Category Archives: d15b

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800 Years: The ‘Mind that One Raises’

In reviewing Buddhism for Today as part of a 34-week Rissho Kosei-kai in North America (RKINA) advance course on the Threefold Lotus Sutra, I was struck by how Nikkyō Niwano speaks of faith in his observations on Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

If we delight in a single verse or a single word of the Lotus Sutra by a single thought but become no better than we were before, it is of no use. The assurance of our becoming buddhas is conditional on the result of practice over a long period of time. Why then did the Buddha say that he would predict Perfect Enlightenment for anyone who by a single thought delights in a single verse or a single word of the Lotus Sutra? This is because the mind that one raises through delighting in the Lotus Sutra by a single thought will become the seed of his attaining buddhahood. One must incessantly nurture this seed, making it bud by watering it diligently, making it grow, flower, and bear fruit.

Buddhism for Today, p139

The “mind that one raises” is our faith, the seed of our buddhahood.

The reason that this sutra is the most difficult to believe and to understand is that the fundamental teaching of the Lotus Sutra, that everybody becomes a buddha according to the accumulation of his practice, is so difficult to believe and to understand.

We can understand the Lotus Sutra in theory, but this kind of understanding is liable to be shaken by any adverse change in our circumstances. The person who can truly understand and believe the sutra from the bottom of his heart is one who is spiritually sensitive to the teaching and who is ripe to bear the fruit of the accumulated karma of his former lives. For that reason, we must continually strive to grasp the teaching of the Lotus Sutra more deeply and must patiently receive and keep it regardless of whatever doubts we may have in our minds or whatever persecution and slander we may suffer from outsiders.

Buddhism for Today, p144

The “mind that one raises” is nourished by the five practices of the Lotus Sutra.

Receiving and keeping the sutra (juji), reading and reciting it (doku-ju), expounding it (gesetsu), and copying it (Shosha) are called the five practices of teachers of the Law (goshu hosshi). These are most important practices for those who spread the Lotus Sutra. …

Of these five practices of the teacher, “receiving and keeping” (juji) is called “the intensive practice” (shōgyō), while the other four practices are called “the assisting practices” (jogyō). The reason we must set apart receiving and keeping” as the intensive practice is that this is the most important and fundamental practice of the five; without it, the other four practices mean little. “Receiving” (ju) indicates believing deeply in the teachings of the Buddha, and “keeping” (ji) means to adhere firmly to that belief.

Buddhism for Today, p149

The “mind that one raises” receives deeply the teachings and keeping that belief is the practice that allows our faith to grow.

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d15b, WONS

Covered by the Robe of the Buddha

When we read the Lotus Sūtra, the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter declares: “The Buddha covers these people (who believe in the Lotus Sūtra) with His robe, and they are protected by all the Buddhas in the universe.” This means that the Buddhas of all the worlds in every direction come together to fill the four million, hundred million nayuta of the worlds beside the triple thousand worlds. They are crowded together, like stars in the sky, or rice and hemp plants on earth, ready to help practicers of the Lotus Sūtra. It is like a crown prince of a great king protected by many retainers.

Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 180

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Six Occasions of Showing the Deeds and Figures of Buddhas

Śākyamuni Buddha does not abandon us perverted people.

“I am always thinking:
‘How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”‘

With this vow, Śākyamuni Buddha, as the Eternal Buddha, is constantly lending a helping hand to us perverted people.

How do the activities of the Buddha toward the salvation of others over eternity develop? In “The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata,” these activities are revealed in the form of the six occasions of showing the deeds and figures of buddhas.

I told the stories of my previous lives in some sūtras, and the stories of previous lives of other Buddhas in other sutras. I showed my replicas in some sūtras, and my transformations in other sūtras. I described my deeds in some sūtras, and the deeds of others in other sūtras.

Śākyamuni Buddha is always leading us into salvation, showing himself in many guises and using many different methods. Right before the Assembly in Space begins, many buddhas were invited. These were actually manifestations of the Eternal Buddha. This reveals why they are called manifestations. Many buddhas besides Śākyamuni Buddha appear in Buddhism, for example, Amitābha Buddha and Medicine Master Buddha. Each of these buddhas is viewed as a part of the Eternal Buddha. Even the historical Śākyamuni Buddha, whose lifespan was limited, is viewed as one aspect of the Eternal Buddha. In this way, all the buddhas working toward the salvation of living beings are merely different manifestations of the eternal Buddha, who uses the six occasions of revealing the deeds and figures of buddhas to show himself appropriately in each situation.

It may seem that so long as we remember that the Eternal Buddha is at the base of the individual Buddhas, we can put our faith in any Buddha. Nichiren Shōnin severely criticized such a theory, saying that it makes light of the base and emphasizes trivial details.

History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 91-92
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The Virtues of Forbearance and Endurance

It appears that in the early period the dharma-bhāṇaka [great master of expounding the dharma] occupied only a low position. Early Buddhism already taught five of Mahayana’s six perfections (pāramitās); forbearance alone was Mahayana’s addition, appearing in the early period with an important meaning. In “A Teacher of the Law,” forbearance is one of the three rules of the preacher (donning the robe of the Tathāgata). The various Mahayana scriptures, including the Lotus Sutra, speak of the good and evil of following or not following the guidance of the preacher, and stress that the preacher is to be respected and not slighted. This no doubt reflects the reality of the times, that the Mahayana preacher was held in contempt and persecuted by society as a whole. The Lotus Sutra, having dealt with philosophical issues in the chapters before “A Teacher of the Law,” after that chapter turns its attention to practical problems, encouraging the mission of the dharma-bhāṇaka and, in later chapters, emphasizing the virtues of forbearance and endurance. We should understand this to be a reflection of the position and circumstances of the Mahayana preacher at the time when the sutra was being composed.

Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 189-190
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Dharma-Dhara, Dharma-Kathika and Dharma-Bhāṇaka

That preserving the teachings was an important issue for the Saṃgha can be gauged from the references to dhamma-dhara (dharma-dhara) and dhamma-kathika (dharma-kathika) in Buddhist writings. However, Mahayana, which combined in the bodhisattva way the self-benefiting practice of preserving the correct Dharma and the other-benefiting practice of the propagation of the sutras, called the preacher who bore that mission the dharma-bhāṇaka. Why different terms were used is of considerable interest.

We have seen already that the bhāṇaka, as a memorizer and reciter of sacred works, had from old been counted as a type of musician, and that his existence is confirmed by dedicatory inscriptions at Sāñcī and Bhārhut. Around the second century BCE the bhāṇaka came to be connected with stupas, performing offerings in praise of the Buddha, reciting the sutras, and conducting sermons, for the benefit of visiting lay pilgrims. At that time (the period of sectarian Buddhism) the Theravāda sect laid claim to being the orthodox preserver of the teachings, and paid no heed to the bhāṇaka. It was the humble bhāṇaka, though, whom the Mahayana sutras referred to as a bodhisattva and gave the mission of propagating the true Dharma. Therefore it is not impossible to find in the bhāṇaka of that period certain evidence for one source of Mahayana Buddhism.

While the Mahayana sutras referred to the preserver of the true Dharma as bhāṇaka, they used the terms dharma-dhara and dharma-kathika to indicate those who considered themselves to be orthodox preservers of the teachings. Most such references are found in the oldest parts of the Mahayana sutras; the newer parts invariably use dharma-bhāṇaka. In the Lotus Sutra, for example, the use of dharma-dhara and dharma-kathika is confined to the section before “A Teacher of the Law,” whereas dharma-bhāṇaka is used mainly in the chapters after that. If we allow that the chapter “A Teacher of the Law” marks a temporal shift in the formation of the Lotus Sutra, we may consider that the use of dharma-dhara, dharma-kathika, and dharma-bhāṇaka likewise belongs to specific periods of time. As discussed earlier, the chapters before “A Teacher of the Law” encouraged the veneration of relic stupas, but those after it discouraged that practice and recommended instead constructing caityas containing verses from the scriptures. To reiterate, although the Lotus Sutra called transmitters of the teachings by the general terms dharma-dhara and dharma-kathika, the sutra gave the special task of propagating itself to the dharma-bhāṇaka, as a Mahayana bodhisattva.

Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 188-189
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The Robe, the Throne, and the Dwelling

The Lotus Sutra gives priority to the religious practice of receiving and keeping the sutra as the bodhisattva way, rather than to setting forth a central philosophy. Consequently, … the sutra has taken on the character of the transmitters who recorded it. These transmitters, giving concrete expression to the practice, amid difficulties, of receiving and keeping the sutra as the three rules of preaching (the robe, the throne, and the dwelling) described in “A Teacher of the Law,” eulogized the firm and believing mind of one who receives and keeps the Lotus Sutra. The trend toward a Lotus cult, a cult that was to gain fervent adherence in China and Japan, can be traced back to characteristics in the sutra itself.

Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 210
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The Faith Chanted and Transmitted By Dharma-Bhāṇakas

According to the Mahāvastu, a biography of the Buddha in the Lokottaravādin Vinaya, the bhāṇaka (memorizer of the sutras) was classified as a musician (gandharvika), together with jugglers, court bards, actors, dancers, athletes, wrestlers, singers, etc. The early Mahayana scriptures, however, looked on the dharma-bhāṇaka (preacher of the Dharma) as the transmitter of Mahayana, and forbade that he be slighted or ridiculed. The fact that the chapter of the Lotus Sutra entitled “A Teacher of the Law” (Dharmabhāṇaka-parivarta) sets forth the five kinds of practice for the dharma-bhāṇaka and the three rules of preaching shows that the dharma-bhāṇaka had been entrusted with the transmission of the Lotus Sutra.

As we have seen in the chapter called “Tactfulness,” advocates of the Lotus Sutra did not set out to deny the doctrines of the two vehicles that had already been preached; rather, they affirmed the value of each of the three vehicles (Ch., k’ai-ch’uan hsien-shih or k’ai-san hsien-erh) by embracing them all within the One True Vehicle as expedient means. The various motifs in each chapter concerning receiving and keeping the Lotus Sutra are the sermons based on the experience of faith chanted and transmitted by the various dharma-bhāṇakas, and the texts of the Lotus Sutra we now possess are the recorded forms of these.

Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 438
LS32, d15b

Daily Dharma – June 16, 2021

Anyone who expounds this sūtra to the four kinds of devotees,
Or reads or recites this sūtra in a retired place,
After doing these [three] virtuous things,
Will be able to see me.

The Buddha sings these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. While the Buddha was alive 2500 years ago, people traveled great distances and endure great hardships just to see him. Today, even though the man named Siddhartha Gautama is no longer in our world, we are assured that the ever-present Śākyamuni is always with us and leading us to his enlightenment. When we make the effort to keep, read, recite, copy and expound this Sūtra, it is as if we are traveling great distances and enduring great hardships.

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

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The True Meaning of Worship

“Medicine-King! Erect a stupa of the seven treasures in any place where this sūtra is expounded, read, recited or copied, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra exists! The stupa should be tall, spacious and adorned. You need not enshrine my śarīras in the stupa. Why not? It is because it will contain my perfect body.” Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma

Through these words the Buddha teaches us that it is much more important to revere the Law itself than to worship idols. What he is saying is: However much a person may blaspheme the Buddha, his sin is still light. There is no need to deposit the Buddha’s relics in pagodas. The greatest veneration of the Buddha is to practice the Lotus Sutra, and the heaviest sin is to defame the lay devotees or monks who practice the sutra.

However, we must be careful in our understanding of this teaching. It would be a great mistake to think that it does not matter if we blaspheme the Buddha, or that we should ignore the Buddha’s relics. Sakyamuni Buddha was a great man who left us his precious teachings, and for this reason we cannot revere him too much. We worship the image of the Buddha in order to show our boundless gratitude to the Buddha, who left us his precious teachings. As mentioned repeatedly in this book, it is also done for the sake of deepening our reverence for the Buddha as our ideal, which we wish to approach little by little.

Moreover, through the image of Sakyamuni as the historical Buddha, we worship the Tathāgata Sakyamuni and the Eternal Original Buddha, namely, the Law preached by him. Worshiping the image of the Buddha is not idol worship. Idol worship indicates the idea of regarding the thing itself as the object of worship, believing, for example, that if one worships some object one’s disease will be cured, one will be spared from suffering, or one’s desires will be fulfilled. There is all the difference in the world between true worship and idol worship.

Buddhism for Today, p142
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The Buddha’s Room, Robe, and Seat

Toward the end of Chapter 10, we find these words:

If people are to teach this sutra,
Let them enter the Tathagata’s room,
Put on the Tathagata’s robe,
And sit on the Tathagata’s seat.

Facing the multitude without fear,
Let them teach it clearly everywhere,
With great compassion as their room,
Gentleness and patience as their robe,
And the emptiness of all things as their seat.
Doing this, they should teach the Dharma. (LS 232)

In this beautiful poetic expression we have another indication of what it means to follow the bodhisattva way. It means nothing terribly complicated, just the very difficult matter of being compassionate, gentle, and patient and living from an understanding of the emptiness of all things. To enter the room of the Buddha, wear his robe, and sit on his seat is a wonderful metaphor for living the life of a bodhisattva, living the Dharma in a way that goes beyond our sixteen simple practices. This is what it means to be a teacher of the Dharma.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p133-134