Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Having last month considered the king’s reaction and the role of the two sons, we conclude Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

“King Wonderful-Adornment came down from the sky and said to that Buddha [staying in the sky], ‘World-Honored One! You are exceedingly exceptional. You have merits and wisdom. Therefore, the fleshy tuft on your head shines bright. Your eyes are long, wide, and deep blue in color. The curls between your eyebrows are as white as a bright moon. Your teeth are white, regular and bright. Your lips are as red and as beautiful as the fruits of a bimba-tree.’

“Thereupon King Wonderful-Adornment, having praised the Buddha for his many hundreds of thousands of billions of merits including those previously stated, joined his hands together towards the Tathāgata, and with all his heart, said to that Buddha again, ‘World-Honored One! I have never seen anyone like you before. Your teachings have these inconceivable, wonderful merits. The practices performed according to your teachings and precepts are peaceful and pleasant. From today on, I will not act according to my own mind. I will not have wrong views, arrogance, anger or any other evil thought.’ Having aid this, he bowed to that Buddha and retired.”

The Buddha said to the great multitude:

“What do you think of this? King Wonderful-Adornment was no one but Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva of today. Queen Pure-Virtue was no one but the Light-Adornment-Appearance Bodhisattva who is now before me. She appeared in that world out of her compassion towards King Wonderful-Adornment and his attendants. The two sons were Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva of today. Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva have already obtained those great merits. Because they planted the roots of virtue under many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas [in their previous existence], they obtained those inconceivable merits. All gods and men in the world should bow to those who know the names of these two Bodhisattvas.”

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva, eighty-four thousand people released themselves from the dust and dirt of illusions, and had their eyes purified enough to see all teachings.

See Far From Ordinary

Far From Ordinary

Nichiren referred to the two princes from the “Śubhavyūha” chapter in encouraging an unidentified couple, possibly Lord Matsuno of Suruga and his wife, who were mourning their deceased son and had apparently become more earnest in their Buddhist practice following his death. Nichiren’s disciple Nichiji, who was related to Matsuno and had reported the matter to Nichiren, informed him that the young man had not only been unusually handsome, but also straightforward and wise. According to Nichiren, Nichiji had told him that he had initially been struck with pity that so remarkable an individual should die young. “But on reflection, I realized that, because of this boy’s death, his mother aroused the aspiration for the way and his father began to take thought for his next life. This is far from ordinary, I thought. And the fact that they have placed faith in the Lotus Sūtra, which everyone opposes, must mean that their deceased son has been at their side, encouraging them to do so.” Nichiren told the parents that he fully concurred with Nichiji’s reading of events, adding, “The king Śubhavyūha was an evil monarch. But when guided by their two sons, the princes [Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra], father and mother were both able to place their trust in the Lotus Sūtra and become buddhas. The same must be true in your case as well!”

Two Buddhas, p252-252

Bodhisattvas as Role Models

I think there can be no question but what many, at least, of the stories about bodhisattvas are there to provide role models for human beings. They play a role in the ever-present tension between what already is and what is yet to be. To the extent that we have even lifted a single finger to point to the truth, we are already bodhisattvas. But how much more so those who faithfully follow the Lotus Sutra, that is, devote their lives to bodhisattva practice. And to encourage us in that direction there are stories of wonderful bodhisattvas.

Yes, people do pray to Kwan-yin for help, and Kwan-yin takes on whatever form is needed to be helpful. But while that story may present the hope of divine blessing, it is there primarily to show us what we should be. If Kwan-yin has a thousand arms with a thousand different skills with which to help others, we too need to develop a thousand skills with which to help others.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, Appropriate Means as the Ethics of the Lotus Sutra, Page 386

Being the Change You Wish To See

Rather than merely waiting for something to happen, as if by miracle or by some mythical fairy godmother granting a wish, we should be as proactive as we possibly can and actually try to begin to live as if we are in the condition we seek to become. Buddhism is not a passive activity waiting for some thing to happen. Buddhism is about becoming what we already have the a capacity to be, which is Enlightened.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Rewarded with an Easy Delivery

Candlelight brightens the darkness. Even dirty water reflects the moonlight beautifully. In this world nothing is brighter than the sun and the moon; nothing is more noble than the lotus flowers. As the Lotus Sūtra is like the sun and the moon and the lotus flowers, it is called the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. I, Nichiren, am also like the sun and the moon and the lotus flowers. If you truly believe in the Lotus Sutra, you will be rewarded and protected by the Buddha so that you will have an easy delivery. It is said in the Lotus Sutra: “It is rare to meet this marvelous teaching,” and “If you believe in this, you will have an easy birth.”

Shijō Kingo Nyōbō Gosho, A Letter to the Wife of Shijō Kingo, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 60

Daily Dharma – Jan. 7, 2020

If anyone speaks ill of you, or threatens you
With swords, sticks, tile-pieces or stones
While you are expounding this sūtra,
Think of me, and be patient!

The Buddha sings these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. By patience, the Buddha does not mean to toughen ourselves and allow others to harm us. The patience he speaks of allows to increase our capacity to handle the mental suffering that comes when others abuse us. If we keep in mind that nothing anyone does can remove the seed of Buddha nature that is within them, and remember that this seed is within all beings, we can treat even those who mean us harm with respect and compassion, rather than contempt and derision.

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

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Having last month concluded Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs, we begin again with Medicine-King Bodhisattva’s question:

Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva rose front his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and said to him:
“World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read, recite, understand or copy the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?”

The Buddha said to him:

“Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?”

“Very many, World-Honored One!”

The Buddha said: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite· even a single gāthā of four lines of this sūtra, understand the meanings of it or act according to it.”

See The Workings of the Ten Rāksasis

The Workings of the Ten Rāksasis

Nichiren saw the workings of the ten rāksasis in the events surrounding him, both great and small. He saw their roles as protecting Lotus devotees, occasionally testing their faith, aiding their practice, relieving their sufferings, and chastising those who obstruct their devotion. To a follower, the lay monk Myōmitsu, he wrote: “The ten rāksasis in particular have vowed to protect those who embrace the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore they must think of you and your wife as a mother does her only child … and safeguard you day and night.” To two new parents, the samurai Shijō Kingo and his wife, Nichiren wrote that the ten rāksasis would watch over their infant daughter, so that “wherever she may frolic or play, no harm will come to her; she will ‘travel fearlessly, like a lion king’.” He saw the protection of the ten rāksasis in the kindness of an elderly lay monk on Sado Island who had come to his aid, helping him to survive in exile, and in the devotion of a woman who had made him a robe to shield him from the cold in the recesses of Mount Minobu. Their protection was further evident to him in the fact that he had been able to escape unscathed from an attack on his dwelling in Kamakura and survived other threats as well. To two brothers whose father had threatened to disinherit them on account of their faith in the Lotus Sūtra, he suggested: “Perhaps the ten rāksasis have possessed your parents and are tormenting you in order to test your resolve.” He also asserted that the ten rāksasis, along with other deities, had induced the Mongol ruler to attack Japan to chastise its people for abandoning the Lotus Sūtra.

Two Buddhas, p247

The Buddha-way as Bodhisattva Practice

The way in which you and I can develop our buddha-nature is by following the Buddha-way, doing what buddhas have always done, namely, following the way of bodhisattva practice. It is absolutely central to the Lotus Sutra, I think, that Śākyamuni Buddha is, first of all, a bodhisattva. We are told that he has been doing bodhisattva practice, helping and leading others, for innumerable kalpas. Whenever the enormously long life of the Buddha is described, it is not meditation that he has been doing, at least not primarily, but teaching and leading and changing others, thus turning them into bodhisattvas.

Because all the living have various natures, various desires, various activities, various ideas and ways of making distinctions, and because I wanted to lead them to put down roots of goodness, I have used a variety of explanations, parables, and words and preach various teachings. Thus I have never for a moment neglected the Buddha’s work.

Thus it is, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of unquantifiable asamkhyeya kalpas, of forever existing and never entering extinction. Good children, the lifetime which I have acquired pursuing the bodhisattva-way is not even finished yet, but will be twice the number of kalpas already passed.

But the Buddha and those with the title of bodhisattva are not the only bodhisattvas. Śrāvakas are also bodhisattvas. That is why there are plenty of them in every paradise, or paradiselike Buddha-land described in the Lotus Sutra. Most śrāvakas, of course, don’t know they are bodhisattvas, but they are nonetheless.

What you are practicing
[the Buddha says to the disciple Kāśyapa] Is the bodhisattva-way.
As you gradually practice and learn,
Every one of you should become a buddha.

And, of course, most importantly, you and I are bodhisattvas. No matter how tiny our understanding or merit, no matter how trivial our practice, we are, to some extent, perhaps tiny, already bodhisattvas. And we are called to grow in bodhisattvahood by leading others to realize that potential in themselves.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, Appropriate Means as the Ethics of the Lotus Sutra, Page 384-385

The Mutual Possession of the Ten Worlds

The principle of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds states that each of these Ten Worlds, or state’s of mind, contains all of the others within itself. They are not mutually exclusive. Despair, craving, impulsiveness, reasoning, pride, rapture, self­-discipline, insight, compassion, and awakening are all states of being that influence and even cause each other. For instance, we might experience great frustration driving to work through city traffic, but then become delighted the next moment when a favorite song comes on the radio, and listening to that song might lead to an insight about our own lives. This is just one example of an infinite number of combinations that we experience over the course of lifetimes, in the course of a single day, or even in a single moment. Though one or two states tend to predominate, they are all bound up in one another. The transformations between them are governed by the law of cause and effect.

Lotus Seeds