History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 154-155Within the disciples and believers who had been forced to endure pressure from the government, doubt and agitation began to arise, with such thoughts such as “Why must Our teacher, who propagates the Lotus Sūtra, undergo such persecution and why don’t the heavenly gods lend him protection?” In February, Nichiren Shōnin addressed this doubt when he wrote his treatise Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Kaimoku-shō:
This person called Nichiren was beheaded on the twelfth day of the ninth month of last year, between the hours of the rat and ox (11 p.m. to 3 a.m.). It is his soul that has come to this country of Sado and, in this snowy second month of the following year, is writing this to send to his close disciples. It is horrible [here], but there is nothing to be frightened about. Others reading it will be terrified. This [Lotus Sūtra] is the bright mirror that Śākyamuni, Tahō and all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions left for the future of Japan, and in which the present state of the country is reflected. It may also be regarded as a keepsake from me.
This passage clearly demonstrates that the Lotus Sūtra is the correct Dharma for the Latter Age of Degeneration and that Nichiren Shōnin is the practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra, the guiding master of the Latter Age. It is here that he indicates that the Lotus Sūtra is a writing which opens and reveals buddhahood within all humanity. First, it clearly indicates the doctrine of 3,000 Existences in a Single Thought, ichinen sanzen, the heart of the Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra into which all living beings of the Latter Age should place their faith. The Lotus Sūtra is the Dharma which is hard to believe and difficult to understand.
It also explains that the persecutions which befall the person who propagates the Lotus Sūtra become proof that the words of the Buddha are true and that he is a practitioner of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren Shōnin also declared he is the leader of the Dharma during the Latter Age when he stated, “I will become the pillar of Japan, I will become the eyes of Japan, and I will become the great vessel of Japan” and expressed his three great vows.
All posts by John Hughes
Counting to 70
I’ve decided to mark an interesting conjunction of numbers today. First, today marks the start of my 70th cycle through the Threefold Lotus Sutra. Well, actually yesterday was the start but today my “Day 1” post will be 500yojanas.org/day-1-70. That counter at the end of the URL is automatically added each time I post my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra.
That’s interesting by itself, but this December also happens to be the month I turned 70. It’s that conjunction I’m marking.
I can remember a day back in the 1980s when I decided to figure how old I’d be in 2000. The answer turned out to be 48 until December, when I would turn 49. That sure seemed old at the time. But now that I’m 70, I’m not sure what old should feel like. My health is good. (Picturing me knocking on my wooden head). I certainly don’t have the same ability to lift heavy objects that I once had and I’d rather pay someone to dig up my yard and install sprinklers, but old?
The 70 times through the Lotus Sutra is more interesting. I was inspired to start the practice by Ryusho Jeffus. Ryusho writes in his Physician’s Good Medicine: “Perhaps our challenge today is to hear the stories again from a more modern perspective. This is an invitation to make the sutra your own, to possess it in your life and use it to tell your own story.” When I mentioned to him my intention to make reading the sutra a part of my daily practice, he encouraged me to note what stood out each day.
I started my morning practice of reciting the sutra in shindoku on March 6, 2015. It wasn’t until July that I received my copy of Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra and started reading in English in the evening what I had recited in shindoku in the morning. For the first couple of times I tried taking notes but that was too distracting. On Sept. 14, 2015, I introduced my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice in a blog post.
When I think of having read the Lotus Sutra 70 times, I always remind myself of the time I told Rev. Igarashi at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church of my new practice. He was quite impressed. He mentioned that he performs his personal practice three times a day. At each time he recites one entire fascicle. Three fascicles a day means he completes the entire eight fascicles every two and two-thirds days. I remember him mentioning that Chapter 3 was way too long. Breaking it up across three days makes it much more manageable. Dividing the entire Threefold Lotus Sutra into 34 days makes reading a breeze.
Having read the sutra 70 times in this manner is really unremarkable just as living 70 years isn’t much of an accomplishment by itself. But I believe my practice has been immensely beneficial to me and, by extension, my family.
