True practicers of Buddhism should not rely on what people say, but solely on the golden words of the Buddha.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on the True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha (Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō). We may take this to mean that we should not listen to anything that others tell us and dogmatically adhere to a fixed teaching. Another interpretation involves learning to see the world as the Buddha does. Where people often speak from their own delusion and selfish desires, the Buddha speaks only to lead us to his enlightenment and help us to remove our attachments. When we look for the Buddha in all parts of our lives, we can learn to appreciate anything we hear from anybody as teaching us to become enlightened.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The official ordination system was aimed not only at controlling the number of monks but also at setting minimum standards for their doctrinal education. When Buddhism was first introduced, it was organized largely as a system of religious rites for the benefit of influential families. Many persons were ordained so that their masters might obtain merit and recover from illness. By the early eighth century, however, a minimal standard of learning was required for ordination. A decree issued in 734 states that no one was to be ordained without first memorizing a chapter of the Hoke-kyō [Lotus Sūtra] or the Saishōō-kyō [Golden Light of the Most Victorious Kings Sūtra] learning to perform Buddhist rites, and living under monastic discipline for at least three years. According to the record of the recommendations for ordination during the period from 732 to 745, the number of years spent under discipline ranged from four to fifteen, and the age of those who had undergone discipline, from thirteen to forty-eight. After that period the names of scriptures memorized and the number of years of discipline were not recorded, but evidence of participation in the construction of a temple, particularly Tōdai-ji, or the fact of being related to an official or a monk was noted. There was a tendency toward lowering the age and qualifications of monks as their numbers increased. (Page 22-23)
The purpose of religion
Both suffering and happiness were understood as a communal experience to be shared within the family, village, province, and state. Such a tendency, which emphasizes group participation and identity is a recurrent theme in the Japanese tradition. On the level of popular practice, there was little differentiation in the roles of Buddha, bodhisattva, and kami in helping people to lead happier lives. In spite of the fact that their symbolic forms differed, they referred to faith and happiness here and now. (Page 29)
The goal of stories on karmic causation
According to the Kao-seng chuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks), Hui-yüan introduced an innovation into the routine of the Buddhist ceremonial meeting by opening it with stories on karmic causation.
“Whenever there was a ceremonial meeting, he himself would ascend the high seat and personally take the lead in preaching, first elucidating the work of causation in the past, present, and future, and then discussing the significance of the particular occasions. Later generations continued this practice until it became a standard for all times.”
This is the beginning of ch’ang-tao the practice of preaching, and the stories used as illustrations treated the theme of the law of karmic retribution. Tradition says that Kumārajīva (344-413) wrote a work called “Treatises on the Past, Present, and Future” (inextant) and also emphasized the law of karmic retribution. Chinese Buddhist writers are fond of asserting that a result follows a deed in the same way that a shadow follows a form or an echo follows a sound. (Page 31)
Kyōkai’s primary concern
Kyōkai used the word genpō (hsien-pao), which in T’ang-lin’s preface refers to consequences that are manifested in this life, as the main theme for the collection of Japanese Buddhist legends. This may reflect his emphasis on present existence, even though he did not exclude stories dealing with the effects of past deeds upon a future life. He was uninterested in subtle arguments concerning the meaning of karma and samsara, or the question of whether there is something about man which is immortal. Rather, he compiled the Nihon ryōiki as an aid for monks in their preaching, should they wish to follow the fashion initiated by Hui-yüan in China, and as a guide for lay Buddhists. Kyōkai’s primary concern seems to have been in the salvation of his fellow beings and himself, which he hoped would be accomplished as a result of the merit accumulated in the compiling of the collection. He understood karmic retribution as a universal principle and stated that its operation was also discernible in the Chinese classics and in the pre-Buddhist age in Japan. (page 32-33)
Hoke-kyō and Faith
In contrast to the understanding of the law of causation as the law of nature, the Hoke-kyō gives another interpretation which may have influenced Kyōkai. The Hoke-kyō is the scripture most frequently quoted in the Nihon ryōiki, and it has been extremely popular throughout the history of Japanese Buddhism. Although the Hoke-kyō makes many references to karma (Chaps. i, ii, vii, x, xii, xv, xvi, xix, xxv), the main emphasis is on overcoming karma and obtaining salvation, rather than on the doctrine of karma itself. The recitation of the Hoke-kyō or even the invocation of its title, when done with faith, constitutes an act of merit which will overcome all other karma. Further, it says that dhārāṇi and mantra (Chap. xxvi), a remembrance of Kannon, or the calling of Kannon’s name (Chap. xxv) also transcend time and space, making possible the immediate attainment of Buddhahood. This message of the Hoke-kyō may be considered as a warning against a mechanical, static, or deterministic understanding of karma. Faith is the basis for salvation here and now, which is the work of the dharma body Buddha, both transcendent and immanent. (Page 33-34)
Love
Wisdom and compassion are means for fulfilling the bodhisattva’s vow. Wisdom is cultivated by looking at reality, by seeing things as they are. No discontinuity exists between the great mercy of Buddha and human love. What distinguishes them is the degree to which right knowledge sustains love. Ordinary men are conscious only of physical, carnal love as in the case of the mother with the crying child. But a sage’s love is based on right knowledge with which he may see events on a macrocosmic scale. Human love is never rejected, but it must be elevated and expanded on the basis of the right understanding of existence. (Page 80)
Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.
Having last month concluded the chapter with the vow of Śākyamuni that all will be able to attain enlightenment “definitely and doubtlessly,” we begin Chapter 22, Transmission.
Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha rose from the seat of the Dharma, and by his great supernatural powers, put his right hand on the heads of the innumerable Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and said:
“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide!”
He put his [right] hand on their heads twice more, and said:
“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sūtra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings. I am the great almsgiver to all living beings. Follow me, and study my teachings without begrudging efforts! In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, you should expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to them, and cause them to hear and know [this sūtra] so that they may be able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive [this sūtra] by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.”
Priest Gyōhan was a first son of Fujiwara Chikaie. He was in charge of general affairs at the Imperial Palace, and he was a disciple of Jōki, the head priest of Senjuin Temple. Being gentle by nature, Gyōhan sought the Law, carefully recited the Hokekyō, became very familiar with the sūtra, and had no diffculty in reciting it by memory, except for the Chapter of the Yakuō.
He practiced reciting the chapter for several years. But he was unable to learn it by heart. He developed a repentant mind and prayed to the Three Treasures that he would be able to learn the chapter by heart.
One night he dreamed that a divine-looking priest said, “Due to the karmic result from your previous life, you are unable to learn this chapter. Formerly you were born as a black horse and lived with a Hokekyō reciter. From time to time, you heard the reciter repeating the Hokekyō, but you missed hearing the Chapter of the Yakuō. However, due to your merit in hearing the sūtra, you have become a human being in your present life, have entered Buddhahood, and have venerated the Hokekyō. Since you did not hear the Yakuō Chapter, you are still unable to learn the chapter. Disconnecting the cause and effect would be just as difficult as differentiating between the two horns of a cow. If you recite the sūtra well in your present life, you will be able to understand it clearly in your future life and will be greatly enlightened.”
Now the priest understood his karmic relation, cleared his clouded mind, developed greater faith in the Law, and recited the Hokekyō for days and nights. (Page 97-98)
To those who have accumulated merits,
And who are gentle and upright,
And who see me living here,
Expounding the Dharma,
I say:
“The duration of my life is immeasurable.”
The Buddha declares these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This chapter is where the Buddha reveals for the first time his ever-present nature. He became enlightened in the remotest past, and will continue teaching all beings far into the future. There is a view that to see a Buddha in our time requires a supernatural way of seeing, even a personal vision or a revelation not available to ordinary people. What the Buddha teaches here is that he is always visible to anyone, anywhere. It is when we look for him to teach us and are compassionate and disciplined in our desires that he appears to us.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
While I was at church, Richard and his girlfriend, Alexis, celebrated Mother’s Day with their mothers (Richard with Alexis’ mom and Alexis with Richard’s mom) at the McKinley Park Rose Garden.
I’m sitting in the waiting area for Gate A5 at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport waiting for the next leg of my trip from Sacramento. I’ve got another two hours to kill before boarding red-eye flight to Detroit. I have a “Honey-Do” harvest awaiting me in Churchville, NY.
Yesterday I was working at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church replacing a corrugated metal roof that covers a flat portion of the “chicken shed” where the teriyaki chicken will be cooked at the church bazaar June 8-9. The 30-year roof had rusted through at several points.
Rev. Igarashi was helping me as I nailed down the metal roof sections.
At one point the topic of discussion turned to Mother’s Day, and Rev. Igarashi said it wasn’t celebrated in Japan.
I digress at this point to mention that I chatted at church today, Mother’s Day, with a young woman born and raised in Hiroshima who now lives in Sacramento, and she said she always celebrates Mother’s Day, buying flowers.
So, whatever the case in Japan, Mother’s Day wasn’t something Rev. Igarashi adopted. And after reading the Nihon ryōiki, I’m happy to believe that in a traditional household Mother’s Day isn’t restricted to a single day.
All of which provides me an opportunity to reprint a Nihon ryōiki story:
On an Evil Man Who was Negligent in Filial Piety to His Mother and Gained an Immediate Penalty of Violent Death
In Sou upper district, Yamato province there once lived a wicked man whose identity is lost except for his nickname, Miyasu. In the reign of the emperor residing at the Palace of Naniwa, he became a student of the Confucian classics, but he attained merely book knowledge and did not support his mother.
His mother had borrowed rice from him and could not return it. Miyasu angrily pressed his mother for payment. His friends, who could no longer endure the sight of the mother seated on the ground while the son sat on a mat, asked him, “Good man, why are you not respectful? Some people build pagodas, make Buddha images, copy scriptures, and invite monks to a retreat for their parents’ sake. You are rich and fortunate enough to lend much rice. Why do you neglect your dear mother and contradict what you have studied?” Miyasu ignored them, saying, “That’s none of your business.” Whereupon they paid the debt on her behalf and hurried away.
His mother, for her part, bared her breasts and, in tears, said to her son, “When I reared you, I never rested day or night. I have seen people repaying their parents for their affection, but, when I thought I could rely on my son, I incurred only disgrace. I was wrong in relying upon you. Since you have pressed me for repayment of the rice, I will now demand repayment of my milk. The mother-child tie is from this day broken. Heaven and earth will take cognizance of this. How sad, how pitiful! ”
Without a word Miyasu stood up, went into the back room, and, returning with the bonds, burnt them all in the yard. Then he went into the mountains where he wandered about not knowing what to do, ran wildly this way and that with disheveled hair and a bleeding body, and could not stay in his home. Three days later a fire broke out suddenly, and all of his houses and storehouses in and out of the premises burned. Eventually Miyasu turned his family into the streets, and he himself died of hunger and cold without any shelter.
Now we cannot help believing that a penalty will be imposed, not in the distant future, but in this life. Accordingly, a scripture says, “The unfilial are destined to hell; the filial, to the pure land.” This is what Nyorai preaches, the true teaching of Mahayana tradition. (Page 135-136)
This is the first collection of Buddhist legends in Japan, and these stories form the repertoire of miraculous events and moral examples that later Buddhist priests used for preaching to the people. As Kyokai describes his own intentions, “By editing these stories of miraculous events I want to pull the people forward by the ears, offer my hand to lead them to good, and show them how to cleanse their feet of evil” (p.222).
Nakamura’s book is actually two works in one: first an introduction to the Nihon ryōiki, and then an annotated translation. The introduction analyzes the life of the author and the influence of earlier writings, and provides a valuable synthesis of the world view reflected in the work.
The annotated translation renders the more than one hundred stories into English narrative, with copious notes. Difficult terms are identified in the text with the original Chinese characters, while historical matters and Buddhist technical terms are explained in the footnotes.
The translator and editor of this edition, Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, offers this concept of “miracles” at the conclusion of his preface:
If miracles are narrowly defined as the intervention of the divine which is designed to suspend or change the law of nature, then wondrous occurrences in the Buddhist tradition are not miracles, but the work of karma (1.26). As a consequence of past karma, man becomes a sage, holy man, bodhisattva, or buddha, and attains self-mastery. To the popular imagination, however, wonders held such appeal that they served as signs to invite men through the gate along the path toward enlightenment. (Page 91)
The Nihon ryōiki is a collection of stories gathered by a monk named Kyōkai. The Nihon ryōiki, according to Nakamura, was compiled either in 782-805 or 810-824. Theories differ, but one important aspect is that at the time when this book was compiled Japanese Buddhism was in a transition away from nonsectarian “Buddhist institutes for the study of several different doctrines” toward a growing sectarian consciousness “in response to the challenge of the new Buddhist teachings introduced by Saichō (767-822) and Kūkai (744-835)” (Page 4).
Kyōkai’s Preface of Volume One offers this view of Good and Evil:
Good and evil deeds cause karmic retribution as a figure causes its shadow, and suffering and pleasure follow such deeds as an echo follows a sound in the valley. Those who witness such experiences marvel at them and forget they are real happenings in the world. The penitent withdraws to hide himself, for he burns with shame at once. Were the fact of karmic retribution not known, how could we rectify wickedness and establish righteousness? And how would it be possible to make men mend their wicked minds and practice the path of virtue without demonstrating the law of karmic causation? (Page 101)
And later in discussing his own limitations:
I am not gifted with either wisdom or lucidity. Learning acquired in a narrow well loses its way when out in the open. My work resembles that of a poor craftsman working on the carving of a master. I am afraid that I will cut my hand and suffer from the injury long afterward. My work is comparable to a rough pebble beside the K’un-lun Mountains. Its source in the oral tradition is so indistinct that I am afraid of omitting much. Only the desire to do good has moved me to try, in spite of the fear that this might turn out to be a presumptuous work by an incompetent author. I hope that learned men in future generations will not laugh at my efforts, and I pray that those who happen upon this collection of miraculous stories will put aside evil, live in righteousness, and, without causing evil, practice good. (Page 101-102)
From the Kyōkai’s Preface to Volume III, the three periods of Śākyamuni’s teachings:
The Inner Scriptures show how good and evil deeds are repaid, while the Outer Writings show how good and bad fortunes bring merit and demerit. If we study all the discourses Śākyamuni made during his lifetime, we learn that there are three periods: first, the period of the true dharma (shōbō), which lasts five hundred years; second, the period of the counterfeit dharma (zōbō), lasting a thousand years; and third, the period of the degenerate dharma (mappō), which continues for ten thousand years. By the fourth year of the hare, the sixth year of the Enryaku era [787], seventeen hundred and twenty-two years have passed since Buddha entered nirvana. Accordingly, we live in the age of the degenerate dharma following the first two periods. Now in Japan, by the sixth year of the Enryaku era, two hundred and thirty-six years have elapsed since the arrival of the Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha [538 or 553]. Flowers bloom without voice, and cocks cry without tears. In the present world those who practice good are as few as flowers on rocky hills, but those who do evil are as plentiful as weeds in the soil. Without knowing the law of karmic retribution, one offends as easily as a blind man loses his way. A tiger is known by its tail. Those devoted to fame, profit, and killing doubt the immediate repayment of good and evil which occurs as quickly as a mirror reflects. One who is possessed of an evil spirit is like one who holds a poisonous snake; the poison is always there ready to appear.
