Monthly Archives: June 2020

Eyes

What Does It Mean To Follow the Dharma?

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What exactly does it mean to follow the Dharma and not the person? Isn’t the Dharma the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha in the sūtras, and therefore the teaching of a person? For that matter, there is the question of whether the sūtras, particularly the Mahāyāna sūtras, are in fact verbatim records of the Buddha’s teaching. So how can we know whether we are following the Dharma or just some person’s opinion, whether the person of the Buddha or the opinion of some anonymous person(s) attributed to the Buddha? Though perhaps a bit circular, the Buddha’s reply to the question asked of him by Mahāprajāpatī as to what is the Dharma may be worth considering.

Then the Gautamī, Mahāprajāpatī, approached the Lord; having approached, having greeted the Lord, she stood at a respectful distance. As she was standing at a respectful distance, the Gautamī, Mahāprajāpatī said to the Lord: “Lord, it were well if the Lord would teach me the Dharma in brief so that I, having heard the Lord’s Dharma, might live alone, aloof, zealous, ardent, self-resolute. “

“Whatever are the states, of which you, Gautamī, may know: these states lead to passion, not to passionlessness, they lead to bondage, not to the absence of bondage, they lead to the piling up (of rebirth), not to the absence of piling up, they lead to wanting much, not to wanting little, they lead to discontent, not to contentment, they lead to sociability, not to solitude, they lead to indolence, not to the putting forth of energy, they lead to difficulty in supporting oneself, not to ease in supporting oneself – you should know definitely, Gautamī: this is not Dharma, this is not discipline, this is not the Teacher’s instruction. But whatever are the states of which you, Gautamī, may know: these states lead to passionlessness, not to passion … (the opposite of the preceding) … they lead to ease in supporting oneself, not to difficulty in supporting oneself – you should know definitely, Gautamī: this is Dharma, this is discipline, this is the Teacher’s instruction.” (Horner 1992 volume V, p. 359 adapted)

The Dharma, then, is that which leads away from further deluded entanglement in our attachments and aversions for conditioned phenomena and toward liberation, the unconditioned. The Dharma is not the Dharma because the Buddha taught it. The Buddha is the Buddha, an “awakened one,” because he awakened to the Dharma, which is the true nature of reality. Any teaching that is in accord with how things really are can be considered the Dharma. This is why anything that conforms to the “three seals of the Dharma” can be considered the word of the Buddha. The three seals are the observations that (1) conditioned phenomena are impermanent, (2) without a self-nature, and (3) that true peace can only be found in the unconditioned, which is nirvāṇa. Sometimes another seal is added, the observation that conditioned things are ultimately unsatisfactory, for a total of four seals.

Open Your Eyes, p492-493
WONS

The Failings of Great Bodhisattva Hachiman

This Great Bodhisattva Hachiman attended the lecture assembly of the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle and made a written pledge to protect the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra after the passing of the Buddha. It is inexplicable, therefore, that this bodhisattva has done nothing to deal with the sworn enemies of the Lotus Sūtra who persecuted me for the past several years. Moreover, upon the advent of a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, the bodhisattva, who did not rush to protect him, should at least try to discipline the rulers of Japan who persecute the practicer. It is regrettable that Hachiman has not done this even once although the rulers persecute the practicer like a dog biting a monkey, a snake swallowing a frog, a hawk preying on a pheasant, and a lion killing a rabbit under the nose of the bodhisattva. Even if he seems to have punished them, the punishments inflicted on them must have been purposely mild. As a result, Hachiman probably was scolded by such heavenly beings as the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun, the moon, and the Four Heavenly Kings.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 266

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 9, 2020

The Lotus Sutra is called “Zui-jii,” namely it expounds the true mind of the Buddha. Since the Buddha’s mind is so great, even if one does not understand the profound meaning of the sutra, one can gain innumerable merits by just reading it. Just as mugwort among hemp plants grows straight and a snake in a tube straightens itself, if one becomes friendly with good people, one’s mind, behavior and words become naturally gentle. LIkewise, the Buddha thinks that those who believe in the Lotus Sutra become naturally virtuous.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his treatise The Sutra Preached in Accordance to [the Buddha’s] Own Mind (Zui-jii Gosho). In this passage, he makes clear what the Buddha meant by abandoning expedient teachings, and that the Lotus Sutra contains the Buddha’s highest teaching.

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

LS32

Day 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 14 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the benefit of praising the keeper of the sutra, we repeat in gāthās the benefits of keeping the Lotus Sūtra.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

If you wish to dwell in the enlightenment of the Buddha,
And to obtain the self-originating wisdom,
Make offerings strenuously to the keeper
Of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!

If you wish to obtain quickly the knowledge
Of the equality and differences of all things,
Keep this sūtra, and also make offerings
To the keeper of this sūtra!

Anyone who keeps
The sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma,
Know this, has compassion towards all living beings
Because he is my messenger.
Anyone who keeps
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Should be considered to have given up his pure world and come here
Out of his compassion towards all living beings.

Know that he can appear wherever he wishes!
He should be considered
To have appeared in this evil world
In order to expound the unsurpassed Dharma.

Offer flowers and incense of heaven,
Jeweled garments of heaven,
And heaps of wonderful treasures of heaven
To the expounder of the Dharma!

Join your hands together and bow
To the person who keeps this sūtra
In the evil world after my extinction,
Just as you do to me!

Offer delicious food and drink,
And various garments to this son of mine,
And yearn to hear the Dharma [from him]
Even if for only a moment!

Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the future
Should be considered
To have been dispatched by me
To the world of men in order to do my work.

See The Work of Ordinary People

stories, LS32, d14b, d15b

The Work of Ordinary People

The most important thing about [Chapter 10] is its emphasis on the Dharma teacher. Here we can see that the Sutra attempts to break through the limitations of the threefold shravaka-pratyekabuddha-bodhisattva distinction that had been prominent in earlier chapters of this Sutra and elsewhere in Mahayana Buddhism. According to Chapter 10, anyone – bodhisattva, pratyekabuddha, shravaka, or layperson, man or woman – can be a Dharma teacher.

This important point is certainly not unique to this chapter, but it is emphasized here in a special way: it is not only great bodhisattvas, great leaders, or great people who can teach the Dharma and do the Buddha’s work, but very ordinary people with even a limited understanding and even of limited faith can join in the Buddha’s work, if only by understanding and teaching a little. The point is, of course, that you and I can be Dharma teachers.

Thus the Buddha tells Medicine King Bodhisattva that if anyone wants to know what sort of living beings will become buddhas in the future, he should tell them that the very people before him, that is, all sorts of people, including very ordinary people, will become buddhas.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p125-126
Eyes

The Source of the Four Reliances

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The source of the four reliances (or “four refuges”) is the Four Refuges Sūtra (S. Catuḥpratiśaraṇa Sūtra) according to Étienne Lamotte: “The Catuḥpratiśaraṇa Sūtra posits, under the name of refuges (pratisaraṇa), four rules of textual interpretation: (1) the dharma is the refuge and not the person; (2) the spirit is the refuge and not the letter; (3) the sūtra of precise meaning is the refuge and not the sūtra of provisional meaning; (4) (direct) knowledge is the refuge and not (discursive) consciousness. As will be seen, the aim of this sūtra is not to condemn in the name of sound assessment certain methods of interpretation of the texts, but merely to ensure subordination of human authority to the spirit of the dharma, the letter to the spirit, the sūtra of provisional meaning to the sūtra of precise meaning, and discursive consciousness to direct knowledge.” (Lamotte, p. 12)

Open Your Eyes, p491-492
WONS

The Mirror of the Buddhist Dharma

In order to see our own faces we have to look at them reflected upon a spotless mirror. Likewise, in order to see the rise and fall of a country, there is no way better than to see them reflected upon the mirror of the Buddhist dharma. As we respectfully read such Mahāyāna sūtras as the Sūtra of the Benevolent King, Sūtra of the Golden Splendor, Guardian Sūtra, Nirvana Sūtra, and Lotus Sūtra, it is preached that the rise and fall of a country and the life span of people in it depend on the Dharma they believe, whether they believe in the True Dharma or a false dharma. It is like water that keeps a boat afloat but also destroys it, or staple grains which nourish human bodies but often damage them. Small winds and waves would not damage large ships, but small ships can easily be destroyed by gale winds and huge waves. Unjust government, like small winds and waves, would not cause the downfall of a great country and a great man; however, there is no doubt that a false dharma in Buddhism, like gale winds and huge waves destroying small boats, will destroy a country.

Shinkoku-ō Gosho, Sovereigns of Our Divine Land, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 176

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 8, 2020

May the merits we have accumulated by this offering
Be distributed among all living beings,
And may we and all other living beings
Attain the enlightenment of the Buddha!

These verses are from Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sutra, where the Brahma Kings from the ten quarters of the universe come to celebrate the enlightenment of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha. We too can cultivate this wish that all the good results of our life’s work be for the benefit of all beings.

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

LS32

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Day 13 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month consider the Buddha’s prediction for the twelve hundred Arhats, we consider the response of the Arhats.

Thereupon the five hundred Arhats, having been assured by the Buddha of their future Buddhahood, felt like dancing with joy, stood up from their seats, came to the Buddha, worshipped him at his feet with their heads, and reproached themselves for their faults, saying:

“World-Honored One! We thought that we had already attained perfect extinction. Now we know that we were like men of no wisdom because we were satisfied with the wisdom of the Lesser Vehicle although we had already been qualified to obtain the wisdom of the Tathāgata.

“World-Honored One! Suppose a man visited his good friend. He was treated to drink, and fell asleep drunk. His friend had to go out on official business. He fastened a priceless gem inside the garment of the man as a gift to him, and went out. The drunken man did not notice what his friend had given him. After a while he got up, and went to another country. He had great difficulty in getting food and clothing. He satisfied himself with what little he had earned. Some time later the good friend happened to see him. He said, ‘Alas, man! Why have you had such difficulty in getting food and clothing? T fastened a priceless gem inside your garment on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year so that you might live peacefully and satisfy your five desires. The gem is still there, and you do not notice it. You are working hard, and worrying about your livelihood. What a fool you are! Trade that gem for what you want! You will not be short of anything you want.’

“You, the Buddha, are like his friend. We thought that we had attained extinction when we attained Arhatship because we forgot that we had been taught to aspire for the knowledge of all things by you when you were a Bodhisattva just as the man who had difficulty in earning his livelihood satisfied himself with what little he had earned. You, the World-Honored One, saw that the aspiration for the knowledge of all things was still latent in our minds; therefore, you awakened us, saying, ‘Bhikṣus! What you had attained was not perfect extinction. I caused you to plant the good root of Buddhahood a long time ago. [You have forgotten this; therefore,] I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa as an expedient. You thought that you had attained true extinction when you attained the Nirvāṇa [ which I taught you as an expedient].’

“World-Honored One! Now we see that we are Bodhisattvas in reality, and that we are assured of our future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, we have the greatest joy that we have ever had.”

See The Treasure Close At Hand

stories, d13b

The Treasure Close At Hand

The Buddha, we are told, is like that rich friend [who sews a priceless jewel in a poor man’s clothing]. He reminds us of good roots planted long ago. An arhat is like the poor man. Being satisfied with what little he has already attained, he does not realize that in reality he is a bodhisattva who will attain supreme awakening.

The central lesson of this parable is, of course, that the greatest treasure is never far off, but intimately close to each of us. Though we may not know it, we already have it. That is, each of us has within us abilities, skills, talents, strengths, potentialities, powers, and so forth with which to do the Buddha’s work, abilities that we do not yet know about and have not yet utilized.

The idea that the treasure we seek is very close may seem to conflict with the story of the fantastic castle-city discussed in the previous chapter. In that story, the goal is both very distant and very difficult to reach. But these two stories can be understood to be in harmony: the goal is very distant in one respect and very close in another.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p103-104