In Buddhism for Today, Nikkyō Niwano uses the chapter titles from the 1975 Rissho Kosei-kai translation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra. In that edition, Chapter 14 is titled A Happy Life. The 2019 Rissho Kosei-kai “Modern” translation titles chapter 14, “Peaceful and Agreeable Practices,” which is closer to what I’m used to in Senchu Murano’s translation, Peaceful Practices.
Focusing on the outcome – A Happy Life – rather than the causes – Peaceful Practices – seems to put the cart before the horse.
I bring this up because it is a good example of the sort valueless quibble to which I’m prone. Wandering around distracted like this and you’re going to miss the value of what’s being taught.
This chapter of Buddhism for Today is a good example. I’ve written in several posts about these “peaceful practices” and their value in propagating the Lotus Sutra today, but I’ve never had a good overview of what is being taught. Nikkyō Niwano offers that overview:
Buddhism for Today, p169-170Man’s mental strength is little short of miraculous. For instance, in a movie we see a man carrying a pack weighing thirty or forty kilograms on his back and climbing a mountain, bathed in perspiration. Viewers of such a film must feel how arduous it is to climb the mountain. Sometimes it takes three or four hours to advance only twenty or thirty meters. Moreover, the climber risks his life with every step. If it grows dark while he is scaling a rocky cliff, he must hang from the rock and sleep in place in subzero temperatures. If a man were obliged to undergo such an ordeal on the orders of his employer, then indeed he could bring a complaint against the employer for infringing his human rights. However, a mountain climber does this voluntarily. Though he certainly feels pain, his mind is peaceful, and his pain even contributes to his pleasure and enjoyment.
In practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, so long as a person forces himself to endure persecution and the scorn of outsiders, though filled with anger and resentment, he is a beginner in Buddhist disciplines. A person who has attained the Way can maintain a peaceful and calm mind even while suffering and can feel joy in the practice itself. Until a person attains such a state of mind, he must take scrupulous care not to be tempted or agitated by the various setbacks in his daily life. The chapter “A Happy Life” teaches us this.
To accomplish this feat, we are encouraged to adopt the “four pleasant practices”:
Buddhism for Today, p171[F]irst, the pleasant practice of the body (shin anraku-gyō); second, the pleasant practice of the mouth (ku anraku-gyō); third, the pleasant practice of the mind (i anraku-gyō); and fourth, the pleasant practice of the vow (seigan anraku-gyo). Thus the Buddha teaches us how to behave, how to speak, what kind of mental attitude to maintain, and how to endeavor to realize our ideal.
Near the end of the chapter, while discussing the rewards of these peaceful practices, Nikkyō Niwano offers this:
Buddhism for Today, p175The Buddha comes directly to the point by comparing man’s wisdom to sunshine. There is no substance in darkness; there is only a lack of sunshine. If the sun shines in the darkness, the darkness will disappear. If a person realizes the wisdom of the Buddha, then his mental darkness will instantly disappear. We must realize fully that the wisdom of the Buddha is absolute and that it is a law which, in opposing darkness, disperses it.
Underscore There is no substance in darkness; there is only a lack of sunshine. This is why it takes but a single moment of faith in the Lotus Sutra.