Category Archives: Eyes

d25b, Eyes

Sins and Rewards

What, then, of the promises of protection and ease in the Lotus Sūtra? Does the fact that no one, no matter how virtuous, can escape hardship mean that these statements are false? Nichiren finds the answer in the teaching of Tiantai Zhiyi (538-597): “Our troubles and sufferings in this world are all due to our sins in our past lives, and rewards for our meritorious acts in this life will be received in our future lives.” (Hori 2002, p. 104) He finds it in the teaching of the Contemplation of the Mind Ground Sūtra (J. Shinjikan-gyō): “If you want to know the cause in the past, see the effect in the present. If you want to know the effect in the future, see the cause in the present.” (Murano 2000, p. 112) He also finds it in the Lotus Sūtra’s statement, “Thus he expiated his sin.” (Murano 1991, p. 289)

These teachings indicate that the abuse undergone by Never Despising Bodhisattva was a result of past misdeeds. Nichiren understands all this to mean that the hardships faced in this life are not because of, or in spite of, the good deeds one is currently doing. Rather, it is because past misdeeds are coming into fruition. In addition, one must have confidence that the good one is doing now will come to fruition in the future. Conversely, those who commit evil deeds will inevitably face the fruition of their actions in a future life. Severe misdeeds in particular will take time to come to fruition. In the meantime, according to the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, those who slander the Dharma will have nightmares that may cause them to reflect upon their conduct. The idea is that calamity does not come immediately, and that people will be given a chance to repent of their misdeeds. The promises of the Lotus Sūtra apply to those who have no past offenses to expiate and is a guarantee that upholding the Lotus Sūtra will sow the seeds of great benefit both for the present life and for the future, though they may not come to fruition immediately.

d18b, d25b, Eyes

A Humble, Straightforward, and Respectful Practice

The teaching of the three kinds of enemies of the Lotus Sūtra is the sūtra’s way of warning us that if we present the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra we should not be surprised if we meet opposition from ignorant laypeople, corrupted clergy, and even respected teachers who are regarded as saints. We must not let this discourage us. Nor should we look for enemies or return abuse with abuse. From beginning to end we must treat all beings as future buddhas, whether they are presently acting as such or not. Another lesson we can take from this teaching is that we must be careful to not become one of the three kinds of enemies ourselves. We must not uncritically accept the teachings of others without checking things out for ourselves, like the ignorant laypeople.

We should not become arrogant and greedy like the evil monks, especially if we are put in a position of authority. We should not, like the false arhats, become self-righteous and pretend to be awakened when we are still tainted by greed, hatred, and delusion. Nor should we persecute others just because their opinions and views are different than our own, as the three kinds of enemies are said to do. Again, the humble, straightforward, and respectful practice of the Lotus Sūtra as exemplified by Never Despising Bodhisattva can serve as the model that will keep us from becoming one of the three kinds of enemies and enable us to deal in a firm but kind manner with them, should they confront us, so that we can eventually overcome all enmity and sow the seeds of buddhahood in their hearts.

Open Your Eyes, p509-510
d18b, d25b, WONS, Eyes

The Lesson of Never Despising Bodhisattva

Nichiren takes the description of the three kinds of enemies as a prophecy that vindicates his mission even as his persecutions fulfill the prophecy, but what should we make of this in our own lives and practice? Some people have interpreted this teaching to mean that one is only practicing the Lotus Sūtra correctly if one is arousing opposition. Consequently, these people believe that they must either identify who their enemies are or else preach the Lotus Sūtra so stridently that they will be sure to make enemies. I am not convinced that this is what the Lotus Sūtra really intends, even if it might appear to be the way Nichiren did things.

