The first few times through my cycle of 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra I stumbled over the image in Chapter 10 of a thirsty man digging randomly on a plateau in search of water. Surely there are better places to dig. Then one day it struck me: That was what I had done when my thirst for a deeper understanding of Buddhism had forced me to shun Soka Gakkai and to look elsewhere.
Sometime after I was laid off in 2008 and caring for my wife, who was battling breast cancer, I had something of a crisis of faith – not my faith in the Lotus Sutra or the Daimoku, but my faith in my practice and the expectation of where it would lead.
In Chapter 10, we are told: “Anyone who, while seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha, sees or hears this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and after hearing it, understands it by faith and keeps it, know this, will approach Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”
We are told in the previous sentence what it means to “keep” it: “Medicine-King! Although many laymen or monks will practice the Way of Bodhisattvas, they will not be able to practice it satisfactorily, know this, unless they see, hear, read, recite, copy or keep this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma or make offerings to it. If they hear this sūtra, they will.”
At first I started doing more activities with Soka Gakkai, attending more meetings and volunteering at the local community center.
“Medicine-King! Suppose a man on a plateau felt thirsty and sought water. He dug a hole in order to get water. As long as he saw the dug-out lumps of earth were dry, he knew that water was still far off.”
Years went by and I was no closer to filling the void I felt in my practice. Eventually I started looking outside Soka Gakkai, and in 2014 started looking into Nichiren Shu.
“He went on digging, and then found the dug-out lumps of earth wet.”
By 2015 I was attending services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and studying the teachings of Nichiren with Rev. Ryusho Shonin, who was then in Charlotte, NC, and holding online meetings before Zoom became a household name.
“When he finally found mud, he was convinced that water was near.”
Today I have a pool of refreshing water of the Dharma in which to practice my swimming.
“The Bodhisattvas who hear, understand, think over and practice this sūtra, will approach Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Why is that? It is because Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi which all the Bodhisattvas should attain is expounded only in this sūtra. This sūtra opens the gate of expedients and reveals the seal of the truth. The store of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is sound and deep. No one can reach its core. Now I show it to the Bodhisattvas in order to teach them and cause them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”
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