Before going on with the message of faith contained in Chapter 2, it’s necessary to explore what faith is not: arrogance.

As mentioned earlier, the children of the Skillful Physician in Chapter 16 drank poison when their father was away on business. Not helpful, but not deliberate. Arrogance is deliberate.

When Śāriputra asks the Buddha to explain why he is saying all of this new stuff about expedient means, the Buddha warns:

“My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.
If arrogant people hear me,
They will not respect or believe me.”

And that is exactly what happens when the Buddha finally acquiesces to Śāriputra’s request.

“You asked me three times with enthusiasm. How can I leave the Dharma unexpounded? Listen to me attentively, and think over my words! Now I will expound the Dharma to you.

“When he had said this, five thousand people among the bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās of this congregation rose from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and retired because they were so sinful and arrogant that they thought that they had already obtained what they had not yet, and that they had already understood what they had not yet. Because of these faults, they did not stay. The World-Honored One kept silence and did not check them.”

It is really, really hard for me to imagine being that arrogant. But as explained in the gāthās, more was at work here than simple arrogance:

“Some bhikṣus and bhikṣunīs
Were arrogant.
Some upāsakās were self-conceited.
Some upāsikās were unfaithful.
Those four kinds of devotees
Were five thousand in number.

“They could not see their own faults.
They could not observe all the precepts.
They were reluctant to heal their own wounds.
Those people of little wisdom are gone.
They were the dregs of this congregation.
They were driven away by my powers and virtues.”

“They had too few merits and virtues
To receive the Dharma.
Now there are only sincere people here.
All twigs and leaves are gone.”

Examples of arrogance are found elsewhere in the Lotus Sutra such as the monks who challenge Never Despising Bodhisattva. Even Maitreya Bodhisattva, who is to be the next Buddha, was once a monk who “always seeking fame and gain / He often visited noble families. / He did not understand what he had recited, / Gave it up, and forgot it.”

But what’s important to keep in mind is that all of these arrogant people are saved in the end.

“[I]f everything is said in the Lotus, what is the purpose of the Nirvāṇa [Sutra]? Here, those five thousand haughty monks and nuns who walked out in the second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra come to the rescue. The sūtra does not explain what became of them, but Zhiyi explains that they returned to the assembly that surrounded the Buddha’s deathbed. The Buddha thus compassionately reiterated the central message of the Lotus Sūtra to those who had missed it the first time.” [The Lotus Sutra: A Biography, Page 56-57]

Yesterday, I described the gate to the Buddha’s wisdom and faith’s role in entering that gate. With this in mind, it is important to appreciate that there are many gates entering the Buddha’s house.

Nikkyō Niwano explains this in Buddhism for Today:

The One-vehicle means: All people can become buddhas. The enlightenment obtained by Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas alike is one by which they become buddhas, and it is the same in origin. Some can obtain the enlightenment of a Śrāvaka and others can obtain that of Pratyekabuddhahood. Both aspects of enlightenment are gates to the Buddha knowledge.

This is allegorically explained as follows: A person who has entered this gate cannot enter the inner room of the Buddha-knowledge until he has first passed through the porch of the bodhisattva practice. At the same time, it cannot be said that the gate and the porch are not both included within the residence of the Buddha. However, if a person stays at the gate, he will be drenched when it rains and chilled when it snows. “All of you, come into the inner room of the Buddha’s residence. The eastern gate, the western gate, and the porch, all are entrances that lead to the inner room of the Buddha-knowledge.” This is the meaning of the Buddha’s words, “Besides the One Buddha-vehicle, there is neither a second vehicle nor a third. I have shown the existence of these two vehicles by my tactful power. There is only one true goal for all.”

Buddhism for Today, p48-49

The gāthās at the end of Chapter 2 illustrates the many varied gateways of the Lotus Sutra, all of which we are told lead to the Buddha’s wisdom. As Nikkyō Niwano says:

All living beings can enter the Buddha-way from any point: from worshiping the buddhas’ relics, from building stupas and memorials, from building temples and shrines to the buddhas in the wilderness, or even from heaping sand in play to form a buddha’s stupa. All living beings can enter the Buddha-way by doing anything good. As they increasingly strive after virtue and develop the great mind of benevolence, they finally become buddhas.

It is faith in the Lotus Sutra that allows us to find and enter these doors. As Nichiren Writes in his Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra:

Many bodhisattvas with two eyes, the Two Vehicles with slanted eyesight and ordinary people and men of icchantika with poor eyesight all could not see anything clearly in the various pre-Lotus sūtras, much less the colors and shapes of those sūtras. Thanks to the Lotus Sūtra, the two eyes of bodhisattvas were first opened with the help of the moonlight of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. These were followed by the eyes of the Two Vehicles, ordinary people, and icchantika, which were gradually opened to gain the seed for future Buddhahood. These were due entirely to the merit of the single Chinese character myō.

[Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 41-42]

Faith is truly wonderful.

In Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha cautions his listeners:

“The wisdom of the [present] Buddhas is profound and immeasurable. The gate to it is difficult to understand and difficult to enter.”

And in gāthās:

“The Dharma cannot be shown.
It is inexplicable by words.
No one can understand it
Except the Buddhas
And the Bodhisattvas
Who are strong in the power of faith.”

As explained earlier, we are taught that only a Buddha and another Buddha can fully understand the equality and differences of all things. What then are we expected to do?

Dale S. Wright writes in “Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character”:

“From points of departure in ordinary mentality where most of us reside, it was widely thought in Mahayana Buddhism that an initial faith is required to begin this practice of wisdom. As the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom defines it: “Faith here means the believing in perfect wisdom, the trusting confidence, the resoluteness, the deliberation, the weighing up, the testing.” Without some faith that these practices are worthwhile, that exerting oneself in them would be a healthy engagement of time and effort, no one would or should take them up. But the sutras imagine, sensibly, that in the process of engaging in these practices, on the basis of that initial faith, what at first requires faith because it seems so foreign and unnatural later becomes a second nature, internalized on the basis of experience. At some point the practitioner ‘knows’ something, feels something strongly, based on what has already taken place. The more deeply ingrained the practices of perfection become, the less discipline is required and the more one is able to perform a wise act spontaneously out of a profound sense of what is right under the circumstances.” (Page 228-229)

In the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings this progression is explained in this way:

“Through the influence of the sutra they will awaken that person’s mind, and he or she will spontaneously experience a change of heart. With the now-awakened trusting mind, that person, through dauntless effort, can acquire this sutra’s dynamic power for great beneficial effect, and he or she will be able to realize the Way and attain its fruits.”

It’s that “now-awakened trusting mind” which is the manifestation of faith. With this faith we cross the threshold of the Buddha’s gate and we enter the path. As we walk that path “at some point the practitioner ‘knows’ something, feels something strongly, based on what has already taken place.”

With faith we begin and with practice we advance.

“Śāriputra! The Tathāgatas divide [the Dharma] into various teachings, and expound those teachings to all living beings so skillfully and with such gentle voices that living beings are delighted.”

And that delight brings joy.

“Know this, Śāriputra!
I once vowed that I would cause
All living beings to become
Exactly as I am.

“That old vow of mine
Has now been fulfilled.
I lead all living beings
Into the Way to Buddhahood.”

In 1989, when I first chanted the Daimoku, I was encouraged to chant in order to get stuff. Didn’t matter what stuff. Chanting was magical. Have faith, I was told.

Since leaving Soka Gakkai, my understanding of faith has shifted 180 degrees. This was true on Nov. 15, 2015, when I published a blog post following an on-line service with Rev. Ryusho Jeffus. And it is even truer today.

My understanding of faith today has grown from my appreciation of the purpose of the Buddha’s teaching. That purpose is succinctly explained in Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra:

“Śāriputra! The purpose of the various teachings that the Buddhas expound according to the capacities of all living beings is difficult to understand. I also expound various teachings with innumerable expedients, that is to say, with stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses. [The purpose of the various teachings of the Buddhas is difficult to understand] because the Dharma cannot be understood by reasoning. Only the Buddhas know the Dharma because the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds only for one great purpose.

“Śāriputra! What is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds? The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Śāriputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.”

“The Buddha said to Śāriputra:

“The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas. All they do is for one purpose, that is, to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha.”

We are not asked to sit idly and intellectualize the meaning of the teaching of the Buddha. No, the Buddha seeks to cause us to act.

“The Tathāgatas save all living beings
With innumerable expedients.
They cause all living beings to enter the Way
To the wisdom-without-āsravas of the Buddha.
Anyone who hears the Dharma
Will not fail to become a Buddha.

“Every Buddha vows at the outset:
‘I will cause all living beings
To attain the same enlightenment
That I attained.’ ”

Our role is to gather enough faith to step through the gate of the Buddha’s wisdom and with each subsequent step to advance along the path the Buddha has laid before us – to enter the Way to the same enlightenment.

As I wrote back in 2015, “Eliminating suffering in my life by awakening my inherent enlightenment is the reason for chanting, not getting stuff.”

Faith is a personal aspect. It has no relationship to others. My faith is mine; yours is yours. This is something I don’t believe many people appreciate.

In Chapter 1, Mañjuśrī tells a short story about the previous life of Maitreya. It seems the Buddha-to-be wasn’t always a perfect example of a man of faith.

“There was a lazy man
Among the disciples
Of Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma.
The lazy man was attached to fame and gain.

“Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking.”

No criticism of Fame-Seeking is offered. Instead, we learn:

“But he later did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.
He made offerings to them,
Followed them, practiced the Great Way,
And performed the six paramitas.
Now he sees the Lion-Like One of the Sakyas.

“He will become a Buddha
In his future life.
He will be called Maitreya.
He will save innumerable living beings.”

The Lotus Sutra is clear on this topic: We are not to criticize those who practice the Lotus Sutra.

In Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, the Buddha warns:

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.

In Chapter 13, Peaceful Practices, we are instructed:

“A Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who wishes to keep, read and recite this sūtra in the latter days after my extinction when the teachings are about to be destroyed, should not nurse jealousy against others, or flatter or deceive them. He should not despise those who study the Way to Buddhahood in any way. He should not speak ill of them or try to point out their faults. … He should not have fruitless disputes or quarrels about the teachings with others..”

In Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, the Buddha warns:

“Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives.”

It is not our place to judge others. Never-Despising Bodhisattva did not read or recite sūtras. He only bowed to the four kinds of devotees. When he saw them in the distance, he went to them on purpose, bowed to them, and praised them, saying, ‘I do not despise you because you can become Buddhas.’

Fame-seeking became Maitreya. Never-Despising became Śākyamuni. Our faith grows amid our causes and conditions. We should nurture and encourage others, not criticize.

Daimoku literally means “title” in Japanese. In the case of the Lotus Sutra, that title is Myoho Renge Kyo. The text of the sutra begins with the declaration, “Thus have I heard.” Since the principal practice for Nichiren Buddhists is recitation of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, it is useful to consider the “chicken or the egg” conundrum found in the relationship between the text of the sutra and its title.

In Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Nichiren writes:

“The five characters in Chinese “Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō” appearing above the sentence, “Thus have I heard” is the essence of the one-volume Lotus Sūtra in eight fascicles, the essence of all the sūtras, and the supreme and True Dharma for all Buddhas, bodhisattvas, men of the Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha), heavenly beings, human beings, asura demons, and dragon deities. [Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 50]

As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus explains in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:

“In understanding that ‘thus have I heard’ is referring to Myoho Renge Kyo we realize that Myoho Renge Kyo pre-exists the text of the sutra. In this understanding, Myoho Renge Kyo has always existed before the text explaining it. So, in this way Myoho Renge Kyo is the fundamental truth that exists outside of or independent of the actual text, which follows.”

The first chapter of the Lotus Sutra also reveals that this is not first time the sutra has been preached. As Shinjo Suguro points out in Introduction to the Lotus Sutra:

“Manjusri’s narrative on Sun-Moon-Light Buddha illustrates that the Lotus Sutra was expounded in the past just as it is in the present. It is the universal teaching transcending even the concept of time. It is not some recent invention. The subsequent appearance of twenty thousand Buddhas with the same name suggests that the personalities of all Buddhas originate in the spirit of the very first One. Here we get the first glimpse of the ‘infinite absolute Buddha,’ or Original Buddha, who will fully reveal himself in Chapter Sixteen, ‘The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata.’ “

Or as Gene Reeves puts it in Stories from the Lotus Sutra:

“Thus the books we have called ‘The Lotus Sutra’ and the like, whether in Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, French, or English, are at best representations or exhibits of the Sutra itself. Such pages of text, on wood or palm leaf or paper, are embodiments of the Sutra. This does not mean, however, that the Lotus Sutra itself is in any way more real than the concrete embodiments. Rather, it is only in such concrete embodiments – not only in printed texts, but also in recitation, in teaching, and in practicing it – that the Sutra lives.” [p42]

With our faith in the Lotus Sutra that we make concrete by reciting devotion to the title of the sutra, by sharing the teaching and by putting it into practice in our lives, we bring the Original Buddha Śākyamuni to life right here, right now.

