Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking. But he [later] did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.

Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva sings these verses in Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. They are part of a story he tells about Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva (Gumyō, Yaśaskāma). This shows that each of the innumerable Bodhisattvas who are helping us to become enlightened use different ways of reaching people. Even those enmeshed in the suffering of self-importance, who use this Wonderful Dharma to make themselves seem superior to others, simply because they are leading others to this teaching, they too are creating boundless merit.

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

Make offerings to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva with all your hearts! This World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva-mahāsattva gives fearlessness [to those who are] in fearful emergencies. Therefore, he is called the ‘Giver of Fearlessness’ in this Sahā-World.

The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of compassion. When we make offerings to compassion, we show how much we value it. In this world of conflict, we are taught to value aggression and violence rather than compassion. Those who do not dominate others are judged as targets for domination. If we clear away the delusion of our self-importance, and see other beings as worthy of happiness just as we are, we find ways for everyone to benefit together.

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

Seeing that you have peacefully attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha,
We, too, have obtained benefits.
Congratulations! How glad we are!

The children of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha sing these verses to their father in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They realize that when one being reaches enlightenment, it is a benefit for all beings. In Chapter Ten, the Buddha teaches that many people will hate his Wonderful Dharma with jealousy during his lifetime, and many more will be jealous of it after his extinction. These people see the Buddha as different from themselves, and do not understand how they can become as enlightened as he is. They believe that for one person to gain, another must lose. The Buddha shows that all beings benefit from his teaching. Nothing is taken away from anyone.

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He should always make it a pleasure to sit in dhyāna. He should live in a retired place and concentrate his mind. Mañjuśrī! [A retired place] is the first thing he should approach.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. For those who are awakening their nature as Bodhisattvas to benefit all beings, and setting aside their attachment to their own suffering, this can be a difficult transition. Our habits of engaging with the drama and delusion in the world can be too strong to overcome. This is why the Buddha emphasizes the importance of quietly reflecting on what happens around us, and our reactions to them. Through dhyāna meditation, we learn not to believe everything we think, and that we can change our understanding of the world. We also learn that allowing our minds to change is the only way we can benefit other beings.

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

The written words of the Lotus Sutra express in a visible and tangible form the Brahma’s voice of the Buddha, which is invisible and intangible, so that we can see and read them with our eyes. The Buddha’s pure and immaculate voice, which had disappeared, is resuscitated in the form of written characters for the benefit of humankind.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Opening the Eyes of Buddhist Images, Wooden Statues or Portraits (Mokue Nizō Kaigen no Koto). Living in this world, 2500 years after the Buddha Śākyamuni walked the Earth, it is difficult to hear his voice leading us to enlightenment and encouraging us to let go of our attachments. In the Lotus S̄ūtra we have an instrument for creating the Buddha’s voice in our own time. This is his highest teaching. It brings all beings to liberation, whether they are clever or dull, stupid or wise, focused or distracted. It reminds us of our true nature as Bodhisattvas who chose this life out of our determination to benefit all beings. It shows us how to transform the poison of suffering into the medicine of compassion, and the poison of ignorance into the medicine of wisdom.

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

T’ien’tai, therefore, makes clear that all things and phenomena in the ten realms are manifestations of the ultimate reality. Since ultimate reality is another name of the Lotus Sutra, what he states is that all things and phenomena are equal to the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren wrote this as part of his letter to monk Sairen-bō in his Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality (Shohō-Jissō Shō). This was another way of Nichiren expressing his understanding that the Buddha’s highest wisdom is not something that takes us out of this world, but is found within the everyday experiences of our lives. Even the realms of anger, greed, fear, hostility, calm and pleasure are part of the Buddha’s pure land. The practice of the Wonderful Dharma is not to escape from these difficult places, but to use them to benefit all beings. To be caught up in them is to be deluded about their evanescent nature. To see them for what they are is to know the joy of enlightenment.

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

Anyone who expounds the Dharma, if he wishes,
Will be able to cause the living beings
Of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds
To hear his wonderful voice.

The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. When we learn to hear the voice of the Wonderful Dharma, we recognize it in everything that surrounds us. When we speak with the voice of the Wonderful Dharma, we are in accord with the reality of all things. There is no need to distinguish between our voice and the voice of the Ever-Present Buddha who is always thinking of how to lead all beings to enlightenment. The only thing that blocks this voice is the comfort of our own attachment and delusion.

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

Only I know his secret practices.
He shows himself
To all living beings
In the form of my eldest son.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Nine of the Lotus Sūtra, speaking of Rāhula, the son born to him and his wife Yaśodharā before he left his life as a crown prince to seek enlightenment. In his highest teaching, the Buddha reminds us of our vows as Bodhisattvas to come into this world of conflict to benefit all beings. In the preoccupations that come with this life, we can forget these vows; they become a secret even to us. When we hear this Sūtra, we are reminded that we are the dear children of the Dharma, and that enlightenment is our rightful inheritance.

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Mañjuśrī! A Bodhisattva-mahāsattva who keeps this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the latter days after [my extinction] when the teachings are about to be destroyed, should have great loving-kindness towards laymen and monks, and great compassion towards those who are not Bodhisattvas. He should think: ‘They do not know that the Tathāgata expounded expedient teachings according to the capacities of all living beings. They do not hear, know or notice it, or ask a question about it or believe or understand it. Although they do not ask a question about this sūtra, or believe or understand it, I will lead them and cause them, wherever they may be, to understand the Dharma by my supernatural powers and by the power of my wisdom when I attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. Until we reach enlightenment, we may not be able to reach all beings. Rather than blaming them for not having the capacity to learn from us, or blaming ourselves for not being skillful enough to reach them, the Buddha reminds us to be patient and realize there is no hurry to being free from our delusions.

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

I am saving all living beings from suffering.
Because they are perverted,
I say that I pass away even though I shall not.
If they always see me,
They will become arrogant and licentious,
And cling to the five desires
So much that they will fall into the evil regions.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. Sometimes we wonder why the Buddha’s presence in this world is not more obvious. We think if only we could find a living example of an enlightened being living among us then we would be happy and the world would be a better place to live. We forget that even during the Buddha’s lifetime, not everyone sought him out for his teaching, and some actively opposed him. In this explanation, the Buddha points out that our not seeing him is due to our limitations rather than his, and by not taking our lives and this world for granted, we open ourselves to his presence.

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