Monthly Archives: December 2019

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 17, 2019

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.’

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra, speaking of those who keep and practice the Wonderful Dharma. Dreams for many of us can be frightening places. They can be where we relive bad situations in our past or develop fantastic scenarios for disasters in the future. When we accept our nature as Bodhisattvas, and live assured of our future enlightenment, we find that even the thoughts over which we have no control begin to harmonize with the world around us. When we learn to recognize the Buddha in our everyday lives, our old traumas become vehicles for compassion.

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

LS32

Day 9

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Day 9 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard the prediction for Mahā-Kāśyapa, we repeat the prediction in gāthās.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

I will tell you, bhikṣus.
I see this Kāśyapa
With the eyes of the Buddha.
He will become a Buddha
In his future life
After innumerable’ kalpas from now.

He will see in his future life
Three hundred billions
Of Buddhas, of World-Honored Ones.
He will make offerings to them,
And perform brahma practices
To obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.
Having made offerings
To the Most Honorable Bipeds,
He will study and practice
Unsurpassed wisdom,
And become a Buddha on the final stage
Of his physical existence.

The ground [of his world] will be pure.
It will be made of lapis lazuli.
Many jeweled trees
Will stand on the roadsides.
The roads will be marked off by ropes of gold.
Anyone will rejoice at seeing them.

Fragrance will be sent forth from the trees;
And beautiful flowers will be strewn
On the ground, which will be adorned
With various wonderful things.
The ground will be even,
And devoid of mounds and pits.

The number of the Bodhisattvas
Will be beyond calculation.
They will be gentle.
They will have great supernatural powers.
They will keep the sutras of the Great Vehicle
Expounded by the Buddhas.

The Śrāvakas will have already eliminated āsravas,
And reached the final stage of their physical existence.
They will become sons of the King of the Dharma.
Their number also will be beyond calculation.
Even those who have heavenly eyes
Will not be able to count them.

The duration of the life of that Buddha
Will be twelve small kalpas.
His right teachings will be preserved
For twenty small kalpas.
The counterfeit of his right teachings
Will be preserved also for twenty small kalpas.
All this is my prophecy
About the World-Honored One called Light.

See Divisions of the Lotus Sutra

LS32, d9b, 2buddhas

Divisions of the Lotus Sutra

In developing his teachings about the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren drew upon and adapted earlier traditions of Lotus interpretation. Chinese exegetes had often employed a technique known as “analytic division” (Ch. fenke) or parsing that purported to uncover categories of meaning implicit within a particular sūtra, and thus, to reveal the Buddha’s true intent. Zhiyi, for example, divided the Lotus Sūtra into two sections: the first fourteen of its twenty-eight chapters, he said, represent the “trace teaching” (Ch. jimen, J. shakumon), which presents Śākyamuni Buddha as a “trace” or manifestation, that is, a historical figure who lived and taught in this world, while the second fourteen chapters constitute the “origin teaching” (benmen, honmon), which presents Śākyamuni as the primordial buddha, awakened since the inconceivably remote past. The intent of the trace teaching, Zhiyi said, lies in opening the three vehicles to reveal the one vehicle, while the intent of the origin section is to reveal the Buddha’s original awakening in the distant past. Nichiren also regarded these as the two great revelations of the Lotus Sūtra. For him, the trace teaching revealed buddhahood as a potential inherent in all beings, while the origin teaching presented it as a reality fully manifested in the Buddha’s life and conduct. Nichiren saw the core of the trace and origin teachings as Chapters Two and Sixteen, respectively, and urged his followers to recite these chapters as part of their daily practice.

Chinese commentators … typically divided sūtras into three parts: an introductory section, the main exposition, and a “dissemination” section, urging that the sūtra be transmitted to the future. Zhiyi divided the Lotus Sūtra accordingly: Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra represents “introduction”; Chapters Two through the first part of Seventeen represent the “main exposition”; and the latter part of Chapter Seventeen and the remaining chapters represent “dissemination.” Zhiyi further divided each of the sūtra’s two exegetical divisions, the trace and origin teachings, into these three parts. Nichiren expanded this threefold analysis in two directions. Zooming out, as it were, he applied it to the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings: all teachings that preceded the Lotus Sūtra are “introduction”; the threefold Lotus Sūtra is the “main exposition”; and the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, which Tendai tradition regards as a restatement of the Lotus Sūtra, represents “dissemination.” Zooming in, he identified all the teachings of all buddhas throughout space and time, including the trace teaching of Lotus Sūtra, as preparation, and the daimoku, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, the heart of the origin teaching, as the main exposition. Nichiren did not say explicitly what “dissemination” would mean in that case. His later disciples put forth various explanations, for example, that it referred to the spread of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō in the mappō era.

