Monthly Archives: April 2021

Easy

Shikyōnanji

Chapter II: Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures (Hōtōge)

“To believe in and practice the Lotus Sutra is extremely difficult. Therefore, I (the Buddha) will be highly delighted if there is anyone who always performs the practice of the Sutra seriously, and continues to believe in it and keep it. All Buddhas feel the same way.

“The people whom the Buddhas truly value are those who lead their lives based on their faith in the Lotus Sutra. They are the very people who have true courage. They are truly devout. They are true to the precepts, and are the ones meant to be called true believers. They are most likely to follow directly the Way of the Buddha with high resolve.

“After I enter Nirvana, and when the days of Mappō, the period of Latter Age of the Dharma, arrive, those who read and recite this Lotus Sutra and practice it with firm belief in it are true disciples of the Buddha and are able to live with sincere heart.

“In the days after the Buddha’s extinction, if there is anyone who expounds the true meaning of the Lotus Sutra, this person shall be a light to radiate on the people in this world.

“When the world becomes extremely hostile and full of hardship, if there is anyone who truly understands the teachings of this Sutra and expounds them to the world, this person’s effort will never be in vain. His reputation will prevail, winning the support and protection from many people.”
Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra

WONS

A Pile of Dung

A pile of dung, even if shaped like sandalwood, will smell like dung when burnt. Piling up lies, even if someone claims them to be the Buddha’s teachings, he will only fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering.

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 31.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 9, 2021

Offer him heaps of the treasures of heaven! Why is that? It is because, while he is expounding the Dharma with joy, if you hear it even for a moment, you will immediately be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

The Buddha gives this instruction to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. In Chapter Twenty-Three, the Buddha tells of all the hardships Medicine-King endured to practice the Wonderful Dharma. This Bodhisattva knows all the difficulties we face because he has experienced them himself. When anyone sees us practicing, living and sharing the Dharma with others, they will see the joy we have and want to experience it for themselves. The treasures of heaven we receive from Medicine-King are not like the pleasures and comforts we find in the world. They are the assurance we have of our enlightenment and that of all beings.

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

LS32

Day 12

Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 12 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered how the sixteen śramaṇeras practiced the Way to Buddhahood, we consider the bad and dangerous road in gāthās.

Suppose there was a bad and dangerous road.
Many wild animals lived in the neighborhood.
No man was there; no water nor grass there.
The road was so fearful.

Many tens of millions of people
Wished to pass through this dangerous road.
The road was very long.
It was five hundred yojanas long.

The people had a leader.
He had a good memory.
He was wise and resolute in mind.
He could save people from dangers.

Getting tired,
The people said to him:
“We are tired.
We wish to go back.”

He thought:
‘How pitiful they are!
Why do they wish to return
Without getting great treasures?’

Thinking of an expedient, he said to himself:
‘I will use my supernatural powers.’
He made a great city by magic,
And adorned it with houses.

The city was surrounded by gardens, forests,
And by ponds and pools for bathing.
Many-storied gates and tall buildings [in that city]
Were filled with men and women.

Having made all this by magic,
He consoled the people, saying:
“Do not be afraid! Enter that city!
And do anything you like!”

They entered that city,
And had great joy.
They felt peaceful,
And thought that they had already passed [ through the road].

Seeing that they had already had a rest,
The leader collected them, and said:
“Go on ahead now! This is a magic city.
You were tired out halfway.
You wished to go back.
Therefore, I made this city by magic As an expedient.
Make efforts!
Let us go to the place of treasures!”

The Daily Dharma from May 7, 2020, offers this:

This is part of the Parable of the Magic City, told by the Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, a guide is leading a group of travelers through a dangerous road to a city of treasures. Halfway through the trip, the travelers, overcome by their fear and fatigue, consider giving up their journey and returning to their previous lives. The guide makes a resting place for them where they can relax before continuing. When the travelers mistake this resting place for their destination, the guide makes the city disappear so that they will keep moving towards the true treasures. The Buddha compares himself to the guide, us to the travelers, the magic city to that place we all want where even our unspoken desires are met, and his enlightenment to the city of treasures. To see the world as it is and find true happiness, we need to let go of our delusions and keep faith in our guide and his highest teaching.

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

Easy

Shōdaigyō

The Practice of Odaimoku Chanting

All the merits Śākyamuni Buddha has attained, in other words, his true heart, are included in the Five Letters of myō-hō-ren-ge-kyō. If we believe in and practice the teachings of the Five Letters at the cost of our lives, we are able gradually but surely to gain the Buddha’s true heart.

Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō
Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra

WONS

Spreading Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration

This Sahā World is 7,000 yojana by 7,000 yojana in area, and it includes 80,000 countries. In 2,000 years of the Ages of the True Dharma (shōbō) and Semblance Dharma (zōbō), the Lotus Sūtra did not spread widely. If it does not spread during this Latter Age of Degeneration (Mappō), Śākyamuni Buddha would be a liar, validation of the truth of the Lotus Sūtra by the Buddha of Many Treasures would come to nothing, and broad, long tongues of Buddhas in manifestation throughout the universe to praise the preaching of Śākyamuni Buddha would become as fragile as banana leaves.

Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 213

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 8, 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

LS32

Day 11

Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City

Day 11 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the reaction of the five hundred billion worlds in the southeast, we consider the reaction of the five hundred billion worlds in the south.

“Bhikṣus! The great Brahman-[heavenly-]kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the south, who saw their palaces illumined more brightly than ever, also danced with joy. They wondered why [their palaces were so illumined]. They visited each other and discussed the reason, saying, ‘Why are our palaces illumined so brightly?’ There was a great Brahman-heavenly ­king called Wonderful-Dharma among them. He said to the other Brahmans in gāthās:

Our palaces are illumined so brightly.
There must be some reason.
Let us find [the place]
[From where the light has come].

We have never seen this [light]
For the past one hundred thousand kalpas.
Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha appear
Somewhere in the universe?

“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion [worlds] went to the north, carrying flower-plates filled with heavenly flowers, in order to find [the place from where the light had come]. Their palaces also moved as they went. They [reached the Well-Composed World and] saw that Great­Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata was sitting on the lion­like seat under the Bodhi-tree of the place of enlightenment, surrounded respectfully by gods, dragon-kings, gandharvas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. They also saw that the sixteen princes were begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma. They worshipped the Buddha with their heads, walked around him a hundred thousand times, and strewed heavenly flowers to him. The strewn flowers were heaped up to the height of Mt. Sumeru. The Brahman-heavenly-king offered flowers also to the Bodhi-tree of the Buddha. Having offered flowers, they offered their palaces to the Buddha, saying, ‘We offer these palaces to you. Receive them and benefit us out of your compassion towards us!’ In the presence of the Buddha, they simultaneously praised him in gāthās with all their hearts:

It is difficult to see a World-Honored One.
You, the World-Honored One, eliminated all illusions.
We have not seen a World-Honored One
For the past one hundred and thirty kalpas.

Send the rain of the Dharma
On the hungry and thirsty beings!
Possessor of immeasurable wisdom,
We have never seen anyone wiser than you.
You are as rare as an udumbara-flower.
Now we have met you today.

Our palaces are beautifully adorned
With your light.
World-Honored One, receive them
Out of your great compassion towards us!

“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings, having praised the Buddha with these gāthās, said, ‘World-Honored One! Turn the wheel of the Dharma so that Mara, Brahman, the other gods, śramaṇas, and brahmanas of the world may be peaceful, and that they may be saved!’ They simultaneously praised the Buddha in gāthās with all their hearts:

Most Honorable of Gods and Men!
Turn the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma,
Beat the drum of the Great Dharma,
Blow the conch-shell horn of the Great Dharma,
Send the rain of the Great Dharma,
And save innumerable living beings!
Devoting ourselves to you, we beg you.
Resound your profound teaching!

“Thereupon Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata gave his tacit consent to their appeal.

See The Power in Us

Easy, d25b, d26b

Iyōgonshi

Chapter 21: The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas

“Wishing that spirit of the messages of this Lotus Sutra will be handed down from generation to generation forever, I, the Buddha, state the main points of teachings carried in the Odaimoku.

“The Odaimoku includes all the merits of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

“The Odaimoku contains all the supernatural powers of the Buddha to save all people.

“The Odaimoku is the crystallization of the Buddha’s boundless wisdom necessary to teach and lead all beings.

“The Odaimoku expresses all merits the Buddha has practiced.

“These four things showing the Buddha’s real image and spirit are explicitly revealed in the Lotus Sutra; the Buddha’s true mind is the Odaimoku.

“Especially after the Buddha’s extinction, you must keep in mind that you should believe, from the bottom of your heart, in the Lotus Sutra and the Odaimoku in which the entire mind of the Buddha is clearly explained, and that you should recite and study the Lotus Sutra and chant the Odaimoku in order to practice the Buddha’s teachings as instructed by the Buddha.

“Wherever the place might be, at the place where the teachings of the Lotus Sutra have spread and the faith in the Odaimoku is practiced in correct and proper ways, you must set up a place of prayer and spend a life with faith in the Sutra, be it in a village or countryside with farms, woods or groves, or in a monastery, or in the house of ordinary people, or a residence of higher status people, or in a mountain village or a vast plain.

“The reason for this is that nowhere else but a place where the Odaimoku is believed in and its teachings are expounded is the true place of prayer.

“It is this place of prayer to the Odaimoku where all Buddhas have become enlightened.

“Here, the Buddhas expound their teachings.

“In other words, this Sahā world in which we live, believing in the Odaimoku, is the very place where the Buddha’s true world lies.”

Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra
WONS

The Enemy of Śākyamuni Buddha

In Buddhism, the Buddha declares that one who sees the enemy of the Lotus Sūtra and keeps silent because he is afraid of persecution, is an enemy of Śākyamuni Buddha. No matter how wise or moral he is, the Buddha warns, such a man is bound to fall into hell; he is like a child who refuses to warn his parents of the attempt on their lives, or a subject who refuses to admonish his king, who is about to be dethroned, because he is afraid of possible persecution.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 200-202