Two Buddhas, p125-126In Chapter Eight [The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples], to express their understanding of the one vehicle teaching, five hundred arhats who have just received a prediction from the Buddha relate the parable of the jewel hidden in the garment. Like the other parables of the Lotus Sūtra, this one was well known to educated Japanese and provided a frequent subject for traditional waka poems based on the sūtra, as in this twelfth-century example:
if the wind
from Vulture Peak
had not blown
my sleeves inside out—
would I have found
the jewel
inside the reverse
of my coat?Here the poet expresses his recognition that, without the Buddha’s preaching of the Lotus Sūtra, he would never have discovered the treasure he had possessed all along.
For Nichiren, the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra is what enables that discovery. He writes that living beings “have never for an instant been separated from the wish-granting jewel.” Although they could quickly realize buddhahood simply by chanting Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, being deluded by the wine of ignorance, they do not realize this and are instead satisfied with trivial gains, such as achieving rebirth in the heavens as the gods Brahmā or Indra or the status of rulers or great ministers of state in the human world. But the Buddha taught that these are mere illusory pleasures. Rather, “we should simply uphold the Lotus Sūtra and quickly become buddhas.” In the sūtra text, the man being “satisfied if he just obtains a very meagre amount” represents the Buddha’s disciples accepting the teachings of the two lower vehicles and being content with the arhat’s goal of nirvāṇa, not aspiring to the bodhisattva path. It thereby conveys an implicit criticism of the Indian Buddhist mainstream at the time of the sūtra’s compilation. Nichiren reorients the parable to suggest that any transient acquisition — including all the wealth, pleasures, and power to be had in the human or heavenly realms — is vastly inferior to realizing buddhahood by embracing the Lotus Sūtra.
Monthly Archives: February 2020
Grass Growing Near a Large River
I am greatly concerned about the illness of your lord. Even though your lord does not seem to place his full trust in you, you are fortunate enough to be his retainer and to receive his favor, which in turn enables you to believe in and support the Lotus Sūtra. This will certainly be considered a prayer for the recovery of your lord from illness. Although a bush under a large tree does not receive the rain directly, and the grass growing near a large river does not have immediate access to the river water, the bushes receive dew from the large tree, and the grass absorbs moisture from the great river to survive and grow. The same can be said of the relationship between you and your lord.
Sushun Tennō Gosho, The ‘Emperor Sushun’ Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 119-120
Daily Dharma – Feb. 14, 2020
We will wear the armor of endurance
Because we respect and believe you.
We will endure all these difficulties
In order to expound this sūtra.
Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva, along with their attendants, declare these verses to the Buddha in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha had asked previously who would teach the Lotus Sūtra after the Buddha’s death. These Bodhisattvas declare their aspirations to maintain their practice of the Buddha Dharma in the face of unimaginable difficulties. We may believe that this practice will lead to permanent comfort and pleasure. But knowing that we are in a world that is constantly changing, we realize that any difficulty is temporary, and that the way to a beneficial outcome may only go through difficulties. This knowledge and faith in the Buddha’s teachings increases our capacity to be a beneficial force in this world of conflict.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1
Each time through The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra (Watson translation this time), I’m confronted with the question of how to describe the Buddha’s appearance. In particular, the sign that appears on his chest.
It was during my 21-day stay-cation retreat last year that I first read The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (Reeves translation that time) and found this:
His chest, marked with a swastika,
Is like the chest of a lion.
I have known about the use of the swastika as a Buddhist marking for some time. I wrote about the decoration atop the Hanamatsuri shrine at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. That post has a lot of nice background information that I won’t bother to duplicate here.
The point today is the decision of translators – other than Reeves – to avoid confusing the mark with the Nazi symbol.
The BDK English Tripitaka translation by Kubo and Logan offers:
Your chest is like that of a lion, and it is marked with the sign of virtue. (Page 13)
While the Kosei publishing 1975 translation by Tamura, Schiffer and Del Campana used the “swastika mark,” the “Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers” (Kosei 2019) translated by Shinozaki, Ziporyn and Earhart follows the BDK English Tripitaka example and offers:
His chest, bearing the mark of virtue, is like a lion’s chest.
Which brings us the reason I’m rehashing all this today.
Burton Watson’s translation of The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra chooses to keep the literal character while eschewing the word swastika.
… breast displaying a fylfot pattern; lion chested; …
While I admire Watson’s effort to remain true to the literal text (see A Note About Translations at the bottom of yesterday’s post for another example), why can’t translators use the proper spelling of the word swastika, which is svastika? That eliminates the Nazi baggage and restores the idea that this image on the Buddha’s chest “is a statement of affirmation, ‘It is!’ ‘Life is good!’ ‘There is value’ ‘There is meaning!’ Svastika is a term that affirms the positive values of life.” (Also see this discussion of the Japanese meaning of the symbol Manji.)
And getting back to the topic of The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra …
The Essential Point
Buddhism for Today, p19The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings ends with the following words: “At that time all in the great assembly, greatly rejoicing together, made salutation to the Buddha, and taking possession of the sutra, withdrew.” To sum up briefly the essential point of this sutra, it is that all the laws originate from one Law, namely, the real state of all things. All phenomena of the universe, including human life, manifest themselves in myriad different ways, and appear, disappear, move, and change. Man’s mind is apt to be led astray in suffering from and worrying about discrimination and change. If we pay no attention to such visible discrimination and change, and if we are able to see in depth the true state of things transcending surface discrimination, the true state that is unchangeable forever, we will be able to attain the mental state of being free of all things while leading ordinary everyday lives.
However, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings does not explain in detail what the “real state of all things” is and what we should do to discern it. This important point is elucidated in the Lotus Sutra, which follows.
The Acquisition of Religious Spirit
The true spirit of religion does not arise from a desire for economic security or a hope of being cured of disease. Worship inspired by the prospect of worldly benefits is not true worship and does not accord with the higher teachings of the Buddha. It cannot be denied, however, that many people whose original motive for turning to religion was desire for mundane well-being have gone on to acquire consciousness of higher ideals and awareness of the genuine meaning of faith. The religious experience can occur on many levels. The acquisition of the religious spirit is more often than not gradual, and ideals tend to become loftier and deeper as experience grows.
Basic Buddhist Concepts
Reciprocal Bonds
Two Buddhas, p107-108Nichiren … commented on the “great king’s feast” [Chapter 6: Assurance of Future Buddhahood] in connection with memorial prayers that he offered on behalf of followers who had lost family members. In so doing, he evoked associations between the arhat Maudgalyāyana (Ch. Mulian, J. Mokuren), whose attainment of buddhahood is predicted in this chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, and Buddhist funerary and memorial rites. Maudgalyāyana was celebrated in the early Buddhist tradition as the Buddha’s disciple most accomplished in supernatural powers. After his mother had died, the story goes, Maudgalyāyana scanned the cosmos with his divine eye to see where she had been reborn and found her suffering in the realm of hungry ghosts as retribution for her greed and stinginess when alive. He then attempted to send her magically conjured food, but it burst into flames and scorched her when she tried to eat it. Bewildered, he consulted the Buddha, who advised him to offer a meal to the assembly of monks at the end of the summer monsoon retreat. Maudgalyāyana did so, and with that merit, his mother gained release from the hungry ghost realm. This legend became the basis throughout East Asia of the annual “Ghost Festival” (Skt. Ullambana; Ch. Yulanpen; J. Urabon), in which lay people make special offerings to monks at the close of the summer retreat, a period during which monastics are said to heighten their spiritual powers. The monks in turn perform services to transfer merit to their patrons’ deceased relatives, confirming the reciprocal bonds between monastics and laity, the living and the dead. Maudgalyāyana’s story was also related to the “ritual for hungry ghosts,” a merit offering for those deceased who had no relatives to sponsor services on their behalf. In Japan, this ritual was often performed in conjunction with Urabon, or for persons who had died in battle, of starvation, or under other unfortunate circumstances.
Never-Despising Bodhisattva’s Hurry to Preach the Lotus Sūtra
The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 10, says, “A question was asked why Never-Despising Bodhisattva was in such a hurry in preaching the Lotus Sūtra while the Buddha had not expounded it for 42 years after appearing in the world. It was answered that the Buddha preached the Hinayāna teaching first for the people who had possessed the seed of Buddhahood by listening to the Lotus Sūtra in the past life, whereas Never-Despising Bodhisattva sowed the seed of Buddhahood by preaching the true Mahāyanā teaching of the Lotus Sūtra for the people who had never heard of the sūtra in the past life.”
