Two Buddhas, p86Buddhist sūtras specify two approaches to teaching the dharma: shōju, or leading others gradually without criticizing their present stance, and shakubuku, or actively rebuking attachment to false views. The choice between them, Nichiren said, should depend on the time and place. In his view, in Japan at the beginning of the Final Dharma age — a time and place where the Lotus Sūtra was being rejected in favor of provisional teachings — the confrontational shakubuku method should take precedence over the more accommodating shōju approach.
Monthly Archives: January 2020
Ten Worlds with Ten Worlds and Ten Factors
The mutual possession of the Ten Worlds means that each of the Ten Worlds contains all ten within itself, bringing the total to 100 worlds. These 100 worlds are 100 different perspectives on life. Each possesses the Ten Factors of life, which brings the total up to 1,000. The mutual possession of the Ten Worlds is possible because the Ten Worlds all possess the Ten Factors in common. These Ten Factors are the ways in which one can analyze the common properties of life in all of the one hundred worlds.
Fundamentally, the Ten Factors show that the 100 worlds are all simply manifestations of the process of Dependent Origination, and therefore are empty of any fixed or independent existence.
Lotus SeedsStudy Sūtras Before Choosing Your Sect
Grand Master Dengyō praises his own sect in his Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sūtra, “The superiority of the Tendai (T’ien-t’ai) Lotus Sect to other Buddhist schools stems from the superiority of its basic sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra. I am not praising our own and slandering other schools. Wise gentlemen, please study the sūtras before choosing your sect.” He also declares in this writing, “The person who upholds the Lotus Sūtra is foremost among all the people. This is what the Buddha preached. How can it be my own fanciful words of self-praise?”
Ōta-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lord Ōta, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 201-202.
Daily Dharma – Jan. 26, 2020
As I contemplate my own life, I, Nichiren, have studied Buddhism ever since I was a child. Our life is uncertain, as exhaling one’s breath one moment does not guarantee drawing it the next; it is as transient as the dew before the wind and its end occurs suddenly to everyone, the wise and the ignorant, the aged and the young. I thought I should study the matter of the last moment of life first of all, before studying anything else.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Reply to My Lady, the Nun Myōgō (Myōhō-ama Gozen Gohenji). The Buddha taught that everything that comes together falls apart. Everything that is born must die. Then in the Lotus Sūtra he taught that he sees the world differently. For him living beings have neither birth nor death, they do not appear nor disappear. For each of us, the death of our bodies is certain. As Nichiren instructs, it is beneficial to meditate on this fact and not live in denial of our mortality. At the same time, when we see with the Buddha’s mind, we realize that our lives are not the end of the story. Time and life are abundant, but it it still important to waste neither.
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Day 15
Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, we return to the top of today’s portion of Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and we consider how the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and understand.
Thereupon the Buddha said again to Medicine-King Bodhisattva mahāsattvas:
“I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.“Medicine-King! This sūtra is the store of the hidden core of all the Buddhas. Do not give it to others carelessly! It is protected by the Buddhas, by the World-Honored Ones. It has not been expounded explicitly. Many people hate it with jealousy even in my lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after my extinction.
“Medicine-King, know this! Anyone who copies, keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, makes offerings to it, and expounds it to others after my extinction, will be covered by my robe. He also will be protected by the present Buddhas of the other worlds. He will have the great power of truth, the power of vows, and the power of roots of good. Know this! He will live with me. I will pat him on the head.