Two Buddhas, p86The modern reader may quickly grow impatient with Nichiren’s harping on the Avici hell. People at the time, however, envisioned the hells as actual postmortem destinations and depicted their torments in gruesome detail in narrative scroll paintings and didactic tales. Many thought that, without some form of earnest effort in Buddhist practice, rebirth in the lower realms would be inevitable. Hell had come to stand for the entire samsaric process. Although inflected through his Lotus exclusivism, Nichiren’s frequent references to frightful karmic retribution in the afterlife were consistent with his larger religious milieu. The resolve to close off that terrible possibility both for himself and others was part of what motivated his aggressive proselytizing.
All posts by John Hughes
The Father of This Sahā World
The presentation of the relationship Buddha-humanity in terms of father and son also deserves attention. The term “the Buddha’s children” appears often in the sutra to indicate the Buddha’s disciples, bodhisattvas, and all those who practice according to the teaching of the Buddha. They are called “children born of the Buddha’s mouth.” Nichiren underlines that only a Buddha coming from this Sahā world can be considered father of the beings living in this world. Other Buddhas who abide in different parts of the universe are not qualified because they do not have this bond, thus their existence is almost irrelevant for people, or at best an upāya.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 233-234
When a Sage Appears and Preaches the Lotus Sūtra
As a tiger roars, wind blows hard; as a dragon howls, clouds surge up. However, winds do not blow nor do clouds appear if it is only a rabbit crying or a donkey braying. Likewise, if only the foolish read the Lotus Sūtra, and the wise merely lecture about it, nobody makes noise and nothing happens in the country. It is believed, however, when a sage appears and preaches the Lotus Sūtra as the Buddha did, the country will be excited and persecutions more severe than those in the Buddha’s lifetime will occur.
Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 112
Daily Dharma – Dec. 14, 2019
You, the World-Honored One, are our leader.
You give peace to gods and men.
Hearing that you assured us of our future Buddhahood,
We are relieved and satisfied.
These verses are sung by Maha-Prajāpatī Bhikṣuṇī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣuṇī, and their attendants in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our lives we have many desires, some of which we may not recognize. We believe that when these desires are met, only then can we be happy and peaceful. At the foundation of these desires is the desire for liberation. These women recognize that with this desire, just knowing that it will be fulfilled is enough to bring joy.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 6
Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month learned the differences in the three carts, we consider the rich man’s decision to give each child a large cart.
“Śāriputra! Seeing that all his children had come out of the burning house safely and reached a carefree place, the rich man remembered that he had immeasurable wealth. So without partiality, he gave them each a large cart. I am also a father, the father of all living beings. Seeing that many hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings have come out of the painful, fearful and rough road of the triple world through the gate of the teachings of the Buddha, and obtained the pleasure of Nirvāṇa, I thought, ‘I have the store of the Dharma in which the immeasurable wisdom, powers and fearlessness of the Buddhas are housed. These living beings are all my children. I will give them the Great Vehicle. I will not cause them to attain extinction by their own ways. I will cause them to attain the extinction of the Tathāgata.’
“To those who have left the triple world, I will give the dhyāna concentrations and emancipations of the Buddhas for their pleasure. These things are of the same nature and of the same species. These things are extolled by the saints because these things bring the purest and most wonderful pleasure.
“Śāriputra! The rich man persuaded his children to come out at first by promising them the gifts of the three kinds of carts. But the carts which he gave them later were the largest and most comfortable carts adorned with treasures. In spite of this, the rich man was not accused of falsehood. Neither am I. I led all living beings at first with the teaching of the Three Vehicles. Now I will save them by the Great Vehicle only. Why is that? It is because, if I had given them the teaching of the Great Vehicle at first directly from my store of the Dharma in which my immeasurable wisdom, powers and fearlessness are housed, they would not have received all of the Dharma. Śāriputra! Therefore, know this! The Buddhas divide the One Buddha-Vehicle into three by their power to employ expedients.”
Saving the Benighted Persons of the Mappō Era
Two Buddhas, p118-119In Nichiren’s understanding, during the ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, people had been able to achieve buddhahood through provisional teachings such as nenbutsu or Zen because they had already formed a connection to the Lotus Sūtra by hearing it from Śākyamuni Buddha in previous lifetimes. But people born in the age of the Final Dharma have not yet formed such a connection and thus cannot benefit from the nenbutsu or other provisional teachings, no matter how earnestly they might practice them, just as one cannot reap a harvest from a field where seeds have never been sown. Now in the age of the Final Dharma, Nichiren taught, it is the daimoku, the essence of the Lotus Sūtra, that embodies the seed of buddhahood. “At this time,” he wrote, “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō of the ‘Fathoming the Lifespan’ chapter, the heart of the origin teaching, should be planted for the first time as the seed [of buddhahood]” in the hearts of the benighted persons of the mappō era.
