Monthly Archives: May 2020

LS32

Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Day 19 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and what a Bodhisattva should do when the teachings are about to be destroyed.

“Again, Mañjuśrī! A Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who keeps this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the latter days after [my extinction] when the teachings are about to be destroyed, should have great loving-kindness towards laymen and monks, and great compassion towards those who are not Bodhisattvas. He should think: ‘They do not know that the Tathāgata expounded expedient teachings according to the capacities of all Jiving beings. They do not hear, know or notice it, or ask a question about it or believe or understand it. Although they do not ask a question about this sūtra, or believe or understand it, I will lead them and cause them, wherever they may be, to understand the Dharma by my supernatural powers and by the power of my wisdom when I attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.’

“Mañjuśrī! A Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who performs this fourth set of [peaceful] practices after my extinction, will be able to expound the Dharma flawlessly. Bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, upāsikās, kings, princes, ministers, common people, brāhmanas and householders will make offerings to him, honor him, respect him, and praise him. The gods in the sky will always serve him in order to hear the Dharma from him. When someone comes to his abode located in a village, in a city, in a retired place or in a forest, and wishes to ask him a question, the gods will protect him day and night for the sake of the Dharma so that the hearer may rejoice because this sūtra was, is, and will be protected by the supernatural powers of the past, present and future Buddhas.

“Mañjuśrī! It is difficult to hear even the title of this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [even if you try to do so, walking about] innumerable worlds. Needless to say, it is more difficult to see, keep, read and recite this sūtra.

Whenever I get to this point in my cycle through the Lotus Sutra I consider how fortunate I am to have heard the title of this sutra.

Eyes

Living the Middle Way

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So how does one live the Middle Way in order to put an end to craving? The fourth noble truth is an outline of the noble eightfold path:

“Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is this noble eightfold path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.”

As already stated, following the noble eightfold path is to live in accordance with the Middle Way. Basically, they are the eight aspects of a life free of self-interest or craving. In each case, “right” refers to the ability to live in a perfect or complete way, so that self-centeredness is extinguished, and one lives in accordance with reality in thought, word and deed.

Open Your Eyes, p169
WONS

In Order to Study and Propagate the Dharma of Buddhism

In order to study and propagate the dharma of Buddhism, it is indispensable to know the difference between Mahāyāna and Hinayāna teachings, provisional and true teachings, and exoteric and esoteric teachings among the various sūtras. In addition, it is also necessary to know the proper time for propagating the teaching, and the capacity for learning of those who are to receive the teaching. Nevertheless, most people in Japan automatically recite the Amitābha Sūtra, chanting “Namu Amida-butsu” devoutly, but thinking little of the Lotus Sūtra.

Many, who are respected for being wise, seem to think that they know the proper time for propagation and the capacity of the people, but actually they believe in the insignificant rather than the significant, believing in the provisional sūtras, while casting aside the true sūtras. Just as the insignificant may become a great evil, a medicine changes to poison, and close relatives become sworn enemies, it is impossible to save such people.

Even those who excel in understanding Buddhism, if they don’t grasp the social conditions of the time, the capacity of the people to receive the teaching, the conditions of the country, and the order of the teachings to be spread, they will not obtain the expected results no matter how hard they work to propagate the teachings. For example, it may be permissible to propagate Mahāyāna teachings in an absolute Hinayāna country, but to propagate Hinayāna teachings in the absolute Mahāyāna country must definitely be avoided. If Hinayāna teachings are forcibly propagated in the country of Mahāyāna Buddhism, disasters will befall the country and the people fall into evil realms.

Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 66-67

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 10, 2020

It is not difficult
To grasp the sky,
And wander about with it
From place to place.
It is difficult
To copy and keep this sūtra
Or cause others to copy it
After my extinction.

The Buddha sang these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra for all those who had come to hear him teach. When we start on the path of enlightenment by finding joy in the Buddha Dharma, we might believe that the world will change around us to meet our expectations, and that we will have no more difficulties. Then when we do find hard times, we may even abandon this wonderful practice and go back to our habits of gratifying ourselves. Our founder Nichiren lived through unimaginable hardships so that we who follow him would not lose this precious teaching. The Buddha in these verses reminds us that difficulties are part of our practice, and that we can find a way to use any situation in life to benefit others.

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

LS32

Day 18

Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Day 18 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered in gāthās the proper practices a Bodhisattva should perfrom, we complete the gāthās detailing the first set of things that the Bodhisattva should do before he expounds the Sūtra Of the Lotus Flower.

He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.

Things are insubstantial.
They have no property.
They are not permanent.
They do not rise or perish.
This is the Dharma to be approached
By a man of wisdom.

Only perverted people say:
“All things exist,” or “Nothing exists,”
Or “All things are real,” or “Nothing is real,”
Or “All things are born,” or “Nothing is born.”

The Bodhisattva should live in a retired place,
And concentrate his mind.
He should be as peaceful
And as immovable as Mt. Sumeru.
Things have no property
Just as the sky has not.
They are not solid.
They are not born.
They do not appear or move or go.
They are permanently of one form.’
This truth is the proper thing
The Bodhisattva should approach.

A Bhikṣu who lives after my extinction
Will be free from timidity
If he performs these proper practices,
And approaches these proper things
As previously stated,
And then expounds this sūtra.

A Bodhisattva will be peaceful,
And free from timidity
If he stays in a quiet room
For some time,
Recollects the Dharma correctly,
Understands the Dharma
According to the meanings of it,
And then emerges
From his dhyāna-concentration,
And leads kings, princes,
Common people and brahmanas
By expounding this sūtra to them.

Mañjuśrī, all this is the first set of things
That the Bodhisattva should do
Before he expounds the Sūtra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
In the world after [my extinction].

The Daily Dharma from Jan. 3, 2020, offers this:

He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.

He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. When we fully comprehend the idea of dependent origination, that no person has an ego, that each of us is the result of causes and conditions, and that the Buddha Dharma is a cause for good of which we may not be aware, it is no longer necessary to classify the beings with whom we share this world. Our inclinations towards dogma are replaced with curiosity. Our need to dominate is replaced with a need to understand.

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

Eyes

The Hinayāna Path

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In the Hinayāna teachings the attainment of buddhahood is not presented as the goal of Buddhist practice, so the bodhisattva vehicle is also not presented as something that can be taken up by ordinary people. The Hinayāna teachings state that there can only be one buddha on any given world at a time. Furthermore, the time between the appearances of a buddha is vast. Each time a buddha appears they set in motion the Wheel of the Dharma (i.e. they expound the Buddha Dharma), and after a buddha’s final nirvāṇa the teachings may last for a period of time known as the Age of the True Dharma, linger on in a corrupted form during a period of time known as the Age of the Semblance of the Dharma, and finally they begin to disappear during a Latter Age of Degeneration that can last for ten thousand years or more until the Dharma is completely forgotten. There may then be a period of millions of years before another buddha rolls the Wheel of Dharma again. The Hinayāna teachings do not speak of buddhas in other regions of the universe. The only two bodhisattvas who are recognized are the bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni Buddha, and Maitreya Bodhisattva who resides in the Tushita Heaven awaiting his time to become the next buddha in the distant future after Śākyamuni Buddha’s Dharma has completely disappeared. Bodhisattvas are therefore rare and extraordinary beings. What all of this means is that the attainment of buddhahood is not presented as an even remotely realistic goal. The Hinayāna teaches that the only feasible way to attain cessation from suffering and escape saṃsāra is to take up one the two vehicles of the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha, with the former being the easier as the śrāvakas can rely upon the four noble truths and the Middle Way taught by Śākyamuni Buddha.

