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The Vision of Buddhism, Blog, Books

The Vision of Buddhism

The Wife adheres to a New Year’s Day rule: Don’t do anything on New Year’s Day that you don’t want to end up doing all year long.1 She cleans and straightens the house over the days leading to New Year’s Eve in order to enjoy her relaxed holiday. Having been married 34 years, I’ve adopted her rule – do only things you want to do all year long on New Year’s Day – but without all the preparatory inconvenience.

So today, Jan. 1, 2024, I’ve strictly limited television viewing. I’ve ignored the leaves littering the bottom of the pool in the backyard. And I’ve spent the majority of the day in my recliner reading.

I picked up Richard J. Smith’s “The I Ching: A Biography,” which I had been reading the day before. This is one of the “Lives of Great Books” series which “recount the complex and fascinating histories of important religious texts from around the world.” I’ve previously read “The Lotus Sutra: A Biography” and “The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography,” both by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Vision of Buddhism bookcoverHowever, in keeping with my “only do things you want to do all year long,” I put The I Ching biography down and picked up “The Vision of Buddhism” by Roger J. Corless. This was an introductory Buddhism text recommended by Jan Nattier in her book “Once Upon A Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline.” (More about that book tomorrow and subsequent days.)

I was attracted to this book by Corless’ effort to reject the Western tendency to teach Buddhism as a linear historical tale.

History is an academic discipline that has developed in the western hemisphere. The western hemisphere has been strongly influenced by the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and their conception of time as something created by God in and through which God manifests himself. On this view, time is meaningful. It has a beginning and an end, and the end is a goal, so that there is development, a progressive achievement of the goal. It makes sense to ask “What is the meaning of life?” A Christian hymn says “God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year.” As soon as we substitute the word Buddha for God in this sentence, however, there is a problem.

History as a secular discipline has many of the features of the Abrahamic tradition’s view of time. God has been gradually eased out, and the notion of goal or purpose has become suspect, but the assumption that time is meaningful and that development is real does not seem to have been given up by even the most radical critics of the philosophy of history.

Buddhism, on the other hand, sees things as changing over time, but it does not see things as becoming more meaningful as they change. Change, for Buddhism, is a primary characteristic of cyclic existence (samsara), and history is just a lot of change. All that we can say about history, Buddhistically, is that as time goes on we get more of it.

I greatly enjoyed his summary of the basic story of the Buddha’s life, which uses the Tibetan story of the “Twelve Acts of the Buddha”:

  1. Waiting in the Tushita Heaven
  2. Growing in the womb of Mayadevi
  3. Birth as a human for the last time.
  4. Attainment of intellectual and physical skills
  5. Marriage and the enjoyment of sensuality
  6. Renunciation of the worldly life
  7. The practice of extreme self-denial
  8. The march to the center
  9. Overcoming Mara
  10. Attaining enlightenment
  11. Teaching
  12. Final Nirvana

His summary of the teaching of emptiness – or as he explains it, “transparency” – was very useful and I was looking forward to seeing how his college textbook published in 1989 would proceed. At that moment, however, I needed to run an errand with The Wife. (All year long I’ll do this!)

When I was able to return to my recliner, I picked up “The Vision of Buddhism” but instead of returning to where I had left off I decided to first browse the book index.

As a Nichiren Buddhist I’m always interested in what an introductory college text has to say about the Kamakura period of Japan’s Buddhist development.

Nothing. The word Kamakura does not appear in the index. The entry for “Japan, and Buddhism” points to pages 59-62.

This happens to be the place where Corless has devoted a little more than two full pages to “Nichiren Shoshu (“The Orthodox Nichiren Lineage”). There is no other index entry for Nichiren.

In Corless’ Chapter 2, The Value of Worldly Skills (Act 4 of the Buddha), in the subsection entitled “Social Buddhism,” he writes:

Social Buddhism
There are two forms of Buddhism that, in very different ways, emphasize social action above all else: the Nichiren Shoshu of Japan, and the reform movement of Dr. Ambedkar in India.

