- You should quickly bring your mind to faith and follow the sole good of the True Vehicle. If the country does not decline, our safety is secured and we will be able keep our mind tranquil. (Risshō-ankoku-ron)
- The treasures of the body are superior to treasures in a store house. The spiritual treasures are superior to the treasures of body. I advise you to accumulate spiritual treasures. (Sushun Tennō Gosho)
- My head is the head of my father and mother. My legs are the legs of my father and mother. My ten fingers are the ten fingers of my father and mother. My mouth is the mouth of my father and mother. (Bōjikyōji)
- Yesterday, it happened to others. Today, it happens to oneself. Flowers bear fruit. Likewise, a young bride will become a mother-in-law. Will you not neglect faith and chant Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō? (Jakunichi-bō Gosho)
- Arrows fly with the bow’s power. Men’s acts are the results of women’s power. When we see smoke arising, we find fire. When we see men, we find women. (Toki-ama Gozan Gosho)
- Mishaps come from our mouth and ruin us. Happiness comes from our mind and adorns us. Those who believe the Lotus Sutra necessarily gather happiness from afar. (Omosu-dono Nyōbō Gohenji)
- Pray to the Lotus Sutra wishing for longevity such as that of a crane or a turtle, and for happiness as when the moon is waxing and the tide is rising. (Toki-dono-ama Sho)
- A lamp glows when fed with oil. Grasses and trees grow thick when it rains. People will prosper without fail when they do good acts. (Ueno-dono Gohenji)
- All living beings should respect three things: master, teacher and parents.
(Kaimoku-shō) - Consider this in your deliberations: Because of the principle that life is impermanent, those who are born never fail to die. (Matsuno-dono Gohenji)
- With Nichiren’s boundless compassion, Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō will spread beyond the ten thousand year period and into the boundless future. (Hō-onjō)
- Strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning. Without practice and learning, Buddhism will cease to exist. (Shohō-jissō-shō)
- Disciples of the Buddha should not fail to feel grateful for the Four Favors received from parents, people, nation, and Buddhism and repay them. (Kaimoku-shō)
- Even though no specific reason may exist, the occasion of our death is certain to happen. (Kyōdai-shō)
- To study Buddhism, first of all we must know the time. (Senji-shō)
- Hell exists in the mind of those who have contempt for their father and treat their mother like a fool. (Omosudono Nyōbō Gohenji)
- You may have become ill because of the compassion of the Buddha. This illness may cause you to become aware of faith. (Myōshin-ni Gozen Gohenji)
- Though parents bring up as many as ten children, children do not sustain their one mother. The Buddha says, parents are always mindful of their children, but children do not worry about their parents. (Gyōbu-saemon-no-jō Nyōbō Gohenji).
- Some people recite the Lotus Sutra only with their mouths. They read the words of the sutra, but not the mind of the sutra. Even if they read the mind of the sutra, they read it without the experience of the sutra. (Tsuchi-no-rō Gosho)
- When things go well, we should regard it as a miracle. When things go badly, we should regard it as a matter of course. (Shōnin-gonanji)
Monthly Archives: April 2021
Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and Kāśyapa’s Failure
Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and Kāśyapa, who perceived the doctrine of “no birth and no death” of all phenomena and became bodhisattvas without “falling back,” declined to propagate the Lotus Sūtra in the Sahā World during the Latter Age of Degeneration because the difficulty was too much for them to endure. Even those who gained the three supernatural types of knowledge and six supernatural powers and rose to the ranks of shoji and shojū (entered the rank of sagehood) and gained arhatship by practicing the Lotus Sūtra declined to do so. How then can ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration, incapable of extinguishing the three delusions, become practicers of the Lotus Sūtra?
Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, Response to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 142
Daily Dharma – April 2, 2021
I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. At the beginning of this Sūtra, the Buddha held back from teaching because he thought people might not be ready to hear it. He also said that the Dharma he teaches cannot be understood by reasoning. We need both faith and understanding to practice the Wonderful Dharma. The Buddha also reminds us to appreciate how difficult faith and understanding are, both for ourselves and others.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Śāriputra! In your future life you will become
A Buddha, an Honorable One of Universal Wisdom,
Called Flower-Light,
And save innumerable living beings.You will make offerings to innumerable Buddhas.
You will perform the Bodhisattva practices.
You will obtain the ten powers and the other merits,
And attain unsurpassed enlightenment.The kalpa [of that Buddha] will come
after innumerable kalpas from now.
It will be called Great-Treasure-Adornment.
The world [of that Buddha] will be called Free-From-Taint.
It will be pure and undefiled.
Its ground will be made of lapis lazuli.
Its roads will be marked off by ropes of gold.
Its trees of the various colors of the seven treasures
Will always bear flowers and fruit.The Bodhisattvas of that world
Will always be resolute in mind.
They will have already obtained
The supernatural powers and the paramitas.
They will have already studied the Way of Bodhisattvas
Under innumerable Buddhas.
Those great people will be taught
By the Flower-Light Buddha.That Buddha will appear in his world at first as a prince.
The prince will give up his princeship and worldly fame.
He will renounce the world at the end of his life as a layman,
And attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.The duration of the life of Flower-Light Buddha
Will be twelve small kalpas.
The duration of the life of the people of his world
Will be eight small kalpas.After the extinction of that Buddha,
His right teachings will be preserved
For thirty-two small kalpas.
All living beings will be saved [by his right teachings].After the end of the period of his right teachings,
The counterfeit of them will last for thirty-two [small kalpas].
His śarīras will be distributed far and wide.
Gods and men will make offerings to them.These will be the deeds
Of Flower-Light Buddha.
That Honorable Biped will be
The most excellent one without a parallel.
You will be he.
Rejoice!
Stairway to Buddhahood
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p65What Shariputra gains from realizing that he is a bodhisattva is not a safe quick trip directly to being a buddha, as on an elevator, but something more like admission to a long stairway. The stairway will be difficult. But the most important point is that there is a stairway, a way to overcome suffering from the unsatisfactoriness of life, and the Buddha’s teachings can lead us to such a stairway.
Is life really meaningful? That is what the story of Shariputra is about. And the Sutra’s answer is that life is and can be experienced as meaningful, or can be meaningful, because it is meaningful.
The Sutra understands itself to be good news for everyone – in one sense, a kind of wake-up call to enter a new world, or to experience the world in a new way; in another sense, it is a kind of public announcement that everyone is a bodhisattva and therefore that you are already a bodhisattva and are on your way to becoming a buddha. Hearing such an announcement, really hearing such an announcement, we should all be glad and full of joy!
Fully Embracing the Entire Lotus Sutra
Buddhism is not a practice of isolating ourselves in our homes and doing our daily service, and having it stop there. How can we expect our efforts of sharing Buddhism with others to be effective if we ourselves have no connection to all of the Three Jewels?
No matter how hard one tries, if a person is not himself fully embracing the entire Lotus Sutra of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha then it is impossible to teach others and to fully share with others the truth, the entire truth of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra does not stop at one’s own life. The Buddha demonstrates this when he asks who will teach this on into the future.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraEasy Readings of the Lotus Sutra
From the NBIC Online Store
This prayer book is a handy new edition by Rev. Jodo Kiyose of Nichihonji Temple, published by Rev. Shukai Oikawa of Joenji Temple, designed to serve as an introduction to the liturgy of the Nichiren Order. Although it is impossible to replace a teacher who could explain the liturgy, this book will be helpful for those who may have been chanting the Japanese without a clear notion of its meaning as many of the important quotations of the liturgy have been extracted and broken down into simple components to acquaint the practitioner with its basic meaning.
Contents:
- Dojokan – Establishing the Place of Prayer
- Sanmon – Adoration of Gohonzon
- Seigon – Words of oath before reciting the Lotus Sutra
- Hobempon – Chapter 2: Expedients
- Juryohon – Chapter 16: The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata
- Shodaigyo – The Practice of Odaimoku Chanting
- Shikyonanji – Chapter 11: Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures (Hōtōge)
- Iyogonshi – Chapter 21: The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas
- Eko – Offering of Merits
- Hosshin – Resolve
- Sange – Repentence
- Kie – Prayer to declare faith
- Japanese Readings ‐ Shindoku for Hobenpon and Juryohon
- Phrases of Nichiren Daishonin ‐ Short snippets from Nichiren’s writings
Published: April 28th, 2014
Editor: Rev. KIYOSE Jōdō
Nichihon-ji Temple, 1820-1, Tako-machi, Katori-gun, Chiba-ken 289-2257
Publisher: Rev. OIKAWA Shokai
Jōen-ji Temple, 7-12-5, Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō 160-0023
Book Quotes
Easy Does It
For the next 12 days, I’ll be publishing excerpts from Easy Readings of The Lotus Sutra, a fascinating little book that is both “easy” to read and informative. It certainly meets its stated objective: “Although it is impossible to replace a teacher who could explain the liturgy, this book will be helpful for those who may have been chanting the Japanese without a clear notion of its meaning.”
An excellent example of this is the English translation of the Ten Suchnesses from Chapter 2
This true state of all things must be viewed from the following 10 kinds of perspectives: “sō” is the outside appearance; “shō” is the nature hidden inside; “tai” is the combination of the two. These three factors are the fundamentals of existence. “Riki” is the inner power; “sa” is the outside effect; “in” is the direct cause; “en” is the indirect cause; “ka” is the result; “hō” is a new interrelationship with the surroundings suitable to its effect. The factors of “hon”, which encompasses “sō” , “shō” and “tai”, and “matsu”, which encompasses the rest, are the factors existing in all things and always complement one another. This is “tō” or equality.
After I add this material I will incorporate it into my “Where to Begin” content.
Three Kinds of Messengers
The Lotus Sūtra can be viewed differently, depending on the recipient’s ability, on the era and country in which it is preached, and on the people who spread it. However, even bodhisattvas at the highest rank almost equal to the Buddha do not seem to understand this, much less ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration. When I think about it, there are three kinds of messengers. One is extremely wise, another is neither simple-minded nor wise, and the last is very simple-minded but honest and dependable.
Of these three, the first one has wisdom so that mistakes are not made. Although the second one is not as wise as the first, wisdom is present. This messenger might add arbitrary words to the master’s; making this messenger the most dangerous of all. The third one lacks any wisdom and thus does not think about adding words. Also, since this messenger is extremely honest, the words of the master are transmitted accurately; therefore, this messenger may be a superior to the second type. In fact, in some cases the third one is better than the first messenger. The first messenger is compared to the four ranks of bodhisattva leaders after the death of the Buddha in India, the second messenger is compared to Buddhist masters in China, and the third messenger is compared to ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration who are simple-minded but honest.
Zui-jii Gosho, The Sūtra Preached in Accordance to [the Buddha’s] Own Mind, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 155
Daily Dharma – April 1, 2021
Muddy water has no mind but it still catches the moon’s reflection and naturally becomes lucid. Plants and trees catch the rain in order to blossom, but can we say they do this deliberately? The five characters of Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo are not the text of the sutra nor a mere explanation; rather they are the sole intent of the whole sutra. Beginners may practice this without knowing the heart (of the Lotus Sutra), but their practice will naturally harmonize with its intention.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice (Shishin Gohon-Shō). This is another way of saying that we do not need to rely on our own skills or wisdom to practice the Buddha Dharma. Whether we are brilliant or slow, focused or distracted, calm or agitated, when we rely on the Ever-Present Buddha, we are in harmony with the world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com