All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma, WONS

Daily Dharma – Oct. 2, 2022

You have a grandson, Lord Jibu, who is a Buddhist priest. This priest is neither an upholder of precepts nor especially rich in wisdom. He neither observes even one of the 250 precepts nor maintains even one of the 3000 solemn rules of conduct. In wisdom he is like a horse or a cow while in dignity he is like a monkey. Nevertheless, what he reveres is Śākyamuni Buddha and what he believes in is the Lotus Sutra. This is like a snake holding a gem or a dragon gratefully holding the relics of the Buddha in Dharma Body.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on the Ullambana Service (Urabon Gosho) written to the Grandmother of Lord Jibu. While it may seem to us that Nichiren is criticizing Lord Jibu, he is praising the young man in the highest terms. Our ability to use the Wonderful Dharma to benefit others does not depend on our skill, dedication or wisdom. It depends only on our devotion to the Ever-Present Buddha Śākyamuni, and our confidence and faith in the Lotus Sūtra.

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

LS32

Day 9

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Day 9 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered how the Buddha is like the cloud, we consider how the various disciples are like the various plants.

I am attached to nothing.
I am hindered by nothing.
I always expound the Dharma
To all living beings equally.
I expound the Dharma to many
In the same way as to one.

I always expound the Dharma.
I do nothing else.
I am not tired of expounding the Dharma
While I go or come or sit or stand.
I expound the Dharma to all living beings
Just as the rain waters all the earth.

I am not tired of giving
The rain of the Dharma to all living beings.
I have no partiality for them,
Whether they are noble or mean,
Whether they observe or violate the precepts,
Whether they live a monastic life or not,
Whether they have right or wrong views,
Whether they are clever or dull .

Those who hear the Dharma from me
Will reach various stages
[Of enlightenment]
According to their capacities.

Those who live among gods and men,
Or those who live with a wheel-turning-holy-king,
Or with King Sakra or with King Brahman,
May be likened to the small herbs.

Those who know the Dharma-without-āsravas,
Who attained Nirvana,
And who obtained the six supernatural powers,
Including the three major supernatural powers,
May be likened to the middle herbs.
So may those who live alone in mountains or forests,
Who practice dhyāna-concentrations,
And who attained the enlightenment of cause-knowers.

Those who seek the stage of the World-Honored One,
Who practice endeavors and concentration of mind,
And who wish to become Buddhas,
May be likened to the large herbs.

My sons [, that is, the Bodhisattvas]
Who seek
The enlightenment of the Buddha exclusively,
Who believe that they will become Buddhas definitely,
And who have compassion towards others,
May be likened to the short trees.

The Bodhisattvas
Who turn the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma
By their supernatural powers,
And who save many thousands of myriads
Of millions of living beings,
May be likened to the tall trees.

Although my teachings are of the same content to anyone
Just as the rain is of the same taste,
The hearers receive my teachings differently
According to their capacities
Just as the plants receive
Different amounts of the rain water.

The Daily Dharma from May 26, 2022, offers this:

I always expound the Dharma.
I do nothing else.
I am not tired of expounding the Dharma
While I go or come or sit or stand.
I expound the Dharma to all living beings
Just as the rain waters all the earth.

The Buddha makes this declaration in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. It is normal for us humans to become worn out, frustrated or annoyed as we try to benefit others. Often, other people do not want our help, or when they take our help, they do not progress as fast as we want them to. Sometimes there are only a few people we want to help, and may actually wish harm on those we blame for our problems. The Buddha gives us a different example. He gets his energy from creating benefit. It does not drain him. He sees that all beings want to improve themselves, no matter how perversely they may go about it. He knows that all beings are worthy of receiving the Buddha Dharma.

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

800years, Blog, d26b

800 Years: Supernatural Powers of the Daimoku

In Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we are told:

“To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!”

In Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 21 is beautifully transformed into an ode to the Daimoku:

“The Odaimoku includes all the merits of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

“The Odaimoku contains all the supernatural powers of the Buddha to save all people.

“The Odaimoku is the crystallization of the Buddha’s boundless wisdom necessary to teach and lead all beings.

“The Odaimoku expresses all merits the Buddha has practiced.

“These four things showing the Buddha’s real image and spirit are explicitly revealed in the Lotus Sutra; the Buddha’s true mind is the Odaimoku.

“Especially after the Buddha’s extinction, you must keep in mind that you should believe, from the bottom of your heart, in the Lotus Sutra and the Odaimoku in which the entire mind of the Buddha is clearly explained, and that you should recite and study the Lotus Sutra and chant the Odaimoku in order to practice the Buddha’s teachings as instructed by the Buddha.

“Wherever the place might be, at the place where the teachings of the Lotus Sutra have spread and the faith in the Odaimoku is practiced in correct and proper ways, you must set up a place of prayer and spend a life with faith in the Sutra, be it in a village or countryside with farms, woods or groves, or in a monastery, or in the house of ordinary people, or a residence of higher status people, or in a mountain village or a vast plain.

“The reason for this is that nowhere else but a place where the Odaimoku is believed in and its teachings are expounded is the true place of prayer.

“It is this place of prayer to the Odaimoku where all Buddhas have become enlightened.

“Here, the Buddhas expound their teachings.

“In other words, this Sahā world in which we live, believing in the Odaimoku, is the very place where the Buddha’s true world lies.”

Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra

When we chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō we gather to ourselves “all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata.” As Nichiren says in “Reply to My Lady, the Nun of Ueno”:

“In the case of the Lotus Sūtra, … when one touches it, one’s hands immediately become Buddhas, and when one chants it, one’s mouth instantly becomes a Buddha.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 58-59

This is how faith in the Lotus Sutra is rewarded.

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Daily Dharma, d30b

Daily Dharma – Oct. 1, 2022

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying: “Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhāraṇīs in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”

The Buddha makes this declaration to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. The dhāraṇīs are promises made in a language that only Medicine-King and other protective beings understand. When we recite these promises from the Lotus Sūtra, we remind those beings of their vows. We also awaken our natures to protect all beings, and create benefits both for those beings and ourselves.

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

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the poor son’s inheritance, we consider the lessons of this parable.

“World-Honored One! The great rich man is you. We are like [his son, that is,] your sons because you always tell us that we are your sons. World-Honored One! We once had many troubles in the world of birth and death because of the three kinds of sufferings.’ We were so distracted and so ignorant that we clung to the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. At that time you caused us to think over all things and to clear away the dirt of fruitless discussions about them. We made strenuous efforts according to the teachings [of the Lesser Vehicle] and attained Nirvāṇa as a day’s pay. Having attained it, we had great joy, and felt satisfied [with the attainment of it]. We said, ‘We have obtained much because we made efforts according to the teachings of the Buddha.’ But when you saw that we clung to mean desires and wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, you left us alone. You did not tell us that we had the treasure-store, that is, the insight of the Tathāgata. You expounded the wisdom of the Buddha[, that is, the Great Vehicle] with expedients, but we did not aspire for that vehicle because, when we had obtained the day’s pay of Nirvāṇa from the Buddha, we thought that we had already obtained enough. We did not wish to have what you had showed and expounded to the Bodhisattvas by your wisdom. You expounded the Dharma to us with expedients according to our capacities because you knew that we wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. We did not know that we were your sons. Now we know that you do not grudge your wisdom to anyone. Although we were your sons then as we are now, we wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. If we had aspired for the teaching of the Great Vehicle, you would have already expounded it to us. Now you expound only the One Vehicle in this sūtra. You once reproached us Śrāvakas in the presence of the Bodhisattvas because we wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. [At that time we thought that you had taught us only the Lesser Vehicle,] but now we know that you have been teaching us the Great Vehicle from the outset. Therefore, we say that the great treasures of the King of the Dharma have come to us although we did not seek them, and that we have already obtained all that the sons of the Buddha should obtain.”

The Daily Dharma from July 29, 2022, offers this:

Although we were your sons then as we are now, we wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. If we had aspired for the teaching of the Great Vehicle, you would have already expounded it to us.

Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana speak this passage in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This is before they tell the story of the Wayward Son. They explain their realization that the Buddha holds nothing back from us. The reason we hear expedient teachings rather than the highest teaching is because of the limits of our own aspiration. When we aspire to become Buddhas, we receive the highest teaching.

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

800years, history

800 Years: The Necessity for Faith

Nichiren Shōnin described the necessity of faith in the Lotus Sūtra as “to replace understanding with faith.” We are unenlightened people. Even if we dream of gaining the wisdom of the buddhas, accomplishing that is impossible with our mediocre intelligence. What Nichiren Shōnin describes is completely different. By discarding our limited intelligence and devoting ourselves solely to faith in the Lotus Sūtra, the wisdom of the buddhas naturally emerges. We unenlightened people cannot comprehend the wisdom of the buddhas. But this wisdom will come to us naturally if we have faith in the Lotus Sūtra. It is just like the way a baby drinking its mother’s milk cannot understand the elements contained in the milk but uses the milk to nourish growth.

History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 75
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 30, 2022

If a person born a commoner states that he is equal to a samurai, he is bound to be punished. If he states that he is equal to or superior to the king, it is not only he himself but also his parents, wife, and children who are bound to be punished. If those who believe that some other sutra is the same as or superior to the Lotus Sutra according to what they believe without knowing the comparative superiority of the sutras, they are happy because their sutras are being praised. However, it will be a crime of slandering the True Dharma, for which priests and their disciples, as well as their lay followers, will all go to hell as speedily as a flying arrow. On the contrary, to say that the Lotus Sutra is superior to all other sutras is no crime at all. Instead it will be an act of great merit because it is so stated in the sutras.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno (Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji). In other writings, Nichiren explains that the superiority of the Lotus Sutra is not due to some inherent magical power it has to get us what we want. The superiority of the Lotus Sutra comes from its embodiment of the Buddha’s highest teaching, the revelation of his Ever-Present existence, and the ability of the Lotus Sūtra to lead all beings to enlightenment.

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 merits of the One Vehicle, we consider the limits of the extinction from the lesser vehicle.

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.

[I said:]
“To those who have little wisdom,
And who are deeply attached to sensual desires,
The Buddhas expound the truth that all is suffering.
Those [who hear this truth]
Will have the greatest joy that they have ever had.
The statement of the Buddhas that all is suffering
Is true, not false.
To those who are ignorant
Of the cause of all sufferings,
And who are too deeply attached
To the cause of suffering
To give it up even for a moment,
The Buddhas expound
The [eight right] ways as expedients.

The cause of suffering is greed.
When greed is eliminated,
There is nothing to be attached to.
The extinction of suffering
Is called the third truth.
In order to attain this extinction,
The [eight right] ways must be practiced.
Freedom from the bonds of suffering[,]
[That is, from illusions] is called emancipation.”

From what illusions can one be emancipated, however,
[By the practice of the eight right ways]?
He can be emancipated only from unreal things
[That is, from the five desires] thereby.
He cannot be emancipated from all illusions.
The Buddhas say
That he has not yet attained
The true extinction
Because he has not yet attained
Unsurpassed enlightenment.
I also do not think that I have led him
To the [true] extinction thereby.

The Daily Dharma from June 13, 2022, 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

800years, original

800 Years: The Benefit of Faith in the Lotus

As we have seen, the five characters of the daimoku are said to contain all teachings and to encompass all phenomena. They also contain the merit of all the good practices of the Buddhas, such as the six Pāramitās, and the virtues of enlightenment in which they result. However, this is not the only sense in which the daimoku is claimed to be all-inclusive. By the logic of the single-practice position, being by definition the only practice a true devotee should uphold, the daimoku is also said to produce all possible benefits. Nichiren’s teaching assimilates to the daimoku all the goods that religion in medieval Japan was thought to provide. In his various writings, faith in the Lotus is said to offer the realization of Buddhahood in this body, healing and other worldly benefits, protection of the nation, repentance or expiation of sin (sange), and birth after death in a pure land. Similarly, Nichiren’s idea of the Buddha of the Lotus Sūtra encompasses all conceptions of the Buddha that were current in his day. Śākyamuni is “our blood and flesh,” “our bones and marrow.” But at the same time he is ruler of the world, compassionate parent, and wise teacher to all beings. Nichiren’s use of hongaku ideas is also assimilated to this polemic of the all-inclusiveness of the Lotus Sūtra. The Lotus is presented as the only sūtra to reveal that the enlightened state of the Buddha and the nine realms of deluded beings are mutually encompassing and originally inherent; this is what makes the Lotus uniquely true and superior. (Page 296)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 29, 2022

Medicine-King! The Bodhisattvas who, having been surprised at hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, doubt and fear it, know this, are beginners in Bodhisattvahood. The Śrāvakas who, having been surprised at hearing this sūtra, doubt and fear it, know this, are men of arrogance.

The Buddha makes this declaration to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. In his earlier teachings, he described the thoughts, words and deeds which would help shed our delusions and remove suffering. Many of those following him came to believe that they were superior to other beings and did not want to waste their time even associating with them much less attempting to save them from their suffering. With this Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha reveals that even the most wicked and deluded among us have the capacity for enlightenment and deserve our respect. The more we resist this teaching, in our thoughts, words and deeds, the farther we place ourselves from the Buddha’s wisdom.

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