I’m away from home, staying in a motel for eight days, but I’m keeping to my practice schedule, if somewhat abbreviated. Having completed Day 32 yesterday, today I’ve recited The Sutra of the Method for Contemplating the Bodhisattva Universal Sage. I’ve shifted from the BDK English Tripitaka translation of The Infinite Meanings Sutra, the Lotus Sutra and The Sutra Expounded by the Buddha on Practice of the Way through Contemplation of the Bodhisattva All-embracing Goodness and taken up The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers. This translation is by Michio Shinozaki, Brook A. Ziporyn and David C. Earhart. Kosei Publishing Company released this version this year.

Earlier today I published a quote from Nichiren’s writings that discusses Universal Sage and I want to insert that quote here for future reference.

Grand Master Miao-lê, in explaining the practice of the Lotus teaching in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight, declared that the Lotus Sūtra would be easy to practice for the ignorant and slow in the Latter Age because they would be able to meet Universal Sage Bodhisattva, the Buddha of Many Treasures and Buddhas manifested in various worlds throughout the universe, by simply practicing the teaching of the sūtra. In addition, Miao-lê declared, “You may recite the Lotus Sūtra inattentively; you don’t have to meditate or concentrate; with your whole heart pray to characters of the Lotus Sūtra all the time whether sitting, standing or walking.”

The aim of this interpretation is solely to save the ignorant in the Latter Age. The “inattentive mind” meaning the mind of an ordinary person engaged in daily routines is contrasted to the “concentrated mind.” “Reciting the Lotus Sūtra” means to recite either the whole eight fascicles or just one fascicle, one character, one phrase, one verse or the daimoku; it means also to rejoice upon hearing the Lotus Sūtra even for a moment or the joy of the fiftieth person who hears the sūtra transmitted from one person to the next. “Whether sitting, standing or walking” means regardless of what you are doing in daily life. “Whole heart” means neither spiritual concentration nor the rational faculty of the mind; it is the ordinary inattentive mind. “Praying to characters of the Lotus Sūtra” means that each character of the Lotus Sūtra, unlike that of other sūtras, contains all the characters of all the Buddhist scriptures and the merit of all Buddhas.

Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, therefore, states in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 8, “Without opening this sūtra he who believes in the Lotus Sūtra reads it all the time; without uttering a word, recites various sūtras widely; without the Buddha preaching, always listens to the resounding voice of the Buddha; and without contemplating, shines over the entire dharma world.” The meaning of this statement is that, those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra are upholders of this sūtra twenty-four hours a day, even if a person does not hold the eight fascicles; that those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra are the same as those who continuously read all the Buddhist scriptures every day, hour and second even if they do not raise their voices in reciting the sūtras; that it has already been more than 2,000 years since the passing of the Buddha, whose voice remains in the ears of those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra, reminding them every hour and minute that the Buddha has always been in this Sahā World; and that without contemplating the doctrine of the “3,000 existences contained in one thought,” those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra observe all the worlds throughout the universe.

These merits are endowed solely to those who practice the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra have the virtue of shining over the dharma world without intention, reciting all the scriptures of Buddhism without voice, and upholding the eight-fascicled Lotus Sūtra without touching it, although they do not pray to the Buddha at the moment of death, do not recite sūtras by voice or enter an exercise hall.

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 39-40