Open Your Eyes, p168-169
WONS

The Reason Why the Lotus Sūtra Is Called ‘Myō’

Generally speaking, there are 4 kinds of people who cannot attain Buddhahood or enter the Buddha land. The first is the Two Vehicles with fixed natures namely pratyekabuddha and śrāvaka. Next is the icchantika, who did not listen to the teaching of the Buddha and spoiled the seed of Buddhahood. The third is those with empty mind who do not believe in the doctrine of cause and effect expounded by the Buddha. And finally those who slander the True Dharma. These people, who have long been denied the attainment of Buddhahood in the various pre-Lotus sūtras, were allowed to become Buddhas for the first time in the Lotus Sūtra. This is the reason why the Lotus Sūtra is called “myō.”

Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 42-43

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 9, 2020

All living beings are suffering.
Being blind, they have no leader.
They do not know how to stop suffering,
Or that they should seek emancipation.
In the long night fewer people go to heaven,
And more people go to the evil regions.
They go from darkness to darkness, and do not hear
Of the names of the Buddhas.

The children of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha proclaim this to their father in a story told by Śākyamuni Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They understand that when beings are so preoccupied with their own happiness, and so convinced that this happiness comes from what they can acquire, that they need an enlightened being to lead them to see the world as it is. With the Lotus Sūtra as the embodiment of the Buddha’s highest teaching, we have the same wisdom present to us as those children’s father was to them.

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

LS32

Day 17

Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.

Day 17 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month heard Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, along with Arhats and Śrāvakas, vow to uphold the Lotus Sūtra, we hear the Buddha’s prediction for his aunt, Maha-Prajapati Bhikṣunī.

There were Maha-Prajapati Bhikṣunī, the sister of the mother of the Buddha, and six thousand bhikṣunīs, some of whom had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn. They rose from their seats, joined their hands together with all their hearts, and looked up at the honorable face with unblenching eyes.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Gautamī:

“Why do you look at me so anxiously? You do not think that I assured you of your future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi because I did not mention you by name, do you? Gautamī! I have already said that I assured all the Śrāvakas of their future attainment [of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. Now you wish to know my assurance of your future attainment [of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. You will become a great teacher of the Dharma under six billion and eight hundred thousand million Buddhas in the future. The six thousand bhikṣunīs, some of whom have something more to learn while others have nothing more to learn, also will become teachers of the Dharma. [By becoming a great teacher of the Dharma,] you will complete the Way of Bodhisattvas in the course of time, and become a Buddha called Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. Gautamī! That Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Buddha will assure the six thousand [bhikṣunīs, that is,] Bodhisattvas of their future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi one after another.”

See Why Maha-Prajapati and Yaśodharā’s Predictions Came Last

LS32, d17b, b4today

Why Maha-Prajapati and Yaśodharā’s Predictions Came Last

It may seem strange that the Buddha in his predictions had left [Maha-Prajapati and Yaśodharā] until last and that before mentioning them he had given his prediction to the dragon king’s daughter, who was, so to speak, an indirect disciple instructed by Mañjuśrī, and only an eight-year-old girl. This priority has the following meanings. First, as already mentioned in the explanation of the Buddha’s prediction to Ānanda and Rāhula, for those closest to the Buddha, like the Bhikṣunī Mahā-Prajāpatī, who had brought up Sakyamuni from babyhood, and the Bhikṣunī Yaśodharā, who had been his wife and had given birth to his son, such intimacy could have become a hindrance rather than a help to their practice. The Buddha teaches us that someone like the dragon king’s daughter, who is a perfect stranger to the Buddha, can receive the Law with ease, while we may find great difficulty in instructing those closest to us, such as our parents and spouses. The delay of the Buddha’s prediction to the Bhikṣunī Mahā-Prajāpatī and the Bhikṣunī Yaśodharā does not mean that they were considered inferior to the dragon king’s daughter.

Buddhism for Today, p162