Monthly Archives: April 2021

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the Śrāvakas’ unwillingness to gain the treasure-store of the teachings of the Buddhas, we consider why the Śrāvakas did not care for the wisdom of the Buddha.

You told us
To purify the world of the Buddha
And teach all living beings.
We heard this, but did not wish to do so
Because we had already attained the truth:
“All things are void and tranquil.
Nothing appears or disappears.
Nothing is larger or smaller.
Nothing has āsravas.
Nothing is subject to cause and effect.”
Having thought this, we did not wish
To do [the Bodhisattva practices].

In the long night
We did not care
For the wisdom of the Buddha.
We did not wish to have it.
We thought:
“The Dharma we attained is perfect.”

Having studied the truth of the Void in the long night,
We emancipated ourselves
From the sufferings of the triple world,
Attained the Nirvāṇa-with-remainder,
And reached the final stage
Of our physical existence.

You said [to us]:
“When you attain enlightenment infallibly,
You will have already repaid
The favors I gave you.”

Although we expounded to the sons of the Buddha
The teachings for Bodhisattvas in order to cause them
To seek the enlightenment of the Buddha,
We did not wish to attain
The same enlightenment for ourselves.
You, our Leader, left us alone because you knew this.
You did not persuade us
To seek the enlightenment of the Buddha.
You did not say
That we should be able to have real benefits.

The rich man knew
That his son was base and mean.
Therefore, he made him nobler
With expedients,
And then gave him
All his treasures.

In the same manner,
You knew that we wished
To hear the Lesser Vehicle.
Therefore, you did a rare thing.
You prepared us with expedients,
And then taught us the great wisdom.

See The Importance of Telling Others of Our Own Religious Experiences

LS32, d8b, b4today

The Importance of Telling Others of Our Own Religious Experiences

[Another] lesson that we learn from chapter 4 is that an excellent way to progress from faith to discernment is revealed here. The four śrāvakas listened to the Parable of the Burning House and understood it. They not only thought that they had understood it but demonstrated their understanding to the Buddha in another parable. Not only to receive the teaching passively but also to announce actively what we have been able to realize is a very good way both to deepen our discernment and to elevate our faith. Moreover, it also helps to deepen others’ discernment and elevate their faith. We must not overlook the importance of telling others of our own religious experiences, as demonstrated in this chapter.

Buddhism for Today, p71
Easy

Sange

Repentence

For deep reflection on everyday life: The causes of all troubles and sufferings in life all come from your misunderstanding. If you wish to notice your errors, you should correct your mind and see the truth in all matters. You must have proper belief to do so. If you deeply reflect upon your errors, even if they are errors which come from misunderstanding, and if you see the true appearance in things, it will be like when fog and dew disappear in the sunlight. You will eventually realize your error and certainly be forgiven.

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

WONS

Planting the Seed of Buddhahood

[I]n the Latter Age of Degeneration, all Buddhist teachings both Hinayāna and Mahāyāna, expedient and true Mahāyāna, and exoteric and esoteric teachings remain, but no one attains Buddhahood by practicing them. People in this Sahā World all commit the sin of slandering the True Dharma. In this adverse condition only five characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō should be forced on them in order to plant the seed of Buddhahood. For instance, Never-Despising Bodhisattva preached teachings of the Lotus Sūtra for self-conceited priests and was persecuted. My disciples are in the favor able condition, able to put faith in the five characters to attain Buddhahood, but many others in Japan are not. Therefore, we have to forcibly spread the five characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō among them to sow the seed of Buddhahood.

Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 214

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 4, 2021

To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!

The Buddha makes this declaration to Superior-Practice Bodhisattva (Jōgyo, Viśiṣṭacārītra) in Chapter Twenty-One of the Lotus Sūtra. In Chapter Two, the Buddha told those gathered to hear him teach that his highest teaching could not be attained by reasoning alone. These two passages show us faith to look beyond the words in this book to find the Buddha Dharma in every aspect of our lives, and the ever-present Buddha leading us all to enlightenment.

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

LS32

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month erroneously returned to the top of Chapter 3 instead of beginning Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, we begin Chapter 4 and consider the reaction of the men living the life of wisdom to the news that Śāriputra will become a Buddha.

Thereupon the men living the life of wisdom: Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana felt strange because they heard the Dharma from the Buddha that they had never heard before, and because they heard that the World-Honored One had assured Śāriputra of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. They felt like dancing with joy, rose from their seats, adjusted their robes, bared their right shoulders, put their right knees on the ground, joined their hands together with all their hearts, bent themselves respectfully, looked up at the honorable face, and said to the Buddha:

“We elders of the Saṃgha were already old and decrepit [when we heard of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. We did not seek Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi because we thought that we had already attained Nirvāṇa, and also because we thought that we were too old and decrepit to do so.’ You have been expounding the Dharma for a long time. We have been in your congregation all the while. We were already tired [when we heard of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. Therefore, we just cherished the truth that nothing is substantial, the truth that nothing is different from any other thing, and the truth that nothing more is to be sought. We did not wish to perform the Bodhisattva practices, that is, to purify the world of the Buddha and to lead all living beings [to Buddhahood] by displaying supernatural powers because you had already led us out of the triple world and caused us to attain Nirvāṇa. Neither did we wish at all to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, which you were teaching to Bodhisattvas, because we were already too old and decrepit to do so. But now we are very glad to hear that you have assured a Śrāvakas of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. We have the greatest joy that we have ever had. We have never expected to hear such a rare teaching all of a sudden. How glad we are! We have obtained great benefits. We have obtained innumerable treasures although we did not seek them.

See The Rich Man, the Poor Son and the Five Periods

Easy

Kie

Prayer to declare faith

In order to live a life of proper faith: Let us continue to chant the Odaimoku so that we will never forget our kind hearts of compassion towards all living beings and walk along the proper way, together with all of our companions.

We swear to devote ourselves to fostering, with love and care, the relationship of our faith in the Odaimoku, which has just been accorded to us, the rest of our life.

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

d4b, WONS

All Those Who Hear This Sūtra Will Become Buddhas Without Fail

It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, “Expedients” chapter, “If there are those who hear the Dharma, not even one will fail to attain Buddhahood.” Although this phrase consists of only ten Chinese characters, it means that reading a line of the Lotus Sūtra has the same merit as reading all the holy teachings that Śākyamuni Buddha preached in his lifetime. Therefore, Grand Master Miao-lê states in his Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “In spreading the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, when we consider the meaning of just one doctrine, we must consider the entire scriptures of the Buddha preached in his lifetime from the beginning to the end.”

The “beginning” here means the Flower Garland Sūtra while the “end” means the Nirvana Sūtra. The Flower Garland Sūtra was preached by four great Bodhisattvas — Hoe, Kudokulin, Kongōban, and Kongozō — upon the request of a bodhisattva called Gedatsugatsu. It was preached in the presence of the Buddha, who had just attained enlightenment. I do not know how many fascicles it consisted of at the time it was housed in India, the Dragon King Palace, or the Tuṣita Heaven, but when it was translated into Chinese and transmitted to Japan, there existed three editions of 60 fascicles, 80 fascicles, and 40 fascicles. Regarding the Nirvana Sūtra, too, we do not know how many fascicles it consisted of in India, the Dragon King Palace, and elsewhere but in Japan there are several editions in 40, 36, 6, and 2 fascicles. Beside these two sūtras, the Āgama sūtras, the sūtras preached in the third of the five periods of the Buddha’s teaching (according to T’ien-t’ai), and the Wisdom Sūtra are said to be more than 5,000 or 7,000 fascicles.

Even if one can’t read or listen to all these voluminous scriptures of Buddhism, if just one character or phrase of the Lotus Sūtra is read, the merit received is equivalent to reading the entire set of sūtras without missing even a single character. For instance, the words for India or Japan consist of merely two Chinese characters each, but included in these two characters are all of the lands, great mountains, plants, people and animals in the five regions of India, 16 major states, 500 medium states, 10,000 minor states and numerous tiny states. Taking another example, a mirror which is as small as one centimeter, two centimeters, three centimeters, four centimeters, or five centimeters square, can reflect people a meter or two meters tall, or a mountain as high as 10, 20, 100, or 1,000 meters. Therefore, as we read a phrase in the, “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, it is stated that all those who hear this sūtra will become Buddhas without fail.

Sennichi-ama Gohenji, A Reply to Sennichi-ama, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 158-159

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – April 3, 2021

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

The Buddha sings these verses at the end of Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this chapter he revealed his existence as the Buddha who lives throughout time and space rather than in the limited human body in which we recognize him. When we realize that all the moments of our lives, all the joys and grief we face, all the people and other beings we encounter are in truth the Buddha leading us towards his own enlightenment, we see the Buddha in his true form, and we see the world for what it is.

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

LS32

Day 6

Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 6 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the large carts given to the children, we consider the Buddha’s role as father of the world and conclude today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable.

(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
I am like the father.
I am the Saint of Saints.
I am the father of the world.

All living beings are my children.
They are deeply attached
To the pleasures of the world.
They have no wisdom.

The triple world is not peaceful.
It is like the burning house.
It is full of sufferings.
It is dreadful.

There are always the sufferings
Of birth, old age, disease and death.
They are like flames
Raging endlessly.

I have already left
The burning house of the triple world.
I am tranquil and peaceful
In a bower in a forest.

See The Remedy