In case there was any doubt remaining that the Buddha intended Buddhism to be taught and not be kept to oneself, there comes his request in Chapter 11 where he asks who will teach the Lotus Sutra in this world in which we live, the Saha World. Chapter 11 is where the Buddha begins to shift the focus of his teaching to thinking about the time in this world when he will no longer be alive. He is not thinking or planning for the spread of Buddhism in other parts of the universe. That is already being handled by his emanations and by the future lives of his contemporary disciples. Everything is taken care of except this world of ours. It is the Buddha Shakyamuni who is responsible for ensuring that the fundamental truth of the Lotus Sutra is secure for future generations.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraMonthly Archives: March 2021
For Whom Was the Lotus Sūtra Expounded?
QUESTION: For whom was the Lotus Sūtra expounded?
ANSWER: There are two views about the eight chapters from chapter 2 on the “Expedients” to chapter 9 on the “Assurance of Future Buddhahood” of the Lotus Sūtra. If we read these chapters in the order of chapters from the beginning, we can see that the sūtra was preached first of all for Bodhisattvas, secondly for the men of Two Vehicles such as śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, and thirdly for ordinary people. However, when we read the chapters in reverse order beginning with the 14th on the “Peaceful Practices” (at the end of the theoretical section), followed by the 13th on the “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” the 12th on the “Devadatta,” the 11th on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” and the 10th on the “Teacher of the Dharma,” we can see that these eight chapters were expounded for encouraging people after the Buddha’s extinction. People during the lifetime of the Buddha are secondary. Of those after the Buddha’s extinction, people in one thousand years of the Age of the True Dharma and one thousand years of the Age of the Semblance Dharma are secondary. The sūtra was expounded mainly for the people in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Of those in the Latter Age of Degeneration, I, Nichiren, am the very person for whom it was expounded.
Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 209-210
Daily Dharma – Mar. 12, 2021
The great multitude, having seen the two Tathāgatas sitting cross-legged on the lion-like seat in the stūpa of the seven treasures, thought, “The seat of the Buddhas is too high. Tathāgata! Raise us up by your supernatural powers so that we may be able to be with you in the sky!”
This description comes from Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. Many-Treasures Buddha has arrived where the Buddha was teaching so that he could endorse this Wonderful Dharma. He invited the Buddha to join him in an enormous stūpa tower hanging in the sky. When the Buddha raises up those gathered to hear him teach, he puts them all on the same level as himself and all the other Buddhas. He shows them that they too have the capacity to hear his teachings and put them into practice. Nichiren depicted this “ceremony in the air” in the Omandala Gohonzon and advised us to use this as the focus of our practice. When we put ourselves into this great multitude we listen for the Buddha teaching and realize the benefit we create in this world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 18
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month considered the proper practices a Bodhisattva should perform
and the proper things he should approach in gāthās, we conclude the first set of things
that the Bodhisattva should do in gāthās.
He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.Things are insubstantial.
They have no property.
They are not permanent.
They do not rise or perish.
This is the Dharma to be approached
By a man of wisdom.Only perverted people say:
“All things exist,” or “Nothing exists,”
Or “All things are real,” or “Nothing is real,”
Or “All things are born,” or “Nothing is born.”The Bodhisattva should live in a retired place,
And concentrate his mind.
He should be as peaceful
And as immovable as Mt. Sumeru.
Things have no property
Just as the sky has not.
They are not solid.
They are not born.
They do not appear or move or go.
They are permanently of one form.’
This truth is the proper thing
The Bodhisattva should approach.A Bhikṣu who lives after my extinction
Will be free from timidity
If he performs these proper practices,
And approaches these proper things
As previously stated,
And then expounds this sūtra.A Bodhisattva will be peaceful,
And free from timidity
If he stays in a quiet room
For some time,
Recollects the Dharma correctly,
Understands the Dharma
According to the meanings of it,
And then emerges
From his dhyāna-concentration,
And leads kings, princes,
Common people and brahmanas
By expounding this sūtra to them.Mañjuśrī, all this is the first set of things
That the Bodhisattva should do
Before he expounds the Sūtra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
In the world after [my extinction].
