Tag Archives: LS09

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 concluded Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, we return to Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and the Buddha’s declaration of his unhindered knowledge like a world-covering rain cloud.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Mahā-Kāśyapa and other great disciples:
“Excellent, excellent! You spoke of my true merits very well. My true merits are just as you said. In reality, however, I have more merits. They are innumerable, asaṃkhya. You will not be able to describe all of them even if you try to do so for many hundreds of millions of kalpas.

“Kāśyapa, know this! I, the Tathāgata, am the King of the Dharma. Nothing I say is false. I expound all teachings with expedients by my wisdom in order to lead all living beings to the stage of knowing all things. I know what region a living being will be taken to by what teaching, and what a living being has deep in his mind. I am not hindered by anything in knowing all this. I know all things clearly, and show my knowledge of all things to all living beings.

“Kāśyapa! Suppose the various trees and grasses of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds including herbs growing in the thickets, forests, mountains, ravines and valleys, on the ground, and by the rivers, all these plants being different in names and forms, were covered with a dark cloud, and then watered by a rainfall at the same time. The small, middle and large roots, stems, branches and leaves of the trees and grasses including herbs growing in the thickets and forests were watered. So were the tall and short trees, whether they were superior or middle or inferior. Those plants were given more or less water by the same rain from the same cloud, and grew differently according to their species. They obtained different flowers and fruits although they grew on the same ground and received water from the same rain.

See Roots, Stalks, Twigs, and Leaves

LS32, d9b, b4today

Roots, Stalks, Twigs, and Leaves

Roots, stalks, twigs, and leaves indicate faith, precepts, meditation, and wisdom. Roots are the most important part of plants. Without roots, they cannot grow stalks, twigs, or leaves. Therefore “roots” means faith. One cannot keep the precepts without faith. Because of keeping the precepts, one can enter into the mental state of meditation and can also obtain wisdom.

Conversely, however strong the roots may be, they will eventually die if the twigs and leaves wither or if the stalks are cut. In the same way, if man does not have wisdom, his faith will become corrupt. In short, in believing in a religion, man begins with faith and attains wisdom through the precepts and meditation. However, these four steps of his religious practice are always interrelated and exist together. When any one of the four steps is lacking, his religious practice cannot be perfect, and it will not progress to the next stage. Just as a tree may be big or little, superior, middle, or low, so different people are large- or smallminded, wise or ignorant.

Buddhism for Today, p74
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 heard the prediction for Mahā-Kāśyapa in gāthās, we conclude Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, with the tale of the starving man permitted eat a king’s feast.

Thereupon Great Maudgalyāyana, Subhūti and Mahā-Kātyāyana trembled, joined their hands together with all their hearts, looked up at the World-Honored One with unblenching eyes, and sang in gāthās in unison:

Great Hero, World-Honored One!
King of the Dharma of the Śākyas!
Give us your voice
Out of your compassion towards us!
If you see what we have deep in our minds,
And assure us of our future Buddhahood,
We shall feel as cool and as refreshed
As if we were sprinkled with nectar.

Suppose a man came
From a country suffering from famine.
Now he saw the meal of a great king.
He did not partake of it in doubts and fears.
After he was told to take it by the king,
He took it at once.
We are like that man.
We know the defects of the Lesser Vehicle.
But we do not know how to obtain
The unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha.

Although we hear you say [to us],
“You will become Buddhas,”
We are still in doubts and fears about it,
Just as that man was about the meal.
If you assure us of our future Buddhahood,
We shall be happy and peaceful.

You, the Great Hero, the World-Honored One,
Wish to give peace to all the people of the world.
If you assure us of our future Buddhahood, we shall be
Like the man who was permitted to take the meal.

See Devoting Ourselves to Hearing and Receiving the Law

LS32, d7b, d8b, b4today

Devoting Ourselves to Hearing and Receiving the Law

In the [Chapter 4], we were taught that we must not have the servile idea that we have the capacity to understand the Buddha’s teachings only to a certain limited extent. We should abandon such trifling discriminations and devote ourselves to hearing and receiving the Law. The Parable of the Herbs states that every effort of ours will be surely rewarded. That is, though various kinds of plants and trees are produced in the same soil and moistened by the same rain, each develops according to its own nature. In the same way, though the Buddha’s teachings are only one, they are understood differently according to each hearer’s nature, intellect, environment, and so on.

