Monthly Archives: January 2024

LS32

Day 28

Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 28 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the reaction in the Sahā-World to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva’s samadhi, we consider the arrival of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, accompanied by eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas, left his world [for the Sahā World]. As they passed through the [one hundred and eight billion nayuta] worlds, the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways; lotus flowers of the seven treasures rained [on those worlds], and hundreds of thousands of heavenly drums sounded [over those worlds] although no one beat them. The eyes of [Wonderful-Voice] Bodhisattva were as large as the leaves of the blue lotus. His face was more handsome than the combination of thousands of millions of moons. His body was golden-colored, and adorned with many hundreds of thousands of mark of merits. His power and virtue were great. His light was brilliant. His body had all the characteristics of the muscular body of Narayana.

[Before he started,] he stepped on a platform of the seven treasures. The platform went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala[-tree, and moved through the sky, carrying him]. Together with the Bodhisattvas surrounding him respectfully, he came to Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa of this Sahā-World, and descended from the platform of the seven treasures. He came to Śākyamuni Buddha, carrying with him a necklace worth hundreds of thousands. He worshipped the feet of the Buddha with his head, offered the necklace to the Buddha, and said to him:

“World-Honored One! I bring you a message from Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. [He wishes to say this.] Are you in good health? Are you happy and peaceful or not? Are the four elements of your body working in harmony or not? Are the worldly affairs bearable or not? Are the living beings easy to save or not? Do they not have much greed, anger, ignorance, jealousy, stinginess and arrogance, or do they? Are they not undutiful to their parents, or are they? Are they not di respectful to śramaṇas, or are they? Do they not have wrong views, or do they? Are they not evil, or are they? Do they not fail to control their five desires, or do they? World-Honored One! Did they defeat the Maras, who are their enemies, or not. Is Many-Treasures Tathāgata, who passed away a long time ago and has now come here riding in the stupa of the seven treasures, hearing the Dharma or not? [Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha] also wishes to know whether Many-Treasures Tathāgata is peaceful and healthy, and able to stay long or not World-Honored One! Now I wish to see Many-Treasures Buddha World-Honored One! Show him to me!”

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha said to Many-Treasure Buddha, “This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva wishes to see you.”

Thereupon Many-Treasures Buddha said to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva:

Excellent, excellent! You have come here to make offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha, hear the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and see Mañjuśrī and others.”

The Daily Dharma from April 1, 2023, offers this:

World-Honored One! I bring you a message from Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. [He wishes to say this.] Are you in good health? Are you happy and peaceful or not? Are the four elements of your body working in harmony or not? Are the worldly affairs bearable or not? Are the living beings easy to save or not? Do they not have much greed, anger, ignorance, jealousy, stinginess and arrogance, or do they? Are they not undutiful to their parents, or are they? Are they not disrespectful to śramaṇas, or are they? Do they not have wrong views, or do they? Are they not evil, or are they? Do they not fail to control their five desires, or do they?

The passage above is how Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva greets Śākyamuni Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva asks not only about the Buddha, but about those whom the Buddha benefits with his teaching. The Buddha answers that those he teaches have prepared through innumerable lives to receive his wisdom. The questions of Wonderful-Voice show how we obscure the teaching through our delusion and attachments.

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 Final Dharma

If we have had little difficulty in locating examples of the use of the term saddharma-pratirūpaka (and of the two-part timetable with which it eventually came to be associated) in Buddhist scriptures composed in India, matters are altogether different when we come to the third dispensation in the history of the Buddhist religion, known in East Asian sources as mo-fa (Jpn. mappō). Though the term itself appears in a number of sūtras translated into Chinese from Indian originals, it is not at all clear what Sanskrit Buddhist term —if any—can properly be described as its antecedent. Moreover, though the idea of a three-part timetable of cheng-fa, hsiang-fa, and mo-fa is so ubiquitous in East Asian Buddhist writings that much of the history of Buddhism in this region would be incomprehensible without it, it has proved singularly difficult to find examples of such a three-part scenario in any Buddhist source of certifiably Indian origin.

Once Upon A Future Time, p90

If mo-fa cannot be viewed simply as a translation of a well-known Sanskrit technical term, we must turn directly to the Chinese Buddhist literature in our attempt to determine its significance. Restricting our inquiry at this point to those texts translated from Indian originals (both in order to focus on the point of entry of the term into Chinese Buddhist usage and to continue our attempt to establish its proper Indian antecedent, if any), we will begin by tabulating the occurrences of the term in the first seventeen volumes of the Taishō canon —that is, in the Agama, Avadāna, and Mahāyāna sūtra literature. …

In sharp contrast to what we might expect, the above list shows not a multitude of texts in which hsiang-fa and mo-fa appear in conjunction, but quite the opposite. With only a handful of exceptions … either hsiang-fa or mo-fa may appear in a given text, but not both.

Once Upon A Future Time, p95-97

[W]e should also take note of another important fact: that is, that in the entirety of the first seventeen volumes of the Taishō canon, comprising 847 separate scriptures and totaling over 16,000 pages of printed text (that is, approximately 25,296,000 Chinese characters), only 22 individual works containing the term mo-fa are registered in the Taishō index. Moreover, in virtually all of these cases the term appears only once in a given text, rather than being used repeatedly and serving as a major topic of discussion in its own right. While there are undoubtedly other occurrences of the term that have escaped the notice of the indexers, the overall trend is quite clear: this expression is as rare in the canonical sūtra literature as it is ubiquitous in the East Asian commentaries.

Once Upon A Future Time, p98
Daily Dharma, WONS

Daily Dharma – Jan. 5, 2024

Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra are like the winter season, for many hardships come incessantly. Winter is surely followed by spring. We have never heard or seen that winter returns to fall. We have never heard that the believers in the Lotus Sutra go back to become ordinary men. The Lotus Sutra says, “All people who listen to this Sutra will attain Buddhahood.”

Nichiren wrote this in his Letter to the Nun Myoichi (Myoichi Ama Gozen Gohenji). Nichiren suffered through many hardships in his life, including exile, banishment from his family and home province, being placed on the execution mat, and having his home at Matsubagayatsu burned by members of the Pure Land sect. Through all these difficulties, Nichiren kept his faith in the Buddha’s wisdom and fulfilled his mission to benefit all beings in this world of conflict by leading them with the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren’s faith and practice inspire our faith and practice. Whatever obstacles we may face, we progress towards enlightenment under the guidance of the Ever-Present Buddha.

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

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 27 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva’s offering to Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha, we consider the merits of offering a lightto the stupa of a Buddha.

The Buddha said to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva:

“What do you think of this? Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva was no one but Medicine-King Bodhisattva of today. He gave up his body in this way, offered it [to the Buddha], and repeated this offering many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of times [in his previous existence]. [He knows that he can practice any austerity in this Sahā-World. Therefore, he does not mind walking about this world.]

“Star-King-Flower! Anyone who aspires for, and wishes to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, should offer a light to the stupa of the Buddha by burning a finger or a toe. Then he will be given more merits than the person who offers not only countries, cities, wives and children, but also the mountains, forests, rivers and ponds of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and various kinds of treasures. 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 Daily Dharma from Dec. 6, 2023, offers this:

What do you think of this? Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva was no one but Medicine-King Bodhisattva of today. He gave up his body in this way, offered it [to the Buddha], and repeated this offering many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of times [in his previous existence]. [He knows that he can practice any austerity in this Sahā-World. Therefore, he does not mind walking about this world.]

The Buddha gives this explanation to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra. The story of the previous life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva shows us the capacities we have already developed and are not aware of. When we see ourselves as choosing to come into this world of conflict to benefit all beings, rather than stuck where we do not want to be and just making the best of it, then it is much easier to let go of our delusions.

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: Counterfeit vs. Semblance

In sum, the division of the duration of the Dharma into two distinct and sequential periods is found in only a small number of canonical sūtras. And of these, only a tiny minority associate such a division with the career of Śākyamuni Buddha. It is particularly noteworthy that several of the sūtras that in East Asia became most closely identified with the division of the Buddha’s Dharma into sequential periods —in particular, the Pure Land and Lotus sūtras — do not apply a distinction between saddharma and saddharma-pratirūpaka to the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha himself. The reading of these texts as if they contained such a distinction (supplemented by a third period of mo-fa, to be discussed below) is thus a contribution of later commentators, who in interpreting these texts through such a lens gave them an entirely new meaning.

We can distinguish, then, between two distinctive (though not entirely separate) uses of the term saddharma-pratirūpaka, which seem to have emerged in roughly the following sequence:

  • a first phase, during which the term refers to the total duration of the Dharma after a given Buddha’s death; and
  • a second phase, during which saddharma-pratirūpaka is restricted in meaning to only the latter part of this period, the second of two sub-periods in the lifetime of the Dharma.

