This conception of the Buddha-nature, and of its realization in ourselves through worship, are consequences of the time-honored theory of the Threefold Personality (tri-kāya) of Buddha. But the characteristic feature in Nichiren’s ideas is that he never was content to talk of abstract truth, but always applied the truth taught to actual life, bringing it into vital touch with his own life. Ethics and metaphysics are never to be separated, but to be united in religion, and religion means a life actually embodying truth and virtue. Truths are revealed and virtues inculcated in the Lotus of Truth, and consequently the true religious life is equivalent to “reading the Scripture by person.” Thus, the essay, which begins with discussions of the metaphysical entity of Buddha-nature, proceeds naturally to a consideration of the Buddhist life, especially as exemplified in Nichiren’s own life. In it he says: …
“I, Nichiren, am the one who takes the lead of the Saints-out-of-Earth. Then may I not be one of them? If I, Nichiren, am one of them, why may not all my disciples and followers be their kinsmen? The Scripture says, “If one preaches to anybody the Lotus of Truth, even just one clause of it, he is, know ye, the messenger of the Tathāgata, the one commissioned by the Tathāgata, and the one who does the work of the Tathāgata.” How, then, can I be anybody else than this one? …
“By all means, awaken faith by seizing this opportunity! Live your life through as the one who embodies the Truth and go on without hesitation as a kinsman of Nichiren! If you are one in faith with Nichiren, you are one of the Saints-out-of-Earth; if you are destined to be such, how can you doubt that you are the disciple of the Lord Śākyamuni from all eternity? There is assurance of this in a word of Buddha, which says: “I have always, from eternity, been instructing and quickening all these beings.” No attention should be paid to the difference between men and women among those who would propagate the Lotus of the Perfect Truth in the days of the Latter Law. To utter the Sacred Title is, indeed, the privilege of the Saints-out-of-Earth. …
Category Archives: 800years
800 Years: This Heritage of Faith
Now, let us see what is said concerning the Heritage of the Great Thing:
“Whatever may happen to you, arouse in yourselves a strong faith and pray that you may, at the moment of death, utter the Sacred Title in clear consciousness and with earnest faith! Do not seek besides this any heritage of the sole great thing concerning life and death. Herein lies the truth of the saying that there is Bodhi even in depravities, and Nirvāṇa even in birth and death. Vain it is to hold the Lotus of Truth without this heritage of faith!
800 Years: The Faith of the Teacher of the Dharma
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p125-126The most important thing about [Chapter 10] is its emphasis on the Dharma teacher. Here we can see that the Sutra attempts to break through the limitations of the threefold shravaka-pratyekabuddha-bodhisattva distinction that had been prominent in earlier chapters of this Sutra and elsewhere in Mahayana Buddhism. According to Chapter 10, anyone – bodhisattva, pratyekabuddha, shravaka, or layperson, man or woman – can be a Dharma teacher.
This important point is certainly not unique to this chapter, but it is emphasized here in a special way: it is not only great bodhisattvas, great leaders, or great people who can teach the Dharma and do the Buddha’s work, but very ordinary people with even a limited understanding and even of limited faith can join in the Buddha’s work, if only by understanding and teaching a little. The point is, of course, that you and I can be Dharma teachers.
Thus the Buddha tells Medicine King Bodhisattva that if anyone wants to know what sort of living beings will become buddhas in the future, he should tell them that the very people before him, that is, all sorts of people, including very ordinary people, will become buddhas.
800 Years: To Have a Sense of Joyful Acceptance
Buddhism for Today, p283[Chapter 18] preaches in further detail the merits of first rejoicing over the Buddha’s teachings. The reason such merits are repeatedly preached is that our joyful acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings, our deep feeling of gratitude for them, is indispensable to faith. Even if we have read many sutras and have memorized all Buddhist doctrines, so long as we do not accept the Buddha’s teachings with heartfelt joy this means merely that we are knowledgeable in Buddhism; it does not indicate that we believe in the Buddha. To have a sense of joyful acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings is to have faith in them. Therefore the merits that we obtain by the joyful acceptance of his teachings are preached repeatedly in this chapter.
800 Years: Do Not retreat
Therefore, even if the lords, whom you serve at the risk of your life, force you to abandon your faith or severe persecution befalls you, do not retreat. Instead muster your faith in the Lotus Sūtra, and regard it as a good opportunity to see whether or not deities keep the promise they made to the Buddha. Your steadfast faith will enable the soul of your father to become a Buddha and he will come to protect you. Then all the obstacles and challenges will disappear, and you will be able to enjoy living in ease and comfort. When you encounter oppression, therefore, gladly accept it as the moment of truth.
Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 10
800 Years: Faith Is Nothing Without Practice
In the concluding chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Universal Sage Bodhisattva promises to appear before, protect, and encourage anyone who keeps and practices the Lotus Sutra, and he will have that person aspire to the Way to Buddhahood, as described in the The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra.
The emphasis in this chapter, as well as in the following Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, is on the need to put the Lotus Sutra into practice. As Gene Reeves explains in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra:
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p309“It is not enough to study and gain wisdom, not enough to feel compassion. One must also embrace the Sutra by embodying it in one’s life. Faith is not faith if it is only believed, or only felt; it must be lived. One must strive to become a buddha by being a bodhisattva for others, which means nothing more and nothing less than embodying Buddha Dharma by helping others in whatever ways are appropriate and in whatever ways one can. Among those ways is giving encouragement and strength to others, being Universal Sage Bodhisattva for them.”
But before we can be a Bodhisattva for others we must be one for ourselves. Thich Nhat Hanh explains in Peaceful Action, Open Heart that this starts when we bow before the Buddha.
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p227-228“We often show our respect to the Buddha and bodhisattvas by bowing, but it is important to understand that this action is not a kind of propitiation, in which a devotee pays respect to a powerful divine being in order to gain favor. The Buddha does not need us to pay respect to him; it is we who benefit from this practice. When you pay respect to the Buddha, you begin to see the path. You start to walk in the direction of goodness. You know that you are a Buddha-to-be – you have the capacity to become enlightened, awakened. You recognize that you have the capacity to love, to accept, to feel joy and to bring joy to others.
“When you bow to the Buddha you are really acknowledging your own capacity for Buddhahood. In acknowledging the Buddha, you acknowledge the Buddha nature inherent within you. … When understood and practiced in this way, paying respect to the Buddha is not merely a devotional ritual but is also a wisdom practice.”
We need to manifest faith in ourselves and faith in others with our practice and when we accomplish that we can realize the Buddha’s promise:
“Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sūtra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’ He should be considered to be caressed by me on the head. He should be considered to be covered with my robe.”
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800 Years: Family Dharma Drama
In the Lotus Sutra we are offered a number of stories of fathers and sons, but until we get to Chapter 27, no mothers. In fact, it’s only in the story of King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva that we have a family setting. Thich Nhat Hanh suggests in Peaceful Action, Open Heart that there was specific purpose in adding this chapter to the Lotus Sutra.
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p225“In order to better understand [Chapter 27], we have to understand how Mahayana Buddhism became established as a viable religion in China. Chinese society was strongly influenced by the teachings of Confucianism, which especially upheld the importance of filial duty – the duty and reverence of children toward their parents and ancestors. This ideal has been one of the underpinnings of Chinese society and culture from the time of Confucius in the fifth century B.C.E. to the present day. … When followers of Confucianism condemned Buddhism as failing to practice filial piety, the practitioners had to prove the opposite, that in following the path of the Buddha they were also following the path of humanity and filial piety.”
And yet for Nichiren that filiality to parents could never override filiality to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. As explained by Donald Lopez and Jacqueline Stone in Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side:
Two Buddhas, p252-253“Nichiren often cited [Chapter 27] to stress that, when faced with the choice between following one’s parents’ wishes or being faithful to the Lotus Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra must take precedence. Such a stance flew in the face of common understandings of filial piety, an important cultural value of Nichiren’s time. A writing attributed to him, possibly authored by a close disciple with his approval, states:
‘King Śubhavyūha, the father of Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra, adhered to heretical teachings and turned his back on the buddha-dharma. The two princes disobeyed their father’s orders and became disciples of the buddha Jaladharagaritaghoṣasusvaranakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijn͂a, but in the end they were able to guide their father so that he became a buddha called Sālendrarāja. Are they to be called unfilial? A sūtra passage explains: “To renounce one’s obligations and enter the unconditioned is truly to repay those obligations.” Thus, we see that those who cast aside the bonds of love and indebtedness in this life and enter the true path of the buddha-dharma are persons who truly understand their obligations.’
“The logic here is that abandoning the Lotus Sūtra to satisfy one’s parents might please them in the short run, but by so doing, one severs both them and oneself from the sole path of liberation in the present age. Because such an act constitutes ‘slander of the dharma,’ it can only lead to suffering for all concerned in this and future lifetimes. By upholding faith in the Lotus Sūtra, however, one can realize buddhahood oneself and eventually lead one’s parents to do the same.
