Monthly Archives: December 2020

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 9, 2020

Anyone who visits a monastery to hear
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
And rejoices at hearing it even for a moment,
Will be able to obtain the following merits:

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya (whom he calls Ajita – Invincible) in Chapter Eighteen of the Lotus Sutra. The joy we find in the Buddha’s highest teaching is different from what we experience when our desires are satisfied. It is a joy we can learn to find at the heart of everything we think, say and do. The merit that comes from this joy does not make us better than anyone else; it only allows to see the world as the Buddha does. Joy is not something that needs to be added to our lives. It is what we find remaining when we let go of our attachment and delusion.

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

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 27 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month compared the Lotus Sutra to other sutras, we consider how this sutra saves all living beings.

“Star-King-Flower! This sūtra saves all living beings. This sūtra saves them from all sufferings, and gives them great benefits. All living beings will be able to fulfill their wishes by this sūtra just as a man who reaches a pond of fresh water when he is thirsty, just as a man who gets fire when he suffers from cold, just as a man who is given a garment when he is naked, just as a party of merchants who find a leader just as a child who meets its mother, just as a man who gets a ship when he wants to cross [a river], just as a patient who finds a physician, just as a man who is given a light in the darkness, just as a poor man who gets a treasure, just as the people of a nation who see a new king enthroned, just as a trader who reaches the seacoast. Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death. The merits to be given to the person who, after hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, copies it, or causes others to copy it, cannot be measured even by the wisdom of the Buddha. Neither can the merits to be given to the person who copies this sūtra and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense to burn, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, streamers, canopies, garments, and various kinds of lamps such as lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of campaka oil, lamps of sumanas oil, lamps of pāṭala oil, lamps of vārṣika oil, and lamps of navamālikā oil [to the copy of this sūtra].

See The Meaning of ‘This Sutra Can Save All Living Beings’

stories, LS32, d27b

The Meaning of ‘This Sutra Can Save All Living Beings’

In Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra we find these twelve similes:
This sutra can bring great and abundant benefit to all the living and fulfill their hopes.

Just like a clear, cool pool, it can satisfy all who are thirsty. Like fire to someone who is cold, like clothing to someone naked, like a leader found by a group of merchants, like a mother found by her children, like a ferry found by passengers, like a doctor found by the sick, like a lamp found by people in the dark, like riches found by the poor, like a ruler found by the people, like a sea lane found by traders, and like a torch dispelling the darkness this Dharma Flower Sutra can enable all the living to liberate themselves from all suffering, disease, and pain, loosening all the bonds of mortal life. (LS 359)

This passage can readily be understood to be not only describing the wonderful powers of the Dharma Flower Sutra but also expressing hope for all those in need:

May those who are thirsty find cool, clear water.
May those who are cold find a warm fire.
May those who are naked find clothing.
May those who are without leadership find a leader.
May children who are lost find their mothers.
May those who need to cross over water find a ferry.
May those who are sick find a doctor.
May those who are in the dark find a lamp.
May those who are poor find riches.
May those in need ofone find a ruler.
May those who trade find a sea lane.
May those in darkness find a light.

In other words, the twelve similes are not merely claims about what the Lotus Sutra can do, though they are that; they are also a poetic expression of the many kinds of human needs and of the hope that they be met.

Thus the meaning of “this sutra can save all living beings” is that if it is heard and applied – by us – people will be saved. Those who are thirsty will find cool water and those in the dark will find light.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p253-254
Peaceful Action, d19b, d20b

The Golden Yellow Leaf and The Teachings of Interdependence and No-Self

This part of the Lotus Sutra is concerned with “appearance.” In order to be able to reach the minds of human beings, who are still attached to their perception of the historical dimension of reality, the world of birth and death, coming and going, existence and nonexistence, the Buddha appeared as a historical person called Shakyamuni. He appeared to be born, to realize the path, teach the Dharma for forty years, and then to “disappear” into nirvana. But this manifestation of the Buddha was only a kind of skillful pretense in order to enter the world of human beings and help them to liberation.

One day while practicing walking meditation in the Upper Hamlet, I looked down and saw that I was about to step on a golden yellow leaf. It was in the autumn, when the golden leaves are very beautiful. When I saw that beautiful golden leaf, I did not want to step on it and so I hesitated briefly. But then I smiled and thought, “This leaf is only pretending to be gold, pretending to fall from the tree.” In terms of the historical dimension, that leaf was born on a branch as a new green bud in the spring, had clung to that branch for many months, changed color in autumn, and one day when a cold wind blew, it fell to the ground. But looking deeply into its ultimate dimension, we can see that the leaf is only pretending to be born, to exist for a while, and to grow old and die. The teachings of interdependence and no-self reveal to us the true unborn and undying nature of all phenomena. One day that leaf will pretend to be born again on the branch of another tree, but she is really just playing a game of hide and seek with us.

We are also playing a game of hide and seek with one another. It is not only the Buddha who pretends to be born and to enter nirvana, we also pretend to be born, to live for a while, and to pass away. You may think that your mother has passed away and is no longer here with you. But her passing away was just a pretense, and one day, when the causes and conditions are sufficient, she will reappear in one form or another. If you have enough insight you will be able to recognize your mother in her other forms. We need to look deeply into all those we love and recognize their true nature. We love our teacher, our father and mother, our children, our brothers and sisters, and when someone we love passes away, we feel great sorrow and believe we have lost that person. But ultimately nothing is lost. The true nature of those we love is unborn and undying. If we can be in touch with the ultimate dimension, we shall smile with the yellow leaf, just as we can smile at all the other changes that take place in our lives.

So with the help of their teacher, the disciples on the The Gridhrakuta Mountain Peak saw into their own true Buddha nature. And just as the life span of a Buddha is limitless, so too the life span of all beings is limitless in the ultimate dimension.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p110-111
WONS

The Merit of a Gift of Polished Rice

In ancient times, a little boy named Tokusho offered a rice cake made of sand to the Buddha. Due to this merit he was reborn as the Emperor the king of Jambudvīpa. You have donated five shō of polished rice. How can you not become a Buddha? This will be especially so in this period of hunger and thirst!

Hakumai Wakame Gosho, A Letter of Polished Rice and Wakame Seaweed, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 170

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 8, 2020

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.’

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra, speaking of those who keep and practice the Wonderful Dharma. Dreams for many of us can be frightening places. They can be where we relive bad situations in our past or develop fantastic scenarios for disasters in the future. When we accept our nature as Bodhisattvas, and live assured of our future enlightenment, we find that even the thoughts over which we have no control begin to harmonize with the world around us. When we learn to recognize the Buddha in our everyday lives, our old traumas become vehicles for compassion.

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

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 26 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month conclude Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we open Chapter 22 and Śākyamuni Buddha’s transmission of the Dharma.

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha rose from the seat of the Dharma, and by his great supernatural powers, put his right hand on the heads of the innumerable Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and said:

“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide!”

He put his [right] hand on their heads twice more, and said:

“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sūtra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings. I am the great almsgiver to all living beings. Follow me, and study my teachings without begrudging efforts! In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, you should expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to them, and cause them to hear and know [this sūtra] so that they may be able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive [this sūtra] by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.”

See Trust and Faith

stories, LS32, d26b

Trust and Faith

In ancient India placing one’s hand on the head of another apparently was a sign of trust. Clearly something like that is intended here – but perhaps something more is involved. Though not in this chapter, in various places in the Dharma Flower Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has said that he is the father of this world. Further, bodhisattvas are regarded as children of the Buddha. There is, in other words, a kind of familial relation, a relation of affection between the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Here, the placing of his hand on the heads of bodhisattvas indicates that the relationship is not only one of trust in a formal sense but displays a religious faith which goes beyond calculations of ability and such. Just as in early chapters of the Sutra he has assured shravakas of becoming buddhas, here the Buddha assures bodhisattvas that they can do the job that needs to be done.

The bodhisattvas, in turn, assure the Buddha that they will indeed carry on his ministry of spreading the Dharma. In other words, the relationship of trust between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas is a mutual one, based on personal assurance. The Buddha assures the bodhisattvas that they can do what needs to be done and they assure him that they will do it.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p 234-235
Peaceful Action, d19b, d20b

Beyond Time and Space

In Chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra, “Welling Up Out of the Earth,” we begin to see the unborn and undying nature of the Buddha. From the point of view of our conventional understanding, we see reality as limited by the two barriers of time and space. But the Lotus Sutra reveals to us the eternal presence of the Buddha; time and space are not separate.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p108
d26b, WONS

The Lotus Sūtra Is Truest of All True Words

In the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 7 (“Divine Powers of the Buddha” chapter), preaches, “You should uphold this sūtra after My death. There is no doubt that such people will attain Buddhahood.” The holy teachings of the Buddha preached during His lifetime are all so precious that we cannot neglect them. They are all golden words of our Father, Lord Teacher Śākyamuni Buddha, the Great Sage. They are all true words. Nevertheless, they are divided into several categories such as Hinayāna, Mahāyāna, exoteric, esoteric, provisional Mahāyāna and true Mahāyāna. Compared to the sūtras of the non-Buddhist teachings such as Two Heavenly Beings and Three Hermits in India and Taoist priests in China, Buddhist sūtras are the teachings of the true words whereas these non-Buddhist scriptures are of lies. The Buddhist scriptures, however, can also be divided into those of true words, lies, idle talks, and harsh words. Among them, the Lotus Sūtra is the truest of all true words, the utmost of all truth.

Myōhō-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Reply to My Lady, the Nun Myōhō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 142