Category Archives: d26b

Easy, d25b, d26b

Iyōgonshi

Chapter 21: The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas

“Wishing that spirit of the messages of this Lotus Sutra will be handed down from generation to generation forever, I, the Buddha, state the main points of teachings carried in the Odaimoku.

“The Odaimoku includes all the merits of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

“The Odaimoku contains all the supernatural powers of the Buddha to save all people.

“The Odaimoku is the crystallization of the Buddha’s boundless wisdom necessary to teach and lead all beings.

“The Odaimoku expresses all merits the Buddha has practiced.

“These four things showing the Buddha’s real image and spirit are explicitly revealed in the Lotus Sutra; the Buddha’s true mind is the Odaimoku.

“Especially after the Buddha’s extinction, you must keep in mind that you should believe, from the bottom of your heart, in the Lotus Sutra and the Odaimoku in which the entire mind of the Buddha is clearly explained, and that you should recite and study the Lotus Sutra and chant the Odaimoku in order to practice the Buddha’s teachings as instructed by the Buddha.

“Wherever the place might be, at the place where the teachings of the Lotus Sutra have spread and the faith in the Odaimoku is practiced in correct and proper ways, you must set up a place of prayer and spend a life with faith in the Sutra, be it in a village or countryside with farms, woods or groves, or in a monastery, or in the house of ordinary people, or a residence of higher status people, or in a mountain village or a vast plain.

“The reason for this is that nowhere else but a place where the Odaimoku is believed in and its teachings are expounded is the true place of prayer.

“It is this place of prayer to the Odaimoku where all Buddhas have become enlightened.

“Here, the Buddhas expound their teachings.

“In other words, this Sahā world in which we live, believing in the Odaimoku, is the very place where the Buddha’s true world lies.”

Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra
stories, LS32, d26b, d27b

The Most Important Display of Devotion

Purification of ourselves in preparation for sacrificing ourselves to the Buddha can still be an important part of Buddhist practice. For followers of the Dharma Flower Sutra, the highest act of devotion to the Buddha is not meditation or chanting or burning incense, though they may be helpful. The most important display of devotion is bodhisattva practice, the practice of helping others. And for this, preparation is often needed. One kind of preparation is the development of appropriate skills, perhaps especially skill in listening. But more foundational than the development of skills is the matter of purifying our selves of things that get in the way of our being actually helpful.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p248
stories, LS32, d26b

A Kind of Purification

What we see in the case of Medicine King Bodhisattva is a kind of purification that is a masking. This might mean, for example, that rather than trying to pretend to ourselves that we are purely selfless, we need to recognize that we are actually interested in what we are doing and even expect to gain from it in some way. If we can recognize our own interest in everything we do, we might be able to avoid the kind of purely self-serving activity, selfishness, and self-centeredness that gets in the way of actually being helpful to others. Similarly, if we can recognize our own anger and the reasons for it, we need not express it in ways that lead others to become angry. We can wear the perfume of a smile!

Such purification is, of course, itself both for our benefit and for the benefit of the Buddha. By being aware of our desires and anger and confusions, and, at the same time, purifying ourselves of them with perfume, we can improve both our own lives and the lives of others.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p249-250
stories, LS32, d26b

Exemplars of the Dharma

[W]hat is the job that needs to be done? The more general answer is that the Dharma needs to be widely shared – so, especially with the Buddha no longer able to do so directly, bodhisattvas are responsible for teaching, and thus perpetuating, Buddha Dharma. The Sutra is concerned not only with teaching the Dharma in the ordinary sense; it is concerned with having the Dharma be embodied, having it be a central part of the lives of people. Early in [Chapter 23], Shakyamuni Buddha says, “For incalculable hundreds of thousands of billions of eons, I have studied and practiced this rare Dharma of supreme awakening.” Notice that he says both “studied” and “practiced.” Practicing the Dharma goes beyond studying it to embody it in one’s life. Thus bodhisattvas have a responsibility not only of teaching the Dharma by words, but also by demonstrating and exemplifying it in their actions.

It is because of this role as exemplars of the Dharma that bodhisattvas, both mythical and human, can be models for us. Because they are said to have many marvelous powers, people may pray to a bodhisattva for relief from some kind of danger or suffering, but that is not the most useful way to understand our relationship to such bodhisattvas. They have been entrusted by the Buddha to be exemplars of the Dharma who in their very being can inspire us to follow our own bodhisattva ways. If various bodhisattvas have found skills and powers with which to help others, we too can develop skill in ways of helping others.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p235
Peaceful Action, d26b, d27b

The Practice of Devotion, Dedication and Love

Just as the practice of Never Disparaging Bodhisattva had a specific function, to remind people of their inherent Buddha nature and potential Buddhahood, Medicine King represents another aspect of practice – the practice of devotion, dedication, and love. Without devotion and constancy you cannot go very far or deep. Without this kind of affection and dedication it is quite difficult to gain insight. This is why it is very important to establish good relationships with our Sangha brothers and sisters and our teachers. We should not underestimate the practice of devotion, but devotion alone is not enough – it must go together with the practice of meditation, of looking deeply, and the practice of compassion in action. The great bodhisattvas presented in the action dimension of the Lotus Sutra offer us examples of the many ways and forms of practice through which we can become the hands and arms of the Buddha in the world.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p164
Peaceful Action, d26b

An Act of Love, Not Despair

I knew Thich Quang Duc [, the first monk to immolate himself in the 1960s to protest Vietnam’s anti-Buddhist laws,] personally. As a young monk I practiced with him in a Sangha in central Vietnam, and for a time I stayed at his temple near Saigon. In 1963, I was in New York teaching at Columbia University, and I learned of his death from an article and picture in the New York Times. Many people asked me, “Isn’t such an act a violation of the Buddhist precept of not killing?” So I wrote Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. a letter explaining that the monk’s act was not suicide. A suicidal person is someone who is so overwhelmed by despair that they don’t want to live anymore. I knew that Thich Quang Duc loved life and wished only for his friends and all living beings to be able to live in peace.

When Jesus died on the cross he did so for the sake of human beings. His sacrifice was not made out of despair but out of the wish to help, out of his great love for humankind. That is exactly what motivated Thich Quang Duc. He acted not out of despair but from hope and love. He was free enough to offer his body in order to transmit the message to the world that the Vietnamese people were suffering, that we needed help. Because of his great compassion, he was able to sit very still as the flames engulfed him, in perfect samadhi, perfect concentration.

Such an act is a very profound offering. is being offered? The manifestation in action of our bodhicitta, our aspiration to practice wholeheartedly and realize enlightenment in order to help bring all living beings to the shore of liberation. The Sutra tells us that after Bodhisattva Seen with Joy by All Living Beings had attained the “samadhi that displays all manner of physical bodies,” he felt overjoyed and made many kinds of offerings to the Buddha to show his great gratitude and devotion for having received the teachings. But, the Sutra says, “After he had made this offering, he arose from samadhi and thought to himself, ‘Though by resort to supernatural power I made an offering to the Buddha, it is not as if I had made an offering of my own body.’ ”

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p159-160

See the end of Stretching the Truth to Pull Meaning Out of the Lotus Sutra

Peaceful Action, d26b

Out of Great Love and Gratitude

When the bodhisattva realized his capacity to appear in all different kinds of emanation bodies, his feeling of love for and gratitude to his teacher grew even stronger. So out of his great love and gratitude, and with the profound insight into his ultimate nature, he was able to relinquish his body very easily. The Sutra tells us that as an offering to the Buddha and to display his insight that the body is not a permanent, unchanging self, he poured fragrant oil on himself and allowed himself to be burned by fire. This is a quite radical demonstration of his freedom and insight, one that was made out of a very deep love.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p158

See the end of Stretching the Truth to Pull Meaning Out of the Lotus Sutra

Peaceful Action, d26b, d27b

We Need Love and Affection, Warmth and Nurturance

Bodhisattva Seen with Joy by All Living Beings became a very good disciple of the Buddha Pure and Bright Excellence of Sun and Moon. He felt great devotion and love toward his teacher, and the bond between them was very deep. Because of the great affection between teacher and disciple, he made a lot of progress. Looking deeply into the nature of this bodhisattva’s practice, we can see the devotion, dedication, love, and faithfulness.

You might wonder how devotion and affection are part of the practice of looking deeply and attaining enlightenment. Do we need to love our teacher? Do we need to love our disciples? Do we need to love our Dharma brothers and sisters in order to succeed in our practice? The answer is, yes. Just as the loving presence of the parents is quite crucial for the growth of a baby, the loving presence of a teacher is very important for his or her disciples. The loving presence of our brothers and sisters in the Sangha is very important for us to grow as practitioners. That is the message sent forth by this bodhisattva. We need love and affection, warmth and nurturance in order to grow and progress on the path.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p156-157
Peaceful Action, d26b, d27b

The Sphere of Devotion, Faith, and Gratitude

Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra, “The Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King,” introduces us to another great bodhisattva, Bhaisajyaraja, Medicine King. Bhaisaiya means medicine, raja means king. Just like Sadaparibhuta, this bodhisattva is also a model of enlightened action. Medicine King realizes the teachings of the Lotus Sutra in another sphere of action, the sphere of devotion, faith, and gratitude. Without faith it is not possible for human beings to live. Without love we cannot truly realize our full humanity. We practice the Dharma not only to gain knowledge but to transform ourselves into someone who is capable of love, affection, and gratitude. Medicine King represents this aspect. The bodhisattvas in the Lotus Sutra are the arms and hands of the Buddha, carrying out the various actions of the Buddha. Just as Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta has a specific role to play, Medicine King Bodhisattva has another role to play.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p154
Peaceful Action, d26b, d29b

Enjoying the Journey

In the opening scene of [Chapter 23], one of the bodhisattvas from another part of the cosmos, Beflowered by the King of Constellations, asks the Buddha, “World-Honored One, how does the bodhisattva Medicine King travel in the saha world?” In the Chinese Vietnamese version of the Sutra, this passage reads “What is his business in the saha world?” But it is not really a matter of doing business; a better understanding of this passage would be, “How is that bodhisattva enjoying his journey in the world?” In the chapter on Avalokiteshvara in the Vietnamese version of the Lotus Sutra we see the phrases “enjoying a trip” and “enjoying a stay.” So the great bodhisattvas are those who know how to be at ease and enjoy their travels in the saha world.

We have to learn how to enjoy ourselves as we journey through this saha world. When we understand this, we will be more at ease and not think of our life as being some kind of task that we must accomplish. We do not have to scheme or hurry. We will be able to offer our service and work because we enjoy it. We can work without attachment to outcome. We can perform all our actions – organizing a retreat, building a Sangha, working with prisoners – in a spirit of freedom, liberation, and joy, rather than being bound up by notions of achieving a certain level of success or attainment.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p153-154