Two Buddhas, p210-211In seeing himself as charged by the Buddha with the mission of disseminating the Lotus Sūtra in the evil, Final Dharma age, Nichiren identified with the noble and heroic figure of the bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacaritra, leader of the bodhisattvas of the earth. But at the same time, in seeing his trials as opportunities to rid himself of the consequences of past errors, he identified with the humbler figure of the bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta [Never-Despising Bodhisattva]. In so doing, Nichiren placed himself on the same level as the people he was attempting to save and identified a karmic bond between them.
Monthly Archives: March 2020
The Golden Words of Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha
It is preached in the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 7: “Moon Deity is the foremost among the stars. The same is true of the Lotus Sūtra. Of the countless number of Buddhist sūtras, this sūtra is the most illuminating.” This scriptural statement means: “Stars in the sky shine either one-half of a ri (about 5 km), eight ri, or 16 ri in all directions. On the contrary the full moon in the sky shines 800 ri all around. For instance, the Flower Garland Sūtra (60 fascicles in the old translation or 80 fascicles in the new translation), the Wisdom Sūtra (600 fascicles), Hōdō sūtras (60 fascicles), the Nirvana Sūtra (40 or 36 fascicles), and innumerable other sūtras such as the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra, the Diamond Peak Sūtra, the Sūtra on the Act of Perfection, the Sūtra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life, and the Amitābha Sūtra are like stars, while the Lotus Sūtra is like the full moon.” This is not what was preached by Bodhisattvas Nāgārjuna and commentators in India, or Grand Master T’ien-t’ai and Tripiṭaka Master Śubhākarasiṃha who preached Buddhism in China. These are the golden words of Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha, which are like the words of the Son of Heaven.
Matsuno-dono Goshōsoku, Letter to Lord Matsuno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 65
Daily Dharma – March 21, 2020
Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they eat will become
As delicious as nectar.
The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. With food and drink it is easy to see how different people will find the same food either delicious or disgusting. Our experience and beliefs shape what we are comfortable putting into our bodies, and whether we do so for the sake of our health or the pleasure that comes from experiencing their flavor. But when we find that something with good flavor is bad for our health, or vice versa, we can change our tastes. This is another example of how the Lotus Sūtra teaches us how to live in the world. We learn to embrace situations we once found frightening or intolerable. We increase our capacity with our focus on benefiting others. As a wise teacher once said, we learn to enjoy problems the way we enjoy ice cream.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 2
Chapter 1, Introductory (Conclusion).
Having last month considered what happened after the Buddha Sun-Moon-Light preached Innumerable Teachings, we meet a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light and hear the Lotus Sūtra.
“Maitreya, know this! There were two thousand million Bodhisattvas in that congregation. They wished to hear the Dharma. They were astonished at seeing the Buddha-worlds illumined by this ray of light. They wished to know why the Buddha was emitting this ray of light.
“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light. He had eight hundred disciples. Sun-Moon-Light Buddha emerged from his samādhi, and expounded the sūtra of the Great Vehicle to Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva and others without rising from his seat for sixty small kalpas. It was called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ The hearers in the congregation also sat in the same place for sixty small kalpas, and their bodies and minds were motionless. They thought that they had heard the Buddha expounding the Dharma for only a mealtime. None of them felt tired in body or mind. Having completed the expounding of this sūtra at the end of the period of sixty small kalpas, Sun-Moon-Light Buddha said to the Brahmans, Maras, śramaṇas, brahmanas, gods, men, and asuras, ‘I shall enter into the Nirvāṇa-without-remainder at midnight tonight.’
This is a good place to point out the Shaking Up Conventional Hierarchies taking place in the first chapter.
In response to Maitreya’s question about why the Buddha has illuminated the worlds, Mañjuśrī responds that he has seen this happen before. That is, he remembers something that Maitreya does not, suggesting that the power of his memory to encompass distant space and time — one of the markers of enlightenment in Buddhism — surpasses even that of Maitreya. It also suggests that Mañjuśrī has been cultivating the bodhisattva path far longer even than Maitreya, who was said to be but one lifetime away from achieving buddhahood. This is but one of many moments in which the Lotus Sūtra reverses conventional hierarchies by revealing hitherto unimagined expanses of the past.
Two Buddhas, p42-43
Pounded in the Fire, Iron Is Forged into Swords
Two Buddhas, p210During the hardships of his exile to Sado Island, Nichiren became convinced that his own trials were not retributions for ordinary misdeeds. Rather, in previous lives, he himself must have slandered the dharma, the offense that he now so implacably opposed. He reflected: “From time without beginning I must have been born countless times as an evil ruler who robbed practitioners of the Lotus Sūtra of their clothing and food, paddies and fields … countless times I must have beheaded Lotus Sūtra practitioners.” Ordinarily, he explained, the karmic retribution for such horrific offenses would torment a person over the course of innumerable lifetimes. But by asserting the unique truth of the Lotus Sūtra and meeting persecution as a result, he had in effect summoned the consequences of those misdeeds into the present lifetime to be eradicated once and for all. “By being pounded in the fire, iron is forged into swords,” he said. “Worthies and sages are tested by abuse. My present sentence of exile is not because of even the slightest worldly wrongdoing. It has come about solely that I may expiate my past grave offenses in this lifetime and escape [rebirth in] the three evils paths in the next.”
Helping Even Such an Evil King as Ajātaśatru
With such great virtues as these, the Buddha was able to help even such an evil king as Ajātaśatru who called together wrong doers from 16 major states, took non-Buddhists in the world into his circle, had Devadatta as his teacher, incited slander among scoundrels, physically abused and even murdered the Buddha’s disciples. Moreover, Ajātaśatru crucified his father, a great Buddhist king reputed to have been a wise ruler, by nailing him on the cross with seven 12-inch long nails, and also destroyed his own mother’s jeweled ornamental hairpin and threatened to have her beheaded. Due to such serious sins compounded Ajātaśatru suffered from seven malignant tumors for which he was destined to fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering within three weeks time on the seventh day of the third month through a hole in the earth and suffer in the hell for as long as one kalpa (aeon). Nevertheless, when he visited the Buddha and paid homage to Him, his malignant tumors were healed, he was saved from the severe torment of the Hell of Incessant Suffering, and moreover, his life span was prolonged by 40 years. Minister Jīvaka is said to have entered a blazing flame to save a child of millionaire Campā. It was only because he was the messenger of the Buddha that he was able to do this. Reflecting on this, there is no doubt that anyone who made an offering to the Buddha is bound to attain Buddhahood no matter how evil a man or woman is.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 47-48
Daily Dharma – March 20, 2020
I do not deceive
Those who believe me and rely on me.
I am not greedy or jealous
Because I have eliminated all evils.
Therefore, in the worlds of the ten quarters,
I am fearless.
The Buddha proclaims these verses to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra. In this world of conflict, people believe that they must constantly strive to show that they are better than everyone else. Acquiring more material goods or a higher rank or position supposedly proves superiority. And if there is an encounter with someone who is better, that person must be brought down. What people do not realize that the source of greed and jealousy is fear. Like the Buddha, we too can eliminate our fears when we are satisfied with what we have and regard superior beings as a source of benefit.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Returning to a Good Friend
For this evening’s service I welcomed an old friend, my Senchu Murano translation of the Lotus Sutra. For the past 10 cycles through my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice I have been working my way through all of the English translations of Kumarajiva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra, beginning with “The Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma,” the translation of the Lotus Sutra made by Leon Hurvitz, and concluding with Burton Watson’s translation for Soka Gakkai. I suspect that Rissho Kosei-kai’s translation, “The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers,” which was published in 2019, will become the modern standard. The Nichiren Shu Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area intends to use this translation rather than Murano’s for its service booklet. Personally, I’m not convinced that the translators’ aggressive effort to remove gender bias is beneficial. I wrote about this in a January blog post.
In any event, on this 51st cycle through the Lotus Sutra, I’m very happy to return to Murano’s translation.
Day 1
Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Having last month considered the additional practices of the Bodhisattvas that Maitreya sees, we considered the final practices of those Bodhisattvas that Maitreya sees.
I also see some Bodhisattvas
Offering delicious food and drink
And hundreds of kinds of medicines
To the Buddha and the Sangha.Some offer garments and beautiful robes
Worth tens of millions
Or beyond monetary value
To the Buddha and the Sangha.Some offer thousands of billions
Of jeweled houses made of candana
And wonderful bedding
To the Buddha and the Sangha.Some offer pure gardens and forests
Abounding in flowers and fruits,
And furnished with rivers, springs,
and pools for bathing,
To the Buddha and the Saṃgha.I see those Bodhisattvas
Making offerings of those wonderful things
Joyfully and untiringly
In order to attain unsurpassed enlightenment.Some Bodhisattvas expound
The truth of tranquil extinction,
And with various expedients,
Teach innumerable living beings.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Who attained the following truth:
“The nature of things is not dual.
It is [formless] like the sky.”I also see some sons of the Buddha
Having no attachment in their minds.
They seek unsurpassed enlightenment
With this wonderful wisdom.Mañjuśrī!
Some Bodhisattvas make offerings
To the śarīras of a Buddha
After his extinction.I also see some sons of the Buddha
Adorning the world of the Buddha
With as many stupa-mausoleums
As there are sands in the River Ganges.Those stupas of treasures are
Lofty and wonderful.
They are five thousand yojanas high,
And two thousand yojanas wide and deep.Each of the stupa-mausoleums has
One thousand pairs of banners and streamers.
It also has curtains adorned with gems.
It also has jeweled bells ringing.Gods, dragons, men, and nonhuman beings
Constantly offer incense, flowers, and music
[To the stupa-mausoleums].Mañjuśrī!
Those sons of the Buddha
Adorn the stupa-mausoleums
And offer the adornments
To the śarīras [of the Buddha].The worlds [of the Buddha] naturally become
As wonderful and as beautiful
As the [flowers] of the kingly tree
In full bloom on the top of Mt. Sumeru.
The multitude of this congregation and I
Can see the various wonderful things
Of those worlds
By the ray of light of the Buddha [of this world].
The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra explains the omens that confounded Maitreya:
In Chapter 1, Introduction, the congregation waited anxiously for this definitive sermon, the way to which had already been prepared by the Sutra of Innumerable Teachings. But Sakyamuni did not begin immediately. First, he preached the opening sutra … . Then he entered into its deep meditation. His body and mind became motionless. The assembled gods rained mandarava flowers upon him. The world quaked in six ways. The assembled beings looked on in astonishment and joined their hands together in supplication. Finally the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the white curl between his eyebrows (the so-called “third eye”) and illuminated all the eighteen thousand worlds to the east, from their lowest hells up to their highest heavens.
These are called the “Six Omens Shown in This World.” In order, they are “Preaching,” “Entering into Samadhi,” “Raining Flowers,” “Quaking,” “Delighting,” and “Emitting a Ray of Light.”
Introduction to the Lotus SutraExpiating His Past Errors
Two Buddhas, p209-210Nichiren … read the story of Sadāparibhūta [Never-Despising Bodhisattva] in a way that reflected — and perhaps inspired — his understanding of his own ordeals as a form of redemptive suffering. The prose portion of the “Sadāparibhūta” chapter says that those who mocked the bodhisattva suffered for a thousand eons in the Avici hell, but after expiating this offense, they were again able to meet him and were led by him to attain “the highest, complete enlightenment.” The verse section, however, suggests that the bodhisattva himself had “expiated his past errors” by patiently bearing the insults and mistreatment he received in the course of his practice. Nichiren focused on this second reading, encouraging his followers, and himself as well, by explaining that hardship encountered for the Lotus Sūtra’s sake would eradicate one’s past slanders against the dharma. “The bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta was not reviled and disparaged, and assailed with sticks and stones, for no reason,” Nichiren suggested. “It would appear that he had probably slandered the true dharma in the past. The phrase ‘having expiated his past errors’ seems to mean that because he met persecution, he was able to eradicate his sins from prior lifetimes.”