Monthly Archives: September 2020

WONS

Lotus Sūtra Differs from Teachings in Ordinary Sūtras

[I]n the first fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra proper, it is preached: “The Buddha will expound the truth after preaching for a long time” and “He will solely expound the supreme way, honestly discarding the expedient teaching.” This means that it is only the Lotus Sūtra that is true. It is like a full moon appearing in the dark night, or the disassembling of a scaffold after the construction of a huge tower. Later, Śākyamuni Buddha expounded the truth saying:

“This Sahā World is My domain and the living beings in it are all My children. This world, however, is full of suffering and pain. It is only I, the Buddha, who can save all living beings suffering in this world. Having wandered out of the right way and losing rationality, they refuse to accept My guidance and persuasion. Instead, they slight, or show contempt for, hate, are envious of and bear grudges against those who recite and uphold the Lotus Sūtra. Such people will surely fall into the Avīci Hell.”

The way in which this sūtra is preached differs from the teachings in ordinary sūtras. Usually those who commit the five rebellious or seven rebellious sins are said to fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering, but this sūtra does not say so. It preaches that of all the people in the Buddha’s lifetime and after His extinction, those who do not believe in the Lotus Sūtra and adhere to such provisional teachings as the Amitābha Sūtra preached during the forty years or so before the Lotus Sūtra was preached, or those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra but cannot relinquish faith in the provisional teachings, and practice the Lotus Sūtra and the provisional teachings at the same time, or those who claim that the provisional teachings they believe in are superior to the Lotus Sūtra, or those who despise and abuse the people who practice the Lotus Sūtra by saying they are not practicers of the Lotus Sūtra—all these people “will surely fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering upon death.”

Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 88

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 24, 2020

Ajita, know this, these great Bodhisattvas
Have studied and practiced
The wisdom of the Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.

They are my sons because I taught them
And caused them to aspire for great enlightenment.

The Buddha sings these verses to his disciple Maitreya, also known as Invincible (Ajita) in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sutra. In the story, great Bodhisattvas have just appeared from under the ground of this world of conflict after the Buddha asks who will continue to teach and practice this Lotus Sūtra after the extinction of the Buddha. None of those gathered to hear the Buddha teach, including other great Bodhisattvas such as Maitreya, had ever seen them before. Late in his life Nichiren realized that he was a reincarnation of Superior-Practice, the leader of the Bodhisattvas from underground, and that we who practice the Lotus Sūtra are his followers. Our lives are much greater than we realize, as are our capacities, our patience, our wisdom and our merit. It is through the Wonderful Dharma that we awaken to all these and clarify the Buddha Land we live in now.

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

LS32

Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Day 19 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the Parable of the Jewel in the Top-Knot in gāthās, we conclude today’s portion of Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Anyone who reads this sūtra
Will be free from grief,
Sorrow, disease or pain.
His complexion will be fair.
He will not be poor,
Humble or ugly.

All living beings
Will wish to see him
Just as they wish to see sages and saints.
Celestial pages will serve him.

He will not be struck with swords or sticks.
He will not be poisoned.
If anyone speaks ill of him,
The speaker’s mouth will be shut.
He will be able to go anywhere
As fearless as the lion king.
The light of his wisdom will be
As bright as that of the sun.

He will see only wonderful things in his dream.
He will dream:
‘Surrounded by bhikṣus,
The Tathāgatas are sitting
On the lion-like seats,
And expounding the Dharma.’

He also will dream:
‘As many living beings, including dragons and asuras,
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Are joining their hands together
Towards me respectfully,
And I am expounding the Dharma to them.’

He also will dream:
‘The bodies of the Buddhas are golden-colored.
They are emitting innumerable ray of light,
And illumining all things.
The Buddhas are expounding all teachings
With their brahma voices.
I am among the four kinds of devotees
To whom a Buddha is expounding
The unsurpassed Dharma.
I praised the Buddha
With my hands joined together.
I heard the Dharma from him with joy.
I made offerings to him, and obtained dharanis.
I also obtained irrevocable wisdom.
The Buddha knew
That I entered deep into the Way to Buddhahood.
So he assured me of my future attainment
Of perfect enlightenment, saying:
‘Good man, in your future life,
You will be able to attain immeasurable wisdom,
That is, the great enlightenment: of the Buddha.
Your world will be pure and large
Without a parallel.
There will be the four kinds of devotees there.
They will hear the Dharma from you
With their hands joined together.’

He also will dream:
‘I am now in the forest of a mountain.
[ studied and practiced good teachings.
[ attained the truth of the reality of all things.
I am now in deep dhyāna-concentration.
I see the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.’

He also will have a good dream:
‘The bodies of the Buddhas are golden-colored.
They are adorned with a hundred marks of merits.
Having heard the Dharma from them,
I am now expounding it to others.’

He also will dream:
‘Although I was a king,
I gave up the five desires
And the most wonderful pleasures.
I left my palace and attendants,
And reached the place of enlightenment.
I sat on the lion-like seat under the Bodhi-tree,
And sought enlightenment.
After seven days, I obtained the wisdom of the Buddhas
And attained unsurpassed enlightenment.
I emerged [from dhyāna] and turned the wheel of the Dharma.
I expounded the Dharma to the four kinds of devotees
For a thousand billion kalpas.
I expounded the Wonderful Dharma-without-āsravas
And saved innumerable living beings.
Then I entered into Nirvana
Just as a flame dies when smoke is gone.’

Anyone who expounds
This supreme teaching
In the evil world after [my extinction]
Will obtain great benefits as previously stated.

See The Wheel-Rolling King

stories, LS32, d19b

The Wheel-Rolling King

While this story is about a king and his army, compared with many other religious texts, the Lotus Sutra is remarkably free of military imagery. Apart from this story, the only armies mentioned in the sutra are the armies of Mara, a sort of Indian version of the devil or Satan. Terms such as “soldier,” “general” (except for the “generals of heaven”), “war,” “military,” “battle,” and so on simply are not used in the Dharma Flower Sutra.

Even here, it is relevant to note that the powerful, holy, wheel-rolling king who is at the center of the parable is not primarily a warrior. He is a holy chakravartin-raja, an ideal ruler or king in Indian mythology, a king who rules not by force but by righteousness and doing good. Chakra is the Indian word for wheel and a chakravartin is a wheel-turner, a title that could be given to any powerful ruler, the idea being that, as the wheels of his chariot roll along, all obstacles in the ruler’s path are destroyed. In Buddhism, however, the wheel becomes the Dharma wheel, and the wheel-rolling king can become a symbol of one whose teachings are so powerful that they overcome all obstacles.

Today, when so many seem to think that the only way to safety and happiness for humanity is through war, and through constantly looking for evil in order to punish it, it is good to know that the Dharma Flower Sutra teaches that the way to peace is through seeking out and rewarding the good in others. For many, it is precisely this positive thrust of the Dharma Flower Sutra – its affirmation of the opportunities offered to us within this life, where suffering is pervasive – that makes it the supreme sutra. In this story, this parable of the jewel in the topknot, we can see both the idea that the Dharma Flower Sutra is supreme and the idea that it is supreme precisely because it directs us to seek out and reward the good that we can find everywhere.

After all, it is not only holy wheel-rolling kings who have jewels to give. Anyone, by seeking to reward others, can find their own life greatly enriched. Even if such a practice does not always lead to comfort, and you can be sure that there will be times when it will not, it can lead to a kind of equanimity that might be called “trouble-free.”

The chapter closes with the idea that those who read the Sutra will be rewarded in many ways and will have marvelous dreams assuring them of ultimately becoming buddhas. That is, receiving the Sutra not only changes our lives by making us more positive and happy, it even helps make our dreams more pleasant.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p184-185
Shodaigyo

Shoshogyo

Quote

The meaning of the character Sho of Shoshogyo is “the condition of being correct,” but in this case, the meaning of Sho is “indeed” (the agreement of a truth). Shoshogyo, then, means “Indeed, from this moment onward, now is the time to chant the Odaimoku.”

Journey of the Path to Righteousness, p 45
Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Looking for the Buddha

Quote

The Buddha uses his death to help us understand the value of having a Buddha in our life. The teaching in the Lotus Sutra, though, is that the Buddha, even in death, is always present. We need only look for him. The place that looking has to begin is in the Lotus Sutra. If nothing else, the Lotus Sutra is the only place that gives us a hint or a clue that looking is even possible.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

d17b, WONS

The Only Sin that Refuses To Disappear

Even if women committed the sky-full of ten evil acts such as greed, jealousy and anger, and five rebellious sins, if they upheld this Lotus Sūtra without committing the sin of slandering the True Dharma, their sins will all disappear at once just as dew on plants all evaporate when blown by strong winds. They are like the thick ice born in the three months of cold winter that thaw in no time under the sunshine of mid-summer. The only sin that refuses to disappear is the sin of slandering the Lotus Sūtra. It is like Mt. Sumeru that cannot be burnt, even partially, by all the plants in the whole universe as firewood; or the ocean that cannot be dried up even if seven suns should appear at the same time and blaze on it for hundreds and thousands of days.

Zemmui-shō, Treatise on Śubhākarasiṃha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 55-56

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 23, 2020

If you hear his name, and see him,
And think of him constantly,
You will be able to eliminate all sufferings.

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. The power of World-Voice-Perceiver is the power of compassion.World-Voice-Perceiver is also known as the one who brings fearlessness. When we can face up to the suffering in the world, both our own and that of others, we can see it for what it is. Then we are no longer afraid of suffering. What else is there to be afraid of?

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

LS32

Day 18

Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Day 18 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the question posed by the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas in Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, we repeat in gāthās the litany of perils to be faced preaching the Lotus Sutra in the future saha world.

Thereupon the Bodhisattvas sang in gāthās with one voice:

Do not worry!
We will expound this sūtra
In the dreadful, evil world
After your extinction.

Ignorant people will speak ill of us,
Abuse us, and threaten us
With swords or sticks.
But we will endure all this.

Some bhikṣus in the evil world will be cunning.
They will be ready to flatter others.
Thinking that they have obtained what they have not,
Their minds will be filled with arrogance.

Some bhikṣus will live in aranyas or retired places,
And wear patched pieces of cloth.
Thinking that they are practicing the true Way,
They will despise others.

Being attached to worldly profits,
They will expound the Dharma to men in white robes.
They will be respected by the people of the world
As the Arhats who have the six supernatural powers.

They will have evil thoughts.
They will always think of worldly things.
Even when they live in aranyas,
They will take pleasure in saying that we have faults.

They will say of us,
“Those bhikṣus are greedy for worldly profits.
Therefore, they are expounding
The teachings of heretics.
They made that sūtra by themselves
In order to deceive the people of the world.
They are expounding that sūtra
Because they wish to make a name for themselves.”

In order to speak ill of us, in order to slander us
In the midst of the great multitude,
In order to say that we are evil,
They will say to kings, ministers and brahmanas,
And also to householders and other bhikṣus,
“They have wrong views.
They are expounding
The teachings of heretics.”
But we will endure all this
Because we respect you.

They will despise us,
Saying to us [ironically],
“You are Buddhas.”
But we will endure all these despising words.

See Upholding the Sutra

stories, LS32, d17b, d18b

Upholding the Sutra

The Dharma Flower Sutra makes frequent reference to “upholding” the Sutra. What does it mean to “uphold” the Sutra? The Chinese character used here can mean such things as “keep,” “hold,” “uphold,” or “take care of.” Usually, when translating it in the Dharma Flower Sutra, I have used the term “embrace.” It occurs in several combinations that are important in the Sutra, especially (in Japanese pronunciation) as juji, “receive and embrace”; buji, “honor and embrace”; goji, “protect and embrace”; and jisetsu, “embrace and explain”; and there are many others. I like to use “embrace” because, for the Dharma Flower Sutra, what is involved is not a matter either of storage or of defending, but of following or adhering to the teachings of the Sutra by embodying them in one’s life.

But in Chapter 13, what is of most direct concern is propagating the Sutra in the face of great difficulties, spreading its teachings to others despite many obstacles, leading others to embrace it. So here, in the title of Chapter 13, it seems fitting to think of being encouraged to “uphold” the Sutra.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p174-175