The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p299-300Here, in Chapter 28 of the Dharma Flower Sutra, Universal Sage becomes the vehicle for specifying the four conditions necessary for acquiring the Dharma Flower Sutra. Three of these are matters of action, things we do or can do. At least to some extent we can choose to plant roots of virtue, choose to join those who are determined to be awakened, and choose to be determined to save all the living. The first of the four, on the other hand, is quite different. Being protected and kept in mind by buddhas is not something we can choose; rather, it is more like a gift. Faith, at least in one of its dimensions, is the trust and confidence that we are always under the care of buddhas.
Being under the protection and care of buddhas does not mean that no harm can come to us. We should know that even with the protection of buddhas, the world is a dangerous place. Shakyamuni Buddha, we should remember, was harmed more than once during his teaching career and probably died from food poisoning. We can never entirely escape from a whole host of dangers, including disease, aging, crime, and war. What the Lotus Sutra teaches is not that we can be completely free from danger, but that no matter what dangers we have to face, there are resources, both in ourselves and in our communities, that make it possible for us to cope with such dangers. By having faith in the Buddha, doing good by helping others, genuinely aspiring to become more and more fully awakened through wise and compassionate practice, and by extending our compassion not only to our family and our friends but to all living beings, the dangers we face will recede into the background. They will not go away, but we will not be dominated by them.
To have faith in the Buddha is to take refuge in the Buddha. It means that embodying the Buddha in our everyday lives is our highest good. This is to live in faith, to trust life itself. Such faith is not a license to stupidly do dangerous things, but it does make it possible to live an abundant life, without undue fear or caution, even perhaps in the eyes of the world to be a little foolish. This is part of what it means to be in the care of the buddhas.
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Buddhist Statue Appreciation Day
*** We will show our appreciation to our Buddhist statues along with celebrating Sakyamuni’s attainment of Enlightenment. Please have your statues ready on hand and I will bless via your screen. ***
In Sacramento, Rev. Kenjo Igarashi incorporates a mass-blessing of home altars during the service held after midnight on January 1. While I brought my statues in to Rev. Igarashi to be blessed years ago, in Sacramento we don’t bring the statues in again each year and so I jumped at the opportunity to have Rev. Kanai’s blessing.
The Wave Is Already Water
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p117-118I once wrote a poem:
The work of building will take ten thousand lifetimes.
But dear one, look –
that work has been achieved ten thousand lives ago.This is speaking from the point of view of the ultimate dimension. Do you need to become a Buddha? Do you need to run after enlightenment? The wave does not have to seek to become water – she is water, right here and now. In the same way, you are already nirvana, you are already a Buddha; you are already what you want to become. What is essential is to enter the path of practice in order to realize this truth and help others realize it too.
With his limitless life span, the Buddha has unbounded capacity to help living beings throughout space and time, in all the realms of existence. But he plays at the pretense of coming and going, being born and passing into nirvana, as a kind of skillful means to encourage living beings to enter the path of practice.
Lotus Sūtra Superiority to the Nirvana Sūtra
[T]he Lotus Sūtra declares itself superior to the Nirvana Sūtra while it is stated in the Nirvana Sūtra: “In the Lotus Sūtra 8,000 śrāvakas are guaranteed to attain Buddhahood in the future. It is as if a great harvest had been reaped in autumn and stored for winter, leaving nothing more than gleaning for the Nirvana Sūtra.” Thus, the Nirvana Sūtra itself implies that it is inferior to the Lotus Sūtra. Though this statement in the Nirvana Sūtra seems clear enough, even the wisest Northern and Southern masters in China did not comprehend it. Scholars in the Latter Age must pay much attention to this. This passage of the Nirvana Sūtra not only seems to show the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra to the Nirvana Sūtra, but also reveals its comparative superiority among all the sūtras in the entire universe. Though it is understandable to doubt this puzzling statement in the Nirvana Sūtra, the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra among all the sūtras has already been proven by Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai, Miao-lê, and Dengyō. Men of wisdom should keep this statement in mind.
Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 5.
Daily Dharma – Dec. 13, 2020
He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. When we fully comprehend the idea of dependent origination, that no person has an ego, that each of us is the result of causes and conditions, and that the Buddha Dharma is a cause for good of which we may not be aware, it is no longer necessary to classify the beings with whom we share this world. Our inclinations towards dogma are replaced with curiosity. Our need to dominate is replaced with a need to understand.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 31
Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.
Having last month heard of a Buddha called Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom and the virtues of Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, we consider what happened when the two sons asks their mother to go hear Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha.
“Thereupon that Buddha expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, wishing to lead King Wonderful-Adornment also out of his compassion towards all living beings. The two sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, came to their mother, joined their ten fingers and palms together, and said, ‘Mother! Go to Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha! We also will go to attend on him, approach him, make offerings to him, and bow to him because he is expounding the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to all gods and men. Hear and receive [the sūtra]!’
“The mother said to them, ‘[Yes, I will. But] your father believes in heresy. He is deeply attached to the teachings of brahmanas. Go and tell him to allow us to go [to that Buddha]! ‘
“Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes joined their ten fingers and palms together, and said to their mother, ‘We were born in this family attached to wrong views although we are sons of the King of the Dharma.’
“The mother said to them, ‘Show some wonders to your father out of your compassion towards him! If he sees [the wonders], he will have his mind purified and allow us to go to that Buddha.’
See ‘Off the Path’
‘Off the Path’
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p286It is interesting that we find the Dharma Flower Sutra here being sensitive to the possibility of families having members with different religious perspectives. Sometimes the term “heretical” has been used to translate the Chinese/Japanese term gedo, which literally means “off the path,” where the path is the Way of the Buddha. It simply means non-Buddhist. Actually, one could say that Buddhism itself is a Hindu heresy. “Heresy” means departure from something already established, some “orthodoxy,” and is always more or less within some tradition. Thus “Christian heresy” is possible and so is “Buddhist heresy” but that is not what is meant by gedo, especially here, where the King is a follower of brahman views, that is, of orthodox views.
Beyond the Eight Outer Forms
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p116-117We sometimes use the expression “The Eight Outer Forms of Realizing the Path” to mean the appearances or forms through which every Tathagata passes: entering the womb, being born, getting in touch with suffering, becoming a practitioner, following the path, attaining enlightenment, teaching the Dharma, and entering nirvana. We practice in order to see that these outer forms of reality are really only magical appearances. In fact, the Buddha is not born and does not die; that is the true nature of the Buddha and of everything else. When we look deeply enough into any phenomenon – a pebble, a drop of dew, a leaf, a cloud – we recognize its ultimate nature in the Three Dharma Seals of impermanence, no-self, and interdependence. In this way we can discover its true nature of no birth, no death, which is exactly the same as the true nature of the Tathagata. A beautiful golden leaf in autumn is also just putting on a magical show for us. First the leaf plays at being born in the springtime, and later it pretends to fall down to earth and die. As far as the phenomenal world is concerned, we believe that the leaf comes into being and then passes away. But in terms of the ultimate dimension, birth and death, coming and going, existence and nonexistence are only a magic display, a mere appearance.
This Perfect Medicine
The Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children reminds us that the Lotus Sutra is the perfect medicine to cure all the sufferings of this world and this life. It is perfect in every way and is the actual essence of Buddhism throughout eternity. The Buddha says, I have left you, meaning us, this perfect medicine in the form of the Lotus Sutra. Here “left” has two meanings, one being that he has given us the perfect medicine and the other that he has seemingly disappeared. The intent here is to cause us, the sick children, to pick up the good medicine because it will cure us of all our sufferings. All we need do is take it. And because he wants us to appreciate it he shows his death to us as an expedient to make us want to practice harder and to value this priceless teaching encapsulated in the Lotus Sutra.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra‘I Will Reach Buddhahood in the Future Without a Doubt.’
[I]n the 20th chapter on the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha describes Himself in His previous lives: “Once upon a time, there was a bodhisattva named Never-Despising. … He propagated the Lotus Sūtra fervently despite persecutions.” The sūtra describes how evil people spoke ill of him, abused him or struck him with a stick or a piece of wood, and threw pieces of tile or stones at him. By showing such ascetic practices in His previous lives, the Buddha encouraged those who propagate in the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration. Propagating the Lotus Sūtra, Never-Despising Bodhisattva was persecuted, and was struck with a stick or a piece of wood but attained the rank of the Buddha instantly. As I propagated the Lotus Sūtra, my house was set on fire at Matsubagayatsu, and I was attacked by Tōjō Kagenobu at Komatsubara, exiled to Izu, and banished to Sado Island. Therefore, I will reach Buddhahood in the future without a doubt.
Hakii Saburō-dono Go-henji, A Response to Lord Hakii Saburō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 185