The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p205-206The Buddha has come into the world of suffering and suffers with the living beings of this world. Like others, he participates in the creation of the world at every moment. He does so by being a teacher and medicine giver, not by being a kind of external, unilateral power. Above all, the Buddha is a teacher. And it is precisely in reference to his being a teacher that bodhisattvas are so frequently referred to in the Dharma Flower Sutra as children of the Buddha. Those whose lives are shaped by the teachings of the Buddha, by the Buddha Dharma, have been created as much by the Buddha’s words as by their biological parents. But, like normal parents, the Buddha does not have absolute power over his children. Like the father in the parable of the rich father and poor son in Chapter 4, the Buddha longs for his children to be ready to receive their inheritance from him, his great wealth of the Dharma.
The Buddha can be called the loving father of all, not because he has complete power over others, but precisely because he does not. Far from demanding that human beings be obedient to him, the Buddha challenges us to enter into and take up the way of the bodhisattva, a way to which we can be led but cannot be forced to enter. Like the poor son in Chapter 4, we may need encouragement in order to learn gradually to accept responsibility for the responsibilities we have inherited, for the buddhas’ business, or, like the weary travelers in Chapter 7, we may need a resting place, even an illusory one, in order to pursue the valuable treasure in our own lives, but finally it is we ourselves who have to be responsible.
Monthly Archives: June 2020
Are the Gods Gone?
In Risshō Ankoku-ron, the traveler in the dialogue states, “As a result, sages and protective gods have abandoned our country, causing famine and epidemics to spread all over it.” (Hori 2003, p. 137) This statement became a source of great controversy within Nichiren Buddhism after Nichiren’s passing. According to this statement (as well as Nichiren’s later statements such as in the passages of Kaimoku-shō cited above), one can no longer appeal to the heavenly gods and benevolent deities because they have abandoned the country that slanders the Dharma. In other writings, however, Nichiren continues to appeal to the kami and other deities in his prayers. In the Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Nichiren identifies Hachiman as a manifestation in Japan of Śākyamuni Buddha and explicitly states that the kami are still available to those who uphold the Lotus Sūtra.
Now, the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman’s original substance, Śākyamuni Buddha, expounded the sole, true, Lotus Sūtra in India. As he manifested himself in Japan, he summarized the sūtra in two Chinese characters for honesty and vowed to live in the head of a wise man. If so, even if Hachiman burned his palace and ascended to heaven, whenever he finds a practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan, he will not fail to come down to reside where this practitioner is and protect him.
Later generations of Nichiren Buddhists would be divided by the question of whether Nichiren intended them to cease to venerate the kami because they were no longer available in a country that neglected and slandered the Lotus
Sūtra, or whether they could continue to have confidence in and pay respects to the kami at their shrines because they were still protectors of the Lotus Sūtra and those who uphold and practice it. Considering that Nichiren included Amaterasu, Hachiman, and other gods and supernatural beings on his calligraphic mandala, perhaps it can be said that Nichiren believed that practitioners of the Lotus Sūtra could still venerate and appeal to the kami and other guardian deities and spirits. If the guardian deities are not entirely absent but still watching out for the welfare of the practitioners of the Lotus Sūtra, the question remains for Nichiren: why have they not spared Nichiren from his many persecutions?
The Activities of a Man Depend on the Power of His Wife
An arrow flies by the strength of a bow and the clouds move by the power of a dragon. Likewise, the activities of a man depend on the power of his wife. Lord Toki’s visiting me here in the deep mountain of Minobu this time is solely due to your power, My Lady the Nun.
When we see smoke, we think of fire. When we see rain, we think of the dragon that causes it. Likewise, when we see a husband’s conduct, we can think of his wife who motivates him. When I recently saw your husband, Lord Toki, I felt as though I saw you in person.
Toki-ama Gozen Gosho, A Letter to My Lady, the Nun Toki, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 116
Daily Dharma – June 2, 2020
For example, in building a huge tower, a scaffold is assembled from many small pieces of wood set up ten or twenty feet high. Then, using this scaffold, the huge tower is built with lumber. Once the tower is completed, the scaffold is dismantled. The scaffold here represents all Buddhist scriptures other than the Lotus Sutra, and the Great Tower is the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by “discarding the expedient.” A pagoda is built by using a scaffold, but no one worships a scaffold without a pagoda.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno (Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji). In this simile, Nichiren compares the Buddha’s expedient teachings to the Wonderful Dharma he provides in the Lotus Sūtra.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 7
Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.
Having last month heard the men of wisdom explaining why they had not sought Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, we consider the plight of the rich man who misses his lost son.
“World-Honored One! Allow us to explain our understanding by telling a parable. Suppose there lived a man [in a certain country]. When he was a little boy, he ran away from his father. [The boy] lived in another country for a long time, say, for ten, twenty or fifty years. As time passed by, he became poorer. He wandered about all directions, seeking food and clothing.
“While wandering here and there, he happened to walk towards his home country. At that time his father stayed in a city [of that country]. He had been vainly looking for his son ever since. He was now very rich. He had innumerable treasures. His storehouses were filled with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, coral, amber and crystal. He had many servants, clerks, and secretaries. He also had countless elephants, horses, carts, cows, and sheep. He invested his money in all the other countries, and earned interest. He dealt with many merchants and customers.
“The poor son, having wandered from town to town, from country to country, from village to village, came to the city where his father was living. The father had been thinking of him for more than fifty years since he had lost him, but never told others [that he had a missing son]. He was alone, pining for his son. He thought, ‘I am old and decrepit. I have many treasures. My storehouses are filled with gold, silver, and other treasures. But I have no son [other than the missing one]. When I die, my treasures will be scattered and lost. I have no one to transfer my treasures to. Therefore, I am always yearning for my son.’ The father thought again, ‘If I can find my son and give him my treasures, I shall be happy and peaceful, and have nothing more to worry about.’
Enabling the Buddha to Continue to Live
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p70-71The focus of [the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son] is the poor son and his attitude toward himself, but it is also, in important ways not always recognized, a story about the Buddha. Here we are told that the Buddha needs his son, yearns for his son, and seeks to find him. Why? Because he wants to give him the great treasure that is his inheritance.
Shakyamuni Buddha was a human being who lived for a time in India, eating and sleeping like other human beings. He left to his descendants, his followers, a great treasure house of profound teachings. He died and his body was cremated, the ashes being distributed and installed in stupas. He is no longer around in the way that he once was. Responsibility for taking care of that great treasure house, for preserving those teachings and developing them by applying them in new situations, and especially for sharing them with others, is given to the Buddha’s children. The Buddha’s work must be done by us, can only be done by us. It is we who can embody the Buddha in the contemporary world, enabling the Buddha to continue to live.
Protective Deities of the Lotus Sūtra
In Japanese Buddhism, the heavenly gods and benevolent deities (J. shoten zenjin), are the guardian deities (J. shugojin) who protect the practitioners of Buddhism. The calligraphic mandala that Nichiren inscribed to represent the “focus of devotion” (J. honzon) of the Origin Gate of the Lotus Sūtra includes representatives of different types of guardian deities. There are the four leaders of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth from chapter fifteen and who are given the specific transmission to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age in chapter twenty-one; there are the bodhisattvas who represent the provisional teachings such as Medicine King, Beautiful Lord (S. Mañjuśrī), Universal Good (S. Samantabhadra), and Loving One (S. Maitreya); there are the two Knowledge Kings (S. vidyā-rājas) Immovable Lord (S. Acalanātha, J. Fudō) and Desire King (S. Rāgāraja; J. Aizen); there are the arhats who have received predictions of buddhahood like Śāriputra and Mahākāśyapa; there are the Vedic deities (S. deva) Brahmā, Indra, Sūrya (the sun god), Candra (the moon god), and Aruna (the morning star), and the four heavenly kings who guard the four quarters of the world; and there are even the two major Shintō gods (J. kamo Tenshō Daijiin (aka Amaterasu Ōmikami) and Hachiman (called the “Great Bodhisattva”). In addition, other beings that are not as exalted as celestial bodhisattvas or gods can also be considered guardians. In Kaimoku-shō, Nichiren specifically mentions the ten rākṣasas (vampire like women of Indian mythology) who appear in chapter twenty-six of the Lotus Sūtra. In that chapter, these rākṣasas and their mother, Hāriti (J. Kishimojin) bestow dhārāṇis for the protection of the practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra. On the calligraphic mandala, Nichiren also included the asura (a kind of titan or demon) and nāga (the dragons of Indian mythology) kings who appear in chapter one of the Lotus Sūtra among the congregation gathered to hear the Buddha’s teaching. Traditionally in Buddhism there are eight kinds of supernatural beings that are considered to be disciples of the Buddha and guardians of the Dharma. These eight are devas, nāgas, garudas (giant birds who prey on the nāgas), asuras, yakṣas (nature spirits), gandharvas (anthropomorphic equines), mahorāgas (pythons), and kiṃnaras (anthropomorphic avians). This group of eight is mentioned throughout the Lotus Sūtra. These are the beings that Nichiren is thinking of when he asks why he has not received divine protection.
Open Your Eyes, p478-479The Inexplicable Merit of Having Heard the Lotus Sūtra
When the “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra was preached, 5,000 self-conceited ones did not believe in what they heard and withdrew from the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Nevertheless, they became Buddhas in three months’ time because they did not slander the Lotus Sūtra. Referring to this incident, it is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “Both believers and non-believers will be born in the Immovable Land.” Those who heard the Lotus Sūtra can become Buddhas even if they do not put faith in the sūtra, so long as they do not slander it, due to the inexplicable merit of having heard the sūtra. This is like the person bitten by a poisonous snake called shichibuja who is bound to fall within taking seven steps and is unable to take the eighth step due to the inexplicable work of the poison. Or it is also like an embryo that changes its shape within seven days and never stays in one shape for more than eight days.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 52
Daily Dharma – June 1, 2020
Thereupon Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! Why does Medicine-King Bodhisattva walk about this Sahā-World? World-Honored One! This Medicine-King Bodhisattva will have to practice hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of austerities in this world.
This excerpt is from Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sutra. Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva is aware of the difficulties that Medicine-King or any other Bodhisattva will encounter while living in this world of conflict (Sahā) and asks the Buddha why this Bodhisattva would give up the pleasures of the higher realms to which he is entitled. The Buddha then tells the story of Medicine-King’s previous life, in which he gave up many attachments, including the attachment to his own body. These stories of Bodhisattvas are reminders of our own capacities, and that no matter what difficulties we face in our lives, our determination to benefit all beings, our certainty of enlightenment, and the help we receive from other beings will lead us to overcome any problems.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com