Category Archives: 2buddhas

LS32, d2b, 2buddhas

The Inversion of Authority

The bodhisattva Varaprabha [Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva], the teacher of Dipamkara [Burning-Light Buddha], was Mañjuśrī in a previous life, meaning that a bodhisattva in the audience of the present buddha was, at least at one time, superior to this previous buddha. And the bodhisattva who is honored by the mainstream tradition as the future buddha, Maitreya, turns out to have been his least worthy disciple. The inversion of authority with which the Lotus Sūtra proclaims its priority here not only makes the best of bodhisattvas the least of bodhisattvas, but also explains what happened in the distant past to make it so. In Mañjuśrī’s response we also encounter the first instance of a device that occurs in many Mahāyāna sūtras but which is employed most famously, and most head-spinningly*, in the Lotus: self-reference. In this, the first chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, Mañjuśrī explains that in the distant past, the buddha Candrasūryapradipa [Sun-Moon-Light] taught the Lotus Sūtra.

Two Buddhas, p44-45

*This is one of many, many reasons why this book gets only a Two-Star rating from me.

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Nichiren’s Understanding of the Lotus Sūtra’s Title

This introductory chapter marks a convenient place in the present study to say more about Nichiren’s understanding of the Lotus Sūtra’s title.

First, we might consider the individual words that make up the title. Myō has the connotations of “wonderful,” “marvelous,” and “inconceivable.” The use of this character in the title was Kumārajīva’s innovation; an earlier translation by Dharmaraksa (230?-316) uses shō (Ch. Zheng), meaning “true” or “correct.” Fayun (467-529), an early Chinese commentator on the Lotus Sūtra, took myō (miao) to mean “subtle” as opposed to “crude” or “coarse.” Zhiyi argued that myō has both a relative and an absolute meaning. From a relative standpoint, myō, denoting the perfect teaching, is superior to all others, which by comparison are incomplete. But from an absolute standpoint, myō is perfectly encompassing; there is nothing outside it to which it could be compared. This reading laid the groundwork for later understandings of the Lotus Sūtra as both superior to, and at the same time inclusive of, all other teachings.

Nichiren said that myō has three meanings. The first is to open, meaning that it opens the meaning of all other sūtras. “When the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra, he opened the storehouse of the other sūtras preached during the preceding forty-some years, and all beings of the nine realms were for the first time able to discern the treasures that lay within those sūtras,” he wrote. Second, myō means “perfectly encompassing; each of the 69,384 characters of the sūtra contains all others within itself. “It is like one drop of the great ocean that contains water from all the rivers that pour into the ocean, or a single wish-granting jewel that, although no bigger than a mustard seed, can rain down all the treasures that one might gain from all wish-granting jewels.” And third, myō means “to restore to life,” meaning that it revives the seeds, or causes, of buddhahood in those who have neglected or destroyed them.

Renge means “lotus blossom,” and the Sanskrit puṇḍarīka indicates a white lotus. Lotuses grow in muddy water to bloom untainted above its surface and thus represent the flowering of the aspiration for awakening in the mind of the ordinary, deluded person. The lotus plant also produces flowers and seedpods at the same time. To Chinese Tiantai patriarchs, as well as medieval Japanese Tendai interpreters, this suggested the simultaneity of “cause” (the nine realms, or states of those still at the stage of practice) and “effect” (the buddha realm or state of buddhahood), meaning that all ten realms are mutually inclusive. Nichiren draws on the analogy of the lotus to stress his claim that the Lotus Sūtra enables the realization of buddhahood in the very act of practice. As he expressed it: “The merit of all other sūtras is uncertain, because they teach that first one must plant good roots and [only] afterward become a buddha. But in the case of the Lotus Sūtra, when one takes it in one’s hand, that hand at once becomes a buddha, and when one chants it with one’s mouth, that mouth is precisely a buddha. This is just like the moon being reflected on the water the moment it rises above the eastern mountains, or like a sound and its echo occurring simultaneously.”

