The Buddha is not some god-like entity. The inner life of Shakyamuni Buddha is within ourselves. The actual qualities and accomplishments of Shakyamnni Buddha flow naturally from his realization of the ultimate truth. They serve as an inspiration and a guide to what we are capable of doing when we take faith in the Buddha Dharma.
Lotus SeedsAuthor: John Hughes
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Day 17 of 100
The purpose of the Tripitaka teaching is to emancipate people from the Six Realms of the triple world. As a result, because the teaching reveals no place but the triple world to attain emancipation, śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha are unaware of the existence of the Pure Land where bodhisattvas are born. They also do not know that they still possess other evil passions and attachments besides the delusions in view and thought. Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas believe they will eliminate the cause of being reborn in the triple world if they do away with the delusions in view and thought and that they will exist in a void where there is no body or mind, since they will have transformed the body to ashes and annihilated consciousness. Thus it is said that men of the two Vehicles cannot be saved by the Tripitaka teaching, and that they will never be able to become Buddhas without the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra.
Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-i, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 72.
This is an excellent example of what I was hoping to learn during this 100 days of studying Nichiren’s writings. This survey of the teachings of the Buddha helps in understanding how all of the rivers lead to the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra.
100 Days of Study
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Daily Dharma – March 17, 2017
To enter the room of the Tathāgata means to have great compassion towards all living beings. To wear the robe of the Tathāgata means to be gentle and patient. To sit on the seat of the Tathāgata means to see the voidness of all things. They should do these [three] things and then without indolence expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to Bodhisattvas and the four kinds of devotees.
The Buddha, the Tathāgata, gives this description to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. When we awaken to our nature as Bodhisattvas and resolve to benefit other beings, we often find we do not know how to accomplish this. In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha gives instructions for reaching others and helping them let go of their delusions. By voidness the Buddha does not mean that nothing exists, rather that nothing has an inherent existence. Nobody is innately ignorant or innately wise. When we maintain our resolve to improve the world, maintain our patience and increase our capacities, and see the possibility of enlightenment for everyone, then are we truly living the Buddha’s teachings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
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Day 19
Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Having last month told the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, their services we unneeded, we witness the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground.
When he had said this, the ground of the Sahā-World, which was composed of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, quaked and cracked, and many thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas sprang up from underground simultaneously. Their bodies were golden-colored, and adorned with the thirty-two marks and with innumerable rays of light. They had lived in the sky below this Sahā-World. They came up here because they heard these words of Śākyamuni Buddha. Each of them was the leader of a great multitude. The Bodhisattvas included those who were each accompanied by attendants as many as sixty thousand times the number of the sands of the River Ganges. Needless to say, [they included those who were each accompanied by less attendants, for instance,] fifty thousand times, forty thousand times, thirty thousand times, twenty thousand times or ten thousand times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, or by attendants just as many of the sands of the River Ganges, or by attendants as many as a half, or a quarter of the number of the sands of the River Ganges, or by attendants as many as the sands of the River Ganges divided by a thousand billion nayuta, a billion, ten million, a million, ten thousand, a thousand, a hundred, ten, five, four, three or two attendants, or only by one attendant. [The Bodhisattvas] who preferred a solitary life came alone. The total number of the Bodhisattvas was innumerable, limitless, beyond calculation, inexplicable by any parable or simile.
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Shakumon and Honmon
According to Kamon, which is an ancient method of analyzing the Lotus Sutra, the first half of the Sutra, consisting of fourteen chapters, is called Shakumon—teachings “derived” from a source (shaku literally means “footprint; mon is “gate”). The second half, consisting of the final fourteen chapters, is known as Honmon or Hommon—the “Primary Gate” or Primary Mystery (hon means “root” or “source”). This second half reveals the Original and Eternal Buddha (Kuon Hombutsu). The appearance of the Bodhisattvas from Underground (Jiyu-no-bosatsu, literally “Bodhisattvas who well up from the earth”) is an introduction to the second half of the Sutra; and the next chapter, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” is its principal part.
That is to say, [Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground] presents the ideal Bodhisattvas in the persons of the Bodhisattvas from Underground. The following chapter, the “Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” reveals the true nature of the Buddha (the Original and Eternal Buddha) and his true Pure Land. It is none other than this Saha-world of ours. Thus the “Duration of the Life of the Tathagata” will emerge as the Sutra’s heart and center.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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The Buddha’s Last Words
Finally, in the night of February 15th, the Buddha spoke the words, “Make yourself your guiding light; rely on yourself instead of on others. Make the Dharma your guiding light; rely on the Dharma instead of on others.”
Awakening to the Lotus
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Day 16 of 100
This daimoku chanting has not yet been spread in the world. For 2,225 years after the extinction of the Buddha no one has chanted this yet. I, Nichiren, alone have been chanting “Namu Myōhōrengekyō, “Namu Myōhōrengekyō without saving my voice.
As you know, the size of waves depends on the strength of the winds, the height of a fire depends on firewood, the size of lotus flowers depends on the size of the ponds, the quantity of rain depends upon dragons; the deeper the roots of a tree are, the wider its branches grow; and the farther away a river begins, the longer it flows. The Chou dynasty lasted seven hundred years because King Wen paid much attention to propriety and filial piety. Early destruction of the Ch’in dynasty was due to the tyranny of its First Emperor.
With Nichiren’s boundless compassion, “Namu Myōhōrengekyō” will be heard forever even beyond the ten thousand year-period. It has the merit of curing the “blindness” of all the people in Japan, blocking the way to hell. This merit is superior to those of Dengyō, T’ien-t’ai, Nāgārjuna, and Kāśyapa. Practice for a hundred years in the Pure Land is not worth the merit of chanting the daimoku for one day in this defiled world. Propagation of the daimoku in a two thousand year-period following the death of the Buddha is not worth as much as spreading the daimoku for even a short while in the Latter Age of Degeneration. This is not from my wisdom; it is solely due to the time in which I live. In spring, flowers bloom; in autumn, fruits ripen; in summer, it is warm; and in winter, it is cold; they all go along with the laws of nature.
Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 58.
Having concluded the Essay on Gratitude, I’m adding some of the notes for future reference:
- Precept dais—The platform where those who believe in Buddhism receive Buddhist precepts. During the lifetime of the Buddha it was set up in the Jetavana-vihāra (Gion Shōja), and in China it was set up in the city of Loyang. In Japan several precept daises were set up. The Platform for the Perfect and Suddent Mahayana Precepts was established soon after Grand Master Dengyō’s death on Mt. Hiei. In Nichiren Buddhism, some insist that the precept platform of the hommon should be established somewhere in Japan, while others maintain that the place where one keeps the odaimoku even if only for an instant and puts it in practice is the Precept Platform of the hommon.
- Triple world—All living beings are floating in the stream of samsära and experiencing a variety of different lives. They are generally divided into three realms: 1) the realm of desire in which living beings are subjected to desire for sex and food, corresponding to the “six realms of illusion,” that is, realms of hell, hungry spirits, birds and beasts, asura, human beings, and part of heaven; 2) the realm of “form” in which living beings have no desire for sex and food; 3) the “formless” realm in which living beings live beyond material existence.
- Indra—Skt.: Śakro devānām indrah Jp.: Taishakuten. Originally a god of Hinduism, Indra is a god who protects Buddhas and their followers. Living in Trāyastriṃśa Heaven (Tōriten), he is served by the Four Heavenly Kings.
- Mt. Sumeru—Jp.: shumisen. According to the Buddhist cosmology, this mountain is located in the center of the world 84,000 yojana in height, and all the heavenly beings live on it. The sun and moon circle this mountain, on top of which Indra has his castle. The continent called Jambudvipa, where human beings live, exists to the south of it.
