Day 4 finishes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sutra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Last month I focused on the Buddha’s vow to “cause all living beings to become exactly as I am.”

A mighty promise accompanies that vow:

Any Sravaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gatha
Of this sutra which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.

There is only one teaching, that is, the One Vehicle
In the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters.
There is not a second or a third vehicle
Except when the Buddhas teach expediently.

The Buddhas lead all Living beings
By tentative names [of vehicles]
In order to expound their wisdom.
They appear in the worlds
Only for the One Vehicle.

The first volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma ends with this warning:

Those who do not study the Dharma
Cannot understand it.
You have already realized
The fact that the Buddhas, the World-Teachers,
employ expedients,
According to the capacities of all living beings.
Know that, when you remove your doubts,
And when you have great joy,
You will become Buddhas!

I have such great joy and no doubts. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Last month, I focused on The One Great Purpose. But that purpose has been obscured. We start at the beginning:

Thereupon the World-Honored One emerged quietly from his samadhi, and said to Sariputra:

The wisdom of the [present] Buddhas is profound and immeasurable. The gate to it is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. [Their wisdom] cannot be understood by any Sravaka or Pratyekabuddha because the [present] Buddhas attended on many hundreds of thousands of billions of [past] Buddhas, and practiced the innumerable teachings of those Buddhas bravely and strenuously to their far-flung fame until they attained the profound Dharma which you have never heard before, [and became Buddhas,] and also because [since they became Buddhas] they have been expounding the Dharma according to the capacities of all living beings in such various ways that the true purpose of their [various] teachings is difficult to understand.

And…

“Sariputra! The Tathagatas divide [the Dharma] into various teachings, and expound those teachings to all living beings so skillfully and with such gentle voices that living beings are delighted. Sariputra! In short, the Buddhas attained the innumerable teachings which you have never heard before. No more, Sariputra, will I say because the Dharma attained by the Buddhas is the highest Truth, rare [to hear] and difficult to understand.

The bottom line for those who think they can intellectualize an appreciation of the Buddha’s truth:

The Dharma cannot be shown.
It is inexplicable by words.
No one can understand it
Except the Buddhas
And the Bodhisattvas
Who are strong in the power of faith.

And …

Sariputra and all of you present here! Understand the Dharma by faith with all your hearts! There is no vehicle other than the One Buddha-Vehicle.

By faith with faith. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

Day 2 completes Chapter 1, Introductory

Yesterday’s consideration of the circle that is life brings my attention today to the circular relationship of the lives of the great disciples.

When we begin this second of the 32 days of the Lotus Sutra, Manjusri is answering Maitreya’s request to explain the meaning of the great omen seen by the multitude – the light emitted by Sakyamuni “from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down to the Avici Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world.” Manjusri tells about one of his long-ago lives and in doing so explains the story of a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light, who had 800 disciples.

One of the eight hundred disciples [of Wonderful-Light] was called Fame-­Seeking. He was attached to gain. He read and recited many sutras, but did not understand them. He forgot many parts of those sutras. Therefore, he was called Fame-Seeking. But he [later] planted the roots of good, and became able to see many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas. He made offerings to them, respected them, honored them, and praised them.

Maitreya, know this! Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself; and Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva, no one but you. This good omen we see now is not different from what I saw at that time. Therefore, I think that the Tathagata of today also will expound the sutra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’

And in gathas:

There was a lazy man
Among the disciples
Of Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma.
[The lazy man] was attached to fame and gain.

Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking.

But he [later] did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.
He made offerings to them,
Followed them, practiced the Great Way,
And performed the six paramitas.
Now he sees the Lion-Like One of the Sakyas.

He will become a Buddha
In his future life.
He will be called Maitreya.
He will save innumerable living beings.

The lazy man who Lived after the extinction
Of [Sun-Moon-] Light Buddha was
No one but you.
Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma, was I.

The ray of light of [Sun-Moon-] Light Buddha,
That is, the good omen, was the same as what I see now. Judging from this, the present Buddha also will expound The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Back in the days of my youth, when all telephones were wired (and they even had dials to “dial” a phone number), the handsets were often attached to the phone with a coiled wire. When relaxed, the coils appeared to be individual loops with beginnings and ends, but as you pulled on the coil you realized the beginnings and ends were an illusion and when you stretched the coil to its limit it became a single line. That’s today’s image for the circle of life.

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

I find this circle of 32 days enjoyable, with a sense of completion and renewed anticipation as I move from one end through the beginning again. What if we could appreciate the circle of our lives in the same way?

And so it begins again with “Thus have I heard.”

Here I’d like to bring up an explanation offered by Ryusho Jeffus Shonin:

There are actually two ways of looking at the phrase “thus have I heard.” The difference is which way or which direction “thus have I heard” points. In one understanding, “thus have I heard” points to the text that follows. So in this interpretation Ananda is saying what he heard from the Buddha and it is titled Myoho Renge Kyo. The other interpretation is “thus have I heard” is pointing to Myoho Renge Kyo, and what follows is an explanation, or interpretation of Myoho Renge Kyo. In the first understanding the text of the sutra is primary, in the second the text is secondary to the title. As different sentence constructions it might look like this. ‘Myoho Renge Kyo is what I heard’ versus ‘This is what I heard. The Buddha one …’ The difference is slight but important. In the first Myoho Renge Kyo is the most important thing and all that follows is a way to understand Myoho Renge Kyo. The second understanding places the text of the sutra as key and the title is a summary of the contents.

Nichiren argues that “thus have I heard” is referring to Myoho Renge Kyo and this supports the conclusion that chanting the title as a single practice is very much appropriate and correct. Everything then recounted in the text of the sutra is similar to an exegesis of the most important thing, which is Myoho Renge Kyo.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

“Thus have I heard” at that point between the end and the beginning, containing both, encompassing everything. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo