All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Day 25 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered a Buddha called Powerful-Voice-King, we consider a Bodhisattva called Never-Despising.

“There lived arrogant bhikṣus in the age of the counterfeit of the right teachings of the first Powerful-Voice-King Tathāgata, that is, after the end of the age of his right teachings which had come immediately after his extinction. [Those arrogant bhikṣus] were powerful. At that time there lived a Bodhisattva called Never-Despising. He took the form of a bhikṣu.

“Great-Power-Obtainer! Why was this bhikṣu called Never-Despising? It was because, every time he saw bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās, he bowed to them and praised them, saying, ‘I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is that? It is because you will be able to practice the Way of Bodhisattvas and become Buddhas.’

“He did not read or recite sūtras. He only bowed to the four kinds of devotees. When he saw them in the distance, he went to them on purpose, bowed to them, and praised them, saying, ‘I do not despise you because you can become Buddhas.’

“Some of the four kinds of devotees had impure minds. They got angry, spoke ill of him and abused him, saying, ‘Where did this ignorant bhikṣu come from? He says that he does not despise us and assures us that we will become Buddhas. We do not need such a false assurance of our future Buddhahood.’ Although he was abused like this for many years, he did not get angry. He always said to them, ‘You will become Buddhas.’

“When he said this, people would strike him with a stick, a piece of wood, a piece of tile or a stone. He would run away to a distance, and say in a loud voice from afar, ‘I do not despise you. You will become Buddhas.’ Because he always said this, he was called Never-Despising by the arrogant bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās and upāsikās. When he was about to pass away, he heard [from a voice] in the sky the twenty thousand billion gāthās of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which had been expounded by the Powerful-Voice-King Buddha. Having kept all these gāthās, he was able to have his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind purified as previously stated. Having his six sense-organs purified, he was able to prolong his life for two hundred billion nayuta more years. He expounded this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to many people [in his prolonged life]. The arrogant bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās and upāsikās, that is, the four kinds of devotees who had abused him and caused him to be called Never-Despising, saw that he had obtained great supernatural powers, the power of eloquence, and the great power of good tranquility. Having seen all this, and having heard the Dharma from him, they took faith in him, and followed him.

“This Bodhisattva also taught thousands of billions of living beings, and led them into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. After the end of his prolonged life, he was able to meet two hundred thousand million Buddhas, all of them being called Sun-Moon-Light. He also expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma under them. After that, he was able to meet two hundred thousand million Buddhas, all of them being called Cloud-Freedom-Light-King. He also kept, read and recited this sūtra, and expounded it to the four kinds of devotees under those Buddhas so that he was able to have his natural eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind purified and to become fearless in expounding the Dharma to the four kinds of devotees.

The Daily Dharma from June 1, 2023, offers this:

Why was this bhikṣu called Never-Despising? It was because, every time he saw bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇis, upāsakas or upāsikās, he bowed to them and praised them, saying, ‘I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is that? It is because you will be able to practice the Way of Bodhisattvas and become Buddhas.’

The Buddha gives this description of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. The only practice of this Bodhisattva was to show his respect to all people, whether or not they respected him. This practice was so important, the Buddha used it as an example of what he practiced in a previous life to enable him to become enlightened.

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

Blog, Lee: Tanaka

Nichiren and Nationalism

Having offered a selection of quotes from Professor Jacqueline I. Stone discussing Chigaku Tanaka’s drive to create the Honmon No Kaidan and his Millennialist vision, I am offering some insights from Edwin B. Lee, who in 1975 was a professor of History at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. His article, “Nichiren and Nationalism: The Religious Patriotism of Tanaka Chigaku,” published in the Spring 1975 issue of Monumenta Nipponica, was referenced in Stone’s essays.

As I work my way through these descriptions of Tanaka, I want to echo Lee’s sentiment:

The man was Tanaka Chigaku (1861-1939), a name familiar now only to conscientious scholars of Nichiren Buddhism, but deserving of attention by any student of modern Japanese history who seeks to understand the part played by Buddhism in developments often regarded as Shinto-imbued, if not totally secular.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Lee: Tanaka

Chigaku Tanaka’s early life

Born [December 14, 1861] in Edo just seven years before the transfer of the imperial capital from Kyoto was to change the city’s name to Tokyo, Tanaka Chigaku was the third son of a physician named Tada Genryū and his second wife. Tada Genryū died in February 1870, a few months after the death of his wife, but his influence upon his youngest child seems to have been considerable. He was a Buddhist, in early life a devotee of the Amidist Pure Land sect and later a convert to Nichiren, and he is reputed to have instilled in his children a deep commitment to Nichiren doctrine and, concomitantly, an ingrained distrust of the established church. Apparently an enthusiastic tippler, Genryū, in his cups, once exclaimed, ‘If you want to write good poems, don’t become a poet; if you want to understand Buddhism, don’t become a priest. Miso that smells like miso is not good miso.’ Yet the Nichiren priesthood seemed precisely the career for which Genryū’s third son was destined when young Tanaka, in a move presumably viewed by his half-brothers as a means of obtaining an eductaion, was enrolled, two months after his father’s death, as a novice in a Nichiren temple in northeastern Tokyo. What was to be a relatively short academic career thus began in the spring of 1870, and during its course Tanaka moved successively from scholar to scholar and from temple to temple, mostly in the northern part of Tokyo and nearby Chiba prefecture, until finally, in 1874, he entered the Daikyō-in, the newly opened Nichiren academy, a predecessor of Risshō University.

By this time he had adopted the name Tanaka Chigaku, the surname as a result of government order (Tada Genryū’s original family name had been Tanaka) and the sobriquet “Chigaku” (‘Wisdom and learning’) in honor of an early teacher, Chikyō-in Nisshin. According to his biographers, within two years of his enrollment in the academy, Tanaka became disillusioned by what he regarded as the discrepancies between the accommodating views of Nichiren sectarian leaders, caught up in the problem of preserving their institutions in the midst of the government’s support of Shinto, and the absolutist doctrines of Nichiren himself. It is not inconceivable, however, that Tanaka, like many other students, simply became frustrated with the stiff requirements of formal education and, consciously or not, began to seek an excuse for dropping out. At any rate, he fell victim to pneumonia in December 1876 as he began to prepare for his graduation examinations, and the next two years were marked by recurrences of illness whenever he seemed ready to resume his studies.

These were not, however, years of idleness. Tanaka continued to study on his own the Lotus Sutra, the works of Nichiren, and some of the ancient texts of Japanese history. He read voraciously, and by the time he finally determined to renounce his priestly vows early in 1879, he had most likely acquired an understanding of Buddhist fundamentals deeper than that of students whose education followed the ordinary course. A short, unsuccessful venture as an adoptive son of the Tanuma family then followed, at the instigation of his half-brothers, but by the late spring of 1880 Tanaka had determined to embark upon a career as a lay propagandist of ‘true’ Nichiren Buddhism.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Daily Dharma, d18b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 19, 2023

Only perverted people say:
“All things exist,” or “Nothing exists,”
Or “All things are real,” or “Nothing is real,”
Or “All things are born,” or “Nothing is born.”

The Buddha declares these verses in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. Hearing these descriptions can be confusing. We think that we have to choose from among these views, and that these are the only views possible. The Buddha shows us another way. When we think of things as either unchanging or nonexistent, we live in a world of either judgement or despair. The Buddha shows us how to value what exists as it is changing and not attach ourselves to our expectations of stability. It is only because we are changing, and the world is changing around us, that we have the potential to become enlightened.

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

LS32

Day 24

Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 24 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās the first half of the eight hundred merits of the nose, we consider in gāthās the remainder of the eight hundred merits of the nose.

He will be able to recognize by smell
The gold, silver, and other treasures
Deposited underground,
And the things enclosed in a copper box.

He will be able to know by smell
The values of various necklaces,
And the deposits of their materials,
And also to locate the necklaces [when they are lost].

He will be able to recognize by smell
The mandārava-flowers,
And the mañjūṣaka-flowers,
And the pārijātaka-trees in heaven.

