History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 104[T]he five flavors Zhiyi used to classify the Buddha’s teachings correspond to the five sequential events from the parable of the prodigal son in Chapter 4 of the Lotus Sūtra. These five events are providing, inviting, encouraging, purifying, and revealing.
- Providing is the period of the Flower Garland Sūtra when Śākyamuni Buddha tested sentient beings to see if they would accept the Dharma. In the parable, this corresponds to bringing the prodigal to his family home.
- Inviting is the period of the Deer Park teachings when the Buddha preached the Hinayāna teaching to the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, who did not at first understand, in order to invite them in. In the parable, letting the prodigal do menial cleaning work.
- Encouraging, also understood as admonishing, is the period of the Expanded teachings when the Buddha guided śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas who were satisfied with Hinayāna teachings, to move on to Mahāyāna teachings. In the parable, promoting the prodigal to more responsible and prestigious positions and acclimating him to life in the mansion.
- Purifying is the period of the Wisdom teachings when the Buddha expounded the only true teaching by reconciling disagreements between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna. In the parable, entrusting the prodigal with managing the estate.
- Revealing is the period of the Lotus and Nirvāṇa Sūtras when the Buddha preached the ultimate teaching. In the parable, announcing that the prodigal is in fact his son and heir.
Monthly Archives: December 2021
The Parent, Wet Nurse, and Master of Buddhas
Why do all the Buddhas in the entire universe throughout the past, present, and future protect especially the Lotus Sūtra? It is because the Lotus Sūtra is the parent, wet nurse, and master of Buddhas in the entire universe throughout the past, present, and future. They say that frogs feed, hearing the voice of their mothers; if they don’t hear the voice of their mothers, they will not feed and grow up. The Indian lizard called kṛkalāsa eats in the wind; it won’t grow if there is no wind. A fish lives in the water, and a bird makes a nest in the tree. Likewise, Buddhas live in the Lotus Sūtra. As the moon’s reflection resides in the water, Buddhas reside in the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, you must remember that where there is no Lotus Sūtra, there are no Buddhas.
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 181
Daily Dharma – Dec. 8, 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 we have to become enlightened, 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 17
Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
He said to the four kinds of devotees:
“Devadatta will become a Buddha after innumerable kalpas.’ He will be called Heavenly-King, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. The world of that Buddha will be called Heavenly-Way. That Buddha will live for twenty intermediate ka]pas. He will expound the Wonderful Dharma to all living beings. [Hearing the Dharma from him,] as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges will obtain Arhatship; another group of innumerable living beings will aspire for the enlightenment of cause-knowers; and another group of living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges will aspire for unsurpassed enlightenment, obtain the truth of birthlessness, and reach the stage of irrevocability. After the Parinirvana of Heavenly-King Buddha, his right teachings will be preserved in that world for twenty intermediate kalpas. During that time a stupa of the seven treasures sixty yojanas tall and forty yojanas wide and deep will be erected to enshrine the śarīras of his perfect body. Gods and men will bow to the wonderful stupa of the seven treasures and offer various flowers, incense powder, incense to burn, incense applicable to the skin, garments, necklaces, banners, streamers, jeweled canopies, music and songs of praise [to the stupa]. [By doing all this,] innumerable living beings will attain Arhatship; another group of innumerable living beings will attain Pratyekabuddhahood; and another group of inconceivably numerous living beings will aspire for Bodhi and reach the stage of irrevocability.”
He said to the bhikṣus:
“Good men or women in the future who hear this chapter of Devadatta of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with faithful respect caused by their pure minds, and have no doubts [about this chapter], will not fall into hell or the region of hungry spirits or the region of animals. They will be reborn before the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters. They will always hear this sūtra at the places of their rebirth. Even when they are reborn among men or gods, they will be given wonderful pleasures. When they are reborn before the Buddhas, they will appear in lotus-flowers.”
The Daily Dharma for July 3, 2020, offers this:
Good men or women in the future who hear this Chapter of Devadatta of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with faithful respect caused by their pure minds, and have no doubts [about this chapter], will not fall into hell or the region of hungry spirits or the region of animals. They will be reborn before the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.
The Buddha makes this prediction in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. In this Chapter, he assures Devadatta, an evil man who creates great harm, that he too will eventually reach the enlightenment of the Buddha. This prediction is for the rest of us too. It shows that when we nourish our capacity for respect for all beings, no matter how much harm they create, then we uproot the causes of our own greed and fear, and we will always find ourselves in a realm where the Buddha teaches the Wonderful Dharma.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Five Flavors
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 103-104The five flavors are from a metaphor preached in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra: “As fresh milk comes from a cow, cream from the fresh milk, butter curds from cream, fresh butter from butter curds, and clarified butter from fresh butter, so is the teaching of the Buddha.” The sūtra uses this metaphor to explain the development of the teaching of the Buddha through the twelve-fold scriptures, the Agama sūtras, the Expanded sūtras, the Wisdom sūtras, and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. Zhiyi further utilized this five-flavor theory to explain the five periods by applying that classification — Flower Garland, Deer Park, Expanded, Wisdom, and Lotus/ Nirvāṇa. — to reflect the sequence of the teaching and growing maturity of the capacities of the listeners.
Prejudices Against Women
In the example of the dragon girl, it is worthy of considering how prejudices can enter our way of thinking and influence us in negative ways. Because a woman bleeds, which is the result of giving birth, she was considered impure, and yet giving birth, bringing new life into the world is one of the purest things. I once heard someone say that women bleed giving birth and men bleed killing. Perhaps we should give this some thought. Nichiren wrote a response to a woman believer saying that because a woman bleeds she is considered impure by society, but in the eyes of the Buddha that distinction does not apply.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraGrave Sickness Requires Special Medicine
Therefore, although what was realized in the minds of such great masters might be the same, Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna were superior to Kāśyapa and Ānanda with the dharma they spread; T’ien-t’ai was superior to Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna, and Dengyō was superior to T’ien-t’ai. As the world declines into the Latter Age, and the wisdom of the people becomes shallower, the teaching of the Buddha grows more profound. Ordinary sickness can be cured by ordinary medicine, but grave sickness requires special medicine. The weak need the strong for assistance.
Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 57.
Daily Dharma – Dec. 7, 2021
Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.
This passage is part of the Parable of the Burning House, told by the Buddha in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In this story, he compares us living in this world of conflict to children playing in a dangerous house. As the children in the story were too distracted by their games to hear their father’s warnings, we are often too distracted by the attachments of our world to hear the voice of the Buddha.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 16
Day 16 concludes Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, and completes the Fourth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Thereupon the Buddhas of the replicas of Śākyamuni Buddha in the worlds of the east, who were expounding the Dharma in those worlds numbering hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas, that is, as many as there are sands in the River Ganges, came [to this expanded world]. So did the Buddhas of the worlds of the nine other quarters. They sat on the seats [under the jeweled trees]. [The Sahā-World and] the four hundred billion nayuta worlds of each of the eight quarters[, which were amalgamated into one Buddha world,] were filled with those Buddhas, with those Tathāgatas.
Thereupon one of the Buddhas on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees, wishing to inquire after Śākyamuni Buddha, gave a handful of jeweled flowers to his attendant, and said to him, [wishing to] dispatch him:
“Good man! Go to Śākyamuni Buddha who is now living on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa! Ask him on my behalf, ‘Are you in good health? Are you peaceful? Are the Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas peaceful or not?’ Strew these jeweled flowers to him, offer them to him, and say, ‘That Buddha sent me to tell you that he wishes to see the stūpa of treasures opened.”‘
All the other Buddhas also dispatched their attendants in the same way.
The Daily Dharma from Sept. 23, 2021, offers this:
“Good man! Go to Śākyamuni Buddha who is now living on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa! Ask him on my behalf, ‘Are you in good health? Are you peaceful? Are the Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas peaceful or not?’ Strew these jeweled flowers to him, offer them to him, and say, ‘That Buddha sent me to tell you that he wishes to see the stūpa of treasures opened.’”
In Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra, Buddhas and their devotees from innumerable worlds come to our world of conflict and delusion to see Śākyamuni Buddha open the tower inhabited by Many-Treasures Buddha. As our capability for enlightenment wells up from within us, the tower of treasures sprang up from underground when the Buddha asked who would teach the Wonderful Dharma after the Buddha’s extinction. The treasures in the tower are nothing more than Many-Treasures Buddha declaring the Lotus Sūtra to be the Teaching of Equality, the Great Wisdom, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas and the Dharma upheld by the Buddhas.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Buddha’s True Intention
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 103In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha revealed his true intentions. The teachings of the previous forty years used skillful means for śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas in accordance with their capacities. However, the Trace Gate of the Lotus Sūtra tells us that only the One Vehicle leads people to the true teaching for awakening. The Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra teaches that the duration of the Buddha’s life is eternal.
For those who could not listen to the Lotus Sūtra, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra was expounded to them so they could “awaken to the Lotus.” It was taught to extend awakening to those who had been left out during the exposition of the Lotus Sūtra. Hence, it is also called the teaching of “gleaning.”