Faith and practice in the Lotus Sutra are often presented in similar manner. I believe this is because faith is an actual practice for us. Faith is not simply the absolute belief in the teaching but is an experience of the truth of the teaching. Faith takes root in and grows from our daily practice and study. And yet, faith while growing from practice also nurtures that very same practice. In this way, faith and practice are not two separate activities but one constantly evolving cycle of activity.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraMonthly Archives: September 2021
Śākyamuni Buddha’s Many Teachings
Appearing in this world, Śākyamuni Buddha preached many teachings during His lifetime. The Buddha classified His own teachings preached during 50 years into different type of doctrines: shallow and profound, inferior and superior, and expedient and true. He thus preached that the truth was not revealed in the sūtras expounded in the 40 years or so before the Lotus Sūtra was preached, and that the Lotus Sūtra is the supreme and true teaching of all the sūtras expounded in the past, present, and future existences. Moreover, the Buddha of Many Treasures and various Buddhas throughout the universe attested this to be true.
Jōren-bō Gosho, A Letter to Jōren-bō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 172
Daily Dharma – Sept. 8, 2021
The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!
The Buddha sings these verses to those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. He has already said that we must leave behind the expedient teachings tailored to our minds and take on the highest teaching which is the Buddha’s own mind. He knows how difficult this is for us, that we cannot hear it through our understanding alone, so he asks us to use our whole being to hear him.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 28
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.
When he was illumined by the light of Śākyamuni Buddha, he said to the Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha:
“World-Honored One! I wish to visit the Sahā-World, bow to Śākyamuni Buddha, attend on him, and make offerings to him. I also wish to see Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, who is the Son of the King of the Dharma. [I also wish to see] Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva, Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva, Superior-Practice-Intent Bodhisattva, Adornment-King Bodhisattva, and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva.”
Thereupon Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha said to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva:
“Do not despise that world! Do not consider it to be inferior [to our world]! Good Man! The Sahā-World is not even. It is full of mud, stones, mountains’ and impurities. The Buddha [of that world] is short in stature! So are the Bodhisattvas [of that world]. You are forty-two thousand yojanas tall. I am six million an eight hundred thousand yojanas tall. You are the most handsome. You have thousands of millions of marks of merits, and your light is wonderful. Do not despise that world when you go there! Do not consider that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of that world are inferior [to us]! Do not consider that that world is inferior [to ours]!”
The Daily Dharma from May 21, 2020, offers this:
Thereupon Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha said to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva: “Do not despise that world! Do not consider it to be inferior [to our world]! Good Man! The Sahā-World is not even. It is full of mud, stones, mountains and impurities. The Buddha [of that world] is short in stature. So are the Bodhisattvas [of that world]. You are forty-two thousand yojanas tall. I am six million and eight hundred thousand yojanas tall. You are the most handsome. You have thousands of millions of marks of merits, and your light is wonderful. Do not despise that world when you go there! Do not consider that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of that world are inferior [to us]! Do not consider that that world is inferior [to ours]!”
In Chapter Twenty-Four of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha sends a light from his forehead to the world in which Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva lives. When that Bodhisattva saw this light from Śākyamuni Buddha, he asked permission from the Buddha he was attending to visit our world of conflict. The instruction he receives from his Buddha reminds us that no matter what advantages we have gained from our practice of the Buddha Dharma, these do not make us any better or worse than those we are determined to benefit.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Tolerance: Transient Problems
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 123-124As the art of putting things into perspective, wisdom also teaches us how to contextualize problems, how to understand what worries us in a light that is liberating rather than debilitating. Recall that Buddhist wisdom is associated with the realizations that all things are impermanent and contingent. Cultivating the ability to tolerate the problems and difficulties that are almost always on our minds, awareness of their impermanence and contingency is essential. Keeping impermanence in mind, we realize that this problem, like all others, is transient. Although it weighs heavily on my mind right now, I can attain a perspective that predicts its transformation and eventual disappearance. That slight distance from the problem enables us to avoid being crushed by the perceived weight of problems.
In addition to seeing the transience of the problem, wisdom points to its contingency. All things just depend. They come into our lives due to particular conditions, and when those conditions change so will the problems. This formula – the Buddhist teaching of “dependent arising” – assists in understanding the status of difficulties. They are contingent and can be altered by changing the conditions upon which they currently depend. Understanding this empowers action and helps reduce the extent to which we waste time and energy bemoaning what has happened as though that state is permanent and unavoidable. Getting wise perspective encourages us to see the reality before us for what it is without lamentation or resentment. Accepting the problem as a problem does not undermine effective work to solve it. Indeed, it is exactly what makes skillful response possible by bringing pointless struggle to an end.
True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha
As I contemplate the matter, it is clearly stated in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that those who uphold this sūtra during the Latter Age of Degeneration would suffer from hatred and jealousy even more severe than those who upheld the sūtra during the lifetime of the Buddha.
The reason is that during the lifetime of the Buddha the preacher was the Lord Buddha, and His disciples were such superior beings as great bodhisattvas and arhats. The Buddha’s disciples also included humans, gods, the four categories of Buddhists (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen), the eight kinds of gods and demi-gods who protect Buddhism, and non-humans. However, the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra for them only after spending forty years or so cultivating and nurturing their ability to understand and have faith in it. Even so, He encountered much hatred and jealousy. How much more hatred and jealousy should there be in this Latter Age of Degeneration, when the True Dharma is lost and the people quarrel and fight constantly!
Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō, True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 81-82
Daily Dharma – Sept. 7, 2021
He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. When we fully comprehend the idea of dependent origination, that no person has an ego, that each of us is the result of causes and conditions, and that the Buddha Dharma is a cause for good of which we may not be aware, it is no longer necessary to classify the beings with whom we share this world. Our inclinations towards dogma are replaced with curiosity. Our need to dominate is replaced with a need to understand.
Day 27
Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.
“Star-King-Flower! Anyone who hears [especially] this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva also will be able to obtain innumerable merits. The woman who hears and keeps this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva will not be a woman in her next life. The woman who hears this sūtra and acts according to the teachings of it in the later’ five hundred years after my extinction, will be able to be reborn, after her life in this world, [as a man sitting] on the jeweled seat in the lotus flower blooming in the World of Happiness where Amitayus Buddha lives surrounded by great Bodhisattvas. He [no more she] will not be troubled by greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, or any other impurity. He will be able to obtain the supernatural powers of a Bodhisattva and the truth of birthlessness. When he obtains this truth, his eyes will be purified. With his purified eyes, he will be able to see seven billion and two hundred thousand million nayuta Buddhas or Tathāgatas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. At that time those Buddhas will praise him, saying simultaneously from afar, ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! You kept, read and recited this sūtra, thought it over, and expounded it to others under Śākyamuni Buddha. Now you have obtained innumerable merits and virtues, which cannot be burned by fire or washed away by water. Your merits cannot be described even by the combined efforts of one thousand Buddhas. Now you have defeated the army of Mara, beaten the forces of birth and death, and annihilated all your enemies. Good man! Hundreds of thousands of Buddhas are now protecting you by their supernatural powers. None of the gods or men in the world surpasses you. None but the Tathāgatas, none of the Śrāvakas or Pratyekabuddhas or Bodhisattvas surpasses you in wisdom and dhyāna-concentration.’ Star-King-Flower! [He is a Bodhisattva.] This Bodhisattva will obtain these merits and the power of wisdom.
“Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises [this chapter], saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.
See Not Appearance But Substance; Not Empty Theory But Practice
Not Appearance But Substance; Not Empty Theory But Practice
Buddhism for Today, p356The Buddha [Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha] told the Bodhisattva [Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings] to let his relics be distributed and paid homage to far and wide. But he meant not only to let his relics themselves be paid homage to but also, through this homage, to cause all living beings to raise the mind of cherishing a longing and thirst for the Buddha. The Buddha also told the bodhisattva to let thousands of stupas be erected. By this the buddha meant to cause all living beings to root the teaching in their minds through the erection of such stupas. The stupas were to be erected for the purpose of extolling the Buddha’s virtues. If we erect a Stupa with concern only for its form and appearance and forget the spirit of establishing the teaching in our minds, our minds cannot become attuned to the Buddha’s mind. What he wishes is not appearance but substance, not empty theory but practice.
Morality: For Oneself and Others
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 58Since morality is a necessary dimension of practice, a dimension of perfection that enlightenment will require, bodhisattvas vow to help others initiate the practice. But in order to do that effectively, they must have attained a profound enough moral standing themselves that they will not be hypocritical in their moral instructions to others. Therefore Ārya-Śūra’s chapter on the perfection of morality begins with the sentence: “The one in whom has arisen the strong concern to grace people with the ornament of a complete Buddha’s morality should first of all purify his own morality.” It is not possible to teach what you are unable to practice yourself, and the outcome of this resolution is that Mahayana bodhisattvas are expected to focus first on their own moral wisdom, carrying it through extensively before they will be in a position to instruct others.