All posts by John Hughes

Blog, LS32, d10b, d13b, d14b, d17b, d5b, d9b

The Power of the Lotus Sutra Teaching

Consider this:

When I recently pondered why the dragon girl was different, I had an Eureka Moment.

Śāriputra and the other disciples whose future Buddhahood are  predicted far in the future had been students of the Buddha’s expedient teachings.

As Śākyamuni explains to Śāriputra, “Under two billion Buddhas in the past, I always taught you in order to cause you to attain unsurpassed enlightenment. You studied under me in the long night. I led you with expedients. Therefore, you have your present life under me.”

The eight-year-old daughter of the Dragon King Sagara was taught by Mañjuśrī.

“Mañjuśrī said, ‘In the sea I expounded only the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.’ ”

That is the power of the Lotus Sutra.

Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō

I was going through my quotes from Nichiren’s writings and discovered this:

Women, who were thus despised in various sūtras, were able to attain Buddhahood as soon as Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī expounded the character “myō.” This was so mysterious that Bodhisattva Accumulated Wisdom, the first disciple of the Buddha of Many Treasures in the Treasure Purity World, and Venerable Śāriputra, the wisest disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha, argued against the daughter of a Dragon King to be made a Buddha in the spirit of the various Hinayāna and Mahāyāna sūtras expounded by the Buddha during the 40 years or so of His preaching. Their efforts were in vain, and the daughter of a Dragon King ultimately became a Buddha.

Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 45-46

Books, mappō, Stone Last Age

The Last Age: A Dark Era

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Jacqueline I. Stone wrote the journal article “Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age: Mappō Thought in Kamakura Buddhism” (PDF) in 1985 while still a UCLA Master’s student who went by Jackie Stone. Her essay declares:

Buddhist tradition maintains that as the world moves farther and farther away from the age of Shakyamuni Buddha, understanding of his teachings grows increasingly distorted and people’s capacity to practice and benefit from those teachings accordingly declines, until eventually Buddhism is lost. Sutras and treatises divide this process of degeneration into three sequential periods beginning from the time of the Buddha’s death: the age of the True Dharma (Skt. saddharma, Jap. shōbō) the age of the Counterfeit Dharma (saddharma-pratirūpaka, zōhō) and the age of the Final Dharma (saddharma-vipralopa, mappō).

Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p29 of Part 1

Ta-Chi-Ching, the Great Collection Sutra, contains three periods and divides the decline into five consecutive 500-year periods. The fifth 500-year period is the age when “quarrels and disputes will arise among the adherents to my [Shakyamuni’s] teachings, and the Pre Dharma will be obscured and lost.” The “True” and “Counterfeit” ages each last 1,000 years and the “Final Dharma” age was said to last 10,000 years, which also meant an indefinite period.

Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p33 of Part 1

This was true as far as Buddhism of Kamakura Japan was concerned.

In 1991, however, Jan Nattier, a PhD graduate of Harvard University, published “Once Upon A future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline,” which was based on her doctoral thesis delivered in 1988. In her book, Nattier clearly shows that the concept of three ages of decline and especially the last age, mappō, were the product of Chinese commentators and not the product of Indian Buddhism.

But mappō was very real for Buddhists of Japan.

By the latter part of the Heian Period (794-1185), a majority of Japanese believed that the world had entered a dark era known as mappō the age of the Final Dharma. Buddhist tradition held that in this age, owing to human depravity, the teachings of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni would become obscured, and enlightenment all but impossible to attain. By the mid-eleventh century, natural disasters, social instability and widespread corruption among the Buddhist clergy lent seeming credence to scriptural predictions about the evil age of mappō —predictions which in turn gave form to popular anxieties, feeding the growing mood of terror, despair and anomie known as mappō consciousness.

Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p28 of Part 1

The idea of mappō involves not only the decline of the world—as suggested by the “five defilements”—but the failure of the means of salvation itself. At a time when the bodies of plague victims periodically littered the streets, when fires and earthquakes leveled temples and government offices alike, when warrior clans rose to challenge a tottering nobility in a series of bloody altercations that radically altered the political structure, Japanese on the whole must have come to realize the uncertainty of this world with an immediacy that people but rarely experience under more tranquil conditions. The prediction that in this hour, Buddhism too would decline must have filled them with a horror beyond imagining.

