Once upon a time, a man who had offered a “rice cake” made from mud to a Buddha ascended the throne in a kingdom due to this virtuous act. As the Lotus Sūtra is the dharma superior to a Buddha, those who make donations to the sūtra will inevitably gain blessings in this life and attain Buddhahood in the future lives, will they not?
Kurōtarō-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Kurōtarō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 153
Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.
The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. Given the trauma we have suffered in our previous existences, especially the calamity of death, it should be no surprise that our memories of those lives is dim at best. It can be enough to know that beneficial actions bring benefit and harmful actions bring harm, even if we do not know the specific causes of our condition. Our finding and practicing the Wonderful Dharma in this life is an indication of our great generosity in previous lives, and our capacity to continue practicing that same generosity.
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Chapter 1, Introductory (Conclusion).
Having last month learned what happened after Sun-Moon-Light Buddha expounded Sūtra of Innumerable Teachings, we consider how Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva kept the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light. He had eight hundred disciples. Sun-Moon-Light Buddha emerged from his samādhi, and expounded the sūtra of the Great Vehicle to Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva and others without rising from his seat for sixty small kalpas. It was called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ The hearers in the congregation also sat in the same place for sixty small kalpas, and their bodies and minds were motionless. They thought that they had heard the Buddha expounding the Dharma for only a mealtime. None of them felt tired in body or mind. Having completed the expounding of this sūtra at the end of the period of sixty small kalpas, Sun-Moon-Light Buddha said to the Brahmans, Maras, śramaṇas, brahmanas, gods, men, and asuras, ‘I shall enter into the Nirvāṇa-without-remainder at midnight tonight.’
“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Virtue-Store. SunMoon-Light Buddha assured him of his future Buddhahood. The Buddha said to the bhikṣus, ‘This Virtue-Store Bodhisattva will become a Buddha immediately after me. He will be called Pure-Body, the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha.’
“Having assured him of his future Buddhahood, the Buddha then entered into the Nirvāṇa-without-remainder at midnight. After his extinction, Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva kept the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and expounded it to men for eighty small kalpas. The eight sons of Sun-Moon-Light Buddha became his disciples. He taught them and caused them to resolve to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. They made offerings to many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, and then attained the enlightenment of the Buddha [one after another]. The son who became a Buddha last was called Burning-Light.
See The Prelude
Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 154-155The two truths are non-dual. Reality is an integrated unity. Chih-i illustrates this by quoting the metaphor of the drunk man in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra who perceives the sun as “spinning around.” A sober man correctly perceives that there is only one sun, one reality, and that the spinning of the sun as perceived by the drunk man is caused by his deluded and drunken state. A deluded person thus has mistaken perceptions of the way things are, but an enlightened person perceives reality as it is and can see that the deluded person’s perceptions are a mistaken interpretation of reality.
Reality is best described as “one,” integrated, and interpenetrating, but as Chih-i points out,
if one becomes attached to this reality, words concerning reality become empty words. Since a mistaken verbal view arises, it is called “crude.”[T. 33, 705a24-25]
Even the verbal expression “one truth” must be understood as an ultimately inadequate expression of reality. If one is attached to the concept of “one truth,” it is necessary to go one step further and deny the possibility of adequate verbal expression. In Chih-i’s words, which presage the Ch’an / Zen proclamation to not rely on written words, one must “destroy [the notion of one truth] by saying ‘no truth’.”
The one truth is [actually] no [truth]; all truth is at rest. Each and every [truth] is [ultimately] inexpressible …
It is necessary to say “no truth” for the sake of those who have not fulfilled attainment, and in their attachments give rise to delusion. For those who have real attainment, there is [a positive truth]; for those [lost] in vain speculation, there is none. [T. 33, 705a28-29; b15-16]Once again we find the tension in Chih-i’s philosophy between the strong assertion that reality and truth are ultimately beyond language and rational concepts, and the recognition of the undeniable need to express the Buddha Dharma, “truth,” and “reality” with words and concepts which are more valid than others. This is the task undertaken by Chih-i in his lectures and writings.
