The Ssu fen lü precepts had been formulated by the historical Buddha, Śākyamuni, in response to specific situations. The Fan wang precepts, in contrast, were said to be eternal and universal, the precepts of a thousand Buddhas. Saichō considered them to be the source from which all Buddhas and bodhisattvas proceeded. Moreover, they were based in the Buddha-nature which everyone possessed and thus were called the Busshōkai (Buddha-nature precepts). Everyone could and should follow these precepts. Holding the precepts made one a true disciple of the Buddha and allowed him to enter the ranks of the Buddhas. Thus the Fan wang precepts were considered to be the ultimate teaching, not a provisional one. The Fan wang precepts enabled the practitioner to enter the Direct Path (jikidō) to enlightenment without any danger of backsliding.
Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p194All posts by John Hughes
Tasting the Flavor of the True Dharma
Now, when I contemplate the state of Japan, I note that it has been a long time since her inception. Accordingly, the future of the original protective deities of Japan must have been exhausted, their life span having grown shorter, and their authority and power having declined. Their authority and power will increase only when they taste the flavor of the True Dharma. The True Dharma, however, has been lost, allowing evil dharmas to prosper and protective deities to grow old. How can they repulse national disasters and protect parishioners?
Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 261
Daily Dharma – Oct. 20, 2019
You, the World-Honored One, are the light of wisdom.
Hearing from you
That we are assured of our future Buddhahood,
We are as joyful as if we were sprinkled with nectar.
These verses are sung by two thousand of the Buddha’s disciples in Chapter Nine of the Lotus Sūtra. When these followers of the Buddha were told that they would become as enlightened as he was, then many others like them realized that they too had this capacity. The superiority of the Lotus Sūtra lies not in having better explanations of what the Buddha taught, or in some supernatural ability it has to change the world. The superiority of the Lotus Sūtra is its completeness. It leads all beings to the joy of enlightenment.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 19
Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Having last month considered why Śākyamuni teaches this sūtra lastly, we repeat in gāthās the Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Top-Knot.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Be patient, and compassionate
Towards all living beings,
And then expound this sūtra
Praised by the Buddhas!Anyone who keeps this sūtra
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.
He should think:
‘They do not hear this sūtra.
They do not believe it.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’I will tell you a parable.
A wheel-turning-holy-king was powerful.
Some of his soldiers
Distinguished themselves in war.
He was glad to honor them.
He gave them elephants or horses,
Vehicles or ornaments,
Paddy fields or houses,
Villages or cities,
Garments or various treasures,
Menservants or maidservants,
Or other valuables.He took a brilliant gem
Out of his top-knot
And gave it to the bravest man
Who had done the most difficult feats.I am like the king.
I am the King of the Dharma.
I have the great power of patience
And the treasury of wisdom.
I save all living beings in the world by the Dharma
Out of my great compassion towards them.The people were under the pressure
Of various sufferings.
They were fighting with the Maras
In order to emancipate themselves
From suffering.
Because I saw all this,
I expounded various teachings to them.
I expounded many sūtras with skillful expedients.Now I know that they can understand the Sutra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Therefore, I expound it to them lastly
Just as the king took the brilliant gem
Out of his top-knot
And gave it [to the bravest man lastly].
Drawing Phrases and Passages from ‘Ease in Practice’
Two Buddhas, p168-169Nichiren knew the Lotus Sūtra thoroughly, and, as he did with other chapters, drew occasionally on phrases and passages from the “Ease in Practice” chapter to support his teaching. For example, he cited the statement following the parable of the jewel in the topknot) — “This Lotus Sūtra is the secret treasure house of all the buddha tathāgatas, and the foremost among all the sūtras” — to argue against claims that the secret or esoteric teachings surpassed the Lotus Sūtra. He quoted the passage, “Even the title of this sūtra cannot be heard in incalculable lands,” to stress the immense good fortune of being born in a country where, although far from Buddhism’s birthplace in India, one could encounter the Lotus Sūtra and chant its daimoku. He also cited the “Ease in Practice” chapter’s reference to “the troubled world to come,” which his predecessor Saichō had identified specifically with the age of the Final Dharma, and frequently invoked the statement that the Lotus is “treated with hostility by the entire world and is difficult to believe in.”
Bodhisattvas from Other Worlds
The book Two Buddhas Seated Side By Side presents a chapter by chapter look at the Lotus Sutra, with Donald S. Lopez Jr. offering a description and anti-Mahayana commentary on each chapter and Jacqueline I. Stone following with an explanation of how Nichiren used the chapter in Medieval Japan.
I’ve found Stone’s contribution excellent and Lopez’s effort so disappointing that I hesitate to suggest anyone purchase the book. See this blog post.
That’s not to say that Lopez has contributed nothing worthwhile. It’s just that I have bags of salt handy when taking in his contribution.
The latest example is his opening paragraph for Chapter 15, Bodhisattvas Emerging from the Earth:
The dramatic tension that has been building since the “Jeweled Stūpa” chapter continues to build here. At the end of that chapter, the Buddha calls for those who are willing to step forward and, in the presence of the assembled buddhas, vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra after his parinirvāṇa. In the “Perseverance” chapter [Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra], billions of great bodhisattvas who have arrived from other worlds vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra throughout the ten directions. The theme of volunteers vowing to preserve the Lotus Sūtra after the Buddha is gone continues in this chapter, which opens with the bodhisattvas who have arrived from other lands to witness the opening of the stūpa now offering to preserve, recite, copy, and pay homage to the Lotus Sūtra in this Sahā world after the Buddha has passed into final nirvāṇa. However, the Buddha replies that there are sufficient bodhisattvas in his own world, the Sahā world, a statement that would be imbued with great meaning by Nichiren. The Buddha’s polite refusal of the offer of assistance from the foreign bodhisattvas, that is, the bodhisattvas who have arrived from other worlds, sets the scene for yet another dramatic event.
Two Buddhas, p161
What jumped out at me here was the characterization of Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, together with their twenty-thousand attendants who were also Bodhisattvas, as bodhisattvas “who have arrived from other worlds.” These are the great Bodhisattvas who are listed in Chapter 1, Introductory, as being present at the start. And in Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva asks the Buddha: “World-Honored One! Why does Medicine-King Bodhisattva walk about this Sahā-World?” Where in the Lotus Sutra does it suggest all of the Bodhisattvas have all arrived from other worlds?
And yet, judging from Stone’s description of Nichiren’s writings, the other-worldly nature of these Bodhisattvas was well known.
Based on his understanding of the Buddha’s teaching process, Nichiren argued that [the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth] could only appear in the Final Dharma age. During the two thousand years following the Buddha’s passing, that is, the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages, persons who had received the seed of buddhahood from Sakyamuni Buddha were led to the stages of maturation and harvesting through provisional teachings. Had the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth appeared and spread the daimoku during that time, many of those people would have reviled it, thereby destroying the merit gained through the maturing of the seeds that they had already received. During those two thousand years, Nichiren said, some of the bodhisattvas from other worlds remained to teach the Lotus Sūtra in this world. Specifically, Zhiyi and his teacher Huisi, long revered as manifestations of the bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyarāja [Medicine-King] and Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver], respectively, had taught the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment from the abstract perspective of the trace teaching.
Two Buddhas, p175-176
Understanding that Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva and World-Voice-Perceiver are from other worlds does offer an explanation why the Buddha keeps silence when “[E]ighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas … rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together [towards him] with all their hearts, and thought, ‘If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sūtra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.’ ”
Observance of All Three Elements of the Threefold Learning
The Perfect precepts were much more than mere rules of conduct. All elements of the Perfect threefold learning were essentially expressions of the Buddha. They were grounded in one’s own inherently pure nature (jishō shōjō). Complete adherence to the precepts would result in complete mastery of meditation and wisdom. Perfect observance of the precepts in which the practitioner would never even be tempted to violate a rule would necessarily entail a profound understanding of the nonsubstantiality of all things. In such a case the practitioner’s observance of all three elements of the threefold learning would be immovable and unhindered (kokū fudō) by any obstacle.
Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p194Actualize Our True Identities
We learn in the Lotus Sutra that these Bodhisattvas who appear from beneath the ground have trained with the Buddha since the remotest past. This is our relationship with the Eternal Buddha, not with the historical Buddha. As Bodhisattvas from underground we read the Lotus Sutra from the perspective of an infinite bond with the Buddha, as lifelong practitioners of the Eternal Buddha who have in this lifetime manifested as the beings we currently are but who underneath it all are in fact golden-hued Bodhisattvas. We have received training and are eminently qualified to carry out the lives we have and attain enlightenment in our present form. Everything we need is within us, and the Lotus Sutra is our activation code to actualize our true identities.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraTeaching Suitable to a Country
When spreading the Dharma in a country, it is important to take into consideration the type of country it is. One cannot assume that a teaching suitable in one country will necessarily be suitable in another country.
Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 143.
Daily Dharma – Oct. 19, 2019
In order to save the [perverted] people,
I expediently show my Nirvāṇa to them.
In reality I shall never pass away.
I always live here and expound the Dharma.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This is part of the explanation that his existence in the physical form of Śākyamuni was only one way that he leads all beings to enlightenment. The Buddha described his ever-present nature as the most difficult of his teachings to believe and understand. Recognizing the presence of the Buddha in the world is the same as recognizing Buddha nature in ourselves and all beings. Knowing that the Buddha is always available to help us in this difficult practice of the Wonderful Dharma means we do not need to rely on our own limited abilities. The store of the Dharma is always available to us. We just need to find it and use it.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com