In neither case, however, is the saddharma-pratirūpaka referred to in explicitly pejorative terms. Rather, it refers to the real and ongoing presence of the saddharma, whether it is used to refer to part or all of the period when this will be the case.

In light of the analysis given above it now seems quite peculiar that the translation of saddharma-pratirūpaka (and of its Chinese counterpart hsiang-fa) most frequently encountered in English-language studies is “counterfeit Dharma.” For in none of the passages cited above would such a translation make sense. In none of these texts is there any implication that the saddharma-pratirūpaka is a fake or a forgery of the True Dharma; rather, it refers to the presence of the True Dharma itself, in all or part of its duration. Even when a clear-cut distinction between periods of saddharma and saddharma-pratirūpaka begins to emerge, the latter period is still viewed as positive (if slightly less so than that in the preceding versions), and is credited to the account, so to speak, of a given Buddha as part of the total duration of his teachings.

Once Upon A Future Time, p85-87

The term “semblance,” then, serves as a suitable equivalent of the Sanskrit term pratirūpaka, and conforms in meaning to Chinese hsiang and Tibetan gzugs-brnyan as well. The term “counterfeit” should clearly be abandoned, as it represents a radical misunderstanding of the significance of this expression in Mahāyāna usage.

Once Upon A Future Time, p89
Daily Dharma, d21b

Daily Dharma – Jan. 4, 2024

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

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. If we come to the Buddha, attached to our delusions and fearful of the potential for peace and joy we all have within us, it is easy to doubt what he says. We have been suffering a long time. Like the children playing in the burning house, we are so caught up in the drama and insanity of our world that we cannot imagine any other way to live. When the Buddha warns us of how dangerous it is to continue as we are, we are more certain of our familiar pain than of his enlightenment. When we trust the Buddha Dharma, and cultivate our potential to create unimaginable benefit in this world, then we realize the pettiness of the crises we create for ourselves. We awaken our curiosity and gratitude and learn to see this beautiful 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

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 26 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva’s question, we consider the offerings made by Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva after hearing the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

“Thereupon [Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue] Buddha expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, to the other Bodhisattvas, and also to the Śrāvakas. Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva willingly practiced austerities under Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha. He walked about the world, seeking Buddhahood strenuously with all his heart for twelve thousand years until at last he obtained the samadhi by which he could transform himself into any other living being: Having obtained this samadhi, he had great joy.

“He thought, ‘I have obtained the samadhi by which I can transform myself into any other living being because I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Now I will make offerings to Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha and also to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.’

“He entered into this samadhi at once. He filled the sky with the clouds of mandārava-flowers, mahā-mandārava-flowers and the powdered incense of hard and black candana, and rained down those flowers and incense. He also rained down the powdered incense of the candana grown on this shore of the sea [between Mt. Sumeru and the Jambudvipa]. Six shu of this incense was worth the Sahā-World. He offered all these things to the Buddha.

“Having made these offerings [to the Buddha], he emerged from the samadhi, and thought, ‘I have now made offerings to the Buddha by my supernatural powers. But these offerings are less valuable than the offering of my own body.’

“Then he ate various kinds of incense taken from candana, kunduruka, turṣka, pṛkkā, aloes and sumac, and drank perfumed oil taken from the flowers of campaka and other flowers[. He continued doing all this] for twelve hundred years. Then he applied perfumed oil to his skin, put on a heavenly garment of treasures in the presence of Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha, sprinkled various kinds of perfumed oil on the garment, and set fire to his body, making a vow by his supernatural powers. The light of the flame illumined the worlds numbering eight thousands of millions of times the number of the sands of the River Ganges.

The Daily Dharma from Jan. 23, 2023, offers this:

Having made these offerings [to the Buddha], he emerged from the samādhi, and thought, ‘I have now made offerings to the Buddha by my supernatural powers. But these offerings are less valuable than the offering of my own body.’

In Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha tells the story of Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, the previous life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva. This Bodhisattva practiced under an ancient Buddha, and made exorbitant offerings to that Buddha through his supernatural powers. He then realized that all the riches of the universe that he could conjure up paled in comparison to the treasure of his own body and his own life. He then made an offering of his body to the Buddha, which illuminated innumerable worlds. Nichiren wrote often of the hardships he faced in his life and those of his followers. He wrote of “reading the Lotus Sūtra with our bodies,” meaning bringing the Buddha’s wisdom to life in our lives. When we act according to the Wonderful Dharma, no matter what hardships we face, then we too are living the Lotus Sūtra, and making a perfect offering from our gratitude to the Buddha.

