Monthly Archives: July 2020

WONS

Women Cannot Attain Buddhahood Without Lotus Sūtra

On Mt. Sacred Eagle, northeast of Rājagṛha in Magadha, India, Śākyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra for eight years in front of the Buddha of Many Treasures and numerous Buddhas from all the worlds in the universe. Listening to Him directly, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai remembered Śākyamuni Buddha declaring that the Holy Teachings of the Buddha preached during His lifetime of 50 years were all for the benefit of the people; and that He has preached the impossibility of attaining Buddhahood by women in various sūtras preached in the first 42 years until He revealed in the Lotus Sūtra that women, too, would be able to become Buddhas. In a great country called China, located across mountains and seas, 108,000 Chinese li away to the northeast of Mt. Sacred Eagle, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai appeared as a messenger of the Buddha 1,500 years or so after the Buddha passed away, and declared conclusively that women cannot attain Buddhahood without the Lotus Sūtra.

Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 47

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 4, 2020

The Buddha said to the rākṣasīs: “Excellent, excellent! Your merits will be immeasurable even when you protect the person who keeps only the name of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.”

The Buddha declares these lines in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. The rākṣasīs are violent, bloodthirsty demons whose nature is to satisfy their own cravings at the expense of beings weaker than themselves. In the Lotus Sūtra, they learn of their capacity to use their strength to protect others and vow to the Buddha to defend anyone who keeps this sūtra. They understand that when they dedicate their strength to caring for other beings rather than destroying them, they gain the merit which will bring them closer to enlightenment. We learn from this example about our own natures, and that of the beings we share this world with.

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

LS32

Day 5

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 5 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month heard Śāriputra’s prediction in gāthās, we hear the reaction of the great multitude.

At that time the great multitude included bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās and upāsikās, that is, the four kinds of devotees; and gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras and mahoragas. When they saw that Śāriputra was assured of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi by the Buddha, they danced with great joy. They took off their garments and offered them to the Buddha. Śakra-Devanam-Indra, the Brahman Heavenly-King, and innumerable other gods also offered their wonderful heavenly garments and the heavenly flowers of mandāravas and mahā-mandāravas to the Buddha. The heavenly garments, which had been released from the hands of the gods, whirled in the sky. The gods simultaneously made many thousands of millions of kinds of music in the sky, and caused many heavenly flowers to rain down.

They said, “The Buddha turned the first wheel of the Dharma at Varanasi a long time ago. Now he turns the wheel of the unsurpassed and greatest Dharma.”

Thereupon the gods, wishing to repeat what they had said, sang in gāthās:

The Buddha turned the wheel of the teaching of the Four Truths
At Varanasi a long time ago.
He taught that all things are composed of the five aggregates
And that they are subject to rise and extinction.

Now he turns the wheel of the Dharma,
The most wonderful, unsurpassed, and greatest.
The Dharma is profound.
Few believe it.
So far we have heard
Many teachings of the World-Honored One.
But we have never heard
Such a profound, wonderful, and excellent teaching as this.
We are very glad to hear this
From the World-Honored One.

Śāriputra, a man of great wisdom,
Was assured of his future Buddhahood.
We also shall be able
To become Buddhas,
And to receive
The highest and unsurpassed honor in the world.

The Buddha expounds his enlightenment, difficult to understand,
With expedients according to the capacities of all living beings.
We obtained merits by the good karmas which we did
In this life of ours and in our previous existence.
We also obtained merits by seeing the Buddha.
May we attain the enlightenment of the Buddha by these merits!

See Shariputra Reborn

LS32, d5b, stories

Shariputra Reborn

Throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra two things are affirmed: 1) that the Sutra is continuous with what was taught and done in the early years of the Buddha’s ministry, and 2) that something new is happening. This is generally true of Mahayana sutras. They both affirm a continuity with older Buddhist traditions and claim that in Mahayana something new has emerged.

Thus, it is significant that Shariputra becomes further enlightened here, “re-born” as he puts it. This can be contrasted with some other Mahayana sutras, in which he is treated as merely stupid, meaning that Hinayana Buddhists are quite stupid and unworthy of the Dharma. In some cases, shravakas were even said to be icchanti – hopeless, incorrigible, utterly devoid of buddha-nature.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p64
Eyes

The Method of Subduing

Quote

The way of subduing is not about spreading the Dharma by way of the sword. Rather, it is about having the compassion and courage to correct those who are misrepresenting the Dharma, forthrightly giving public witness to the True Dharma, and if violent opposition is aroused to defend against it.

Open Your Eyes, p568