Monthly Archives: December 2021

WONS

The Parent, Wet Nurse, and Master of Buddhas

Why do all the Buddhas in the entire universe throughout the past, present, and future protect especially the Lotus Sūtra? It is because the Lotus Sūtra is the parent, wet nurse, and master of Buddhas in the entire universe throughout the past, present, and future. They say that frogs feed, hearing the voice of their mothers; if they don’t hear the voice of their mothers, they will not feed and grow up. The Indian lizard called kṛkalāsa eats in the wind; it won’t grow if there is no wind. A fish lives in the water, and a bird makes a nest in the tree. Likewise, Buddhas live in the Lotus Sūtra. As the moon’s reflection resides in the water, Buddhas reside in the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, you must remember that where there is no Lotus Sūtra, there are no Buddhas.

Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 181

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 8, 2021

You, the World-Honored One, are our leader.
You give peace to gods and men.
Hearing that you assured us of our future Buddhahood,
We are relieved and satisfied.

These verses are sung by Maha-Prajāpatī Bhikṣuṇī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣuṇī, and their attendants in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our lives we have many desires, some of which we may not recognize. We believe that when these desires are met, only then can we be happy and peaceful. At the foundation of these desires is the desire for liberation. These women recognize that with this desire we have to become enlightened, just knowing that it will be fulfilled is enough to bring joy.

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

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 learned the identity of the king’s teacher, we consider the prediction for Devadatta and the merit of hearing and accepting this tale.

He said to the four kinds of devotees:

“Devadatta will become a Buddha after innumerable kalpas.’ He will be called Heavenly-King, 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. The world of that Buddha will be called Heavenly-Way. That Buddha will live for twenty intermediate ka]pas. He will expound the Wonderful Dharma to all living beings. [Hearing the Dharma from him,] as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges will obtain Arhatship; another group of innumerable living beings will aspire for the enlightenment of cause-knowers; and another group of living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges will aspire for unsurpassed enlightenment, obtain the truth of birthlessness, and reach the stage of irrevocability. After the Parinirvana of Heavenly-King Buddha, his right teachings will be preserved in that world for twenty intermediate kalpas. During that time a stupa of the seven treasures sixty yojanas tall and forty yojanas wide and deep will be erected to enshrine the śarīras of his perfect body. Gods and men will bow to the wonderful stupa of the seven treasures and offer various flowers, incense powder, incense to burn, incense applicable to the skin, garments, necklaces, banners, streamers, jeweled canopies, music and songs of praise [to the stupa]. [By doing all this,] innumerable living beings will attain Arhatship; another group of innumerable living beings will attain Pratyekabuddhahood; and another group of inconceivably numerous living beings will aspire for Bodhi and reach the stage of irrevocability.”

He said to the bhikṣus:

“Good men or women in the future who hear this chapter of Devadatta of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with faithful respect caused by their pure minds, and have no doubts [about this chapter], will not fall into hell or the region of hungry spirits or the region of animals. They will be reborn before the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters. They will always hear this sūtra at the places of their rebirth. Even when they are reborn among men or gods, they will be given wonderful pleasures. When they are reborn before the Buddhas, they will appear in lotus-flowers.”

The Daily Dharma for July 3, 2020, offers this:

Good men or women in the future who hear this Chapter of Devadatta of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with faithful respect caused by their pure minds, and have no doubts [about this chapter], will not fall into hell or the region of hungry spirits or the region of animals. They will be reborn before the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.

The Buddha makes this prediction in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. In this Chapter, he assures Devadatta, an evil man who creates great harm, that he too will eventually reach the enlightenment of the Buddha. This prediction is for the rest of us too. It shows that when we nourish our capacity for respect for all beings, no matter how much harm they create, then we uproot the causes of our own greed and fear, and we will always find ourselves in a realm where the Buddha teaches the Wonderful Dharma.

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

history

Five Flavors

The five flavors are from a metaphor preached in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra: “As fresh milk comes from a cow, cream from the fresh milk, butter curds from cream, fresh butter from butter curds, and clarified butter from fresh butter, so is the teaching of the Buddha.” The sūtra uses this metaphor to explain the development of the teaching of the Buddha through the twelve-fold scriptures, the Agama sūtras, the Expanded sūtras, the Wisdom sūtras, and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. Zhiyi further utilized this five-flavor theory to explain the five periods by applying that classification — Flower Garland, Deer Park, Expanded, Wisdom, and Lotus/ Nirvāṇa. — to reflect the sequence of the teaching and growing maturity of the capacities of the listeners.

History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 103-104
Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Prejudices Against Women

Quote

In the example of the dragon girl, it is worthy of considering how prejudices can enter our way of thinking and influence us in negative ways. Because a woman bleeds, which is the result of giving birth, she was considered impure, and yet giving birth, bringing new life into the world is one of the purest things. I once heard someone say that women bleed giving birth and men bleed killing. Perhaps we should give this some thought. Nichiren wrote a response to a woman believer saying that because a woman bleeds she is considered impure by society, but in the eyes of the Buddha that distinction does not apply.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

WONS

Grave Sickness Requires Special Medicine

Therefore, although what was realized in the minds of such great masters might be the same, Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna were superior to Kāśyapa and Ānanda with the dharma they spread; T’ien-t’ai was superior to Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna, and Dengyō was superior to T’ien-t’ai. As the world declines into the Latter Age, and the wisdom of the people becomes shallower, the teaching of the Buddha grows more profound. Ordinary sickness can be cured by ordinary medicine, but grave sickness requires special medicine. The weak need the strong for assistance.

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 57.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 7, 2021

Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.

This passage is part of the Parable of the Burning House, told by the Buddha in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In this story, he compares us living in this world of conflict to children playing in a dangerous house. As the children in the story were too distracted by their games to hear their father’s warnings, we are often too distracted by the attachments of our world to hear the voice of the Buddha.

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 considered the changes made by Śākyamuni to prepare seats for all of his replicas, we consider the arrival of the replicas of Śākyamuni and their request to open the Stupa of Treasures.

Thereupon the Buddhas of the replicas of Śākyamuni Buddha in the worlds of the east, who were expounding the Dharma in those worlds numbering hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas, that is, as many as there are sands in the River Ganges, came [to this expanded world]. So did the Buddhas of the worlds of the nine other quarters. They sat on the seats [under the jeweled trees]. [The Sahā-World and] the four hundred billion nayuta worlds of each of the eight quarters[, which were amalgamated into one Buddha world,] were filled with those Buddhas, with those Tathāgatas.

Thereupon one of the Buddhas on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees, wishing to inquire after Śākyamuni Buddha, gave a handful of jeweled flowers to his attendant, and said to him, [wishing to] dispatch him:

“Good man! Go to Śākyamuni Buddha who is now living on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa! Ask him on my behalf, ‘Are you in good health? Are you peaceful? Are the Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas peaceful or not?’ Strew these jeweled flowers to him, offer them to him, and say, ‘That Buddha sent me to tell you that he wishes to see the stūpa of treasures opened.”‘

All the other Buddhas also dispatched their attendants in the same way.

The Daily Dharma from Sept. 23, 2021, offers this:

“Good man! Go to Śākyamuni Buddha who is now living on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa! Ask him on my behalf, ‘Are you in good health? Are you peaceful? Are the Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas peaceful or not?’ Strew these jeweled flowers to him, offer them to him, and say, ‘That Buddha sent me to tell you that he wishes to see the stūpa of treasures opened.’”

In Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra, Buddhas and their devotees from innumerable worlds come to our world of conflict and delusion to see Śākyamuni Buddha open the tower inhabited by Many-Treasures Buddha. As our capability for enlightenment wells up from within us, the tower of treasures sprang up from underground when the Buddha asked who would teach the Wonderful Dharma after the Buddha’s extinction. The treasures in the tower are nothing more than Many-Treasures Buddha declaring the Lotus Sūtra to be the Teaching of Equality, the Great Wisdom, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas and the Dharma upheld by the Buddhas.

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

history

The Buddha’s True Intention

In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha revealed his true intentions. The teachings of the previous forty years used skillful means for śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas in accordance with their capacities. However, the Trace Gate of the Lotus Sūtra tells us that only the One Vehicle leads people to the true teaching for awakening. The Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra teaches that the duration of the Buddha’s life is eternal.

For those who could not listen to the Lotus Sūtra, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra was expounded to them so they could “awaken to the Lotus.” It was taught to extend awakening to those who had been left out during the exposition of the Lotus Sūtra. Hence, it is also called the teaching of “gleaning.”

History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 103
d26b, WONS

The Indispensable Dharmas Summed Up by the Four Phrases

It is preached in the 21st chapter on the “Divine Powers of the Buddha” in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 7: “In short, all the teachings of the Buddha, all the unhindered, divine powers of the Buddha, all the stores of the secret lore of the Buddha, and all the profundities of the Buddha are revealed and explained in this sūtra.” Grand Master T’ien-t’ai explains this in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra saying, “These four are the gist of the Lotus Sūtra.”

QUESTION: What are the indispensable dharmas summed up by the four phrases?

ANSWER: They are the honzon (most venerable one), kaidan (precept dais) and the five-character daimoku, which Śākyamuni Buddha had practiced in the eternal past upon attaining enlightenment with the true aspect of all phenomena, and which is now preached in the 16th chapter on “The Life Span of the Buddha” in the Lotus Sūtra. They had been kept in secrecy during the years Śākyamuni preached the pre-Lotus sūtras ever since He attained Buddhahood for the first time in this world under the bodhi tree, through the preaching of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra, until He began revealing the eternal life of the Buddha in the 15th chapter, “Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground,” in the essential section of the sūtra.

Lord Śākyamuni Buddha did not teach these great secret dharmas to such great bodhisattvas as Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī, attendants of the Buddha throughout the past, present and future, not to speak of other disciples below them. Therefore, the formality of preaching these secret dharmas was quite different from that of preaching the pre-Lotus sūtras and the 14 chapters in the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. It took place in the land of eternal, tranquil light, with the Eternal Buddha as the lord preacher completely equipped with the three bodies (Dharma, Reward and Accommodative Bodies) of a Buddha, and the listeners were of one body with the Buddha.

Appropriate for such an occasion, in order to enhance the attainment of Buddhahood in the eternal past the Buddha especially called out from the bottom of the land of eternal tranquil light the four bodhisattvas such as Superior Practice Bodhisattva who had been disciples of the Original Śākyamuni Buddha since the eternal past, and He entrusted them with these three great secret dharmas. Precept Master Tao-hsien stated, “As the doctrines to be transmitted were those which had been attained in the eternal past, they were entrusted to the disciples of the Eternal Buddha ever since the eternal past.”

Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 286-287