Two Buddhas, p146-147In the concluding verse section of [Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures], now seated in midair within the jeweled stūpa beside Prabhūtaratna, Śākyamuni Buddha again stresses how difficult it will be to uphold the Lotus Sūtra after his passing, setting forth the analogy of what Nichiren summarized as the “nine easy and six difficult acts.” …
Nichiren read this passage as directly addressing his own circumstances and those of his followers, and he stressed that the sūtra was in fact speaking to them. For example, to a lay nun who had asked him a question about the sūtra, he wrote that her query itself was “a root of great good.” He continued: “Now in this Final Dharma age, those who ask about the meaning of even one phrase or verse of the Lotus Sūtra are rarer than those who can fling Mount Sumeru to the worlds of another quarter … or those who can uphold and preach countless other sūtras, causing the monastics and lay people who hear them to attain the six supernormal powers. The chapter called ‘A Jeweled Stūpa’ in the fourth fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra sets forth the important teaching of the six difficult and nine easy acts. Your posing a question about the Lotus Sūtra is among the six difficult acts. You should know thereby that, if you uphold the sūtra, you will become a buddha in your present body.”
Monthly Archives: February 2020
Repenting for Transgressions
An evil man named Ajita lived in the Bārāṇasī Palace. He fell in love with his mother, killed his father and then took her as his wife. When an arhat who had been his father’s teacher reprimanded Ajita for his sin, he killed that arhat. Furthermore, when his mother married another man, Ajita also killed her. Thus Ajita committed all the three rebellious sins of killing his own father, mother, and an arhat. Unable to bear the rejection and denunciation of his neighbors, Ajita went to the Jeta Grove Monastery and begged to become a monk. When the monks there refused his request to enter the priesthood, Ajita burnt down their dwellings in a burst of anger. However, after meeting Śākyamuni Buddha and repenting for the transgressions committed in the past he was finally allowed to become a monk.
Kōnichi-bō Gosho, A Letter to Nun Kōnichi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 52
Daily Dharma – Feb. 20, 2020
No matter what happens, abandoning the Lotus Sutra will cause us to be plunged into hell. I have made a vow. Even if someone says they will make me the ruler of Japan on the condition that I give up the Lotus Sutra and rely on the Sutra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life for my salvation in the next life, or even if someone threatens me saying he will execute my parents if I do not say “Namu Amida-butsu,” and no matter how many great difficulties fall upon me, I will not submit to them until a man of wisdom defeats me by reason. Other difficulties are like dust in the wind. I will never break my vow to become the pillar of Japan, to become the eyes of Japan, and become a great vessel for Japan.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Opening the Eyes (Kaimoku-shō). For Nichiren living in the 13th Century, the country of Japan was his world. For us in the 21st Century, the entire Earth is our world. From Nichiren’s determination to save Japan we have an example of what we need to do to save our Earth. From his experience through terrible ordeals and persecutions we realize that despite the comforts of our modern lives, we too have the capacity to uphold our faith in the Lotus Sūtra in any situation. We show our gratitude to the Buddha for his teaching and to Nichiren for his guidance in the respect we give to other beings and the efforts in our practice.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 6
Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month begun the Parable of the Burning House in gāthās, we learn of the dangers inside the house in gāthās:
This old and rotten house
Was owned by a man.
Shortly after he went out
To a place in the neighborhood,
Fires broke out suddenly
In the house.Raging flames came out
Of all sides at the same time.
The ridges, rafters,
Beams and pillars
Burst, quaked, split, broke and fell.
The fences and walls also fell.All the demons yelled.
The eagles, crested eagles,
And other birds, and kumbhandas
Were frightened and perplexed.
They did not know
How to get out of the house.
The wild beasts and poisonous vermin
Hid themselves in holes.In that house also lived
Demons called pisacakas.
Because they had few merits and virtues,
They suffered from the fire.
They killed each other,
Drank blood, and ate flesh.The small foxes were
Already dead.
Large wild beasts
Rushed at them and ate them.
Ill-smelling smoke rose
And filled the house.The centipedes, millipedes,
And poisonous snakes
Were driven out of their holes
By the fire,
And eaten
By the kumbhanda demons.The hair of the hungry spirits caught fire.
With hunger, thirst and burning,
The spirits ran about
In agony and dismay.The house was so dreadful.
[In that house] there were
Poisonings, killings and burnings.
There were many dangers, not just one.
Buddhism: Philosophy or Religion?
