Monthly Archives: September 2021

d18b, WONS

Only Natural that Calamities Befall This Country

Many people today, the clergy as well as the laity, put faith in the icchantika, praising, admiring and giving alms to them. So when they happen to encounter those who do not study the teaching of slandering the True Dharma, far from praising such persons, they consider them slanderers and enemies of the True Dharma. Those, who do not know the truth of this, conversely think the keepers of the True Dharma to be slanderers of the True Dharma. They are exactly the same as those predicted in the Lotus Sūtra, the 13th chapter on “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” “Monks in the Latter Age of Degeneration will be cunning, and their hearts flattering and crooked. … They will be delighted to point out our faults They will say to kings, ministers, Brahmans and householders…, slandering and speaking ill of us, practicers of the True Dharma, saying that we are heretics who preach non-Buddhist doctrines.”

Thus many people today, discarding preachers of the True Dharma whom the Buddha praised, laud, admire and give alms to the icchantika, whom He harshly admonished. As a result, greed grows profusely and the teachings of the slanderers of the True Dharma fill the world. How can calamities not occur? It is only natural that calamities befall this country.

Sainan Kōki Yurai, The Cause of Misfortunes, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 86-87

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 6, 2021

Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they eat will become
As delicious as nectar.

The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. With food and drink it is easy to see how different people will find the same food either delicious or disgusting. Our experience and beliefs shape what we are comfortable putting into our bodies, and whether we do so for the sake of our health or the pleasure that comes from experiencing their flavor. But when we find that something with good flavor is bad for our health, or vice versa, we can change our tastes. This is another example of how the Lotus Sūtra teaches us how to live in the world. We learn to embrace situations we once found frightening or intolerable. We increase our capacity with our focus on benefiting others. As a wise teacher once said, we learn to enjoy problems the way we enjoy ice cream.

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

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 26 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month concluded Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we consider Chapter 22, Transmission.

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha rose from the seat of the Dharma, and by his great supernatural powers, put his right hand on the heads of the innumerable Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and said:

“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide!”

He put his [right] hand on their heads twice more, and said:

“For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sūtra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings. I am the great almsgiver to all living beings. Follow me, and study my teachings without begrudging efforts! In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, you should expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to them, and cause them to hear and know [this sūtra] so that they may be able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive [this sūtra] by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.”

See Repaying the Grace of the Buddhas

b4today, LS32, d26b

Repaying the Grace of the Buddhas

The Buddha’s teachings are said to number eighty-four thousand, and among them there is not one that is useless. All his teachings are sacred. The Buddha freely preached the Law according to the occasion and the mental and spiritual capacities of his listeners. It may safely be said that within his teachings there are ways of preaching suitable for all kinds of people.

The Buddha taught the bodhisattvas: “If there are people who do not believe in the Lotus Sutra when you preach directly to them, you may choose any of my teachings, not limiting yourselves to the sutra.” Indeed, the Lotus Sutra is the culmination of all the Buddha’s teachings and therefore supreme among the many Buddhist sutras. But we must not become exclusive and rigid in our adherence to the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren did not hold only to this sutra but, in order to commend it, freely used quotations from many other sutras. We need to do so still more in the present world. If we exert every effort to lead others thus to the Righteous Law, we shall have repaid the grace of the buddhas. This is our greatest return for the buddhas’ grace.

Buddhism for Today, p346-347
Higan, perfections

Generosity: Giving Without Differentiating

Upon whom should the bodhisattva bestow his or her generosity? Although answers to this question in the early Mahayana sutras occasionally vary, for the most part they prescribe universal giving. Although in practical circumstances it may be necessary to target those who are most needy, what the sutras want to cultivate is the desire to be generous with everyone. The virtues of nondiscrimination and impartiality are given high praise. Although there was a theory in circulation during the early years of Mahayana Buddhism that the value or merit of a gift is proportional to the worthiness or spiritual merit of the recipient, many texts speak directly against this idea. In this spirit, the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom describes the true bodhisattva as “having given gifts without differentiating, … But if a Bodhisattva, when faced with a living being … who does not seem worthy of gifts, should produce a thought to the effect that ‘a fully enlightened Buddha is worthy of my gifts, but not this [one],’ then he does not have the dharma of a Bodhisattva.”

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 21
WONS

What Should We Define as the Honzon?

QUESTION: As ordinary people who live in the evil latter days, what should we define as the honzon?

ANSWER: We should regard the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra as the honzon.

QUESTION: According to which sūtra passages or which learned monk’s interpretation?

ANSWER: The “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, says: “Medicine King! Erect a Stupa of the seven treasures in any place where this sūtra is expounded, read, recited or copied, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra exists! The Stupa should be tall, spacious and adorned. You need not enshrine My relics (śarīras) in the stupa. Why not? It is because this sūtra contains My perfect body.” In the “Nature of the Buddha” chapter of fascicle four of the Nirvana Sūtra it is said: “Kāśyapa. Each Buddha regards the Dharma as master. For that reason the Buddha reveres and makes offerings to the Dharma. Because the Dharma is eternal, each Buddha is also eternal.” Grand Master T’ien t’ai declares in his Lotus Meditation Repentance: “Make a raised seat in the training hall and place the Lotus Sūtra there. There is no need to place a statue of the Buddha or a relic or other sūtras. Only the Lotus Sūtra is needed.”

Honzon Mondō Shō, Questions and Answers on the Honzon, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 259

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 5, 2021

Needless to say, so will be the merits of the person
Who keeps this sūtra, gives alms, observes the precepts,
Practices patience, prefers dhyāna-concentrations,
And does not get angry or speak ill of others.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this chapter, he explains that anyone who understands his ever-present existence, even for a moment, will gain the merit of ridding themselves of innumerable delusions. In his previous teachings on the perfections of a Bodhisattva, he showed that our practices of generosity, discipline, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration and wisdom, all these will help us to see the world as it is. Realizing that the Buddha is always here teaching us helps us to look for him. But this realization does not obscure the necessity of putting his teachings into practice so that we may benefit all beings.

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

LS32

Day 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Day 25 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the vow of the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of dust of one thousand worlds who had sprung up from underground, we consider the reaction of the gods in the skies of the worlds of the ten quarters and conclude today’s portion of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

At that time the gods in the skies [of the worlds of the ten quarters] said loudly:

“There is a world called Sahā beyond a distance of many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of worlds. In that world lives a Buddha called Śākyamuni. He is now expounding to Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas a sūtra of the Great Vehicle, called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ Rejoice from the bottom of your hearts! Bow and make offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha!”

Having heard their voice from the skies, the living beings of those worlds joined their hands together towards the Sahā World, and said, “Namah Sakyamunaye Buddhaya, namah Sakyamunaye Buddhaya.” Then they strewed various flowers, various kinds of incense, various necklaces, streamers, canopies, personal ornaments, treasures, and other wonderful things to the Sahā-World from afar.

The strewn things came from the worlds of the ten quarters like gathering clouds and changed into a jeweled awning over the Sahā-World. The awning extended over the Buddhas staying in this world. At that time the worlds of the ten quarters became passable through each other without hindrance as if they had been a single Buddha-world.

See The Complete Union of Understanding and Faith

b4today, LS32, d25b, d26b

The Complete Union of Understanding and Faith

We should not study the Lotus Sutra for the sake of learning alone. It is not enough to have understood the sutra intellectually. We cannot be saved in the true sense, nor save the whole of society, until we proceed from understanding to faith and reach the mental state of complete union of understanding and faith.

In chapter 21 the Buddha taught that putting all his sermons in the previous twenty chapters together, the truth penetrating all these chapters is one and one alone. From this chapter, we clearly realize that the teaching shown in the Law of Appearance is entirely united with the teaching shown in the Law of Origin; understanding this, we can deepen our devotion to these two Laws.

Reading through this chapter, it may seem that no important teaching is stated in it, only the mysterious and wonderful divine power of the Tathāgata. That is what makes the chapter hard to understand. The absolute power of the Tathāgata is symbolized by his mysterious phenomena, and each such phenomenon includes the meaning of forming a complete union between the Law of Appearance and the Law of Origin.

Buddhism for Today, p324
Higan, perfections

Wisdom: Facing Truth Courageously

Wisdom is the ability to face the truth and not be unnerved or frightened. It is the capacity to be disillusioned, but not disheartened. It is the ability to consider the contingency and the groundlessness of all things, oneself included, and not turn away from that consideration in fear. Wisdom means setting aside illusions about oneself and the world and being strengthened by that encounter with the truth. It entails willingness to avoid seeking the security of the unchanging and to open oneself to a world of flux and complex relations. This includes, as the Vimalakirti Sūtra puts it, “overcoming the habit of clinging to an ultimate ground.” One way to say this is that bodhisattvas – those who seek wisdom and open transformation throughout their lives – can be distinguished in terms of how much truth they can bear, how many illusions of comfort and security they are willing or able to set aside.

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 224