All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 16

Day 16 concludes Chapter 11, Beholding the Stupa of Treasures, and completes the Fourth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month opened the Stupa of Treasures, we come to the start of the ceremony in the air.

Thereupon Many-Treasures Buddha in the stupa of treasures offered a half of his seat to Sakyamuni Buddha, saying, ‘Sakyamuni Buddha, sit here!’

Sakyamuni Buddha entered the stupa and sat on the half-seat with his legs crossed. The great multitude, having seen the two Tathagatas sitting cross-legged on the lion-like seat in the stupa of the seven treasures, thought, ‘The seat of the Buddhas is too high. Tathagata! Raise us up by your supernatural powers so that we may be able to be with you in the sky!’

Thereupon Sakyamuni Buddha raised them up to the sky by his supernatural powers, and said to the four kinds of devotees with a loud voice:

Who will expound the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in this Saha-World? Now is the time to do this. I shall enter into Nirvana before long. I wish to transmit this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to someone so that this sutra may be preserved.

The Daily Dharma of July 17, 2015, offers this:

“Who will expound the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in this Sahā-World? Now is the time to do this. I shall enter into Nirvāṇa before long. I wish to transmit this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to someone so that this sūtra may be preserved.”

The Buddha asks this of those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. If there had been no one among those listening who was able to expound the Sūtra, he would not have asked this question. Our ability to benefit others with the Buddha Dharma is not based on our eloquence, our intelligence or our position in life. It is based only on our faith in the Buddha’s teachings and our determination to benefit others. When we read, recite, and copy the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha is transmitting it to us. We preserve the Sūtra through our practice.

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

Spring Writings

Otsutome

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Daily chanting is a basic and important prayer as a Nichiren Buddhist. It is called Gongyo, Shingyo or Otsutome. It means to chant every morning to the Buddha and Nichiren Shonin for your family’s security, peace for your ancestors and for the happiness of other people, and to chant every evening to express thanks to the Buddha and Nichiren Shonin for your family’s safety and peace that day. The feeling after Otsutome is so peaceful, and brings to our mind hopes for tomorrow. It is also a valuable time to meditate on one’s own daily life, and to reflect on our past life. Otsutome is an important daily event, as well as a practice for approaching enlightenment.

Spring Writings

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 22, 2017

Therefore, Star-King-Flower! I will transmit this Chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva to you. Propagate this chapter throughout the Jambudvīpa in the later five hundred years after my extinction lest it should be lost, and lest Māra the Evil One, the followers of Māra, gods, dragons, yakṣas, and kumbhāṇḍas should take advantage [of the weak points of the people of the Jambudvīpa].

The Buddha gives this explanation to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra. The Jambudvīpa is the name the Buddha gives to this world of conflict and attachment in which we live. Nichiren interprets “the later five hundred years” as the time in which we are living today. The story of Medicine-King Bodhisattva is one of a being who does not spare any part of his life to benefit others. This Bodhisattva is confident that he will become enlightened, and that whatever happens to his physical body, he will always be reborn in worlds where he has the chance to benefit others and lead them by the wisdom of the Buddha. This chapter, and all those towards the end of the Lotus Sūtra, give us examples of how to bring the teachings of the Buddha to life.

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

LS32

Day 15

Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Having last month completed the final portion of Chapter 11, we return to the start of Day 14 in Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Thereupon the Buddha said again to Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahasattva:

I have expounded many sutras. I am now expounding this sutra. I also will expound many sutras in the future. The total number of the sutras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.

Medicine-King! This sutra is the store of the hidden core of all the Buddhas. Do not give it to others carelessly! It is protected by the Buddhas, by the World-Honored Ones. It has not been expounded explicitly. Many people hate it with jealousy even in my lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after my extinction.

The Daily Dharma from Oct. 31, 2016, offers this perspective:

I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.

The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. At the beginning of this Sūtra, the Buddha held back from teaching because he thought people might not be ready to hear it. He also said that the Dharma he teaches cannot be understood by reasoning. We need both faith and understanding to practice the Wonderful Dharma. The Buddha also reminds us to appreciate how difficult faith and understanding are, both for ourselves and others.

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

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Teaching with Parables

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As I think about the various parables I tend to divide them up into three different kinds. One type of parable teaches a new concept in an illustrative way, the primary one of this category is the Burning House, and Simile of Herbs. Another category consists of parables which highlight the discovery of something that was always present; a realization, if you will. In this category I would put The Rich Man and the Poor Son, Gem in the Robe, Gem in the Top Knot, and perhaps the Physician and his Ill Children. The last category deals with difficulty of practice and in this category I would put the Magic City.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 21, 2017

They will be able to recognize all the sounds and voices inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, although they have not yet obtained heavenly ears. Even when they recognize all these various sounds and voices, their organ of hearing will not be destroyed.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. As we shed our delusions and see the world more for what it is, we begin to see and understand things not visible or comprehensible to those still mired in their suffering and attachment. Knowing the suffering we have left behind, we may be lured into abandoning this world and those in it. In this chapter, the Buddha shows that all of the sense organs we have in this life, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought, all of these can be used either to increase our delusion or bring us towards awakening. The Buddha reached enlightenment in this world, and so do we.

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

LS32

Day 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Having last month covered the prediction of future Buddhahood for Ananda, we repeat what was said in gathas:

Now I announce to the Samgha:
Ananda, the keeper of the Dharma,
Will make offerings to Buddhas,
And then attain perfect enlightenment.

He will be called
Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power-King.
His world will be pure, and called
Always-Raising-Banner-Of-Victory.

He will teach as many Bodhisattvas
As there are sands in the River Ganges.
He will be exceedingly powerful and virtuous.
His fame will extend over the worlds of the ten quarters.

The duration of his life will be immeasurable
Because he has compassion towards all living beings.
His right teachings will be preserved for twice as long as his life;
The counterfeit of them, for twice as long as his right teachings.

Under him, as many living beings
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Will obtain the seeds
Of the enlightenment of the Buddha.

The importance of Ananda is underscored by his position as one of the 10 great disciples.

“Voice-hearers” (Sanskrit, shravaka) refers to those monastic disciples who heard the voice of the Buddha in person. From the stand­point of Mahayana Buddhism, the voice-hearers are Hinayana disciples who listened and followed the teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. … Traditionally ten major disciples are listed. They are representative of the different qualities that were valued by Hinayana Buddhism:

Śāriputra, foremost in wisdom
Mahakashyapa, foremost in ascetic practices
Ananda, foremost in hearing the sutras
Subhuti, foremost in understanding emptiness
Purna, foremost in expounding the Dharma
Maudgalyayana, foremost in supernatural powers
Katyayana, foremost in explaining the Dharma
Aniruddha, foremost in clairvoyance (the divine eye)
Upali, foremost in observing the precepts
Rahula, foremost in inconspicuous practice

Lotus Seeds

The Buddha’s Deep Understanding of Cause and Effect

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The doctrine of Dependent Origination is the key insight upon which the entire teaching of the Buddha rests, because it describes the Buddha’s deep understanding of cause and effect.

As we have seen, the night the Buddha attained awakening, he reflected upon his own life and past lives; upon the lives, past lives, and future destinies of all other beings; and then upon causality itself. He observed, beginning with himself, how all beings forge their destinies through their own actions. He also saw how all phenomena arise and pass away as part of a network of mutually supporting causes and conditions. The Buddha shared this insight with others in many different forms, the best known being the Twelve-fold Chain of Dependent Origination.

Lotus Seeds

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 20, 2017

Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sūtra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings.

The Buddha gives these instructions in Chapter Twenty-Two of the Lotus Sūtra. In this transmission, the Buddha bestows his highest teaching not just on those gathered 2500 years ago. He gives it to all of us who hear and keep his teaching today. When the Buddha revealed his true nature as existing through all time and space, he assured us that he is always teaching us, and that the Lotus Sūtra is the vehicle by which he comes to us. By giving us this teaching, he does not lose it. In the same way, when we benefit other beings, we should not be afraid of losing anything, other than our delusion and attachments.

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

LS32

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Having last month covered how Sakyamuni’s disciples are performing the Bodhisattva practices secretly, we hear of Purna’s past efforts.

Under hundreds of thousands of millions of past Buddhas,
This Purna practiced strenuously what he should do.
He expounded and protected
The teachings of those Buddhas.

In order to obtain unsurpassed wisdom,
He became the most excellent disciple
Of those Buddhas.
He was learned and wise.
He expounded the Dharma without fear,
And made his listeners rejoice.
He was never tired
Of helping those Buddhas do their work.

He obtained great supernatural powers
And the four kinds of unhindered eloquence.
Seeing who was clever, and who was dull,
He always expounded the Pure Dharma.

He expounded the dharma of the Great Vehicle
To hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings,
And caused them to dwell in the Dharma
So that the worlds of those Buddhas might be purified.

To underline this idea of causing listeners to dwell in the Dharma so that the worlds of those Buddhas might be purified, I offer this quote from Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1:

Sometimes uncovering or showing a small part of something enables us to see the potential of something even greater. Protecting something that is small or encouraging a fledgling effort can result in unimaginable outcomes. As our lives are slowly freed from illusions and then our eyes purified we are able to see the truth in the sutra, the truth in our lives and become Buddhas.

It might be eye opening for you to actually make a list of improvements in your life, both big and small, since you began practicing Buddhism.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1