Buddhism for Today, p177-178Buddhism differs distinctively from other religions. Though all have fine teachings, there is no clear evidence of another case in which the founder of a religion attained his own supreme enlightenment and established his own religion. Some religions proclaim that their founders were sent by God. Others declare that God gave a revelation to the founder or that God descended from heaven to this world.
Unlike these religions, the teaching of Buddhism is the truth that Lord Sakyamuni, who was born as a human being like all of us and experienced human suffering and worry, aspired to enlightenment, practiced ascetic disciplines, and attained enlightenment after six years of spiritual effort. The process through which he attained his enlightenment can be clearly seen. Therefore, we can feel confident that we are sure to reach supreme enlightenment eventually if only we follow the Buddha’s teachings and traverse the same path. It is also sure that because this teaching is one that sprang up out of the earth (actual life), we who actually live in this world can follow it. Chapter 15 makes this point emphatically.
All posts by John Hughes
The Bodhisattvas Who Emerged from the Earth
Two Buddhas, p176-177Nichiren maintained that those who shared his practice and commitment were also to be counted among the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth: “If you are of the same mind as me, then are you not a bodhisattva of the earth? And if you are a bodhisattva of the earth, then without doubt you have been a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha since the remotest past. … There should be no discrimination as to men or women among those who spread the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō in the Final Dharma age, for unless they were bodhisattvas of the earth, they could not chant the daimoku. At first, I alone chanted Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, but then gradually two, three, and a hundred began to chant and transmit it. This will happen in the future as well. Isn’t this what it means to ’emerge from the earth’?”
The Bodhisattva August Moon
[B]odhisattvas refer to such practicers of Buddhism as Mañjuśrī and Maitreya. These great bodhisattvas are incomparably superior to such Buddhist sages called Pratyekabuddha. A Buddha is a wonderfully enlightened one who completely eliminated all the 42 stages of spiritual darkness, and he is like the harvest moon on the night of the 15th day of the eighth month. Compared to a Buddha, a bodhisattva is the one who eliminated the 41 stages of spiritual darkness reaching a rank nearly equal to the Buddha. One might say a bodhisattva is the moon on the 14th night of the eighth month.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 47
Gods or Deities Never Protect Those Who Are Short Tempered
Whenever you get angry, it is clearly written on your face. Please remember that at no time do gods or deities protect those who are short tempered. It is true that you are destined to become a Buddha, but isn’t it regrettable for you to get hurt, pleasing your enemy and causing us grief?
Sushun Tennō Gosho, The ‘Emperor Sushun’ Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 120
Daily Dharma – March 3, 2020
The arrogant bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇis, upāsakas and upāsikās, that is, the four kinds of devotees who had abused him and caused him to be called Never-Despising, saw that he had obtained great supernatural powers, the power of eloquence, and the great power of good tranquility. Having seen all this, and having heard the Dharma from him, they took faith in him, and followed him.
The Buddha tells this story of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sūtra. Earlier in the sūtra, when the Buddha came out of his meditation to teach the Wonderful Dharma, five thousand of those gathered to hear him stood up and walked away. The Buddha did not stop them, and described them as arrogant: believing they knew something they did not. The arrogance of those who abused Never-Despising Bodhisattva, whose practice was to declare his respect for all beings, was rooted in their not seeing the Buddha’s wisdom in him and believing that they were superior to him. We can only learn from those we respect, and create misery only for ourselves when we despise.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 18
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month considered the proper practices a Bodhisattva-mahāsattva should perform and the proper things a Bodhisattva-mahāsattva should approach, we consider the Bodhisattva’s place of practice and the truths he should know.
“He should always make it a pleasure to sit in dhyāna. He should live in a retired place and concentrate his mind. Mañjuśrī! [A retired place] is the first thing he should approach.
“The Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas also should know the following truth. All things are insubstantial. They are as they are. Things are not perverted. They do not move. They do not go. They do not turn. They have nothing substantial just as the sky has not. They are inexplicable. They are not born. They do not appear. They do not rise. They are nameless. They are formless. They have no property. They are immeasurable and limitless. They have no obstacle or hindrance. He should see all this. Things can exist only by dependent origination. Only perverted people say, ‘Things are permanent and pleasant.’ This truth is the second thing he should approach.”
Maintaining a Peaceful and Calm Mind
Buddhism for Today, p170In practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, so long as a person forces himself to endure persecution and the scorn of outsiders though filled with anger and resentment, he is a beginner in Buddhist disciplines. A person who has attained the Way can maintain a peaceful and calm mind even while suffering and can feel joy in the practice itself. Until a person attains such a state of mind, he must take scrupulous care not to be tempted or agitated by the various setbacks in his daily life. The chapter “A Happy Life” [the title of the Peaceful Practices chapter in the 1975 edition of the Threefold Lotus Sutra] teaches us this. The bodhisattvas declare with great ardor their resolution to withstand persecution from outside in the chapter “Exhortation to Hold Firm,” while the Buddha, like a father, gently admonishes the bodhisattvas not to yield to inward temptation in the chapter “A Happy Life.” In a sense, these two chapters state the contrast between a kindly father who knows the world and a son who is young and high-spirited.
The Representative of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth
Two Buddhas, p176While chronologies differed, in Japan, widespread opinion held that the Final Dharma had begun in 1052. Thus, the bodhisattvas who emerged from underground could be expected to appear at any time. Indeed, were they not overdue? “Should they fail to appear in the Final Dharma age, they would be great liars, and the prophecies made by Śākyamuni, Prabhūtaratna, and the buddhas of the ten directions would prove as empty as foam on the waters,” Nichiren wrote. In observing that no one other than himself was enduring the great trials predicted in the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren concluded that he himself must be the representative of the bodhisattvas of the earth, or might even be one of them, a conviction that sustained him through years of danger and privation. Usually he referred to himself only in modest terms as a forerunner or emissary of their leader, the bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacaritra [J. Jōgyō, Superior Conduct], but there is little doubt that he identified his efforts with the work of this bodhisattva. Much of the later Nichiren tradition identifies him as a manifestation of Viśiṣṭacaritra in this world.
Seed of Buddhahood Sown in Eternal Past
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. It is like a woman, regardless if she is a royal princess or a maid-servant, unless she becomes pregnant by the son of heaven, her child will never be the king of a country.
Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 150.
Daily Dharma – March 2, 2020
Kāśyapa, and all of you present here! It is an extraordinarily rare thing to see that you have understood, believed and received the Dharma which I expounded variously according to the capacities of all living beings because it is difficult to understand the Dharma which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, expound according to the capacities of all living beings.
The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Kāśyapa and all those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha knows how hard it is to set aside our delusions and understand what he is teaching us. When the Buddha teaches with expedients, he lets us stay in the comfort of our own minds. With the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra, he takes us into the unfamiliar areas of his own mind. Only when we gain confidence in the Buddha as our guide can we stay with this teaching and not regress to the contentment of our attachments.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com