Category Archives: d28b

d28b, d31b, WONS

Protecting All Women Who Uphold the Lotus Sūtra

It says in the “Bodhisattva Wonderful Voice” chapter that there was a bodhisattva named Myōon or Wonderful Voice, in the eastern world of the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation. This bodhisattva was once Lady Jōtoku, or Pure Virtue, the wife of King Wonderful Adornment in the age of the Buddha Cloud Thunder Roll King. She became Bodhisattva Wonderful Voice by virtue of venerating the Lotus Sūtra. When Śākyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sūtra in the Sahā World, she came and promised that she would protect all women who upheld the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 133

stories, LS32, d28b

Our Extraordinary Ability to Serve Others

In [Chapter 23] of the Sutra, about the previous lives of Medicine King Bodhisattva, it is said that Seen with Joy by All the Living Bodhisattva attained a concentration that enabled him to take on any form. It was gaining the ability to take on any form that led this bodhisattva to sacrifice his body to the Buddha of his world. But in Chapter 23 we are not told what the name of this concentration means. Here, in Chapter 24, we can see more clearly what this ability to take on any form is about. It is an extraordinary ability to serve others.

Then the Buddha tells Flower Virtue that while he can see only one body of Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva, this bodhisattva appears in many different bodies, everywhere teaching this Sutra for the sake of the living. He appears as the king Brahma, as Indra, Ishvara or Maha-Ishvara, or as a great general of heaven. Sometimes he appears as Vaishravana, or as a holy wheel-rolling king, or as a lesser king; or he appears as an elder, an ordinary citizen, a high official, a brahman, or a monk, nun, layman, or laywoman; or he appears as the wife of an elder or householder, the wife of a high official, or the wife of a brahman, or as a boy or girl; or he appears as a god, a dragon, satyr, centaur, ashura, griffin, chimera, python, human or nonhuman being, and so on. He can help those who are in a purgatory, or are hungry spirits or animals, and all who are in difficult circumstances. And for the sake of those in the king’s harem he transforms himself into a woman and teaches this Sutra.

For those who need the form of a shravaka, a pratyekabuddha, or a bodhisattva to be liberated, he appears in the form of a shravaka, pratyekabuddha, or bodhisattva and teaches the Dharma. For those who need the form of a buddha to be liberated, he appears in the form of a buddha and teaches the Dharma. According to what is needed for liberation, he appears in various forms. Even if it is appropriate to enter extinction for the sake of liberation, he shows himself as one who enters extinction. (LS 367—68)

This variety of forms is remarkably inclusive. While clearly advocating and emphasizing the importance of the bodhisattva way, the Dharma Flower Sutra wants its hearers and readers to understand that appearing in the form of a bodhisattva is only one way among many, any of which can be effective. This variety of forms can be seen as an expression of the emphasis found in the first few chapters of the Sutra on the variety of skillful means. But here, in a sense, the message is even more direct. If, it says, you are “the wife of a brahman,” or “a boy or girl,” or anyone else, you too can be a bodhisattva, you can be Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva!

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p263-264
stories, LS32, d28b

The Missing Voice

That the title figure of this chapter’s story is named “Wonderful Voice,” or perhaps “Wonderful Sound,” is another curiosity of the Lotus Sutra: absolutely nothing is said about his voice or sounds. “Wonderful Body” would be more appropriate, as his wonderful body is described in some detail: some forty-two thousand leagues tall, radiant and brilliant, powerful, pure gold in color, with eyes the size of lotus leaves, and a face as beautiful as millions of moons together. But there is not a word about his voice!

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p257
LS32, d28b, b4today

Realizing the Ideal

The true spirit of chapter 24 is that an ideal is not truly holy until it is actually realized by people little by little. Although the buddhas dwelling in ideal worlds, such as the Tathāgata Mahāvairocana and the Tathāgata Amita, are surely very holy, the Eternal Original Buddha, whom people can revere through the Tathāgata Sakyamuni as the personified ideal thereof, should be the object of worship for those living in this world.

Buddhism for Today, p376
LS32, d28b, b4today

The Gap Between Ideal and Actuality

What is meant by the statement that in comparison with the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation and the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound, the body of Sakyamuni Buddha is short and small and all the bodhisattvas are small of stature, not emitting rays of light from their bodies? This figure of speech points out the gulf between ideal and actuality. The domain where the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation dwells is an ideal world situated in the heavens. For this reason the bodies of the buddhas and the bodhisattvas in that domain are extraordinarily large and of a wonderful brightness.

On the other hand, what is the actuality? There is nothing impressive about it when compared with the ideal. The actuality appears to be far smaller, lower, and plainer than the ideal. A person who has perfected his character in such an actual world is far more sacred than an ideal form in the heavens, even if his body is small and has no apparent brightness. There is nothing more sacred than the attainment of the mental state of the Buddha in the actual world, where obstructions are often thrown up by evil-minded people. The Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation preached this earnestly to the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound.

