Monthly Archives: January 2024

LS32

Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Day 31 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the two sons’ efforts to show some wonders to their father, we consider the reaction of the father to the sons’ wonders.

“Seeing [these wonders displayed by] the supernatural powers of his sons, the father had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He joined his hands together towards his sons [staying in the sky], and said, ‘Who is your teacher? Whose disciples are you?’

“The two sons said, ‘Great King! Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, who is now sitting on the seat of the Dharma under the Bodhi-tree of the seven treasures, is expounding the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to all the gods and men of the world. He is our teacher. We are his disciples.

“The father said to them, ‘I also wish to see your teacher. I will go with you.’

“Thereupon the two sons descended from the sky, came to their mother, joined their hands together, and said to her, ‘Our father, the king, has now understood the Dharma by faith. He is now able to aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. We did the work of the Buddha for the sake of our father. Mother! Allow us to renounce the world and practice the Way under that Buddha!’

“Thereupon the two sons, wishing to repeat what they had said, said to their mother in gāthās:

Mother! Allow us to renounce the world
And become śramaṇas!
It is difficult to see a Buddha.
We will follow that Buddha and study.
To see a Buddha is as difficult
As to see an udumbara[-flower ]
To avert a misfortune is also difficult.
Allow us to renounce the world!

“The mother said, ‘I allow you to renounce the world because it is difficult to see a Buddha.’

“Thereupon the [father came to them. The] two sons said to their parents, ‘Excellent, Father and Mother! Go to Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, see him, and make offerings to him because to see a Buddha is as difficult as to see an udumbara flower or as for a one-eyed tortoise to find a hole in a floating piece of wood! We accumulated so many merits in our previous existence that we are now able to meet the teachings of the Buddha in this life of ours. Allow us to renounce the world because it is difficult to see a Buddha, and also because it is difficult to have such a good opportunity as this to see him.’

“Thereupon the eighty-four thousand people in the harem of King Wonderful-Adornment became able to keep the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Daily Dharma from July 3, 2023, offers this:

To see a Buddha is as difficult
As to see an udumbara[-flower].
To avert a misfortune is also difficult.

These verses are sung by two sons of a king in a story told by the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, the boys have heard the Dharma from a previous Buddha and are asking permission from their parents to leave home and follow that Buddha. The legend of the udumbara flower is that it only blooms every 3000 years. Meeting a Buddha is not to be taken for granted. However, it is still important to remember the ties of our families. Rather than leaving in secret from their home, the sons’ asking permission from their parents creates more benefits. The King and Queen accompany their sons and learn the Wonderful Dharma. As Bodhisattvas it is important to use our relationships wisely as we lead all beings to enlightenment.

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

mappō, Nattier Decline

Once upon a Future Time: Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval

An examination of the contexts in which Skt. Paścimakāle and its Tibetan and Chinese counterparts are found in the Buddhist sūtra literature provides further evidence that this phrase was originally intended to be read in the sense of a “latter” or “future” age, not as a “final age” in the superlative sense. Most telling is the fact that this “latter age” is never contrasted with any earlier period other than the lifetime of the Buddha himself, where such a contrast regularly takes the …”after the death of the Tathāgata, in the latter time, in the latter period, in the latter five hundred years.” Just as the expression saddharma-pratirūpaka regularly refers simply to the duration of the Dharma after the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha, so in these instances paścimakāle (and its more extended equivalent) seems to refer simply to the period following the Buddha’s death.

Most interesting from the point of view of the historian of Buddhism, however, is the evident agenda that seems to have led to the use of this expression in sūtras produced by Mahāyāna writers. For the expression is used, in the vast majority of cases, in contexts where the Buddha is described as recommending “this sūtra” (i.e., the Mahāyāna sūtra in which the expression appears) for circulation among Buddhist believers after his death. The expression Paścimakāle serves, in other words, as a kind of “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” certifying the sūtra in question for acceptance and dissemination in the latter (i.e., the post-Śākyamuni) age.