Two Buddhas, p50-52
WONS, Kaleidoscope

‘The Śākyamuni of Subtle Enlightenment Is Our Blood and Our Flesh’

Quote

The accent on the world of enlightenment represented by chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra seems at first to concentrate on the Buddha and on the nature of buddhahood. Yet, the exegesis elaborated within the T’ien-t’ai/Tendai tradition develops a religious view which, in various ways, addresses the position of humanity: a true Buddha cannot exist without human beings (because it is from among humans that a Buddha emerges) and human beings cannot exist without a Buddha (because the Buddha represents the essence of humanity).

Nichiren asserts that the Buddha-world is the only reality and at the same time restores the historical perspective as the only context in which the dimension of the absolute open to human beings is concretized. The Buddha’s enlightenment, that is, “the merits acquired by Śākyamuni through his practice,” is epitomized in the five characters of the title of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, if someone “receives and keeps” the sutra and obtains access to its meaning through the recitation of the title, they will be endowed with these merits. “The Śākyamuni of subtle enlightenment is our blood and our flesh. The merits of his practice, are they not our bones and marrow?” Nichiren writes. Buddhahood becomes a reality of history, not just in history. Nichiren’s emphasis is not on the absolute per se, but on the relative which has to change to become absolute. A shift occurs from the three worlds of universal time (past-present-future) to the actual historical moment, and this gives a social dimension to Nichiren Buddhism. The endowment with the Buddha-world, however, is the exclusive prerogative of the “practitioner of the Lotus”: “One who keeps the sutra is endowed with the Buddha-bodies and performs Buddha’s acts.” The emphasis on a concrete realization of original time leads to the interpretation of the truth represented by the discourse of the Lotus Sutra as a truth which does not exist beyond the confines of history.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 235

WONS

‘A Panacea for the Illness of the People in the Jambudvīpa’

In the past there were medical practitioners named Yellow Emperor and Pien Ch’üeh in China and Ch’ih-shui and Jīvaka in India. They were the treasures of the world in those days and master physicians for generations to come. And yet, the Buddha, who preached the “good medicine” that keeps us from growing old and dying is the greatest of physicians who surpasses them both. The “good medicine” refers to none other than the five Chinese characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō. Moreover, the Buddha declared these five characters to be “a panacea for the illness of the people in the Jambudvīpa.”

Myōshin-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Myōshin Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 102

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 16, 2019

I, Nichiren, am the lone forerunner of the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth. I may even be one of them. If I am counted as one of the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth, my disciples and followers too are among the ranks of those bodhisattvas from the earth, are they not? The “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter states, “If someone expounds even a phrase of the Lotus Sūtra even to one person in secret, then you should know that such a person is my messenger, dispatched by Me and carries out My work.” This refers to none other than us.

Nichiren wrote this passage as part of his Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality (Shohō Jissō-Shō), sent to the monk Sairen-Bō. He refers to Chapters Ten and Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This passage reminds us of our position as followers of Nichiren, and fellow messengers of Śākyamuni Buddha.

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

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month
considered the poor son’s response when he first sets eyes on the rich man, we consider the expedient devices used by the old man to encourage his son.

The rich man thought:
“He is ignorant, narrow-minded, and mean.
If I tell him that I am his father,
He will not believe me.”

He thought of an expedient.
He called
Some squint-eyed, short, ugly, powerless and virtueless men,
And said to them:
“Go and tell him:
‘You will be employed
To clear away dirt and dust.
You can get a double day’s pay.”‘

Hearing this from them,
The poor son came joyfully with them.
He cleared away dirt and dust,
And cleaned the buildings.

The rich man saw him from the window.
He thought:
“He is ignorant.
He willingly does mean work.”
Thereupon the rich man
Put on old and dirty clothes,
Picked up a dirt-utensil,
And walked towards his son.
With this expedient he came to his son,
And told him to work on, saying:
“I will pay you more.
You can use twice as much oil for your feet.
You can take food and drink as you like.
You can use more matting to warm yourself with.”

Sometimes he chided him, saying:
“Work hard!”
At other times he coaxed him, saying:
“I will treat you as my son.”