NICHIREN SHOSHU
Nichiren Shoshu, “The Orthodox Nichiren Lineage,” is nothing if not clear, organized, and motivated. It claims to have the true Buddhism, proves it by its physical success, and aims at the destruction of all other forms of religion. Its roots are in a medium length Mahayana Sutra, Saddharmapundarika Sutra or Sutra on the True Dharma which is like a White Lotus, called the Lotus Sutra for short. This text presents Shakyamuni in his gigantic-sized, Sambhogakaya form preaching the Mahayana doctrines that had been withheld from the Hinayana. It may have been written about the beginning of the Christian era. Partly perhaps because it was chosen by the Chinese monk Chih-i (531-597 C.E.) as the perfect expression of Mahayana, it has become one of the most popular texts of Far Eastern Buddhism. It was studied by Nichiren (1222-1282 C.E.), a Japanese Tendai monk practising on Mount Hiei. He seems to have decided that the scholastic exegesis of the Lotus Sutra had become over-subtle, and that its main points had been missed. The Sutra was not concerned, he felt, with voluminous doctrinal formulae, but with the victory of the oppressed under the leadership of the Bodhisattva Vishishtacharitra (“He of Superlative Action”; known as Jogyo Bosatsu in Japan), who is mentioned in chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra as the leader of a vast army of Bodhisattvas who emerge from below the earth to worship the Buddha. Coming out of the earth signified, for Nichiren, the release of the lowly from injustice, and he identified Vishishtacharitra with himself. Later followers came to regard Nichiren as the pre-eternal Buddha, superior to all other Buddhas. Only by cleaving to the supreme doctrine of the Lotus Sutra could anyone be free, either relatively (i.e., within samsara) or absolutely (i.e., by leaving samsara). He expressed his contempt for competing forms of Buddhism in four staccato phrases:

  1. “Nembutsu muken”: Those who recite the Buddha’s Name in the hope of paradise will be reborn in hell.
  2. “Zen temma”: The practitioners of Zen are deluding demons.
  3. “Shingon bokoku”: The Tantric Buddhists, who say they are protecting the country, are traitors.
  4. “Ritsu kokuzoku”: The Buddhists who punctiliously observe the monastic regulations are rebels.

The government attempted to execute Nichiren as a troublemaker, but he was saved by a miracle, and exiled to the island of Sado between 1271 and 1274. He founded two temples before he died, and began the Hokke Shu, “Lotus Lineage” which emphasized the great merit of reciting the mantra NAM’MYOHO-REN-GE-KYO, “Hail to the Lotus Sutra.” Since the Lotus Sutra says that reciting a single phrase from it earns as much merit as reciting all of it, and since, according to classical Chinese thought, the essence of a book is encapsulated in its name or title, those who recite NAM’MYO-HO-REN-GE-KYO will find that they get all that they need.

After Nichiren’s death, the lineage did not have a large following until Toda Josei (1900-1958 C.E.) became president of the Soka Gakkai, “Value-Creation Society,” in 1951. Soka Gakkai is a lay organization that grew out of the educational theories of Makiguchi Tsunesaburo (1871-1944) who, in his four-volume work Soka Kyoikugaku Taikei, “A System of Value-Creation Education,” written between 1930 and 1934, offered the unexceptionable idea that education should increase the student’s sense of values. Toda befriended Makiguchi, both joined the Nichiren Shoshu (an outgrowth of the Hokke Shu), and, after Makiguchi’s death, Toda whipped up what had been a study circle into a tightly run missionary society. He vowed to obtain the conversion of seven hundred and fifty thousand families before his death, and far exceeded his goal.

Today, Soka Gakkai is a potent force in Japanese society, able to stage breathtakingly unified mass meetings and, through the Komeito, “Clean Government Party,” it is powerfully influential in the Diet (the Japanese parliament). Its militancy alarms non-members, who may argue that it is not really Buddhism. Soka Gakkai claims, for instance, that Japan lost the Second World War because the Four Divine Kings deserted Japan when the Lotus Sutra was neglected. Soka Gakkai also has a world mission, with an American headquarters near Los Angeles and branches throughout the United States. Members of Soka Gakkai in America, where it is called Nichiren Shoshu of America (N.S.A.), attribute such varied practical benefits as release from drug addiction, a happy sex life, improved sports performance, good business deals, and successful hitch-hiking to the persistent recitation of the mantra NAM’MYO-HO-REN-GE-KYO. Unlike most Buddhists, they make great efforts to gain converts, and may claim that other Buddhists are not “real” Buddhists. And, whereas Nichiren himself originally claimed the Lotus Sutra as the salvation of Japan, American devotees patriotically use it to pay homage to the Stars and Stripes, sometimes with fife-and-drum bands.

After reading this I was exhausted and took a nap. I set my watch’s timer for 30 minutes and closed my eyes.

Napping I don’t mind doing for the rest of the year. Reading Corless’ book, not so much. When I got up from my nap I went to my office to write this. Writing is something I want to do all year. Explaining how many ways Corless gets Nichiren Buddhism wrong, I can do without.

I’ll go do gonyo now while my wife proof-reads this. After I do my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra post I’ll consider my wife’s suggestions and post this. Tomorrow I plan to pick up Jan Nattier’s “A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparip̣rcchā)

1
The Wife’s objection: I feel this is misleading. The rule is – What you do on NYD will dominate or be a major focus for the coming year. Therefore you want to do pleasurable and rewarding things. return
Blog

10 Years on the Journey to the Place of Treasures

Today, Jan. 1, 2024, marks the start of my 10th year on this journey.

I began in 2015 with a 500-day challenge inspired by Rev. Ryusho Jeffus‘ book “The Magic City: Studying the Lotus Sutra.”

“I wonder what you could accomplish in your life if you made a commitment from today for 500 days to practice on a regular consistent basis towards the achievement of some change in your life? Would you be able to travel the entire 500 days without giving up or abandoning or forgetting your goal and effort?”

The days counted to 500 and then again and again and again.

Ryusho had said early on that a 500-day journey was trivial. A 10-year timeframe, he said, would be more useful for judging the merits of the practice of Nichiren Buddhism.

In this tenth year I will complete reciting the Lotus Sutra more than 100 times. I’m currently on my 91st cycle through the Lotus Sutra. I’m on my 47th cycle through the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, the two additional sutras within the Threefold Lotus Sutra.

Before I complete this 10-year challenge, I hope to finish two projects:

  1. Create a 365-day collection of the promises contained in the Lotus Sutra. For an example, see Anyone, which I wrote as part of my 800 Years of Faith project in 2022. This would then become a Daily Promise to remind us of the power of the Lotus Sutra.
  2. Divide the text of the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra into 365 roughly equal portions. Each day would include a brief commentary, perhaps a quote from Shinkyo Warner Shonin’s Daily Dharma or a quote from one of the many books I’ve read. This would become the Daily Practice, a simple way to read the Lotus Sutra.

In 2025, these would then replace the Daily Dharma and 32 Days of the Lous Sutra posts.

At least that’s the plan today, the first day of my 10th year on this journey to the place of treasures.

Blog

Sunday Online Travels

I’ve heard online services belittled as not being comparable to public gatherings, but I think that argument misses the point. Online activities open up a wealth of opportunities. Take this Sunday for example.

20231210-altar-statue-blessin
Following a traditional Bodhi Day service at the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada, Rev. Shoda Kanai performed his annual blessing for Buddhist statues on home altars.
20231210-jukai-gohonzon
After the Bodhi Day service and altar statue blessing, Rev. Shoda Kanai performed the jukai ceremony and gohonzon presentation to a new member.
In the afternoon, I attended the annual Bodhi Day Lotus Sutra lecture by Dominick Scarangello, the International Advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai. (Here’s last year’s lecture.)

The Ten Suchnesses: Theory and Practice
According to the Lotus Sutra the ten suchnesses are the ultimate reality, or true form, of everything that exits. More than just philosophy, the ten suchnesses are an easily understood account of dependent origination and a practical tool for discovering the causes of suffering, and opening paths toward liberation from suffering.

Kern, mappō, WONS, Blog

Returning to Kern’s translation of the Lotus Sutra

Recently I’ve been exploring the concept of Mappō, the Latter Age of Degeneration. To that end I’ve read the first part of Jan Nattier’s “Once Upon A Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline,” which details the history and sources of the idea that the Buddha’s teaching decline after his Parinirvāṇa. That led me to re-read Nichiren’s Senji Shō, Selecting the Right Time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple.”

It was while I was reading Nichiren’s letter that I noticed this:

Moreover, Tripitaka Master Pu-k’ung’s works have many mistakes. Calling the Buddha who was revealed in the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, the Buddha of Infinite Life, as he does in his Esoteric Rites Based on the Lotus Sutra, was apparently a blunder. It is not worthy of discussion that he mixed up the arrangement of the chapters in the Lotus Sutra by placing the 26th chapter, Dhārāṇis, next to the 21st chapter, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgata, and moving the 22nd chapter, Transmission, to the ends.

When I last read this letter in 2018, I missed the significance of Pu-k’ung’s variation in the order of the Lotus Sutra chapters. Nichiren, of course, considered Kumārajīva’s fifth-century Chinese translation of the original Sanskrit to be the most accurate translation. (See this story about Kumārajīva’s tongue.)

Pu-k’ung, however, is using the same order found by Jan Hendrik Kern, who published the first English-language translation of the Lotus Sutra in 1884. Kern’s translation was based upon a Nepalese Sanskrit manuscript written on palm leaves and dated 1039 CE. (See this chart on the organizational differences.)

The glossary in the back of Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, has this to say about Pu-k’ung:

Pu-k’ung, Tripitaka Master (Fukū)
Also known as Amoghavajra, 705-774 CE. The sixth patriarch of the Shingon sect. Born in northern India, Pu-k’ung came to China at the age of thirteen and entered the Buddhist order under the guidance of Vajrabodhi studying esoteric Buddhism. After Vajrabodhi’s death, he visited India and returned with twelve hundred fascicles of sutras and discourses. He was trusted by the three reigning Emperors: Hsüan-tsung of the T’ang dynasty and two successors, who established esoteric Buddhism as the state religion. He translated sutras such as Hannyarishu-kyō, Heart and Perfection of Naya Wisdom Sutra and Bodaishin-ron, Treatise on Bhodi-Mind. Pointing out his mistakes in the Bodaishin-ron and failure in praying for rain, Nichiren condemned him for slandering the True Dharma.

What this suggests is that the order of the sutra Kern found in a 1039 CE text was actually the order used in India centuries earlier.

The following three Chinese translations exist today.

  1. Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the True Dharma – 286 CE, translated by Dharmarakṣa, (born in the 230’s CE, died at age 78.), Ten volumes, 27 chapters.
  2. Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma – 406 CE, translated by Kumārajīva (344-413 CE or 350-409 CE), Seven volumes, 27 chapters. Later enlarged edition consists of eight volumes, 28 chapters.
  3. Appended Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma – 601 CE, translated by Jñānagupta, (523-605 CE) and Dharmagupta (d. 619 CE), Seven volumes, 27 chapters.

Interestingly, an English translator of the Tibetan translation of the Lotus Sutra, says:

The Tibetan version matches in content the version translated into Chinese by Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta in 601–02, and also matches the Nepalese Sanskrit manuscripts.

So the alternate order of the chapters was present as far back as 601 CE.

Blog

Writings from Nichiren in the Handbook for Members

Recently I completed adding the Shingyō Hikkei, a handbook for members of the Nichiren sect, to the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church website. For the next 12 days I’m going to post the excerpts from Nichiren’s writings included in the handbook.

Below is a performance of a song included in the handbook. The lyrics are from a poem by Nichiren, which reads in English:

Even the clouds of saddness
That spread over me
Would be blown clear away
By the winds of Mt. Eagle
Filled with the sound of the Lotus Sutra

Blog, Books

Shingyō Hikkei

In 1966, Nichiren Shu established what it called the Protect the Dharma Movement. This movement sought to create a unity of faith and training that would focus and thus amplify efforts to propagate the Lotus Sutra. To that end, Watanabe Kōin, Chief Administrator of the  Nichiren Sect Headquarters, created the Shingyō Hikkei, a handbook for members of the Nichiren Sect.

Writing in the Preface to the handbook in April 1972, Kōin said:

Sufferings of people today could be said to arise from a spiraling egotism. Only the way of Bodhisattva as expounded in the Lotus Sutra can put an end to it. Today the ideal world still seems out of our reach. Once believers of the Lotus Sutra unite themselves, and receive divine response, however, it is next to nothing to overcome worldly interests and desires. Unfortunately there has not been concerted effort among the members of the Nichiren Sect although many have distinguished themselves in scholarship and training. Therefore, just as Japan had established a unified public education system, we intend to focus our efforts in strengthening faith and training of all members of Nichiren Sect through a unified system of faith and training. Beginning with the 750th anniversary (1972) of the birth of our Founder we hope to carry out a great revolution in order to establish the faith and training for the members of the Nichiren Sect.

We realize that opinions differ, but we earnestly urge you to have a broad outlook and join us in a movement which has just been started to bring about the unified system of faith and training so that all Nichiren Sect members who believe in the same faith, no matter which temple or church they may belong to, may be able to learn this unified basic program and be worthy as “Followers of Nichiren,” as Nichiren Shonin put it. We believe that all members of the Nichiren Sect should be able to perform services together, join in discussion sessions, and live together with the same goal of “obtaining Buddhahood together.”

In 1978, the Nichiren-shū Shūmin, the Nichiren sect headquarters, published the first English translation of the Shingyō Hikkei.

In September 1978, Matsumura Juken, Chief Administrator, Nichiren Sect Headquarters, wrote in the introduction to the English translation:

When our Founder Nichiren Daishonin spread the Odaimoku “Namu Myoho Renge-kyo” representing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which is the essence of the Buddha’s heart, he pointed out that it should be spread not only in Japan but also throughout the world. In accordance with this, I believe that the Protect the Dharma unity of faith and training movement should also be widely spread overseas. I therefore urged the prompt publication of an English translation of the Shingyō Hikkei. Reverend Kyotsu Hori, Bishop of Hawaii Nichiren Mission, kindly took responsibility for translating it into English. As a result of his efforts we have finally come to greet the day of its publication. I would like to express my deep gratitude to him.

I sincerely hope that those overseas arm themselves with this Shingyō Hikkei and strive to practice the faith and training by reciting (by mouth), keeping (in mind), and practicing (by body) the heart of the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of our Founder, so that this world may become bright and secure, and that everyone may enjoy the life in the land of the Buddha.

I pray from the bottom of my heart that each of the overseas ministers may engage in active missionary works.

I found several copies of the English translation of the Shingyō Hikkei on a dusty shelf in a classroom of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. I gave a copy to my son, who recently joined the church. I’ve also put the text of the book on the church website. You can find it here.

Given that (before I published this article) a Google search for “Protect the Dharma Movement” would get you exactly zero articles, one can assume the movement fizzled out. Whether Nichiren Shu headquarters lost interest, or the overseas ministers dropped the ball, the result is the same.

That’s unfortunate.

While I have many doctrinal arguments with Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai, one cannot fault the top-down direction of this global organization that focuses members on their practice.  Go to any group meeting at a home or a chapter session at a community center and you feel right at home.  It’s like going to Starbucks. No matter where you go, you know you’re in Starbucks and you know what you’ll get.

That’s not what you get with the confederation of temples that is Nichiren Shu. Less like Starbucks, the temples in America (the only ones I have experience with) are more like independent Italian restaurants. The restaurants are recognizable as Italian, but each has a different focus and flavor. The shami who left to strike out on his own focusing solely on Shodaigyo services has established the first pizzeria of the bunch.

I regularly attend services at four different temples. In order to do that I am required to  have four different service books. Woe be to the random online visitor to another temple. Yes, for the most part, one can count of reciting Hoben Pon and Jiga Ge, but not always. Never at that pizzeria and only occasionally at restaurants that like to vary the menu each week.

All things are possible if people are united in one spirit. Nothing can be accomplished if they are not united.

It’s ironic that this quote from Nichiren comes from his Treatise on Cooperation.

The original Protect the Dharma Movement had an element that sought to bind everyone together in the effort to propagate the Lotus Sutra.

At eight o’clock every morning we, members of the Nichiren Sect, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, should direct our hearts towards Lord Sakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren Shonin, who reside on Mt. Minobu, and recite the Odaimoku and say a prayer for the protection of the Dharma.

Let us all practice this prayer and encourage our neighbors to join us.

The way you recite the Odaimoku is up to you. It may be voiced or silent; it may be said three times or ten times. The point is for everybody, no matter where he lives, to say a prayer at the same time in one mind.

If Nichiren Shu in America is going to continue to act as independent Italian restaurants, it would be nice if they could settle on a single act such as the Protect the Dharma Movement prayer to establish a little more itai doshin.

Blog

Sunday Travels

Enkyoji Rochester
Sunday service at Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester

This morning I attended the 10am service at Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester. I was particularly interested in attending after learning that long-time Shami Kanyu Kroll had “retired,” leaving the sangha without a minister.  But members of the sangha have stepped up and Sunday’s shindoku service was excellent. Shami Kroll’s decade of instruction clearly paid benefits in preparing the lay learders.

Sunday service at Kannon
Sunday online service at Kannon Temple in Las Vegas

Then, in the afternoon, I was able to Zoom-in to the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada’s kito blessing service. The three-hour time difference worked in my favor. Since I missed the monthly purification ceremony in Sacramento, it was nice to be able to attend Rev. Shoda Kanai’s service.

Letchworth State Park
Letchworth State Park, New York

Even managed to finish off the day with a trip to Letchworth State Park on the Genesee River. After touring the park and taking in the lush fall colors, I had an excellent dinner at Caroline’s in the Glen Irish Inn and returned to Rochester.

I head back to Sacramento Tuesday.

Blog

Altar Options

My traveling altar in my motel room in Rochester

In my daily practice, I work my way through the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra and then recite the Sutra of Contemplation of Universal Sage. The next day, before I return to the Lotus Sutra, I recite the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings. Thus my practice cycle includes the full Threefold Lotus SutraThreefold Lotus Sutra.

Having finished Chapter 28 yesterday, today was the day to recite the Sutra of Contemplation of Universal Sage. Looking at my motel altar I decided to take advantage of my access to the Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester.  Since I won’t be able to do this Sunday, I decided to read aloud both sutras.

As an added benefit it meant that the fruit flies were exposed to the full Threefold Lotus Sutra.

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Practice space at the Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester
LS32, Blog

Preparing Miraculous Tales

20230928_enkyoji-rochester
Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester

I chanted for the fruit flies that they might be reborn as humans and encounter the Lotus Sutra in their next life, just as Priest Chingen explains in The Dainihonkoku Hokekyō.

The fruit flies were my only companions Thursday, Sept. 28, when I chanted the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra in shindoku at the Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester.

Each day my practice is to recite a portion of the Lotus Sutra in shindoku in the morning and then read aloud the same portion of the sutra in English. The first time that I chanted the entire Lotus Sutra in shindoku was on July 20, 2019, during my 21-day staycation retreat.

In May 2022 I uploaded recordings of Nichiren Shu priests chanting the Lotus Sutra. Since then, I’ve recited along with the recording when possible. When a chapter spans more than one day – chapters 1 and 2 for example – I follow along with the recording on the first half and then just recite from the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of Greater New England’s Myoho Renge Kyo Romanized on the next day.

Until this week I had never played the recordings for entire Lotus Sutra at one time.

I’ve been to Rochester, NY, on several occasions over the years and when visiting I routinely attend services. I had a free day this trip and decided to see if I could access the temple on a weekday. I was given the code to the lock box that holds the key to the temple and told I could visit any day.

I arrived Thursday at the Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple on the fourth floor of the Hungerford Building on East Main in downtown Rochester at 8:15am. I set up a table and chair. I brought along a JBL Flip 6 portable speaker to play the shindoku recordings.

It was 8:30am when I started reciting Chapter 1, following along with the recording. I had decided to break up the chanting into eight parts, which is how the sutra was originally organized on scrolls, or fascicles. It was 9:39am when I finished chapters 1 and 2.

The first hour on the metal folding chair convinced me to find some floor pillows. I wasn’t going to make it through another seven  fascicles without padding.

The second fascicle – chapters 3 and 4 – was uneventful but by the third fascicle – chapters 5, 6 and 7 – I found myself getting lost as I read along from the  Myoho Renge Kyo Romanized. Mental focus has never been one of my strong points and as I tired I found myself often losing my place in Myoho Renge Kyo Romanized. When this happened I would search ahead for a place where I could jump back in. This time I became completely lost and decided to just restart the chapter.  As I continued I constantly struggled to keep up and found myself  often briefly lost. I had to repeat chapters in both the seventh and the last fascicle.

It was 6:28pm when I finished Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.

During the nearly 10 hours that I had been chanting, I became very attached to the fruit flies. They would stop for awhile and then fly off and then return again. I think I accidentally injured one when I brushed it off my arm in an instinctive reaction. But throughout the day I as I chanted I pondered what benefit the fruit flies would receive from having heard the Lotus Sutra recited. Would I meet them  again in another life chanting the Lotus Sutra in another Miraculous Tale of the Lotus Sutra?

Higan, Blog

Faith Vs. Practice

I began Higan Week with quotes from a Tibetan stream outside the ocean of the Lotus Sutra. Standing on the stream bank I wondered why Nichiren’s teaching on the Lotus Sutra doesn’t include the deep Bodhisattva practices that appear so beneficial.

In the Nichiren Shu brochure about Higan, the seven-day period that occurs twice a year at the Equinox, it states plainly that Buddhism is About Practice, a sentiment that fit nicely with my question.

But does the Lotus Sutra really teach that individual practice is the path to enlightenment?

On the same day that I bemoaned a lack of focus on the Six Perfections in Nichiren Buddhism, my daily reading of the Lotus Sutra covered Chapter 17, which discusses the merits one receives from understanding that the Buddha’s lifetime is beyond measure and that any discussion of his death is just an expedient used to bring listeners to the wisdom of the Buddha.

Consider these gāthās from Chapter 17:

Suppose someone practiced
The five paramitas
For eighty billion nayuta kalpas
In order to attain the wisdom of the Buddha.

Throughout these kalpas he offered
Wonderful food and drink,
Excellent garments and bedding,
And monasteries made of candana
And adorned with gardens and forests
To the Buddhas,
To the cause-knowers, to the disciples,
And to the Bodhisattvas.

Throughout these kalpas he made
These various and wonderful offerings
In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha.

He also observed the precepts,
Kept purity and faultlessness,
And sought the unsurpassed enlightenment
Extolled by the Buddhas.

He was patient, gentle,
And friendly with others.
Even when many evils troubled him,
His mind was not moved.

He endured all insults and disturbances
Inflicted upon him by arrogant people who thought
That they had already obtained the Dharma.

He was strenuous and resolute in mind.
He concentrated his mind,
And refrained from indolence
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas.

He Lived in a retired place
For innumerable kalpas.
He sat or walked to avoid drowsiness
And to concentrate his mind.

By doing so, he became able to practice
Many dhyāna-concentrations.
His mind was peaceful, not distracted
For eighty billion kalpas.

With these merits of concentration of his mind,
He sought unsurpassed enlightenment, saying:
“I will complete all these dhyāna-concentrations,
And obtain the knowledge of all things.”

He performed
The meritorious practices
As previously stated
For hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas.

The good men or women who believe my longevity,
Of which I told you,
Even at a moment’s thought
Will be able to obtain more merits than he.

Those who firmly believe [my longevity],
And have no doubts about it
Even for a moment,
Will be able to obtain more merits [than he].

On the second day of Higan week, my daily reading covered Chapter 18: The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sūtra, which begins with a discussion of the merits to be received by the 50th person who rejoices at hearing even a phrase of the sutra. Here, again, we find actual deeds superseded by simple faith.

Suppose there was a great almsgiver.
He continued giving alms
To innumerable living beings
For eighty years according to their wishes.

Those living beings became old and decrepit.
Their hair became grey; their faces, wrinkled;
And their teeth, fewer and deformed.
Seeing this, he thought:
“I will teach them because they will die before long.
I will cause them to obtain the fruit of enlightenment.”

Then he expounded the truth of Nirvana to them
As an expedient, saying:
“This world is as unstable
As a spray of water,
Or as a foam, or as a filament of air.
Hate it, and leave it quickly!”

Hearing this teaching, they attained Arhatship,
And obtained the six supernatural powers,
Including the three major supernatural powers,
And the eight emancipations.

The superiority of the merits of the fiftieth person
Who rejoices at hearing even a gāthā [of this sūtra]
To the merits of this [great almsgiver]
Cannot be explained by any parable or simile.

At this point it seemed fair to suggests that other sutras may focus on the practice of Buddhism, but faith, not practice, is key in the Lotus Sutra. This observation was tempered slightly by the Daily Dharma from Sept. 24:

Needless to say, anyone who not only keeps this sūtra but also gives alms, observes the precepts, practices patience, makes endeavors, concentrates his mind, and seeks wisdom, will be able to obtain the most excellent and innumerable merits. His merits will be as limitless as the sky is in the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate quarters, the zenith, and the nadir. These innumerable merits of his will help him obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

The Buddha makes this declaration to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. We often think of merits as bonus points we get for good deeds. Good karma we create to offset the bad karma that came from our less skillful actions. Another way of looking at merits is as a measure of clarity. The more merit we gain, the more we see things for what they are. When we offer our merits for the benefit of all beings, we resolve to use this clarity to enhance the lives of others.

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But any suggestion that practice is remotely comparable to faith in Nichiren Buddhism, was put to rest by the Quote of the Day on Sept. 20:

It is said that the merit of all the Buddhist scriptures (except the Lotus Sutra) is that men can become Buddhas after they have done good deeds, which means that attainment of Buddhahood remains uncertain. In the case of the Lotus Sutra, when one touches it, one’s hands immediately become Buddhas, and when one chants it, one’s mouth instantaneously becomes a Buddha.

This daily quote comes from the Raihai Seiten, a Nichiren Shu Service Book Companion compiled by the Los Angeles Nichiren Buddhist Temple’s Nichiren Shu Beikoku Sangha Association. This was compiled in 2001-2002 when Rev. Shokai Kanai was the head priest.

This particular letter appears among the Writings of Nichiren Shonin in Volume 7, Followers II. This idea that faith, not practice, is essential is underscored in the letter. Following the above quote it says on page 59:

For example, when the moon rises above the eastern mountain, its reflection immediately shows on the water. Sound and resonance also occur simultaneously. It is written [in the Lotus Sutra] that one who listens to the Lotus Sutra will never fail to attain Buddhahood. The meaning of this passage is that whether there be 100, or even 1,000 people, all those who believe in this sutra [the Lotus Sutra] attain Buddhahood.

This Higan week has been a cautionary tale. Books from other streams of Buddhism – waters that lack the salty taste of the ocean of the Lotus Sutra – need to be viewed through the lens of the Buddha’s ultimate teaching.

The perils of relying on provisional teachings or suggesting to others their equivalency with the Lotus Sutra are detailed by Nichiren in “Shoshū Mondō-shō,” Questions and Answers Regarding Other Schools, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 179-181.