All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 29

Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

Having last month focused on his wisdom, it’s time to conclude the chapter.

Suppose you are in a law-court for a suit,
Or on a battlefield, and are seized with fear.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
All your enemies will flee away.

His wonderful voice [comes from] his perceiving the voice of the world.
It is like the voice of Brahman, like the sound of a tidal wave.
It excels all the other voices of the world.
Therefore, think of him constantly!

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

By all these merits, he sees
All living beings with his compassionate eyes.
The ocean of his accumulated merits is boundless.
Therefore, bow before him!

The Daily Dharma from Oct. 4, 2015, offers this thought:

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The calamity of death is something we all will face eventually, whether it our own or that of those we love. The other calamities in our lives are relatively minor losses which can prepare us for this great calamity. The Bodhisattva World-Voice-Perceiver is the embodiment of Compassion: the desire to benefit all beings. When we learn to use all of the suffering in our lives, especially the calamity of death, as a way to remove our delusions and benefit others, then we can see the world with the eyes of the Buddha and know the joy he declares is at the core of our being.

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

Blog

Nichiren Memorial Service

Faux cheery blossom trees decorating the Nichiren Memorial Service
Faux cheery blossom trees decorating the Nichiren Memorial Service

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi in a special robe for the Nichiren Memorial service
Ven. Kenjo Igarashi in a special robe for the Nichiren Memorial service
Ven. Kenjo Igarashi donned his best robes and performed the annual Nichiren Memorial Service, Oeshiki. In front of the altar were two artificial trees representing the cherry blossoms that appeared upon the death of Nichiren October 13, 1282, at the residence of Ikegami Munenaka near Tokyo.

Following the service, Rev. Igarashi continued his discussion of his experience during aragyo, the 100-day ascetic practice which he endured on five occasions.The practice features pouring ice-cold water over the body for purification several times a day and limiting sleep to less than 3 hours and food to just a thin porridge, miso soup and maybe a pickle twice a day. Through these hardships the priests work to remove their bad karma and earn the help of protective deities.

The universal message from all this is the need for both practice and study in everyone’s life. Not just studying the Lotus Sutra. Not just chanting the Odaimoku. Through study and practice, our bad karma is extinguished and our enlightment naturally appears.

History of Japanese Religion

Communion with Buddha

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The rulership of a single monarch implied the equality of all people, just as faith in the unique personality of Buddha as the saviour of all mankind presupposed the intrinsic value and destiny of every individual to be in communion with him.

History of Japanese Religion

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 30, 2016

Having heard from you
Of the duration of your life,
Living beings as many as the particles of earth
Of eight Sumeru-worlds
Aspired for unsurpassed [enlightenment].

The Bodhisattva Maitreya sings these verses in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sutra. He describes the effect on all beings of the Buddha’s revealing his existence as the Ever-Present Śākyamuni. If we believed that the Buddha was just a man who lived 2500 years ago, we might think that we had to wait until another being became enlightened before we could follow them on the path to our own awakening. But with this understanding that the Buddha is always helping us, here and now, then we awaken our capacity to see things as they are and work confidently 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

LS32

Day 28

Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month covered the greeting Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva delivers, it’s time to consider the road traveled to get here.

Thereupon Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva said to Sakyamuni Buddha:

World-Honored One! What root of good did this Wonderful-­Voice Bodhisattva plant and what kind of meritorious deeds did he do in order to obtain this supernatural power?

Sakyamuni Buddha said to Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva:

There was once a Buddha called Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King, the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha. His world was called Appearance-Of-All-Worlds; and the kalpa in which he Lived, Gladly-Seen. [There lived] a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-­Voice [under that Buddha. The Bodhisattva] offered hundreds of thousands of kinds of music and eighty-four thousand patras of the seven treasures to Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King Buddha for twelve thousand years. Because of this, he was able to appear in the world of Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha, and obtain supernatural power such as this.

Flower-Virtue! What do you think of this? Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva who had offered the music and the jeweled bowls to Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King Buddha [at that time] was no one but this Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahasattva [whom you see here now].

Flower-Virtue! This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva already made offerings to innumerable Buddhas, attended on them, and planted the roots of virtue a long time ago. He also already saw hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of Buddhas, that is, a many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges.

What roots of good could I grow if I put my faith to work?

Lotus Path

The Buddha Land that Surrounds Us

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In the “Weight of Glory”, C.S. Lewis tells the story of a woman who gave birth to a son while confined as a prisoner in a dungeon. Since the boy had never seen the outside world, his mother tried to describe it by making pencil drawings. Later when they were released from prison, the simple pencil sketches were replaced by the actual images of the beautiful world.

In some ways we may think of our selves, our sufferings as being in a dungeon. In fact in Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra it says: “The perverted people think this world is in a great fire. The end of the kalpa of destruction is coming.’”

In other words we all too easily see the suffering and refuse to see the Buddha land that surrounds us.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 29, 2016

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying: “Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhāraṇīs in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”

The Buddha makes this declaration to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. The dhāraṇīs are promises made in a language that only Medicine-King and other protective beings understand. When we recite these promises from the Lotus Sūtra, we remind those beings of their vows. We also awaken our natures to protect all beings, and create benefits both for those beings and ourselves.

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

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

In moving step-by-step through each day’s reading of the Lotus Sutra, I sometimes come upon a point at which I’m at a loss for what to say. Today, for example, we have some of the “innumerable merits” of those who hear The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

For starters:

The woman who hears and keeps this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva will not be a woman in her next life. The woman who hears this sutra and acts according to the teachings of it in the later five hundred years after my extinction, will be able to be reborn, after her life in this world, [as a man sitting] on the jeweled seat in the lotus flower blooming in the World of Happiness where Amitayus Buddha lives surrounded by great Bodhisattvas. He [no more she] will not be troubled by greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, or any other impurity. He will be able to obtain the supernatural powers of a Bodhisattva and the truth of birthlessness. When he obtains this truth, his eyes will be purified. With his purified eyes, he will be able to see seven billion and two hundred thousand million nayuta Buddhas or Tathagatas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. At that time those Buddhas will praise him, saying simultaneously from afar, ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! You kept, read and recited this sutra, thought it over, and expounded it to others under Sakyamuni Buddha. Now you have obtained innumerable merits and virtues, which cannot be burned by fire or washed away by water. Your merits cannot be described even by the combined efforts of one thousand Buddhas. Now you have defeated the army of Mara, beaten the forces of birth and death, and annihilated all your enemies. Good man! Hundreds of thousands of Buddhas are now protecting you by their supernatural powers. None of the gods or men in the world surpasses you. None but the Tathagatas, none of the Sravakas or Pratyekabuddhas or Bodhisattvas surpasses you in wisdom and dhyana-concentration.’ Star-King-Flower! [He is a Bodhisattva.] This Bodhisattva will obtain these merits and the power of wisdom.

And then there’s this:

Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises [this chapter], saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.

Many cultural differences between ancient and modern society cloud the meaning of the Lotus Sutra. I find it difficult to imagine, for example, a time when it would be considered a merit to “emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.”

Physicians Good Medicine

The Boiling Pot of Water

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Study leads to prayer and prayer leads to action. This is what chanting the Odaimoku is all about. It is not enough to sit and chant. One must get up and do something. The water never boils unless placed in a pot and the pot placed above a fire. No matter how much I may know about the theory of boiling water, it is useless without action. Expressing joy and devotion to Myoho Renge Kyo by chanting needs to be followed with Myoho Renge Kyo being manifest in our devotion to saving, teaching, and bringing benefit to our entire environment.

Physician's Good Medicine

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 28, 2016

He was strenuous and resolute in mind.
He concentrated his mind,
And refrained from indolence
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this Chapter, the Buddha describes the benefits from practicing generosity, discipline, patience, perseverance, and in these verses, concentration. He then compares these benefits to those which come from understanding the ever-present nature of the Buddha, even for a time no longer than the time it takes to blink. The merits of the latter outshine the former as the sun in a clear sky outshines the stars. When we are assured of the Buddha’s constant presence, helping all of us to become enlightened, we find that we can accomplish far more than we thought possible.

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