He will be able to know by smell
Whether a heavenly palace
Adorned with jeweled flowers
Is superior, mean or inferior.

He will be able to recognize by smell
Gardens, forests, excellent palaces,
And the wonderful hall of the Dharma in heaven,
And other stately buildings where [the gods] enjoy themselves.

He will be able to know by smell
Whether the gods are hearing the Dharma
Or satisfying their five desires,
Or coming, going, walking, sitting or reclining.

He will be able to know by smell
Whether the goddesses, clad in the garments
Adorned with fragrant flowers,
Are playing as they are moving about.

He will be able to know by smell
Who has reached the Heaven of Brahman,
Who has entered into dhyāna,
And who has come out of it.

He will be able to know by smell
The person who has appeared for the first time in the Light-Sound Heaven
Or in the Universal-Pure Heaven or in the Highest Heaven,
And who has disappeared from there.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra
Will be able to locate by smell
The bhikṣus who are sitting or walking about
In seeking the Dharma strenuously,
And the bhikṣus who are reading or reciting [this] sūtra
Or devoting themselves
To sitting in dhyāna
Under the trees of forests.

He will be able to know by smell
The Bodhisattvas who are resolute in mind,
And who are sitting in dhyāna or reading [this] sūtra
Or reciting it or expounding it to others.

He will be able to locate by smell
The World-Honored One who is expounding the Dharma
Out of his compassion
Towards all living beings who respect him.

He will be able to know by smell
Those who rejoice at hearing [this] sūtra
From the Buddha,
And act according to the Dharma.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra
Will be able to have these merits of the nose
Although he has not yet obtained the nose
Of the Bodhisattva [who attained] the
Dharma without āsravas.

See Becoming A Teacher of the Dharma

Blog, Stone: Tanaka Millennialism

A Millennial Vision of World Peace Founded on Nichiren’s Teachings

While the quote below is off the topic of Chigaku Tanaka and Japanese imperialism, I wanted to include it because it offers an interesting insight into the differences between Sōka Gakkai and Risshō Kōsei-kai on the topic of the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra.

A millennial vision of “world peace” is also central to the two lay Buddhist organizations, Sōka Gakkai and Risshō Kōsei-kai, the largest of Japan’s so-called New Religions and both based on the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of Nichiren. … Founded before the war, both achieved their greatest growth in the postwar decades. …

The two groups have different understandings of how the ideal society is to be achieved (Stone 1997). Sōka Gakkai maintains that only the spread of Nichiren’s teachings can bring about world peace; in the light of Nichiren’s Risshō ankoku ron, adherence to other, “false” religions is ultimately blamed for the tragedy of Japan’s defeat in World War Il. This conviction underlay the organization’s aggressive missionizing in the postwar years. Risshō Kōsei-kai, for its part, takes an ecumenical approach; the “Lotus Sutra” is understood as the fundamental truth—God, Allah, or the one vehicle—at the heart of all great religions. Its cofounder and longtime president, Niwano Nikkyō (1906-1999), was active in promoting worldwide interfaith cooperation for peace. Central to both organizations, however, is a progressive millennialism, pursued, not through the transformation of existing social structures (as advocated in Ishiwara’s postwar millennialism), nor through civil protest (as practiced by Nihonzan Myōhōji), but by personal religious cultivation and by working within the system for social improvement. Both groups hold that war and other social evils have their roots in the greed, anger, and delusion of individuals; therefore, it is individual efforts in self-cultivation and promoting harmony in everyday relations—rather than diplomatic or political efforts—that will fundamentally establish world peace. What is needed, in Sōka Gakkai parlance, is not social revolution but “human revolution,” the positive transformation of character said to come about through Buddhist practive.

Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p277-278
Daily Dharma, d14b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 18, 2023

You, the World-Honored One, are the light of wisdom.
Hearing from you
That we are assured of our future Buddhahood,
We are as joyful as if we were sprinkled with nectar.

