Monthly Archives: July 2020

d26b, WONS

Like an Affectionate Mother Stroking the Head of Her Child

The meaning of the chapter on “Transmission” in the Lotus Sūtra is that as Śākyamuni Buddha stepped out of the Stupa of Many Treasures and stood in the air, the original disciples of the Buddha such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice, disciples of the Buddhas in manifestation such as Bodhisattva Great Mañjuśrī, Great King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun, the moon, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Dragon King, the ten female rākṣasa demons, and others gathered in the vast world of four-trillion nayuta, as numerous as the pampas grass in the Musashino Field or trees on Mt. Fuji. They waited knelt side by side with their heads bowed to the ground, their hands together in gasshō, beads of perspiration forming from all the body-heat. Like an affectionate mother stroking the head of her child, Śākyamuni Buddha placed His hand upon their heads three times and entrusted them with the Lotus Sūtra. Then accepting the request of Śākyamuni Buddha, Bodhisattva Superior Practice, the sun and moon, and others vowed to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 132-133

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 20, 2020

I always expound the Dharma.
I do nothing else.
I am not tired of expounding the Dharma
While I go or come or sit or stand.
I expound the Dharma to all living beings
Just as the rain waters all the earth.

The Buddha makes this declaration in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. It is normal for us humans to become worn out, frustrated or annoyed as we try to benefit others. Often, other people do not want our help, or when they take our help, they do not progress as fast as we want them to. Sometimes there are only a few people we want to help, and may actually wish harm on those we blame for our problems. The Buddha gives us a different example. He gets his energy from creating benefit. It does not drain him. He sees that all beings want to improve themselves, no matter how perversely they may go about it. He knows that all beings are worthy of receiving the Buddha Dharma.

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

LS32

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, we begin again with the Buddha’s call for everyone to “understand my sincere and infallible words by faith.”

Thereupon the Buddha aid to the great multitude including Bodhisattvas and others, “Good men! Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”
He said to the great multitude again, “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”

He said to them once again, “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”

Thereupon the great multitude of Bodhisattvas, headed by Maitreya, joined their hands together and said to the Buddha, “World-Honor done, tell us! We will receive your words by faith.”

They said this three times. Then they said once again, “Tell us! We will receive your words by faith.”

See Believe and Discern

LS32, d21b, b4today

Believe and Discern

Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra begins at this point.

At that time the Buddha said to the bodhisattvas and all the great assembly, “Believe and discern, all you good sons, the veracious word of the Tathāgata.” Again he said to the great assembly, “Believe and discern the veracious word of the Tathāgata.” And a third time he said to all the great assembly, “Believe and discern the veracious word of the Tathāgata.”

The Buddha’s saying “Believe and discern it” instead of commanding “Believe it” has an important meaning. Sakyamuni Buddha never forced his ideas upon his disciples or other people. He preached the truth as it was and exhorted his listeners, saying, “You, too, behold it.” He led them on the way of the truth and coaxed them, saying, “You, too, come to me.” His exhortation to “behold the truth” instead of saying only “Believe it” is a very important point. This short phrase of the Buddha speaks for the character of his teachings. His words “Behold it” are equivalent to the “scientific spirit” in today’s parlance. The Buddha shows in these few words that if anyone thoroughly views the truth, studies it, and discerns it, he will surely be able to accept it to his satisfaction.

His words “You, too, come to me” include the same important idea. They mean: “Come to me and practice the Law as much as I do. Then you are sure to understand the value of the Law.” The Buddha could never have uttered these words unless he had absolute confidence in the Law and the Way.

Because Sakyamuni Buddha was a reasonable person, he did not say even to his leading disciples, “Believe the truth,” but said, “Believe and discern it,” that is, “Believe it after understanding it.” In this emphasis on belief based on understanding, Buddhism differs fundamentally from many other religions.

Buddhism for Today, p211-212
WONS, Eyes

Failing to Achieve the True Purpose of the Buddha Dharma

Quote

Nichiren criticizes those who follow the two vehicles of the Śrāvakas (lit. “voice hearers” who are the Hinayāna disciples of the Buddha) and the pratyekabuddhas (lit. “privately awakened ones” who contemplate dependent origination on their own) because these kinds of Buddhists attain liberation from the sufferings of this world of birth and death, but are unable to help anyone else, including their parents. Because of this, they fail to achieve the true purpose of the Buddha Dharma. Speaking of these Hinayāna disciples, Nichiren says:

The purpose of becoming a monk by renouncing one’s family is to save one’s parents. Adherents of the two vehicles think that they can emancipate themselves from suffering. It may be true, but it is very difficult for them to benefit others. They may benefit others to some extent, but they will send their parents to the world where their parents can never become Buddhas. Therefore, I say that they do not know the favors of their parents. (Murano, p. 21. See also Hori 2002, pp. 39-40, and Gosho Translation Committee 1999, p. 228)

Nichiren’s conclusion is that only the Lotus Sūtra has the power to enable our parents to attain buddhahood. Other Buddhist teachings and sūtras may state that in principle all beings can attain buddhahood, but only in the Lotus Sūtra is the buddhahood of all men and women guaranteed and even demonstrated.

Open Your Eyes, p12
WONS

The Tale of the Son of Ōhashi Tarō

In the past there was a daimyō (feudal lord) named Ōhashi Tarō in northern Kyushu. Having incurred the rage of Lord Minamoto no Yoritomo, General of the Right, he was imprisoned in a dungeon in Yuigahama Beach at Kamakura for as long as 12 years. When leaving home under arrest, Ōhashi Tarō said to his wife:

“As a warrior who serves a lord with a bow and arrows, I do not grieve over being punished by the lord. However, it is very difficult to be separated from you, whom I have been attached to from my childhood. Setting this aside, what I have always regretted is that we have no children, neither a boy or a girl. However, now you tell me that you are pregnant. Will my child be a girl or a boy? I am sorry for not being able to know this. I also hope that my child upon growing up, will not suffer from having no father, but this is beyond my control.”

Thereafter when days and months passed, his wife gave birth safely to a baby boy. When the boy was seven years old, he was sent to a mountain temple to study. Other children ridiculed him as a “single mother’s child.” Returning home, the boy asked his mother about his father. Unable to answer, his mother merely cried. Then the boy agonized his mother by saying, “Without heaven, it does not rain. Without earth, grass does not sprout. Even if there is the mother, she cannot give birth to a child without the child’s father. Why don’t you tell me where my father is?” Finally, the mother revealed the truth about his father telling him, “I could not tell this to you till today because you were too young to understand.” The boy then said in tears, “Isn’t there a keepsake from my father?” “Yes, there is,” said the mother, and she showed him the ancestral diaries of the Ōhashi family together with the self-written will of his father for his unborn child. It made the boy cry in his longing for his father. Finally, he asked his mother, “I want to see my father at any cost. What should I do?” His mother answered, “When your father departed here, many retainers accompanied him. However, as he was charged with a crime, those retainers all abandoned him. Whether or not your father is still alive, nobody visits us to tell us.” The boy wallowed in agony and did not listen to his mother, who tried to reason with him. When his mother said to him, “I sent you to a mountain temple in order for you to be dutiful to your father. Why don’t you offer flowers to the Buddha and recite a fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra as a part of your filial duty,” the boy hurriedly went back to the temple and never returned home. As he continued to recite the Lotus Sūtra day and night, he was not only able to read all of the fascicles but could also recite them by heart.

At the age of 12, he did not enter the priesthood. Instead, he wrapped up the hair on this head with a piece of cloth and ran away from northern Kyushu all the way to Kamakura. Visiting the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, he made a deep bow before the god Hachiman and prayed, “Great Bodhisattva Hachiman appeared in Japan as the 16th Emperor of Japan (Emperor Ōjin), and his original substance is Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha, who preached the Lotus Sūtra in the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle. Śākyamuni Buddha appeared in Japan as a god in order to fulfill the desire of all living beings. Now please fulfill my wish and tell me whether or not my father is still alive.”

He recited the Lotus Sūtra from around eight o’clock in the evening until around four o’clock in the morning. His young and lucid voice resounded in the shrine building, causing visitors (of the shrine) to tingle with the feeling of being refreshed and making them forget all about going home. They gathered to see who was reciting the sūtra and was surprised to learn that it was a young boy, not a priest or an aged woman, who was chanting the sūtra in such a splendid voice.

Just at that moment, Lady Masako, wife of Yoritomo, paid homage to the Hachiman Shrine. Her visit was incognito, but she stayed there until the chanting of the sūtra was completed because it sounded especially noble. She returned home later, but feeling reluctant to leave the boy, she left a retainer to watch him. When she reported the incident in the shrine to her husband, Lord Yoritomo summoned the boy and let him recite the sūtra in his Hall of the Buddha.

On the following day when Lord Yoritomo was listening to the boy reciting the sūtra, there was a noise at the western gate. Listening intently, they heard a loud voice announce, “A prisoner will be beheaded today.” The boy, on the verge of tears said, “Although I do not think my father is alive, it is still painful for me to hear that a man is about to be beheaded because it reminds me of my father.” Upon hearing him say this, Lord Yoritomo inquired, “Who are you? Tell me everything.” Thereupon the boy related a detailed story about himself from infancy. Having heard his story, everyone — feudal lords of all statures as well the ladies-in-waiting inside a bamboo screen — was moved to tears.

Lord Yoritomo called Kajiwara no Kagetoki ordering him to summon a prisoner named Ōhashi Taro. Kagetoki said to Yoritomo, “He has just been taken to Yuigahama Beach to be beheaded. He might have already been killed.” Upon hearing this, the son of Ōhashi Taro fell to the ground and cried, forgetting about being before Lord Yoritomo.

Yoritomo ordered Kagetoki to go to the execution ground himself in a hurry and bring the prisoner back if not executed yet. Kagetoki rushed to Yuigahama on horseback, shouting the order of Yoritomo before reaching the ground. When the executioner drew his sword to behead the prisoner, he heard the shouting voice of Kagetoki, saving the life of Ōhashi Tarō. When Kagetoki brought Ōhashi Tarō, bound with a rope, and made him sit in the open space in front of the palace, Yoritomo ordered, “Pass him to this child,” and the boy, the son of Ōhashi Tarō, ran down from the palace to the open space to untie the rope binding his father. Ōhashi Tarō did not know who the boy was and why his life was spared. A while later Yoritomo summoned the boy again and gave him various gifts as well as his father, who was pardoned, and restored his father’s original territory. I heard that Lord Yoritomo then said with tears in his voice:

“I heard about the preciousness of the Lotus Sūtra since early times. However, the reason why I came to believe in it is two-fold. First of all, my late father Yoshitomo was beheaded by Lay Priest Taira no Kiyomori making me suffer a bitter resentment beyond expression. Contemplating to which god or Buddha I should pray, I learned from Nun Myōho of Mt. Izu how to recite the Lotus Sūtra. On the day I was able to finish reciting the sūtra 1,000 times, Mongaku-bō of Takao showed me the head of my late father, creating an opportunity for me not only to take revenge for my father’s death but also to be appointed the shogun of warriors in Japan. This was entirely due to the divine help of the Lotus Sūtra. Secondly, I encountered this mysterious incident in which this young boy saved his father’s life. Ōhashi Tarō committed an inexcusable crime so I intended to behead him even against the imperial edict. It was due to my hatred of him that I made him suffer in prison as long as 12 years. Just about the time when I was going to kill him a mysterious happening such as this took place. Reflecting upon these facts, the sūtra entitled the Lotus Sūtra is indeed precious. Although I committed many sins as a general of warriors, somehow I may be able to receive a divine protection due to my faith in the Lotus Sūtra.”

When your late father sees your great kindness shown to me, how happy he will be! It is likely he loved you simply as his child but never expected you to hold a memorial service through the Lotus Sūtra. Even if he has been in evil realms due to his sin, Yama, the King of Law, King of the Brahma Heaven, and Indra will notice your offering of filial piety and save him. How can Śākyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sūtra abandon him? There is no difference between the young boy of Ōhashi Tarō, who saved his father out of a prison, and you, who saved your father through your precious offering. I cannot help but cry as I write this letter.

Nanjō-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Nanjō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 18-21

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 19, 2020

Thus, what the people in the Latter Age of Degeneration should be afraid of are not swords and sticks, tigers and wolves, or the ten evil acts and the five rebellious sins but those monks who wear Buddhist robes and pretend to be high priests without knowing the true teaching and those people who regard monks of provisional teachings as venerable and hate the practicers of the True Dharma of the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Chanting the Great Title of the Lotus Sūtra (Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō). In Nichiren’s time, Buddhist monks had a great influence on the leaders of Japan, and thus on the lives of ordinary people. Wars, taxes, disease and education were no less important in Nichiren’s time than they are now. Nichiren recognized that the greatest danger came not from external forces, but from those within the country who took positions of power to benefit themselves rather than others. Nichiren’s reliance on the Wonderful Dharma, and his refusal to be coerced by his persecutions, show us how to live in this degenerating age.

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

LS32

Day 20

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month heard the Buddha’s response to the question of the four great leaders of the Bodhisattvas from Underground, we consider the concerns of Maitreya and the other Bodhisattvas.

Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva and the [other] Bodhisattvas [who had already been present in the congregation before the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground], eight thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges in number, thought:

‘We have never before seen these great Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground, stood before [Śākyamuni,] the World-Honored One, joined their hands together towards him, and made offerings to him. [Now we see that their leaders] inquire after him.’

Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, seeing what the Bodhisattvas numbering eight thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges had in their minds, and also wishing to remove his own doubts, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and asked him in gāthās:

We have never seen
These many thousands of billions
Of Bodhisattvas.
Tell me, Most Honorable Biped!
Where did they come from?
They have gigantic bodies,
Great supernatural powers, and inconceivable wisdom.
They are resolute in mind.
They have a great power of patience.
All living beings are glad to see them.
Where did they come from?

They are each accompanied
By as many attendants
As there are sands
In the River Ganges.

Some great Bodhisattvas are each accompanied by attendants
Sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges.
They are seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha
With all their hearts.

The number of these great teachers is sixty thousand times
The number of the sands of the River Ganges.
They came together and made offerings to you.
Now they protect and keep this sūtra.
The attendants or disciples accompanying
Each [of the other great Bodhisattvas] number
Fifty thousand times or forty thousand times
Or thirty thousand times or twenty thousand times
Or ten thousand times or a thousand times
Or a hundred times as many as the sands of the River Ganges,
Or a half, a third, or a quarter
Of the number of the sands of the River Ganges,
Or as many as the sands of the River Ganges Divided by a billion;
Or ten million nayuta, a billion or fifty million,
Or a million, ten thousand, a thousand or a hundred,
Or fifty, ten, three, two or one.
[The great Bodhisattvas] who are accompanied
By less attendants are even more numerous.
Some [great Bodhisattvas] have no attendants
Because they prefer a solitary life.
They are the most numerous.
They came together to you.

No one will be able to count
All [these great Bodhisattvas] even if he uses
A counting wand for more kalpas
Than the number of the sands of the River Ganges.

See A Radical Affirmation of This World

stories, LS32, d19b, d20b

A Radical Affirmation of This World

That the bodhisattvas are from the earth has traditionally been taken to be an affirmation of this world, usually called the “saha world” in the Sanskrit Saddharma-pundarika Sutra. That it is the saha world means that this world is the world in which suffering both must be and can be endured. There is a pattern in the Dharma Flower Sutra in which some great cosmic and supernatural event demonstrates or testifies to the cosmic importance of Shakyamuni Buddha, and, since Shakyamuni is uniquely associated with this world, its reality and importance is also affirmed in this way; and, since what Shakyamuni primarily gives to this world according to the Sutra is the Dharma Flower Sutra itself, it too is very special and important; and, since the Dharma Flower Sutra is not the Dharma Flower Sutra unless it is read and embraced by someone, the importance of the life of the hearer or reader of the Sutra is also affirmed; and, since the most appropriate way of life for a follower of the Dharma Flower Sutra is the bodhisattva way, it too is elevated and affirmed. These five – Shakyamuni Buddha, this world, the Dharma Flower Sutra, the hearer or reader of the Sutra, and the bodhisattva way – do not have to appear in this particular order. Any one of them leads to an affirmation of the others. But there is a pattern in the Dharma Flower Sutra, wherein there is a radical affirmation of this world, this world of suffering, but an affirmation that is necessarily linked to the importance of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Dharma Flower Sutra on the one hand and to the lives and bodhisattva practices of those who embrace the Sutra on the other.

Thus, we can say that to truly love and follow the Buddha is also to love and care for the world, which is also to love and care for other living beings. And the reverse is equally true: to really care for others is at the same time devotion to the Buddha. To be devoted to the Dharma Flower Sutra and to Shakyamuni Buddha is to be vitally concerned about the welfare of others, the common good, and therefore about the welfare of our home, the earth.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p190-191
d7b, Eyes

Why Is Slandering Lotus Sūtra So Important?

So the question is — what was really intended by these warnings not to engage in slander of the Lotus Sūtra?

As Nichiren has explained, the Lotus Sūtra’s two unique teachings concern the One Vehicle whereby even those who would seem to be excluded from attaining buddhahood are promised its attainment and the revelation that Śākyamuni Buddha had in fact been the Buddha since the remote past even before his awakening beneath the Bodhi Tree. Women, evildoers like Devadatta, and those disciples who were believed to have become arhats who would no longer return to the world after their passing, are all told that they will in fact return to the world and attain buddhahood. This was in seeming contradiction to the earlier teaching that only a very few could aspire to and attain buddhahood. The revelation of the attainment of buddhahood in the remote past means that even during the Buddha’s innumerable past lifetimes as an ordinary human being, or an animal, or some other form of sentient being striving to attain buddhahood the Buddha had been a buddha all along. And now even though the Buddha is going to appear to pass away for good, he asserts that he will still be present. In light of these two teachings, buddhahood should be understood as inclusive of all beings, all time, and all space. It is a constant and active presence even when it is not apparent or seems to be absent in the lives of those who strive for it. Throughout the Lotus Sūtra these ideas are put forward as the fullest expression of the Dharma and to embrace them with faith and joy is to embrace the Wonderful Dharma and to reject them is to reject the Wonderful Dharma. The Wonderful Dharma is held to be even more worthy of respect and offerings than the Buddha himself because it is through the Wonderful Dharma that one attains buddhahood. It is for this reason that rejection means a total alienation from what is truly of value in life, and therefore leads to rebirth in hell. It is for this reason that a single moment of faith and rejoicing in the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra is said to bring unequalled merit, rivaled only by the merit brought by the perfection of wisdom itself which is none other than buddhahood itself.

It would seem that the most important thing is to revere the Wonderful Dharma and to awaken to its full significance. This is why the Lotus Sūtra describes the vast demerit incurred or merit made by those who slander or praise it respectively. Whether the Buddha directly taught these sūtras or not, and whether or not there are literal rebirths in a Pure Land or an Avici Hell, the point seems to be that we create our own misery to the extent that we deny the Wonderful Dharma whereas we can attain awakening through upholding the Wonderful Dharma. And what is this Wonderful Dharma? It is not simply a formula, text, or even a creed that one must believe without evidence. It is none other than the true nature of all existence, the reality of all things. This is what all buddhas awaken to, praise, and point out to all sentient beings using many skillful methods so that they too may realize that they are buddhas as well.

The stated intent of the other sūtras and teachings upheld by the other schools of Buddhism is to provide people with a way to attain buddhahood or at least liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The Lotus Sūtra directly teaches that all beings can attain buddhahood and that buddhahood is beginningless and endless and therefore realizable here and now. The Lotus Sūtras teaching is that all beings are worthy of the most profound respect because all beings are destined for buddhahood and in fact the world of buddhahood already resides in the depths of their life, already embraces them. To denigrate this message is to denigrate the true value of life. The other sūtras and schools of Buddhism should not be trying to obscure or denigrate the message of the Lotus Sūtra but uphold it because the sūtra expresses the fulfillment of their own true intentions. Nichiren laments that this is not the case, and that on the contrary people find the lesser teachings to be easier to embrace and uphold.

Open Your Eyes, p312-313