Monthly Archives: August 2023

Daily Dharma, WONS

Daily Dharma – Aug. 16, 2023

The written words of the Lotus Sutra express in a visible and tangible form the Brahma’s voice of the Buddha, which is invisible and intangible, so that we can see and read them with our eyes. The Buddha’s pure and immaculate voice, which had disappeared, is resuscitated in the form of written characters for the benefit of humankind.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Opening the Eyes of Buddhist Images, Wooden Statues or Portraits (Mokue Nizō Kaigen no Koto). Living in this world, 2500 years after the Buddha Śākyamuni walked the Earth, it is difficult to hear his voice leading us to enlightenment and encouraging us to let go of our attachments. In the Lotus S̄ūtra we have an instrument for creating the Buddha’s voice in our own time. This is his highest teaching. It brings all beings to liberation, whether they are clever or dull, stupid or wise, focused or distracted. It reminds us of our true nature as Bodhisattvas who chose this life out of our determination to benefit all beings. It shows us how to transform the poison of suffering into the medicine of compassion, and the poison of ignorance into the medicine of wisdom.

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

LS32

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās the pure world of the Buddha, we conclude Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

To those who have accumulated merits,
And who are gentle and upright,
And who see me living here,
Expounding the Dharma,
I say:
“The duration of my life is immeasurable.”
To those who see me after a long time,
I say, “It is difficult to see a Buddha.”

I can do all this by the power of my wisdom.
The light of my wisdom knows no bound.
The duration of my life is innumerable kalpas.
I obtained this longevity by ages of practices.

All of you, wise men!
Have no doubts about this!
Remove your doubts, have no more!
My words are true, not false.

The physician, who sent a man expediently
To tell his perverted sons
Of the death of their father in order to cure them,
Was not accused of falsehood although he was still alive.

In the same manner, I am the father of the world.
I am saving all living beings from suffering.
Because they are perverted,
I say that I pass away even though I shall not.
If they always see me,
They will become arrogant and licentious,
And cling to the five desires
So much that they will fall into the evil regions.

I know who is practicing the Way and who is not.
Therefore I expound various teachings
To all living beings
According to their capacities.

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

The Daily Dharma from July 15, 2023, offers this:

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

The Buddha sings these verses at the end of Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this chapter he revealed his existence as the Buddha who lives throughout time and space rather than in the limited human body in which we recognize him. When we realize that all the moments of our lives, all the joys and grief we face, all the people and other beings we encounter are in truth the Buddha leading us towards his own enlightenment, we see the Buddha in his true form, and we see the world for what it is.

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

Stone: Tanaka Millennialism

The Terrorist Nichiren

[Among those individuals, for whom imperialist aspirations, inflated to the proportion of millennial visions, inspired and legitimated violence], an important example is the revolutionary Kita Ikki (1883-1937), who advocated national socialism and strong imperial rule. …
Japan’s destiny, in Kita’s view, was to lead the rest of Asia in throwing off the yoke of Western imperialism and to spearhead a  world socialist revolution.
In making this proposal, Kita clearly saw himself as a second Nichiren, remonstrating with government leaders in an attempt to save the country from disaster. Both the Gaishi’s introduction and final chapter—titled “The Mongol Invasion by Britain and Germany,” a reference to European interests in China—speak of the Gaishi as the “Taishō ankoku ron”: Just as Nichiren had risked his life to warn the authorities of foreign invasion in the thirteenth century, Kita now sought to protect the nation by warning against the threat posed by Western imperialism in the Taishō era (1912-26) (1959a, 4, 203). By the 1930s variations on the theme of a Japan-led Pan-Asianism had gained wide support; Kita was among the first to connect it with the new Lotus millennialism.
Kita’s vision also entailed aggressive military conquest culminating in world peace, with Japan presiding over a union of nations. Like Tanaka Chigaku, who may briefly have influenced him, Kita equated Nichiren’s teaching of shakubuku with the forcible extension of empire. The specifically Nichirenist elements in Kita’s vision had less to do with the ideal world that would be achieved under Japanese rule than with the new Nichirenshugi rhetoric of shakubuku as legitimating the violence necessary to accomplish it. The Buddha, Kita said, had manifested himself as the Meiji emperor, and “clasping the eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra of compassion and shakubuku,” waged the Russo-Japanese War. Now China, too, was “clearly thirsting for salvation by shakubuku” (161, 154).
Just as the Lord Śākyamuni [Buddha] prophesied of old, the flag  bearing the sun, of the nation of the rising sun, is now truly about to illuminate the darkness of the entire world. … What do I have to hide? I am a disciple of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren, my elder brother in the teachings, taught the Koran of compassionate shakubuku, but the sword has not been drawn. He preached the doctrine of world unification but it has yet to reach China or India. … Without the  Lotus Sutra, China will remain in everlasting darkness; India will in the end be unable to achieve her independence, and Japan too will perish. … Drawing the sword of the Dharma, who in the Final Dharma age will vindicate [the prediction of] Śākyamuni? (201, 203, 204)
… In 1936, leading some fourteen hundred men, [Kita] attempted a coup d’état, assassinating several government officials and seizing the center of Tokyo. … Along with the insurrectionist leaders, Kita was arrested for complicity and executed the following year.
Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p269-271
Daily Dharma, WONS

Daily Dharma – Aug. 15, 2023

The “mutual possession of ten realms” doctrine is as difficult to maintain as it is to see fire in a rock or flowers in wood. However it is not totally impossible because rocks spark when struck together and a tree blooms in spring. It is most difficult to believe that the realm of Buddhas is contained in the realm of humans because it is like saying that fire is in water or water in fire.

Nichiren wrote this in his treatise on Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable (Kanjin Honzon-Shō). “Mutual Expression of Ten Realms” is one of the more difficult ideas from the Chinese Master T’ien-t’ai. Nichiren uses it to illustrate what the Buddha teaches in the Lotus Sūtra: that Buddha nature is contained within all beings. Even though this idea is difficult, we can see it in the transformations of everyday objects we encounter: rocks, fire, flowers and trees. With his similes, Nichiren reminds us that with the Lotus Sūtra as our guide, we can see the Buddha Dharma in all aspects of our lives.

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

LS32

Day 20

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās the Buddha’s reply to Maitreya’s question, we consider the Buddha’s explanation that he taught the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, having sung these gāthās, said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:

Now I will tell all of you in this great multitude, Ajita! [I know that] you have never seen these great, innumerable, asaṃkhya Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground. After I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi in this Sahā-World, I taught these Bodhisattvas, led them, trained them, and caused them to aspire for enlightenment. They lived in the sky below this Sahā-World. When they were there, they read many sūtras, recited them, understood them, thought them over, evaluated them, and remembered them correctly. Ajita! These good men did not wish to talk much with others [about things other than the Dharma] but to live in a quiet place. They practiced the way strenuously without a rest. They did not live among gods and men. They had no hindrance in seeking profound wisdom. They always sought the teaching of the Buddha. They sought unsurpassed wisdom strenuously with all their hearts.”

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Ajita, know this, these great Bodhisattvas
Have studied and practiced
The wisdom of the Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.

They are my sons because I taught them
And caused them to aspire for great enlightenment.
They have been living in this world
[For the past innumerable kalpas].

They always practiced the dhuta.
They wished to live in a quiet place.
They kept away from bustling crowds.
They did not wish to talk much.

These sons of mine studied my teachings
Strenuously day and night
In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha.
They lived in the sky
Below this Sahā-World.

Resolute in mind,
They always sought wisdom,
And expounded
Various wonderful teachings without fear.

I once sat under the Bodhi-tree
In the City of Gaya,
Attained perfect enlightenment,
And turned the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma.

Then I taught them,
And caused them to aspire £or enlightenment.
Now they do not falter [in seeking enlightenment].
They will be able to become Buddhas.

My words are true.
Believe me with all your hearts!
I have been teaching them
Since the remotest past.

The Daily Dharma from June 28, 2023, offers this:

My words are true.
Believe me with all your hearts!
I have been teaching them
Since the remotest past.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva and others gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. Maitreya had never seen any of the other Bodhisattvas who sprang up from underground in this chapter, despite his memory of previous lives and other worlds. The Buddha explains that the beings who had just appeared are also his disciples and have come to spread this Wonderful Dharma in our world. Nichiren teaches that when he realized that he was an incarnation of Superior-Practice, the leader of the Bodhisattvas from underground, then all of us who follow Nichiren and continue to keep the Lotus Sūtra are the followers of Superior-Practice. We do not need to wait for someone to come to our world and lead us. The world does not need anyone other than those already here to teach the Dharma. We are the Bodhisattvas from underground.

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

Stone: Tanaka Millennialism

Tanaka’s Righteous War

Tanaka and the Kokuchūkai endorsed war in a “righteous” cause— extending the sacred Japanese kokutai to all peoples. There were also individuals, not necessarily affiliated with religious bodies, for whom imperialist aspirations, inflated to the proportion of millennial visions, inspired and legitimated violence. This was especially evident in the 1930s, a time of economic depression, affecting especially agrarian workers, and of a perceived inability of bureaucrats to deal with problems at home and abroad. This period saw a number of political assassinations and attempted coups d’état led by disaffected military officers and other right-wing elements seeking to remove “corrupt” officials intervening between the emperor and his people and “restore” direct imperial rule. Ultimately unsuccessful, their actions nonetheless had the effect of increasing the political power of the military and of right-wing influence in government. Some of these insurrectionists drew selective inspiration from the new Nichirenist millennialism, such as Tanaka’s equation of shakubuku with territorial conquest, as well as from Nichiren’s own emphasis on readiness to sacrifice one’s life if needed for the spread of Dharma (on Nichirenist-inspired terrorism, see Tokoro 1972, 174-88).

Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p269
Daily Dharma, WONS

Daily Dharma – Aug. 14, 2023

If his writings are against the teachings of the Buddha, no matter how hard one might believe them, one will never attain Buddhahood. No matter how much one prays for peace and tranquility for the country, only deplorable events will take place.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Prayers (Kitō-shō), commenting on the writings of a priest who did not hold the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha’s highest teaching. Because the Lotus Sutra assures the enlightenment of all beings who teach and practice the Wonderful Dharma, it is what brings peace and tranquility to the world.

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

LS32

Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Day 19 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the parable of the gem in the top-knot in gāthās, we consider the prediction for those who read this sūtra.

Anyone who seeks
The enlightenment of the Buddha
And wishes to expound this sūtra
In peaceful ways after my extinction,
Should practice
These four sets of things.

Anyone who reads this sūtra
Will be free from grief,
Sorrow, disease or pain.
His complexion will be fair.
He will not be poor,
Humble or ugly.

All living beings
Will wish to see him
Just as they wish to see sages and saints.
Celestial pages will serve him.

He will not be struck with swords or sticks.
He will not be poisoned.
If anyone speaks ill of him,
The speaker’s mouth will be shut.
He will be able to go anywhere
As fearless as the lion king.
The light of his wisdom will be
As bright as that of the sun.

The Daily Dharma from Aug. 2, 2023, , offers this:

Anyone who reads this sūtra
Will be free from grief,
Sorrow, disease or pain.
His complexion will be fair.
He will not be poor,
Humble or ugly.
All living beings
Will wish to see him
Just as they wish to see sages and saints.
Celestial pages will serve him.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. When we cultivate the mind of the Buddha, and bring his teachings to life, we help other beings find true happiness. This is different from our normal pattern of attempting to manipulate what others think about us through bribery, threats, and other forms of coercion. When we help others find their minds, they realize that they share our true mind of joy and peace.

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

Stone: Tanaka Millennialism

The Lotus Sutra as Japan’s National Destiny

From about the time of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), the Lotus Sutra became increasingly fused in Tanaka’s thought with the idea of the Japanese kokutai, or national essence, the ideological pillar of Meiji nationalism, said by many nationalist thinkers to have descended in an unbroken line from the Sun Goddess and her divine grandson, Emperor Jinmu, legendary founder of Japan. “The truth of the Lotus Sutra and the Japanese national essence form one another, like front and back, and are mutually dependent, like essence and function. Truly, this is the Great Way of nonduality,” he declared (Tanaka 1936, 163). Tanaka developed a Japan-centered hermeneutic by which he read the Lotus Sutra as a revelation of national destiny. For example, the word “thus” of “Thus have I heard” in the sutra’s opening passage he interpreted as the Japanese national essence; the “heavenly drums [that] resound of their own accord” when the Buddha preaches, as Japan’s mission of world unification; and the Buddha’s supernatural powers, as Japan’s military victories against China and Russia (102, 103, 107; Tanabe 1989, 199-206). Tanaka began to invoke the rhetoric of the mythic origins of the Japanese state—also prominent in the discourse of state Shinto—when he spoke of Japan’s “heavenly task” of world unification as a mandate inherited from Emperor Jinmu, whom he saw as reincarnated in the Meiji emperor. Though he urged the revival of Nichiren’s spirit of shakubuku, in making these ideological moves, Tanaka radically departed from Nichiren, who had strictly subordinated to the Lotus Sutra both the Japanese deities and the ruler’s authority. Tanaka’s identification of the Lotus Sutra with the Japanese national essence raised the latter to a status of universal significance and in effect equated the spread of Nichiren Buddhism with the extension of Japanese empire. It also served to justify militarism and aggression on the Asian continent (Lee 1975, 28-33; Nakano 1977, 165-72, 189-95; Tokoro 1966, 78-79).

Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p268
Daily Dharma, d15b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 13, 2023

Thereupon a loud voice of praise was heard from within the stūpa of treasures: “Excellent, excellent! You, Śākyamuni, the World-Honored One, have expounded to this great multitude the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Teaching of Equality, the Great Wisdom, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas. So it is, so it is. What you, Śākyamuni, the World-Honored One, have expounded is all true.”

This declaration comes from Many-Treasures Buddha (Tahō, Prabhutaratna) at the beginning of Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, Many-Treasures came from a world far away from this world of conflict when he heard the Buddha giving his highest teaching and appeared in a tower (stūpa) of wonderful treasures to confirm the truth of this teaching. By the Teaching of Equality, he means that all beings can become enlightened through this teaching. By the Great Wisdom, he means that the teaching is the same as the Buddha’s own mind. By the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, he means that to receive this teaching we awaken to our natures to benefit all beings. And by the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas, he means that all Buddhas in all worlds encourage and help those who practice this sūtra.

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