The Buddha’s eternal life should not be seen as a violation of the three marks of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness, which apply to all other forms of life. This is because the Buddha’s eternal life does not depend upon a body or mind characterized by the Three Marks. Rather, the Buddha’s eternal life is the true Nirvana of Buddhahood, which is characterized by purity, bliss, eternity, and true self as opposed to the impurity, suffering, impermanence, and false self that characterize the life of delusion.
Lotus SeedsQuotes
The Story of Maudgalyāyana and His Mother
This story [of Maudgalyāyana and his mother] reminds us that we vow to save all beings as bodhisattvas; when Maudgalyāyana selfishly attempts to help only his own mother his spiritual powers do not work, but when he works for the good of everyone who is suffering his spiritual powers are effective. So we pray for the living, but also the deceased, so all may find the path to enlightenment.
Awakening to the LotusPersistence
“Nothing has a persisting self” means that there is no essential or permanent being; nothing that does not come into being, change, and eventually pass out of being; nothing that exists of itself, without relation to other beings. Everything is constantly being transformed. All things are related in some way to all other things in the universe. Furthermore, there is no fixed reality behind the generation, change, and destruction of phenomena.
Basic Buddhist Concepts
To Exist Without the Limits of Time and Space
Śākyamuni Buddha has neither beginning nor end and has overcome birth, aging, sickness, and death upon his enlightenment. He has risen above life and death and thus, his own life had no birth or death. The Buddha has also gone beyond [or outside of the bounds of] linear time. The ability to recall his own previous existences is indicative of this capacity. To exist without the limits of time and space indicates that the Buddha’s life is everywhere and nowhere; essentially, his life is the entire universe. To understand these ideas, one needs to abandon the notion of time as a linear concept, and enlarge one’s thinking to conceive of time as a multi-dimensional concept, almost layered in nature. The Buddha often speaks of time as if past, present, and future existed simultaneously in different realms as well as in different world systems.
Buddha Seed: Understanding the OdaimokuThe Great Truth of the Mandala
The Mandala typifies the great truth that all things in time and space are in essence one and the same, and that in their reality, or actual nature, they are pure and eternal. In short, the Mandala represents the Buddha of Original Enlightenment, not the man Buddha of gigantic stature and the “glorious features.”
Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)Sandcastles
We may have had an experience of building sandcastles while on vacation at some beach. Sandcastles are not very long lasting, usually until the next tide cycle, and then they are gone.
Sandcastles are a fun way to spend some relaxing time. Yet how much of our lives do we spend constructing sandcastles in our everyday lives? We make castles of stuff, basking in our accomplishments. We build mighty fortresses out of our sense of self and rightness. We build walls of superiority and arrogance to ward off the connections of life and the world around us. We go to great lengths doing what seems worthwhile and important, yet in the end it is worthless. And can easily be destroyed by the changes in life, be it job, relationships, income, health, even aging.
The reality of impermanence and the truth of change is relentless at tearing down our sandcastle walls. Only when we awaken to the true nature of reality – the Buddhahood that perfectly exists already in our life – can we experience a life of indestructible happiness.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1The Gospel of Universal Salvation
The central idea in Buddhist teaching is the gospel of universal salvation based on the idea of the fundamental oneness of all beings. There are in the world, Buddhism teaches, manifold existences and innumerable beings, and each of these individuals deems himself to be a separate being and behaves accordingly. But in reality they make up one family, there is one continuity throughout, and this oneness is to be realized in the attainment of Buddhahood on the part of each and all, in the full realization of the universal communion. Individuals may purify themselves and thereby escape the miseries of sinful existence, yet our salvation is imperfect so long as and so far as there remain any who have not realized the universal spiritual communion, i.e., who are not saved. To save oneself by saving others is the gospel of universal salvation taught by Buddhism.
History of Japanese ReligionThe Focus of Devotion Within
Nichiren constantly admonished his followers to never seek the focus of devotion outside themselves. The Great Mandala Nichiren inscribed shows all the so-called ten worlds of existence, from the hells, heavens, and other forms of existence all the way up to the world of buddhahood, illuminated by the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra. According to a letter traditionally attributed to Nichiren, this mandala-gohonzon is a depiction of the true nature of our lives. Through our faith in the Lotus Sutra we will be able to awaken to this reality and fully express the world of buddhahood residing deep within us all.
Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the GohonzonKing of All Sutras
“Kyo” comes from the Sanskrit “Sutra,” which means “teaching” and “scripture.” However, in the Lotus Sutra the word “Sutra” has another meaning, which is, “Concentrated essence of all teachings into one.” This adds up to, “The King of all Sutras.”
Spring WritingsPersonal Intentions
[In Chapter 1, we read of a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, who had eight sons.] The names of the sons with intention were as follows: Having-Intention, Good-Intention, Infinite-Intention, Treasure-Intention, Increasing-Intention, Doubts-Removing-Intention, Resounding-Intention, and Dharma-Intention. I don’t know about your mother but when I was young and she would scold me she would call me by all my names to which she would frequently, especially if she was really angry, add the name of the dog and all of my brother’s names. I can imagine the mother of these sons calling out Having-Good-Infinite-Treasure-Increasing-Doubts-Removing-Resounding-Dharma-Intention! When you say it like that though you really get a sense of some basic guidelines being given to us in how we might approach our own personal intentions to the Dharma.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra