahood.
So he assured me of my future attainment
Of perfect enlightenment, saying:
‘Good man, in your future life,
You will be able to attain immeasurable wisdom,
That is, the great enlightenment: of the Buddha.
Your world will be pure and large
Without a parallel.
There will be the four kinds of devotees there.
They will hear the Dharma from you
With their hands joined together.’

He also will dream:
‘I am now in the forest of a mountain.
[ studied and practiced good teachings.
[ attained the truth of the reality of all things.
I am now in deep dhyāna-concentration.
I see the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.’

He also will have a good dream:
‘The bodies of the Buddhas are golden-colored.
They are adorned with a hundred marks of merits.
Having heard the Dharma from them,
I am now expounding it to others.’

He also will dream:
‘Although I was a king,
I gave up the five desires
And the most wonderful pleasures.
I left my palace and attendants,
And reached the place of enlightenment.
I sat on the lion-like seat under the Bodhi-tree,
And sought enlightenment.
After seven days, I obtained the wisdom of the Buddhas
And attained unsurpassed enlightenment.
I emerged [from dhyāna] and turned the wheel of the Dharma.
I expounded the Dharma to the four kinds of devotees
For a thousand billion kalpas.
I expounded the Wonderful Dharma-without-āsravas
And saved innumerable living beings.
Then I entered into Nirvana
Just as a flame dies when smoke is gone.’

Anyone who expounds
This supreme teaching
In the evil world after [my extinction]
Will obtain great benefits as previously stated.

See The Unburnt Tongue of Kumārajīva

LS32, 2buddhas

The Unburnt Tongue of Kumārajīva

Kumārajīva’s translation, Miaofa lianhua jing (J. Myōhō Renge Kyō, “Sūtra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma”), proved by far the most popular. All English translations of the sūtra that have been made from Chinese (seven at the time of this writing, not counting revisions or multiple editions of the same translation) are based upon it. According to his biography, Kumārajīva (344-413), a learned scholar-monk from Kucha in Central Asia, vowed that after his death, his tongue, with which he had expounded the meaning of the Buddhist sūtras, would remain unburnt in the crematory fire, and indeed, although the flames consumed his body, his tongue remained untouched. This story expresses the confidence that Kumārajīva’s translations faithfully captured the Buddha’s intent. It was also in China that the Lotus Sūtra became “threefold,” being grouped together with an introductory sūtra, the Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings (Wuliangyi jing, T no. 276), possibly a Chinese apocryphon, and the Sūtra of the Practice of Visualizing the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Foshuo guan Puxian pusa xingfa jing, T no. 277).

Two Buddhas, p15