Monthly Archives: October 2019

WONS

All Disciples of Lord Śākyamuni Buddha

Since Śākyamuni Buddha is eternal and all other Buddhas in the universe are His manifestations, then those great bodhisattvas who were taught by manifested Buddhas and who are from other worlds are all disciples of Lord Śākyamuni Buddha. If the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter had not been expounded, it would be like the sky without the sun and moon, a country without a king, mountains and rivers without gems, or a man without a soul.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 75

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 5, 2019

He should always make it a pleasure to sit in dhyāna. He should live in a retired place and concentrate his mind. Mañjuśrī! [A retired place] is the first thing he should approach.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. For those who are awakening their nature as Bodhisattvas to benefit all beings, and setting aside their attachment to their own suffering, this can be a difficult transition. Our habits of engaging with the drama and delusion in the world can be too strong to overcome. This is why the Buddha emphasizes the importance of quietly reflecting on what happens around us, and our reactions to them. Through dhyāna meditation, we learn not to believe everything we think, and that we can change our understanding of the world. We also learn that allowing our minds to change is the only way we can benefit other beings.

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

LS32

Day 4

Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 4 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Śākyamuni explain the immeasurable power of Buddha’s to employ expedients, we hear Śākyamuni explain the benefits of hearing the sūtra of the Great Vehicle.

Some sons of mine are pure in heart, gentle and wise.
They have practiced the profound and wonderful teachings
Under innumerable Buddhas
[In their previous existence].
I will expound this sūtra of the Great Vehicle to them,
And a sure them of their future Buddhahood, saying:
“You will attain the enlightenment of the Buddha
In your future lives.”

Deep in their minds they are thinking of me,
And observing the pure precepts.
Therefore, they will be filled with joy
When they hear they will become Buddhas.
I know their minds.
Therefore, I will expound the Great Vehicle to them.

Any Śrāvaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gāthā
Of this sūtra which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.

See Apocryphal Text

2buddhas, Blog, LS32

Apocryphal Text

The Lotus Sūtra, like all Mahāyāna sūtras, is an apocryphal text, composed long after the Buddha’s death and yet retrospectively attributed to him. To establish its authenticity, the Lotus Sūtra must produce its own community of faith, but it must also respond to its enemies, those who declare, with some historical justification, that the Lotus Sūtra is a fraud, a work that only pretends to be the word of the Buddha. This seems, in fact, to have been a frequent charge leveled by mainstream monastics against the Mahāyāna sūtras. When prominent monks and nuns of the Buddhist community in India, where the Lotus Sūtra first appeared, declared it to be spurious, noting, correctly, that it was not to be found anywhere in the various collections that had been compiled in the centuries since the Buddha’s death, the proponents of the Lotus Sūtra had to respond. They could not claim that the sūtra appeared in the existing collections, because it did not. How could the Lotus Sūtra have been spoken by the Buddha without others knowing about it? One implicit explanation is that before the Buddha could teach the sūtra, five thousand members of the audience stood up and walked out. They did not know about the Lotus Sūtra because they were not there to hear it. If these arrogant monks and nuns had only stayed, they would have heard the Buddha preach the Lotus Sūtra. (Although we are now partway through the second chapter, the Lotus Sūtra has apparently not yet begun.) One could also see this mass exit as a criticism of those mainstream monastics who rejected the Lotus Sūtra. “The roots of error among this group had been deeply planted, and they were arrogant,” we are told, and the Buddha himself is made to dismiss them as “useless twigs and leaves.”

Two Buddhas, p56-57

Although we are now [ONLY] partway through the second chapter, to use Donald S. Lopez Jr.’s words, I have run out of patience. When I wrote Two Authors Seated Side By Side earlier this week, I said I was “wary of Lopez’s influence on Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side, but I’m excited about the opportunity to use this book in my daily practice.” Now I’m just annoyed. Jacqueline I. Stone’s descriptions of Nichiren, his times and his thinking, are excellent. She maintains academic detachment without resorting to the sort of disparagement that Lopez inserts at each opportunity – “the Lotus Sūtra has apparently not yet begun.”

