The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p52An action that can be characterized as “skillful means” is selected or created to fit the situation and abilities of the recipients of the method, just as good teachers must consider the situation and abilities of their students. When this notion is extended, however, to practices that need to be developed by followers of the Buddha, then it is helpful to construe such means as needing or having a double appropriateness – appropriateness for the practitioner as well as for the recipient. That is, what makes something appropriate in our own practice is not only the abilities and situation of the person being guided but also the situation, and especially the abilities, of the one doing the guiding. Just as good teachers must consider their own abilities, we have to seriously ask ourselves not only “What needs to be done?” but “What can I do?” This is only to say that, insofar as possible, the whole situation, including oneself as part of the situation, needs to be taken into account in order for action to be as appropriate as possible.
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Tea and Biscuits and the Dharma
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p134When all these emanation bodies come together, it is a very joyful time. They drink tea together, eat biscuits, and have Dharma discussion. Then the Buddha entrusts the wonderful Dharma to the great bodhisattvas and asks them all to return to their worldspheres to continue the work of leading all beings to liberation. In this way, the Sutra says, they can repay the great kindness and compassion the Buddhas have shown by teaching the wonderful Lotus Dharma. This is the true meaning of entrusting. “This teaching is the highest of all teachings. I am now handing it on to you so that you may receive it and teach it widely to benefit all living beings.”
Aspiration for Awakening, Awakening and Sharing
In Nichiren Buddhism, our practice begins with our own finite efforts and aspirations. These seemingly limited qualities are actually expressions of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha’s real presence within our lives, and thus can effect our transformation into a more awakened state. Due to this transformation, our practice naturally becomes beneficial to all sentient beings. Odaimoku is the practice that carries us through these stages and is itself the manifestation of these stages. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo is the aspiration for awakening, the awakening itself, and the sharing of that awakening.
Lotus SeedsOrdinary People With Sins and Illusions
Contemplating on these, I am convinced that ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration commit sins more or less. Whether or not such a man can reach Buddhahood depends on not how serious his sin is but whether or not he believes in the Lotus Sūtra. As a member of a warrior family you are always faced with killing people, which is firmly prohibited in Buddhism. It makes you an evil man. If you cannot leave your family and escape from society, how can you avoid falling into the three evil realms such as hell? You had better think about it carefully.
The Lotus Sūtra preaches that ordinary people with sins and illusions can attain Buddhahood. Therefore, you too, can attain Buddhahood without changing yourself as an ordinary and evil person. T’ien-t’ai says in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “Sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra guarantee virtuous persons to obtain Buddhahood but not evil persons; however, both virtuous and evil persons are guaranteed to attain Buddhahood in the Lotus Sūtra.” Miao lê states in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “The perfect teaching of the Lotus Sūtra explains that the reverse can be the order as it is, but the other three teachings (piṭaka, common and distinct teachings) maintain that the reverse is the reverse, and the order is the order, clearly separating the virtuous from the evil.” You should think hard of their meaning.
Hakii Saburō-dono Go-henji, A Response to Lord Hakii Saburō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 188-189
Daily Dharma – Dec. 21, 2020
I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”
The Buddha sings these verses at the end of Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this chapter he revealed his existence as the Buddha who lives throughout time and space rather than in the limited human body in which we recognize him. When we realize that all the moments of our lives, all the joys and grief we face, all the people and other beings we encounter are in truth the Buddha leading us towards his own enlightenment, we see the Buddha in his true form, and we see the world for what it is.
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Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month heard Śāriputra’s reaction to the Dharma he had never heard before, we repeat in gāthās his understanding that the Buddha expounds the Dharma according to the capacities of all living beings.
Thereupon Śāriputra, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Hearing this truthful voice,
I have the greatest joy
That I have ever had.
I have removed all the mesh of doubts.You have taught us the Great Vehicle without a break from of old.
Your voice is rare to hear.
It dispels the sufferings of all living beings.
I once eliminated āsravas.
Hearing this voice of yours,
I have now removed all sorrows.I walked about mountains and valleys,
Or sat under a tree in a forest, thinking this over.
I reproached myself with a deep sigh:
“Why was I deceived?
We also are sons of the Buddha
[Just as the Bodhisattvas are].
We entered the same [ world]
[Of the] Dharma-without-āsravas.
But we shall not be able to expound
Unsurpassed enlightenment in the future.
We are in the same [ world of the] Dharma.
But we shall not be given
The golden body with the thirty-two marks,
The ten powers, and the emancipations [of the Buddha].
We are deprived of the hope
To have the eighty wonderful marks,
The eighteen unique properties
And the other merits [of the Buddha].”[Sitting] in the midst of the great multitude,
You benefited all living beings.
Your fame extended over the worlds of the ten quarters.
When I was walking alone,
I saw all this, and thought:
“I am not given this benefit. I have been deceived.”I thought this over day and night,
And wished to ask you,
“Am I disqualified
[From having this benefit] or not?”I always saw you praising the Bodhisattvas.
Therefore, I thought this over day and night.
Now hearing from you,
I understand that you expound the Dharma
According to the capacities of all living beings.
You lead all living beings
To the place of enlightenment
By the Dharma-without-āsravas, difficult to understand.I once was attached to wrong views,
And became a teacher of the aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.
You expounded to me the teaching of Nirvāṇa,
And removed my wrong views because you understood me.
I gave up all those wrong views,
And attained the truth that nothing is substantial.At that time I thought
That I had attained extinction.’
But now I know
That the extinction I attained is not the true one.
When I become a Buddha in the future,
I shall be adorned with the thirty-two marks,
And respected
By gods, men, yakṣas, and dragons.
Only then I shall be able to say
That I have eliminated all [illusions].
Shariputra’s Transformation
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p63[Shariputra] is transformed by the Dharma. While the Dharma can be thought of, and is, something that nourishes and sustains us, it can also transform us. Shariputra’s life was dramatically changed by the Dharma. Here, hearing the Dharma, he suddenly realizes that the goal he has been pursuing and the kind of life he has been living, while good, is not good enough. He realizes that the way he has taken can be a kind of gateway to more fully following the Buddha. No wonder he is filled with ecstasy! Indeed, almost everywhere you turn in the Dharma Flower Sutra, someone is receiving the Sutra with joy, or is full of joy, or has a heart that is dancing for joy.
The Buddha reminds Shariputra that Shariputra had learned this lesson before but had forgotten his own original vow. This is one of the many ways in which the Dharma Flower Sutra teaches that the potential for being a buddha is fundamental – something given to us originally. His life as a bodhisattva was always his life. Now, quite suddenly, he knows it.
To understand the Buddha Dharma as an ultimate truth about reality is to experience it as liberating. That Shariputra has received only some of the Buddha Dharma means that even though he is enlightened, liberated, and overcome with joy, this is only a new beginning, a rebirth, not a death in which there is nothing more to do. He is set free to live in the Dharma.
Does the Buddha Only Teach Bodhisattvas?
This was written in advance of Sunday’s meeting of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is discussing Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra this week. Originally, this post was intended for next year, when I will be posting quotes from Paul L. Swanson’s Foundations of T’ien-T’ai Philosophy. In the book Swanson includes a translation of a portion of the first chapter to Chih-i’s Fa hua hsüan i, the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, along with extensive explanatory footnotes.
Do a search on this site for “only bodhisattvas” and you will find several articles discussing Chapter 2, which says:
“The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas. All they do is for one purpose, that is, to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha.
And again:
“Śāriputra! These [present] Buddhas teach only Bodhisattvas because they wish to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha.
And again:
“Śāriputra! Some disciples of mine, who think that they are Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas, will not be my disciples or Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas if they do not hear or know that the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas.
And finally in the gāthās:
All of you, do not doubt me!
I am the King of the Dharma.
I say to you:
“I will expound the teaching of the One Vehicle
Only to Bodhisattvas.
There is no Śrāvaka among my disciples.”
To say that – at least as far as the Lotus Sutra goes – the Buddha teaches only Bodhisattvas seems beyond question. But it turns out that Paul Swanson in his “Foundations of T’ien-T’ai Philosophy: The Flowering of the Two Truths Theory in Chinese Buddhism” quibbles on this point.
In the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, Chih-i writes:
Foundations of T'ien T'ai Philosophy, p 210“He teaches only bodhisattvas, and has no śrāvaka as disciples.”
Swanston adds a footnote here saying:
This abbreviated quote is a bit misleading. Hurvitz, Lotus Sūtra, 46 [page 43 in the revised edition], translates the entire context as follows:
“I, being King of the Dharma
Universally address the great multitudes
Having recourse only to the Path of the One Vehicle
Teaching and converting bodhisattvas
and having no voice-hearing disciples.”However, the word “only” in the original Lotus Sūtra modifies the “path of the One Vehicle,” and not “only bodhisattvas.” Thus this section more likely means that the Buddha has recourse to the doctrine of ekayāna [one vehicle] to teach bodhisattvas, not to teach śrāvaka, and that he has recourse to other methods of teaching in dealing with śrāvakas. It does not mean that the Buddha has no disciples which are śrāvakas. The context makes clear that the Buddha is preaching the subtle dharma to all beings, śrāvakas and bodhisattvas alike (as the next line says), and that śrāvakas are included in the group of the Buddha’s disciples. I fear that Chih-i was overzealous in his attempt to illustrate the “subtlety” of the Buddha’s attendants.
While I agree with Swanson that “the Buddha is preaching the subtle dharma to all beings, śrāvakas and bodhisattvas alike,” I think Swanson misses an important point: The śrāvakas are bodhisattvas. At least those śrāvakas who advance beyond the Tripiṭaka teaching are promised attainment of the enlightenment of the Buddha by treading the bodhisattva path. Śrāvakas are not found on the path sublime.
One could argue that Swanson does get some support in his interpretation from the BDK translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra:
I, the King of the Dharma,
Now proclaim to the great assembly:
I lead and inspire the bodhisattvas
Only with the path of the single vehicle;
I am here without disciples.
But my other English translations are clear that śrāvakas are not among the Buddha’s disciples when he is teaching the One Vehicle.
SGI translation by Burton Watson says:
I, being king of the doctrines,
make this announcement to the entire great assembly.
I employ only the single vehicle way
to teach and convert the bodhisattvas,
I have no voice-hearer disciples.
Gene Reeves offers this:
Have no doubt,
Being king of the teachings,
I speak to the whole great assembly.
Using only the one-vehicle way.I teach and transform bodhisattvas
And have no shravakas as disciples.
The 1975 Risshō Kōsei Kai translation says:
Be you free from doubts;
I am the king of the Law
And declare to all the assembly:
‘I, only by the One-vehicle Way,
Teach the bodhisattvas,
And have no śrāvaka disciples.’
The 2019 Risshō Kōsei Kai translation says:
All of you, cast out doubts,
For I am master of all teachings.
I announce to everyone in the great assembly that
‘All I do is teach and transform bodhisattvas
Using the One Vehicle Way.
So none of my disciples are shravakas.’
All of this sets up the foundation for next month’s discussion of Chapter 3 and Śāriputra’s original vow to teach only the Three Vehicles once he becomes a Buddha in the distant future.
Foundations of T’ien-T’ai Philosophy
The Flowering of the Two Truths Theory In Chinese Buddhism
From the Forward by David W. Chappell
This volume represents the first comprehensive study in English of the teaching of the Threefold Truth, perhaps the single most important doctrine in T’ien-t’ai Buddhism. Its author, Paul Swanson, stands as the first of a new generation of Buddhist scholars attempting to provide a comprehensive analysis of T’ien-t’ai for the West and thus to open new vistas for understanding East Asian Buddhism as a whole.
As the first major school of Buddhism in East Asia, T’ien-t’ai marked a watershed in Chinese philosophy. Subsequent developments in Buddhist thought defined themselves in terms of the position they took in its regard, and this is what makes its understanding so critical for the study of Buddhist intellectual history.
To take but one example, it has always been something of a minor mystery why the Three-Teatise (Sanlun) theories of the Chinese Mādhyamika School vanished after having played a decisive role in fifth and sixth century China. The present study provides part of the answer in arguing that Mādhyamika did not in fact die in China but only ceased to exist as a distinct, sociologically discernible entity because it had become absorbed into the foundations for a new breed of indigenous Buddhist schools. First among these new schools, as the author shows, was Tien-t’ai.
The key figure in this first of the major Chinese Buddhist schools was Chih-i (538-597), who is rightly considered the greatest of all Chinese Buddhist philosophers and has been ranked with Thomas Aquinas and al-Ghazali as one of the great systematizers of religious thought and practice in world history. In contrast to Ch’an and Pure Land Buddhism, however, T’ien-t’ai Buddhism is so multidimensional and comprehensive that it is often not easy to understand. This fact, together with its failure to attract a strong following in the West, has led to its neglect by serious scholars.
Book Quotes
Sharing in the Tathagata’s Limitless Lifespan and Great Spiritual Power
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p127-128To complete our discussion of the ultimate dimension we skip ahead to Lotus Sutra Chapter 21, “The Supernatural Powers of the Thus Come One.” The supernatural power, or spiritual energy, of the Tathagata is his capacity to realize the practice. Naturally this spiritual power is based in the infinite life span of the Tathagata, the Buddha’s ultimate nature. We have already seen that the Tathagata cannot be placed in a frame of calculable space and time. The Tathagata is beyond our conception of the bounds of space and time. The Tathagata is not one but many; the Tathagata is not only here in this moment but everywhere at all times, in manifestation bodies as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. So, based on the foundation of his infinite life span and ultimate nature, we can see that the spiritual power of the Tathagata is very great, beyond our ability to imagine it.
The essential message of Chapter 21 is that our practice is to share in the Tathagata’s limitless lifespan and great spiritual power. Just as when we look deeply into a leaf, a cloud, or any phenomenon, we are able to see its infinite lifespan in the ultimate dimension, and we realize that we are the same. If we look deeply enough, we will discover our own nature of no birth, no death. Like the Buddha, we also exist and can function in a much greater capacity than the ordinary frame of time and space we perceive ourselves to be bounded by.
We participate in the Buddha’s infinite life span and limitless spiritual strength when we are able to get in touch with the ultimate dimension of everything we see. When we are in touch with the Tathagata’s life span and spiritual power, we are also in touch with our own ultimate nature and spiritual power. Many of us go around all the time feeling that we are as small as a grain of sand. We may feel that our one small human life doesn’t have very much meaning. We struggle to get through life, and at the end of our life we feel that we have accomplished very little. This is a kind of inferiority complex many people suffer from. If we see reality only in terms of the historical dimension, it may seem to us as if there is little one ordinary human being can do. But if we get in touch with the ultimate dimension of reality, we know that we are just like the Buddha. We share in the Buddha’s nature – we are Buddha nature. When we are able to see beyond the limitations of perceived time and space, beyond our own notions of inferiority and powerlessness, we find we have great stores of spiritual energy to share with the world.