All posts by John Hughes

Kaleidoscope

Śākyamuni’s Bodhisattva Practice

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The Buddha in his wisdom can affirm that the world is already saved and pure. As the Lotus Sutra says, “Tranquil is this realm of mine.”
Nonetheless, in his compassion, since the world is full of beings who groan amid miseries of every kind, the logic of love draws him to reveal the Dharma to people devoid of wisdom and full of attachments:

The Triple World is not safe,
Just as the burning house,
Full of all kinds of sufferings,
Was greatly to be feared.
Ever there are the distresses of birth,
Old age, disease, and death;
…
Now this triple world
All is my domain;
The living beings in it
All are my sons.

But now this place
Abounds with distresses;
And I alone
Am able to save and protect them.

For this reason the buddhas appear in the world:

Because the buddhas, the world-honored ones, desire to cause all living beings to open [their eyes] to the Buddha-knowledge so that they may gain the pure [mind], [therefore] they appear in the world; because they desire to show all living beings the Buddha-knowledge, they appear in the world; because they desire to cause all living beings to apprehend the Buddha-knowledge, they appear in the world; because they desire to cause all living beings to enter the way of the Buddha-knowledge, they appear in the world.

For this reason Śākyamuni, the Eternal Buddha, says he is committed, for a time without end, to bodhisattva practice.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Riccardo Venturini, A Buddha Teaches Only Bodhisattvas, Page 334-335

WONS

Our Troubles Now and Rewards in the Future

Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, asserts: “Our troubles and sufferings in this world are all due to our sins in our past lives, and rewards for our meritorious acts in this life will be received in our future lives.” It is also said in the Shinjikan-gyō (Sūtra of Meditation on the Earth of the Mind): “Our virtues or vices in our past can be seen in our present fortune; our future fortune can be seen in our present acts,” and in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra: “Thus the bodhisattva made amends for the past.” It seems that the Never Despising (Fukyō) Bodhisattva was attacked with rocks and tiles because of his past sins. It seems also that those who are destined for hell in the next life do not receive punishment even for serious sins in this life. For instance, some icchantika do not even receive punishment.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 104

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 29, 2019

For example, in building a huge tower, a scaffold is assembled from many small pieces of wood set up ten or twenty feet high. Then, using this scaffold, the huge tower is built with lumber. Once the tower is completed, the scaffold is dismantled. The scaffold here represents all Buddhist scriptures other than the Lotus Sutra, and the Great Tower is the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by “discarding the expedient.” A pagoda is built by using a scaffold, but no one worships a scaffold without a pagoda.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno (Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji). In this simile, Nichiren compares the Buddha’s expedient teachings to the Wonderful Dharma he provides in the Lotus Sūtra.

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

LS32

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the purpose of the sutras, we learn of the lifespan of the Buddha and why he implies he enters extinction.

“Good men! The duration of my life, which I obtained by the practice of the way of Bodhisattvas, has not yet expired. It is twice as long as the length of time as previously stated. Although I shall never enter into Nirvāṇa, I say to men of little virtue, ‘I shall pass away.’ I teach them with this expedient. Why is that? It is because, if they see me for a long time, they will not plant the roots of good, but become poor and base, and cling to the five desires so much that they will be caught in the nets of wrong views. If they think that I am always here, and do not think that I will pass away, they will become too arrogant and lazy to realize the difficulty of seeing me, and they will not respect me. Therefore I say [to them] expediently, ‘Bhikṣus, know this! It is difficult to see a Buddha who appears in [this] world.’ Why is that? It is because some men of little virtue cannot see me even during many hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas while the others can. Therefore, I say [to them], ‘Bhikṣus! It is difficult to see a Tathāgata.’ Those who hear this and know that it is difficult to see me, will adore me, admire me, and plant the roots of good. Therefore l say [to them], ‘I shall pass away,’ although I shall not.

“Good men! All the Buddhas, all the Tathāgatas, do the same as I do. [They expound their teachings] for the purpose of saving all living beings. Therefore, [their teachings] are true, not false.

See Revealing the Original Cause and Original Effect

2buddhas, LS32, d21b, d22b, WONS

Revealing the Original Cause and Original Effect

Nichiren understood the revelation of Buddha’s inconceivable “lifespan” as the very heart of the sūtra. The sūtra text makes clear that, even after realizing buddhahood, Śākyamuni has remained in the world, and will continue to do so, for countless eons, “teaching the dharma and inspiring sentient beings.” For Nichiren, this signaled a seismic shift in the entire concept of buddhahood as a realm apart from the nine realms of ordinary experience. Conventional understanding holds that the cause of buddhahood and its effect, that is, practice and attainment, are separated in time. To become a buddha, one must carry out the practices of the bodhisattva for three immeasurable eons, a staggering length of time spanning countless lifetimes. The “trace teaching” or shakumon portion of the Lotus Sūtra, even while extending the promise of buddhahood to all beings, still preserves this perspective on realizing buddhahood as a linear process in which one moves from practice (nine realms) toward attainment (buddhahood). We see this in Śākyamuni Buddha’s predictions in the sūtra’s early chapters that his individual śrāvaka disciples such as Sāriputra, Mahākāśyapa, and others will become buddhas in the remote future, after many eons of bodhisattva practice. From this perspective, buddhahood remains a distant goal, abstracted from one’s present experience.

