Buddhism for Today, p405-406As shown in this chapter and in the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal [Sage], the so-called closing sutra of the Lotus Sutra, the Bodhisattva Universal [Sage] is perfect in the following four practices:
- He himself practices the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.
- He protects the teachings from all persecutions.
- He bears witness to the merits obtained by one who practices the teachings and to the punishments suffered by one who slanders the teachings or persecutes its followers.
- He proves that even those who violate the teachings can be delivered from their sins if they are sincerely penitent.
The Bodhisattva Universal [Sage] encourages those who have finished hearing the Lotus Sutra and are beginning a new life with these words: “I vow to do these four practices as a conclusion of the practices of the Lotus Sutra. Try to be assiduous in your practices, without anxiety.”
His encouragement may be likened to the commencement address that the principal of a school delivers to the graduating students. They are now leaving school, carrying with them the truth that they have studied there. When they go out into the world, they are often puzzled as to how best to use what they have studied at school. Sometimes they have the unfortunate experience of having the truth they have studied denied by others, or even of being persecuted for it. “Whenever you have trouble, you can visit your old school. We will try to prove that the truth is not wrong. Moreover, we will teach you how you should apply the truth to each practical problem. If you fail in anything, we will show you how to overcome your failure.” In this way, the principal’s commencement speech guarantees the graduates the protection of their activities even after leaving school. No farewell speech of encouragement could be more inspiring than this.
Tag Archives: LS32
Day 32
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month heard the Buddha answer how the good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, we consider Universal-Sage Bodhisattva’s vow to protect those who practice the Lotus Sūtra.
“World-Honored One! The bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās who seek, keep, read, recite and copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], if they wish to study and practice this sūtra, should concentrate their minds [on study and practice] strenuously for three weeks. When they complete [the study and practice of] three weeks, I will mount a white elephant with six tusks, and appear before them with my body which all living beings wish to see, together with innumerable Bodhisattvas surrounding me. I will expound the Dharma to them, show them the Way, teach them, benefit them, and cause them to rejoice. I also will give them dhārāṇi spells. If they obtain these dhārāṇis, they will not be killed by nonhuman beings or captivated by women. Also I myself will always protect them. World-Honored One! Allow me to utter these dhārāṇis spells!”
Thereupon he uttered spells before the Buddha:
“Atandai (1), tandahatai (2), tandahatei (3), tandakusharei (4), tandashudarei (5), shudarei (6), shudarahachi (7), botsudahasennei (8), sarubadarani-abatani (9), sarubabasha-abataru (10), huabatani (11), sōgyahabishani (12), sōgyaneku-kyadani (13), asogi (14), sōgyahagyadai. (15), teirei-ada-sōgyatorya-aratei-haratei (16), sarubasogya-sammaji-kyarandai (17), sarubadarumashuharisettei (18), saru-basatta-rodakyōsharya-atogyadai (19), shin-abikiridaitei (20).”
Wisdom and Practice
Buddhism for Today, p405The Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī represents the Buddha’s wisdom, while the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue typifies the Buddha’s practice. These two bodhisattvas are regarded as a pair: the wisdom represented by Mañjuśrī symbolizes one’s realization of the truth and the practice typified by Universal Virtue one’s practice of the truth.
We have already studied the realization of the truth in the Law of Appearance. In the assembly of the Buddha’s preaching of this Law, the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī was the representative of the Buddha’s disciples. We learned the entity of the truth in the “one chapter and two halves” — the latter half of chapter 15, all of chapter 16, and the first half of chapter 17. In this assembly, the Bodhisattva Maitreya represented the disciples. We were taught the practice of the truth through the example of the practices of various bodhisattvas in the latter half of chapter 17 and the following chapters, which are defined as the concluding part of the Law of Origin. Finally, the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue appears in the last chapter of the Lotus Sutra. There is a deep significance to his appearance at this particular point.
Day 32
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month witnessed the arrival of Universal Sage, we hear the Buddha answer how the good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:
“The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: 1. secure the protection of the Buddhas, 2. plant the roots of virtue, 3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and 4. resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”
Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! If anyone keeps this sūtra in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], I will protect him so that he may be free from any trouble, that he may be peaceful, and that no one may take advantage [of his weak points]. Mara, his sons, his daughters, his subjects, his attendants, yakṣas, rākṣasas, kumbhāṇḍas, piśācakas, kṛtyas, pūtanas, vetādas or other living beings who trouble men shall not take advantage [of his weak points]. If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sūtra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to rum, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. If he sits and thinks over this sūtra, I also will mount a kingly white elephant and appear before him. If he forgets a phrase or a gāthā of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will remind him of it, and read and recite it with him so that he may be able to understand it. Anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [after your extinction], will be able to see me with such joy that he will make more efforts. Because he sees me, he will be able to obtain samadhis and a set of dhārāṇis. The set of dhārāṇis will be the dhārāṇis by which he can memorize repetitions of teachings, the dhārāṇis by which he can memorize hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings, and the dhārāṇis by which he can understand the expediency of the voice of the Dharma.
The Promise of Protection
Two Buddhas, p262Samantabhadra specifically promises to protect those who “preserve this sūtra in the troubled world of five hundred years after.” … [T]he phrase “five hundred years after” was no doubt originally intended to designate the five hundred years following Śākyamuni’s parinirvāṇa, when the sūtra’s compilers believed they were living. However, East Asian commentators took the “five hundred years after” (which can also be read in Chinese as “the last five hundred years”) to mean the last of five five-hundred-year periods in the gradual decline of Buddhist practice and understanding said to take place over the 2,500 years following the Buddha’s passing. For Nichiren, it designated the beginning of the Final Dharma age, when he and his contemporaries believed they were living. This expression “five hundred years after” occurs twice in the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter and three times in the present chapter. For Nichiren it predicted in the Buddha’s very words both the task being shouldered by himself and his disciples and the surety of its fulfillment. It designated the time when the buddhahood of ordinary people could be realized. As he wrote: “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō will spread for ten thousand years and beyond, far into the future. Its merit can open the blind eyes of all sentient beings in the country of Japan and block the road to the Hell without Respite [Avici]. … A hundred years’ practice in the Land of Bliss cannot equal the merit gained from one day’s practice in this defiled world, and propagation [of the dharma] throughout the two thousand years of the True and Semblance Dharma ages is inferior to a single hour’s propagation in the Final Dharma age. This is in no way because of Nichiren’s wisdom, but solely because the time makes it so.”
Day 32
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month concluded the Chapter 28 with the benefits received by those who heard The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, be begin again with the arrival of Universal Sage.
Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance, came from a world [in the distance of many worlds] to the east [of this Sahā-World]. He was accompanied by innumerable, uncountable great Bodhisattvas. All the worlds quaked as he passed through. [The gods] rained down jeweled lotus-flowers, and made many hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds of music. He was also surrounded by a great multitude of innumerable gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. They reached Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa of the Sahā-World by their virtues and supernatural powers. [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] worshiped [the feet of] Śākyamuni Buddha with his head, walked around the Buddha [from left] to right seven times and said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which you expounded in this Sahā World, from a remote world in which lives Treasure-PowerVirtue-Superior-King Buddha. I came here with many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattvas in order to hear and receive [this Sūtra]. World-Honored One! Tell me how the good men or women who live after your extinction will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!”
The Protection of Universal Sage
Two Buddhas, p261In Nichiren’s teaching, it is the bodhisattvas of the earth who play the lead roles in spreading the Lotus Sūtra in the Final Dharma age. But he recognized Samantabhadra [Universal Sage] as a protector and, in one letter written from exile to Sado Island, referred to him as manifesting through two of his most supportive lay followers, the samurai Shinjō Kingo and his wife, Nichigen-nyo: “You were both born of ordinary status, and you live in Kamakura [the seat of Bakufu authority], yet you trust in the Lotus Sūtra without fearing others’ gaze and without begrudging your lives. This is no ordinary matter… . Surely this is what the Lotus Sūtra means where it says that those living in Jambudvipa who believe in this sūtra do so by the power of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra.”
As suggested in the long passage from Nichiren cited above, Samantabadhra is often depicted iconographically as Śākyamuni Buddha’s attendant on the right, with Mañjuśrī attending him on the left. Where Mañjuśrī represents wisdom and realization, Samantabhadra represents teaching and practice. The Lotus Sūtra begins with Mañjuśrī playing a role in preparing the assembly to receive Śākyamuni’s preaching of the sūtra just before his final nirvāṇa; it concludes with Samantabadhra vowing to protect those who uphold the sūtra after he has departed. On Nichiren’s mandala, the names of Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra appear as representatives of bodhisattvas from other worlds and of the trace teaching.
Day 32
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered those who keep, read and recite the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after the Buddha’s extinction, we conclude the Chapter 28 with the benefits received by those who heard The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.
When the Buddha expounded this chapter of the Encouragement of Universal-Sage, as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges obtained the dhārāṇis by which they could memorize hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings, and as many Bodhisattvas as the particles of dust of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds [understood how to] practice the Way of Universal-Sage.
When the Buddha expounded this sūtra, the great congregation including the Bodhisattvas headed by Universal-Sage, the Śrāvakas headed by Śāriputra, and the other living beings such as gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings, had great joy, kept the words of the Buddha, bowed [to him], and retired.
[Here ends] the Eighth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
The Tardy Bodhisattva
Two Buddhas, p 260-261In one passage, Nichiren gives a humorous account of Samantabhadra’s [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] late arrival at the Lotus assembly:
Among all the many bodhisattvas, Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī were like ministers of the right and left to the Lord Śākyamuni. It was strange, therefore, that Samantabhadra, as one of those two ministers, should have failed to be in attendance during the eight or so years when the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra, which surpasses all the other teachings of his lifetime and which all buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, more numerous than the dust particles of the great earth, had assembled to hear. But when the Buddha had finished expounding the “King Śubhavyūha” [King Wonderful-Adornment] chapter and was about to conclude his preaching of the Lotus Sūtra, Samantabhadra came hastily from the land of the buddha Ratnatejo’bhyudgatarāja [Treasure-PowerVirtue-Superior-King Buddha] in the eastern quarter, accompanied by the sounds of ten billion musical instruments and leading countless numbers of the eight kinds of nonhuman beings. Probably fearing the Buddha’s displeasure at his tardy arrival, he assumed a serious expression and pledged in all earnestness to protect those who practice the Lotus Sūtra in the latter age. But the Buddha, no doubt pleased with his extraordinary sincerity in vowing to spread the Lotus Sūtra throughout the continent of Jambudvipa, praised him even more highly than he had earlier praised other bodhisattvas of higher rank.
Day 32
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month heard Śākyamuni Buddha praise Universal Sage’s efforts, we consider those who keep, read and recite the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after the Buddha’s extinction.
“Universal-Sage! If you see anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the later five hundred years after my extinction, you should think, ‘Before long be will go to the place of enlightenment, defeat Mara and his followers, attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, turn the wheel of the Dharma, beat the drum of the Dharma, blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, send the rain of the Dharma, and sit on the lion-like seat of the Dharma in the midst of the great multitude of gods and men.’
“Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra [in the later five hundred years] after [my extinction], will not be attached to clothing, bedding, food or drink, or any other thing for living. What he wishes will not remain unfulfilled. He will be able to obtain the rewards of his merits in his present life. Those who abuse him, saying, ‘You are perverted. You are doing this for nothing,’ will be reborn blind in their successive lives in retribution for their sin. Those who make offerings to rum and praise him, will be able to obtain rewards in their present life. Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives. Therefore, Universal-Sage! When you see the keeper of this sūtra in the distance, you should rise from your seat, go to him, receive him, and respect him just as you respect me.
The Daily Dharma from Aug. 24, 2019, offers this:
Universal-Sage! If you see anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the later five hundred years after my extinction, you should think, ‘Before long he will go to the place of enlightenment, defeat Māra and his followers, attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, turn the wheel of the Dharma, beat the drum of the Dharma, blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, send the rain of the Dharma, and sit on the lion-like seat of the Dharma in the midst of the great multitude of gods and men.’
The Buddha gives this instruction to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren explained that the later five hundred years mentioned in this passage is the time in which we are living today. The Buddha is therefore talking about all of us who practice the Wonderful Dharma. When we can grow our capacity to respect each other as we respect the Buddha, it inspires the respect at the core of all beings, and transforms this world.
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