The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p69At a meeting some time ago of the International Buddhist Congregation in Tokyo, a young woman described how, dissatisfied with the faith in which she had been raised, she had searched among Christian and Buddhist traditions for an appropriate faith for herself, finally discovering with some joy the importance of having faith in herself. We might think that faith in oneself is not enough. And indeed it isn’t. But it is an important beginning. The poor man in this story was not able to become a functioning contributor to his family and society until he gained some respect for and confidence in himself.
Monthly Archives: October 2022
Daily Dharma – Oct. 19, 2022
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 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.
Having last month considered the question posed by Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva, we consider the reaction of Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva to hearing the Lotus Sutra.
“Thereupon [Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue] Buddha expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, to the other Bodhisattvas, and also to the Śrāvakas. Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva willingly practiced austerities under Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha. He walked about the world, seeking Buddhahood strenuously with all his heart for twelve thousand years until at last he obtained the samadhi by which he could transform himself into any other living being: Having obtained this samadhi, he had great joy.
“He thought, ‘I have obtained the samadhi by which I can transform myself into any other living being because I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Now I will make offerings to Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha and also to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.’
“He entered into this samadhi at once. He filled the sky with the clouds of mandārava-flowers, mahā-mandārava-flowers and the powdered incense of hard and black candana, and rained down those flowers and incense. He also rained down the powdered incense of the candana grown on this shore of the sea [between Mt. Sumeru and the Jambudvipa]. Six shu of this incense was worth the Sahā-World. He offered all these things to the Buddha.
“Having made these offerings [to the Buddha], he emerged from the samadhi, and thought, ‘I have now made offerings to the Buddha by my supernatural powers. But these offerings are less valuable than the offering of my own body.’
The Daily Dharma from May 6, 2021, offers this:
Having made these offerings [to the Buddha], he emerged from the samādhi, and thought, ‘I have now made offerings to the Buddha by my supernatural powers. But these offerings are less valuable than the offering of my own body.’
In Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha tells the story of Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, the previous life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva. This Bodhisattva practiced under an ancient Buddha, and made exorbitant offerings to that Buddha through his supernatural powers. He then realized that all the riches of the universe that he could conjure up paled in comparison to the treasure of his own body and his own life. He then made an offering of his body to the Buddha, which illuminated innumerable worlds. Nichiren wrote often of the hardships he faced in his life and those of his followers. He wrote of “reading the Lotus Sūtra with our bodies,” meaning bringing the Buddha’s wisdom to life in our lives. When we act according to the Wonderful Dharma, no matter what hardships we face, then we too are living the Lotus Sūtra, and making a perfect offering from our gratitude to the Buddha.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
800 Years: The Complete Union of Understanding and Faith
Buddhism for Today, p324We should not study the Lotus Sutra for the sake of learning alone. It is not enough to have understood the sutra intellectually. We cannot be saved in the true sense, nor save the whole of society, until we proceed from understanding to faith and reach the mental state of complete union of understanding and faith.
In chapter 21 the Buddha taught that putting all his sermons in the previous twenty chapters together, the truth penetrating all these chapters is one and one alone. From this chapter, we clearly realize that the teaching shown in the Law of Appearance is entirely united with the teaching shown in the Law of Origin; understanding this, we can deepen our devotion to these two Laws.
Reading through this chapter, it may seem that no important teaching is stated in it, only the mysterious and wonderful divine power of the Tathāgata. That is what makes the chapter hard to understand. The absolute power of the Tathāgata is symbolized by his mysterious phenomena, and each such phenomenon includes the meaning of forming a complete union between the Law of Appearance and the Law of Origin.
Daily Dharma – Oct. 18, 2022
Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha
Appear somewhere in the universe?
This great light illumines
The worlds of the ten quarters.
The Brahma Heavenly Kings of the East sing these verses as part of a story the Buddha tells in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. Long ago there was another Buddha named Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence. When he became enlightened, the entire universe was illuminated. Beings who had never seen each other could recognize each other clearly. We can see this story as a metaphor for what happens when the Buddha’s wisdom comes into our lives. We leave the darkness of our ego attachment and come into the light of the world as it is.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 25
Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.
Having last month considered Powerful-Voice-King and the periods of his teaching, we meet a Bodhisattva called Never-Despising.
“There lived arrogant bhikṣus in the age of the counterfeit of the right teachings of the first Powerful-Voice-King Tathāgata, that is, after the end of the age of his right teachings which had come immediately after his extinction. [Those arrogant bhikṣus] were powerful. At that time there lived a Bodhisattva called Never-Despising. He took the form of a bhikṣu.
“Great-Power-Obtainer! Why was this bhikṣu called Never-Despising? It was because, every time he saw bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās, he bowed to them and praised them, saying, ‘I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is that? It is because you will be able to practice the Way of Bodhisattvas and become Buddhas.’
“He did not read or recite sūtras. He only bowed to the four kinds of devotees. When he saw them in the distance, he went to them on purpose, bowed to them, and praised them, saying, ‘I do not despise you because you can become Buddhas.’
The Daily Dharma from Nov. 25, 2021, offers this:
Why was this bhikṣu called Never-Despising? It was because, every time he saw bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇis, upāsakas or upāsikās, he bowed to them and praised them, saying, ‘I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is that? It is because you will be able to practice the Way of Bodhisattvas and become Buddhas.’
The Buddha gives this description of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. The only practice of this Bodhisattva was to show his respect to all people, whether or not they respected him. This practice was so important, the Buddha used it as an example of what he practiced in a previous life to enable him to become enlightened.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Śāriputra’s Future
This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
In Senchu Murano’s translation of the Buddha’s prediction for Śāriputra, we get this picture:
“Śāriputra! After a countless, inconceivable number of kalpas from now, you will be able to make offerings to many thousands of billions of Buddhas, to keep their right teachings, to practice the Way which Bodhisattvas should practice, and to become a Buddha called Flower-Light, 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 Free-From-Taint. That world will be even, pure, adorned, peaceful, and fertile, where gods and men will prosper. The ground of that world will be made of lapis lazuli; the roads will fan out from the center to the eight directions. Those roads will be marked off by ropes of gold, and the trees of the seven treasures on the roadsides will always bear flowers and fruit. Flower-Light Tathāgata will also lead the living beings [of his world] by the teaching of the Three Vehicles.
“Śāriputra! Although the world in which he appears will not be an evil one, that Buddha will expound the teaching of the Three Vehicles according to his original vow.
Now, compare that with H. Kern’s translation:
Again, Śāriputra, at a future period, after innumerable, inconceivable, immeasurable Æons, when thou shalt have learnt the true law of hundred thousand myriads of koṭis of Tathāgatas, showed devotion in various ways, and achieved the present Bodhisattva-course, thou shalt become in the world a Tathāgata, &c., named Padmaprabha, endowed with science and conduct, a Sugata, a knower of the world, an unsurpassed tamer of men, a master of gods and men, a Lord Buddha.
At that time then, Śāriputra, the Buddha-field of that Lord, the Tathāgata Padmaprabha, to be called Viraja, will be level, pleasant, delightful, extremely beautiful to see, pure, prosperous, rich, quiet, abounding with food, replete with many races of men; it will consist of lapis lazuli, and contain a checker-board of eight compartments distinguished by gold threads, each compartment having its jewel tree always and perpetually filled with blossoms and fruits of seven precious substances.
Now that Tathāgata Padmaprabha, &c., Śāriputra, will preach the law by the instrumentality of three vehicles. Further, Śāriputra, that Tathāgata will not appear at the decay of the Æon, but preach the law by virtue of a vow.
I’ve struggled over the Buddha’s assertion that Śāriputra will teach the three vehicles even though “the world in which he appears will not be an evil one.” Why not emulate Mañjuśrī? “In the sea [Mañjuśrī] expounded only the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.” But Kern’s translation agrees that Śāriputra “will preach the law by the instrumentality of three vehicles” after pointing out that his world will be “level, pleasant, delightful, extremely beautiful to see, pure, prosperous, rich, quiet, abounding with food, replete with many races of men.”
Given this agreement it seems safe to assume that this is an important point being made by the Lotus Sutra, and I should just accept this and move on.
Which brings me to another puzzle. This one occurs whenever Kern is describing the world of a future Buddha.
For example, Murano says Śāriputra’s “world will be made of lapis lazuli; the roads will fan out from the center to the eight directions. Those roads will be marked off by ropes of gold, and the trees of the seven treasures on the roadsides will always bear flowers and fruit.”
Kern agrees that it will consist of lapis lazuli, but he says it will “contain a checker-board of eight compartments distinguished by gold threads, each compartment having its jewel tree always and perpetually filled with blossoms and fruits of seven precious substances.”
This “checkerboard” image is used repeatedly by Kern, while all of the English translations of Kumārajīva speak of roads branching out in eight directions. For example, Hurvitz says: “It shall have vaiḍūrya for soil in an eightfold network of highways, each bordered with cords of pure gold.”
I have no clue what Kern was imagining when he described a world of eight compartments distinguished by gold threads.
800 Years: Believers in the Lotus Sūtra
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
Daily Dharma – Oct. 17, 2022
Therefore, Śāriputra!
I expounded an expedient teaching
In order to eliminate their sufferings.
That was the teaching of Nirvāṇa.
The Nirvāṇa which I expounded to them
Was not true extinction.
All things are from the outset
In the state of tranquil extinction.
The Buddha provides this explanation to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. In this part of the story, the Buddha has announced that everything he had taught up until then, including the teachings of suffering and Nirvāṇa, were merely preparation for his highest teaching: the realization of the same enlightenment he reached. With the teaching of Nirvāṇa, the Buddha helps us take responsibility for our own situation rather than relying on an external force to make us happy. One problem with Nirvāṇa is that we can believe that it is something we do not have now. When we extinguish the fires of our delusion, we see the world with the Buddha’s eyes. We see the world for what it is, right here and right now.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Oeshiki at Ro-O Zan
Enjoyed attending the celebration of the Parinirvana of Nichiren at the Buffalo Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple. I’ve been in Rochester, New York, for a week helping my brother-in-law move and took the opportunity to visit Kanjin Cederman’s temple in North Tonawanda, New York, in the suburbs of Buffalo. The temple occupies a portion of the Masonic Sutherland Lodge. Cederman and his family have been masons for generations and he was able to secure the space in a corner of the lodge complex as a temporary home for his Buffalo Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple.