Monthly Archives: April 2020

WONS

Predictions Proven True

These are the predictions in the “Risshō Ankoku-ron.” Now I, Nichiren, would like to add my views to them. The Buddha once predicted that Kutoku, a Jain, would die in seven days and be reborn a hungry spirit. Refuting the Buddha, Kutoku declared that he would not die in seven days and that he would be an arhat, who would not be reborn in the realm of hungry spirits. Nevertheless, Kutoku died in seven days, showing the very appearance of the hungry spirit just as predicted by the Buddha.

When the wife of a rich man in the city of Campā, in central India, became pregnant, six non-Buddhist masters insisted that she would give birth to a baby girl. However, just as the Buddha predicted, a baby boy was born.

Upon finishing the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha predicted in the Sūtra of Meditation on the Universal Sage Bodhisattva that He would enter Nirvāṇa in three months. Although non-Buddhist masters all called it a lie, the Buddha entered Nirvāṇa on the fifteenth of the second month.

It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 2, chapter three on “A Parable”: ” Śāriputra! After a countless, inconceivable number of kalpa from now you will become a Buddha called Flower Light Buddha.” The sūtra also asserts in the third fascicle, chapter eight, “Assurance of Future Buddhahood”: “This Mahā-Kāśyapa, a disciple of Mine, will see 300 trillions of Buddhas in future lives. … After that in the final stage of his physical existence, he will become a Buddha called Light Buddha.” It is declared in the fourth fascicle, chapter ten, “The Teacher of the Dharma, “If anyone rejoices even for a moment at hearing a verse or a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower Of the Wonderful Dharma after My death, I also assure him of his future attainment of Perfect Enlightenment.”

These passages in the Lotus Sūtra are predictions of the Buddha about future lives. Nevertheless, who would believe in them if His three predictions cited above, such as the death of Kutoku, a Jain, had not proved to be true? It would be difficult to believe in them even if the Buddha of Many Treasures attested them to be true, and Buddhas in manifestation swore to their truth with their long tongues touching the Brahma Heaven. The same can be said about me today. Even if I, Nichiren, were able to preach as fluently as or show the divine powers of Maudgalyāyana, who would believe in me if my predictions had not proven to be true?

When a letter of state came from the Mongol Empire in the fifth year of the Bun’ei Era (1268), a wise man, if there had been one in Japan, should have wondered whether or not my prediction was proving to be true. I uttered harsh words to Hei no Saemonnojō who arrested me on the twelfth of the ninth month in the eighth year of the Bun’ei Era (1271). Those harsh words have proved to be true on the eleventh of the second month in the following year, when a domestic disturbance erupted. Anyone with a human mind should have believed in me. People should have believed in me even more so, as Mongol troops have invaded Japan this year, plundering the two provinces of Iki and Tsushima. Even pieces of wood and stone or birds and beasts would be startled by the exact agreement between what I had predicted and what actually happened. Yet, nobody listens to me. This is no trivial matter. Possessed by evil spirits, all the people in this country are drunk and insane. It is sad, pitiful, fearful, and hateful.

Ken Risshō-i Shō, A Tract Revealing the Gist of the “Risshō Ankoku-ron,” Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 164-165

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 16, 2020

When he said this, people would strike him with a stick, a piece of wood, a piece of tile or a stone. He would run away to a distance, and say in a loud voice from afar, ‘I do not despise you. You will become Buddhas.’

The Buddha tells this story of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva did not read or recite sūtras. His sole practice was to tell everyone he met, “I respect you deeply. I do not despise you.” Despite this pure practice, many people became angry and abused him because of their own perverted minds. He did not stay where he could suffer their abuse, and he still maintained his respect for them, despite their behavior. This and the other examples in the Lotus Sūtra of Bodhisattvas are examples for us who aspire to practice this Wonderful Teaching.

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

LS32, d28b, b4today

Realizing the Ideal

The true spirit of chapter 24 is that an ideal is not truly holy until it is actually realized by people little by little. Although the buddhas dwelling in ideal worlds, such as the Tathāgata Mahāvairocana and the Tathāgata Amita, are surely very holy, the Eternal Original Buddha, whom people can revere through the Tathāgata Sakyamuni as the personified ideal thereof, should be the object of worship for those living in this world.

Buddhism for Today, p376
LS32

Day 28

Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 28 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha’s advice to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, we consider Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva’s preparations to come to the Sahā World.

Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva said to the Buddha “World-Honored One! I can go to the Sahā-World by your powers, by your supernatural powers of traveling, and by your merits and wisdom which adorn me.”

Thereupon Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva entered into a samadhi. He did not rise from his seat or make any other movement. By the power of this samadhi, he caused eighty-four thousand lotus flowers of treasures to appear in a place not far from the seat of the Dharma situated on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa. Those flowers had stalks of jambunada gold, leaves of silver, stamens of diamond, and calyxes of kimsuka treasures.

Thereupon Mañjuśrī, the Son of the King of the Dharma, having seen these lotus-flowers, said to Śākyamuni Buddha:

“World-Honored One! What does this omen mean? Tens of millions of lotus-flowers have appeared. They have stalks of jambunada gold, leaves of silver, stamens of diamond, and calyxes of kimsuka treasures.”

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha said to Mañjuśrī:

“This means that Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, surrounded by eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas, is coming from the World of Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha to this Sahā World in order to make offerings to me, attend on me, bow to me, make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and hear it.”

