Monthly Archives: October 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 how the Buddha is like the rich man training his son, we begin the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son in gāthās:

Thereupon Mahā-Kāśyapa, wishing to repeat what they had said, sang in gāthās:

Hearing your teaching of today,
We are dancing with joy.
We have never had
Such joy before.

You say:
“The Śrāvakas will be able to become Buddhas.”
We have obtained unsurpassed treasures
Although we did not seek them.

Suppose there lived a boy.
He was young and ignorant.
He ran away from his father
And went to a remote country.
He wandered from country to country
For more than fifty years.

The father anxiously sought him
In all directions.
Finally tiring of looking for him,
He settled in a certain city.

He built a house,
And enjoyed satisfaction
Of the five desires.
He was very rich.
He had a great deal of gold, silver,
Shell, agate, pearl and lapis lazuli;
And many elephants, horses,
Cows, sheep,
Palanquins, carts,
Farmers and attendants.
He invested his money in all the other countries,
And earned interest.
Merchants and customers
Were seen everywhere [around him].

Thousands of billions of people
Surrounded him respectfully.
He was favored by the king,
And respected
By the ministers,
And by the powerful families.

Many people came to see him
For various purposes. Because he was rich,
He was very powerful.
As he became older,
He thought more of his son.
He thought from morning till night:
“I shall die before long.
It is more than fifty years
Since my ignorant son left me
What shall I do
With the things in the store-houses?”

See The Rich Man, the Poor Son and the Five Periods

2buddhas, LS32, d7b, d8b

The Rich Man, the Poor Son and the Five Periods

[A]fter Zhiyi’s time, through the efforts especially of Zhanran and the Korean scholar-monk Chegwan, the Tiantai school gradually developed a model that divides the Buddha’s teaching career into five periods that span fifty years. According to this model, the Buddha began by preaching the Flower Garland Sūtra (Avatamsaka Sūtra), a highly advanced doctrine directed solely to bodhisattvas. None of the śrāvakas in the assembly could understand it and were struck dumb, just as the impoverished son was terrified when first forcibly approached by his father’s attendants. Seeing that the Flower Garland teaching was beyond his auditors’ capacity, the Buddha then backtracked and for twenty years preached the āgamas, … emphasizing the four noble truths, the twelve-linked chain of dependent origination, and the goal of nirvāṇa — that is, the teachings sometimes disparaged as the “Hinayāna.” This period corresponds to the wealthy man hiring his son to sweep manure for twenty years. In the third period, seeing that his followers were maturing, the Buddha preached the vaipulya or introductory Mahāyāna teachings such as the Vimalakirti Sūtra, which criticize the one-sided emphasis on emptiness and detachment found in the āgamas and instead extol the way of the bodhisattva. This corresponds to the son having “free access to his father’s house” yet still living in his own humble quarters. In the fourth period, the Buddha preached the prajn͂ā or wisdom teachings, which integrate all of his teachings up to that point in the two discernments of emptiness and wisdom by which bodhisattvas both uproot attachment and act compassionately in the world. This corresponds to the wealthy man entrusting the care of his fortune to his impoverished son. Then finally, in the fifth period, during the last eight years of his life, the Buddha set aside the coarse and incomplete provisional teachings of the preceding four periods and preached the perfect teaching that opens buddhahood to all. This teaching is represented by the Lotus Sūtra, and — in the Tiantai reading — restated in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, said to have been preached just before the Buddha’s passing. This corresponds to the father, now approaching death, publicly acknowledging his son and bequeathing all of his wealth to him. In this way, the parable of the wealthy householder provided a basis for grasping the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings as integrated into a single, comprehensive chronological and soteriological agenda, by which he sought to gradually cultivate his followers’ capacity until they were mature enough to receive and accept the message of the one buddha vehicle.

Two Buddhas, p91-93
Lotus Seeds

The Ten Worlds: Fighting Demons

Quote

The world of the fighting demons is the realm of arrogant demons who are obsessed with their own power and whose sole wish is to overthrow the benevolent gods of heaven. Those in this state are full of pride and arrogance, and are extremely competitive and envious. They can never rest or feel secure because they must constantly strive to maintain and improve their position and prestige no matter how well off they may actually be.

Lotus Seeds

Saicho

Maturation of Faculties and Subsequent Enlightenment

Quote

Chih-i categorized the maturation of man’s faculties and subsequent enlightenment in three stages. First, the karmic seeds connecting a person to Buddhism had to be planted (geshu). Although everyone possessed the Buddha-nature, a person first had to be exposed to the Buddha’s teachings in order to begin to realize this basic truth. He had to listen to elementary teachings which gradually drew him on to more profound teachings until his faculties matured (jōjuku). In the second stage, his faculties had matured and he was ready to hear the Buddha’s ultimate teaching, the Lotus Sūtra. Finally, in the last stage, the process was completed; freed (gedatsu) from his sufferings, he had achieved perfect enlightenment. For Chih-i this system was to be applied on an individual basis. One person might be at an advanced stage, while his neighbor might be at a lower stage.

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p181
WONS

Delight in Such a Discouraging Life

We left Echi on the tenth of the tenth month and arrived at the province of Sado on the 28th of the same month. On the first of the eleventh month I entered the Sammaidō Hall in the wilderness called Tsukahara located behind the residence of Homma Rokurōzaemon. This place was a run-down hut, about six foot square in size and without a statue of the Buddha, built in a place where dead bodies were abandoned like Rendaino in Kyoto.

The roof was full of holes and the four walls had fallen off so that snow which piled up in the room never disappeared. I had to stay here day and night, sitting on a piece of fur and wearing a raincoat made of straws. At night it snowed, hailed and thundered continuously. In the daytime no rays of sunshine penetrated the heavy clouds. It was such a discouraging life there. In ancient China Li-ling (Su-wu) was sent to the land of Hsiung-nu as an emissary and was captured and confined in a cave for years. Tripitaka Master Fa-tao who remonstrated with Emperor Hui-tsung of Sung in vain was exiled to Southern China, having his face branded with a red-hot iron. They must have felt just like I felt then.

However, this is in fact delightful. In ancient times King Suzudan abandoned the throne to seek the True Dharma and devoted himself to austerities under a prophet called Asita for as long as one thousand years. As a result of such intense training, he finally obtained the great merit of the Lotus Sūtra. Struck by self-conceited monks with sticks, Never-Despising Bodhisattva could become a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra.

Now it is Nichiren who, born in the Latter Age of Degeneration, is encountering these great difficulties for having propagated the five Chinese characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 31-32

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 8, 2019

The Buddhas seldom appear in the worlds.
It is difficult to meet them.
Even when they do appear in the worlds,
They seldom expound the Dharma.

The Buddha proclaims these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. Later in the Sūtra he explains that in reality he became enlightened far in the past and will continue to lead all beings to enlightenment far into the future. The reason the Buddhas appear so rarely is not because they conceal themselves. It is because we do not recognize them for what they are. We cannot see the air we breathe, but it is crucial for our lives. Because of this we often take it for granted, unless we are so afflicted, or the air is so poisoned that we cannot breathe. Then we are aware of it. Likewise, the Buddha Dharma is available to us all the time.

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

LS32

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 concluded today’s portion of Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, we return to the Buddha’s explanation that “This triple world is my property. All living beings therein are my children.

There are many sufferings
In this world.
Only I can save
[All living beings].

I told this to all living beings.
But they did not believe me
Because they were too much attached
To desires and defilements.

Therefore, I expediently expounded to them
The teaching of the Three Vehicles,
And caused them to know
The sufferings of the triple world.
I opened, showed, and expounded
The Way out of the world.

Those children who were resolute in mind
Were able to obtain
The six supernatural powers
Including the three major supernatural powers,
And to become cause-knowers
Or never-faltering Bodhisattvas.

