Monthly Archives: November 2020

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AI and Buddhism

20201108_Leo-feedlyI’m a great fan of Feedly, an RSS news reader that allows me to monitor hundreds of websites. I was a Google Reader fan before Feedly and I don’t remember what before that. I just can’t imagine life without some form of automation to scrape together the news from each website I monitor.

As an early adopter of Feedly, I’ve been able to acquire “Pro” level features at minimal expense. (The Pro+ features normally cost $12 a month. They are currently discounted to $8.25 a month for the first year.)

One of those Pro+ features is Leo, a personal AI Research Assistant who helps identify items of specific interest.

At the moment I have Leo identifying any article about the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren or T’ien-t’ai or about my former employer McClatchy Newspapers (watching for bankruptcy’s impact on my pension) or Christian Pulisic, the US National Soccer Team player currently with ChelseaFC.

But Leo, being intelligent, is always trying to learn while it reads along with me. Periodically an article in my news feed will include a question from Leo asking whether he was right about the topic of the item.

Today’s quote from the Writings of Nichiren Shonin entitled “The Three Venerables” is a case in point.

Leo looked at this:

In this sūtra it is said: “Now this Sahā World is all My domain, where all the people are My children. However, this world is full of various sufferings, and it is I, Śākyamuni Buddha, alone who can save them.” To those against the Lotus Sūtra, it preaches: “Those who do not listen to the Buddha when He taught and tried to persuade them that they are slanderers of the dharmas will all fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail.”

and Leo concluded this must be about “Global Health.”  Or at least Leo felt 80 percent certain the topic was Global Health. Leo asked me whether he was correct.

While I can see how the world population falling into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail could be considered a Global Health issue, I told Leo, “Sorry, no it’s not.” I can only guess what people searching for “# Global Health” issues thought about this quote.

20201108_Feedly_Leo
Screenshot of Feedly.com listing
Peaceful Action

The Eyes of Insight

Quote

The insight of the Buddha is infinitely deep, and not easily understood. Those who are still at the level of the shravakas or pratyekabuddhas cannot fathom this profound insight of the Buddha. Whatever eyes you use to look at the Buddha, you will see the Buddha only through the eyes you use to look at the Buddha, you will see the Buddha only through those eyes. If you are driven by craving and look at others through those eyes. If you are driven by craving and look at others through those eyes, everyone you see will seem to you to be full of craving also. If you feel angry, and regard others with eyes of anger and small-mindedness, then you will see everyone as angry and small-minded too. So if you look at the Buddha through the eyes of a shravaka or pratyekabuddha, you will not be able to see the real Buddha as he is, you will see the Buddha only as a shravaka or pratyekabuddha. But the Buddha’s insight is much greater than that.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p36-37
WONS

The Three Venerables

Śākyamuni Buddha preached an important principle about the three venerables: lord, master and parents, in the third chapter on the “Parable” of the Lotus Sūtra.

This is the essence of the sūtra. In this sūtra it is said: “Now this Sahā World is all My domain, where all the people are My children. However, this world is full of various sufferings, and it is I, Śākyamuni Buddha, alone who can save them.” To those against the Lotus Sūtra, it preaches: “Those who do not listen to the Buddha when He taught and tried to persuade them that they are slanderers of the dharmas will all fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail.”

Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 91-92

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 8, 2020

World-Honored One! It is by my supernatural powers, know this, that a Bodhisattva can hear these dhāraṇīs. Anyone who keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [while it is] propagated in the Jambudvīpa, should think, ‘I can keep [this sūtra] only by the supernatural powers of Universal-Sage.’

Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) makes this declaration to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. The supernatural powers of this Bodhisattva are beyond the perception of our human senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell and thought. When we hear thunder, we know something causes it whether or not we understand that cause. In the same way, when we are practicing this Wonderful Dharma, we know it is because of the great help we receive from innumerable beings, even if we do not understand the powers they use to reach us.

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

LS32

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Day 30 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the dhārāni spells offered by Medicine-King Bodhisattva and the Buddha’s response, we consider the dhārāni spells offered by Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! I also will utter dhārānis in order to protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. If he keeps these dhārānis, this teacher of the Dharma will not have his weak points taken advantage of by any yakṣa, rākṣasa, pūtana, kṛtya, kumbhāṇḍa or hungry spirit.”

Then he uttered spells before the Buddha:

“Zarei (1), makazarei (2), ukki (3), mokki (4), arei (5), arahatei (6), netsureitei (7), netsureitahatei (8), ichini (9), ichini (10), shichini(11), netsureichini (12), netsurichihachi (13).”

[He said to the Buddha:]

“World-Honored One! These dhārānis, these divine spells, have already been uttered by as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those Buddhas uttered them with joy. Those who attack and abuse this teacher of the Dharma should be considered to have attacked and abused those Buddhas.”

See Dhārāṇi Resources

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Dhārāṇi Resources

In the past couple of weeks I’ve come upon various recordings of priests chanting dhārāṇis and finally sat down and crafted a page where you can practice reciting the dhārāṇis contained in Chapter 26 and also enjoy some variations, including a return to a jazz interpretation I first noticed in 2017.

Here’s a link to the new page:

Dharani Jinshu

d3b, Peaceful Action

Realizing the Ultimate Reality of Everything

The Buddha describes in some detail the profound insight that is “without measure and without obstruction,” the wisdom and understanding he has learned and practiced according to the immeasurable methods of countless other Buddhas. Only a Buddha can perfect and realize the insight into the suchness, the true nature, of all dharmas (phenomena) – the suchness of their marks (outer appearance), their nature, their substance, their powers, their functions, their causes and conditions, their effects, their retribution, and their ultimate origin. These are called “the ten suchnesses.” Many scholars and Buddhist teachers say that this passage contains the basic philosophy of the Lotus Sutra, and they have spent a lot of ink and paper and time analyzing it in great detail. But the meaning of the ten suchnesses can be distilled into one thing: the Buddha’s wisdom is very deep, and with this insight he is able to see the true nature, the ultimate reality of everything – all dharmas – in time and in space, in the phenomenal world as well as in the ultimate dimension.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p36
WONS

The Protection of Heavenly Beings

Heavenly beings without fail protect those who observe the precepts and practice the virtuous deeds. This is because if human beings do not observe the precepts and practice the virtuous deeds, many of them will be reborn in the realm of asura upon death. If those in the realm of asura increase in population, they will grow so arrogant that they will certainly invade the realm of heavenly beings. When human beings observe precepts and practice the virtuous conducts, they will be reborn in the realm of heaven upon death. If the realm of heavenly beings increases in population, asura demons become frightened of the heavenly realm and will not dare to invade it. This is the reason why heavenly beings never fail to protect those who keep precepts and perform good deeds. How much more so with the Two Vehicles, who are superior in dignity and wiser in wisdom to those in the lower six realms! How can they abandon practicers of the Lotus Sūtra, as it was the sūtra through which they were able to attain Buddhahood?

Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 59-60

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 7, 2020

The supernatural powers
Employed by that Buddha
For the expounding of the Dharma
Will be inconceivable.

The Buddha sings this verse in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra after predicting the future Buddhahood of his disciple Subhūti. Anything we do not understand can seem supernatural. Things we find common in our modern world would seem magical to those who lived in the Buddha’s time. It is only through our greater understanding that we can create our modern wonders. It should not then surprise us that with the Buddha’s mind, which he reminds us that we too can reach, the things we can accomplish will seem magical to those mired in delusion.

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

LS32

Day 29

Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

Day 29 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered what happened when Endless-Intent Bodhisattva attempted to give a necklace to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva, we repeat in gāthās why the son of the Buddha is called World-Voice-Perceiver.

Thereupon Endless-lntent Bodhisattva asked the Buddha in gāthās:

World-Honored One with the wonderful marks
I ask you about this again.
Why is the son of the Buddha
Called World-Voice-Perceiver?

The Honorable One with the wonderful marks answered Endless-Intent in gāthās:

Listen! World-Voice-Perceiver practiced
According to the conditions of the places [of salvation].
His vow to save [people] is as deep as the sea.
You cannot fathom it even for kalpas.

On many hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas
He attended and made a great and pure vow.
I will tell you about his vow in brief.
If you hear his name, and see him,
And think of him constantly,
You will be able to eliminate all sufferings.

See The Kind of Wisdom Embodied in Kwan-yin