When Queen Māyā became pregnant with her child, the future Śākyamuni Buddha, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven saw through her womb and said: “The queen is pregnant with a sharp sword called the Lotus Sūtra, which is our sworn enemy. How can we eliminate it before it is born?” Pretending to be a great doctor, the Demon entered the palace of King Śuddhodana and talked the queen into drinking poison, saying it was medicine effective for easy childbirth. At the very moment when the Buddha was born, the Demon King caused a rain of stones to fall and mixed the baby’s milk with poison. When Prince Siddhārtha left the palace to become a monk, the Demon King, this time, pretended to be a black poisonous snake blocking the prince’s way. Furthermore, the Demon King entered the bodies of Devadatta, Kokālika, King Virūḍhaka, and King Ajātaśatru, making them throw huge rocks at the Buddha to draw blood or to kill members of the Śākya people and Buddha’s disciples. These almost fatal obstacles to the Buddha were the work of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven to stop the Buddha from preaching the Lotus Sūtra. They are what is referred to when the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 10 on “The Teacher of the Dharma,” mentions, “Many people hate it with jealousy even in My lifetime.” These were the difficulties the Buddha experienced quite early in His lifetime, and many terrible difficulties awaited Him later. Since Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and the other great bodhisattvas could not believe in the Lotus Sūtra, they, in spite of living close to the Buddha, were the worst enemies in the forty or so years before the Lotus Sūtra was preached.
These things happened in the Buddha’s lifetime, and in the future, more horrible difficulties will probably occur as predicted in the chapter which says: “It will be worse after I die.” How can ordinary people bear those difficulties while even the Buddha could hardly bear them? How much more so, as the difficulties we are to face are said to be more tremendous than those that the Buddha had encountered! No difficulties seem more horrible than Devadatta’s attempted murder of the Buddha with a huge rock thirty feet long and sixteen feet wide or King Ajatasatru’s attempt to hurt the Buddha by releasing a drunken elephant. Nevertheless, according to the sūtra, we shall encounter difficulties greater than those. One who often encounters such difficulties, through no fault of his own, must be a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra after the Buddha’s death.
Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 8.
Even if one should read 80,000 holy scriptures, set up stupas as numerous as the number of dust-particles of the great earth, observe the Mahayana and Hinayana precepts, and love all the people in all the worlds throughout the universe just as one’s sole child, one cannot dissipate the sin of slandering the Lotus Sutra. It is solely due to the sin of slandering the Lotus Sutra that we are unable to attain Buddhahood throughout the past, present and future lives and continue to suffer in the lower six realms.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Śubhākarasiṃha (Zemmui-shō). It is difficult to understand what Nichiren means by “slandering the Lotus Sutra.” Many wise people have debated this term over many years. We know that it prevents us from seeing things as they are and becoming enlightened, but it is as hard to tell whether we are slandering the Sutra as it is to see our own delusions. When we deny the possibility of enlightenment, either for ourselves or others, when we ignore the teaching provided by the Lotus Sutra and rely on our power over others, or when we remain preoccupied with our own suffering, these are surely ways that we slander the Sutra and stray from the path to Enlightenment.
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Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Having last month considered the practices of the Bodhisattvas of those worlds that Maitreya sees, we consider additional practices of the bodhisattvas of those worlds that Maitreya sees.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Becoming bhikṣus,
Living alone in retired places,
And joyfully reciting sūtras.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Zealously and courageously
Entering remote mountains, and pondering
The enlightenment of the Buddha.I also see some of them having given up desires,
And living in retired places,
Entering deep into dhyāna-concentration,
And obtaining the five supernatural powers.I also see some Bodhisattvas finding peace in dhyāna,
Joining their hands together [towards the Buddha],
And praising the King of the Dharma
With tens of millions of gāthās.I also see some Bodhisattvas resolute in mind.
They have obtained profound wisdom
By questioning the Buddha.
And now they remember what they heard from him.I also see some sons of the Buddha
Concentrating their minds, having wisdom,
Expounding the Dharma to the multitude
With innumerable parables and similes,
Expounding the Dharma with joy,
Teaching [other] Bodhisattvas,
Defeating the army of Mara,
And beating the drum of the Dharma.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Being tranquil and peacefully calm,
Not delighting in being respected
By gods or dragons.I also see some Bodhisattva
Living in forests, and emitting ray of light
In order to have the denizens in hell,
And cause them to enter the Way to Buddhahood.I also see some sons of the Buddha
Walking about forests without sleeping
In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha.I also see some of them
Observing the precepts with due deportment,
And keeping purity like that of gems,
In order to attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.I also see some sons of the Buddha
Enduring abuse
Or blows with sticks
Inflicted by arrogant people
In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Giving up wanton pleasures,
Parting from foolish companions,
Approaching men of wisdom,Controlling their minds from distraction,
And concentrating their minds in hills or forests
For thousands of billions of years
In order to attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Offering delicious food and drink
And hundreds of kinds of medicines
To the Buddha and the Sangha.Some offer garments and beautiful robes
Worth tens of millions
Or beyond monetary value
To the Buddha and the Sangha.Some offer thousands of billions
Of jeweled houses made of candana
And wonderful bedding
To the Buddha and the Sangha.Some offer pure gardens and forests
Abounding in flowers and fruits,
And furnished with rivers, springs,
and pools for bathing,
To the Buddha and the Saṃgha.I see those Bodhisattvas
Making offerings of those wonderful things
Joyfully and untiringly
In order to attain unsurpassed enlightenment.Some Bodhisattvas expound
The truth of tranquil extinction,
And with various expedients,
Teach innumerable living beings.I also see some Bodhisattvas
Who attained the following truth:
“The nature of things is not dual.
It is [formless] like the sky.”I also see some sons of the Buddha
Having no attachment in their minds.
They seek unsurpassed enlightenment
With this wonderful wisdom.
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p239Throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra there are references to the eloquence of bodhisattvas. Already at the beginning of Chapter 1 we are told that the eighty thousand bodhisattvas present had all “taught with delight and eloquence.” Later, in Chapter 17, the Buddha says, “When I taught that the length of the [Buddha’s] life is very long … bodhisattva great-ones as numerous as the specks of dust in an entire world delighted in being eloquent and unhindered in speech.” Even the bodhisattva called “Never Disrespectful,” because he always went around bowing to people and telling them that he would never disrespect them, is said to have “powers of joyful and eloquent speech.” And of the dragon princess, a young girl, it is said that her “eloquence knows no bounds.” (LS 251)
Such an emphasis on eloquence is simply another indication of the importance of the teaching role of bodhisattvas. Of course, not everyone who follows the Dharma Flower Sutra will become truly eloquent, and certainly not automatically. But there is a strong suggestion that those who seek to spread the Dharma must strive to overcome reticence and shyness in order to be able to speak freely without being hindered by worries about embarrassing oneself. In many cases, this may require training and much practice, but it is an integral part of the bodhisattva path. Being shy should not be an excuse for leaving the teaching of the Dharma to others.
Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 154[T]he threefold truth concept, though it is not in itself discussed in detail by Chih-i, provides the hidden structure behind Chih-i’s philosophy. It is the content of Chih-i’s insight into the nature of reality. It pervades Chih-i’s lectures after his first seclusion on Mt. T’ien-t’ai, compiled as the [ Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra ] and [Great Concentration and Insight], and provides the key for understanding Chih-i’s interpretation of the Buddha Dharma.
Now, ignoring false ideas of later commentators in India and mainstream interpreters and annotators in China and Japan, I devotedly open the fundamental sūtras and commentaries, and see that of all sūtras expounded by the Buddha in fifty years, the most important teaching is expounded in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, declaring that of all sūtras preached in the past, being preached at present, and will be preached in the future, the Lotus Sūtra is supreme.
Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 206
