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Hachiman’s Failure

Before the time of Grand Master Dengyō, this Great Bodhisattva Hachiman had been fed with the taste of a diluted Lotus Sūtra, like milk diluted with water. Due to the merit of his virtuous acts in previous lives, the Great Bodhisattva was reborn as Emperor Ōjin and manifested himself as a god to protect the land of Japan. However, Hachiman’s merit of good acts in previous lives has been exhausted and the taste of the True Dharma has been lost and it has been many years since the slanderers of the True Dharma filled the country of Japan. Being revered by the people of Japan for many years as their protective deity, Hachiman did not abandon them, but kept the slanderers of the True Dharma under his protection, like aged parents refusing to cast aside unfilial children. Therefore, Hachiman’s palace was burnt down probably by heavenly beings as punishment.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 264-265

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Day 3

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Day 3 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 2, Expedients, we return to the top and the World-Honored One emerging quietly from his samādhi.

Thereupon the World-Honored One emerged quietly from his samādhi, and said to Śāriputra:
“The wisdom of the [present] Buddhas is profound and immeasurable. The gate to it is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. [Their wisdom] cannot be understood by any Śrāvaka or Pratyekabuddha because the [present] Buddhas attended on many hundreds of thousands of billions of [past] Buddhas, and practiced the innumerable teachings of those Buddhas bravely and strenuously to their far-flung fame until they attained the profound Dharma which you have never heard before, [and became Buddhas,] and also because [since they became Buddhas] they have been expounding the Dharma according to the capacities of all living beings in such various ways that the true purpose of their [various] teachings is difficult to understand.

“Śāriputra! Since I became a Buddha, I [also] have been expounding various teachings with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, and with various similes. I have been leading all living beings with innumerable expedients in order to save them from various attachments, because I have the power to employ expedients and the power to perform the pāramitā of insight.

“Śāriputra! The insight of the Tathāgatas is wide and deep. [The Tathāgatas] have all the [states of mind towards] innumerable [living beings,] unhindered [eloquence,] powers, fearlessness, dhyāna-concentrations, emancipations, and samādhis. They entered deep into boundlessness, and attained the Dharma which you have never heard before.

“Śāriputra! The Tathāgatas divide [the Dharma] into various teachings, and expound those teachings to all living beings so skillfully and with such gentle voices that living beings are delighted. Śāriputra! In short, the Buddhas attained the innumerable teachings which you have never heard before. No more, Śāriputra, will I say because the Dharma attained by the Buddhas is the highest Truth, rare [to hear] and difficult to understand. Only the Buddhas attained [the highest Truth, that is,] the reality of all things’ in regard to their appearances as such, their natures as such, their entities as such, their powers as such, their activities as such, their primary causes as such, their environmental causes as such, their effects as such, their rewards and retributions as such, and their equality as such [despite these differences].

Nichiren discusses how the dharma can be understood only between Buddhas and Buddhas alone in his letter “Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time”:

Pondering the Great Wisdom Discourse, we are reminded of the quotation in the second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Expedients,” which reads: “Only between Buddhas and Buddhas alone can this be understood.” This quotation exists for the Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha) who, through pre-Lotus teachings, have overcome the delusions arising from incorrect views and thoughts, have undertaken extreme austerities, turning the body to ashes and annihilating consciousness, and are allowed to gain enlightenment by the grace of the Lotus Sūtra, which assures that the three ways of evil passions, karma, and suffering would immediately be transformed into the three merits of the Dharma Body, wisdom, and emancipation. Since what was believed to be beyond the reach of the Two Vehicles is attainable, it can be assumed that bodhisattvas and the untutored may also anticipate enlightenment. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra claims: “Granted that the condition in which someone of the Two Vehicles reaches a state of extreme mental and physical exhaustion where desires, which were called ‘poison,’ are thoroughly extinguished, then with the advent of enlightenment as guaranteed by the Lotus Sūtra such a poison would be transformed into medicine. This summarizes Nāgārjuna’s position. Nāgārjuna’s Great Wisdom Discourse further claims, ‘The Lotus Sūtra is indeed truly representative of an esoteric teaching; other teachings cannot be referred to as being so defined.’ ”

Shimon Butsujō-gi, Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 249

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Lotus Sūtra and Ten Realms

The second, “Expedients,” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra (fascicle 1) states that the purpose of the Buddhas appearing in the worlds was “to cause all living beings to open the gate to the insight of the Buddha.” This means that of the nine of the ten realms of living beings (excepting the realm of Buddhas), each embraces the realm of Buddhas. In the sixteenth chapter, “The Life Span of the Buddha,” the sūtra also declares: “As I said before, it is immeasurably long since I, Śākyamuni Buddha, obtained Buddhahood. My life spans an innumerably and incalculably long period of time. Nevertheless, I am always here and I shall never pass away. Good men! The duration of my life, which I obtained by practicing the way of bodhisattvas, has not yet expired. It will last twice as long as the length of time as stated above.” This passage also shows that the nine realms are included in the realm of Buddhas.

The following passages in the Lotus Sūtra also show that the ten realms of living beings embrace one another. It is said in the twelfth chapter, “Devadatta,” that after an incalculably long period of time, Devadatta will be a Buddha called “Heavenly King.” This shows the realm of Buddhas included in the realms of hells as it says that even a man as wicked as Devadatta, who had tried to kill the Buddha and had gone to hell, will be able to become a Buddha.

In the twenty-sixth chapter on the “Mystic Phrases,” the Buddha praises the ten female rākṣasa demons such as Lambā saying, “Your merits will be immeasurable even when you protect the person who keeps only the name of the Lotus Sūtra.” Since even these rākṣasa demons in the realm of hungry spirits protect the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, the ten realms, from hells up to the realm of Buddhas, are comprised in the realm of hungry spirits.

The “Devadatta” chapter states also that a daughter of a dragon king attained perfect enlightenment, proving the existence of the ten realms in the realm of beasts.

The tenth chapter, “The Teacher of the Dharma,” says that even a semi-god like Asura King Balin (a king of asura demons mentioned in the first “Introduction” chapter) will obtain Buddhahood if he rejoices for a moment at hearing a verse or a phrase of the Lotus Sūtra. This shows that the ten realms are contained in the realm of asura demons.

It is stated in the second “Expedients” chapter: “Those who carve an image of the Buddha with proper physical characteristics in His honor have already attained the enlightenment of the Buddha,” showing that the realm of man includes the ten realms in it.

Then in the first “Introduction” and the third “A Parable” chapters, various gods such as the great King of the Brahma Heaven declare, “we also shall be able to become Buddhas,” proving that the ten realms are contained in the realm of gods. In the third chapter, the Buddha assures Śāripūtra, the wisest of His śrāvaka disciples, that he will also attain Buddhahood in future life and will be called “Kekō (Flower Light) Buddha.” This confirms the existence of the ten realms in the realm of śrāvaka.

The second chapter states that those monks and nuns who sought emancipation through the way of pratyekabuddha (without guidance of teachers by observing the principle of cause and effect) pressed their hands together in respect, wishing to hear the Perfect Way. This affirms the existence of the ten realms in the realm of pratyekabuddha.

It is written in the twenty-first chapter, “Divine Powers of the Buddha,” that bodhisattvas as numerous as particles of dust of 1,000 worlds, who had sprung up from underground, beseeched the Buddha for this true, pure, and great dharma, namely the Lotus Sūtra. This verifies the existence of the ten realms in the realm of bodhisattvas.

Finally, in the sixteenth chapter, the Buddha sometimes appears as a Buddha in the realm of Buddhas but at other times appears as some of the others who reside in the other nine realms. This indicates that the ten realms are included in the realm of Buddhas.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 132-133

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Nichiren’s View of Abrahamic Religions

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Nichiren may indeed have included the three major forms of Western monotheism if he had known about them, as he seems to have wanted to account for all the major religions in the world. I also believe that he would have evaluated them using the same method of comparison in terms of the scope of time scales. To review: just as the Buddha criticized the sixty-two (or ninety-five) views of his contemporaries who drew dogmatic conclusions about the nature of life based on limited experiences either in this life or even from past-life recall, Nichiren evaluated Confucianism, Taoism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and other philosophies and religions based on how limited or vast a scope of time their teachings accounted for. Confucianism fares the worst for not even attempting to account for life before birth or after death but limiting itself to teaching morality only in terms of the present lifetime.

Brahmanism fares better for it does teach that there is a cycle of rebirth that unfolds according to the law of karma, and thus accounts for a much greater scope of time. In fact, Brahman cosmology teaches that there are whole cycles wherein world systems are created, maintained, and then destroyed over the course of eons and within those cycles beings are reborn continually until they can attain one of the heavenly realms. The Upanishads taught that those who realized the Ātman or True Self would be forever liberated from these cycles, but the Buddhist sūtras do not mention the Upanishads nor does Nichiren.

From the Buddhist point of view, however, in the course of time even those reborn in the heavens will exhaust their merit and they will have to be reborn elsewhere depending on what causes are able to come into fruition. From the Buddhist perspective even the vast amounts of time spent in a hell-realm or a heavenly-realm is still a finite period of time because all caused and conditioned states will eventually come to an end. Such is the universal law of the impermanence of all conditioned phenomena.

Coming back to Western monotheism, … The important thing is that the mainstream view posits only one lifetime to be followed by an eternal afterlife of some sort. Going by Nichiren’s criteria, I think he would perhaps have placed Western monotheism ahead of the agnostic Chinese schools of thought because it at least provides for some kind of afterlife wherein the causes one makes in this life will come to fruition for good or for ill. On the other hand, I think he would not have put Western monotheism on the level of Brahmanism, as the latter accounts for many lifetimes and its understanding of the unfolding of cause and effect over many lifetimes is more developed. From a Brahmanist point of view, one might live in heaven or hell for thousands or millions of years, but it is not actually an eternity though mistaken as such by those who don’t see larger time scale. I stress, again, that this is my guess based on how Nichiren evaluated the other non-Buddhist traditions.

Open Your Eyes, p118-119
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Nichiren’s Vow

As you know, I, Nichiren, have been eagerly studying since childhood and began praying when I was twelve years old to Bodhisattva Space Repository to help me to become the wisest in Japan. The reason for my prayers was complicated, too complicated to explain here in detail. Later I first began to study the doctrines of the Pure Land and Zen Sects. Then I studied the doctrines of the Tendai and Shingon Sects on Mt. Hiei, at the Onjōji Temple, and on Mt. Kōya. I further studied the doctrines of the various sects at temples in Kyoto and the provinces, but these studies did not serve to clear up the doubts I had in mind about Buddhism.

In my initial prayer I made a vow that: I would not favor any particular sect; I would adopt whichever sect that provided the evidence of being the teaching of the Buddha and was reasonable; I would be guided solely by the sūtras, not by the commentators in India, translators and minister-masters in China; I would not be afraid, regarding the doctrines of Buddhism, of even being punished by a king, not to mention persecutions by the people below him; I would not follow instructions against the Buddha’s teachings even if they were given by my parents, teacher and elder brother; and that I would speak up honestly as expounded in the sūtras regardless of whether or not people believed in me.

Ha Ryōkan-tō Gosho, A Letter Refuting Ryōkan-bō and Others, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 60

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A Skillful Means of Entry to the Buddha Dharma

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As was the case with Confucianism, East Asian Buddhists viewed Brahmanism as a precursor to Buddhism. They saw it as a teaching set up by the buddhas and the bodhisattvas to serve as a skillful means of entry to the Buddha Dharma. As Nichiren says in Kaimoku-shō:

After all, the most important thing for non-Buddhist teachings is, like Confucianism, to prepare the way to Buddhism. This is why some non-Buddhists maintain that the Buddha will be born 1,000 years later, while others insist on 100 years later. It is said, therefore, in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra that what is written in all the non-Buddhist scriptures is nothing but the teaching of the Buddha. Again, it is said in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter eight, “Assurance of Future Buddhahood,” that disciples of the Buddha sometimes pretend to be contaminated with the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance or show the heretic view denying the law of cause and effect as an expedient means to save the people.

