Category Archives: Blog

Lifetime Beginner, Blog, Books

Lifetime Beginner

Lifetime Beginner bookcoverI recently finished reading Nikkyō Niwano’s autobiography Lifetime Beginner and, frankly, I’m glad that I read Buddhism for Today before reading this. The book was originally published in Japan in 1975 and the first English translation published in 1978. As explained by Rissho Kosei-kai:

This is a refreshingly candid account of the author’s life, from his childhood on a small farm in northern Japan, through his years of religious search, and finally to the founding and growth of Rissho Kosei-kai, a lay Buddhist organization with well over six million members throughout the world.

As with all things Rissho Kosei-kai, I’m ambivalent, but rather than dwell on the troublesome aspects I want to underscore the important teaching I found.

Two Halves of the Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra is divided into two sections. In the first half, defined as the “Law of Appearance,” the World-honored One, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, discusses the organization of the universe, human life, and human relationships on the basis of his experience and enlightenment. This section of the sutra teaches human beings how they ought to live. In the second half, the “Law of Origin,” Shakyamuni Buddha expands his teachings. For the first time, he says that the true Buddha exists without beginning and without end and that he himself has consistently preached the Law and taught people throughout the universe since the infinite past.

The Buddha of the Law of Origin—the Eternal Original Buddha— is the basic life-force of the universe; he is the truth, life, and law of the entire cosmos. The teachings of the Law of Origin inform us that by tuning the wavelength of our own lives to that of the universe we can achieve the spiritual state we should attain and become truly happy. The Law of Appearance contains what is often called the expedient teachings; the Law of Origin contains the true teachings. The former is essential for a transition into the latter, but neither teaching is superior to the other: they are the complementary halves of a single Truth. (p160)

The Essential Unity

The completely egalitarian Lotus Sutra teaches that not only human beings but all beings in the universe share the potential to attain buddhahood through full manifestation and complete development of their essences, each according to their true natures. When all things, including humanity, have attained this state, we shall achieve perfect peace in the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light, which ought to be the ultimate goal of all mankind.

This is the ideal concept of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, but it is not sufficient to save man, who is weak and requires spiritual support to be able to live in peace. All things in the world of phenomena are transient, and nothing is permanent enough to serve as a spiritual support except the Eternal Original Buddha, the great force of life that is the origin of the universe. Human beings and all other beings are but visible manifestations of this great invisible universal life-force.

Since the life-force is eternal and indestructible, in essence human life too is eternal, though the manifested physical body dies. A person enlightened to this truth in the deepest part of his understanding experiences everlasting tranquility. This very tranquility itself is at the same time the joy of life that throbs in man’s physical and spiritual being.

Profound enlightenment to this truth leads to an awareness of the essential unity binding all things into one great family of life. This awareness in turn inspires a deep sense of equality and love for all beings, a greater love that is called compassion. A person who is compassionate in this sense is truly valuable, and a society of such people is a paradise. This is fundamental in the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Living daily in correct spiritual and physical attunement with these teachings inspires the joy of living with the Eternal Original Buddha, generates love and compassion, and eliminates the need for the kind of spiritual support provided by revelations from protective deities.
(p161-162)

Bruce Springsteen told the concert crowd at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, “At 15, it’s all tomorrows. And at 73, it’s a whole lot of yesterdays.” That’s certainly how I feel today at 71 years of age. I wish I had heard at age 15 the advice Nikkyō Niwano gave to Rissho Kosei-kai youth in January 1958:

“You young people are filled with energy and with the power to absorb things. This is why I want all of you to read at least part of the Threefold Lotus Sutra daily. Even a few lines are enough if you are very busy. But try to read the entire sutra once a month. If you do this, in three or four years you will make new spiritual discoveries within yourself. These discoveries will be an inspiration to you and will bring great light and good tidings into your life. Remember that we make our own happiness. And with this in mind, go forward with determination.” (p170-171)

In March 2015, I began my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra Practice. Next month will mark the completion of the eighth year of my monthly reading of the Lotus Sutra. In that time I’ve made “new spiritual discoveries” and these discoveries have brought “great light and good tidings” into my life.

