All posts by John Hughes

WONS

‘A Panacea for the Illness of the People in the Jambudvīpa’

In the past there were medical practitioners named Yellow Emperor and Pien Ch’üeh in China and Ch’ih-shui and Jīvaka in India. They were the treasures of the world in those days and master physicians for generations to come. And yet, the Buddha, who preached the “good medicine” that keeps us from growing old and dying is the greatest of physicians who surpasses them both. The “good medicine” refers to none other than the five Chinese characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō. Moreover, the Buddha declared these five characters to be “a panacea for the illness of the people in the Jambudvīpa.”

Myōshin-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Myōshin Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 102

WONS

Under Protective Wings of Bodhisattvas

Looking at the present world, we see the three sorts of resentful enemies of the Lotus Sūtra in front of our own eyes, but none of the eight hundred thousands, millions, and nayuta of bodhisattvas who made the vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra in front of the Buddha Śākyamuni can be seen. This is a situation in which we feel something amiss like the ebb tide that does not rise or the waned moon which does not wax. When the water becomes clear and tranquil, the moon naturally reflects upon it. When trees are planted, birds come to live. Nichiren, who preaches on the Lotus Sūtra in place of the eight hundred thousands, millions and nayuta of bodhisattvas, is under the protective wings of those bodhisattvas.

Teradomari Gosho, A Letter from Teradomari, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 13

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 16, 2019

I, Nichiren, am the lone forerunner of the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth. I may even be one of them. If I am counted as one of the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth, my disciples and followers too are among the ranks of those bodhisattvas from the earth, are they not? The “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter states, “If someone expounds even a phrase of the Lotus Sūtra even to one person in secret, then you should know that such a person is my messenger, dispatched by Me and carries out My work.” This refers to none other than us.

Nichiren wrote this passage as part of his Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality (Shohō Jissō-Shō), sent to the monk Sairen-Bō. He refers to Chapters Ten and Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This passage reminds us of our position as followers of Nichiren, and fellow messengers of Śākyamuni Buddha.

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

LS32

Day 8

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 8 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month
considered the poor son’s response when he first sets eyes on the rich man, we consider the expedient devices used by the old man to encourage his son.

The rich man thought:
“He is ignorant, narrow-minded, and mean.
If I tell him that I am his father,
He will not believe me.”

He thought of an expedient.
He called
Some squint-eyed, short, ugly, powerless and virtueless men,
And said to them:
“Go and tell him:
‘You will be employed
To clear away dirt and dust.
You can get a double day’s pay.”‘

Hearing this from them,
The poor son came joyfully with them.
He cleared away dirt and dust,
And cleaned the buildings.

The rich man saw him from the window.
He thought:
“He is ignorant.
He willingly does mean work.”
Thereupon the rich man
Put on old and dirty clothes,
Picked up a dirt-utensil,
And walked towards his son.
With this expedient he came to his son,
And told him to work on, saying:
“I will pay you more.
You can use twice as much oil for your feet.
You can take food and drink as you like.
You can use more matting to warm yourself with.”

Sometimes he chided him, saying:
“Work hard!”
At other times he coaxed him, saying:
“I will treat you as my son.”

See A Seed that Flowers and Bears Fruit in the Very Moment of Its Acceptance

2buddhas, LS32, d8b, WONS

A Seed that Flowers and Bears Fruit in the Very Moment of Its Acceptance

The concept of sowing, maturing, and harvesting suggests a linear process developing over time. Mahāyāna thought traditionally maintained that fulfilling the bodhisattva path requires three incalculable eons. However, as we have seen, Nichiren drew on both Tendai and esoteric notions of realizing buddhahood “with this body” to argue that buddhahood is accessed in the very act of chanting Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō. The daimoku, in other words, is a “seed” that flowers and bears fruit in the very moment of its acceptance. This goes to the heart of how Nichiren understood the Final Dharma age. In the age of the True Dharma and the age of the Semblance Dharma, people practiced according to a linear model, gradually eradicating delusions and accumulating merit, eventually culminating in the attainment of buddhahood after countless lifetimes of practice. But in chanting the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, the practice for the mappō era, practice and enlightenment, sowing and harvest, occur simultaneously, and buddhahood is realized in this very body. In other words, in the Final Dharma age, the direct realization of buddhahood becomes accessible to ordinary people. Nichiren’s claim paradoxically inverts the negative soteriological implications of the benighted mappō era and makes it the ideal time to be alive. “Rather than be great monarchs during the two thousand years of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages, those concerned for their salvation should rather be common people now in the Final Dharma age,” he wrote. “It is better to be a leper who chants Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō than to be chief abbot of the Tendai school,” the highest position in the religious world of Japan at the time.

Two Buddhas, p119-120
Basics

The True Aim of Human Life

Quote

People who understand the true principle of dependent origination and discover the highest aim of Buddhism realize that they cannot find happiness through their own salvation alone and that the true aim of human life must be the achievement of peace and well-being for society as a whole. Having reached this point, such people reject the self-oriented for the world-oriented vision. Instead of worrying about their own comfort and peace of mind, they become altruistic enough to fall into lower states of being (the realms of hell, hungry spirits, and beasts) for the sake of saving others. Less noble motives recede into the background or are rejected altogether. This step-by-step advancement accounts for the complexity of religious phenomena and for the expedient methods of Buddhist guidance, in which each teaching is adjusted to the need of the moment, just as medication must be selected to suit the illness being treated.
Basic Buddhist Concepts

Kaleidoscope

The Buddha Seed

Quote

The Lotus Sutra does not discuss a universal buddha-nature but often speaks of a universal buddha-seed. Chih-i re-uses the image of the seed to formulate a temporal succession in the process of enlightenment, which reflects also the way the Buddha acts: the seed is first sown, then left to sprout and grow, and finally the plant ripens. … [I]n Chih-i’s exegesis of the enlightenment of Śākyamuni the time between the sowing (the original enlightenment of Śākyamuni) and the ripening (the recent enlightenment of Śākyamuni) is an upāya, because the deeds Śākyamuni performs during this period are according to teachings other than the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra represents the world of the original enlightenment of Śākyamuni and that of his present enlightenment. The world in between is denoted by the other sutras Śākyamuni preached during his lifetime according to people’s capacity.

In Nichiren’s interpretation the upāya no longer has a function, the seed becomes equivalent to enlightenment, and the planting of the seed amounts to the attainment of buddhahood. The temporal interval between the primordial time and the present of Śākyamuni loses significance, and so does the difference between the original time and original land and the present of human beings. The Lotus Sutra is the buddha seed planted in people, the only means to realize the human potential for buddhahood. At any moment this scripture is read and diffused, the seed of buddhahood is again planted in everybody who chooses to listen and keep it, and the primordial relation with the Buddha is reestablished. If nobody “uses” the sutra, the seed disappears and no one is aware of their tie with the Buddha.

The seed is thus the necessary and sufficient cause of buddhahood. Yet, compared with the idea of buddha-nature, unchangeable by definition, the seed gives the idea of something belonging to the phenomenal world, subject to disappearance. “If people do not believe in this sutra and vilify it, then they cut off all the buddha-seeds in the world,” the sutra says. It is thus necessary to sow the seed again. If buddha-seeds occur “according to circumstances and conditioned cause,” as suggested in the Lotus Sutra itself, both the infinite action of the Buddha and one’s own activity are necessary. The image of the seed also conveys a more individual nuance than the universality of the buddha-nature: “Human beings defiled by evil encounter the bodhisattvas of the honmon, and the buddha-seeds are planted.”
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 234-235

d14b, WONS

Abusing a Faithful Believer

As I reflect on things, it is preached in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, “Suppose there is an evil person with a wicked mind who ceaselessly slandered a Buddha for as long as a kalpa (aeon). The sin of such a person would still be considered minor when compared to a person who abused with just a word a faithful believer, clergy or laity, who reads or recites the Lotus Sūtra.” Grand Master Miao-lê interprets this passage stating, “We can say this because the Lotus Sūtra is profound in doctrine and excellent in merit. We cannot say the same about other sutras.”

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 43

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Dec. 15, 2019

Medicine-King! An evil man who speaks ill of me in my presence with evil intent for as long as a kalpa is not as sinful as the person who reproaches laymen or monks with even a single word of abuse for their reading and reciting the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Buddha declares this sentence in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. Since the Buddha is secure in the enlightenment he enjoys, anyone attacking him either questioning his enlightenment or disparaging his wisdom is only going to make themselves look bad. Attacking someone just starting on the path towards enlightenment could lead them to doubt the value of the Wonderful Dharma. It is beneficial to remember these words, not just for what they mean about how we treat others, but for how we treat ourselves.

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

LS32

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the greatness of the One Buddha Vehicle, we consider the Buddha’s expedient teachings.

(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
All of you
All Are of my you children.
I am your father.

You were under the fires of many sufferings
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Therefore, I saved you
From the triple world [ with expedients].

I once told you that you had attained extinction.
But you eliminated only birth and death
[By that extinction].
The extinction you attained was not the true one.
What you should do now is
Obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.

The Bodhisattvas in this multitude
Should hear
With one mind
The true teaching of the Buddhas.

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Say only expediently [that some are not Bodhisattvas]
To tell the truth,
All living beings taught by them are Bodhisattvas.

[I said:]
“To those who have little wisdom,
And who are deeply attached to sensual desires,
The Buddhas expound the truth that all is suffering.
Those [who hear this truth]
Will have the greatest joy that they have ever had.
The statement of the Buddhas that all is suffering
Is true, not false.
To those who are ignorant
Of the cause of all sufferings,
And who are too deeply attached
To the cause of suffering
To give it up even for a moment,
The Buddhas expound
The [eight right] ways as expedients.

The cause of suffering is greed.
When greed is eliminated,
There is nothing to be attached to.
The extinction of suffering
Is called the third truth.
In order to attain this extinction,
The [eight right] ways must be practiced.
Freedom from the bonds of suffering[,]
[That is, from illusions] is called emancipation.”

From what illusions can one be emancipated, however,
[By the practice of the eight right ways]?
He can be emancipated only from unreal things
[That is, from the five desires] thereby.
He cannot be emancipated from all illusions.
The Buddhas say
That he has not yet attained
The true extinction
Because he has not yet attained
Unsurpassed enlightenment.
I also do not think that I have led him
To the [true] extinction thereby.

See Avoiding Hell