The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p77Subhūti was asked if an Arhat can have the thought that he has obtained Arhatship, and he replied, “No, because although he has certified to the fruit of Arhatship, it is just a name and nothing more.” Not only upon certification to the fruit of Arhatship is there no realization, but even upon attainment of Buddhahood there is none. There is no tangible dharma which can be called Arhat. It is an empty name. If one thinks it exists, one has an attachment to dharma and has not realized the emptiness of phenomena.
If an Arhat did have the thought that he has obtained Arhatship, he would be attached to self, others, living beings, and a life. He would not have realized the emptiness of self or of phenomena, nor would he have obtained Arhatship. The thought of obtaining Arhatship carries with it the mark of self, which in turn produces its partner, the mark of others. Having the paired phenomena of self and others creates the mark of living beings, which in turn leads to the mark of a life. He would therefore be attached to the four marks.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for March 31, 2025
“Medicine-King! Anyone who reads and recites Myōhō Renge Kyō, know this, will be adorned just as I am. I will shoulder him. Wherever he may be, bow to him! Join your hands together towards him with all your heart, respect him, make offerings to him, honor him, and praise him! Offer him flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, canopies, banners, streamers, garments, food and various kinds of music! Make him the best offerings that you can obtain in the world of men! Strew the treasures of heaven to him! Offer him heaps of the treasures of heaven! Why is that? It is because, while he is expounding Myōhō Renge Kyō with joy, if you hear it even for a moment, you will immediately be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”
Tao-sheng: Advancing Toward the Doorway
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p208-209But he thought again, ‘This house has only one gate [doorway]. Worse still, the gate is narrow and small.’
This is the fourth segment. He wants to offer the happiness of the three carts later. He first tells them about the frightening and dreadful happening in the house in order to terrify them. [The place] where various delusions are concealed is the “house.”
The doorway to [the Buddha’s] teaching is dark and deep. Those who have traveled to enlightenment are very few; few have advanced toward the doorway.
Vajra Sutra: Sweeping Dharma Dust
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p65-66The teaching is spoken because there are people. The medicine is prescribed because there is sickness. The dharma which the Tathagata speaks cannot be grasped. It is like sweeping the floor when it is dusty. Who speaks? Who sweeps? The dharma spoken is dharma-dust, which the Tathagata sweeps away. It cannot be grasped. It is not dharma and not no dharma. What dharma is there? There are none. There isn’t anything at all.
Therefore, that which distinguishes the worthy sages is unconditioned dharma. Unconditioned dharma is non-active and devoid of marks, characterized by its lack of marks. Basically the Buddhadharma does not need to be studied. No one is apart from it; everyone is capable of knowing it. When attachment is relinquished the Buddhadharma appears. If attachments are not relinquished the more one grasps the less one has. Before everything has been put down, nothing can be picked up. It is necessary to put attachments down with the left hand and with the right hand pick up real mark prajña. But to say one can pick up prajña is just a figure of speech. That is not to say there is actually something that can be grasped with the hands. If one could grasp all of empty space in one fist, then one could grasp hold of real mark prajña. If unable to grasp all of empty space with one swipe of the hand, one should make no futile attempt to clutch at real mark prajña. Real mark prajña exhausts empty space and pervades the dharma realm. All things are basically within real mark prajña. How could a firmer grip than that be had? It is simply because of attachments that the basic substance of the dharma body has not been attained, and one’s original face not recognized. …
Those who can truly put everything down and investigate the meaning of that, can attain genuine, originally existent real mark prajña. To say it is attained is just a figure of speech. There is absolutely nothing attained because nothing was ever lost.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for March 30, 2025
Anyone who expounds Myōhō Renge Kyō will be able to locate
All living beings from afar by smell.
He will be able to locate by smell
The wheel-turning-kings of great [countries],
The wheel-turning-kings of small [countries],
And their sons, ministers and attendants.He will be able to locate by smell
The wonderful treasures of personal ornaments,
The underground stores of treasures,
And the ladies of the wheel-turning-kings.He will be able to recognize persons
By smelling their ornaments or garments
Or by smelling their necklaces
Or by smelling the incense applied to their skin.
Tao-sheng: Returning to the Use of the One Vehicle
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p208He also thought, ‘I am strong-muscled [powerfull body and arms]. I will put them in a flower-plate or on a table and bring them out [I might, in the folds of my robe or on top
of a table, take them out].’This is the third segment. The theme substantiated here is that the Buddha, in combination with [his own awakening, wishes to] save [other beings]. Having been awakened himself to [the truth of] suffering, he intends to cause other beings to become [awakened] like him. Thus with great compassion [mahākaruṇā] arising in him, he has come to their aid. Originally the two kinds of transformation did not exist, but by going astray from the truth, they (beings) underwent suffering. [The Buddha] himself has to return to the use of the One Vehicle in order to teach them. Therefore he wants to set forth the doctrine of the One Vehicle. Body means the trace-body. The trace-body in essence (li) has the functional ability [of] holding and making contact [with beings]: it is [like] the “hands”. Essential ability is “strength.”
A “robe” can be bent to wrap the sons. [The Buddha] appears [in the world] like a supernatural power, able to help beings out of the rugged mountains.
[A table with four legs symbolizes] the four virtues [which he manifests] equally to all. [All the diverse] talk about li is universally similar and equal.
Vajra Sutra: Giving Up The Raft
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p61-63Living beings who produce the purest, most sincere thought of belief upon hearing the Vajra Sutra are those who have planted good roots before limitless millions of Buddhas. Giving rise to such a true, real mind, a mind that is without the least divergence or skepticism, they obtain limitless and unbounded blessings and virtue.