See Realizing the Ideal

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Practicing the Lotus Sutra

In considering how to practice the Lotus Sutra, I find it helpful to think of all the Buddha’s teachings as specific pieces of lumber crafted for specific purposes, ridge poles, beams, doors, windows, flooring and roof tiles. It is with the use of the Lotus Sutra that we are able to take those expedient teachings and build our wonderful practice hall, to see the One Buddha Vehicle encompasses and doesn’t replace these teachings, to realize the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha is ever present and ever active performing Bodhisattva practices. Academics who study just the words and miss the meaning of the sutra, complain that there is no actual teaching there. It is just a preface to a sutra that is never delivered. What these academics miss is that the every emptiness of the Lotus Sutra provides the space within the structure of the expedient teachings within which we can pursue the Buddha Way, both for ourselves and all other beings.

I posted the above statement in the Nichiren Shu Facebook group in response to this question:

“Can someone chant Odaimoku with adoration for the Lotus Sutra (especially with it’s focus on Ekayana (one vehicle) and Upaya (skillfully means)), while also practicing zazen or vipassana, or should one give up all other practices and practice the mantra alone?”

I’ve raised this concept of the Lotus Sutra practice space before and eventually I hope to expand this into a more detailed thesis incorporating Chih-i’s teaching. I’m posting this here so that I can come back to this at that time.

See also this post: Between Day 32 and Day 1: Practicing the Great Vehicle

Lotus Seeds

The Ten Factors: Conditions

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Of the Ten Factors, Conditions are the secondary or environmental causes that allow the primary causes to bear fruit. The seeds we have planted in our life through our own actions require the proper circumstances before they come to fruition. Even when they do come to fruition, the exact ways in which they manifest can be influenced by the conditions that surround them. The causes we have made can be inhibited, distorted, modified, or even amplified, depending upon the other causes that we have planted and the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Lotus Seeds

WONS, Eyes

Beyond Death And Before Birth

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Those attracted to Buddhism were not content to leave the question of what lies beyond death (or before birth) unanswered. They were deeply dissatisfied by Confucian agnosticism and Taoist fatalism regarding why we are born, where (if anywhere) we go when we die, why there is so much injustice in the world, and whether our moral and spiritual strivings mean anything in the face of death’s inevitability. The humanism of the indigenous Chinese traditions was very realistic and practical, but it tended to leave an existential void that Buddhism seemed better able to respond to with its teachings of rebirth and the process of sowing and reaping the effects of one’s causes over many lifetimes. Though imperfectly understood, at least at first, Buddhism gave people a sense of hope, responsibility, and meaning by teaching that life did not end at death and that the course of our lives is not random or the product of some arbitrary fate (whether endowed by Heaven or the Tao) but is determined by our own actions in sowing the seeds of good or ill that will come to fruition in present or future lifetimes.

Nichiren, like many other Buddhist teachers in East Asia before and after him, praises the humanistic virtues and civilized arts that the Confucians and Taoists taught, but in the end he too finds that their teachings are limited to only the present lifetime and that they do not address the debts owed from previous lives nor do they teach anything pertaining to the lives to come.

They may be called saints as far as their teachings for our present lives are concerned, but they cannot be called saints when we see that they know nothing about our previous or future lives. They are not different from ordinary men who cannot look at their backs or blind men who cannot see even their fronts. … But they are not true saints because they do not know the past and future. They cannot save the future lives of their parents, lords, and teachers. Therefore, we can say that they do not know the favors given to them by their seniors.

Open Your Eyes, p70
WONS

Hyakkai Senyo vs. Ichinen Sanzen

QUESTION: How does the term “1,000 aspects contained in 100 realms” (hyakkai senyo) differ from “3,000 existences contained in one thought” (ichinen sanzen)?

ANSWER: Speaking of a mind having “1,000 aspects contained in 100 realms,” we consider sentient beings only. When we talk about “3,000 existences contained in one thought,” we consider both sentient as well as insentient beings.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 130

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 15, 2020

The gods, men and asuras in the world think that I, Śākyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Śākyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gayā, and attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [forty and odd years ago]. To tell the truth, good men, it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha.

The Buddha makes this proclamation in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sutra. This was the first time he revealed himself not as the temporal Siddhartha Gautama, the man who left home and became enlightened, but as the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni who has been alive for innumerable eons helping beings to become enlightened and will continue that existence for twice that time into the future. This is the highest teaching of the Buddha, the purpose of all his expedient teachings that came before, and the Wonderful Dharma that is most difficult to believe and understand. When we comprehend the existence of this Ever-Present Buddha for even the blink of an eye, we gain more clarity about the world than through any of the Buddha’s other teachings.

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

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 27 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month compared the Lotus Sūtra to all of the other sūtras, we consider how this sūtra saves all living beings.

“Star-King-Flower! This sūtra saves all living beings. This sūtra saves them from all sufferings, and gives them great benefits. All living beings will be able to fulfill their wishes by this sūtra just as a man who reaches a pond of fresh water when he is thirsty, just as a man who gets fire when he suffers from cold, just as a man who is given a garment when he is naked, just as a party of merchants who find a leader just as a child who meets its mother, just as a man who gets a ship when he wants to cross [a river], just as a patient who finds a physician, just as a man who is given a light in the darkness, just as a poor man who gets a treasure, just as the people of a nation who see a new king enthroned, just as a trader who reaches the seacoast. Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death. The merits to be given to the person who, after hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, copies it, or causes others to copy it, cannot be measured even by the wisdom of the Buddha. Neither can the merits to be given to the person who copies this sūtra and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense to burn, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, streamers, canopies, garments, and various kinds of lamps such as lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of campaka oil, lamps of sumanas oil, lamps of pāṭala oil, lamps of vārṣika oil, and lamps of navamālikā oil [to the copy of this sūtra].

See Understanding ‘Desires’