The Daily Dharma from Dec. 13, 2020, offers this:
He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. When we fully comprehend the idea of dependent origination, that no person has an ego, that each of us is the result of causes and conditions, and that the Buddha Dharma is a cause for good of which we may not be aware, it is no longer necessary to classify the beings with whom we share this world. Our inclinations towards dogma are replaced with curiosity. Our need to dominate is replaced with a need to understand.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Morality: Acts Have Consequences
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 56-57Skill in moral life entails cultivating an understanding of the Buddhist concept of karma, patterns of moral causality that are thought to govern all human transformation. Although karma literally means “action,” the principle of karma concerns the connection between the quality of an act and the nature of the consequences that follow from it. Actions of a particular quality give rise to consequences of a corresponding kind, and this is thought to be a law inherent in the nature of things. …
What remains constant across a wide variety of interpretations is the thought that all acts generate consequences that shape the character of the actor. Not all acts are thought to be productive of karma, however, because karma is restricted to those done with volition, intention, or purpose. Moreover, changes in human lives brought about by the karmic consequences of an intentional act are thought sometimes to follow immediately from the act and sometimes to arise over time. This idea is extended beyond the range of a person’s present lifetime to the point that the quality of a person’s acts governs the form that a future rebirth will take. Karma and rebirth are thoroughly intertwined in Buddhist thought, and the combination of these two teachings more than any other set of moral ideas serves as motivation for moral action. …
The fact that what becomes of a person is based on the qualities of actions undertaken makes moral decision making central to Buddhist practice. If the goal is to become something in particular – a wiser, more compassionate, more enlightened person – then the actions that have the power to generate that state will need to be skillfully chosen and enacted with a disciplined mind. Buddhist texts therefore frequently link mindfulness to the practices of morality, thereby connecting morality with meditation. Śāntideva, who goes so far as to say that “the perfection is the mental attitude itself,” writes extensively on “guarding awareness,” because only by diligently shaping one’s mind will acts conducive to negative karma be eliminated. So he writes: “If I let go of the vow to guard my mind, what will become of my many other vows?”
Mt. Minobu
Residing here at Mt. Minobu is truly like living in the everlasting land of the gods where blessings come down from heaven. Even uncultured men and women would be attracted to this place. In the forlorn autumn twilight, the dew is deep around my grass hut and in the eaves it is strung like pearls on spider webs. The leaves deepen into scarlet and are reflected in the intermittent flow in the bamboo water pipes, and seeing them one would not doubt that it is like the view on the upper Tatsutakawa River.
Also, behind my home the rugged mountains rise up out of the depths, and the fruits of the treetops would fill the One Vehicle. Below the branches the cicadas sing raucously. In front of my hut, the rushing waters flow by. The moon of the thus-so nature that is the true aspect of all things floats overhead in a sky cleared of the darkness of deep ignorance because there are no clouds in the sky of Dharma-nature. In this tranquil setting, inside my hut we spend all day discussing the Dharma of the Wonderful Sūtra of the One Vehicle, and all through the night there is the sound of our recitation of the crucial writings. It is as though Mt. Sacred Eagle where I heard the World Honored One Śākyamuni lived had been brought right here. In the rising fog and severe storms, I go into the mountains to cut firewood. Through the dewy grass I go down into the deep valleys to collect water parsley. In the rapids of the swift mountain streams I rinse vegetables, and as I impatiently wait for my dampened sleeves to dry I think of the old poet Hitomaro who recited, “At Waka-no-ura, the fishermen think of the passing of their lives as they wait for the seaweed to dry.”
Minobu-san Gosho, Mt. Minobu Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 125-126
Daily Dharma – Mar. 11, 2021
If you wish to obtain quickly the knowledge
Of the equality and differences of all things,
Keep this sūtra, and also make offerings
To the keeper of this sūtra!
The Buddha sings these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. When we see things for what they are, how they are similar and how they are different, we see them with the eyes of the Buddha. This Wonderful Dharma in the Lotus Sūtra is the Buddha showing us how to open our eyes to the joys and wonders that exist in this world of conflict and suffering. When we find something valuable, we offer it our time, our thoughts and our devotion. By making offerings to this Wonderful Dharma, and to all those who keep it, our eyes open even more to the truth of our lives.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 17
Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
Having last month considered Śāriputra’s objection to the dragon girl’s plan to become a buddha, we witness the girl’s transformation into a Buddha and conclude Chapter 12.At that time the daughter of the dragon-king had a gem. The gem was worth one thousand million Sumeru-worlds. She offered it to the Buddha. The Buddha received it immediately. She asked both Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva and Venerable Śāriputra, “I offered a gem to the World-Honored One. Did he receive it quickly or not?”
Both of them answered, “Very quickly.”
She said, “Look at me with your supernatural powers! I will become a Buddha more quickly.”
Thereupon the congregation saw that the daughter of the dragon-king changed into a man all of a sudden, performed the Bodhisattva practices, went to the Spotless World in the south, sat on a jeweled lotus-flower, attained perfect enlightenment, obtained the thirty-two major marks and the eighty minor marks [of the Buddha], and [began to] expound the Wonderful Dharma to the living beings of the worlds of the ten quarters. Having seen from afar that [the man who had been] the daughter of the dragon-king had become a Buddha and [begun to] expound the Dharma to the men and gods in his congregation, all the living beings of the Sahā-World, including Bodhisattvas, Śrāvakas, gods, dragons, the [six other kinds, that is, in total] eight kinds of supernatural beings, men, and nonhuman beings, bowed [to that Buddha] with great joy. Having heard the Dharma [from that Buddha], [a group of] innumerable living beings [of that world] understood the Dharma, and reached the stage of irrevocability, and [another group of] innumerable living beings [of that world] obtained the assurance of their future attainment of enlightenment. At that time the Spotless World quaked in the six ways. Three thousand living beings of the Sahā World reached the stage of irrevocability, and another group of three thousand living beings [of the Sahā-World] aspired for Bodhi, and obtained the assurance of their future attainment of enlightenment. The Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva, Śāriputra, and all the other living beings in the congregation received the Dharma faithfully and in silence.
Time and Effort and True Awakening
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p163In the context of the Dharma Flower Sutra, it is not surprising to find that a dragon or young person can become a buddha, but that someone can do so suddenly is quite surprising – because it goes against the Sutra’s often repeated assertion that the way to becoming a buddha is long and arduous. Indeed, this is the point of the tale of the weary travelers and the fantastic castle-city in Chapter 7. This story about the dragon princess is the only place in the Dharma Flower Sutra where it is said that one can become a buddha suddenly.
At least in Japan and China, and quite likely in India as well, there was controversy over whether or not sudden awakening is possible. What we find in the Dharma Flower Sutra can be taken as another example of its tolerance of diverse views. Taken as a whole, it seems to say that becoming a buddha is normally, perhaps almost always, a long and difficult path, but that there can be exceptions. Rather than articulating this exception as a kind of doctrine, however, the Sutra simply makes it part of a story, illustrating the exception without entering into debate on the subject.
True awakening is difficult and rare; sudden awakening is much rarer still. If profound awakening happens at all, and certainly if it happens suddenly – in ourselves or in others, like those at the end of this story – we too should be amazed and grateful. But let us not suppose that there is some shortcut to true awakening through the use of drugs or some other esoteric practices. True awakening takes much time and effort.
Generosity: Giving Gifts
The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras divide the practice of giving into two types, following the lead of the earlier Buddhist tradition. At the most basic level is the gift of material goods of various kinds, especially those goods necessary for life itself, and at the higher level is the gift of the dharma, the teachings, the very possibility of a spiritually significant life. But the teachings are powerless if hunger and poverty stand in the way. So the sutras teach compassion for all levels of human suffering and demand that material generosity be the first order of business for an authentic Buddhist. Therefore the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom asserts: “Do give gifts! For poverty is a painful thing. One is unable, when poor, to accomplish one’s own welfare, much less that of others!”
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 18-19