Monthly Archives: December 2020

WONS

When We Construct a Statue of Śākyamuni to His Liking

The original substance of both Goddess Amaterasu and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman is the Lord Teacher Śākyamuni Buddha. For instance, Śākyamuni Buddha is the moon shining in the sky whereas other Buddhas and the various bodhisattvas are reflections of the moon shining upon bodies of water at various places. Therefore, one who constructs a statue of Śākyamuni Buddha in fact also constructs various Buddhas in the worlds throughout the universe. When the head sways, the hair sways. When the mind is at work, the body moves. When a strong wind blows, plants stir. When the earth quakes, waves rise in the ocean. Likewise, when we construct a statue of Śākyamuni Buddha to His liking, can there be any plants that remain unmoved? How can there be bodies of water that do not form waves?

Nichigen-nyo Sakabutsu Kuyōji, Construction of a Statue of Śākyamuni by Lady Nichigen, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 124

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 16, 2020

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The calamity of death is something we all will face eventually, whether it our own or that of those we love. The other calamities in our lives are relatively minor losses which can prepare us for this great calamity. The Bodhisattva World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of Compassion: the desire to benefit all beings. When we learn to use all of the suffering in our lives, especially the calamity of death, as a way to remove our delusions and benefit others, then we can see the world with the eyes of the Buddha and know the joy he declares is at the core of our being.

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

Innumerable, LS32

Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1

Having last month considered the second of the 10 Beneficial Effects of the Sutra of Innumerable Meaning, we consider the third beneficial effect:

“O you of good intent! Third, this sutra’s unimaginable power for beneficial effect is this: If there are living beings who can hear this sutra— whether a section of it, whether a verse of it, or whether a phrase—they will gain awareness of hundreds of millions of myriads of meanings. Then, even though they have delusive worldly passions, it will be as if their delusive passions do not exist. They will not feel that taking birth or experiencing death are things that need to be feared; they will give rise to a mind of compassion for all living beings; and they will come to have a dauntless attitude with regard to all things. A person with great strength can bear and carry all manner of heavy things. So it is also with people who keep faith with this sutra: they can shoulder the great responsibilities of ultimate enlightenment, and they can carry living beings away from the path of recurring births and deaths. They are capable of ferrying others even though they still cannot ferry themselves. Suppose a ship’s captain is rendered immobile by a serious affliction and must therefore remain on shore. But he has a fine, reliable vessel that is always equipped with everything needed to ferry others, which he makes available and on which they embark. So it is also with those who keep faith with this sutra: while enduring the circumstances of living in the five conditions of existence – the whole of their being constantly beset by one hundred and eight serious afflictions, one after another – they remain on this shore of ignorance, aging, and death. But they have this fine, reliable, all-ferrying sutra, equipped with infinite meanings, that is able to rescue living beings: those who practice it as expounded will attain deliverance from the cycle of births and deaths. O you of good intent! This is known as the inconceivable power of the third beneficial effect of this sutra.

Underscore: Even though they have delusive worldly passions, it will be as if their delusive passions do not exist. They will not feel that taking birth or experiencing death are things that need to be feared; they will give rise to a mind of compassion for all living beings; and they will come to have a dauntless attitude with regard to all things.

d22b, d23b, d24b, Peaceful Action

The Merit of Practice

Chapters 17, 18, and 19 of the Lotus Sutra all have to do with the idea of merit. The word “merit” (Sanskrit: punya), when rendered in Chinese is made up of two characters. The first character means “daily practice or daily work,” and the second means “virtuous conduct.” Merit is a kind of spiritual energy that can be accumulated when we maintain a steady practice. This energy protects us and brings us joy and insight. Our practice helps us see, hear, and understand things clearly, and we can be present in a very deep way. When we can maintain our mindfulness and deep presence, we are able to touch the ultimate dimension. And when we get in touch with the ultimate, we know we are already in nirvana. This is the merit of the practice.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p121
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 15, 2020

Expound it
To those who make efforts,
Who have compassion towards others,
And who do not spare their lives!

The Buddha sings these verses to all those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. These are instructions for us to know who will benefit from the Wonderful Dharma. It is difficult for those who are absorbed in their own suffering to realize the benefit of helping others. It is difficult for those who are distracted by their preoccupations, or who do not believe they can become enlightened, to maintain their efforts to lead all beings to enlightenment. These insights also help us keep our minds open to the Buddha’s teachings.

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

LS32, Universal Sage

Between Day 32 and Day 1: Purification of the Sense Faculty of Sight

Going through each of the senses and their karmic consequences – the sense faculty of sight, the sense faculty of hearing, the sense faculty of smell, the sense faculty of speech and the sense faculty of the body and mind – we begin with the heavy impurities obstruct, cloak, defile, and cloud the sense faculty of sight.

Throughout innumerable existences, the function of your sense faculty of sight has caused you to yearn for and become attached to various kinds of forms. Because of your attachments to various forms, you are passionate about the smallest of matters. Because of your passions for the smallest of matters, your body is derived from a woman.22 Wherever you take birth, in life after life, you are attracted and attached to all kinds of forms. Forms spoil your eyes, and you become a slave to emotion and passion: forms thus make you23 wander throughout the three realms. Such impairment renders you blind, so that you can perceive nothing.

Now, take the comprehensive Great Vehicle sutras to heart! In these sutras it is taught that forms and embodiments of the buddhas of the ten directions never cease to exist: you must now be able to recognize whether or not this is true! The dysfunction of your sense faculty of sight does you great harm! Heed what we are saying: Take refuge in the buddhas and in Śākyamuni Buddha! Regarding the impurities and faults in your sense faculty of sight, say this:

“May I be cleansed and be made to become pure by means of the Dharma water of the profound insight24 of buddhas and bodhisattvas!”

After saying these words, the practitioner must pay homage to the buddhas of the ten directions and, directing his or her heart and mind toward Śākyamuni Buddha and the Great Vehicle sutras, speak again, saying:

“I now recognize that heavy impurities obstruct, cloak, defile, and cloud my sense faculty of sight: I am blinded and can perceive nothing! May the Buddha, with great mercy and compassion, protect me! O Bodhisattva Universal Sage – aboard the great ship of Dharma in company with countless bodhisattvas of the ten directions, universally ferrying all living beings: Out of compassion and sympathy for me, please accept my way of amending myself of the unwholesome and harmful encumbrances of my sense faculty of sight!”

The practitioner must say this three times, prostrate him- or herself on the ground, and maintain right mindfulness of the Great Vehicle, neither forgetting nor forsaking it. This is called the method of self-amendment regarding impurities of the sense faculty of sight.

One who calls upon the buddhas by name, burns incense, scatters flowers, generates a Great Vehicle consciousness, hangs banners, flags, and canopies, speaks to the faults and afflictions of the eye, and undertakes self-amendment for his or her impurities will behold Śākyamuni Buddha in this present world and innumerable buddhas emanated from him as well. He or she will not fall into bitter conditions for countless kalpas of time. Through the affirmation and the power of the Great Vehicle, such a person will constantly be among and accompany all of the bodhisattvas that possess Dharma-grasping empowerments. Producing such a focus of mind is the effecting of right mindfulness; focusing on other things is described as aberrant thought. This is said to be the condition of the first stage with regard to the sense faculty of sight.

See Buddha Dharma

LS32, stories

Buddha Dharma

While the Sanskrit term dharma is sometimes translated as “law,” I believe that for many readers this creates a false impression of how the term is used in the Dharma Flower Sutra and in Buddhism in general. It is translated as “law” because it was translated by Kumarajiva into Chinese as fa (pronounced hō in Japanese), a term that can reasonably be translated into English as “law.” But to many, the term “law” has negative connotations, reminding us of courts, police, and punishment. More important, the term “law” simply does not convey the rich meaning and significance of Buddha Dharma. That is why, like some other Buddhist terms, such as “nirvana,” “sutra,” or even “Buddha,” it has become a term in the English language. And this is why the Rev. Senchu Murano, of Nichiren-shu, while originally using “Law,” decided to use “Dharma” for the revised version of his very fine translation of the Lotus Sutra into English.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p31
d21b, d22b, Peaceful Action

Maintaining the Bright Flame of Samadhi

In terms of the ultimate dimension, the life span of the Tathagata is immeasurable and infinite. Yet even though in ultimate reality the Buddha is not born and does not die, nevertheless he pretends to be born, to exist for a while, and to enter nirvana to show living beings of the world how to take care of themselves. The Buddha gives us the spiritual medicine we need for the healing and transformation of our bodies and minds – the practice of mindfulness. Now it is up to us to take the medicine and practice diligently so that we too can get in touch with the ultimate dimension and recognize our true nature of no birth and no death.

We have to use mindfulness in order to touch the ultimate dimension. When we notice a yellow leaf underfoot during walking meditation, it is an opportunity to look deeply into its nature of no coming and no going. When we breathe mindfully, we are in touch with our breath and body and we already feel different than before. Using mindfulness, everything appears to us more clearly. The practice of mindfulness is the path that leads us to the ultimate dimension. When we practice mindfulness in our daily life activities – working, gardening, cooking, washing the dishes, greeting guests – we are in touch with the phenomenal world very deeply, much more deeply than when we do not have mindfulness. At that point the ultimate dimension can begin to show itself to us.

The ultimate dimension reveals itself either vaguely or clearly to us depending on the quality of our mindfulness. Sometimes we have mindfulness only for a moment; sometimes we can maintain it for two or three minutes. If we look at a cloud mindfully and are able to maintain our mindfulness for three minutes, for those three minutes we have concentration, samadhi. When our practice of mindfulness is solid and steady enough then we are able to keep the lamp of samadhi alight from moment to moment. Whether we are in the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, or office, when we sweep the courtyard or drive our car, in all these actions we maintain the bright flame of samadhi. Practicing this way we get in touch with our own true nature, which is exactly the same as the Buddha’s, unborn and undying. Just like the yellow leaf and everything else we see around us in the world of appearances, we too are participating in the infinite life span of the Buddha.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p119-120
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 14, 2020

If anyone, guilty or not, calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is bound up in manacles, fetters, pillories or chains, those things [in which he is bound up] will break asunder, and he will be saved.

The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Kuan Yin, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The bonds of ignorance and delusion in which we find ourselves are not the result of our personal inadequacy, and neither do they come entirely from the circumstances of the world around us. But these bonds are real, and in our struggles to escape we often just make them worse. When we remember World-Voice Perceiver, the embodiment of compassion, and call on her for help, then we awaken compassion within ourselves and others in the world, and break the bonds of delusion for everyone.

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

LS32

Day 32

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 32 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded Chapter 28, we begin again with the arrival of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance, came from a world [in the distance of many worlds] to the east [of this Sahā-World]. He was accompanied by innumerable, uncountable great Bodhisattvas. All the worlds quaked as he passed through. [The gods] rained down jeweled lotus-flowers, and made many hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds of music. He was also surrounded by a great multitude of innumerable gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. They reached Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa of the Sahā-World by their virtues and supernatural powers. [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] worshiped [the feet of] Śākyamuni Buddha with his head, walked around the Buddha [from left] to right seven times and said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which you expounded in this Sahā World, from a remote world in which lives Treasure-Power­Virtue-Superior-King Buddha. I came here with many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattvas in order to hear and receive [this Sūtra]. World-Honored One! Tell me how the good men or women who live after your extinction will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!”

The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:

“The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: 1. secure the protection of the Buddhas, 2. plant the roots of virtue, 3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and 4. resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”

See The Four Conditions Necessary for Acquiring the Dharma Flower Sutra