Monthly Archives: December 2020

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 5, 2020

As the destroyer of the bonds of existence,
I, the King of the Dharma, have appeared in this world.
Since then I have expounded the Dharma variously
According to the desires of all living beings.

The Buddha proclaims these verses in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. This is another explanation for why he uses expedients to teach those who are not ready for his highest teaching. When we set aside the cravings that lead to suffering, and cultivate our desire for enlightenment, both for ourselves and all beings, then we are ready to receive the Buddha’s highest teaching.

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

LS32

Day 23

Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 23 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month completed today’s portion of Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, we return to Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra and the merits to be given to a good man or woman who rejoices at hearing this Sūtra.

Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to a good man or woman who rejoices at hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?” He sang in a gāthā:
How many merits will be given
To a person who rejoices
At hearing this sūtra
After your extinction?

Thereupon the Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva: “Ajita! Suppose a bhikṣu, a bhikṣunī, an upāsakā, an upāsikā, or some other wise person, whether young or old, rejoices at hearing this sūtra in a congregation after my extinction. After leaving the congregation, he or she goes to some other place, for instance, to a monastery, a retired place, a city, a street, a town, or a village. There he or she expounds this sūtra, as he or she has heard it, to his or her father, mother relative, friend or acquaintance as far as he or she can. Another person who has heard [this sūtra from him or her], rejoices, goes [to some other place] and expounds it to a third person. The third person also rejoices at hearing it and expounds it to a fourth person. In this way this sūtra is heard by a fiftieth person. Ajita! Now I will tell you the merits of the fiftieth good man or woman who rejoices at hearing [this sūtra]. Listen attentively!

See Practicing for Oneself and Others

Peaceful Action, d14b, d15b

The Buddha and the Dharma

[In Chapter 10] the Lotus Sutra opens the door of the ultimate dimension to us. The Buddha is none other than the Dharma. The true body of the Buddha is the Dharma body (dharmakaya). Through the Dharma, we can touch the Buddha right in the present moment. Whenever we show respect and make offerings to the Dharma, when we hear, practice, and teach it to others, we are at the same time showing respect to the Buddha. The Buddha is always with us, right here in the present moment. We need only receive this wonderful Dharma and put it into practice.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p94-95
WONS

A Mind of Any Person Is Equipped with Seed of Buddhahood

It is said in a non-Buddhist writing that those who can predict things before they actually take place can be called sages. In Buddhism, those who see life in the past, present, and future are called sages. I made three outstanding predictions. …

It was not I, Nichiren, who made these three important predictions. I believe it was solely the spirit of Śākyamuni Buddha, entering my body, who made them. I am overwhelmed with joy. This is the important 3,000 Existences Contained in One Thought doctrine of the Lotus Sūtra. According to it, a mind of any person is equipped with the seed of Buddhahood, which could grow to blossom in his mind when he upholds the right faith. As a result, his mind could function like that of the Buddha. This is what happened to me, Nichiren, when I made these three predictions. Due to my faith in the Lotus Sūtra, I was able to see things before they actually took place. What is the meaning of “appearances of all phenomena as they are” as stated in the Lotus Sūtra? Since “appearance” is mentioned first among the ten factors of existence, it is the most important among them and the Buddha has come into this world in order to expound it. The appearance of a thing represents its reality. So we can grasp its reality when we see through its appearance clearly, and in turn we can predicts what would happen in the future. This is what was meant by Grand Master Miao-lé when he said that wise men know the cause of phenomena and only snakes know about snakes.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 243-244

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 4, 2020

Ajita! The good men or women who hear of my longevity of which I told you, and understand it by firm faith, will be able to see that I am expounding the Dharma on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa, surrounded by great Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas. They also will be able to see that the ground of this Sahā-World is made of lapis lazuli, that the ground is even, that the eight roads are marked off by ropes of jāmbūnada gold, that the jeweled trees are standing in lines, and that the magnificent buildings are made of treasures.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita – Invincible, in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. We can hear this explanation as a promise of some great otherworldly vision which will be revealed to us if our faith is strong enough. We can also hear it as a promise that we will learn to deny that all the terrible things in the world as as bad as we think. But when we remember the Buddha telling us, “I do not see the world as others do,” then we realize that our faith brings us to the Buddha’s own mind, where we can accept this frightening and dangerous world for what it is, and work to make it better for all beings.

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

LS32

Day 22

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Day 22 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the reaction of the gods to this news of the merits received, we consider Maitreya Bodhisattva’s summary of the merits in gāthās.

Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and sang in gāthās:

You expounded a rare teaching.
I have never heard it before.
You have great powers.
The duration of your life is immeasurable.

Having heard from you that they were given
The various benefits of the Dharma,
The innumerable sons of yours
Were filled with joy.

Some of them reached the stage of irrevocability.
Some obtained dharanis, or eloquence without hindrance,
Or the all-holding formulas
For memorizing billions of repetitions of teachings.

Bodhisattvas as many as the particles of earth
Of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds obtained
The faculty of turning
The irrevocable wheel of the Dharma.

Bodhisattvas as many as the particles of earth
Of one million Sumeru-worlds obtained
The faculty of turning
The wheel of the pure Dharma.

Bodhisattvas as many as the particles of earth
Of one thousand Sumeru-worlds obtained
The faculty of attaining the enlightenment of the Buddha
After eight rebirths.

Bodhisattvas numbering four times or three times or twice
The number of the particles of earth of the four continents
Obtained the faculty of becoming Buddhas
After four, three or two rebirths respectfully.

Bodhisattvas as many as the particles of earth
Of the four continents obtained
The faculty of attaining the knowledge of all things
immediately after this life.

Having heard of your longevity,
They obtained these effects and rewards,
Pure, immeasurable, and without āsravas.
Having heard from you
Of the duration of your life,
Living beings as many as the particles of earth
Of eight Sumeru-worlds
Aspired for unsurpassed [enlightenment].

See Understanding Eternity

LS32, d22b, b4today

Understanding Eternity

People who believe in religion only in order to receive divine favors in this world easily retrogress from their stage of development in that faith. This is because they cannot truly understand the eternity of the Buddha’s life, and at the same time the eternity of man’s life. They think only of the present and begin to doubt the teaching or grow tired of it unless clear material merits are manifested. But there are some people who cannot receive such merits in this world because of deep and inextinguishable unfavorable karma from their former lives, even if they have faith in a true religion, purify their minds, and devote themselves to the bodhisattva practice for the benefit of others in society.

Nevertheless, people who can believe in the immortality of the Buddha’s life can also feel confident of their own eternal life. Therefore they can live with self-confidence, realizing, “If we only continue this way, we are sure to extinguish our former karma eventually and will approach the mental state of the Buddha step by step.” Even if they do not immediately recover from illness or become suddenly blessed with tangible wealth, their minds will be composed. Even if they seem to outsiders to be suffering, their minds are free of suffering. This is the attitude adopted by a real believer.

Buddhism for Today, p259-260
Peaceful Action, d14b

Receiving the Benefit of the Lotus Sutra

The Buddha says to Bodhisattva Medicine King, “If after I have passed into nirvana there is a person who, having heard even one gatha or phrase of the Lotus Sutra and having rejoiced in it, that person shall attain the highest enlightenment and become a Buddha. And if there is a person who receives and upholds, reads and recites, explains or copies in writing even one gatha of this Sutra, or who looks upon it with reverence and makes various offerings, it is the same as if that person had made offerings to the Buddha and taken the great vow of the bodhisattva, and he or she too will become a Buddha.” Long after the Buddha has passed into nirvana, the future Buddhahood of any person who is able to hear the Lotus Sutra, even just one gatha or phrase of it – even just the title of the Sutra – and at that moment give rise in their hearts to great satisfaction and joy, has already been affirmed. We do not have to go back 2,500 years, climb the The Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain Peak, and sit among the assembly of Shakyamuni Buddha in order to receive the benefit of this Sutra.

WONS

The ‘Four Reliances’

The Nirvana Sūtra, the “Four Reliances” chapter, preaches the “Four Reliances” in person and in dharma. The former is the four ranks of bodhisattvas upon whom Buddhists relied on for guidance after the death of the Buddha, and the latter is the four standards which Buddhists must follow: (1) to follow the true teaching, not persons; (2) to follow the meaning of the teaching, not the words; (3) to follow the wisdom of the Buddha, not the knowledge of the people; and (4) to follow the Lotus Sūtra, which is the true teaching, not the pre-Lotus sūtras. These are the basic teaching in practicing Buddhism.

Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 244

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 3, 2020

As we look at each others’ faces, we notice our facial expression changes from time to time. It is full of delight, anger or calm sometimes; but other times it changes to greed, ignorance or flattery. Anger represents hells; greed – hungry spirits; ignorance – beasts; flattery – asura demons; delight – gods; and calm – men. Thus we can see in the countenance of people six realms of illusion, from hells to the realm of gods. We cannot see the four realms of holy ones (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattvas and Buddhas), which are hidden from our eyes. Nevertheless, we must be able to see them too, if we look for them carefully.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his treatise on Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable (Kanjin Honzon-Shō). In other writings, he described Hell as not being in the earth and Heaven as not in the sky, but both within the two meter frame of our own bodies. In this work he shows us to look outside ourselves and recognize these realms in the beings with whom we share our world. The higher realms of devotion, perseverance, generosity and wisdom are more difficult to recognize, so difficult that we sometimes wonder whether they exist at all. With the Buddha’s teaching, we know they exist. We find what we look for.

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