Monthly Archives: January 2023

LS32

Day 17

Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.

Day 17 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās when the Buddha was a King seeking the Dharma in his previous existence, we learn the identity of the seer.

The Buddha said to the bhikṣus:

“The king at that time was a previous life of myself. The seer at that time was a previous life of Devadatta. Devadatta was my teacher. He caused me to complete the six pāramitās. He caused me to have loving-kindness, compassion, joy and impartiality. He caused me to have the thirty-two major marks and the eighty minor marks [of the Buddha]. He caused me to have my body purely gilt. He caused me to have the ten powers and the four kinds of fearlessness. He caused me to know the four ways to attract others. He caused me to have the eighteen properties and supernatural powers [of the Buddha]. He caused me to have the power of giving discourses. I attained perfect enlightenment and now save all living beings because Devadatta was my teacher.”

The Daily Dharma from Dec. 8, 2022, offers this:

I attained perfect enlightenment and now save all living beings because Devadatta was my teacher.

The Buddha makes this declaration in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. Devadatta was a cousin of the Buddha who became jealous of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Several times he tried to kill the Buddha. He also caused a split in the Buddha’s Sangha, and convinced a young prince to kill his father and usurp the throne. Devadatta was so evil that he fell into Hell alive. Despite all this, the Buddha credits Devadatta with helping him become enlightened, and assures Devadatta personally that he will become enlightened. This shows us that even those beings who create great harm have Buddha nature. They may not deserve our admiration, but they at least deserve our respect.

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

Important Matters

Sparking Great Joy

I wonder if in our time we have somehow relegated passion to the bin or feel it inappropriate, or even substandard to intellectual mastery. It’s as if intellectualism has been divorced from passion. Your words — whether eloquent or not — when coupled with your passion of faith can move people and cause them to become happy. Your passion for the Dharma and the joy it brings you can awaken the Buddha in those you meet. That little spark of your passion is like a small jolt of electricity that startles the slumbering Buddha, causing it to open its eyes and begin to seek out its full awakening. You may not see it, you may think your efforts are inconsequential, but that is the mistake of the intellect. In Chapter XXII we are told our mission is to cause people to have great joy simply by sharing any truth of the Buddha’s teachings. Causing people to have great joy is not about convincing someone of some intellectual or philosophical profundity. It is about having great joy in yourself for them and the Buddha already in their lives.

Important Matters, p 37
WONS, PhraseADay

The Buddha Dharma and the Worldly Law

SHOKYO TO HOKEKYO TONO NAN-I NO KOTO

Since the Buddha dharma is not understood correctly and is not believed righteously, the worldly law becomes disorderly. The Buddha dharma is like a body while the worldly law is like its shadow. When the body bends, its shadow also bends.

(Background : May 26, 1280, 58 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.1752)

DANNOTSU BO GOHENJI

To serve your master (in your work) is to practice the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The sutra says that worldly politics and economy are not against its ultimate reality.

(Background : April 11, 1278, 56 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.1493)

Explanatory note

An old Chinese book says that a wise man predicted destruction of his country because its people did not bother to comb their hair, and his prediction became true.

There is a Japanese saying, “Eyes are the windows of one’s mind.” The slightest movement of our eyes shows what we are thinking. Our thoughts are expressed in our attitudes, which become social movements.

Such matters are taught in Buddhism. But people generally think that Buddhism concerns individual’s inner self only. Nichiren Daishonin clarified this matter. Merely holding hands in gassho and reciting the sutra are not the practice of faith in Nichiren Buddhism. But faith must appear in our daily works.

We, Nichiren Buddhists, keep the teaching of “Rissho Ankoku,” that is, to establish the righteousness of the Buddha’s teaching is to secure the nation. We must understand that the social movement is the reflection of the people’s religion. We must remember that Nichiren Daishonin advised Kingo Shijo to stay on his work when Kingo wanted to quit his work for the sake of devotion to his faith. We must keep Nichiren’s advice in our minds and practice our faith in our home and work.

Rev. Kanai

Phrase A Day

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 19, 2023

If they hear the Dharma, some will attain enlightenment;
Others will be reborn in heaven.
The living beings in the evil regions will decrease;
And those who do good patiently will increase.

The Brahma-Heavenly-Kings of the Southwest sing these verses to Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They are imploring that Buddha to share his highest teaching with them, and demonstrating that they are ready to receive it. Those living in evil regions are in great difficulty, because they do not know how to keep from reinforcing their delusions and truly benefit themselves. When a Buddha appears to show all beings the world as it is, he helps us to shed our delusions. But we must still come to him and show through our respect for him that we are ready for his teaching.

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

LS32

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.

Day 16 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the difficulty in teaching this sutra, we conclude Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures with Hōtōge.

Good men!
Who will receive and keep this sūtra,
And read and recite it
After my extinction?
Make a vow before me
[To do all this]!

It is difficult to keep this sūtra.
I shall be glad to see
Anyone keeping it even for a moment.
So will all the other Buddhas.
He will be praised by all the Buddhas.
He will be a man of valor,
A man of endeavor.
He should be considered
To have already observed the precepts,
And practiced the dhuta.
He will quickly attain
The unsurpassed enlightenment of the Buddha.

Anyone who reads and recites this sūtra in the future
Is a true son of mine.
He shall be considered to live
On the stage of purity and good.

Anyone, after my extinction,
Who understands the meaning of this sūtra,
Will be the eye of the worlds
Of gods and men.

Anyone who expounds this sūtra
Even for a moment in this dreadful world,
Should be honored with offerings
By all gods and men.

[Here ends] the Fourth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

These verses have a distinctive beat. The origin of that beat is explained in Lotus in a Sea of Flames:

Hotoge words with beats

“I am no magistrate,” said the official. “I am not interested in your arguments. I am only interested in getting you onto that ship, out of Kamakura, and on to Izu. Now keep quiet!”

Nichiren put his palms together and bowed. His disciples cried out to him, some in tears. The guards kept back all but one. Nichiro, now a strong young man of 16, would not be cowed. He slipped past the guards and ran down to the boat just as it was being pushed off into the surf.

“Get back!” screamed the official.

But Nichiro would not get back. Crying for his master as he reached out to him, he waded out into the bay after the boat. Nichiren exhorted him to be calm, but his disciple was too overwrought and would not listen. “Take me with you!” He shouted again and again. Exasperated, the official took an oar and struck the young monk with bone shattering force. Clutching at his broken right arm, Nichiro finally backed away, his face white with pain.

Tears fell from Nichiren’s eyes as he saw his faithful disciple so brutalized. “Nichiro! Calm yourself. Is this how a disciple of the Buddha should act? From now on, when you see the sun setting in the west behind Izu, think of me. When I see the sun rising from the sea, I shall think of you.”

Nichiro nodded. “Forgive me, master.” Becoming faint, he went down on his knees in the water, sweat and tears coursing down his face. One of the guards finally reached him and escorted him back to where Nissho and the other monks were gathered.

As the boat moved away Nichiren began to chant the final verses from the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sutra, “It is difficult to keep this sutra. I shall be glad to see anyone keeping it even for a moment.” The rocking of the waves caused his voice to fade in and out, giving the recitation an odd rhythm. The passage ended with, “Anyone who expounds this sutra even for a moment in this dreadful world should be honored with offerings by all gods and men.” From that point on Nichiren knew that he and his disciples had truly become practitioners of the Lotus Sutra as its predictions of hardships that would be faced by the teachers of the True Dharma began to be fulfilled in their own lives.

Important Matters

The Roar of the Lion

I’m guessing the first time you recited the sutra alone you were just as shy and timid as in a group. To chant the sutra takes incredible courage. The sutra talks about the roar of the lion, yet when we first start chanting a lion is not what would come to mind for many. Over time you overcame those doubts and fears, you were manifesting the behavior of a lion, though you probably didn’t think about it at the time. The lion is fearless, and over time you become fearless in your recitation.

The lion, besides being fearless, focuses on the task at hand. So too, even though we may be confident in our recitation and chanting Odaimoku, we need to remain focused on the sutra, the task at hand, acquiring the nourishment of the Dharma.

“If a Phrase of the sutra fills your heart it will be an aid to reaching the other shore. By deeply reflecting on and mastering the Dharma it will become a great vessel for crossing over. Being able to see and hear the Dharma follows upon its joyful reception, as a vassal always follow after his lord. Whether somebody accepts this teaching or abandons it, they will form a causal connection with it through hearing. Whether somebody follows it or goes against it, they will finally be able to achieve liberation through hearing it.”

Venerable Ching-hsi, Hokkemongu-ki; Shutei Hoyo Shiki, page 392

It is noteworthy that the quote above does not say, ‘When you have memorized a phrase,’ nor does it say, ‘When you have comprehended a phrase.’ ”

Instead it says when your heart is full of the sutra – that is when you have joy and excitement, even irrationally. With that joy you have the tool you need to liberate yourself from suffering.

Important Matters, p 35-36
WONS, PhraseADay

Diligent Practice

TOKIDONO GOSHO

Nichiren’s followers must strive to attain Buddhahood by shortening sleeping hours and by cutting the time for rest. If not, you will repent forever.

(Background: August 23, 1277, 55 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.1373)

Explanatory note

Nichiren himself reached the realization that he is the manifestation of the Bodhisattva Visista Charitra (Jogyo Bosatsu) through his understanding and practice of the Lotus Sutra and through the four major and numerous lesser persecutions.
The above quotation is from the last section of his letter to Lord Toki, in which Daishonin shows what is expected of his followers. He says, “Do not sleep too long and do not waste time; concentrate on the attainment of Buddhahood at all times.”

How strict he was!

Such an intensity is required if we are to live for our faith. As we reflect on our behavior, we notice that some of us gladly torture ourselves to pass examinations, or we don’t complain of hardships if they were for the attainment of our business goals. But these are only transient goals. Our true goal has to be the perfection of ourselves as human beings. It is a difficult task indeed to keep the above oath in mind all the time. We must, however, continuously reaffirm the religious goal and never let it escape from our mind.

Rev. Ikuta

Phrase A Day

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 18, 2023

You skillfully expound the Dharma with various parables and similes,
And with various stories of previous lives.
Now my mind is as peaceful as the sea.
Hearing you, I have removed the mesh of doubts.

Śāriputra, the wisest of the Buddha’s disciples, sings these verses in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. After the Buddha announced in Chapter Two that he had not revealed his highest wisdom, that everything he had taught before then was preparation, Śāriputra was the first to understand what the Buddha meant. The parables, similes and other parts of the Lotus Sūtra help us to understand how to read them, and how to make them real in our lives. When we find the true purpose of what the Buddha is teaching us, our mind and the world become peaceful together.

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

LS32

Day 15

Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Day 15 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the requirements for expounding the Lotus Sutra, we consider the Buddha’s promise to manifest men and women to hear the dharma from the Teacher of the Dharma.

“Medicine-King! Although I shall be in another world [after my extinction], I will manifest men and women [by my supernatural powers], dispatch them [to the expounder of the Dharma], and have them collect people to hear the Dharma from him. I also will manifest monks, nuns and men or women of faith [by my supernatural powers], dispatch them, and have them hear the Dharma from them. These people manifested [by my supernatural powers] will hear the Dharma [from him], receive it by faith, follow it, and not oppose it. If he lives in a retired place, I will dispatch gods, dragons, demigods, gandharvas, asuras, and others to him, and have them hear the Dharma from him. Although I shall be in another world, I will cause him to see me from time to time. If he forgets a phrase of this sūtra, I will tell it to him for his complete [understanding].”

See The Teacher of the Dharma

Important Matters

Concentrated Meditative Active Presence

The concentration one can achieve by chanting can elevate the mind and life condition in ways I do not believe silent sitting can. The transcendent effect of meditation is multiplied when the mind is carried into the heart of the sutra or Odaimoku through concentrated meditative active presence.

Important Matters, p 34