The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p295-296The title of Chapter 28 of the Lotus Sutra can reasonably be translated as “Encouragement of Universal Sage Bodhisattva.” There is widespread agreement among translators about the term “encouragement” in this title, but not about the name of the bodhisattva, in Sanskrit known as Samantabhadra.
In Chinese he is consistently known as P’u-hsien (Puxian) and in
Japanese, pronouncing the same Chinese characters, he is known as Fugen. The first of the two Chinese characters in the name means “universal” or “universally.” It is the same character as that found in the title of Chapter 25 of the Dharma Flower Sutra, the chapter on the Universal Gateway of Kwan-shih-yin Bodhisattva. In both cases, this universality has not so much to do with being everywhere as with being open or available to everyone.The meaning of the second character in the name of this bodhisattva is more problematic. It clearly can mean “virtue” or “virtuous,” and most often does. Thus, the name has been rendered as “Universal Virtue” or “Universal Good.” And since to be virtuous is to be worthy, one translator has used “Universally Worthy.” The character in question can also mean “wise” or “wisdom.” And so the name has also been translated as “Universally Wise.” In an attempt to combine virtue and wisdom in a single term, like one other translator of the Lotus Sutra, I think “Universal Sage” is the most appropriate name in English, as a sage is normally both virtuous and wise. The excellent translation of the Lotus Sutra into modern French also uses “Sage.”
Monthly Archives: June 2020
Nichiren’s Great Vow
Twice in Kaimoku-shō, Nichiren expresses his determination in the form of vows. Roughly one third of the way into the work he states, “… it is not easy to uphold even a word or phrase of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration. This must be it! I have made a vow that this time I will have an unbending aspiration to buddhahood and never fall back!” (Hori 2002, p. 53) Towards the end of Kaimoku-shō, Nichiren again states his determination in the form of vow or perhaps series of vows to continue to uphold the Lotus Sūtra no matter what; furthermore, he vows to be like a pillar, a pair of eyes, or a great vessel for Japan. I think it could be said that this vow is the real climax of the Kaimoku-shō.
“I have made a vow. Even if someone says that he would make me the ruler of Japan on the condition that I give up the Lotus Sūtra and rely upon the Contemplation of the Buddha of Infinite Life Sūtra for my salvation in the next life, or even if someone threatens me saying that he will execute my parents if I do not say “Namu Amidabutsu,” and no matter how many great difficulties fall upon me, I will not submit to them until a man of wisdom defeats me by reason. Other difficulties are like dust in the wind. I will never break my vow to become the pillar of Japan, to become the eyes of Japan, and to become the great vessel for Japan.” (Hori 2002, pp. 105106 adapted)
Open Your Eyes, p532Spreading the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration
The heart of this essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” (an absolute faith in the five-character title of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma), was not transmitted even to the most trusted disciples such as Bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī or Medicine King, and certainly not the lower-ranking bodhisattvas. Instead the Buddha called out numerous bodhisattvas from underground, for whom He expounded it during the preaching of eight chapters following the fifteenth chapter in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra and entrusted them with the task of spreading it in the Latter Age of Degeneration.
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 148
Daily Dharma – June 26, 2020
We know the defects of the Lesser Vehicle.
But we do not know how to obtain
The unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha.
The Buddha’s disciples Maudgalyāyana, Subhūti and Mahā-Kātyāyana sing these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. They have heard the Buddha teach that the expedient teachings about Suffering are incomplete. However they still have not yet embraced the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra which leads all beings to enlightenment. Nichiren explained, in his Treatise on Opening the Eyes of Buddhist Images, how teachings that came before the Lotus Sūtra were based on the mind of the hearer, where the Wonderful Dharma is itself the mind of the Buddha. When we read, recite, copy and expound the Lotus Sūtra, we are becoming of one mind with the Buddha.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 31
Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.
Having last month witnessed the two sons invite their parents to visit Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, we witness the family travel to Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha.
“Pure-Eyes Bodhisattva had already practiced the samādhi for the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma for a long time. Pure-Store Bodhisattva had already practiced the samādhi for the release from evil regions in order to release all living beings from evil regions for many hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas.
“Now the queen practiced the samādhi for the assembly of Buddhas, and understood the treasury of their hidden core. The two sons led their father by these expedients and caused him to understand the teachings of the Buddha by faith and to wish [to act according to those teachings].
“Thereupon King Wonderful-Adornment, Queen Pure-Virtue, and their two sons came to that Buddha. The king was accompanied by his ministers and attendants; the queen, by her ladies and attendants; and their two sons, by forty-two thousand men. They worshiped the feet of that Buddha with their heads, walked around the Buddha three times, retired, and stood to one side.
“Thereupon the Buddha expounded the Dharma to the king, showed him the Way, taught him, benefited him, and caused him to rejoice. The king had great joy. The king and queen took off their necklaces of pearls worth hundreds of thousands, and strewed the necklaces to the Buddha. The necklaces flew up to the sky [seven times as high as the tala-tree], and changed into a jeweled platform equipped with four pillars. On the platform was a couch of great treasures, and thousands of millions of heavenly garment were spread [on the couch]. The Buddha [went up,] sat cross-legged [on the couch], and emitted great rays of light. King Wonderful-Adornment thought, ‘The Buddha is exceptional. He is exceedingly handsome. He has the most wonderful form.’
See A Family Drama
A Family Drama
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p283For the first fifteen centuries or so of its life, Buddhism was almost exclusively a religion of monastics, usually supported by laypeople. Initially it was exclusively a society of male monks, who separated themselves from ordinary life and responsibilities by leaving home to follow the Buddha. The Buddha himself abandoned his home and family in order to pursue an ascetic life. For the most part, monks do not have a lot of interest in family life; it is after all what they have abandoned.
In the Dharma Flower Sutra we have three parables that have to do with fathers and sons. In all of them no mother and no women appear at all. So it is very interesting that we find in Chapter 27, nearly at the end of the Lotus Sutra, a family drama, the story of a king named Wonderfully Adorned, his wife, and their two sons.
Questioning and Practicing
Questioning the teaching helps to lead to further study and exploration of life, which leads to firmer and stronger faith. In Buddhism faith is actually enhanced by questions and practicing. Faith is one part questioning and another part practicing and applying. I personally believe that we should flee from anyone or any teaching that tries to lie outside the realm of questions. Refusing to answer questions or implying that questioning is wrong or unfaithful should be an automatic warning that something just isn’t quite right.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraFreedom in Action
The law of karma is not simply a tit-for-tat system of rewards and punishments but an organic system whereby the circumstances and even body and mind of beings are the fruits of karmic seeds that they themselves have sown and continue to sow as they are confronted by and then react to the causes and conditions of life from moment to moment and lifetime to lifetime. While the givens of present circumstances have been, at least partially, determined by past actions, in each moment beings are free to either reinforce old patterns or forge new ones for better or worse. It is with this freedom to determine present actions that beings can bind themselves more closely to unwholesome patterns of cause and effect, or cultivate wholesome patterns of cause and effect, or attempt to free themselves from being bound by such karmic patterns altogether.
Open Your Eyes, p526‘Honestly Casting Away the Expedient’
Grand Master Dengyō … stated in his Treatise on the Protection of the State: “The Ages of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma have passed and the Latter Age, when the Lotus Sūtra is to spread, is approaching;” “In the home of the One Vehicle Lotus Teaching, the provisional teachings should never be used;” “To those who believe in the One Vehicle of the Lotus Sūtra, the Hinayāna teaching must not be given;” and “Rotten meals should not be served in jeweled dishes.” He also stated: “Even the great arhats were reprimanded by the Buddha when they adhered to Hinayāna teachings in the Buddha’s lifetime. After the death of the Buddha, how can those masters of the dharma, as imperfect and inferior as mosquitoes and horseflies, stick to the Hinayāna teaching against the intention of the Buddha?”
These are not arbitrary words that Grand Master Dengyō thought up himself, but they are based on the Buddhist scriptures. That is to say, it is stated in the Lotus Sūtra: “Honestly casting away the expedient, I am going to preach the supreme of all teachings, the Lotus Sūtra.” In the Nirvana Sūtra it is said: “Until they listened to the Lotus Sūtra, they all held onto wrong ideas.” “The wrong ideas” or “the expedient” in these passages stand for such sūtras as the Flower Garland, the Great Sun Buddha, the Wisdom and the Amitābha preached during the forty years or so before the Lotus Sūtra was preached. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said that “casting away” meant “abandon,” that is to say, “abandon the expedient teachings.”
Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 69
Daily Dharma – June 25, 2020
Now I will tell you clearly. The merits of the person who gave all those pleasing things to the living beings of the six regions of four hundred billion asaṃkhya worlds, and caused them to attain Arhatship are less than the merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing even a gāthā of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Maitreya (whom he calls Ajita – Invincible) in Chapter Eighteen of the Lotus Sūtra. He compares the benefit created by someone who teaches innumerable beings and makes exorbitant offerings through following the pre-Lotus sūtras to the benefits of finding joy in the Buddha’s Highest teaching. This joy is not the same as just getting what we want, or being relieved from what we do not want. It is the joy of seeing the world for what it is, and our place in it as Bodhisattvas who exist 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