Monthly Archives: February 2019

Summer Writings

Penitence

Quote

What is penitence in the Lotus Sutra? The first thing you should do is be calm and obedient before the Buddha, and recognize your immaturity by yourself. It does not matter whether you feel a sense of guilt or not, but have penitence to the Buddha and pray to extinguish your bad karma with the Odaimoku. It is said that a penitence or repentance service was held by the Buddha for his disciples or congregation regularly when He was still alive. The echo of penitence with Odaimoku enters into our body through our ears and sinks deeply into the Alaya-shiki, extinguishing the nested bad karmas one after another, and Odaimoku is stored in your Alaya-shiki as good karma.

Nichiren Shonin says: “Even if the bad karma is small, if you don’t have penitence, you will surely have to reap the gravest. Even if you have deep bad karma, through your penitence to the Buddha, the karma will disappear.” (Konichi-bo Gosho)

Summer Writings

WONS

Innumerable Merits Of The Lotus Sūtra

One character in sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra, or name of Buddhas other than the Original Śākyamuni Buddha, is like a drop of river water, or a stone in the mountains or ocean. Unlike a drop of sea water, a drop of river water does not contain the water of numerous rivers, and a stone in the mountains or ocean doesn’t have the merit of numerous stones. However, … the Lotus Sūtra has innumerable merits; therefore, you may freely chant any of its chapters.

Gassui Gasho, A Letter on Menstruation, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 28

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 2, 2019

The king and queen took off their necklaces of pearls worth hundreds of thousands, and strewed the necklaces to the Buddha. The necklaces flew up to the sky [seven times as high as the tāla-tree], and changed into a jeweled platform equipped with four pillars. On the platform was a couch of great treasures, and thousands of millions of heavenly garments were spread [on the couch]. The Buddha [went up,] sat cross-legged [on the couch], and emitted great rays of light. King Wonderful-Adornment thought, ‘The Buddha is exceptional. He is exceedingly handsome. He has the most wonderful form.’

The Buddha uses this description as part of the story of King Wonderful-Adornment in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. This King was led by the supernatural powers of his children to meet Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star- King Flower-Wisdom Buddha who was teaching the Wonderful Dharma in that world. The King and his wife the Queen were both so inspired by that Buddha that they allowed the symbols of their wealth and power to be transformed into a sacred platform from which the Buddha could lead all beings to enlightenment. When they found that Buddha, the beauty of his wisdom far outshone the beauty of their jewels.

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

original

Being a Leper Who Chants Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō

Quote

THE TIME (ji). This category encompasses Nichiren’s understanding of the Final Dharma age, which, like most Buddhist scholars of the time, he held to have begun in 1052. Here again, the comparison with Hōnen is instructive. For Hōnen, in the time of mappō, people are of limited capacity, and the easy practice of the nenbutsu is therefore appropriate. For Nichiren, the Buddha specifically intended the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra for the Final Dharma age; thus this age is the very time when the daimoku is destined to spread. This element of historical inevitability is a key aspect of Nichiren’s thought and would later form the topic of one of his major treatises: Senji shō (The selection of the time). By defining the beginning of the Final Dharma age as the precise historical moment when the Buddha’s ultimate teaching, the Lotus Sūtra, shall spread, Nichiren was able to reverse the conventional gloomy connotations of the last age and celebrate it as the best possible time to be alive. He represented great teachers of the past, such as Chih-i, Chan-jan, and Saichō, as lamenting their inability to see the dawn of this age. “Rather than be great rulers during the two thousand years of the True and Semblance Dharma ages, those concerned for their salvation should be common people now in the Final Dharma age. … It is better to be a leper who chants Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō than be chief abbot (zasu) of the Tendai school.” (Page 254)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Subtleties in the Traces and the Origin

Quote

According to Chih-i’s interpretation of the Lotus Sūtra, the identities of the Ten Subtleties in the Traces can be traced back to the Ten Subtleties in the Origin. In view of the Origin that indicates the Buddha’s initial practice as the cause of Buddhahood and the Buddha’s initial enlightenment as the effect of Buddhahood in an incalculable past, what Chih-i stresses is that the Origin is the fundamental source for all the activities of the Buddha in the Traces. Therefore, the Ten Subtleties in the Traces are related to the Ten Subtleties in the Origin, given that both groups of the Ten Subtleties express the cause and effect of Buddhahood. (Vol. 2, Page 318)

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


LS32, WONS

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Śākyamuni’s various activities during his lifetime, we consider purpose of the sūtras expounded to this point.

