Monthly Archives: September 2021

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 7, 2021

He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. When we fully comprehend the idea of dependent origination, that no person has an ego, that each of us is the result of causes and conditions, and that the Buddha Dharma is a cause for good of which we may not be aware, it is no longer necessary to classify the beings with whom we share this world. Our inclinations towards dogma are replaced with curiosity. Our need to dominate is replaced with a need to understand.

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 the benefits of this sutra, we consider the merits for those who hear this chapter.

“Star-King-Flower! Anyone who hears [especially] this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva also will be able to obtain innumerable merits. The woman who hears and keeps this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva will not be a woman in her next life. The woman who hears this sūtra and acts according to the teachings of it in the later’ five hundred years after my extinction, will be able to be reborn, after her life in this world, [as a man sitting] on the jeweled seat in the lotus flower blooming in the World of Happiness where Amitayus Buddha lives surrounded by great Bodhisattvas. He [no more she] will not be troubled by greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, or any other impurity. He will be able to obtain the supernatural powers of a Bodhisattva and the truth of birthlessness. When he obtains this truth, his eyes will be purified. With his purified eyes, he will be able to see seven billion and two hundred thousand million nayuta Buddhas or Tathāgatas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. At that time those Buddhas will praise him, saying simultaneously from afar, ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! You kept, read and recited this sūtra, thought it over, and expounded it to others under Śākyamuni Buddha. Now you have obtained innumerable merits and virtues, which cannot be burned by fire or washed away by water. Your merits cannot be described even by the combined efforts of one thousand Buddhas. Now you have defeated the army of Mara, beaten the forces of birth and death, and annihilated all your enemies. Good man! Hundreds of thousands of Buddhas are now protecting you by their supernatural powers. None of the gods or men in the world surpasses you. None but the Tathāgatas, none of the Śrāvakas or Pratyekabuddhas or Bodhisattvas surpasses you in wisdom and dhyāna-concentration.’ Star-King-Flower! [He is a Bodhisattva.] This Bodhisattva will obtain these merits and the power of wisdom.

“Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises [this chapter], saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.

See Not Appearance But Substance; Not Empty Theory But Practice

LS32, d27b, b4today

Not Appearance But Substance; Not Empty Theory But Practice

The Buddha [Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha] told the Bodhisattva [Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings] to let his relics be distributed and paid homage to far and wide. But he meant not only to let his relics themselves be paid homage to but also, through this homage, to cause all living beings to raise the mind of cherishing a longing and thirst for the Buddha. The Buddha also told the bodhisattva to let thousands of stupas be erected. By this the buddha meant to cause all living beings to root the teaching in their minds through the erection of such stupas. The stupas were to be erected for the purpose of extolling the Buddha’s virtues. If we erect a Stupa with concern only for its form and appearance and forget the spirit of establishing the teaching in our minds, our minds cannot become attuned to the Buddha’s mind. What he wishes is not appearance but substance, not empty theory but practice.

Buddhism for Today, p356
Higan, perfections

Morality: For Oneself and Others

Since morality is a necessary dimension of practice, a dimension of perfection that enlightenment will require, bodhisattvas vow to help others initiate the practice. But in order to do that effectively, they must have attained a profound enough moral standing themselves that they will not be hypocritical in their moral instructions to others. Therefore Ārya-Śūra’s chapter on the perfection of morality begins with the sentence: “The one in whom has arisen the strong concern to grace people with the ornament of a complete Buddha’s morality should first of all purify his own morality.” It is not possible to teach what you are unable to practice yourself, and the outcome of this resolution is that Mahayana bodhisattvas are expected to focus first on their own moral wisdom, carrying it through extensively before they will be in a position to instruct others.

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 58
d18b, WONS

Only Natural that Calamities Befall This Country

Many people today, the clergy as well as the laity, put faith in the icchantika, praising, admiring and giving alms to them. So when they happen to encounter those who do not study the teaching of slandering the True Dharma, far from praising such persons, they consider them slanderers and enemies of the True Dharma. Those, who do not know the truth of this, conversely think the keepers of the True Dharma to be slanderers of the True Dharma. They are exactly the same as those predicted in the Lotus Sūtra, the 13th chapter on “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” “Monks in the Latter Age of Degeneration will be cunning, and their hearts flattering and crooked. … They will be delighted to point out our faults They will say to kings, ministers, Brahmans and householders…, slandering and speaking ill of us, practicers of the True Dharma, saying that we are heretics who preach non-Buddhist doctrines.”

