Monthly Archives: August 2020

b4today, LS32, d24b

The Four Fearlessnesses of a Bodhisattva

In considering the four fearlessnesses of a bodhisattva, some people may be daunted at the thought of the difficulty of preaching the Law to others. However, we must not be afraid. These four categories describe the ideal preacher, and if one attains such a stage, then indeed one will have become a great bodhisattva. No great bodhisattva becomes so without effort; he reaches such a stage only after a long practice of severe discipline.

We, who train ourselves in the bodhisattva practice, must always preach the Law by bearing in mind the four ideals of the bodhisattva and by taking these four ideals as our yardstick. When we meet with a difficult problem or are asked questions that we do not know how to answer, we should say so frankly: “As this question is beyond me, I will ask somebody for instruction and then I will answer you.” We must not dream up an answer just to make it through the occasion somehow. To say “I am not sure” does not lower us in the estimation of others as preachers but results in increasing the confidence of our listeners.

Buddhism for Today, p298

An explanation of the four fearlessnesses can be found here.

Japanese Culture

The Middle Path that Unifies Emptiness and Transience

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Chih-i’s understanding of the unifying truth of the Lotus Sutra as a synthesis of the microcosm (one mind) and the macrocosm (three thousand realms), good and evil, and ideals and reality is related to the general attitude in China that laid stress on the actual world. On this point, it differs in nuance from the reverence of the Lotus Sutra found in India, where the wonderful law as the one vehicle was viewed as the truth of an undifferentiated, universal equality. Chih-i’s thinking on emptiness is a clear manifestation of this difference. Chih-i’s logic of emptiness is based on the three concepts of emptiness, transience, and the middle. The first concept indicates the attainment of the state of emptiness by abandoning attachment to actuality (or transience, chia in Chinese). The second concept, which is the reverse of the first, means that one should not remain in the state of emptiness but should return once again to actuality and live correctly in the real world. In the first concept, transience is denied and emptiness is established, but in the second concept emptiness is denied and actuality is revived. The third concept concludes that emptiness must not be forgotten even after returning to actuality or transience; it is the middle path that unifies emptiness and transience. The second concept, returning from emptiness to actuality, reflects the Chinese stress on ordinary reality. These three concepts were expounded in the Sutra on the Bodhisattva’s Original Action (P’u-sa Ying-lo pen-yeh-ching), which was compiled in China in about the fifth century. Chih-i used ideas from the Lotus Sutra to add new flesh to and systematize these concepts.

Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}
WONS

Relying on the Dharma and Wisdom

The Nirvana Sūtra declares, “Rely on the dharma, not on the man; rely on the wisdom, not on the knowledge.” “Rely on the dharma” in this passage means to rely on the eternal dharma preached in the Lotus-Nirvana sūtras. “Rely not on the man” means not to rely on those who do not believe in the Lotus-Nirvana sūtras. Those who do not have faith in the Lotus Sūtra, even Buddhas and bodhisattvas, are not “good friends” (reliable teachers) for us in the Latter Age, not to mention commentators, translators and teachers after the extinction of the Buddha who do not believe in the Lotus-Nirvana Sūtras. “Rely on the wisdom” means to rely on the wisdom of the Buddha. “Rely not on the knowledge” means not to rely on the opinions of bodhisattvas in the highest stage and below.

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 59-60

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 25, 2020

Having heard from you
Of the duration of your life,
Living beings as many as the particles of earth
Of eight Sumeru-worlds
Aspired for unsurpassed [enlightenment].

The Bodhisattva Maitreya sings these verses in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sutra. He describes the effect on all beings of the Buddha’s revealing his existence as the Ever-Present Śākyamuni. If we believed that the Buddha was just a man who lived 2500 years ago, we might think that we had to wait until another being became enlightened before we could follow them on the path to our own awakening. But with this understanding that the Buddha is always helping us, here and now, then we awaken our capacity to see things as they are and work confidently 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

LS32

Day 23

Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 23 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, we consider The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and the merits of the eye.

Thereupon the Buddha said to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva:

“The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind. They will be able to adorn and purify their six sense-organs with these merits. With their pure eyes given by their parents, these good men or women will be able to see all the mountains, forests, rivers and oceans inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, [each of which is composed of six regions] down to the Avici Hell and up to the Highest Heaven. They also will be able to see the living beings of those worlds, to know the karmas which those living beings are now doing and the region to which each of those living beings is destined to go by his karmas.”

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

Listen! I will tell you of the merits
Of those who fearlessly expound
To the great multitude
This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

They will be able to obtain the excellent eyes
Adorned with eight hundred merits.
Their eyes will be pure
Because of this adornment.

With their eyes given by their parents,
They will be able to see Mt. Meru, Mt. Sumeru,
The Surrounding Iron Mountains,
And the other mountains,
And the forests, oceans and rivers
Inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds.

They will be able to see the living beings
Of those worlds [each being composed of the six regions]
Down to the Avici Hell and up to the Highest Heaven.
Although they have not yet obtained heavenly eyes,
They will be able to see all this
With their natural eyes.

See Merits of the Eye

b4today, LS32, d23b

Merits of the Eye

The expression “Though not yet having attained divine vision” indicates the opposite of the expression “with the natural pure eyes received at birth from his parents.” The last line of the verse means that even though living beings do not yet possess the divine vision of heavenly beings, capable of discerning the real state of all things, they can receive the power to do so while living in the sahā-world because they have pure eyes unclouded with mental illusion. To put it more plainly, they can do so because their minds become so pure that they are devoid of selfishness, so that they view things unswayed by prejudice or subjectivity. They can see things correctly, as they truly are, because they always maintain calm minds and are not swayed by impulse.

The Buddha preaches in a certain sutra as follows: “A thing is not reflected as it is in water boiling over a fire. A thing is not mirrored as it is on the surface of water hidden by plants. A thing is not reflected as it is on the surface of water running in waves stirred up the wind.” The Buddha teaches us here that we cannot view the real state of things until we are free from the mental illusion caused by selfishness and passion. We should interpret the merits of the eye in this way.

Buddhism for Today, p296
Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Living and Teaching

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During the infinitely long period of time before the moment of teaching in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha says that he has gone by many different names but in all that time and under all the variety of names he has been leading people to the Dharma. He further says that he has tailored his teachings to the capacities of the people he taught. He even told people that he was going to enter into Nirvana, even though in fact he is never removed from the world. In other words, both his appearance and his absence are teaching devices, the entire being, every action, every thing of the Buddha is a teaching to lead people to accept and practice the Dharma. From the standpoint of the Buddha, there really is no distinction between living and teaching.

If we too can approach our lives and practice this way, then Buddhism will really prosper.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Japanese Culture

Truth, Life and Practice

On the basis of traditional analysis and an understanding of the historical evolution of the text, the central ideas of the Lotus Sutra can be said to encompass three elements: the law (dharma), the perfect being (buddha), and human beings (bodhisattvas); or truth, life, and practice. In other words, the unifying truth of the universe (the wonderful law as the one vehicle), eternal life (the eternal Śākyamuni), and human activities in the real world (bodhisattva practices) are the corresponding themes of the first realm of traces, the second realm of origin, and the third realm. These are the three great ideas of the Lotus Sutra. They also form the true essence of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and it is no exaggeration to say that the three treasures of Mahāyāna Buddhism were established by the Lotus Sutra, which is why since ancient times all Mahāyāna Buddhists have revered and extolled this sutra, regardless of sect.

Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}
d21b, WONS

‘Send a Messenger Back’

QUESTION: What does “send a messenger back” mean in this sūtra?

ANSWER: The messenger refers to the Four Reliances, four ranks of bodhisattva-teachers whom people turned to for guidance after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha. There are four kinds of messengers. First, are the bodhisattva-teachers of Hinayāna Buddhism. They would mostly appear in the first 500 years of the Age of the True Dharma. On the other hand, the second, the bodhisattva-teachers of Mahāyāna, for the most part would appear in the latter 500 years of the Age of the True Dharma. The third, bodhisattva-teachers of the theoretical section, would appear mostly in the 1,000-year Age of the Semblance Dharma and partly in the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration. The fourth, bodhisattva-teachers of the essential section, namely those numerous bodhisattvas who had appeared from underground, would surely appear in the beginning of the Latter Age.

The phrase, “send a messenger back,” in “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter, which I have just cited, refers to those bodhisattvas who were called out from underground. “This excellent medicine” refers to Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, which is the essence of the chapter, “The Life Span of the Buddha,” and which contains the five major principles: the name, entity, quality, function, and teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha did not grant this excellent medicine to those bodhisattvas who had been guided by the teaching of the theoretical section, not to mention bodhisattvas from other worlds.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 156-157

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 24, 2020

We have never seen
These many thousands of billions
Of Bodhisattvas.
Tell me, Most Honorable Biped!
Where did they come from?

Maitreya Bodhisattva sings these verses to the Buddha in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, the Buddha has asked who among those gathered to hear him teach will continue teaching this Wonderful Dharma in our world of suffering after the Buddha passes into his final extinction. Some Bodhisattvas say they will teach in other worlds, since the beings of this world are too defiled to hear the Buddha’s teaching. Other Bodhisattvas vow to remain in our world, but the Buddha tells them not to bother. At that moment, the ground cracks open, and innumerable Bodhisattvas spring up and vow to carry on the work of the Buddha. Maitreya and others had never seen these Bodhisattvas before. His asking the Buddha respectfully to explain what they do not understand. This example emphasizes that we must continue to question how the Buddha’s teaching applies to our lives rather than dogmatically accepting whatever happens.

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