Quotes

Profound

The Practice of the Perfect Teaching

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The practice of the Perfect Teaching concerns embracing all practices in a single mind. This is to say that one practice can embrace all practices, and all practices can be represented by one practice. This is because the Middle Way of the Perfect Teaching is taken by Chih-i as the Ultimate Truth that can view the fundamental identity of all things, whereby the whole reality can be instantaneously grasped through one practice. Realizing that the part is identical to the whole, one does not need to go through immeasurable practices. One’s mind that contains the whole universe enables one to embrace all practices.* (Vol. 2, Page 297)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


*See Nichiren’s warning.

buddhaseed

Joy of Faith

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When we have joy, we should realize that true joy is to live along with the Buddha. We should practice harder and not wallow in earthly pleasures. We can make earthly pleasure a starting point for true joy.

Thus, while living in this world with suffering and joy, we live along with the Buddha and Nichiren Shōnin. Living with religious joy rising out of the suffering and joy in this world is called Jiju Hōraku; this is receiving joy of the Dharma by oneself. As we are living in this defiled world of reality with our defiled bodies, we are living along with the Buddha in this Pure Land. It is this joy of faith that is the resolution of our sufferings.

Buddha Seed: Understanding the Odaimoku

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Creation of an Independent Nichiren Hokke Tradition

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Had Nichiren not publicly attacked Hōnen’s teaching and come into conflict with the bakufu, his following might have remained simply another branch of medieval Tendai, and an independent Nichiren Hokke tradition might never have emerged. However, his failure to win an official hearing, followed by the sentence of exile, forced him into an adversarial position from which he would begin to define his religion over and against that of the ruling elites. Of low status from the outset and now under criminal sentence, Nichiren would increasingly articulate his message from the standpoint of someone on the margins in challenge to the center. More precisely, he would elaborate a world view and mythic vision in which center and periphery were reversed. (Page 251)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Four Dharma-Doors

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[W]hen various groups of retinues are examined in terms of the Four Teachings, they are classified by Chih-i into coarse or subtle. Retinues that belong to the Tripiṭaka, the Common and the Separate Teachings are coarse, except for the ones of the Perfect Teaching that are subtle. As the Perfect Teaching concerning universal salvation that is represented by the Lotus Sūtra, Chih-i maintains that in the Lotus Sūtra, all retinues of the Buddha are considered to be subtle. For Chih-i, the Four Teachings are the four ways of reaching truth, and thus, are the four Dharma-doors. (vOL. 2, Page 293)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


Lotus Path

See the Good Things

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Going lightly on ourselves, realizing that the teaching of the Buddha in the Lotus Sutra are peaceful and pleasant and we can obtain wonderful merits, means that we should abandon wrong views. Being gentle of mind is being gentle towards others and ourselves. Learning to celebrate the good things, to even see the good things in our lives takes practice and skill, especially if we have listened to our mental tapes or the messages of others that try to tell us we are not worthy. Try this out. Today for half the day look around you and really pay attention to all the things that are red. See if you can spot all the red things in your environment. For the second half try to spot all the green things, look closely and see if you can see green things you never thought of as green before.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

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The Importance of 3,000 Realms In One Thought-Moment

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The beginnings of Nichiren’s eventual thinking concerning the daimoku are, however, already present in his Ichidai shōgyō taii (The cardinal meaning of the sacred teachings of the Buddha’s lifetime), written in 1258, which declares the Lotus Sūtra to be the Buddha’s ultimate teaching and the purpose of his advent in this world. In this work, Nichiren identifies the five characters of the daimoku, the “Wonderful Dharma,” with the “three thousand realms in one thought-moment” (ichinen sanzen), an identification that would be central to his later writings. The Ichidai shōgyō taii also foreshadows the importance Nichiren would place on the concept of the “three thousand realms in one thought-moment” as the foundation of his mature thought. Unlike the majority of medieval Tendai kuden texts, Nichiren took as his doctrinal basis not the threefold contemplation in a single mind, but the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. While both concepts express the idea of a perfectly interpenetrating universe in which all dharmas simultaneously encompass one another, the “three thousand realms in one thought-moment” explicitly includes two component principles that Nichiren would draw upon in developing his thought. One is the mutual inclusion of the ten dharma realms (jikkai gogu), which Nichiren used to focus more diffuse notions of nonduality on the mutual encompassing of the Buddha realm and the nine realms of unenlightened beings. The other is the concept of the land (kokudo seken), which is nondual with and inseparable from the beings who inhabit it. This concept would be important to Nichiren for two reasons. First, it underlies his claim that the land itself can manifest Buddhahood, that is, that the pure land can be realized in the present world. Second, its implication that insentient forms can manifest Buddhahood provided the doctrinal basis for his use of a mandala as a honzon or object of worship. (Page 248-249)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Retinues Related to Buddha’s Transformation Body

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In terms of “explaining retinues that are formed by the responses of the Buddha (Ming Ying-sheng Chüan-shu), Chih-i states that this group of retinues is related to the Buddha’s transformation-body (Skt., nirmāṇakāya), and the nirmāṇakāya is the manifestation of the Buddha’s Dharma-body (dharmakāya). The former is the body that is present in responding to sentient beings. Chih-i argues that the Buddha’s Dharmabody manifests itself as the nirmāṇakāya is (i) for the sake of maturing others (Wei Shu-t ‘a), (ii) for the sake of self-maturing (Wei Tzu-shu), and (iii) for the sake of original karmic affinity (Wei Pen-yüan).