Buddhism for Today, p185The book Buddhism by Christmas Humphreys has been widely read in the West. The author, a distinguished English lawyer and also a devout Buddhist, wrote in his preface: “Indeed, by the usual tests, Buddhism is not a religion so much as a spiritual philosophy whose attitude to life is as cool and objective as that of the modern scientist. But it lives, it lives tremendously. …” We cannot help admiring the fact that Mr. Humphreys, a Westerner, has grasped the essence of Buddhism with such accuracy. Indeed, he may have been enabled to understand Buddhism in its true and pure state because he was born and bred in England, which has no tradition of Buddhism.
When we reconsider the teaching of the Law of Appearance in the Lotus Sutra, we realize that though Buddhism is indeed a religion in one respect, … at the same time, with Christmas Humphreys, we can say that Buddhism is a great system of philosophy and ethics.
Philosophy is the science of the study of this world, human life, and the fundamental principles of things. Ethics is the path of duty. The teaching of the Lotus Sutra that we have studied so far may be tentatively summed up as philosophy and ethics. However, when we thoroughly investigate the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, the most profound teaching of the Buddha, we realize that it is also the teaching of a religion that enables us to be saved from our mental suffering, something which cannot be accomplished by learning alone, making human life brighter and leading the world toward peace.
Difficult to Accept and to Understand
Two Buddhas, p134-135Nichiren’s writings suggest two reasons why the Lotus Sūtra is “difficult to accept and to understand.” First, as Saichō had noted, the provisional teachings — those preached before the Lotus Sūtra — were expounded “according to the minds of others,” or in other words, the Buddha had accommodated them to the understanding of his listeners. In contrast, Śākyamuni preached the Lotus Sūtra “in accordance with his own mind,” revealing his own enlightenment. Nichiren took this to mean the Buddha’s insight into the mutual inclusion of the ten realms, or more specifically, the understanding that “our inferior minds are endowed with the buddha realm.” For many of Nichiren’s contemporaries, who believed that buddhahood was to be attained only after death in the Pure Land, this idea must have seemed deeply counterintuitive. “[Among the ten realms], the buddha realm alone is difficult to demonstrate,” he acknowledged. “But having understood that your mind is endowed with the other nine realms, you should believe that it has the buddha realm as well. Do not have doubts about this.”
Another reason why the Lotus Sūtra is “difficult to accept and to understand” is because those who propagate it may encounter antagonism. “People show great hostility toward this sūtra, even in the presence of the Tathāgata,” Śākyamuni declares in [Chapter 10]. “How much more so after the parinirvāṇa of the Tathāgata!” Although cast here in the form of a prophecy of what will happen after the Buddha’s demise, this passage may point to opposition from the Buddhist mainstream encountered by the early Lotus community. For Nichiren, it foretold the hardships that he and his followers encountered in spreading the Lotus Sūtra. Writing from his first exile, to the Izu peninsula, he confessed, “When I first read this passage, I wondered if things would really be so terrible. But now I know that the Buddha’s predictions do not err in the slightest, especially since I have experienced them personally.” For Nichiren, this sūtra passage carried a double legitimation, both of the Lotus Sūtra to which he had committed his life and of his own practice in upholding and propagating the Lotus. The passage is cited nearly fifty times in his extant writings.
At the same time, Nichiren saw the “difficulty” of embracing the Lotus Sūtra as pointing, not merely to the inevitability of hardships, but also to a guarantee of buddhahood. “To accept [the Lotus Sūtra] is easy,” he wrote. “To uphold it is difficult. But the realization of buddhahood lies in upholding faith. Those who would uphold this sūtra should be prepared to meet difficulties. Without doubt, they will ‘quickly attain the highest Buddha path’.”
The Essence of the Essential
It is the “wide” practice to uphold, read, recite, and defend with delight the total of the Lotus Sūtra consisting of 28 chapters in 8 fascicles. It is the “abbreviated” practice to uphold and keep the important chapters such as the “Expedients” and “The Life Span of the Buddha” of the Lotus Sūtra. It is the “essential” practice to chant only the four-phrase verse of “The Divine Powers” chapter* or the daimoku or to protect those who do so. Of these three kinds of practices to chant only the daimoku devotedly is the essence of the essential.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 39
*The “four-phrase verse of ‘The Divine Powers’ chapter” (shiku yōbō 四句要法) is:
如来一切所有之法。Nyo rai is’ sai sho u shi hō.
如来一切自在神力。Nyo rai is’ sai ji zai jin riki.
如来一切秘要之蔵。Nyo rai is’ sai hi yō shi zō.
如来一切甚深之事。Nyo rai is’ sai jin jin shi ji.
Murano translates this as:
All the teachings of the Tathāgata
All the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata
All the treasury of hidden core of the Tathāgata
All the profound achievements of the Tathāgata
(You can find it on p.294 of the 2nd edition)
The verse explains how profound and meritorious the Lotus Sūtra is, saying that all of the above are expounded clearly and revealed in this sūtra.
It is also referred to as “ketchō fuzoku” ( 結要付属 ) – meaning the essence of the Lotus Sūtra which was transmitted to Bodhisattva Superior Practice and other Bodhisattvas from Underground.
This explanation provided by Kanse Capon.
Daily Dharma – Feb. 19, 2020
What does the doctrine of spiritual contemplation mean? It means the way of practicing the teaching of the Buddha according to the intent of the Buddha, not necessarily according to what is literally said in the sutra. Suppose there is a man during the time of a famine who offers to the Buddha the only food he has to stay alive for a day. This is the same as offering his life to the Buddha.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Phenomenal and Noumenal Offering (Jiri Kuyō Gosho). The Lotus Sūtra is the highest teaching because it encompasses all beings in all worlds, assuring everyone that they can rid themselves of delusion and reach the Buddha’s enlightenment. The Buddha showed that the universe is constantly changing, even from one moment to the next. When we read the Lotus Sūtra, and allow our minds to become more like the Buddha mind, we learn the meaning behind the words and put that into practice. We do not merely go through the motions mechanically. We understand that calamities are opportunities for us to bring the Buddha’s teaching to life, and that whatever prosperity we gain does not belong to us alone. Whatever we have is for the benefit of all beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month
heard Śāriputra describe his doubts in gāthās, we consider Śāriputra’s former wrong views and doubts about the teaching.
I once was attached to wrong views,
And became a teacher of the aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.
You expounded to me the teaching of Nirvāṇa,
And removed my wrong views because you understood me.
I gave up all those wrong views,
And attained the truth that nothing is substantial.At that time I thought
That I had attained extinction.’
But now I know
That the extinction I attained is not the true one.
When I become a Buddha in the future,
I shall be adorned with the thirty-two marks,
And respected
By gods, men, yakṣas, and dragons.
Only then I shall be able to say
That I have eliminated all [illusions].In the midst of the great multitude,
You said to me, “You will become a Buddha.”
Hearing this truthful voice,
All my doubts are gone.When I had heard this from you,
I was much frightened and perplexed; I thought:
“The Buddha troubles me.
Isn’t he Mara in the form of a Buddha?”You skillfully expound the Dharma with various parables and similes,
And with various stories of previous lives.
Now my mind is as peaceful as the sea.
Hearing you, I have removed the mesh of doubts.You said:
“The innumerable Buddhas in the past
Expounded the Dharma with expedients.
The numberless Buddhas at present
Also expound the Dharma
With expedients.
So will the countless Buddhas
In the future.”You appeared in this world,
Left your home, attained enlightenment,
And now turn the wheel of the Dharma,
Also with expedients.You expound the true teaching;
Papiyas does not.
Therefore, I know
That you are not a transformation of Mara.
I thought that the Dharma was expounded by Mara
Because I was in the mesh of doubts.
Martian Real Estate Lessons
There was a recent fashion among some people to purchase land on Mars. Though this fad seemed to be half a joke, it can be considered an effective way to broaden man’s mind, in a sense. When we really think of the stars hundreds of millions of light years away, these stars immediately fly into our minds and thus come into our possession. When we think of things tens of thousands of years ago or tens of thousands of years in the future, we realize that the world includes these things; they become part of our own minds. It is our mind that enables us to ignore time and space and to reach out everywhere.
If we could realize the truth of the universe just as the Buddha did and unite with the universal life, how much more would this world become our own! This is not a matter of asserting ownership but of feeling as if we have melted into the whole of the universe. In short, it means that we have reached a mental state of “nonself.” It means that we have abandoned the small self and found the self that lives as the whole.
At such a time, self expands to fill the whole universe. Nonself is the only way that we can realize the idea that “all the universe is our domain.” If we can attain this mental state, our minds will have perfect freedom. We will be free from everything, and even if we act as we wish, everything we do will result in enhancing others’ lives. This is the mental state of the Buddha.
Even though we cannot reach such a state of mind in one leap, we must strive toward it by beginning to follow the Buddha’s example. We cannot attain the mind of the Buddha unless we enter into the Buddha-way by following his example. To recite the sutras, to listen to preaching, to think calmly, and to serve others – all this can be said to be our practice for the purpose of abandoning our self and melting into the whole. This is the spirit of harmony. If we maintain such a practice for even an hour each day, we can approach the Buddha to a slight degree, step by step, and through perseverance we can become buddhas sometime in the future. We must abandon the spineless attitude that we cannot possibly attain buddhahood.
60-61