Monthly Archives: July 2020

LS32

Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Day 31 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month witnessed family travel to Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, we hear Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha’s prediction for King Wonderful-Adornment.

“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to the four kinds of devotees, ‘Do you see this King Wonderful-Adornment standing before me with his hands joined together, or not? This king will become a bhikṣu under me, strenuously study and practice the various ways to the enlightenment of the Buddha, and then become a Buddha called Sala-Tree-King in a world called Great-Light in a kalpa called Great-Height-King. Sala-Tree-King Buddha will be accompanied by innumerable Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas. The ground of his world will be even. [King Wonderful-Adornment) will have these merits.’

“Thereupon the king abdicated from the throne in favor of his younger brother, renounced the world, and with his wife, two sons, and attendants, practiced the Way under that Buddha. After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samādhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King! Do you see these two sons of yours, or not? They made offerings to six trillion and five hundred thousand billion Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges, in their previous existence. They attended on those Buddhas respectfully. They kept the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma under those Buddhas, and caused the people of wrong views to have right views out of their compassion towards them.

See We All Need Good Friends and Teachers

stories, LS32, d31b

We All Need Good Friends and Teachers

King Wonderfully Adorned praises his sons, calling them his friends or teachers, and Wisdom Blessed Buddha responds that good friends or teachers do the work of the Buddha, showing people the Way, causing them to enter it, and bringing them joy.

The term used here, zenchishiki in Japanese, is not easy to translate. Some use “good friends,” some “good teachers.” Perhaps good “acquaintances” or “associates” would be a good translation, for there is a sense in which our good friends are always also our teachers. The point is that the help or guidance of others can be enormously useful. Entering the Way, becoming more mindful or awakened, is not something best done in isolation. We all need good friends and teachers.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p289
Blog

The Bodhisattva Archetype

This follows yesterday’s quote from Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression.

In fully employing the bodhisattva figures as archetypes, we must also realize the tentative, artificial nature of archetypes. The archetypal aspects of the bodhisattva figures are helpful as patterns. We can feel a sense of what it might mean to behave and function as a bodhisattva ourselves by examining the fearless insight and eloquence of Mañjuśrī, the luminous helpful activity of Samantabhadra, the unmediated, unconditional generosity of Avalokiteśvara, the faithful witness of Jizō, the patience and loving concern of Maitreya, the clever, illuminating displays of Vimalakirti, and the selfless decision and determination of Siddhārtha Gautama. However, all of their kindness and efforts are only manifest and real when we see the bodhisattva figures not as theoretical or mythological, but as actualities expressed in our world.

Beyond all the archetypal patterns, the life of the bodhisattva is in ordinary, everyday activity. In simple acts of kindness and gestures of cheerfulness, bodhisattvas are functioning everywhere, not as special, saintly beings, but in helpful ways we may barely recognize. The bodhisattvas are not glorified, exotic, unnatural beings, but simply our own best qualities in full flower.

d15b, d32b, WONS

Our ‘Good Friends’

QUESTIONS: Commonly speaking, “good friend” refers to a person.
Do you have any evidence for saying the dharma is a “good friend?”

ANSWER: Usually “good friends” are persons. However, true “good friends” do not exist in the Latter Age; so, there is much evidence of regarding dharmas as “good friends.” For instance it is stated in the Great Concentration and Insight, fascicle 1, “Following either ‘good friends’ or sūtras, we will be able to listen to Buddhahood of the One Vehicle truth (Lotus Sūtra) as preached above.” This passage regards sūtras as “good friends.”

It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 28 on the “Encouragement of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva, if there is anyone who can practice and uphold the Lotus Sūtra in this world, he had better think that it is all due to the divine help of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva.” It means that it is with the help of the “good friend,” Universal Sage Bodhisattva, that the ignorant in the Latter Age can have faith in the Lotus Sūtra.

The sūtra in the same chapter claims also, “Anyone who keeps faith in, recites, memorizes correctly, practices and copies this Lotus Sūtra should know that he is like those who see Śākyamuni Buddha in person and listen to Him preach this sūtra. You should know that he is making offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha.” According to this passage, the Lotus Sūtra is identical to Śākyamuni Buddha, who would enter Nirvana and never appear in front of those who do not believe in the Lotus Sūtra but would always appear in front of those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra as if he were alive in this world even after death.

It is also stated in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 11 on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” that when the Buddha of Many Treasures was practicing the bodhisattva way, he made a great vow, declaring, “If the Lotus Sūtra is preached anywhere in the worlds all over the universe after I have attained Buddhahood and passed away, my mausoleum Stupa will spring up on the spot so that I may listen to the sūtra and testify to it.” It means that when we, the ignorant in the Latter Age, chant the title of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha of Many Treasures will inevitably appear in order to carry out his original vow.

The sūtra also states in the same chapter, “The Buddha called together all the Buddhas preaching the dharma in the worlds throughout the universe in a single spot.” Thus, Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, all the Buddhas manifested in the worlds throughout the universe, the Universal Sage Bodhisattva and others are all our “good friends.” So long as we believe in the Lotus Sūtra, we are guided by these great teachers personally. In this sense, our merits accumulated from our previous lives are more than those of Bodhisattvas Good Treasures, Ever Weeping and King Spotted Feet so that we are able to meet better teachers than they were. This is because they met teachers of expedient sūtras while we met teachers of true sūtras; they met bodhisattvas of expedient sūtras and we met Buddhas and bodhisattvas of true sūtras.

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 58-59

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 29, 2020

Kāśyapa, and all of you present here! It is an extraordinarily rare thing to see that you have understood, believed and received the Dharma which I expounded variously according to the capacities of all living beings because it is difficult to understand the Dharma which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, expound according to the capacities of all living beings.

