Monthly Archives: July 2019

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 5, 2019

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.

The Buddha gives these instructions in Chapter Twenty-Two of the Lotus Sūtra. They remind us to be patient with those whom we work to benefit. Even though they may not be ready to hear the Wonderful Dharma, we can use the Expedient Teachings to prepare them for the Buddha’s highest teaching. When we are assured that countless beings are helping us all to become enlightened, we are less likely to be disappointed in the progress that we see.

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

LS32

Day 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 14 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard the desire of Ānanda and Rāhula to receive a prediction, we hear Śākyamuni’s prediction for Ānanda.

Thereupon the Buddha said to Ānanda:

“In your future life you will become a Buddha called Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power-King, 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. You will attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [and become that Buddha] after you make offerings to sixty-two hundred million Buddhas and protect the store of their teachings. That Buddha will teach twenty thousand billion Bodhisattvas, that is, as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges, and cause them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. The world [of that Buddha] will be called Always-Raising-Banner-Of-Victory. His world will be pure, and the ground of it will be made of lapis lazuli. The kalpa [in which you will become that Buddha] will be called Wonderful-Voice-Resounding-Everywhere. The duration of the life of that Buddha will be many thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas. No one will be able to count the number of the kalpas. His right teachings will be preserved for twice as long as his life, and the counterfeit of his right teachings will be preserved for twice as long as his right teachings.

“Ānanda! Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power-King Buddha will be praised for his merits by many thousands of billions of Buddhas or Tathāgatas of the worlds of the ten quarters, that is, by as many Buddhas or Tathāgatas as there are sands in the River Ganges.”

On my 21-day retreat encouraged by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we consider Day 4 of 21.

21days

Day 4 of 21

The Lotus Sutra can be understood in many ways, or, to put it another way, the teachings of the Lotus Sutra are varied and multivalent. Actually, one of the most important of these many meanings of the Lotus Sutra is its very vagueness and that it presents itself as of “innumerable meanings.” This potential—latent in its self-proclaimed “innumerable meanings”—provides the possibility for the Lotus Sutra to have meaning, not just in the past, but also specifically for the modern age.

Allow me to illustrate. In the introductory chapter we find Śākyamuni entering “the samādhi of the abode of immeasurable meanings.” As if to put the electronic lasers and pyrotechnics of Disneyland to shame, flowers rain down from heaven and the Buddha emits a ray of light that illuminates uncountable universes. Then the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī announces that the Buddha is about to preach the Lotus Sutra. However, the Buddha never does get around to preaching it. In short, an extravagant show is made to prepare for a sermon whose content is never exactly delineated.

What is this “Lotus Sutra” that is never preached? The content of the Lotus Sutra from chapter 2 on consists not so much in the Lotus Sutra itself, as in various praises for and instructions concerning the Lotus Sutra. The reason is that, in a broad sense, all of the Buddha-dharma is the Lotus Sutra, preached by the Buddha from the beginningless past. And if, in the words of the Ta Chih tu lun (Treatise on the Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom), the Buddha-dharma is not limited to the words of the sutras, but all good and beautiful words are the Buddha-dharma, then the same can be said of the Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus Sutra is of immeasurable meanings because it is equivalent to the Buddha-dharma. …

This does not mean that the Lotus Sutra can mean anything we want it to, or that we can arbitrarily interpret it to our own liking. “Immeasurable” does not mean “anything” or “everything.” It is important to know what the “Lotus Sutra” (in the limited, textual sense) says (and does not say), what it has meant (or not meant) to people in the past, how it has inspired (or not inspired) people, and what kinds of religious or other experiences it has led to.

On that basis we can more accurately and critically conclude what meaning the Lotus Sutra can have for our modern world. This is the duty of all religionists, whether Buddhist, Christian, or Muslim—to discover the meaning of their faith in their own social, historical, and cultural situation. For the Lotus Sutra adherent, it means the obligation to seek the meaning of the Lotus Sutra that is alive and meaningful for today. And precisely because the Lotus Sutra is of immeasurable meanings, it has the potential for providing meaning in our day.

Paul L. Swanson
From an essay that appeared in A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra; Gene Reeves editor; Kōsei Publishing; 2002

I want to add this quote early in my 21-day stay-cation retreat because it underscores an important point about why I am doing this:

For the Lotus Sutra adherent, it means the obligation to seek the meaning of the Lotus Sutra that is alive and meaningful for today.

Day 3 of 21Day 5 of 21

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 4, 2019

Anyone who respects the stūpa-mausoleum,
Who is modest before bhikṣus,
Who gives up self-conceit,
Who always thinks of wisdom,
Who does not get angry when asked questions,
And who expounds the Dharma
According to the capacities of the questioners,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. The merits of which he speaks are not an indication that we are better than other beings, that we deserve more respect than others, or that we are closer to enlightenment. Merits are a measure of clarity. When we lose attachment and delusion, we gain merit. When we see things for what they are, we gain the wisdom to truly benefit others.

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

LS32

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Day 13 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard the prediction for Pūrṇa’s future, we repeat in gāthās revealing Pūrṇa’s secret Bodhisattva practices.

Thereupon the Buddha, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Bhikṣus, listen to me attentively!
The Way practiced by my sons
Is beyond your comprehension
Because they learned how to employ expedients.

Knowing that people wish to hear
The teachings of the Lesser Vehicle,
And that they are afraid of having the great wisdom,
[My sons, that is,] the Bodhisattvas transform themselves
Into Śrāvakas or cause-knowers,
And teach the people with innumerable expedients.

Saying to the innumerable living beings, [for instance,]
“We are Śrāvakas.
We are far from the enlightenment of the Buddha,”
They save them, and cause them to attain [Śrāvakahood]
Even the lazy people who wish to hear the Lesser Vehicle
Will become Buddhas with this expedient in the course of time.

My disciples are performing
The Bodhisattva practices secretly
Though they show themselves in the form of Śrāvakas.
They are purifying my world
Though they pretend to want little
And to shun birth-and-death.
In the presence of the people,
They pretend to have the three poisons and wrong views.
They save them with these expedients.
They change themselves into various forms.
If I speak of all their transformations,
The listeners will doubt me.

On my 21-day retreat encouraged by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we consider Day 3 of 21.

21days, Universal Sage

Day 3 of 21

Whether renunciant or layperson, the practitioner will not need a mentor, will not need stewards, and will not need to take vows in a ceremony because of the power of accepting, keeping faith with, reciting, and internalizing the Great Vehicle sutras, and because of All-embracing Goodness Bodhisattva’s [Fugen] encouragement to engage in this practice. This is the core of the true Way of the buddhas in the ten