All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 22, 2018

The son thought: “I was poor, base and mean.
Now I have obtained
The treasures, houses,
And all the other things
From my father.
Never before
Have I been so happy.”

These verses are part of the story of the Wayward Son told by Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. The son in the story has come into his inheritance after years of training and preparation by his father. The story explains the disciples’ understanding of how the Buddha uses expedients over time to prepare us for enlightenment. When we are not ready for the Buddha’s wisdom, he teaches to the capacity of our own minds. Now that we are ready for his highest teaching, he reveals his own mind in the Lotus Sutra.

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

Profound

The Ever-Present Buddha Realm

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The Buddha-realm does not exist apart from the other nine realms. In essence, all living beings possess the Buddha-nature (Ch., Fo-hsing; Skt., buddhadhātu), and given the right condition, they can realize this potential for Buddhahood, i.e., the realm of hell to the realm of the Bodhisattva can be transformed instantaneously into the Buddha-realm. (Vol. 2, Page 65)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


Basics

Gradual Teachings

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In teaching the five ascetics immediately after his own enlightenment, Shakyamuni adopted a gradual approach. First he exhorted them to follow the Middle Way between the extremes of asceticism and hedonism and taught that training must be based on a rational understanding of cause and effect. Next he led them to a logical understanding of the correct Buddhist interpretation of the world by explaining the Four Noble Truths. At this stage, his listeners attained the Eye of the Law, enabling them to see all things in their true form. Next the Buddha taught that the five aggregates are impermanent, suffering, and without an abiding self. Directing the ascetics to meditate on the nature of the five aggregates, he made their earlier intellectual understanding an experiential one; with this melding of idea and action their practice was complete, and they all became arhats. Similar examples of gradual teachings are not unusual in the texts of primitive Buddhism.Basic Buddhist Concepts

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 21, 2018

Anyone who does not keep our spells
But troubles the expounder of the Dharma
Shall have his head split into seven pieces
Just as the branches of the arjaka-tree [are split].

The ten rakṣasī demons and Mother-of-Devils sing these verses in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. They are among the many gods and other supernatural beings who vow to protect all those who keep and practice the Buddha Dharma. These verses help us to understand the nature of those who create harm in the world and to develop a heart of compassion towards them. The nature of delusion is that it sets up a world separate from the world we all share. It puts a barrier between us and the world out of fear that this world will harm us. The Buddha’s teachings show us how to develop the courage to live in harmony with this world, rather than splitting ourselves from it, and splitting ourselves in it.

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

Profound

Ten Realms, Both Visible and Invisible

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The ten realms exist simultaneously in one’s mind, but one may not necessarily experience them all at the same given moment. One may experience any one of the ten realms at any moment, depending on the conditions of what one’s actions were and are in the past and present, and where one’s thoughts reside. When one realm is experienced, it is visibly present in one’s mind, but the other nine realms are also present in one’s mind, though in an invisible state. (Vol. 2, Page 64)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 20, 2018

The Buddha said to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva: “Good man! If many hundreds of thousands of billions of living beings hear [the name of] World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and call his name with all their hearts when they are under various sufferings, World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva will immediately perceive their voices, and cause them to emancipate themselves [from the sufferings].”

The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kuan-Yin, Kannon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of compassion, a living manifestation of the desire that all beings be happy and free from suffering. By calling the name of this Bodhisattva, we awaken the compassion within ourselves. We become this Bodhisattva and remove our fear of suffering. With this awakening we can be fully present for those in this world of conflict who are suffering and liberate ourselves from the delusion and isolation of our own suffering.

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

Profound

Four Siddhāntas Employed by the Buddha

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The Four Siddhāntas are the four methods employed by the Buddha to cause living beings to achieve accomplishment of attaining Buddhahood, or they can be the four viewpoints of perceiving truth.

The characteristics of the “Worldly Siddhānta” (Shih-chieh Hsi-t’an) concern the basic theory of causality (Yin-yüan) in Buddhism, and differentiate what is real and what is unreal. What is unreal (provisional) refers to all things in this spatial-temporal world that arise through Dependent Origination (Ch., Yüanch’i; Skt., pratityasamutpāda), rendering the fact that all things lack substantial Being, and are illusory. The unreal is spoken of in terms of the five aggregates bearing their existence in name. Names are not substantial, and thus, the five aggregates are only illusory and provisional. What is real (Shih) refers to the body that is constituted by the five aggregates, which really exists. In short, the Worldly Siddhānta distinguishes between phenomenon and noumenon, between real and unreal, between good and bad, and between different levels of religious practice and achievement. The teaching suits those beings that are capable of understanding the doctrine of the Worldly Siddhānta.

The characteristic of the “Siddhānta for Each Person” (Ko-ko Wei-jen Hsi-t’an) concerns the wholesome factors of beings, namely, arousing previous wholesomeness of beings, and encouraging them to keep doing good deeds and practice for their future destinies.

In contradistinction to the “Siddhānta for Each Person” (which is related to the wholesomeness of living beings), the “Siddhānta of Counteraction” (Tui-chih Hsi-t’an) is to treat the unwholesomeness of living beings. Hence, the characteristic of this siddhānta concerns the evil side of beings, namely, how to destroy evil by means of wholesomeness. This teaching of the Siddhānta of Counteraction reveals the goal of religious practice.

The “Siddhānta of the Supreme Truth” (Ti-i-i Hsit’an) reveals the principle (as truth) (Ti-li) by means of applying the formula of the fourth Alternative, namely, “everything is neither real nor unreal”, which transcends affirmation or negation. Therefore, the characteristic of this siddhānta concerns leading living beings to realize the truth by disposing the fundamental nature of emptiness of all entities, and by negating all possible attachments to either unreal (provisional) or real, and either good or evil. The passage concerning the Four Siddhäntas is originally stated in the Mahāprajn͂āpāramitopadeśa (Ta-chih-tu Lun), T.25, 59b-61b.

For a brief explanation of the Four Siddhāntas, see also Hurvitz, Chih-i, p.313, note l. For a detailed discussion of the Four Siddhāntas in the Ta-chih-tu Lun, see Swanson, Foundations of T’ien-t’ai Philosophy, pp.23-30. (Vol. 2, Page 53)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


Doctrines of Nichiren

This ‘Miraculous Scene’

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[W]hat is the Kaidan, or Place for Learning Moral Precepts? This is easily understood, since we have already explained the Honzon and the Daimoku. It has been already pointed out that our bodies are identical with the body of the Buddha of Original Enlightenment. The reality behind appearances is the miraculous scene that is reflected, as in a mirror, by the enlightenment of the Buddha; in other words, that is apprehended by the Buddha’s intellect. Now we ourselves are the Buddha’s intellect, and it is the reality behind appearances which we must learn to apprehend. The intellect stands in the same relation to this “miraculous scene” as the cover of a vessel to the vessel itself. In each case, the former corresponds to the latter.

Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)

Lotus Path

Awakening to Our Existing Buddhahood

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For those of us who practice in a Nichiren denomination we have the representation of the Lotus Sutra and the eternal Buddha depicted on the calligraphic mandala. It is not uncommon for some to view this picture as the actual thing that enables enlightenment. Again this too is a distortion, as the enlightenment is something we already possess and not something that resides outside our lives and which we need to somehow meld with or absorb. We already have it. The picture representation, however it appears, is merely a tool for us to use to awaken to our already existing Buddhahood.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 19, 2018

The Buddhas expound the Dharma
In perfect freedom.
Knowing the various desires and dispositions
Of all living beings,
They expound the Dharma
With innumerable parables
And with innumerable similes
According to their capacities.

These verses are sung by Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. They show the realization by the Buddha’s disciples of why the Buddha uses different teachings for different people. For us who do not know the various desires and dispositions of all living beings, the Buddha gives this Lotus Sūtra, When we put this teaching into practice, and use it to benefit all beings, it is as if we are teaching from the Buddha’s own mind.

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