Monthly Archives: September 2021

LS32

Day 17

Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.

Day 17 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month heard the tale of the time when the Buddha Bodhisattva in a previous existence and sought the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful, we consider the tale in gāthās.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

I remember that I became a king in a kalpa of the past.
Although I was a king,
I did not indulge in the pleasures of the five desires
Because I was seeking the Great Dharma.

I tolled a bell, and said loudly in all directions;
“Who knows the Great Dharma?
If anyone expounds the Dharma to me,
I will become his servant.”

There was a seer called Asita.
He came to [me, who was] the great king, and said:
“I know the Wonderful Dharma.
It is rare in the world.
If you serve me well,
I will expound the Dharma to you.”

Hearing this, I had great joy.
I became his servant at once.
I offered him
Anything he wanted.

I collected firewood and the fruits of trees and grasses,
And offered these things to him respectfully from time to time.
I never felt tired in body and mind
Because I was thinking of the Wonderful Dharma.

I sought the Great Dharma strenuously
Because I wished to save all living beings.
I did not wish to benefit myself
Or to have the pleasures of the five desires.

Although I was the king of a great country,
I sought the Dharma strenuously.
I finally obtained the Dharma and became a Buddha.
Therefore, I now expound it to you.

The Daily Dharma from March 20, 2021, offers this:

I collected firewood and the fruits of trees and grasses,
And offered these things to him respectfully from time to time.
I never felt tired in body and mind
Because I was thinking of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Buddha teaches these verses in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. They are part of a story of one of his previous lives. He was a king who gave up his throne to search for someone to teach him. When he found a seer who knew the Wonderful Dharma, he became the servant of the seer and served him with enthusiasm. These verses remind us of the enthusiasm that comes from hearing the Buddha’s teachings.

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

Higan, perfections

Energy: Universal

Buddhists claim (1) that everything is change, and this flux is without beginning or end, (2) that all things arise and pass away dependent on the force of energy surging forth from other things, which themselves were similarly generated, ad infinitum, and (3) that therefore there is “no-self” or essential unchanging core to anything, since all things are temporary formations of energies that are simply passing through their current states.

No traditional metaphysical system, whether religious or philosophical, comes as close to prefiguring modern physics as the Buddhist one. Contemporary physics works out of an understanding of energy as the generator of all things. Energy is thought to take a broad range of forms – from nuclear energy, gravitational energy, electrical energy, heat energy, chemical energy, kinetic energy, elastic energy, radiant energy, to mass energy. We are told, by no less a source than Albert Einstein, that matter is energy – that the two are essentially interchangeable. The various theories of creation in contemporary physics all point to the energy required to give rise to the universe. The leading theory – the Big Bang – sees the cosmos resulting from a primordial explosion of energy that is still expanding into increasing complexity. Nevertheless, we are told, the amount of energy in the universe is constant. It never changes, even though the forms it takes are constantly changing. The energy of an exploding star is the same as that of a boulder tumbling down a mountain, which is the same as that stored in a carrot, released in the spin of Einstein’s mind or the play of a small child.

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 171
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 30, 2021

Suppose parents who had an aversion to alcohol had a son who loved to drink liquor. Because of their love for their son and also to cater to his whim, they made it a point to offer him alcohol, pretending that they were also drinkers of liquor. The hopeless son then assumed that his parents truly loved alcohol. Sutras preached according to others’ minds are the same.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his treatise, The Sutra Preached in Accordance to [the Buddha’s] Own Mind (Zui-jii Gosho). In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha sets aside his expedient teachings and leads us to his own way of thinking. He knew the difficulty of changing our habits and beliefs, so he started by catering to our selfish desires to be happy and end our own suffering. For us to realize our full potential for wisdom and compassion, we must stand up to our fears and nourish our true nature as Bodhisattvas: beings who exist to create benefits for the entire universe.

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

LS32

Day 16

Day 16 concludes Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, and completes the Fourth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 16 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, we begin today’s portion again with Śākyamuni Buddha purifying lands to seat all of the his replicas.

Thereupon each of the Buddhas of the [worlds of the] ten quarters said to the Bodhisattvas under him, “Good men! Now I will go to Śākyamuni Buddha of the Sahā-World. I also will make offerings to the stūpa of treasures of Many-Treasures Tathāgata.”
At that instant the Sahā-World was purified. The ground of the world became lapis lazuli. The world was adorned with jeweled trees. The eight roads were marked off by ropes of gold. The towns, villages, cities, oceans, rivers, mountains, forests and thickets were eliminated. The incense of great treasures was burned; mandārava flowers, strewn over the ground; and jeweled nets and curtains with jeweled bells, hung over the world. The gods and men were removed to other worlds except those who were in the congregation.

See The Reason the Stupa Rises Out of the Earth

Higan

Opening the Gate

During the Month of September, as I did in March, I am publishing articles related to Higan, which occurs on the Spring and Fall Equinox and extends three days before and three days after to involve the six pāramitās.

The word myō means gusoku (to be equipped with perfect teaching); “six” means all kinds of practices collectively designated as six pāramitā or six kinds of practices required for the attainment of Buddhahood. Śāripūtra and others wished to know the way in which a bodhisattva could fulfill the six pāramitā in order to obtain Buddhahood. Gu in gusoku means “mutually-possessed characteristics of the Ten Realms, and soku means to be satisfactory, that is to say, it is satisfactory for each of the Ten Realms to contain in itself characteristics of the other Nine Realms. Altogether of the 69,384 characters of the Lotus Sūtra, in the twenty-eight chapters in eight fascicles, each contains the character myō; each of them represents the Buddha with thirty-two or eighty marks of physical excellence. As each of the Ten Realms contains in it characteristics of the realm of the Buddha, Grand Master Miao-lê states in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight, “Each realm contains characteristics of the realm of the Buddha, not to speak of those of the other Nine Realms.”

In response to the request by Śāripūtra and others to know how to fulfill the six pāramitā, Śākyamuni Buddha declares in the second “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that all Buddhas hope to open the gate to the wisdom of the Buddha for the people. The people here refer to the men of the Two Vehicles such as Śāripūtra, who had been considered unable to obtain Buddhahood, men of icchantika lacking the Buddha-nature and all those in the Nine Realms (except the realm of the Buddha). Therefore, His vow to save all the numerous people was at last fulfilled in preaching the Lotus Sūtra. That is what He meant in declaring in the same second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra: “I had vowed to make everyone exactly like Myself. The original vow of Mine has already been fulfilled.”

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 67-68

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 29, 2021

He should not have fruitless disputes or quarrels about the teachings with others. He should have great compassion towards all living beings. He should look upon all the Tathāgatas as his loving fathers, and upon all the Bodhisattvas as his great teachers. He should bow to all the great Bodhisattvas of the worlds of the ten quarters respectfully and from the bottom of his heart. He should expound the Dharma to all living beings without partiality. He should be obedient to the Dharma. He should not add anything to the Dharma or take away anything from the Dharma.

The Buddha declares this passage in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In an earlier teaching, the Buddha proclaimed, “I do not quarrel with the world. The world quarrels with me.” The Buddha does not need to prove anything to anyone. He realized the truth and teaches it out of his compassion for all beings. He understood that when people reacted poorly to his teaching and began to argue with him or chastise him, it was due to the illusions they had not yet eliminated. This chapter of the sūtra instructs us to keep the same mind when we spread the Dharma. We teach from our compassion and respect.

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

LS32

Day 15

Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Day 15 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma and consider the difficulty in understanding this sutra.

Thereupon the Buddha said again to Medicine-King Bodhisattva mahāsattvas:
“I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.

“Medicine-King! This sūtra is the store of the hidden core of all the Buddhas. Do not give it to others carelessly! It is protected by the Buddhas, by the World-Honored Ones. It has not been expounded explicitly. Many people hate it with jealousy even in my lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after my extinction.

“Medicine-King, know this! Anyone who copies, keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, makes offerings to it, and expounds it to others after my extinction, will be covered by my robe. He also will be protected by the present Buddhas of the other worlds. He will have the great power of truth, the power of vows, and the power of roots of good. Know this! He will live with me. I will pat him on the head.

See The Difficulty of the Lotus Sutra

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

The Capability of Compassion

Quote

Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva promises protection for those who call its name. But this Bodhisattva also provides us with a model upon which to base our own actions and we are able to do so because of our faith and practice of the Lotus Sutra. Calling out the name and believing in the name are two actions that seem distinct yet truly one feeds the other. Our own experiences of joy and overcoming of the sufferings of life enables us to foster within ourselves the capability of compassion like this Bodhisattva. A person drowning in suffering lacks the capacity to truly help countless others, but a life of joy and enlightenment has the power and capacity to lift up and save many.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Higan, perfections

Tolerance: Uncertainty


The most difficult challenge associated with the perfection of tolerance is tolerating the truth of uncertainty that derives from human finitude. Having learned to accept the uncertainty of life and its very real risks, we are now asked to tolerate the uncertainty of all the wisdom we have acquired. Mahayana Buddhist texts unflinchingly proclaim that the highest realization, the truth that is most difficult to encounter, is that all the teachings of Buddhism and all the other “truths” you have acquired are “empty.” Recall that “emptiness” was the term used to coordinate the realizations of “impermanence,” “dependent origination,” and “no-self.” To say that all things without exception are “empty” is to say that all things change over time because what they are is dependent on other equally impermanent things. Change and dependence imply that there is “no-self” to anything in the sense of a permanent identity that is what it is, independent of other things. Being “empty” and having “no-self” are thus the same realization.

But what, then, does it mean to say that in addition to everything else to which it applies, “emptiness” is applicable to itself; “emptiness” is itself “empty”? Insight deriving from long-term reflection on this one thought in Buddhist history is extensive. One outcome of this meditation is the realization that no doctrine is final, permanent, and beyond doubt. “Emptiness” was in many ways a teaching about how to live well in view of the prospects of human finitude. Through reflection on this teaching, Buddhists contemplated the uncertainty of human thinking and sought ways not around this insight but through it to greater and greater realization. They sought to learn through experience how to live well in the absence of certain knowledge, yet without being rendered immobile by the fear of being wrong or getting stuck in sheer hesitation.

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 130
WONS

What Is the Most Essential of the Lotus Sūtra?

QUESTION: What is most essential of the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sūtra?

ANSWER: Some people may say that each of its twenty-eight chapters is essential, while others say that chapters 2 and 16 are essential. Some say that chapter 2, “Expedients,” is essential, but others say that chapter 16, “The Life Span of the Buddha,” is. Still others say that the “open, show, perceive and enter” passage in chapter 2 explaining why the Buddhas appeared in this world, or the passage in the same chapter saying that all phenomena are ultimate reality is essential.

QUESTION: What do you think, then?

ANSWER: The essence of the Lotus Sūtra is “Namu Myōhōrengekyō. ”

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 51.