The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p13-14William LaFleur describes how Tendai thought, especially Chih-i’s Mo-ho-chih-kuan and the Lotus Sutra, influenced a transformation of Japanese poetry in the twelfth century. He points out that in the Lotus Sutra there is a philosophical move that is the opposite of what predominated in the West under the influence of Platonism. In the Sutra, “the illustration is in no way subordinate to what it illustrates.” Not a shadow of something else more real, “the narratives of the Lotus are not a means to an end beyond themselves. Their concrete mode of expression is not ‘chaff’ to be dispensed with in order to attain a more abstract, rational, or spiritual truth.” The Sutra itself says:
Even if you search in all directions,
You will find no other vehicles –
Except the skillful means of the Buddha.In other words, apart from concrete events, apart from stories, teachings, actions, and so on, there is no Buddhism.
Monthly Archives: August 2020
The Dhammapada
From the publisher’s introduction
Dhammapada means “the path of dharma,” the path of harmony and righteousness that anyone can follow to reach the highest good. The Dhammapada is a collection of verses, gathered probably from direct disciples who wanted to preserve what they had heard from the Buddha himself. Easwaran’s best-selling translation of this classic Buddhist text is based on the original Pali.
Easwaran’s comprehensive introduction to the Dhammapada gives an overview of the Buddha’s teachings that is penetrating, and clear – accessible for readers new to Buddhism, but also with fresh insights and practical applications for readers familiar with this text. Chapter introductions, notes and a Sanskrit glossary place individual verses into the context of the broader Buddhist canon.
Easwaran is a master storyteller, and the introduction includes many stories that make moving, memorable reading, bringing young Siddhartha and his heroic spiritual quest vividly to life. This faithful interpretation brings us closer to the compassionate heart of the Buddha.
Book Quotes
The Field Guide to Buddhism
Dhammapada, p9The Dhammapada, too, is a collection – traditionally, sayings of the Buddha, one of the very greatest of these explorers of consciousness. In this case the messages have been sorted, but not by a scheme that makes sense to us today. Instead of being grouped by theme or topic, they are gathered according to some dominant characteristic like a symbol or metaphor – flowers, birds, a river, the sky – that makes them easy to commit to memory. If the Upanishads are like slides, the Dhammapada seems more like a field guide. This is lore picked up by someone who knows every step of the way through these strange lands. He can’t take us there, he explains, but he can show us the way: tell us what to look for, warn about missteps, advise us about detours, tell us what to avoid. Most important, he urges us that it is our destiny as human beings to make this journey ourselves. Everything else is secondary.
The Rivers that Fill the Ocean
Continuing with my Office Lens housecleaning, I will be publishing quotes I gathered from Eknath Easwaran’s translation of The Dhammapada through Aug. 17. Easwaran’s introduction to the Dhammapada provides an excellent overview of the Buddha’s teachings.
Why this book? While Nichiren Buddhists are often criticized for exclusivistic focus on the Lotus Sutra, I believe that by learning about the provisional teachings we gain a deeper appreciation of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is, after all, the ocean into which all of the separate rivers of Buddhism flow.
As Nichiren writes:
Once they enter the great ocean of the Lotus Sūtra, the teachings preached before the Lotus are no longer shunned as provisional. It is the mysterious virtue of the great ocean of the Lotus Sūtra that, once they are encompassed in the single flavor of Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, there is no longer any reason to refer to the distinct names “nenbutsu, ” “precepts,” “shingon, ” or “Zen.” Thus the commentary states, “When the various rivers enter the sea, they assume the same unitary salty flavor. When the various kinds of wisdom [represented by the provisional teachings] enter the true teaching, they lose their original names.
At one time I considered taking the Dhammapada verses and creating a Daily Dharma on Instagram. My inspiration was this verse:
Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it.
Unfortunately finding appropriate, public domain art proved too difficult. Still, I recommend reading the full Dhammapada.
