Buddhism for Today, p291The teaching of the Lotus Sutra is not limited to saving oneself from suffering; its aim is the bodhisattva practice of saving many others from their sufferings. When a person hears a single verse of the Lotus Sutra and receives it with joy, his feeling of joyful acceptance is sure to develop into the power of saving other people. …
For example, a person’s own enlightenment can be compared to one hundred koku of rice in a warehouse. He can live on such a large amount of rice all his life, but that is all that he can do. The rice may be eaten by weevils or grawed by rats or may rot without his realizing it. On the other hand, the sense of joy one first feels in receiving the Lotus Sutra is like one sho of rice seed sown in a field. These seeds have the possibility of growing and increasing to hundreds or thousands of koku of rice. Here lies the reason that the merits of a person who, hearing a single verse of the Lotus Sutra, receives it with joy are far more than those gained in the practice of giving the greatest material donations or even of bestowing the donation of the Law, causing others to attain arhatship. Thus we realize that while the merits obtained by giving something to others are great, the merits of its receivers are also great.
Monthly Archives: April 2020
Repaying Debt of Gratitude to the Eternal Śākyamuni
For Nichiren, Śākyamuni Buddha surpasses our worldly rulers, teachers, and parents, because he is the lord who presides over our awakening, the teacher who leads us to awakening, and the parent who sees us as his children and who are the inheritors of his awakening.
Śākyamuni Buddha is equipped with the three virtues of a lord, master, and parent. As a lord, he protects the people; as a teacher he guides the people; and as a parent, he loves the people. It is only he who is perfectly equipped with these three virtues. (Hori 2004, p. 244 modified. See also Gosho Translation Committee 2006, p. 1039)
When Nichiren spoke of repaying debts of gratitude to our rulers, teachers, and parents, he also means that we must realize and requite our debt of gratitude to the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha above all, and in doing so repay the worldly debts as well.
Open Your Eyes, p15-16Encouraged and Not Disheartened
For the last 20 years or so beginning in the summer of the 5th year of the Kenchō Era (1253), I alone have chanted the daimoku as earnestly as people these days chant the nembutsu. Everyone ridiculed me as a result. In the end they maligned me, beat me, attacked me with a sword, exiled me, and even tried to behead me. Such persecutions as these did not just occur once or twice, or for a day or two, or a month or two, or a year or two, but were unremitting and unbearable indeed. However, when I open the Lotus Sūtra, it is preached that King Suzudan allowed his body to be Asita’s seat for 1,000 years and served him. Never Despising Bodhisattva did not cease to spread the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra for many years all the while he was abused and spoken ill of, attacked by swords and sticks, and had stones and pieces of tiles thrown at him. Medicine King Bodhisattva once burned his own body for 1,200 years, and burned his elbow as a light to the Buddha for as long as 72,000 years. Whenever I read these scriptural statements, I am encouraged not disheartened.
Matsuno-dono Goshōsoku, Letter to Lord Matsuno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 65-66
Daily Dharma – April 10, 2020
If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sūtra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) makes this vow to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sutra. Out of his gratitude for the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma, Universal Sage promises to encourage anyone who may be struggling in their practice of the Buddha Dharma. This is a reminder of how no matter what obstacles or difficulties we may encounter, great beings are helping us and we are in harmony with things as they truly are.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 22
Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.
Having last month repeated in gāthās the benefits to be received for believing for just a moment, we consider those who have firm faith.
Those who firmly believe [my longevity ],
And have no doubts about it
Even for a moment,
Will be able to obtain more merits [than he].The Bodhisattvas who have practiced the Way
For the past innumerable kalpas,
Will believe my longevity
When they hear of it.They will receive this sūtra on their heads,
And wish:
“May we live long and save all living beings
Just as the World-Honored One of today,
Who is the King of the Śākyas, [saves them]
By expounding the Dharma without fear
At the place of enlightenment
With [a voice like] a lion’s roar!
When we sit at the place of enlightenment,
Respected by all living beings,
May we preach that we also shall live
As long [as the World-Honored One of today]!”Those who have firm faith,
And who are pure and upright,
And who hear much and memorize all teachings,
And who understand my words
According to their meaning,
Will have no doubts [about my longevity].“Furthermore, Ajita! Those who hear of my longevity of which I told you, and understand the meaning of my words, will be able to obtain innumerable merits, which will help them attain the unsurpassed wisdom of the Tathāgata. Needless to say, those who hear this sūtra, cause others to hear it, keep it, cause others to keep it, copy it, cause others to copy it, or offer flowers, incense, necklaces, banners, streamers, canopies, perfumed oil, and lamps of butter oil to a copy of it, will be able to obtain immeasurable merits. These merits will help them obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.
See Believing in a Righteous Faith and Endeavoring To Practice It
Believing in a Righteous Faith and Endeavoring To Practice It
Buddhism for Today, p263-264[There are] twelve merits that a believer can obtain by holding an unshakable belief in the Buddha’s infinite life. In brief, the Buddha teaches us that if we establish the basic idea of faith, we can infinitely generate the power both to deepen our own faith and to extend it to others. He also teaches us that we can expect to surely gain the supreme merit of attaining Perfect Enlightenment in the future if we thoroughly devote ourselves to deepening our own faith.
It is, of course, very difficult to attain Perfect Enlightenment. As preached in this chapter, some bodhisattvas cannot attain it unless they practice religious disciplines for eight more lives. How much less can we know how many years and how much effort it will cost ordinary people?