Kern, d17b, d18b, Blog

Encouragement

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

Chapter 13 in the Kumārajīva translation and Chapter 12 in H. Kern’s translation follow the story of Devadatta and the Dragon King’s Daughter. If you assume the chapter title foreshadows the content, then there is a distinction difference in focus between Kumarajiva and the 11th century Sanskrit document Kern translated.

Among the English translators of Kumarajiva, we have titles of:

  • “Encouragement for Keeping This Sūtra,” Senchu Murano.
  • “Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra,” Gene Reeves.
  • “Encouraging Devotion,” Soka Gakkai, (Burton Watson).
  • “Exhortation to Hold Firm,” Rissho Kosei-Kai, 1975.
  • “Encouragement to Hold Firm,” Rissho Kosei-Kai, 2019.

Kern has simply “Exertion” and Leon Hurvitz, who incorporates both Kumārajīva and a 19th century compilation Sanskrit document, offers “Fortitude.”

The contents of Kumārajīva’s chapter and the Sanskrit document Kern translated clearly offer the same lesson, but Kumārajīva focuses on encouraging future devotees while Kern simply stresses that it will take work to propagate the Lotus Sutra in a world full of “malign beings, having few roots of goodness, conceited, fond of gain and honor, rooted in unholiness, difficult to tame, deprived of good will, and full of unwillingness.”

There is, however, a notable difference between how Kumārajīva handles the concerns of Maha-Prajapati Bhikṣunī, the Buddha’s stepmother.

Murano sets the stage in this way:

There were Maha-Prajapati Bhikṣunī, the sister of the mother of the Buddha, and six thousand bhikṣunīs, some of whom had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn. They rose from their seats, joined their hands together with all their hearts, and looked up at the honorable face with unblenching eyes.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Gautamī:

“Why do you look at me so anxiously? You do not think that I assured you of your future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi because I did not mention you by name, do you? Gautamī! I have already said that I assured all the Śrāvakas of their future attainment [of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi].

Kern, however, offers:

Then the noble matron Gautamī, the sister of the Lord’s mother, along with six hundred nuns, some of them being under training, some being not, rose from her seat, raised the joined hands towards the Lord and remained gazing up to him. Then the Lord addressed the noble matron Gautamī: Why dost thou stand so dejected, gazing up to the Tathāgata? (She replied): I have not been mentioned by the Tathāgata, nor have I received from him a prediction of my destiny to supreme, perfect enlightenment. (He said): But, Gautamī, thou hast received a prediction with the prediction regarding the whole assembly.

Perhaps not a big deal that Kern has Maha-Prajapati voice her concerns – “I have not been mentioned by the Tathāgata, nor have I received from him a prediction of my destiny to supreme, perfect enlightenment” – but notable.

Another minor difference is the number of nuns accompanying Maha-Prajapati. Kumarajiva has 6,000 and Kern only 600. Hurvitz sticks with the 6,000.

Personally, the biggest difference between the translations involves the the Bodhisattvas. I’ve always been moved by Murano’s story.

Thereupon the World-Honored One looked 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. They rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together [towards him] with all their hearts, and thought, “If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sūtra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.”

They also thought, “The Buddha keeps silence.’ He does not command us. What shall we do?”

The image of the Buddha inviting the Bodhisattvas but sitting silent is not present in Kern’s translation.

Thereafter the Lord looked towards the eighty hundred thousand Bodhisattvas who were gifted with magical spells and capable of moving forward the wheel that never rolls back. No sooner were those Bodhisattvas regarded by the Lord than they rose from their seats, raised their joined hands towards the Lord and reflected thus: The Lord invites us to make known the Dharmaparyāya. Agitated by that thought they asked one another: What shall we do, young men of good family, in order that this Dharmaparyāya may in future be made known as the Lord invites us to do?

All of the English translations of Kumārajīva note the silence of the Buddha. Even Hurvitz mentions it. Given the chapter’s focus on “Encouragement,” this silence is important. The loss of that dimension from Kern’s translation diminishes the significance of the Bodhisattvas’ vow.

Next: The Plight of an Ordinary Bodhisattva

Kern, d17b, Blog

Lessons of Devadatta and the Dragon King’s Daughter

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

In comparing Senchu Murano’s English translation of the story of Devadatta and the Dragon King’s Daughter with H. Kern’s English translation from the Sanskrit, we need to start with the fact that this chapter wasn’t translated by Kumārajīva. According to the explanation in Murano’s Introduction, Chapter 12 was translated by Fa-i in 490 CE and inserted into Kumārajīva’s version at the beginning of the sixth century. In Kern’s translation, the material doesn’t appear as a separate chapter but is instead spliced onto the end of Chapter 11, Apparition of a Stūpa.

The two translations appear even closer than the chapters translated by Kumārajīva. Take for instance the opening scene.

Kern offers:

Thereupon the Lord addressed the whole company of Bodhisattvas and the world, including gods and demons, and said: Of yore, monks, in times past I have, unwearied and without repose, sought after the Sūtra of the Lotus of the True Law, during immense, immeasurable Æons; many Æons before I have been a king, during many thousands of Æons. Having once taken the strong resolution to arrive at supreme, perfect enlightenment, my mind did not swerve from its aim. I exerted myself to fulfil the six Perfections (Pāramitās), bestowing immense alms: gold, money, gems, pearls, lapis lazuli, conch-shells, stones (?), coral, gold and silver, emerald, Musāragalva, red pearls; villages, towns, boroughs, provinces, kingdoms, royal capitals; wives, sons, daughters, slaves, male and female; elephants, horses, cars, up to the sacrifice of life and body, of limbs and members, hands, feet, head.

Murano offers:

Thereupon the Buddha said to the Bodhisattvas, gods, men and the four kinds of devotees:

“When I was a Bodhisattva] in my previous existence, I sought the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma for innumerable kalpas without indolence. I became a king [and continued to be so] for many kalpas. [Although I was a king,] I made a vow to attain unsurpassed Bodhi. I never faltered in seeking it. I practiced alms-giving in order to complete the six pāramitās. I never grudged elephants, horses, the seven treasures, countries, cities, wives, children, menservants, maidservants or attendants. I did not spare my head, eyes, marrow, brain, flesh, hands or feet. I did not spare even my life.”

The principal difference is that Murano’s translation inserts material within square brackets that he felt necessary for clarity.

Another telling similarity is the “error” concerning the direction from which the Stūpa of Treasures arrived.

At the beginning of Chapter 11, Murano has the Buddha explain that:

“The perfect body of a Tathāgata is in this stūpa of treasures. A long time ago there was a world called Treasure-Purity at the distance of many thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of worlds to the east [of this world]. In that world lived a Buddha called Many-Treasures.”

Kern, however, says:

Thus asked, the Lord spake to Mahāpratibhāna, the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, as follows: In this great Stūpa of precious substances, Mahāpratibhāna, the proper body of the Tathāgata is contained condensed; his is the Stūpa; it is he who causes this sound to go out. In the point of space below, Mahāpratibhāna, there are innumerable thousands of worlds. Further on is the world called Ratnaviṣuddha, there is the Tathāgata named Prabhūtaratna, the Arhat, &c.

While Many Treasures lived in the east in Chapter 11, both Murano and Kern agree that the stūpa arrived from the nadir in the story of the Dragon King’s Daughter.

Murano has:

At that time Many-Treasures, the World-Honored One, who had come from the nadir,’ was accompanied by a Bodhisattva called Accumulated-Wisdom. The Bodhisattva said to Many-Treasures Buddha, “Shall we go back to our home world?”

Kern has:

At that moment a Bodhisattva of the name of Pragñākūṭa, having come from beneath the Buddha field of the Tathāgata Prabhūtaratna, said to the Tathāgata Prabhūtaratna: Lord, let us resort to our own Buddha-field.

Next: Encouragement

Kern, d16b, Blog

The Details of the Stūpa of Treasures

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, is another chapter where several details mark the differences between Senchu Murano’s English translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra and H. Kern’s English translation of an 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra.

Take the act of Śākyamuni opening the Stūpa of Treasures.

Murano offers:

Now he opened the door of the stūpa of the seven treasures with the fingers of his right hand. The opening of the door made a sound as large as that of the removal of the bolt and lock of the gate of a great city.

While Kern says:

The Lord then, with the right forefinger, unlocked the middle of the great Stūpa of jewels, which showed like a meteor, and so severed the two parts. Even as the double doors of a great city gate separate when the bolt is removed, so the Lord opened the great Stūpa, which showed like a meteor, by unlocking it in the middle with the right forefinger.

Interestingly, Leon Hurvitz’s English translation, which merges Kumārajīva’s Chinese with a Sanskrit compilation, says Śākyamuni used “his right finger” to open the door.

The description of the Buddha Many Treasures is significantly different between Murano and Kern.

Murano says:

At that instant all the congregation saw Many Treasures Tathāgata sitting with his perfect and undestroyed body on the lion-like seat in the stūpa of treasures as if he had been sitting in dhyāna-concentration. They also heard him say:

“Excellent, excellent! You, Śākyamuni Buddha, have joyfully expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. I have come to hear this sūtra [directly from you].”

But Kern adds:

The great Stūpa of jewels had no sooner been opened than the Lord Prabhūtaratna, the Tathāgata, &c., was seen sitting cross-legged on his throne, with emaciated limbs and faint body, as if absorbed in abstract meditation, and he pronounced these words: Excellent, excellent, Lord Śākyamuni; thou hast well expounded this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law. I repeat, thou hast well expounded this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law, Lord Śākyamuni, to the (four) classes of the assembly. I myself, Lord, have come hither to hear the Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law.

As for Hurvitz, he has the body “whole and undecayed” and says nothing of “emaciated limbs” or “faint body.”

Then there’s the Lion’s Roar that’s heard. But who roared?

Murano says:

(The Buddha said to the great multitude.)
Who will protect
And keep this sūtra,
And read and recite it
After my extinction?
Make a vow before me to do this!

Many-Treasures Buddha,
Who had passed away a long time ago,
Made a loud voice like the roar of a lion
According to his great vow.

But Kern says:

10. Let him who after my extinction shall keep this Dharmaparyāya quickly pronounce his declaration in the presence of the Lords of the world.

11. The Seer Prabhūtaratna who, though completely extinct, is awake, will hear the lion’s roar of him who shall take this resolution.

Hurvitz notes the Sanskrit variation but sticks with Many Jewels roaring.

The differences in Chapter 11, as with earlier chapters, are significant but not consequential. It’s still all the Lotus Sutra.

Next: Lessons of Devadatta and the Dragon King’s Daughter

Blog

The Value of Online Services

Rev. Shoda Kanai performs purification ceremony

Today, while there were no services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church, I was able to attend the monthly purification service held by Rev. Shoda Kanai from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada.

Yes, attending a service in person is better, but I’m truly grateful that I live in a time when we can use technology to transport ourselves to distant places. (And someday that won’t just be a Zoom session but real physical transport.)

This value was underscored by Rev. Kanai’s bestowal of Mandela Gohonzons to three people as part of the service. One person was able to attend the service and take jukai vows to join Nichiren Shu and two others took those vows online and will receive their eye-opened Gohonzons in the mail.

Jukai ceremony and Mandela Gohonzon bestowal
Jukai ceremony and Mandela Gohonzon bestowal

Jukai ceremony online
Jukai ceremony online
Carrithers Buddha, Blog, Books

Michael Carrithers’ The Buddha

Michael Carrithers’ book, The Buddha, was first published in 1983 as part of the Oxford University Press series Past Masters. The goal of the series was to offer brief introductions to the ideas of important thinkers. The book was eventually reprinted in the 1990s as part of the Oxford Very Short Introductions series.

At just 100 pages in length, Carrithers’ book is indeed a very short introduction covering Śākyamuni’s early life and renunciation, the way to awakening, the awakening itself and the mission and the death of the Buddha.

Carrithers offers an academic’s anthropological and historical view of the Buddha, but one that is supportive. An early example of this comes when Carrithers is discussing why Śākyamuni rejected the teachings of Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta.

“They fall short because, whatever view of the spiritual cosmos clothed their meditative techniques, it was the techniques themselves which were inadequate. On the one hand this signals that the Buddha was to move towards creating his own special forms of meditation, forms beside which methods such as the Absorptions were to take a subsidiary place. On the other hand it betokens the formation of an abiding attitude which must have marked the man as it deeply marked his teaching, an attitude which might be called a stubbornly disciplined pragmatism. Whatever teachings or practices the well-stocked market-place of ancient Indian thought offered him, they had to be shown to be useful in his own experience for him to accept them. …

The consequences of this attitude appear throughout the Buddha’s mature teaching. ‘Know not by hearsay, nor by tradition … nor by indulgence in speculation…nor because you honor [the word of] an ascetic; but know for yourselves.’ (Anguttara Nikāya, Vol. 1, p189)”

Carrithers The Buddha, p37-38

Another example comes when Carrithers is explaining the variations on the meaning of transmigration.