Even if we have only a shallow understanding of the Buddha’s teachings or can practice only a part of them, this is never useless. Every effort will be surely rewarded with the merits of the Law. But we should not be satisfied with this reward. We must always desire and endeavor to deepen our understanding and to elevate ourselves further. Thus, we can use shallow faith and discernment as the first step in advancing ourselves to a higher level of faith and discernment. Ascending step by step, we can unfailingly reach a superior state of mind. We should understand this well when we read the latter part of this chapter. It is stated here that though the Buddha’s teachings are one, there are differences in faith and discernment according to one’s capacity to understand the teachings. But we must not interpret this as stating an absolute condition.

Buddhism for Today, p75
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 heard the prediction for Mahā-Kāśyapa, we repeat the prediction in gāthās.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

I will tell you, bhikṣus.
I see this Kāśyapa
With the eyes of the Buddha.
He will become a Buddha
In his future life
After innumerable’ kalpas from now.

He will see in his future life
Three hundred billions
Of Buddhas, of World-Honored Ones.
He will make offerings to them,
And perform brahma practices
To obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.
Having made offerings
To the Most Honorable Bipeds,
He will study and practice
Unsurpassed wisdom,
And become a Buddha on the final stage
Of his physical existence.

The ground [of his world] will be pure.
It will be made of lapis lazuli.
Many jeweled trees
Will stand on the roadsides.
The roads will be marked off by ropes of gold.
Anyone will rejoice at seeing them.

Fragrance will be sent forth from the trees;
And beautiful flowers will be strewn
On the ground, which will be adorned
With various wonderful things.
The ground will be even,
And devoid of mounds and pits.

The number of the Bodhisattvas
Will be beyond calculation.
They will be gentle.
They will have great supernatural powers.
They will keep the sutras of the Great Vehicle
Expounded by the Buddhas.

The Śrāvakas will have already eliminated āsravas,
And reached the final stage of their physical existence.
They will become sons of the King of the Dharma.
Their number also will be beyond calculation.
Even those who have heavenly eyes
Will not be able to count them.

The duration of the life of that Buddha
Will be twelve small kalpas.
His right teachings will be preserved
For twenty small kalpas.
The counterfeit of his right teachings
Will be preserved also for twenty small kalpas.
All this is my prophecy
About the World-Honored One called Light.

See Divisions of the Lotus Sutra

LS32, d9b, 2buddhas

Divisions of the Lotus Sutra

In developing his teachings about the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren drew upon and adapted earlier traditions of Lotus interpretation. Chinese exegetes had often employed a technique known as “analytic division” (Ch. fenke) or parsing that purported to uncover categories of meaning implicit within a particular sūtra, and thus, to reveal the Buddha’s true intent. Zhiyi, for example, divided the Lotus Sūtra into two sections: the first fourteen of its twenty-eight chapters, he said, represent the “trace teaching” (Ch. jimen, J. shakumon), which presents Śākyamuni Buddha as a “trace” or manifestation, that is, a historical figure who lived and taught in this world, while the second fourteen chapters constitute the “origin teaching” (benmen, honmon), which presents Śākyamuni as the primordial buddha, awakened since the inconceivably remote past. The intent of the trace teaching, Zhiyi said, lies in opening the three vehicles to reveal the one vehicle, while the intent of the origin section is to reveal the Buddha’s original awakening in the distant past. Nichiren also regarded these as the two great revelations of the Lotus Sūtra. For him, the trace teaching revealed buddhahood as a potential inherent in all beings, while the origin teaching presented it as a reality fully manifested in the Buddha’s life and conduct. Nichiren saw the core of the trace and origin teachings as Chapters Two and Sixteen, respectively, and urged his followers to recite these chapters as part of their daily practice.

Chinese commentators … typically divided sūtras into three parts: an introductory section, the main exposition, and a “dissemination” section, urging that the sūtra be transmitted to the future. Zhiyi divided the Lotus Sūtra accordingly: Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra represents “introduction”; Chapters Two through the first part of Seventeen represent the “main exposition”; and the latter part of Chapter Seventeen and the remaining chapters represent “dissemination.” Zhiyi further divided each of the sūtra’s two exegetical divisions, the trace and origin teachings, into these three parts. Nichiren expanded this threefold analysis in two directions. Zooming out, as it were, he applied it to the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings: all teachings that preceded the Lotus Sūtra are “introduction”; the threefold Lotus Sūtra is the “main exposition”; and the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, which Tendai tradition regards as a restatement of the Lotus Sūtra, represents “dissemination.” Zooming in, he identified all the teachings of all buddhas throughout space and time, including the trace teaching of Lotus Sūtra, as preparation, and the daimoku, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, the heart of the origin teaching, as the main exposition. Nichiren did not say explicitly what “dissemination” would mean in that case. His later disciples put forth various explanations, for example, that it referred to the spread of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō in the mappō era.

