In editing “Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet” by Masaharu Anesaki I’ve had no trouble changing “Scripture” to Lotus Sutra or “Sole Road” to One Vehicle, as I attempt to reduce potential distractions caused by Anesaki’s insertion of Christian vocabulary into his explanation of Buddhism and the teaching of Nichiren. But Anesaki’s description of the Lotus Sutra as Johannine gave me pause.
The first reference comes in Chapter 2, in a short section entitled, “The Lotus of Truth; its general nature”:
Critical study of Buddhist literature will doubtless throw more light on the formation and date of the compilation; but even apart from minute analysis, we can safely characterize the book as occupying the place taken in Christian literature by the Johannine writings, including the Gospel, the Apocalypse, and the Epistles.
Google Johannine and one quickly finds that it relates to the Apostle John the Evangelist or to his Gospel and epistles in the New Testament.
Clearly this is an important distinction to Anesaki.
My Googling failed to find a description of “the place taken in Christian literature by the Johannine writings” that might shed some light on what Anesaki was trying to point out.
Later in the book, in discussing T’ien T’ai’s teachings, Anesaki writes:
This book [the Lotus Sutra], as has been observed above, may be called the Johannine Gospel of Buddhism. It tries to solve the problems of reality by the key given in the identification of Buddha’s enlightenment with cosmic truth.
Identifying the Śākyamuni of Chapter 16, the Eternal Original Buddha, with cosmic truth is reasonable. The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, the concluding sutra of the Threefold Lotus Sutra, says, “Śākyamuni Buddha is Vairocana.” But how that relates to the Johannine Gospel is lost on me.
Perhaps it’s as simple as the opening lines of the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Perhaps not. I don’t know. I’m self-taught in almost all aspects of my education, the product of California public schools and limited higher education. It is at times like this that I feel the loss.
Speaking of the Two Vehicles who claimed to have reached the state of Nirvana, complete or incomplete, the Buddha showed residual evil passions, karma, and sufferings in them and declared in the Lotus Sūtra: “They will become Buddhas despite the evil passions, karma and sufferings in their bodies.” Here for the first time not only the Two Vehicles but also ordinary people were assured of attaining Buddhahood with the present body.
Ōta-dono Nyōbō Gohenji, A Response to the Wife of Lord Ōta, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 166-167
Star-King-Flower! This sūtra saves all living beings. This sūtra saves them from all sufferings, and gives them great benefits. All living beings will be able to fulfill their wishes by this sūtra just as a man who reaches a pond of fresh water when he is thirsty, just as a man who gets fire when he suffers from cold.
The Buddha gives this description of the merits of the Lotus Sūtra to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra. The comparison of our bodily desires to our desire for enlightenment shows the kind of joy we can expect when we realize what this teaching can accomplish. Anyone whose thirst is quenched is sure to become thirsty again, now matter how pleasant it is to drink. The Buddha Dharma fulfills a thirst of which we may not even be aware. We are certain that things in this world of conflict will bring us joy. When we realize they can only bring us pleasure, and know the difference between joy and pleasure, we become aware of our true wishes and what this sūtra does for us.
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Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered the samadhi employed by Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, we conclude Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva.
When the Buddha expounded this chapter of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, the eighty-four thousand people, who had come accompanying Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, obtained the ability to practice the samadhi by which they could transform themselves into other living beings. Innumerable Bodhisattvas of this Sahā-World also obtained the ability to practice this samadhi. They also obtained dharanis.
Thereupon Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahāsattva made offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha and to the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha, [benefited the living beings of the Sahā World,] and left for his home world[, accompanied by the eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas]. As they passed through the [one hundred and eight billion nayuta] worlds, the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways; lotus-flowers of treasures rained down; and hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds of music were made. Having reached his home world, accompanied by the eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas who surrounded him, he came to Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. He said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! I went to the Sahā-World and benefited the living beings there. I saw Śākyamuni Buddha and the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha. I bowed and made offerings to them. I also saw Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, the Son of the King of the Dharma. [I also saw] Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Endeavor-Power-Obtainer Bodhisattva, Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva, and others. I also caused these eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas to obtain the ability to practice the samadhi by which they could transform themselves
into any other living being.”
When [Śākyamuni Buddha] expounded this chapter of the Coming and Going of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, forty-two thousand gods obtained the truth of birthlessness, and Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva obtained the ability to practice the samadhi for the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
[Here ends] the Seventh Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Sakyamuni Buddha said to the Buddha Abundant Treasures: “This Bodhisattva Wonder Sound desires to see you.” Instantly the Buddha Abundant Treasures addressed Wonder Sound: “Excellent, excellent, that you have been able to come here to pay homage to Sakyamuni Buddha, to hear the Law-Flower Sutra, and to see Mañjuśrī and the others.”
The words spoken by the Buddha Abundant Treasures contain an important meaning. As a witness to the truth, the Buddha Abundant Treasures declared clearly in his praise of the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound that the first requisite for everybody is always to do the following three things: to pay homage to Sakyamuni Buddha, who preached the truth; to hear the teaching of the truth, namely, the Lotus Sutra; and to follow the pattern of the virtuous bodhisattvas who practice the teaching.
The Fundamental Tenets of Buddhism Concerning Reality – Part 3 of 3
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Now, let me further expound the Buddhist conception of the relation between the world and the individual, which gives the key to the understanding of its conception of reality.
The individual, as such, is neither real, in the commonly asserted sense of being a personally persistent entity, nor unreal, in the sense that it has no place in existence. It is unreal, because it is subject to constant change; but it is real, as a product of causation, as a manifestation of character accumulated by karma. Either of these points of view leads to the thesis, “There is no (substantial) ego.” But Buddhism sees in the person of the Tathāgata a real individual, the individual par excellence, because the Dharmatā of the universe is represented, embodied, realized, in his person as the Tathāgata. It is in the personal enlightenment of universal truths in Buddha that the realm of Dharma has come to self-consciousness, to the full realization of its meaning. In other words, the person of the Tathāgata is not an individual personality, in contradistinction to other individuals, but in communion with all others. When I say, “all others,” I mean it, not as an aggregate of separate individuals, nor as a haphazard crowd of individuals, but as unified in the basic unity of the Dharmatā, and united in the realization of the universal communion. This is the teaching of the Ekayāna [One Vehicle], of which we shall see more presently. An individual, according to Buddhism, is no more a mere individual, if, and so far as, he identifies himself with others; his ego is transformed to a universal self. Buddhism does not call this transformed and expanded self a self, but a Tathāgata, or a “being of truth” (dharmā-bhūto, dharma-kaya), as in the case of Buddha.
Looked at in this way, any individual is a Tathāgata who realizes the universal Dharmatā of the universe, not only in his ideas, but in his life, and lives the life of the universal self. So long as, and so far as, he regards himself as separate from others, every individual is only a partial, and therefore imperfect, manifestation of his own real nature (dharmatā), while everyone is destined to attain the height, or depth, of his own true self in communion with all others, by virtue of the basic unity of the fundamental Dharmatā. When this ideal is attained, even partially, one has so far realized his real self, which is no longer an ego in the sense that he once cherished. He is the same person in appearance, but in reality his self is so far transformed. What thus happens resembles the metamorphosis of an insect. Buddha, in recalling his former lives, designates his former self by the pronoun “I,” but he is at the same time most emphatic in distinguishing his former “I” – even the “I” when he lived as a prince or a recluse – and calls himself “Tathāgata,” in the third person, as the designation of his true personality and high dignity. The same title may be applied to anybody who reaches the same attainment as Buddha; and, in fact, Buddha called everyone of the same attainment a Tathāgata. In short, everyone who has found his own real nature in the fundamental Dharmatā of all existences, that is, in communion with the Tathāgatas, is one who has become truth, become insight, and thereby identified himself with the universe. It is in the conception of reality attained by such a person that the universe is realizing its universal Dharmatā [– the intrinsic nature or reality of phenomena].
A necessary consequence of this idea about the relation between the individual and the world is the teaching of the Ekayāna [One Vehicle]. It means the one and the same way for all the Tathāgatas of the past, present, and future. It is the Way, and at the same time the Ideal – the way to realize the truth of universal communion, and the ideal to be reached by that way. It is also the foundation of existences, and the goal of the way, because an ideal is vain without foundation, and the two are simply two aspects of the same Dharmatā. Buddha said:
“The Perfectly Enlightened of the past, and the Buddhas of the future, As well as the present Perfectly Enlightened One who dispels sorrows from many – All have lived, do live, or will live, By revering Dharma; this is the Dharmatā of all Buddhas. (Samyuga, 6.1.2; com. S. 47. 18.)
This unity of the Ekayāna [One Vehicle] is manifested in the Buddhist community, which, though limited in its visible manifestation, is to be extended without limit to include all beings of every possible description, and of all ages. Thus, the Buddhist community is a realization of the universal communion of all Buddhas and Buddhas-to-be, who are – or ought to be – united in the revelation of the final Dharmatā. This is the reason why Buddha disdained anyone who, being satisfied with the tranquility of his mind, remains a solitary sage. Such a sage is called a Pratyekabuddha, or self-satisfied wise man, and is regarded not only as a selfish man, but one who does not see the real light, either his own, or that of the world. The Tathāgata, on the contrary, is an individual who is no longer an individual merely, but has identified himself with all others.
Thus, the Tathāgata is the ideal person in the Buddhist religion, and it is only in the life of the Tathāgata that the full meaning of the universe is realized. This ideal is also called Dharma, which here means “norm,” as Mrs. Rhys Davids correctly renders it. [Buddhism: A Study of the Buddhist Norm, 1912.] The moral norm and religious ideal for every Buddhist consists in attaining, as Buddha has shown by his own example, the supreme enlightenment in the truth-order and the fundamental nature of the world, in accordance with the truth of existence, and by treading the same One Road, in company with the Buddhas of all ages. The Buddhist ideal, seen in this light, necessarily demands the life of fellowship, in which the real continuity of life, or the Dhammatā of existence, is first realized. In this fellowship, an individual no longer remains a separate being, but becomes a personal embodiment of the universal life – “das Objectwerden des Subjects,” to borrow the Hegelian terminology. The “communion of saints” transforms our self into the universal self; and therein is brought to light the true nature of reality.
To sum up, the Buddhist conception of reality is the existence in which the universal nature of existence is realized in the enlightened mind, which is the realization of the all-embracing fellowship. It rejects reality apart from this personal enlightenment; it rejects an enlightenment in a secluded self – the former being externalism and the latter transcendentalism. But both aspects of being embraced and “aufgehoben” in the realization of the universal Dharmatā. In short, the true conception of reality is brought to light only in the unity of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
You should know also that if those who read the Lotus Sūtra think that the attainment of Buddhahood can also be realized by reading other sūtras, it cannot be said that they have truly read the Lotus Sūtra even though they may seem to believe in it.
Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 35.
Great-Power-Obtainer! What do you think of this? The Never-Despising Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself. If I had not kept, read or recited this sūtra or expounded it to others in my previous existence, I should not have been able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi so quickly. Because I kept, read and recited this sūtra, and expounded it to others under those past Buddhas, I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi quickly.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Great-Power-Obtainer Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. The practice of Never-Despising Bodhisattva was to approach all beings and tell them, “I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why? Because you will be able to practice as a Bodhisattva and become a Buddha.” When the Buddha explains that Never-Despising Bodhisattva was one of his previous lives, he equates this respect for all beings with the practice of the Wonderful Dharma.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
