All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma – April 20, 2022

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

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.


Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 10: The Teacher of the Dharma, we return to Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood and consider the plea of the Śrāvakas who have something more to learn and the Śrāvakas who have nothing more to learn.

Thereupon Ānanda and Rāhula thought, ‘We are always thinking: How glad we shall be if we are assured of our future Buddhahood!’ They rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, worshipped his feet with their heads, and said to him:
“World-Honored One! We think that we also are qualified to be assured [of our future Buddhahood]. Only you, the Tathāgata, are our refuge. We are known to all gods, men and asuras of the world. Ānanda always protects the store of the Dharma as your attendant. Rāhula is your son. If you assure us of our future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, the wishes not only of us but also of others will be fulfilled.”

Thereupon the two thousand disciples [composed of the two kinds of Śrāvakas]: the Śrāvakas who had something more to learn and the Śrāvakas who had nothing more to learn, also rose from their seats, bared their right shoulders, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together with all their hearts, looked up at the World­Honored One, begged him just as Ānanda and Rāhula did, and stood to one side of the place.

See Opening Buddhahood as a Reality for All Beings

800 Years: A Guide to What We Are Capable of Doing

The Buddha is not some god-like entity. The inner life of Shakyamuni Buddha is within ourselves. The actual qualities and accomplishments of Shakyamnni Buddha flow naturally from his realization of the ultimate truth. They serve as an inspiration and a guide to what we are capable of doing when we take faith in the Buddha Dharma.

Lotus Seeds

Daily Dharma – April 19, 2022

If his writings are against the teachings of the Buddha, no matter how hard one might believe them, one will never attain Buddhahood. No matter how much one prays for peace and tranquility for the country, only deplorable events will take place.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Prayers (Kitō-shō), commenting on the writings of a priest who did not hold the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha’s highest teaching. Because the Lotus Sutra assures the enlightenment of all beings who teach and practice the Wonderful Dharma, it is what brings peace and tranquility to the world.

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

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Having last month considered the prediction for Pūrṇa’s future Buddhahood, we consider in gāthās the Pūrṇa’s past actions.

Thereupon the Buddha, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Bhikṣus, listen to me attentively!
The Way practiced by my sons
Is beyond your comprehension
Because they learned how to employ expedients.

Knowing that people wish to hear
The teachings of the Lesser Vehicle,
And that they are afraid of having the great wisdom,
[My sons, that is,] the Bodhisattvas transform themselves
Into Śrāvakas or cause-knowers,
And teach the people with innumerable expedients.

Saying to the innumerable living beings, [for instance,]
“We are Śrāvakas.
We are far from the enlightenment of the Buddha,”
They save them, and cause them to attain [Śrāvakahood]
Even the lazy people who wish to hear the Lesser Vehicle
Will become Buddhas with this expedient in the course of time.

My disciples are performing
The Bodhisattva practices secretly
Though they show themselves in the form of Śrāvakas.
They are purifying my world
Though they pretend to want little
And to shun birth-and-death.
In the presence of the people,
They pretend to have the three poisons and wrong views.
They save them with these expedients.
They change themselves into various forms.
If I speak of all their transformations,
The listeners will doubt me.

Under hundreds of thousands of millions of past Buddhas,
This Pūrṇa practiced strenuously what he should do.
He expounded and protected
The teachings of those Buddhas.

In order to obtain unsurpassed wisdom,
He became the most excellent disciple
Of those Buddhas.
He was learned and wise.
He expounded the Dharma without fear,
And made his listeners rejoice.
He was never tired
Of helping those Buddhas do their work.

He obtained great supernatural powers
And the four kinds of unhindered eloquence.
Seeing who was clever, and who was dull,
He always expounded the Pure Dharma.

He expounded the dharma of the Great Vehicle
To hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings,
And caused them to dwell in the Dharma
So that the worlds of those Buddhas might be purified.

See Performing Bodhisattva Practices Secretly

800 Years: The See of Buddhahood

The Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 5 (15th chapter on “The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground”) preaches, “I have always taught them in their past existence… , and as soon as they saw Me and heard My preaching in this life, they received My teachings by faith, entering into the wisdom of the Buddha.” Interpreting this, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “People today were taught and received the seed of Buddhahood in the eternal past.” Grand Master Miao-lê, on the other hand, declares in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “Although it is in the present when people gain the benefit of attaining Buddhahood, the seed of Buddhahood was sown in the eternal past,” and in his Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “Thus I know that the preaching of Śākyamuni Buddha today is for those in whom the seed of Buddhahood was sown in a past existence.” I do not have to explain what is said in the sūtra and its annotations, which are very clear in meaning.

Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 150.

Daily Dharma – April 18, 2022

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.’

The Buddha tells this story of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva did not read or recite sūtras. His sole practice was to tell everyone he met, “I respect you deeply. I do not despise you.” Despite this pure practice, many people became angry and abused him because of their own perverted minds. He did not stay where he could suffer their abuse, and he still maintained his respect for them, despite their behavior. This and the other examples in the Lotus Sūtra of Bodhisattvas are examples for us who aspire to practice this Wonderful Teaching.

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

Day 12

Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.


Having last month considered the teaching of the Lotus Sutra by Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha and the śramaṇeras’ efforts to spread the dharma, we consider the Parable of the Magic City.

Suppose there was a bad and dangerous road.
Many wild animals lived in the neighborhood.
No man was there; no water nor grass there.
The road was so fearful.

Many tens of millions of people
Wished to pass through this dangerous road.
The road was very long.
It was five hundred yojanas long.

The people had a leader.
He had a good memory.
He was wise and resolute in mind.
He could save people from dangers.

Getting tired,
The people said to him:
“We are tired.
We wish to go back.”

He thought:
‘How pitiful they are!
Why do they wish to return
Without getting great treasures?’

Thinking of an expedient, he said to himself:
‘I will use my supernatural powers.’
He made a great city by magic,
And adorned it with houses.

The city was surrounded by gardens, forests,
And by ponds and pools for bathing.
Many-storied gates and tall buildings [in that city]
Were filled with men and women.

Having made all this by magic,
He consoled the people, saying:
“Do not be afraid! Enter that city!
And do anything you like!”

They entered that city,
And had great joy.
They felt peaceful,
And thought that they had already passed [ through the road].

Seeing that they had already had a rest,
The leader collected them, and said:
“Go on ahead now! This is a magic city.
You were tired out halfway.
You wished to go back.
Therefore, I made this city by magic As an expedient.
Make efforts!
Let us go to the place of treasures!”

See Correspondences for the Parable of the Magic City

800 Years: Faith and Discernment

In November of 2021, a group of people gathered in Dallas to witness the return of John F. Kennedy Jr., whom they believed would re-install Donald Trump as president. JFK Jr. died in a plane crash in 1999, and he didn’t return on Nov. 2 or Nov. 22 or any other day. But that didn’t discourage those who believed Michael Brian Protzman was a prophet.

According to a Nov. 8 story in the online news website Vice:

“When one of Protzman’s followers asked: ‘Are we putting too much faith in this man?’, she was immediately shut down for her ‘lack of faith.’ Those defending Protzman spoke with a religious zeal about their belief and faith in him.”

This is an excellent example of what Nikkyō Niwano warns against in Buddhism for Today:

“Faith (shin) is the working of one’s emotions, and discernment (ge) that of one’s reason. Though people often say that a religion or faith ought to be believed in instead of argued about, it is very dangerous to believe blindly in a religion without having any knowledge of it.”

Buddhism for Today, p63

What true faith requires, Nikkyō Niwano explains, is discernment. Unless a religion combines both, it does not have true power.

“A religion cannot be said to be true unless it combines faith and discernment. The Buddha’s teachings can be understood by reason. They do not demand blind, unreasoning faith. We must understand the Buddha’s teachings by listening to preaching and by reading the sutras. As we advance in our discernment of these teachings, faith is generated spontaneously.”

Buddhism for Today, p64

This plays an important part in Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith. As Nikkyō Niwano says:

“In [Chapter 4], we were taught that we must not have the servile idea that we have the capacity to understand the Buddha’s teachings only to a certain limited extent. We should abandon such trifling discriminations and devote ourselves to hearing and receiving the Law. …

“Even if we have only a shallow understanding of the Buddha’s teachings or can practice only a part of them, this is never useless. Every effort will be surely rewarded with the merits of the Law. But we should not be satisfied with this reward. We must always desire and endeavor to deepen our understanding and to elevate ourselves further. Thus, we can use shallow faith and discernment as the first step in advancing ourselves to a higher level of faith and discernment.”

Buddhism for Today, p75

This topic will return in Chapter 16, but for now it is important to remember that each of us, as believers in the Lotus Sutra, are tasked with helping all of the world’s poor sons. Nikkyō Niwano puts it this way:

“We cannot be said to have actually practiced the spirit of the Lotus Sutra unless we save as many of these poor sons as possible. The only thing we can do to save them and lead them is to understand the spirit of the Buddha’s tactful means as illustrated in [Chapter 4].”

Buddhism for Today, p71

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Daily Dharma – April 17, 2022

Śāriputra! Seeing that all his children had come out of the burning house safely and reached a carefree place, the rich man remembered that he had immeasurable wealth. So without partiality, he gave them each a large cart.

The Buddha tells the parable of the Burning House in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In the story, a man tries to warn his children who are playing in a dangerous house of the harm that will come to them if they do not set aside their preoccupations and come out. The children did not listen to him, so he told them about nonexistent toys outside the house. The Buddha then compares himself promising an end to suffering to the father promising nonexistent toys, and himself leading all beings to Enlightenment to the father giving his children toys more wonderful than they could imagine.

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