Yesterday’s post asking whether Chih-i believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death begged the question: What does it matter?
Nichiren considered himself a follower of Chih-i. And it’s Nichiren’s focus on Chih-i that gives the question whatever importance it may have. Personally, I believe the suggestion Chih-i believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha was a fabrication of later followers.
First, the rise of Pure Land Buddhism coincided with the fear that Śākyamuni’s teachings were entering the age of the decline of the Dharma, mappō, when their efficacy would be lost. But Chih-i did not live during the age of mappō. He clearly still felt the Lotus Sutra was the Śākyamuni’s ultimate teaching and still very much worth practicing.
That was very different by Nichiren’s time.
“A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra,” edited by Gene Reeves and published in 2002 by Kōsei Publishing includes an essay by Jacqueline I. Stone entitled “When Disobedience Is Filial and Resistance Is Loyal: The Lotus Sutra and Social Obligations in the Medieval Nichiren Tradition. In it she offers this observation about Nichiren’s dispute with then-current Tendai teaching.
Nichiren’s Tendai contemporaries, too, held the Lotus Sutra to be all inclusive, but generally took this to mean that, properly understood, any practice, such as chanting Amida Buddha’s name or invoking the Bodhisattva Kannon, could be considered practice of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren decried this interpretation as a confusion of the true and the provisional and rejected all other, “pre-Lotus Sutra” teachings as no longer suited to the present time of mappō. Like medicine that stands too long on the shelf and becomes poisonous, these other teachings and the practices based upon them were, in his view, not only soteriologically useless but positively harmful. For Nichiren, to willfully set aside or ignore the Lotus in favor of other, “lesser” teachings amounted to “slander of the Dharma” and would pull the practitioner down into the lower realms of rebirth.
Today this idea that all practices are the Lotus Sutra practice is still around and just as misguided. They put expiration dates on medicines for a reason. They should not be ignored.
The suggestion that Chih-i believed in rebirth in the Western Pure Land comes from Lucia Dolce’s essay, “Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren.” (Aren’t titles of academic essays just so precious?)
Here’s the context in Dolce’s discussion of One Buddha-land (p:232-233):
According to Nichiren, in the second section of the Lotus Sutra Śākyamuni speaks of this Sahā world as the original land, a pure Buddha realm compared to which the other lands of the ten directions are mere conventional worlds. In Chih-i’s exegesis the “original land” is the land in which the original Buddha attained enlightenment, therefore the realm of only one type of Buddha. This “Sahā world of the original time” contrasts with the Sahā world where human beings live, which retains the characteristics of a “trace-land.” For Nichiren, on the contrary, there is only one Sahā world. Vulture Peak, the place where the Lotus Sutra is taught, represents both this world of ours and the most perfect world, the only possible “paradise.” There is no other reality, neither for humanity, nor for the Buddha. Whereas Chih-i apparently believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death*, Nichiren considered the assembly on Vulture Peak a symbol of those who, having received the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, are able to transform our Sahā world into a “resplendent land.”
* Dolce’s note supporting the idea that Chih-i “apparently” longed for Amida’s Western paradise: Cf. Tetsuei Satō, Tendai daishi no kenkyū, 556-59.
I understand that centuries before Nichiren, the Tendai school adopted the Invocation of Amida’s Name. As the monk Chingen of Yokawa on Mount Hiei wrote in his “Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan“:
“In the fourteenth year of Shōwa [848], Jikaku returned to Japan [from China]. It is said that Jikaku’s efforts were responsible for half of the transmission of the Law to Japan. He introduced the Invocation of Amida’s Name, the Hokke Repentance Rites, the Kanjō Consecration Rites, and the Shari Relics Meeting.” (Page 34)
According to Chinden, Jikau, on his deathbed, “told Priest Enjun to recite and pay his respects to the Hokekyō [Lotus Sutra] which preaches the great and fair knowledge of Amida.”
One can understand why Nichiren lamented what he considered to be the most deplorable false doctrine of Grand Master Jikaku, who denigrated the Lotus Sūtra and regarded the Shingon teaching to be supreme. (See translator’s note to Jikaku Daishi no Koto, Concerning Grand Master Jikaku, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 215.)
So, back to my question: Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?
Today I began what will be my 44th cycle of 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra posts. At the start of cycle 43 I had intended to make two cycles through The Threefold Lotus Sutra as translated by Bunnō Katō, et al. and revised by W.E. Soothill et al. in 1975. I just couldn’t make it. Today’s post 21 Days: Lost in Translation illustrates part of my disappointment with this translation. But, worse still, this is just not a translation that lends itself to reading aloud and that is a serious failing when you are using it as I am.
As a result I’ve switched a cycle early to Gene Reeves 2008 translation of The Lotus Sutra. Like the Threefold Lotus Sutra, Reeves translation includes The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva. It was Reeves’ translation that I have used most often in my 21-Day Retreat posts.
Having read those auxiliary sutras I know what to expect as I cycle through the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra. For example, I am not a fan of Reeves’ decision to change “dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas” to “dragons, satyrs, centaurs, asuras, griffins, chimeras, pythons.” I’m also not a fan of using Law in place Dharma.
Still as I start this cycle I know Reeves’ translation at the very least lends itself well to my daily reading aloud.
Update July 27, 2019: I was in error saying Reeves’ translation uses Law instead of Dharma. The Threefold Lotus Sutra translation is the one that uses Law instead of Dharma.
“World-Honored One! The bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās who seek, keep, read, recite and copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], if they wish to study and practice this sūtra, should concentrate their minds [on study and practice] strenuously for three weeks. When they complete [the study and practice of] three weeks, I will mount a white elephant with six tusks, and appear before them with my body which all living beings wish to see, together with innumerable Bodhisattvas surrounding me. I will expound the Dharma to them, show them the Way, teach them, benefit them, and cause them to rejoice.
Chapter 28: The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva
With the encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva I concentrated my mind on study and practice strenuously for three weeks. It was a very unusual 21 days.
Let me set the stage: On June 29, my wife left for Upstate New York to prepare her parents’ house for sale. Her flight home is schedule July 24. Ostensibly, I was left behind to care for our cats and watch over the house and perhaps harvest a few of those year-round “Honey, Do…” that ripen and demand to be harvested.
In reviewing my wife’s travel plans it occurred to me that I had an excellent opportunity from July 1 to July 21 to take up the encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva to concentrate my mind on study and practice strenuously for three weeks.
So I declared a 21-day stay-cation retreat, promising to wear my dark blue samue between sunrise and sunset including while preforming a daily one-hour walking meditation.
Before I started I imagined that I would add a half-hour midday service to my existing practice during which I would recite aloud a portion of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and, when that was completed, The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva (Reeves). But by the end of the first day I felt that was not ambitious enough. Beginning with Day 2, I began reciting all of both sutras as separate midday practices. Each takes about one hour to recite.
For the first two weeks I walked an hour, performed my morning service, recited first one sutra and then the other and finished the day with my regular evening service. Between each element I would read and write.
Still, I had this nagging feeling that “I have now made these offerings, yet I do not think that they are enough,” to quote Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva.
I wanted to recite the entire threefold Lotus Sutra in a single day. Better still, I wanted to recite it in shindoku on one day and in English the next. Since I don’t have shindoku versions of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, the English would suffice. I vowed to do this on Saturday and Sunday, the final two days of my 21-day stay-cation retreat.
During the final week, I tested how long it takes to recite one fascicle (there are eight in the Lotus Sutra, plus the other two sutras). And I pushed my entire practice – morning service, Innumerable Meanings, Contemplation of Universal Sage, evening service – into a single session to get a feel for sitting for hours in front of my altar.
On Friday, as a final exercise, I extended my morning service daimoku to one hour and added an hour of daimoku after each of the sutras and concluded by extending my evening service daimoku to one hour. I was chanting in front of my altar from 6:30am to after 5pm, with short breaks between elements.
As I prepared for Saturday and Sunday I had expectations that it would take, maybe, 12 hours to accomplish my morning service and recitation of the complete Lotus Sutra and my evening service. I was wrong.
On Saturday I did my morning walking meditation from 5:07am to 6:17am. I took a short nap and began my morning service just before 7am. The sutra of Innumerable Meanings required just under an hour and the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sutra in shindoku consumed 9 hours and 21 minutes. The Contemplation of Universal Sage took just over an hour. I finished a very abbreviated evening service at 9:50pm, having taken a handful of small breaks during the day. It had been a 14 hour and 54 minute day, not counting the walking meditation.
On Sunday, the final day of my retreat, I decided to skip the walking meditation and instead start with the instructions offered by Universal Sage (Reeves, p420):
If anyone wants to reach supreme awakening rapidly and see the buddhas in the ten directions and Universal Sage Bodhisattva in this life, they should purify themselves by taking a bath, putting on clean clothes, burning rare incense, and living in a secluded place. They should recite and read the Great Vehicle sutras and think about the meaning of the Great Vehicle.
I showered, dressed in a clean samue and began my morning service at 5:50am. The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings required an hour. The English recitation of the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sutra consumed 9 hours and 58 minutes. The Contemplation of Universal Sage took a little more than an hour. And I concluded a full evening service at 7:50pm, exhausted but happy that I had finished that day and the 21 days.
Over the next couple of weeks I expect to publish daily quotes from the two sutras to add to those I posted in the final 14 days of my 21-day stay-cation retreat.
In Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman (Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 257-258), Nichiren writes in part:
At the beginning of the Kalpa of Construction, when the world is being created, gods were born with excellent rewards of virtuous acts in previous lives, and men were not evil. Therefore, heavenly beings were shiny in body, pure in spirit, as bright as the sun and moon, and as brave as the lion and elephant. When the Kalpa of Construction was over and the world entered the Kalpa of Continuance, heavenly beings from the previous period grew old and declined like the waning moon, newly born gods were mostly equipped with inferior rewards of actions in their previous lives. As a result, the three calamities and seven disasters occurred all over the world and people everywhere began experiencing sufferings and joys.
Then the Buddha appeared in this world and prepared the panacea of life, that is Buddhism, for the gods and people. Like oil added to a lamp or a cane supporting an elderly person, heavenly beings regained the authority and power they possessed in the Kalpa of Construction.
I bring this up to illustrate my attitude toward and interaction with divine beings and protective deities. As I see it, the more I practice, the more I recite sutras, the more daimoku I chant, the more I feed these gods and protective deities and the more their influence grows. Fat and happy gods!
This is especially true with a recent addition to my altar: Shichi Fukujin, the Seven Happy Gods.
FukurokujuFukurokuju 福禄寿 Represents Longevity
From Japanese fuku, “happiness”; roku, “wealth”; and ju, “longevity.” Brought from China’s Taoist-Buddhist traditions, Fukurokuju is the God of Wealth, Happiness, and Longevity. He is usually represented with customary clothes of a Chinese scholar, holding a walking stick with a scroll tied to it. He is the only one from the seven who has the ability to revive the dead.
HoteiHotei 布袋 Represents Happiness
Said to be an incarnation of Miroku (Maitreya) Bodhisattva, Hotei (a.k.a Budai) is the God of Happiness and Abundance. He is supposedly based on an actual person, a Chinese hermit Budaishi (d. 917). He is represented as a Buddhist monk with a smiling face and a prominent belly, holding a sack and a wooden staff, usually seated or sleeping in his bag. Outside Japan, he is known as “Laughing Buddha.”
