Two Buddhas, p134-135Nichiren’s writings suggest two reasons why the Lotus Sūtra is “difficult to accept and to understand.” First, as Saichō had noted, the provisional teachings — those preached before the Lotus Sūtra — were expounded “according to the minds of others,” or in other words, the Buddha had accommodated them to the understanding of his listeners. In contrast, Śākyamuni preached the Lotus Sūtra “in accordance with his own mind,” revealing his own enlightenment. Nichiren took this to mean the Buddha’s insight into the mutual inclusion of the ten realms, or more specifically, the understanding that “our inferior minds are endowed with the buddha realm.” For many of Nichiren’s contemporaries, who believed that buddhahood was to be attained only after death in the Pure Land, this idea must have seemed deeply counterintuitive. “[Among the ten realms], the buddha realm alone is difficult to demonstrate,” he acknowledged. “But having understood that your mind is endowed with the other nine realms, you should believe that it has the buddha realm as well. Do not have doubts about this.”
Another reason why the Lotus Sūtra is “difficult to accept and to understand” is because those who propagate it may encounter antagonism. “People show great hostility toward this sūtra, even in the presence of the Tathāgata,” Śākyamuni declares in [Chapter 10]. “How much more so after the parinirvāṇa of the Tathāgata!” Although cast here in the form of a prophecy of what will happen after the Buddha’s demise, this passage may point to opposition from the Buddhist mainstream encountered by the early Lotus community. For Nichiren, it foretold the hardships that he and his followers encountered in spreading the Lotus Sūtra. Writing from his first exile, to the Izu peninsula, he confessed, “When I first read this passage, I wondered if things would really be so terrible. But now I know that the Buddha’s predictions do not err in the slightest, especially since I have experienced them personally.” For Nichiren, this sūtra passage carried a double legitimation, both of the Lotus Sūtra to which he had committed his life and of his own practice in upholding and propagating the Lotus. The passage is cited nearly fifty times in his extant writings.
At the same time, Nichiren saw the “difficulty” of embracing the Lotus Sūtra as pointing, not merely to the inevitability of hardships, but also to a guarantee of buddhahood. “To accept [the Lotus Sūtra] is easy,” he wrote. “To uphold it is difficult. But the realization of buddhahood lies in upholding faith. Those who would uphold this sūtra should be prepared to meet difficulties. Without doubt, they will ‘quickly attain the highest Buddha path’.”
Category Archives: d15b
The Relative Ranking of the Sūtras
Two Buddhas, p133-134In [Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma], Śākyamuni declares: “There are immeasurable thousands of myriads of kotis of sūtras I have taught in the past, which I teach now, and which I will teach in the future. Among them, however, this Lotus Sūtra is the most difficult to accept and to understand.” As a literary device, this statement cleverly preempts possible challenges to the Lotus Sūtra’s authority. Other sūtras might claim to be the Buddha’s highest teaching, but such claims could always be dismissed by saying that any sūtra might be the “highest” that the Buddha had preached up until that point and yet had been superseded by later ones. The inclusion of both present and future teachings here precludes such a dismissal. East Asian interpreters, however, did not see this claim on the Lotus Sūtra’s part as a mere literary device. For Nichiren, it was nothing less than the Buddha’s own statement of the relative ranking of the sūtras that he had expounded during his fifty years of teaching.
Protected by the Tathāgata with His Robe.
Buddhism for Today, p144Some people may think it strange that this sacred teaching should incur enmity and envy, but it is not really strange, because whenever a better teaching is preached or believed in, those who believe in a lower teaching tend to envy it and are irritated and upset by it. Others scorn the teaching when they know nothing of its content. Still others denounce a good teaching as heresy and persecute it. When Sakyamuni Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Nichiren began to preach their teachings, all were attacked by enemies and underwent religious persecution.
As mentioned before, the Buddha promises us: “Even if the Lotus Sutra arouses much enmity and envy, endure this and receive, keep, and practice the sutra. Such a person will be protected and invested by the Tathāgata with his robe.”
Emphasis on the Teaching, Not the Teacher
In Chapter 10 there is another transition that takes place in the Lotus Sutra and that is the transition from an emphasis on the body of the Buddha to the teaching of the Buddha. In this chapter the Buddha tells his disciples that instead of enshrining his relics, the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra should be what is contained within the stupa we revere. Here too in this great drama we should remember that because the teaching is true, the teacher is great. We devote ourselves to the Lotus Sutra and to the teacher of that sutra and through our devotion we bring it to life.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraThe Living Dharma
Now let me talk about the truth and the living Dharma. The appearance of the great stupa serves as a device or reason for bringing together a great assembly of Buddhas and lands but it also serves as a validation of the truth of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra. Many Treasures Buddha demonstrates to us the truth of the underlying Dharma or the truth of the Lotus Sutra does not change. While the actual words or makeup of the Sutra may take on different appearances or different words the truth that underlies it all is unchanging. The two Buddhas sitting beside each other show us that not only the teacher is to be respected but also the truth of the teaching is equally respectable. We are not really devoting ourselves to the teacher but to the truth of the teaching and that is the real basis of our devotion to the Buddha.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra11th Day of the 11th Month
On the 11th day of the 11th month this year, on the thoroughfare of Matsubara in Tōjō, Awa Province, about four to six o’clock in the afternoon, hundreds of nembutsu followers ambushed me. I was accompanied by about ten people, of whom only three or four were strong enough to fight. Arrows shot by nembutsu followers were falling like rain, and their swords were attacking us like lightning. One of my disciples was killed at the spot and two others were seriously wounded. I also was hit and wounded, and faced mortal danger, but somehow I escaped death and am still alive today. My faith in the Lotus Sūtra has been strengthened as I experienced persecutions such as this.
It is said in the 10th chapter of “The Teacher of the Dharma” in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, “Many people hate it (the Lotus Sūtra) with a passion, even in My lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after My death.” And in the 14th chapter of “Peaceful Practices,” fascicle 5, it states, “Many people in the world would have hated it (the Lotus Sūtra) and few would have believed it.” There are many people in Japan who read and study the Lotus Sūtra. Many people are punished because they steal or commit adultery, but no one has been punished due to his faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, none of the followers of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan have practiced the Sūtra as is preached. Only I, Nichiren, have truly read it. This is what the chapter of “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra” states: “We will not spare even our lives. We treasure only unsurpassed enlightenment.” Therefore, I, Nichiren, am the foremost practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan.
Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 145-146.
The True Time Lords
In the arrival of the Stupa of Treasures, we are introduced to a Buddha, Many Treasures, who is old. But he is not just old, he is ancient. He is even older than ancient. You could say that this Buddha is beyond time altogether. He is not just a Buddha from the past, but he represents the primordial Buddha, the Buddha from the metaphysical beginning of things. And here we have our Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha taking a seat along side of this Buddha. In that moment the past, present, and, as we shall see in chapter 16, the future are all contained right there.
In fact in that moment all dimensions of eternity coalesce, this is the synthesis of time and eternity. We are beyond time; we are in every moment of every possible time. We are the true Time Lords made famous in the Dr. Who story. When we sit before such a great object as we do in our daily practice we are fusing our lives with the past, the present, and the future and our lives expand beyond the moment we currently perceive ourselves to be in. When we take this kind of view, then how can the troubles and tribulations of this moment not seem insignificant while at the same time our own lives achieve the greatest possible significance.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraSupreme Among Past, Present, and Future Sūtras
It is said in the tenth chapter on the “Teacher of the Dharma” of the Lotus Sūtra that among the sūtras that had already been preached, are now being preached, and will be preached, the Lotus Sūtra is supreme. Commenting on this, Grand Master Miao-lê states in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “Besides the Lotus Sūtra, some sūtras claim to be the king of sūtras, but they are not really the first among sūtras as they do not claim to be one among those which have already been preached, are being preached, and will be preached.” He also asserts in his Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra: “Although the Lotus Sūtra is an incomparable dharma above all the scriptures preached in the past, present, and future, many are confused about this, and they will suffer forever from slandering the True Dharma.”
Surprised by this statement in the Lotus Sūtra and his commentaries on it, I have read all the Buddhist scriptures and commentaries by later teachers. As a result all my doubts have melted away.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 85
Opening of the Buddha Realm in the Act of Chanting the Daimoku
Two Buddhas, p145Nichiren understood the emergence of the jeweled stūpa as the opening of the buddha realm in the act of chanting the daimoku. One of his followers, a lay monk known as Abutsu-bō, once asked him what the jeweled stūpa signified. Nichiren explained that, in essence, the stūpa’s emergence meant that the śrāvaka disciples, on hearing the Lotus Sūtra, “beheld the jeweled stūpa of their own mind.” The same was true, he said, of his own followers: “In the Final Dharma age, there is no jeweled stūpa apart from the figures of those men and women who uphold the Lotus Sūtra. … The daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra is the jeweled stūpa, and the jeweled stūpa is Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō. … You, Abutsu-bō, are yourself the jeweled stūpa, and the jeweled stūpa is none other than you, Abutsu-bō. … So believing, chant Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, and wherever you chant will be the place where the jeweled stūpa dwells.”
The Appearance of the Jeweled Stupa
Two Buddhas, p 144Throughout East Asia, the imagery of [The Appearance of the Jeweled Stupa] chapter has inspired painting, sculpture, and exegesis. In Tiantai Buddhism, that imagery became part of a narrative of mythic origins: Zhiyi and his teacher Huisi, it was said, had together heard Śākyamuni Buddha’s original preaching of the Lotus Sūtra in the Vulture Peak assembly and were later born together in China, where they became master and disciple. The Japanese Tendai founder Saichō incorporated this tradition into his account of his Tendai dharma lineage. Shortly after Saichō’s death, when a new state-sponsored ordination platform was erected at the monastery that he had established on Mount Hiei, a representation of the jeweled stūpa of Prabhūtaratna, together with an image of Śākyamuni, was enshrined there. In medieval Japan, the Tendai esoteric “Lotus rite” or Hokke hō, conducted to realize buddhahood, eradicate sin, prolong life, quell disasters, and achieve other aims, employed a mandala depicting the two buddhas Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna, seated side by side on a lotus, in its central court.