The last character, kyō, means “sūtra.” Kyō in the title of the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren said, encompasses all the teachings of all buddhas throughout space and time. Namu, which prefaces the title in chanting, comes from Sanskrit namas, meaning “reverence,” “devotion,” or “the taking of refuge.” Ultimately, Nichiren took it as expressing the willingness to offer one’s life for the dharma. Nichiren made clear, however, that the significance of the daimoku does not lie in its semantic meaning. The daimoku, he said, is neither the text nor its meaning but the intent, or heart, of the entire sūtra. He defined it alternately as the seed of Buddhahood, the father and mother of all buddhas, and the “three thousand realms in a single thought moment in actuality… .”

Two Buddhas, pPage 48-50
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The Tardy Bodhisattva

In one passage, Nichiren gives a humorous account of Samantabhadra’s [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] late arrival at the Lotus assembly:

Among all the many bodhisattvas, Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī were like ministers of the right and left to the Lord Śākyamuni. It was strange, therefore, that Samantabhadra, as one of those two ministers, should have failed to be in attendance during the eight or so years when the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra, which surpasses all the other teachings of his lifetime and which all buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, more numerous than the dust particles of the great earth, had assembled to hear. But when the Buddha had finished expounding the “King Śubhavyūha” [King Wonderful-Adornment] chapter and was about to conclude his preaching of the Lotus Sūtra, Samantabhadra came hastily from the land of the buddha Ratnatejo’bhyudgatarāja [Treasure-Power­Virtue-Superior-King Buddha] in the eastern quarter, accompanied by the sounds of ten billion musical instruments and leading countless numbers of the eight kinds of nonhuman beings. Probably fearing the Buddha’s displeasure at his tardy arrival, he assumed a serious expression and pledged in all earnestness to protect those who practice the Lotus Sūtra in the latter age. But the Buddha, no doubt pleased with his extraordinary sincerity in vowing to spread the Lotus Sūtra throughout the continent of Jambudvipa, praised him even more highly than he had earlier praised other bodhisattvas of higher rank.

Two Buddhas, p 260-261
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A Backstory for the King, Queen and Their Two Sons

In his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra (Fahua wenju), Zhiyi provided a backstory about the past-life relationship of these four persons: the king, the queen, and their two sons. In the remote past, four monks were practicing austerities in pursuit of enlightenment. However, the struggle to obtain sufficient food and other necessities seriously hindered their practice. At length, one of them abandoned his efforts in order to support the other three. With his aid, they attained the way, while he, thanks to the merit gained by assisting them, was born repeatedly as a king in the human or heavenly realms. Eventually he became King Subhavyūha. By that point, however, he was exhausting his merit. Perceiving that his downward trajectory would soon lead him to rebirth in the hells, the other three whom he had once assisted resolved to repay their debt to him, choosing to be reborn as his consort and sons in order to lead him to the dharma.

Two Buddhas, p250
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Kishimojin and the Ten Rāksasis

In Japan, Hāriti is known as Kishimojin. Nichiren clearly regarded her as a protector of the Lotus Sūtra. She appears on most of the mandalas that he inscribed, as do the ten rāksasis. The half-dozen references to Kishimojin in his writings all mention her together with these ten demon women, an association drawn from the “Dhārāṇi” chapter. In one instance, he refers to the ten rāksasis as “the mothers of all demons in the four continents,” and Kishimojin as “the mother of the ten rāksasis,” thus suggesting her power. In the larger religious culture, Kishimojin was often worshipped independently of the Lotus Sūtra, for example, in esoteric prayer rites to quell disasters and increase good fortune. After Nichiren’s time, as his tradition spread during Japan’s later medieval period and drew followers from a range of social groups, its protector deities diversified, and statues and paintings of Kishimojin began to be enshrined as independent images at some Nichiren temples. Represented in both fierce and gentle forms, Kishimojin was revered as a guardian of Lotus devotees, a destroyer of false views, and a grantor of prayers for this-worldly benefits, such as healing, safe childbirth, and the protection of children. Devotion to Kishimojin within the Nichiren tradition reached its height in Japan’s early modern period (roughly, seventeenth through nineteenth centuries) and drew both on her specific associations with the Lotus Sūtra as well as broader traditions of Kishimojin worship.
Two Buddhas, p244-245

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Avalokiteśvara

Unlike Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva], who would seem to appear only in the Lotus Sūtra, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva] features in numerous texts and has been revered throughout Asia, down to and including the present time. Avalokiteśvara has been worshipped in many guises. The Dalai Lama is regarded as an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara. In China, this bodhisattva was often represented in female form. In Japan one finds pilgrimage routes dedicated to the bodhisattva comprising thirty-three sites, one for each of his manifestations listed in this chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. He also figures prominently in the Pure Land tradition as the right-hand attendant of the buddha Amitābha, accompanying him when he descends to welcome his devotees at the moment of death and escort them to his pure land.

It was possibly because of these Pure Land connections that Nichiren makes so little mention of Avalokiteśvara, despite the pervasiveness in medieval Japan of devotion to this bodhisattva. On the mandalas he inscribed for his followers, Nichiren wrote the names of representative bodhisattvas of the trace teaching below the names of the leaders of the bodhisattvas of the earth. Usually he chose Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra as these representatives; no extant mandala in his hand bears the name of Avalokiteśvara.

Two Buddhas, p240-241
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Bodhisattvas Who Meet the Needs of Sentient Beings

[Chapter 24] and the preceding, “Bhaiṣajyarāja” [The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva] chapter feature bodhisattvas who manifest themselves in a variety of forms in order to meet the needs of sentient beings. Chapter 24 enumerates thirty-four appearances assumed by the bodhisattva Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] through his mastery of the samādhi of manifesting all physical forms, the same samādhi attributed to the bodhisattva Sarvarūpasaṃdarśana [Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva] in Chapter 23. Chapter 25 similarly lists thirty-three forms assumed by the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva]. The phrase “gateway to everywhere” (J. fumon), sometimes translated as “universal gate,” in the title of Chapter 25 refers to precisely this activity by which buddhas and bodhisattvas assume various forms to aid suffering beings. An eleventh-century poem based on this chapter celebrates the universal compassion of Avalokiteśvara:

the world is saved
because no one can shut
the gate to everywhere:
O who will not enter?

Two Buddhas, p239
d18b, 2buddhas, Blog

A Variable Transmission for the One Vehicle

Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping This Sūtra, opens with Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, together with their twenty-thousand attendants who were also Bodhisattvas, vowing to the Buddha that they will keep, read, recite and expound this sūtra in the difficult Sahā world after the Buddha’s extinction.

The Buddha does not reply.

Then after the arhats and śrāvakas and the Buddha’s step-mother and former wife all offer to teach the dharma in other lands outside the Sahā world, the Buddha silently looks “at the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. These Bodhisattvas had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dhārāṇis.” These Bodhisattvas are waiting for the Buddha to command them to keep and expound the Lotus Sūtra.

The Buddha remains silent.

This has always puzzled me. These Bodhisattvas, unlike those in Chapter 15, are not identified as having come from other worlds. Are the “eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas” of Chapter 13 a subset of the “Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, who had come from the other worlds” in Chapter 15?

I’ve found an answer to my puzzlement in Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side, although it is hidden behind misleading shorthand in the book.

In the post Bodhisattvas from Other Worlds, I discuss the book’s suggestion that all of the Bodhisattvas who volunteer at the start of Chapter 13 “have arrived from other worlds.”

I posted on the Nichiren Shu group on Facebook the question, “With the exception of Maitreya, are all of the great bodhisattvas listed in Chapter 1, Introductory, from other worlds?”

In response, Michael McCormick said: “As far as I can tell, yes, the bodhisattva’s whose names I am familiar with in that opening passage are bodhisattvas who are of a more cosmic nature and two of them, Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta are particularly associated as attendants of Amitabha Buddha. I think the idea is that the only bodhisattva officially associated with this particular world is Maitreya Bodhisattva. The Lotus Sutra, being a relatively early Mahayana sutra, is taking the assumed cosmology and personnel of the teachings found in the Agamas and Pali canon and spinning it.”

But I believe the answer is more nuanced, and that nuance is provided by Jacqueline Stone’s explanation of how Nichiren saw the transmission of the Lotus Sūtra.

Chapters Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five describe how specific bodhisattvas display their powers in the world to benefit sentient beings. … From Nichiren’s standpoint, the bodhisattvas appearing in these chapters had received only the general transmission described in the “Entrustment” chapter. Either they had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching or shakumon portion of the sūtra. Thus, their work was chiefly confined to the True and Semblance Dharma ages.

Two Buddhas, p236

It is Nichiren’s explanation that “[the Bodhisattvas] had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching” that explains why the Buddha does not answer the Bodhisattvas who volunteer to spread the Lotus Sūtra in Chapter 13.

Stone quotes Nichiren’s letter “Kashaku hōbō metsuazai shō” to explain:

As for the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō: Śākyamuni Buddha not only kept them secret during his first forty-some years of teaching, but also refrained from speaking of them even in the trace teaching, the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra. Not until the “Lifespan” chapter did he reveal the two characters renge, which [represent the five characters and] indicate the original effect and original cause [of the Buddha’s enlightenment]. The Buddha did not entrust these five characters to Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Maitreya, Bhaiṣajyarāja, or any other such bodhisattvas. Instead he summoned forth from the great earth of Tranquil Light the bodhisattvas Viśiṣṭacāritra, Anantacāritra, Vlśuddhacāritra, and Supratiṣṭhitacāritra along with their followers and transmitted the five characters to them.

Two Buddhas, p219-220

To shorthand this by saying — as the book does repeatedly — these Bodhisattvas are all from other worlds, distracts the reader from the distinction between the trace teaching and the origin teaching and the significance of the transmission of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō to the Bodhisattvas who have been the Buddha’s students since the beginningless past.

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The Last Five Hundred Years

After the ten analogies and ten similes, the Lotus goes on to extol the merits of embracing the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter [The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva] specifically, suggesting that it may have been composed by a group of Lotus practitioners particularly devoted to this bodhisattva. Nichiren, however, read the passage as applying to his own time and to the Lotus as a whole. For example, a statement near the end of this chapter reads, “During the period of five hundred years after my parinirvāṇa, you must spread it far and wide in Jambudvipa [i.e., this world] and not allow it to be destroyed.” The “five hundred years after my parinirvāṇa” here probably indicates the time in which the Lotus Sūtra’s compilers understood themselves to be living, that is, within five centuries of the historical Buddha’s death. But in Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation, “the period of five hundred years after” can also be read as “the last five hundred years.” Nichiren, like other later East Asian interpreters, took this phrase to mean the last of five consecutive five-hundred-year periods following the parinirvāṇa as described in the Great Collection Sūtra (Skt. Mahāsamnipāta Sūtra; Ch. Daji jing, T 397); the “last five hundred years” is predicted to be a time of dissension among the Buddha’s followers, corresponding to the beginning of the mappō era, when the true dharma will be obscured. In other words, Nichiren took this passage as referring to his own, present time. Repudiating the idea that mappō is necessarily an age of Buddhism’s decline, he drew on the third analogy of the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter, which compares the Lotus Sūtra to the moon that outshines all stars. “The blessings of the Lotus Sūtra surpass those of other sūtras even during the two thousand years of the True and Semblance Dharma ages,” he wrote. “But when the spring and summer of the two thousand years of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages are over and the autumn and winter of the Final Dharma age have arrived, then the light of this moon [i.e., the Lotus] will shine even more brightly.” In the sūtra text, the “it” which is to be “spread far and wide” (J. kōsen-rufu) refers specifically to the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter. Nichiren, however, took it as referring to the sūtra itself, and more specifically, to its title or daimoku, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō.

Two Buddhas, p230-231
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Giving One’s Life for the Lotus Sūtra

[T]he Lotus Sūtra seems to urge giving one’s life in its service. Bodhisattvas in the “Perseverance” chapter vow that they “will not be attached to our bodies or lives,” and the “Lifespan” chapter says that the primordial Śākyamuni Buddha will appear before those beings who “are willing to give unsparingly of their bodies and their lives.” How should such passages be understood?

Nichiren addresses this issue in a letter to a disciple, the lay nun Myōichi-ama, expressing sympathy on the death of her husband, who had held fast to his faith despite great difficulties: “Your late husband gave his life for the Lotus Sūtra. His small landholding that barely sustained him was confiscated on account of [his faith in] the Lotus Sūtra. Surely that equaled ‘giving his life.’ The youth of the Snow Mountains [described in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra] offered his body in exchange for half a verse [of a Buddhist teaching], and the bodhisattva Medicine King [Bhaiṣajyarāja] burned his arms [in offering to the Buddha]. They were saints, [and for them, such acts were] like water poured on fire. But your husband was an ordinary man, [and so for him, this sacrifice was] like paper placed in fire. When we take this into consideration, his merit must surely be the same as theirs.”

Two Buddhas, p227-228