In light of this evidence it is particularly interesting to recall where the expression mo-shih does, and does not, appear in the Chinese translation literature. It does not appear (according to the Taishō index) anywhere in the Āgamas (i.e., the non-Mahāyāna sūtras) or in the abhidharma literature, and only two occurrences are registered in the vinaya texts. The overwhelming majority of appearances of the term are found in the Mahāyāna sūtras, with another sizeable group of occurrences in the mi-chiao (tantric) literature. The term seems to have been most popular, in other words, in the Mahāyāna sūtras, where—by stating explicitly that the Buddha promised vast merits to those who would accept and transmit the sūtra in question after his death —it served as a certification of their legitimacy.

This evidence concerning the motive for the use of the term, together with the fact that this “latter age” is never explicitly contrasted with any earlier period in the history of Buddhism (other than the lifetime of the Buddha himself), brings us to a rather unexpected conclusion: that the expression “in the latter age” (Skt. paścimakāle) was originally introduced into Buddhist discourse simply as a reference to the time after the death of the Buddha. Just as in the case of saddharma-pratirūpaka discussed above, it would seem that the idea of a “latter time” originally implied no periodization whatsoever within the lifetime of the Dharma after the Buddha’s Parinirvāṇa, but simply referred to this era as a whole.

Once Upon A Future Time, p108-109

It is noteworthy that a substantial proportion of the traditions in this category [external causes for the decline of Buddhism] are found in Mahāyāna texts, while those in the internal causes category are found almost exclusively in Nikāya Buddhist works. It is tempting to draw doctrinal conclusions from this asymmetry; yet the more important distinction, perhaps, is that the Mahāyāna sūtras in fact almost never predict the actual demise of the Dharma, except where they have inherited (and maintained) certain pre-Mahāyāna accounts. Even in these cases the Mahāyāna texts frequently modify these accounts, indicating that the Dharma will only appear to die out, but will not actually do so.

Once Upon A Future Time, p127, note 21
Daily Dharma, d27b

Daily Dharma – Jan. 8, 2024

But the merits to be given to the person who fills the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds with the seven treasures and offers that amount of the seven treasures to the Buddhas, to the Great Bodhisattvas, to the Pratyekabuddhas, and to the Arhats, are less than the merits to be given to the person who keeps even a single gāthā of four lines of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra. Generosity is the first of the perfections of a Bodhisattva, a being who vows to delay their own enlightenment so that they can benefit others. The offering of material goods helps remove the suffering caused by our sense of self-importance, and prepares us for the Buddha’s highest teaching. By offering the Buddha’s wisdom, embodied in this Lotus Sūtra, we benefit all beings.

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

LS32

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Day 30 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered World-Holding Heavenly-King’s spells, we meet the rākṣasas and the Mother of Devils.

There are rākṣasas called 1. Lambā, 2. Vilambā, 3. Crooked-Teeth, 4. Flower-Teeth, 5. Black-Teeth, 6. Many-Hairs, 7. Insatiable, 8. Necklace-Holding, 9. Kuntī, and 10. Plunderer-Of-Energy-Of-All-Beings. These ten rākṣasas [and their attendants] came to the Buddha, together with Mother-Of-Devils and her children and attendants. They said to the Buddha simultaneously:

“World-Honored One! We also will protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma so that he may have no trouble. No one shall take advantage of the weak points of this teacher of the Dharma.”

Then they uttered spells before the Buddha:

“Ideibi (1), ideibin (2), ideibi (3), adeibi ( 4), ideibi (5), deibi (6), deibi (7), deibi (8), deibi (9), deibi (10), rokei (11), rokei (12), rokei (13), rokei (14), takei (15), takei (16), takei (17), tokei (18), tokei (19).”

[They said to the Buddha:]

“Anyone may step on our heads, but shall not trouble this teacher of the Dharma. Neither shall any yakṣa, rākṣasa, hungry spirit, pūtana, kṛtya, vetāda, kumbhāṇḍa, umāraka, apasmāraka, yakṣa-kṛtya or human kṛtya. Neither shall anyone who causes others to suffer from a fever for a day, two days, three days, four days, seven days or forever. Neither shall anyone who takes the shape of a man, a woman, a boy or a girl and appears in his dream.”

The Daily Dharma from July 18, 2023, offers this:

These ten rākṣasīs [and their attendants] came to the Buddha, together with Mother-Of-Devils and her children and attendants. They said to the Buddha simultaneously: “World-Honored One! We also will protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma so that he may have no trouble. No one shall take advantage of the weak points of this teacher of the Dharma.”

