The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p187-188“How can you say emptiness is existence and existence is emptiness? That is too confused,” you may say.
Is it the principle that is confused, or is it you, or I? When you are confused you think that emptiness is emptiness and existence is existence. When the confusion is cleared, you know that emptiness and existence are equal. Do not attach to either annihilationism or eternalism. The equality and non-duality of emptiness and existence is called the Middle Way. Here true emptiness does not obstruct wonderful existence and wonderful existence does not obstruct true emptiness. True emptiness is wonderful existence; wonderful existence is true emptiness. When there is existence, then emptiness manifests; when there is emptiness, then existence is apparent. There is no emptiness, and there is no existence. They are not two. The non-duality of emptiness and existence is the equality of emptiness and existence.
Monthly Archives: May 2025
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 18, 2025
Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva rose front his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and said to him:
“World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read, recite, understand or copy Myōhō Renge Kyō?”
The Buddha said to him:
“Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?”
“Very many, World-Honored One!”
The Buddha said: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite even a single gāthā of four lines of Myōhō Renge Kyō, understand the meanings of Myōhō Renge Kyō or act according to Myōhō Renge Kyō.”
Tao-sheng: Four Courses and Three Turnings
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p253-254“Thereupon Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata, having assented to the appeals made by the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the words of the ten quarters and also by the sixteen princes, turned the wheel of the teaching [of the four truths] three times, making twelve proclamations altogether.
[The Buddha] depicted [what happened in] the past to compare it with the present; this idea becomes evident here. [The Thus Come One] Victorious through Great Penetrating Knowledge preached the teaching of the three vehicles in the past for the Brahma kings, and preached the scripture of the Dharma Blossom for the sixteen princes. That the youngest of the princes was Śākyamuni means that for contemporary people he already had preached this Dharma. Now as he ascends a [Dharma] throne, he revives the past transformative teaching, preaching again the path of the One preceded by the three. “The three turns of the Dharma wheel” are as follows:
The first [turn] was made for when the Buddha proclaimed to Kauṇḍinya [and four other mendicants, to the effect that] “[what constitutes the self or] body is suffering. You should know it, then you will attain the four ‘spokes’ of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. This forms the root of what you have not yet known.”
The second was made for when the Buddha proclaimed to the five men, [to the effect that] “you have known about suffering, and also obtained the four ‘spokes’ of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. This forms the root of what you have already known.”
The third. was made for when the Buddha proclaimed to the five men, [to the effect that] “you have known about suffering. You don’t have to know again. You have also attained the four ‘spokes’ of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. This forms the root of what you had no knowledge of.”
There are four courses and three turnings in one proclamation; hence, there are twelve (in total). In this way, one who does not yet know should know: one who does not yet know the cause [of suffering] should know it; one who does not yet know the extinction [of suffering] should know it; and one who does not yet know the path [to extinction] should know it. In this way in each truth [of the four noble truths] there are the four courses of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. One proclamation encompasses the four truths. The three proclamations contain the Dharma wheel of forty-eight “spokes.” “Twelve” is the outcome of [the four truths applied to] the three proclamations. The “forty-eight,” when we speak of them in terms of the [four] truths, are “the twelve causes and conditions” (pratītya-samutpāda) [multiplied by] the four truths. “The four truths” spell out the facts involved (shih) in detail, whereas the terms [of the process] are made brief. “The twelve causes and conditions” spell out the terms in detail, whereas the facts involved are made brief. As their faculties were sharp, when [the Buddha] preached merely the arising and destruction of the twelve [causes and conditions], they immediately comprehended for themselves, coming up with the Dharma medicine that would free them from suffering without fail, which means that they had reached the end of the path (tao).
Vajra Sutra: No Sudden and No Gradual
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p184-186When I was sixteen I wrote a matched couplet upon reading the Sixth Patriarch Sutra. Having lectured to the place where the text says “Dharma is not sudden or gradual, confusion and enlightenment are slow and quick.” I thought, “How can there still be a sudden and a gradual? What is sudden? What is gradual? Are sudden and gradual different? Are they two?” So I wrote the following:
Although sudden and gradual are different,
Upon completion they are one.
Why make divisions of North and South?Sagely and common are parts of the one:
The basic nature is absolutely the same.
Do not discuss East and West.“Although sudden and gradual are different, upon completion they are one.” Sudden refers to instantaneous realization of Buddhahood; gradual refers to slow cultivation to Buddhahood. Sudden and gradual are two distinct methods, but when one finishes the work, there is no sudden and no gradual in evidence. They no longer exist. …
When I read the Sixth Patriarch Sutra, I thought that the reference to Sudden and Gradual lacked equality, so I wrote the line, “Although sudden and gradual are different, upon completion they are one.” What is the origin of sudden? Although one suddenly attains enlightenment, one cultivates life after life for a long time within the Buddhadharma prior to that enlightenment. When one reaps the fruit of that long process of cultivation, that is called sudden. Gradual refers to the long process of cultivation, but the day the cultivation is complete, there is sudden enlightenment. For that reason I say there is no sudden or gradual. …
“Sagely and common are parts of the One.” Sagely refers to the Buddha; common refers to living beings. The world is divided into these two types, but “the basic nature is absolutely the same.” Buddhahood is the realization of the Buddha-nature. Living beings can also realize their Buddha-nature.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 17 2025
Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva praised [Mañjuśrī] with gāthās:
Possessor of Great Wisdom and Virtue!
You were brave in saving innumerable living beings.
This great congregation and I understand
That you expounded
The truth of the reality of all things,
Revealed the teaching of the One Vehicle,
And led those innumerable living beings
[Into the Way] to Bodhi quickly.
Mañjuśrī said, “In the sea I expounded only Myōhō Renge Kyō.”
Tao-sheng: Begging the Buddha to Turn the Dharma Wheel
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p253The palaces of the Brahman-heavenly[-kings] of the five hundred billion worlds in the east were illumined {aglow} twice as brightly as ever.
The fact that nothing was left not covered by the first illumination implies that there is nothing that the Tao does not mirror. That the Brahma god [kings] from [all] the ten directions went far in search of this portent shows that, once [the Sage] is stimulated (kan), [beings] are certain to reach [the goal], regardless of the distance. That they did not recognize the portent of the glow tells that li is outside the reach of the senses. Their gift of the palaces [to the Buddha] expresses again their infinitely [sincere, grateful] minds. They abandoned the joy of abstruse meditation and visited the Buddha, coming a long way, and because their sentiment had remained on the wondrous Dharma, they begged the Buddha to turn the Dharma wheel.
Vajra Sutra: Five Aspects of Equality
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p184The marks of the dharma are spoken of by the Tathagata as no marks of the dharma; therefore they are called the marks of the dharma. They are merely given a false name.
The Vajra Sūtra expresses prajña, the wonderful principle of true emptiness, and also expresses the dharma door of equality found within the wonderful principle of prajña. In general there are Five Aspects of Equality evident in the sūtra.
- The equality of living beings and Buddhas,
- The equality of emptiness and existence,
- The equality of all dharma,
- The equality of one and many,
- The equality of all views.
Most people do not understand equality dharma doors, so they put a head on top of a head, add marks to marks, and change what is basically equal to what is unequal.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 16, 2025
If [the expounder of] Myōhō Renge Kyō is hated and threatened
With swords, sticks, tile-pieces or stones,
I will manifest men and dispatch them to him
In order to protect him.
Tao-sheng: Encouraging Beings to Cherish a Longing for Complete Enlightenment
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p252He sat cross-legged without moving his mind and body for one to ten small kalpas. During all that time the Dharma of the Buddhas did not come into his mind.
By stating that the Buddha-dharmas did not yet appear before him for ten minor kalpas, [the Buddha] means to show that the ultimate li is dark and remote, and difficult to size up at once. Also expressed here is that the will of [the Buddha] Great Penetration was very strong and that his decisive mind could not be blocked, thus encouraging beings to cherish a longing for [complete enlightenment].
When he sat on that seat, the Brahman-heavenly-kings rained heavenly flowers on the area extending a hundred yojanas in all directions from that seat.
The fact that men and gods congregate there, making offerings, [in multitudes] like forests, shows that the utmost virtue is so dignified and weighty that li has moved [even] the gods. The Brahmā kings are the lords of living beings, and yet they are among those who have come to pay reverence [to this Buddha]. Would it not be even more so for the rest [of the beings]?
Before [Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha] left home, he had sixteen sons.
Things caused in the past are depicted here.
Vajra Sutra: The Merit of Small Deeds
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p178-179If we travelled by rocket for a great length of time, we would only cover a short distance compared to the extent of three thousand great thousand world systems. Although those world systems are big, they are created from motes of fine dust. The largest things are created from the smallest. Although one mote of dust is small, many of them together become a great thousand world system. In the same way, the merit and virtue we do comes from small deeds. By doing many good deeds we become adorned with ten thousand virtues. You should not think you need not bother doing small good deeds or that you can get away with doing small bad ones. Many seemingly inconsequential good deeds will accumulate into great goodness. Although you may only do minor bad deeds, many will accumulate into great evil. In just the same way, a whole world comes from a collection of small dust motes.