The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Kāśyapa and all those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha knows how hard it is to set aside our delusions and understand what he is teaching us. When the Buddha teaches with expedients, he lets us stay in the comfort of our own minds. With the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra, he takes us into the unfamiliar areas of his own mind. Only when we gain confidence in the Buddha as our guide can we stay with this teaching and not regress to the contentment of our attachments.

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

LS32

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Day 30 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month received the spells of the 10 rākṣasas demons and the Mother-Of-Devils, we conclude Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs.

The Buddha said to the rākṣasas:

“Excellent, excellent! Your merits will be immeasurable even when you protect the person who keeps only the name of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Needless to say, so will be your merits when you protect the person who keeps the sūtra itself, and makes to a copy of this sūtra hundreds of thousands of offerings such as flowers, incense, necklaces, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, streamers, canopies, music, and various lamps like lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of sumanas-flower oil, lamps of campaka flower oil, lamps of vārṣika-flower oil, and lamps of utpala-flower oil. Kunti! You [rākṣasas] and your attendants should protect this teacher of the Dharma.”

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of Dhārānis, sixty-eight thousand people obtained the truth of birthlessness.

See Female Rākṣasas Vengeance

LS32, d30b, b4today

Female Rākṣasas Vengeance

[T]he female rākṣasas appear to be vowing vengeance on the enemies of the Lotus Sutra. This is a mistaken interpretation, however. We should consider rather that their vigor and zeal caused them to utter passionate words because they had not accumulated such great virtues as the disciples of the Buddha and because of their demonic nature. Otherwise Sakyamuni Buddha, who preached tolerance for all living beings, could not have unconditionally extolled the female rākṣasas, saying, “Good, good!”

The explanation of the principle of punishment in Buddhism … fully applies here. The verse reads, “May his head be split in seven,” not “May the Buddha split his head in seven.” And again, we read, “Such shall be his retribution,” following the list of the various dooms for offending teachers of the Law. This expression accords with the principle of the Buddhist concept of punishment, which teaches that one will be punished by his own crimes, not by some outside agency or arbitrary force.

After the female rākṣasas had uttered this stanza, they addressed the Buddha, saying: “World-honored One! We ourselves will also protect those who receive and keep, read and recite, and practice this sutra, and give them ease of mind, freedom from corroding care and from all poisons.” The Buddha addressed the rākṣasa women: “Good, good! Even if you are only able to protect those who receive and keep the name of the Law-Flower, your happiness will be beyond calculation; how much more if you protect those who perfectly receive, keep, and pay homage to the sutra with flowers, scents, necklaces, sandal powder, unguents, incense, flags, canopies, and music, burning various kinds of lamps — ghee lamps, oil lamps, lamps of scented oil, lamps of oil of campaka flowers, lamps of oil of vārṣika flowers, and lamps of oil of udumbara flowers, such hundreds of thousands of kinds of offerings as these. Kunti! You and your followers should protect such teachers of the Law as these.”

Buddhism for Today, p394
Blog

Defeating Māra’s Ambitions

This continues my Office Lens housecleaning and follows my quotes from The Vimalakīrti Sutra here and here.

Today’s quote comes from page 279 of Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression.

Another bodhisattva named Jagatīṃdhara tells of being approached by Māra, the evil tempter spirit, in disguise as Shakra, king of the Indian gods, and accompanied by twelve thousand heavenly maidens. Māra offers the maidens as servants to Jagatīṃdhara, who hastily refuses the offering as unfitting, since he is a monk bodhisattva, vowed to celibacy. Vimalakirti abruptly shows up and reveals to Jagatīṃdhara that this is not Shakra but Māra tempting him. Vimalakirti thereupon requests the maidens for himself from Māra, who is intimidated by the layman and his power. Vimalakirti takes and educates these daughters of gods, leading them to arouse the thought of universal enlightenment and develop bodhisattva qualities. When Māra later demands their return, Vimalakirti complies only after instructing the maidens on how to sustain their illumination and spread it, even after they return to Māra’s palace.

WONS

‘One and Two-Halves Chapters’ of the Lotus Sūtra

There is another triple division culminating in the essential section. Innumerable sūtras beginning with the Lotus Sūtra expounded during the time of the ancient Great Universal Wisdom Buddha, those preached by Śākyamuni Buddha during fifty some years of His lifetime—including the Flower Garland Sūtra, fourteen chapters of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra, and the Nirvana Sūtra—as well as those preached by Buddhas in all the worlds in the universe in the past, at present, and in the future are the preface to the great dharma of five characters hidden in the lines of the sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “The Life Span of the Buddha.”

Compared to the “one and two-halves chapters” of the Lotus Sūtra (the sixteenth chapter, the second half of the preceding chapter and the first half of the following chapter) which comprises the main discourse according to this division, all other sūtras may be called Hinayāna teachings, false teachings, teachings that do not lead to Buddhahood, or teachings in which the truth is not revealed. Those who listen to these “expedient” teachings have little virtue and much illusion; they are immature in thinking, poor in heart, and solitary; like birds and beasts, they do not know the existence of the Eternal Buddha, who is their father.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 152

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 28, 2020

Although we were your sons then as we are now, we wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. If we had aspired for the teaching of the Great Vehicle, you would have already expounded it to us.

Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana speak this passage in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This is before they tell the story of the Wayward Son. They explain their realization that the Buddha holds nothing back from us. The reason we hear expedient teachings rather than the highest teaching is because of the limits of our own aspiration. When we aspire to become Buddhas, we receive the highest teaching.

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