All posts by John Hughes

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Diligent Practice

TOKIDONO GOSHO

Nichiren’s followers must strive to attain Buddhahood by shortening sleeping hours and by cutting the time for rest. If not, you will repent forever.

(Background: August 23, 1277, 55 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.1373)

Explanatory note

Nichiren himself reached the realization that he is the manifestation of the Bodhisattva Visista Charitra (Jogyo Bosatsu) through his understanding and practice of the Lotus Sutra and through the four major and numerous lesser persecutions.
The above quotation is from the last section of his letter to Lord Toki, in which Daishonin shows what is expected of his followers. He says, “Do not sleep too long and do not waste time; concentrate on the attainment of Buddhahood at all times.”

How strict he was!

Such an intensity is required if we are to live for our faith. As we reflect on our behavior, we notice that some of us gladly torture ourselves to pass examinations, or we don’t complain of hardships if they were for the attainment of our business goals. But these are only transient goals. Our true goal has to be the perfection of ourselves as human beings. It is a difficult task indeed to keep the above oath in mind all the time. We must, however, continuously reaffirm the religious goal and never let it escape from our mind.

Rev. Ikuta

Phrase A Day

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 18, 2023

You skillfully expound the Dharma with various parables and similes,
And with various stories of previous lives.
Now my mind is as peaceful as the sea.
Hearing you, I have removed the mesh of doubts.

Śāriputra, the wisest of the Buddha’s disciples, sings these verses in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. After the Buddha announced in Chapter Two that he had not revealed his highest wisdom, that everything he had taught before then was preparation, Śāriputra was the first to understand what the Buddha meant. The parables, similes and other parts of the Lotus Sūtra help us to understand how to read them, and how to make them real in our lives. When we find the true purpose of what the Buddha is teaching us, our mind and the world become peaceful together.

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

LS32

Day 15

Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Day 15 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the requirements for expounding the Lotus Sutra, we consider the Buddha’s promise to manifest men and women to hear the dharma from the Teacher of the Dharma.

“Medicine-King! Although I shall be in another world [after my extinction], I will manifest men and women [by my supernatural powers], dispatch them [to the expounder of the Dharma], and have them collect people to hear the Dharma from him. I also will manifest monks, nuns and men or women of faith [by my supernatural powers], dispatch them, and have them hear the Dharma from them. These people manifested [by my supernatural powers] will hear the Dharma [from him], receive it by faith, follow it, and not oppose it. If he lives in a retired place, I will dispatch gods, dragons, demigods, gandharvas, asuras, and others to him, and have them hear the Dharma from him. Although I shall be in another world, I will cause him to see me from time to time. If he forgets a phrase of this sūtra, I will tell it to him for his complete [understanding].”

See The Teacher of the Dharma

Important Matters

Concentrated Meditative Active Presence

The concentration one can achieve by chanting can elevate the mind and life condition in ways I do not believe silent sitting can. The transcendent effect of meditation is multiplied when the mind is carried into the heart of the sutra or Odaimoku through concentrated meditative active presence.

Important Matters, p 34
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Self Respect

SENJI-SHO

Since we were born in this kingdom, our bodies must obey the ruler, but our mind and spirit never obey.

(Background : June 1275, 53 years old, at Minobu, Showa Teihon, p.1053)

Explanatory note

If you are to live each day without accomplishing anything, there is no need to think anything, and no need to be alert about anything. But if you are to ponder seriously about life, firmly ascertain the teachings of the true guidance, and to spread them to the world, then you must clearly be aware of the ground on which you stand.

“Senji-sho” is a tract in which Nichiren Daishonin showed his followers how to live in accordance with the faith in the Lotus Sutra. It was written at a time of crisis when the people of Japan lived in fear created by the imminent attack on Japan by the Mongolian Army which had conquered Turkey in the west and China and Korea in the east.

Nichiren’s words presented here tell us how the followers of the Lotus Sutra must behave. This world is governed by our original teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni. But once we are born in a country, we must abide by the law of the land. However, no one can interfere with our faith that we are in the salvation of our original teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni. Nichiren expresses the freedom of our mind and spirit. Therefore, the above quotation must be understood to be a cry from the heart of Nichiren. We, his followers, must act according to these words when circumstances push us to the very limit of our endurance.

Rev. Ikuta

Phrase A Day

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 17, 2023

It is useless to stack up a pile of treasures in your storehouse if you are in poor health. Therefore the value of a healthy body is more important than treasures in the storehouse. At the same time, however, a healthy body means nothing if your mind is not pure. This is why we can say that our most precious treasure is our mind itself. Upon reading this letter, please try to accumulate the treasure of your mind.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his “Emperor Shushun” Letter (Sushun Tennō Gosho) addressed to his disciple Shijō Kingo. We can become so focused on acquiring material resources to meet the needs of our bodies, that we neglect to care for our health. A sick man in a mansion cannot be happy. Nichiren points out that even when we have physical health, if our minds are clouded by delusion, we cannot be happy either. The practice of the Wonderful Dharma can bring great physical and material benefits. But more importantly, this practice helps us prepare our minds to appreciate what we have and use it 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 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 14 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the promise of Buddhahood for those who keep, read, recite, expound and copy even a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, we consider the evil of criticizing those who read and recite this sutra.

“Medicine-King! An evil man who speaks ill of me in my presence with evil intent for as long as a kalpa is not as sinful as the person who reproaches laymen or monks with even a single word of abuse for their reading and reciting the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

“Medicine-King! Anyone who reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, know this, will be adorned just as I am. I will shoulder him. Wherever he may be, bow to him! Join your hands together towards him with all your heart, respect him, make offerings to him, honor him, and praise him! Offer him flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, canopies, banners, streamers, garments, food and various kinds of music! Make him the best offerings that you can obtain in the world of men! Strew the treasures of heaven to him! Offer him heaps of the treasures of heaven! Why is that? It is because, while he is expounding the Dharma with joy, if you hear it even for a moment, you will immediately be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

The Daily Dharma from Oct. 11, 2022, offers this:

Medicine-King! An evil man who speaks ill of me in my presence with evil intent for as long as a kalpa is not as sinful as the person who reproaches laymen or monks with even a single word of abuse for their reading and reciting the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Buddha declares this sentence in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. Since the Buddha is secure in the enlightenment he enjoys, anyone attacking him either questioning his enlightenment or disparaging his wisdom is only going to make themselves look bad. Attacking someone just starting on the path towards enlightenment could lead them to doubt the value of the Wonderful Dharma. It is beneficial to remember these words, not just for what they mean about how we treat others, but for how we treat ourselves.

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

Blog, Kern, d16b

The Details of the Stūpa of Treasures

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, is another chapter where several details mark the differences between Senchu Murano’s English translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra and H. Kern’s English translation of an 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra.

Take the act of Śākyamuni opening the Stūpa of Treasures.

Murano offers:

Now he opened the door of the stūpa of the seven treasures with the fingers of his right hand. The opening of the door made a sound as large as that of the removal of the bolt and lock of the gate of a great city.

While Kern says:

The Lord then, with the right forefinger, unlocked the middle of the great Stūpa of jewels, which showed like a meteor, and so severed the two parts. Even as the double doors of a great city gate separate when the bolt is removed, so the Lord opened the great Stūpa, which showed like a meteor, by unlocking it in the middle with the right forefinger.

Interestingly, Leon Hurvitz’s English translation, which merges Kumārajīva’s Chinese with a Sanskrit compilation, says Śākyamuni used “his right finger” to open the door.

The description of the Buddha Many Treasures is significantly different between Murano and Kern.

Murano says:

At that instant all the congregation saw Many Treasures Tathāgata sitting with his perfect and undestroyed body on the lion-like seat in the stūpa of treasures as if he had been sitting in dhyāna-concentration. They also heard him say:

“Excellent, excellent! You, Śākyamuni Buddha, have joyfully expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. I have come to hear this sūtra [directly from you].”

But Kern adds:

The great Stūpa of jewels had no sooner been opened than the Lord Prabhūtaratna, the Tathāgata, &c., was seen sitting cross-legged on his throne, with emaciated limbs and faint body, as if absorbed in abstract meditation, and he pronounced these words: Excellent, excellent, Lord Śākyamuni; thou hast well expounded this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law. I repeat, thou hast well expounded this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law, Lord Śākyamuni, to the (four) classes of the assembly. I myself, Lord, have come hither to hear the Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law.

As for Hurvitz, he has the body “whole and undecayed” and says nothing of “emaciated limbs” or “faint body.”

Then there’s the Lion’s Roar that’s heard. But who roared?

Murano says:

(The Buddha said to the great multitude.)
Who will protect
And keep this sūtra,
And read and recite it
After my extinction?
Make a vow before me to do this!

Many-Treasures Buddha,
Who had passed away a long time ago,
Made a loud voice like the roar of a lion
According to his great vow.

But Kern says:

10. Let him who after my extinction shall keep this Dharmaparyāya quickly pronounce his declaration in the presence of the Lords of the world.

11. The Seer Prabhūtaratna who, though completely extinct, is awake, will hear the lion’s roar of him who shall take this resolution.

Hurvitz notes the Sanskrit variation but sticks with Many Jewels roaring.

The differences in Chapter 11, as with earlier chapters, are significant but not consequential. It’s still all the Lotus Sutra.

Next: Lessons of Devadatta and the Dragon King’s Daughter

Important Matters

Sutra Chanting

What I’m about to say won’t end the debate over whether chanting or sutra reciting is meditation, yet I am going to once again say that in every way it is as much meditation as anything is, including silent sitting. Silent sitting and all the permutations of mindfulness practice are mostly a Western phenomena. Silent meditation is not now nor has it ever been a primary practice for Buddhists. Even today the most common form of practice is sutra chanting. This is not a Japanese thing. This is a Buddhist thing.

Important Matters, p 33
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Eternal Truth

RISSHO ANKOKU RON

You should promptly convert your wrong faith to the belief in the true and one vehicle faith at once. Then the triple world of the unenlightened will all become the land of the Buddha. Will the land of the Buddha decay? All the lands in ten directions will become the “treasure land.” Will the “treasure land” be destroyed? When the land does not decay and is not destroyed, your body is safe and your heart tranquil. Believe these words and revere them.

(Background : July 1260, 38 years old, at Kamakura, Showa Teihon, p.226)

(Explanatory note)
Presented to the ex-Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, Hojo Tokiyori, the “Rissho Ankoku Ron” consists of questions and answers between a master of a house and his guest. The following is the master’s last advice to the guest to have the true faith:

“You must change your faith as soon as possible and convert yourself to the Lotus Sutra which is the supreme teaching of the Buddha. Then the Triple World * will all become the land of the Buddha. How can the land of the Buddha decay? Also the ten directions — all the lands will become the ‘treasure land.’ How can the ‘treasure land’ be destroyed?” ( * The Triple World is the world of unenlightened beings. It is divided into three: the world of desire, form, and formlessness.)

“If there is no decay or destruction of the land, the life of the inhabitants will be peaceful and their hearts will be tranquil and happy. This is not my arbitrary opinion, but it is based on Buddhist scriptures. It is as I explained it before, and you should have no objection. You should believe in my words open-mindedly and respect them from your heart. It is the road to the right religion and peace of society.”

The most important teaching in the Lotus Sutra is “This world is identical with the Buddha Land of Tranquil Light.” (The Buddha Land is the place where there is no birth and death, no disturbance by evil passion and delusion, but is shone by the rays of wisdom.) We are surely wandering in this puzzled world, but we are also able to become Buddhas. It is our duty to devote ourselves to this ideal stage. Thus, Nichiren insisted that we should believe in the teaching of the Lotus Sutra and do our best for peace and salvation of all mankind.

Rev. Hori

Phrase A Day