Picking someone who demonstrably has such little respect for the Lotus Sutra to be its auditor is a waste. Imagine if Stone had had the opportunity to partner with the late Gene Reeves to write this book. That would be worth buying. Were it not for Stone’s part in this book, I would put it down now and never pick it up again.

I’m going to keep using quotes from the book where they offer insight into the sutra, especially Stone’s insight.

Saicho

Broadening Buddhism’s Popular Base in Japan

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Saichō tried to broaden Buddhism’s popular base in Japan. During the Nara period the court had promoted Buddhism as a religion of the elite. To a large extent, the Nara schools had not objected. In fact, the Hossō teaching that only some sentient beings possessed the seeds necessary for enlightenment contributed to these elitist attitudes. Monks were directed to stay in their temples and practice. The court believed that unrestricted contact with the populace could be subversive and thus discouraged it. The fifth article in the Sōniryō [rules regulating monks and nuns] stated:

Monks or nuns who are not residents of a monastery or temple and who set up (unauthorized) religious establishments and preach to congregations of the people shall be expelled from holy orders. Officials of provinces and districts, who are aware of such conduct but do not prohibit it shall be punished in accordance with the law. Persons desiring to beg for food must submit an application supported by the joint seals of their superiors through the provincial or district offices. The authorities may grant permission after they are satisfied that true ascetic practice is intended.

The twenty-third article read:

Monks, nuns, and others who send lay persons from house to house to exhort people with prayers and images shall be punished with one hundred days hard labor; the lay persons shall be dealt with according to the law.

The Sōniryō date from the early eighth century. In subsequent years they were supplemented by edicts under a number of emperors including Kanmu. In Saichō’s time, although the above two articles were still laws, they were largely ignored. Such sources as the Nihon ryōiki, compiled in the early ninth century, provide ample evidence that Buddhism was already spreading among the common people. The Nara monks did not choose to challenge Saichō’s plan to send Tendai monks out to the provinces to preach and assist with public works such as bridge building. They too were interested in this type of activity.

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p178-179
Lotus Path

Appreciation

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Appreciation, genuine and sincere, for other people is an important practice. Remember it isn’t that someone does something for us and we thank them, although that we should definitely practice. The kind of appreciation we can try to practice is an expression of the value of their very existence, their presence in our life, good or bad. Regardless of the energy they bring us, they allow us to change to grow and to practice the Bodhisattva way.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 4, 2019

The son thought: “I was poor, base and mean.
Now I have obtained
The treasures, houses,
And all the other things
From my father.
Never before
Have I been so happy.”

These verses are part of the story of the Wayward Son told by Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. The son in the story has come into his inheritance after years of training and preparation by his father. The story explains the disciples’ understanding of how the Buddha uses expedients over time to prepare us for enlightenment. When we are not ready for the Buddha’s wisdom, he teaches to the capacity of our own minds. Now that we are ready for his highest teaching, he reveals his own mind in the Lotus Sutra.

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

LS32

Day 3

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Day 3 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Śāriputra’s request for an explanation, we hear the Buddha’s rejection and Śāriputra’s plea.

Thereupon the Buddha said to him,
“No, no, I will not. If I do, all the gods and men in the world will be frightened and perplexed.”

Śāriputra said to him again:

“World-Honored One! Explain it, explain it! The many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of living beings in this congregation have active functions of mind and clear wisdom because they have seen the [past] Buddhas in their previous existence. If they hear you, they will respect and believe you.”

Thereupon Śāriputra, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in a gāthā:

King of the Dharma, Most Honorable One!
Explain it! Do not worry!
The innumerable living beings in this congregation
Will respect and believe you.

The Buddha checked him again, saying, “No. If I do, all the gods, men and asuras in the world will be frightened and perplexed, and arrogant bhikṣus will fall into a great pit.”

Thereupon the Buddha repeated this in a gāthā:

No, no, I will not say any more.
My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.
If arrogant people hear me,
They will not respect or believe me.

Thereupon Śāriputra said to him again:

“World-Honored One! Expound the Dharma, expound the Dharma! The hundreds of thousands of billions of living beings in this congregation like me followed the [past] Buddhas and received their teachings in their consecutive previous existences. They will respect and believe you. They will be able to have peace after the long night and obtain many benefits.”

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

Most Honorable Biped!
Expound the Highest Truth!
I am your eldest son.
Expound the Dharma!

The innumerable living beings in this congregation
Will respect and believe the Dharma.
They have been taught by the [past] Buddhas
In their consecutive previous existences.
They are joining their hands together [towards you],
Wishing with all their hearts to hear and receive your words.

Expound the Dharma
To us twelve hundred men,
And also to the other people
Who are seeking Buddhahood!
We shall be very glad to hear the Dharma.
The other people will also.

See Why the Buddha Addressed Śāriputra

2buddhas, LS32, d3b

Why the Buddha Addressed Śāriputra

[Before] examining the Buddha’s opening remarks more closely, let us consider to whom he spoke them.

One might expect that he would address his remarks to Maitreya or to Mañjuśrī, the two interlocutors in the sūtra up to this point, and both also bodhisattvas. But he speaks instead to the monk Śāriputra. In the mainstream Buddhist tradition, that is, the monastic majority, who were not Mahāyāna followers, Śāriputra was renowned as the wisest of the Buddha’s disciples. Prior to becoming a disciple of the Buddha, he met a Buddhist monk and asked him what his teacher taught. When the monk demurred, saying that he was a beginner and thus unable to explain it in detail, Śāriputra asked for a summary. The monk replied with a single verse, “Of those things produced by causes, the Tathāgata has proclaimed their causes and also their cessation. Thus the great ascetic has spoken.” Merely by hearing those words, Śāriputra achieved the first level of enlightenment, the stage of the stream-enterer. According to tradition, the abhidharma, the part of the canon dealing with technical analysis of doctrine, was first taught by the Buddha to Śāriputra. Śāriputra was also one of the few monks whom the Buddha sanctioned to deliver discourses, so that some sūtras are spoken by Śāriputra rather than the Buddha.

Śāriputra is a śrāvaka and an arhat, having achieved the profound wisdom necessary to destroy all ignorance and to enter final nirvana upon his death. In the mainstream tradition, the Buddha is also called an arhat because he has achieved that same wisdom and will enter parinirväva at death. The primary difference between a buddha and an arhat in the early tradition appears to have been that a buddha discovers the path to nirvana without relying on a teacher, while an arhat must rely on the Buddha’s teachings to do so. A buddha also possesses certain supernormal powers that an arhat may not have, but both were held to partake equally in the liberating insight that is the goal of the Buddhist path. Because Śāriputra was the wisest of the arhats, one often asked to speak for the Buddha, there should not, from the perspective of the Buddhist mainstream, be a substantial difference between the wisdom of the Buddha and the wisdom of Śāriputra; there should not be something of substance that Śāriputra fails to understand, that is, not until these first remarks of Śākyamuni in the Lotus Sūtra. In another case of inversion, Śāriputra, like Maitreya in the preceding chapter, is perplexed.

Two Buddhas, p53-55
Saicho

Moving Ordinations From Nara and Kyoto to Mount Hiei

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Saichō did not ask for complete autonomy for the Tendai School. Although he criticized the bureaucracy controlling the Buddhist schools, he readily accepted the principles of government control over the number of monks, government examination and certification of candidates for the order, and government issuance of identification certificates for novices and monks. The lay administrators (zoku bettō) too were appointed by the government, which could have resulted in direct government supervision of the Tendai School by laymen.

Saichō certainly could have criticized such supervision by the court as infringements on the autonomy of the Tendai School, but chose not to do so, probably because he was more concerned with the interference of Nara monks in Tendai affairs than with the possibility of interference from the court.

One of Saichō’s most important achievements in church-state relations was his clear demarcation of the areas in which monks could live and act. The testing, initiation, and ordination of prospective Tendai monks was no longer to take place in Nara and Kyoto but on Mount Hiei, where the new monks were required to spend the next twelve years. Tendai monks were to be concerned with religious, not political affairs; thus they would not give the court cause to interfere in monastic affairs.

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p178