When it comes to the reward of practicing Buddhism, it lies solely in the change that takes place first in our own lives and then manifests in our environment. Buddhism is not about being rewarded with riches or material goods; those things are temporary and destructible. What we seek in our Buddhist practice is the indestructible enlightenment of the Buddha; something that the Lotus Sutra teaches us is possible.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraCategory Archives: d19b
Persuasive and Aggressive Propagation
Now, two ways of propagation, the persuasive and aggressive, are incompatible with each other just as water and fire are. The fire dislikes the water, and the water hates the fire. Those who prefer the persuasive tend to laugh at those who practice the aggressive and vice versa. So, when the land is full of evil and ignorant people, the persuasive means should take precedence as preached in the “Peaceful Practices” (14th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. However, when there are many cunning slanderers of the True Dharma, the aggressive means should take precedence as preached in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” (20th) chapter.
It is the same as using cold water when it is hot and fire when it is cold. Plants and trees are followers of the sun, so they dislike the cold moon. Bodies of water are followers of the moon, so they lose their true nature when it is hot. As there are lands of evil men as well as those of slanderers of the True Dharma in this Latter Age of Degeneration, there should be both aggressive and persuasive means of spreading the True Dharma. Therefore, we have to know whether Japan today is a land of evil men or that of slanderers in order to decide which of the two ways we should use.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 111
Difficulty in Meeting the Lotus Sūtra
The Lotus Sūtra preaches in chapter 2, “Expedients,” of the first fascicle that to have the opportunity to hear teachers of this sūtra is rare even during innumerable kalpa (aeons) of time. The sūtra also states in chapter 14, “peaceful Practices,” of the fifth fascicle that it is difficult to hear even the title of the Lotus Sūtra in the innumerable countries. The above indicates how difficult it is for us to meet the Lotus Sūtra, and problems involved to even hear the title of the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, the Suśānta Buddha and the Buddha of Many Treasures, who appeared in the world before the time of Śākyamuni Buddha did not even mention the title of the Lotus Sūtra. Even Śākyamuni Buddha, who appeared in this world to expound the Lotus Sūtra, did not reveal its title for 42 years, until at the age of 72 He finally chanted the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma and expounded the sūtra for the first time in India. Nothing, however, not even the name of the sūtra was heard in such large countries as China, or Japan. Nothing about this sūtra was heard of for over 1,000 years after the extinction of the Buddha. Finally, after 1,350 years or so, only the title of the Lotus Sūtra was made known.
This is why the opportunity to encounter the Lotus Sūtra is compared to uḍumbara flowers, which are said to blossom only once in 3,000 years. The difficulty is also compared to the story of a one-eyed turtle finding a floating piece of wood in the ocean in order to dry its shell once in innumerable kalpa (aeons). Suppose that one sets up a needle on the earth and throws a poppy seed down from the palace of the King of the Mahā-brahman Heaven high up in the sky in such a way as the tip of the needle pierces through the seed. This is almost impossible, yet it is even more difficult to encounter the Lotus Sūtra after the passing of the Buddha. Suppose one sets up a needle on top of Mt. Sumeru and throws a piece of string on a windy day from another Mt. Sumeru standing too far to see. It is impossible to thread the needle set up on the first Mt. Sumeru. It is, however, even more difficult to experience the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra.
Therefore, you should realize that being able to chant the daimoku of this sūtra is an experience more wonderful than a blind person gaining his eyesight and seeing his parents for the first time and rarer than a man being captured by a mighty enemy and being released by a special pardon to be reunited with his wife and children.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 38-39
Through Our Own Efforts
Buddhism for Today, p177The bodhisattvas who sprang up out of the earth signify people who have had much suffering and worry during their lives, have accumulated virtues in such an unfavorable environment, and have attained enlightenment while leading ordinary lives. Such people, who have themselves experienced and weathered much suffering and worry, possess real power. They indeed have the power to instruct other people.
That the Buddha entrusted the sahā-world to the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth teaches us that the world in which we live should be purified and made peaceful through our own efforts as dwellers in the world, and that we should realize happiness in our lives through our own efforts. We are responsible for creating the Pure Land where we live. We should bring about our happiness through our own efforts. What a reassuring and positive teaching this is!
Who Are These Bodhisattvas?
Two Buddhas, p174-175Who are these bodhisattvas who emerge from beneath the earth? One interpretative move, current in medieval Japanese Tendai circles in Nichiren’s day, was to associate their four leaders — Viśiṣṭacaritra (J. Jōgyō, “Superior Conduct”), Anantacāritra (Muhengyō, “Boundless Conduct”), Viéuddhacāritra (Jyōgyō, “Pure Conduct”), and Supratisthitacāritra (Anryūgyo, “Firm Conduct”) — with the four universal elements of fire, wind, water, and earth, which were believed to constitute and benefit all beings. In a sense, Nichiren also understood these bodhisattvas as innate, for example, when he writes that they represent the bodhisattva realm within us; they are “the followers of the Śākyamuni Buddha who dwells within ourselves.” However, he also took them to be historical agents, entrusted by the Buddha with the mission of propagating the Lotus Sūtra specifically in the Final Dharma age, that is, his own time. “And what is this dharma that was entrusted to them?” he asked. “From within the Lotus Sūtra, it discards the broad to take up the condensed and discards the condensed to take up the essence, that is, the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō.”
Practicers of the Lotus Sūtra Are Not Found Anywhere
Some raise the question:
Although there seem to be the three kinds of enemies of the Lotus in this world today, practicers of the Lotus Sūtra are not found anywhere. It is difficult for us to call you a practicer of the Lotus because there is a great deal of discrepancy. Affirming divine intervention in favor of a practicer, the Lotus Sūtra in the chapter on the “Peaceful Practices” says: “Heavenly servants will come to serve the man who upholds the Lotus Sūtra so that swords and sticks will not injure him, and poisons will not harm him;” in the fifth chapter on “The Simile of Herbs,” “His life in this world will be peaceful and he will be reborn in a better place in the future;” in the 26th chapter on “Mystic Phrases,” “Should anyone hate and speak ill of the man who upholds the Lotus Sūtra, his mouth will be sealed—anyone who does harm to him will have his head split into seven pieces like a twig of an arjaka tree;” and in the 28th chapter on the “Encouragement of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva,” “He will be rewarded with happiness in this present life;” and “If anyone, upon seeing a man upholding this sūtra, exposes his faults, justifiably or not, such a man will be afflicted with white leprosy.”
They have a good reason to doubt me. So I will answer their question to dispel their doubt. It is said in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” (20th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that the practicer of the Lotus will be spoken ill of, despised, or struck with sticks, tiles, and stones; while it is said in the Nirvana Sūtra that such a man will be killed or hurt. The Lotus Sūtra also states in the “Teacher of the Dharma” (10th) chapter that those who spread it will be the target of much hatred and jealousy even during the lifetime of the Buddha.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 103
Rejecting Peaceful Practices
Two Buddhas, p 169[Nichiren] explicitly rejected the “four kinds of practice” set forth in the chapter as unsuited to the present era. Those practices had been appropriate, he said, in the preceding eras, the ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, but they were not suited to the Final Dharma age. “The four peaceful practices [in the “Ease in Practice” chapter] correspond to shōjū,” he wrote. To carry them out now in the mappō era would be as misguided as sowing seeds in winter and expecting to reap the harvest in spring. Rather, Nichiren saw the situation in Japan in his day as demanding the shakubuku approach: “The present era is defined in the sūtras as an age of quarrels and disputes, when the pure dharma will be obscured and lost. At this point, the provisional and true teachings have become utterly confused. … When the time has come for the one vehicle to spread, the provisional teachings become enemies. If they generate confusion, they must be refuted from the standpoint of the true teaching. Of the two propagation methods, shōjū and shakubuku, this is shakubuku as it pertains to the Lotus Sūtra.”
Arising Out of the Dirt of Our Lives
The Bodhisattvas arise out of the dirt of the ground. We live our lives not apart from the messiness of everyday life. We live our lives as ordinary people. We have jobs. We struggle with income, and jobs. We sometimes have what seems like less-than-perfect lives. But this is all there for us to emerge from. There is no going around the messiness of the Saha World. As Bodhisattvas, we are right in the middle of all of it and that is where we can blossom. The struggle and strife of the Saha World is the fertile ground on which we can demonstrate the truth the Lotus Sutra. Who would believe it is possible to attain enlightenment if our lives were already perfect?
Lecture on the Lotus SutraOur Active Practice
What we have taking place with the appearance of these Bodhisattvas from beneath the ground is a shift in the Lotus Sutra from theory to action. We, as those Bodhisattvas, manifest that life condition not by sitting around thinking about it or by some theoretical endeavor but by actually living our lives, by doing, by being. This is not a theoretical practice nor is it a practice only for oneself. This is a practice of engagement, of action, and of involvement with society teaching others and showing others by the example of our lives, not just our theories.
Remember we approach the Buddha and ask him how he is doing, not what he can do for us. The famous speech by John Kennedy, a president of my lifetime, keeps coming to mind. I can almost hear it today, and recall watching it on television as a youth. We should be asking what we can do for others and what we can do for Buddhism, not what Buddhism can do for us or what we can get out of Buddhism.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraRejecting the Bodhisattvas from Other Worlds
Two Buddhas, p174Zhiyi proposed several reasons why the Buddha ultimately rejected the offer of the bodhisattvas from other worlds to propagate the Lotus Sūtra in the present, Sahā world and instead summoned the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth. The bodhisattvas from other worlds, he said, had responsibilities to benefit the beings of their own lands that they could not neglect. Furthermore, their ties to this world were only superficial, and so their efforts at spreading the dharma would have been ineffective. Had the Buddha accepted their offer, he would have had no reason to summon the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth. These bodhisattvas were Śākyamuni’s original disciples, taught by him since the inconceivably distant past. Their ties to the Sahā world were profound, and they could also travel to other realms and benefit the beings there. And, without their presence, Śākyamuni could not have revealed his true identity as the Buddha awakened since the inconceivably distant past.