What great hope it gives us to know that we will surely attain Perfect Enlightenment at some time if we only believe in a righteous faith and endeavor to practice it. As long as we have this hope, life is happy and worth living. A person earns or loses money; he falls in love or is disappointed in love; he rises to a higher position in time or he loses his job because of a trifling mistake; he brings up his child successfully or loses it. If we pass through life in this way with no purpose, merely repeating vain feelings of joy and sorrow, even though each moment seems to be substantial and important, we will have an inexpressible sense of emptiness upon looking back over our life. But if our life has the strong backbone of a righteous faith running through it, and if we have a firm belief that we can advance to Perfect Enlightenment step by step even though life has its apparent ups and downs, its various joys and sorrows, we will be able to pass easily through whatever hardships may come, however long life’s journey may be and however many rebirths it may entail.
The Highest Form of Meditation
Nichiren’s conviction is that the highest form of meditation is not found in a special transmission confined to an elite lineage of Zen masters or any other select group of people. Rather, it is to be found expressed by Śākyamuni Buddha himself in the Lotus Sūtra, but the sutra’s teaching must come alive for us in and through actual contemplation of the Wonderful Dharma, here expressed in terms of the “threefold contemplation in a single thought” and the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.” This goes beyond any conceptual teaching or otherworldly piety. This points to actual contemplation of the true nature of mind … .
The connection between this kind of contemplation based on the Lotus Sūtra and the practice of Odaimoku is stated in the Treatise on the Ten Chapters (Jisshō-shō):
What we should chant all the time as the practice of the perfect teaching is ‘Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,’ and what we should keep in mind is the way of meditation based on the truth of ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.’ Only wise men practice both chanting ‘Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō’ and meditating on the truth of ‘three thousand realms in a single thought moment.’ Lay followers of Japan today should recite only ‘Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.’ As the name has the virtue of reaching the body that it represents, when one chants ‘Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,’ one will not fail to receive all the merit of the Lotus Sütra.
Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō fulfills the same function as calming and contemplation practice in Nichiren’s view, as it allows anyone to contemplate the Wonderful Dharma and receive the merit of the Buddha’s highest teaching. In Nichiren’s time, very few lay people would have had the opportunity to study the Tiantai teachings or had the time to engage in meditation practice. It was very important that a way of practice suitable to ordinary working people be provided if Buddhism was truly to be a Great Vehicle for all beings. Though Nichiren encouraged those who could to practice the Tiantai method of meditation, he clearly saw it as practically superfluous compared to the great merit of chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, which Nichiren and his disciples and followers found could itself calm the mind and open it to the great insight of the Buddha.
Open Your Eyes, p416-417Reasons Why the Lotus Sūtra Is Supreme
Now let us compare the merit of worshiping our Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha, not for an hour or two or a day or two but for as long as a kalpa (aeon) by putting the palms of our hands together before Him, looking up at His face with two eyes, bowing our heads and forgetting all other things, as if trying to extinguish the fire in one’s own head, as if a thirsty person thinks of only water and hungry people think of nothing but food—merit of ceaseless devotion to the Buddha as along as a kalpa—to the merit of praising and giving alms to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration without sincerity, as if a stepmother praises a stepchild. It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra that the merit of praising or giving alms to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration, even if not from a believing heart, is a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, and hundred million times superior to the merit of the physical, verbal and mental devotion to the Buddha for as long as a kalpa. Grand Master Miao-lê interprets this, “His merit is superior to the merit of devoting to a Buddha worthy of the ten epithets for the Buddha.” The ten epithets are the ten titles of the Buddha praising His virtue. Miao-lê is saying that the merit of devoting to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the merit of devoting to the Buddha equipped with the ten epithets. This is one of the 20 reasons why the Lotus Sūtra is supreme among all the Buddhist scriptures enumerated by Grand Master Miao-lê.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 48-49
Daily Dharma – April 9, 2020
Have faith in the Great Mandala Gohonzon, the Most Venerable One in the entire world. Earnestly endeavor to strengthen your faith, so that you may be blessed with the protective powers of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of many treasures, and Buddhas in manifestation throughout the Universe. Strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning. Without practice and learning Buddhism will cease to exist. Endeavor yourself and cause others to take up these two ways of practice and learning, which stem from faith. If possible, please spread even a word or phrase of the sutra to others.
Nichiren wrote this as part of his letter to monk Sairen-bō about the nature of reality (Shohō-Jissō Shō). One way of reading this passage is that as we develop our faith in the Great Mandala Gohonzon, the Buddhas will provide more protection for us. Another way to read it is that as our faith develops, so does the power we have to protect others, free them from suffering and help them to awaken their Buddha nature. Either way, Nichiren shows us the practical results of our faith.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 21
Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.
Having last month considered the medicine and the unwillingness of some sons to take the medicine, we repeat the length of time since Śākyamuni became a buddha in gāthās:Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
It is many hundreds of thousands
Of billions of trillions
Of asaṃkhyas of kalpas
Since I became the Buddha.For the past innumerable kalpas
I have always been expounding the Dharma
To many hundreds of millions of living beings
In order to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood.In order to save the [perverted] people,
I expediently show my Nirvāṇa to them.
In reality I shall never pass away.
I always live here and expound the Dharma.Although I always live here
With the perverted people
I disappear from their eyes
By my supernatural powers.When they see me seemingly pass away,
And make offerings to my śarīras,
And adore me, admire me,
And become devout, upright and gentle,
And wish to see me
With all their hearts
At the cost of their lives,
I reappear on Mt. Sacred Eagle
With my Saṃgha,
And say to them:
“I always live here.
I shall never be extinct.
I show my extinction to you expediently
Although I never pass away.
I also expound the unsurpassed Dharma
To the living beings of the other worlds
If they respect me, believe me,
And wish to see me.
You have never heard this
Therefore, you thought that I pass away.”