See A Seed that Flowers and Bears Fruit in the Very Moment of Its Acceptance

LS32, d8b, WONS, 2buddhas

A Seed that Flowers and Bears Fruit in the Very Moment of Its Acceptance

The concept of sowing, maturing, and harvesting suggests a linear process developing over time. Mahāyāna thought traditionally maintained that fulfilling the bodhisattva path requires three incalculable eons. However, as we have seen, Nichiren drew on both Tendai and esoteric notions of realizing buddhahood “with this body” to argue that buddhahood is accessed in the very act of chanting Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō. The daimoku, in other words, is a “seed” that flowers and bears fruit in the very moment of its acceptance. This goes to the heart of how Nichiren understood the Final Dharma age. In the age of the True Dharma and the age of the Semblance Dharma, people practiced according to a linear model, gradually eradicating delusions and accumulating merit, eventually culminating in the attainment of buddhahood after countless lifetimes of practice. But in chanting the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, the practice for the mappō era, practice and enlightenment, sowing and harvest, occur simultaneously, and buddhahood is realized in this very body. In other words, in the Final Dharma age, the direct realization of buddhahood becomes accessible to ordinary people. Nichiren’s claim paradoxically inverts the negative soteriological implications of the benighted mappō era and makes it the ideal time to be alive. “Rather than be great monarchs during the two thousand years of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages, those concerned for their salvation should rather be common people now in the Final Dharma age,” he wrote. “It is better to be a leper who chants Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō than to be chief abbot of the Tendai school,” the highest position in the religious world of Japan at the time.

Two Buddhas, p119-120
Basics

The True Aim of Human Life

Quote

People who understand the true principle of dependent origination and discover the highest aim of Buddhism realize that they cannot find happiness through their own salvation alone and that the true aim of human life must be the achievement of peace and well-being for society as a whole. Having reached this point, such people reject the self-oriented for the world-oriented vision. Instead of worrying about their own comfort and peace of mind, they become altruistic enough to fall into lower states of being (the realms of hell, hungry spirits, and beasts) for the sake of saving others. Less noble motives recede into the background or are rejected altogether. This step-by-step advancement accounts for the complexity of religious phenomena and for the expedient methods of Buddhist guidance, in which each teaching is adjusted to the need of the moment, just as medication must be selected to suit the illness being treated.
Basic Buddhist Concepts

Kaleidoscope

The Buddha Seed

Quote

The Lotus Sutra does not discuss a universal buddha-nature but often speaks of a universal buddha-seed. Chih-i re-uses the image of the seed to formulate a temporal succession in the process of enlightenment, which reflects also the way the Buddha acts: the seed is first sown, then left to sprout and grow, and finally the plant ripens. … [I]n Chih-i’s exegesis of the enlightenment of Śākyamuni the time between the sowing (the original enlightenment of Śākyamuni) and the ripening (the recent enlightenment of Śākyamuni) is an upāya, because the deeds Śākyamuni performs during this period are according to teachings other than the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra represents the world of the original enlightenment of Śākyamuni and that of his present enlightenment. The world in between is denoted by the other sutras Śākyamuni preached during his lifetime according to people’s capacity.

In Nichiren’s interpretation the upāya no longer has a function, the seed becomes equivalent to enlightenment, and the planting of the seed amounts to the attainment of buddhahood. The temporal interval between the primordial time and the present of Śākyamuni loses significance, and so does the difference between the original time and original land and the present of human beings. The Lotus Sutra is the buddha seed planted in people, the only means to realize the human potential for buddhahood. At any moment this scripture is read and diffused, the seed of buddhahood is again planted in everybody who chooses to listen and keep it, and the primordial relation with the Buddha is reestablished. If nobody “uses” the sutra, the seed disappears and no one is aware of their tie with the Buddha.

The seed is thus the necessary and sufficient cause of buddhahood. Yet, compared with the idea of buddha-nature, unchangeable by definition, the seed gives the idea of something belonging to the phenomenal world, subject to disappearance. “If people do not believe in this sutra and vilify it, then they cut off all the buddha-seeds in the world,” the sutra says. It is thus necessary to sow the seed again. If buddha-seeds occur “according to circumstances and conditioned cause,” as suggested in the Lotus Sutra itself, both the infinite action of the Buddha and one’s own activity are necessary. The image of the seed also conveys a more individual nuance than the universality of the buddha-nature: “Human beings defiled by evil encounter the bodhisattvas of the honmon, and the buddha-seeds are planted.”
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 234-235