Monthly Archives: May 2023

LS32

Day 1

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

Day 1 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the first words of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, we consider those who were present for the teaching.

Sakra-Devanam-Indra was also present. Twenty thousand gods were attending on him. There were also Beautiful-Moon God, Universal-Fragrance God, Treasure-Light God, and the four great heavenly-kings. Ten thousand gods were attending on them. Freedom God and Great-Freedom God were also present. Thirty thousand gods were attending on them. Brahman Heavenly-King who was the lord of the Saha-World, Great Brahman Sikhin, and Great Brahman Light were also present. Twelve thousand gods were attending on them.

There were also the eight dragon-kings: Nanda Dragon-King, Upananda Dragon-King, Sagara Dragon-King, Vasuki Dragon­King, Taksaka Dragon-King, Anavatapta Dragon-King, Manasvin Dragon-King, and Utpalaka Dragon-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants. There were also the four kiṃnara-kings: Dharma Kiṃnara-King, Wonderful-Dharma Kiṃnara-King, Great-Dharma Kiṃnara-King, and Dharma­Keeping Kiṃnara-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.

There were also the four gandharva-kings: Musical Gandharva­King, Musical-Voice Gandharva-King, Beautiful Gandharva-King, and Beautiful-Voice Gandharva-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.

There were also the four asura-kings: Balin Asura-King, Kharaskandha Asura-King, Vemacitrin Asura-King, and Rahu Asura-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.

There were also the four garuda-kings: Great-Power-Virtue Garuda-King, Great-Body Garuda-King, Great-Fulfillment Garuda­King, and Free-At-Will Garuda-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.

King Ajatasatru, who was the son of Vaidehi, was also present with his hundreds of thousands of attendants. They each worshipped the feet of the Buddha, retired, and sat to one side.

See The Story of Devadatta and Ajātaśatru

Petzold Nichiren

The Severer the Sickness, the Better Must Be the Medicine

It may appear contradictory that the age in which Buddhism sinks into utmost depravity and finally disappears is considered to be the same age in which the highest and purest teaching shall be made known to humanity. The principle commonly upheld in Mahāyāna is that teaching and capacity must be parallel or adapted to each other. In other words, a superior hearer needs a superior teaching and an inferior hearer an inferior teaching. Nichiren’s idea was just the opposite. According to him, the more inferior the hearer, the more superior teaching he needs. Or, the severer the sickness, the better must be the medicine. An inferior medicine cannot cure a severe sickness. In the same manner a teaching of low grade cannot bring enlightenment to men who have fallen very low. Men of high standard can turn to advantage even a low teaching, but people in deepest ignorance need the most sublime teaching to vanquish their spiritual darkness.

The most sublime teaching does of course not mean the most difficult teaching, but the most powerful and efficacious teaching. From the point of view of mental comprehensibility it may be quite easy. Nichiren does therefore not contradict himself when he says of the Mappō time and the teaching appropriate to it: “The sickness will be grievous, but the medicine light.” The most sublime teaching is a teaching of mystical essence that establishes a direct and intimate relation between the Buddha and the receiver and helps in bringing about his salvation.

Petzold, Buddhist Prophet Nichiren , p 59
Daily Dharma, d14b

Daily Dharma – May 19, 2023

Medicine-King! I will tell you.
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Is the most excellent sūtra
That I have ever expounded.

The Buddha sings these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. Our founder Nichiren explained that the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra lay not in its being more powerful than other Sūtras, but that it leads all beings, without exception, to the Buddha’s own enlightenment. Other teachings distinguish between those who can follow the Buddha Dharma and those who cannot. But this teaching assures everyone who hears it that they will become enlightened.

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

Innumerable

Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1

Having last month considered Chapter 3, Ten Beneficial Effects, we consider the first of the 10 beneficial effects of this sutra.

“O you of good intent! Would you like, furthermore, to hear of ten inconceivable powers for beneficial effect that this sutra also possesses, or would you not?”

The bodhisattva Fully Composed replied: “We gladly would like to hear!”