The Intelligence and Faith of the Audience
Although scholars in the world often say that the Buddha preached according to the intelligence and faith of the audience, actually it is not so according to the Buddha. If great dharmas are to be preached for those with superior intelligence and faith, why is it that the Lotus Sūtra was not preached upon attainment of Buddhahood by Śākyamuni? Mahāyāna sūtras should have been spread during the first half (500 years) of the Age of the True Dharma. If great dharmas are to be preached for close relations, the Buddha should have preached the Lotus Sūtra instead of such quasi-Mahāyāna sūtras as the Meditation on the Buddha Sūtra and the Māyā Sūtra to his father, King Suddhodana, and mother, Queen Māyā. If secret teachings are not to be revealed to those evil people without close relation to and slanderers of the True Dharma, Monk Virtue Consciousness should not have preached the Nirvana Sūtra to those numerous violators of the precepts of the Buddha. Or, why did Bodhisattva Never-Despising preach the Lotus Sūtra to slanderers of the True Dharma? Therefore, I think it a great mistake to say that dharmas are preached taking the intelligence and faith of the audience into consideration.
Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 208
Daily Dharma – Dec. 25, 2021
When he keeps this sūtra, He will be able to reach a rare stage. He will be joyfully loved and respected By all living beings.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra. He describes those who put this sūtra in their lives, and dedicate their existence to liberating all beings from ignorance and delusion. When the Buddha became enlightened, he realized all beings can become enlightened. When we work for the benefit of all beings, we find the Buddha’s mind and bring harmony into our lives and the world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1
Having last month considered who was present for the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, we consider the great Bodhisattvas.
Without exception, all such bodhisattvas as these are great beings that embody the Dharma. They have achieved perfection in behavioral principles, perfection in concentration, perfection in discernment, perfection in emancipation, and perfection in the perspective that pertains to emancipation. Their minds are calm and tranquil, constantly in contemplation, at peace and at ease—having no cravings and creating no causes, and immune to contrary thinking and distraction. Their quiet and pure resolve is boundlessly profound. Having steadfastly maintained this condition over hundreds of thousands of koṭis of kalpas, all of the countless approaches to the Dharma7 are before them here and now. Having gained great wisdom, they fathom all phenomena: their full grasp and discernment of the truth of natures and aspects, of existence and nonexistence, and of length and brevity is manifest and clear.
In Buddhism for Today, Nikkyō Niwano offers this about these Bodhisattvas:
This admiration of the bodhisattvas and bhikshus is not mere empty praise. It indicates the pattern of how these people have practiced the teachings of the Buddha. We cannot attain the same state of mind as the Buddha in a single leap. In the first place, we must study the practice of the bodhisattvas and the bhikshus. Some people consider our inability to follow the same kind of practice as due to its being far removed from the realities of everyday life. It is natural that they should think this, but that is no reason not to try to follow the pattern of the bodhisattvas and bhikshus. There is a key or a chance of opening the gate of enlightenment in following even only one of the many virtuous practices of the bodhisattvas that are expressed in the sutras.
Buddhism for Today, p5-6
Predictions of Civil Disturbance
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 153-154[A] huge incident, known as the February Disturbance, occurred in Kamakura and then in Kyoto. This was an attack on the Hōjō clan and their retainers. On the 11th in Kamakura, Hōjō Tokiakira, also called Nagoe Tokiakira, and Hōjō Noritoki were put to death. Continuing on the 15th of the same month in Kyoto, Hōjō Tokisuke of the southern quarter of Rokuhara Tandai killed Hōjō Yoshimune of the northern sector of the same area. Hōjō Tokimune, the tokusā, considered his illegitimate elder brother, Tokisuke, as a threat to the his established authority. This incident, therefore, was a purge intended both to solve disunity within the Shogunate and to consolidate the authority of the tokusō.
The February Disturbance was the realization of the internal rebellion predicted by the Risshō Ankoku-ron. When Nichiren Shōnin was arrested on September 12 of the previous year, he warned Taira Yoritsuna. He described this warning in the Senji-shō: “You will immediately face the calamities of revolt within your own domain and invasion by a foreign nation. Not only will the people of this country be beaten to death by foreign invaders, but many will also be taken prisoner.” This also came true just as predicted. As a result, the activities of Nichiren Shōnin and his disciples who accompanied him to Sado, were invigorated. Even on Sado Island, new believers and followers appeared.
