According to Chih-i’s theory of one mind embracing three thousand dharmas (I-nien San-ch’ien), the mind of a single sentient being contains Ten Dharma-realms. Why? The Ten Dharma-realms are the manifestation of the True Reality. Considering that sentient beings originally possess True Reality (i.e., the real nature of entities), the Ten Dharma-realms that are the manifestation of the True Reality are likewise present everywhere and are contained in the minds of sentient beings. An evil thought belongs to the worlds of hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, and animals; a good thought belongs to the worlds of human and heaven beings; and a thought of compassion belongs to the realm of the bodhisattva and the Buddha. Obviously, it would not be possible for different Dharma-realms to be manifest if one’s mind did not contain all of the Ten Dharma-realms. On the one hand, one instant thought includes the whole universe, and one dharma is identical to all dharmas. On the other hand, the whole universe only exists in every single thought, whereby all dharmas are identical to one dharma. Chih-i’s theory is that the reason one’s thought corresponds to a certain realm at a certain moment signifies that one good thought designates the manifestation of virtue and concealment of evil, and one evil thought the manifestation of evil and concealment of virtue. Good and evil are one entity, and the difference lies in the state between manifestation and concealment. Good and evil transform according to conditions, which is similar to the relationship between ice and water. This indicates that both aspects exist as the one entity of True Reality, which arises in turn with causes and conditions. (Vol. 2, Page 252-253)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismMonthly Archives: January 2019
Day 23
Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.
Having last month repeated in gāthās the merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing even a gāthā of the Lotus Sūtra, we complete Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra.
Anyone who persuades even a single person
To hear the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower
Of the Wonderful Dharma, saying:
“This sūtra is profound and wonderful.
It is difficult to meet it
Even during ten million kalpas,”
And causes him to go and hear it even for a moment,
Will be able to obtain the following merits:In his future lives, he will have no disease of the mouth.
His teeth will not be few, yellow or black.
His lips will not be thick, shrunk or broken.
There will be nothing loathsome [on his lips].
His tongue will not be dry, black or short.
His nose will be high, long and straight.
His forehead will be broad and even.
His face will be handsome.
All people will wish to see him.
His breath will not be foul.
The fragrance of the utpala-flowers
Will always be emitted from his mouth.Anyone who visits a monastery to hear
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
And rejoices at hearing it even for a moment,
Will be able to obtain the following merits:He will be reborn among gods and men.
He will be able to go up to the palace of heaven,
Riding in a wonderful elephant-cart or horse-cart,
Or in a palanquin of wonderful treasures.Anyone who persuades others to sit and hear this sūtra
In the place where the Dharma is expounded,
Will be able to obtain the seat of Sakra or of Brahman
Or of a wheel-turning-holy-king by his merits.
Needless to say, boundless will be the merits
Of the person who hears this sūtra with all his heart,
And expounds its meanings,
And acts according to its teachings.
The Introduction to the Lotus Sūtra offers this on The Merits of that First Moment of Joy:
“Rejoicing” is the joy which one experiences when the significance of the Sutra first sinks in like a ray of light. When this ray of light first illuminates our soul, we have not yet undertaken any profound studies or done any difficult practices. But the merits of that first moment of joy are greater than those of any other practices we may undertake later. It is the hinge upon which everything else turns. This is the essential and most important point of this chapter. Faith is simple; it is also decisive.
Introduction to the Lotus SutraOur Ordinariness
We may think we are ordinary but within each of us underneath the mask of ordinariness is our true identity of enlightened beings. We may not be capable always of seeing our own enlightened nature; we may be so deeply in disguise as to fool ourselves. Yet as we practice we can become more aware of our true nature and our true relationship with the Eternal Buddha as identified in the Lotus Sutra.
Our ordinariness is what enables us to perfect our lives and makes it possible for us to relate to and teach others in society.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraSūtra Superiority
QUESTION: The Sūtra of the Pure Land of Mystic Glorification states that it is “supreme of all the Buddhist scriptures.” The Great Cloud Sūtra claims to be the Wheel-turning Noble King of sūtras whereas the Sūtra of the Golden Splendor says of itself to be the king of sūtras. From these statements we can see that it is customary for Mahāyāna sūtras to claim they are supreme. How can you then say from only one passage in the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning that it is superior to all those sūtras preached in the forty years or so before it?
ANSWER: When Lord Śākyamuni Buddha preaches in each sūtra that it is the supreme sūtra, we cannot distinguish between Mahāyāna and Hinayāna or between provisional and true sūtras. If sectarian people merely talk about the differences among the various sūtras and compare the profundity of their doctrines when no actual differences exist, it will not only be the source of controversy but also cause the evil karma of slandering the True Dharma.
When those sūtras preached during the forty-two years of the pre-Lotus period claim that they are the prime sūtras, however, what they are compared with is not the definitive. Some sūtras claim to be supreme in comparison to Hinayāna sūtras; others claim to be first because their Buddhas have the Reward Body, enjoying eternal longevity instead of eighty years of life; still others say that theirs are first merely because they explain the triple truth completely: the truth of the temporal, the void, and the middle. They do not claim to be first of all the Buddhist scriptures. On the contrary, this Sūtra of Infinite Meaning states that it is the prime sūtra of all the sūtras preached in forty years or so before it was preached.
QUESTION: Which is superior, the Lotus Sūtra or the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning?
ANSWER: The Lotus Sūtra is.
QUESTION: How do you know this?
ANSWER: In the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning, neither the possibility of obtaining Buddhahood by Two Vehicles (two categories of Hinayāna saints: Śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha), nor the attaining Enlightenment by Śākyamuni Buddha in the eternal past are revealed. Therefore, in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter in the Lotus Sūtra, when it is claimed that the Lotus Sūtra is superior to all the sūtras, those already preached, now being preached and yet to be preached, the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning is included among those being now preached making it clear that it is so easy to understand and put faith in that it actually is less truthful than the Lotus Sūtra.
Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 11-12
Daily Dharma – Jan. 2, 2019
Anyone who keeps this sūtra
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.
He should think:
‘They do not hear this sūtra.
They do not believe it.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’
The Buddha sings these verses to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our zeal to help other beings, we may create expectations of how they will receive our efforts, or how they will change themselves after hearing the Buddha Dharma. We may even blame them for not improving as quickly as we might want. These verses remind us that there is no shortage of time available for our efforts to benefit others.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Seeking More Balanced View To Tendai Original Enlightenment Thought
Whether the new schools are seen as emerging from the “womb” of Tendai original enlightenment thought, or taking form as a reaction against it, or developing out of it by dialectical process, all these views reflect the influence of an evolutionary model of Buddhist history in which the new Kamakura Buddhism represents the apex. Occasionally there is even a hint of telos at work, as though the very raison d’être of Tendai original enlightenment thought was to give rise to the new Kamakura Buddhism. Hongaku thought thus becomes merely one more locus from which to reassert tired stereotypes of a vibrant, reformist “new Buddhism” reacting against a corrupt, elitist “old Buddhism.”
To point out that existing models of the relationship between Tendai hongaku thought and the new Kamakura schools serve to privilege the latter is in no way to disparage the achievements of men like Shinran, Dōgen, and Nichiren. Nevertheless, such assumptions prejudice our understanding and need to be reexamined if a more balanced view is to be obtained.
All Expedient Vehicles Become Subtle
First, the subtle Track of Real Nature shows that although sentient beings originally possessed the treasure of the Buddha-nature, they were not aware of this fact before the Buddha expounded the Lotus Sūtra. Thus, the Track of Real Nature in the various teachings of the Buddha before the Lotus Sūtra is coarse. Upon the revelation of the One Buddha vehicle in the Lotus Sūtra, the practitioners of the other three teachings are able to see the Buddha-nature as the treasure of enlightenment they inherently possess, whereby the coarse dharma in the past becomes the subtle dharma in the present. Second, the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom is subtle if one abandons one’s attachment to striving to attain wisdom and reach truth. One should understand that wisdom and truth are inseparable, and it is false to seek outwardly instead of inwardly, in view of the fact that one’s wisdom is always contained in one’s nature. As long as one realizes that truth and wisdom are identical to each other as one entity, this realization implies that the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom is subtle, representing One Great Vehicle that is neither horizontal nor vertical. Third, the subtle Track of Accomplishment delineates that innumerable practices and dharma-doors, which are contained in the tathāgatagarbha are, by nature, the manifestation of the suchness of the Buddha-nature. With such an understanding, all expedient vehicles become subtle, and there is no more relative, only the ultimate. (Vol. 2, Page 251)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 22
Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.
Having last month considered the merits of those who hear of the Buddha’s longevity and understand it by firm faith, we consider the merits of the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sūtra.
“Furthermore, the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sūtra but rejoice at hearing it after my extinction, should be considered, know this, to have already understood my longevity by firm faith. It is needless to say this of those who [not only rejoice at hearing this sūtra but also] read, recite and keep it. They also should be considered to be carrying me on their heads. Ajita! They need not build a stupa or a monastery in my honor, or make the four kinds of offerings’ to the Saṃgha because those who keep, read and recite this sūtra should be considered to have already built a stupa or a monastery or made offerings to the Saṃgha. They should be considered to have already erected a stupa of the seven treasures tall enough to reach the Heaven of Brahman, the upper part of the stupa being the smaller. They should be considered to have already equipped the stupa with streamers, canopies and jeweled bells, and enshrined my śarīras therein. They also should be considered to have already offered flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, drums, music, reed pipes, flutes, harps, various kinds of dances, and songs of praise sung with wonderful voices [to the stupa ] continuously for many thousands of billions of kalpas.
The Daily Dharma from Nov. 25, 2018, offers this:
Furthermore, the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sūtra but rejoice at hearing it after my extinction, should be considered, know this, to have already understood my longevity by firm faith.
The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Maitreya in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. After learning the merits of understanding the ever-present nature of the Buddha, Maitreya hears that this understanding is present in anyone who finds joy in this sūtra. From the parables told earlier in the sūtra, we know that this joy is not the same as the joy that comes from ending suffering. It is the joy in our awakening Buddha nature.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Awakening to the Middle Way
Understanding the Truth of the Middle Way can help us to overcome one-sided views. Awakening to the Middle Way allows us to let go of the one-sided anything, and allows us to let go of the one-sided view of non-existence, which attempts to find something unchanging and independent to cling to. The Truth of the Middle Way frees us of worldly delusion even as it allows us to remain fully involved in the world as bodhisattvas.
Lotus SeedsDaily Gosho
Beginning this morning and continuing for the next four years or so I’ll be publishing a quote each day from the Writings of Nichiren Shōnin. As with this site in general, the purpose here is to provide a place to store things I’ve found useful for later recall.
As I begin I’m reminded of the opening to Śāntideva’s A Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening:
2 Nothing new will be said here, nor have I any skill in composition. Therefore I do not imagine that I can benefit others. I have done this to perfume my own mind.
3 While doing this, the surge of my inspiration to cultivate what is skillful increases. Moreover, should another, of the very same humors as me, also look at this, then he too may benefit from it.
The quotes from Nichiren’s writings were gathered during last year’s 100 Days of Study project with intention of eventually publishing them. Some quotes are short but many are substantial.
My goal is to give myself something to ponder each day, something to perfume my own mind.