The Buddha said: “O you of good intent! First, this sutra can enable a bodhisattva—whose mind has not yet produced it—to generate the aspiration for enlightenment; can awaken a mind of compassion in one who lacks kindness and sympathy; can awaken in one who is fond of killing a mind of expansive mercy; can awaken in one in whom envy arises a mind of sympathetic joy; can awaken in one who is in bondage to desires a mind that can rise above them; can awaken in a selfish one a mind of consideration for others; can awaken in the mind of an arrogant one the attitude of proper behavior; can awaken in one who is quick to anger a mind that is given to forbearance; can awaken in one who becomes lazy in discipline a mind of appropriate endeavor; can awaken in one who has unceasing thoughts a mind directed toward tranquility; can awaken an insightful mind in one who is deluded and confused; can awaken in one who is not yet able to ferry others a mind to convey them to freedom; can awaken in one who commits the ten harmful acts a mind of the ten virtues; can inspire in the mind of one drawn to conditioned phenomena the intent to transcend cause and condition; can create in one who tends to withdraw from commitment a mind that is resolute; can awaken in one whose conduct is unrestrained a mind to exert self-control; and can awaken in one who has delusive worldly passions a mind to purge and be rid of them. O you of good intent! This is known as the inconceivable power of the first beneficial effect of this sutra.

See Levels of Understanding and Meaning

Petzold Nichiren

Nichiren’s Foundation of Tendai Teaching

In the exegesis of the Hoke-kyō, Nichiren follows the Tendai School and not the Sanron or Hossō school inasmuch as he interprets this text by taking the commentaries of Chisha Daishi (Tendai Daishi) and Myōraku Daishi (Keikei Tannen) for his foundation, and not the commentaries by Kajō Daishi or Jion Daishi. In short, he considers the Hoke-kyō from the standpoint of the One Vehicle rather than that of the Three Vehicles. Nichiren incorporates into his own system the whole Tendai philosophy. He adopts the classification of the Five Periods and the Eight Teachings; he acknowledges the doctrines of the Perfectly Amalgamated Three Truths (i.e. the Synthesis of vacuity and phenomenal reality in the Middle) and of the Identity of the One Mind and the Three Thousand (representing the totality of phenomena), and he upholds the practice of the Three Meditations in One Mind. He teaches the Oneness of the World. He proclaims that the whole universe in its essence is nothing but Buddha’s own body, so that even trees and grasses do not only attain Buddhahood, but are direct manifestations of Buddha. Similarly he maintains that the cosmos or the Tathāgata is our own body and soul; that the Buddha, Truth and Paradise are not outside of our own self; that Buddhahood can be attained in our present life and in our present body; that the Buddha, the mind and the living beings form One Unity. There is not one single important Tendai doctrine which is not a part of Nichiren’s system.

Petzold, Buddhist Prophet Nichiren , p 50-51
Daily Dharma, d29b

Daily Dharma – May 18, 2023

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The calamity of death is something we all will face eventually, whether it our own or that of those we love. The other calamities in our lives are relatively minor losses which can prepare us for this great calamity. The Bodhisattva World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of Compassion: the desire to benefit all beings. When we learn to use all of the suffering in our lives, especially the calamity of death, as a way to remove our delusions and benefit others, then we can see the world with the eyes of the Buddha and know the joy he declares is at the core of our being.

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: Attached to Sweet Scents

Having last month considered the function of the sense faculty of hearing, we consider the attachment to sweet scents.

Having completed self-amendment, the practitioner will see Many-Treasures Buddha emit a great bright golden-colored light. Shining everywhere in the eastern direction, and extending to worlds in all of the ten directions as well, it highlights innumerable buddhas whose bodies are the color of pure gold. In the skies in the eastern direction, these words will be richly intoned:

“Here is a buddha, a World-honored One, whose name is Splendid Virtue!26 Also here are innumerable buddhas emanated from him, sitting in the lotus posture on lion seats at the base of jewel trees. All of these World-honored Ones are engaged in the specialized focus of mind regarding their universal manifestation in any figure or form, and they are saying these words of praise: ‘Well done, you of good intent! Well done! You are now reciting and internalizing the Great Vehicle sutras! What you are taking to heart is the realm of buddhas!’ ”

After these words are spoken, Universal Sage Bodhisattva will once again expound a method of self-amendment for the practitioner’s sake:

“In your previous existences – throughout innumerable kalpas – because you so yearned for sweet scents, in every situation your evaluations of what you discerned were based upon attachment and you fell into the cycle of births and deaths (samsara). Accordingly, you must now contemplate the foundation of the Great Vehicle! The foundation of the Great Vehicle is the true reality of all things!

After hearing these words, the practitioner must cast his or her body to the ground and undertake further self-amendment. Having done so, the practitioner must then speak thus:

“Namaḥ Śākyamuni Buddha! Namaḥ stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha! Namaḥ all buddhas emanated from Śākyamuni Buddha in all of the ten directions!”

Having said this, he or she must universally pay homage thusly to the buddhas in the ten directions:

“Namaḥ Splendid Virtue Buddha of the East and all buddhas emanated from him!”

As if seeing each one of them with his or her own eyes, the practitioner should, with reverent thoughts, make offerings of incense and flowers. When finished paying homage, the practitioner must then formally kneel, place his or her palms together, and give praise to the buddhas with a variety of verses. After praising them, the practitioner must speak to matters of the ten harmful karmic actions and do self-amendment for his or her impurities. Having completed self-amendment, the practitioner should speak these words:

“In previous existences, throughout innumerable kalpas, I longed for scents, flavors, and contacts, and I produced many impurities. Throughout uncountable existences ever since, having such causes has resulted in my taking on various unsavory forms, being in hells and among hungry spirits and beasts, and being in faraway realms where there are wrong views. Today I avow harmful karmic acts like these! Taking refuge in the buddhas, masters of the correct Dharma, I acknowledge my impurities and I amend myself of them!”

When the self-amendment process is completed, the practitioner must again internalize and recite the Great Vehicle sutras without laziness of body or mind.

As a sort of follow-on for this peril of infatuation with scents, consider the Daily Dharma from Jan. 20, 2021, and its discussion of the Lotus Sutra’s attitude toward the sense of smell:

They also will be able to locate the Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas by smelling their bodies from afar. Even when they recognize all this by smell, their organ of smell will not be destroyed or put out of order. If they wish, they will be able to tell others of the differences [of those scents] because they remember them without fallacy.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. Our sense of smell is often unconscious. We associate smells with places, experiences or even people that we like or dislike. These smells can even cause an emotional reaction by causing us to relive a situation associated with that smell. In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha teaches that our everyday experiences are no different from enlightenment, that his great wisdom is not about how to escape from this world. It is about how to use the senses and abilities with which we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine.

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

Petzold Nichiren

Hommon on the Face, Shakumon Behind

The distinctions between shakumon and hommon are by no means a settled point, either between the two schools of Tendai and Nichiren or within the Nichiren School itself. In fact, soon after Nichiren’s death, an argument exploded within the school as to whether the shakumon, because of its inferiority, should be discarded and the hommon only retained; or whether both shakumon and hommon ought to be made use of to enhance the Hoke-kyō. The argument finally brought about a split into two schools. The Itchi or Union School harmonized shakumon and hommon by interpreting the former in the light of the latter; and the Shōretsu or Superiority and Inferiority School acknowledged only hommon and discarded shakumon. But the difficulty did not end here, since the Shōretsu School could come to no uniform opinion as to which chapters constituted the hommon.

