Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p155What is meant by Wondrous?
If we talk of all sorts of speeches made by the Tathāgata and the teaching he promulgated, what sūtra would not be wondrous? The reason why this sūtra is specifically designated as wondrous is as follows: It is because the expedient three [vehicles] he (the Tathāgata) previously taught are not real, and now he declares that the three are nonexistent. As such, the words (of the sūtra) match li fully, and the falsity that appeared previously no longer remains. Hence, it is called wondrous.
What is Dharma?
In essence (t’i) there is nothing that is not Dharma; in truth there is no falsehood.
Lotus Blossom (Puṇḍarīka)
This is the term that praises the present sūtra. Indeed, of the worldly images none is more wondrous than that of the lotus blossom. The beauty of the lotus blossom is at its glory in the first opening of its bud. At the peak of the first budding, seeds fill inside and colors, fragrance, and taste become fully mature; then we call it puṇḍarīka. [The Buddha’s] proclamation that the three are existent no more resembles this. When empty talk is gone, what remains is the true speech. As the authentic speech spreads, the fruit of [the three] returning to the One becomes manifested in it.
What is Scripture (Ching/Sūtra)?
The warp (ching) and woof of the [conventional] world [etymologically] refers to uncolored silk. The warp and woof as referred to here would manifest their true illumination on those who cultivate this scripture.
Harvesting the Promises of Myōhō Renge Kyō
Please see An Apology for My Arrogance
My effort to replace references to the Lotus Sūtra with Myōhō Renge Kyō while extracting the promises of the sūtra was not as straightforward as I had expected.
Myōhō Renge Kyō is the title of the sūtra but that title is more than just the name of the sūtra.
In Chapter 2, Expedients, for example, the Buddha promises that his true teaching is the One Vehicle. That One Vehicle is Myōhō Renge Kyō.
For my Daily Promises this original quote:
There is only one teaching, that is, the One Vehicle
In the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters.
There is not a second or a third vehicle
Except when the Buddhas teach expediently.The Buddhas lead all Living beings
By tentative names [of vehicles]
In order to expound their wisdom.
They appear in the worlds
Only for the One Vehicle.
Becomes:
There is only one teaching, that is, Myōhō Renge Kyō
In the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters.
There is not a second or a third vehicle
Except when the Buddhas teach expediently.The Buddhas lead all Living beings
By tentative names [of vehicles]
In order to expound their wisdom.
They appear in the worlds
Only for Myōhō Renge Kyō.
This change is supported by other Nichiren Shu sources. For example,
in the traditional service Invocation the sutra is equated with the One Vehicle:
Honor be the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the
Wonderful Dharma,
The Teaching of Equality, The Great Wisdom,
The One Vehicle.
The “Dharma” is also Myōhō Renge Kyō.
The concluding stanza of Chapter 2, Expedients:
Those who do not study the Dharma
Cannot understand it.
You have already realized
The fact that the Buddhas, the World-Teachers, employ expedients,
According to the capacities of all living beings.
Know that, when you remove your doubts,
And when you have great joy,
You will become Buddhas!
Becomes:
Those who do not study Myōhō Renge Kyō
Cannot understand Myōhō Renge Kyō.
You have already realized
The fact that the Buddhas, the World-Teachers, employ expedients,
According to the capacities of all living beings.
Know that, when you remove your doubts,
And when you have great joy,
You will become Buddhas!
A footnote in Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra supports this interpretation.
In Chapter 26, Dhārānis, Medicine-King Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One! Now I will give dhārāni spells to the expounder of the Dharma in order to protect him.” Murano’s note: ” ‘The Dharma’ means the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.”
For my purposes I’ve expanded “promises” to include those declarations underlining the importance of Myōhō Renge Kyō in Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures; Chapter 12, Devadatta; Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra; and Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva.
For example from Chapter 11:
(The Buddha said to the great multitude.)
Who will protect
And keep Myōhō Renge Kyō,
And read and recite Myōhō Renge Kyō
After my extinction?
Make a vow before me to do this!
Or Chapter 12:
Thereupon the Buddha said to the Bodhisattvas, gods, men and the four kinds of devotees: “When I was a Bodhisattva] in my previous existence, I sought Myōhō Renge Kyō for innumerable kalpas without indolence. I became a king [and continued to be so] for many kalpas. [Although I was a king,] I made a vow to attain unsurpassed Bodhi. I never faltered in seeking it. I practiced alms-giving in order to complete the six pāramitās. I never grudged elephants, horses, the seven treasures, countries, cities, wives, children, menservants, maidservants or attendants. I did not spare my head, eyes, marrow, brain, flesh, hands or feet. I did not spare even my life.”
The more recognizable promises appear in Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma:
If after my extinction anyone rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gāthā or a phrase of Myōhō Renge Kyō, I also will assure him of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.
And in Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva:
[T]he merits to be given to the person who fills the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds with the seven treasures and offers that amount of the seven treasures to the Buddhas, to the Great Bodhisattvas, to the Pratyekabuddhas, and to the Arhats, are less than the merits to be given to the person who keeps even a single gāthā of four lines of Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Of the 28 chapters, there were seven from which I didn’t extract any promises. Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs; Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood; Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples; Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn; Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground; Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata; and Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.
I confess that I chose to limit the number of promises from the one chapter that is nothing but promises. Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, promises purification of the six sense organs and supernatural powers to those who preach Myōhō Renge Kyō.
For example, I chose to skip these promises:
He will be able to know by smell
Whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl,
Or a child of ambiguous sex,
Or the embryo of a nonhuman being.He will be able to know by smell
Whether a woman is an expectant mother,
Or whether she will give an easy birth
To a happy child or not.He will be able to know by smell
What a man or a woman is thinking of,
Or whether he or she is greedy, ignorant or angry,
Or whether he or she is doing good.He will be able to recognize by smell
The gold, silver, and other treasures
Deposited underground,
And the things enclosed in a copper box.He will be able to know by smell
The values of various necklaces,
And the deposits of their materials,
And also to locate the necklaces [when they are lost].
The final promises I’ve collected fill every day from January 1 to August 31. I begin with Mañjuśrī’s promise:
The Buddha will remove
Any doubt of those who seek
The teaching of the Three Vehicles.
No question will be left unresolved.
And I conclude with this quote from Chapter 22: Transmission:
In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, you should expound Myōhō Renge Kyō to them, and cause them to hear and know Myōhō Renge Kyō so that they may be able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive Myōhō Renge Kyō by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.”
Having heard these words of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas were filled with great joy. With more respect than ever, they bent forward, bowed, joined their hands together towards him, and said simultaneously. “We will do as you command. Certainly, World-Honored One! Do not worry!”
From September 1 through the end of the year I have chosen quotes from Nichiren’s writings that speak to the promise of Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Finally, I should note that I excluded Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva, from this project. The chapter is full of promises, but these are promises about World-Voice-Perceiver and his vow to protect those who call his name. Unlike Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva, who transforms himself into various living beings and expounds Myōhō Renge Kyō to others, World-Voice-Perceiver expounds an expedient Dharma to those who are to be saved. His protection is independent and disconnected from the promises of Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Next: About Those Empty, Vulgar Promises
Previous: The Next 10 Years
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Jan. 2, 2025
“Medicine-King! Do you see the innumerable gods, dragon kings, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men, and nonhuman beings, and [the four kinds of devotees:] bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās, and those who are seeking Śrāvakahood or Pratyekabuddhahood or the enlightenment of the Buddha in this great multitude? If in my presence any of them rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gāthā or a phrase of Myōhō Renge Kyō, I will assure him of his future Buddhahood, saying to him, ‘You will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.’ ”
Tao-sheng: Explaining the Title of the Sūtra
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p154“The Fine (or Wondrous) Dharma.”
The ultimate image is without form; the ultimate music is without sound. Being inaudible and subtle, and in the sphere beyond the reach of trace and speculation, how can [the Dharma] be expressed in terms of form? This is why the sūtras are variegated and doctrines are different. Yet, how can li [underlying the sūtras and doctrines] be of such nature? It is only because the fundamental ability (or subtle triggering-mechanism) (chi) and receptivity of ordinary people are not equal; there are a myriad of avenues of approach for prompting enlightenment. Hence, the Great Sage showed different styles of speech [for different groups of people] and manifested various teachings [for them].
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Jan. 1, 2025
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
Myōhō Renge Kyō.The good omen I see now is like that of old.
This is an expedient employed by the Buddhas.
The present Buddha is also emitting a ray of light
In order to reveal the truth of the reality [of all things].[Mañjuśrī said to the multitude:]
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.The Buddha will remove
Any doubt of those who seek
The teaching of the Three Vehicles.
No question will be left unresolved.
The Next 10 Years
Ryusho Jeffus Shonin inspired my efforts here back in 2015. In his book, “The Magic City: Studying the Lotus Sutra,” Ryusho relates the Parable of the Magic City” in Chapter 7 to our personal practice.
To reach the place of treasure requires traveling a dangerous, bad road five hundred yojanas long. As Ryusho explains: “Yojana is both a measurement of distance as well as time. Simply stated, a yojana is the distance an ox-cart can travel in one day.”
He asks his readers: “I wonder what you could accomplish in your life if you made a commitment from today for 500 days to practice on a regular consistent basis towards the achievement of some change in your life? Would you be able to travel the entire 500 days without giving up or abandoning or forgetting your goal and effort?”
But, really, 500 days is not long. Soon after I started this website, Ryusho suggested a 10-year timeframe would be more useful for judging the merits of the practice of Nichiren Buddhism.
And here I am today, having completed ten years on this journey.
Now I start the next 10 years.
Back in 2022 during my 800 Years of Faith Project, I wrote:
Each time as I cycle through the 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra (which, of course, is actually 34 days with the addition the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and the Contemplation of Universal Sage) I am struck by the promises offered to everyone. This is especially true in Chapter 2.
“Any Śrāvaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gāthā
Of this sūtra which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.”I believe it is these promises that have made the Lotus Sutra so important in Asia and why it translates so well as it is introduced to new readers. How can we not have faith?
At the start of last year, I proposed creating a 365-day collection of those promises contained in the Lotus Sutra. Today I’ll start posting them. These will replace my reprinting of Shinkyo Warner Shonin’s Daily Dharma.
However, I have added a twist. I am replacing references to the Lotus Sutra, this Sutra, the Wonderful Dharma, etc. with Myōhō Renge Kyō.
For example the verse above from Chapter 2 becomes:
“Any Śrāvaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gāthā
Of Myōhō Renge Kyō which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.”
I am doing this throughout my daily practice.
Here’s the transformed Kaikyoge:
Verses for Opening Myōhō Renge Kyō
The most profound and wonderful teaching
is presented in Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Myōhō Renge Kyō is difficult to meet
Even once in thousands and millions of aeons.
Now we have been able to see,
hear, receive and keep Myōhō Renge Kyō.
May we understand the most excellent teaching of the Tathagata!
The most excellent teaching of Myōhō Renge Kyō is very difficult for us to understand.
We shall be able to approach enlightenment
when we see, hear, or touch Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Expounded is the Buddha’s truth.
Expounding is the Buddha’s essence.
The letters composing Myōhō Renge Kyō
are the Buddha’s manifestation.Just as perfume is caught by something put nearby,
so shall we be richly benefited by Myōhō Renge Kyō,
even when we are not aware of being so benefited,
because infinite merits are accumulated in Myōhō Renge Kyō.Anyone can expiate his past transgressions,
do good deeds,
and attain Buddhahood by the merits of Myōhō Renge Kyō.
It does not matter whether he is wise or not,
or whether he believes Myōhō Renge Kyō or rejects it.Myōhō Renge Kyō is the most wonderful and
most excellent taught by the Buddhas
of the past, present, and future.
May we meet and receive it,
Birth after birth, world after world!
Why insert Myōhō Renge Kyō? For me, this emphasizes that the Odaimoku is the principal practice of Nichiren Buddhism. Studying of the Lotus Sutra and the other teachings of the Buddha are only spices flavoring the meal of the Daimoku.
In Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice, Nichiren writes:
The five characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō are not the text of the sūtra nor a mere explanation; rather, they are the sole intent of the whole sūtra. Beginners may practice this without knowing the heart (of the Lotus Sūtra), but their practice will naturally harmonize with its intention.
After 10 years of personally studying and exploring the teachings of the Buddha, I want to emphasize that Myōhō Renge Kyō remains my focus.
Edward Conze’s View of Nichiren
Before the year ends I want to put this topic to rest.
While wandering through used bookstores during a visit to Rochester, New York, this year I purchased a copy of Edward Conze’s “Buddhism; It’s Essence and Development.” The book I picked up was published by the Philosophical Library of New York.
In my readings on Buddhism Conze’s name has come up often in the footnotes, a source of information other authors relied on. What sort of information?
Consider this from page 206:
It is customary to reckon the sect of Nichiren (1222-1282) as one of the schools of Amidism. It would be more appropriate to count it among the offshoots of nationalistic Shintoism. Nichiren suffered from self-assertiveness and bad temper, and he manifested a degree of personal and tribal egotism which disqualify him as a Buddhist teacher. He did not only convince himself that he, personally, was mentioned in the Lotus of the Good Law, but also that the Japanese were the chosen race which would regenerate the world. The followers of the Nichiren sect, as Suzuki puts it: even now are more or less militaristic and do not mix well with other Buddhists.”
Let’s break this down:
- It is customary to reckon the sect of Nichiren (1222-1282) as one of the schools of Amidism.
- more appropriate to count [Nichiren Buddhism] among the offshoots of nationalistic Shintoism
- Nichiren suffered from self-assertiveness and bad temper, and he manifested a degree of personal and tribal egotism which disqualify him as a Buddhist teacher.
- He did not only convince himself that he, personally, was mentioned in the Lotus of the Good Law, but also that the Japanese were the chosen race which would regenerate the world.
- The followers of the Nichiren sect, as Suzuki puts it: even now are more or less militaristic and do not mix well with other Buddhists.”
None of this is excusable for a man who is described as a scholar, but perhaps we can at least offer the suggestion that his view of Nichiren was influenced by his times.
According to Conze’s “Author’s Note,” he gave a series of lectures on Buddhism at Oxford’s St. Peter’s Hall in the early 1940s. In 1948 he was encouraged to create “a work covering the whole range of Buddhist thought.” The first edition of his book was published in 1951.
The Buddhism of Nichiren was very different in the years immediately before and during World War II, when Chigaku Tanaka’s influence held sway.
As Edwin B. Lee explains, Tanaka synthesized Nichiren Buddhist doctrines with Shinto traditions to create a unique form of Japanese nationalism, “Nichirenism,” which intertwined religious and political goals.
This is not unlike Junjiro Takakusu’s unkind view of Nichiren, which was also the product of the pre-war Japan.
Like Takakusu, Conze takes Nichiren’s assertiveness in declaring the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra as “bad tempered.” I disagree and we’ll just have to leave it at that.
One assumes Conze’s statement that Nichiren convinced himself that “he, personally, was mentioned in the Lotus of the Good Law” is a reference to Bodhisattva Jōgyō, Superior Practice, one of the four leaders of the Bodhisattvas who emerged from underground in Chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra and who is given the task of spreading the sutra in the latter days of the law. Nichiren wondered if he were Bodhisattva Jōgyō. Many of Nichiren’s followers today assume he was. But whether or not he was, that was not a primary feature of Nichiren’s teachings.
What Nichiren did recognize of himself in the Lotus Sutra was the persecutions and harassment predicted for those who attempt to spread the sutra. If Conze considers Nichiren’s view that Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, spoke to his life experience as “egotism which disqualify him as a Buddhist teacher,” then, again, I have to disagree.
Finally, there is Conze’s declaration that Nichiren taught just another form of Amidism.
Conze’s book defines Amidism as:
- It is a kind of totalitarianism of faith in which faith is all-powerful regardless of moral conduct.
- It is a religion accessible to everyone.
- It rejects hardships, austerities, and even the mild asceticism of monastic life.
- All people, good or bad, are admitted to Amitabha’s Pure Land.
- Faith in Amitabha’s grace is the sole condition for admission to the Pure Land.
- Amitabha is a compassionate god who, unlike the Christian God, is not a judge.
(This summary is provided by NotebookLM. A PDF of the book is available here if you want a quick AI assistant review.)
The only point of intersection between Conze’s Amidism and Nichiren’s devotion to the Lotus Sutra is that it is a religion accessible to everyone.
I am unapologetic in my admiration for Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra.
In 2025 I will underscore this by publishing daily a short example of the promise of the Lotus Sutra.
Next: The Next 10 Years.
The Division of the Lotus Sūtra
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p162What this sūtra expounds can be divided into three sections in all. The [first] thirteen chapters from “Introduction” (1) to “Comfortable Conduct” (13) illustrate that the cause (yin/hetu) of the three [vehicles] becomes the cause of the One. The eight chapters from “Welling up out of Earth” (141) to “Entrustment” (21) distinguish the effect (kuo/phala) of the three [as identical with that of the one]. The six chapters from “Bhaiṣajyarāja” (22) to “Samantabhadra” (27) equate the men of the three [vehicles] with the men of the One [Vehicle]. These divisions are designed to brush off the feeling that [the vehicles] are blocking [each other] and are different, and to obliterate the impasses that helped divide the lines [of the Buddha’s teaching].
Daily Dharma – Dec. 31, 2024
If you wish to obtain quickly the knowledge
Of the equality and differences of all things,
Keep this sūtra, and also make offerings
To the keeper of this sūtra!
The Buddha sings these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. When we see things for what they are, how they are similar and how they are different, we see them with the eyes of the Buddha. This Wonderful Dharma in the Lotus Sūtra is the Buddha showing us how to open our eyes to the joys and wonders that exist in this world of conflict and suffering. When we find something valuable, we offer it our time, our thoughts and our devotion. By making offerings to this Wonderful Dharma, and to all those who keep it, our eyes open even more to the truth of our lives.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Great Vehicle
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p154-155The Greater Vehicle refers to the universal and great wisdom, and it begins with one goodness and ends with the ultimate wisdom. By universal we mean that li has no different intentions but merges into the one ultimate. Great knowledge refers to just what one obtains at the end [of the process]. Speaking generally of what counts from beginning to end, all the tiny goods accumulated are included there. What does Vehicle (yāna) mean? Its li lies in ferrying all beings to the other shore; the implied idea (i) underlying it is to relieve them of suffering (duḥkha).