The Rage of Terrestrial Deities
Although I am unworthy, I am a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. When subjects of the ruler and people of Japan all slight me, the terrestrial deities, who pledged to protect the practicer at the lecture meeting of the Lotus Sūtra, tremble with rage and the heavenly gods shine a light that threatens this country. No matter how many times they admonish this country, their admonition is not heeded at all. Therefore, in the end the terrestrial deities and heavenly gods enter the people, causing the domestic disturbance and foreign invasion.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 60-61
Daily Dharma – Aug. 5, 2020
Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha
Appear somewhere in the universe?
This great light illumines
The worlds of the ten quarters.
The Brahma Heavenly Kings of the East sing these verses as part of a story the Buddha tells in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. Long ago there was another Buddha named Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence. When he became enlightened, the entire universe was illuminated. Beings who had never seen each other could recognize each other clearly. We can see this story as a metaphor for what happens when the Buddha’s wisdom comes into our lives. We leave the darkness of our ego attachment and come into the light of the world as it is.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 3
Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.
Having last month learned of the difficulty of understanding the Dharma in gāthās, we learn the expediency of the teaching of the Three Vehicles.
(He said to Śāriputra again:)
I have already attained
The profound and wonderful Dharma,
The Dharma without āsravas, the inconceivable Dharma.
It is known only to me
And to the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.Śāriputra, know this!
The Buddhas do not speak differently.
Have great power of faith
In the Dharma expounded by the Buddhas!
As a rule, the World-Honored Ones expound the true teaching
Only after a long period [of expounding expedient teachings].(He said to the Śrāvakas
And to those who were seeking the vehicle of cause-knowers:)
I saved all living beings
From the bonds of suffering,
And caused them to attain Nirvāṇa.
I showed to them
The teaching of the Three Vehicles as an expedient
In order to save them from various attachments.
See The Most Inclusive and Important Expression of the Teachings of the Buddha
The Most Inclusive and Important Expression of the Teachings of the Buddha
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p9While Kumarajiva’s Chinese version has been adapted into Japanese, no one imagines that this Japanese version, or the Chinese version, or any other version is by itself the Dharma Flower Sutra, the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, to use the full title. The precise meaning of the term “The Dharma Flower Sutra” and its equivalents in other languages has to remain somewhat imprecise, as there is no single text which is “The Lotus Sutra,” no one original from which others are derived. Even in the Sutra itself, there is no consistently maintained distinction between the Dharma Flower Sutra and Buddha Dharma. In a sense, we can say that the Sutra understands itself to be the most inclusive and important expression of the teachings of the Buddha.
The Power and Appeal of the Lotus Sutra
Following up on the quotes from Gene Reeves’ Translator’s Introduction to his 2008 translation of the The Lotus Sutra, I continue my Office Lens housecleaning with a quote from Burton Watson’s Translator’s Introduction to his 1993 translation of The Lotus Sutra.
The Lotus is not so much an integral work as a collection of religious texts, an anthology of sermons, stories and devotional manuals, some speaking with particular force to persons of one type or in one set of circumstances, some to those of another type or in other circumstances. This is no doubt one reason why it has had such broad and lasting appeal over the ages and has permeated so deeply into the cultures that have been exposed to it.
The present translation is offered in the hope that through it readers of English may come to appreciate something of the power and appeal of the Lotus Sutra, and that among its wealth of profound religious ideas and striking imagery they may find passages that speak compellingly to them as well. (Page xxii)
Beyond But Not Outside
An impossible to measure long time ago is when the Buddha became the Buddha. It wasn’t when he sat under the tree. That sitting under the tree event is what we, in our rational, physical-evidence-based minds attach to. It is an event, however, that is probably the least important for us to consider. It was merely the beginning of a small part of the entire story. However, until we can break free of the need to have Buddhism tied to this realm and plane of existence that event under the tree will only limit us. What the Lotus Sutra requires us to do is begin to understand that Buddha is not tied to one person, not tied to one point in time, and not tied to one realm of existence, or even one planet. The Buddha transcends all of that though it is in every bit of it too. It is beyond but not outside.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra