Monthly Archives: November 2020

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 9, 2020

No, good men! I do not want you to protect or keep this sūtra because there are Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges in this Sahā-World. They are each accompanied by attendants also numbering sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges. They will protect, keep, read, recite and expound this sūtra after my extinction.

The Buddha makes this declaration to the uncountable number of Bodhisattvas who came from other worlds to hear him teach in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. These Bodhisattvas had responded to the Buddha’s question of who would keep and expound the Buddha’s highest teaching after his death. They promised that they would remain in this world of conflict and fulfill the Buddha’s request. After the Buddha spoke these words, an unimaginable number of Bodhisattvas came up from underground and paid their respects to the Buddha. We can understand this story, and this image, as showing that our capacity for enlightenment, and our ability to benefit all beings, is already within us. We do not need an outside agent to give these to us.

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

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 concluded Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva, we begin again with the story of a Buddha called Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom.

Thereupon the Buddha said to the great multitude:
“Innumerable, inconceivable, asaṃkhya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom, the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha. His world was called Light-Adornment; the kalpa in which he lived, Gladly-Seen. Under that Buddha lived a king called Wonderful-Adornment. His wife was called Pure-Virtue. They had two sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes by name. The two sons had great supernatural powers, merits, virtues and wisdom. A long time ago, they had already practiced the Way which Bodhisattva should practice. They had already practiced the dana-pāramitā, the sita-pāramitā, the kṣānti-pāramitā, the vīrya-pāramitā, the dhyāna-pāramitā, the prajña-pāramitā, and the pāramitā of expediency. They also had already obtained the four states of mind towards all living beings:] compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality. They also had already practiced the thirty-seven ways to enlightenment. They had done all this perfectly and clearly. They also had already obtained the samādhis of Bodhisattvas: that is, the samādhi for purity, the samādhi for the sun and the stars, the samādhi for pure light, the samādhi for pure form, the samādhi for pure brightness, the samādhi for permanent adornment, and the samādhi for the great treasury of powers and virtues. They had already practiced all these samādhis.

See Our Relationship With the Buddha

stories, LS32, d31b

Our Relationship With the Buddha

One of the truly liberating teachings of the Dharma Flower Sutra and Mahayana Buddhism generally is that one does not have to become a monk or nun in order to follow the bodhisattva way of being, just like the Buddha himself, a Dharma teacher. As we see most explicitly in Chapter 10 of the Dharma Flower Sutra, anyone can be a Dharma teacher for others. Such Dharma teachers are all children of the Buddha. But here being a child of the Buddha is not so much an alternative, as it is when one leaves home to follow a buddha, as it is an addition, a kind of fulfillment of being a child of one’s biological parents. This is what is symbolized in this story by the fact that the whole family – father, mother, children, and servants – gives up domestic life in order to follow a buddha together.

Thus, the meaning of this story for us is that we can be children of our parents and parents of our children, or have no children at all, and still be children, true followers, of the Buddha. potential to be a true child of the Buddha, according to the Dharma Flower Sutra, is not initially something we have to earn or learn, it is given to us, just as both our parents and our children are given to us. Relationships created by birth can be grossly distorted or even forgotten, but cannot be completely destroyed or abolished. So, from the moment of our birth, our relationship with the Buddha, a relationship that has close affinities to the relationship of a parent with a child, is always being given to us and can never be completely rejected or abolished.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p293-294
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AI and Buddhism

20201108_Leo-feedlyI’m a great fan of Feedly, an RSS news reader that allows me to monitor hundreds of websites. I was a Google Reader fan before Feedly and I don’t remember what before that. I just can’t imagine life without some form of automation to scrape together the news from each website I monitor.

As an early adopter of Feedly, I’ve been able to acquire “Pro” level features at minimal expense. (The Pro+ features normally cost $12 a month. They are currently discounted to $8.25 a month for the first year.)

One of those Pro+ features is Leo, a personal AI Research Assistant who helps identify items of specific interest.

At the moment I have Leo identifying any article about the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren or T’ien-t’ai or about my former employer McClatchy Newspapers (watching for bankruptcy’s impact on my pension) or Christian Pulisic, the US National Soccer Team player currently with ChelseaFC.

But Leo, being intelligent, is always trying to learn while it reads along with me. Periodically an article in my news feed will include a question from Leo asking whether he was right about the topic of the item.

Today’s quote from the Writings of Nichiren Shonin entitled “The Three Venerables” is a case in point.

Leo looked at this:

In this sūtra it is said: “Now this Sahā World is all My domain, where all the people are My children. However, this world is full of various sufferings, and it is I, Śākyamuni Buddha, alone who can save them.” To those against the Lotus Sūtra, it preaches: “Those who do not listen to the Buddha when He taught and tried to persuade them that they are slanderers of the dharmas will all fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail.”

and Leo concluded this must be about “Global Health.”  Or at least Leo felt 80 percent certain the topic was Global Health. Leo asked me whether he was correct.

While I can see how the world population falling into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail could be considered a Global Health issue, I told Leo, “Sorry, no it’s not.” I can only guess what people searching for “# Global Health” issues thought about this quote.

20201108_Feedly_Leo
Screenshot of Feedly.com listing
Peaceful Action

The Eyes of Insight

Quote

The insight of the Buddha is infinitely deep, and not easily understood. Those who are still at the level of the shravakas or pratyekabuddhas cannot fathom this profound insight of the Buddha. Whatever eyes you use to look at the Buddha, you will see the Buddha only through the eyes you use to look at the Buddha, you will see the Buddha only through those eyes. If you are driven by craving and look at others through those eyes. If you are driven by craving and look at others through those eyes, everyone you see will seem to you to be full of craving also. If you feel angry, and regard others with eyes of anger and small-mindedness, then you will see everyone as angry and small-minded too. So if you look at the Buddha through the eyes of a shravaka or pratyekabuddha, you will not be able to see the real Buddha as he is, you will see the Buddha only as a shravaka or pratyekabuddha. But the Buddha’s insight is much greater than that.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p36-37
WONS

The Three Venerables

Śākyamuni Buddha preached an important principle about the three venerables: lord, master and parents, in the third chapter on the “Parable” of the Lotus Sūtra.

This is the essence of the sūtra. In this sūtra it is said: “Now this Sahā World is all My domain, where all the people are My children. However, this world is full of various sufferings, and it is I, Śākyamuni Buddha, alone who can save them.” To those against the Lotus Sūtra, it preaches: “Those who do not listen to the Buddha when He taught and tried to persuade them that they are slanderers of the dharmas will all fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail.”

Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 91-92

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 8, 2020

World-Honored One! It is by my supernatural powers, know this, that a Bodhisattva can hear these dhāraṇīs. Anyone who keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [while it is] propagated in the Jambudvīpa, should think, ‘I can keep [this sūtra] only by the supernatural powers of Universal-Sage.’

Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) makes this declaration to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. The supernatural powers of this Bodhisattva are beyond the perception of our human senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell and thought. When we hear thunder, we know something causes it whether or not we understand that cause. In the same way, when we are practicing this Wonderful Dharma, we know it is because of the great help we receive from innumerable beings, even if we do not understand the powers they use to reach us.

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 considered the dhārāni spells offered by Medicine-King Bodhisattva and the Buddha’s response, we consider the dhārāni spells offered by Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! I also will utter dhārānis in order to protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. If he keeps these dhārānis, this teacher of the Dharma will not have his weak points taken advantage of by any yakṣa, rākṣasa, pūtana, kṛtya, kumbhāṇḍa or hungry spirit.”

Then he uttered spells before the Buddha:

“Zarei (1), makazarei (2), ukki (3), mokki (4), arei (5), arahatei (6), netsureitei (7), netsureitahatei (8), ichini (9), ichini (10), shichini(11), netsureichini (12), netsurichihachi (13).”

[He said to the Buddha:]

“World-Honored One! These dhārānis, these divine spells, have already been uttered by as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those Buddhas uttered them with joy. Those who attack and abuse this teacher of the Dharma should be considered to have attacked and abused those Buddhas.”

See Dhārāṇi Resources

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Dhārāṇi Resources

In the past couple of weeks I’ve come upon various recordings of priests chanting dhārāṇis and finally sat down and crafted a page where you can practice reciting the dhārāṇis contained in Chapter 26 and also enjoy some variations, including a return to a jazz interpretation I first noticed in 2017.

Here’s a link to the new page:

Dharani Jinshu

Peaceful Action, d3b

Realizing the Ultimate Reality of Everything

The Buddha describes in some detail the profound insight that is “without measure and without obstruction,” the wisdom and understanding he has learned and practiced according to the immeasurable methods of countless other Buddhas. Only a Buddha can perfect and realize the insight into the suchness, the true nature, of all dharmas (phenomena) – the suchness of their marks (outer appearance), their nature, their substance, their powers, their functions, their causes and conditions, their effects, their retribution, and their ultimate origin. These are called “the ten suchnesses.” Many scholars and Buddhist teachers say that this passage contains the basic philosophy of the Lotus Sutra, and they have spent a lot of ink and paper and time analyzing it in great detail. But the meaning of the ten suchnesses can be distilled into one thing: the Buddha’s wisdom is very deep, and with this insight he is able to see the true nature, the ultimate reality of everything – all dharmas – in time and in space, in the phenomenal world as well as in the ultimate dimension.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p36