In other teachings the doctrine of transmigration went with an elaborate view of the spiritual cosmos within which transmigration occurs. One moves up and down, becoming now an animal, now a god, now the denizen of some hell, and again a Warrior or Brahman, a slave or a king (Buddhism itself was later to be prolific in the production of such views). But for the Buddha the specific details of transmigration were never so important as the principle underlying it: human action has moral consequences, consequences which are inescapable, returning upon one whether in this life or another. There is a fundamental moral order. One cannot steal, lie, commit adultery or ‘go along the banks of the Ganges striking, slaying, mutilating and commanding others to mutilate, oppressing and commanding others to oppress’ (Dīgha Nikāya, Vol. 1, p52), without reaping the consequences. There is an impersonal moral causation to which all are subjected. Misdeeds lead to misery in this life or in later lives. The Buddha’s teaching was devoted to the apparently selfish purpose of self-liberation, being directed to sentient beings in so far as they are capable of misery and final liberation from misery. But the teaching also touched sentient beings as moral agents, as agents capable of affecting the welfare not only of themselves but of others as well. Some of his teachings seem to treat only personal liberation, others morality, but for the Buddha the two matters were always intimately and necessarily connected.

Carrithers The Buddha, p54

Worth keeping for future use are his discussions of basic elements of Buddhist thought

The Five Aggregates

In this view, objects of experience, the organs of experience such as the eye, and the consequent consciousness of experience, ‘the mind’, are indissolubly linked. None of the three is conceivable without the other: they lean upon each other as one sheaf of reeds leans upon another, to use a canonical simile.

Furthermore, those features of experience which might be said to lie within the ‘mind’ itself, such as perception, feeling and consciousness, are themselves ‘conjoined, not disjoined, and it is impossible to separate them in order to specify their individual characteristics’ (Majjhima Nikāya, Vol. 1, p293). So right from the objects of perception, through the physical organs of perception, to feeling, consciousness, thought and volition, there is one dynamic, interdependent, ever-changing complex, which might be called an ‘individual’ or a ‘self, but which has nothing lasting in it.

Indeed the very term which I have translated as ‘all aspects of experience in the mind and body’ is one of the analytic descriptions of this process, a description in which the impersonal, dynamic and interdependent nature of the process is already implicit. This term is the ‘five aggregates’ (pañcakkhanda). The first ‘aggregate’ is materiality, which includes physical objects, the body, and sense organs. The other four ‘aggregates’ are feeling, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. Within these ‘aggregates’, this process, are included all that pertains to an individual and his experience. Feeling is but one face of this process, a face available to insight meditation. The mutability and inadequacy of feeling are characteristic of the whole process: ‘all aspects of experience in the mind and body are suffering’. Or, as the Buddha said elsewhere, ‘as the aggregates arise, decay, and die, O monk, so from moment to moment you are born, decay, and die’ (Paramatthajotikā, Vol. 1, p78).

Carrithers The Buddha, p59-60

The Lust for Rebirth

Rebirth may be rebirth from moment to moment of experience, or it may be rebirth in another life, but in either case it is the consequence of this lust to be something else.

Carrithers The Buddha, p64

Intentions

[I]in the legal system developed for the Buddhist order, only intentional actions are regarded as transgressions, and unintentional acts — such as those committed while asleep, or mad, or under duress — are not culpable.

This has great implications. It means that intentions are not negligible, that they have consequences. They do work, are in themselves actions. This is the sense of the term ‘karma’, whose primary meaning is just ‘work’ or ‘deed’, but in this Buddhist sense ‘mental action’. (Karma does not refer to the results of action, as we now assume in ordinary usage in the West.) ‘It is choice or intention that I call karma — mental work — ‘for having chosen a man acts by body, speech and mind’ (Anguttara Nikāya, Vol. 3, p415). Intentions make one’s world; it is they that do the work whose consequences we must reap in suffering. They form the subsequent history of our psychic life as surely as wars or treaties, plagues or prosperity form the subsequent history of a nation.

Carrithers The Buddha, p67

Choosing Pain

Hence from a radically moral standpoint it is by choosing badly, by being greedy and hateful, that we bring upon ourselves the suffering we meet in birth after birth. The ill that we cause ourselves and the ill that we cause others are of a piece, stemming from the same roots. The Noble Truth of the Arising of Suffering could be rephrased thus: ‘inflamed by greed, incensed by hate, confused by delusion, overcome by them, obsessed in mind, a man chooses for his own affliction, for others’ affliction, for the affliction of both, and experiences pain and grief’ (Anguttara Nikāya, Vol. 3, p55).

Carrithers The Buddha, p68

Rebirth Without Self

The moral cause in transmigration is equivalent to the cause of suffering. But this raises a fundamental question: how exactly does this cause work? For a doctrine of a Self or soul it is easy enough. The Self acts, causes consequences to itself, and is reborn again according to its deserts. The basic structure is in its own terms plausible, so the details are not so important. But what if there is no Self?

The answer (as it appears at Dīgha Nikāya, Vol.2, no.15) works backwards from the appearance of a new body and mind, a new psychophysical entity. How did this appear? It appeared through the descent of consciousness into a mother’s womb. On the face of it this is primitive, going back to earlier Indian ideas of an homunculus descending into the womb; and it is speculative, going beyond the Buddha’s brief of attending only to what he could witness himself. But later Buddhist commentators are clear that this descent is metaphorical, as we might say ‘darkness descended on him’ if someone fell unconscious. Moreover this enlivening consciousness is not an independent entity, a disguised Self, but is composed of causes and conditions.

So what in turn were these preceding conditions? One was the act of physical generation, but more important was a previous impulse. Here impulse is to be understood as intention or mental action, bearing a moral quality and informing by that quality the nature of the new psychophysical entity. If the impulse was good the new body and mind will be well endowed and fortunately placed, if not it will be poorly endowed and unfortunate.

And now comes the key question: what is this mysterious impulse? It is in fact nothing other than the final impulse, the dying thought, of the previous mind and body. It is nothing like a Self, but is merely a last energy which leaps the gap from life to life rather like — as a later Buddhist source puts it – a flame leaping from one candle wick to another. Nor is it free of preceding conditions, for it is the product of the dispositions formed by habitual mental actions conducted under the veil of ignorance and desire within the previous life. And thus one can trace the process back — to beginningless time, in fact.

In this account there is no underlying entity, but there is a stream of events which has its own history. This history is borne forward, not by a Self or soul, but by the complex interaction of the causes, conditions and effects summarized under craving and suffering. To understand this interaction is to understand the nature and origins of the human condition.

Carrithers The Buddha, p68-70

I am going to end this collection with a prayer taken from the Saṃyutta Nikāya:

Whatever beings may exist — weak or strong, tall, broad, medium or short, fine-material or gross, seen or unseen, those born and those pressing to be born — may they all without exception be happy in heart!

Let no one deceive anyone else, nor despise anyone anywhere. May no one wish harm to another in anger or ill-will!

Let one’s thoughts of boundless loving-kindness pervade the whole world, above, below, across, without obstruction, without hatred, without enmity!

Kern, d14b, d15b, Blog

Shouldering the Buddha

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

In Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma – or as H. Kern entitles it simply “The Preacher” – we get an interesting example of Kumārajīva’s brevity vs. the 11th century Sanskrit’s clarity.

Senchu Murano’s translation of Kumārajīva offers this at the conclusion of the initial prose section of Chapter 10:

“Medicine-King! An evil man who speaks ill of me in my presence with evil intent for as long as a kalpa is not as sinful as the person who reproaches laymen or monks with even a single word of abuse for their reading and reciting the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

“Medicine-King! Anyone who reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, know this, will be adorned just as I am. I will shoulder him. Wherever he may be, bow to him! Join your hands together towards him with all your heart, respect him, make offerings to him, honor him, and praise him! Offer him flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, canopies, banners, streamers, garments, food and various kinds of music! Make him the best offerings that you can obtain in the world of men! Strew the treasures of heaven to him! Offer him heaps of the treasures of heaven! Why is that? It is because, while he is expounding the Dharma with joy, if you hear it even for a moment, you will immediately be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

Note that there is no specific explanation of why it is worse to slander the preacher of the Dharma than the Buddha. It simply is.

