This conception of the Buddha-nature, and of its realization in ourselves through worship, are consequences of the time-honored theory of the Threefold Personality (tri-kāya) of Buddha. But the characteristic feature in Nichiren’s ideas is that he never was content to talk of abstract truth, but always applied the truth taught to actual life, bringing it into vital touch with his own life. Ethics and metaphysics are never to be separated, but to be united in religion, and religion means a life actually embodying truth and virtue. Truths are revealed and virtues inculcated in the Lotus of Truth, and consequently the true religious life is equivalent to “reading the Scripture by person.” Thus, the essay, which begins with discussions of the metaphysical entity of Buddha-nature, proceeds naturally to a consideration of the Buddhist life, especially as exemplified in Nichiren’s own life. In it he says: …
“I, Nichiren, am the one who takes the lead of the Saints-out-of-Earth. Then may I not be one of them? If I, Nichiren, am one of them, why may not all my disciples and followers be their kinsmen? The Scripture says, “If one preaches to anybody the Lotus of Truth, even just one clause of it, he is, know ye, the messenger of the Tathāgata, the one commissioned by the Tathāgata, and the one who does the work of the Tathāgata.” How, then, can I be anybody else than this one? …
“By all means, awaken faith by seizing this opportunity! Live your life through as the one who embodies the Truth and go on without hesitation as a kinsman of Nichiren! If you are one in faith with Nichiren, you are one of the Saints-out-of-Earth; if you are destined to be such, how can you doubt that you are the disciple of the Lord Śākyamuni from all eternity? There is assurance of this in a word of Buddha, which says: “I have always, from eternity, been instructing and quickening all these beings.” No attention should be paid to the difference between men and women among those who would propagate the Lotus of the Perfect Truth in the days of the Latter Law. To utter the Sacred Title is, indeed, the privilege of the Saints-out-of-Earth. …
Monthly Archives: December 2022
Daily Dharma – Dec. 1, 2022
Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. When the Buddha taught in India 2500 years ago, people took for granted that their lives continued from previous lives and would continue on into future lives. Whatever comforts we enjoy or calamities we endure in this life were thought to be caused by what we did in our former lifetimes. Our actions today were thought to determine what happens in our future lives. To our modern understanding this can sound mystical and unlikely. But if we understand that everything, including our joy and suffering, has causes and conditions, whether or not we realize these results immediately, we know that the result of creating benefit is benefit, and the result of creating harm is harm. When we hold the happiness of all beings to be as precious as our own, we would no more mistreat others than we would want them to mistreat us.
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