[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.
Tao-sheng: The Specific Cohearers
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p163He was accompanied by twelve thousand great bhikṣus.
If it is said that [the transmitter] heard [the preaching] by himself, one would find it difficult to believe other factors, too. If he simply said we and everybody [vaguely, not specifically] he would not be any better than “excepted from being” a solitary [witness]. [So] he lists all the [specific] cohearers. These are all that I mentioned as [the five factors] witnessing the sūtra. Bhikṣu is a general term referring to those who are in the process of destroying evils. Why are the voice hearers (śrāvakas) listed first and then the bodhisattvas? This has to do with the difference of inner and outer; inner-directedness has a limited scope, whereas outer-directedness has no restrictions. Hence, it should be in that order. It also suggests that the Buddha’s transformative teaching covers all; starting from the near, extending to the distant; there is no place where [his] Tao is not existent. Great (Mahā) refers to the assembly of people that can [counter] ninety-six kinds [of heretical views or arguments].
Two Tongues in the Ashes
When I was selecting examples of Miraculous Tales from The Dainihonkoku Hokekyō of Priest Chingen, I deliberately excluded the tales of self-immolation. After reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peaceful Action, Open Heart and his recollection of Thich Quang Duc, the first monk to immolate himself in the 1960s to protest Vietnam’s anti-Buddhist laws, I changed my attitude about such stories. I’ve decided to include one example of pious self-immolation from Daniel B. Stevenson’s “Tales of the Lotus Sutra.”
Buddhism in Practice, p434In Jingzhou there lived two bhikṣunīs who were sisters. Their names have been forgotten, but they both recited the Lotus Sūtra, held a deep loathing for the physical body, and together conceived the desire to give up their lives [in offering to the dharma]. [To this end,] they set restrictions on clothing and diet and prescribed for themselves a regimen of painful austerities. They ingested various perfumed oils and gradually reduced their intake of coarse rice, until they gave up grains altogether and took only fragrant honey. [Even then,] their energy and spiritual determination remained as vigorous and fresh as ever. They announced [widely] to the monks and laity [around them] that at an appointed time in the future they would immolate themselves.
On the evening of the eighth day of the second month during the third year of the Zhenguan era [629], they set up two high seats in the middle of one of the large boulevards of Jingzhou. Then they wrapped their bodies from head to foot in waxed cloth, leaving only their faces exposed. The crowds gathered like a mountain; their songs of praise filled the air like clouds. The two women together began to chant the Lotus Sūtra. When they reached the “Medicine King” (Bhaiṣajyarāja) chapter, the older sister first ignited the head of the younger sister, and the younger in turn lit the head of the older sister. Simultaneously the two blazed up, like two torches in the clear night. As the flames crept down over their eyes, the sound of their voices became even more distinct. But, as it gradually arrived at their noses and mouths, they grew quiet [and their voices were heard no more]. [They remained seated upright] until dawn, linked together on their two seats. Then, all at once, the fire gave out. [As the smoke and flame cleared,] there amidst their charred and desiccated bones lay two tongues, both perfectly intact. The crowd gasped in awe. [A short time later] a tall stūpa was constructed for them.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Jan. 6, 2025
“The perfect body of a Tathāgata is in this stūpa of treasures. A long time ago there was a world called Treasure-Purity at the distance of many thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of worlds to the east [of this world]. In that world lived a Buddha called Many-Treasures. When he was yet practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas, he made a great vow: ‘If anyone expounds Myōhō Renge Kyō in any of the worlds of the ten quarters after I become a Buddha and pass away, I will cause my stūpa-mausoleum to spring up before him so that I may be able to prove the truthfulness of Myōhō Renge Kyō and say ‘excellent’ in praise of him because I wish to hear Myōhō Renge Kyō [directly from him].”
Tao-sheng: At One Time
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p163The Buddha once {At One Time}1 lived on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa in the City of King-House.
Even though words be in accord with li, if they do not match the occasion they will still be empty statements. Hence, next comes “at one time.” What time means is that the “subtle, triggering mechanism force (chi)” within beings stimulates (kan) the Sage, and the latter responds [appropriately and helpfully] (ying) to them; when religious interaction between ordinary people and the Sage does not miss a favorable opportunity (chi), we call it at one time.
Although there is no place where the Dharma body is not present, if the place where the preaching took place were not recorded, it would look vague and diffuse. Given that [the transmitter] had to introduce it in order to give evidence for the preaching, and there were five places in this mountain, [namely,] Rājagṛha, which is the one where the preaching took place? It was at the monastery on Gṛdhrakūṭa mountain (“Vulture Peak”).
- I’ve used Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra when quoted by Tao-sheng. When he uses a phrase not used by Murano, I’ve inserted the phrase in {curly brackets}.return
Tales of the Lotus Sutra
In 1995, Princeton University Press published an anthology devoted to Buddhism in Practice as part of the university’s Princeton Readings in Religions. Donald S. Lopez Jr. edited the volume. Included in the anthology is Daniel B. Stevenson’s “Tales of the Lotus Sutra.”
Stevenson’s article offers translations of several stories from the Tang-dynasty tales of devotion to the Lotus Sutra known as Hongzan fahua zhuan, or Accounts in Dissemination and Praise of the Lotus.
Buddhism in Practice, p427-428The Hongzan fahua zhuan belongs to a genre of Chinese Buddhist writing known as the “record of miraculous response,” or “miracle tale,” for short. The Buddhist miracle tale originated during the early medieval period, taking as its model two related narrative forms of indigenous origin that enjoyed widespread popularity at that time: the Chinese “tale of the strange or extraordinary” and the tradition of the exemplary biography inspired by the Chinese dynastic histories. The Buddhist miracle tale probably stands closest in spirit to the exemplary biography. Like the latter, the miracle tale was (and continues to be) circulated primarily for reasons of spiritual edification. Behind the marvels that it recounts there lurks an ever-present injunction to faith and piety. …
Of the miracle tales as a whole, we know that some were gathered locally from oral tradition. We know that they were selected, reworked, and disseminated by literate lay and monastic figures, some of whom were quite eminent. We also know that many of these same tales were told time and again, sometimes at formal ritual gatherings before audiences containing persons of every ilk—mendicants and laypersons, educated and uneducated. On this basis the miracle tale can be understood as “popular” in the sense of anonymous and generic—a body of literature that reflects religious motifs which are universal to Buddhist monastic and lay life rather than the province of one particular sector or stratum.
The Hongzan fahua zhuan organizes its contents according to eight categories of cultic activity: drawings and likenesses produced on the basis of the Lotus, translation of the Lotus, exegesis, cultivation of meditative discernment (based on the Lotus), casting away the body (in offering to the Lotus), recitation of the scripture (from memory), cyclic reading of the sūtra, and copying the sūtra by hand. Individual entries are, in turn, arranged in chronological sequence according to dynastic period.
Four of the topical sections of the Hongzan fahua zhuan—exegesis or preaching of the Lotus, recitation from memory, reading, and copying the Lotus—find an immediate counterpart in the famous “five practices” of receiving and keeping, reading, reciting, copying, and explicating the Lotus Sūtra described in the “Preachers of Dharma” chapter of the sūtra and articulated by exegetes such as the Tiantai master Zhiyi. Section 5 of the Hongzan fahua zhuan, on “casting away the body,” contains biographies of devotees who ritually burned themselves alive in imitation of the bodhisattva Medicine King’s self-immolation in offering to the dharma in chapter 23 of the Lotus. Various subsidiary themes of cultic and ritual activity that recur throughout the tales of the Hongzan fahua zhuan can likewise be traced to these chapters. One topic that is conspicuously absent from the Hongzan fahua zhuan is the cult of Guanyin.
The Hongzan fahua zhuan is a precursor of the miraculous stories told in Japan. See Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition and Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan.
Starting tomorrow, I will publish one of these stories on the first Monday of each month as part of my 2025 collection of promises contained in the Lotus Sutra.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Jan. 5, 2025
Anyone who keeps Myōhō Renge Kyō
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.
He should think:
‘They do not hear Myōhō Renge Kyō.
They do not believe Myōhō Renge Kyō.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’
Tao-sheng: Transmitting the Sutra
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p162-163Thus have I heard
This is the phrase of the transmitters of the sūtra. How is it that the sūtras have been transmitted through generations and the voice of the Buddha has not been cut off? Because there are certain factors that make it possible. It resembles the possession of a passport (literally, sealed tally) by a person, with which he will not encounter any check point that he will not be able to pass through. The sūtras have five facts established in the beginning [of the first passage] in order to make the path (tao/mārga) pass [down the generations] without difficulty. Like [of like this or thus] is the word suggesting that the words match li. When the words and li are in mutual accord, this is spoken of as like. This (or right) [of like this or thus] refers to the fact that everything the Thus Come One (Tathāgata) said is not wrong. This [word] points to all that the Buddha preaches.
He intended to transmit it to those who did not [directly] hear it. If there were just words [heard] but no information about transmission, it means that he merely followed the words he heard [which could be subject to distortion]. The importance [of a document as an authentic scripture] lies not so much in preaching [as such] as in transmission. It can be said that the Tao values one who forgets himself. [The reader is advised to] forget about (or cast off) “I” and to follow the word heard. Heard means that the words came from the Buddha himself; it clarifies that they did not come forth from “my” [the hearer’s) mind. In this way,
the sūtras have been handed down from generation to generation and the wondrous track [of the Dharma wheel] has not ceased.
