All posts by John Hughes

d21b, WONS

Subordinates of Śākyamuni Buddha.

[P]reaching the sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha declared, “All the gods, men, and asura demons believe that this Śākyamuni Buddha was the one who had left the palace of the Śākya clan and sat in meditation under the bodhi tree not far from the town of Gayā and attained perfect enlightenment.” This declaration in the Lotus Sūtra represents what all the great bodhisattvas had in mind while listening to the sūtras starting with the Flower Garland at the Hall of Enlightenment to the fourteenth “Peaceful Practices” chapter of the Lotus. “To speak the truth, good men,” continued the Buddha, “it has been countless aeons (numerous hundreds, ten thousands, 100 millions, nayuta of kalpa) since I obtained Buddhahood.”

Thus with one stroke He denied as untrue all His previous statements such as “obtaining the first enlightenment” said three times in the Flower Garland Sūtra, “the first enlightenment” in the Āgama sūtras, “the first meditation under the bodhi tree” in the Vimalakirti Sūtra, “sixteen years after the first enlightenment” in the Sūtra of the Great Assembly, “I once sat in meditation at the place of practice in Buddhagayā” in the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra, “for twenty-nine years since His enlightenment” in the Sūtra of the Benevolent King, “I once meditated under the bodhi tree in the place of enlightenment for six years” stated in the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning, and “At first I sat at the place of enlightenment, gazed on the tree, and walked about it meditating” in the “Expedients” (second) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra.

Thus it was revealed that Śākyamuni had long been the Buddha since the eternal past, and it became clear that various Buddhas were all manifestations (funjin) of Śākyamuni Buddha. In the pre-Lotus sūtras, as well as in the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra, various Buddhas and Śākyamuni Buddha were on the same level, each practiced Buddhism on their own. Therefore, those who considered various Buddhas to be their Most Venerable One did not worship Śākyamuni. Now, however, as Śākyamuni proved to be the Eternal Buddha, those Buddhas on the lotus petals in the Flower Garland Sūtra, or Buddhas in the Hōdō sūtras, Wisdom and Great Sun Buddha Sūtras all became subordinates of Śākyamuni Buddha.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 74

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 30, 2019

I see that all living beings are burned by the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation. They undergo various sufferings because they have the five desires and the desire for gain…Notwithstanding all this, however, they are playing joyfully. They are not conscious of the sufferings. They are not frightened at the sufferings or afraid of them. They do not dislike them or try to get rid of them. They are running about this burning house of the triple world, and do not mind even when they undergo great sufferings.

The Buddha offers this explanation to his disciple Śāriputra in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. He compares his teaching of suffering and Nirvāṇa to a father luring his children from a dangerous house with a promise of better toys. The children were so preoccupied with their own entertainment that they could not hear their father’s warning. In this triple world of beautiful forms, fascinating ideas and consuming desires, it is easy to stay with our childish games and ignore the Buddha’s teaching. Our maturity as Bodhisattvas comes when we set these aside for the benefit of all beings.

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

LS32, Universal Sage

Between Day 32 and Day 1 – The Lotus Connection

Having competed my 45th cycle through the Lotus Sutra, it is again time to consider The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva. Today, it is appropriate to show how, early on, the link between this sutra and the Lotus Sutra is maintained.

The Buddha said to Ananda: “Listen carefully! Listen carefully!
Consider what I am about to say and remember it well! Long ago, on Holy Eagle Peak and in other places, the Tathagata has already thoroughly explained the way of one truth. But now in this place, for all living beings and others in the future who want to practice the unsurpassable Dharma of the Great Vehicle, and for those who want to learn the practice of Universal Sage and to follow the practice of Universal Sage, I will now teach this method of contemplation. For all those who are able to see Universal Sage, as well as for those who do not see him, I will now explain in detail how to eliminate evils.(Reeves, p401-402)

In Senchu Murano’s “Questions and Answers on Nichiren Buddhism,” he says this about this sutra’s role in Nichiren Buddhism:

The Kan-fugen-bosatsu-gyobo-kyo (“The Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal-Sage”) was also translated later than the Lotus Sutra and not by Kumarajiva. It was apparently intended to be a continuation of the last chapter of the Lotus Sutra. This sutra carries Jojakko or “Eternally Tranquil Light” as the name of the world of Sakyamuni Buddha. We say that the world of Sakyamuni Buddha is called Jakko-jodo (“the Pure World of Tranquil Light”). The word Jakko is given only in this sutra, and in no other sutras. The setup of this triple sutra: The Muryogikyo as the opening sutra, the Myoho-renge-kyo, and the Kan-fugen-gyo as the closing sutra, had been established long before the time of Nichiren. Nichiren sometimes called them Hokekyo Jikkan or the “Ten Volumes of the Lotus Sutra”, but he usually used the expression: Hokekyo Ichibu Hachikan Niju Happon, which means “The Lotus Sutra, One Book, Eight Volumes, Twenty-eight Chapters.” We usually put the eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra in front of the statue of Nichiren. (Page 23-24)

Lecture on Lotus Sutra, d16b

Purifying Our Practice Space

When we begin our daily practice we are advised to clean our practice space. We should approach that just as the Buddha did when the congregation asked to see Many Treasures Buddha. We have approached our altar, our chance to sit before the great honzon presented to us in the Lotus Sutra, which Nichiren identified. We should prepare our space of worship the way the Buddha purified all the worlds. As we go about preparing our space we should call back our distracted thoughts, those emanations of ourselves. Put aside the need to check the cell phone, put aside the worry of email, and schedules, plans and schemes. Focus your mind completely on the one great event of being in the presence of the two Buddhas seated side by side, in the presence of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Saicho

Teachings Better Suited to the Period

Quote

Saichō was one of the first Buddhist monks in Japan to argue that certain of his teachings were better suited to the period of the decline of Buddhism than those of his opponents. He did not, however, use the advent of mappō as the primary factor in justifying his reforms as did some monks in the late Heian and Kamakura periods. For example, Saichō never argued that the Fan wang precepts should replace the Ssu fen lü precepts precisely because it was the Period of the End of the Dharma (mappō).

Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p173
WONS

The Evil Ban Be Turned to the Just with Myō

The word “hell” can be defined “to dig the ground.” It is called “hell” because dead people are buried in the ground. In the same way, we can say that the wife, children, and relatives carrying the corpse to a crematory are jailors of hell; the grief-stricken cries of wife and children are the scolding voices of jailors; and the crematory flames are the flames of the Hell of Incessant Suffering. A two-and-a-half foot cane seems like a jailor’s iron stick; horses and cows look like horse-head demons and cow-head demons; the hole for burying the dead corresponds to the Hell of Incessant Suffering; eighty-four thousand desires are eighty-four thousand iron pots in Hell; to leave home is a journey of death; and the river by which filial children mourn equals the Styx, the river of death. It would be foolish for you to look for hell in places other than your own mind!

However, for those who uphold the Lotus Sutra, all this is reversed. Hell will be altered to the Pure Land of Eternally Tranquil Light; the flames in hell will be changed into the light of wisdom of the Buddha of the Reward-body; the dead will be changed into the Buddha of Dharma-body; the fiery hole of hell will be changed to the compassion of the Buddha of the Accommodative-body; the cane of the dead will become the cane of the true entity of all phenomena; the Styx will become the ocean of Nirvana; and the journey of death will become the doctrine of “earthly desires turned to enlightenment.”

Understand this, please. To understand this is “immediate attainment of Buddhahood with the present body” or “opening the treasury of Buddha-Wisdom.” This is exactly how Devadatta, the Evil changed the Hell of Incessant Suffering into the Pure Land of Tranquil Light, and a daughter of the Dragon King became a Buddha in an instant. According to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, the evil can be turned to the just. This is solely attributable to the merit of one character “myō.”