If we look at chapter twenty, “Never Despising Bodhisattva,” of the Lotus Sūtra we will find a story that illustrates what the sūtra intends. In that chapter the Buddha tells a story of a past life when he was known as the Never Despising Bodhisattva. That bodhisattva’s whole practice consisted of bowing to all he met and greeting them with the words, “I do not despise you because you can become buddhas.” (Murano 2012, p. 292) This practice of showing respect to all people and assuring them that they could attain buddhahood aroused the opposition of the arrogant monastics and laity who did not believe that ordinary people could attain buddhahood. They mocked him and even attempted to strike him with sticks and to throw stones at him. Never Despising Bodhisattva, however, did not return their abuse but moved to a safe distance and continued to regard them with respect and to assure them of their future buddhahood. This story seems to be a dramatization of the description given in the twenty stanzas of chapter thirteen. This story tells us two important things. The first is that Never Despising Bodhisattva did not seek to make enemies. All he did was respectfully share the message of the Lotus Sūtra, even if it contradicted the preconceived ideas of those who believed they had nothing more to learn about Buddhism. The second is that even when he was abused, he continued to maintain a respectful attitude and did not compromise his mission to preach the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren himself equates his mission to teach Odaimoku with that of Never Despising Bodhisattva in Testimony to the Prediction of the Buddha (Kembutsu Mirai-ki):

Nevertheless, if there is a man after the death of the Buddha who breaks the attachment to the false doctrines of the “four tastes and three teachings” of the pre-Lotus sūtras and puts faith in the True Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra, all the virtuous gods and numerous bodhisattvas who sprang up from underground will protect such a practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra. Under such protection, this practitioner would be able to spread over the world the focus of devotion (honzon) revealed in the Original Gate and the five-word daimoku of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō,” the essence of the Lotus Sūtra.

He is just like Never Despising Bodhisattva, who, in the
Age of the Semblance Dharma after the death of
Powerful Voice King Buddha, spread in the land of this Buddha the twenty-four character passage in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter twenty) saying: “I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is this? It is because you all will practice the way of bodhisattvas and will be able to attain buddhahood.” With such propagation, the bodhisattva was severely persecuted by all the people in the land, who beat him with sticks and threw stones at him.

Although the twenty-four characters of Never Despising Bodhisattva differ in wording from the five characters which I, Nichiren, spread, they are the same in meaning. We both appeared in the world under the same conditions: he toward the end of the Age of the Semblance Dharma after the death of Powerful Voice King Buddha, and I at the beginning of the Latter Age after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha. (Hori 2002, p. 174 adapted)

Open Your Eyes, p508-509
WONS, Eyes

Reading Teachings for Ourselves

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I would propose that Śākyamuni Buddha, as a literary figure in the sūtras, is a personification of the ideals and insights of the Buddhist tradition. The Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha of the Original Gate therefore personifies what those Mahāyāna Buddhists who have given credence to the Lotus Sūtra believe is the ultimate message of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Nichiren believed that this message was one of the universal and immediate accessibility of buddhahood, and that this message was what the Tiantai school had been championing until it had become obscured by other messages that Nichiren saw as departures from what is taught in the Mahāyāna sūtras and particularly the Lotus Sūtra. For Nichiren, fidelity to Buddhism is fidelity to the tradition expressed in the sūtras that had inspired and guided Mahāyāna Buddhists for well over a millennium at the time he wrote Kaimoku-shō. In our present time and circumstances I think that to avoid falling into the category of “ignorant laypeople” we who wish to be inspired and guided by the Mahāyāna teachings should read these teachings for ourselves so that we will be in a position to judge whether or not a particular Buddhist group or a particular teacher is authentically representing that tradition or distorting it due to biased ideas or for less than worthy goals.

Open Your Eyes, p504
Eyes

Misguided Laypeople

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In the time when the Lotus Sūtra first appeared, the [lay] people might have been the supporters of the more conservative schools like the Sarvāstivādins. In Nichiren’s time, they would have been the followers of Hōnen’s exclusive nembutsu who did not believe it was possible to attain buddhahood in this world. These people would include the mob who burned down Nichiren’s hut at Matsubagayatsu, the steward Tōjō Kagenobu and his followers who ambushed Nichiren at Komatsubara, and the Hōjō regents who exiled Nichiren to Izu, attempted to have him executed at Tatsunokuchi, and who then exiled him to Sado Island. It is important to note that the ignorant laypeople are Buddhists. This is not about the persecutions that may come about at the hands of those belonging to other religions or ideologies.

