Monthly Archives: June 2020

Eyes

Relying on Practice

Ultimately, we must come to know the Dharma through our own practice and realization. This is what the fourth reliance (or third in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra) is about. We must rely on direct knowledge (S. jñāna) of the truth, and not merely our discursive consciousness (S. vijñāna), which is always second hand, after the fact, and dualistic in that it can’t help but bifurcate experience into the two poles of subject and object. From the very beginning, the Buddha taught people to come and see the truth for themselves, and not to rely on external authorities, hearsay, or even personal speculation. As the Buddha taught the Kālāmas:

“It was for this reason, Kālāmas, that we said: Do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of scriptures, by logical reasoning, by inferential reasoning, by a reflection on reasons, by the acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence of a speaker, or because you think: ‘The ascetic is our teacher.’ But when you know for yourselves, ‘These things are wholesome, these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise; these things, if undertaken and practiced lead to welfare and happiness’, then you should engage in them.” (Nyanaponika & Bodhi, p. 66)

Open Your Eyes, p494
WONS

Like a Seed Becoming a Sapling or a Flower Becoming a Fruit

The merits of Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha have entered the body of Hōren Shōnin and reside there. Also, the body of Hōren Shōnin is the figure of his late father. Therefore, it is like a seed becoming a sapling or a flower becoming a fruit. Although the flower falls, its fruit remains; although the seed is hidden in the fruit, it becomes visible when a sapling appears. That is to say, the merit of Hōren Shōnin for having faith in the Lotus Sūtra will in its entirety become the merit of his late father, ensuring his father of attaining Buddhahood. It is said that when a pine tree grows thick, an oak tree is delighted; when a lawn grass dies, an orchid weeps. Even plants without feelings behave like this, to say nothing of those who have feelings! It is all the more so for those who have a father-son relationship from a previous existence.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 52

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 10, 2020

Provisional teachings today are enemies of the True Dharma. If provisional teachings stand in your way as you try to spread the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sutra, you should thoroughly refute them. Of the two ways of propagation, this is the aggressive way of the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on the True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha (Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō). We notice in this passage that his instruction is to refute the provisional teachings and not attack those who are attached to them. Even if those whose teachings we challenge become angry and violent, we can understand that we did not cause this reaction. This is one reason the Lotus Sūtra is so difficult. By keeping a mind of compassion we can maintain our respect for others even when we disagree with them. They too are going to become Buddhas, and we are benefiting them, even if they reject our help.

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

LS32

Day 15

Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Day 15 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the Buddha’s vow to help the teacher of the Dharma, we repeat in gāthās the lesson of a man on a plateau digging for water.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

If you wish to give up all indolence,
Hear this sūtra!
It is difficult to hear this sūtra.
Few receive it by faith.

A man on a plateau, feeling thirsty,
Dug a hole in order to get water.
As long as he saw the dug-out lumps of earth were dry,
He knew that water was still far off.
When he found the earth wet and muddy,
He was convinced that water was near.

In the same manner, Medicine-King, know this!
Those who do not hear
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Are far from the wisdom of the Buddha.

See Digging for Water

LS32, d15b, stories

Digging for Water

Let’s turn our attention to the brief simile found in this chapter: the extremely thirsty man digging in the soil for water. Unlike some parables, this simile is not fully interpreted for us, but it can nonetheless readily be understood in accord with the previous discussion.

The man, a bodhisattva, digs for water on a “high plain.” We do not know exactly what this “high plain” means, but presumably it means that he is digging in a place where water is quite deep down but where there is at least a reasonable possibility of water being found. If he dug in a rocky place, for example, he might die of thirst before finding any water at all.

Digging, he comes to damp earth, then mud, and knows that he is getting closer to water. Actually, the dampness itself is water. That is, seeing damp earth, while he cannot yet drink, he is seeing a promise of water he’ll be able to drink soon, a promise that he knows is good because the dampness and the water he seeks are the same water.

The text interprets this parable in terms of hearing the Dharma:

Medicine King, you should know
That this is the way people are.
Those who do not hear the Dharma Flower Sutra
Are far from buddha-wisdom.
But if they hear
This profound sutra…,
And hearing it
Truly ponder over it,
You should know that those people
Are near the wisdom of a buddha. (LS 232)

So too all sixteen simple practices – any of them and many others as well, while not the ultimate goal, can be a kind of taste of the life of a bodhisattva. If we practice one or more of them seriously, we will experience a taste of riches to come and know that we too are nearer to the water after which we thirst: the wisdom of a buddha.

Here as well, we should notice that a kind of relational activity is going on. On the one hand, the man is using his own effort to dig for water. He is motivated, even driven, by something within himself, namely, his thirst. His very life depends on finding water to drink and so he exerts a great effort. On the other hand, the promise of water, the increasingly damp earth, comes to him. As a result of making an effort, he receives a promise. The water is something he finds.

While there is no guarantee that by digging we will find water, at least in this lifetime, we, too, if we make an effort to follow the bodhisattva way, may receive a promise of riches to come. Along the way we too may receive some help from the Buddha. In Chapter 10 we are told that the Buddha will send various people to hear the Dharma taught and to help the teacher when he needs it. We should be prepared to meet such people.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p132-133
Eyes

What Does It Mean To Follow the Dharma?

Quote

What exactly does it mean to follow the Dharma and not the person? Isn’t the Dharma the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha in the sūtras, and therefore the teaching of a person? For that matter, there is the question of whether the sūtras, particularly the Mahāyāna sūtras, are in fact verbatim records of the Buddha’s teaching. So how can we know whether we are following the Dharma or just some person’s opinion, whether the person of the Buddha or the opinion of some anonymous person(s) attributed to the Buddha? Though perhaps a bit circular, the Buddha’s reply to the question asked of him by Mahāprajāpatī as to what is the Dharma may be worth considering.

Then the Gautamī, Mahāprajāpatī, approached the Lord; having approached, having greeted the Lord, she stood at a respectful distance. As she was standing at a respectful distance, the Gautamī, Mahāprajāpatī said to the Lord: “Lord, it were well if the Lord would teach me the Dharma in brief so that I, having heard the Lord’s Dharma, might live alone, aloof, zealous, ardent, self-resolute. “

“Whatever are the states, of which you, Gautamī, may know: these states lead to passion, not to passionlessness, they lead to bondage, not to the absence of bondage, they lead to the piling up (of rebirth), not to the absence of piling up, they lead to wanting much, not to wanting little, they lead to discontent, not to contentment, they lead to sociability, not to solitude, they lead to indolence, not to the putting forth of energy, they lead to difficulty in supporting oneself, not to ease in supporting oneself – you should know definitely, Gautamī: this is not Dharma, this is not discipline, this is not the Teacher’s instruction. But whatever are the states of which you, Gautamī, may know: these states lead to passionlessness, not to passion … (the opposite of the preceding) … they lead to ease in supporting oneself, not to difficulty in supporting oneself – you should know definitely, Gautamī: this is Dharma, this is discipline, this is the Teacher’s instruction.” (Horner 1992 volume V, p. 359 adapted)

The Dharma, then, is that which leads away from further deluded entanglement in our attachments and aversions for conditioned phenomena and toward liberation, the unconditioned. The Dharma is not the Dharma because the Buddha taught it. The Buddha is the Buddha, an “awakened one,” because he awakened to the Dharma, which is the true nature of reality. Any teaching that is in accord with how things really are can be considered the Dharma. This is why anything that conforms to the “three seals of the Dharma” can be considered the word of the Buddha. The three seals are the observations that (1) conditioned phenomena are impermanent, (2) without a self-nature, and (3) that true peace can only be found in the unconditioned, which is nirvāṇa. Sometimes another seal is added, the observation that conditioned things are ultimately unsatisfactory, for a total of four seals.

