Monthly Archives: January 2019

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās the expedients the Rich Man used to lure his frightened son to his house, we consider the rich man’s success.

By his wisdom the rich man succeeded
In leading his son into his household.
Twenty years after that
He had his son manage his house.

The son was entrusted
With the keeping of the accounts
Of gold and silver,
And of pearl, crystal, and so on.
But he still lodged
In the hut outside the gate, thinking:
“I am poor.
None of these treasures are mine.”

Seeing the mind of his son
Becoming less mean and more noble,
The father called in
His relatives, the king, ministers,
Kṣatriyas, and householders,
In order to give his treasures to his son.

He said to the great multitude:
“This is my son.
He was gone
For fifty years.
I found him Twenty years ago.
I missed him
When I was in a certain city.
I wandered, looking for him,
And came here.
Now I will give him
All my houses and men.
He can use them
As he likes.”

The son thought:
“I was poor, base and mean.
Now I have obtained
The treasures, houses,
And all the other things From my father.
Never before
Have I been so happy.”

The Introduction to the Lotus Sūtra discusses this lesson in believing, accepting, and understanding:

In Chapters One and Two, Sakyamuni firmly declared that the true teaching of the Buddha is the One Vehicle of the Lotus Sutra. He urged us to believe and accept it from the bottom of our hearts. In Chapter 4, he unveils how we can believe, accept, and understand it properly. In the previous chapters, Sariputra had been the principal direct listener to Sakyamuni’s preaching. Here his place is taken by four other important “hearers.” They are Subhuti, Maha-Katyayana, Maha-Kasyapa, and Maha-Maudgalyayana. [Maha means “great” in Sanskrit.]

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

Basics

Three Pure, All-Embracing Commandments

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Whereas Hinayana Buddhism concentrates on negative commands to suppress and eliminate evil, Mahayana moves in the direction of ideal spirituality by setting forth the precepts called the three pure, all-embracing commandments: to suppress evil, to stimulate the creation of good, and to work for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Basic Buddhist Concepts

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 19, 2019

Evil people in the future will doubt the One Vehicle
When they hear it from a Buddha.
They will not believe or receive it.
They will violate the Dharma, and fall into the evil regions.

The Buddha declares these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren wrote that while some people think hell is below the earth, it is really contained in our own bodies and minds. If we cannot believe or accept the Dharma the Buddha teaches us, then we are not seeing the world for what it is. We are creating worlds of our own separate from the Buddha’s world. We create worlds of greed, anger and ignorance, in which it is even more difficult to hear the Dharma. But even in these difficult worlds, the Buddha exists and works to benefit us. If we remember to look for him, he will show us the way out.

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

original

Three Bodies of the Original Buddha

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The transmission concerning “the three bodies of the perfect teaching” (engyō sanjin) clarifies the Buddha of the “Fathoming the Lifespan” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. This Buddha is said to possess all three kinds of Buddha body (trikāya, sanjin): the manifested body (nirmāṇakāya, ōjin), or physical person of the Buddha who appears in this world; the recompense body (saṃbhogakāya, hōjin), or the wisdom the Buddha has attained through practice, conceived of as a subtle “body”; and the Dharma body (dharmakāya, hosshin), or the Buddha as personification of ultimate truth. These three “bodies” originally represented attempts to organize different concepts of the Buddha, or to explain the differences among various Buddhas appearing in the sūtras. For example, Śākyamuni who appeared in this world was considered a Buddha in the manifested-body aspect; Amitābha, a Buddha in the recompense-body aspect; and Mahāvairocana, a Buddha in the Dharma-body aspect. Chih-i, however, interpreted these three bodies as the attributes of a single, original Buddha, the Śākyamuni of the sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, enlightened since countless dust-particle kalpas ago. For Chih-i, the unity of the three was mediated by the recompense body, which he saw as central. (Page 184-185)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Coarse and Subtle Sūtras

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Chih-i points out that although various sūtras entail the same subtle teaching like that of the Lotus Sūtra, they also contain coarse explanations, which cannot be integrated with the subtlety. Therefore, these sūtras are coarse. The uniqueness of the Lotus Sūtra is revealed in two perspectives. First, it entails only one perfect explanation, i.e., reality is an integrated unity, since it is upright without any expedient means, and only presents the unsurpassed Path of Buddhahood. Second, the coarseness is integrated with the subtlety, and therefore, the coarseness is subtle as well. (Vol. 2, Page 287)

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


LS32, WONS

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the purpose of the Buddha’s appearance in the world, we consider why the Buddha expounds only to people of profound wisdom this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

I expound only to people of profound wisdom
This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Because men of little wisdom would doubt this sūtra,
And not understand it even if they heard it.
No Śrāvaka
Or Pratyekabuddha
Can understand
This sūtra.

