My body is pure and indestructible.
I will appear in any of many thousands of billions of worlds
During many hundreds of millions of kalpas,
And expound the Dharma to the living beings.

The Buddha sings these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. We can hear these lines and assume that the body of the Buddha is somehow a permanent version of the man who lived in this world of conflict 2500 years ago. The body of the Buddha takes many forms. We can see it in his teachings: the Wonderful Dharma he left for us. We can see it in every raindrop, every mountain, every smile and snarling face that comes into our lives. We can see it in the capacity we and all beings have to shed our delusions and live peacefully. The Buddha is always leading us to our better selves, whether we realize it or not.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com