DaikokuDaikoku 大黒天 Represents Fortune
Originally a Hindu warrior deity named Mahākāla, once introduced in Japan he became the God of Wealth and Prosperity. Daikoku evolved from the Buddhist form of the Indian deity Shiva intertwined with the Shinto god Ōkuninushi. He is well known for his happy-looking smile and is often presented with a bag on this shoulder filled with money and a magic mallet standing on two bales of rice.
EbisuEbisu 恵比須 Represents Honesty
Also known as Yebisu or Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami. The God of Fishing, Shipping and Commerce, he is the only one to have his origins in Japan. Ebisu is very popular among farmers and sailors. He is commonly presented wearing formal court clothes or hunting robes. He is often presented with a fishing rod in his right hand and a large red sea bream under his left arm.
JurojinJurōjin 寿老人 Represents Wisdom
The God of Wisdom, he originated from the Chinese Taoist god, the Old Man of the South Pole. He is commonly presented as an old man wearing a hat with a long white beard holding a knobbed walking staff with a scroll tied to it. He is often confused with Fukurokuju. A black deer always accompanies Jurōjin as a messenger and as symbol of longevity.
BenzaitenBenzaiten 弁財天 Represents Joy
Benzaiten (Benten) was originally the Hindu goddess of water Sarasvati. In her Japanese representation, she is the Goddess of Arts and Knowledge. Her common form is a beautiful woman dressed in a flowing Chinese-style dress and playing the biwa. She is frequently depicted riding on, or accompanied by, a sea dragon.
BishamonBishamon 毘沙門天 Represents Dignity
The Buddhist guardian of the north (Vaiśravaṇa), Bishamon is the God of Warriors (not war). He is also a God of Defense Against Evil. Almost always dressed in armor with a fierce look and standing over one or two demons symbolizing the defeat of evil. In one hand he has a weapon to fight against evil influences and suppress the enemies. On the other hand he holds a treasure pagoda or stupa, which is his main identifying attribute.
At this point I should digress and explain the difference between statues and what I have been told are “just decoration.”
He smiled and said, “No. This is just decoration.”
No problem. I have a side altar where I keep my “decorations,” which today in addition to Jizo Bodhisattva includes a traveling Tibetan prayer box stuffed with flags and a Buddha incense burner draped in a necklace. (These are all donations from my wife.)
Then last month, I noticed a box containing the Seven Happy Gods had been donated to the church rummage sale. The porcelain figurines were made in Japan and purchased in the 1987. Someone had labeled each of them (mislabeling Fukurokuju as Jurojin) and crafted a display stand.
The Seven Happy Gods sparked my interest because my step-mother, who lived in Japan during the Korean War (her father was an Army general), had a wooden set of these in her home in Florida. Her’s were certainly just decorations.
Could these statues be eye-opened and added to my altar? I went to Rev. Igarashi expecting to have to re-arrange my decorations. Instead I was surprised to find him receptive to the idea. He took the box and said he’d get back to me.
A day or so later he said that, Yes, he could eye-open the Seven Happy Gods. But, he cautioned, I would need to make them part of my practice. He said the figurines had been eye-opened before but the effect had withered. Basically they had starved to death.
After the next Sunday service I picked up the eye-opened Seven Happy Gods and took them home. I’ve learned their names and each day I devote a portion of my daimoku to each. I’m not expecting any “benefit” from having these gods on my altar. Instead, I’m enjoying the idea of nourishing divine spirits, helping them regain the authority and power they possessed.
KishimojinIn addition to the newly arrived Happy Gods, I also have Kishimojin 鬼子母神: Mother of Demon Children. In the “Dhāranī” (twenty-sixth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Kishimojin and 10 rākṣasas daughters pledge before Shakyamuni Buddha to safeguard the votaries of the sutra. Kishimojin is revered as a god of procreation and easy delivery.
The print and the amulet were purchased from Rev. Ryusho Jeffus several years ago. (The Kishimojin amulet and a amulet Gohonzon I purchased compose my traveling altar.)
Suddenly today I realized the difference between walking for an hour simply to exercise and walking for an hour meditating on Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo. They are not the same.