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

mappō, Nattier Decline, Books

Once upon a Future Time: The Missing Mo-Fa

nattier-once-upon-bookcoverTo the specialist in East Asian Buddhism, one of the most striking features of the texts reviewed in the previous chapter is that not a single one of them contains any reference to the concept of mo-fa (Jpn. mappō), lit. “end-dharma” or “final Dharma.” For it was not any of the timetables discussed above, but rather a three-part system culminating in a prolonged period of mo-fa, that was to become the most influential historical frame of reference in the Buddhist schools of China, Korea, and Japan.

Building on the concepts of saddharma (“True Dharma”) and saddharma-pratirūpaka (“semblance of the True Dharma”) that we have already met in the Indian sources, East Asian Buddhists formulated a system of three periods in the history of the Buddhist religion, which were expected to occur in the following sequence:

  • a period of the “True Dharma” (Ch. cheng-fa /Jpn. shōbō, corresponding to Skt. saddharma) immediately following the death of the Buddha, during which it is possible to attain enlightenment by practicing the Buddha’s teachings;
  • a period of the “Semblance Dharma” (Ch. hsiang-fa / Jpn. zōbō, a term patterned on but not identical to Skt. saddharma-pratirūpaka), during which a few may still be able to reach the goal of enlightenment, but most Buddhists simply carry out the external forms of the religion; and
  • a period of the “Final Dharma” (Ch. mo-fa / Jpn. mappō, a term for which no proper Sanskrit equivalent exists), during which traditional religious practice loses its effectiveness and the spiritual capacity of human beings reaches an all-time low.

While this system is known only in East Asian Buddhist sources, it is clearly constructed with reference to elements that were already known in India.

Once Upon A Future Time, p65-66
Daily Dharma, d14b

Daily Dharma – Jan. 3, 2024

You, the World-Honored One, are exceptional.
You reminded me of the teachings
Of innumerable Buddhas in the past
As if I had heard them today.

Ānanda, the Buddha’s cousin and one of his leading disciples, sings these verses in Chapter Nine of the Lotus Sūtra. In the Story, Ānanda had just been personally assured by the Buddha that he would become a Buddha himself in a future life. All the teachings of the Buddha across all time are always available to us. What prevents us from hearing them and putting them into practice is nothing more than our own attachment to our suffering and our doubts about our capacity for wisdom and compassion. When we take to heart the assurance that we and all beings can become enlightened, it clears away our delusion and allows to see the Buddha teaching us 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 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Day 25 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, we begin today’s portion of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, and consider the Buddha’s reaction to the announcement by the Bodhisattvas from underground.

Thereupon the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of dust of one thousand worlds, who had sprung up from underground, joined their hands together towards the Buddha with all their hearts, looked up at his honorable face, and said to him:

“World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will expound this sūtra in the worlds of the Buddhas of your replicas and also in the place from which you will pass away. Why is that? It is because we also wish to obtain this true, pure and great Dharma, to keep, read, recite, expound and copy [this sūtra], and to make offerings to it.”

Thereupon the World-Honored One displayed his great supernatural powers in the presence of the multitude, which included not only the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who had already lived in this Sahā-World [before the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground], headed by Mañjuśrī, but also bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, upāsikās, gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. He stretched out his broad and long tongue upwards until the tip of it reached the World of Brahman. Then he emitted rays of light with an immeasurable variety of colors from his pores. The light illumined all the worlds of the ten quarters. The Buddhas who were sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees also stretched out their broad and long tongue and emitted innumerable rays of light. Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddhas under the jeweled trees displayed these supernatural powers of theirs for one hundred thousand years. Then they pulled back their tongues, coughed at the same time, and snapped their fingers. These two sounds [of coughing and snapping] reverberated over the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters, and the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways. By the supernatural powers of the Buddhas, the living beings of those worlds, including gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, and mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings, saw the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees in this Sahā-World. They also saw Śākyamuni Buddha sitting by the side of Many-Treasures Tathāgata on the lion-like seat in the stupa of treasures. They also saw that the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas and the four kind of devotees were surrounding Śākyamuni Buddha respectfully. Having seen all this, they had the greatest joy that they had ever had.

See Sharing in the Tathagata’s Limitless Lifespan and Great Spiritual Power