Our faith in the Lotus Sutra and our practice of its teachings prompts our desire to save all sentient beings, starting with our parents.
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800 Years: Realizing the Buddha Land Where We Live
NYOSETSU SHUGYO SHO
When all the people under the heaven and various schools of Buddhism are all converted to the one and true vehicle, and when only the Lotus Sutra flourishes and all the people recite “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo” in unison, the howling wind will not blow on the branches, falling rain will not erode the soil, and the world will become as good as during the reigns of the Chinese Emperors Fu-hsi and Shen-nung. You will see that such times will come when the calamities cease to exist, people live long, and men and their faith become eternal, there should be no doubt about the proof of tranquility in life.
(Background : May 1273, 51 years old, at Sado, Showa Teihon, p.733)
Explanatory note
Nichiren Daishonin said that people read the Lotus Sutra with their eyes and voice, but no one read it with his body except him. People generally do not try to apply the teachings of the Lotus Sutra in daily life.
Nichiren clearly mentioned that each individual’s faith and real society are closely related. It is a foolish idea if one thinks that religion is only for comfort in his or her life. Once we are born, we are a part of a society whether we like it or not. We try to keep peace and happiness under the set rules in the society.
The aim of our faith in Nichiren Buddhism is to realize the Buddha Land where we live. It is our vow to be Nichiren’s followers. The Buddha Land will not be created in a few years nor in ten years but it surely will be realized with our firm faith in the Lotus Sutra.
Rev. Kanai
Phrase A Day800 Years: By Spreading Faith in the Lotus Sūtra
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismTamura [Yoshirō] acknowledges the presence of certain passages strongly suggestive of hongaku thought even in unimpeachable documents from the latter part of Nichiren’s career. Nichiren writes, for example, that “this world is the [Buddha’s] original land; the pure lands of the ten directions are defiled worlds that are its traces, or, “Śākyamuni of wondrous awakening (myōkaku) is our blood and flesh. Are not the merits of his causes (practice) and effects (enlightenment) our bones and marrow? ” However, Tamura says, on close examination such writings, “while maintaining nondual original enlightenment as their basis, in fact emerge from it.” Nichiren’s “Śākyamuni of wondrous awakening” is no mere abstract, all-pervasive Dharma-body but also encompasses the virtues of the reward-body Buddha who has traversed practice and attainment, as well as the concreteness of the manifested body, the historical Buddha who appeared in this world. Nor was Nichiren content merely to assert that this world is the Buddha’s pure land; he attempted actually to realize the pure land in this present world through bodhisattva conduct, by spreading faith in the Lotus Sūtra. As in the case of Dōgen, Nichiren’s emphasis on the concrete (ji) is not the affirmation of the phenomenal world seen in medieval Tendai hongaku thought but an emphasis on action that “restored the dynamic power of practice in the actual world.” Like Dōgen, Nichiren maintained the ontological nonduality of the Buddha and living beings as his basis, but “descended” to confront the relative distinctions of the world. (Page 91)
800 Years: Vows of Faith
KAIMOKU SHO
To desert the teaching of the Lotus Sutra denotes falling into hell. I have made a vow : “Even if someone says that he would make me the ruler of Japan if I give up the Lotus Sutra and rely upon the Kammuryojukyo (Sutra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life) for my salvation in the next life, or even if someone threatens me saying that he will execute my parents if I do not say ‘Namu Amida Butsu,’ and even if many great difficulties fall upon me, I will not submit to them until a man of wisdom defeats me by reason.” Other difficulties are like dust in the wind. I will never break my vow that I shall become a pillar of Japan, I shall become the eyes of Japan, and I shall become the great vessel of Japan.
(Background : February, 1272, 50 years old, at Sado, Showa Teihon, p.601)
Explanatory note
The three great vows are stated here by Nichiren Daishonin. His salvation for all people is based on these three original oaths. Nichiren transmitted the Lord Buddha’s salvation to all people through his strong faith in the Lotus Sutra. On April 28th, 1253, at the age of thirtyone, he proclaimed his new faith which contained the fundamental principles of these vows. Because of Nichiren’s conviction concerning these oaths, he never gave up his mission even though he met countless religious persecutions. As Nichiren Buddhists seeking salvation through the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, we must understand the fundamental principles of these three vows of Nichiren. It is always true that in any religion there is no salvation without fundamental principles and diligent practice. They are the essence of Nichiren’s religion.
Rev. Kodachi
Phrase A Day