This interpretation by Grand Master T’ien-t’ai means that as we look at the past of those who listened to the pre-Lotus sūtras such as the Flower Garland Sūtra preached at the place of Enlightenment, the Āgama sūtras preached in the Deer Park, the Sūtra of the Great Assembly preached at the Daihōbō, and the Wisdom Sūtra preached by the White Heron Pond, including both the Hinayāna and Mahāyanā and provisional and true teachings as well as the four doctrinal teachings and the eight teachings (the four doctrinal teachings plus the four methods of teaching), they had received the pure and perfect seed of Buddhahood in the eternal past at the time of the Eternal Buddha and the Great Universal Wisdom Buddha. Nevertheless, because of their sin of slandering the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, they have been unable to attain Enlightenment wandering instead around in the world of darkness for as long as “500 (million) dust-particle kalpa” and “3,000 dust-particle kalpa.” However, the seed they had received grew gradually until finally the time had come for them to hear the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle and to become aware of the gem (Buddhahood) given by the Buddha in the past. For 40 years or so till the Lotus Sūtra was preached, the Buddha preached the Hinayāna and provisional sūtras to them in order to prepare their capacity to understand as the Buddha thought that even those who had established a relationship with the Lotus Sūtra in a past life might speak ill of it for a variety of reasons.
Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 149-150.
Daily Dharma – Feb. 13, 2020
Ajita! The good men or women who hear of my longevity of which I told you, and understand it by firm faith, will be able to see that I am expounding the Dharma on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa, surrounded by great Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas. They also will be able to see that the ground of this Sahā-World is made of lapis lazuli, that the ground is even, that the eight roads are marked off by ropes of jāmbūnada gold, that the jeweled trees are standing in lines, and that the magnificent buildings are made of treasures.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita – Invincible, in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. We can hear this explanation as a promise of some great otherworldly vision which will be revealed to us if our faith is strong enough. We can also hear it as a promise that we will learn to deny that all the terrible things in the world as as bad as we think. But when we remember the Buddha telling us, “I do not see the world as others do,” then we realize that our faith brings us to the Buddha’s own mind, where we can accept this frightening and dangerous world for what it is, and work to make it better for all beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Between Day 32 and Day 1: The Meaning of the Great Vehicle
So this morning as I was reading the Sutra of How to Practice Meditation on Bodhisattva Universal Worth (Burton Watson’s translation), I was struck by this instruction:
After the practitioner has made this vow, then at six times in the day and night he should pay obeisance to the buddhas of the ten directions, practice the method of repentance, read the great vehicle sutra, recite the great vehicle sutra, ponder the meaning of the great vehicle, keep in mind the concerns of the great vehicle, and reverently offer alms to those who uphold the great vehicle.
For a brief moment — the time it takes to complete one sentence and then move on to the next — I flashed on the question: What does it mean to ponder “the meaning of the great vehicle, keep in mind the concerns of the great vehicle”?
And in the next sentence was my answer:
He should view all people with the thought that they are buddhas, and all living beings with the thought that they are his father and mother.
Never despising. Always respectful.
See Washing Away Muddy Illusions Covering Our Invaluable Gem
A note about translations
In the Burton Watson translation of this sutra, it says on page 383:
Then Universal Worthy will speak once more: ‘Over a period of many kalpas, because of the organ of your ear you have chased about after external sounds. When you heard some wonderful sound, your mind was roused to delusion and attachment, and when you heard an evil sound, your mind gave way to eight hundred varieties of earthly desires that plagued you.
This puzzled me because I knew that in the new Threefold Lotus Sutra translated by Shinozaki, Ziporyn and Earhart for Kosei Publishing the number of earthly desires was the expected 108.
When you heard beautiful sounds, you produced delusive attachments to them. And when you heard dreadful sounds, you gave rise to one hundred and eight kinds of delusions that inflict damage and harm.
Did characters for eight and 100 get transposed?
I found the answer in a footnote added to the BDK English Tripitaka translation by Kubo and Logan:
We chose to follow the phrasing of the Yuan and Ming editions, as indicated in note 3 in the Taishō text, which give the number as one hundred and eight rather than the number eight hundred that appears in the source text.