History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 86[After] having thus called the buddhas [his replicas] to assemble, Śākyamuni Buddha went up into the sky and opened the door of the stūpa of treasures revealing the figure of Many Treasures Buddha. The two Buddhas, Many Treasures Buddha and Śākyamuni Buddha, sat together inside the stūpa. Then, the assembly called out, “Raise us up by your supernatural powers so that we may be able to be with you in the sky!” And Śākyamuni Buddha raised them up into the sky.
Immediately after the Assembly in Space began, Śākyamuni Buddha announced that his time of passing was near, and three times ordered his disciples:
“Make a great vow
To preserve the Dharma forever!”This order calls his disciples to become teachers of the Dharma, messengers of the Tathāgata in the world after his passing, and faithfully to perform the five practices of the bodhisattvas. In Nichiren Shōnin’s Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, which he wrote while on Sado Island, he refers to these three orders as the three proclamations.
Monthly Archives: November 2021
Parents Attain Buddhahood Through Children’s faith in Lotus Sūtra
[W]hat karma made you put faith in the Lotus Sūtra? As your late son had faith in the Lotus Sūtra, is it at his urging that you became a follower of the Lotus Sūtra? Due to the great merit of having faith in this sūtra, I have no doubt that you will meet your son upon visiting the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle.
In the past a calligrapher named Wu-lung in China fell into hell for slandering the Lotus Sūtra, but he became a Buddha when his son Yi-lung copied the sūtra, offering its merits to his late father. Also, King Wonderful Adornment was an evil ruler, but was led by his two sons, Pure Store and Pure Eyes, in practicing the Lotus Sūtra becoming the Śāla Tree King Buddha. These are some examples in which parents attained the status of Buddhas through their children’s faith in the Lotus Sūtra.
This is especially true with a mother and her children. The reason why it is so is that children’s flesh is mother’s flesh. A mother’s bones are the same as her child’s bones. It is said that when a pine tree grows thick, an oak tree is delighted. When a turf grass dies, an orchid cries. Even among plants, which do not possess minds, joy and sorrow are shared between them. How much more so between a mother and her child! A mother gives birth to her child after nurturing the baby in her womb for nine months and raises her child for years after that. It is only natural for a mother to hope that at death her own children will carry her coffin and bury her. How does a mother feel if her children precede her in death? What can she do with the shame of seeing her child’s funeral and the anxiety about her future life?
Buddhist sūtras cite such tales as a mother pheasant which refused to escape a brush fire and kept on sitting on her eggs till she was burnt to death and a poor woman who refused to take her hands off her baby while swept away by a swift current of the Ganges River. The pheasant then is Bodhisattva Maitreya today, while the woman who was drowned in the Ganges was reborn as the King of the Mahābrahman Heaven, not to speak of yourself who has become Kōnichi Shōnin (Rev. Kōnichi), a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, due to your deep love for your son. I am sure that you and your son together will visit the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle. How happy for you two to see each other there! How delightful for you both!
Kōnichi Shōnin Gohenji, A Reply to Rev. Kōnichi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 155-156
Daily Dharma – Nov. 23, 2021
With Nichiren’s boundless compassion, “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo” will be heard forever even beyond the ten-thousand year period of Degeneration. It has the merit of curing the blindness of all people, blocking the way to hell. This merit is superior to those of Dengyō in Japan, T’ien-t’ai in China, Nāgārjuna in India or Kāśyapa who was the Buddha’s disciple. Practice for a hundred years in the Pure Land is not worth the merit of chanting the daimoku for one day in this defiled world. Propagation of the daimoku in a two-thousand year period following the death of the Buddha is not worth as much as spreading the daimoku for even a short while in the Latter Age of Degeneration. This is not from my wisdom; it is solely due to the time in which I live.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Essay on Gratitude (Hōon-jō). In other writings, he explained that the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra is not in its power to change the world, but its power to lead all beings, without exception, to the same enlightenment the Buddha found. In this sūtra, the Buddha gives us a different idea of time, the world and our lives. All of these are truly boundless, and the Buddha is always here teaching us.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 2
Chapter 1, Introductory (Conclusion).
Thereupon Mañjuśrī said to Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahasattva and the other great men:
“Good men! I think that the Buddha, the World-Honored One, wishes to expound a great teaching, to send the rain of a great teaching, to blow the conch-shell horn of a great teaching, to beat the drum of a great teaching, and to explain the meaning of a great teaching.“Good men! I met many Buddhas in my previous existence. At that time I saw the same good omen as this. Those Buddhas emitted the same ray of light as this, and then expounded a great teaching. Therefore, know this! I think that this Buddha also is emitting this ray of light, and showing this good omen, wishing to cause all living beings to hear and understand the most difficult teaching in the world to believe.
The Daily Dharma from July 10, 2020, offers this:
Good men! I think that the Buddha, the World-Honored One, wishes to expound a great teaching, to send the rain of a great teaching, to blow the conch-shell horn of a great teaching, to beat the drum of a great teaching, and to explain the meaning of a great teaching.
Mañjuśrī declares this to Maitreya and all others gathered to hear the Buddha teach in Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha had just produced the light from between his eyebrows illuminating the worlds of the ten directions, a sight none but Mañjuśrī had experienced. The great teaching the Buddha was about to expound is the Lotus Sutra. This statement awakens our interest and shows us how to listen to this teaching, as if it were a great cooling rain or the loud call of a conch-shell or drum.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Doing the Work of the Buddha
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 76To perform the five bodhisattva practices in the world after Śākyamuni Buddha passed into nirvāṇa, continuing the work of the Buddha by leading all people to attaining buddhahood, means that through one’s own practices one is realizing Śākyamuni Buddha’s goal of saving others. Even in this buddhaless world, these practices are Śākyamuni Buddha’s activities for the salvation of others. Therefore, the teachers of the Dharma who perform the bodhisattva practices are called messengers of the Tathāgata, meaning “agents of the Buddha.” In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha says:
“Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the future
Should be considered
To have been dispatched by me
To the world of men in order to do my work.”Thus, those who act as the agents of the Buddha in the world by doing the Buddha’s job of leading others into salvation, after the Buddha passed into nirvāṇa, are referred to as “those who are engaged by the Buddha to do his work,” in Japanese hosshi, or “messengers of the Tathāgata,” in Japanese nyoraishi.
It also can be said that the messengers of the Tathāgata bring about the eternal existence of Śākyamuni Buddha. This is because as long as these people exist, Śākyamuni Buddha’s important activity of leading others into salvation will continue to be done actively. Conversely, messengers of the Tathāgata are asked to continue their activities unremittingly so that these practices do not fall into arrears.
A Grain of Soybean Offered to the Lotus Sūtra
With gratitude I have received one koku of soybeans and respectfully made a report of this at the altar of the Lotus Sūtra. It is said that a drop of water thrown into an ocean will never be lost even when the three calamities strike and a single flower offered to the Heaven of Pure Inhabitants (Jōgo-ten) will not wither even in the “kalpa-fire” at the end of the world. Likewise, a grain of soybean offered to the Lotus Sūtra will become lotus flowers beautifying the entire Dharma-realm.
Daizu Gosho, A Letter on Soybeans, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 173
Daily Dharma – Nov. 22, 2021
You, the World-Honored One, are our leader.
You give peace to gods and men.
Hearing that you assured us of our future Buddhahood,
We are relieved and satisfied.
These verses are sung by Maha-Prajāpatī Bhikṣuṇī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣuṇī, and their attendants in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our lives we have many desires, some of which we may not recognize. We believe that when these desires are met, only then can we be happy and peaceful. At the foundation of these desires is the desire for liberation. These women recognize that with this desire, just knowing that it will be fulfilled is enough to bring joy.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 1
Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva, wishing to repeat what he had said, asked him in gāthās:
Mañjuśrī!
Why is the Leading Teacher
Emitting a great ray of light
From the white curl between his eyebrows?[The gods] rained mandārava-flowers
And mañjūṣaka-flowers.
A breeze carrying the fragrance of candana
Is delighting the multitude.Because of this, the ground has become
Beautiful and pure;
And this world quaked
In the six ways.The four kinds of devotees
Are joyful.
They are happier than ever
In body and mind.The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest HeavenOf each of those worlds.
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.
The Act of Becoming a Buddha in Our Present Form
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 75-76Nichiren Shōnin speaks of “becoming a buddha in our present form.” It is said that only those who become a buddha immediately in this way may enter the Pure Land of Eagle Peak after they pass away. But how should one devote oneself solely to faith in the Lotus Sūtra? The answer to this question is in the Lotus Sūtra, namely the five practices of bodhisattvas… . Then again, according to Nichiren Shōnin, the practice most suitable for unenlightened people like us is chanting Odaimoku, reciting “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.” “Namu” is a Chinese imitation of the sound of the Sanskrit word “namo,” which means “to believe.” “Myōhō Renge Kyō” is the title of the Lotus Sūtra as translated by Kumārajīva. Therefore, “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” is an expression of faith in the Lotus Sūtra. For Nichiren Shōnin, the act of reciting Odaimoku is the act of becoming a buddha in our present form.
Protecting Us Day and Night
It is a blessing that not only the Four Heavenly Kings of this world but also the Four Heavenly Kings, stars, the sun, the moon, Indra and the King of the Brahma Heaven of all the worlds protect us. Moreover, all of the Hinayāna sages called Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha), all bodhisattvas, Bodhisattva Maitreya in the Inner Palace of the Tuṣita Heaven, Bodhisattva Kisitigarbha of Mt. Kharādiya, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva of Mt. Potalaka and Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva of Mt. Ch’ing-liang, together with their respective groups of followers, would all protect us, believers in the Lotus Sūtra. It is the greatest blessing beyond expression that Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and the Buddha from all over the universe themselves come to protect us day and night.
Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 180