See Reverse Connection

2buddhas, LS32, d7b, WONS

Reverse Connection

Because the consequences of slandering the Lotus Sūtra are so frightful, in the verse section of this third chapter of the sūtra, after summarizing the karmic retribution that would attend that offense, the Buddha admonishes Śāriputra “never to expound this sūtra to those who have little wisdom. … You should teach the Lotus Sūtra to those who are able to accept it.” Some among Nichiren’s disciples wondered why he himself failed to follow this injunction. Would one not do better to lead people gradually through provisional teachings, as Śākyamuni Buddha himself had done, rather than insisting on immediately preaching the Lotus Sūtra to persons whose minds were not open to it? In Nichiren’s understanding, however, the sūtra’s warning against preaching the Lotus Sūtra to the ignorant had applied only to the Buddha’s lifetime and to the subsequent two thousand years of the ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, when people still had the capacity to achieve buddhahood through provisional teachings. Now, in the age of the Final Dharma, he argued, no one can achieve liberation through such incomplete doctrines. Therefore, the Buddha had permitted ordinary teachers such as himself to preach the Lotus Sūtra directly, so that people could establish a karmic connection with it, “whether by acceptance or rejection.” Here Nichiren invoked and assimilated to the Lotus Sūtra the logic of “reverse connection” (J. gyakuen), the idea that even a negative relationship to the dharma, formed by rejecting or maligning it, will nonetheless eventually lead one to liberation. Persons who have formed no karmic connection to the true dharma may perhaps avoid rebirth in the lower realms but lack the conditions for attaining buddhahood; those who slander the dharma paradoxically form a bond with it. Though they must suffer the fearful consequences of disparaging the Lotus Sūtra, after expiating that offense, they will be able to encounter the Lotus again and achieve buddhahood by virtue of the very karmic connection to the sūtra that they formed by slandering it in the past. Now, in the age of the Final Dharma, Nichiren maintained, most persons are so burdened by delusive attachments that they are already bound for the hells. “If they must fall into the evil paths in any event, it would be far better that they do so for maligning the Lotus Sūtra than for any worldly offense. … Even if one disparages the Lotus Sūtra and thereby falls into hell, the merit gained [by the relationship to the sūtra that one has formed thereby] will surpass by a billion times that of making offerings to and taking refuge in Śākyamuni, Amitābha, and as many other buddhas as there are sands in the Ganges River.” Thus in this age, Nichiren maintained, one should persist in urging people to embrace the Lotus Sūtra, regardless of their response, for the Lotus alone can implant the seed that bears the fruit of buddhahood.

Two Buddhas, p86-88
Saicho

Preaching the One-Vehicle Sudden Teaching

Quote

One of the central teachings of the Lotus Sūtra is that during most of his life the Buddha preached expedient teachings for those with lesser faculties, but waited until the faculties of people had matured sufficiently before he preached his ultimate teaching, the Perfect teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, at the end of his life. As Saichō stated in the Hokke shūku, “The basic teaching of the One-vehicle (is not preached) until the proper time has arrived and (the audience) has the proper faculties. Only when their faculties have matured and the appropriate time has come does the Buddha preach it. Thus the Buddha waited until the Sudden faculties (tonki) of people had matured before preaching the One-vehicle Sudden Teaching.”

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p181
d26b, d27b, WONS

The Moon that Brightens the Darkness of Night

The three delusions (delusions arising from incorrect views and thoughts, delusions which hinder knowledge of salvation methods, and delusions which hinder knowledge of the ultimate reality) that exist in the mind of all people as well as the karma of committing the ten evil acts, and the five rebellious sins are like the darkness of night. All the Buddhist scriptures such as the Flower Garland Sūtra are like stars in the dark night whereas the Lotus Sūtra is comparable to the moon that brightens the darkness of night. Those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra only half-heartedly are like the half-moon shining in the dark night. Those who deeply believe in the sūtra are likened to the full moon brightening the darkness of night. In the night with only stars twinkling in the sky without the moon, aged persons, women and children are unable to go out, though strong and healthy persons may. When the full moon brightens the night, even older persons and women and children are free to go out to play, attend parties, or meet friends and acquaintances. Likewise, in sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra, though bodhisattvas and ordinary people with superior nature may be able to attain Buddhahood, the Two Vehicles, ordinary people, evil persons, women, or aged people, idlers and those without precepts in the Latter Age will never be able to be reborn in the Pure Land or attain Buddhahood. That is not the case with the Lotus Sūtra. The Two Vehicles, evil persons and women all attain Buddhahood in the Lotus Sūtra, not to speak of bodhisattvas and ordinary people with superior nature. Again, the moon shines brighter at dawn than in the early evening and in autumn and winter than in spring and summer. Likewise, the Lotus Sūtra has more divine help in the Latter Age of Degeneration than during the 2,000 years of the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma.

Yakuō-bon Tokui-shō, The Essence of the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” Chapter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 31