Monthly Archives: May 2021

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 13, 2021

Ajita! Anyone who[, while he is staying outside the place of the expounding of the Dharma,] says to another person, ‘Let us go and hear the sūtra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma which is being expounded [in that place],’ and causes him to hear it even for a moment, in his next life by his merits, will be able to live with the Bodhisattvas who obtain dhāraṇīs.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Maitreya (whom he calls Ajita – Invincible) in Chapter Eighteen of the Lotus Sutra. The dhāraṇīs are promises made by Bodhisattvas to protect those who keep and practice the Lotus Sūtra. They are included in the sūtra so that we can use them to remind these Bodhisattvas, and ourselves, of the protection we enjoy from our practice. This protection is not just meant for us. It is for all beings. When we share the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma with others, we help them become aware of their potential to become enlightened.

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 the bad and dangerous road in gāthās, we conclude today’s portion of Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City.

I am like the leader.
I am the leader of all living beings.
I saw that halfway some got tired
With the seeking of enlightenment,
And that they could not pass through the dangerous road
Of birth-and-death and illusions.
Therefore, I expounded to them the teaching of Nirvāṇa
As an expedient to give them a rest, saying:
“You have already eliminated sufferings.
You have done everything you should do.”

Now I see that they have already attained Nirvāṇa
And that they have become Arhats.
Therefore, I now collect the great multitude,
And expound to them the true teaching.

The Buddhas expound the teaching of the Three Vehicles
Only as an expedient.
There is only the One Buddha-Vehicle.
The two [vehicles] were taught only as resting places.

Now I will tell you the truth.
What you attained is not [true] extinction.
Make great efforts in order to obtain
The Buddha’s knowledge of all things.
When you obtain the knowledge of all things
And the ten powers of the Buddha,
And the thirty-two physical marks,
You will be able to say that you attained true extinction.
The Buddhas, the Leaders, expound the teaching of Nirvāṇa
In order to give a rest [to all living beings].
When they see them having already had a rest,
They lead them to the wisdom of the Buddha.

[Here ends] the Third Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Daily Dharma from April 25, 2021, offers this:

The Buddhas, the Leaders, expound the teaching of Nirvāṇa
In order to give a rest [to all living beings].
When they see them having already had a rest,
They lead them to the wisdom of the Buddha.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. These are part of his explanation of the parable of the Magic City. In this story, a group of people hire a guide to lead them through a dangerous wilderness to reach a city of treasures. Halfway through the journey, the people lose confidence and ask the guide to take them back to where they started. The guide conjures up a magic city and gives the people a chance to rest. The people believed this illusion was their destination. The guide then made the city disappear and implored his charges to continue their journey. The Buddha compares his teachings of the end of suffering to the fabricated city, and the true city of treasures to his enlightenment. As the travelers had to leave their delusions about suffering and continue on the way of the Bodhisattva towards enlightenment, so must we set aside the Buddha’s expedient teachings and uphold the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra.

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

Foundations

Like A Drunk Man Who Has Not Yet Vomited

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that that which is called the two truths is in reality one truth. It is called two as an expedient means.610 It is like a drunk man who has not yet vomited [and regained his sobriety] sees the sun and moon spinning around and says that there is a sun which is spinning around and a sun which is not spinning around.611 A sober person perceives only that which is not spinning and does not see the spinning. To say there are two [modes of] spinning is crude; the lack of spinning is subtle.612 Those of the Tripiṭaka all belong to the duality of spinning, like a drunk person. All Mahāyāna Sūtras include the two [modes of] spinning and explain the one [truth] of the lack of spinning. This Lotus Sūtra “directly rejects expedient means and only expounds the supreme way.” The lack of spinning is the one reality, therefore it is subtle.

Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 254
610
See the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. The original text reads, ” ‘Good sons, the worldly truth is identical with the truth of ‘supreme meaning.’ ‘World Honored One. If this is so, then there are not two truths.’ The Buddha said, ‘Good sons, these are good expedient means in accordance with [the capacities of] sentient beings to explain that there are two truths. Good sons, if one follows verbal conventions, then there are two types. First, the worldly dharma, and second, the transworldly dharma. Good sons, that which is known by transworldly people is called the truth of supreme meaning. That which is known by worldly people is called the worldly truth’.” return
611
This analogy is from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, where the disciples are grieving over the imminent death of the Buddha. “We have met the Tathāgata but are diseased and not yet cured, and have not yet attained supreme peace and eternal bliss. Why does the Tathāgata wish to abandon us and enter nirvāṇa? World Honored One, we are like a drunk person who is not aware of his situation, does not recognize his relatives—his mother or sisters, deluded with lust and rough speech, and sleeps in unsanitary places. At that time a good physician gives him some medicine. After taking it he vomits but regains his memory and sobriety, and he feels repentant and deeply remorseful. He thinks alcoholic drink is not good and the root of all evil. … We are also like this. From the past we have been transmigrating in the cycle of life and death drunk with sensual pleasures and coveting the five desirous things. … Like a drunk man we sleep in impure places. Tathāgata! Now give us the Dharma medicine so that we can vomit out the evil liquors of passions. We have not yet attained a sober mind. How can you abandon us and enter nirvāṇa?” Later in the same section it says, “It is like a drunk man whose mind is confused, and he perceives all the mountains, rivers, castles, palaces, sun, moon, and stars spinning around. Sentient beings are like this drunk man who perceives the sun and moon, which are not really spinning around, as spinning around. They have an inverted mind which is full of passions and ignorance, which takes as a self that which has no self, takes as eternal that which is transient, takes as pure that which is impure, and takes as blissful that which consists of suffering.” return
612
In other words, the perception of the sun as spinning is a mistaken perception based on the drunken state of the perceiver. In fact, the sun and moon and mountains are not spinning. return
WONS

When Wise Persons Seem to Disappear

Generally speaking, in the Latter Age of Degeneration sages and wise persons seem to disappear while only those who lie to reduce a person to despair, those who flatter, those who praise outwardly but slander behind one’s back, and those who make wild claims fill the country. This is like a pond clamoring with the sound of fish as the amount of water diminishes, or how a great ocean is no longer silent when a strong wind blows. What is more, in the Latter Age of Degeneration, evil phenomena such as droughts, epidemics, heavy rains, and violent winds are expected to occur one after another. Therefore, it seems that even broad minds become narrow and even those seeking the way of the Buddha become people with erroneous views. Putting aside those not related to us for now, in the Latter Age conflicts with parents, between husbands and wives, and among siblings occur as if they were between a hunter and a deer, a cat and a rat, or a hawk and a pheasant.

Hyōesakan-dono Gosho, Letter to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 89

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 12, 2021

He should always make it a pleasure to sit in dhyāna. He should live in a retired place and concentrate his mind. Mañjuśrī! [A retired place] is the first thing he should approach.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. For those who are awakening their nature as Bodhisattvas to benefit all beings, and setting aside their attachment to their own suffering, this can be a difficult transition. Our habits of engaging with the drama and delusion in the world can be too strong to overcome. This is why the Buddha emphasizes the importance of quietly reflecting on what happens around us, and our reactions to them. Through dhyāna meditation, we learn not to believe everything we think, and that we can change our understanding of the world. We also learn that allowing our minds to change is the only way we can benefit other beings.

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 south, we conclude today’s portion of Chapter 7 with the reaction of the great Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the zenith.

“The great Brahman-[heavenly-]kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, and nadir also did the same. The great Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the zenith, 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 Brahman­heavenly-king called Sikhin among them. He said to the other Brahmans in gāthās:

Our palaces are adorned
More brightly than ever.
Why are they illumined
By this powerful light?

We have never seen nor heard
Of such a wonderful thing as this before.
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 down, 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 Great-Universal­Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata was sitting on the lion-like seat under the Bodhi-tree of the place of enlightenment, surrounded respectfully by gods, dragon-kings, gandharvas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and non-human 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-kings 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:

How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.

The All-Knower, the Most Honorable One of Gods and Men,
Opens the gate of the teachings as sweet as nectar,
And saves all living beings
Out of his compassion towards them.

There has been no Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Before you appeared,
The worlds of the ten quarters were dark.

The living beings in the three evil regions
And asuras are increasing.
The living beings in heaven are decreasing.
Many fall into the evil regions after their death.

They do not hear the Dharma from a Buddha
Because they did evils,
Their appearances are getting worse;
And their power and wisdom, decreasing.
Because they did sinful karmas,
They lose pleasures and the memory of pleasures.
They are attached to wrong views.
They do not know how to do good.
They are not taught by a Buddha;
Therefore, they fall into the evil regions.

Now you have appeared for the first time after a long time,
And become the eyes of the world.
You have appeared in this world
Out of your compassion towards all living beings,
And finally attained perfect enlightenment.
We are very glad.
All the others also rejoice at seeing you,
Whom they have never seen before.

Our palaces are beautifully adorned
With your light.
We offer them to you.
Receive them out of your compassion towards us!

May the merits we have accumulated by this offering
Be distributed among all living beings,
And may we and all other living beings
Attain the enlightenment of the Buddha!

See The Spirit of the Great Vehicle

Foundations

Clarification of the Threefold Truth

[T]he clarification of the threefold truth. Many Sūtras contain the meaning [of the threefold truth] in detail, but the terms come from the Ying lo ching and the Jên wang ching, i.e., the truth of existence, the truth of non-Being, and the supreme truth of the Middle Way. This [Lotus Sūtra] also contains this meaning. [The chapter on] the life-span [of the Tathāgata] says, “neither like nor different.”605 This refers to the Middle Way. “Alike” refers to the real [truth] and “different” to the mundane [truth].

Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 253
605
See the Lotus Sūtra. The context reads (Hurvitz, Lotus Sūtra, 239): “The Thus Come One in full accord with Reality knows and sees the marks of the triple sphere. There is no birth-and-death, whether withdrawal from or emergence into the world, nor is there any being in the world nor anyone who passes into extinction. (The triple sphere) is neither Reality nor vanity, neither likeness nor difference.” return
Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Chanting the Lotus Sutra

Quote

The practice of chanting the Odaimoku was not intended to completely replace either the study of the sutra or the reading of the sutra, though it could replace the practice of reciting each of the twenty-eight chapters as a practice. In one of his letters to a believer he said it was permissible to replace the practice of reciting a chapter a day for twenty-eight days with the single practice of chanting the Odaimoku. It is important to note that he did not say it was wrong to chant the twenty-eight chapters, in fact in Nichiren Shu temples the entire Lotus Sutra is chanted on various cycles of twenty-eight days or in some cases fewer.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

WONS

Single-Mindedly Spread the Lotus Sūtra

How can we not spread the Lotus Sūtra even if very few people have the capacity for it while most people contradict it like water against fire? When we single-mindedly spread the Lotus Sūtra, there is no doubt that we will eventually succeed even if we should encounter such great difficulties as those that have befallen Never-Despising Bodhisattva.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 272

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 11, 2021

They also will be able to locate the Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas by smelling their bodies from afar. Even when they recognize all this by smell, their organ of smell will not be destroyed or put out of order. If they wish, they will be able to tell others of the differences [of those scents] because they remember them without fallacy.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. Our sense of smell is often unconscious. We associate smells with places, experiences or even people that we like or dislike. These smells can even cause an emotional reaction by causing us to relive a situation associated with that smell. In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha teaches that our everyday experiences are no different from enlightenment, that his great wisdom is not about how to escape from this world. It is about how to use the senses and abilities with which we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine.

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