The source of the four reliances (or “four refuges”) is the Four Refuges Sūtra (S. Catuḥpratiśaraṇa Sūtra) according to Étienne Lamotte: “The Catuḥpratiśaraṇa Sūtra posits, under the name of refuges (pratisaraṇa), four rules of textual interpretation: (1) the dharma is the refuge and not the person; (2) the spirit is the refuge and not the letter; (3) the sūtra of precise meaning is the refuge and not the sūtra of provisional meaning; (4) (direct) knowledge is the refuge and not (discursive) consciousness. As will be seen, the aim of this sūtra is not to condemn in the name of sound assessment certain methods of interpretation of the texts, but merely to ensure subordination of human authority to the spirit of the dharma, the letter to the spirit, the sūtra of provisional meaning to the sūtra of precise meaning, and discursive consciousness to direct knowledge.” (Lamotte, p. 12)
Open Your Eyes, p491-492Monthly Archives: June 2020
Daily Dharma – June 8, 2020
May the merits we have accumulated by this offering
Be distributed among all living beings,
And may we and all other living beings
Attain the enlightenment of the Buddha!
These verses are from Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sutra, where the Brahma Kings from the ten quarters of the universe come to celebrate the enlightenment of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha. We too can cultivate this wish that all the good results of our life’s work be for the benefit of all beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 13
Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.
Having last month consider the Buddha’s prediction for the twelve hundred Arhats, we consider the response of the Arhats.
Thereupon the five hundred Arhats, having been assured by the Buddha of their future Buddhahood, felt like dancing with joy, stood up from their seats, came to the Buddha, worshipped him at his feet with their heads, and reproached themselves for their faults, saying:
“World-Honored One! We thought that we had already attained perfect extinction. Now we know that we were like men of no wisdom because we were satisfied with the wisdom of the Lesser Vehicle although we had already been qualified to obtain the wisdom of the Tathāgata.
“World-Honored One! Suppose a man visited his good friend. He was treated to drink, and fell asleep drunk. His friend had to go out on official business. He fastened a priceless gem inside the garment of the man as a gift to him, and went out. The drunken man did not notice what his friend had given him. After a while he got up, and went to another country. He had great difficulty in getting food and clothing. He satisfied himself with what little he had earned. Some time later the good friend happened to see him. He said, ‘Alas, man! Why have you had such difficulty in getting food and clothing? T fastened a priceless gem inside your garment on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year so that you might live peacefully and satisfy your five desires. The gem is still there, and you do not notice it. You are working hard, and worrying about your livelihood. What a fool you are! Trade that gem for what you want! You will not be short of anything you want.’
“You, the Buddha, are like his friend. We thought that we had attained extinction when we attained Arhatship because we forgot that we had been taught to aspire for the knowledge of all things by you when you were a Bodhisattva just as the man who had difficulty in earning his livelihood satisfied himself with what little he had earned. You, the World-Honored One, saw that the aspiration for the knowledge of all things was still latent in our minds; therefore, you awakened us, saying, ‘Bhikṣus! What you had attained was not perfect extinction. I caused you to plant the good root of Buddhahood a long time ago. [You have forgotten this; therefore,] I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa as an expedient. You thought that you had attained true extinction when you attained the Nirvāṇa [ which I taught you as an expedient].’
“World-Honored One! Now we see that we are Bodhisattvas in reality, and that we are assured of our future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, we have the greatest joy that we have ever had.”
The Treasure Close At Hand
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p103-104The Buddha, we are told, is like that rich friend [who sews a priceless jewel in a poor man’s clothing]. He reminds us of good roots planted long ago. An arhat is like the poor man. Being satisfied with what little he has already attained, he does not realize that in reality he is a bodhisattva who will attain supreme awakening.
The central lesson of this parable is, of course, that the greatest treasure is never far off, but intimately close to each of us. Though we may not know it, we already have it. That is, each of us has within us abilities, skills, talents, strengths, potentialities, powers, and so forth with which to do the Buddha’s work, abilities that we do not yet know about and have not yet utilized.
The idea that the treasure we seek is very close may seem to conflict with the story of the fantastic castle-city discussed in the previous chapter. In that story, the goal is both very distant and very difficult to reach. But these two stories can be understood to be in harmony: the goal is very distant in one respect and very close in another.
Prayer of Repentance and Purification
Very much enjoyed attending Rev. Shoda Kanai’s online Kaji Kito ceremony today. During this period of sheltering in place, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to experience the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada in Las Vegas services.
Kaji Kito services are monthly events at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and so I’m familiar with the ritual. Unlike Sacramento’s service, Rev. Shoda Kanai’s ceremony includes recitation by the congregation of a Prayer of Repentance. One of the values of such a prayer is its illustration of what is considered good and bad behavior. What should I be mindful of?
Prayer of Repentence
Repentance is the mysterious medicine which cures illness and the Secret Dharma to change one’s fate.
If we wish to cure terrible disease or transform evil karma, then we should repent our sins.
The law of cause and effect is strictly impartial and impossible to escape. Since even minute transgressions bring about dreadful effects, the great sins of being unfilial, unjust, unfair, unfaithful, unethical, turning one’s back on virtue and forgetting the debts of gratitude that we owe others who have shown us favor, will bring about even worse retribution. The accumulation of these sins becomes the cause for severe disease inviting misfortune and disaster.
Reflecting deeply upon this, I realize that I have perpetuated this behavior since the infinite past. I have become drunk with the wine of illusion which has consequently created unlimited and profoundly evil karma within my life.
For example:
I may have been a child who despised my parents,
A disciple who disgraced his master,
A subject who defied the sovereign,
A husband who oppressed his wife,
A wife who conquered her husband,
A mother-in-law who despised her daughter-in-law,
A daughter-in-law who opposed her mother-in-law,
Or a sibling who erected a wall of disharmony toward another.I may have shown spite for those who treated me favorably, schemed to take advantage of another’s misfortune, broke a promise, spoke ill of others, lied, spoke recklessly or deceitfully,
Or acted immorally, behaved violently, killed, or stole.
Or my feelings were so strong that I refused to get along or compromise with others,
With feelings so cold that I could not love another,
Or so profoundly vindictive that I bore grudges against others.
Or I may have been unjust and caused others to suffer,
With desires so strong that I had uncontrollable attachment to things.And I may have committed other various sins, offenses and transgressions which when accumulated, resulted in the manifestation of evil karma. This karma then became the very substance of my bones and flesh which beckoned miserable consequences. Not only did these evil actions give birth to terrible karma, but they set the stage for further commitment of other sins during this lifetime.
This phenomena is just like the person who wears black clothes and refuses to acknowledge the filthy grime around their own collar, or the person who wears white and is dreadfully terrified of even the slightest speck of dirt or impurity.
I must feel, however, profound joy for the one piece of great fortune that I possess. I have been able to encounter the Wonderful Dharma of Myoho-Renge-Kyo which is extremely difficult to encounter.
As I now kneel before the Eternal Buddha, sacred Lord of the Dharma Realm, I am grateful to have been endowed with the heart that is able to deeply repent in order to expiate my sins.
The Sutra states that the vast sea of evil karma is created from illusion to the truth. If I embrace the desire to repent my sins and sit erect in observance of the true aspects of life, I will see that the offenses of mankind are just as frost and dew which dissipate in the warm rays of the sun.
I sincerely repent my offenses, heartily praying that the ray of Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo that I chant and embrace, will shine its sacred light on the true aspects of my life.
I further pray that my evil karma which I myself have created since the infinite past be expiated, that I may quickly be saved from the suffering of illness, that my fixed evil karma be transformed and that I am granted the great benefit of peaceful existence throughout this lifetime.
This I sincerely pray, mindful of all that has been mentioned.
Now we agree to disagree on some of these. “A wife who conquered her husband?” If I raised this topic at home I’d get plenty of argument from my wife. And, of course, there are times, like the present, when it is every citizens’ duty to “defy the sovereign” and recognize institutionalized wrongs. Silence is complicity.
Keeping those anachronisms in mind, I’m going to include this prayer with my recitation of The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, which follows Day 32 in my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice. Perhaps I’ll also include another Las Vegas innovation, the Reidan Daimoku Hand Gestures. I’m still unable to complete a full cycle without missteps.
Four Reliances
How can Nichiren insist that the Lotus Sūtra is the only sole sūtra that is difficult to receive and keep, read, recite, expound, and copy in the Latter Age after the Buddha’s passing?
In order to evaluate these claims, Nichiren refers to the first and last of the “four reliances” taught by the Buddha in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra as a guide for discerning the meaning of Buddhist teachings. The four reliances are to: “Rely on the Dharma and not upon persons; rely on the meaning and not upon the words; rely on wisdom and not upon discriminative thinking; rely on sūtras that are final and definitive and not upon those which are not final and definitive.” (see Yamamoto, p. 153)
Nichiren takes the four reliances to mean that one should not trust the word of even great bodhisattvas like Samantabhadra or Mañjuśrī unless they are preaching with the sūtras in hand. Nichiren cites Nāgārjuna (late second to early third century), Zhiyi (538-597), Saichō (767-822; also known as Dengyō), and even Enchin (814-891; aka Chishō) who all state that one should only follow commentaries that accord with what is taught in the sūtras and furthermore that one should not believe in oral transmissions. All of these teachers are considered to be patriarchs of the Tiantai/Tendai school and therefore Nichiren is showing that the interpretations of the Tiantai school can be relied upon because they follow the principles of the four reliances. Nichiren’s contention is that the other schools of Buddhism were straying from these principles, because of sectarian pride in their own particular doctrines and methods. Though it might seem ironic to those who believe that Nichiren was himself a sectarian polemicist, he wrote, “Surely, those who aspire to enlightenment should not be biased, stay away from sectarian quarrels, and not despise other people.” (Hori 2002, p. 85) Nichiren did not see himself as trying to promote his own narrow view, or even the particular views of the Tiantai school. Rather, Nichiren was trying to find in the sūtras themselves the criteria for judging the relative merits of various Buddhist teachings. He believed that he had found such a criteria in the four reliances and in the statements of the Lotus Sūtra regarding its own supremacy. Nichiren’s conviction was that in China only the Tiantai school had upheld what the sūtras actually teach, and that in Japan, only Saichō and himself had properly passed on this teaching without distorting or compromising it.
Open Your Eyes, p490-491Receiving Śākyamuni Buddha’s Merit of Practicing
I fear that I may debase these passages if I try to interpret them, but I dare do so in order to answer your question. The gist of these passages is that Śākyamuni Buddha’s merit of practicing the bodhisattva way leading to Buddhahood, as well as that of preaching and saving all living beings since His attainment of Buddhahood are altogether contained in the five words of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō and that consequently, when we uphold the five words, the merits which He accumulated before and after His attainment of Buddhahood are naturally transferred to us.
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 146
Daily Dharma – June 7, 2020
These men and women are great Bodhisattvas. They should be considered to have appeared in this world by their vow to expound the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma out of their compassion towards all living beings, although they already attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [in their previous existence].
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. In the teachings of Nirvāṇa, the goal is to remove suffering so that we can be reborn in a peaceful realm. In this Sūtra, the Buddha reminds us that we who keep this Sūtra have given up the privilege of higher realms so that we can benefit beings where we find ourselves now. We do not fear rebirth in lower realms since our compassion takes us even there so we can benefit beings in those realms.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 12
Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered the request of the sixteen princes, we hear the Buddha expound the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.’“Seeing the sixteen princes having renounced the world, eight billion followers of the wheel-turning-holy-king begged the king to allow them to do the same. He conceded to them immediately.
“The Buddha assented to the appeal of the śramaṇeras, but it was twenty thousand kalpas afterwards that he expounded to the four kinds of devotees the sūtra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’
“When the Buddha completed the expounding of this sūtra, the sixteen śramaṇeras kept, recited and understood this sūtra in order to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. The sixteen śramaṇeras, [ who were] Bodhisattvas, received this sūtra by faith. Some Śrāvakas understood it by faith, but the other Śrāvakas and other living beings, thousands of billions in number, doubted it.
“It took the Buddha eight thousand kalpas to complete the expounding of this sūtra. During that time he did not take a rest. Having completed the expounding of this sūtra, the Buddha entered a quiet room and practiced dhyāna-concentration for eighty-four thousand kalpas. Seeing him practicing dhyāna-concentration quietly in the room, the sixteen Bodhisattva-sramaneras each sat on a seat of the Dharma, expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to the four kinds of devotees for eighty-four thousand kalpas, and saved six hundred billion nayutas of living beings, that is, as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges. They showed them the Way, taught them, benefited them, caused them to rejoice and to aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.
“Having practised dhyāna-concentration for eighty-four thousand kalpas, the Buddha emerged from his samadhi, came back to his seat of the Dharma, sat quietly, and said to the great multitude, ‘These sixteen Bodhisattva-śramaṇeras are rare. Their sense organs are keen; and their wisdom, bright. In their previous existence, they already made offerings to many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, performed brahma practices under those Buddhas, kept the wisdom of those Buddhas, showed it to the living beings [of the worlds of those Buddhas], and caused them to enter into it. All of you! Approach these [Bodhisattva-sramaneras] from time to time and make offerings to them! Why is that? It is because anyone, be he a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha or a Bodhisattva, who believes this sūtra expounded by these sixteen Bodhisattvas, keeps it, and does not slander it, will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, the wisdom of the Tathāgata.’”
Even a Buddha Needs Help
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p89Toward the end of the story [of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata], the Buddha … enters deeply into meditation. Seeing this, the sixteen princes realize that the Buddha is no longer available and that someone else has to do the Buddha’s work, especially his work of teaching the Dharma so that all will be helped to become buddhas. And so these princes do the Buddha’s work, filling in for him as it were, and enabling countless living beings to enter the bodhisattva path in order to move closer to becoming a buddha. In other words, even a buddha needs help – especially the help of bodhisattvas.