The Honzon Established in the 16th Chapter
The honzon (most venerable one) established in the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sūtra is Lord Śākyamuni Buddha, who has been closely tied with us in this Sahā World by the bond of cause and effect ever since attaining Buddhahood “500 (million) dust-particle kalpa” ago, and who is equipped with the eternal three bodies (Dharma, Reward, Accommodative Bodies) of the Buddha. “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter refers to this as “the Buddha’s secret lore and divine powers,” which were explained by Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “It is mysterious (pi) of one body being identical to a triple-body and confidential (mi) of a triple-body being identical to one body. It is mysterious because it has never been explained, and confidential because only the Buddha knew it. The Buddha has always been equipped with the three bodies attained in the eternal past throughout the past, present and future, but He has kept it confidential without ever revealing it in other sūtras. ”
Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 289
Daily Dharma – Dec. 24, 2021
Flower-Virtue! Now you see Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva here and nowhere else. But formerly he transformed himself into various living beings and expounded this sūtra to others in various places.
The Buddha makes this declaration to Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Four of the Lotus Sūtra. In their efforts to benefit all beings, Bodhisattvas develop the capacity to adapt themselves to their circumstances. They know they cannot use the same methods to teach everyone. Instead of seeing the beings in our world of conflict as obstacles to getting what we want, we can learn to see them as great teachers who have transformed themselves into what we need to become enlightened. This can also help them to realize their nature as Bodhisattvas, rather than beings stuck in the world of conflict, absorbed in their own gratification.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Between Day 32 and Day 1: The Core of the True Way
Having last month considered the participant’s taking refugee in the three treasures, we consider what constitutes the core of the true Way of the buddhas in the ten directions.
Having taken refuge in the Three Treasures, the practitioner must personally vow to adopt the six appropriate behaviors. Having embraced the six appropriate behaviors, she or he must then diligently strive to cultivate unwavering pure conduct, awaken a mind to universally ferry others, and adopt the eight appropriate behaviors. Having made this commitment, the practitioner, in a quiet secluded location, must burn fine incense, scatter flowers, offer respects to all buddhas and bodhisattvas and to the comprehensive Great Vehicle as well, and say these words:
“Here, this day, I have awakened the aspiration for enlightenment! Through the beneficial effects of this, may I universally ferry all living beings!”
After saying this, the practitioner must again humbly pay homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas, and reflect on the comprehensive principle over the course of one to three-times-seven days. Whether renunciant or layperson, the practitioner will not need a mentor, will not need stewards, and will not need to take vows in a ceremony because of the power of accepting, keeping faith with, reciting, and internalizing the Great Vehicle sutras, and because of Universal Sage Bodhisattva’s encouragement to engage in this practice. This is the core of the true Way of the buddhas in the ten directions. By means and reason of this Way, the practitioner will naturally attain the five attributes of an enlightened one: perfection in behavioral principles, perfection in concentration, perfection in wisdom, perfection in emancipation, and perfection in the perspective that pertains to emancipation. Buddha tathāgatas become so by following this Way; the promise of their buddhahood is obtained in the Great Vehicle sutras.
Tatsunokuchi Persecution
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 152From the standpoint of the political circumstances of the time, the Tatsunokuchi Persecution had to happen. Nichiren Shōnin’s criticism of the Zen and Ritsu schools was religious criticism of Hōjō Tokiyori and Hōjō Shigetoki, who were faithful believers, as well as supporters and protectors of those schools. The tokusō, Hōjō Tokimune, was responsible for strengthening the Shogunate’s structure for defense against the Mongols. Nichiren Shōnin’s criticism of the tokusō within that structure was considered as opposing that defense system. This defense structure’s fundamental theme was to maintain discipline nationwide by suppressing malicious parties. Nichiren Shōnin’s criticism, especially in the vicinity of Kamakura where the seat of the government was located, could not be permitted.