“Good men! All the sūtras that I expounded [hitherto] were for the purpose of saving all living beings. I told the stories of my previous lives [in some sūtras,] and the stories of the previous lives of other Buddhas [in other sūtras]. I showed my replicas [in some sūtras,] and my transformations [in other sūtras]. I described my deeds [in some sūtras,] and the deeds of others [in other sūtras]. All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which l do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as [the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly. The living beings are various in their natures, desires, deeds, thoughts and opinions. Therefore, I expounded the dharma with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, similes and discourses, in order to cause all living beings to plant the roots of good. l have never stopped doing what I should do. As I said before, it is very long since I became the Buddha. The duration of my life is innumerable, asaṃkhya kalpas. I am always here. I shall never pass away.

This portion of Chapter 16 is used by Nichiren to explore the manifestation of Śākyamuni’s powers:

It is preached in the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “The scriptures that I, the Buddha, expound are all for the purpose of emancipating all living beings. For this purpose I guide them in various ways, sometimes speaking of myself, sometime of others. Sometimes I present myself, sometimes others. Sometimes I show my own actions, sometimes those of others.”

Accordingly, who among the great beings – Zentoku Buddha of the World Without Worry to the east; the Great Sun Buddha in the center of the universe; various Buddhas in the worlds throughout the universe; the past seven Buddhas who appeared in this world; various Buddhas in the past, present, and future; the direct disciples of the Original Buddha who emerged from the earth such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice; bodhisattvas of theoretical teachings, such as Mañjuśrī, Śrāvaka disciples such as Śāriputra, the King of the Mahābrahman Heaven who controls the triple world; the King of Devils who lives in the Sixth Heaven in the realm of desire; Indra who controls the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven; or Sun Deity, Moon Deity, Deity of the Stars, innumerable stars such as the Great Bear, twenty-eight stars, Five Stars, Seven Stars and 84,000 Stars; those who occupy the headship of various places throughout the world such as the King of asura demons, god of the heavens, god of the earth, god of the mountains, god of the ocean, god of the house, and god of the village – is not a manifestation of the Lord Teacher Śākyamuni Buddha?

Nichigen-nyo Sakabutsu Kuyōji, Construction of a Statue of Śākyamuni by Lady Nichigen, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 123-124

Lecture on Lotus Sutra, d1b

Thus Have I Heard

There are actually two ways of looking at the phrase “thus have I heard.” The difference is which way or which direction “thus have I heard” points. In one understanding, “thus have I heard” points to the text that follows. So in this interpretation Ananda is saying what he heard from the Buddha and it is titled Myoho Renge Kyo. The other interpretation is “thus have I heard” is pointing to Myoho Renge Kyo, and what follows is an explanation, or interpretation of Myoho Renge Kyo. In the first understanding the text of the sutra is primary, in the second the text is secondary to the title. As different sentence constructions it might look like this. ‘Myoho Renge Kyo is what I heard’ versus ‘This is what I heard. The Buddha one …’ The difference is slight but important. In the first Myoho Renge Kyo is the most important thing and all that follows is a way to understand Myoho Renge Kyo. The second understanding places the text of the sutra as key and the title is a summary of the contents.

Nichiren argues that “thus have I heard” is referring to Myoho Renge Kyo and this supports the conclusion that chanting the title as a single practice is very much appropriate and correct. Everything then recounted in the text of the sutra is similar to an exegesis of the most important thing, which is Myoho Renge Kyo.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 1, 2019

How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.

The Brahma Heavenly-Kings of the Zenith sing these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They gave up their kingdoms, their subjects and their homes to travel across innumerable worlds to hear the Wonderful Dharma. They inspire our devotion by showing how important this teaching is to them. For us who know of the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni, we recognize that the Buddha exists everywhere, even in our triple world of form, formlessness and desire. When let go of the delusions that imprison us, and recognize this Buddha in our midst, we find ourselves in the Buddha’s pure land.

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