Open Your Eyes, p492-493
WONS

The Failings of Great Bodhisattva Hachiman

This Great Bodhisattva Hachiman attended the lecture assembly of the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle and made a written pledge to protect the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra after the passing of the Buddha. It is inexplicable, therefore, that this bodhisattva has done nothing to deal with the sworn enemies of the Lotus Sūtra who persecuted me for the past several years. Moreover, upon the advent of a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, the bodhisattva, who did not rush to protect him, should at least try to discipline the rulers of Japan who persecute the practicer. It is regrettable that Hachiman has not done this even once although the rulers persecute the practicer like a dog biting a monkey, a snake swallowing a frog, a hawk preying on a pheasant, and a lion killing a rabbit under the nose of the bodhisattva. Even if he seems to have punished them, the punishments inflicted on them must have been purposely mild. As a result, Hachiman probably was scolded by such heavenly beings as the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun, the moon, and the Four Heavenly Kings.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 266

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – June 9, 2020

The Lotus Sutra is called “Zui-jii,” namely it expounds the true mind of the Buddha. Since the Buddha’s mind is so great, even if one does not understand the profound meaning of the sutra, one can gain innumerable merits by just reading it. Just as mugwort among hemp plants grows straight and a snake in a tube straightens itself, if one becomes friendly with good people, one’s mind, behavior and words become naturally gentle. LIkewise, the Buddha thinks that those who believe in the Lotus Sutra become naturally virtuous.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his treatise The Sutra Preached in Accordance to [the Buddha’s] Own Mind (Zui-jii Gosho). In this passage, he makes clear what the Buddha meant by abandoning expedient teachings, and that the Lotus Sutra contains the Buddha’s highest teaching.

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

LS32

Day 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 14 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the benefit of praising the keeper of the sutra, we repeat in gāthās the benefits of keeping the Lotus Sūtra.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

If you wish to dwell in the enlightenment of the Buddha,
And to obtain the self-originating wisdom,
Make offerings strenuously to the keeper
Of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!

If you wish to obtain quickly the knowledge
Of the equality and differences of all things,
Keep this sūtra, and also make offerings
To the keeper of this sūtra!

Anyone who keeps
The sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma,
Know this, has compassion towards all living beings
Because he is my messenger.
Anyone who keeps
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Should be considered to have given up his pure world and come here
Out of his compassion towards all living beings.

Know that he can appear wherever he wishes!
He should be considered
To have appeared in this evil world
In order to expound the unsurpassed Dharma.

Offer flowers and incense of heaven,
Jeweled garments of heaven,
And heaps of wonderful treasures of heaven
To the expounder of the Dharma!

Join your hands together and bow
To the person who keeps this sūtra
In the evil world after my extinction,
Just as you do to me!

Offer delicious food and drink,
And various garments to this son of mine,
And yearn to hear the Dharma [from him]
Even if for only a moment!

Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the future
Should be considered
To have been dispatched by me
To the world of men in order to do my work.

See The Work of Ordinary People

LS32, d14b, d15b, stories

The Work of Ordinary People

The most important thing about [Chapter 10] is its emphasis on the Dharma teacher. Here we can see that the Sutra attempts to break through the limitations of the threefold shravaka-pratyekabuddha-bodhisattva distinction that had been prominent in earlier chapters of this Sutra and elsewhere in Mahayana Buddhism. According to Chapter 10, anyone – bodhisattva, pratyekabuddha, shravaka, or layperson, man or woman – can be a Dharma teacher.

This important point is certainly not unique to this chapter, but it is emphasized here in a special way: it is not only great bodhisattvas, great leaders, or great people who can teach the Dharma and do the Buddha’s work, but very ordinary people with even a limited understanding and even of limited faith can join in the Buddha’s work, if only by understanding and teaching a little. The point is, of course, that you and I can be Dharma teachers.

Thus the Buddha tells Medicine King Bodhisattva that if anyone wants to know what sort of living beings will become buddhas in the future, he should tell them that the very people before him, that is, all sorts of people, including very ordinary people, will become buddhas.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p125-126