Buddhism for Today, p36-37If I were asked to explain with a single phrase the character of Sakyamuni Buddha as a man, I would answer without hesitation, “A person of perfect generosity.” Therefore, I think that there is no action that makes Sakyamuni Buddha more sorrowful than when we become angry about something and reproach others or when we blame others for our own wrongs. Above all else, we should refrain from such actions toward each other. Perseverance is, in short, generosity. As we persevere in the practice of the bodhisattvas, we cease to become angry or reproachful toward others, or toward anything in the universe. We are apt to complain about the weather when it rains and to grumble about the dust when we have a spell of fine weather. However, when through perseverance we attain a calm and untroubled mind, we become thankful for both the rain and the sun. Then our minds become free from changes in our circumstances.
When we advance further, we come not only to have no feeling of anger and hatred toward those who hurt, insult, or betray us but even to wish actively to help them. On the other hand, we should not be swayed by flattery or praise of the good we may do but should quietly reflect on our conduct. We should not feel superior to others but should maintain a modest attitude when everything goes smoothly.
Monthly Archives: April 2020
A Skillful Means of Entry to the Buddha Dharma
As was the case with Confucianism, East Asian Buddhists viewed Brahmanism as a precursor to Buddhism. They saw it as a teaching set up by the buddhas and the bodhisattvas to serve as a skillful means of entry to the Buddha Dharma. As Nichiren says in Kaimoku-shō:
After all, the most important thing for non-Buddhist teachings is, like Confucianism, to prepare the way to Buddhism. This is why some non-Buddhists maintain that the Buddha will be born 1,000 years later, while others insist on 100 years later. It is said, therefore, in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra that what is written in all the non-Buddhist scriptures is nothing but the teaching of the Buddha. Again, it is said in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter eight, “Assurance of Future Buddhahood,” that disciples of the Buddha sometimes pretend to be contaminated with the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance or show the heretic view denying the law of cause and effect as an expedient means to save the people.
Open Your Eyes, p114-115Myō Equals Perfection
The Chinese character “myō” is “sad” in Sanskrit, and “miao” in Chinese. It means to be equipped with everything. To be equipped means satisfactory, lacking nothing. Each character of the Lotus Sūtra contains every one of 69,384 characters. It is like a drop of water in the ocean consisting of the water of all the rivers, or a single crystal ball as small as a poppy seed, pouring out all the treasures.
It is as the plants that died with ice and snow in autumn and winter, sprout, put out leaves, blossom and bear fruits in spring and summer. This is a parable in which the people in nine realms before the Lotus Sūtra are compared to the plants of autumn through winter. The character myō of the Lotus Sūtra is likened to the sunshine of spring through summer, and blossoming and bearing fruits mean aspiration for and attainment of Buddhahood by those people. Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna says in his Great Wisdom Discourse that it is “like a great medicine master turning poison into medicine.” This is his explanation of how virtuous “myō” of the Lotus Sūtra was. Grand Master Miao-lê says also that the Lotus Sūtra is named “myō” because it was able to heal all the sick people with obstinate diseases that had not been cured by any other sūtras.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 42
Daily Dharma – April 22, 2020
Śāriputra! Some disciples of mine, who think that they are Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas, will not be my disciples or Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas if they do not hear or know that the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas.
The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra. When the Buddha says he only teaches Bodhisattvas, he does not mean that he excludes anyone from his teaching. It is only when we realize and develop our capacities as Bodhisattvas, beings who exist to benefit all beings, rather than being preoccupied with our own suffering, can we hear, practice and appreciate the Buddha Dharma.
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Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1
Following today’s recitation of The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, I offer Nikkyō Niwano’s discussion of the Buddha’s teaching for Bodhisattvas in Chapter 2: Preaching [Dharma Discourse]:
Buddhism for Today, p9The six worlds continually occur in man’s mind and shift from one to another. This state of mind is called “transmigration within the six worlds” (rokudō rinne). If we have no good teaching and no way of practice, we permanently transmigrate within the six worlds, and our distresses and sufferings will never disappear. Anyone will realize this as soon as he reflects on himself.
The Buddha taught the bodhisattvas as follows: “When you, bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, observe all the living beings who are transmigrating within the six realms of existence, you should raise the mind of compassion and display great mercy so as to relieve them from such realms. First, you must penetrate deeply into all the laws. If you understand them deeply, you can realize naturally what may emerge from them in the future. You can also realize that they remain settled, without changing, for a time. You can also realize that they change. Moreover, you can realize that they eventually vanish. Thus you can observe and know the reasons that good and evil laws emerge. Having finished observing and knowing all four aspects of the laws from beginning to end, next you should observe that none of the laws remains settled for even a moment, but emerges and vanishes anew every moment. After such observations, you can know the capacity, the nature, and the desires that each living being possesses as if you had penetrated each of their minds.”
Ātman and Anātman
The most important and far-reaching difference between the Buddha and Brahmanism is that he did not speak of Ātman and Brahman, but instead taught the doctrine of anātman or no-self. Instead of teaching people to discern a permanent, fixed, independent selfhood, the Buddha taught how to relinquish attachment to self by pointing out that the self is just a label given to the five ever changing and mutually interdependent aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. The Buddha pointed out that none of these five aggregates has any permanence. They all function in a constant state of flux. Additionally, they must all function in tandem. Any one of the five aggregates would be unable to exist without the other four. This lack of a stable basis for existence precludes any kind of peace or security that depends on something substantial and abiding. The life of the five aggregates is a dynamic interrelated process, and one who seeks some uninterrupted satisfaction from this process will only find suffering instead. Because the five aggregates are impermanent and lead to suffering, they are said to be without a self. Specifically, this means that one cannot attribute to them the permanently abiding and happy self that was the goal of the religious sages and mystics of the Upanishads. A provisional self can be attributed in an abstract way to the life process, but an actual thing or substance called a self cannot be found within the process. Nor can one meaningfully talk about a self apart from the five aggregates because such a self would be a mere abstraction with no substance or empirical reality to back it up. The conclusion is that the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are characterized by the three marks of impermanence, suffering and non-self. In this way, the Buddha revealed the vanity of the idea of a permanently abiding happy self. Once one ceases to think in terms of such a self, then one is free from all the compulsions, fears and desires that go along with the assumption that there is such a self to find, protect, or appease. One then becomes an arhat, or “worthy one,” who will no longer suffer from the cycle of birth and death.
Open Your Eyes, p113-114The Pure Perfect Teaching
Generally speaking, there are two things which we should keep in mind as to the Perfect Teachings of the pre-Lotus sūtras. Before Ānanda assembled disciples of the Buddha to compile the sūtras, the Buddha added the doctrine of Distinct and Perfect Teachings and the Four Teachings and Three Teachings to every teaching. Thus, the pure Perfect Teaching was not preached in the sūtras expounded prior to the Lotus Sūtra. In this sense, the Perfect Teachings prior to the Lotus Sūtra are classified as the Distinct Teachings in the Lotus Sūtra. It is said in the tenth fascicle of the Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra that in every stage there are two doctrines, fugen (mutually identical and mutually penetrating) and gyōfu (independence of every stage of the order); thus, we should know that the Perfect Teaching (prior to the Lotus Sūtra) is classified as the Distinct Teaching. Therefore, Buddhahood will not be attained in the pre-Lotus sūtras.
Nijō Sabutsu Ji, Obtaining Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 227
Daily Dharma – April 21, 2020
This is indeed inexplicable yet precious. If Devadatta does not become a Buddha, the numerous evil people who were induced by him to enter into his evil comradeship would never be able to escape the torment of the Hell of Incessant Suffering. It is solely due to the great favor of the Lotus Sutra that all of Devadatta’s comrades, too, are allowed to be Buddhas.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Prayers (Kitō-shō). Devadatta was a cousin of the Buddha who was jealous of the Buddha’s accomplishments. He tried to set those who followed the Buddha against each other, and even tried several times to kill the Buddha. In the Lotus Sūtra, even Devadatta is assured of becoming a Buddha, opening the path of enlightenment even to those as perverse and deluded as him. When we learn to see even those who cause great harm as being capable of becoming enlightened, then it changes not only how we treat them, but how we see the world.
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Between Day 32 and Day 1: Practicing the Great Vehicle
Text of the Contemplation of Universal Sage
Walking slowly and with quiet purpose, raining numerous jewel-like flowers, the procession will pass before the practitioner. The elephant will open its mouth, and the exquisite maidens in the pools at the tips of its tusks will sing and strum pleasant music, their sublime voices lauding the one genuine path of the Great Vehicle. Feeling both joy and reverence after perceiving this, the practitioner should further internalize and recite the extremely profound sutras, pay homage to all of the innumerable buddhas respectively in the ten directions, pay homage to the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha and to Śākyamuni, likewise pay homage to Universal Sage and the various eminent bodhisattvas, and speak aloud this declaration:
“If I am worthy of seeing Universal Sage as a happy result of past actions, I petition you, O Universally Virtuous One, to show me your body and form!”
Having made this appeal, the practitioner must pay homage to the buddhas of the ten directions at the six specified times of day and night, and must practice ways of self-amendment: internalize the Great Vehicle sutras, recite the Great Vehicle sutras, reflect on the Great Vehicle’s principle, be mindful of the Great Vehicle’s application, revere and render service to those who keep faith with the Great Vehicle, regard all people in the same manner as buddhas would regard them, and regard each living thing in the same manner as would a mother or father.
When I read this in the morning, the final part of this quoted section reminded me of my discussion earlier about Practicing the Lotus Sutra. Here explicitly is outlined what it means to practice:
Internalize the Great Vehicle sutras, recite the Great Vehicle sutras, reflect on the Great Vehicle’s principle, be mindful of the Great Vehicle’s application, revere and render service to those who keep faith with the Great Vehicle, regard all people in the same manner as buddhas would regard them, and regard each living thing in the same manner as would a mother or father.
A Great Encouragement to Us in the Age of Degeneration
Buddhism for Today, p426Running through the entire [Contemplation of Universal Sage] sutra is a concept expressed in the following words: “Even though they have not yet entered into the contemplation, just because they recite and keep the Great-vehicle they will devote themselves to practicing it.” Only a person who has undergone considerable religious training can concentrate his mind on a single object and enter directly into the mental stage of discriminating the real state of all things. One who has not yet attained such a mental stage, by reciting and keeping the Great-vehicle wholeheartedly, will approach the practice of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue little by little. Some will approach the practice of this bodhisattva after three times seven days, while others will do so only after three births. In either case, the assurance of approaching such a mental stage step by step is a great encouragement to us in the age of degeneration.