Buddhism for Today, p264Man’s life is not limited to this world but continues eternally in each world to come. However, if we could foresee the repetition of the various occurrences of our daily lives in each and every world to come, we would be discouraged and would reject such a bleak prospect. Most people repeat the same suffering without any repentance in world after world because they cannot foresee this repetition. On the other hand, those who have been able to gain a true faith do not tire of and feel no objection to the journey of human life, however long it may be, because they know they can approach Perfect Enlightenment step by step. They can live rich lives filled with hope. This can be said to be the very greatest merit, which only believers in Buddhism can obtain.
Category Archives: 800years
800 Years: Good Friends
QUESTIONS: Commonly speaking, “good friend” refers to a person. Do you have any evidence for saying the dharma is a “good friend?”
ANSWER: Usually “good friends” are persons. However, true “good friends” do not exist in the Latter Age; so, there is much evidence of regarding dharmas as “good friends.” For instance it is stated in the Great Concentration and Insight, fascicle 1, “Following either ‘good friends’ or sūtras, we will be able to listen to Buddhahood of the One Vehicle truth (Lotus Sūtra) as preached above.” This passage regards sūtras as “good friends.”
It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 28 on the “Encouragement of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva, if there is anyone who can practice and uphold the Lotus Sūtra in this world, he had better think that it is all due to the divine help of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva.” It means that it is with the help of the “good friend,” Universal Sage Bodhisattva, that the ignorant in the Latter Age can have faith in the Lotus Sūtra.
The sūtra in the same chapter claims also, “Anyone who keeps faith in, recites, memorizes correctly, practices and copies this Lotus Sūtra should know that he is like those who see Śākyamuni Buddha in person and listen to Him preach this sūtra. You should know that he is making offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha.” According to this passage, the Lotus Sūtra is identical to Śākyamuni Buddha, who would enter Nirvana and never appear in front of those who do not believe in the Lotus Sūtra but would always appear in front of those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra as if he were alive in this world even after death.
It is also stated in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 11 on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” that when the Buddha of Many Treasures was practicing the bodhisattva way, he made a great vow, declaring, “If the Lotus Sūtra is preached anywhere in the worlds all over the universe after I have attained Buddhahood and passed away, my mausoleum Stupa will spring up on the spot so that I may listen to the sūtra and testify to it.” It means that when we, the ignorant in the Latter Age, chant the title of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha of Many Treasures will inevitably appear in order to carry out his original vow.
The sūtra also states in the same chapter, “The Buddha called together all the Buddhas preaching the dharma in the worlds throughout the universe in a single spot.” Thus, Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, all the Buddhas manifested in the worlds throughout the universe, the Universal Sage Bodhisattva and others are all our “good friends.” So long as we believe in the Lotus Sūtra, we are guided by these great teachers personally. In this sense, our merits accumulated from our previous lives are more than those of Bodhisattvas Good Treasures, Ever Weeping and King Spotted Feet so that we are able to meet better teachers than they were. This is because they met teachers of expedient sūtras while we met teachers of true sūtras; they met bodhisattvas of expedient sūtras and we met Buddhas and bodhisattvas of true sūtras.
Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 58-59
800 Years: Unwavering Faith
Not only I, Nichiren, but also my disciples will reach the land of Buddha unfailingly so long as we all hold on to unwavering faith no matter what difficulty confronts us. I have always told my disciples not to have a doubt about the lack of heavenly protection and not to lament the lack of tranquility in this world. I am afraid, however, that they might all have doubts about these and no longer listen to me. It seems only natural that ordinary people, in face of reality, will forget what they promised. Having pity on their families, my lay followers must lament being separated from wives and children in this world. However, had they ever been truly separated from their beloved families throughout many lives in the past? Had they ever been separated for the sake of Buddhism? Theirs must have been the same sad separation. I, Nichiren, should continue upholding the Lotus Sūtra and go to the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle, so that I will be able to return to this world to guide the people.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 109
800 Years: Becoming a Teacher of the Dharma
In Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, we learn of the merits to be given the beginner in faith and in Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, we learn of the merits to be earned by a teacher of the dharma. As Nikkyō Niwano explains in Buddhism for Today, becoming such a teacher is part of the natural progression of faith:
Buddhism for Today, p295“The practices of a preacher are of five kinds (goshu hosshi): receiving and keeping the sutra (juji), reading it (doku) and reciting it (ju), expounding it (gesetsu), and copying it (shosha). … In each of these five practices, the state of our gradually deepening faith is clearly shown.
