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800 Years: Upholding the Lotus Sutra

Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping This Sūtra, is most often discussed in the context of the hardships the expounder of the Lotus Sutra must expect after the death of the Buddha. But for me, what stands out is the silence of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas’ reaction.

Let’s start following the predictions for Mahā-Prajāpatī Bhikṣunī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣunī and their attendants:

“Thereupon the World-Honored One looked at the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. These Bodhisattvas had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dhārāṇis. They rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together towards him with all their hearts, and thought, ‘If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sūtra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.’

“They also thought, ‘The Buddha keeps silence. He does not command us. What shall we do?’ ”

“In order to follow the wish of the Buddha respectfully, and also to fulfill their original vow, they vowed to the Buddha with a loud voice like the roar of a lion:

“ ‘World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will go to any place [not only of this Sahā-World but also] of the worlds of the ten quarters, as often as required, and cause all living beings to copy, keep, read and recite this sūtra, to expound the meanings of it, to act according to the Dharma, and to memorize this sūtra correctly. We shall be able to do all this only by your powers. World-Honored One! Protect us from afar even when you are in another world!’ ”

As the Introduction of the Lotus Sutra offers, “ ‘Encouragement for Keeping This Sutra’ means encouraging people to uphold it in spite of certain difficulties. It also implies effort and patience.”

For me there is no more powerful demonstration of faith than upholding the Lotus Sutra in the absence of encouragement. The effort and patience needed to act are two of six perfections all Bodhisattvas must master.

In The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Gene Reeves explains the meaning of “upholding” the Sutra.

“Usually, when translating it in the Dharma Flower Sutra, I have used the term “embrace.” It occurs in several combinations that are important in the Sutra, especially (in Japanese pronunciation) as juji, “receive and embrace”; buji, “honor and embrace”; goji, “protect and embrace”; and jisetsu, “embrace and explain”; and there are many others. I like to use “embrace” because, for the Dharma Flower Sutra, what is involved is not a matter either of storage or of defending, but of following or adhering to the teachings of the Sutra by embodying them in one’s life.

“But in Chapter 13, what is of most direct concern is propagating the Sutra in the face of great difficulties, spreading its teachings to others despite many obstacles, leading others to embrace it. So here, in the title of Chapter 13, it seems fitting to think of being encouraged to ‘uphold’ the Sutra.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p174-175
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history, d18b

Compensating for Earlier Wrongs

Persecution and punishment are addressed in Chapter 13, “Encouragement for Keeping this Sūtra,” of the Lotus Sūtra. Slander against the Lotus Sūtra, called Hōbāzai, offenses committed against the Dharma in the past, can only be eradicated in the present. Our assiduous practice and cultivation of the Dharma, done through our own volition, compensates for our earlier wrongs and lightens our feelings. When considered as the eradication of the grave offense of slandering the Dharma, any persecutions we encounter in this life are seen as still lighter, even a persecution that would end our life.

History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 152
d18b, WONS

Only Natural that Calamities Befall This Country

Many people today, the clergy as well as the laity, put faith in the icchantika, praising, admiring and giving alms to them. So when they happen to encounter those who do not study the teaching of slandering the True Dharma, far from praising such persons, they consider them slanderers and enemies of the True Dharma. Those, who do not know the truth of this, conversely think the keepers of the True Dharma to be slanderers of the True Dharma. They are exactly the same as those predicted in the Lotus Sūtra, the 13th chapter on “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” “Monks in the Latter Age of Degeneration will be cunning, and their hearts flattering and crooked. … They will be delighted to point out our faults They will say to kings, ministers, Brahmans and householders…, slandering and speaking ill of us, practicers of the True Dharma, saying that we are heretics who preach non-Buddhist doctrines.”

Thus many people today, discarding preachers of the True Dharma whom the Buddha praised, laud, admire and give alms to the icchantika, whom He harshly admonished. As a result, greed grows profusely and the teachings of the slanderers of the True Dharma fill the world. How can calamities not occur? It is only natural that calamities befall this country.

Sainan Kōki Yurai, The Cause of Misfortunes, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 86-87

elements, d18b, d19b

Actions, Words, Thoughts and Vows

In chapter 14, “A Happy Life,” Mañjuśrī praises the bodhisattvas of great attainment who have vowed to spread the sutra, and asks the Buddha how it might be propagated by those bodhisattvas with as yet little experience and by novices to religious practice. In reply, the Buddha expounds four types of peaceful practice: actions, words, thoughts, and vows.

  1. The peaceful action of the body … is to abide in action (ācāra) and intimacy (gocara), as follows:

    (a) The bodhisattva here abides in a state of patience, is gentle and agreeable, is neither hasty nor overbearing, and is unperturbed of mind. He is not deceived by the dharmas, but sees all things as they really are and does not proceed along the undivided way.

    (b) The bodhisattva is not intimate with kings, princes, ministers, or courtiers, with yoga practitioners, religious wanderers, Ājīvikas, Jainas, or Lokāyatas, with caṇḍālas [dancers, singers, and actors], the poor, pork butchers, dealers in fowl, or hunters, nor with actors or entertainers. Nor does he wish to find favor with women, nor meet with them, and if he visits the homes of others, does not converse with any girl, daughter, or wife. Further, he observes that all dharmas are empty: that all things are correctly established, are not inverted, preserve their condition, are like space, are cut off from all verbal interpretations and expressions, are unborn, do not come forth, are unmade, are not unmade, are neither so or not . . . that they are cut off from all attachment, and that they are produced through inversion of thought.

  2.  The peaceful action of words. … The bodhisattva who wishes to propagate this teaching should abide in the peaceful stage [of speech]. When he speaks to others, he should not point out errors in others’ teachings, speak ill of others, criticize them, nor find fault with them. By refraining from so doing, he will be able to teach intimately and deeply.
  3. The peaceful action of thought. … The bodhisattva does not criticize, revile, or feel contempt for those who follow other teachings, he does not say that others will never attain buddhahood, and he dislikes disputations. Without discarding the power of his compassion, he regards the tathāgatas as fathers and the bodhisattvas as teachers. The bodhisattvas in all directions of space he worships and reveres from his deepest heart.
  4. The peaceful action of vows. … Concerning those who have not as yet aspired after enlightenment, the bodhisattva should make the vow: “These living beings are poor in wisdom. They have not heard, known, realized, questioned, believed, or followed the words which secrete the deep meaning of the Tathāgata’s skillful means. Further, they have not tried to enter into this teaching and realize it. When I attain supreme and perfect enlightenment, wherever people are, I will move their hearts through my mystic supernatural powers and cause them to believe, to enter into the teaching, to gain realization of it, and to achieve maturity.” The sutra then goes on to say: “This Law-Flower Sutra is the foremost teaching of the tathāgatas and the most profound of all discourses. I give it to you last of all, just as that powerful king at last gives the brilliant jewel he has guarded for long. Mañjuśrī! This Law-Flower Sutra is the mysterious treasury of the buddha-tathāgatas, which is supreme above all sutras. For long has it been guarded and not prematurely declared; today for the first time I proclaim it to you all.”
Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 197-198
d18b, WONS

Three Kinds of Enemies

It is predicted in the Lotus Sūtra, in the 13th chapter “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” that 2000 years after the Buddha’s extinction, in the Latter Age of Degeneration, three kinds of enemies will appear against those who spread the Lotus Sūtra. The time at hand matches exactly the Latter Age of Degeneration preached in the Lotus Sūtra as the “fifth 500-year period” after the death of the Buddha. As I, Nichiren, contemplate whether or not the Buddha’s words have proved to be true, three kinds of enemies surely exist today. If I deny the existence of the three enemies and spread the Lotus Sūtra in a manner so as to avoid persecution, I cannot claim to be a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. On the other hand, if I spread the sūtra in such a way that I am persecuted by enemies, I certainly will lose my life.

Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 103-104

stories, LS32, d17b, d18b

The Responsibility of Bodhisattvas

This teaching of universal salvation, of the potential in all living beings to become buddhas, is always also about us, the hearers and readers of the Dharma Flower Sutra. The focus of the chapter is the question of how the Dharma will survive in a hostile world without Shakyamuni Buddha to teach it. The answer is that it is a responsibility of bodhisattvas to teach and proclaim the Dharma everywhere. Among such bodhisattvas are women. This means that anyone can grow spiritually through encountering women and that one can meet the Buddha in a woman. This was very important in the development of Buddhism in China, and subsequently in the rest of East Asia, as it fostered the growth in devotion to Kwan-yin, in which the Buddha is encountered in female form.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p172
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For Whom Was the Lotus Sūtra Expounded?

QUESTION: For whom was the Lotus Sūtra expounded?

ANSWER: There are two views about the eight chapters from chapter 2 on the “Expedients” to chapter 9 on the “Assurance of Future Buddhahood” of the Lotus Sūtra. If we read these chapters in the order of chapters from the beginning, we can see that the sūtra was preached first of all for Bodhisattvas, secondly for the men of Two Vehicles such as śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, and thirdly for ordinary people. However, when we read the chapters in reverse order beginning with the 14th on the “Peaceful Practices” (at the end of the theoretical section), followed by the 13th on the “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” the 12th on the “Devadatta,” the 11th on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” and the 10th on the “Teacher of the Dharma,” we can see that these eight chapters were expounded for encouraging people after the Buddha’s extinction. People during the lifetime of the Buddha are secondary. Of those after the Buddha’s extinction, people in one thousand years of the Age of the True Dharma and one thousand years of the Age of the Semblance Dharma are secondary. The sūtra was expounded mainly for the people in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Of those in the Latter Age of Degeneration, I, Nichiren, am the very person for whom it was expounded.

Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 209-210

stories, LS32, d5b, d9b, d10b, d13b, d14b, d18b, d19b, d25b

Taking Personally the Three Phases of the Dharma

We can, of course, understand the three phases [of the Dharma] not as an inevitable sequence of periods of time, but as existential phases of our own lives. There will be times when the Dharma can be said to be truly alive in us, times when our practice is more like putting on a show and has little depth, and times when the life of the Dharma in us is in serious decline. But there is no inevitable sequence here. There is no reason, for example, why a period of true Dharma cannot follow a period of merely formal Dharma. And there is no reason to assume that a period has to be completed once it has been entered. We might lapse into a period of decline, but with the proper influences and circumstances we could emerge from it into a more vital phase of true Dharma. A coming evil age is mentioned several times in the Dharma Flower Sutra, but while living in an evil age, or an evil period of our own lives, makes teaching the Dharma difficult, even extremely difficult, nowhere does the Dharma Flower Sutra suggest that it is impossible to teach or practice true Dharma.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p214
Peaceful Action, d18b, d19b

Comfortable Conduct for Bad Times

Chapter 14 of the Lotus Sutra, “Comfortable Conduct,” also a later addition, still bears traces of the deep-seated attitude of discrimination against women and others. For this reason, it is not as outstanding as other chapters in the Sutra. But it offers a teaching on how to carry out the work of a bodhisattva in times when there are fewer opportunities to hear and practice the Dharma and there is a lot of suffering in the world.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p90
Peaceful Action, d18b, d19b

Dwelling in the Place of Action

The first of the Four Ways [Peaceful Practices] is that the bodhisattva who wishes to offer teachings must dwell in the place of action and the place of closeness. “Dwelling in the place of action” means practicing patience and seeking harmony with others in everything that you do. If you are patient and tolerant of others, then you can create peace and joy for yourself, and thanks to that, those around you will also feel peaceful and joyful. Patience is not weakness, but a stance of moderation and restraint. You do not try to force people to adopt your views. “Dwelling in the place of closeness” means that practitioners do not choose to approach those who have worldly power, who practice wrong livelihood, or who have wrong intentions. This does not mean that you reject such people, but you do not seek them out to try to convert them.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p90