Monthly Archives: April 2020

WONS, Eyes

Eight Phases of Śākyamuni’s Life

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Nichiren sometimes alludes to the eight phases of Śākyamuni Buddha’s life. This is a way of summing up the story of the Buddha in the following eight events:

  1. Descent from the Tushita Heaven — Before his last earthly rebirth, the future Buddha lived in the Heaven of Contentment (Skt. Tuṣita) awaiting the right time, place and family for his final rebirth.
  2. Entering Queen Māyā’s womb — When the right conditions arose Queen Māyā of Kapilavastu had a most singular dream. She dreamed that a six-tusked white elephant holding a white lotus flower in its trunk circled around her three times and then entered into her womb. At that moment Queen Māyā conceived the bodhisattva.
  3. Emerging from Queen Māyā’s womb—Queen Māyā gave birth to him painlessly while standing up and holding onto a sal tree branch while visiting the Lumbini Garden near Kapilavastu. The legend states that immediately upon entering the world, the young Prince Siddhārtha took seven steps and made the following statement: “I am born for awakening for the good of the world; this is my last birth in the world of phenomena.” (Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita, part Il, p. 4)
  4. Leaving home— After witnessing an old man, a sick man, a funeral procession, and a religious mendicant, Prince Siddhārtha left his family (his father King Suddhodana, his wife Yaśodharā, and his son Rahula) and became an forest ascetic.
  5. Overcoming Māra — After turning away from asceticism, the bodhisattva sat beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya and overcame temptations and distractions of the demon Māra.
  6. Attaining the Way—As the morning star (Venus?) rose in the morning sky, the bodhisattva attained buddhahood and henceforth became known as Śākyamuni Buddha.
  7. Turning the Wheel of the Dharma —Starting at the Deer Park near the city of Vārāṇasi, the Buddha began to teach the Dharma and continued to do so for fifty years.
  8. Entering final nirvāṇa —At the age of eighty, the Buddha passed away beneath the twin sal trees near the city of Kuśinagara.
Open Your Eyes, p137-138
d5b, d9b, d21b, WONS

The Difficulty of the Lotus Sūtra

In the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra the Buddha preaches about Himself, “I have been the Buddha since the eternal past, 500 (million) dust-particle kalpa (aeons).” We, ordinary beings, do not remember things in the past even things that occurred after our birth. How much more so can we remember things in the past life or two! How can we believe anything that took place as far away in the past as 500 million dust-particle kalpa ago?

The Buddha also spoke to His disciple Śāriputra predicting his future Buddhahood, “You will become a Buddha in the future after passing numerous and unimaginable number of kalpa (aeons). You will then be called the Flower Light Buddha.” Predicting the future of Mahā-Kāśyapa, the Buddha stated, “In a future life, you will become a Buddha named the Light Buddha during your last incarnation.”

These scriptural statements, however, are the predictions of the future, which does not seem possible for us ordinary people to put faith in. Therefore, this Lotus Sūtra is difficult for us, ordinary men and women, who have no knowledge of things in the past or in the future. Hence it does not make sense for us to practice the Lotus Sūtra. Yet it may be possible for some people to believe this Lotus Sūtra if there was someone at present who could present factual proofs to people in front of their very eyes.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 50

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 26, 2020

If after my extinction anyone rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gāthā or a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I also will assure him of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. Other teachings had described beings becoming enlightened after making exorbitant offerings or strenuous practices over many lifetimes. In the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma, a single moment of joy at hearing the Dharma is enough to assure us that we will become enlightened.

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

LS32

Day 4

Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 4 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the Buddha’s initial decision to use expedients, we consider the Buddha’s decision to teach Bodhisattvas.

Śāriputra, know this!
Then I saw many sons of mine,
Thousands of billions in number,
Seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha.
They came to me respectfully.
They had already heard
Expedient teachings
From the past Buddhas.

I thought:
“I appeared in this world
In order to expound my wisdom.
Now is the time to do this.”

Śāriputra, know this!
Men of dull capacity and of little wisdom cannot believe the Dharma.
Those who are attached to the appearances of things are arrogant.
They cannot believe it, either.

I am now joyful and fearless.
I have laid aside all expedient teachings.
I will expound only unsurpassed enlightenment
To Bodhisattvas.

The Bodhisattvas who hear the Dharma
Will be able to remove the mesh of doubts.
The twelve hundred Arhats also
Will become Buddhas.

See Teaching Only Bodhisattvas

LS32, d4b, b4today

Teaching Only Bodhisattvas

The true meaning of the Buddha’s words, “The buddhas teach only bodhisattvas,” should be interpreted as follows: As long as you think that the fact that you have been able to obtain enlightenment for yourself alone is enough, you cannot attain real enlightenment. If you feel that you yourself have attained enlightenment though many other people have not, such a feeling is positive proof that you are keeping yourself aloof from others. Such a feeling is not a blending with others; it is, rather, isolation from them. You cannot enter the state of “Nothing has an ego” because your egoistic feeling still remains. Therefore, your enlightenment is not real. One can obtain enlightenment for one’s own self, and by the same token, all others can do the same. One can be saved from one’s own suffering, and at the same time, all others can be saved from theirs. Your salvation together with that of others is your real salvation. At the very time that you understand this, you can be said to have attained real enlightenment and to have been set free from the bonds of illusion and suffering in the world.

Buddhism for Today, p47
Blog

Auto Insurance Renewal

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Back in 2017 I leased a Chevy Volt, a plug-in electric hybrid sedan, and took it to Rev. Kenjo Igarashi at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and had him purify and protect the car. Now three years later I’ve traded in the Volt for an all-electric Bolt and returned to get my auto insurance renewed.

The ritual involves prayers and purification and a boundary spell made with rice, salt, water and saki. An omamori amulet hangs from the steering wheel.

Lotus Seeds

The Ten Factors: Effects

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Of the Ten Factors, Effects are the immediate consequences of present activity. Whenever we act, speak, or even think about something, there is an immediate effect upon our lives. That effect might be so minimal as to be hardly noticeable. However, effects primarily refers to the planting of a new seed in the depths of our lives, not just the immediate change in our conscious lives. The importance of this is that everything that we do has an effect upon our day-to-day life and, even more important, upon our inner life.

Lotus Seeds

Eyes

Suffering and Gods

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The Buddha was not concerned with affirming or denying any kind of God. What the Buddha constantly taught was for the purpose of helping people understand suffering, cut off the causes of suffering, realize the cessation of suffering, and follow the path to the cessation of suffering. Anything within the six worlds of transmigration, including the heavenly realms where gods of varying degrees of sublimity reside, was still within the purview of suffering and its causes. While union with God is looked upon as a worthy and attainable goal, it is not the final goal, for it is still involved in the impermanent flow of causes and conditions. Only the unconditioned peace of nirvāṇa can provide true peace according to the Buddha.

Open Your Eyes, p126
WONS

Hachiman’s Failure

Before the time of Grand Master Dengyō, this Great Bodhisattva Hachiman had been fed with the taste of a diluted Lotus Sūtra, like milk diluted with water. Due to the merit of his virtuous acts in previous lives, the Great Bodhisattva was reborn as Emperor Ōjin and manifested himself as a god to protect the land of Japan. However, Hachiman’s merit of good acts in previous lives has been exhausted and the taste of the True Dharma has been lost and it has been many years since the slanderers of the True Dharma filled the country of Japan. Being revered by the people of Japan for many years as their protective deity, Hachiman did not abandon them, but kept the slanderers of the True Dharma under his protection, like aged parents refusing to cast aside unfilial children. Therefore, Hachiman’s palace was burnt down probably by heavenly beings as punishment.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 264-265

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 25, 2020

However, we now live in the Latter Age of Degeneration, when disputes and quarrels are rampant while the True Dharma is lost. There is nothing but evil lands where evil rulers, evil subjects and evil people reject the True Dharma, showing respect only to evil dharmas and evil teachers. Evil spirits take advantage of this, filling the lands with the so-called three calamities and seven disasters.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on the True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha (Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō). It can be hard for us to imagine how what we believe can change our society. We think we have to create a new political system, or put the right people in power, or acquire wealth before we can have peace. What would happen in a world where people believed their happiness was intertwined with that of others? What happens in a world where people believe their happiness has to come at the expense of others? Our beliefs are far more powerful than we realize. When we put our belief in the Buddha’s description of the world as it is, and see our place in it as Bodhisattvas who have chosen to be here to benefit others, the world changes before our eyes.

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