Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p50-51 of Part 2According to [Nichiren’s] account, people born in the Final Dharma age, by definition, have never received the seed of Buddhahood—i.e.. heard the Lotus Sutra—from Shakyamuni in prior existences. Thus no matter how assiduously they might practice, they cannot attain enlightenment through Shakyamuni’s teachings, any more than one can reap a harvest from a field that has never been sown.
Now in the age of mappō, only the teaching remains; there is neither practice nor proof. There is no longer a single person who has formed a relationship with Shakyamuni Buddha. Those who possessed the capacity to gain enlightenment through either the provisional or true Mahayana sutras have long since disappeared. In this age of impurity and evil, Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō should be planted as the seed of Buddhahood for the first time in the minds of those who commit the five cardinal offenses and slander the true Dharma.
Here we can see one reason why Nichiren established a new way of practice. He firmly believed that, as the Lotus Sutra teaches, “With the Buddha-lands of the ten directions/There is the Dharma of only One Vehicle”—that is, only one great truth by which all beings can attain enlightenment. Nichiren often referred to this truth as “the Lotus Sutra,” abstracting this name from its historical association with the Saddharma Pundarika. Yet this one truth must inevitably assume different forms according to the time and the people’s capacity. In Shakyamuni’s lifetime, Nichiren held. it took form as the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, which served as the Buddhism of the harvest for people who had already received the seed of enlightenment and nurtured it through their Buddhist practice in prior lifetimes. Now in the time of mappō, however, people have never received the seed of enlightenment, let alone cultivated their capacity through practice; they are defined as people “without prior good causes” (honmi uzen). Therefore, the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra must for their sake take form as the Buddhism of sowing, which Nichiren defined as the five characters of Myōho-renge-kyō. As he wrote:
The essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra and that intended for the beginning of the Final Dharma age are both pure and perfect teachings that lead directly to Buddhahood. But Shakyamuni’s is the Buddhism of the harvest. while this is the Buddhism of sowing.
Nichiren never denied outright the prevailing opinion that people in the time of mappō are more evil and deluded than those in previous ages and less capable of discerning true from false, or profound from shallow, in religious doctrines. In his thinking, however, the major hindrance to their enlightenment lay, not in their innate evil, but in their lack of those prior causes (i.e., practice in past lifetimes under the guidance of Shakyamuni), that would have enabled them to attain enlightenment through traditional disciplines.
Monthly Archives: February 2024
Daily Dharma – Feb. 3, 2024
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
Day 22
Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.
Having last month considered the merits of those who keep or copy this sutra or cause others to copy it, we consider in gāthās the offerings made by those who keep this sutra.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Anyone who keeps this sūtra
After my extinction
Will be able to obtain
Innumerable merits a previously stated.He should be considered
To have already made various offerings.
He should be considered
To have already built a stupa
With a yasti soaring up to the Heaven of Brahman,
The upper part of it being the smaller,
A stupa which was adorned with the seven treasures,
And with thousands of billions of jeweled bells
Sounding wonderful when fanned by the wind.
He should be considered to have already enshrined
My śarīras in this stupa,
And offered flowers, incense, necklaces, heavenly garments,
And various kinds of music to it,
And lit lamps of perfumed oil around it for innumerable kalpas.Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.Anyone who keeps this sūtra should be considered
To have already built a monastery
Made of the cow-head candana,
installed with thirty-two beautiful hall ,
Eight times as tall as the tala-tree,
Provided with delicious food and drink,
With wonderful garments and bedding,
With accommodations for one hundred thousand people,
With gardens, forests, and pools for bathing,
And with promenades and caves for the practice of dhyāna.
He should be considered lo have already offered
That monastery to me in my presence.
The Daily Dharma offers this:
Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.