Namu
The left foot steps.
Myo
The right foot.
Ho
The left foot.
Ren
The right foot.
Ge
The left foot.
Kyo
The right foot.
Homage to the Dharma Flower
The left foot.
Wonderful Lotus Sutra
The right foot.
Homage to the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra, again and again and again.
And all the while the mind is quiet, allowing the senses to heighten.
The sounds.
Each step rhythmic, here a crunch of gravel, there the scrap of a leaf, step, step, step. Birds chirp and sing on the left, now the right, nearby, faraway. Cars pass close, the sound rushing closer and then racing away. Distant sounds fade in and out. Aircraft fly overhead.
The smells.
Suburban lawns freshly watered. Rose bushes and honeysuckle. The unscented cool morning air.
The sights.
Dawn’s light peaking over homes and between tree branches. In a yard up ahead, a flower is bathed in a single ray of sunlight while all around is still in shade. The flowers glow as if radiating the light themselves. As I approach I consider pulling out my phone and taking a photo. I don’t. I realize a snapshot of this moment would not be real. The causes and conditions that placed this plant here and the sun there with the trees so arranged just as I walked up mindful of Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo – what would a photo show?
That moment was perfect and then it was another moment.
I completed two cycles through Leon Hurvitz’s translation “Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma.” Revered for its academic thoroughness, I found the text less useful for my purpose. Leon Hurvitz’s translation is pretty and ornate, but Senchu Murano’s English translation of the Lotus Sutra is much better suited for the task of propagation.
For example, here’s Hurvitz’s final gāthā from Day 14 and the opening prose from Day 15:
Medicine King, I now proclaim to you
The scriptures that I preach;
And among these scriptures
The Dharma Blossom is foremost.
At that time, the Buddha again declared to Medicine King, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva: “The scriptural canons I preach are in the incalculable thousands of myriads of millions, whether already preached, now being preached, or still to be preached. Yet among them this Scripture of the Dharma Blossom is the hardest to believe, the hardest to understand.
Senchu Murano’s translation of the same final gāthā from Day 14 and the opening prose from Day 15:
Medicine-King! I will tell you.
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Is the most excellent sūtra
That I have ever expounded.
Thereupon the Buddha said again to Medicine-King Bodhisattva mahāsattvas:
“I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.
One of my many items on my To-Do List is to collect quotes such as these for use in encouraging new practitioners. A envision a Daily Encouragement, incorporating easily digested morsels that taken over time provide a healthy Dharma meal.
Tabbed for my 32-days of of the Lotus Sutra practice, The Threefold Lotus Sutra will be the text I use for the English translation for the next two months.
I have read The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings only once or twice and never read the entire Sutra of Meditation on Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. I have three weeks coming up when the wife will be away and I’ll have no distractions. I hope to replicate the The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who says in Chapter 28 of the Lotus Sutra:
“World-Honored One! The bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās who seek, keep, read, recite and copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], if they wish to study and practice this sūtra, should concentrate their minds [on study and practice] strenuously for three weeks. When they complete [the study and practice of] three weeks, I will mount a white elephant with six tusks, and appear before them with my body which all living beings wish to see, together with innumerable Bodhisattvas surrounding me. I will expound the Dharma to them, show them the Way, teach them, benefit them, and cause them to rejoice.
Tea following the Sunday service at Ro-Ō Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist TempleLike a good Mahayana Buddhist, I took the Middle Path to Lewiston.
I’ve been in Churchville, NY, for a week helping to prepare my wife’s parents’ house to be sold. Today, I took the opportunity to visit Kanjo Grohman’s Ro-Ō Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple and attend the 9am service.
After the service we were discussing tea and the dharma and it occurred to be that understanding the properties of tea – this one will calm, this will energize, this will help digestion – is much like studying the dharma.
As Nichiren Buddhists we know that chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō is the essential practice. Nothing else is required. As I like to envision it, the daimoku is a magnifying glass that focuses the sunlight of the Buddha’s teaching into a single spot so hot that it can burn away our delusions.
But as our practice’s focus shifts from inward to outward, from easing our own troubles to saving all sentient beings, we benefit from studying. The example that came up in the meeting was the use of chamomile tea. Weakly brewed chamomile is soothing and helps relax and promote sleep. Strongly brewed chamomile is bitter and perfect for digestive distress.
In Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-i, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 81, Nichiren underscores the importance of study. He writes:
For one cannot correctly understand the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra without learning the pre-Lotus Sūtras, although one may study the pre-Lotus Sūtras without learning about other Sūtras.
In support of this, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai stated in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “When attempting to spread various sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra, the essential part of the teaching will not be lost even if a doctrinal analysis of all the teachings of the Buddha is not rendered. When attempting to spread the Lotus Sūtra, however, the essence of the teaching may be lost if a doctrinal analysis is not made.” It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter 2, “Expedients”), “Although the Buddhas expound various teachings, it is for the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle.” “Various teachings” here refer to all the pre-Lotus Sūtras. “For the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle” means to expound all the scriptures of Buddhism to reveal the Lotus Sūtra.
Personally, I hold to the theory that, especially in a country like America where Buddhism is relatively unknown, it helps to know the expedient teachings that paved the way for the Lotus Sūtra.
However, even with such study, we need to keep our primary focus on the daimoku.
In Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 119, Nichiren writes:
Some of my disciples pretend to know the details of doctrines. They are mistaken. The odaimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, is the essence of the Lotus Sūtra. It is like a human being’s spirit. If any other teachings were to be added to the odaimoku, it would be the cause of great trouble. It would be like the Empress marrying two Emperors, or committing adultery. The teachings of the Lotus Sūtra did not spread far enough during the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma. This was because these periods were intended for other sūtras.
We are presently living in the Latter Age of Degeneration. The Lotus Sūtra and other sūtras are no longer efficacious in bringing about enlightenment. Only the odaimoku can accomplish this. This is not my arbitrary opinion. It was so-arranged by the Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, various Buddhas from all over the universe, and numerous great bodhisattvas from beneath the earth such as Superior Practice Bodhisattva.
It is a serious mistake to mix other teachings with the odaimoku. For example, when the sun rises, we no longer need to use lamps. When it rains, the dew is of no use. A baby does not need any nourishment except for milk. We do not need to add supplements to effective medicine.
While I was at church, Richard and his girlfriend, Alexis, celebrated Mother’s Day with their mothers (Richard with Alexis’ mom and Alexis with Richard’s mom) at the McKinley Park Rose Garden.
I’m sitting in the waiting area for Gate A5 at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport waiting for the next leg of my trip from Sacramento. I’ve got another two hours to kill before boarding red-eye flight to Detroit. I have a “Honey-Do” harvest awaiting me in Churchville, NY.
Yesterday I was working at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church replacing a corrugated metal roof that covers a flat portion of the “chicken shed” where the teriyaki chicken will be cooked at the church bazaar June 8-9. The 30-year roof had rusted through at several points.
Rev. Igarashi was helping me as I nailed down the metal roof sections.
At one point the topic of discussion turned to Mother’s Day, and Rev. Igarashi said it wasn’t celebrated in Japan.
I digress at this point to mention that I chatted at church today, Mother’s Day, with a young woman born and raised in Hiroshima who now lives in Sacramento, and she said she always celebrates Mother’s Day, buying flowers.
So, whatever the case in Japan, Mother’s Day wasn’t something Rev. Igarashi adopted. And after reading the Nihon ryōiki, I’m happy to believe that in a traditional household Mother’s Day isn’t restricted to a single day.
All of which provides me an opportunity to reprint a Nihon ryōiki story:
On an Evil Man Who was Negligent in Filial Piety to His Mother and Gained an Immediate Penalty of Violent Death
In Sou upper district, Yamato province there once lived a wicked man whose identity is lost except for his nickname, Miyasu. In the reign of the emperor residing at the Palace of Naniwa, he became a student of the Confucian classics, but he attained merely book knowledge and did not support his mother.
His mother had borrowed rice from him and could not return it. Miyasu angrily pressed his mother for payment. His friends, who could no longer endure the sight of the mother seated on the ground while the son sat on a mat, asked him, “Good man, why are you not respectful? Some people build pagodas, make Buddha images, copy scriptures, and invite monks to a retreat for their parents’ sake. You are rich and fortunate enough to lend much rice. Why do you neglect your dear mother and contradict what you have studied?” Miyasu ignored them, saying, “That’s none of your business.” Whereupon they paid the debt on her behalf and hurried away.
His mother, for her part, bared her breasts and, in tears, said to her son, “When I reared you, I never rested day or night. I have seen people repaying their parents for their affection, but, when I thought I could rely on my son, I incurred only disgrace. I was wrong in relying upon you. Since you have pressed me for repayment of the rice, I will now demand repayment of my milk. The mother-child tie is from this day broken. Heaven and earth will take cognizance of this. How sad, how pitiful! ”
Without a word Miyasu stood up, went into the back room, and, returning with the bonds, burnt them all in the yard. Then he went into the mountains where he wandered about not knowing what to do, ran wildly this way and that with disheveled hair and a bleeding body, and could not stay in his home. Three days later a fire broke out suddenly, and all of his houses and storehouses in and out of the premises burned. Eventually Miyasu turned his family into the streets, and he himself died of hunger and cold without any shelter.
Now we cannot help believing that a penalty will be imposed, not in the distant future, but in this life. Accordingly, a scripture says, “The unfilial are destined to hell; the filial, to the pure land.” This is what Nyorai preaches, the true teaching of Mahayana tradition. (Page 135-136)
Back in March I asked about Śākyamuni’s prediction that when Śāriputra becomes a Buddha he will preach the Three Vehicles. Why not just the One Vehicle?
Recently I switched my daily reading from the Murano translation of the Lotus Sūtra to Leon Hurvitz’s Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma. In Hurvitz’s version is an added section to the The Simile of Herbs (Medicinal Herbs) chapter translated from a Sanskrit manuscript. Included is this exchange between Śākyamuni and Kāśyapa:
“Again, O Kāśyapa, the Thus Gone One, in his guidance of the beings, is equitable, not inequitable. O Kāśyapa, just as the light of the sun and the moon illuminates the whole world, both him who does well and him who does ill, both him who stands high and him who stands low, the good-smelling and the bad-smelling, just as that light falls everywhere equally, not unequally, in just that way, O Kāśyapa, does the light of the thought of the knowledge of the all-knowing, of the Thus Gone Ones, the worthy ones, the properly and fully enlightened ones, the demonstration of the true dharma, function equally among all beings in the five destinies according to their predispositions, be they persons of the great vehicle, persons of the vehicle of the individually enlightened, or persons of the vehicle of the auditors. Nor in the light of the knowledge of the Thus Gone One is there either deficiency or superfluity, for the light conduces to knowledge in accord with merit. O Kāśyapa, there are not three vehicles. There are only beings of severally different modes of conduct, and for that reason three vehicles are designated.”
When this had been said, the long-lived Mahākāśyapa said to the Blessed One: “If, O Blessed One, there are not three vehicles, what is the reason for the present designation of auditors, individually enlightened, and bodhisattvas?”
When this had been said, the Blessed One said to the long-lived Mahākāśyapa: “It is just as the potter. O Kāśyapa, makes pots with the same clay. Among them, some become pots for sugar lumps, some pots for clarified butter, some pots for curds or milk, while some become pots for inferior and filthy things; and just as there is no difference in the clay, but rather a supposed difference in the pots based solely on the things put into them, in just this way, O Kāśyapa, is there this one and only one vehicle, to wit, the buddha vehicle. There exists neither a second nor a third vehicle.” (Page 103)