Kern’s translation of the Sanskrit, however, is very specific about this:

Again, Bhaiṣajyarāja, if some creature vicious, wicked, and cruel-minded should in the (current) Age speak something injurious in the face of the Tathāgata, and if some should utter a single harsh word, founded or unfounded, to those irreproachable preachers of the law and keepers of this Sūtrānta, whether lay devotees or clergymen, I declare that the latter sin is the graver. For, Bhaiṣajyarāja, such a young man or young lady of good family must be held to be adorned with the apparel of the Tathāgata. He carries the Tathāgata on his shoulder, Bhaiṣajyarāja, who after having copied this Dharmaparyāya and made a volume of it, carries it on his shoulder. Such a one, wherever he goes, must be saluted by all beings with joined hands, must be honored, respected, worshipped, venerated, revered by gods and men with flowers, incense, perfumed garlands, ointment, powder, clothes, umbrellas, flags, banners, musical instruments, with food, soft and hard, with nourishment and drink, with vehicles, with heaps of choice and gorgeous jewels. That preacher of the law must be honored by heaps of gorgeous jewels being presented to that preacher of the law. For it may be that by his expounding this Dharmaparyāya, were it only once, innumerable, incalculable beings who hear it shall soon become accomplished in supreme and perfect enlightenment.

Also note who carries whom? Kumārajīva has the Buddha supporting the preacher; “I will shoulder him.” Kern’s translation has the preacher carrying the Buddha because he carries the Lotus Sutra. Kern’s translation actually sets the stage for when we learn later in the chapter that the sutra, not the śarīras of the Buddha, should be enshrined in a stupa and honored.

Here’s Murano:

“Medicine-King! Erect a stupa of the seven treasures in any place where this sūtra is expounded, read, recited or copied, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra exists! The stupa should be tall, spacious and adorned. You need not enshrine my śarīras in the stupa. Why not? It is because it will contain my perfect body.

Kern offers:

Again, Bhaiṣajyarāja, on any spot of the earth where this Dharmaparyāya is expounded, preached, written, studied, or recited in chorus, on that spot, Bhaiṣajyarāja, one should build a Tathāgata shrine, magnificent, consisting of precious substances, high, and spacious; but it is not necessary to depose in it relics of the Tathāgata. For the body of the Tathāgata is, so to say, collectively deposited there.

The awkwardness of Kern’s translation underscores why Kumārajīva is so beloved, even if it lacks some of Kern’s details.

Next: Digging Into A Story

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Online and IRL: Welcoming 2023

Bell Ringing in Las Vegas
Shoda Kanai Shonin of the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada

In 2020 everything shut down and Zoom was all that allowed the sangha to meet and celebrate the Dharma. Now, as I begin 2023, I am grateful for the merger of the two worlds – online and IRL.

New Year’s Eve morning I celebrated the end of the year with Rev. Shoda Kanai’s Zoom service from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada. The services ends with the ringing of the temple bell 108 times.

Then at 11 pm New Year’s Eve I attended the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church‘s end of year service with my wife, Mary, and son, Richard, and his fiancée, Alexis. After the service we had cookies and tea while we waited for the New Year to arrive.

At midnight everyone gathered outside to ring the church bell 108 times. We each rang the bell 12 times and Alexis, who will deliver my first grandchild in early January, rang the bell 24 times.

After the New Year service we toasted the arrival of 2023 with a sip of sake.

New Year Purification
Shoda Kanai Shonin performing New Year blessing

On New Year’s morning I attended Rev. Shoda Kanai’s Zoom service from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada, which includes his recitation of members’ New Year’s prayers and a purification ceremony for the New Year.

A fine start to a New Year.

WONS, Blog

Recalling A Phrase A Day

Today I take a break from my daily publishing of quotes from Nichiren’s writings in order to reprint the Phrase a Day, which was first published here in January 2018. The Phrase a Day booklet, first published in 1986, will appear daily during January.

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Gratitude

Welcoming 2023 with gratitude

I’m dedicating 2023 to gratitude. The idea came to me last year after attending a Chicago Rissho Kōsei-kai talk led by Kyohei Kevin Mikawa.

Expecting a discussion of the Lotus Sutra, I instead found myself reading aloud from a Rissho Kōsei-kai magazine article written by a member in Oklahoma. His was a story of woe not unlike many “experiences” I heard over the years when I was a member of Soka Gakkai. What struck a chord in me, however, was the “lesson” taken from this personal history of abandonment and neglect: gratitude – gratitude for meeting the Lotus Sutra; gratitude for the promise embodied in Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.

I don’t recall the exact words Kyohei Mikawa used, but he explained that in our journey to become a Buddha all of these trials and tribulations become the celebrated obstacles and hardships we overcame on our way to enlightenment. Hearing this, I was reminded of the songs warriors sing after great battles. This adversity we face today is the stuff of legends tomorrow.

Yesterday I concluded my 800 Years of Faith project with a lengthy quote from Ryusho Jeffus Shonin. Today and daily through Feb. 24, I’ll be publishing quotes from Ryusho’s book, Important Matters, which features quotes from Shute Hoyo Shiki, the manual used to train Nichiren Shu priests. Here’s an example that plays into my theme of gratitude:

The Shute Hoyo Shiki says:

“Our own bowing and the Buddhas who are bowed to are all originally within one mind in which there is no bowing and no one to receive it. Although there is no bowing and no one to receive it there is certainly the response of the Buddhas and the receptivity of the ordinary people.”

Shute Hoyo Shiki – Udana-in Nichiki, page 391

For me, bowing when there is no bowing means that all my life is both an expression of gratitude and an attempt to repay the favors I have received. Bowing when there is no one to bow to means that, when I succeed in living according to the principle that all beings possess Buddha nature, then even if people do not seem to respond, their lives are forever impacted and the Buddha within them bows. Their receptivity is not dependent upon their knowledge or awareness; the Buddha is always receptive. The one mind of self always abiding in the Lotus Sutra is far reaching and encompassing. The one mind abiding in the Lotus Sutra speaks to the one mind of every being in the universe and so the universe abides in us and bows to us.

Important Matters, p 27-28

Gratitude, of course, is not a Buddhist concept. The beneficial effects of a grateful attitude are widely cited in many fields. But gratitude is an important element of our Buddhist practice.

Nichiren wrote early on in his Essay on Gratitude:

What is the best way for Buddhists to express their gratitude for the unfathomable kindness that they have received? The way is by mastering Buddhism completely and being sagacious. How can anyone guide blind persons across a bridge, if he himself is blind? How can a captain, who does not know the direction of the wind, sail his ship to transport many merchants to a mountain of treasure?

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Second Edition, Doctrine 3, Page 1

Bishop Shokai Kanai explains in “Phrase A Day“:

Most people see Nichiren’s vigorous actions which have appeared externally, but they do not try to see his religious point which has come from within his inner self.

For Nichiren Daishonin, “Ho-on” or gratitude was the nucleus of his religion. “Ho-on” means to show appreciation that you are living because of others. Any society is formed with each individual depending on others, so that we must show appreciation of all people. But if the appreciation is referred to only in our daily living, it is not real gratitude, or “Ho-on”.

According to Nichiren Daishonin, the real gratitude is to lead all people to the faith in the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which was revealed by the Buddha Śākyamuni.

Nichiren might have received all sorts of earthly kindness from many people. But he never tried to return their kindness with worldly matters. Rather, in order to have real salvation for them, Daishonin preached Buddha’s teachings by sacrificing his own life. He cast away all attachments, even his own life. Daishonin’s four major persecutions and many other minor persecutions proved his willingness to sacrifice his own life. We, as his followers, should not be afraid of any obstacles to living in truth; then, we will be given power to overcome such obstacles.

Gratitude is a recurring theme in the Daily Dharma lessons distributed by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. The Daily Dharma published Dec. 10, 2022, offers this:

When we who are living in this latter age of Degeneration keep and practice this [Lotus] Sūtra, we change the focus of our own existence. We lose our dependence on the things we thought we needed to make us happy, and thus learn to appreciate them for what they are. We set aside our fear of losing these things and gain the courage to handle situations we previously thought were impossible. We stop focusing on what we need to live and find gratitude for what sustains our lives.

Our gratitude should be boundless. That’s my goal for 2023.