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800 Years: The Chain of Propagation Forged by Faith

Before leaving the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings I want to touch on how faith and practice can open the gateway to faith for others. Consider the eighth beneficial effect of the Sutra of Innumerable meanings:

“Among men and women of good intent—either during or after the lifetime of a buddha—if there are those who are able to obtain this sutra and revere it, trust it, and look upon it as being nothing less than the actual person of a buddha, such people will come to love and take joy in this sutra, accept and keep faith with it, internalize it, recite it, make records of it, and respectfully embrace it.”

To “revere it, trust it, and look upon it as being nothing less than the actual person of a buddha” is the definition of having faith. And that faith makes it possible to practice: “love and take joy in this sutra, accept and keep faith with it, internalize it, recite it, make records of it, and respectfully embrace it.”

“Following and practicing the way of its teaching, they will strengthen their spiritual attitudes regarding the behavioral principles and forbearance while also perfecting their practice of having consideration for others.”

As we learned in the seventh beneficial effect of this sutra, “even though they do not practice to perfect the six spiritual attitudes, perfection in the six spiritual attitudes will naturally come to them.”

Thus with faith and practice:

“Compassion will awaken from deep within them through this unmatched all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, and they will expound it widely for people’s benefit. If someone has long since completely disbelieved that there are things like impurities and virtues, their presentation of this sutra—employing various skillful means—will have the powerful effect of inspiring such a person to belief. 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.”

Note that the new convert manifests a “now-awakened trusting mind” and with “dauntless effort” is “able to realize the Way and attain its fruits.”

Through faith and practice a circle is joined between the first person who had faith and the person whom he awakened and that person goes on to inspire another person thus creating another circle and with these circles a chain is formed.

The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings closes with this:

“Well done, you of good intent! Well done! Truly you are now successors of the Buddha! You are surely the ones capable of thoroughly eliminating suffering and alleviating misfortune with great kindness and compassion! You will be bountiful spheres of kindness for all living beings, excellent guides who benefit all far and wide, sources of great support for all living beings, and all living beings’ great benefactors!”

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800 Years: Bodhisattva Children

One of the things that I’ve always enjoyed about Buddhism is how it changes the binary concept of procreation to include an active role for the future child. It takes three to make a baby. This is famously illustrated in the story of Venerable Kāśyapa as told by Nichiren in his Kangyō Hachiman-shō [Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 270-271].

In the story, a childless Brahman named Nyagrodha threatens to burn down a forest god’s shrine after the god fails to answer Nyagrodha’s prayer for the good luck of having a child. The difficulty turns out to be that the gods couldn’t find anyone worthy of being Nyagrodha’s child. Eventually the gods find a heavenly being in the Brahma Heaven who was about to die. That child became Venerable Kāśyapa.

Getting back to the topic of faith, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings offers this explanation of how Bodhisattva children are created:

“O you of good intent! So it is also with one who keeps faith with this sutra. The convergence of the buddhas and this sutra – the union of ‘king’ and ‘queen’ – gives birth to this bodhisattva child.”

Without our faith and practice the Buddha and his teaching would be childless. This is emphasized in Chapter 2 of Nichiren: The Buddhist Prophet by Masaharu Anesaki:

“The revelation of the eternal past is thus followed by the assurance for the everlasting future. The past and the future are united in the oneness of the Truth, by the unity of purpose, methods, and power, in all the Buddhas of all ages – in short, in the Sole Road of Truth [One Vehicle]. This is the cardinal teaching of the Lotus, as in other Buddhist books or systems; but the special emphasis laid by the Lotus, particularly in the last twelve chapters, is upon the question, Who shall really be the one who will perpetuate and realize this truth of the Sole Road? The Truth abides eternally, but it is an abstraction, a dead law, without the person who perpetuates the life of the Truth. The Buddha Śākyamuni, in his human manifestation, was the one, the Tathāgata par excellence; but who shall be the one in the future, nay in the present, in these days of degeneration and vice? This was the question of Nichiren, who at last, as the result of his hard experience and perilous life, arrived at the conclusion that he himself was the man destined to achieve the task of the Tathāgata’s messenger.”

Each person of faith breathes life into the Truth.

As Anesaki writes in Chapter 7:

“Noble and sublime may be the conception of the Supreme Being, but it is but an idol or image, a dead abstraction, if we ourselves do not participate in its supreme existence and realize in ourselves its excellent qualities. Thus, worship or adoration means a realization of the Supreme Being, together with all its attributes and manifestations, first through our own spiritual introspection, and second in our life and deeds.”

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800 Years: Only a Buddha and Another Buddha

In Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra we are told only a Buddha and another Buddha — Yui Butsu Yo Butsu – can fathom the ultimate reality, but the foundation for this was laid in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the preface of the Lotus Sutra.

“And so, you of good intent, starting from when I established the Way and first began to expound the Dharma, until this moment in which I am discoursing on the all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, there has never been a time when I have not expounded suffering, emptiness, ever changingness, nonexistence of self, non-reality, non-unreality, non- greatness, non-smallness, intrinsic non-origination, continuing non-cessation, the formlessness of all things, that aspects and natures of phenomena neither come nor go, and that the four modes are the dynamic of living beings.

“O you of good intent! What all this means is that the buddhas have but one message: they are able to conform universally to all voices by means of a single sound. From a single body they are able to manifest embodiments as countless and immeasurable as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each embodiment, manifest various shapes as countless as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each shape, display appearances as countless as some millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands. O you of good intent! This, in fact, is the profound and unimaginable realm of all of the buddhas! It is neither knowable by those of the two vehicles nor reachable by bodhisattvas in the tenth development stage! Only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom it completely!”

This unknowable and unreachable understanding is the realm of faith. A gate is held open by the Buddha and we are invited to enter and to walk along the path.

As the sutra promises:

“If there are living beings who can hear this sutra, they will reap great benefit. Why is this so? If they are capable of practicing it, they will surely realize and quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. As for those living beings who cannot hear it, it should be known that they are ones who miss out on great benefit: even after the passing of innumerable, unimaginable, infinite myriads of kalpas, they still will not realize and achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. What is the reason for this? It is because, not knowing the great direct route to enlightenment, they travel an uphill path full of hardships that detain them.”

But those whose faith brings them to practice and study the Dharma develop great strength.

“A person with great strength can bear and carry all manner of heavy things. So it is also with people who keep faith with this sutra: they can shoulder the great responsibilities of ultimate enlightenment, and they can carry living beings away from the path of recurring births and deaths. They are capable of ferrying others even though they still cannot ferry themselves.”

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800 Years: The Progression Along the Path

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that faith along with practice and study is an interdependent progression that moves us along the path to Buddhahood. The Ten Merits discussed in the final chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings illustrates how this works.

The first merit is contained within the sutra independent of any action by the listener: “My good children, first of all, this sutra can make an unawakened bodhisattva aspire to awakening.” This is the entry level of faith.

For the second through the fourth merits we witness a progression of benefits for those “beings who hear this sutra, whether the whole of it, a verse of it, or a phrase of it.” With the second merit they gain mastery of infinite meanings. In the third, their “delusions, while still existing, will be as if nonexistent.” And in the fourth, “they will gain courage and be able to ferry others across, although they will not be able to ferry themselves.”

With the fifth and sixth merit, we witness the abilities gained when “whether during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his passing away, there are good sons and good daughters who receive, embrace, read, recite, and copy this extremely profound and supreme Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.” In the fifth merit, “[a]lthough they are still bound by their delusions and cannot yet free themselves from all the faults of an ordinary person, they will be able to reveal the way of great bodhisattvas.” In the sixth merit, “they will be able to teach the Dharma for living beings and enable them to break free from the delusions of birth and death and overcome all sufferings.”

For the remainder of the merits, we consider the consequences of putting the sutra to work in our life.

In the seventh merit, we meet those who “rejoice, believe, and delight in” this sutra: “Although they will still be unable to practice the Six Paramitas, the Six Paramitas will be naturally present in them.”

In the eighth merit, we consider those who “look upon [this sutra] with reverence and trust, just as if it were the very body of the Buddha”: “They will teach others far and wide by expounding this supreme Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, using this sutra to demonstrate to those who have never once believed in the rewards of good and evil they do indeed exist.”

In the ninth merit, we see what happens to those who “jump for joy at having attained something extraordinary”: “They will be able, in an instant, to completely eliminate the heavy hindrance of any bad karma remaining from their former lifetimes.”

Finally, in the tenth merit, “there are good sons and good daughters who greatly rejoice in attaining this sutra, appreciating so rare a thing”: “They will be able to encourage laypeople and monastics far and wide to receive, embrace, read, recite, copy, pay homage to, and expound this sutra, and practice it as taught.”

This is the progression made possible by faith.

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800 Years: Threefold Lotus Sutra Lessons

For the rest of the year, I will focus my discussion of faith on the lessons found in the Threefold Lotus Sutra. I am starting today with the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, not just because it is the first of three sutras, but because it sets the stage for what follows in the Lotus Sutra.

In the third chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the Buddha details ten inconceivable powers for beneficial effect that this sutra possesses. All of these include faith as a component, but the first beneficial effect of this sutra truly captures the potential when a person takes the first step of faith:

“The Buddha said: ‘O you of good intent! First, this sutra can enable a bodhisattva—whose mind has not yet produced it—to generate the aspiration for enlightenment; can awaken a mind of compassion in one who lacks kindness and sympathy; can awaken in one who is fond of killing a mind of expansive mercy; can awaken in one in whom envy arises a mind of sympathetic joy; can awaken in one who is in bondage to desires a mind that can rise above them; can awaken in a selfish one a mind of consideration for others; can awaken in the mind of an arrogant one the attitude of proper behavior; can awaken in one who is quick to anger a mind that is given to forbearance; can awaken in one who becomes lazy in discipline a mind of appropriate endeavor; can awaken in one who has unceasing thoughts a mind directed toward tranquility; can awaken an insightful mind in one who is deluded and confused; can awaken in one who is not yet able to ferry others a mind to convey them to freedom; can awaken in one who commits the ten harmful acts a mind of the ten virtues; can inspire in the mind of one drawn to conditioned phenomena the intent to transcend cause and condition; can create in one who tends to withdraw from commitment a mind that is resolute; can awaken in one whose conduct is unrestrained a mind to exert self-control; and can awaken in one who has delusive worldly passions a mind to purge and be rid of them. O you of good intent! This is known as the inconceivable power of the first beneficial effect of this sutra.’ “

Faith comes first. It is the good intent. There is no chicken or the egg conundrum. But faith alone is no more stable than a pogo stick. Instead, we practice and study and by practicing and studying we create a bulwark behind which we can battle the sanshō shima, the three hindrances and four devils, who inevitably attempt to obstruct the ordinary person who seeks to become a Buddha. As Nichiren says, “Although the wise will welcome them, those who are foolish fear them and retreat.” [Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 93]

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800 Years: The Third Jewel

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Available on Amazon

Autumn Writings is the third volume of essays by Kanto Tuskamoto Shonin, the founder of Enkyoji Buddhist Network. Rev. Kanjin Cederman Shonin writes in the Forward:

“The most powerful reason that I wish to share these lectures with everyone is because of their simplicity and the easy-to-grasp explanations that Tsukamoto Sensei uses to share many very profound teachings.”

I’ve previously published quotes from Spring Writings and Summer Writings, and I will be publishing several quotes from Autumn Writings that relate to faith in the coming weeks.

What I want to do now is consider Rev. Tsukamoto’s guidance on the third jewel, the Sangha.

“At a Conversion Ceremony we, as Buddhists, vow to devote ourselves to the Three Treasures. Are you still devoted to the Three Treasures now? People who consider themselves Buddhists may have no problem with two of the Treasures – Buddha and Dharma. How about the third one, the Sangha/Temple? Actually, Sangha is very difficult. While the first two Treasures are to assist you in prayer and understanding, the third one, Sangha, is not only for prayer and understanding, but you also have to show your faith through your practical behavior and your commitment to the Sangha voluntarily.” [page 44]

For Rev. Tsukamoto, faith can’t exist without the sangha.

“If you were to lose your Sangha/Temple, what would happen to your faith? Some say, ‘I will continue my faith by myself’ or ‘I am okay because I do Gongyō every day on my own.’ However, it is not easy to maintain the Faith by yourself without the Sangha, because a Nichiren Shū Sangha/Temple is the best place to develop and practice your faith. This influence will appear in your Gongyō or prayer. If you continue to perform Gongyō alone every day, naturally you will fall into a habit of doing everything your own way. This will materialize in your chanting pronunciation and service manner. What is worse is that there will be no specialist like a Minister to correct what is wrong. You will not notice the errors by yourself and therefore will continue to do everything improperly and think that your way is correct.” [page 45]

In today’s interconnected world, I would argue that there is no place outside the sangha of believers. For me, Sanghas are like Italian restaurants. Each has its own flavor and focus, dictated by the chef’s tastes. We have an opportunity to find our sangha anywhere or everywhere in the world. Our task is to find the one we enjoy the most.

I do, however, agree with Rev. Tsukamoto’s point about Gohonzons and sangha membership:

“I often wonder why there are so many people who want to have a ‘Gohonzon,’ but no one wants a Sangha/Temple. This is very strange. Sangha/Temple should be a ‘top priority’ over a private Gohonzon because the Temple is ‘Kaidan’ – the precept dais – it is the only place able to offer a Gohonzon. Therefore, if you don’t have a Temple, you cannot receive a private Gohonzon.” [page 47]

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800 Years: The Essential Questions

As we progress along the Lotus Sutra path – our faith growing with our practice and our practice enhanced by our study – it is important to realize that it’s not just OK to ask questions, but essential.

The benefit of asking questions is repeated throughout the Threefold Lotus Sutra and starts with the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings:

“With that, the Buddha said to the bodhisattva Fully Composed: ‘Well done, you of great good intent! Well done! You have skillfully questioned the Tathāgata regarding this profound, unequaled, all-ferrying, transcendental essence. You should know that you will enable many to benefit, you will please and bring ease to human and heavenly beings, and you will relieve living beings of their suffering. This is great and real compassion—trust wholly and completely that this is true. By this direct cause and its outgrowths, you will surely realize and quickly achieve ultimate enlightenment; you will also enable all living beings, now and in the future, to realize and achieve ultimate enlightenment.”

In the Lotus Sutra itself we have Maitreya Bodhisattva asking in the first chapter why the Buddha had emitted a ray of light illumining all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east. In Chapter 2 we have the Śrāvakas and Arhats and the four kinds of devotees asking, “Why does the World-Honored One extol so enthusiastically the power of the Buddhas to employ expedients?” And when the Buddha’s answer proved surprising, Śāriputra asked in Chapter 3, “In order to cause the four kinds of devotees to remove their doubts, explain why you said all this to them!” In Chapters 6, 8 and 9, we have the great disciples questioning whether they will receive a prediction of future Buddhahood. Even when newly minted Bodhisattvas question in Chapter 9 why the Buddha is focusing so much attention on Śrāvakas rather than Bodhisattvas, the Buddha offers an important lesson on the need to practice what we study.

The arrival of the Stupa of Treasures in Chapter 11 raises a host of questions. In Chapter 12, the question of whether the Dragon King’s daughter can become a Buddha is asked and answered quickly. In Chapter 14, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva asks how ordinary Bodhisattvas should expound this sūtra in the evil world after the Buddha’s extinction. And then there are the questions raised when uncountable numbers of Bodhisattvas arrive in Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground. Following the revelation of the Buddha’s unlimited lifespan and the merits to be received from hearing of the duration of the Buddha’s life, Maitreya Bodhisattva asks in Chapter 18 how many merits those who rejoice at hearing the sutra will receive. Finally, Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, opens with Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva asking a question and closes with Many-Treasures Tathāgata in the Stupa of Treasures praising Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva: “Excellent, excellent, Star-King-Flower! You obtained inconceivable merits. You asked this question to Śākyamuni Buddha, and benefited innumerable living beings.”

We should always keep in mind: There are no stupid questions.

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800 Years: The Ebb and Flow of Faith

It’s not uncommon for faith to ebb and flow. Certainly that’s to be expected at the start. This can be likened to the divisions of the Ages of the Dharma.

In sutras other than the Lotus Sutra, there is an expectation that the efficacy of the Buddha’s teaching will decline over time. Commonly these phases are referred to as the Age of True Dharma, the Age of Semblance Dharma and the Latter Age of the Dharma. These can also be referred to as the true Dharma, when the teaching is still fresh and has real potency; the merely formal Dharma, when the teachings have devolved into mere rituals; and the end of the Dharma, when the teachings lose all impact.

In Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Gene Reeves offers an explanation of how these same divisions can be applied to our faith and practice “not as an inevitable sequence of periods of time, but as existential phases of our own lives.”

“There will be times when the Dharma can be said to be truly alive in us, times when our practice is more like putting on a show and has little depth, and times when the life of the Dharma in us is in serious decline. But there is no inevitable sequence here. There is no reason, for example, why a period of true Dharma cannot follow a period of merely formal Dharma. And there is no reason to assume that a period has to be completed once it has been entered. We might lapse into a period of decline, but with the proper influences and circumstances we could emerge from it into a more vital phase of true Dharma. A coming evil age is mentioned several times in the Dharma Flower Sutra, but while living in an evil age, or an evil period of our own lives, makes teaching the Dharma difficult, even extremely difficult, nowhere does the Dharma Flower Sutra suggest that it is impossible to teach or practice true Dharma.” [p214]

We should keep in mind that settling into what feels like merely formal practice isn’t without benefit. As Reeves explains:

“The relation between sincere respect and its expressions in gestures and words is something like the relation between true Dharma and merely formal Dharma. And yet expressions of respect even when respect is not sincerely felt can still be good. What we can think of as ritual politeness – saying ‘Thank you’ when receiving something, even if we do not feel grateful; … saying ‘I’m sorry’ when we do not really feel sorry – can all contribute to smoother social relations. Just as true Dharma is greater than merely formal Dharma, being truly grateful is greater than expressing gratitude in a merely formal way, and heartfelt sincerity is greater than merely conventional politeness, but even social conventions and polite expressions can be an important ingredient in relations between people and can contribute to mutual harmony and respect.” [p217]

Mutual harmony and respect is a worthy goal of Buddhist practice.

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800 Years: The Faith Frame

In December of last year, I attended an online lecture by Dominick Scarangello, PhD, international advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai. The subject of the lecture was “Actualize Your Inner Potential By Modeling the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattvas,” but that was not the focus. Instead, he offered a discussion on how the rise of western scientific thought destroyed faith in the west, and how we might restore faith without giving up science. (A recording of the lecture is available here.)

For me, the takeaway was something described as the “faith frame,” a frame of reference adopted by the faithful that coexists with our perceived real world and within which we enrich and strengthen ourselves.

Dr. Scarangello introduced the “faith frame” by first discussing the importance of play among bear cubs.

“Play allows for the permanent extension of competence and confidence through pretense. … Play creates a world in ‘rule-governed’ fantasy – in episodic or imagistic representation – in which behavior can be rehearsed and mastered, prior to its expression in the real world, with real-word consequences. Play is another form of ‘as-if’ behavior, that allows for experimentation with fictional narrative – pretended descriptions of the current and desired future states of the world, with plans of action appended, designed to change the former into the latter.” [Psychologist Jordan Peterson]

That “play frame,” Dr. Scarangello explained, is essential to the development of the cubs. Without it, they would not survive on their own.

When done as religious practice, Dr. Scarangello said, such serious play is accomplished within the “faith frame.” Quoting from Stanford University anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann:

“To choose to think with the faith frame is a decision to enter into another mode of thinking about reality that calls on the resources of the imagination to reorganize what is fundamentally real. … This involves a shift in perspective similar to the shift in and out of imaginative play – except that the play claims are also serious claims about the world.”

This “imaginative play” is not fanciful as much as it is “imaginal” – “as if…” As Scarangello explained:

“Founder Niwano was convinced that Buddhism is rational and compatible with modernity, but there is very much of the imaginal in his approach to practice, and I think it’s those aspects of his teachings and guidance that prove difficult for people in other cultures today.”

As Luhrmann explains in her 2018 article “The Faith Frame: Or, Belief is Easy, Faith is Hard”:

“People of faith want to live as if the faith frame is really true, and it is hard, because faith is always under assault by the small (and large) unfairnesses and brutalities of life.”

For me, this “faith frame” is the domain of our Buddhist practice, an essential environment necessary to our development as Buddhists. Within this “faith frame” we can actualize our inner potential by modeling the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattvas and by so doing surmount the small and large unfairnesses and brutalities of life.

Without the “faith frame” we would not survive on our own.

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800 Years: Shōho Jissō Shō Redux

Yesterday I offered my view of the concluding paragraph of Nichiren’s Shōho Jissō Shō, which I have memorized and recite daily before chanting Daimoku. But that’s not the only translation of that paragraph or even the only interpretation.

Ryusho Jeffus Shonin preferred this translation:

Have faith in the Great Mandala Gohonzon, the Most Venerable One in the world.
Endeavor! Endeavor to strengthen your faith, so that you may be blessed with the protective powers of all the Buddhas. Pursue the two-fold path of practice and study. Without practicing and studying there is no Buddhism. Follow these yourself and influence others to do the same. Study and practice come from faith. Even if it is only a word or a phrase, please spread it to others.

Ryusho was adamant that this was the better translation. The difference is subtle. If anything, this translation best emphasizes that study and practice are linked to faith. But it is also true that faith is linked to practice and study. That’s something Rev. Ryuei McCormick has explained: “Faith inspires practice and study. Study informs faith and practice. Practice actualizes faith and study.” Faith, practice and study are the three legs of the stool upon which I sit before my altar.

There’s another aspect of this quote from Nichiren that I wish to comment upon. That’s the idea that faith in the Lotus Sutra encourages divine protection.

The Daily Dharma published here on Oct. 8, 2021, offered this:

Have faith in the great Mandala Gohonzon, the most superlative in the world. Endeavor! Endeavor to strengthen your faith, so that you may be blessed with the protective powers of all Buddhas.

Nichiren wrote this as part of his letter to monk Sairen-bō in his Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality (Shohō-Jissō Shō). One way of reading this passage is that as we develop our faith in the Omandala Gohonzon, the Buddhas will provide more protection for us. Another way to read it is that as our faith develops, so does the power we have to protect others, free them from suffering and help them to awaken their Buddha nature. Either way, Nichiren shows us the practical results of our faith.

I understand that modern Buddhists might wish to downplay divine protection and instead emphasize the Buddhist law of dependent origination and personal responsibility, but I’m happy to accept all the help I can get. Clearly, that’s what Nichiren felt.

In Hokke Shoshin Jobutsu Sho, a letter written by Nichiren in 1277, he says:

A singing bird in a cage attracts uncaged birds, and the sight of these uncaged birds will make the caged bird want to be free. Likewise, the chanting of Odaimoku will bring out the Buddha-nature within ourselves. The Buddha-nature of Bonten and Taishaku will be summoned by the chanting and will protect the chanter. The Buddha-nature of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will be pleased to be summoned.

For me, this is an example of the interconnectedness of everything – Ichinen Sanzen.

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