All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 18

Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Day 18 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and hear the vow of eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One looked at the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. These Bodhisattvas had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dhārāṇis. They 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.”

They also thought, “The Buddha keeps silence.’ He does not command us. What shall we do?”

In order to follow the wish of the Buddha respectfully, and also to fulfill their original vow, they vowed to the Buddha with a loud voice like the roar of a lion:

“World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will go to any place [not only of this Sahā-World but also] of the worlds of the ten quarters, as often as required, and cause all living beings to copy, keep, read and recite this sūtra, to expound the meanings of it, to act according to the Dharma, and to memorize this sūtra correctly. We shall be able to do all this only by your powers. World-Honored One! Protect us from afar even when you are in another world!”

See Jikyōsha vs. Gyōja

2buddhas, LS32, d18b

Jikyōsha vs. Gyōja

In Nichiren’s time, those who devoted themselves to reciting or copying the Lotus Sūtra as their primary practice were known as jikyōsha, “one who holds the sūtra.” Nichiren instead used the term gyōja (literally, “one who practices”; translated in this volume as “practitioner” or “votary”). Gyōja was often used to mean an adept or ascetic, denoting those who performed harsh austerities, such as going without sleep, fasting, and practicing in isolation in the mountains, with the aim of acquiring spiritual powers. Though Nichiren did not endorse ascetic practice for its own sake, his use of the word gyōja, like that of “bodily reading,” suggests both that he was “living” the Lotus Sūtra, personally encountering the hardships it predicts, and also that he had committed his life to its propagation. The term reflects his self-understanding as one entrusted with the task of spreading the Lotus in the Final Dharma age. He wrote, “None of the jikyōsha of Japan have encountered the trials predicted in these passages. I alone have read them. This is what is meant by the statement [in the “Perseverance” chapter], ‘We will not be attached to our bodies or lives. We only desire the highest path.’ This being the case, I am the foremost votary of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan.”

Two Buddhas, p164-165
Saicho

Perfect Precepts Protect Nation

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[T]he precepts could be practiced by anyone. Even people who were too slow witted to understand doctrine or who did not have enough time to practice meditation could observe the precepts. Saichō repeatedly argued in the Kenkairon that the Fan wang precepts and the Anrakugyō [Peaceful Practices chapter of Lotus Sutra] were for everyone, including monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen. They could even be conferred between husband and wife. If people with Perfect faculties (enki) would follow Perfect practices, then they would be able to ameliorate the calamities which might befall the state. Conferring the Perfect precepts would protect the nation (denkai gokoku).

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p193
Lotus Seeds

The Ten Worlds: Humanity

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The world of humanity is, of course, the world we are most familiar with. In the human world, suffering is recognized for what it is, and morality and reason are called upon to improve the human condition. At this point, civilized life can truly begin. The human state is considered a very fortunate one, because reason is not dominated by the suffering and striving of the “Four Lower Paths” (hell, hungry ghosts, animals and fighting demon), nor is it distracted by the pleasures of the heavenly path. From the world of humanity, those who are able to make a connection with the Buddha Dharma and who have a clear head and strong discipline will be able to cultivate insight and attain the path of liberation.

Lotus Seeds

WONS

All Disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha

[S]ince it has been revealed that Śākyamuni has attained enlightenment in the eternal past, Bodhisattvas Nikkō (Sunlight) and Gakkō (Moonlight), disciples of Medicine Master Buddha in the world to the east; Bodhisattvas Kannon (Avalokiteśvara) and Seishi (Mahāsthāmaprāpta), disciples of the Buddha of Infinite Life in a land to the west; various disciples of Buddhas in various lands throughout the universe as well as disciples of the Great Sun Buddha depicted in both the Diamond Realm Mandala and the Matrix-store Realm Mandala of the Great Sun Buddha Stūra and the Diamond Peak Sūtra now are all disciples of Śākyamuni. Since Buddhas in the worlds throughout the universe are all manifestations (funjin) of Śākyamuni Buddha, their disciples are of course Śākyamuni’s disciples. Let alone the sun, the moon, and stars, that have been in this world from its beginning, are disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 76

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Oct. 18, 2019

He will have correct memory and the powers of merits and virtues. He will not be troubled by the three poisons. He will not be troubled by jealousy, arrogance from selfishness, arrogance from self-assumed attainment of enlightenment, or arrogance from self-assumed acquisition of virtues. He will want little, know contentment, and practice just as you do.

The Buddha gives this description of the person who keeps and practices the Lotus Sūtra to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. Powers of merits are what we have when we see things clearly. The three poisons are greed, anger and ignorance. The practice of Universal-Sage is to support and encourage everyone who takes on this difficult practice of the Wonderful Dharma. This is another Bodhisattva who gives us an example of how we can live in this world of conflict.

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

LS32

Day 17

Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.

Day 17 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month learned of Devadatta’s role in a past life as the Buddha’s teacher, we hear the prediction for Devadatta’s future enlightenment.

He said to the four kinds of devotees:

“Devadatta will become a Buddha after innumerable kalpas.’ He will be called Heavenly-King, 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. The world of that Buddha will be called Heavenly-Way. That Buddha will live for twenty intermediate ka]pas. He will expound the Wonderful Dharma to all living beings. [Hearing the Dharma from him,] as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges will obtain Arhatship; another group of innumerable living beings will aspire for the enlightenment of cause-knowers; and another group of living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges will aspire for unsurpassed enlightenment, obtain the truth of birthlessness, and reach the stage of irrevocability. After the Parinirvana of Heavenly-King Buddha, his right teachings will be preserved in that world for twenty intermediate kalpas. During that time a stupa of the seven treasures sixty yojanas tall and forty yojanas wide and deep will be erected to enshrine the śarīras of his perfect body. Gods and men will bow to the wonderful stupa of the seven treasures and offer various flowers, incense powder, incense to burn, incense applicable to the skin, garments, necklaces, banners, streamers, jeweled canopies, music and songs of praise [to the stupa]. [By doing all this,] innumerable living beings will attain Arhatship; another group of innumerable living beings will attain Pratyekabuddhahood; and another group of inconceivably numerous living beings will aspire for Bodhi and reach the stage of irrevocability.”

He said to the bhikṣus:

“Good men or women in the future who hear this chapter of Devadatta of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with faithful respect caused by their pure minds, and have no doubts [about this chapter], will not fall into hell or the region of hungry spirits or the region of animals. They will be reborn before the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters. They will always hear this sūtra at the places of their rebirth. Even when they are reborn among men or gods, they will be given wonderful pleasures. When they are reborn before the Buddhas, they will appear in lotus-flowers.”

See Evil Persons Attaining Buddhahood

2buddhas, LS32, d17b

Evil Persons Attaining Buddhahood

According to conventional Buddhist thinking, moral conduct is the beginning and foundation of the path; persons can achieve liberation only by first renouncing evil and cultivating good. It is said that one cannot control one’s mind until one first learns to control one’s body and speech. The Buddhist ethical code seeks to provide such control. However, some Buddhist thinkers in Nichiren’s time were concerned with the problem posed by evils that one cannot avoid. This concern had to do with a keen awareness of human limitations, heightened by a sense of living in an age of decline. It also spoke to the situation of warriors, who were gaining influence both as a social group and as an emergent body of religious consumers. From a Buddhist perspective, warriors were trapped in a hereditary profession that was inherently sinful, requiring them to kill animals as a form of war training and kill humans on the battlefield. Thus, they could not escape violating the basic Buddhist precept against taking life. Nichiren, who had a number of samurai among his followers, stressed that, as long as one chants the daimoku, one will not be dragged down into the hells or other evil paths by ordinary misdeeds or unavoidable wrongdoing. To one warrior, a certain Hakii (or Hakiri) Saburō, he wrote: “In all the earlier sūtras of the Buddha’s lifetime, Devadatta was condemned as the foremost icchantika in all the world. But he encountered the Lotus Sūtra and received a prediction that he would become a tathāgata called Devarāja. … Whether or not evil persons of the last age can attain buddhahood does not depend upon whether their sins are light or heavy but rests solely upon whether or not they have faith in this sūtra.”

Two Buddhas, p 155-156
Saicho

Following Perfect Practices

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Saichō was clearly dissatisfied with the traditional T’ien-t’ai position that monks should be ordained with the Ssu fen lü precepts, but practice them with a Mahāyāna spirit. The precepts needed to be reformed as thoroughly as meditation and wisdom had been. For Saichō the Perfect threefold teaching consisted of the Fan wang precepts as the Perfect precepts, the four types of Tendai meditation (shishu sanmai) as Perfect meditation, and the study of the Perfect teachings expounded in such texts as the Lotus Sūtra as Perfect wisdom. By following Perfect practices Saichō claimed that “even a person with the dullest faculties would surely receive some sign (from the Buddha that his efforts were effective) after spending twelve years (on Mount Hie).”

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p192-193
WONS

Assurance of Future Buddhahood

During more than 2,200 years after the Buddha’s passing, not even Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, a great exponent of the Lotus Sūtra, actually experienced a passage in the Lotus Sūtra, 14th chapter on the “Peaceful Practices,” “Many people in the world will hate it and few will believe in it.” It is Nichiren alone who experienced the clear statement in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter 13, “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra”) that practicers of the Lotus Sūtra “will often be driven out of monasteries.” The Buddha preached in the tenth chapter, “The Teacher of the Dharma” of the Lotus Sūtra, “If in My presence any of them rejoices, even for a moment, at hearing a verse or a phrase of the Lotus Sūtra, I will assure him of his future Buddhahood.” It is I alone who receives this assurance. There is no doubt that I will attain the Perfect Enlightenment.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 32