You have a grandson, Lord Jibu, who is a Buddhist priest. This priest is neither an upholder of precepts nor especially rich in wisdom. He neither observes even one of the 250 precepts nor maintains even one of the 3000 solemn rules of conduct. In wisdom he is like a horse or a cow while in dignity he is like a monkey. Nevertheless, what he reveres is Śākyamuni Buddha and what he believes in is the Lotus Sutra. This like a snake holding a gem or a dragon gratefully holding the relics of the Buddha in Dharma Body.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on the Ullambana Service (Urabon Gosho) written to the Grandmother of Lord Jibu. While it may seem to us that Nichiren is criticizing Lord Jibu, he is praising the young man in the highest terms. Our ability to use the Wonderful Dharma to benefit others does not depend on our skill, dedication or wisdom. It depends only on our devotion to the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni, and our confidence and faith in the Lotus Sūtra.
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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.
Having last month considered the consequences for disparaging the keeper of the Lotus Sutra, we conclude Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.
When the Buddha expounded this chapter of the Encouragement of Universal-Sage, as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges obtained the dhārāṇis by which they could memorize hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings, and as many Bodhisattvas as the particles of dust of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds [understood how to] practice the Way of Universal-Sage.
When the Buddha expounded this sūtra, the great congregation including the Bodhisattvas headed by Universal-Sage, the Śrāvakas headed by Śāriputra, and the other living beings such as gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings, had great joy, kept the words of the Buddha, bowed [to him], and retired.
[Here ends] the Eighth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
The Dharma Flower Sutra, in my experience, is a wonderful flowering of Buddha Dharma. Whenever I pay close attention to some passage in it, something I had never seen before is revealed to me and I learn from it. But it is also a book that arose in a particular historical context and was composed and translated within particular social settings. It is not entirely free from error, or at least not free from perspectives that we now regard as deficient or even morally wrong. In saying that followers of the Lotus Sutra should not associate with butchers or those who sell meat, with those who raise animals for their meat, or with those who hunt, the Sutra is reflecting values embodied in the Indian caste system, in which such people were despised.
Rather than taking such a view literally, we can understand it to be an exhortation to think carefully about whom we associate closely with. And this consideration brings us back to the third of the four conditions discussed earlier – the idea that we should be most closely associated with a group of people who are determined to follow the bodhisattva way as best as they are able. Having gained the strength that comes from meeting the four conditions and encountering Universal Sage Bodhisattva on his white elephant with six tusks, we need to have no fear of associating with butchers, ranchers, or hunters, or even with pimps. For it is the compassion of the Buddha, modeled for us in the Dharma Flower Sutra by Kwan-yin, the Regarder of the Cries of the World, that will encourage us to be rooted in the suffering and misery of this world, shunning no one. And for some followers of the Dharma Flower Sutra at least, this might mean, not only not avoiding those who are despised by the society in which we live, whether they be a racial minority, or a minority identified by disease or mental illness, or some other despised group, but actively being with and supporting such people.
[I] will clarify in detail [the meaning of] the dharma of the Buddha.
How can there be any dharma [reality] distinct from the Buddha? [There cannot be any.] All of the hundred realms and thousand suchnesses are the objective realm of the Buddha.243 This reality is ultimately understood only by Buddhas. It is analogous to the fact that a large box must have a correspondingly large cover.244 This vast and great Buddhahood and objective realm245 is illuminated by means of unlimited Buddha-wisdom. For [the Buddha] to reach to the own basis mind” [of this reality] is called “the dharma in accordance with his own mind.”246 If one is illuminated concerning the nature and characteristics of the nine [other] realms from beginning to end without omitting a thread or mustard seed, this is called “the dharma in accordance with other minds.247 On the basis of these two dharmas248 the phenomenal traces [of the Buddha] “hang down”; “sometimes to manifest his [the Buddha’s] own body, sometimes to manifest another body, sometimes to preach his own words, sometimes to preach the words of another.”249
[The Buddha’s] “own mind”250 and the “mind of others”251 are beyond conceptual understanding. [The Buddha’s] “own body”252 and the “bodies of others”253 are extremely subtle and ultimately quiescent. [Ultimately] all of them are neither tentative nor real,254 yet one can propose a [tentative] correspondence of the nine realms as tentative and the one [Buddha] realm as real. However, within the dharma of the Buddha there is no loss nor decrease.255 The dharma of all Buddhas is truly subtle!
