Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 23-24Q: What practices should be cultivated after arousing the aspiration for enlightenment?
A: One should cultivate the practice of the Six Perfections.
Q: What are the Six Perfections?
A: They are (1) dāna-pāramitā, (2) śīla-pāramitā, (3) kṣānti-pāramitā, (4) vīrya-pāramitā, (5) dhyāna-pāramitā, and (6) prajña-pāramitā.
Q: Are dāna-pāramitā and so forth Sanskrit or Chinese?
A: They are Sanskrit terms.
Q: What are the Chinese equivalents?
A: Dāna means “charity.” Pāramitā means “to reach the other shore,” to leave behind this shore of the cyclic world of birth and death and arrive at the other shore of Nirvāṇa. The term Śīla refers to the precepts. Kṣānti means “patience.” Vīrya means “diligence.” Dhyāna means “putting an end to evil [delusions through meditation].” Prajña means “wisdom.”
Q: What obstacles are overcome through the Perfections of charity, and so forth?
A: Covetousness is overcome through the Perfection of charity. The breaking of precepts is overcome through [the keeping of] precepts. Anger is overcome through patience. Slothfulness is overcome through diligence. Distraction and confusion are overcome through meditation. Ignorance is overcome through wisdom.
Q: How long must one cultivate these Six Perfections?
A: One must pass through three incalculable aeons.
All posts by John Hughes
Seeking Authentic Generosity
Today is the first day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. As explained in a Nichiren Shu brochure:
For Buddhists, this period is not just one characterized by days with almost equal portions of light and dark. Rather, it is a period in which we strive to consciously reflect upon ourselves and our deeds.
Each of the days before and after the equinox are devoted to one of the Six Paramitas, the practice of perfection taught to Bodhisattvas. Today we consider the first perfection, Generosity.
Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 37The … three dangers inherent in the practices of giving – servility, contempt, and poor judgment about the effects of giving – show us something important: they make clear that, although vital, “selflessness” is not all there is to the perfection of generosity. Being unselfish is certainly the most important condition for admirable forms of generosity; we should not underestimate its centrality. But beyond selflessness, there are other essential conditions that are not generally recognized in traditional Buddhist texts. Perhaps this is understandable. Self-centeredness is so pervasive and so powerful an illusion that most energy and ethical strategy has gone into overcoming it. But if it is not the only illusion, then the possibility remains that, in the effort to overcome the pervasive illusions of selfishness, we fail to recognize other imperfections that stand in the way of authentic generosity.
Daily Dharma – March 17, 2023
When they expound the Dharma to the great multitude with their tongues, they will be able to raise deep and wonderful voices, to cause their voices to reach the hearts of the great multitude so that the great multitude may be joyful and cheerful. Hearing their speeches given in good order by their deep and wonderful voices, Śakra, Brahman, and the other gods and goddesses will come and listen to them.
The Buddha declares these lines to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. When we share the Buddha Dharma with others, it is as if the Buddha’s mind is finding voice in our words. It should then come as no surprise to us that beings of all dispositions will want to hear more of what the Buddha has taught us. When we “practice the sūtra with our bodies,” as Nichiren described, when we make this teaching a part of our lives, then we find the words we need to reach all beings and lead them to the Buddha’s enlightenment.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month considered that the teachings of the Buddhas are for the purpose of teaching Bodhisattvas, we consider the Parable of the Burning House.
Śāriputra! Now I will explain this with a parable. Those who have wisdom will be able to understand the reason if they hear the following parable.
“Śāriputra! Suppose there lived a very rich man in a certain country, in a certain village, in a certain town. He was old. His wealth was immeasurable. He had many paddy fields, houses, and servants. His manor house was large, but had only one gate. In that house lived many people, numbering a hundred or two hundred or five hundred. The buildings were in decay, the fences and walls corrupt, the bases of the pillars rotten, and the beams and ridgepoles tilting and slanted.
“All of a sudden fires broke out at the same time from all sides of the house, and it began to burn. In this house lived children of the rich man, numbering ten or twenty or thirty. The rich man was very frightened at the great fires breaking out from the four sides of the house. He thought, ‘I am able to get out of the gate of the burning house safely, but my children are still inside. They are engrossed in playing. They do not know that the fires are coming towards them. They are not frightened or afraid. They are about to suffer, but do not mind. They do not wish to get out.’ Śāriputra! He also thought, ‘I am strong-muscled. I will put them in a flower-plate or on a table and bring them out.’
“But he thought again, ‘This house has only one gate. Worse still, the gate is narrow and small. My children are too young to know this. They are attached to the place where they are playing. They may fall [out of the plate or table] and get burned. I had better tell them of the danger. This house is already burning. They must come out quickly so as not to be burned to death.’
“Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.
The Daily Dharma from Sept. 9, 2022, offers this:
Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.
