Category Archives: d2b

d2b

Search Background and Commentary for Day 2

Daily Dharma, d2b

Daily Dharma – Oct. 26, 2023

The Buddha will remove
Any doubt of those who seek
The teaching of the Three Vehicles.
No question will be left unresolved.

Mañjuśrī declares these verses at the end of Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. They remind us how important questions are to what the Buddha teaches. Questions come up throughout the book, and they lead to many important aspects of this Wonderful Dharma. It is important for us to ask questions respectfully whenever we hear a teaching, knowing that we will find an answer.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Daily Dharma, d2b

Daily Dharma – July 19, 2023

Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking. But he [later] did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.

Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva sings these verses in Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. They are part of a story he tells about Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva (Gumyō, Yaśaskāma). This shows that each of the innumerable Bodhisattvas who are helping us to become enlightened use different ways of reaching people. Even those enmeshed in the suffering of self-importance, who use this Wonderful Dharma to make themselves seem superior to others, simply because they are leading others to this teaching, they too are creating boundless merit.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Daily Dharma, d2b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 15, 2022

Good men! I think that the Buddha, the World-Honored One, wishes to expound a great teaching, to send the rain of a great teaching, to blow the conch-shell horn of a great teaching, to beat the drum of a great teaching, and to explain the meaning of a great teaching.

Mañjuśrī declares this to Maitreya and all others gathered to hear the Buddha teach in Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha had just produced the light from between his eyebrows illuminating the worlds of the ten directions, a sight none but Mañjuśrī had experienced. The great teaching the Buddha was about to expound is the Lotus Sutra. This statement awakens our interest and shows us how to listen to this teaching, as if it were a great cooling rain or the loud call of a conch-shell or drum.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

800years, d2b, Blog

800 Years: Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva

Faith is a personal aspect. It has no relationship to others. My faith is mine; yours is yours. This is something I don’t believe many people appreciate.

In Chapter 1, Mañjuśrī tells a short story about the previous life of Maitreya. It seems the Buddha-to-be wasn’t always a perfect example of a man of faith.

“There was a lazy man
Among the disciples
Of Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma.
The lazy man was attached to fame and gain.

“Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking.”

No criticism of Fame-Seeking is offered. Instead, we learn:

“But he later did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.
He made offerings to them,
Followed them, practiced the Great Way,
And performed the six paramitas.
Now he sees the Lion-Like One of the Sakyas.

“He will become a Buddha
In his future life.
He will be called Maitreya.
He will save innumerable living beings.”

The Lotus Sutra is clear on this topic: We are not to criticize those who practice the Lotus Sutra.

In Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, the Buddha warns:

An evil man who speaks ill of me in my presence with evil intent for as long as a kalpa is not as sinful as the person who reproaches laymen or monks with even a single word of abuse for their reading and reciting the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

In Chapter 13, Peaceful Practices, we are instructed:

“A Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who wishes to keep, read and recite this sūtra in the latter days after my extinction when the teachings are about to be destroyed, should not nurse jealousy against others, or flatter or deceive them. He should not despise those who study the Way to Buddhahood in any way. He should not speak ill of them or try to point out their faults. … He should not have fruitless disputes or quarrels about the teachings with others..”

In Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, the Buddha warns:

“Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives.”

It is not our place to judge others. Never-Despising Bodhisattva did not read or recite sūtras. He only bowed to the four kinds of devotees. When he saw them in the distance, he went to them on purpose, bowed to them, and praised them, saying, ‘I do not despise you because you can become Buddhas.’

Fame-seeking became Maitreya. Never-Despising became Śākyamuni. Our faith grows amid our causes and conditions. We should nurture and encourage others, not criticize.

Table of Contents Next Essay
800years, d1b, d2b, Blog

800 Years: Variations in Faith

In the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra proper, the Buddha emits a ray of light and illumines all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down to the Avchi Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world, the congregation gasps in wonder at this omen. The word “faith” appears only once.

Maitreya Bodhisattva narrates what everyone in the congregation is able to see:

“They also saw the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas [of those worlds] who were practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas [in various ways] according to the variety of their karmas which they had done in their previous existence, and also according to the variety of their ways of understanding [the Dharma] by faith.”

Note the emphasis on the variation. We are not the same. The causes and conditions of each individual are as varied as there are people. And we each have our unique way of understanding the Dharma by faith.

This variation is a major theme of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings:

“Seeing that conditioned desires are innumerable, the bodhisattva expounds the teachings in infinite ways. Because there are infinite ways of exposition, there are infinite meanings as well. The infinite meanings stem from a single dharma.”

This concept of equality and difference is emphasized throughout the Lotus Sutra.

In the second half of Chapter 1, when Mañjuśrī responds to Maitreya’s question about the meaning of the great wonder of the Buddha’s illumination of 18,000 worlds, he recalls an event from his past life:

“Good men! Innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. He expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The meanings of those teachings were profound. The words were skillful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Śrāvakahood, he expounded the teaching of the four truths, a teaching suitable for them, saved them from birth, old age, disease, and death, and caused them to attain Nirvāṇa. To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, a teaching suitable for them. To Bodhisattvas, he expounded the teaching of the six paramitas, a teaching suitable for them, and caused them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.”

We are equal but different. Our faith is different but equal. In the end we seek one thing: “To obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.”

“All of you, know this, join your hands together,
And wait with one mind!
The Buddha will send the rain of the Dharma
And satisfy those who seek enlightenment.”

Table of Contents Next Essay
elements, d1b, d2b, d22b

The Cult of Maitreya

There also appeared the cult of Maitreya, who, it was believed, would appear as a savior in the future. “Maitreya” is derived from the Sanskrit mitra (friend); Mithra (Mitra) was an ancient Iranian and Indian deity whose cult extended to Greece and Egypt. Maitreya the benevolent savior, it was believed, would appear in the world after 5,670,000,000 years. At present dwelling in Tuṣita Heaven, Maitreya would cause those with faith in him either to ascend to Tuṣita Heaven directly and be reborn there or to remain in the world to await his coming.

Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 266-267
stories, LS32, d1b, d2b, d17b, d22b, d25b

The Eloquence of Bodhisattvas

Throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra there are references to the eloquence of bodhisattvas. Already at the beginning of Chapter 1 we are told that the eighty thousand bodhisattvas present had all “taught with delight and eloquence.” Later, in Chapter 17, the Buddha says, “When I taught that the length of the [Buddha’s] life is very long … bodhisattva great-ones as numerous as the specks of dust in an entire world delighted in being eloquent and unhindered in speech.” Even the bodhisattva called “Never Disrespectful,” because he always went around bowing to people and telling them that he would never disrespect them, is said to have “powers of joyful and eloquent speech.” And of the dragon princess, a young girl, it is said that her “eloquence knows no bounds.” (LS 251)

Such an emphasis on eloquence is simply another indication of the importance of the teaching role of bodhisattvas. Of course, not everyone who follows the Dharma Flower Sutra will become truly eloquent, and certainly not automatically. But there is a strong suggestion that those who seek to spread the Dharma must strive to overcome reticence and shyness in order to be able to speak freely without being hindered by worries about embarrassing oneself. In many cases, this may require training and much practice, but it is an integral part of the bodhisattva path. Being shy should not be an excuse for leaving the teaching of the Dharma to others.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p239
stories, d2b, d5b

Doing Good

Doing good in the Dharma Flower Sutra means doing the good of all, including oneself.

Just as “doing good” appears often in the Dharma Flower Sutra, so too does the expression “to see countless buddhas” and the like. By doing good, we are told, Fame Seeker was able to see countless buddhas. What could this possibly mean?

Perhaps it means seeing the buddhas who are in the buddha lands in every direction. Or perhaps it means seeing countless buddhas of the past. But I do not think so. Though the idea was not formalized until much later, I believe the Dharma Flower Sutra would have us understand that the Buddha is to be found, is to be seen, in every living being. Thus to see countless buddhas is to see the buddha in others, in everyone one meets, just like Never Disrespectful Bodhisattva.

Thus doing good and seeing countless buddhas are truly connected. One does good because one sees the buddha both in oneself and in others, and seeing the buddha in others gives one a motivation for doing good, helping them in whatever ways are appropriate.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p45
LS32, d2b, Blog

Mistaken Facts

Yesterday I brazenly said Gene Reeves had misstated the facts when he said the Buddha Sun and Moon Light was a prince before he became a buddha. I said, no, he was a king before he became that buddha. My “facts” were taken from the Murano translation of the Lotus Sutra.

I confess that I don’t put a lot of time into my daily 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra posts. Just coming up with something appropriate to say each day, month after month, year after year, is success enough.

So today while doing morning Gonyo it occurred to be that it really – really – was unlikely that Reeves had made such a mistake. So I checked all of my English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra.

The BDK translation has “The Last Buddha fathered eight princes before he renounced household life.”

The SGI translation by Burton Watson has “The last Buddha, when he had not yet left family life, had eight princely sons.”

Leon Hurvitz’s Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma has “Before that last buddha left his household, he had eight princely sons.”

The 1975 Risshō Kōsei Kai translation has “Before the last of these Buddhas left home, he had eight royal sons: …”

The 2019 Risshō Kōsei Kai translation has “At the time that the last of these buddhas renounced home life, he had eight royal sons: …”

So unlike Murano – “The last Sun-Moon-Light Buddha was once a king. He had eight sons born to him before he renounced the world” – none of the translations specify that the last buddha was a king before leaving household life.

On the other hand, Reeves’ translation – “Before the last of these buddhas had left his home, he had eight royal sons – doesn’t specify that the last buddha was a prince before leaving household life.

I suppose it gets down to the question of whether the father of princes is always a king or whether Śākyamuni’s son, Rāhula, was a prince. Murano says kings father princes; Reeves calls Rāhula a prince.

Whatever answer wins out, my initial suggestion that Reeves had his facts wrong was clearly in error.

See Matters of Interpretation

stories, LS32, d2b

Prince Sun and Moon Light

The fact that before becoming a fully awakened buddha Sun and Moon Light was a prince1 living in a palace with eight sons reveals a recurrent theme of the Sutra: the idea that what is happening now is both new and unprecedented, and has happened many times before. Here, that Sun and Moon Light Buddha was a prince living in a palace shows a biographical connection to Shakyamuni Buddha. Most buddhas, perhaps all buddhas in the Dharma Flower Sutra, anticipate or replicate the life of Shakyamuni at least to a large extent. Their life stories are similar. That Sun and Moon Light had eight sons while Shakyamuni had only one indicates, however, that their lives were not the same in all respects.

So when Manjushri, talking about the light with which the Buddha has illuminated other worlds, indicates that he has seen many buddhas in the past do the same thing as Shakyamuni, he does not indicate that what they do is exactly the same. In the Dharma Flower Sutra, the present is always emerging from the past, never completely discontinuous from it. Patterns are repeated, sometimes over and over. The first of the buddhas named Sun and Moon Light taught the four truths and nirvana for those who wanted to be shravakas, the teaching of twelve causes and conditions for those who wanted to become pratyekabuddhas, and to lead them to supreme awakening and all-inclusive wisdom he taught the six transcendental practices to bodhisattvas. This threefold structure and division of three teachings is precisely what will be ascribed to Shakyamuni Buddha in the Sutra. Yet in this story there are twenty thousand buddhas, one after the other, all with the name Sun and Moon Light. That is very different from Shakyamuni. In this sutra we are not given the name of his predecessor, but we are told that his successor is to be Maitreya. There is only one Shakyamuni Buddha.

Perhaps the most important point here is that in this, as in many other things, the Dharma Flower Sutra does not subscribe to a rigid structure. As in our own experience, here the present both repeats the past and is different from it. History is always bound to the past, enormously influenced by it, but never completely so.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p42-43
1
This is one of the rare places where Gene Reeves misstates the facts. As the Murano translation clearly states: The last Sun-Moon-Light Buddha was once a king, not a prince. While Reeves stretches the truth in an attempt to link this to Shakyamuni, it better matches the tale in Chapter 7, where we learn about Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha, a former king who had sixteen sons, one of whom becomes Shakyamuni Buddha. return

See Mistaken Facts