For a discussion of faith, it is necessary to consider what we are being asked to understand by faith. As Thich Nhat Hanh explains in Peaceful Action, Open Heart, the Introductory chapter prepares the audience to receive a very important teaching about ultimate reality.

“[T]his introductory chapter opens two doors. The first door is that of history, the events we experience and what we can see and know in our own lifetimes. The second door is that of ultimate reality, which goes beyond time and space. Everything, all phenomena, participate in these two dimensions. When we look at a wave on the surface of the ocean, we can see the form of the wave and we locate the wave in space and time. Looking at a wave from the perspective of the historical dimension, it seems to have a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. …

“At the same time, all beings and things also belong to the ultimate dimension, the dimension of reality that is not subject to notions of space and time, birth and death … . A wave is a wave, but at the same time it is water. … To talk about a wave, we need these notions: the wave arises and passes away … . None of these distinctions can be applied to the wave in its ultimate dimension as water. In fact, you cannot separate the wave from its ultimate dimension.

“Even though we are used to seeing everything in terms of the historical dimension, we can touch the ultimate dimension. So our practice is to become like a wave – while living the life of a wave in the historical dimension, we realize that we are also water and live the life of water.” [p31-33]

This is another way of understanding the Middle Way.

Consider the light emitted by Śākyamuni that illuminates all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east. The congregation can see from this world the living beings of the six regions of those worlds, down to the Avchi Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world. Mañjuśrī recalls seeing the same good omen from a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light.

In the historical dimension, we don’t see this simultaneous nature of the 10 worlds – the six regions plus the higher realms of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas and buddhas. We see our provisional existence but not how each realm interpenetrates the other.

With the light of the Buddha’s wisdom, the simultaneous existence of the 10 worlds is revealed in the same way that the light of our Sun passing through a prism reveals the rainbow of colors inside.

The provisional reality and ultimate reality are not separate but one truth, the Middle Way. As explained in Lotus Seeds:

“The Truth of the Middle Way is the teaching that Emptiness and Provisionality are different ways of pointing out that the reality of anything, including our own lives, transcends the categories of existence and non-existence.”

In the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra proper, the Buddha emits a ray of light and illumines all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down to the Avchi Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world, the congregation gasps in wonder at this omen. The word “faith” appears only once.

Maitreya Bodhisattva narrates what everyone in the congregation is able to see:

“They also saw the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas [of those worlds] who were practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas [in various ways] according to the variety of their karmas which they had done in their previous existence, and also according to the variety of their ways of understanding [the Dharma] by faith.”

Note the emphasis on the variation. We are not the same. The causes and conditions of each individual are as varied as there are people. And we each have our unique way of understanding the Dharma by faith.

This variation is a major theme of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings:

“Seeing that conditioned desires are innumerable, the bodhisattva expounds the teachings in infinite ways. Because there are infinite ways of exposition, there are infinite meanings as well. The infinite meanings stem from a single dharma.”

This concept of equality and difference is emphasized throughout the Lotus Sutra.

In the second half of Chapter 1, when Mañjuśrī responds to Maitreya’s question about the meaning of the great wonder of the Buddha’s illumination of 18,000 worlds, he recalls an event from his past life:

“Good men! Innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. He expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The meanings of those teachings were profound. The words were skillful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Śrāvakahood, he expounded the teaching of the four truths, a teaching suitable for them, saved them from birth, old age, disease, and death, and caused them to attain Nirvāṇa. To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, a teaching suitable for them. To Bodhisattvas, he expounded the teaching of the six paramitas, a teaching suitable for them, and caused them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.”

We are equal but different. Our faith is different but equal. In the end we seek one thing: “To obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.”

“All of you, know this, join your hands together,
And wait with one mind!
The Buddha will send the rain of the Dharma
And satisfy those who seek enlightenment.”