Two Buddhas, p50-52
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 concluded Chapter 5, we begin Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, with the prediction for Mahā-Kāśyapa.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, having sung these gāthās, said to the great multitude [of bhikṣus]:

“This Mahā-Kāśyapa, a disciple of mine, will see three hundred billions of Buddhas, of World-Honored Ones, make offerings to them, respect them, honor them, praise them, and expound an innumerable number of their great teachings in his future life. After that, on the final stage of his physical existence, he will become a Buddha, called Light, the Tathāgata, 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. His world will be called Light-Virtue; and the kalpa in which he will become that Buddha, Great-Adornment. The duration of the life of that Buddha will be twelve small kalpas. His right teachings will be preserved for twenty small kalpas, and the counterfeit of his right teachings will be preserved also for twenty small kalpas. His world will be adorned, and not be defiled with tile-pieces, rubble, thorns or dirt. The ground [of his world] will be even, and devoid of pits and mounds. It will be made of lapis lazuli. Jeweled trees will stand in lines, and the roads will be marked off by ropes of gold. Jeweled flowers will be strewn all over the ground, and the ground will be purified. Many hundreds of thousands of millions of Bodhisattvas and innumerable Śrāvakas will live in that world. Although Mara and his followers also will live there, they will not do any evil but protect the teachings of the Buddha.”

See The Brilliance and Power of the Lotus Sūtra

LS32, d1b, 2buddhas

The Brilliance and Power of the Lotus Sūtra

The authors of the Lotus Sūtra were deeply learned in the language of Buddhism, and the text is filled with all manner of allusions to, and radical reinterpretations of, the Buddha’s teachings. A second goal of this book, therefore, is to focus on what was at stake in the compilation of a Mahāyāna sūtra — what it meant to compose a revelation of a new teaching, to legitimize that revelation as the Buddha’s words, and then to use it as a polemic against the established tradition. Readers accustomed to the traditional claim held by many devotees, that the Lotus Sūtra is the teaching of the historical Buddha expounded in the last eight years of this life, may initially find this perspective challenging. We suggest, however, that one’s appreciation of the brilliance and power of the Lotus Sūtra is only enhanced when the historical circumstances of its composition are taken into consideration. That is, the genius of the Lotus Sūtra becomes fully apparent only when one engages with the kinds of questions the compilers themselves were compelled to address.

Two Buddhas, p4
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 heard Śākyamuni explain how he reveals the Dharma with the Simile of the Herbs, we conclude Chapter 5.

Both the Śrāvakas and the cause-knowers,
Who live in mountains or forests,
Who have reached the final stage
of their physical existence,
And who have attained enlightenment by hearing the Dharma,
May be likened to the herbs
Which have already grown up.

The Bodhisattvas
Who resolve to seek wisdom,
Who understand the triple world,
And who seek the most excellent vehicle,
May be likened to the short trees
Which have already grown up.

Those who practice dhyāna,
Who have supernatural powers,
Who have great joy
When they hear that all things are insubstantial,
And who save all living beings
By emitting innumerable rays of light,
May be likened to the tall trees
Which have already grown up.

As previously stated, Kāśyapa, I expound the Dharma
And lead human flowers
[To the fruits of Buddhahood]
Just as the large cloud waters all flowers
By a rain of the same taste
And causes them to bear their fruits.

Kāśyapa, know this!
I reveal the enlightenment of the Buddha
With various stories of previous lives,
With various parables and similes,
That is, with various expedients.
All the other Buddhas do the same.

Now I will tell you [, Śrāvakas,]
The most important truth.
You, Śrāvakas,
Have not yet attained [true] extinction.
What you are now practicing is
The Way of Bodhisattvas.
Study and practice it continuously,
And you will become Buddhas.

See The Blessings of Faith in the Lotus Sūtra

LS32, d9b, d22b, d23b, d26b, d27b, 2buddhas

The Blessings of Faith in the Lotus Sūtra

The promise in this chapter that those who embrace the one vehicle will be “at peace in this world” and in the next, will be “born into a good existence” articulates what most people sought from religion in Nichiren’s day: good fortune and protection in their present existence and some sort of assurance of a happy afterlife. Traditionally, as with other religions, people expected from Buddhism not only wisdom and insight, but also practical benefits: healing, protection, and worldly success. Nichiren often cited this passage to assure followers that faith in the Lotus Sūtra does indeed offer such blessings. “Money changes form according to its use,” he wrote. “The Lotus Sūtra is also like this. It will become a lamp in the darkness or a boat at a crossing. It can become water; it can also become fire. This being so, the Lotus Sūtra guarantees that we will be ‘at peace in this world’ and be ‘born into a good existence in the future.’ “

Two Buddhas, p100-101