Today marks one of those artificial milestones meant to measure progress along a linear path. On this blog, it would be distance traveled in a 500 yojanas journey to a place of treasures. I have now recited the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra in shindoku 64 times since March 2015. There’s no real value to having reached this milestone.
Each morning I pick up Mohorengekyo Romanized and recite that day’s portion of the sutra. The eight fascicles of the sutra are divided into four parts, rendering the sutra’s 28 chapters in 32 parts. I mark my place in the book with a PostIt Note arrow and at the end of the cycle I tape the arrow in the inside cover of my Myohorengekyo Romanized book. When I complete a row of 16 cycles – an arbitrary number that corresponds to the number of arrows that fit in a column – I dutifully comment on the occasion:
While I feel compelled to mark this milestone, I do not believe I’m on a linear journey. Having progressed this far along this path I’ve come to understand the importance of the moment – the 3000 realms in a single thought moment, the constant arising and perishing of each instant.
What I want to come back to today is that moment of faith, the step along this 500 yojanas journey. Yes, there was a first step, but each moment is another step, a confirmation of faith in the path of the One Vehicle leading to supreme perfect enlightenment.
For the past few weeks I’ve been participating in the Enkyoji Buddhist Network’s Online Class. One of the lessons concerned the topic of Faith, Practice and Study. My answer to a question about faith fits well with this discussion of moments:
In Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra we learn of the wise physician whose children have poisoned themselves while he was away on business. Some of these children are worse off than others. Seeing their plight the father creates a medicine to cure them. This medicine is guaranteed to look appealing, smell appetizing and taste delicious. Some of the children take the medicine immediately and are cured instantly. The other children, those so badly poisoned that they have lost their right minds, refuse to take the medicine. These children see that the medicine looks appealing and agree that it smells appetizing, but these children refuse to believe that it will taste delicious. These children lack fatih.
Faith is required in order to practice Buddhism. Faith is the initial step that begins the journey, the key that unlocks the gate leading to the path. We are not expected to blindly step off a cliff and have faith that gravity will disappear. Instead, we are asked to believe that the medicine left behind by the Eternal Buddha not only looks and smells great, but tastes good as well. Having faith, we begin our practice and as we continue our practice we validate and deepen our faith.
Each moment of faith, equal and unique, rising over and over.