Hui-san Hsien-i (Unifying the three and revealing the one) is the function related to the Subtlety of Practice. This is spoken of in terms of practice. Chih-i remarks that the purpose of the previous “opening the three” is for the convergence of various practices. This indicates that the Lotus Sūtra unifies the three aspects: person, dharma and practice (Jen Fa Hsing). All these three are integrated as bodhisattva practice on the path to Buddhahood, which refers to the convergence of the three and revelation of the one. (Vol. 2, Page 445)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismMonthly Archives: March 2019
Day 11
Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City
Having last month considered the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the east, we consider the reaction of the great Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the southeast.
“Bhikṣus! The great Brahman-[heavenly-]kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the southeast, who saw their palaces illumined more brightly than ever, danced with joy. They also wondered why [their palaces were so illumined]. They visited each other and discussed the reason. There was a great Brahman-heavenly-king called Great-Compassion among them. He said to the other Brahmans in gāthās:
Why is it
That we see this light?
Our palaces are illumined
More brightly than ever.Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha
Appear somewhere in the universe?
We have never seen this [light] before.
Let us do our best to find [the reason].Let us go even to the end of one thousand billion worlds,
And find the place from where this light has come.
A Buddha may have appeared somewhere in the universe
In order to save the suffering beings.“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion [ worlds] went to the northwest, carrying flower-plates filled with heavenly flowers, in order to find [the place from where the light had come]. Their palaces also moved as they went. They [reached the Well-Composed World and] saw that Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata was sitting on the lion-like seat under the Bodhi tree of the place of enlightenment, surrounded respectfully by gods, dragon-kings, gandharvas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men, and nonhuman beings. They also saw that the sixteen princes were begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma. Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings worshipped the Buddha with their heads, walked around him a hundred thousand times, and strewed heavenly flowers to him. The strewn flowers were heaped up to the height of Mt. Sumeru. The Brahman-heavenly-kings offered flowers also to the Bodhi-tree of the Buddha. Having offered flowers, they offered their palaces to the Buddha, saying, ‘We offer these palaces to you. Receive them and benefit us out of your compassion towards us!’ In the presence of the Buddha, they simultaneously praised him in gāthās with all their hearts:
Saintly Master, God of Gods!
Your voice is as sweet as a kalavinka’s.
You have compassion towards all living beings.
We now bow before you.
You, the World-Honored One, are exceptional.
You appear only once in a very long time.No Buddha has appeared
For the past one hundred and eighty kalpas.
The three evil regions are crowded;
And the living beings in heaven, decreasing.Now you have appeared in this world
And become the eye of all living beings.
As their refuge, you are saving them.
As their father, you are benefiting them
Out of your compassion towards them.
We are now able to see you
Because we accumulated merits
In our previous existence.“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings, having praised the Buddha with these gāthās, said, ‘World-Honored One! Turn the wheel of the Dharma and save all living beings out of your compassion towards them!’ Then they simultaneously said in gāthās with all their hearts:
Great Saint, turn the wheel of the Dharma
And reveal the reality of all things!
Save the suffering beings
And cause them to have great joy!If they hear the Dharma, some will attain enlightenment;
Others will be reborn in heaven.
The living beings in the evil regions will decrease;
And those who do good patiently will increase.“Thereupon Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata gave his tacit consent to their appeal.
On my “When I get time, I’m going to…” list is a detailed look at what the Lotus Sūtra teaches us about diversity. The Simile of the Herbs is the most obvious example, explicitly saying:
“Those plants were given more or less water by the same rain from the same cloud, and grew differently according to their species. They obtained different flowers and fruits although they grew on the same ground and received water from the same rain.”
Chapter 17, Variety of Merits is another place where this is underscored.
And here in Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, we have this:
Great Saint, turn the wheel of the Dharma
And reveal the reality of all things!
Save the suffering beings
And cause them to have great joy!If they hear the Dharma, some will attain enlightenment;
Others will be reborn in heaven.
The living beings in the evil regions will decrease;
And those who do good patiently will increase.
This diversity of outcome from a single vehicle has always been for me a measure of the greatness of the Lotus Sūtra. This is the foundation upon which the universal salvation that is promised is built. It is the equality and differences of all things that the Buddha at first refrained from expounding.
Daily Dharma – March 27, 2019
The Buddhas, the Leaders, expound the teaching of Nirvāṇa
In order to give a rest [to all living beings].
When they see them having already had a rest,
They lead them to the wisdom of the Buddha.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. These are part of his explanation of the parable of the Magic City. In this story, a group of people hire a guide to lead them through a dangerous wilderness to reach a city of treasures. Halfway through the journey, the people lose confidence and ask the guide to take them back to where they started. The guide conjures up a magic city and gives the people a chance to rest. The people believed this illusion was their destination. The guide then made the city disappear and implored his charges to continue their journey. The Buddha compares his teachings of the end of suffering to the fabricated city, and the true city of treasures to his enlightenment. As the travelers had to leave their delusions about suffering and continue on the way of the Bodhisattva towards enlightenment, so must we set aside the Buddha’s expedient teachings and uphold the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Fuji School Doctrinal Rationale
The equation of Nichiren with the original Buddha represents a bold if convoluted attempt to free Nichiren from the context of the preceding historical tradition of Śākyamuni’s Buddhism and to relocate Śākyamuni within the context of Nichiren’s teaching. Structurally, it resembles medieval Tendai claims that Chih-i’s inner enlightenment is prior to and surpasses the text of the Lotus Sūtra preached by Śākyamuni. It also suggests the nonlinearity and reversals of time and hierarchy characteristic of medieval Tendai kanjin-style interpretations: The seed surpasses the harvest; the stage of practice surpasses that of attainment; Superior Conduct, a bodhisattva, is superior to Śākyamuni, a Buddha; and Nichiren, who lived after Śākyamuni in historical time, becomes his teacher in beginningless time. In the reading of the three jewels of Buddhism adopted by most schools within the Nichiren tradition, the Buddha is defined as the original Śākyamuni of the “Fathoming the Lifespan” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the Dharma is Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, and the Sangha is represented by Nichiren. In the Fuji school, however, the Buddha is Nichiren, the Dharma is Namu- myōhō-renge-kyō, and the Sangha is represented by Nikkō. Founder worship is hardly uncommon in Japanese Buddhism, but nowhere has it been provided with a more elaborate doctrinal rationale than in the Fuji lineage of the Nichiren tradition. (Page 341-342)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismOpening the Three and Revealing the One
K’ai-san Hsien-i (Opening the three and revealing the one) is the function related to the Subtlety of Objects. This is spoken of in terms of the teaching and principle. Chih-i points out that in the Lotus Sūtra, the truth of emptiness held in the three teachings are identified with the Ultimate Truth. The Buddha made it clear that the underlying principle as the Ultimate Truth is embedded in these three teachings, since the ultimate goal of them is to lead beings to attain the One Vehicle of Buddhahood. (Vol. 2, Page 445)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 10
Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.
Having last month heard the prediction for the future Buddhahood of Great Kātyāyana, we hear the prediction for Great Maudgalyāyana and complete Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.
“Now I will tell you. This Great Maudgalyāyana will make various offerings to eight thousand Buddhas, respect them, and honor them. After the extinction of each of those Buddhas, he will erect a stūpa-mausoleum a thousand yojanas high, and five hundred yojanas wide and deep. He will make it of the seven treasures: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, pearl and ruby. He will offer flowers, necklaces, incense applicable to the skin, incense powder, incense to burn, canopies, banners and streamers to the stūpa-mausoleum. After that he will make the same offerings to two hundred billions of Buddhas. Then he will become a Buddha called Tamālapattra-candana-Fragrance, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. The kalpa in which he will become that Buddha will be called Joyfulness; and his world, MindHappiness. The ground [of his world] will be even, made of crystal, adorned with jeweled trees, and purified with strewn flowers of pearls. Anyone will rejoice at seeing it. Innumerable gods, men, Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas will live there. The duration of the life of that Buddha will be twenty-four small kalpas. His right teachings will be preserved for forty small kalpas, and the counterfeit of his right teachings also will be preserved for forty small kalpas.”
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
After he gives up his present existence,
This Great Maudgalyāyana, a disciple of mine,
Will see many Buddhas,
Many World-Honored Ones.
He will see eight thousand of them,
And then two hundred billions of them.In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha,
He will make offerings to them, and respect them.
He will perform brahma practices under those Buddhas,
And keep the teachings of those Buddhas
For innumerable kalpas.After the extinction of each of those Buddhas,
He will erect a stūpa of the seven treasures.
There will be a long golden yasti
On the top of the stūpa.
He will offer flowers, incense and music
To the stūpa-mausoleum of the Buddha.He will finally complete
The Way of Bodhisattvas,
And become a Buddha
Called Tamala [pattral-candana-Fragrance
In a world called
Mind-Happiness.The duration of the life of that Buddha
Will be twenty-four [small] kalpas.
He will expound to gods and men
The enlightenment of the Buddha.As many Śrāvakas as there are sands in the River Ganges
Will have the six supernatural powers,
Including the three major supernatural powers.
They will be exceedingly powerful and virtuous.Innumerable Bodhisattvas also will live there.
They will be resolute in mind, and strenuous.
They will never falter
In seeking the wisdom of the Buddha.After the extinction of that Buddha,
His right teachings
Will be preserved for forty small kalpas.
So will the counterfeit of them.The five hundred disciples of mine
Are powerful and virtuous.
They also shall be assured
Of their future Buddhahood.
They will become Buddhas
In their future lives.Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!
The Daily Dharma from March 20, 2018, offers this:
Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. When the Buddha taught in India 2500 years ago, people took for granted that their lives continued from previous lives and would continue on into future lives. Whatever comforts we enjoy or calamities we endure in this life were thought to be caused by what we did in our former lifetimes. Our actions today were thought to determine what happens in our future lives. To our modern understanding this can sound mystical and unlikely. But if we understand that everything, including our joy and suffering, has causes and conditions, whether or not we realize these results immediately, we know that the result of creating benefit is benefit, and the result of creating harm is harm. When we hold the happiness of all beings to be as precious as our own, we would no more mistreat others than we would want them to mistreat us.
Daily Dharma – March 26, 2019
If anyone, guilty or not, calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is bound up in manacles, fetters, pillories or chains, those things [in which he is bound up] will break asunder, and he will be saved.
The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Kuan Yin, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The bonds of ignorance and delusion in which we find ourselves are not the result of our personal inadequacy, and neither do they come entirely from the circumstances of the world around us. But these bonds are real, and in our struggles to escape we often just make them worse. When we remember World-Voice Perceiver, the embodiment of compassion, and call on her for help, then we awaken compassion within ourselves and others in the world, and break the bonds of delusion for everyone.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Four Bodhisattvas Mandala
Another frequent interpretation regarding figures on the mandala takes the four leaders of the bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth–Superior Conduct, Boundless Conduct, Firm Conduct, and Pure Conduct–as representing the four universal elements of fire, wind, earth, and water, which form all things. Thus, the entire dharma realm is seen as the four bodhisattvas:
The four bodhisattvas who are the leaders of the Buddha’s original disciples manifest themselves as the four great elements. … Because [one constantly] receives and makes use of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind that comprise the dharma realm, they might evoke no particular feeling of respect, but when one enquires into their essence, then the benefits they confer are unexpectedly vast. Day and night, the land and its inhabitants (eshō), and the myriad things all dis play the benefits conferred by the four bodhisattvas.
This equation of the four leaders of the bodhisattvas who emerged out of the earth with the four universal elements appears in medieval Tendai commentaries on the Lotus Sūtra and also in some writings attributed to Nichiren. This identification is developed through the kanjin-style technique of association by isomorphic resemblance discovered between the behavior of the four elements and the names of the four bodhisattvas. Earth is stable and is associated with “Firm Conduct.” Water cleanses and is consequently identified with “Pure Conduct.” Fire rises and is therefore assimilated to “Superior Conduct. ” Wind is unrestrained and is thus equated with “Boundless Conduct.”
In the following transmission on the mandala, attributed to Nichizō, a disciple of Nichirō of the Hikigayatsu lineage, the identification of the four bodhisattvas with the four elements is invoked to suggest that the Wonderful Dharma shall, in the Lotus Sūtra’s words, be declared and spread” (kōsen-rufu):
The placement of Superior Conduct (together with Boundless Conduct] and Pure Conduct [together with Firm Conduct] opposite one other [on either side of the central inscription of the mandala] expresses the meaning that the fire of wisdom represented by Superior Conduct, in dependence on the wind represented by Boundless Conduct, shall be widely declared (kōsen), and that the water of wisdom represented by Pure Conduct, in conformity with the earth represented by Firm [Conduct], shall spread (rufu).
(Page 331-332)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismAbiding in Three, Revealing One
Chu-san Hsien-i (Abiding in the three and revealing the one) is the function related to the Subtlety of Response. Chih-i says that this is spoken of in terms of the relative knowledge of the Buddha, which is applied expediently by the Buddha to transform living beings. The expedient means used (e.g. abiding in the three vehicles) is for the sake of aiding the manifestation of the Supreme Truth (i.e., revealing the one). (Vol. 2, Page 445)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 9
Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.
Having last month heard the Buddha praise the understanding of those present, we repeat in gāthās why the Buddha needed to use expedients.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
As the destroyer of the bonds of existence,
I, the King of the Dharma, have appeared in this world.
Since then I have expounded the Dharma variously
According to the desires of all living beings.I am honorable, and my wisdom is profound.
Therefore, I have been reticent on this truth[,]
[That is, the reality of all things,] for a long time.
I did not make haste to expound it to all living beings.If they had heard it [without expedients],
Men of ignorance would have had doubts,
And lost their way [to enlightenment] forever,
Though men of wisdom would have understood it by faith.Therefore, Kāśyapa, I expounded [the Dharma]
With various expedients to all living beings
According to their capacities
In order to cause them to have the right view.
The Daily Dharma from Jan. 24, 2019, offers this:
As the destroyer of the bonds of existence,
I, the King of the Dharma, have appeared in this world.
Since then I have expounded the Dharma variously
According to the desires of all living beings.
The Buddha proclaims these verses in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. This is another explanation for why he uses expedients to teach those who are not ready for his highest teaching. When we set aside the cravings that lead to suffering, and cultivate our desire for enlightenment, both for ourselves and all beings, then we are ready to receive the Buddha’s highest teaching.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com