Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 47-48Q: The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that “the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra emerges from the Prajn͂ā-pāramitā Sūtras.” Why does it not mention the Lotus Sutra? Why is the Lotus Sutra analogous to ghee?
A: The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is called “ghee,” and the Lotus Sutra is called “a meal fit for the great King.”
Q: Although you quote the phrase “a meal fit for the great King,” this is evidence for the meaning but not the text.
A: The Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra Upadeśa says [in reference to the Lotus Sutra], “Of these Five Flavors, ghee is supreme.” Therefore we know that the two Sūtras are both analogous to ghee. Also, the Buddha Dīpa [Moon and Sun Glow] expounded the Lotus Sutra and then proclaimed that at midnight he would enter Nirvāṇa. In the same way this Buddha [Śākyamuni] also first expounded the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and later expounded the Lotus Sutra. When the Buddha was Kāśyapa he also did the same thing; in all cases he did not explain the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. In all these cases the Lotus Sutra is the last teaching and the last flavor. Now the Buddha utilizes the Lotus Sūtra as ghee in order to bring to maturity those who are ready. He then [in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra] leads the remaining [sentient beings] to maturity through repeating [teachings concerning] prajña-wisdom and leads those [of the fourth Prajn͂ā-pāramitā period] to enter Nirvāṇa. Thus the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is used as the last teaching and last flavor. Also, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says, “By receiving an assurance of Buddhahood in the Lotus Sūtra, one perceives one’s potential for enlightenment, attains the great fruit [of Buddhahood], and undertakes no more action, as when the autumn harvest is done and placed in winter storage.”
Monthly Archives: March 2023
The Meditative Life
Today is the sixth day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. As explained in a Nichiren Shu brochure:
For Buddhists, this period is not just one characterized by days with almost equal portions of light and dark. Rather, it is a period in which we strive to consciously reflect upon ourselves and our deeds.
Each of the days before and after the equinox are devoted to one of the Six Paramitas, the practice of perfection taught to Bodhisattvas. Today we consider the fifth perfection, Meditation.
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 214The ideal of this fifth perfection is to live in a meditative frame of mind regardless of whether we happen to be meditating. The goal, therefore, is not always to be meditating, always to be practicing a preparatory activity, but rather to live in the spirit of composure and insight that the practice has produced.
Daily Dharma – March 22, 2023
How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.
The Brahma Heavenly-Kings of the Zenith sing these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They gave up their kingdoms, their subjects and their homes to travel across innumerable worlds to hear the Wonderful Dharma. They inspire our devotion by showing how important this teaching is to them. For us who know of the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni, we recognize that the Buddha exists everywhere, even in our triple world of form, formlessness and desire. When let go of the delusions that imprison us, and recognize this Buddha in our midst, we find ourselves in the Buddha’s pure land.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 10
Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.
Having last month considered the reaction of the 16 princes, we conclude today’s portion of Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.
“Thereupon the sixteen princes, having praised the Buddha with these gāthās, begged the World-Honored One to turn the wheel of the Dharma, saying, ‘World-Honored One! Expound the Dharma, and give peace and many benefits to gods and men out of your compassion towards them!’ They repeated this in gāthās:
You, the Hero of the World, are unequalled.
Adorned with the marks
Of one hundred merits,
You have obtained unsurpassed wisdom.
Expound the Dharma and save us
And other living beings of the world!Expound the Dharma, reveal the Dharma,
And cause us to obtain that wisdom!
If we attain Buddhahood,
Others also will do the same.You, the World-Honored One, know
What all living beings have deep in their minds,
What teachings they are practicing,
And how much power of wisdom they have.You know their desires, the merits they obtained,
And the karmas they did
In their previous existence.
Turn the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma!
The Daily Dharma from Sept. 21, 2022, offers this:
You, the World-Honored One, know
What all living beings have deep in their minds,
What teachings they are practicing,
And how much power of wisdom they have.
The children of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha proclaim this to their father in a story told by Śākyamuni Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. In our preoccupation with our pursuits in this world of conflict we are so focused on our schemes that we have forgotten the Buddha’s wisdom dormant in us all. With the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha leads us to an unfamiliar and even uncomfortable way of seeing the world. But it is only when we leave the false safety of our delusions that we can truly benefit ourselves and others.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Flavored Sūtras
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 45-47Q: What doctrines are being compared to these Five Flavors?
A: It is an analogy for the sequence of the Buddha’s teachings.
Q: What is this sequence?
