Two Buddhas, p234-235Nichiren was adamant that the Lotus Sūtra enables the realization of buddhahood here in this world, not in a pure land after death. And, being implacably opposed to the Pure Land teachings, he could not accept the common idea that the worthy dead go to Amitābha’s realm. Yet, especially in his later years, he was confronted with the need to explain what happens to Lotus Sūtra practitioners after they die. He taught that they join the constantly abiding Śākyamuni Buddha in the “pure land of Vulture Peak.” “Vulture Peak” (Skt. Grdhrakūta; J. Ryōjusen, also translated as “Eagle Peak”) in Rājagrha in India was where Śākyamuni is said to have preached the Lotus Sūtra, and the term “pure land of Vulture Peak” had been used long before Nichiren’s time to designate the realm of the primordial buddha described in the “Lifespan” chapter. Nichiren was not the first to conceptualize this realm as a postmortem destination. It seems to have entered Japan by at least the ninth century, as the courtier Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) once composed a poem of parting expressing the hope of reunion after death at Vulture Peak. After Nichiren’s time, “Vulture Peak” became virtually the proprietary pure land, so to speak, of his followers. But it was not merely a Lotus-inflected substitute for Amitābha’s Land of Bliss. For Nichiren, the pure land of Vulture Peak is not a distinct realm posited in contrast to the present world; unlike Amitābha’s pure land in the west or the Tathāgata Bhaisajyaguru’s (J. Yakushi Nyorai) vaidūrya world in the east, it has no specific cosmological location. Rather, it exists wherever one embraces the Lotus Sūtra. This pure land is the realm of the constantly abiding primordial buddha, a land that “never decays,” even in the fire at the kalpa’s end; it is the ever-present Lotus assembly and the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment depicted on Nichiren’s mandala. Accessible in the present, it also extends to encompass the faithful dead, a realm transcending life and death. The “pure land of Vulture Peak” thus also offered devotees the promise of reunion. To a young man who had just lost his father, Nichiren wrote: “Even strangers, if they embrace this [Lotus] sūtra, will meet at the same Vulture Peak. How much more so, in the case of you and your father! Both believing in the Lotus Sūtra, you will be born together in the same place.” And some years later, he wrote to the young man’s mother, who had lost not only her husband, but also another son, “Now he [your son] is with his father in the same pure land of Vulture Peak; how happy they must be to hold one another’s hands and place their heads!”
All posts by John Hughes
Reflections of the Moon in the Water
Zhiyi, I believe, awakened to the same truth that the creators of the Lotus Sūtra did. He expressed it in terms of the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.” However, the full import of what the creators of the Lotus Sūtra and Zhiyi realized will not be revealed until we discuss the Original Gate and the Buddha’s attainment of buddhahood in the remotest past. The One Vehicle teaching was only the relatively shallow beginning of what they realized. As Nichiren says a little further on in Kaimoku-shō:
The second chapter, “Expedients,” in the Trace Gate of the Lotus Sūtra makes up for one of the two faults of the pre-Lotus sūtras by revealing the teachings of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment’ and ‘attainment of buddhahood by the people of the two vehicles.’ Yet, since the chapter has not yet revealed the Original and Eternal Buddha by ‘outgrowing the provisional and revealing the essential,’ it does not show the real concept of the ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.’ Nor does it establish the true meaning of ‘attainment of buddhahood by people of the two vehicles.’ They are like the reflections of the moon in the water, or rootless grass floating on waves. (Hori 2002, p. 48)
Open Your Eyes, p266Fulfilling the Four Great Vows
Although there are various Buddhist teachings, none allows the attainment of Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles. As a result, when the attainment of Buddhahood by the Vehicles is not allowed, bodhisattvas, too, are not allowed to attain Buddhahood. This is because the attainment of Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles is inevitable for bodhisattvas to fulfill their Four Great Vows. They made a vow to save all the people however numerous they are. Therefore, even the bodhisattvas of the Perfect Teachings preached in such sūtras as the Flower Garland Sūtra, Hōdō sūtras and the Wisdom Sūtra cannot reach the shojū stage of enlightenment though they are considered to become Buddhas according to the scriptural statement cited above. It is needless to say that ordinary people and those of the Two Vehicles cannot become Buddhas by those sūtras. Therefore, it is stated in the chapter on “Expedients” of the Lotus Sūtra that the Buddha made a vow to teach all the people and cause them to enter the way leading to Buddhahood, that is to say, they can attain Buddhahood only in the Lotus Sūtra.
Nijō Sabutsu Ji, Obtaining Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 226
Daily Dharma – April 1, 2020
All living beings are either noble or humble. They are either handsome or ugly. They are destined to be reborn either in a better region or in a worse region. All of them will be reflected on the pure bodies [of the good men or women].
The Buddha makes this declaration to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. Much of what we see in the world is a projection of our own biases and ignorance. We see things for what we want them to be rather than what they are. We classify the people in our lives as friends, enemies or strangers not because of their inherent qualities, but because of how they treat us. When we act for the benefit of others rather than our own gratification, we are showing them their true qualities. We let them see themselves for what they are.
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 heard the Buddha’s prediction for Pūrṇa, we repeat the Buddha’s prediction in gāthās.
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.In the future also he will make offerings
To innumerable Buddhas, protect their right teachings,
Help them propagate their teachings,
And purify their worlds.He will always fearlessly expound the Dharma
With expedients.
He will save countless living beings
And cause them to have the knowledge of all things.He will make offerings to many Tathāgatas
And protect the treasure-store of the Dharma.
After that he will be able to become a Buddha
Called Dharma-Brightness.His world will be called Good-Purity.
It will be made of the seven treasures.
His kalpa will be called Treasure-Brightness.
There will be Bodhisattvas [in his world],
Many hundreds of millions in number.
They will have great supernatural powers.
They will be powerful and virtuous.
They will be seen throughout that world.Innumerable Śrāvakas will organize the Saṃgha.
They will have the three major supernatural powers,
The eight emancipations,
And the four kinds of unhindered eloquence.The living beings of that world will have no sexual desire.
They will be born without any medium.
They will be adorned with the marks [of the Buddha].
They will not think
Of any other food [than the two kinds of food]:
The delight in the Dharma, and the delight in dhyāna.
There will be neither women nor evil regions
In that world.Pūrṇa Bhikṣu will be able to obtain
All these merits,
And have his pure world
Inhabited by many sages and saints.
I have innumerable things to say of him.
I have told you only a few of them.
The Daily Dharma from Sept. 25, 2019, offers this:
My disciples are performing
The Bodhisattva practices secretly
Though they show themselves in the form of Śrāvakas.
They are purifying my world.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. The Śrāvakas are those who hear the teachings of the Buddha and put it into practice only for themselves. They are concerned with ending their own suffering and do not believe they have the capacity to reach the Buddha’s enlightenment. But because they can serve as an example to those who are also unsure about receiving this great wisdom, they can be an inspiration to make progress on the path. With the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha declares that all beings have the capacity for enlightenment, and reveals that all of our pursuits are for the sake of benefiting others. It is when we realize this directly and openly that we perform the Bodhisattva practice, the selfless effort of awakening the world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Lotus Sūtra Enables All Women Who Embrace It To Attain Buddhahood
Two Buddhas, p231-233Several points in this section merit comment. One is the promise that any woman who upholds the present “Bhaiṣajyarāja” [Medicine King] chapter will never again be born female but will go after death to the realm of the buddha Amitābha (J. Amida), to be freed forever from the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance. This passage reflects the idea, already well established at the time of the Lotus Sūtra’s compilation, that there are no women in Amitābha’s pure land; presumably, women are reborn there as men (Kubo and Yuyama signal this in their translation by a switch of pronouns, which Chinese does not employ). This passage, like similar ones in other sūtras, is subject to multiple, not necessarily mutually exclusive, readings. One reading would see it as reflecting the gender hierarchy, if not outright misogyny, of the larger culture. At the same time, those who composed sūtras about Amitābha and his realm may have seen the promise of an end to female rebirths as offering release from the biological and social constraints that bound women in premodern societies, limitations understood at the time as karmically “inherent” in the fact of having a female body. Such statements could also reflect the idea that, in Amitābha’s pure land, one is said to quickly achieve the highest level of bodhisattva practice, in which one is not karmically bound to any particular physical form, male or female, but can assume any appearance needed to benefit others. Whatever the case, we know that many women in medieval Japan who were devoted to Amitābha, as well as the men around them, simply assumed that they would be born in the Pure Land as women — an example of how, on the ground, devotees may ignore uncongenial elements of scripture. Nichiren, however, was quick to point out the rejection of women as a problem in the sūtras praising Amitābha’s pure land. Women who chant the nenbutsu, he warned, are relying upon sūtras that can never lead women to buddhahood and therefore, in effect, are but “vainly counting other people’s riches.”
In addressing the present passage, Nichiren first reminds his reader that the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha’s ultimate teaching, supersedes the Pure Land sūtras dealing with Amitābha, which are all provisional. Invoking the first of the ten analogies given in the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter, he says that the Lotus Sūtra is like the great ocean, while the Amitābha Sūtra, the Visualization Sūtra, and other sūtras dealing with Amitābha are like small streams. Moreover, the “Amitābha” mentioned in the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter is not the Amitābha Buddha of the Pure Land sūtras but an emanation of the primordial Śākyamuni Buddha. In this way, Nichiren was able to dissociate this passage from the Pure Land devotion that he saw as no longer valid in his age. At the same time, he continued to maintain that the Lotus Sūtra enables all women who embrace it to attain buddhahood.
There Always Is Divine Protection
The sun and moon are clear mirrors shining on all the worlds in the universe, but do they know about Nichiren? I am sure that they know me. So, we should not doubt or worry about the protection of various heavenly beings. Nevertheless, I, Nichiren, have been persecuted because the sins which I committed in my past lives have not been completely eradicated. As I have been exiled because of my faith in the Lotus Sūtra, some of my sins may have been atoned so the Buddha may protect me under His robe. It was the protection of the Buddha that saved me from near death at Tatsunokuchi at midnight on the 12th of the 9th month last year. Grand Master Miao-lê said in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight that the stronger our faith is, the greater the divine protection will be. Do not doubt this. You should firmly believe in and do not doubt that there always is divine protection.
Shingon Shoshū Imoku, Differences between the Lotus Sect and Other Sects Such as the True Word Sect, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 125
Daily Dharma – March 31, 2020
She said, “Look at me with your supernatural powers! I will become a Buddha more quickly.”
These are the words of the young daughter of Dragon-King Sāgara in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva knew that she was capable of becoming a Buddha, but none of the other Bodhisattvas or anyone else gathered to hear the Buddha teach believed that she could attain enlightenment. Before making this statement, she offered a priceless gem to the Buddha. In less time than it took for the Buddha to accept her offering, she herself became a Buddha before the eyes of all who doubted her. This story shows that all beings can become enlightened, male and female, young and old, human and non-human. When we lose our doubts about others’ enlightenment, we also lose our doubts about our own.
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 concluded Chapter 7, we begin again at the top of today’s portion with Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata’s turning of the wheel of the Dharma.
“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion [worlds], having praised the Buddha with these gāthās, said to him, ‘World-Honored One! Turn the wheel of the Dharma so that
all living beings may be peaceful, and that they may be saved!’ They said in gāthās:World-Honored One, turn the wheel of the Dharma,
Beat the drum of the Dharma as sweet as nectar,
Save the suffering beings,
And show them the way to Nirvāṇa!Assent to our appeal!
You studied the Dharma for innumerable kalpas.
Expound it with your exceedingly wonderful voice
Out of your compassion towards us!“Thereupon Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata, having assented to the appeals made by the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the words of the ten quarters and also by the sixteen princes, turned the wheel of the teaching [of the four truths] three times, making twelve proclamations altogether. The wheel of this teaching could not be turned by any other one in the world, be he a śramaṇas, a brahmana, a god, Mara or Brahman. The Buddha said, ‘This is suffering. This is the cause of suffering. This is extinction of suffering. This is the Way to extinction of suffering.’
“Then he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, saying, ‘Ignorance causes predisposition. Predisposition causes consciousness. Consciousness causes name-and-form. Name-and-form causes the six sense organs. The six sense organs cause impression. Impression causes feeling. Feeling causes craving. Craving causes grasping. Grasping causes existence. Existence causes birth. Birth causes aging-and-death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation. When ignorance is eliminated, predisposition is eliminated. When predisposition is eliminated, consciousness is eliminated. When consciousness is eliminated, name-and-form is eliminated. When name-and-form is eliminated, the six sense organs are eliminated. When the six sense organs are eliminated, impression is eliminated. When impression is eliminated, feeling is eliminated. When feeling is eliminated, craving is eliminated. When craving is eliminated, grasping is eliminated. When grasping is eliminated, existence is eliminated. When existence is eliminated, birth is eliminated. When birth is eliminated, aging-and-death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation are eliminated.’
Four Noble Truths and Three Ways of Preaching
Buddhism for Today, p100-101When the Tathāgata Universal Surpassing Wisdom [Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata] received the entreaty of the Brahma heavenly kings of the ten regions and of his sixteen royal sons, he taught them the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths through the three ways of preaching.
The three ways of preaching are “show-rolling,” or ji-ten (to show the Four Noble Truths) ; “exhortation-rolling,” or kan-ten (to exhort to the practice of the Four Noble Truths), and “proof-rolling,” or shō-ten (to witness or prove that the Buddha has accomplished the Four Noble Truths). Because the tathāgata preached the Four Noble Truths in these three ways, the sutra says, “the Tathāgata Universal Surpassing Wisdom at once thrice rolled the Law-wheel of the twelve divisions.” Then he expounded in detail the Law of the Twelve Causes (jūni-innen), one of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha.