LS32

Day 2

Chapter 1, Introductory (Conclusion)

Day 2 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Mañjuśrī’s response to Maitreya Bodhisattva, we consider a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light.

“Good men! Innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. He expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The meanings of those teachings were profound. The words were skillful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Śrāvakahood, he expounded the teaching of the four truths, a teaching suitable for them, saved them from birth, old age, disease, and death, and caused them to attain Nirvāṇa.[1] To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, a teaching suitable for them. To Bodhisattvas, he expounded the teaching of the six paramitas, a teaching suitable for them, and caused them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

“After his extinction there appeared a Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. After his extinction there appeared another Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. In the same manner, seventy thousand Buddhas appeared in succession, all of them being called Sun­Moon-Light with the surname Bharadvaja.

See Glimpsing the ‘Infinite Absolute Buddha’

essentials

The Lotus Store

The universe (all things) is the dynamic manifestation or expression of the static principle. All things are mutually dependent, mutually permeating without giving any hindrance to one another, Dharma-dhatu means ‘the elements of the principle’ and has the two aspects of (1) the state of Thusness or noumenon and (2) the world of phenomenal manifestation. In this Causation Theory it is usually used in the latter sense, but in speaking of the ideal world as realized, the former sense is to be applied.

Buddhism holds that nothing was created singly or individually. All things in the universe – matter and mind – arose simultaneously, all things in it depending upon one another, the influence of each mutually permeating and thereby making a universal symphony of harmonious totality. If one item were lacking, the universe would not be complete; without the rest, one item cannot be. When the whole cosmos arrives at a harmony of perfection, it is called the ‘Universe One and True,’ or the ‘Lotus Store.’ In this ideal universe all beings will be in perfect harmony, each finding no obstruction in the existence and activity of another.

The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, p40
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 1, 2024

Mañjuśrī! A Bodhisattva-mahāsattva who performs this third set of peaceful practices in the latter days after [my extinction] when the teachings are about to be destroyed, will be able to expound the Dharma without disturbance. He will be able to have good friends when he reads and recites this sūtra. A great multitude will come to him, hear and receive this sūtra from him, keep it after hearing it, recite it after keeping it, expound it after reciting it, copy it or cause others to copy it after expounding it, make offerings to the copy of this sūtra, honor it, respect it, and praise it.i

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. The third set of practices involves not despising those who practice the Wonderful Dharma in any way, or hindering their practice by telling them that they are lazy and can never become enlightened. Such treatment goes against the true nature we all share, and can only create conflict.

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

LS32

Day 1

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

Day 1 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Maitreya’s question, we consider Maitreya’s question in gāthās:

Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva, wishing to repeat what he had said, asked him in gāthās:

Mañjuśrī!
Why is the Leading Teacher
Emitting a great ray of light
From the white curl between his eyebrows?

[The gods] rained mandārava-flowers
And mañjūṣaka-flowers.
A breeze carrying the fragrance of candana
Is delighting the multitude.

Because of this, the ground has become
Beautiful and pure;
And this world quaked
In the six ways.

The four kinds of devotees
Are joyful.
They are happier than ever
In body and mind.

The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.

I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest Heaven

Of each of those worlds.
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.

I also see the Buddhas,
The Saintly Masters, the Lion-like Ones,
Who are expounding
The most wonderful sūtra
With their pure and gentle voices,
And teaching
Many billions of Bodhisattvas.
The brahma voices of the Buddhas
Are deep and wonderful,
Causing people to wish to hear them.

I also see the Buddha of each of those worlds
Expounding his right teachings to all living beings
In order to cause them to attain enlightenment.

He explains his teachings
With stories of previous lives,
And with innumerable parables and similes.

To those who are confronted with sufferings,
And tired of old age, disease, and death,
The Buddha expounds the teaching of Nirvana,
And causes them to eliminate these sufferings.

To those who have merits,
Who have already made offerings to the past Buddhas,
And who are now seeking a more excellent teaching,
The Buddha expounds [the Way of] cause-knowers.

To the Buddha’s sons
Who are performing various practices,
And who are seeking unsurpassed wisdom,
The Buddha expounds the Pure Way.

See What It Means To Be A Reader of the Dharma Flower Sutra

essentials

Causation by Thusness

Thusness, or suchness, is the only term which can be used to express the ultimate indefinable, the unnamable reality. It is otherwise called the Matrix of Thus-come. Thus-come is Buddha-nature hidden in ordinary human nature. ‘Thus-come’ is a designation of the Buddha employed by himself instead of ‘I’ or ‘we,’ but not without special meaning. …

Now, Thusness or the Matrix of Thus-come or Thus-gone means the true state of all things in the universe, the source of an Enlightened One, the basis of enlightenment. When static, it is Enlightenment itself (with no relation to time or space); but when dynamic, it is in human form assuming an ordinary way and feature of life. Thusness and the Matrix of Thus-come are practically one and the same—the ultimate truth. In Mahayana the ultimate truth is called Suchness or Thusness. …

Thusness in its static sense is spaceless, timeless, all equal, without beginning or end, formless, colorless, because the thing itself without its manifestation cannot be sensed or described. Thusness in its dynamic sense can assume any form; when driven by a pure cause it takes a lofty form; when driven by a tainted cause it takes a depraved form. Thusness, therefore, is of two states. The one is the Thusness itself; the other is its manifestation, its state of life and death.

There are therefore three series of causations to be considered: (a) Causation by Action-influence as depicted in the Wheel of Life;
(b) To explain the origin of action, Causation by Ideation-store; (c) To explain the origin of the ideation-store, Causation by Thusness. The ideation-store of a human being is determined by his nature as a human being and this nature is a particular dynamic form of Thusness. One should not ask where Thusness or the Matrix of Thus-come originates, because it is the noumenon, the ultimate indescribable Thusness.

The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, p38-39
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 30, 2024

Needless to say, anyone who not only keeps this sūtra but also gives alms, observes the precepts, practices patience, makes endeavors, concentrates his mind, and seeks wisdom, will be able to obtain the most excellent and innumerable merits. His merits will be as limitless as the sky is in the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate quarters, the zenith, and the nadir. These innumerable merits of his will help him obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

The Buddha makes this declaration to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. We often think of merits as bonus points we get for good deeds. Good karma we create to offset the bad karma that came from our less skillful actions. Another way of looking at merits is as a measure of clarity. The more merit we gain, the more we see things for what they are. When we offer our merits for the benefit of all beings, we resolve to use this clarity to enhance the lives of others.

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

LS32, Innumerable

Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1

Having last month in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings considered the benefits earned from learning of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, we consider the Bodhisattva Fully Composed’s question and the Buddha’s answer.

The great-being bodhisattva Fully Composed then addressed the Buddha once again, saying: “World-honored One! The World-honored One has declared that this transcendent, profound, incomparable, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra’s truth is surpassingly deep, and its depth is surpassingly profound! Why is this so? Upon hearing this profound, peerless, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, those in this gathering—all the great-being bodhisattvas, and all of the four kinds of followers, heavenly beings, nāgas and other guardian spirits, rulers and citizens, and various living beings as well—unfailingly gain access to Dharma-grasping empowerments, or realize the three teachings, or attain the four fruits or the aspiration for enlightenment.

“It should be known that the content and principles of this sutra18 are true and correct, that its value is supreme and unsurpassed, and that it is embraced by the buddhas of the past, present, and future. It is impervious to the influence of disruptive forces and the influence of differing views, and is neither corrupted nor destroyed by any deluded perception or the cycle of births and deaths. Why is this so? Because upon hearing it one can intuit all dharmas.

“If there are living beings who can hear this sutra, they will reap great benefit. Why is this so? If they are capable of practicing it, they will surely realize and quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. As for those living beings who cannot hear it, it should be known that they are ones who miss out on great benefit: even after the passing of innumerable, unimaginable, infinite myriads of kalpas, they still will not realize and achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. What is the reason for this? It is because, not knowing the great direct route to enlightenment, they travel an uphill path full of hardships that detain them.

“World-honored One! This sutra is beyond thought and word! I earnestly wish that the World-honored One, out of compassion and sympathy for the great assembly, would explain the profound and wondrous matters of this sutra in detail. World-honored One! What is this sutra’s origin, what is its extent, and where does it abide to accordingly possess such immeasurable, inconceivably powerful beneficial effect that it enables all to quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment?”

The World-honored One then addressed the great-being bodhisattva Fully Composed, saying: “Well done, you of good intent! Well done! It is just like this; it is just as you have said. O you of good intent! I have declared that this sutra is surpassingly profound in depth, and surpassingly deep in truth. Why is this so? Because it enables all to quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment, because upon hearing it one can intuit all dharmas, and because it greatly benefits all living beings—because of it they will travel the great direct route with no hardships to detain them.

“O you of good intent! You ask, “What is this sutra’s origin, what is its extent, and where does it abide?” You must hear clearly and well! O you of good intent! This sutra originally comes from within the place where buddhas dwell;19 it encompasses all living beings that have awakened the aspiration for enlightenment; and it abides in any place where bodhisattvas practice. O you of good intent! This sutra has such an origin, such an extent, and such a place where it abides. That is why this sutra can possess such immeasurable, inconceivably powerful beneficial effect and enable all to quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment.

essentials

The Chain Of Causations by Ideation

The Buddhist ideation theory divides the mind into eight faculties: the eye-sense. the ear-sense, the nose-sense, the tongue-sense, the body-sense, the sense-center (the 6th, mano-vijnana), the individualizing thought-center of egotism (the 7th, manas-vijnana), and the storing-center of ideation (the 8th, alaya-vijnana)—ldeation store.

Of these eight faculties the seventh and the eighth require explanation. The seventh, the Individualizing Center of Egotism is the center where all the selfish ideas, egotistic opinions, arrogance, selflove, illusions and delusions arise. The eighth, the Storing Center of Ideation, is where the ‘seeds’ of all manifestations are deposited and later expressed in manifestations. Buddhism holds that the origin of all things and events is the effect of ideation. … Every seed lies in the Storing Center and when it sprouts out into the object world, a reflection returns as a new seed. That is, the mind reaches out into the outer world and, perceiving objects, puts new ideas into the mind-store. Again, this new seed sprouts out to reflect back a still newer seed. Thus the seeds accumulate and all are stored there together. When they are latent, we call them seeds, but when active we call them manifestations. The old seeds, the manifestations and the new seeds are mutually dependent upon each other, forming a cycle which forever repeats the same process. This is called the Chain Of Causations by Ideation.

That which makes the seed or subconscious thought sprout out into actual manifestation, that is, the motive force which makes the chain of causation move, is nothing but ideation. It is easy to see from this theory of Causation by Ideation that Delusion, Action and Suffering originate from mind-action, or ideation.

The Storing Center of Ideation is carried across rebirth to determine what the next form of life will be. This Storing Center might be regarded as similar to the soul in other forms of religion. According to the Buddhist doctrine, however, what is reborn is not the soul, but is the result of the actions performed in the preceding life. In Buddhism the existence of the soul is denied.

The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, p37-38
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 29, 2024

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The calamity of death is something we all will face eventually, whether it our own or that of those we love. The other calamities in our lives are relatively minor losses which can prepare us for this great calamity. The Bodhisattva World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of Compassion: the desire to benefit all beings. When we learn to use all of the suffering in our lives, especially the calamity of death, as a way to remove our delusions and benefit others, then we can see the world with the eyes of the Buddha and know the joy he declares is at the core of our being.

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

LS32, Universal Sage

Between Day 32 and Day 1: Making Everything A Golden Color

Having last month considered the procession of the elephant, we consider what happens when Universal Sage Bodhisattva emits a bright light from the white curl between his eyebrows.

Having made this appeal, the practitioner must pay homage to the buddhas of the ten directions at the six specified times of day and night, and must practice ways of self-amendment: internalize the Great Vehicle sutras, recite the Great Vehicle sutras, reflect on the Great Vehicle’s principle, be mindful of the Great Vehicle’s application, revere and render service to those who keep faith with the Great Vehicle, regard all people in the same manner as buddhas would regard them, and regard each living thing in the same manner as would a mother or father.

After the practitioner has effected such mindfulness, Universal Sage Bodhisattva will immediately emit a bright light from the white curl between his eyebrows – the sign of a great person. When made visible by this light, Universal Sage Bodhisattva’s body is as majestic as purple-gold mountains; it possesses all of the thirty-two characteristics, and it is dignified beyond description. Numerous rays of brilliant light will come forth from the pores of his body and illuminate the great elephant, making it a golden color. All of the manifested forms of elephants and bodhisattvas will likewise be made a golden color. These golden rays illuminate the innumerable worlds in the eastern direction with the same golden color; and the southern, western, and northern directions, the four intermediate directions, and the upper and lower regions will likewise be illuminated in turn.

At that moment there will be a bodhisattva mounted on a white, six-tusked king of elephants facing each of the ten directions, each bodhisattva equal to and no different than Universal Sage, and the ten directions will correspondingly be filled with innumerable and limitless manifested elephant forms. Through his wondrous capabilities, Universal Sage Bodhisattva enables a practitioner who has kept faith with the sutras to perceive all of this.

On the Journey to a Place of Treasures