A Bodhisattva practices the Six Perfections or pāramitās to obtain the goal of causing all beings to strive for Buddhahood. The Six Perfections are:
- Giving
- Observing Precepts
- Patience
- Striving
- Meditation
- Wisdom
Quotes
The Eightfold Path
The Eightfold Path is a set of guidelines for our lives that help us develop understanding and compassion. Developing that kind of deeply compassionate life can help release us from suffering. The Eightfold Path is:
- Right Views
- Right Thought
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Effort
- Right Mindfulness
- Right Meditation
… So what exactly do we mean by “right?” It means that we should use our judgment based on the Buddha’s teachings and be mindful of these things when living with others in our society.
Awakening to the Lotus500 Days of Practice
I wonder what you could accomplish in your life if you made a commitment from today for 500 days to practice on a regular consistent basis towards the achievement of some change in your life? Would you be able to travel the entire 500 days without giving up or abandoning or forgetting your goal and effort?
The Magic City: Studying the Lotus SutraPracticing for Others
I have frequently spoken with people who are the only practitioner in their household and sometimes they express concern that the other person doesn’t practice. To this I have to say, yes they do! By their indirect support of you as a person, and especially if they do not interfere with your belief in and practice of the Lotus Sutra, they are in fact indirectly having a deep relationship with the Lotus Sutra through your practice.
Practice GuideThe Three Bodies of the Buddha
The Noumenal or Spiritual Body of the Buddha, is the Truth itself; the second, the Compensation Body, is the Intellect, which can discover the Truth; the third, the Body of Transformation or Impermanence, is that which is the object of worship to the vulgar.
Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)Our Buddhist Corrective Lenses
In many ways, even if we have perfect or near perfect eyesight, we all need corrective lenses. Our Buddhist practice helps us to create the correct lens through which to see the reality of life, the true nature of cause and effect. If we look through distorted lenses, not seeing the suffering caused by our unskillful actions we will continue to manifest results we may not wish to experience. Buddhism helps us abandon the distortions that bring on suffering. By following the Eightfold Path we can begin to see how our distorted views cause suffering for ourselves and for others.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1Getting Better
Over the years, my Buddhist practice has given me the tools to change and the direction in which to make those changes. The Lotus Sutra has been the key. The Buddha doesn’t preach to the congregation that they are defective. He doesn’t tell them that they will not attain enlightenment in this Saha world because they were broken or bad. Instead, he points out that after a certain length of time and after certain practices they will attain enlightenment. None of this is punishment. Can we also be as kind and gentle with ourselves even as we strive to make changes in our lives?
Giving ourselves the space to make changes to the good will guarantee our enlightenment. This is freedom from suffering. You are not a broken person; you can be better though. We all can be better.
Physician's Good MedicineThe Tathagata’s Messenger
The Truth abides eternally, but it is an abstraction, a dead law, without the person who perpetuates the life of the Truth. The Buddha Sakyamuni, in his human manifestation, was the one, the Tathagata par excellence; but who shall be the one in the future, nay in the present, in these days of degeneration and vice? This was the question of Nichiren, who at last, as the result of his hard experience and perilous life, arrived at the conclusion that he himself was the man destined to achieve the task of the Tathagata’s messenger.
Nichiren, The Buddhist ProphetWith Devoted Faith to the Eternal Buddha
The Buddha is said to have passed away about two thousand five hundred years ago, but really He lives here as the Eternal Buddha, and is saving people everywhere in different forms. This story is expounded for the first time in the final teaching, the Lotus Sutra.
“Since I became the Buddha, I have been expounding the teachings to hundreds of millions of living beings for many hundreds of innumerable aeons to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood. In order to save the people, I expediently showed them my passing away. In reality I shall never be extinct. I always live here, and expound the teaching according to people’s capacities. I am always thinking: ‘How shall I cause all living beings to enter into the unsurpassed Way and quickly become Buddhas?’ ”
– The Lotus Sutra, Chapter XVI
With devoted faith to the Eternal Buddha, we will naturally be endowed with Buddha’s wisdom, be lead to approach Buddhahood and have a good life.
Spring WritingsPlanting Faith and Practice in Harmony
Looking at the plants themselves [in the Simile of the Herbs] we can say that roots equal faith, stems equal precepts or practice, branches equal firm mind, and leaves equal wisdom. Plants as they grow must do so with each part in proportion to the others. A plant will not stay alive long if it has a massive root system sucking up nourishment and no stem or branches or leaves with which to transport the nourishment or to process it through photosynthesis. If there is a strong stem, lots of leaves, but no roots to soak up moisture and chemicals from the soil then the leaves will eventually whither and die. All of the parts of a plant must be developed in harmony with each other.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra