Category Archives: d20b

d19b, d20b, WONS

The Joy of the World for a Child to Propagate His Father’s Dharma

In lands at the beginning of the Latter Age, the True Dharma is slandered and those who live there have poor capacity for comprehension and faith in Buddhism. Therefore, instead of relying on bodhisattvas from other worlds, the Buddha called out great bodhisattvas from underground to entrust them with the task of transmitting the five characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō, the essence of the “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter, to the people in this world. It was also because those guided by the teaching of the theoretical section were not the original disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha.

As for entrusting the task to bodhisattvas from underground, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “These have been My (Śākyamuni’s) disciples since time in the eternal past who should propagate My dharma.” Grand Master Miao-lê says of this in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra (Wén-chü-chi): “It will be the joy of the world for a child to propagate his father’s dharma.” And Tao-hsien’s Supplement to the Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra (Fu-chêngchi) says: “Because it was the dharma preached by the Eternal Buddha in the infinite past, the task of spreading it was entrusted to those who received His guidance in the eternal past.”

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 155

stories, LS32, d19b, d20b

A Radical Affirmation of This World

That the bodhisattvas are from the earth has traditionally been taken to be an affirmation of this world, usually called the “saha world” in the Sanskrit Saddharma-pundarika Sutra. That it is the saha world means that this world is the world in which suffering both must be and can be endured. There is a pattern in the Dharma Flower Sutra in which some great cosmic and supernatural event demonstrates or testifies to the cosmic importance of Shakyamuni Buddha, and, since Shakyamuni is uniquely associated with this world, its reality and importance is also affirmed in this way; and, since what Shakyamuni primarily gives to this world according to the Sutra is the Dharma Flower Sutra itself, it too is very special and important; and, since the Dharma Flower Sutra is not the Dharma Flower Sutra unless it is read and embraced by someone, the importance of the life of the hearer or reader of the Sutra is also affirmed; and, since the most appropriate way of life for a follower of the Dharma Flower Sutra is the bodhisattva way, it too is elevated and affirmed. These five – Shakyamuni Buddha, this world, the Dharma Flower Sutra, the hearer or reader of the Sutra, and the bodhisattva way – do not have to appear in this particular order. Any one of them leads to an affirmation of the others. But there is a pattern in the Dharma Flower Sutra, wherein there is a radical affirmation of this world, this world of suffering, but an affirmation that is necessarily linked to the importance of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Dharma Flower Sutra on the one hand and to the lives and bodhisattva practices of those who embrace the Sutra on the other.

Thus, we can say that to truly love and follow the Buddha is also to love and care for the world, which is also to love and care for other living beings. And the reverse is equally true: to really care for others is at the same time devotion to the Buddha. To be devoted to the Dharma Flower Sutra and to Shakyamuni Buddha is to be vitally concerned about the welfare of others, the common good, and therefore about the welfare of our home, the earth.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p190-191
d19b, d20b, WONS

Spreading the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration

The heart of this essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” (an absolute faith in the five-character title of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma), was not transmitted even to the most trusted disciples such as Bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī or Medicine King, and certainly not the lower-ranking bodhisattvas. Instead the Buddha called out numerous bodhisattvas from underground, for whom He expounded it during the preaching of eight chapters following the fifteenth chapter in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra and entrusted them with the task of spreading it in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 148

d19b, d20b, WONS

Bodhisattvas Who Reside in the Minds of Ordinary People

The bodhisattvas described in the fifteenth chapter, “Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground,” who have sprung out of the great earth, as numerous as the number of dust-particles of 1,000 worlds, are followers of the Original Buddha Śākyamuni who resides within our minds.

They are like T’ai-kung-wang and Duke of Chou, retainers of King Wu of the Chou dynasty in ancient China, who at the same time served the King’s young son, King Ch’eng; or Takeuchi no Sukune of ancient Japan, a leading minister to Empress Jingu, who concurrently served her son, Prince Nintoku. Just like them Bodhisattvas Superior Practice (Jōgyō), Limitless Practice (Muhengyō), Pure Practice (Jōgyō), and Steadily Established Practice (Anryūgyō), the four leaders of these bodhisattvas sprung from the earth, are simultaneously followers of the Original Buddha and bodhisattvas who reside in the minds of us, ordinary people.

Therefore, Grand Master Miao-lê has declared in his Annotations on the Mo-ho chih-kuan (Mo-ho chih-kuan fu-hsing-chiian hungchiieh): “You should know that both our bodies and the land on which we live are a part of the 3,000 modes of existence which exist in our minds. Consequently, upon our attainment of Buddhahood, we are in complete agreement with the truth of ‘3,000 existences contained in one thought,’ and our single body and single thought permeate through all the worlds in the universe.”

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 147

d14b, d19b, d20b, WONS

Bodhisattvas With Close Relationships with Sahā World

During the first 500 years in the millennium of the Age of the True Dharma, men of śrāvaka all passed away, while in the last 500 years nearly all those bodhisattvas who had come from other worlds went back to their own lands. In the 1,000 years of the Age of the Semblance Dharma, Avalokiteśvara was reincarnated as Nan-yüeh; Medicine King Bodhisattva as T’ien-t’ai or Dengyō; Mañjuśrī as Gyōki, and Maitreya as Great Teacher Fu Hsi to help all the people.

Now in the Latter Age of Degeneration, these bodhisattvas, too, have all retired to their original dwellings. Other heavenly gods and terrestrial deities who are supposed to protect this world have either left it for other places or refused to protect the evil country while remaining in this world. They are also powerless in this world because they have not been fed with the taste of the True Dharma. For instance, nobody except great bodhisattvas with the Dharma Body can enter the three evil realms to save suffering beings because nobody except them are able to bear the great suffering there.

On the other hand, those great bodhisattvas emerged from the great earth in the first place have been in the Sahā World for incalculable aeons; in the second place they have been disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha ever since He was awakened by aspiration for enlightenment in the eternal past; and thirdly they were the first to receive the seed of Buddhahood in this Sahā World. More than any other great bodhisattvas, they have thus had close relationships with this Sahā World from their past lives.

Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 160-161.

d19b, d20b, WONS

Four Great Bodhisattvas for the Latter Age of Degeneration

These four great bodhisattvas neither presented themselves at the seat of enlightenment under the bodhi tree where Śākyamuni Buddha attained Buddhahood for the first time, nor rushed to the vicinity of the Hiraṇyavati River when the Buddha passed away. During the eight years when the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle, moreover, they were neither among those holy people such as Bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī and Maitreya who assisted Him in preaching the preface and main discourse of the theoretical section, nor among such great bodhisattvas as Avalokiteśvara and Wonderful Voice who vowed to spread the sūtra after the death of the Buddha at the assembly in the epilogue of the essential section. Upholding solely this one great secret dharma, they retired to their true abode underground, not once reappearing in the world even after the death of the Buddha, for 2,000 years in the Ages of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma. This was, after all, because the Buddha entrusted to them the propagation of this one great secret dharma solely in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 160.

LS32, d20b, b4today

The Ideal Way of Life

In the verses spoken by the Bodhisattva Maitreya occur the following words:

“They have ably learned the bodhisattva-way,
And are as untainted with worldly things
As the lotus flower in the water.”

These words represent the ideal way of life that the Buddha teaches us in the Lotus Sutra. We should not withdraw from society but should lead beautiful and pure lives within society. The ideal of the Lotus Sutra consists in making all society pure and beautiful. The title Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law expresses this ideal.

Buddhism for Today, p183
d20b, WONS

The Essence of the Lotus Sūtra: Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō

These four great bodhisattvas were like the four wise men of Shang-Shan. Appearing in the Lotus assemblies, they glorified Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and Buddhas in manifestation, and they knocked down the proud banners of slanderers of the True Dharma just as the gale winds blow away twigs. Attendees of the assemblies showed respect to them as if heavenly beings obeyed Indra. Devadatta, who had struck Śākyamuni Buddha, pressed his palms together to express heartfelt respect to them; and Kokālika, who had lied to present himself as innocent and slandered Śāriputra, prostrated to repent his past sins. Great bodhisattvas like Mañjuśrī were ashamed of themselves and speechless, while Hinayāna sages like Śāriputra silently bowed.

Then the Enlightened and World Honored One, Śākyamuni Buddha, expounded “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter and entrusted the four great bodhisattvas with the task of transmitting it after displaying the ten kinds of divine powers in “The Divine Powers of the Buddha” chapter. What was the dharma that was entrusted to them? Reducing the whole of the Lotus Sūtra, we produce its condensed form. By reducing this condensed form further we get the essence of the Lotus Sūtra: the five Chinese characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō, in which the Five Profound Meanings of the Lotus Sūtra—its name, entity, quality, function and teaching—are all contained. For instance, this is like Chiu Pao-yüan who selected the horse not by the color of its hair but its speed of running, and Shih T’ao-lin who concentrated on grasping the gist of Buddhist teachings while discarding the particulars in lecturing on the sūtras.

Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 159.

d19b, d20b, WONS, 2buddhas

Standing in the Vanguard of History

One can imagine how identification with the task of the bodhisattvas of the earth must have inspired and sustained those followers of Nichiren, in his own lifetime and later, who upheld their faith in the face of opposition. Its implication, that one has been born into this world to aid in a vast salvific task, could invest even the most ordinary life with immense meaning. This dimension of Nichiren’s teaching helps explain its ongoing attraction in the contemporary world. However humble one’s place in society or how limited one’s personal resources or abilities, to be a follower of Nichiren was to stand in the vanguard of history as someone who, having embraced the sole teaching leading to buddhahood in the present age, shoulders the responsibility to preserve and transmit it.

Two Buddhas, p177-178
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Embracing the Daimoku with the ‘Same Mind’ as Nichiren

The claim that those who chant the daimoku are Śākyamuni Buddha’s disciples from the remotest past might initially seem at odds with Nichiren’s idea that people in the Final Dharma age have never before received the seed of buddhahood. The apparent contradiction resolves, however, when we recall that for Nichiren and other Buddhist thinkers of the time, the term “remotest past” (kuon) signified not merely an immensely long time ago in linear, historical terms, but also carried the meaning of timelessness, and thus, of the Buddha’s constant presence. The practice and propagation of the Lotus Sūtra in the mappō era is the juncture where the linear time of ordinary experience and the timeless realm of the Buddha intersect. In embracing the daimoku with the “same mind” as Nichiren, one immediately becomes a disciple of the ever-present primordial Śākyamuni Buddha and is encompassed in his enlightened realm.

Two Buddhas, p177