Nichiren scholars, in their discussions of the relative characteristics of their own school and the Tendai School, concede that both are based on the same Hoke-kyō of pure perfect teaching. But the two schools are said to differ fundamentally in the following point. The Tendai Sect stands pre-eminently on the principle that “all Dharmas are True Form” (sho hōjissō), as taught in the Shakumon part of the Hoke-kyō, and on the philosophical principle of “reason-norm” (ri hō), that “the Trichiliocosm in a Moment of Consciousness” (ichi nen san zen). These two views imply the shakumon-standard (shakumon hon i). The doctrine of the Tendai School may therefore be characterized to be “Shakumon on the Face, hommon behind” (shaku men hon ri). The Nichiren Sect on the contrary considers as more important the concrete fact that “the Original Buddha had really become a Buddha long, long ago” (kuon jitsujō no hombutsu). This view is taught in the hommon part of the Hoke-kyō and implies the hommon-standard (hommon hon i). The doctrine of the Nichiren School may therefore be said to be “hommon on the Face, shakumon behind” (hon men shaku ri). Nichiren scholars conclude that from this it is very clear which of the two schools is the superior and which the inferior—the one standing on the shallow shakumon, the other on the profound hommon! Needless to say, this problem does not even exist for the Tendai Sect, since they acknowledge no difference of degree between shakumon and hommon.

Petzold, Buddhist Prophet Nichiren , p 47-48
Daily Dharma, d6b

Daily Dharma – May 17, 2023

I see that all living beings are burned by the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation. They undergo various sufferings because they have the five desires and the desire for gain…Notwithstanding all this, however, they are playing joyfully. They are not conscious of the sufferings. They are not frightened at the sufferings or afraid of them. They do not dislike them or try to get rid of them. They are running about this burning house of the triple world, and do not mind even when they undergo great sufferings.

The Buddha offers this explanation to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. He compares his teaching of suffering and Nirvāṇa to a father luring his children from a dangerous house with a promise of better toys. The children were so preoccupied with their own entertainment that they could not hear their father’s warning. In this triple world of beautiful forms, fascinating ideas and consuming desires, it is easy to stay with our childish games and ignore the Buddha’s teaching. Our maturity as Bodhisattvas comes when we set these aside for the benefit of all beings.

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

LS32

Day 32

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 32 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Śākyamuni Buddha’s response to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva’s vow, we conclude Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.

“Universal-Sage! If you see anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the later five hundred years after my extinction, you should think, ‘Before long be will go to the place of enlightenment, defeat Mara and his followers, attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, turn the wheel of the Dharma, beat the drum of the Dharma, blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, send the rain of the Dharma, and sit on the lion-like seat of the Dharma in the midst of the great multitude of gods and men.’

“Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra [in the later five hundred years] after [my extinction], will not be attached to clothing, bedding, food or drink, or any other thing for living. What he wishes will not remain unfulfilled. He will be able to obtain the rewards of his merits in his present life. Those who abuse him, saying, ‘You are perverted. You are doing this for nothing,’ will be reborn blind in their successive lives in retribution for their sin. Those who make offerings to rum and praise him, will be able to obtain rewards in their present life. Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives. Therefore, Universal-Sage! When you see the keeper of this sūtra in the distance, you should rise from your seat, go to him, receive him, and respect him just as you respect me.

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of the Encouragement of Universal-Sage, as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges obtained the dhārāṇis by which they could memorize hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings, and as many Bodhisattvas as the particles of dust of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds [understood how to] practice the Way of Universal-Sage.

When the Buddha expounded this sūtra, the great congregation including the Bodhisattvas headed by Universal-Sage, the Śrāvakas headed by Śāriputra, and the other living beings such as gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings, had great joy, kept the words of the Buddha, bowed [to him], and retired.

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

The Daily Dharma from Dec. 28, 2022, offers this:

Universal-Sage! If you see anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the later five hundred years after my extinction, you should think, ‘Before long he will go to the place of enlightenment, defeat Māra and his followers, attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, turn the wheel of the Dharma, beat the drum of the Dharma, blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, send the rain of the Dharma, and sit on the lion-like seat of the Dharma in the midst of the great multitude of gods and men.’

The Buddha gives this instruction to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren explained that the later five hundred years mentioned in this passage is the time in which we are living today. The Buddha is therefore talking about all of us who practice the Wonderful Dharma. When we can grow our capacity to respect each other as we respect the Buddha, it inspires the respect at the core of all beings, and transforms

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