The ignorant laypeople are a powerful enemy precisely because they are Buddhists who support wrong views and who help to oppress those teachers who uphold the Lotus Sūtra. Today, ignorant laypeople would be those who claim to be Buddhists but who do not actually know for themselves the teachings of the Buddha taught in the sūtras and who base their understanding on the views and opinions of their teachers, who themselves may not have a deep understanding of the teachings of the Buddha but who present their own ideas as Buddhism. These people then close their minds to any who try to point out what the sūtras actually teach and instead cling to what they have read in secondary sources or to teachings given by whatever charismatic teacher they have chosen to follow. Because of this, Buddhism in the modern world has all too often been associated with psychedelic drugs, nationalism, and exploitive authoritarian teachers who use their power for personal aggrandizement, financial gain, and even sexual predation.

The standards for ethical conduct and the criteria for what is or is not in keeping with the teachings set forth by the sūtras become obscured and lost when laypeople uncritically accept popular misconceptions and the biased teachings of charismatic authorities over what the Buddha taught. In this way, Buddhism is greatly misrepresented, its reputation tarnished, and its ability as a tradition to liberate people and lead them to buddhahood is greatly impeded.

Open Your Eyes, p503
d18b, Eyes

Three Kinds of Enemies

In the Kaimoku-shō, Nichiren states that the twenty stanzas of verses from chapter thirteen, “Encouragement for Keeping this Sūtra,” of the Lotus Sūtra was being fulfilled by the actions of some of his contemporaries. In those verses, a host of bodhisattvas describe the persecutions and difficulties the practitioners of the sūtra will face in the evil world after the passing of the Buddha. The Tiantai patriarch Zhanran Miaole (711-782) interpreted these verses as referring to three kinds of enemies who would appear in the Latter Age of the Dharma. The three are: (1) the ignorant laity who are deceived by the false and hypocritical monks and elders and will abuse the true monks, (2) the false monks who are deceitful and claim to be enlightened when in fact they are not, and (3) the respected elder monks who are revered as arhats but who in fact are simply better at hiding their ulterior motives of greed and contempt. Nichiren equated these three formidable enemies with those people in Japan who were trying to suppress the teaching and practice of the Lotus Sūtra.

Open Your Eyes, p501
d17b, WONS, Eyes

An Inspired Teaching

The Mahāyāna response … to the question as to when a teaching can be considered to have been taught by the Buddha is that it does not matter whether or not it was taught by the historical Buddha, but whether it conforms to the truth, to those teachings we know the historical Buddha did teach, to the renunciation of defilement, and to revealing the praiseworthy qualities of nirvāṇa, the unconditioned. Of course, this criteria comes down to the subjective judgment of those who are evaluating a given teaching, but this is certainly in line with the Buddha’s advice to the Kālāmas when he told them that they should not depend upon external authorities, traditions, or even their own speculations, but rather to depend upon what they come to know for themselves directly is wholesome and praiseworthy and to be put into practice. Mahāyānists may consider the Śākyamuni Buddha who speaks in the Mahāyāna sūtras as the personification of a wisdom tradition whose initial inspiration is found, but not limited to, the life and teachings of the historical Gautama Buddha.

In the case of Nichiren and those who follow him, there is certainly the conviction that the Lotus Sūtra is an inspired teaching, and furthermore that it expresses the ultimate intent of the Buddhist tradition as a whole — the buddhahood or perfect and complete awakening of all people without exception. To bring this point home, Nichiren adds to the three proclamations two additional proclamations from chapter twelve of the Lotus Sūtra: the prediction of buddhahood given to Devadatta and the transformation of the dragon king’s daughter into a buddha. Based on these two exhortations or additional proclamations, Nichiren asserts that the Lotus Sūtra guarantees that all men and women can attain buddhahood. This universal guarantee of buddhahood is where Nichiren, basing himself on the Lotus Sūtra, believes that all the teachings of all the other sūtras, Mahāyāna and pre-Mahāyāna, are leading. It is, therefore, up to us to accept this with trust and joy, put it into practice, and find out for outselves.

Open Your Eyes, p498-499
WONS, Eyes

The Correct Path

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Using the four reliances as his standard for evaluating Buddhist teachings and going by the statements made by the Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren believed that the evidence conclusively pointed to the Lotus Sūtra as the Buddha’s most challenging and therefore most subtle and profound teaching. Because of the Buddha’s own testimony, he did not even feel that it would be necessary to go into a point-by-point comparison of the teachings of the other sūtras with those contained in the Lotus Sūtra, though of course he does that earlier in the Kaimoku-shō. Convinced of the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra to all the other sūtras, Nichiren was certain that the path he had chosen to uphold it against all opposition must be correct.

“It is I, Nichiren, who is the richest in Japan today, because I sacrifice my life for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra and leave my name for posterity. Gods of rivers take orders from the master of a great ocean, and gods of mountains follow the king of Mt. Sumeru. Likewise, when one knows the meaning of the “six difficult and nine easier actions” and “scriptures preached in the past, are preached at present, and will be preached in the future” in the Lotus Sūtra, one will automatically know the comparative merits of all Buddhist scriptures without reading them.” (Ibid, p. 90 adapted)

Open Your Eyes, p496
Eyes

Relying on Practice

Ultimately, we must come to know the Dharma through our own practice and realization. This is what the fourth reliance (or third in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra) is about. We must rely on direct knowledge (S. jñāna) of the truth, and not merely our discursive consciousness (S. vijñāna), which is always second hand, after the fact, and dualistic in that it can’t help but bifurcate experience into the two poles of subject and object. From the very beginning, the Buddha taught people to come and see the truth for themselves, and not to rely on external authorities, hearsay, or even personal speculation. As the Buddha taught the Kālāmas:

“It was for this reason, Kālāmas, that we said: Do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of scriptures, by logical reasoning, by inferential reasoning, by a reflection on reasons, by the acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence of a speaker, or because you think: ‘The ascetic is our teacher.’ But when you know for yourselves, ‘These things are wholesome, these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise; these things, if undertaken and practiced lead to welfare and happiness’, then you should engage in them.” (Nyanaponika & Bodhi, p. 66)

Open Your Eyes, p494
Eyes

What Does It Mean To Follow the Dharma?

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What exactly does it mean to follow the Dharma and not the person? Isn’t the Dharma the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha in the sūtras, and therefore the teaching of a person? For that matter, there is the question of whether the sūtras, particularly the Mahāyāna sūtras, are in fact verbatim records of the Buddha’s teaching. So how can we know whether we are following the Dharma or just some person’s opinion, whether the person of the Buddha or the opinion of some anonymous person(s) attributed to the Buddha? Though perhaps a bit circular, the Buddha’s reply to the question asked of him by Mahāprajāpatī as to what is the Dharma may be worth considering.

Then the Gautamī, Mahāprajāpatī, approached the Lord; having approached, having greeted the Lord, she stood at a respectful distance. As she was standing at a respectful distance, the Gautamī, Mahāprajāpatī said to the Lord: “Lord, it were well if the Lord would teach me the Dharma in brief so that I, having heard the Lord’s Dharma, might live alone, aloof, zealous, ardent, self-resolute. “

“Whatever are the states, of which you, Gautamī, may know: these states lead to passion, not to passionlessness, they lead to bondage, not to the absence of bondage, they lead to the piling up (of rebirth), not to the absence of piling up, they lead to wanting much, not to wanting little, they lead to discontent, not to contentment, they lead to sociability, not to solitude, they lead to indolence, not to the putting forth of energy, they lead to difficulty in supporting oneself, not to ease in supporting oneself – you should know definitely, Gautamī: this is not Dharma, this is not discipline, this is not the Teacher’s instruction. But whatever are the states of which you, Gautamī, may know: these states lead to passionlessness, not to passion … (the opposite of the preceding) … they lead to ease in supporting oneself, not to difficulty in supporting oneself – you should know definitely, Gautamī: this is Dharma, this is discipline, this is the Teacher’s instruction.” (Horner 1992 volume V, p. 359 adapted)

The Dharma, then, is that which leads away from further deluded entanglement in our attachments and aversions for conditioned phenomena and toward liberation, the unconditioned. The Dharma is not the Dharma because the Buddha taught it. The Buddha is the Buddha, an “awakened one,” because he awakened to the Dharma, which is the true nature of reality. Any teaching that is in accord with how things really are can be considered the Dharma. This is why anything that conforms to the “three seals of the Dharma” can be considered the word of the Buddha. The three seals are the observations that (1) conditioned phenomena are impermanent, (2) without a self-nature, and (3) that true peace can only be found in the unconditioned, which is nirvāṇa. Sometimes another seal is added, the observation that conditioned things are ultimately unsatisfactory, for a total of four seals.

Open Your Eyes, p492-493