Vacuity, according to Tendai, means nothing but the non-being of a particular existence apart from the universal Dhammata. We speak of this or that thing or substance, quality or condition, and think it to be a reality, in and by itself. Nothing is more erroneous than this, because we know that nothing in this world, visible or tangible, exists without causal nexus. It is a Dhamma, a thing or condition, because it is a manifestation of the Dhamma, the law of causation. Vacuity does not mean the voidness of any existence in itself, but vanity of the view that sees in it a reality apart from the fundamental Dhammata.
Nichiren, The Buddhist ProphetAll posts by John Hughes
Daily Dharma – Nov. 15, 2016
Know this, Śāriputra!
I once vowed that I would cause
All living beings to become
Exactly as I am.
That old vow of mine
Has now been fulfilled.
I lead all living beings
Into the Way to Buddhahood.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. Earlier in the chapter he explained that all the teachings he used before the Lotus Sūtra were mere expedients, intended to use our desire for happiness to bring us out of our suffering and onto the path of enlightenment. The expedient teachings were tailored to the ignorant and deluded minds of those who heard them, but had not yet revealed the true wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. Now that we have met this Wonderful Dharma, we are assured of our enlightenment and that of all beings. We learn to see innumerable Buddhas in limitless worlds through unimaginable time, and our own true selves at the heart of reality.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 12
Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Last month covered the long wait before Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathagata expounded the Lotus Sutra and the job the princes took up of expounding the Dharma while Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathagata sat in dhyana-concentration for 84,000 kalkpas.
Having practised dhyana-concentration for eighty-four thousand kalpas, the Buddha emerged from his samadhi, came back to his seat of the Dharma, sat quietly, and said to the great multitude, ‘These sixteen Bodhisattva-sramaneras are rare. Their sense organs are keen; and their wisdom, bright. In their previous existence, they already made offerings to many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, performed brahma practices under those Buddhas, kept the wisdom of those Buddhas, showed it to the living beings [of the worlds of those Buddhas], and caused them to enter into it. All of you! Approach these [Bodhisattvasramaneras] from time to time and make offerings to them! Why is that? It is because anyone, be he a Sravaka or a Pratyekabuddha or a Bodhisattva, who believes this sutra expounded by these sixteen Bodhisattvas, keeps it, and does not slander it, will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, that is, the wisdom of the Tathagata.’
The Daily Dharma of Nov. 9, 2016, offers this:
Anyone, be he a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha or a Bodhisattva, who believes this sūtra expounded by these sixteen Bodhisattvas, keeps it, and does not slander it, will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, the wisdom of the Tathāgata.
The Buddha makes this promise to all those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. This promise is for all of us who practice the Buddha Dharma. When we live firmly assured that the Buddha’s unsurpassed enlightenment is available to us even within all the suffering in this world of conflict, then we have the clarity to truly benefit ourselves and others.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Daily Dharma – Nov. 14, 2016
It is difficult to keep this sūtra.
I shall be glad to see
Anyone keeping it even for a moment.
So will all the other Buddhas.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. He is well aware of how hard it is to move from expedient teachings to the Wonderful Dharma. We have habits and attachments built up over many lifetimes, and live in a world that does not always support our practice. Still, one cannot underestimate the importance of trying, even for the briefest amount of time, to hold on to this teaching and bring it to life in this world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 11
Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City
Last month I considered what it would be light to find the world suddenly illumined with the light of a Buddha. For the next several months I will work through the responses of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in each direction.
Starting in the East, we have a great Brahman-heavenly-king called All-Saving who sings:
Why are our palaces illumined
More brightly than ever?
Let us find [the place]
[From where this light has come].Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha
Appear somewhere in the universe?
This great light illumines
The worlds of the ten quarters.
And when he reaches the source of the light and sees the Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathagata he sings:
You, the World-Honored One, are exceptional.
It is difficult to meet you.
You have innumerable merits.
You are saving all living beings.As the great teacher of gods and men,
You are benefiting all living beings
Of the worlds of the ten quarters
Out of your compassion towards them.We have come here from five hundred billion worlds.
We gave up the pleasure
Of deep dhyana-concentration
Because we wished to make offerings to you.
Our palaces are beautifully adorned
Because we accumulated merits in our previous existence.
We offer [these palaces] to you.
Receive them out of your compassion towards us!
And finally:
Hero of the World, Most Honorable Biped!
Expound the Dharma!
Save the suffering beings
By the power of your great compassion!
This scene gets repeated several times, and I’m often fascinated with the little changes from direction to direction. So next month, more of the same, only different.
The Prism Effect
For me relating to the Lotus Sutra from different perspectives gives me different understandings. It is kind of like the way a prism causes a beam of bright white light to scatter into a rainbow of colors. So too, using different prisms to look at the Lotus Sutra I think you get a different perspective and a different way of understanding. At least that is what I hope I can convey to you.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraDaily Dharma – Nov. 13, 2016
They also will be able to locate the Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas by smelling their bodies from afar. Even when they recognize all this by smell, their organ of smell will not be destroyed or put out of order. If they wish, they will be able to tell others of the differences [of those scents] because they remember them without fallacy.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. Our sense of smell is often unconscious. We associate smells with places, experiences or even people that we like or dislike. These smells can even cause an emotional reaction by causing us to relive a situation associated with that smell. In the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha teaches that our everyday experiences are no different from enlightenment, that his great wisdom is not about how to escape from this world. It is about how to use the senses and abilities with which we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 10
Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.
Last month I offered my changing interpretations about why it takes so long for Subhuti, Great Katyayana and Great Maudgalyayana to become Buddhas. And this time around I want to ponder time and memory, starting with that teaser at the close of Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood:
Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!
The time and memory comes into play at the opening of Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City:
The Buddha said to the bhiksus:
A countless, limitless, inconceivable, asamkhya number of kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Great-Universal-WisdomExcellence, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the WorldHonored One. His world was called Well-Composed; and the kalpa in which he became that Buddha, Great-Form.
Bhiksus! It is a very long time since that Buddha passed away. Suppose someone smashed all the earth-particles of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds into ink-powder. Then he went to the east [,carrying the ink-powder with him]. He inked a dot as large as a particle of dust [with that ink-powder] on the world at a distance of one thousand worlds from his world. Then he went again and repeated the inking of a dot on the world at every distance of one thousand worlds until the ink-powder was exhausted. What do you think of this? Do you think that any mathematician or any disciple of a mathematician could count the number of the worlds [he went through]?”
No, we do not, World-Honored One!
Bhiksus! Now all the worlds he went through, whether they were inked or not, were smashed into dust. The number of the kalpas which have elapsed since that Buddha passed away is many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas larger than the number of the particles of the dust thus produced. Yet I remember [the extinction of] that Buddha by my power of insight as vividly as if he had passed away today.
And just to underline, asamkhyas is linked to a footnote that says: “This is an adjective, meaning ‘innumerable.’ ” I’ve never been really great at math, but I assume multiplying a period of time by “innumerable” gets you some place just this side of infinity.
And in gathas:
I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom;
I also remember
The Sravakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].Bhiksus, know this!
My wisdom is pure, wonderful,
Free from asravas and from hindrance.
I know those who lived innumerable kalpas ago.
I’ll be 65 years old next month, and if there is one feature of enlightenment that I would cherish, it would be a memory for details so perfect that it makes time irrelevant. For now, I need to look again for my keys. I drove home, so I know they are somewhere in the house.
The Six Worlds
According to the Buddha, there are Six Worlds, or basic states of existence, that we can experience from moment to moment and even from lifetime to lifetime. These are the worlds or the hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting demons, human beings, and the heavenly beings. Depending upon the positive or negative causes we make, the very nature of our body, mind, and environment can change to resemble one or more of these worlds. When we give in to despair or unreasoning hatred we experience life as hellish. When we are so dominated by selfish craving that we can never get enough of what we desire, then we are in the half-alive state of a hungry ghost. When we live only for immediate gratification and ignore the consequences of our actions, then we have become like animals who live only by instinct. When we puff ourselves up with pride and compete with others for money, power or sex, then we have become like fighting demons. When we are able to act reasouably and are not overwhelmed by pleasure or paain, then we are in the basic state of a human being. On those rare occasion when our desires are temporarily fulfilled and we are in a state of joyful harmony and wellbeing, then we are experiencing the heavenly realms. These different states are ever-changing and flow from one to the next.
Lotus SeedsDaily Dharma – Nov. 12, 2016
They will be able to know all the thoughts, deeds, and words, however meaningless, of the living beings of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds each of which is composed of the six regions. Although they have not yet obtained the wisdom-without-āsravas, they will be able to have their minds purified as previously stated. Whatever they think, measure or say will be all true, and consistent not only with my teachings but also with the teachings that the past Buddhas have already expounded in their sūtras.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. Paradoxically, the process of clarifying our minds so that we can see things for what they are is not an intellectual exercise. The practice of the Wonderful Dharma is not based on learning complicated theories or arcane facts. It can be as simple as chanting Odaimoku sincerely, awakening our nature as Bodhisattvas, and 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