[Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva,] touches upon many important problems of actual life. We should take the various characters in the story as models, appreciating their attitudes according to their positions. The attitude of King Resplendent is an example of that which a person engaged in politics or national leadership should take toward the truth; the deeds of the two royal sons, Pure Treasury and Pure-Eyed, show how children may open their parents’ eyes to faith (this also applies to a wife’s opening her husband’s eyes to it); Queen Pure Virtue is a model of the attitude a mother ought to take in mediating between progressive sons and a conservative father in order to promote the truth. 403-404
Monthly Archives: February 2020
The One Teaching Powerful Enough to Liberate People
Two Buddhas, p84-85Nichiren was by no means the only person to condemn Hōnen’s exclusive nenbutsu teaching as “disparaging the dharma.” Other critics, however, based their objections on the widely held premise that the Buddha had taught multiple forms of practice for persons of different capacities; claiming exclusive validity for one practice alone was “disparaging the dharma” because it rejected the multitude of other Buddhist teachings and practices such as keeping the precepts, meditation, esoteric ritual performance, reciting sūtras, and so forth.
Nichiren’s criticism had a different thrust: namely, that the Pure Land teachings were provisional and therefore unsuited to the present time, the age of the Final Dharma. They did not set forth the mutual inclusion of the ten realms that enabled all persons to realize buddhahood here in this world, in this body, but instead deferred it to another realm after death. By his time, a generation or so after Hōnen, exclusive nenbutsu followers were specifically urging people to abandon the Lotus Sūtra, which they claimed was too profound for people in this benighted era. In Nichiren’s view, this was disparaging the dharma. To discourage people from practicing the Lotus Sūtra because it was beyond their capacity was far worse than direct verbal abuse of the sūtra, because it threatened to drive the Lotus into obscurity, closing off the one teaching powerful enough to liberate people of the present evil age. “The Lotus Sūtra is the eyes of all the buddhas,” he wrote. “It is the original teacher of Śākyamuni Buddha, master of teachings. One who discards even a single character or brush dot commits a sin graver than killing one’s parents ten million times or shedding the blood of all buddhas in the ten directions.”
The Merit Contained in Only Five Chinese Characters
QUESTION: I would like to know how great the merit contained in only five Chinese characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō can be.
ANSWER: The great ocean receives the whole flow of rivers from all over the world; the great earth contains everything including sentient and insentient beings; the wish-fulfilling gem rains all kinds of treasures; the King of the Brahma Heaven controls the whole Triple World (realms of desire, no desire, and non-form). Likewise, the five Chinese characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō possess the merits of all phenomena. In short, they contain everything in the Ten Realms from hell to the realm of Buddhas, including those that exist in the lands and the lands themselves.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 39
Daily Dharma – Feb. 10, 2020
The Śrāvakas will have already eliminated āsravas,
And reached the final stage of their physical existence.
They will become sons of the King of the Dharma.
Their number also will be beyond calculation.
Even those who have heavenly eyes
Will not be able to count them.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. The Śrāvakas are those who want only to eliminate their delusions and end their suffering. They do not yet realize that the Buddha leads them to become Bodhisattvas and work for the benefit of all beings. They do not believe they can reach the Buddha’s own wisdom. The Buddha assures even these beings that in the course of time, as they realize their true nature, they too will become enlightened.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 30
Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs
Having last month considered Medicine-King Bodhisattva’s question, we receive his dhārāni spells.
Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva said to the Buddha,
“World-Honored One! Now I will give dhārāni spells to the expounder of the Dharma’ in order to protect him.”
Then he uttered spells:
“Ani (1), mani (2), manei (3), mamanei (4), shirei (5), sharitei (6), shamya (7), shabi-tai (8), sentei (9), mokutei (10), mokutabi (11), shabi (12), aishabi (13), sōbi (14), shabi (15), shaei (16), ashaei (17), agini (18), sentei (19), shabi (20), darani (21 ), arokya-basai-ha habi-shani (22), neibitei (23), abentarancibitei (24), atantahareishudai(25), ukurei (26), mukurei (27), ararei (28), hararei (29), shukyashi (30), asammasambi (31), botsudabikirijittei (32), darumaharishitei (33), sōgyanekkushanei (34), bashabashashudai(35), mantara (36), manta ashayata (37), urntaurota (38), kyōsharya(39), ashara (40), ashay taya (41), abaro (42), amanyanataya (43).”
[He said to the Buddha:]
“World-Honored One! These dhārānis, these divine spells, have already been uttered by six thousand and two hundred million Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those who attack and abuse this teacher of the Dharma should be considered to have attacked and abused those Buddhas.”
Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying:
“Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhārānis in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”
Five Kinds of Untranslatable Words
Buddhism for Today, p390Many mystic Sanskrit words appear in this chapter. Why were these words not translated? The reason is due to the prudence of Kumārajīva, who translated the Lotus Sutra from Sanskrit into Chinese. When the Mahāyāna sutras were rendered into Chinese from Sanskrit, the translators, including Kumārajīva, left “untranslatable words” untouched. These translators defined as untranslatable the following five kinds of words:
- Words with meanings alien to Chinese, that is, the names of animals, plants, and demons peculiar to India but foreign to China. For example: the fragrance of tamālapattra and of tagara, mentioned in chapter 19, and such beings as garuḍas and kiṃnaras.
- Words with many meanings, that is, words that cannot be fully translated by a single word. For example: dhārāṇi, sometimes meaning the mystic power that enables a reciter to maintain the teaching he has heard, sometimes meaning the power of checking all evil and of encouraging all good, sometimes meaning the mystic syllables by which the reciter can escape disaster. The mystic syllables in chapter 26 belong to the last category.
- Mystic words. For example: the dhārāṇi spells appearing in chapter 26. These words were left as they were because their profound meaning would be impaired if they were translated.
- Transliterations well established by precedent. For example: Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, which can be translated as “Perfect Enlightenment” or “the unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha.”
- Words with profound meanings, which would lose their true meaning if translated. For example: buddha and bodhi.
These five kinds of untranslatable words (goshu-fuhon) were invariably left untouched by any translator.
Dharma Slanderers
Two Buddhas, p83What particularly drew Nichiren’s attention in the “Parable” chapter was the long segment of the final verse section detailing the horrific karmic retribution incurred by those who disparage the Lotus Sūtra. The act of “disparaging the dharma” (S. saddharmapratiksepa, J. hōbō, also translated as “slandering” or “maligning” the dharma) was considered so grave a sin that in East Asia it was sometimes appended to the list of the five heinous deeds. The term occurs frequently in the Mahāyāna sūtras, where it often means maligning the Great Vehicle scriptures; in its Indic context, it was probably intended to counter the mainstream Buddhist criticism that the Mahāyāna was not the Buddha’s teaching.
Japanese Buddhists, however, understood theirs to be a “Mahāyāna country.” Unlike the situation faced by the Lotus Sūtra’s compilers, no one questioned the Mahāyāna’s legitimacy. Nichiren therefore took the term “dharma slander” in a different sense, to mean rejecting the Lotus Sūtra in favor of provisional teachings.
Insufficient Faith
QUESTION: Is there a definitive statement proving that the bodhisattvas do not attain Buddhahood if the Two Vehicles do not attain it?
ANSWER: It is stated in the thirty-sixth fascicle of the Nirvana Sūtra: “A person who believes that people possess the Buddha-nature but that not necessarily all the people have it is called a man of insufficient faith.” If this is true, bodhisattvas in various pre-Lotus sūtras are all icchantika (a man without faith and virtue and without the possibility of attaining Buddhahood). These sūtras do not acknowledge the attainment of Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles as well as by the bodhisattvas. In this sense, as long as the attaining of Buddhahood by the Vehicles is not acknowledged, attaining Buddhahood by the bodhisattvas is not possible in the pre-Lotus sūtras preached during the first forty years or so.
Nizen Nijō Bosatsu Fu-sabutsu Ji, Never-Attaining Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles and Bodhisattvas in the Pre-Lotus Sūtras, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 220
Daily Dharma – Feb. 9, 2020
Anything which tastes good, bad, delicious, distasteful, bitter or astringent, will become as delicious as the nectar of heaven and not distasteful when it is put on their tongues.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. In our habitual pursuit of pleasure, we often forget that what is pleasant to some people is irritating to others. This is most obvious with food. Flavors that some find delicious others find disgusting. When we understand that the things in the world are not the cause of our happiness or misery, and that our minds affect how we perceive the world, we find more joy and wonder than we thought possible, and no longer depend on this capricious existence for our happiness.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 29
Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.
Having last month witnessed Endless-Intent Bodhisattva’s gift to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva, we consider in gāthās World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva supernatural powers.
[The Buddha said to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva,] “Endless-Intent! World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva goes about the Sahā-World, employing these supernatural powers without hindrance.”
Thereupon Endless-lntent Bodhisattva asked the Buddha in gāthās:
World-Honored One with the wonderful marks
I ask you about this again.
Why is the son of the Buddha
Called World-Voice-Perceiver?The Honorable One with the wonderful marks answered Endless-Intent in gāthās:
Listen! World-Voice-Perceiver practiced
According to the conditions of the places [of salvation].
His vow to save [people] is as deep as the sea.
You cannot fathom it even for kalpas.On many hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas
He attended and made a great and pure vow.
I will tell you about his vow in brief.
If you hear his name, and see him,
And think of him constantly,
You will be able to eliminate all sufferings.Suppose you are thrown into a large pit of fire
By someone who has an intention of killing you.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver
The pit of fire will change into a pond of water.Suppose you are in a ship drifting on a great ocean
Where dragons, fish and devils are rampant.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
The ship will not b sunk by the waves.Suppose you are pushed
Off the top of Mt. Sumeru by someone.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
You will be able to stay in the air like the sun.Suppose you are chased by an evil man,
And pushed off [the top of] a mountain made of diamond.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
You will not lose even a hair.Suppose bandits are surrounding you,
And attempting to kill you with swords.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
The bandits will become compassionate t wards you.Suppose you are sentenced to death,
And the sword is drawn to behead you.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
The sword will suddenly break asunder.Suppose you are bound up
In pillories, chains, manacles or fetters.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
You will be released from them.Suppose someone curses you to death,
Or attempts to kill you by various poisons.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
Death will be brought to that person, instead.Suppose you meet rākṣasas
Or poisonous dragons or other devils.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
They will not kill you.Suppose you are surrounded by wild animals
Which have sharp, fearful tusks and claws.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver
They will flee away to distant places.Suppose you meet lizards, snakes, vipers or scorpions
Emitting poisonous vapor like flames.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
They will go away as you call his name.Suppose clouds arise, lightning flashes, thunder peals,
Hail falls, and a heavy rains comes down.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
The thunderstorm will stop at once.
See The Supernatural Powers of This Bodhisattva equal the Power of the Law