All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 13, 2019

When the sun shines brightly in the sky, everything is made clearly visible on the earth. In the same manner, when one knows the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, one will understand the meaning of occurrences in the world.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his great work, Spiritual Contemplation and the Object of Devotion (Kanjin Honzon Shō). When we awaken to our nature as Bodhisattvas who have chosen our lives to benefit others and improve the world, we are freed from the confusion and anxiety around us. By keeping the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra, and following the guidance of Nichiren’s writings, we see what to do to make the world we live in now better for everyone.

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

LS32

Day 9

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Day 9 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded Chapter 5, we begin Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, with the prediction for Mahā-Kāśyapa.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, having sung these gāthās, said to the great multitude [of bhikṣus]:

“This Mahā-Kāśyapa, a disciple of mine, will see three hundred billions of Buddhas, of World-Honored Ones, make offerings to them, respect them, honor them, praise them, and expound an innumerable number of their great teachings in his future life. After that, on the final stage of his physical existence, he will become a Buddha, called Light, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. His world will be called Light-Virtue; and the kalpa in which he will become that Buddha, Great-Adornment. The duration of the life of that Buddha will be twelve small kalpas. His right teachings will be preserved for twenty small kalpas, and the counterfeit of his right teachings will be preserved also for twenty small kalpas. His world will be adorned, and not be defiled with tile-pieces, rubble, thorns or dirt. The ground [of his world] will be even, and devoid of pits and mounds. It will be made of lapis lazuli. Jeweled trees will stand in lines, and the roads will be marked off by ropes of gold. Jeweled flowers will be strewn all over the ground, and the ground will be purified. Many hundreds of thousands of millions of Bodhisattvas and innumerable Śrāvakas will live in that world. Although Mara and his followers also will live there, they will not do any evil but protect the teachings of the Buddha.”

See The Brilliance and Power of the Lotus Sūtra

2buddhas, LS32, d1b

The Brilliance and Power of the Lotus Sūtra

The authors of the Lotus Sūtra were deeply learned in the language of Buddhism, and the text is filled with all manner of allusions to, and radical reinterpretations of, the Buddha’s teachings. A second goal of this book, therefore, is to focus on what was at stake in the compilation of a Mahāyāna sūtra — what it meant to compose a revelation of a new teaching, to legitimize that revelation as the Buddha’s words, and then to use it as a polemic against the established tradition. Readers accustomed to the traditional claim held by many devotees, that the Lotus Sūtra is the teaching of the historical Buddha expounded in the last eight years of this life, may initially find this perspective challenging. We suggest, however, that one’s appreciation of the brilliance and power of the Lotus Sūtra is only enhanced when the historical circumstances of its composition are taken into consideration. That is, the genius of the Lotus Sūtra becomes fully apparent only when one engages with the kinds of questions the compilers themselves were compelled to address.

Two Buddhas, p4
Kaleidoscope

Immeasurability and Emptiness

Quote

[I]t is extremely important to notice that a connection was made early on between the idea of immeasurability and emptiness.

In the Perfection of Insight [Wisdom] in Eight Thousand Lines (i.e., the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā-sūtra), the disciple Subhūti asks the Buddha how a bodhisattva in training can recognize or “apperceive” the perfection of insight and is told that this is done through a series of thoughts which are “inclined toward all-knowledge.” Why so?

Because all-knowledge is immeasurable and unlimited. What is immeasurable and unlimited, that is not form, or any other skandha. That is not attainment, or reunion, or getting there; not the path or its fruit; not cognition or consciousness; not genesis, or destruction, or production, or passing away, or stopping, or development, or annihilation. It has not been made by anything, it has not come from anywhere, it does not go to anywhere, it does not stand in any place or spot. On the contrary, it comes to be styled “immeasurable, unlimited.” From the immeasurableness of space is the immeasurableness of all-knowledge.

This passage shows us that the term “immeasurability” belongs to those which indicate the aspect of being without characteristics. It is not intended to make an ontological assertion. Rather, it is intended to indicate the aspect of “positionlessness,” a term with which one may satisfactorily summarize the character of the Prajn͂āpāramitā and Mādhyamika schools.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Michael Pye, The Length of Life of the Tathāgata, Page 167-168

d27b, d9b, WONS

Pre-Lotus Sūtras Are Like Lands of Poverty

Many other similes are cited in [Medicine King Bodhisattva] chapter, including “a ferryboat to cross over a river.” The meaning of this simile is that the pre-Lotus sūtras are like a raft or a light boat for crossing over the ocean of life and death. It is not easy to cross over an ocean aboard a raft or a small boat from this shore of life and death to the other shore of enlightenment. It is impossible to reach the shore of the Pure Land of Utmost Bliss. For instance, a light boat may be able to start from Chikushi Province (Fukuoka Prefecture) and arrive at Kamakura or Enoshima in the Kanto District, but not to reach T’ang China. A large ship from China can travel from Japan to China without trouble. This chapter also compares having faith in the Lotus Sūtra to a person of poverty finding treasure. The pre-Lotus sūtras are like lands of poverty and those who believe in them are likened to hungry souls. The Lotus Sūtra, on the contrary, is like a mountain of treasures and those who have faith in it are people of wealth.

QUESTION: Do you have scriptural support to claim that pre-Lotus sūtras are like countries of destitution?

ANSWER: The “Assurance of Future Buddhahood” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra preaches, “It is like someone coming from a land of famine suddenly encountering the meal of a great king.”

Yakuō-bon Tokui-shō, The Essence of the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” Chapter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 32

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Nov. 12, 2019

Seeing [these wonders displayed by] the supernatural powers of his sons, the father had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He joined his hands together towards his sons [staying in the sky], and said, ‘Who is your teacher? Whose disciples are you?’

King Wonderful-Adornment makes this declaration to his sons in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. His sons had been asked by their mother to display their supernatural powers to their father and awaken the desire in him to hear the Buddha Dharma. We all have abilities of which we are not aware, and can cultivate those abilities so that they may seem miraculous to those who do not understand them. But it is important for us not to fall in the trap of using these abilities to strengthen our ego delusion. Instead we should dedicate our talents towards awakening the joy of the Wonderful Dharma in all beings.

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 begun the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son in gāthās, we consider the poor son’s response when he first sets eyes on the rich man.

At that time the poor son
Wandered from village to village,
From country to country,
Seeking food and clothing.
Sometimes he got what he wanted,
At other times he could not.
Getting thinner from hunger,
He had scabs and itches on his skin.
Wandering from one place to another,
He came to the city of his father.
Employed at places from day to day,
He came to the house of his father.

At that time the rich man was sitting
On the lion-like seat
Under the great awning of treasures
Inside the gate of the house.
Many attendants were surrounding him.
Many people were on his guard.

Some of his attendants were counting
Gold, silver, and other treasures.
Some were keeping accounts;
Others, writing notes and bills.

Seeing his father noble and honorable,
The poor son thought:
“Is he a king,
Or someone like a king?”

Frightened and scared,
He wondered:
“Why did I come here?”
He thought:
“If I stay here any longer,
I shall be forced to work.”

Having thought this, he ran away.
He asked someone
For the way to a village of the poor
In order to get a job.

From his lion-like seat,
The rich man saw the poor son in the distance,
And recognized him as his son.
But he did not tell this to the others.

He immediately dispatched a messenger
To chase, catch, and bring him back.
The poor son cried out with fright,
And fell to the ground in agony, thinking:
“He caught me. I shall be killed.
What use was it coming here
For food and clothing?”

See The Initial Chapters of Lotus Sūtra Open Buddhahood to All Beings

2buddhas, LS32, d3b, d7b, d8b

The Initial Chapters of Lotus Sūtra Open Buddhahood to All Beings

Unlike Saichō, … Nichiren did not ground his own argument that all can attain buddhahood in claims for universal suchness, a term that occurs only rarely in his writings but, rather, in the mutual inclusion of the ten realms. This doctrine also renders irrelevant Hossō and Kegon claims that the Lotus Sūtra should be ranked below the Explanation of the Intention or Flower Garland sūtras because the parable of the wealthy man and his impoverished son, on which the Tendai hierarchy of Buddhist teachings is based, was spoken by śrāvakas. Nichiren wrote, “The four śrāvakas expressed their understanding, saying, ‘The most magnificent jewels have been obtained without being sought or awaited.’ They represent the śrāvaka realm within ourselves.” Central to Nichiren’s understanding was the idea that, because the ten realms are mutually inclusive, if beings of one realm can attain buddhahood, so can those of any other. In his reading, the initial chapters of the Lotus Sūtra open buddhahood not merely to previously exduded śrāvakas, but to all beings.

Two Buddhas, p96
Kaleidoscope

The Tools of Our Liberation

Quote

When words help, words are offered. But these words are not the final goal; they are merely a means to get us unstuck if we are stuck in our path toward Buddhahood. The text teaches that when it is necessary, the Buddha will “deceive us into the truth,” as Kierkegaard put it, just as in the parable of the magic city the tired pilgrims are lured toward their goal and dissuaded from giving up by the mysterious illusion of the proximity of a yet distant goal. Similarly, if we are to move beyond our habitual and limiting thoughts, perhaps potent new thoughts will affect our moving from our original stance. If a set of truth-claims helps us to move beyond our previous beliefs, the set has done its job. It does not, however, constitute a permanently satisfying and intelligible final answer. Once we are free from whatever delusion to which we were habituated, the tool of our liberation should be discarded rather than clung to. It was, after all, nothing more than a now spent tool. And so, it is that tactfulness requires that what is spoken be effective rather than literally true.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; John R.A. Mayer, Reflectioms on the Threefold Lotus Sutra, Page 156

WONS

‘Self-Nature’ and ‘Other-Power’

The “self-nature” of the Lotus Sūtra is not what non-Buddhists think it to be because we possess in our heart all living beings of the Ten Realms. We have in ourselves the realm of Buddhas, let alone those of all living beings. Therefore, to become a Buddha now does not mean to be a new one. The “other-power” in the Lotus Sūtra, too, is not what non-Buddhists consider it to be. For other Buddhas are contained within each of us by nature. They also manifest themselves in us ordinary people. At this point I am omitting a discussion of both the “dual” and “spontaneous” powers.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 91