Ueno-dono Goke-ama Go-henji, A Response to the Nun, Widow of Lord Ueno, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 50-52

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Sept. 29, 2019

The Buddhas of my replicas
As innumerable
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Also came here
From their wonderful worlds,
Parting from their disciples,
And giving up the offerings made to them
By gods, men and dragons,
In order to hear the Dharma,
See Many-Treasures Tathāgata,
Who passed away [a long time ago],
And have the Dharma preserved forever.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddhas of his replicas inhabit countless other worlds in the universe, and enjoy the status and benefit of being enlightened in those worlds. Despite the honor they receive in those worlds, they happily come to hear the Buddha teach the Wonderful Dharma. As our pleasures seem small compared to those of a Buddha, so a Buddha’s pleasures seem small compared to the Wonderful Dharma.

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

LS32

Day 32

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 32 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Śākyamuni Buddha praise Universal Sage’s efforts, we consider those who keep, read and recite the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after the Buddha’s extinction.

“Universal-Sage! If you see anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the later five hundred years after my extinction, you should think, ‘Before long be will go to the place of enlightenment, defeat Mara and his followers, attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, turn the wheel of the Dharma, beat the drum of the Dharma, blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, send the rain of the Dharma, and sit on the lion-like seat of the Dharma in the midst of the great multitude of gods and men.’

“Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra [in the later five hundred years] after [my extinction], will not be attached to clothing, bedding, food or drink, or any other thing for living. What he wishes will not remain unfulfilled. He will be able to obtain the rewards of his merits in his present life. Those who abuse him, saying, ‘You are perverted. You are doing this for nothing,’ will be reborn blind in their successive lives in retribution for their sin. Those who make offerings to rum and praise him, will be able to obtain rewards in their present life. Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives. Therefore, Universal-Sage! When you see the keeper of this sūtra in the distance, you should rise from your seat, go to him, receive him, and respect him just as you respect me.

The Daily Dharma from Aug. 24, 2019, offers this:

Universal-Sage! If you see anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the later five hundred years after my extinction, you should think, ‘Before long he will go to the place of enlightenment, defeat Māra and his followers, attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, turn the wheel of the Dharma, beat the drum of the Dharma, blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, send the rain of the Dharma, and sit on the lion-like seat of the Dharma in the midst of the great multitude of gods and men.’

The Buddha gives this instruction to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva (Fugen, Samantabhadra) in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren explained that the later five hundred years mentioned in this passage is the time in which we are living today. The Buddha is therefore talking about all of us who practice the Wonderful Dharma. When we can grow our capacity to respect each other as we respect the Buddha, it inspires the respect at the core of all beings, and transforms this world.

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

Saicho

Going to the Mountains to Practice in Peace

Quote

Saichō justified several of his proposals by referring to predictions of the decline of Buddhism. He argued that the changed circumstances of the current age required new forms of Buddhism. In proposing that Mañjuśrī should replace Piṇḍola as elder (jōza) in the dining halls, Saichō noted that:

At the end of the Period of the Imitated Dharma (zōmatsu), the four groups violate the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna precepts and turn against the Buddha’s teachings. The Hinayāna jōza (Piṇḍola) does not have enough power (to accomplish such feats as vanquishing the karmic consequences of wrongdoings). If you do not install Mañjuśrī as jōza in the dining halls, then you ignore the Dharma in India and go against the laws of China. To whom will you turn to escape the consequences of your violations of the precepts? How will you escape the fierce flames of Avici Hell?”

Elsewhere Saichō argued that serious monks should withdraw to the mountains to meditate. After quoting a passage from the Fa mieh chin Ching, which described the complete degradation of Buddhism,
Saichō asked, “If it is known that it is the time (of the decline of Buddhism), who would not go to the mountains (in order to practice in peace)?”
Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, p173

Lotus Seeds

The Ten Worlds: Animals

Quote

The world of animals is the state of cunning, primitive aggression, and instinctive desires. It is a state of mind that does not look beyond immediate gratification and pays no heed to consequences or long-term benefit. Here, pleasure and pain reign supreme over reason. There is no sense of morality. Though not as inherently painful as the first two states, those who are in this state will inevitably meet with frustration and confusion, if not pain and suffering.

Lotus Seeds