These verses are sung by two thousand of the Buddha’s disciples in Chapter Nine of the Lotus Sūtra. When these followers of the Buddha were told that they would become as enlightened as he was, then many others like them realized that they too had this capacity. The superiority of the Lotus Sūtra lies not in having better explanations of what the Buddha taught, or in some supernatural ability it has to change the world. The superiority of the Lotus Sūtra is its completeness. It leads all beings to the joy of enlightenment.

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

LS32

Day 23

Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 23 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month conclude Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, we begin Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and consider the merits earned by keeping, reading, reciting, expounding or copying this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Thereupon the Buddha said to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva:

“The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind. They will be able to adorn and purify their six sense-organs with these merits.

The Daily Dharma from May 28, 2023, offers this:

The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind.

The Buddha gives this teaching in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This is another reminder that the practice of the Wonderful Dharma does not take us out of the world of conflict we live in. Instead, it helps us to use the senses we have, in ways we did not think were possible, to see the world for what it is. Merits in this sense are not status symbols. They are an indication of clarity, of our faculties not being impeded by anything that blocks their capacity.

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

Stone: Tanaka Millennialism

The Defeated General Who Became a Lotus Sutra Pacifist

One of the earliest articulations of postwar Lotus-inspired millennial hopes for peace can be found, astonishingly enough, in the last writings of General Ishiwara Kanji. …
Purged from public life and in failing health, Ishiwara retired in 1946 with a group of disciples to the village of Nishiyama on the Japan Sea, where he devoted his remaining years to pondering how Japan and the world might be regenerated through Nichiren’s teaching.  Before his death, he arrived at a new Lotus-inspired millennial vision, one that broke utterly with the violence he had previously advocated.
Ishiwara’s new vision called for establishment of a modern agrarian society in which the tasks of production would be performed communally by village units of about a dozen families and where men and women would rank equally, a person’s work being decided on the basis of ability rather than gender. In a long tract dictated shortly before his death in 1949, Ishiwara interpreted Nichiren’s prediction of a time when “the wind will not thrash the branches nor the rain fall hard enough to break clods” in terms of a future society in which science, politics, and religion were perfectly harmonized. Science, “having obtained the Buddha wisdom,” would enable control of the weather and eliminate the ravages of storms. Homes, villages, and factories, engineered by the new science, would be pleasantly integrated into a natural environment of forests and streams. For a few hours each day, everyone, even the imperial family, would work wholeheartedly in the fields, factories, or at other tasks. Then, in the ample leisure afforded by rational social management, people would devote themselves to study, art, dance, sport, or other pursuits.  An abundance of commodities would eliminate all inequity of distribution. Acute illness would be conquered by science, and chronic disease would vanish with a way of life that had “returned to nature.” Advances in flight technology would make the world smaller, “like a single town,” and through mixed marriages based on natural affection, “all humanity will gradually become a single race” (Ishiwara 1949, 128—30).
What had not changed in Ishiwara’s thinking was the notion of a unique role for Japan:
Our vows and efforts for risshō ankoku will surely be achieved in a few decades. The time when, throughout the world, all will embrace the Wonderful Dharma is approaching before our eyes. At this time, we who once tasted the wretchedness of defeat have gained the good fortune of receiving the supreme command to lead the world in establishing a nation without armaments. … Cleansing ourselves of the dross, both material and spiritual, of humanity’s prior history, we shall create a new Japan as a literal treasure realm, an actualized Buddha land, setting a correct course for human civilization. This will not only work to atone for the crimes against humanity committed in the Pacific War; it is the one, sole way by which to live. (1949, 126)
Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p274-276
Daily Dharma, d22b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 17, 2023

Ajita! They need not build a stūpa or a monastery in my honor, or make the four kinds of offerings to the Saṃgha because those who keep, read and recite this sūtra should be considered to have already built a stūpa or a monastery or made offerings to the Saṃgha.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita – Invincible, in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our zeal to emulate the great deeds of the Buddha, or even of our founder Nichiren, we might believe that only by extraordinary accomplishments can we show our gratitude for this teaching. The Buddha reminds us in this chapter that because we are practicing his Dharma in this world of conflict, we have already made these extraordinary accomplishments. He also reminds us that others who practice with us should be treated with the same admiration we have for anyone who has done valuable work.

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