LS32

Day 11

Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City

Day 11 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the south,we consider the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the zenith.

“The great Brahman-[heavenly-]kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, and nadir also did the same. The great Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the zenith, who saw their palaces illumined more brightly than ever, also danced with joy. They wondered why [their palaces were so illumined]. They visited each other and discussed the reason, saying, ‘Why are our palaces illumined so brightly?'[1] There was a great Brahman­heavenly-king called Sikhin among them. He said to the other Brahmans in gāthās:

Our palaces are adorned
More brightly than ever.
Why are they illumined
By this powerful light?

We have never seen nor heard
Of such a wonderful thing as this before.
Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha appear
Somewhere in the universe?

“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion [worlds] went down, carrying flower-plates filled with heavenly flowers, in order to find [the place from where the light had come]. Their palaces also moved as they went. They [reached the Well-Composed World and] saw that Great-Universal­Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata was sitting on the lion-like seat under the Bodhi-tree of the place of enlightenment, surrounded respectfully by gods, dragon-kings, gandharvas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and non-human beings. They also saw that the sixteen princes were begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma.[1] They worshipped the Buddha with their heads, walked around him a hundred thousand times, and strewed heavenly flowers to him. The strewn flowers were heaped up to the height of Mt. Sumeru. The Brahman-heavenly-kings offered flowers also to the Bodhi-tree of the Buddha. Having offered flowers, they offered their palaces to the Buddha, saying, ‘We offer these palaces to you.[1] Receive them and benefit us out of your compassion towards us!’ In the presence of the Buddha, they simultaneously praised him in gāthās with all their hearts:

How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.

The Daily Dharma offers this:

How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.

The Brahma Heavenly-Kings of the Zenith sing these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They gave up their kingdoms, their subjects and their homes to travel across innumerable worlds to hear the Wonderful Dharma. They inspire our devotion by showing how important this teaching is to them. For us who know of the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni, we recognize that the Buddha exists everywhere, even in our triple world of form, formlessness and desire. When we let go of the delusions that imprison us, and recognize this Buddha in our midst, we find ourselves in the Buddha’s pure land.

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

Dogen

Nichiren’s Pure Land

Through the all-encompassing nature of the Lotus Sutra’s Śākyamuni Buddha, as well as the persistent practice of the underground bodhisattvas, “the dharma world itself comes to be conceived as the phenomenal reality which actualizes the ultimate truth. … According to Nichiren, in the second section of the Lotus Sutra Śākyamuni speaks of this sahā world as the original land, a pure Buddha realm.” [Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity] Nichiren’s view of the beginningless and endless (practically speaking) Śākyamuni implies for him that the phenomenal world itself becomes an active locus for awakening: “Nichiren considered the assembly on Vulture Peak a symbol of those who, having received the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, are able to transform our sahā world into a ‘resplendent land.’ Since the world where humans live is also the original world in which the Buddha attained buddhahood, phenomenal reality becomes the ground of the most complete enlightenment, which opens to ultimate reality.” [Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity] Thus, for Nichiren the inconceivable visionary reaches inspired by the vastness of time of the revelation of the Buddha’s life span have liberative implications for this world, and for the conditions of this time and place.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 13, 2024

Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. When the Buddha taught in India 2500 years ago, people took for granted that their lives continued from previous lives and would continue on into future lives. Whatever comforts we enjoy or calamities we endure in this life were thought to be caused by what we did in our former lifetimes. Our actions today were thought to determine what happens in our future lives. To our modern understanding this can sound mystical and unlikely. But if we understand that everything, including our joy and suffering, has causes and conditions, whether or not we realize these results immediately, we know that the result of creating benefit is benefit, and the result of creating harm is harm. When we hold the happiness of all beings to be as precious as our own, we would no more mistreat others than we would want them to mistreat us.

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

LS32

Day 10

Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.

Day 10 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the period of time Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence sat at the place of enlightenment, we consider what happened at the end of the period of ten small kalpas.

“Bhikṣus! At the end of the period of ten small kalpas, the Dharma of the Buddhas came into the mind of Great-Universal­Wisdom-Excellence Buddha. Now he attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Before he left home, he had sixteen sons. The first son was called Accumulated-Wisdom. Each of the sons had various playthings. When the sons heard that their father had attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, they gave up the playthings, left home, and came to that Buddha.[1]

“[When they were leaving home,] their mothers saw them off, weeping. Not only the wheel-turning-holy-king, who was their grandfather, but also one hundred ministers and hundreds of thousands of billions of subjects surrounded and followed the princes, wishing to come to the place of enlightenment, to see Great­Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata, to make offerings to that Buddha, respect him, honor him, and praise him.

“Having come [to that Buddha], the princes worshipped him at his feet with their heads, walked around him, joined their hands together towards him with all their hearts, looked up at the World­Honored One, and praised him in gāthās:

In order to save all living beings,
You, the World-Honored One,
Who have great powers and virtues,
[Made efforts] for many hundreds of millions of years.
Now you have become a Buddha.
You have finally fulfilled your vows. Congratulations!

You, the World-Honored One, are exceptional.
When you were sitting,
You were quiet and peaceful.
You did not move your body, hands or feet
For ten small kalpas.

Your mind was tranquil, not distracted.
You have finally obtained tranquil extinction.
You now dwell peacefully in the Dharma-without-āsravas.

Seeing that you have peacefully attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha,
We, too, have obtained benefits.
Congratulations! How glad we are!

The Daily Dharma offers this:

Seeing that you have peacefully attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha,
We, too, have obtained benefits.
Congratulations! How glad we are!

The children of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha sing these verses to their father in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They realize that when one being reaches enlightenment, it is a benefit for all beings. In Chapter Ten, the Buddha teaches that many people will hate his Wonderful Dharma with jealousy during his lifetime, and many more will be jealous of it after his extinction. These people see the Buddha as different from themselves, and do not understand how they can become as enlightened as he is. They believe that for one person to gain, another must lose. The Buddha shows that all beings benefit from his teaching. Nothing is taken away from anyone.

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

Dogen

Nichiren’s Underground Role Models

[T]he underground bodhisattvas of chapter 15 have
special significance for Nichiren: “The countless bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground were disciples of Lord Śākyamuni Buddha ever since the time He had first resolved to seek Buddhahood.” Although they had not visited Śākyamuni throughout his awakening under the bodhi tree and his expounding of the lesser sutras, since making their vow in the Lotus Sutra they are especially promised to appear in the mappō times, which Nichiren believed had already arrived.

Thus the underground bodhisattvas are greater for Nichiren than the familiar disciples, and even greater than the celebrated archetypal bodhisattvas such as Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrī, and Maitreya. “The numerous great bodhisattvas, who had been guided by the Original Buddha in the past, sprang out of the earth of the whole world, according to [chapter 15]. They looked incomparably superior to Bodhisattva Fugen (Samantabhadra) and Mañjuśrī, who had been regarded as ranking disciples. Even Bodhisattva Maitreya, successor to Śākyamuni Buddha, did not know who they were, not to speak of other bodhisattvas.”

Nichiren sees the underground bodhisattvas as the model for those who carry out the teaching of the enduring Śākyamuni in current conditions. And Nichiren himself personally identified with these underground bodhisattvas: “When these four great bodhisattvas, leaders of those who sprung up from underground, spread this sutra through aggressive means of propagation, they would appear as wise kings reproaching ignorant kings.” Practicing a persuasive means of propagation, they would be monks upholding and spreading the true dharma. In the final age of degenerate Dharma that Nichiren regarded as having arrived in Kamakura-period Japan, the imperative of proclaiming and propagating the Lotus Sutra teaching gained a new urgency. It was embodied for Nichiren by the enduring Śākyamuni and especially conveyed to the myriad beings by the underground bodhisattvas.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p57
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 12, 2024

Bhikṣus! I will collect Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas and expound this sūtra to them when I realize that the time of my Nirvāṇa is drawing near, that the living beings have become pure in heart, that they can understand the truth of the Void by firm faith, and that they have already entered deep into dhyāna-concentration.

The Buddha gives this explanation in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. When we encounter even the smallest part of the Lotus Sūtra, it is because of all the wonderful things we have accomplished both in this life and in previous lives. Because we hear and practice this Sūtra, we are the Bodhisattvas who have vowed to benefit all beings and the Śrāvakas who have heard and practiced the teaching for their own benefit and are now awakening to the Bodhisattva path. The Buddha sees into the purity of our hearts, even though we may believe we are clouded by delusion and ignorance. He knows we can understand his teaching no matter how inadequate or unworthy we may think we are. No one besides us can bring the Buddha’s teachings to life and purify this world of suffering. This Wonderful Dharma helps us keep sight of who we are and what we are here to do.

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

LS32

Day 9

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Day 9 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās how the Buddha is like the cloud, we consider the Buddha’s impartiality.

I see all living beings equally.
I have no partiality for them.
There is not ‘this one’ or ‘that one’ to me.
I transcend love and hatred.

I am attached to nothing.
I am hindered by nothing.
I always expound the Dharma
To all living beings equally.
I expound the Dharma to many
In the same way as to one.

The Daily Dharma offers this:

I see all living beings equally.
I have no partiality for them.
There is not ‘this one’ or ‘that one’ to me.
I transcend love and hatred.

The Buddha makes this declaration in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. He compares himself to a rain shower that waters all plants equally. He uses this example to show us how we should approach all living beings. Our respect for them and wish that they become enlightened cannot depend on whatever personal feelings we have towards them.

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

Dogen

Nichiren Venerating the Eternal Śākyamuni

Nichiren states that the “Eternal” Śākyamuni Buddha “exists forever throughout the past, present, and future. All those who receive His guidance are one with the Eternal Buddha.” He goes on to state that the Śākyamuni Buddha of the sixteenth chapter differs from the earlier Śākyamuni Buddha of provisional sutras, and advocates that the enduring Śākyamuni, and his image, be the new object of veneration in the current Age of Decline (mappō), replacing images of the Śākyamuni who expounded the pre-Lotus sutras.

Nichiren strongly emphasizes the end of chapter 15 and chapter 16. This is the part of the sutra that “Nichiren judges to be almost exclusively representative of the meaning of the entire scripture.” Lucia Dolce describes the difference in Nichiren’s interpretation of the sutra from Zhiyi’s as Nichiren seeing the long-lived Śākyamuni Buddha as the single ultimate buddha encompassing all others. Whereas Zhiyi emphasized the sambhogakāya, or recompense body, and valued many other particular buddhas, Nichiren declares “that all Buddhas enlightened in the past are emanations of Śākyamuni” of chapter 16, based on the events of chapter 11, in which emanations arrive to witness the other Buddha in his stūpa. For Nichiren, this long-lived Buddha includes all three bodies, including the manifested transformation body, nirmāṇakāya, and even Vairocana, the reality body or dharmakāya: “Only the [chapter 16] Śākyamuni who reveals his enlightenment in the past embodies the true Mahāyāna Buddha.”

Nichiren’s view of temporality is determined by this story, as his emphasis on it “corresponds to the dilation of the temporal dimension expressed in those chapters, that is, the distant past in which Śākyamuni obtained his original enlightenment. Nichiren absolutizes this original moment and makes it the only significant time and relates it to the existence of humanity in a certain time and place.” He does not describe this Buddha as literally eternal, but “uses the expression ‘without beginning and without end,’ ” signifying “an existence not subject to temporal limitations.” Because this limitlessness includes the transformation body, “the Buddha has always abided in this world and … his soteriological activity has been constant since the original time.” [Dolce]

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p55
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 11, 2024

He said to them, ‘Know this! Now I am old and decrepit. I shall die soon. I am leaving this good medicine here. Take it! Do not be afraid that you will not be cured!’

The Buddha gives this explanation in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. It is part of the Parable of the Wise Physician in which a father finds his children have taken poison and gives them an antidote. The poison has caused some of the children to lose their right minds and not trust that the medicine will cure them. By faking his death, the father used an expedient to get the children to realize that there was no other medicine that would cure them, and summon the courage to take it. When we accept the Wonderful Dharma and put it into our lives, we are cured of our delusions and find the Buddha’s wisdom.

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

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās how the father encouraged his son, we consider why the father gave his treasures to his son.

Seeing the mind of his son
Becoming less mean and more noble,
The father called in
His relatives, the king, ministers,
Kṣatriyas, and householders,
In order to give his treasures to his son.

He said to the great multitude:
“This is my son.
He was gone
For fifty years.
I found him Twenty years ago.
I missed him
When I was in a certain city.
I wandered, looking for him,
And came here.
Now I will give him
All my houses and men.
He can use them
As he likes.”

The Daily Dharma offers this:

The son thought: “I was poor, base and mean.
Now I have obtained
The treasures, houses,
And all the other things
From my father.
Never before
Have I been so happy.”

The Daily Dharma offers this:

The son thought: “I was poor, base and mean.
Now I have obtained
The treasures, houses,
And all the other things
From my father.
Never before
Have I been so happy.”

These verses are part of the story of the Wayward Son told by Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. The son in the story has come into his inheritance after years of training and preparation by his father. The story explains the disciples’ understanding of how the Buddha uses expedients over time to prepare us for enlightenment. When we are not ready for the Buddha’s wisdom, he teaches to the capacity of our own minds. Now that we are ready for his highest teaching, he reveals his own mind in the Lotus Sutra.

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

On the Journey to a Place of Treasures