All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 9

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Having last month heard the prediction of future Buddhahood of Mahā-Kāśyapa in gāthās, we hear from Great Maudgalyāyana, Subhūti and Mahā-Kātyāyana and complete today’s portion of Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Thereupon Great Maudgalyāyana, Subhūti and Mahā-Kātyāyana trembled, joined their hands together with all their hearts, looked up at the World-Honored One with unblenching eyes, and sang in gāthās in unison:
Great Hero, World-Honored One!
King of the Dharma of the Śākyas!
Give us your voice
Out of your compassion towards us!
If you see what we have deep in our minds,
And assure us of our future Buddhahood,
We shall feel as cool and as refreshed
As if we were sprinkled with nectar.

Suppose a man came
From a country suffering from famine.
Now he saw the meal of a great king.
He did not partake of it in doubts and fears.
After he was told to take it by the king,
He took it at once.
We are like that man.
We know the defects of the Lesser Vehicle.
But we do not know how to obtain
The unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha.

Although we hear you say [to us],
“You will become Buddhas,”
We are still in doubts and fears about it,
Just as that man was about the meal.
If you assure us of our future Buddhahood,
We shall be happy and peaceful.

You, the Great Hero, the World-Honored One,
Wish to give peace to all the people of the world.
If you assure us of our future Buddhahood, we shall be
Like the man who was permitted to take the meal.

The Daily Dharma from April 18, 2018, offers this:

You, the World-Honored One, are the light of wisdom.
Hearing from you
That we are assured of our future Buddhahood,
We are as joyful as if we were sprinkled with nectar.

These verses are sung by two thousand of the Buddha’s disciples in Chapter Nine of the Lotus Sūtra. When these followers of the Buddha were told that they would become as enlightened as he was, then many others like them realized that they too had this capacity. The superiority of the Lotus Sūtra lies not in having better explanations of what the Buddha taught, or in some supernatural ability it has to change the world. The superiority of the Lotus Sūtra is its completeness. It leads all beings to the joy of enlightenment.

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

Awakening to the Lotus

The Six Perfections

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The Six Perfections are considered the bodhisattva way of practice. They are generosity, the performance of service to others in both a spiritual and material sense; morality, living an ethical life by avoiding the taking of life, stealing, indulgence in harmful sexual activity, lying, or becoming intoxicated with alcohol or drugs; patience,showing patience in dealing with obstacles and opposition from others; endeavor, making the best effort one can; concentration, focusing the heart and mind on the task at hand; and wisdom, which is more than simple knowledge or understanding. The Buddha’s realization of the Truth was wisdom. With this wisdom, the Buddha’s person and the Truth are one: subjective character and objective truth merge and are unified.

Awakening to the Lotus

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 13, 2018

Anyone who respects the stūpa-mausoleum,
Who is modest before bhikṣus,
Who gives up self-conceit,
Who always thinks of wisdom,
Who does not get angry when asked questions,
And who expounds the Dharma
According to the capacities of the questioners,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. The merits of which he speaks are not an indication that we are better than other beings, that we deserve more respect than others, or that we are closer to enlightenment. Merits are a measure of clarity. When we lose attachment and delusion, we gain merit. When we see things for what they are, we gain the wisdom to truly benefit others.

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

Profound

Chih-i’s Talent

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[Chih-i’s] talent lies in the fact that he not only absorbed and incorporated different views and theories, but also went beyond all of his predecessors and contemporaries by formulating his own system of thought. Since his system is based on a complete evaluation and critique of all other available views of his time, it is thus endowed with the features of syncretism, comprehensiveness, and completeness, and a sense of harmony, flexibility, and perfection.

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


beginning

Purifying The World

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The many religions that existed in India both before and after Buddhism taught personal discipline and liberation alone. Almost none of them gave thought to instructing others or society in general or to the creation of an ideal realm in the actual world. Initially, Shakyamuni left his father’s home and undertook the life of religious discipline for the realization of his own personal ideal. But when he had developed a correct view of the world and of man through observations of the nature of human life and the universe, he saw that human beings do not live in isolation. The fate of each person, intimately connected with the flow from past to present and from present to future, is further intimately connected with the fates of the people around him, with society, and with the natural environment. For this reason, individual happiness cannot result from the improvement of the individual alone. Shakyamuni realized that, because of the Law of Causation, such happiness can only result from simultaneous improvement in society and the environment. From this standpoint, he naturally adopted the policy of saving and teaching others. This characteristic attitude sets Buddhism apart from other Indian religions and philosophies and explains its spread beyond India to the rest of the world. (Page 40-41)

The Beginnings of Buddhism

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month considered the expedients used by the rich man to bring his son into his inheritance, we witness the son finally receiving his inheritance.

“The rich man gave him a name and called him son. The poor son was glad to be treated kindly, but still thought that he was a humble employee. Therefore, the rich man had him clear dirt for twenty years. After that the father and son trusted each other. Now the son felt no hesitation in entering the house of his father, but still lodged in his old place.

“World-Honored One! Now the rich man became ill. He knew that he would die soon. He said to the poor son, ‘I have a great deal of gold, silver, and other treasures. My storehouses are filled with them. You know the amounts of them. You know what to take, and what to give. This is what I have in mind. Know this! You are not different from me in all this. Be careful lest the treasures be lost!’

“Thereupon the poor son obeyed his order. He took custody of the storehouses of gold, silver, and other treasures, but did not wish to take anything worth even a meal from them. He still stayed in his old lodging. He could not yet give up the thought that he was base and mean.

“After a while the father noticed that his son had become more at ease and peaceful, that he wanted to improve himself, and that he felt ashamed of the thought that he was base and mean. The time of the death of the father drew near. The father told his son to call in his relatives, the king, ministers, kṣatriyas, and householders. When they all assembled, he said to them, ‘Gentlemen, know this! This is my son, my real son. He ran away from me when I lived in a certain city, and wandered with hardships for more than fifty years. His name is so-and-so; mine, so-and-so. When I was in that city, I anxiously looked for him. I happened to find him [years ago]. This is my son. I am his father. All my treasures are his. He knows what has been taken in and what has been paid out.’

“World-Honored One! At that time the poor son was very glad to hear these words of his father. He had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He thought, ‘I never dreamed of having this store of treasures myself. It has come to me unexpectedly.’

This quote from the Lecture on the Lotus Sutra fits well here:

Every day we look around us and we see our worlds our lives as being perhaps small and full of suffering or troubles. Yet the image that is presented to us in the ceremony in the air is an expansive one and one of great beauty. Just as the seating of the two Buddhas side by side presents us with a view of the eternity of time, the image of the joined worlds is one of infinite space. So now we have an expansive time element and an expansive space element all in one moment.

When we place ourselves in front of the Honzon as presented in the Lotus Sutra in these chapters we place ourselves outside of our present time and our present space. Again this allows us the opportunity to view our current condition in this life as really one of great reward. How many people everyday participate in such a grand drama?

It is not easy for us to see this as we live out our lives and experience our day-to-day problems. Yet this is the invitation that the Buddha makes to us – to realize that we are not merely some lonely person chanting Odaimoku and practicing the Lotus Sutra, but that we are actually participants in a drama unlike anything that can be contained by either space or time.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

Basics

The Five False Views

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The last of the six fundamental obstructions is false views, of which there are five kinds. Adding these to the previous five of the six fundamental obstructions gives us what are known in Buddhism as the ten fundamental obstructions. The five false views are (1) belief that the perceivable self, which is only a temporary aggregation of elements determined by cause and effect, is a true, persistent entity, (2) belief in either of the extreme views of eternal existence or the annihilation of existence, (3) rejection of the law of cause and effect, (4) belief in mistaken theories of cause and effect (such as those put forth by other teachers in Shakyamuni’s time, described in chapter two), and (5) belief that any of the previous four false views are the truth, that is, taking a mistaken ideal for a true ideal. The obstruction known as false views is ignorance of the truth taught by Buddhism and the adoption of false ideals in its stead. This is foolishness at its most stubborn and dangerous. Greed, anger, foolishness, pride, and doubt are known as the five dull obstructions, while the five false views are called the five sharp obstructions.
Basic Buddhist Concepts

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 12, 2018

Anyone who keeps
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Should be considered to have given up his pure world and come here
Out of his compassion towards all living beings.

The Buddha declares these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. He reminds us that as Bodhisattvas, we are no longer concerned with getting into a paradise where all our desires are met. This also means that we were not sent into this world of conflict (Sahā) so that we could be tested to see whether we are worthy of getting into that paradise. Instead, we are Bodhisattvas, beings who through our great resolve to benefit all beings, have with great courage chosen to immerse ourselves in the misery of this world, because we know there is no other way to create benefit and lead all beings to the Buddha’s enlightenment.

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

LS32, WONS

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable.

This triple world
Is my property.
All living beings therein
Are my children.

There are many sufferings
In this world.
Only I can save
[All living beings].

I told this to all living beings.
But they did not believe me
Because they were too much attached
To desires and defilements.

Therefore, I expediently expounded to them
The teaching of the Three Vehicles,
And caused them to know
The sufferings of the triple world.
I opened, showed, and expounded
The Way out of the world.

Those children who were resolute in mind
Were able to obtain
The six supernatural powers
Including the three major supernatural powers,
And to become cause-knowers
Or never-faltering Bodhisattvas.

Nichiren used this portion of Chapter 3, A Parable, supporting a follower who had been converted by Nichiren but was under pressure from family members who believed in the nembutsu:

Therefore, it is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 2 (chapter 3 on “A Parable”): “This triple world is My domain. Living beings therein are all My children. Now there are many sufferings in this world, and only I can save them all. Though I taught this to them, they did not believe Me, because they were attached to greed and defilement.” These statements mean that Śākyamuni Buddha is the parent, the teacher and the master for the people. For us, the Buddha of Infinite Life and Medicine Master Buddha are masters, but not parents or teachers. Only Śākyamuni Buddha is the compassionate Buddha who possesses the three virtues of the master, teacher and parent. There are many kinds of parents, but no one is as great as Śākyamuni. There are also many kinds of teachers and masters, but no one is superior to Him. If people are against the Buddha’s teachings, they will be abandoned by the gods of heaven and earth. They are the most undutiful; therefore it is preached, “Though I taught this to them they did not believe Me.” Even if one believes in the pre-Lotus sūtras, if one does not believe in the Lotus Sūtra and chant Namu Myōhō Renge-kyō even once, one is an undutiful child. He will be abandoned by the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in all the worlds throughout the universe in the past, present and future, and also will be begrudged by the gods of heaven and earth.

Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 140-143.

Profound

Chih-i, Tendai and Nichiren

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With regard to Tendai Buddhism in Japan that was founded by Saichō (767-822), it was “essentially the same as its parent sect in China, and was based like it on the teachings of the Lotus Sūtra.” The Nichiren School in Japan that is founded by Nichiren (1222-1282) not only worships the Lotus Sūtra as the supreme of all scriptures, but also goes so far as to only chant the title of the Lotus Sūtra as the most revered phrase, representing the cause and effect of Buddhahood. This can be seen as the impact of Chih-i’s effort of interpreting the title of the Lotus Sūtra in his work Hsüan-i (Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra).

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