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 SutraAll posts by John Hughes
Daily 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
Day 9
Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.
Last month, I covered the differentiation of those who received the rain of the Dharma. Now to summarize:
I now expediently reveal the Dharma with this simile.
I expound one truth with various discourses.
This simile is only one of the expedients
Employed by my wisdom,
Just as a drop of sea water is
Part of the great ocean.Though I water all living beings of the world
With the same rain of the Dharma,
They practice the teachings
Of the same taste differently
According to their capacities,
Just as the herbs and trees
In thickets and forests
Grew gradually according to their species.The Buddhas always expound
The teachings of the same taste
In order to cause all living beings of the world
To understand the Dharma.
Those who practice the teachings continuously
Will obtain [ various fruits of] enlightenment.
Underline Those who practice the teachings continuously/ Will obtain [various fruits of] enlightenment.
Daily Dharma – Nov. 11, 2016
These ten rākṣasīs [and their attendants] came to the Buddha, together with Mother-Of-Devils and her children and attendants. They said to the Buddha simultaneously: “World-Honored One! We also will protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma so that he may have no trouble. No one shall take advantage of the weak points of this teacher of the Dharma.”
These fierce demons make this promise to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. Mother-of-Devils, also known as Kishimojin, was once a demon who stole and ate human children, until the Buddha reminded her that humans loved their children in the same way she loved her own. The Buddha does not judge or condemn any being. Instead he uses his insight to transform our understanding to see the harm we create in the world through satisfying our selfish desires. When we work for the benefit of all beings, we find all beings working for our benefit also.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
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.
Before moving on to the gathas, I want to consider this final piece of the prose section:
You once reproached us Sravakas in the presence of the Bodhisattvas because we wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. [At that time we thought that you had taught us only the Lesser Vehicle,] but now we know that you have been teaching us the Great Vehicle from the outset. Therefore, we say that the great treasures of the King of the Dharma have come to us although we did not seek them, and that we have already obtained all that the sons of the Buddha should obtain.
This concept of obtaining the treasures of the rich man as the son of the rich man works nicely to explain the differences between Buddhism and other religions.
Ven. Kenjo Igarashi of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church explains:
Buddhism is the teaching of the Buddha, just as Christianity is the teaching of Jesus Christ and Islam is the teaching of Mohammad.
Yet, there is one major characteristic that distinguishes Buddhism from the other major religions. Those who embrace Buddhism can also become a Buddha. In Christianity, Judaism and Islam, believers are encouraged to learn the teachings of the founder and to devote themselves to a unique, absolute deity. Nonetheless, these followers cannot become a deity. However, in Buddhism, anyone is said to have the potential to become the Buddha if they awaken to the truth behind the universe and humans beings, which can be understood through studying the teachings of the Buddha.
Ultimately, Buddhism is everyone’s attempt to become a Buddha.
We are the heirs to the storehouse of treasures. We are the sons of the Buddha.
The Good Son
In our decision to dedicate ourselves, we entrust our very life and take refuge within the enlightened world of the Lotus Sutra. Namu, therefore, signifies that as we take shelter in the Buddha, we are embracing every aspect of the Buddha’s compassion, wisdom and enlightened life. On the other hand, it also indicates that in order to achieve this, we choose, then strive, to live our lives in accordance with the spirit and teachings of the Buddha, as his good son, daughter and student.
Odaimoku: The Significance Of Chanting Namu Myoho Renge KyoDaily Dharma – Nov. 10, 2016
Knowing that people wish to hear
The teachings of the Lesser Vehicle,
And that they are afraid of having the great wisdom,
[My sons, that is,] the Bodhisattvas transform themselves
Into Śrāvakas or cause-knowers,
And teach the people with innumerable expedients.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eight of the Lotus S̄ūtra. Our fear of the Buddha’s wisdom comes from the attachment we have to our delusions. At some level we know that we are suffering, but we believe that anything different from how we live now will be worse. There are times when someone who seems to share our delusions can help us move away from them. But then as an actor becomes so absorbed in a role that he forgets his real life, those who choose a life in this world of conflict can forget their existence as Bodhisattvas who have vowed to benefit all beings. This Wonderful Dharma reminds us of this vow and helps us appreciate those who are still bound by delusion and what we can learn from them.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com