Stone: Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, p62 of Part 2

 
Book List

Daily Dharma, WONS

Daily Dharma – Jan.19, 2024

What does the doctrine of spiritual contemplation mean? It means the way of practicing the teaching of the Buddha according to the intent of the Buddha, not necessarily according to what is literally said in the sutra. Suppose there is a man during the time of a famine who offers to the Buddha the only food he has to stay alive for a day. This is the same as offering his life to the Buddha.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Phenomenal and Noumenal Offering (Jiri Kuyō Gosho). The Lotus Sūtra is the highest teaching because it encompasses all beings in all worlds, assuring everyone that they can rid themselves of delusion and reach the Buddha’s enlightenment. The Buddha showed that the universe is constantly changing, even from one moment to the next. When we read the Lotus Sūtra, and allow our minds to become more like the Buddha mind, we learn the meaning behind the words and put that into practice. We do not merely go through the motions mechanically. We understand that calamities are opportunities for us to bring the Buddha’s teaching to life, and that whatever prosperity we gain does not belong to us alone. Whatever we have is 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 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the teaching of the One Buddha Vehicle, we consider how everyone is a Bodhisattva.

(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
All of you
Are my children.
I am your father.

You were under the fires of many sufferings
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Therefore, I saved you
From the triple world [ with expedients].

I once told you that you had attained extinction.
But you eliminated only birth and death
[By that extinction].
The extinction you attained was not the true one.
What you should do now is
Obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.

The Bodhisattvas in this multitude
Should hear
With one mind
The true teaching of the Buddhas.

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Say only expediently [that some are not Bodhisattvas]
To tell the truth,
All living beings taught by them are Bodhisattvas.

The Daily Dharma offers this:

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Say only expediently [that some are not Bodhisattvas]
To tell the truth,
All living beings taught by them are Bodhisattvas.

This verse comes from Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In Chapter Two, the Buddha declared that he only teaches Bodhisattvas. If we believe that we are not Bodhisattvas, we could conclude that the Buddha does not teach us. Part of what the Buddha is explaining here is that we are all Bodhisattvas. The way to reach the Buddha’s enlightenment is by living as Bodhisattvas: beings whose every breath is intended to improve our world.

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

Dollarhide Senji-Shō, mappō

Knowing the Time: The Emergence of the Lotus Sūtra

[In the Senji—shō] he discussed the spread of the Lotus Sūtra during the two periods of the Perfect and Counterfeit Law and concluded that although the Lotus Sūtra was known and taught by such people as Chih-i, Miao-lo, and Dengyō Daishi they realized that the Age of the Last Law was the ideal time to spread the Lotus Sūtra.

Nichiren … explained to his listeners how fortunate they were to be born in the Age of the Last Law and to be able to hear the Lotus Sūtra. He taught that the Buddha was simply preparing the ground for this teaching; the prior periods were periods of fermentation, periods in which conditions had to develop which would allow for the emergence of the Lotus Sūtra. … [N]ichiren is making the main point of the Senji—sho. He is differentiating the past and future and stating that it is better to be born in the Age of the Last Law as common people, able to practice Lotus Sūtra Buddhism, than to have been born kings or great monks in any prior time.

Nichiren's Senji-Shō, p25-26
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan.18, 2024

The Bodhisattva-mahāsattva also should know the following truth. All things are insubstantial. They are as they are. Things are not perverted. They do not move. They do not go. They do not turn. They have nothing substantial just as the sky has not. They are inexplicable. They are not born. They do not appear. They do not rise. They are nameless. They are formless. They have no property. They are immeasurable and limitless. They have no obstacle or hindrance. He should see all this. Things can exist only by dependent origination. Only perverted people say, ‘Things are permanent and pleasant.’ This truth is the second thing he should approach.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. The Buddha does not see the world as we do. This section explains how changing our view changes the world. When we no longer see beings with power to overwhelm us, and see beings in whom delusions have been created, we see our abilities to cut the root of those delusions and benefit them. These passages are what make the Lotus Sutra difficult to believe and understand, since they go against our habits of manipulating the world to become happy. As we learn to work with our minds, then we truly change the world.

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

LS32

Day 6

Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 6 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable, we return to the top and consider the carts the children received from their father.

“The children rode in the large carts, and had the greatest joy that they had ever had because they had never expected to get them. Śāriputra! What do you think of this? Do you think that the rich man was guilty of falsehood when he gave his children the large carts of treasures?”
Śāriputra said:

“No, World-Honored One! He saved his children from the fire and caused them to survive. [Even if he had not given them anything,] he should not have been accused of falsehood because the children should be considered to have already been given the toys [they had wished to have] when they survived. He saved them from the burning house with the expedient. World-Honored One! Even if he had not given them the smallest cart, he should not have been accused of falsehood because he thought at first, ‘I will cause them to get out with an expedient.’ Because of this, he should not. Needless to say, he was not guilty of falsehood when he remembered his immeasurable wealth and gave them the large carts in order to benefit them.”

See Many Paths Within the Great Path

Dollarhide Senji-Shō, mappō

Knowing the Time: The Decision Between Truth and Falsehood

In the Senji—shō Nichiren reviewed the history of the spread of Buddhism after the Parinirvāṇa of the Buddha, and reaffirmed once again his often repeated conviction that the Age of the Last Law was the most significant period since the death of the Buddha for the propagation of the Lotus Sūtra. Since his age (Age of the Last Law) was the fifth of the five five hundred year periods, Nichiren thought a conflict would take place between the True Buddhism and what he called heretical Buddhism. He stated in the Senji—shō that the persecutions he suffered and the national calamities which the nation experienced were indications of the crisis when the decision between the truth and falsehood, between the one who was a messenger for the Buddha (himself) and his opponents must be decided. In other words, Nichiren saw the crisis facing Japan as the period just prior to the establishment of the True Buddhism, which would flourish during the Age of the Last Law.

Nichiren looked back in the Senji-shō at the persecutions he had to suffer over the years, and examined the prediction he made in order to demonstrate that he had been given the sacred mission, as the messenger of the Buddha, to establish Japan as the center from which the true Buddhism would spread throughout the world.

Nichiren's Senji-Shō, p24
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan.17, 2024

Whoever for as long as a kalpa,
With evil intent and flushed face,
Speaks ill of me,
Will incur immeasurable retributions. Whoever for even a moment
Reproaches those who read, recite and keep
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Will incur even more retributions.

The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. Why is it worse to criticize someone who is even beginning to practice the Wonderful Dharma than it is to criticize the Buddha who is fully enlightened? It is like the difference between kicking a full-grown tree and kicking a young sapling. The Buddha knows how to handle criticism. One who has just started with the Buddha Dharma could be discouraged from this practice through criticism. We should encourage anyone who wants to practice with us.

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

LS32

Day 5

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 5 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable, we return to the start and consider Śāriputra’s reaction to the Buddha’s teaching.

Thereupon Śāriputra, who felt like dancing with joy, stood up, joined his hands together, looked up at the honorable face, and said to the Buddha:
“Hearing this truthful voice of yours, I feel like dancing [with joy]. I have never felt like this before. Why is that? We [Śrāvakas and the Bodhisattvas] heard this Dharma before. [At that time] we saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood, but not that we were. We deeply regretted that we were not given the immeasurable insight of the Tathāgata.

“World-Honored One! I sat alone under a tree or walked about mountains and forests, thinking, ‘We [and the Bodhisattvas] entered the same world of the Dharma. Why does the Tathāgata save us only by the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle?’

“Now I understand that the fault was on our side, not on yours, because if we had waited for your expounding of the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, we would have been saved by the Great Vehicle. When we heard your first teaching, we did not know that that teaching was an expedient one expounded according to our capacities. Therefore, we believed and received that teaching at once, thought it over, and attained the enlightenment [to be attained by that teaching].

“World-Honored One! I reproached myself day and night [after I saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood]. Now I have heard from you the Dharma that I had never heard before. I have removed all my doubts. I am now calm and peaceful in body and mind. Today I have realized that I am your son, that I was born from your mouth, that I was born in [the world of] the Dharma, and that I have obtained the Dharma of the Buddha.”

The Daily Dharma offers this:

Hearing this truthful voice of yours, I feel like dancing [with joy]. I have never felt like this before. Why is that? We [Śrāvakas and the Bodhisattvas] heard this Dharma before. [At that time] we saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood, but not that we were. We deeply regretted that we were not given the immeasurable insight of the Tathāgata.

The Buddha’s disciple Śāriputra makes this proclamation to the Buddha in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha had just explained that everything he taught before the Lotus Sūtra was not his true enlightenment; it was preparation for receiving his highest teaching. Śāriputra, the wisest of the Buddha’s disciples, understood immediately that he would be able to do far more than end his own suffering. He would eventually become a Buddha himself. Those gathered were also overjoyed, knowing that Śākyamuni was not the only Buddha they would meet. This ties together the Buddha’s insight that when we are assured of our enlightenment, we are able to meet innumerable enlightened beings.

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