All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 9, 2020

Śāriputra! The Tathāgatas divide [the Dharma] into various teachings, and expound those teachings to all living beings so skillfully and with such gentle voices that living beings are delighted.

The Buddha gives this explanation to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. The work towards enlightenment is a shared enterprise. The Buddha cannot make us enlightened, and we cannot become enlightened by ourselves. The Buddha does not bribe, coerce, threaten or manipulate us into reaching the wisdom he knows we can find. Instead he sees deeply into our minds and uses the delusions we already have to lead us away from the suffering we create for ourselves. In our work as Bodhisattvas, we do well to keep the Buddha’s example in mind.

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

LS32

Day 32

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 32 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month witnessed the arrival of Universal Sage, we hear the Buddha answer how the good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:

“The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: 1. secure the protection of the Buddhas, 2. plant the roots of virtue, 3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and 4. resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”

Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! If anyone keeps this sūtra in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], I will protect him so that he may be free from any trouble, that he may be peaceful, and that no one may take advantage [of his weak points]. Mara, his sons, his daughters, his subjects, his attendants, yakṣas, rākṣasas, kumbhāṇḍas, piśācakas, kṛtyas, pūtanas, vetādas or other living beings who trouble men shall not take advantage [of his weak points]. If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sūtra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to rum, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. If he sits and thinks over this sūtra, I also will mount a kingly white elephant and appear before him. If he forgets a phrase or a gāthā of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will remind him of it, and read and recite it with him so that he may be able to understand it. Anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [after your extinction], will be able to see me with such joy that he will make more efforts. Because he sees me, he will be able to obtain samadhis and a set of dhārāṇis. The set of dhārāṇis will be the dhārāṇis by which he can memorize repetitions of teachings, the dhārāṇis by which he can memorize hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings, and the dhārāṇis by which he can understand the expediency of the voice of the Dharma.

See The Promise of Protection

2buddhas, LS32, d32b, mappō

The Promise of Protection

Samantabhadra specifically promises to protect those who “preserve this sūtra in the troubled world of five hundred years after.” … [T]he phrase “five hundred years after” was no doubt originally intended to designate the five hundred years following Śākyamuni’s parinirvāṇa, when the sūtra’s compilers believed they were living. However, East Asian commentators took the “five hundred years after” (which can also be read in Chinese as “the last five hundred years”) to mean the last of five five-hundred-year periods in the gradual decline of Buddhist practice and understanding said to take place over the 2,500 years following the Buddha’s passing. For Nichiren, it designated the beginning of the Final Dharma age, when he and his contemporaries believed they were living. This expression “five hundred years after” occurs twice in the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter and three times in the present chapter. For Nichiren it predicted in the Buddha’s very words both the task being shouldered by himself and his disciples and the surety of its fulfillment. It designated the time when the buddhahood of ordinary people could be realized. As he wrote: “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō will spread for ten thousand years and beyond, far into the future. Its merit can open the blind eyes of all sentient beings in the country of Japan and block the road to the Hell without Respite [Avici]. … A hundred years’ practice in the Land of Bliss cannot equal the merit gained from one day’s practice in this defiled world, and propagation [of the dharma] throughout the two thousand years of the True and Semblance Dharma ages is inferior to a single hour’s propagation in the Final Dharma age. This is in no way because of Nichiren’s wisdom, but solely because the time makes it so.”

Two Buddhas, p262
Kaleidoscope

Bodhisattva Ethics

Quote

What … does it mean to be a bodhisattva? Basically, in the Lotus Sutra it means using appropriate means to help others. And that finally, for the Lotus Sutra, is what Buddhism itself is. It is an enormous variety of means developed to help people live more fulfilling lives, which can be understood as lives lived in the light of their interdependence. This is what most of the stories are about: someone — father-figure/buddha, or friend/buddha, or guide/buddha — helping someone else gain more responsibility for their own lives.

Even if you search in all directions,
There are no other vehicles,
Except the appropriate means preached by the Buddha.

Thus, the notion of appropriate means is at once both a description of what Buddhism is, or what Buddhist practice primarily is, and a prescription for what our lives should become. The Lotus Sutra, accordingly, is a prescription of a medicine or religious method for us — and, therefore, at once both extremely imaginative and extremely practical.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, Appropriate Means as the Ethics of the Lotus Sutra, Page 386

WONS

A Great Vessel for Japan

I have made a vow. Even if someone says that he would make me the ruler of Japan on the condition that I give up the Lotus Sūtra and rely upon the Kammuryō-ju-kyō (Sūtra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life) for my salvation in the next life, or even if someone threatens me saying that he will execute my parents if I do not say “Namu Amida-butsu,” and no matter how many great difficulties fall upon me, I will not submit to them until a man of wisdom defeats me by reason. Other difficulties are like dust in the wind. I will never break my vow to become the pillar of Japan, to become the eyes of Japan, and become a great vessel for Japan.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 105-106

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Jan. 8, 2020

If his writings are against the teachings of the Buddha, no matter how hard one might believe them, one will never attain Buddhahood. No matter how much one prays for peace and tranquility for the country, only deplorable events will take place.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Prayers (Kitō-shō), commenting on the writings of a priest who did not hold the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha’s highest teaching. Because the Lotus Sutra assures the enlightenment of all beings who teach and practice the Wonderful Dharma, it is what brings peace and tranquility to the world.

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

LS32

Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Day 31 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the king’s reaction and the role of the two sons, we conclude Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

“King Wonderful-Adornment came down from the sky and said to that Buddha [staying in the sky], ‘World-Honored One! You are exceedingly exceptional. You have merits and wisdom. Therefore, the fleshy tuft on your head shines bright. Your eyes are long, wide, and deep blue in color. The curls between your eyebrows are as white as a bright moon. Your teeth are white, regular and bright. Your lips are as red and as beautiful as the fruits of a bimba-tree.’

“Thereupon King Wonderful-Adornment, having praised the Buddha for his many hundreds of thousands of billions of merits including those previously stated, joined his hands together towards the Tathāgata, and with all his heart, said to that Buddha again, ‘World-Honored One! I have never seen anyone like you before. Your teachings have these inconceivable, wonderful merits. The practices performed according to your teachings and precepts are peaceful and pleasant. From today on, I will not act according to my own mind. I will not have wrong views, arrogance, anger or any other evil thought.’ Having aid this, he bowed to that Buddha and retired.”

The Buddha said to the great multitude:

“What do you think of this? King Wonderful-Adornment was no one but Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva of today. Queen Pure-Virtue was no one but the Light-Adornment-Appearance Bodhisattva who is now before me. She appeared in that world out of her compassion towards King Wonderful-Adornment and his attendants. The two sons were Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva of today. Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva have already obtained those great merits. Because they planted the roots of virtue under many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas [in their previous existence], they obtained those inconceivable merits. All gods and men in the world should bow to those who know the names of these two Bodhisattvas.”

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva, eighty-four thousand people released themselves from the dust and dirt of illusions, and had their eyes purified enough to see all teachings.

See Far From Ordinary

2buddhas, LS32, d31b

Far From Ordinary

Nichiren referred to the two princes from the “Śubhavyūha” chapter in encouraging an unidentified couple, possibly Lord Matsuno of Suruga and his wife, who were mourning their deceased son and had apparently become more earnest in their Buddhist practice following his death. Nichiren’s disciple Nichiji, who was related to Matsuno and had reported the matter to Nichiren, informed him that the young man had not only been unusually handsome, but also straightforward and wise. According to Nichiren, Nichiji had told him that he had initially been struck with pity that so remarkable an individual should die young. “But on reflection, I realized that, because of this boy’s death, his mother aroused the aspiration for the way and his father began to take thought for his next life. This is far from ordinary, I thought. And the fact that they have placed faith in the Lotus Sūtra, which everyone opposes, must mean that their deceased son has been at their side, encouraging them to do so.” Nichiren told the parents that he fully concurred with Nichiji’s reading of events, adding, “The king Śubhavyūha was an evil monarch. But when guided by their two sons, the princes [Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra], father and mother were both able to place their trust in the Lotus Sūtra and become buddhas. The same must be true in your case as well!”

Two Buddhas, p252-252
Kaleidoscope

Bodhisattvas as Role Models

Quote

I think there can be no question but what many, at least, of the stories about bodhisattvas are there to provide role models for human beings. They play a role in the ever-present tension between what already is and what is yet to be. To the extent that we have even lifted a single finger to point to the truth, we are already bodhisattvas. But how much more so those who faithfully follow the Lotus Sutra, that is, devote their lives to bodhisattva practice. And to encourage us in that direction there are stories of wonderful bodhisattvas.

Yes, people do pray to Kwan-yin for help, and Kwan-yin takes on whatever form is needed to be helpful. But while that story may present the hope of divine blessing, it is there primarily to show us what we should be. If Kwan-yin has a thousand arms with a thousand different skills with which to help others, we too need to develop a thousand skills with which to help others.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, Appropriate Means as the Ethics of the Lotus Sutra, Page 386

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Being the Change You Wish To See

Quote

Rather than merely waiting for something to happen, as if by miracle or by some mythical fairy godmother granting a wish, we should be as proactive as we possibly can and actually try to begin to live as if we are in the condition we seek to become. Buddhism is not a passive activity waiting for some thing to happen. Buddhism is about becoming what we already have the a capacity to be, which is Enlightened.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra