Monthly Archives: May 2021

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 28, 2021

A singing bird in a cage attracts uncaged birds, and the sight of these uncaged birds will make the caged bird want to be free. LIkewise the chanting of Odaimoku will bring out the Buddha-nature within ourselves. The Buddha-nature of the gods Bonten and Taishaku will be called by the chanting and protect the chanter. The Buddha-nature of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will be pleased to be called. For attaining Buddhahood quickly, one must lay down the banner of arrogance, cast away the club of prejudice and chant, “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.”

Nichiren write this in his Treatise on Attaining Enlightenment through Faith in the Lotus Sūtra (Hokke Shoshin Jōbutsu Shō). While we whose faith is in the Lotus Sūtra are assured that we and all other beings will become Buddhas, we often wonder when that will happen. The Lotus Sūtra describes time in terms of uncountable kalpas, and each kalpa itself is an unimaginable amount of time. There is no shortage of time, or of lives into which we can be born to benefit other beings. But by practicing Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, we continue on our path to enlightenment, rather than being diverted into delusion.

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

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 27 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva’s offering to the Buddha, we consider Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva’s identity today.

The Buddha said to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva:

“What do you think of this? Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva was no one but Medicine-King Bodhisattva of today. He gave up his body in this way, offered it [to the Buddha], and repeated this offering many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of times [in his previous existence]. [He knows that he can practice any austerity in this Sahā-World. Therefore, he does not mind walking about this world.]

“Star-King-Flower! Anyone who aspires for, and wishes to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, should offer a light to the stupa of the Buddha by burning a finger or a toe. Then he will be given more merits than the person who offers not only countries, cities, wives and children, but also the mountains, forests, rivers and ponds of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and various kinds of treasures. But the merits to be given to the person who fills the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds with the seven treasures and offers that amount of the seven treasures to the Buddhas, to the Great Bodhisattvas, to the Pratyekabuddhas, and to the Arhats, are less than the merits to be given to the person who keeps even a single gāthā of four lines of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

See The Deeper Meaning Beneath the Burning Question

Foundations

Reality as Empty of Substantial Being Yet Conventionally Existent

[T]he six destinies manifest the qualities of dharmas which arises through conditioned co-arising. The two vehicles manifest emptiness. The bodhisattvas manifest conventional existence. The Buddhas manifest [the middle path of] the simultaneous identity of reality as empty of substantial Being yet conventionally existent.225 Therefore the realm of the Buddha is supreme.

Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 193
225
Here Chih-i is showing a correspondence between the verse of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 24:18, on which the threefold truth is based, and the ten dharma realms. [Whatever is dependently co-arisen/That is explained to be emptiness./That, being a dependent designation,/Is itself the middle way.] return
WONS

The Pillar of Japan

On the 12th of the 9th month in the 8th year of the Bun’ei Era (1271), when I was arrested, I declared to Hei no Saemon and hundreds of his soldiers, “I, Nichiren, am the pillar of Japan. When you kill me, you cut down the pillar of Japan.”

Now, it is said in those sūtras that if the wise man is punished by the rulers of the land because of calumnies of evil priests or slandering words of the people, immediately there will be a civil war, gale and foreign invasion. A civil war broke out within the Hōjō clan in the second month in the 9th year of the Bun’ei Era (1272). A terrible wind blew in the 4th month in the 11th year of the Bun’ei Era. The Mongols invaded Japan in the tenth month of the same year. Aren’t these solely due to Nichiren being persecuted? As I predicted these in my “Treatise on Spreading Peace Throughout the Country by Establishing the True Dharma,” how can anyone have doubts about it?

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 32-33.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 27, 2021

Suppose you are sentenced to death,
And the sword is drawn to behead you.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
The sword will suddenly break asunder.

The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Kuan Yin, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of compassion. When we think of this Bodhisattva, and the power that she holds in this world, we realize what we can accomplish through compassion. When we can be present for the suffering that exists in other beings, and see them without judgement for the flawed creatures that they are, then we allow them to make that same connection with us. The power of compassion is that it inspires others to face what lies at the core of their being: the wish that all beings be peaceful and free from suffering. To break the sword of violence in this world, we must first break it within ourselves.

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

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 26 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month conclude today’s portion of Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we return today’s portion of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas and learn what is revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra.