The Past of Śākyamuni Is Reflected in the Past of His Disciples
For Nichiren, the revelation of the original Buddha which takes place in the sixteenth chapter has two meanings: that of a theory of the nature of the Buddha, and that of a speculation on the situation of humankind. Śākyamuni’s “original causes and original results” become the turning point which allows postulating the contemporaneity of human beings to the Buddha. Human beings, in their spatial and temporal limitations, share the temporality of Śākyamuni in this world. Nichiren uses a theory elaborated by Chih-i according to which the past of Śākyamuni is reflected in the past of his disciples. This is the tie established, in the original time, between Śākyamuni and those who listen to the sutra or are willing to accept it. From here Nichiren draws the certainty of buddhahood for human beings:
We living beings of this land are since as many kalpas ago as five hundred particles of dust Śākyamuni’s beloved children. [The relation] between a Buddha with ties and the living beings [bound] by karmic ties can be compared to [the reflection of] the moon in the sky floating on clear water. A Buddha without ties in relation to sentient beings is like a deaf man listening for the sound of thunder or a blind man turning to sun and moon.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 233Daily Dharma – Dec. 13, 2019
Because we are your messengers,
We are fearless before multitudes.
We will expound the Dharma.
Buddha, do not worry!
In Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sūtra, innumerable Bodhisattvas sing these verses before the Buddha from whom they had come to hear the Wonderful Dharma. The Buddha had asked who would continue to spread and practice his highest teaching after his extinction. These Bodhisattvas vowed to uphold this teaching through all obstacles, particularly those created by people who were so attached to their delusions that they would slander and persecute anyone who keeps this Lotus Sūtra. The fearlessness of these Bodhisattvas comes from their certainty that this Sūtra leads all beings to enlightenment, and their compassionate resolve to benefit everyone.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable, we begin again with Śāriputra dancing for joy.
Thereupon Śāriputra, who felt like dancing with joy, stood up, joined his hands together, looked up at the honorable face, and said to the Buddha:
“Hearing this truthful voice of yours, I feel like dancing [with joy]. I have never felt like this before. Why is that? We [Śrāvakas and the Bodhisattvas] heard this Dharma before. [At that time] we saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood, but not that we were. We deeply regretted that we were not given the immeasurable insight of the Tathāgata.“World-Honored One! I sat alone under a tree or walked about mountains and forests, thinking, ‘We [and the Bodhisattvas] entered the same world of the Dharma. Why does the Tathāgata save us only by the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle?’
“Now I understand that the fault was on our side, not on yours, because if we had waited for your expounding of the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, we would have been saved by the Great Vehicle. When we heard your first teaching, we did not know that that teaching was an expedient one expounded according to our capacities. Therefore, we believed and received that teaching at once, thought it over, and attained the enlightenment [to be attained by that teaching].
“World-Honored One! I reproached myself day and night [after I saw that the Bodhisattvas were assured of their future Buddhahood]. Now I have heard from you the Dharma that I had never heard before. I have removed all my doubts. I am now calm and peaceful in body and mind. Today I have realized that I am your son, that I was born from your mouth, that I was born in [the world of] the Dharma, and that I have obtained the Dharma of the Buddha.”
Planting the Seed of Buddhahood
Two Buddhas, p118[The sixth patriarch of the Tiantai school, Zhanran,] argued that only the perfect teaching of the Lotus Sūtra can plant the seed of buddhahood. From this perspective, Śākyamuni’s preaching of the Lotus Sūtra during his lifetime in India both allowed those who had received the seed of buddhahood from him in previous lifetimes to reap the harvest of enlightenment and also planted that seed in the lives of those who had not yet received it. Nichiren understood this process in terms of how it unfolded after Śākyamuni’s final nirvāṇa, and especially in his own time. Like Zhanran, but to a greater degree, he stressed that only the Lotus Sūtra plants the seed of buddhahood; all that provisional teachings can accomplish is to cultivate the capacity of persons who have already received that seed by encountering the Lotus Sūtra in prior lifetimes. Thus, in the final analysis, buddhahood always has its source in the Lotus.