The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p101-102Specially in early chapters of the Lotus Sutra, one major concern is to understand or explain how the older shravaka way is related to the newer bodhisattva way. What was especially important was to try to explain why the great early disciples of the Buddha, that is, the Buddha’s closest disciples, were shravakas and apparently had not taken the path of the bodhisattva. The authors and compilers of Mahayana sutras were trying to create a new tradition, but this new tradition could not be a complete break from the old tradition, symbolized in the Lotus Sutra as the shravaka way. While critical of that older tradition, they wanted to incorporate it into the new.
In Chapter 8 of the Sutra (“Assurance for the Five Hundred Disciples”), the Buddha first explains that the disciple named Purna, son of Maitrayani, has been a most excellent teacher of the Dharma under thousands of buddhas. He has skillfully taught the Dharma in the past, is doing so in the present, and will continue to do so in the future. He is so skillful that innumerable people, supposing him to be a shravaka, have benefited from his teaching. In reality, however, this Purna is a bodhisattva who will eventually become a buddha named Dharma Radiance. By disguising themselves as shravakas in ways like this, bodhisattvas make it possible even for unmotivated people to enter the bodhisattva way, the way of becoming a buddha.
Monthly Archives: August 2020
Waxworks Life
Dhammapada, p90When you ask a physicist what “ultimate reality” is like, he or she is likely to reply, “We can describe accurately, and that’s enough. The laws are the reality.” The Buddha does the same. He says, “This is the way the universe is. If you want to know more, go see for yourself.”
This is not heady philosophy; it has some surprisingly practical implications. One is that we see life as we are. The world of our experience is partly of our, own making, colored and distorted by the past experiences that each person identifies with a personal ego. My relationship with you is not with you as you see yourself, but with you as I see you: a waxworks creation in my mind. As a result, two people can share the same house and literally live in different worlds.
One for All Buddhas
The Buddha says that his lifespan is limitless. It is immeasurable. It is without beginning. And it is without end. It is beyond time. Also the Buddha says that he – and here we are not referring specifically to Shakyamuni but instead referring to the concept of Buddha – has given various names to himself. The Buddha is actually a manifold Buddha, that is the Buddha is many Buddhas. He is all Buddhas. He is Buddha beyond Shakyamuni Buddha. As we saw when the Buddha called his emanations back, all the Buddhas throughout time and space are all reflections or manifestations of a single Buddha. The Buddha appears to different people in different ways, but in all cases the intent, the fundamental purpose, of those Buddhas is to lead all beings to the concept of Eternal Buddha as revealed in Chapter XVI of this Saha World’s Lotus Sutra.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraAwakening to the Impermanence of Human Life
It is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “The life of a human being is not at a standstill. It changes more rapidly than a swift stream in the mountain. Though we exist today, we do not know whether or not we will exist tomorrow.” The Māyā Sūtra, states, “Human life is like a caṇḍāla who drives a flock of sheep to the slaughterhouse. Likewise, human life approaches death step by step.” Finally, the Lotus Sūtra preaches, “The triple world is unsafe, like a burning house. It is full of suffering and is dreadful indeed.” These are scriptural statements made by our compassionate father, the Greatly Awakened and World Honored One, in order to teach ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration about the impermanence of human life and to awaken us, his naive children.
However, we unenlightened ones are not awakened and do not aspire for enlightenment even for a moment. Instead we spend time needlessly trying to find nicer clothing to adorn our bodies, which will be naked within a night after being discarded in the field when we die. Or, we try to save a fortune to support our bodies, which will disappear completely in a few days after death when it becomes water and drains away, dust mixed with the soil, or smoke rising to the sky. These imprudent activities of the human world remain the same throughout the ages.
Matsuno-dono Gohenji, Response to Lord Matsuno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 68-69
Daily Dharma – Aug. 14, 2020
Make offerings to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva with all your hearts! This World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva-mahāsattva gives fearlessness [to those who are] in fearful emergencies. Therefore, he is called the ‘Giver of Fearlessness’ in this Sahā-World.
The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of compassion. When we make offerings to compassion, we show how much we value it. In this world of conflict, we are taught to value aggression and violence rather than compassion. Those who do not dominate others are judged as targets for domination. If we clear away the delusion of our self-importance, and see other beings as worthy of happiness just as we are, we find ways for everyone to benefit together.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 12
Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered what became of the sixteen śramaṇeras, we consider the relationship between the 16 śramaṇeras and the living beings who life after life followed them.