The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. Given the trauma we have suffered in our previous existences, especially the calamity of death, it should be no surprise that our memories of those lives is dim at best. It can be enough to know that beneficial actions bring benefit and harmful actions bring harm, even if we do not know the specific causes of our condition. Our finding and practicing the Wonderful Dharma in this life is an indication of our great generosity in previous lives, and our capacity to continue practicing that same generosity.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Last Age: Linear Enlightenment
Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p47-48 of Part 2Chih-i, in chuan one of his (Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra), likens the process by which the Buddha leads the people to enlightenment to that of “sowing, maturing and harvesting.” First the Buddha plants the seed of Buddhahood in the minds of living beings by causing them to hear the Dharma and thus form a bond with it. Then he gradually nurtures their understanding by expounding various provisional teachings suited to their individual capacities, and at last brings them the last step or the way to emancipation with a final teaching. This analogy rests on the traditional view of the attainment of Buddhahood as a linear endeavor spanning many lifetimes. Based on it, Buddhist teachings may be classified according to which stage they occupy in the process—teachings of sowing, or teachings of maturing and harvesting.
Daily Dharma – Feb. 2, 2024
We were satisfied with the elimination
Of illusions within ourselves.
What we accomplished was that elimination.
We did nothing more.
These verses are sung by Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. They use the parable of the wayward son in this chapter to describe their own realization that the Buddha had not held any teaching back from them. Instead, the Buddha earlier allowed them to remain in the satisfaction of ending their own suffering. But before they can continue their progress towards the Buddha’s own enlightenment, they must give up their preoccupation with suffering, as the boy in the parable had to give up his idea of himself as a lowly hired worker, rather than the heir to his father’s treasure.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 21
Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.
Having last month considered the Buddha’s nirvana, we consider the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children
“I will tell you a parable. There was once an excellent and wise physician. He was good at dispensing medicines and curing diseases. He had many sons, numbering ten, twenty, or a hundred. [One day] he went to a remote country on business. After he left home, the sons took poison. The poison passed into their bodies, and the sons writhed in agony, rolling on the ground. At that time the father returned home. Some sons had already lost their right minds while the others still had not. All the sons saw their father in the distance and had great joy. They begged him on their knees, saying, ‘You came back safely. We were ignorant. We took poison by mistake. Cure us, and give us back our lives!’
“Seeing his sons suffering so much, the father consulted books of prescriptions, and collected good herbs. having a good color, smell and taste. He compounded a medicine by pounding and sieving the herbs, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is a very good medicine. It has good color, smell and taste. Take it! It will remove the pain at once and you will not suffer any more.’
“The sons who had not lost their right minds saw that this good medicine had a good color and smell, took it at once, and were cured completely. But the sons who had already lost their right minds did not consent to take the medicine given to them, although they rejoiced at seeing their father come home and asked him to cure them, because they were so perverted that they did not believe that this medicine having a good color and smell had a good taste.
The Daily Dharma offers this:
The children who had not lost their right minds saw that this good medicine had a good color and smell, took it at once, and were cured completely. But the children who had already lost their right minds did not consent to take the medicine given to them, although they rejoiced at seeing their father come home and asked him to cure them, because they were so perverted that they did not believe that this medicine having a good color and smell had a good taste.
In Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha tells a parable of a wise physician who prepares medicine for his children who have accidentally poisoned themselves. He compares the children to us whose minds are poisoned by the delusions of greed, anger and ignorance. He also compares himself to the wise father and the medicine to the Lotus Sūtra that he has left for us. Until the children took the medicine and tasted it for themselves, they could not be cured of the poison. Until we make this practice of the Wonderful Dharma an active part of our lives, we cannot be cured of our delusions.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Last Age: Only One Precept
Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p47-48 of Part 2For Nichiren, there was only one precept in the Final Dharma age—to embrace the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra, thereby attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. Firmly convinced of the essential oneness of mundane truth and the ultimate reality, he also believed that chanting the daimoku would, in and of itself, enable one to correctly understand all worldly affairs.
Daily Dharma – Feb. 1, 2024
The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound and copy even a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and offer flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, canopies, banners, streamers, garments and music to a copy of this sūtra, or just join their hands together respectfully towards it, should be respected by all the people of the world.
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. The notion of respect appears in many parts of this Sūtra. These lines tell us that we should be respected by people of the world, even though sometimes we are not. It is more important for us to respect each other, and everyone who practices the Wonderful Dharma in any way. It is also important that we respect ourselves, knowing that we are working for the benefit of all beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com