Thereupon the Buddha said to the great Bodhisattvas headed by Superior-Practice:

“The supernatural powers of the Buddhas are as immeasurable, limitless, and inconceivable as previously stated. But I shall not be able to tell all the merits of this sūtra to those to whom this sūtra is to be transmitted even if I continue telling them by my supernatural powers for many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas. 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! In any world where anyone keeps, reads, recites, expounds or copies this sūtra, or acts according to its teachings, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra is put, be it in a garden, in a forest, under a tree, in a monastery, in the house of a person in white robes, in a hall, in a mountain, in a valley, or in the wilderness, there should a stupa be erected and offerings be made to it because, know this, the place [where the stupa is erected] is the place of enlightenment. Here the Buddhas attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Here the Buddhas turned the wheel of the Dharma. Here the Buddhas entered into Parinirvana.”

The Daily Dharma from Jan. 14, 2021, offers this:

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

Foundations

The Suchlikes of the Buddha

[T]he four evil destinies manifest evil [i.e., pain]. The realms of men and gods manifest good [i.e., pleasure]. The realms of the two vehicles manifest undefiled goodness [i.e., bliss]. The realm of bodhisattvas and Buddhas manifest goodness [bliss] which is neither defiled nor undefiled. Therefore the suchlikes of the Buddha are called most supreme.

Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 192-193
WONS

Grand Master T’ien-t’ai’s Teaching

QUESTION: Hasn’t Grand Master T’ien-t’ai really attained the word of the Wonderful Dharma?

ANSWER: Though Grand Master T’ien-t’ai attained the Wonderful Dharma in mind, he did not propagate it outwardly. He kept the realm of profound enlightenment he attained to himself and outwardly did no more than calling the Wonderful Dharma the threefold contemplation and show the way of practicing the doctrine of “3,000 existences contained in one thought.”

QUESTION: Why did Grand Master T’ien-t’ai not propagate the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma though he attained it?

ANSWER: First, (as Grand Master T’ien-t’ai was in the Age of the Semblance Dharma while the Lotus Sūtra should be spread in the Latter Age of Degeneration,) his days were not appropriate for the essence of the Lotus Sūtra to be revealed; secondly, (since the propagation in the Latter Age of Degeneration was entrusted to such bodhisattvas emerged from underground as Superior Practice Bodhisattva,) he did not take charge of the propagation; thirdly, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai was a disciple of a manifestation Buddha (not of the Original Śākyamuni Buddha).

Risshō Kanjō, A Treatise on Establishing the Right Way of Meditation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 229

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 26, 2021

Let us go even to the end of one thousand billion worlds,
And find the place from where this light has come.
A Buddha may have appeared somewhere in the universe
In order to save the suffering beings.

These verses are sung by the Brahma King Great Compassion in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. He invites his fellow Brahma Kings, creators of entire worlds, to leave the luxury of their palaces to find a Buddha who is leading all beings to enlightenment. They value the Buddha’s words more than anything that they have created for themselves, and know how rare it is to encounter an enlightened being. These kings give us an example of how we can learn to treasure the Buddha Dharma.

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

LS32

Day 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Day 25 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month learned that Never-Despising Bodhisattva was Śākyamuni in a past life, we retell the story of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in gāthās.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

There was once a Buddha,
Called Powerful-Voice-King.
His supernatural powers and wisdom
Were immeasurable.
Leading all living beings, he is honored
By gods, men and dragons with offerings.

Some time after the extinction of that Buddha,
His teachings had almost died out.
At that time there lived a Bodhisattva
Called Never-Despising.
The four kinds of devotees at that time
Were attached to views.

Never-Despising Bodhisattva
Went to them,
And said,
“I do not despise you
Because you will practice the Way
And become Buddhas.”

When they heard this,
They spoke ill of him and abused him.
But Never-Despising Bodhisattva
Endured all this.

Thus he expiated his sin.
When he was about to pass away,
He heard this sūtra,
And had his six sense-organs purified.
He prolonged his life
By his supernatural powers,
And expounded this sūtra
To many people.

Those who were attached to views
Were led into the Way
To the enlightenment of the Buddha
By this Bodhisattva.

Never-Despising [Bodhisattva] met
Innumerable Buddhas after the end of his life.
He expounded this sūtra,
And obtained innumerable merits,
He quickly attained the enlightenment of the Buddha
By these accumulated merits.

See Expiating His Past Errors