“Bhikṣus! When we were śramaṇeras, we each taught many hundreds of thousands of billions of living beings, that is, as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those living beings who followed me, heard the Dharma from me in order to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Some of them are still in Śrāvakahood. I now teach them the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. They will be able to enter the Way to Buddhahood by my teaching, but not immediately because the wisdom of the Tathāgata is difficult to believe and difficult to understand. Those living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges, whom I taught [ when I was a śramaṇera], included you bhikṣus and those who will be reborn as my disciples in Śrāvakahood after my extinction. My disciples who do not hear this sūtra or know the practices of Bodhisattvas, after my extinction will make a conception of extinction by the merits they will have accumulated by themselves, and enter into Nirvāṇa as they conceive it. At that time I shall be a Buddha of another name in another world. Those who will enter into Nirvāṇa as they conceive it will be able [to be reborn] in the world I shall live in, seek the wisdom of the Buddha, and hear this sūtra. They will be able to attain [true] extinction only by the Vehicle of the Buddha in that world because there is no other vehicle except when the Tathāgatas expound the Dharma with expedients.
“Bhikṣus! I will collect Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas and expound this sūtra to them when I realize that the time of my Nirvāṇa is drawing near, that the living beings have become pure in heart, that they can understand the truth of the Void by firm faith, and that they have already entered deep into dhyāna-concentration. No one in the world can attain [true] extinction by the two vehicles. [True] extinction can be attained only by the One Buddha-Vehicle.
“Bhikṣus, know this! I can enter skillfully deep into the natures of all living beings. Because I saw that they wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and that they were deeply attached to the five desires, I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa to them. When they heard that teaching, they received it by faith.
Our Collective Effort Toward the Common Good
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p89As a bodhisattva, Excellent in Great Penetrating Wisdom was helped toward becoming a buddha by gods and kings of the Brahma heavens. We can understand that without the help of the gods and kings of heaven, the prince would not have become a buddha at all. This can be understood to mean that Buddhist practice is not primarily a solitary matter, but something done in and for a larger community with the help of others. The sixteen princes praised and honored their father because he was doing the common good, something from which everyone would benefit.
Fields in Consciousness
Dhammapada, p88-89We have to be very careful of misunderstanding here, for the Buddha is not saying that the physical world is a figment of imagination. That would imply a “real” world to compare with, and this is the real world. We are not “making it up,” but neither are we misperceiving a reality “out there” where things are solid and individuals are separate. What the Buddha is telling us is precisely parallel to what the quantum physicists say: When we examine the universe closely, it dissolves into discontinuity and a flux of fields of energy. But in the Buddha’s universe the mind-matter duality is gone; these are fields in consciousness.
When Einstein talked about clocks slowing down in a powerful gravitational field, or when Heisenberg said we can determine either the momentum or the position of an electron but not both, most physicists felt a natural tendency to treat these as apparent aberrations, like the illusion that a stick bends when placed in a glass of water. It took decades for physicists to accept that there is no “real” universe, like the real stick, to refer to without an observer. Clocks really do slow down and electrons really are indeterminable; that is the way the universe actually is. Similarly, the Buddha would say, this universe we talk of is made of mind. There is no “real” world-in-itself apart from our perceiving it. This doesn’t make physical reality any less physical; it only reminds us that what we see in the world is shaped by the structure of consciousness.
The Jeweled Stupa Arising from the Earth
The jeweled stupa arising from the earth represents the emergence of the Buddha-nature in the daily lives of ordinary people. The transformation of this world into the Pure Land of Tranquil Light reveals that this very world is the real pure land where awakening is realized. The recall of the emanated buddhas from the pure lands reveals that these idealized buddhas are all personifications of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha’s own awakened qualities and inner life. The image of Many Treasures Tathagata and Shakyamuni Buddha symbolizes the unity of the true reality (Many Treasures Tathagata) and the wisdom of the person who awakens to it (Shakyamuni Buddha).
Lotus SeedsTwo Kinds of People Who Harm the Lotus Sūtra
There are two kinds of people who harm the Lotus Sūtra. The first kind are those in whom the seed of Buddhahood was planted in a past life. The seed germinated and grew in them while they aspired for enlightenment, and they are close to attaining Buddhahood in this existence. For those in this category, should they slander the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, their mouths would be shut and their heads split into pieces. The second kind of people are those who slandered the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in previous lives as well as in the present life. Such people are being tormented in the Hell of Incessant Suffering life after life and their mouths are not sealed no matter how much they slander. For instance, a felon in prison waiting to be executed will not receive additional punishment till his execution, no matter how many evil acts he commits in prison. On the other hand, a prisoner who is scheduled to be released will be immediately punished should he commit an evil act in prison.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 62