Such people have realized the emptiness of people and so have no mark of self, others, living beings, or a life. Having no self means seeing the self as empty. Having no mark of others means seeing people as empty. Self and people both empty, living beings are also empty. Naturally when living beings are empty then there is no mark of a life, which refers to the continual quest for immortality as well as to the constant pursuit of all things which one loves and cannot see through.
Having realized the emptiness of people one should also realize the emptiness of phenomena, and relinquish the mark of the non-existence of phenomena as well. When there is no longer any judgment of phenomena as being right or wrong, then one has arrived at the basic substance of dharma.
If those living beings’ minds grasp at marks, if they hold to the mark of people, they still grasp at the four marks and have not obtained liberation. They have not genuinely put everything down. If they grasp at the mark of phenomena they are still attached to the four marks; if they grasp at the mark of the nonexistence of phenomena, they are also attached to the four marks, because they have not seen through and smashed them. They have not realized the emptiness of people, of phenomena, and of emptiness itself.
Regarding that principle, the Buddha often said to the bhikṣus, “You should know that the dharma which I speak is like a raft.”
The raft is used to cross the sea of suffering birth and death.
Before you have ended birth and death, you use the raft in cultivation. Once you have ended birth and death, you should put the raft aside. If you do not put the raft aside you have an attachment. If you do not put the dharma aside you have an attachment.
Attachment to the dharma can infect one like a disease. Using the dharma which teaches the emptiness of phenomena as medicine, the disease can be cured. Once cured, if a person fails to realize he is well and continues to take medicine, then he develops a senseless attachment to the medicine, and that amounts to yet another sickness. Those who have realized the emptiness of people and the emptiness of phenomena must also relinquish attachment to the non-existence of phenomena.
The marks of phenomena should be cast aside. When one has ended birth and death one should put phenomena aside. People and phenomena are empty. One should even cast aside true proper dharma, how much the more so the non-existence of phenomena. One should relinquish all one’s persistent attachments.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for March 29, 2025
Anyone who keeps Myōhō Renge Kyō
After my extinction
Will be able to obtain
Innumerable merits a previously stated.He should be considered
To have already made various offerings.
He should be considered
To have already built a stupa
With a yasti soaring up to the Heaven of Brahman,
The upper part of it being the smaller,
A stupa which was adorned with the seven treasures,
And with thousands of billions of jeweled bells
Sounding wonderful when fanned by the wind.
He should be considered to have already enshrined
My śarīras in this stupa,
And offered flowers, incense, necklaces, heavenly garments,
And various kinds of music to it,
And lit lamps of perfumed oil around it for innumerable kalpas.
Tao-sheng: Ignorant and Unaware
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p208[The children] do not know that the fires are coming towards them. They are not frightened or afraid. They are about to suffer, but do not mind. They do not wish to get out.’
They don’t think that [desires] harm the [wisdom] life: they are “unaware and ignorant.” Being “ignorant and unaware,” how can they be made perturbed and afraid?
Injury pressing in upon the wisdom-life is not taken as a calamity. Without being told of what has happened, how can they have any wish to leave?
Vajra Sutra: Giving Without Marks of Giving
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p54-55A Bodhisattva should not dwell anywhere when he practices giving. In other words, he should not be attached when he gives. If he is able to free himself from attachment, he has understood that the substance of the Three Wheels, composed of:
- One who gives,
- One who receives, and
- That which is given, is empty.
If your act of giving carries with it the thought, “I practice giving and have done many meritorious and virtuous deeds,” or if you are aware of the receiver, or of the goods given, then you have not left the mark of giving. You should give and be as if you had not given. If you attach to the marks of the six sense objects – forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, and mental constructs – when giving, your merit and virtue are limited. If you fall victim to the thought, “I contributed a million dollars to a certain temple,” then all you have is a million dollars’ worth of merit. When the money runs out, so do your merit and virtue.
If you are not attached to the mark of giving, you accrue limitless merit and virtue, even by giving as little as a single cent. If you fail to practice the proper method of giving, then although you may give gifts throughout as many great kalpas as there are motes of dust, you will still have accomplished nothing. It still has been just like boiling sand to make rice; no matter how long you cook it, it never becomes rice.
Sakyamuni Buddha used the analogy of “empty space in the ten directions” to represent the extent of merit and virtue involved in the act of giving which is detached from the mark of giving. He said, “Subhūti, a Bodhisattva should only dwell in what is taught thus.” A Bodhisattva who has already resolved to realize Bodhi should think of what he has thus been taught and adhere to it in cultivation.
If you remember what you have given, then I will forget it. If you can forget it, then I will keep it in mind. It is the same with the Buddha who, knowing the minds of all living beings, is aware that you have not forgotten the merit and virtue of your acts of giving, and so he finds it unnecessary to remember them himself. When you forget them, the Buddha remembers. Do you think it is better for you or the Buddha to remember?
You think, “I am afraid that if I forget, the Buddha will forget, too, and then I simply will not have any merit at all.”
Never fear. If you forget about your acts of giving the Buddha will eternally remember them. As it says later in the Vajra Sutra, “All the various thoughts which occur to all living beings are completely known to the Tathagata.” When you do good things, you remember them, but when you do bad, do you also cherish the memories? No, you try to forget your offenses immediately, yet you fondly ponder the good you have done. You should forget the good and remember the bad. Why remember the bad? So you will not do it again. Why forget the good? So you will feel the need to do more.