Monthly Archives: June 2020

LS32

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month heard the men of wisdom explaining why they had not sought Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, we consider the plight of the rich man who misses his lost son.

“World-Honored One! Allow us to explain our understanding by telling a parable. Suppose there lived a man [in a certain country]. When he was a little boy, he ran away from his father. [The boy] lived in another country for a long time, say, for ten, twenty or fifty years. As time passed by, he became poorer. He wandered about all directions, seeking food and clothing.

“While wandering here and there, he happened to walk towards his home country. At that time his father stayed in a city [of that country]. He had been vainly looking for his son ever since. He was now very rich. He had innumerable treasures. His storehouses were filled with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, coral, amber and crystal. He had many servants, clerks, and secretaries. He also had countless elephants, horses, carts, cows, and sheep. He invested his money in all the other countries, and earned interest. He dealt with many merchants and customers.

“The poor son, having wandered from town to town, from country to country, from village to village, came to the city where his father was living. The father had been thinking of him for more than fifty years since he had lost him, but never told others [that he had a missing son]. He was alone, pining for his son. He thought, ‘I am old and decrepit. I have many treasures. My storehouses are filled with gold, silver, and other treasures. But I have no son [other than the missing one]. When I die, my treasures will be scattered and lost. I have no one to transfer my treasures to. Therefore, I am always yearning for my son.’ The father thought again, ‘If I can find my son and give him my treasures, I shall be happy and peaceful, and have nothing more to worry about.’

See Enabling the Buddha to Continue to Live

stories, d7b, d8b

Enabling the Buddha to Continue to Live

The focus of [the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son] is the poor son and his attitude toward himself, but it is also, in important ways not always recognized, a story about the Buddha. Here we are told that the Buddha needs his son, yearns for his son, and seeks to find him. Why? Because he wants to give him the great treasure that is his inheritance.

Shakyamuni Buddha was a human being who lived for a time in India, eating and sleeping like other human beings. He left to his descendants, his followers, a great treasure house of profound teachings. He died and his body was cremated, the ashes being distributed and installed in stupas. He is no longer around in the way that he once was. Responsibility for taking care of that great treasure house, for preserving those teachings and developing them by applying them in new situations, and especially for sharing them with others, is given to the Buddha’s children. The Buddha’s work must be done by us, can only be done by us. It is we who can embody the Buddha in the contemporary world, enabling the Buddha to continue to live.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p70-71
Eyes

Protective Deities of the Lotus Sūtra

Quote

In Japanese Buddhism, the heavenly gods and benevolent deities (J. shoten zenjin), are the guardian deities (J. shugojin) who protect the practitioners of Buddhism. The calligraphic mandala that Nichiren inscribed to represent the “focus of devotion” (J. honzon) of the Origin Gate of the Lotus Sūtra includes representatives of different types of guardian deities. There are the four leaders of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth from chapter fifteen and who are given the specific transmission to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age in chapter twenty-one; there are the bodhisattvas who represent the provisional teachings such as Medicine King, Beautiful Lord (S. Mañjuśrī), Universal Good (S. Samantabhadra), and Loving One (S. Maitreya); there are the two Knowledge Kings (S. vidyā-rājas) Immovable Lord (S. Acalanātha, J. Fudō) and Desire King (S. Rāgāraja; J. Aizen); there are the arhats who have received predictions of buddhahood like Śāriputra and Mahākāśyapa; there are the Vedic deities (S. deva) Brahmā, Indra, Sūrya (the sun god), Candra (the moon god), and Aruna (the morning star), and the four heavenly kings who guard the four quarters of the world; and there are even the two major Shintō gods (J. kamo Tenshō Daijiin (aka Amaterasu Ōmikami) and Hachiman (called the “Great Bodhisattva”). In addition, other beings that are not as exalted as celestial bodhisattvas or gods can also be considered guardians. In Kaimoku-shō, Nichiren specifically mentions the ten rākṣasas (vampire like women of Indian mythology) who appear in chapter twenty-six of the Lotus Sūtra. In that chapter, these rākṣasas and their mother, Hāriti (J. Kishimojin) bestow dhārāṇis for the protection of the practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra. On the calligraphic mandala, Nichiren also included the asura (a kind of titan or demon) and nāga (the dragons of Indian mythology) kings who appear in chapter one of the Lotus Sūtra among the congregation gathered to hear the Buddha’s teaching. Traditionally in Buddhism there are eight kinds of supernatural beings that are considered to be disciples of the Buddha and guardians of the Dharma. These eight are devas, nāgas, garudas (giant birds who prey on the nāgas), asuras, yakṣas (nature spirits), gandharvas (anthropomorphic equines), mahorāgas (pythons), and kiṃnaras (anthropomorphic avians). This group of eight is mentioned throughout the Lotus Sūtra. These are the beings that Nichiren is thinking of when he asks why he has not received divine protection.

Open Your Eyes, p478-479
d3b, d4b, WONS

The Inexplicable Merit of Having Heard the Lotus Sūtra

When the “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra was preached, 5,000 self-conceited ones did not believe in what they heard and withdrew from the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Nevertheless, they became Buddhas in three months’ time because they did not slander the Lotus Sūtra. Referring to this incident, it is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “Both believers and non-believers will be born in the Immovable Land.” Those who heard the Lotus Sūtra can become Buddhas even if they do not put faith in the sūtra, so long as they do not slander it, due to the inexplicable merit of having heard the sūtra. This is like the person bitten by a poisonous snake called shichibuja who is bound to fall within taking seven steps and is unable to take the eighth step due to the inexplicable work of the poison. Or it is also like an embryo that changes its shape within seven days and never stays in one shape for more than eight days.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 52

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 1, 2020

Thereupon Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! Why does Medicine-King Bodhisattva walk about this Sahā-World? World-Honored One! This Medicine-King Bodhisattva will have to practice hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of austerities in this world.

This excerpt is from Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sutra. Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva is aware of the difficulties that Medicine-King or any other Bodhisattva will encounter while living in this world of conflict (Sahā) and asks the Buddha why this Bodhisattva would give up the pleasures of the higher realms to which he is entitled. The Buddha then tells the story of Medicine-King’s previous life, in which he gave up many attachments, including the attachment to his own body. These stories of Bodhisattvas are reminders of our own capacities, and that no matter what difficulties we face in our lives, our determination to benefit all beings, our certainty of enlightenment, and the help we receive from other beings will lead us to overcome any problems.

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