These fierce demons make this promise to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. Mother-of-Devils, also known as Kishimojin, was once a demon who stole and ate human children, until the Buddha reminded her that humans loved their children in the same way she loved her own. The Buddha does not judge or condemn any being. Instead he uses his insight to transform our understanding to see the harm we create in the world through satisfying our selfish desires. When we work for the benefit of all beings, we find all beings working for our benefit also.

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

mappō, Nattier Decline

Once upon a Future Time: The Latter Time

Whatever mo-shih (that is, Paścimakāle) may have meant in these texts, it was clearly not a third period occurring after an era of hsiang-fa.

We must return, therefore, to the contexts in which this expression is used to determine its original meaning. Here our task is made easier by the fact that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the context is quite consistent: the term occurs in the context of a discussion of the merit to be derived from the acceptance, maintenance, and distribution of a given sūtra—that is, the sūtra in which the passage in question appears. A typical example is found in one of the earliest Mahāyāna scriptures, the Lotus Sūtra:

One should always reverentially salute him with joined hands, as if he were the Chief of Jinas or the Self-born, he who in the fearful latter time (Skt. Paścimakāle [sic]) upholds this sūtra [i.e., the Lotus Sūtra of the Extinct [Buddha].

Those who accept the legitimacy of the Lotus Sūtra and uphold its teachings after the death of the Buddha, in other words, are worthy of the reverence of the world.

Once Upon A Future Time, p106-107
Daily Dharma, d18b

Daily Dharma – Jan. 7, 2024

A bhikṣu who expounds this Sūtra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
With patience
After my extinction,
Will be emancipated
From jealousy, anger, and other illusions,
That is to say, from all obstacles.

The Buddha sings these verses to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. We may realize that jealousy and anger are not desirable states, but only because what these states do to our moods. No matter how justified we may feel in our jealousy or anger, these are not pleasant states to be in or even to be around. The Buddha reminds us that the real problem with these states is that they keep us from seeing things as they are. Jealousy exaggerates the importance of what we want but do not have. Anger exaggerates the bad qualities of the targets of our anger. When we focus on this wonderful teaching, develop our patience, and remain determined to benefit all beings, we see things for what they are, and are liberated from illusions.

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

LS32

Day 29

Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

Day 29 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Endless-Intent Bodhisattva’s question, we consider the benefits of calling World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva’s name.

“If anyone calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is about to be killed, the sword or stick raised against him will suddenly break asunder, and he will be saved. If as many yakṣas and rākṣasas as to fill one thousand million Sumeru worlds hear a person call the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when they come to him with the intention of killing him, those devils will not be able even to see him with their malicious eyes, and needless to say, kill him. If anyone, guilty or not, calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is bound up in manacles, fetters, pillories or chains, those things [in which he is bound up] will break asunder, and he will be saved. Suppose the chief of a party of merchants is leading his party carrying invaluable treasures along a dangerous road haunted by as many bandits as to fill one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and suppose one of the members of the party says [to others], ‘Good men! Do not be afraid! Call the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva with all your hearts! This Bodhisattva gives fearlessness to all living beings. If you call his name, you will be saved from [the attacks of] these bandits.’ If the other members of the party hear this and say simultaneously, ‘Namas to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva,’ all of them will be saved because of their calling of his name. Endless-Intent! The supernatural powers of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva-mahāsattva are as great as previously stated.

“Those who have much lust will be saved from lust if they constantly think of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and respect him. Those who have much anger will be saved from anger if they constantly think of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and respect him. Those who have much stupidity will be saved from stupidity if they constantly think of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and respect him. Endless-Intent! World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva has these great supernatural powers. He gives many benefits to all living beings. Therefore, they should constantly think of him.

The Daily Dharma from July 31, 2023, offers this:

Those who have much lust will be saved from lust if they constantly think of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and respect him. Those who have much anger will be saved from anger if they constantly think of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and respect him. Those who have much stupidity will be saved from stupidity if they constantly think of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and respect him.

The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of compassion for all beings, the wish that all beings be freed from suffering and realize the enlightenment of the Buddha. This compassion is the antidote to the three poisons of lust, anger and stupidity. By aspiring to the example of World-Voice-Perceiver and awakening our own compassion, we can overcome these poisons and bring benefits to all beings.

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

mappō, Nattier Decline

Once upon a Future Time: An Apocryphal Word

When we combine this chronological information with the fact that in a significant number of cases Ch. mo-fa corresponds to Skt. Paścimakāle (i.e., to an expression that is more regularly translated into Chinese as mo-shih), we may find the key to our puzzle: namely, that mo-fa originated simply was a variant of mo-shih, introduced by a Chinese writer already familiar with the periodization scheme built on sequential eras of cheng-fa and hsiang-fa, respectively. Viewed in this context it would have required only a small leap of inference to conclude that mo-shih (which implies, unlike its Sanskrit counterpart, not merely a “latter” but a final period) was meant as a reference to a discrete third period in the history of the Dharma, which could be expressed more clearly (or at least more symmetrically) by the term mo-fa. Once mo-fa had gained some currency—a process that must have been stimulated by the use of the term in some of the translations of Kumārajīva, whose works are among the most influential ever produced in China—the die was cast, and it fell to the lot of Chinese Buddhist scholastic writers to expound on the nature and duration of this supposed third period. In light of this scenario, it should no longer surprise us that the first extended discussion of the three-period time scheme appears well after the introduction of the term mo-fa in the works of Kumārajīva and others, and that such discussions appear not in translated sūtras, but in the works of Chinese commentators themselves.

If this line of reasoning is correct we should no longer view the term mo-fa as a Chinese translation of an Indian Buddhist term, but rather as a stylistic variant of mo-shih (itself a genuine translation of Skt. Paścimakāle …). The term mo-fa subsequently took on a life of its own, stimulating seemingly endless commentarial reflections in East Asia. Mo-fa is thus a Chinese “apocryphal word”: a term created in China, with no identifiable Indian antecedent.

Once Upon A Future Time, p102-103
Daily Dharma, d31b

Daily Dharma – Jan. 6, 2024

The two sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, came to their mother, joined their ten fingers and palms together, and said, ‘Mother! Go to Cloud Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha! We also will go to attend on him, approach him, make offerings to him, and bow to him because he is expounding the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to all gods and men.

The Buddha tells the story of King Wonderful-Adornment in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. The two sons chose to be born at a time when Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha was alive and led their parents to follow that Buddha and learn the Wonderful Dharma from him. They overcame their father’s attachment to wrong views, not by arguing against those views, but by demonstrating the wonders that come from the Buddha’s great teaching. This shows how when we as Bodhisattvas live this difficult teaching we lead others to it.

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

mappō, Nattier Decline, Blog

Side Benefit of Working on a New Year’s Resolution

As I announced at the start of the year, I am going to attempt to divide the Lotus Sutra into 365 roughly equal parts and pair each day with one of Shinkyo Warner’s Daily Dharma or an appropriate quote from one of the books I’ve read. Next year I’ll publish those daily.

To that end I’ve gathered the text of Senchu Murano’s Lotus Sutra from the 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra files into a single document.

This is now available at 500yojanas.org/lotus-sutra/book/

Beyond my needs, this will provide a place where you can search the entire Lotus Sutra in your browser.

For example, considering Jan Nattier’s discussion of “Counterfeit vs. Semblance” as the English word to describe the age after the parinirvāṇa of a Buddha, we find Murano’s translation uses “counterfeit” 19 times in both prose and gāthās when describing the predictions of future Buddhahood for various  disciples and when describing  the Buddha called Powerful-Voice-King in Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva. Semblance is not used in Murano’s Lotus Sutra.

Considering Nattier’s discussion of the Final Dharma, we find hints of this when the Buddha mentions the “latter days after [my extinction]” four times in Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices. Countering that, however, we have Chapter 11: Beholding the Stupa of Treasures, in which the Buddha notes the efforts of Buddhas to “have the Dharma preserved forever” and then asks his sons to “Make a great vow / To preserve the Dharma forever!”

Murano’s translation contains 83,817 words, which includes the titles and the declarations at the end of each volume. Dividing that by 365 gives you something short of 230 words per day. That’s a really small block of text. This blog post has 295 words when you reach the period at the end of this sentence. I may want to rethink this project.