Open Your Eyes, p114-115
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Myō Equals Perfection

The Chinese character “myō” is “sad” in Sanskrit, and “miao” in Chinese. It means to be equipped with everything. To be equipped means satisfactory, lacking nothing. Each character of the Lotus Sūtra contains every one of 69,384 characters. It is like a drop of water in the ocean consisting of the water of all the rivers, or a single crystal ball as small as a poppy seed, pouring out all the treasures.

It is as the plants that died with ice and snow in autumn and winter, sprout, put out leaves, blossom and bear fruits in spring and summer. This is a parable in which the people in nine realms before the Lotus Sūtra are compared to the plants of autumn through winter. The character myō of the Lotus Sūtra is likened to the sunshine of spring through summer, and blossoming and bearing fruits mean aspiration for and attainment of Buddhahood by those people. Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna says in his Great Wisdom Discourse that it is “like a great medicine master turning poison into medicine.” This is his explanation of how virtuous “myō” of the Lotus Sūtra was. Grand Master Miao-lê says also that the Lotus Sūtra is named “myō” because it was able to heal all the sick people with obstinate diseases that had not been cured by any other sūtras.

Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 42

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The Pure Perfect Teaching

Generally speaking, there are two things which we should keep in mind as to the Perfect Teachings of the pre-Lotus sūtras. Before Ānanda assembled disciples of the Buddha to compile the sūtras, the Buddha added the doctrine of Distinct and Perfect Teachings and the Four Teachings and Three Teachings to every teaching. Thus, the pure Perfect Teaching was not preached in the sūtras expounded prior to the Lotus Sūtra. In this sense, the Perfect Teachings prior to the Lotus Sūtra are classified as the Distinct Teachings in the Lotus Sūtra. It is said in the tenth fascicle of the Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra that in every stage there are two doctrines, fugen (mutually identical and mutually penetrating) and gyōfu (independence of every stage of the order); thus, we should know that the Perfect Teaching (prior to the Lotus Sūtra) is classified as the Distinct Teaching. Therefore, Buddhahood will not be attained in the pre-Lotus sūtras.

Nijō Sabutsu Ji, Obtaining Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 227

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Daily Dharma – April 21, 2020

This is indeed inexplicable yet precious. If Devadatta does not become a Buddha, the numerous evil people who were induced by him to enter into his evil comradeship would never be able to escape the torment of the Hell of Incessant Suffering. It is solely due to the great favor of the Lotus Sutra that all of Devadatta’s comrades, too, are allowed to be Buddhas.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Prayers (Kitō-shō). Devadatta was a cousin of the Buddha who was jealous of the Buddha’s accomplishments. He tried to set those who followed the Buddha against each other, and even tried several times to kill the Buddha. In the Lotus Sūtra, even Devadatta is assured of becoming a Buddha, opening the path of enlightenment even to those as perverse and deluded as him. When we learn to see even those who cause great harm as being capable of becoming enlightened, then it changes not only how we treat them, but how we see the world.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

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Seeing Our Reflection in the Clear Mirror of the Lotus Sūtra

QUESTION: I have learned that the “3,000 existences contained in one thought” doctrine was first expounded in the fifth fascicle of the Great Concentration and Insight, one of the three major works of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai. Now I would like to know the meaning of spiritual contemplation (kanjin) of the “3,000 existences contained in one thought.”

ANSWER: Spiritual contemplation means for one to meditate on his own mind, observing through it ten realms, from the hells up to the realm of Buddhas, all of which are by nature contained in every mind. For instance, one can see the six sense-organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind) of other people, but one cannot see and know one’s own six sense organs unless one sees one’s reflection in a clear mirror. Despite the fact that various sūtras often preach six realms of illusion (realms of hells, hungry spirits, beasts, asura demons, men, and gods) and four realms of holy beings (Buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddha and śrāvaka), we do not see how our mind contains ten realms, 100 realms, 1,000 aspects, and 3,000 modes of existence, unless we see our reflection in the clear mirror of the Lotus Sūtra and writings of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai such as Great Concentration and Insight.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 131-132