These matters should be known [as explained above], so I will not go into a troublesome and detailed explanation. The chapter on “Expedient Means” [in the Lotus Sūtra] clarifies this matter further.
Another famous phrase of Chih-i which succinctly expresses his concept of the integrated nature of reality. return
244
In other words, the vastness of reality, of the objective realm, is such that only a vast and comprehensive wisdom can comprehend it. return
245
Or “vast and great realm of the Buddha.” Since the two (Buddha and objective realm) are integrated, either phrase ultimately means the same thing. return
246
In other words, for the Buddha to penetrate to the basis of reality is for him to completely understand all Buddha-wisdom, exhaustively know the underlying principle of reality, which is the Buddha-realm. return
247
This terminology is borrowed from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, T. 12, 820b2ff, where the Buddha explains that he has preached the twelvefold Sūtras at times directly on the basis of his own “mind” or understanding, at times in accord with the “mind” or understanding of his listeners, and at times a combination of these two. (See Yamamoto Ill, 868ff) Here Chih-i’s point is somewhat different. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is speaking of different methods of teaching; Chih-i is tentatively making a distinction between the two kinds of wisdom: the wisdom which knows the Buddha realm (real wisdom ) and the wisdom which knows the other nine realms, the world of objective reality (tentative wisdom ). Of course, as Chih-i has just pointed out, the first nine realms are included in the Buddha realm and all of them together are the constituent parts of an integrated reality. return
248
That in accordance with the Buddha’s own mind and that in accordance with the mind of others (in the other nine realms); or, real and tentative wisdom. return
249
A paraphrase of a section in the chapter on “The Lifespan of the Tathāgata” in the Lotus Sūtra. Hurvitz, Lotus Sūtra, 239 translates: “O good men! The scriptural canon preached by the Thus Come One is all for the purpose of conveying living beings to deliverance. At times he speaks of his own body, at times of another’s body, at times he shows his own body, at times another’s body, at times his own affairs, at times another’s affairs. Everything he says is true , not vanity.” return
250
This tentatively corresponds to the “real.” return
251
This tentatively corresponds to the “tentative.” return
252
This tentatively corresponds to the “real.” return
253
This tentatively corresponds to the “tentative.” return
254
They ultimately correspond to the middle, which is beyond the duality of tentative and real. return
255
Nothing is “taken away” from the Buddha or the Buddha realm by conventionally “separating” the nine other realms from the realm of the Buddha. return
For 400 years, since the reign of Emperor Kanmu, the capacity of all the people in Japan to understand and embrace the Lotus Sūtra exclusively has reached fruition. Their capacity to understand the Dharma is similar to those who heard the Lotus Sūtra expounded by Śākyamuni Buddha on Mount Sacred Eagle for eight years. (This is proven in the writings of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, Prince Shōtoku, Venerable Chien-chên, Grand Master Dengyō, Venerables Annen and Eshin.) Those who perceive this correctly are men who understand the capacity of people.
Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 101
Anyone who believes and receives this sūtra
Should be considered
To have already seen the past Buddhas,
Respected them, made offerings to them,
And heard the Dharma from them
In his previous existence.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. Whatever view we may have of our past lives, we can agree that it is difficult to remember what happened in them. In these verses the Buddha reminds us that our joy in hearing his teaching in this life indicates that we have already heard and practiced what he taught, no matter how difficult it may seem to us now. This also means that by believing and receiving the Lotus Sūtra we are respecting and making offerings to all Buddhas.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