But with the origin teaching, Nichiren wrote, the cause and effect of the pre-Lotus Sūtra teachings and of the trace teaching are “demolished” and “original cause and original effect” are revealed: “The nine realms are inherent in the beginningless buddha realm, and the buddha realm inheres in the beginningless nine realms. This represents the true mutual inclusion of the ten realms … and three thousand realms in a single thoughtmoment.” That is, he saw the origin teaching as overturning linear views of practice and attainment, in which one first makes efforts and then realizes buddhahood as a later result, and revealing that cause (the nine realms) and effect (the buddha realm) are present simultaneously; buddhahood is manifested in the very act of practice.

Two Buddhas, p185-186
Kaleidoscope

Bodhisattva Compassion

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In the Lotus Sutra the Buddha affirms that he employed nirvana (in its meaning of extinction, cessation, emptiness in a negative sense) as a didactic method to save people blinded by ignorance and dominated by the thirst for existence:

For this reason …
I set up a tactful way for them,
Proclaiming the Way to end sufferings,
Revealing it through nirvana.
Though I proclaim nirvana,
Yet it is not real extinction.
All existence, from the beginning,
Is ever of the nirvana nature.”

It is important for Westerners, who have had a distorted and negative view of the Buddhist concepts of void and nirvana, to reflect on these words. Void, in fact, being emptied itself, becomes fullness. This changing and impermanent world in which we live is itself the real world. Any difference between nirvana and samsara vanishes; and the same nirvana, which as a “designation” is also empty and unreal, becomes alive and concrete in the realization of life’s indivisibility, in the collapse of self-centeredness and in the awareness of the interrelatedness of all things.

Bodhisattvas, then, do not live as ascetics in the desert of their spiritual pride, insensitive to the sufferings of unenlightened beings. The plight of those who suffer misery and delusion stirs their hearts and spurs them to compassionate acts, to which they subordinate their quest for their own enlightenment, having already chosen lives of absolute nondualism. Far from enjoying a separate happiness, bodhisattvas feel a “vicarious suffering,” with others and in the place of others. They do not therefore “renounce” nirvana but emancipate themselves from the pursuit of a false aim, living the true nirvana in a “return” to the everyday world.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Riccardo Venturini, A Buddha Teaches Only Bodhisattvas, Page 333-334

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

The Reality of the Lotus Sutra

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Remember, it is our lives that determine the reality of the Lotus Sutra. It is our practice and our proof that demonstrates whether this is merely a historical document recording a teaching of Shakyamuni or the great universal truth of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower. And bringing this sutra to life we discover how to teach this wonderful truth to others and ensure the protection and endurance of this wonderful teaching.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

WONS

Mt. Minobu Scenery

Regarding the mountain scenery at Minobu, there are Mt. Shichimen in the west, Mt. Tenshigatake in the east, Mt. Minobu in the north and Mt. Takatori in the south. These four mountains are so steep and as high as the heavens that birds can barely fly over them. Through the narrow spaces between these mountains four rivers flow: Fujigawa, Hayakawa, Ōshirogawa and Minobugawa. In an open-space about one hundred meters square my retreat was built. The mountains are so tall that I can barely see the sun in the day or the moon at night. There is heavy snowfall in the winter and grasses grow high in the summer. Few people visit me, as it is difficult for anyone to travail through the grasses and make their way. Especially since the snow is deep this year, no visitors have come to see me.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 45-46

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 28, 2019

Ajita! They need not build a stūpa or a monastery in my honor, or make the four kinds of offerings to the Saṃgha because those who keep, read and recite this sūtra should be considered to have already built a stūpa or a monastery or made offerings to the Saṃgha.

The Buddha sings these verses to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita – Invincible, in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our zeal to emulate the great deeds of the Buddha, or even of our founder Nichiren, we might believe that only by extraordinary accomplishments can we show our gratitude for this teaching. The Buddha reminds us in this chapter that because we are practicing his Dharma in this world of conflict, we have already made these extraordinary accomplishments. He also reminds us that others who practice with us should be treated with the same admiration we have for anyone who has done valuable work.

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

LS32

Day 20

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Śākyamuni urge Maitreya and the others to pay close attention, we hear Śākyamuni tell Maitreya that he is the one who taught these Bodhisattvas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, having sung these gāthās, said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:

Now I will tell all of you in this great multitude, Ajita! [I know that] you have never seen these great, innumerable, asaṃkhya Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground. After I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi in this Sahā-World, I taught these Bodhisattvas, led them, trained them, and caused them to aspire for enlightenment. They lived in the sky below this Sahā-World. When they were there, they read many sūtras, recited them, understood them, thought them over, evaluated them, and remembered them correctly. Ajita! These good men did not wish to talk much with others [about things other than the Dharma] but to live in a quiet place. They practiced the way strenuously without a rest. They did not live among gods and men. They had no hindrance in seeking profound wisdom. They always sought the teaching of the Buddha. They sought unsurpassed wisdom strenuously with all their hearts.”

See Who Are These Bodhisattvas?