Two Buddhas, p220[I]n Nichiren’s reading, in the “Transcendent Powers” chapter, the Buddha first transmitted the daimoku, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, to the bodhisattvas who had emerged from the earth, for them to propagate in the Final Dharma age. To presage this momentous event, the Buddha displayed his ten transcendent powers and, extracting the essence of the Lotus Sūtra, entrusted it to the four bodhisattvas. Then, in the “Entrustment” chapter, he made a more general transmission of the Lotus and all his other teachings to the bodhisattvas from other worlds, the bodhisattvas of the trace teaching who had been his followers in his provisional guise as the buddha who first attained awakening in this lifetime, and persons of the two vehicles. This general transmission was intended for the more limited period of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages.
All posts by John Hughes
The Dharma Sound
Today I was scanning my news feed and ran across an article at Buddhistdoor entitled, Frequencies, the Brain, and Wisdom Traditions, which explores the effects of sound frequencies and music on mental states. The take-away point for me was this:
The use of sound has been historically central also in the Buddhadharma. In the Mahayana traditions (which includes Vajrayana), every practice is transmitted first and foremost through sound, irrespective of whether or not the recipient understand the meaning of the words being transmitted. It is said that only hearing the sound of a particular Buddhist teaching initializes the mindset necessary to benefit from Dharma practices.
This is exactly why Nichiren Buddhists chant the Lotus Sūtra in Shindoku. As Ryuoh Michael Faulconer explains in the introduction to Myoho Renge Kyo Romanized:
Around the world, the Lotus Sūtra is traditionally read in shindoku, a reading of the Chinese translation of the Sūtra with a Japanese pronunciation. It is a form of faith reading done as a practice which our inner Buddha nature understands.
And, of course, this is also the foundation of why we chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō:
QUESTION: If someone chanted Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō without understanding its meaning will the benefit of understanding still be received?
ANSWER: When a baby nurses, it does not comprehend the taste; nevertheless, it receives the benefits of the milk naturally. Did anyone know the ingredients or formula for Jīvaka’s wondrous medicines? Water is without intent but it can extinguish fire; and even though fire consumes many things, can we say it does this deliberately? This is Nāgārjuna and T’ien-t’ai’s idea! I am merely repeating it.
Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice,
Volume 4, Page 106-107
Knowing the Superiority of a Man Through the Sūtra He Practices
The most beautiful and brightest star is the moon. What is brighter than stars and the moon is the sun. A man without a cabinet post in a large country ranks higher than a minister of a small country. Likewise, it is as clear as heaven is different from earth that a practicer of Hinayāna Buddhism who has not attained enlightenment or even one superhuman power is superior to a man who practices non-Buddhist religion in India attaining five supernatural powers. Even a great bodhisattva who practices sūtras other than the Lotus is inferior to an ordinary person who is in the beginner’s stage of Notional Understanding in practicing the Lotus Sūtra and is moved upon hearing just its title. You must be surprised to hear this. We must decide the superiority of a man through the sūtra he practices. How can we discuss the superiority of a man without knowing the superiority of the sūtra he practices?
Shingon Shoshū Imoku, Differences between the Lotus Sect and Other Sects Such as the True Word Sect, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 124
Daily Dharma – March 26, 2020
I see that all living beings are burned by the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation. They undergo various sufferings because they have the five desires and the desire for gain…Notwithstanding all this, however, they are playing joyfully. They are not conscious of the sufferings. They are not frightened at the sufferings or afraid of them. They do not dislike them or try to get rid of them. They are running about this burning house of the triple world, and do not mind even when they undergo great sufferings.
The Buddha offers this explanation to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. He compares his teaching of suffering and Nirvāṇa to a father luring his children from a dangerous house with a promise of better toys. The children were so preoccupied with their own entertainment that they could not hear their father’s warning. In this triple world of beautiful forms, fascinating ideas and consuming desires, it is easy to stay with our childish games and ignore the Buddha’s teaching. Our maturity as Bodhisattvas comes when we set these aside 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 7
Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.
Having last month considered the penalty for slandering the sutra, we consider to whom we should expound the Lotus Sūtra and conclude Chapter 3, A Parable.
Expound it to clever people
Who have profound wisdom,
Who hear much,
Who remember well,
And who seek
The enlightenment of the Buddha!Expound it to those who have seen
Many thousands of myriads
Of millions of Buddhas
And planted the roots of good
In their previous existence,
And who are now resolute in mind!Expound it
To those who make efforts,
Who have compassion towards others,
And who do not spare their lives!Expound it to those
Who respect others,
Who have no perfidy in them,
Who keep away from ignorant people,
And who live alone
In mountains or valleys!Śāriputra!
Expound it to those
Who keep away
From evil friends,
And who approach
Good friends!Expound it to the Buddha’s sons
Who keep the precepts
As cleanly and as purely
As they keep gems,
And who seek
The sūtra of the Great Vehicle!Expound it to those
Who are not angry
But upright, gentle,
Compassionate
Towards all others,
And respectful to the Buddhas!Expound it to the Buddha’s sons
Who expound the Dharma without hindrance
To the great multitude
With their pure minds
By telling them
Various stories of previous lives,
Parables and similes,
And also by giving them various discourses!Expound it to the bhikṣus
Who seek the Dharma in all directions
In order to obtain
The knowledge of all things,
Who join their hands together
Towards the sūtra of the Great Vehicle,
Who receive it respectfully,
Who keep it with joy,
And who do not receive
Even a gāthā of any other sūtra!Expound it to those
Who seek this sūtra
As eagerly as they seek
The śarīras of the Buddha![Expound it to those]
Who receive [this sūtra]
And put it on their heads,
And who do not seek
Any other sūtra
Or think of the books of heresy!(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
Those who seek the enlightenment of the Buddha
Are as various as previously stated.
A kalpa will not be long enough
To describe the variety of them.
They will be able to understand [this sūtra] by faith.
Expound to them
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!
The Daily Dharma from Sept. 14, 2019, offers this:
Expound it to clever people
Who have profound wisdom,
Who hear much,
Who remember well,
And who seek
The enlightenment of the Buddha!
The Buddha sings these verses to all those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. Much of this teaching is about how we see things as opposed to how certain we are of what we see. When we believe that those whom we wish to benefit are stupid, lazy and incompetent, then it surely will be difficult to help them. But when we realize the Buddha nature within all beings, then we can see them as wise and compassionate despite the obstacles they face.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Process of the Buddha’s Entrustment of the Lotus Sūtra
Two Buddhas, p218-220Let us review the process of the Buddha’s entrustment of the Lotus Sūtra from this twofold perspective. In the “Jeweled Stūpa” chapter, Śākyamuni Buddha calls for persons willing to spread the sūtra in an evil age after his nirvāṇa. Right before the concluding verse section, Śākyamuni announces: “The Tathāgata will enter parinirvāṇa before long and the Buddha wants to transmit this Lotus Sūtra to you.” Zhiyi says that this implies both a “near” transmission, to those bodhisattvas who have already assembled, and a “distant” transmission, to the bodhisattvas who will emerge from the earth several chapters later and to whom the Buddha will transfer the essence of the sūtra. In the “Perseverance” chapter, a great throng of bodhisattvas from other worlds vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra throughout the ten directions. But in the “Bodhisattvas Emerging from the Earth” chapter, Śākyamuni rejects their offer and instead summons his original disciples, the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth led by Viśiṣṭacaritra. Their appearance at the assembly in open space provides the occasion for Śākyamuni, in the “Lifespan” chapter, to cast off his provisional guise as someone who first realized enlightenment in the present lifetime and reveal his true identity as the primordially awakened buddha who “constantly resides” here in this world. Now in the “Transcendent Powers” chapter, he formally transfers the Lotus Sūtra to the bodhisattvas of the earth, who in the next chapter solemnly vow to uphold and disseminate it as the Buddha directs.
But what was transferred to the bodhisattvas of the earth? Śākyamuni declares that in the Lotus Sūtra he has “clearly revealed and taught all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the transcendent powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasure houses of the hidden essence of the Tathāgata, and all the profound aspects of the Tathāgata.” Based on this passage, Zhiyi formulated five major principles of the Lotus Sūtra — its name, essence, purport, function, and position among all teachings — principles that he also understood as inherent in the five characters that comprise the sūtra’s title. Nichiren too spoke of “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō endowed with the five profound principles,” drawing on the Tiantai commentarial tradition to assert that what Śākyamuni Buddha transferred to the bodhisattvas of the earth was none other than the daimoku, the heart or intent, of the Lotus Sūtra:
As for the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō: Śākyamuni Buddha not only kept them secret during his first forty-some years of teaching, but also refrained from speaking of them even in the trace teaching, the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra. Not until the “Lifespan” chapter did he reveal the two characters renge, which [represent the five characters and] indicate the original effect and original cause [of the Buddha’s enlightenment]. The Buddha did not entrust these five characters to Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Maitreya, Bhaiṣajyarāja, or any other such bodhisattvas. Instead he summoned forth from the great earth of Tranquil Light the bodhisattvas Viśiṣṭacāritra, Anantacāritra, Vlśuddhacāritra, and Supratiṣṭhitacāritra along with their followers and transmitted the five characters to them.
The ‘Great King’ of All Sūtras
QUESTION: Is there any sūtra that compares the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra and the threefold sūtra of the Great Sun Buddha?
ANSWER: It is said in the chapter on the “Peaceful Practices” of the Lotus Sūtra: “It (the Lotus Sūtra) is the supreme of all sūtras.” This tells us that Śākyamuni Buddha Himself recognized this sūtra to be the most superior among all the Buddhist scriptures. In stark contrast, nowhere in the thirteen fascicles, namely, the seven fascicles of the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra and three fascicles each of the Diamond Peak Sūtra and the Sūtra of the Act of Perfection, do we find even one phrase or one line stating that these three sūtras are superior to the Lotus Sūtra. There is only one line found in the Sūtra of the Act of Perfection stating that this sūtra is the “king” of this three-sūtra group. However, this merely means that it is the “king” of the threefold sūtra of the Great Sun Buddha, not the great “king” of all the sūtras preached by Śākyamuni Buddha in His lifetime. It is like calling the king of Japan, the “great king.” It means that he is a great king but does not at all mean that he is greater than the kings of China or India. The Lotus Sūtra, however, is not only the “king” of all the sūtras Śākyamuni Buddha expounded in His lifetime but also the “great king” of various sūtras preached by all the Buddhas manifested in all the worlds all over the universe throughout the past, present, and future. It is like the Great King of the Brahman Heaven, a great king superior to all kings including the various small kings, the Wheel-turning Noble King, the Four Heavenly Kings, Indra, and the King of Devils in the Sixth Heaven.
Ha Ryōkan-tō Gosho, A Letter Refuting Ryōkan-bō and Others, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 58-59
Daily Dharma – March 25, 2020
Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight states: “The passage cited about the earlier teachings correctly distinguishes between the provisional and the true. This is because it explains the truer the teaching the lower the stage (of those enlightened by it); whereas the more provisional the teaching the higher the state must be (of those enlightened by it).”
Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice (Shishin Gohon-Shō). The passage from T’ien-t’ai he quotes reminds us that we do not need to rely on our own talents or intelligence to become enlightened. The highest teaching of the Lotus Sūtra is meant for all beings, wise or simple, clever or stupid. The Buddha’s provisional teachings were intended to match the minds of those who heard them. But the Wonderful Dharma is the Buddha’s own mind, harmonizing with the seed of enlightenment within us all.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 6
Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month learned of the dangers inside the burning house in gāthās, we consider the expedient used to convince the children to escape the burning house.
At that time the house-owner
Was standing outside the gate.
He heard a man say to him:
“Some time ago
Your children entered this house to play.
They are young and ignorant.
They are engrossed in playing.”
Hearing this,
The rich man was frightened.
He rushed into the burning house.In order to save them
From burning to death,
He told them
Of the dangers of the house:
“There are demons and poisonous vermin here.
Flames have already spread all over.
Many sufferings are coming
One after another endlessly.
There are poisonous snakes,
Lizards, vipers,
Yakṣas, kumbhanda demons,
Small foxes, foxes, dogs,
Crested eagles, eagles,
Kites, owls and centipedes here.
They are unbearably hungry and thirsty.
They are dreadful.
These sufferings are difficult to avoid.
Worse still, there is a big fire.”Though the children heard his warning,
They were still engrossed in playing.
They did not stop playing
Because they were ignorant.The rich man
Thought:
“They are ignorant.
My anxiety deepens
There is nothing pleasant
In this house.
But they are engrossed
In playing.
They do not listen to me.
They will be burned to death.”At the time
He thought of an expedient.
He said to them:
“I have many kinds of toys.
They are beautiful carts
Made of wonderful treasures.
They are sheep-carts, deer-carts,
And large bullock-carts.
They are outside the gate.
Come out!
I made those carts
For you.
Play with them
As you like!”Hearing of the carts from him,
They ran out,
Striving to be first,
And reached an open place.
They were now free
From the sufferings.
The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra offers this on expedient vehicles:
The Sanskrit word upaya (“expedient”) conveys the meaning of leading to or approaching the goal. The Three Vehicles are such expedients leading to the goal, the true teaching of the One Buddha Vehicle. Expedients are not just means to an end; they have significance in and of themselves. They are valid steps in the process leading to the truth, the insight of the Buddha. Conversely speaking, the One Buddha Vehicle (the final single truth) is revealed in the form of expedient teachings, valid according to the complexity of our world view. So the sutra says, “The Buddhas divide the One Buddha Vehicle into three as an expedient” (p. 33).
Thus expedients equal the truth in essence. It is not true that “a white lie can be an expedient.” A lie, white or black, is not an expedient in the Buddhist sense. An expedient is true within its own context.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
The Second of the Four Truths
Inevitably, suffering and its stimulus are bound together by causal links, and suffering will not vanish as long as the stimulus persists. The second of the four truths sets forth the cause of suffering.
Basic Buddhist Concepts