A: The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is analogous to the flavor of milk. The Agamas are analogous to the flavor of cream. The Vaipulya texts are analogous to the flavor of curds. The Prajn͂ā-pāramitā Sūtras are analogous to the flavor of butter. The Lotus and Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtras are analogous to the flavor of ghee.
Q: Why is the Avataṃsaka Sūtra analogous to milk, and so forth to the Lotus and Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtras being analogous to ghee?
A: When the Buddha sat on the seat of enlightenment and first perfected complete awakening, he expounded purely on the Mahāyāna for the sake of the Bodhisattvas. This was like the sun, which upon rising first illumines the tall mountains. Milk is the beginning of all the flavors. It is analogous to the direct teachings [of the Buddha immediately after his enlightenment] being the core of all the teachings. Also, the analogy of the flavor of milk has two other meanings. First, it is the beginning of all his great deeds; and second, it is What the Buddha Taught, p
for the sake of those of inferior capabilities have not yet been taught. Therefore the [teachings of] the Avataṃsaka Sūtra are analogous to milk. Next, without moving from his place of enlightenment he magically went to the Deer Park and preached the sermon on the Four Noble Truths as arising and perishing. This is analogous to cream emerging from milk. Next, he expounded the teachings of the Vaipulya texts, the “Great Collection of Sutras,” the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, the Viśeṣcinta-brahmaparipṛcchā Sūtra and so forth, which praise the perfect and criticize the one-sided, extol the Mahāyāna and impugn the Hinayāna. This is analogous to curds emerging from cream. Next he preached all of the Prajn͂ā-pāramitā Sūtras, in which the explanation is left to Śāriputra, as the rich man passes on the household treasures to his son, and distinctions as to superior and inferior are integrated. This is analogous to butter emerging from curds. Next, the first four flavors are exposed as belonging ultimately to the Buddha-vehicle. This is analogous to ghee emerging from butter.
The Same Thing Done Energetically
Today is the fifth day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. As explained in a Nichiren Shu brochure:
For Buddhists, this period is not just one characterized by days with almost equal portions of light and dark. Rather, it is a period in which we strive to consciously reflect upon ourselves and our deeds.
Each of the days before and after the equinox are devoted to one of the Six Paramitas, the practice of perfection taught to Bodhisattvas. Today we consider the fourth perfection, Energy.
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 146It is easy to see how the capacity for energy of spirit might be important to the conception of the bodhisattva. Imagine a truly good person – thoughtful and compassionate in living – who in spite of that goodness lacks the vitality that significant accomplishments require. This person acts selflessly for the benefit of the community, but lacks energy.
Although meaningful contributions are made, they are insubstantial and limited – local in character. By contrast, imagine the same sort of person, thoughtful, compassionate and overflowing with energy and the capacity for focused work. The enlightening effect of the second far overshadows the first, even though their compassion and selflessness are equal. The difference between anything done meekly and that same thing done energetically is enormous, and justifies our attention.
Daily Dharma – March 21, 2023
The Buddhas of my replicas
As innumerable
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Also came here
From their wonderful worlds,
Parting from their disciples,
And giving up the offerings made to them
By gods, men and dragons,
In order to hear the Dharma,
See Many-Treasures Tathāgata,
Who passed away [a long time ago],
And have the Dharma preserved forever.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddhas of his replicas inhabit countless other worlds in the universe, and enjoy the status and benefit of being enlightened in those worlds. Despite the honor they receive in those worlds, they happily come to hear the Buddha teach the Wonderful Dharma. As our pleasures seem small compared to those of a Buddha, so a Buddha’s pleasures seem small compared to the Wonderful Dharma.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 9
Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.
Having last month considered how the Buddha is like a cloud watering the world, we consider how those who hear the Dharma grow differently according to their species.
“Kāśyapa, know this! I, the Tathāgata, am like the cloud. I appeared in this world just as the large cloud rose. I expounded the Dharma to gods, men and asuras of the world with a loud voice just as the large cloud covered all the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds. I said to the great multitude, ‘I am 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. I will cause all living beings to cross [the ocean of birth and death] if they have not yet done so. I will cause them to emancipate themselves [from suffering] if they have not yet done so. I will cause them to have peace of mind if they have not yet done so. I will cause them to attain Nirvana if they have not yet done so. I know their present lives as they are, and also their future lives as they will be. I know all. I see all. I know the Way. I have opened the Way. I will expound the Way. Gods, men and asuras! Come and hear the Dharma!’
“Thereupon many thousands of billions of people came to hear the Dharma from me. Having seen them, I knew which were clever, which were dull, which were diligent, and which were lazy. Therefore, I expounded to them an innumerable variety of teachings according to their capacities in order to cause them to rejoice and receive benefits with pleasure. Having heard these teachings, they became peaceful in their present lives. In their future lives, they will have rebirths in good places, enjoy pleasures by practicing the Way, and hear these teachings again. After hearing these teachings again, they will emancipate themselves from all hindrances, practice the teachings according to their capacities, and finally enter the Way, just as the grasses and trees in the thickets and forests, which were watered by the rain from the same large cloud, grew differently according to their species.
The Daily Dharma from March 6, 2023, offers this:
I know the Way. I have opened the Way. I will expound the Way. Gods, men and asuras! Come and hear the Dharma!
The Buddha makes this declaration at the beginning of Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. If anyone besides the Buddha had said this, we would accuse them of arrogance: pretending to know what they do not. The Buddha does not separate himself from us. Because he knows we can become as enlightened as he is, he does not place himself as superior. He also knows that unless we hear him, he cannot help us to become enlightened. To accept this help means taking responsibility for our progress on the path. We cannot continue alone but we must make our own effort.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Uniform Scent of the Lotus Sutra
This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
In Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, we are told that those “who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind.” That’s how Senchu Murano renders in English Kumārajīva’s Chinese text. H. Kern’s English translation of an 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit document is essentially identical, other than the fact that Kern numbers it Chapter 18, The Advantages of a Religious Preacher.
To show how close the two are, I put the gāthās for the eight hundred merits of the nose side by side. Here’s a PDF showing the results.
Below are the handful of verses where I felt the meaning diverged enough to note.
| Murano | Kern |
|---|---|
| Anyone who keeps This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma Will be able to know by smell Whether the gods are walking, sitting, playing or performing wonders. |
28. The wise man who keeps this exalted Sūtra recognizes, by the power of a good-smelling organ, a woman standing, sitting, or lying; he discovers wanton sport and magic power. |
| He will be able to know by smell Whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl, Or a child of ambiguous sex, Or the embryo of a nonhuman being. |
34. He infers from the odor, whether the child that women, languid from pregnancy, bear in the womb be a boy or a girl. |
| He will be able to know by smell Whether a woman is an expectant mother, Or whether she will give an easy birth To a happy child or not. |
35. He can discern if a woman is big with a dead child; he discerns if she is subject to throes, and, further, if a woman, the pains being removed, shall be delivered of a healthy boy. |
| He will be able to know by smell What a man or a woman is thinking of, Or whether he or she is greedy, ignorant or angry, Or whether he or she is doing good. |
36. He guesses the various designs of men, he smells (so to say) an air of design; he finds out the odor of passionate, wicked, hypocritical, or quiet persons. |
| He will be able to know by smell Whether a heavenly palace Adorned with jeweled flowers Is superior, mean or inferior. |
40. By the power of his organ of smell he, without leaving his stand on earth, perceives how and whose are the aerial cars, of lofty, low, and middling size, and other brilliant forms shooting (through the firmament). |
Murano’s addition of “Or a child of ambiguous sex, Or the embryo of a nonhuman being” compared to Kern’s verse 34 prompted a check of the other English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra. All agree.
The BDK English Tripiṭaka translation offers:
They can smell and discriminate exactly
The scent of a pregnant woman
And determine whether the embryo
Will be male or female,
Without sex organs, or nonhuman.
The 1975 Rissho Kōsei-kai translation offers:
If there be a woman with child,
Who discerns not yet its sex,
Male, female, organless, or inhuman,
He, by smell, can discern it.
Leon Hurvitz, who used both Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation and a Sanskrit compilation of the Lotus Sutra, offers:
If there are pregnant women,
And it is not yet known whether theirs will be boy or girl,
Or defective or monstrous,
By smelling their scents he can know in each case.
This chapter exemplifies the uniformity of the Lotus Sutra message despite inconsequential differences.
Next: Expiating Sins
Five Flavors Scriptural Support
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 45-46Q: What Sutra contains the text explaining the Five Flavors?
A: The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra.Q: What does the text say?
A: This Sutra says, “It is analogous to a cow giving milk. Cream emerges from the milk. Curds emerge from the cream. Butter emerges from the curds. Ghee emerges from the butter. The twelvefold scripture emerges from the Buddha. …” The Sutras emerge from the twelvefold scripture. The Vaipulya texts emerge from these Sutras. The Prajn͂ā-pāramitā Sūtras emerge from the Vaipulya texts. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra emerges from the Prajn͂ā-pāramitā Sūtras.