Chih-i explains that the reason the nirmāṇakāya is necessary for the sake of maturing others is because the wholesome factors of the second group of retinues (that are formed by karmic connection) are weak, and they are unable to bring forth a resolve to the bodhi-mind by themselves. Although having attained salvation for himself, with his great compassion, the Buddha appears to be the bodhisattva who responds to the beings by means of entering the twenty-five kinds of existence, in order to be a teacher and to guide beings to aspire to attain Buddhahood. Because of the response of the bodhisattva, living beings may attain the real Path, and become internal retinues (i.e., also become a bodhisattva); they may attain the similar Path (i.e., resembling bodhisattva wisdom); and they may neither attain the real Path nor the similar Path, but their wholesome karma can still increase. In short, the bodhisattva ‘s response can benefit all living beings regardless of their differences. In order to emphasize the function of the dharmakāya that is all-embracing, Chih-i goes so far as to include destructive elements of the mundane world, declaring:

“As for the hatred, resistance, slander of heretics, one should know that all these are actions of the dharmakāya.”

This statement of Chih-i is quite daring and reflects Chih-i’s comprehensive view of worldly phenomenon. Considering that Chih-i vehemently adheres to the Ultimate Truth that underlies all things, the logical conclusion drawn from this theory includes, of course, constructive as well as destructive elements, and destructive elements are, thus, declared by Chih-i as the act of the dharmakāya, and as belonging to expedient means. Chih-i asserts that in the Lotus Sūtra, all of the Buddha’s actions are revealed for the sake of saving living beings; though expedient, they contain his real intention of leading beings to attain Buddhahood.

Chih-i explains that the nirmāṇakāya that is for the sake of self-maturing refers to the bodhisattva who attains the Path either by receiving the teaching of the historical Buddha Śākyamuni, or by receiving the teaching of the eternal Buddha in an incalculable past in the Origin.

In terms of the nirmāṇakāya for the sake of original karmic affinity, Chih-i explains that “Origin” (Pen) refers to one’s initial resolve to enlightenment, and because of this original resolve, one has developed karmic affinity with the Buddha, which insures one’s attainment of Buddhahood. (Vol. 2, Page 292-293)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


History of Japanese Religion

Messenger of Buddha

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Nichiren deemed himself to be the man sent by Buddha to open the way for the transformed world, the messenger of Buddha, an incarnation of the Truth.

History of Japanese Religion

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An Expression of Devotion, Veneration, Praise, or Taking Refuge

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Although Nichiren’s thinking during this early period thus remained largely within the framework of Taimitsu, some of the beginnings of his distinctive teaching are nevertheless in evidence. Around this time, Nichiren began recommending to his disciples a practice that has since become almost uniquely associated with his tradition: chanting the daimoku or title of the Lotus Sūtra, in the formula “Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō.” Myōhōrenge-kyō is the Sino-Japanese pronunciation for Miao-fa-lien-hua Ching, the title of the Chinese translation of the Saddharma-pundanka-sūtra made by Kumārajīva in 406 and regarded as authoritative throughout East Asia. “Namu,” a transliteration of the Sanskrit namo- (from namas), is an expression of devotion, veneration, praise, or the taking of refuge. Nichiren himself did not invent this practice. Use of the phrase “Namu-myōhōrenge-kyō” to express devotion to the Dharma is attested as early as the ninth century. Throughout the late Heian period, single phrases expressing faith in the Lotus were chanted—though not nearly as widely— in the same manner as the nenbutsu. These expressions were not unified but included such variants as “Namu- myōhō-renge-kyō,” “Namu-ichijōmyōden” (Namu to the wonderful scripture of the one vehicle), and so forth.42 Nichiren, however, was the first to define the daimoku as an exclusive practice and to provide it with a doctrinal foundation. His emphasis on the daimoku as an exclusive practice no doubt reflects the influence of Hōnen’s exclusive nenbutsu teaching, as others have pointed out. But the doctrinal basis he provided for it has deep roots in Taimitsu and also reflects his own distinctive synthesis. (Page 247-248)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Explaining Retinues of Practitioners

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In terms of “explaining retinues that are formed by individual supramundane powers” (Ming Shen-t ‘ung-sheng Chüan-shu), this category of retinues is referred by Chih-i to the practitioners, who, in their previous lives, brought forth real non-defilement, and perceived truth by being present in hearing the teaching of the Buddha. Nevertheless, since they have not removed themselves from the rebirth of the realm of desire in the lower-realm, they are reborn in the realms of form and formlessness in the upper-realm. When the Buddha is present in the mundane world, they acquire the power of vows to be reborn in the lower-realm, carrying out various practices in assisting the Buddha’s teaching career, so that they can eliminate the last bit of delusions, and gain freedom from the three realms of transmigration. Even if they haven’t yet completely overcome their delusions, they can still complete their task by themselves upon the extinction of the Buddha or accomplish it when the future Buddha comes. (Vol. 2, Page 291-292)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism