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 concluded Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, we return to the top and the light given off by Śākyamuni Buddha.
Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha [faced the east and] emitted rays of light from the fleshy tuft on his head, that is, from one of the marks of a great man, and also from the white curls between his eyebrows. The light illumined one hundred and eight billion nayuta Buddha-worlds, that is, as many worlds in the east as there are sands in the River Ganges. There was a world called [All-] Pure-Light-Adornment [in the east] beyond those worlds. In that world was a Buddha called Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. He expounded the Dharma to a great multitude of innumerable Bodhisattvas who were surrounding him respectfully. The ray of light, which was emitted from the white curls [between the eyebrows] of Śākyamuni Buddha, also illumined that world.
At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Voice in the All-Pure-Light-Adornment World. He had already planted roots of virtue a long time ago. He had already made offerings to many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, and attended on them. He had already obtained profound wisdom. He had already obtained hundreds of thousands of billions of great samadhis, that is, as many great samadhis as there are sands in the River Ganges, such as the samadhi as wonderful as the banner of a general, the samadhi for the traveling of the king of the stars, the samadhi for freedom from causality, the samadhi for the seal of wisdom, the samadhi by which one could understand the words of all living beings, the samadhi by which one could collect all merits, the samadhi for purity, the samadhi for exhibiting supernatural powers, the samadhi for the torch of wisdom, the samadhi for the Adornment-King, the samadhi for pure light, the samadhi for pure store, the samadhi for special teachings, and the samadhi for the revolution of the sun.
During the time of the Buddha, the homeland of the Śākyas appears to have possessed a cult of the buddhas of the past, a faith in the existence of a number of successive buddhas who had brought people to salvation and then passed into nirvana, and in a coming buddha who was soon to appear. In later times there were accounted either six or twenty-four buddhas of the past; then, including Śākyamuni, categories of the seven or twenty-five buddhas of the past were devised (the Jainas had similar legends). The seven buddhas were Vipaśyin, Śikhin, Viśvabhuj, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa, and Śākyamuni. The final four are called the four buddhas of the Bhadra-kalpa (the present cosmic period). According to Asoka’s edict at Nigālī Sāgar (Nigliva in Nepal), he enlarged and refurbished the Stupa of the former buddha Kanakamuni and made offerings to it. Also Fa-hsien recorded in the “Kosala” section of the Fo-kuo chi (T. 51:861a, no. 2085) that when he visited the region (in the fifth century) followers of Devadatta were to be found there; they venerated the buddhas Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa – Śākyamuni alone they did not venerate, commented Fa-hsien. We have here an indication of the existence of a religious community that preserved an ancient belief and lifestyle different from that of the orthodox Buddha-Saṃgha.
With these thoughts on the truth of mutual revelation, and with a special emphasis on the necessity of a simple and concrete representation of the Supreme Being, Nichiren composed the treatise on “The Spiritual Introspection of the Supreme Being, Revealed for the First Time in the Fifth Five Centuries after the Tathāgata’s Great Decease.” He describes the symbolic representation as follows:
“The august state of the Supreme Being (Svādi-devatā) is this: The Heavenly Shrine is floating in the sky over the Sahā world ruled by the Primeval Master, the Lord Buddha. In the Shrine is seen the Sacred Title of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth, on either side of which are seated the Buddhas Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna, and also on the sides, at a greater distance, the four Bodhisattva leaders, the Viśiṣṭacāritra and others. The Bodhisattvas like Mañjuśrī and Maitreya are seated farther down, as attendants of the former, while the innumerable hosts of the Bodhisattvas, enlightened by the manifestations of Buddha, sit around the central group, like a great crowd of people looking up toward the court nobles surrounding the throne.”
In his graphic representation of this scene, Nichiren makes place for all other kinds of beings, men and gods, spirits and demons, all surrounding the central Sacred Title. His idea was to represent adequately, from his point of view, the perfect union of the Truth and the Person, manifested not only in Buddhas and saints, but inherent even in the beings immersed in illusion and vice. The whole was intended to be a visible embodiment of the truth of cosmic existence, as realized in the all-comprehensive conception of “mutual participation” [Ichinen Sanzen] and illuminated by the all-enlightening power of the Truth.”
The universe is the stage of mutual participation and reciprocal interaction, which proceed according to the truths, or laws, of existence. Buddha, in his real entity, is nothing but another name for this cosmos of orderly existence. Seen from this angle, the Truth is fundamental and the Person is secondary; but the Truth and its laws cannot exist nor work without everlasting wisdom, the cosmic soul which is the source of all wisdom, which ordains all laws and causes all beings to exist. This is the personal aspect of the universe and is the real personality of the eternal Buddha. Buddha, the Lord of Truth, as he declares himself to be, in the second chapter of the Lotus, and the eternal Father of the world, as he reveals himself in the sixteenth chapter, is the Father and Master of all beings. This Buddha has appeared, as is made known in the chapter on the Apparition of the Heavenly Shrine, in the person of two Buddhas, Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna; and this celestial manifestation was meant to show the efficacy of Buddha’s wisdom to lead all beings alienated from it to the full enlightenment of the universal truths. The basic truth of existence and its everlasting laws are inherent in every being, while the personal manifestations of Buddhahood are working to bring all beings to full consciousness of their own real nature. In other words, all beings, participating in the primeval wisdom of the universe, are developing their proper nature in conjunction with the educative activity of the Buddhas. Taking this view of the cosmic movement, the Supreme Being is nothing but the union of the Truth and the Person, as realized in the person of Buddha and to be realized in each of us.
This union is now graphically represented in the Cycle, or Maṇḍala, in the center of which the Truth stands, surrounded by all kinds of existences. And the Cycle is the means to inspire our spiritual life with the truth of mutual interaction, and to induce us to full participation in the universal harmony. Seen in this light, the object of worship, the Supreme Being is to be sought nowhere but in the innermost recess of every man’s nature, because the final aim of worship is the complete realization of the Supreme Being in ourselves. Ethically speaking, Buddha is our Lord and Father, but metaphysically the Lord and Father is the means of perpetuating Truth and Life, which are to be made actual by us. These two sides are united in the act of religious worship, which is, on the one hand, adoration of the universal Truth embodied in the person of Buddha, and, on the other, the realization, in thought and life, of the Buddha-nature in ourselves. These principles of ethical, metaphysical, and religious teaching were formulated by Nichiren in a further exposition of the conception of the Supreme Being, in the essay on “The Reality as It Is,” written in the fifth month, that is, between the composition of the “Spiritual Introspection” and the revelation of the graphic representation in the Mandala.
Chapter 7 The Climax of Nichiren's Life; The Graphic Representation of The Supreme Being
During the night on the 12th day of the 9th month in the 8th year of the Bun’ei Era (1271), I was to be beheaded at Tatsunokuchi in Sagami Province. For some unknown reason, my execution was postponed and I was sent to a place named Echi. On the 13th day it was rumored that I would be pardoned, but in fact I was exiled to Sado Island. There my execution was rumored constantly for three years, but it was not carried out in the end. I was eventually pardoned on the 14th of the second month in the 11th year of the Bun’ei Era (1274). On the 26th day of the third month in the same year, I returned to Kamakura. On the 8th day of the fourth month I met Hei no Saemonnojō, whom I told many things, including my prediction that Mongol armies would attack Japan within the year without fail. I left Kamakura on the 12th day of the 5th month in the same year and entered Mt. Minobu. I sacrificed my life solely for the purpose of repaying the favors I received from my parents, masters, the Three Treasures (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha), and my country, but I am still alive. It has been customary for wise men to live in retreat in the woods after remonstrating their countries three times in vain.
Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 48.
When I saw that some people of little virtue and of much defilement were seeking the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, I told them, ‘I renounced my family when I was young, and attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [forty and odd years ago].’ In reality I became the Buddha in the remotest past as I previously stated. I told them so as an expedient to teach them, to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood.
In Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha gives this explanation of a parable he tells in Chapter Three. In that story, the foolish children of a wise man were playing in a burning house. The man tried to warn his children of the dangers of the house, but the children were so preoccupied with their games they would not leave. Only when the man promised them better toys outside would the children leave the house. The words used by the wise man were meant to get the children out of the house, even though the toys did not exist. These words were necessary to motivate the children to set aside their delusions. They were not meant to be taken literally. We learn from this explanation how the Buddha uses words, and why we formerly needed his expedient teachings.
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Having last month considered the greatness of the Lotus Sutra, we consider the benefits of this sutra.
“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, just as a man who is given a garment when he is naked, just as a party of merchants who find a leader just as a child who meets its mother, just as a man who gets a ship when he wants to cross [a river], just as a patient who finds a physician, just as a man who is given a light in the darkness, just as a poor man who gets a treasure, just as the people of a nation who see a new king enthroned, just as a trader who reaches the seacoast. Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death. The merits to be given to the person who, after hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, copies it, or causes others to copy it, cannot be measured even by the wisdom of the Buddha. Neither can the merits to be given to the person who copies this sūtra and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense to burn, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, streamers, canopies, garments, and various kinds of lamps such as lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of campaka oil, lamps of sumanas oil, lamps of pāṭala oil, lamps of vārṣika oil, and lamps of navamālikā oil [to the copy of this sūtra].
Buddhahood for women was dependent upon the idea that a woman would gain a man’s body; that is, a woman by changing sex would escape the restrictions of the five hindrances. Sutras that predict buddhahood for women include the O-shê-shih-wang-nü o-shu-ta p’u-sa ching (T. 337, Aśokadattā-vyākaraṇa, translated by Dharmarakṣa in 317), in which Aśokadatta, the princess of King Ajātaśatru, vowed at the age of twelve to attain perfect enlightenment and received the prediction that she would gain a male body and become a buddha (T. 12:83); the Li-kou-shih-nu ching (T. 338, Vimaladatta-pariprityā, translated by Dharmaraksa in 289), in which Vimaladatta, princess of King Prasenajit, vowed at the age of twelve to gain buddhahood, transformed into an eight-year-old boy, and received the prediction of buddhahood (T. 12:89); the Hsu-ma-t’i p’usa ching (T. 334, Sumati-dārikā-pariprityā, translated by Dharmarakṣa sometime during 266-313), in which Sumati, daughter of a Rājagṛha merchant, received the bodhisattva precepts at the age of eight and immediately transformed into a śramaṇera and received the prediction of future buddhahood (T. 12:78); the aforementioned Hai-lung-wang ching, in which the daughter of the Dragon King, together with wives of all the dragons, offered jewels to the Buddha, expressing their aspiration to supreme enlightenment and asking that they attain buddhahood, gaining the prediction of future buddhahood; and the P’u-sa ts’ung-tou-shut’ien chiang-shén mu-t’ai-shuo-kuang-p’u ching (translated by Chu Fo-nien in 412-13, T. 384), which speaks of the dragon girl’s being reborn in Amitābha’s buddha realm and attaining buddhahood (T. 12:1015).
The Supreme Being and the doctrine of “mutual participation”
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The fundamental teaching of the Lotus concerning the reality of the universe amounts to this, that every being exists and subsists by virtue of the inexhaustible qualities inherent in each. There are innumerable individuals, and also groups of beings, including Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, celestial beings, mankind, furious spirits, beings in the purgatories, etc. Their respective characteristics are unmistakably distinct, but their qualities and conditions are constantly subject to change, because in each of the beings are inherent the qualities manifest in others, the differences arising simply from the varying configuration of the manifest and the potential qualities. Moreover, even taking the existences as they are at a given moment, they cannot subsist but by mutual interaction and influence. To subsist by itself by no means signifies to be separate from others; on the contrary, to interact one with another is the nature of every particular being. These features of existence are the laws or truths (dharma), and the cosmos is the stage of the infinite varieties and interactions of the dharmas, in other words, the realm of “mutual participation” [Ichinen Sanzen].
These teachings are stated in the Lotus of Truth, and have been explained and elucidated by many a great master of the past; but they remain simply doctrines, so long as they are merely understood, and not personally experienced. Vain is all talk and discussion concerning existences and reality unless the virtues of existence are realized in one’s own person. Noble and sublime may be the conception of the Supreme Being, but it is but an idol or image, a dead abstraction, if we ourselves do not participate in its supreme existence and realize in ourselves its excellent qualities. Thus, worship or adoration means a realization of the Supreme Being, together with all its attributes and manifestations, first, through our own spiritual introspection, and, second, in our life and deeds. The practice of introspection is carried on in religious meditation. This, however, does not necessarily mean intricate and mysterious methods, such as are employed by many Buddhists; the end can be attained by uttering the Sacred Title, and by gazing in reverence at the graphic representation of the Supreme Being as revealed by Nichiren. The truths of universal existence and “mutual participation” [Ichinen Sanzen] remain abstractions if detached from the true moral life; but any morality, however perfect it may seem, is vain apart from the profound conviction in the truth of the “mutual participation” [Ichinen Sanzen], and from an apprehension of our primeval relation to the Lord of the Universe [, the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha of chapter 16].
Thus, to participate in the virtues of the Supreme Being is the aim of worship; but that participation means nothing but the restoration of our primeval connection with the eternal Buddha, which is equivalent to the realization of our own true nature. In other words, the true self of every being is realized through full participation in the virtues of the Supreme Being, who, again, reveals himself – or itself – in the perfect life of every believer. The relation between the worshipped and the worshipper exemplifies most clearly the truth of “mutual participation” [Ichinen Sanzen], because the worshipped, the Supreme Being, is a mere transcendence if it does not reveal itself in the believer’s life, while the worshipper realizes his true being and mission only through the elevating help (adhiṣṭāna) of the Supreme Being[, the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha of chapter 16]. Thus, mutual participation is at the same time mutual revelation – realization of the true being through mutual relationship, to be attained by us through spiritual introspection and moral living. Religious worship, in this sense, is at the same time moral life; and moral relationships in the human world are nothing but partial aspects of the fundamental correlation between us and the Supreme Being. The point to be emphasized in regard to this conception of the religious relation is that the Supreme Being alone, without our worship of it in enlightenment and life, is not a perfect Being, just as, without a child, “father” is but an empty name, if not a contradiction in terms.
Chapter 7 The Climax of Nichiren's Life; The Graphic Representation of The Supreme Being
Pondering the Great Wisdom Discourse, we are reminded of the quotation in the second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Expedients,” which reads: “Only between Buddhas and Buddhas alone can this be understood.” This quotation exists for the Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha) who, through pre-Lotus teachings, have overcome the delusions arising from incorrect views and thoughts, have undertaken extreme austerities, turning the body to ashes and annihilating consciousness, and are allowed to gain enlightenment by the grace of the Lotus Sūtra, which assures that the three ways of evil passions, karma, and suffering would immediately be transformed into the three merits of the Dharma Body, wisdom, and emancipation. Since what was believed to be beyond the reach of the Two Vehicles is attainable, it can be assumed that bodhisattvas and the untutored may also anticipate enlightenment. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra claims: “Granted that the condition in which someone of the Two Vehicles reaches a state of extreme mental and physical exhaustion where desires, which were called ‘poison,’ are thoroughly extinguished, then with the advent of enlightenment as guaranteed by the Lotus Sūtra such a poison would be transformed into medicine. This summarizes Nāgārjuna’s position. Nāgārjuna’s Great Wisdom Discourse further claims, ‘The Lotus Sūtra is indeed truly representative of an esoteric teaching; other teachings cannot be referred to as being so defined.’ ”
Shimon Butsujō-gi, Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 249
I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom; I also remember
The Śrāvakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. Because the Buddha sees this world for what it is, his conception of time is much different from ours. We believe that our existence is tied up with the existence of our bodies. Here he reminds us that while our lives are certainly precious, this is not the whole story. Our existence is linked with that of countless beings, and there is no good reason to fear our extinction. There is no shortage of time, and no shortage of lives. Our opportunities to benefit others are truly boundless. The only things that restrict us are our own delusion and attachment.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