Thus many people today, discarding preachers of the True Dharma whom the Buddha praised, laud, admire and give alms to the icchantika, whom He harshly admonished. As a result, greed grows profusely and the teachings of the slanderers of the True Dharma fill the world. How can calamities not occur? It is only natural that calamities befall this country.

Sainan Kōki Yurai, The Cause of Misfortunes, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 86-87

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 6, 2021

Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they eat will become
As delicious as nectar.

The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. With food and drink it is easy to see how different people will find the same food either delicious or disgusting. Our experience and beliefs shape what we are comfortable putting into our bodies, and whether we do so for the sake of our health or the pleasure that comes from experiencing their flavor. But when we find that something with good flavor is bad for our health, or vice versa, we can change our tastes. This is another example of how the Lotus Sūtra teaches us how to live in the world. We learn to embrace situations we once found frightening or intolerable. We increase our capacity with our focus on benefiting others. As a wise teacher once said, we learn to enjoy problems the way we enjoy ice cream.

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 concluded Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we consider Chapter 22, Transmission.

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha rose from the seat of the Dharma, and by his great supernatural powers, put his right hand on the heads of the innumerable Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and said:

“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide!”

He put his [right] hand on their heads twice more, and said:

“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sūtra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings. I am the great almsgiver to all living beings. Follow me, and study my teachings without begrudging efforts! In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, you should expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to them, and cause them to hear and know [this sūtra] so that they may be able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive [this sūtra] by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.”

See Repaying the Grace of the Buddhas

LS32, d26b, b4today

Repaying the Grace of the Buddhas

The Buddha’s teachings are said to number eighty-four thousand, and among them there is not one that is useless. All his teachings are sacred. The Buddha freely preached the Law according to the occasion and the mental and spiritual capacities of his listeners. It may safely be said that within his teachings there are ways of preaching suitable for all kinds of people.

The Buddha taught the bodhisattvas: “If there are people who do not believe in the Lotus Sutra when you preach directly to them, you may choose any of my teachings, not limiting yourselves to the sutra.” Indeed, the Lotus Sutra is the culmination of all the Buddha’s teachings and therefore supreme among the many Buddhist sutras. But we must not become exclusive and rigid in our adherence to the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren did not hold only to this sutra but, in order to commend it, freely used quotations from many other sutras. We need to do so still more in the present world. If we exert every effort to lead others thus to the Righteous Law, we shall have repaid the grace of the buddhas. This is our greatest return for the buddhas’ grace.

Buddhism for Today, p346-347
Higan, perfections

Generosity: Giving Without Differentiating

Upon whom should the bodhisattva bestow his or her generosity? Although answers to this question in the early Mahayana sutras occasionally vary, for the most part they prescribe universal giving. Although in practical circumstances it may be necessary to target those who are most needy, what the sutras want to cultivate is the desire to be generous with everyone. The virtues of nondiscrimination and impartiality are given high praise. Although there was a theory in circulation during the early years of Mahayana Buddhism that the value or merit of a gift is proportional to the worthiness or spiritual merit of the recipient, many texts speak directly against this idea. In this spirit, the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom describes the true bodhisattva as “having given gifts without differentiating, … But if a Bodhisattva, when faced with a living being … who does not seem worthy of gifts, should produce a thought to the effect that ‘a fully enlightened Buddha is worthy of my gifts, but not this [one],’ then he does not have the dharma of a Bodhisattva.”

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 21
WONS

What Should We Define as the Honzon?

QUESTION: As ordinary people who live in the evil latter days, what should we define as the honzon?

ANSWER: We should regard the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra as the honzon.

QUESTION: According to which sūtra passages or which learned monk’s interpretation?

ANSWER: The “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, says: “Medicine King! Erect a Stupa of the seven treasures in any place where this sūtra is expounded, read, recited or copied, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra exists! The Stupa should be tall, spacious and adorned. You need not enshrine My relics (śarīras) in the stupa. Why not? It is because this sūtra contains My perfect body.” In the “Nature of the Buddha” chapter of fascicle four of the Nirvana Sūtra it is said: “Kāśyapa. Each Buddha regards the Dharma as master. For that reason the Buddha reveres and makes offerings to the Dharma. Because the Dharma is eternal, each Buddha is also eternal.” Grand Master T’ien t’ai declares in his Lotus Meditation Repentance: “Make a raised seat in the training hall and place the Lotus Sūtra there. There is no need to place a statue of the Buddha or a relic or other sūtras. Only the Lotus Sūtra is needed.”

Honzon Mondō Shō, Questions and Answers on the Honzon, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 259