The good men or women who expound even a phrase of Myōhō Renge Kyō even to one person even in secret after my extinction, know this, are my messengers. They are dispatched by me. They do my work. It is needless to say this of those who expound Myōhō Renge Kyō to many people in a great multitude.
Tao-sheng: No Trace of Unbelief
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p195-196Some bhikṣus who live in a period in which no Buddha lives after my extinction may not believe the Dharma after they attain Arhatship because in that period it will be difficult to meet a person who keeps, reads, and recites this sūtra, and understands the meanings of it. They will be able to understand the Dharma when they meet another Buddha.
[For the interim period] between two Sages, when there is no Sage-Lord, unbelief may prevail. If one lives when a Buddha is present, one is certain to have faith and no doubts. Contemporary men have been taken unwittingly to where the Buddha is present, so there should be no [trace of] unbelief.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for March 2, 2025
“Those who keep Myōhō Renge Kyō will be able to recognize, without moving about, the scents of the sumanas-flowers, jātika-flowers, mallikā-flowers, campaka-flowers, pāṭala-flowers, red lotus flowers, blue lotus flowers, white lotus flowers, flower-trees and fruit-trees. They also will be able to recognize the scents of candana, aloes, tamālapattra and tagara, and the scents of tens of millions of kinds of mixed incense which are either powdered or made in lumps or made applicable to the skin. They also will be able to recognize the living beings including elephants, horses, cows, sheep, men, women, boys and girls by smell. They also will be able to recognize without fallacy grasses, trees, thickets and forests by smell, be the nearby or at a distance.”
Tao-sheng: Total Obliteration of the Three
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p195Therefore, the Buddhas divide the One Buddha-Vehicle into three as an expedient.
As the Buddha thought that men in the defiled age had no lofty will, and because the li of the Buddhas was so profound and distant that they (men) were unable to believe in it, the Buddha designed the doctrine of the three vehicles in order to make it accessible to men. Although it is said that he preached the three, what he preached always [in reality] was the One. Men are now personally in contact with the Buddha. Isn’t this a case of adaptation to make it accessible to men? Traces are closer to men. External demonstration is easier to apprehend. Even if it is possible to make it easy to learn, there is the distance inherent in its self-soness (Izu-jan). Moreover, it has been said that [followers of] the two vehicles had exhausted the bonds of existence; [and yet] they did not have [their] perfuming impressions (vāsanā) disposed of. By moving men close to [the One], [the Buddha] makes [it] easier to go beyond [the three]. If it is possible for them to go beyond [the three] and seek the self-soness [of the One at the same time], they will head for the total obliteration [of the three].
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for March 1, 2025
“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound Myōhō Renge Kyō in which the Dharma is given, and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings.
Tao-sheng: The Defiled Generation
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p194-195The worlds are defiled by the decay of the kalpa, by illusions, by the deterioration of the living beings, by wrong views, and by the shortening of lives.
Beings in the earlier generations were of a natural disposition, clean and void, and their bondages (lei) were minimal and thin. Compared with them, the contemporary generation can be characterized only as “defiled.” Kalpa refers to time. Being in this evil state, beings sometimes encounter armed soldiers and sometimes face the scarcity of grains, diseases, or epidemics.
[Beings] being entangled with various delusions, how can the Tao be stimulated to arise [in them]?
[Deterioration] refers to the evil (or sufferings?) arising from the full-orbed activities of the aggregates (skandhas), five in total.
The five false views are in opposition to the true and are in conflict with li. Hence, they are listed separately.
The false [views] and life get intertwined, keeping (beings) from encountering the Path (Tao). How could this not be defilement?
A Month of Shindoku Recitation
This morning I completed my shindoku recitation of the Lotus Sutra. Each day in February I chanted an entire chapter of the sutra. In the evening I continued my reading aloud of the English translation, doing both morning and evening portions at one time.
This was something of an experiment. I wasn’t sure how it would work, and whether the occasional hour-long morning practice would present a problem. The doubling up of the reading aloud in the evening was a question when I began.
Having now successfully completed the month’s effort I’m confident I’ll be able to make this an annual practice. Reciting one chapter a day in shindoku in the morning and doubling my reading aloud in the evening is certainly made “easier” by the fact that I’m retired, with few scheduled events in my day. It also helps that until December of last year, my daily practice ran 40 to 45 minutes morning and evening. When I had to chant for more 44:50 minutes on February 3 or 45:22 minutes of February 7 and my time before my altar extended past an hour, it was not particularly difficult.
Tomorrow I return to my 45 Day pace of reading aloud the Threefold Lotus Sutra. It’s going to seem like a vacation.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Feb. 28, 2025
“Medicine-King! The Bodhisattvas who, having been surprised at hearing Myōhō Renge Kyō, doubt and fear Myōhō Renge Kyō, know this, are beginners in Bodhisattvahood. The Śrāvakas who, having been surprised at hearing Myōhō Renge Kyō, doubt and fear Myōhō Renge Kyō, know this, are men of arrogance.”
Tao-sheng: Beings Mired in Defilement
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p194“Śāriputra! The Buddhas appear in the evil worlds in which there are the five defilements.
The gist of this segment is as follows. The Sage did not intend to set up the doctrine of the three, but because beings mired in defilement were found to have difficulty in acquiring the one single enlightenment, [the Buddha] had no alternative but to come into the world to preach the three vehicles. How could he wish to do so [for his own sake]?
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Feb. 27, 2025
“Flower-Virtue! Now you see Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva here and nowhere else. But formerly he transformed himself into various living beings and expounded Myōhō Renge Kyō to others in various places. He became King Brahman, King Sakra, Freedom God, Great-Freedom God, a great general in heaven, Vaisravana Heavenly-King, a wheel-turning-holy-king, the king of a small country, a rich man, a householder, a prime minister, a brahmana, a bhikṣu, a bhikṣunī, an upāsakā, an upāsikā, the wife of a rich man, that of a householder, that of a prime minister, that of a brahmana, a boy, a girl, a god, a dragon, a yakṣa, a gandharva, an asura, a garuda, a kiṃnara, a mahoraga, a human being or a nonhuman being. [After he transformed himself into one or another of these living beings,] he expounded Myōhō Renge Kyō, and saved the hellish denizens, hungry spirits, animals, and all the other living beings in the places of difficulties. When he entered an imperial harem, he became a woman and expounded Myōhō Renge Kyō.”