Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Parable of the Burning House

While there is a lot of material covered today, much of it repeated in gathas from the other day, what stands out is the sales talk the Buddha gives for this Great Vehicle he has brought onto the showroom floor.

Sariputra!
With this parable I expounded
The teaching of the One Buddha-Vehicle
To all living beings.
All of you will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
If you believe and receive
These words of mine.

This vehicle is
The purest and most wonderful.
This is unsurpassed by any other vehicle
In all the worlds.
This vehicle is approved with joy by the Buddhas.
All living beings should extol it.
They should make offerings to it,
And bow to it.

The powers, emancipations, dhyana-concentrations, wisdom,
And all the other merits [of the Buddhas],
Many hundreds of thousands of millions in number,
Are loaded in this vehicle.

I will cause all my children
To ride in this vehicle
And to enjoy themselves
Day and night for kalpas.

The Bodhisattvas and Sravakas
Will be able to go immediately
To the place of enlightenment
If they ride in this jeweled vehicle.

Therefore, even if you try to find another vehicle
Throughout the worlds of the ten quarters,
You will not be able to find any other one
Except those given by the Buddhas expediently.

Well, I’m sold.

Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

Parable of the Burning House

The Buddha’s children are ignorant and when the Buddha attempts to explain the danger, they are too distracted by their playthings and their false sense of security to pay attention. For me, for today, what stands out is that the Buddha, with all of his supernatural powers, couldn’t just carry us out of the burning house.

I have appeared in the triple world, which can be likened to the rotten and burning house, in order to save all living beings from the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation, stupidity, darkness, and the three poisons, to teach all living beings, and to cause them to attain Anuttara-samyak-sarnbodhi. I see that all living beings are burned by the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation. They undergo various sufferings because they have the five desires and the desire for gain. Because they have attachments and pursuits, they have many sufferings in their present existence, and will suffer in hell or in the world of animals or in the world of hungry spirits in their future lives. Even when they are reborn in heaven or in the world of humans, they will still have many sufferings such as poverty or parting from their beloved ones or meeting with those whom they hate. Notwithstanding all this, however, they are playing joyfully. They are not conscious of the sufferings. They are not frightened at the sufferings or afraid of them. They do not dislike them or try to get rid of them. They are running about this burning house of the triple world, and do not mind even when they undergo great sufferings.[‘]

Sariputra! Seeing all this, I [also] thought, ‘I am the father of all living beings. I will eliminate their sufferings, give them the pleasure of the immeasurable wisdom of the Buddha, and cause them to enjoy it.’

Sariputra! I also thought, ‘If I extol my insight, powers, and fearlessness in the presence of those living beings only by my supernatural powers and by the power of my wisdom, that is to say, without any expedient, they will not be saved because they have not yet been saved from birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation, but are burning up in the burning house of the triple world. How can they understand the wisdom of the Buddha?’

Sariputra! The rich man did not save his children by his muscular power although he was strong enough. He saved them from the burning house with a skilful expedient and later gave them each a large cart of treasures.

In the same manner, I save all living beings from the burning house of the triple world, not by my powers or fearlessness, but with a skillful expedient.

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable.

Sariputra’s concern that he wasn’t taught the Bodhisattva practice and instead had to settle for a lesser teaching is answered by the Buddha:

Now I will tell you in the presence of this great multitude including gods, men, sramaras, and brahmanas. Under two billion Buddhas in the past, I always taught you in order to cause you to attain unsurpassed enlightenment. You studied under me in the long night. I led you with expedients. Therefore, you have your present life under me.

Sariputra! I caused you to aspire for the enlightenment of the Buddha in your previous existence. You forgot all this, and thought that you had already attained extinction. In order to cause you to remember the Way you practiced under your original vow, I now expound to the Sravakas this sutra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’

We have been the Buddha’s disciples over and over again in past lives and accumulated the merits that today allow us to hear the Lotus Sutra today.

Day 4 finishes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sutra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Again, the many, many facets of this section of Chapter 2 threaten to overwhelm my attempt to single out what I see as the most important aspect of today’s reading.

What stands out today is this gathas:

Know this, Sariputra!
I once vowed that l would cause
All living beings to become
Exactly as I am.

That old vow of mine
Has now been fulfilled.
I lead all living beings
Into the Way to Buddhahood.

This teaching says EVERYONE can become a Buddha. Not a lesser being who just eliminates suffering of birth and death. Exactly like the Buddha. There is no lesser goal just as there is no lesser vehicle than the Great Vehicle, the Truth of Equality. This will be the topic – told from various perspectives – of the next several chapters.

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

If anything will challenge my effort this time through to limit my quotes to the single aspect that strikes me as most important or interesting today, it is Chapter 2, Expedients. There’s just too much good stuff.

The concept that “the wisdom of the Buddha” is too difficult to understand by pure intellect only raises the question, “Why does the World-Honored One extol so enthusiastically the power of the Buddhas to employ expedients?” And those two things bring us to what is, in my mind today, the most important aspect of this teaching: The One Great Purpose.

Sariputra! What is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds? The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Sariputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.

The Buddha said to Sariputra:

The Buddhas, the Tathagatas, teach only Bodhisattvas. All they do is for one purpose, that is, to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha.

Today’s Daily Dharma had an interesting explanation for why we should not be embarrassed to ask questions:

When we allow ourselves to wonder, to question, to become aware of the mystery of existence, and resist being ashamed of not knowing, then we are coming to understand the Buddha’s own mind.

Day 2 completes Chapter 1, Introductory

I’d like to begin today with something I picked up today while reading Etsu Sugimoto’s autobiography, “A Daughter of the Samurai.”

Etsu, who lived in Japan at the start of the Meji period, was given the education of a girl who was supposed to be destined to be a priestess. Her first teacher instructed her in the Confucius classics.

“I was only six years old, and of course I got not one idea from this heavy reading. My mind was filled with many words in which were hidden grand thoughts, but they meant nothing to me then. Sometimes I would feel curious about a half-caught idea and ask my teacher the meaning. His reply invariably was:

“Meditation will untangle thoughts from words,” and “A hundred times reading reveals the meaning.”

The chanting of namu-myoho-renge-kyo is my meditation and this my “hundred times reading” in search of meaning.

On with the show…

Today’s portion of Chapter 1 confirms for the congregation that what they are seeing as the result of the light being emitted by Sakyamuni is the same omen witnessed long ago in a previous life by Manjusri. The one aspect of today’s reading that stands out is the rarity of hearing the Lotus Sutra.

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 skilful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Sravakahood, 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 Nirvana. 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-sambodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

After he died, another Buddha named Sun-Moon-Light did the same and then another Buddha named Sun-Moon-Light did the same and then another and another and another until a total of 20,000 Buddhas had expounded these right teachings. It was the last Sun-Moon-Light who, like Sakyamuni, preached the Great Vehicle called the ‘Innumerable Teachings, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas’ and entered into the samadhi for the purport of the innumerable teachings.

The ray of light of [Sun-Moon]-Light Buddha,
That is, the good omen, was the same as what I see now.
Judging from this, the present Buddha also will expound
The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

This begins the seventh time through and I am going to change the format for this month. In the six previous trips through the Lotus Sutra, I would scribble notes as I went along and later turn those notes into a post here. Two problems with that:

1. I’m stopping and taking notes and otherwise interrupting my reading of the day’s section of the sutra.
2. In many cases I print the same large sections of the day’s reading month after month.

Starting today, I’m going to attempt to summarize what I see as the principal point of the day’s reading and then provide a single quote that seems most relevant. The hope is that each reading will bring something new while underlining what I’ve read and discovered in past months.

And so, to begin:

Two important aspects of this first day’s reading need to be stressed. First, is the crowd. Everyone is here. We have great arhats, sravakas, bodhisattvas, bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, men, nonhuman beings, the kings of small countries, and the wheel-turning-holy-kings. Clearly, this teaching is for all living beings.

The other point is what everyone sees when Sakyamuni sends out a light illuminating all of the worlds in the east. This begins a platform from which Sakyamuni will preach. Here everyone sees what’s happening elsewhere. Tomorrow they learn of what happened in the past. Knowing what’s happening elsewhere now, knowing what happened before, listeners will see how the Buddha’s teachings are the same.

And that leads to today’s quote:

The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.

I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest Heaven
Of each of those worlds.
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.

I also see the Buddhas,
The Saintly Masters, the Lion-like Ones,
Who are expounding
The most wonderful sutra
With their pure and gentle voices,
And teaching
Many billions of Bodhisattvas.
The brahma voices of the Buddhas
Are deep and wonderful,
Causing people to wish to hear them.

I also see the Buddha of each of those worlds
Expounding his right teachings to all living beings
In order to cause them to attain enlightenment.
He explains his teachings
With stories of previous lives,
And with innumerable parables and similes.

To those who are confronted with sufferings,
And tired of old age, disease, and death,
The Buddha expounds the teaching of Nirvana,
And causes them to eliminate these sufferings.

To those who have merits,
Who have already made offerings to the past Buddhas,
And who are now seeking a more excellent teaching,
The Buddha expounds [the Way of] cause-knowers.

To the Buddha’s sons
Who are performing various practices,
And who are seeking unsurpassed wisdom,
The Buddha expounds the Pure Way.

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

So today I was immediately struck by the number of visitors who arrive today with Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance, came from a world [in the distance of many worlds] to the east [of this Saha-World]. He was accompanied by innumerable, uncountable great Bodhisattvas. All the worlds quaked as he passed through. [The gods] rained down jeweled lotus-flowers, and made many hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds’ of music. He was also surrounded by a great multitude of innumerable gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings.

It goes on to say, “They reached Mt. Grdhrakuta of the Saha-World by their virtues and supernatural powers.” That supernatural merit travel is important. Imagine the number of draft animals necessary to haul that crowd. Cleaning up their mess would take a whole other type of supernatural powers.

OK. Couldn’t resist. Back to the point.

Asked by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva how people will hear of the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha’s extinction, Sakyamuni says:

The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things:

1. secure the protection of the Buddhas
2. plant the roots of virtue
3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment]
4. resolve to save all living beings.

The good men or women will be able to obtain this sutra after my extinction if they do these four things.

For those who succeed in these four steps, Universal-Sage Bodhisattva vows:

If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sutra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

And of particular interest to me:

If he forgets a phrase or a gatha of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will remind him of it, and read and recite it with him so that he may be able to understand it.

Universal-Sage Bodhisattva also vows:

Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sutra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas [in his previous existence]. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathagatas.

In response Sakyamuni makes his own vows:

Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sutra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’ He should be considered to be caressed by me on the head. He should be considered to be covered with my robe.

Of particular interest to me:

He will not be troubled by the three poisons. He will not be troubled by jealousy, arrogance from selfishness, arrogance from self-assumed attainment of enlightenment, or arrogance from self-assumed acquisition of virtues. He will want little, know contentment, and practice just as you do.

And when the show was over:

When the Buddha expounded this sutra, the great congregation including the Bodhisattvas headed by Universal-Sage, the Sravakas headed by Sariputra, and the other living beings such as gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings, had great joy, kept the words of the Buddha, bowed [to him], and retired.

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

One of my favorite chapters, I always have a hard time deciding what to focus on. For example, this time through I was struck by the powers of the two sons and how they obtained them.

The two sons had great supernatural powers, merits, virtues and wisdom. A long time ago, they had already practiced the Way which Bodhisattva should practice.

And…

They also had already obtained [the four states of mind towards all living beings:] compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality.

The Buddha of this time, Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom, expounded the Lotus Sutra with the aim of leading the boys’ father, King Wonderful-Adornment, who held heretical views. The sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, for their part, don’t immediately approach their father. Instead, they ask their mother to go hear the Lotus Sutra from Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom. It is the mother who reminds her children that they can’t abandon their father. That’s an interesting fact that stands out today.

The mother said to them, ‘Show some wonders to your father out of your compassion towards him! If he sees [the wonders], he will have his mind purified and allow us to go to that Buddha.’

Thereupon the two sons went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and displayed various wonders because they were thinking of their father.

And wonders they performed.

By displaying these various wonders, they purified the mind of their father, that is, of the king, and caused him to understand the Dharma by faith.

Seeing [these wonders displayed by] the supernatural powers of his sons, the father had the greatest joy that he had ever had.

For me, the importance of this chapter is the role the children played. As they explain to their mother after convincing their father to hear the Buddha:

We did the work of the Buddha for the sake of our father.

And perhaps more important is the father’s perspective on what has happened:

After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samadhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

Underline the words They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence. The sons were the king’s teacher, but the seed of good that sprouted already existed in the king.

Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

Last year Ryusho Jeffus, who runs Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Temple, in Charlotte, NC, published a children’s book based on this story from the Lotus Sutra. The book, “King Wonderful Adornment,” was illustrated by Kanjo Grohman, a novice Nichiren Shu priest in training at Seattle Choezan Enkyo-ji.

I love the illustrations but the book doesn’t go beyond the point where the king agrees to go hear the Buddha. Missing for me is the point of the story: the father’s roots of good and the promise that “The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives.” Children reading this book will miss the best part: The children – with their compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality – were their father’s teacher.

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs.

We begin with a matter of merits:

Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva rose front his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and said to him:

“World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read, recite, understand or copy the Sutra of th Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?”

The Buddha said to him:

“Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?”

“Very many, World-Honored One!” The Buddha sajd: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite even a single gatha of four lines of this sutra, understand the meanings of it or act according to it.”

And with that we get protective dharanis from Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva. They are followed by Vaisravana Heavenly-King, the Protector of the World and World-Holding Heavenly-King, both of whom are represented on the corners of the Mandala Gohonzon. (See illustration from Lotus World)

Finally we get my favorite protectors, the 10 raksasis daughters; their mother, Hariti, and her other children and their attendants.

The daughters are listed in the Lotus Sutra:

1. Lamba
2. Vilamba
3. CrookedTeeth
4. Flower-Teeth
5. Black-Teeth
6. Many-Hairs
7. Insatiable
8. Necklace-Holding
9. Kunti
10. Plunderer-Of-Energy-Of-All-Beings.

The daughters, their mother and her other children and attendants all vow to protect the teacher of the Dharma:

Anyone who attacks this teacher of the Dharma
Will receive the same retribution
As to be received by the person who kills his parents,
Or who makes [sesame] oil without taking out worms [from the sesame],
Or who deceives others by using wrong measures and scales,
Or by Devadatta who split the Sarngha.

And in response the Buddha praises them:

The Buddha said to the raksasis:

“Excellent, excellent! Your merits will be immeasurable even when you protect the person who keeps only the name of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Needless to say, so will be your merits when you protect the person who keeps the sutra itself, and makes to a copy of this sutra hundreds of thousands of offerings such as flowers, incense, necklaces, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, streamers, canopies, music, and various lamps like lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of sumanas-flower oil, lamps of campaka flower oil, lamps of varsika-flower oil, and lamps of utpala-flower oil. Kunti! You [raksasis] and your attendants should protect this teacher of the Dharma.”