Even you, Śāriputra,
Have understood this sūtra
Only by faith.
Needless to say,
The other Śrāvakas cannot do otherwise.
They will be able to follow this sūtra
Only because they believe my words,
Not because they have wisdom.

Śāriputra
Do not expound this sūtra
To those who are arrogant and idle,
And who think that the self exists!

Do not expound it to men of little wisdom!
They would not be able to understand it
Even if they heard it
Because they are deeply attached to the five desires.

Those who do not believe this sūtra
But slander it,
Will destroy the seeds of Buddhahood
Of all living beings of the world.

Nichiren writes in Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, concerning whether to expound to this sūtra to ignorant people:

QUESTION: How should we comprehend the statement in the chapter 3, “A Parable,” of the Lotus Sūtra, “You should not expound this sūtra to ignorant people”?

ANSWER: This applies to wise masters, who are able to discern the capacity of people, not to ordinary masters in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

We should also solely expound the Lotus Sūtra to those who slander the Dharma. This would establish the connection of a poisonous drum between the unfaithful people and the Lotus Sūtra as it is said that the sound of a drum smeared with poison kills a man who hears them. It is like the practice of Never-Despising Bodhisattva preached in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra.

If a person has the capacity of a wise man, though, we should teach him the Hinayāna sūtras first of all, then the provisional Mahayana sūtras, and finally the true Mahāyāna sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra. If a man is deemed ignorant, however, we should teach him the true Mahāyāna sūtra from the start, as it can plant the seed of Buddhahood in both believers and slanderers.

Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 97-98

buddhaseed

Ingyō and Katoku

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Nichiren Shōnin stated in Kanjin Honzon Shō,

Śākyamuni Buddha’s merit of practicing the Bodhisattva way leading to Buddhahood, as well as that of preaching and saving all living beings since His attainment of Buddhahood are altogether contained in the five characters of Myo, Ho, Ren, Ge and Kyo and that consequently, when we uphold the five words, the merits which He accumulated before and after His attainment of Buddhahood are naturally transferred to us.”
(WNS2, p. 146)

These two merits are called Ingyō and Katoku.

Buddha Seed: Understanding the Odaimoku

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 18, 2019

If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sūtra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) makes this vow to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sutra. Out of his gratitude for the teaching of the Wonderful Dharma, Universal Sage promises to encourage anyone who may be struggling in their practice of the Buddha Dharma. This is a reminder of how no matter what obstacles or difficulties we may encounter, great beings are helping us and we are in harmony with things as they truly are.

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

original

Four Categories of Transmission

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The four broad categories of transmission … may be said to encapsulate the entire T’ien-t’ai/Tendai system of doctrine and meditation, reinterpreted from a hongaku perspective. They deal, from four different perspectives, with the same concept: the total and perfect identity of the single thought-moment with the cosmos or dharma realm, a reality cognized as empty, conventionally existing, and both simultaneously. This reality is held to be the essence of Chih-i’s inner enlightenment, the deepest meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, and the truth to be accessed by the practitioner. (Page 184)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

The Different Types of the Buddha’s Teaching

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Different types of the Buddha’s teaching are associated with the capabilities of living beings. Yüan refers to the conditions with regard to living beings. This is to say that the different teachings of the Buddha are the outcome of the Buddha addressing various capabilities of sentient beings. Chih-i delineates:

“Yüan refers to the dharma of causes and conditions in the Ten Dharmarealms that form living beings. All these living beings possess the root and the nature of the Ten Dharma-realms.”

Therefore, in order to deal with different situations, the Buddha has to teach them in a manner suitable to their conditions. The mature ones get the response from the Buddha earlier. The Buddha knows whether or not beings are mature, and he responds to them accordingly. Of those who are not mature, the Buddha does not abandon them completely. Instead, he limits his teachings to the human and heavenly vehicle (Chihtsuo Jen-tien-sh’eng Shuo), which does not belong to any of the twelve divisions of scripture. To the mature ones, such as the one with the faculties of the Lesser Vehicle, the Buddha’s teaching can be classified into twelve, or nine, or eleven types. To the beings that have the potentiality of becoming bodhisattva, the Buddha bestows the teaching in twelve divisions. In general, Chih-i emphasizes that the dharma in twelve divisions is the result of the Tathāgata’s teaching as corresponding to four kinds of situations, leading to the formation of the Fourfold Teaching. (Vol. 2, Page 284)

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