Monthly Archives: November 2022

LS32

Day 1

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

Day 1 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās the buddhas Maitreya sees, we consider what Maitreya sees and hears.

Mañjuśrī!
I see and hear
Hundreds of thousands of millions of things
Such as these
From this world.
I will tell you briefly some more of them.

I see as many Bodhisattvas of those worlds
As there are sands in the River Ganges,
Who are seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha
[In various ways] according to their environments

Some of them practice almsgiving.
They joyfully give treasures
Such as gold, silver,
Pearls, manis, shells, agates, and diamonds.
They also give menservants and maidservants,
Vehicles and palanquins adorned with treasures.

They proceed to the enlightenment of the Buddha
By the merits obtained thereby,
Wishing to obtain this vehicle,
The most excellent vehicle
In the triple world,
The vehicle praised by the Buddhas.

Some Bodhisattvas give
Jeweled chariots yoked with four horses,
Equipped with railings and flower-canopies,
And adorned on all sides.

I also see some Bodhisattvas
Offering their flesh or their limbs
Or their wives or their children
In order to attain unsurpassed enlightenment.

I also see some Bodhisattvas
Joyfully offering
Their heads or their eyes or their bodies
In order to attain the wisdom of the Buddha.

Mañjuśrī!
I see some kings coming to a Buddha,
And asking him about unsurpassed enlightenment.
They have renounced the world of pleasures,
Left their palaces,
Parted from their ministers and women,
And shaved their beard and hair.
They now wear monastic robes.

See An Ultimately Real World

800years, The Buddhist Prophet

800 Years: This Heritage of Faith

Now, let us see what is said concerning the Heritage of the Great Thing:

“Whatever may happen to you, arouse in yourselves a strong faith and pray that you may, at the moment of death, utter the Sacred Title in clear consciousness and with earnest faith! Do not seek besides this any heritage of the sole great thing concerning life and death. Herein lies the truth of the saying that there is Bodhi even in depravities, and Nirvāṇa even in birth and death. Vain it is to hold the Lotus of Truth without this heritage of faith!

See Chapter 6, Part 3
Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet

stories, 800years

800 Years: The Faith of the Teacher of the Dharma

The most important thing about [Chapter 10] is its emphasis on the Dharma teacher. Here we can see that the Sutra attempts to break through the limitations of the threefold shravaka-pratyekabuddha-bodhisattva distinction that had been prominent in earlier chapters of this Sutra and elsewhere in Mahayana Buddhism. According to Chapter 10, anyone – bodhisattva, pratyekabuddha, shravaka, or layperson, man or woman – can be a Dharma teacher.

This important point is certainly not unique to this chapter, but it is emphasized here in a special way: it is not only great bodhisattvas, great leaders, or great people who can teach the Dharma and do the Buddha’s work, but very ordinary people with even a limited understanding and even of limited faith can join in the Buddha’s work, if only by understanding and teaching a little. The point is, of course, that you and I can be Dharma teachers.

Thus the Buddha tells Medicine King Bodhisattva that if anyone wants to know what sort of living beings will become buddhas in the future, he should tell them that the very people before him, that is, all sorts of people, including very ordinary people, will become buddhas.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p125-126
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 30, 2022

Now I will tell you.
Listen to me
With one mind!

The Buddha speaks these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. When we understand what someone tells us, it is as if we share a mind with that person. When we listen and understand what the Buddha teaches us, we are of one mind with him. We then have the Buddha mind.

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

LS32, Innumerable

Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1

Having last month considered the Buddha’s realization that not everything should be explained, we consider how water is like the Dharma.

“O you of good intent! The Dharma is like water that can wash away dirt and grime. Whether coming from a well or a pond, a stream or a river, a valley or a ditch, or an ocean, the water contained in all of these can effectively wash all kinds of dirt and grime away. So it is also with the water of the Dharma: it can cleanse living beings of the dirt of all delusive worldly passions. O you of good intent! The character of the water is the same even though streams, rivers, wells, ponds, valleys, ditches, and oceans are each different and distinct. So it is also with the character of the Dharma: it removes and washes away the dirt of delusive passions equally and without discrimination; the three teachings,14 the four fruits, and the two ways, however, are not one and the same.

“O you of good intent! Although the water from all of these places is cleansing, a well is not a pond, a pond is neither a stream nor a river, and valleys and ditches are not oceans. The Tathāgata—Hero of the World, in total command of the Dharma—has expounded various teachings that are also like this. The initial-period discourses, the middle-period discourses, and the latter-period discourses are all able to remove and wash away delusive worldly passions of living beings. But the initial-period discourses are not the middle ones, and the middle-period discourses are not the latter ones. The initial-, middle-, and latter-period discourses express the same thing, yet they differ from each other in meaning.

See Faith Like Fire and Faith Like Water

800years, b4today

800 Years: To Have a Sense of Joyful Acceptance

[Chapter 18] preaches in further detail the merits of first rejoicing over the Buddha’s teachings. The reason such merits are repeatedly preached is that our joyful acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings, our deep feeling of gratitude for them, is indispensable to faith. Even if we have read many sutras and have memorized all Buddhist doctrines, so long as we do not accept the Buddha’s teachings with heartfelt joy this means merely that we are knowledgeable in Buddhism; it does not indicate that we believe in the Buddha. To have a sense of joyful acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings is to have faith in them. Therefore the merits that we obtain by the joyful acceptance of his teachings are preached repeatedly in this chapter.

Buddhism for Today, p283
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 29, 2022

Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sūtra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’

The Buddha makes this declaration to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sutra. He reminds us that when we study and practice the Lotus Sūtra, we see not only the Buddha, but all beings who have vowed to protect and encourage us in our practice. It is often difficult to see these beings and appreciate what they are doing for us, much more so to hear the encouragement they offer us in this world of conflict. This is why we must continue to dedicate our lives to offer benefit and encouragement to all beings, so that we can embody the spirit of these protective deities.

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

LS32, Universal Sage

Between Day 32 and Day 1: Envisioning Śākyamuni Buddha at Mount Vulture Peak

Having last month considered r the words of praise from the innumerable buddhas, we consider envisioning Śākyamuni Buddha at Mount Vulture Peak.

Through the power of the Great Vehicle, words of praise will resound in the air:

“Well done, you of good intent! Well done! You practice in accordance with the Great Vehicle! Your capacity to perceive buddhas is a beneficial effect of that cause! But even though you have now gained perception of buddhas, the World-honored Ones, you are not yet capable of perceiving Śākyamuni Buddha, the buddhas that emanate from him, or the stupa of the buddha Many-Treasures.”

After hearing the voice in the air, the practitioner will again devotedly internalize and master the Great Vehicle sutras. As a result of internalizing the comprehensive Great Vehicle sutras, the practitioner soon envisions Śākyamuni Buddha in great assemblies at Mount Vulture Peak teaching the Dharma Flower Sutra and discoursing on the meanings of the one reality. After being taught, the practitioner will do self-amendment; then, reverentially wishing to see him, the practitioner will face toward Mount Vulture Peak, formally kneel, place his or her palms together, and say:

“O Tathāgatha, Hero of the Universe, you are always present in the world: Out of compassion for me, reveal yourself to me for my sake!”

After saying these words, the practitioner will perceive Mount Vulture Peak composed of the seven precious metals and gems, monks and śrāvakas with countless others together in a great assembly, rows of jewel trees lining level jewel ground on which a magnificent jeweled lion seat has been arranged, and Śākyamuni Buddha, who emits from between his eyebrows a beam of light that passes through the innumerable worlds of the ten directions and illuminates worlds everywhere in the universe. From everywhere this light reaches in the ten directions, the buddhas that emanated from Śākyamuni gather together at one time into a great assembly, as is extensively expounded in the Dharma Flower Sutra. Each emanated buddha has a body that is purple-gold in color and boundless in size, each sits on a lion seat, and each has a retinue of countless thousands of millions of great bodhisattvas. Each bodhisattva follows the same practice as Universal Sage; it is like this as well in the bodhisattva retinues of all of the innumerable buddhas in the ten directions.

After gathering together, the great assembly sees Śākyamuni Buddha send forth golden-colored rays of light from the pores of his entire body. Thousands of millions of manifested buddha forms are present in each of these rays of light. The emanated buddhas will emit a beam of light from the white curl between their eyebrows – the sign of a great person; these beams will stream into the top of Śākyamuni Buddha’s head. When they see this condition, the emanated buddhas will then send forth golden-colored rays of light from all the pores of their bodies. Countless manifested buddha forms, as many as all the grains of sand in the Ganges River, will also be present in each of these rays of light.

See Seeing the Buddhas Emanated from Śākyamuni

Kern, d10b, d11b, d12b, Blog

Different and yet Consistent

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City, provides an excellent example of how the various translations of the Lotus Sutra differ while maintaining a consistent message.

For example, in calculating how long ago Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence lived, Senchu Murano’s English translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra states:

Do you think that any mathematician or any disciple of a mathematician could count the number of the worlds [he went through]?”

“No, we do not, World-Honored One!”

“Bhikṣus! Now all the worlds he went through, whether they were inked or not, were smashed into dust. The number of the kalpas which have elapsed since that Buddha passed away is many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas larger than the number of the particles of the dust thus produced. Yet I remember [the extinction of] that Buddha by my power of insight as vividly as if he had passed away today.”

H. Kern’s English translation of the 11th century Sanskrit Lotus Sutra offers instead:

Now, monks, what do you think of it, is it possible by calculation to find the end or limit of these worlds?

They answered: Certainly not, Lord; certainly not, Sugata.

The Lord said: On the contrary, monks, some arithmetician or master of arithmetic might, indeed, be able by calculation to find the end or limit of the worlds, both those where the atoms have been deposited and where they have not, but it is impossible by applying the rules of arithmetic to find the limit of those hundred thousands of myriads of Æons; so long, so inconceivable, so immense is the number of Æons which have elapsed since the expiration of that Lord, the Tathāgata Mahābhigñāgñānābhibhū. Yet, monks, I perfectly remember that Tathāgata who has been extinct for so long a time, as if he had reached extinction today or yesterday, because of my possessing the mighty knowledge and sight of the Tathāgata.

File this under the topic of clarity. Murano (and Kumārajīva) have the better description, although both reach the same end.

One aspect of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha’s quest for enlightenment is the length of time it requires.

Murano offers:

[Before he attained Buddhahood,] he sat at the place of enlightenment and defeated the army of Mara. He wished to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, but could not because the Dharma of the Buddhas had not yet come into his mind. He sat cross-legged without moving his mind and body for one to ten small kalpas. During all that time the Dharma of the Buddhas did not come into his mind.

I’ve often stumbled on this “one to ten small kalpa” time frame. Is this a range of possible durations or a progression?

Hurvitz’s translation makes clearer that Kumārajīva is talking about a progression:

In this way, from one minor kalpa up through ten minor kalpas he sat cross-legged, body and mind immobile; yet the buddha-dharmas still did not appear before him.

Kern, on the other hand, clarifies this from the start:

In the beginning when the Lord had not yet reached supreme, perfect enlightenment and had just occupied the summit of the terrace of enlightenment, he discomfited and defeated the whole host of Māra, after which he thought: I am to reach perfect enlightenment. But those laws (of perfect enlightenment) had not yet dawned upon him. He stayed on the terrace of enlightenment at the foot of the tree of enlightenment during one intermediate kalpa. He stayed there a second, a third intermediate kalpa, but did not yet attain supreme, perfect enlightenment. He remained a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, a ninth, a tenth intermediate kalpa on the terrace of enlightenment at the foot of the tree of enlightenment, continuing sitting cross-legged without in the meanwhile rising. He stayed, the mind motionless, the body unstirring and untrembling, but those laws had not yet dawned upon him.

Kern’s lengthier explanation trumps Kumārajīva’s condensed description.

Kern also gets points for describing the palaces of the Brahman-heavenly-kings, whom Kern calls Brahma-angels, as aerial cars.

While Murano offers:

“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds went to the west, carrying flower-plates filled with heavenly flowers, in order to find [the place from where the light had come]. Their palaces also moved as they went.

Kern says:

Thereupon, monks, the great Brahma-angels in the fifty hundred thousand myriads of koṭis of spheres mounted all together their own divine aerial cars, took with them divine bags, as large as Mount Sumeru, with celestial flowers, and went through the four quarters successively until they arrived at the western quarter, …

While Murano offers:

Having offered flowers, they offered their palaces to the Buddha, saying, ‘We offer these palaces to you. Receive them and benefit us out of your compassion towards us!’

Kern has:

After that they presented to the Lord their aerial cars (with the words): Accept, O Lord, these aerial cars out of compassion to us; use, O Sugata, those cars out of compassion to us.

Still there is some confusion at the end of the description of the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings to the light produced by Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence’s enlightenment.

Murano has:

The great Brahman-[heavenly-]kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, and nadir also did the same. The great Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the zenith, who saw their palaces illumined more brightly than ever, also danced with joy. They wondered why [their palaces were so illumined]. They visited each other and discussed the reason, saying, ‘Why are our palaces illumined so brightly?’

Kern muddles this:

Repetition; the same occurred in the southwest, in the west, in the northwest, in the north, in the northeast, in the nadir.

Then, monks, the aerial cars of the Brahma angels in the nadir, in those fifty hundred thousand myriads of koṭis of spheres [&c., as above till to one another].

Kern is consistent, though. He has the Brahma-angels traveling from the nadir to the zenith.

As a final example of the differences between Kern’s Sanskrit translation and Kumārajīva’s Chinese version we consider the Parable of the Magic City.

Murano begins the prose telling of the parable with:

“I will tell you a parable. Once upon a time there was a dangerous, bad road five hundred yojanas long. It was so fearful that no men lived in the neighborhood. Now many people wished to pass through this road in order to reach a place of treasures. They were led by a man, clever, wise, and well informed of the conditions of the dangerous road. He took them along this dangerous road, but halfway the people got tired of walking. They said to him, ‘We are tired out. We are also afraid of the danger of this road. We cannot go a step farther. Our destination is still far off. We wish to go back.’

In Kern’s telling we get:

By way of example, monks, suppose there is some dense forest five hundred yojanas in extent which has been reached by a great company of men. They have a guide to lead them on their journey to the Isle of Jewels, which guide, being able, clever, sagacious, well acquainted with the difficult passages of the forest, is to bring the whole company out of the forest. Meanwhile that great troop of men, tired, weary, afraid, and anxious, say: ‘Verily, Master, guide, and leader, know that we are tired, weary, afraid, and anxious; let us return; this dense forest stretches so far.’

In gāthās Murano offers:

Suppose there was a bad and dangerous road.
Many wild animals lived in the neighborhood.
No man was there; no water nor grass there.
The road was so fearful.

Many tens of millions of people
Wished to pass through this dangerous road.
The road was very long.
It was five hundred yojanas long.

The people had a leader.
He had a good memory.
He was wise and resolute in mind.
He could save people from dangers.

Getting tired,
The people said to him:
“We are tired.
We wish to go back.”

Kern keeps to the forest:

92. It is as if there were a forest dreadful, terrific, barren, without a place of refuge or shelter, replete with wild beasts, deprived of water, frightful for persons of no experience.

93. (Suppose further that) many thousand men have come to the forest, that waste track of wilderness which is fully five hundred yojanas in extent.

94. And he who is to act as their guide through that rough and horrible forest is a rich man, thoughtful, intelligent, wise, well instructed, and undaunted.

95. And those beings, numbering many koṭis, feel tired, and say to the guide: We are tired, Master; we are not able to go on; we should like now to return.’

Again, the message is clear even if the details diverge. You can’t fail to recognize the Lotus Sutra.

Next: Offering Clarity and Avoiding Errors

800years, WONS

800 Years: Do Not retreat

Therefore, even if the lords, whom you serve at the risk of your life, force you to abandon your faith or severe persecution befalls you, do not retreat. Instead muster your faith in the Lotus Sūtra, and regard it as a good opportunity to see whether or not deities keep the promise they made to the Buddha. Your steadfast faith will enable the soul of your father to become a Buddha and he will come to protect you. Then all the obstacles and challenges will disappear, and you will be able to enjoy living in ease and comfort. When you encounter oppression, therefore, gladly accept it as the moment of truth.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 10