FAQ: The Lotus Sutra and the Daimoku
After gathering the promises of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren’s encouragement so that I could publish a daily promise here, I took that content and submitted it to Google’s NotebookLM, an AI assistant that analyzes texts and answers questions based on the content of those texts.
Here’s the Frequently Asked Questions generated by NotebookLM’s AI assistant based on those promises.
- What is the significance of the daimoku, “Namu-myoho-renge-kyo,” in relation to the Lotus Sutra?
- The daimoku encapsulates the essence of the entire Lotus Sutra. Just as the name “Japan” represents all its provinces, people, and resources, the daimoku embodies the entirety of the sutra’s teachings. It signifies the principle of “3,000 existences in one thought,” meaning that all phenomena, from hell to Buddhahood, are interconnected and inherently possess the potential for enlightenment. Chanting the daimoku allows individuals to tap into this potential and manifest their Buddhahood.
- Why is chanting the daimoku considered more important than contemplating the “3,000 existences in one thought”?
- While contemplating the “3,000 existences” is valuable, Nichiren emphasizes the power of chanting the daimoku as a direct path to Buddhahood. Just as a lotus flower blossoms in response to sunlight, chanting the daimoku provides the necessary life force for spiritual growth and transformation. The daimoku is considered the “actual” doctrine of “3,000 existences in one thought,” making it the most effective practice for the Latter Day of the Law.
- What is the meaning of “Myoho-Renge-Kyo”?
- “Myoho-Renge-Kyo” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese title of the Lotus Sutra, meaning “The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.”
- Myoho represents the Mystic Law, the underlying principle of the universe that governs life and death, cause and effect. It signifies the interconnectedness of all things and the potential for Buddhahood inherent in all beings.
- Renge refers to the lotus flower, a symbol of purity and enlightenment. The lotus blooms in muddy water, demonstrating that enlightenment can emerge from the challenges of daily life.
- Kyo means sutra, the teachings of the Buddha.
Together, the five characters encapsulate the profound teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which reveal the path to enlightenment for all people.
- What are the benefits of chanting the daimoku?
Chanting the daimoku offers numerous benefits, including:
- Purification of karma: The daimoku is compared to a rhinoceros horn or sandalwood leaf that repels negativity and purifies one’s karma.
- Protection and support: Chanting invokes the protection of the Buddhas and protective forces.
- Spiritual awakening: It cultivates wisdom, compassion, and courage.
- Attainment of Buddhahood: The Lotus Sutra states that anyone who chants “Namu-myoho-renge-kyo” even once will eventually attain Buddhahood.
- Can anyone chant the daimoku and receive benefits?
- Yes, the Lotus Sutra emphasizes that the path to Buddhahood is open to all people, regardless of gender, social status, or past actions. Even those traditionally considered incapable of attaining enlightenment, such as women and those who have committed grave offenses, are embraced by the Lotus Sutra’s teachings and can achieve Buddhahood through chanting the daimoku.
- Is it necessary to chant the entire Lotus Sutra to receive benefits?
- No, the Lotus Sutra states that even chanting one phrase, one sentence, or even one character of the sutra holds immense merit. Chanting the daimoku is considered the most direct way to access the sutra’s power and benefits in the Latter Day of the Law.
- What is the difference between the theoretical and essential teachings of the Lotus Sutra?
- The theoretical teachings, found in the first fourteen chapters, focus on the concept of “3,000 existences in one thought” from a philosophical perspective. The essential teachings, revealed in the latter fourteen chapters, reveal the Buddha’s true identity as the Eternal Buddha and emphasize the practical application of “3,000 existences in one thought” through chanting the daimoku. Nichiren bases his teachings on the essential doctrine, considering it the most relevant and powerful for achieving Buddhahood in the present age.
- How does the Lotus Sutra differ from other Buddhist teachings?
- The Lotus Sutra is considered the culmination of the Buddha’s teachings. While other sutras teach different paths to enlightenment based on individual capacity, the Lotus Sutra reveals the One Buddha Vehicle, asserting that everyone can attain Buddhahood. It surpasses previous teachings by emphasizing the possibility of achieving enlightenment in this lifetime and revealing the inherent Buddha nature within all beings.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Jan. 4, 2025
If you wish to expound Myōhō Renge Kyō,
Enter the room of the Tathāgata,
Wear the robe of the Tathāgata,
Sit on the seat of the Tathāgata,
[And after doing these three things,]
Expound it to people without fear!To enter the room of the Tathāgata means to have great compassion.
To wear his robe means to be gentle and patient.
To sit on his seat means to see the voidness of all things.
Expound Myōhō Renge Kyō only after you do these [three] things!