Buddhism for Today, p370
LS32, d28b, b4today

Illumining the Symbol of Buddha-Wisdom

The ray of light emitted from the white hair-circle between the eyebrows of Sakyamuni Buddha shone throughout the domain of the buddhas. This means that although the Original Buddha exists everywhere, living beings can first know of his existence only through the teachings of Sakyantuni. The ray of light from the white hair-circle of Sakyamuni Buddha is the symbol of his Buddha-wisdom, which has revealed the universal truth. This fact has been expressed continually since chapter 1 of the Lotus Sutra, but it is especially important for us to be reawakened to its significance in this chapter. That is why the story begins with the mention of the Buddha’s emitting from the white hair-circle a ray of light that shines throughout the domain of the buddhas. Unless we realize the significance of this, we are liable to have only a shallow understanding of the story or, worse, to misunderstand it altogether.

Buddhism for Today, p367-368
LS32, d28b, WONS, 2buddhas

A Bodhisattva Who Watches Over the Lotus Sūtra’s Female Devotees

Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] finds brief mention in a personal letter Nichiren wrote to a woman who had made offerings to each of the Lotus Sūtra’s twenty-eight chapters. “The ‘Gadgadasvara’ chapter,” he wrote to her, “tells of a bodhisattva called Gadgadasvara (“Fine Sound”) who dwells in the land of the buddha Kamaladalavimalanakṣastrarā jasaṃkusumitābhijn͂a (“Knowledge [Conferred by] the King of Constellations [Named] Pure Flower”) in the east. In the past, in the age of the buddha Jaladharagarjitaghoṣasusvaranakṣatrarājasamkusumitābhijn͂a (“Flowering Wisdom of the King of Constellations [Named] Thunder-Sound of Clouds”), he was Lady Vimaladattā (Pure Virtue), the consort of King Śubhavyūha (Fine Adornment). At that time, Lady Vimaladattā made offerings to the Lotus Sūtra and was reborn as the present bodhisattva Gadgadasvara. When the tathagata Śākyamuni expounded the Lotus Sūtra in the Sahā world, this bodhisattva arrived and promised to protect those women who would embrace the Lotus Sūtra in a latter age.”

Here Nichiren draws on the interpretive tradition that Gadgadasvara had in a past life been the consort of King Subhavyūha, who appears in Chapter 27 of the Lotus, to assert that this bodhisattva will watch over the sūtra’s female devotees.

Two Buddhas, p239-240
LS32, d28b, 2buddhas

Bodhisattva Followers of the Provisional Teachings

For Nichiren, these two bodhisattvas, Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] and Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva], fell into the category of bodhisattvas who were followers of the provisional teachings and the trace teaching of the Lotus Sūtra and who had been active in the True and Semblance Dharma ages, but whose time had now passed. Neither figures prominently in his writings.

Two Buddhas, p239
LS32, d26b, d27b, d28b, d29b, 2buddhas

The Lotus Sūtra and Its Practice in the Final Dharma Age

Chapters Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five describe how specific bodhisattvas display their powers in the world to benefit sentient beings. As noted earlier, at one point in its compilation history, the Lotus Sūtra probably concluded with Chapter Twenty-Two, “Entrustment.” These three subsequent chapters represent a later stratum of the text, added as devotion to the bodhisattvas in question was gradually assimilated to the Lotus. From Nichiren’s standpoint, the bodhisattvas appearing in these chapters had received only the general transmission described in the “Entrustment” chapter. Either they had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching or shakumon portion of the sūtra. Thus, their work was chiefly confined to the True and Semblance Dharma ages. Yet, as we see, Nichiren drew on these chapters to make points about the Lotus Sūtra and its practice in the Final Dharma age.

Two Buddhas, p236
LS32, d27b, d28b, d29b, 2buddhas

Bodhisattvas Who Meet the Needs of Sentient Beings

[Chapter 24] and the preceding, “Bhaiṣajyarāja” [The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva] chapter feature bodhisattvas who manifest themselves in a variety of forms in order to meet the needs of sentient beings. Chapter 24 enumerates thirty-four appearances assumed by the bodhisattva Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] through his mastery of the samādhi of manifesting all physical forms, the same samādhi attributed to the bodhisattva Sarvarūpasaṃdarśana [Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva] in Chapter 23. Chapter 25 similarly lists thirty-three forms assumed by the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva]. The phrase “gateway to everywhere” (J. fumon), sometimes translated as “universal gate,” in the title of Chapter 25 refers to precisely this activity by which buddhas and bodhisattvas assume various forms to aid suffering beings. An eleventh-century poem based on this chapter celebrates the universal compassion of Avalokiteśvara:

the world is saved
because no one can shut
the gate to everywhere:
O who will not enter?

Two Buddhas, p239