The great power of karmic retribution reaches us as quickly as sound echoes in a valley. If we call, the echo never fails to answer, and this is the way karmic retribution works in this life. How can we fail to be more careful? It is useless to repent after spending a lifetime in vain. Who can enjoy immortality since you are given a limited life? How can you depend on your transient life as being eternal? We are already in the age of the degenerate dharma. How can we live without doing good? My heart aches for all beings. How can we be saved from calamity in the age of the degenerate dharma? If we offer monks only a handful of food, the merit of our good deed will save us from the calamity of hunger. If we keep a precept of nonkilling for a day, we will be saved from the calamity of sword and battle. (Page 221-222)
He follows with an example of how karma works:
Once there was a full-fledged monk who lived on a mountain and practiced meditation. At every meal he shared his food with a crow which came to him every day. After a vegetarian meal, he chewed a toothpick, cleaned his mouth, washed his hands and played with a stone. The crow was behind the hedge when he threw the stone. He hit the crow without knowing that it was there. The crow died on the spot, its head crushed into pieces, and was reborn as a boar. The boar lived in the same mountain as the monk. It happened to go to the place above his hut, rooting about among the rocks for food, where upon one of the rocks rolled down and killed the monk. Although the boar had no intention of killing him, the rock rolled down by itself. A sin committed by an action which is neither good nor bad will in turn generate the same kind of action. In the case of intentional murder, how is it possible to escape the penalty? A deluded mind produces the seed and fruit of evil; an enlightened mind produces the seed of good to attain Buddhahood. (Page 222)
Having last month concluded Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, we witness the vow of the Bodhisattvas who sprang up from underground.
Thereupon the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of dust of one thousand worlds, who had sprung up from underground, joined their hands together towards the Buddha with all their hearts, looked up at his honorable face, and said to him:
“World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will expound this sūtra in the worlds of the Buddhas of your replicas and also in the place from which you will pass away. Why is that? It is because we also wish to obtain this true, pure and great Dharma, to keep, read, recite, expound and copy [this sūtra], and to make offerings to it.”
An unidentified priest lived at the Tadain Temple at Teshima in Settsu Province. After he had lived several decades, he devoted himself to the Hokekyō, reciting it single-mindedly and practicing the Three Deeds. He had passed many years in the mountains engaged in ascetic practices. A certain layman much appreciated and venerated this devout priest and served him faithfully.
One day the layman fell ill during an epidemic and finally died. He was laid in a coffin which was placed in a treetop. Five days later, however, he revived, got out of the coffin, and returned home.
At his house, the layman told his wife and children about the Land After Death:
“King Yama took out a ledger, examined the tablets of my life’s conduct and said, ‘Since you have been very sinful, you should be sent to hell. However, I will pardon you by extending your life span and let you go home. This is because you have devoutly venerated the reciter of the Hokekyō for all these years. As a result of this merit, you will be released from here. After returning home, venerate the Hokekyō reciter. This will be more appreciated than venerating many Buddhas during the three periods of time, and your virtue will excel all other merits.
“After hearing King Yama’s admonishment, I left his office and returned to this world. On my way home I saw some ten stupas, all of them finely decorated with seven jewels, risen of their own accord in a mountain field.
“The priest, whom I have venerated all these years, sat facing these adorned stupas. He breathed flames from his mouth and burned them all down. Next, I heard a voice in the sky which said to me, “You should know that these stupas appeared as the priest recited the Chapter of the Apparition of the Stupa in the Hokekyō. But he has angrily scolded and abused his disciples and followers. The violent flames of his anger flared out from his mouth and burned down those stupas. If the reciter had controlled his anger and recited the sūtra, the jeweled stupas undoubtedly would have filled this world. Tell this to your priest!’ ”
All those who heard the layman’s story, his wife and children, relatives, followers and all his neighbors, thought it most unusual. The layman went to the priest and told him what had happened in the Land After Death.
The priest listened to his story, regretted and repented of his deeds, left his people and the ignorant crowd, and lived alone, reciting the Hokekyō singlehandedly. Ten years later he finally passed away without any sickness while sitting in a posture of meditation. (Page 58-59)
One important concept to keep in mind, which I think is very difficult in our modern materialistic society, is the thought that all things are impermanent and insubstantial. It is easy to be lead astray and think that things are important and will last indefinitely, when in fact no thing will remain unchanged forever.
