Monthly Archives: August 2023

LS32

Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Day 31 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the Buddha’s prediction for the King Wonderful-Adornment, we consider the King’s teachers.

“Thereupon the king abdicated from the throne in favor of his younger brother, renounced the world, and with his wife, two sons, and attendants, practiced the Way under that Buddha. After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samādhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King! Do you see these two sons of yours, or not? They made offerings to six trillion and five hundred thousand billion Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges, in their previous existence. They attended on those Buddhas respectfully. They kept the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma under those Buddhas, and caused the people of wrong views to have right views out of their compassion towards them.

The Daily Dharma for July 25, 2022, offers this:

Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi (Perfect Enlightenment). Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

These lines are part of a story told by the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha uses this story to remind us of how much benefit we get from our teachers. When we see the world with the eyes of the Buddha, and know that he is always thinking of how to lead us, we can find innumerable teachers, and know to show our gratitude to them.

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

Lee: Tanaka

Tanaka’s Interpretation of Nippon Kokutai

What is Nippon Kokutai? It is the national substance, national principles, the national form. It is a fundamental social idea, a Gemeinschaft, on which the political state and the social system depend for ultimate authority. It is the moral path which enables Japan alone to transmit universal justice to posterity. It is not a form of government. A country without kokutai is an unfinished country; it is founded on no principles, its basis is military or industrial power, and its people live parasitic lives which are totally dependent upon arms and money. But the case of Japan is quite different. Japan is a unique country, for alone among the nations it is based upon kokutai. It exemplifies ideal peace, and its heavenly task is to spread the truth of kokutai.

The substance of kokutai, Tanaka asserted, could be divided into three constituents: 1. Happiness (the sum of national blessing accumulated by ancestors); 2. Wisdom (the sum of national wisdom amassed by ancestors); and 3. Right (the sum of national loyalty cultivated by the imperial descendants). (‘Glory’ is sometimes used in place of ‘wisdom’, ‘righteousness’ in place of ‘right’.) These ideas, amplifications of Tanaka’s interpretation of the Nihongi, suggest that by and large his basic nationalistic inclinations were probably fixed as early as the 1903 speech in which he alluded to the same three principles.

Japan’s “heavenly task” was, Tanaka declared, from the outset not limited to the islands of Japan alone; the departure of Emperor Jimmu for the east marked the beginning of Japan’s movement into the world at large. The country was, indeed, founded for the benefit of the whole world, and it was not too much to say that Perry’s arrival was a call upon Japan to distribute abroad the blessings of its unique moral qualities. The world began and ended with Japan, and if the country were truly understood, mankind would exist in peace and harmony. …

The actual work of bringing the nations of the world to the day of peace involved two stages: the first, “spiritual absorption” (the extension of kokutai in order to enlighten the minds of men) ; and the second, “military pacification” (a sort of negative guarantee of justice through Japan’s control of the “lawless and disobedient” people of the world). The peace which was the final goal called for the submission of the entire planet to the beneficent overlordship of the Emperor of Japan. To this end, every country save Japan should be disarmed, and only the exemplar, the one region already enjoying the sublimity which was the Way of the Emperor, could be allowed to make decisions affecting the rest of mankind.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Daily Dharma, d13b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 25, 2023

He satisfied himself with what little he earned.
He did not wish to get anything more.
He did not notice the priceless gem
Fastened inside his garment.

These verses are part of a story told by Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and other disciples in Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. It is about a man whose friend gives him a jewel while he is asleep. Not realizing he has this treasure, the man returns to his ordinary life, desperate to make a living and satisfy his ordinary desires. The story shows how we live when we forget about the jewel of Buddha nature we carry with us.

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

LS32

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Day 30 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the question asked by Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we consider the Buddha’s response to Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

[He said to the Buddha:]

“World-Honored One! These dhārānis, these divine spells, have already been uttered by six thousand and two hundred million Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those who attack and abuse this teacher of the Dharma should be considered to have attacked and abused those Buddhas.”

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying:

“Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhārānis in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”

The Daily Dharma for Oct. 1, 2022, offers this:

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying: “Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhāraṇīs in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”

The Buddha makes this declaration to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. The dhāraṇīs are promises made in a language that only Medicine-King and other protective beings understand. When we recite these promises from the Lotus Sūtra, we remind those beings of their vows. We also awaken our natures to protect all beings, and create benefits both for those beings and ourselves.

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

Lee: Tanaka

The Necessary New Faith of Nichirenism

[For Tanaka t]he world was in the period of the Latter Days of the Law, and it was already fully evident that the only faith suitable for the times was that of the Lotus Sutra, that is, Nichiren Buddhism. But not, it should be understood, the religion of the Nichiren temples. What the times demanded, and what Tanaka had already called for, was a reformed Nichiren church. Now, for the first time, Tanaka suggested that the new faith should be Nichirenism (Nichiren shugi)—the principles of Nichiren Buddhism in the context of Japanese nationalism.

This phrase is of great importance, for it became the accepted identification for Tanaka’s religio-political theories. Nichiren shugi has a somewhat more “scientific” ring to it than the phrase generally used to designate the established Nichiren order, with its overtones of faith and piety, and it conveys fairly accurately Tanaka’s interpretations of the teachings of Nichiren in a context of nationalism. If the nuances are appreciated, Nihiren shugi can be said to epitomize Tanaka’s thought. The word appears constantly in all of his works after about 1906, and it continues in use today as the official definition of the religion of the Kokuchūkai. Nichirenism, then, was the means of binding Tanaka’s patriotism and religion into a logical entity. When Nichiren spoke of Japan’s role as the savior of the world (through assertive proselytization of the true faith), he was amplifying and clarifying goals and methods already set forth in the Nihongi; his call for an aggressive policy of expansion was a reverberation of the earlier rallying cry of Emperor Jimmu as he headed eastward to subdue the barbarians and spread the culture of the Yamato civilization.

These pronouncements of 1903-4, and especially the first use of ‘Nichirenism’ to define Tanaka’s thought, mark the dividing line, according to the late Satomi Kishio, son of Tanaka Chigaku by his second wife and head of the Satomi Research Institute, between his father’s career as an advocate of religion with strong nationalistic emphases and his career as a devotee of a nationalism rooted firmly in religious principles.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Daily Dharma, d11b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 24, 2023

Because they did sinful karmas,
They lose pleasures and the memory of pleasures.
They are attached to wrong views.
They do not know how to do good.
They are not taught by a Buddha;
Therefore, they fall into the evil regions.

The Heavenly-King Brahmas from the zenith sing these verses to Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. They describe how beings live in a world in which they can find no Buddha, their joy that Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha has appeared, and their hope that this Buddha will lead all beings from the regions of difficulties. When these Brahmas speak of pleasure, it is not what comes from getting what we want. It is the pleasure of the Dharma, the pleasure enjoyed by all Buddhas when they become enlightened, and the pleasure available to us when we resolve to benefit all beings and practice the Buddha Dharma as Bodhisattvas.

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

LS32

Day 29

Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

Day 29 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered how World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva goes about this Sahā-World, we consider Endless-Intent Bodhisattva’s offering to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

The Endless-Intent Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One! Now I will make an offering to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.” From around his neck, he took a necklace of many gems worth hundreds of thousands of ryo of gold, and offered it [to the Bodhisattva], saying, “Man of Virtue! Receive this necklace of wonderful treasures! I offer this to you according to the Dharma!”

World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva did not consent to receive it. Endless-Intent said to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva again, “Man of Virtue! Receive this necklace out of your compassion towards us!”

Thereupon the Buddha said to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva:

“Receive it out of your compassion towards this Endless-Intent Bodhisattva, towards the four kinds of devotees, and towards the other living beings including gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings!”

Thereupon World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva received the necklace out of his compassion towards the four kinds of devotees, and towards the other living beings including gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings. He divided [the necklace] into two parts, and offered one part of it to Śākyamuni Buddha and the other to the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha.

[The Buddha said to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva,] “Endless-Intent! World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva goes about the Sahā-World, employing these supernatural powers without hindrance.”

See The Division of the Necklace

Lee: Tanaka

Tanaka’s Unification of the World By Rightesousness

In his 1903-04 explications of the Nihongi, Tanaka made certain other analyses deserving of some comment. In the same paragraph in which the phrase ‘heavenly task’ appears, the Nihongi says:

In this gloom, therefore, he fostered justice, and so governed this western border. Our Imperial ancestors, and Imperial parent, like gods, like sages, accumulated happiness and amassed glory.

The casual reader will find little meaning in the phrases “accumulated happiness,” “amassed glory,” and, from the penultimate sentence in the paragraph, “foster rightmindedness.” Tanaka, however, chose to regard them as essential actions in the primordial establishment of kokutai, an ethnocentric concept meaning something like ‘national essence’, ‘national polity’, or ‘national structure’. Kokutai, in turn, was the fundamental principle upon which Emperor Jimmu accomplished the founding of Japan.

The founding of Japan, however, was not the ‘heavenly task’ (tengyō) mentioned in the Nihongi. The ‘heavenly task’, i.e., the Emperor’s task, was to spread and unite, as noted above, toward the goal of peace in a world devoid of national boundaries. Peace was impossible as long as the world remained fragmented, and the first step toward the achievement of peace should be the unification of the world.

As Tanaka’s explanation continued, he suggested for the first time the connections between Buddhism and the ‘heavenly task’ described in the Nihongi. The analogy, he said, was similar to the role of the historical Buddha in India. Just as Buddha was a manifestation of the Chakravardin, the ‘Wheel-turner’, sent to earth to ‘set the wheel of the Law in motion’, so was the imperial line of Japan established to lead the world into the unity that is peace. That the imperial line of Japan should be the instrument of unification was part of the whole world scheme in which the process of unification moved in a general easterly direction. And the fact that the ruling family of a small country at the far reaches of civilization should be so designated only emphasized that unity was to be realized without aggression, without pillage, theft, and robbery that it was, indeed, to be unification by righteousness. Tanaka’s reasoning at this point may be questioned in light of earlier comments about “aggression” and the impossibility of any action of a Japanese emperor being anything other than righteous. It is well, nevertheless, to understand that at the very outset of Tanaka’s espousal of nationalism he specifically rejected aggression, whatever its meaning to him, as a means of accomplishing unity and therefore peace.

All the same, Tanaka maintained, it was necessary for Japan to be armed in order to preserve the righteousness which would be the principal weapon of unification.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Daily Dharma, d31b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 23, 2023

The mother said to them, ‘Show some wonders to your father out of your compassion towards him! If he sees [the wonders], he will have his mind purified and allow us to go to that Buddha.’

These lines are from a story told by the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. The two sons of King Wonderful-Adornment have asked their mother for permission to leave home and follow the Buddha Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom. The wonders in the story are beyond the capacity of human beings, but they show the King that another way of living is possible, and induce him to seek the teaching of that Buddha. Even if we cannot develop supernatural powers, there are wonders we can develop in our practice. We can learn the value of respecting all beings. We can control our desires and not be devastated by life’s tragedies. We can share “even a word or phrase,” as Nichiren put it, of the teaching and bring great benefit to others. In our normal lives, changed by our practice, we too can purify the minds of others.

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

LS32

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.

Day 28 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered how Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva protects all living beings in this Sahā-World, we conclude Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva.

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, the eighty-four thousand people, who had come accompanying Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, obtained the ability to practice the samadhi by which they could transform themselves into other living beings. Innumerable Bodhisattvas of this Sahā-World also obtained the ability to practice this samadhi. They also obtained dharanis.

Thereupon Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahāsattva made offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha and to the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha, [benefited the living beings of the Sahā World,] and left for his home world[, accompanied by the eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas]. As they passed through the [one hundred and eight billion nayuta] worlds, the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways; lotus-flowers of treasures rained down; and hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds of music were made. Having reached his home world, accompanied by the eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas who surrounded him, he came to Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. He said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! I went to the Sahā-World and benefited the living beings there. I saw Śākyamuni Buddha and the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha. I bowed and made offerings to them. I also saw Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, the Son of the King of the Dharma. [I also saw] Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Endeavor-Power-Obtainer Bodhisattva, Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva, and others. I also caused these eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas to obtain the ability to practice the samadhi by which they could transform themselves
into any other living being.”

When [Śākyamuni Buddha] expounded this chapter of the Coming and Going of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, forty-two thousand gods obtained the truth of birthlessness, and Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva obtained the ability to practice the samadhi for the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

[Here ends] the Seventh Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Daily Dharma from April 27, 2023, offers this:

When the Buddha expounded this Chapter of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, the eighty-four thousand people, who had come accompanying Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, obtained the ability to practice the samādhi by which they could transform themselves into other living beings. Innumerable Bodhisattvas of this Sahā-World also obtained the ability to practice this samādhi.

This description comes at the end of Chapter Twenty-Four of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva had come to our world of conflict and delusion from his perfect world to hear the Buddha teach the Wonderful Dharma. The Bodhisattvas in this world asked the Buddha about the transformations Wonderful-Voice made to benefit others. This chapter shows how those beings who have vowed to benefit us appear in ways we may not recognize right away. It also shows us the capability we have as Bodhisattvas to transform ourselves for the benefit of others.

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