“If we believe and discern the teaching after hearing it, and if we raise the mind of joyful acceptance of it, we proceed first to keep it firmly, then, reading and reciting the sutra, to inscribe it on our memory. As a personal discipline, this practice is done to establish the foundation of our faith. When our faith reaches this stage, we cannot help transmitting the teaching to others. As a result, we expound the sutra (the teaching) and copy it. We cannot say we have attained true faith until we go through each process of the five kinds of practices of the preacher.”
The Chapter 19’s specifics of how the teacher’s sense organs will be affected have always caused me pause. I want too much for literal benefits:
“He will be able to recognize by smell
The gold, silver, and other treasures
Deposited underground,
And the things enclosed in a copper box.”
But in Peaceful Action, Open Heart, Thich Nhat Hanh offers a more nuanced view of the benefits that flow from our growing faith:
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p125“The merit of this teaching effects a great change in the field of our six sense organs (sadayatana) – our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. When we are able to receive the truth of the Lotus Sutra our sense perceptions undergo a profound transformation. Automatically our eyes are able to see things that before we were not able to see. We attain the eyes of the Dharma that are able to look deeply and see the true nature and suchness of all dharmas, all phenomena in the world of our perceptions. With Dharma eyes we can look into a wilted and yellow autumn leaf and see its wonderful, fresh green nature. We can see that one leaf, whether old and yellow or green and fresh, contains all the merits, all the wonderful suchness of the universe. The eyes of someone who has received and who maintains the teaching of this Sutra, the truth of the ultimate, are able to see the limitless life span, the unborn and undying nature of everything. This is the first merit, the transformation of our sight perception into the eyes of the Dharma.”
While using my sense of smell to locate buried treasure seems farfetched, I can imagine looking into a wilted and yellow autumn leaf and seeing its wonderful, fresh green nature.
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800 Years: The Merits of the Inexperienced Practicer
In the Trace Gate of the Lotus Sutra, the first 14 chapters, and even before that in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the preface to the Lotus Sutra, we are told that it is very difficult to understand what the Buddhas realize about the reality of the equality and differences of all things. That difficulty has been used as the basis for declaring the sutra too profound to be useful. But in Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, we learn of the great merits to be gained by the person who holds even a passing knowledge of this supreme teaching.
Nichiren addresses this in his “Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō, Treastise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra”:
“The Pure Land Buddhists today … [say] it is impossible to practice the Lotus Sūtra unless one possesses a high capacity to understand and it bewilders the evil ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Are they not contradicting themselves? Grand Master Miao-lê in his Annotations to the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra asserts, ‘Most people make mistakes, without knowing how great the merits of the inexperienced practicers can be. They imagine that only the experienced practicers can have merits and slander the inexperienced. Therefore, in the ‘Merits of Rejoicing at Hearing This Sūtra’ chapter it is shown that the merits of the inexperienced practicer can be great and how great the merits of the Lotus Sūtra are.’ This passage means that the merit of the 50th person rejoicing at hearing the Lotus Sūtra transmitted one after another was preached to show that the merit of an ignorant person with little capacity in the Latter Age rejoicing even for a moment at hearing the sūtra preached is superior to the merit of sages who practice the pre-Lotus sūtras preached during the 40 or so years before the Lotus Sūtra.
Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 7-8
It is not difficult to have faith in this sutra. Nichiren’s thinking is explained in Donald Lopez and Jacqueline Stone’s Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side:
Two Buddhas, p199-200“ ‘What other sūtra,’ Nichiren asks, ‘teaches that incalculable merit accrues to one who arouses even a single thought of willing acceptance, or to the fiftieth person who rejoices upon hearing it? Other sūtras do not claim such merit for even the first, second, third, or tenth hearer, let alone the fiftieth!’ …
“If ease of practice were to be a criterion, [Nichiren] said, no practice could be easier than spontaneously rejoicing on hearing the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren argued that, far from excluding the ignorant, it is precisely because the Lotus Sūtra is so profound that it can save beings of any capacity whatsoever. In this connection, he often cited Zhanran’s remark: ‘The more true the teaching, the lower the capacity of the persons it can bring to liberation.’ However limited one’s capacity might be, that person is ennobled by their Lotus Sūtra practice.”
What could be more reassuring to the person who takes faith in Lotus Sutra for the first time?
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800 Years: A Mountain of Faith
Rivers come together to form an ocean. Particles of dust accumulate to become Mt. Sumeru. When I, Nichiren, began having faith in the Lotus Sūtra, it was like a drop of water or a particle of dust in Japan. However, when the sūtra is chanted and transmitted to two, three, ten, a million, and a billion people, it will grow to be a Mt. Sumeru of perfect enlightenment or the great ocean of Nirvana. There is no way other than this to reach Buddhahood.
Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 243-244
800 Years: The Mandala Gohonzon and Faith
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismNichiren’s writings say very little about the place of his mandala (or of Buddha images) in actual practice. There is one personal letter, the “Nichinyo gozen gohenji,” which does touch on this issue, and though some modern scholars dispute its authenticity, it has historically been highly valued in the Nichiren tradition for its easily accessible description of the mandala and its relation to the practitioner’s faith:
Never seek this gohonzon elsewhere, [for] it abides only in the fleshly heart within the breast of persons like ourselves who embrace the Lotus Sūtra and chant Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō. This is called the capital city of suchness, the ninth consciousness that is the mind-ruler (kushiki shinnō shinnyo no miyako). Being endowed with the ten realms means that [all] ten realms, not excepting a single one, are contained within a single realm, [that of Buddhahood]. That is the reason why this is called a mandala. “Mandala” is a word from India. Here [in Japan] it is called “perfect endowment” (Tinnen gusoku) or “cluster of merits” (kudokuju). This gohonzon is contained solely within the word “faith.” That is the meaning of “gaining entrance by faith.” By believing undividedly in [the Lotus Sūtra, in accordance with its words,]” honestly discarding skillful means” and “not accept[ing] even a single verse from other sūtras, ” Nichiren’s disciples and lay followers shall enter the jeweled stūpa of this gohonzon. How reassuring, how reassuring!
If one judges by this passage, it appears that the logic of Nichiren’s mandala is quite similar to that of esoteric practice, wherein the practitioner visualizes the union of self and Buddha, known as “the Buddha entering the self and the self entering the Buddha” (nyūga ganyū). For Nichiren, however, the nonduality of the practitioner and the Buddha is realized neither by esoteric visualization techniques nor by introspective contemplation involving the application of mental categories, such as the threefold contemplation. Rather, it is by faith in the Lotus Sūtra that one enters the realm of the Buddha’s enlightenment–the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment as actuality–and manifests its identity with oneself. (Page 280-288)
800 Years: Roots of Faith
Buddhism for Today, p74[In the Simile of the Herbs,] roots, stalks, twigs, and leaves indicate faith, precepts, meditation, and wisdom. Roots are the most important part of plants. Without roots, they cannot grow stalks, twigs, or leaves. Therefore “roots” means faith. One cannot keep the precepts without faith. Because of keeping the precepts, one can enter into the mental state of meditation and can also obtain wisdom.
Conversely, however strong the roots may be, they will eventually die if the twigs and leaves wither or if the stalks are cut. In the same way, if man does not have wisdom, his faith will become corrupt. In short, in believing in a religion, man begins with faith and attains wisdom through the precepts and meditation. However, these four steps of his religious practice are always interrelated and exist together. When any one of the four steps is lacking, his religious practice cannot be perfect, and it will not progress to the next stage. Just as a tree may be big or little, superior, middle, or low, so different people are large- or smallminded, wise or ignorant.
800 Years: Understood Through Faith
Buddha Seed: Understanding the OdaimokuWith the Odaimoku of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo the Buddha’s virtue of Ichinen Sanzen is transferred to us naturally. It is the Buddha’s way to save living beings in Mappō. Nichiren Shōnin understood this through his faith. It is the virtue of the Odaimoku left by the Buddha for those who are in Mappō. It is the Buddha’s ultimate compassion.
800 Years: Stronger Faith = Greater Protection
When Tripiṭaka Master Kumārajīva brought the Lotus Sūtra to China, the Heavenly King Vaiśravaṇa dispatched countless soldiers to escort him safely over the Pamirs. When Priest Dōshō read the Lotus Sūtra in a waste land, innumerable tigers came together to protect him. You will also be protected in the same way; the thirty-six earthly deities and the twenty-eight heavenly gods will protect you. Moreover, two heavenly gods always accompany each person just as a shadow follows the body. One is called God Dōshō, and another is God Dōmyō. Both protect a person by accompanying him on both his shoulders, so that Heaven will not punish the innocent by mistake, not to speak of a lady with virtue like you. Grand Master Miao-lê has stated: “As long as one has strong faith, he certainly will receive greater protection.” It means that the stronger one’s faith is, the greater the gods’ protection.
Oto Gozen Go-shōsoku, A Letter to Lady Oto, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 120