Approaching Buddhism as a practice of ‘self-improvement’ only, that is as a way to do self-help, is like being satisfied by the small bronze coin. While it is true that we do gain self-improvement by our practice, it is the greater goal of complete liberation from suffering and the attainment of Enlightenment that is the spiritual goal of our Buddhist practice.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1All posts by John Hughes
Daily Dharma – Sept. 29, 2016
Seeing [these wonders displayed by] the supernatural powers of his sons, the father had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He joined his hands together towards his sons [staying in the sky], and said, ‘Who is your teacher? Whose disciples are you?’
King Wonderful-Adornment makes this declaration to his sons in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. His sons had been asked by their mother to display their supernatural powers to their father and awaken the desire in him to hear the Buddha Dharma. We all have abilities of which we are not aware, and can cultivate those abilities so that they may seem miraculous to those who do not understand them. But it is important for us not to fall in the trap of using these abilities to strengthen our ego delusion. Instead we should dedicate our talents towards awakening the joy of the Wonderful Dharma in all beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 29
Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.
Having last month touched on World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva’s helpful offerings, I’ll focus this month on his wisdom:
He sees the truth of all things and their purity.
He sees all things with his great wisdom.
He sees all things with loving-kindness and compassion. Think of him constantly! Look up at him constantly!All darkness is dispelled by the light of his wisdom
As spotless and as pure as the light of the sun.
The light destroys the dangers of wind and fire,
And illumines the whole world brightly.His precepts out of his loving-kindness brace us up as thunderbolts.
His wishes out of his compassion are as wonderful as large clouds.
He pours the rain of the Dharma as sweet as nectar,
And extinguishes the fire of illusions.
The Daily Dharma from Feb. 16, 2016, offers this perspective:
His precepts out of his loving-kindness brace us up as thunderbolts.
His wishes out of his compassion are as wonderful as large clouds.
He pours the rain of the Dharma as sweet as nectar,
And extinguishes the fire of illusions.
The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Kuan Yin, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva is the embodiment of compassion. As we cultivate our own nature as Bodhisattvas, we find that the only thing that separates us from the happiness of others is our attachment and delusion. When we allow our compassion to grow, we come to see the world as it is.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Being Your Own Physician
Being our own physician to our own lives and seeking the medicine to cure our sufferings and attain enlightenment, we use the prescription of oratio divina by listening to what the Buddha tells us, by considering that in relation to our lives in the moment and then taking appropriate action.
Physician's Good MedicineDaily Dharma – Sept. 28, 2016
“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
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 reviewed the traveling tips offered by All-Pure-Light-Adornment Buddha to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva before he traveled to the Saha world, I want to touch on the greeting Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva delivers.
World-Honored One! I bring you a message from PureFlower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. [He wishes to say this.] Are you in good health? Are you happy and peaceful or not? Are the four elements of your body working in harmony or not? Are the worldly affairs bearable or not? Are the living beings easy to save or not? Do they not have much greed, anger, ignorance, jealousy, stinginess and arrogance, or do they? Are they not undutiful to their parents, or are they? Are they not disrespectful to sramanas, or are they? Do they not have wrong views, or do they? Are they not evil, or are they? Do they not fail to control their five desires, or do they? World-Honored One! Did they defeat the Maras, who are their enemies, or not. Is Many-Treasures Tathagata, who passed away a long time ago and has now come here riding in the stupa of the seven treasures, hearing the Dharma or not? [Pure-Flower-Star-King Wisdom Buddha] also wishes to know whether Many-Treasure! Tathagata is peaceful and healthy, and able to stay long or not World-Honored One! Now I wish to see Many-Treasures Buddha World-Honored One! Show him to me!
This is the same line of questioning that the replicas of Sakyamuni pursued after they took their place on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees prior to the Stupa of Treasures being opened and again by the Bodhisattvas from Underground after their arrival.
Daily Dharma – Sept. 27, 2016
Anyone who not only understands
This sūtra by faith
But also keeps, reads and recites it,
And copies it, or causes others to copy it,
And strews flowers, incense,
And incense powder to a copy of it,
And lights lamps of the perfumed oil
Of sumanas, campaka, and atimuktaka
Around the copy of this sūtra
And offers the light thus produced to it,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.
His merits will be as limitless as the sky.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. This teaching contains the Buddha’s highest wisdom, leads all beings to enlightenment, and calls us to transform our personal suffering into an aspiration to benefit all beings. The joy and clarity we gain by practicing and respecting this sūtra is beyond what we can imagine in our state of attachment and delusion.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 27
Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.
Having last month detailed the string of comparisons that reveal the position of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, it’s time to follow up with the saving grace of the this sutra.
Star-King Flower! This sutra saves all living beings. This sutra saves them from all sufferings, and gives them great benefits. All living beings will be able to fulfill their wishes by this sutra just as a man who reaches a pond of fresh water when he is thirsty, just as a man who gets fire when he suffers from cold, just as a man who is given a garment when he is naked, just as a party of merchants who find a leader, just as a child who meets its mother, just as a man who gets a ship when he wants to cross [a river], just as a patient who finds a physician, just as a man who is given a light in the darkness, just as a poor man who gets a treasure, just as the people of a nation who see a new king enthroned, just as a trader who reaches the seacoast. Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death. The merits to be given to the person who, after hearing this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, copies it, or causes others to copy it, cannot be measured even by the wisdom of the Buddha. Neither can the merits to be given to the person who copies this sutra and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense to burn, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, streamers, canopies, garments, and various kinds of lamps such as Lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of campaka oil, lamps of sumanas oil, lamps of patala oil, lamps of varisika oil, and lamps of navamalika oil [to the copy of this sutra].
The Daily Dharma from October 18, 2015, offers this insight:
Star-King-Flower! This sūtra saves all living beings. This sūtra saves them from all sufferings, and gives them great benefits. All living beings will be able to fulfill their wishes by this sūtra just as a man who reaches a pond of fresh water when he is thirsty, just as a man who gets fire when he suffers from cold.
The Buddha gives this description of the merits of the Lotus Sūtra to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Three of the Lotus Sūtra. The comparison of our bodily desires to our desire for enlightenment shows the kind of joy we can expect when we realize what this teaching can accomplish. Anyone whose thirst is quenched is sure to become thirsty again, no matter how pleasant it is to drink. The Buddha Dharma fulfills a thirst of which we may not even be aware. We are certain that things in this world of conflict will bring us joy. When we realize they can only bring us pleasure, and know the difference between joy and pleasure, we become aware of our true wishes and what this sūtra does for us.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Particular and the Universal
The particular derives its being from the universal nature of things, while the universal could not fully realize its true nature without manifesting itself in a particular. Both are real, but either by itself is imperfectly real. The Middle Path consists in uniting the two aspects of existence, universal and particular, and in seeing therein the true reality.
Nichiren, The Buddhist ProphetDaily Dharma – Sept. 26, 2016
World-Honored One! It is by my supernatural powers, know this, that a Bodhisattva can hear these dhāraṇīs. Anyone who keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [while it is] propagated in the Jambudvīpa, should think, ‘I can keep [this sūtra] only by the supernatural powers of Universal-Sage.’
Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) makes this declaration to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. The supernatural powers of this Bodhisattva are beyond the perception of our human senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell and thought. When we hear thunder, we know something causes it whether or not we understand that cause. In the same way, when we are practicing this Wonderful Dharma, we know it is because of the great help we receive from innumerable beings, even if we do not understand the powers they use to reach us.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com