All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 19, 2020

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

LS32

Day 5

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 5 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month
heard Śāriputra describe his doubts in gāthās, we consider Śāriputra’s former wrong views and doubts about the teaching.

I once was attached to wrong views,
And became a teacher of the aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.
You expounded to me the teaching of Nirvāṇa,
And removed my wrong views because you understood me.
I gave up all those wrong views,
And attained the truth that nothing is substantial.

At that time I thought
That I had attained extinction.’
But now I know
That the extinction I attained is not the true one.
When I become a Buddha in the future,
I shall be adorned with the thirty-two marks,
And respected
By gods, men, yakṣas, and dragons.
Only then I shall be able to say
That I have eliminated all [illusions].

In the midst of the great multitude,
You said to me, “You will become a Buddha.”
Hearing this truthful voice,
All my doubts are gone.

When I had heard this from you,
I was much frightened and perplexed; I thought:
“The Buddha troubles me.
Isn’t he Mara in the form of a Buddha?”

You skillfully expound the Dharma with various parables and similes,
And with various stories of previous lives.
Now my mind is as peaceful as the sea.
Hearing you, I have removed the mesh of doubts.

You said:
“The innumerable Buddhas in the past
Expounded the Dharma with expedients.
The numberless Buddhas at present
Also expound the Dharma
With expedients.
So will the countless Buddhas
In the future.”

You appeared in this world,
Left your home, attained enlightenment,
And now turn the wheel of the Dharma,
Also with expedients.

You expound the true teaching;
Papiyas does not.
Therefore, I know
That you are not a transformation of Mara.
I thought that the Dharma was expounded by Mara
Because I was in the mesh of doubts.

See Martian Real Estate Lessons

LS32

Martian Real Estate Lessons

There was a recent fashion among some people to purchase land on Mars. Though this fad seemed to be half a joke, it can be considered an effective way to broaden man’s mind, in a sense. When we really think of the stars hundreds of millions of light years away, these stars immediately fly into our minds and thus come into our possession. When we think of things tens of thousands of years ago or tens of thousands of years in the future, we realize that the world includes these things; they become part of our own minds. It is our mind that enables us to ignore time and space and to reach out everywhere.

If we could realize the truth of the universe just as the Buddha did and unite with the universal life, how much more would this world become our own! This is not a matter of asserting ownership but of feeling as if we have melted into the whole of the universe. In short, it means that we have reached a mental state of “nonself.” It means that we have abandoned the small self and found the self that lives as the whole.

At such a time, self expands to fill the whole universe. Nonself is the only way that we can realize the idea that “all the universe is our domain.” If we can attain this mental state, our minds will have perfect freedom. We will be free from everything, and even if we act as we wish, everything we do will result in enhancing others’ lives. This is the mental state of the Buddha.

Even though we cannot reach such a state of mind in one leap, we must strive toward it by beginning to follow the Buddha’s example. We cannot attain the mind of the Buddha unless we enter into the Buddha-way by following his example. To recite the sutras, to listen to preaching, to think calmly, and to serve others – all this can be said to be our practice for the purpose of abandoning our self and melting into the whole. This is the spirit of harmony. If we maintain such a practice for even an hour each day, we can approach the Buddha to a slight degree, step by step, and through perseverance we can become buddhas sometime in the future. We must abandon the spineless attitude that we cannot possibly attain buddhahood.

60-61

2buddhas, d15b

The Relative Ranking of the Sūtras

In [Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma], Śākyamuni declares: “There are immeasurable thousands of myriads of kotis of sūtras I have taught in the past, which I teach now, and which I will teach in the future. Among them, however, this Lotus Sūtra is the most difficult to accept and to understand.” As a literary device, this statement cleverly preempts possible challenges to the Lotus Sūtra’s authority. Other sūtras might claim to be the Buddha’s highest teaching, but such claims could always be dismissed by saying that any sūtra might be the “highest” that the Buddha had preached up until that point and yet had been superseded by later ones. The inclusion of both present and future teachings here precludes such a dismissal. East Asian interpreters, however, did not see this claim on the Lotus Sūtra’s part as a mere literary device. For Nichiren, it was nothing less than the Buddha’s own statement of the relative ranking of the sūtras that he had expounded during his fifty years of teaching.

Two Buddhas, p133-134
WONS

Four Great Vows and Four Noble Truths

It is stated in the Discourse on the Diamond Scalpel by Grand Master Dengyō:

“The truth that motivates the bodhisattvas to take the Four Great Vows is the Four Noble Truths (the truth regarding the suffering, the cause of suffering, the extinction of suffering, and the path to enlightenment). Delusion of life and death that everything in the universe (3,000 Existences in the 100 Realms) repeats is the truth that life is full of suffering. Realizing in mind and body that this delusion of life and death is itself enlightenment is called the ‘vow to save all the people.’ The existence of three delusions in everything in the universe (delusion in view and thought, delusion that prevents bodhisattvas from mastering the teaching and saving the people, and delusion concealing the fundamental truth) is expressed as the ‘truth that the cause of suffering is evil passions.’ Realizing in mind and body that the evil passions themselves are enlightenment is called the ‘vow to eliminate evil passions however numerous they are.’ Extinction of suffering of life and death is called ‘the truth that extinguishes the evil passions.’ Since suffering of life and death is itself enlightenment, realizing the Buddha-nature of the perfect teaching is called the ‘vow to attain the supreme teaching of the Buddha.’ Delusion itself is enlightenment and at once the wisdom of the Buddha. Therefore, bodhisattvas take a vow to study all the teachings of the Buddha however limitless they are. As delusion and the wisdom of the Buddha are inseparable, people and the Buddha are one and the same. Both delusion regarding the suffering and cause of suffering and enlightenment by the extinction of suffering and the path to enlightenment exist in mind. The four great vows of bodhisattvas are fused in one’s mind and the one becomes all. This teaching of the Buddha is extremely important.”

Nizen Nijō Bosatsu Fu-sabutsu Ji, Never-Attaining Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles and Bodhisattvas in the Pre-Lotus Sūtras, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 221-222

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Feb. 18, 2020

Anyone who reads this sūtra
Will be free from grief,
Sorrow, disease or pain.
His complexion will be fair.
He will not be poor,
Humble or ugly.
All living beings
Will wish to see him
Just as they wish to see sages and saints.
Celestial pages will serve him.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. When we cultivate the mind of the Buddha, and bring his teachings to life, we help other beings find true happiness. This is different from our normal pattern of attempting to manipulate what others think about us through bribery, threats, and other forms of coercion. When we help others find their minds, they realize that they share our true mind of joy and peace.

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

LS32

Day 4

Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 4 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the ways of attaining the Buddha path, we consider how all past and future Buddhas use expedients.

The World-Honored Ones in the future
Will be countless in number.
Those Tathāgatas also
Will expound the Dharma with expedients.

The Tathāgatas save all living beings
With innumerable expedients.
They cause all living beings to enter the Way
To the wisdom-without-āsravas of the Buddha.
Anyone who hears the Dharma
Will not fail to become a Buddha.

Every Buddha vows at the outset:
“I will cause all living beings
To attain the same enlightenment
That I attained.”

The future Buddhas will expound many thousands
Of myriads of millions of teachings
For just one purpose,
That is, for the purpose of revealing the One Vehicle.

The Buddhas, the Most Honorable Bipeds,
Expound the One Vehicle because they know:
“All things are devoid of substantiality.
The seed of Buddhahood comes from dependent origination.”

The Leading Teachers expound the Dharma with expedients
After realizing at the place of enlightenment:
“This is the abode of the Dharma and the position of the Dharma.
The reality of the world is permanently as it is.”

Gods and men are making offerings
To the present Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.
The Buddhas as many as there are sands in the River Ganges
Who appeared in these worlds,
Are expounding the Dharma
For the purpose of giving peace to all living beings.

They know the Highest Truth of Tranquil Extinction.
They have the power to employ expedients.
Although they expound various teachings,
Their purpose is to reveal the Buddha-Vehicle.

Knowing the deeds of all living beings,
And their thoughts deep in their minds,
And the karmas they have done in their previous existence,
And their desires, natures, and powers to make efforts,
And also knowing whether each of them is keen or dull,
The Buddhas expound the Dharma according to their capacities,
With various stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses,
That is to say, with various expedients.

I also do the same.
I show the enlightenment of the Buddha
With various teachings
In order to give peace to all living beings.

I know the natures and desires of all living beings
By the power of my wisdom.
Therefore, I expound various teachings expediently,
And cause all living beings to rejoice.

See Attaining the Path

b4today, LS32, d4b

Attaining the Path

All living beings can enter the Buddha-way from any point: from worshiping the buddhas’ relics, from building stupas and memorials, from building temples and shrines to the buddhas in the wilderness, or even from heaping sand in play to form a buddha’s stupa. All living beings can enter the Buddha-way by doing anything good. As they increasingly strive after virtue and develop the great mind of benevolence, they finally become buddhas.

Buddhism for Today, p50-51
2buddhas, d14b, WONS

Ambassadors of the Tathāgata

Nichiren also stressed to his followers that they themselves are the “ambassadors of the Tathāgata” praised by Śākyamuni Buddha in this chapter, the very people who, in an evil era after the Buddha’s passing, will be able to uphold the sūtra and teach it to others. To one individual, borrowing the sūtra’s language in this passage, he wrote: “It is rare to receive human birth, but you have done so. You have also encountered the buddha dharma, which is difficult to meet. And within the buddha dharma, you have found the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra and now put it into practice. Truly you have ‘already paid homage to tens of myriads of kotis of buddhas of the past.”

The idea that one is an “ambassador of the Tathāgata” and has “already paid homage to tens of myriads of kotis of buddhas” might seem to contradict another of Nichiren’s claims … that people born into the age of the Final Dharma have never before received the seed of buddhahood. Like most founders of religious movements, Nichiren taught according to his audience and circumstances and did not fully systematize his teachings; this would be one way to account for this apparent inconsistency. But there are also other ways to think about it. Past lives are unknowable, and talk about them by Buddhist teachers is intended to cast light on the present. Thus, we might think of the tension between these two ideas as Nichiren offering his followers alternative perspectives on their practice. To say that one has now received the seed of buddhahood for the very first time engenders gratitude for the rare opportunity of having encountered the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra; to say that one has served countless buddhas in the past and been dispatched to this world as the Tathāgata’s ambassador invests one’s personal practice with the quality of a noble mission.

Nichiren said of himself that, being an ordinary person steeped in delusion, “my mind is far from that of the Tathāgata’s ambassador.” But because he had endured great trials for the Lotus Sūtra’s sake with his body and chanted its daimoku with his mouth, he continued, “I am like the Tathāgata’s ambassador.” His claim to legitimacy as the teacher of the Lotus Sūtra for the Final Dharma age lay not in superior spiritual attainments, something he never asserted, but in the fact that he had fulfilled the sūtra’s own predictions of the hardships its devotees would encounter in a troubled age after the Buddha’s passing.

Two Buddhas, p132-133
WONS

Those Who Do Not Aspire to Buddhahood Will Never Attain It

Those who do not aspire to Buddhahood will never attain it. Lord Śākyamuni Buddha was abused by all non-Buddhist teachers in India as an evil man. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai was spoken ill of as “a man who destroys his own five-foot body by slandering the Buddha with a three-inch tongue” by the three Southern masters and seven Northern masters of Buddhism in China and Monk Tokuitsu of Japan. Grand Master Dengyō was laughed at by scholar-monks of Nara for not having seen the capital of T’ang China. However, these masters had nothing to be ashamed of because they were abused just for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra. Praise by the ignorant should be regarded most dishonorable.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 114