- Four Heavenly Kings—Also called Four Great Heavenly Kings (Shidaiten-nō). They are kings of the “four-king heavens (shiō-ten)” around Mt. Sumeru. While serving Indra, they control the eight kinds of gods and demi-gods to protect Buddhism and those who put faith in it. As they vowed to protect this world and Buddhism in it, they are also called the “Four Heavenly Kings Protect the World (Gose Shiten-nō). They consist of four guardian kings: Jikoku-ten (Dhrtarāṣṭra) in the east, Zōchō-ten (Virūḍhaka) in the south, Kōmoku-ten (Virūpākṣa) in the west, and Tamon-ten (Vaiśravaṇa) in the north. Nichiren Shōnin highly esteemed the Four Heavenly Kings as protectors of the Lotus Sutra, placing large signs for them at the four corners of the great mandala honzon.
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Daily Dharma – March 16, 2018
When we worship gods or Buddhas, we begin with the phrase of “namu.” Namu is an Indian word that has come to mean “offering of life to Buddhas and gods” in China and Japan. Our social standing is determined in part by possessing a spouse and children, retainers, fiefs, and gold and silver, though some people do not have those. Regardless of whether we possess these or not, no one possesses treasure more precious than life. Accordingly, sages and wise men in the past have donated their lives to the Buddhas in order to attain Buddhahood.
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Phenomenal and Noumenal Offering (Jiri Kuyō Gosho). We tend to judge ourselves and others by the outward aspects of our lives: where we live, what we wear, our position in society, and the company we keep. It is easy to lose sight of what will happen when we leave this life and give up all those things, even our precious bodies. Nichiren reminds us that our lives are all we have, and when we live them in gratitude for what the Buddha teaches us, and dedicate ourselves to benefitting others, then we exist as enlightened beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
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Day 18
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month begun the second thing the Bodhisattva should approach in gāthās, we complete the gāthās.
He should disregard the differences
Between the superior, mean, and inferior vehicles,
Between the things free from causality and those subject to it,
And between the real and the unreal.
He should not say:
“This is a man,” or “This is a woman.”
He should not obtain anything
Or know anything or see anything.
All these are the proper practices
That the Bodhisattva should perform.Things are insubstantial.
They have no property.
They are not permanent.
They do not rise or perish.
This is the Dharma to be approached
By a man of wisdom.Only perverted people say:
“All things exist,” or “Nothing exists,”
Or “All things are real,” or “Nothing is real,”
Or “All things are born,” or “Nothing is born.”The Bodhisattva should live in a retired place,
And concentrate his mind.
He should be as peaceful
And as immovable as Mt. Sumeru.
Things have no property
Just as the sky has not.
They are not solid.
They are not born.
They do not appear or move or go.
They are permanently of one form.’
This truth is the proper thing
The Bodhisattva should approach.A Bhikṣu who lives after my extinction
Will be free from timidity
If he performs these proper practices,
And approaches these proper things
As previously stated,
And then expounds this sūtra.A Bodhisattva will be peaceful,
And free from timidity
If he stays in a quiet room
For some time,
Recollects the Dharma correctly,
Understands the Dharma
According to the meanings of it,
And then emerges
From his dhyāna-concentration,
And leads kings, princes,
Common people and brahmanas
By expounding this sūtra to them.Mañjuśrī, all this is the first set of things
That the Bodhisattva should do
Before he expounds the Sūtra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
In the world after [my extinction]. -
Peaceful Practices of the Mind
[Peaceful Practices] means maintaining the right mental attitude while expounding the Dharma. There are four points.
- A Bodhisattva must not be jealous of others, or flatter them, or deceive them.
- He or she should not despise anyone who studies the Way to Buddhahood by any other method, speak ill of them, or point out their faults.
- He or she should not disturb or perplex those who seek any of the Three Vehicles (“hearers,” self-enlightened Buddhas, or practicers of the Way Of the Bodhisattvas), and never tell them, “You are far from enlightenment. You cannot attain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things because you are licentious and lazy in seeking enlightenment. “
- A Bodhisattva should not get involved in meaningless quarrels with the followers of other schools of thought (p. 218). Instead of getting bogged down in stupid arguments, a Bodhisattva should have great compassion toward all living beings. He should look upon all the Buddhas as his loving parents, and upon all the Bodhisattvas as his great teachers. He or she should expound the Dharma to all living beings without showing any partiality (p. 218-219).