This passage is part of the Parable of the Burning House, told by the Buddha in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In this story, he compares us living in this world of conflict to children playing in a dangerous house. As the children in the story were too distracted by their games to hear their father’s warnings, we are often too distracted by the attachments of our world to hear the voice of the Buddha.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Final Four Summation
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 43Q: How are these Four Teachings classified with regard to this realm of the [triple] world and the transworldly realm?
A: The two Teachings of the Tripiṭaka and the Shared both correspond to this realm of the [triple] world. Both Distinct and Perfect Teachings correspond to the transworldly realm.
Q: How are they classified with regard to phenomenal appearances and reality?
A: The Tripiṭaka Teaching corresponds to the phenomenal appearances of this realm. The Shared Teaching corresponds to the reality of this realm. The Distinct Teaching corresponds to the phenomenal appearances of the transworldly realm, and the Perfect Teaching corresponds to the reality of the transworldly realm.
Q: How are they classified with regard to Hinayāna and Mahāyāna?
A: The Tripiṭaka Teaching belongs to the Hinayāna. The Shared Teaching is common to both the Mahāyāna and the Hinayāna. The Distinct and Perfect Teachings are completely Mahāyāna.
Q: Also, how are they classified with regard to the tentative and the real?
A: The first three are tentative, and the last one is real.
Daily Dharma – March 16, 2023
If they think that I am always here, and do not think that I will pass away, they will become too arrogant and lazy to realize the difficulty of seeing me, and they will not respect me. Therefore I say [to them] expediently, ’Bhikṣus, know this! It is difficult to see a Buddha who appears in [this] world.’
The Buddha makes this explanation to those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. We may wonder what took the Buddha so long to give his highest teaching to us, whether he was holding it back because of stinginess, not wanting to share the great treasure of his wisdom. Here and in other parts of the Sūtra, he shows that unless we cultivate our respect for the Buddha, and thus for all beings, we take him for granted and lose his precious wisdom.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 4
Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered why the Buddha chose to use expedient teachings, we consider those who have already attained the enlightenment of the Buddha.
Those who met a past Buddha,
Who heard the Dharma from him,
And who obtained various merits and virtues
By almsgiving or by observing the precepts
Or by patience or by making endeavors
Or by dhyāna or by wisdom,
Have already attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who, after the extinction of a Buddha,
Were good and gentle,
Have already attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who, after the extinction of a Buddha,
Erected billions of stupas,
And who purely and extensively adorned [those stupas]
With treasures
Such as gold, silver, crystal,
Shell, agate, ruby, and lapis lazuli,
And who offered those adornments to his śarīras;
Or those who made the mausoleum [of the Buddha]
With stone, bricks, or clay,
Or with many kinds of wood,
Such as candana, aloes, or agalloch;
Or those who made the mausoleum of the Buddha
With heaps of earth
In the wilderness;
Or the boys who made the stupa of the Buddha
With heaps of sand by playing,
Have already attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who carved an image of the Buddha
With the [proper] physical marks in his honor
Have already attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who made an image of the Buddha
With the seven treasures;
Or those who made it
Of copper, copper-gold alloy, nickel,
Pewter lead, tin, iron, wood, or clay;
Or those who made it in plaster work,
Have already attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who drew or caused others to draw in color
A picture of the Buddha adorned with his physical marks,
Each mark representing one hundred merits,
Have already attained the enlightenment of the Buddha.The boys who by playing drew
A picture of the Buddha
With a piece of grass or wood,
Or with a brush,
Or with the back of their fingernails,
Became able to accumulate merits one by one.
Having great compassion towards others,
They attained the enlightenment of the Buddha,
Taught only Bodhisattvas,
And saved many living beings.Those who respectfully offered
Flowers, incense, streamers, and canopies
Enshrined in a stupa-mausoleum;
Or those who caused men to make music
By beating drums, by blowing horns and conches,
And by playing reed-pipes, flutes, lyres, harps,
Lutes, gongs, and copper cymbals,
And offered the wonderful sounds produced thereby
To the image or picture of the Buddha;
Or those who sang joyfully in praise of him for his virtues;
Or those who just murmured [in praise of him],
Have already attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who, without concentrating their minds,
Offered nothing but a flower to the picture of the Buddha,
Became able to see
Innumerable Buddhas one after another.Those who bowed to the image of the Buddha,
Or just joined their hands together towards it,
Or raised only one hand towards it,
Or bent their head a little towards it
And offered the bending to it,
Became able to see innumerable Buddhas one after another.
They attained unsurpassed enlightenment,
Saved countless living beings,
And entered into the Nirvana-without-remainder
Just as fire dies out when wood is gone.Those who entered a stupa-mausoleum
And said only once “Namo Buddhaya,”
Without even concentrating their minds,
Have already attained the enlightenment of the Buddha.Those who heard the Dharma
In the lifetime of a past Buddha
Or after his extinction
Have already attained the enlightenment of the Buddha.
The Daily Dharma from Dec. 2, 2022, offers this:
Those who, without concentrating their minds,
Offered nothing but a flower to the picture of the Buddha,
Became able to see
Innumerable Buddhas one after another.
We can read these words of the Buddha from Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra as if we had to wait until another life to see Buddhas. But by making offerings to an image of the Buddha, by practicing respect towards a representation of the Buddha, we start to look for and recognize the Buddha in ourselves and in all of the beings who share the world with us. When we see this world of conflict and suffering as the Buddha’s Pure Land, then we see all beings as our enlightened teachers. We see innumerable Buddhas.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Perfect Buddhahood
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 42Q: What is ultimate Buddhahood in the Perfect Teaching?
A: The self-wrought reward body of enjoyment of the Tathāgata Vairocana.
Q: How is this known?
A: In the Mo-ho chih-kuan [Chih-I’s The Great Calming and Contemplation] it says, “If one contemplates Twelvefold Conditioned Co-arising and culminates the reality of the Middle Path, this refers to the Buddha Vairocana of the Perfect Teaching. When he is seated on the seat of enlightenment, it becomes the seat of emptiness.” The Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra Upadeśa says, “Secondly, manifesting the wisdom of the Buddha [as reward body] and completing the practices of the Ten Stages, one attains the enlightenment of eternal Nirvāṇa, because, as the Lotus Sutra says, ‘Good sons, I have actually already attained Buddhahood immeasurable and unlimited hundreds and thousands and millions and billions of aeons ago.’ ” The Sutra of Meditation of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue [Pu hsien kuan Ching] says, “The Buddha Śākyamuni is called ‘Vairocana Who Pervades All Places.’ This Buddha’s abode is called ‘Eternal Tranquil Light.’ It is a place that embodies the perfection of permanence; a place where the perfection of the selfhood is established; a place where the marks of Being are extinguished by the perfection of purity; a place where the marks of body and mind do not abide due to the perfection of pleasure.”
Daily Dharma – March 15, 2023
If anyone, guilty or not, calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is bound up in manacles, fetters, pillories or chains, those things [in which he is bound up] will break asunder, and he will be saved.
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. The bonds of ignorance and delusion in which we find ourselves are not the result of our personal inadequacy, and neither do they come entirely from the circumstances of the world around us. But these bonds are real, and in our struggles to escape we often just make them worse. When we remember World-Voice Perceiver, the embodiment of compassion, and call on her for help, then we awaken compassion within ourselves and others in the world, and break the bonds of delusion for everyone.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 3
Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.
Having last month considered the Buddha’s hesitance to preach the Dharma, we consider what happened when the Buddha agreed to preach the Dharma.
Thereupon the World-Honored One said to him:
“You asked me three times with enthusiasm. How can I leave the Dharma unexpounded? Listen to me attentively, and think over my words! Now I will expound [the Dharma] to you.”
When he had said this, five thousand people among the bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās of this congregation rose from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and retired because they were so sinful and arrogant that they thought that they had already obtained what they had not yet, and that they had already understood what they had not yet. Because of these faults, they did not stay. The World-Honored One kept silence and did not check them.
Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Śāriputra:
“Now this congregation has been cleared of twigs and leaves, only sincere people being left. Śāriputra! Those arrogant people may go. Now listen to me attentively! I will expound [the Dharma] to you.”
Śāriputra said, “Certainly, World-Honored One! I wish to hear you.”
The Buddha said to him:
“The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, expound this Wonderful Dharma as rarely as the udumbara-flower blooms. Śāriputra! Believe what I am going to say! My words are not false.
“Śāriputra! The purpose of the various teachings that the Buddhas expound according to the capacities of all living beings is difficult to understand. I also expound various teachings with innumerable expedients, that is to say, with stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses. [The purpose of the various teachings of the Buddhas is difficult to understand] because the Dharma cannot be understood by reasoning. Only the Buddhas know the Dharma because the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds only for one great purpose.
“Śāriputra! What is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds? The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Śāriputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.”
The Buddha said to Śāriputra:
“The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas. All they do is for one purpose, that is, to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha.
The Daily Dharma from Feb. 7, 2023, offers this:
The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas. All they do is for one purpose, that is, to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha.
The Buddha speaks these words in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra. Here he emphasizes the importance of practice for reaching enlightenment. We may think that just hearing what the Buddha teaches is enough to reach his insight of seeing things for what they are. We also need to be actively engaged with the world, doing our best, making mistakes, and confident that we can continue to learn how to make things better. This is no different from the mistaken belief that one can learn how to cook by merely reading recipes. Only by going in the kitchen and making something can one gain the insight of whoever came up with the recipe.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com