All posts by John Hughes

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 2, 2019

Thus, what the people in the Latter Age of Degeneration should be afraid of are not swords and sticks, tigers and wolves, or the ten evil acts and the five rebellious sins but those monks who wear Buddhist robes and pretend to be high priests without knowing the true teaching and those people who regard monks of provisional teachings as venerable and hate the practicers of the True Dharma of the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his Treatise on Chanting the Great Title of the Lotus Sūtra (Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō). In Nichiren’s time, Buddhist monks had a great influence on the leaders of Japan, and thus on the lives of ordinary people. Wars, taxes, disease and education were no less important in Nichiren’s time than they are now. Nichiren recognized that the greatest danger came not from external forces, but from those within the country who took positions of power to benefit themselves rather than others. Nichiren’s reliance on the Wonderful Dharma, and his refusal to be coerced by his persecutions, show us how to live in this degenerating age.

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

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Long Past the Expiration Date

Yesterday’s post asking whether Chih-i believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death begged the question: What does it matter?

Nichiren considered himself a follower of Chih-i. And it’s Nichiren’s focus on Chih-i that gives the question whatever importance it may have. Personally, I believe the suggestion Chih-i believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha was a fabrication of later followers.

First, the rise of Pure Land Buddhism coincided with the fear that Śākyamuni’s teachings were entering the age of the decline of the Dharma, mappō, when their efficacy would be lost. But Chih-i did not live during the age of mappō. He clearly still felt the Lotus Sutra was the Śākyamuni’s ultimate teaching and still very much worth practicing.

That was very different by Nichiren’s time.

“A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra,” edited by Gene Reeves and published in 2002 by Kōsei Publishing includes an essay by Jacqueline I. Stone entitled “When Disobedience Is Filial and Resistance Is Loyal: The Lotus Sutra and Social Obligations in the Medieval Nichiren Tradition. In it she offers this observation about Nichiren’s dispute with then-current Tendai teaching.

Nichiren’s Tendai contemporaries, too, held the Lotus Sutra to be all inclusive, but generally took this to mean that, properly understood, any practice, such as chanting Amida Buddha’s name or invoking the Bodhisattva Kannon, could be considered practice of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren decried this interpretation as a confusion of the true and the provisional and rejected all other, “pre-Lotus Sutra” teachings as no longer suited to the present time of mappō. Like medicine that stands too long on the shelf and becomes poisonous, these other teachings and the practices based upon them were, in his view, not only soteriologically useless but positively harmful. For Nichiren, to willfully set aside or ignore the Lotus in favor of other, “lesser” teachings amounted to “slander of the Dharma” and would pull the practitioner down into the lower realms of rebirth.

Today this idea that all practices are the Lotus Sutra practice is still around and just as misguided. They put expiration dates on medicines for a reason. They should not be ignored.

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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 considered the expedient the rich man used to get close to his son and encourage him, we consider the son’s inheritance:

“World-Honored One! Now the rich man became ill. He knew that he would die soon. He said to the poor son, ‘I have a great deal of gold, silver, and other treasures. My storehouses are filled with them. You know the amounts of them. You know what to take, and what to give. This is what I have in mind. Know this! You are not different from me in all this. Be careful lest the treasures be lost!’

“Thereupon the poor son obeyed his order. He took custody of the storehouses of gold, silver, and other treasures, but did not wish to take anything worth even a meal from them. He still stayed in his old lodging. He could not yet give up the thought that he was base and mean.

“After a while the father noticed that his son had become more at ease and peaceful, that he wanted to improve himself, and that he felt ashamed of the thought that he was base and mean. The time of the death of the father drew near. The father told his son to call in his relatives, the king, ministers, kṣatriyas, and householders. When they all assembled, he said to them, ‘Gentlemen, know this! This is my son, my real son. He ran away from me when I lived in a certain city, and wandered with hardships for more than fifty years. His name is so-and-so; mine, so-and-so. When I was in that city, I anxiously looked for him. I happened to find him [years ago]. This is my son. I am his father. All my treasures are his. He knows what has been taken in and what has been paid out.’

“World-Honored One! At that time the poor son was very glad to hear these words of his father. He had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He thought, ‘I never dreamed of having this store of treasures myself. It has come to me unexpectedly.’

This quote from the Lecture on the Lotus Sutra fits well here:

Every day we look around us and we see our worlds our lives as being perhaps small and full of suffering or troubles. Yet the image that is presented to us in the ceremony in the air is an expansive one and one of great beauty. Just as the seating of the two Buddhas side by side presents us with a view of the eternity of time, the image of the joined worlds is one of infinite space. So now we have an expansive time element and an expansive space element all in one moment.

When we place ourselves in front of the Honzon as presented in the Lotus Sutra in these chapters we place ourselves outside of our present time and our present space. Again this allows us the opportunity to view our current condition in this life as really one of great reward. How many people everyday participate in such a grand drama?

It is not easy for us to see this as we live out our lives and experience our day-to-day problems. Yet this is the invitation that the Buddha makes to us – to realize that we are not merely some lonely person chanting Odaimoku and practicing the Lotus Sutra, but that we are actually participants in a drama unlike anything that can be contained by either space or time.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

21days, Universal Sage

21 Days: Finding No Mind

Programming note: This is the final quote I set aside during my 21-day Retreat Encouraged by Universal Sage Bodhisattva.

In my post The Innumerable Day Before Day 1, I discussed the difficult  topic of the nature of emptiness in The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings. The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva also places importance on understanding emptiness (Reeves, p416):

Then the buddhas in all ten directions will reach out with their right hands to touch the head of a follower, saying: “Good, good, good son! Because you have now read and recited the Great Vehicle sutras, the buddhas in all directions will teach the Dharma of repentance for you. Bodhisattva practice is neither a matter of cutting off all bonds and services nor of living in the ocean of servitude. If you contemplate your mind, you will find no mind, except the mind that comes from perverse conceptions. The mind with such conceptions arises from delusion. Like the wind in the sky, it has no grounding. Such a character of things neither appears nor disappears.

“What is sin? What is virtue? As the thought of self is itself empty, neither sin nor virtue is our master. In this way, all things are neither permanent nor destroyed. If one repents like this, meditating on one’s mind, one finds no mind. Things also do not dwell in things. All things are liberated, show the truth of extinction, and are calm and tranquil. Such a thing is called great repentance, sublime repentance, repentance without sin, the destruction of consciousness of mind. People who practice this repentance are pure in body and mind, like flowing water, not attached to things. Whenever they reflect they will be able to see Universal Sage Bodhisattva and the buddhas in all directions.”

Then all the world-honored ones, emitting rays of light of great mercy, will teach for followers the Dharma of formlessness. The followers, hearing the first principle of emptiness being taught, are not surprised by hearing this. In due time they will gain the status of true bodhisattvas.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – Aug. 1, 2019

Medicine-King! The Bodhisattvas who, having been surprised at hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, doubt and fear it, know this, are beginners in Bodhisattvahood. The Śrāvakas who, having been surprised at hearing this sūtra, doubt and fear it, know this, are men of arrogance.

The Buddha makes this declaration to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. In his earlier teachings, he described the thoughts, words and deeds which would help shed our delusions and remove suffering. Many of those following him came to believe that they were superior to other beings and did not want to waste their time even associating with them much less attempting to save them from their suffering. With this Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha reveals that even the most wicked and deluded among us have the capacity for enlightenment and deserve our respect. The more we resist this teaching, in our thoughts, words and deeds, the farther we place ourselves from the Buddha’s wisdom.

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

LS32

Day 7

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month begun the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son, we meet the poor son.

“World-Honored One! At that time the poor son, who had worked at various places as a day worker, happened to come to the house of his father. Standing by the gate of the house, he saw his father in the distance. His father was sitting on a lion-like seat, putting his feet on a jeweled footstool. Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, and householders surrounded him respectfully. He was adorned with a necklace of pearls worth ten million. The secretaries and servants were standing on either side of him, holding insect-sweepers made of white hairs. Above him was a jeweled awning, from which streamers of flowers were hanging down. Perfume was sprayed and beautiful flowers were strewn on the ground. He was exhibiting treasures and engaging in trade. Adorned with these various things, he looked extraordinarily powerful and virtuous.

“Seeing the exceedingly powerful father, the poor son was frightened. He regretted that he had come there. He thought, ‘Is he a king or someone like a king? This is not the place where I can get something by labor. I had better go to a village of the poor, where I can work to get food and clothing easily. If I stay here any longer, I shall be forced to work.’

“Having thought this, the poor son ran away.

The Spring Writings of Kanta Tsukamoto Shonin offers this on Encouraging the Poor Son:

Even if we meet the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which makes us awaken our Buddha-nature, most of us do not study or understand it because it is a difficult teaching and is too noble, and we run away just like the son when he saw the rich man. After all, we alone are responsible for making our lives empty or fruitless, because we are unaware of our ability or potential. Even though we tend to be like this, the Eternal Buddha always wishes to lead and support all of us, as his children, with great compassion. In order to make us awaken the Buddha-nature, He leads us according to our natures, capacities and circumstances, and dispatches someone to us to give us various advice, even if it takes a long time. It is just like the rich man who approached his son wearing dirty clothing, to encourage him.

Spring Writings

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One Buddha Land

Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?

The question came up while I was making my way through “A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra,” edited by Gene Reeves and published in 2002 by Kōsei Publishing.

The suggestion that Chih-i believed in rebirth in the Western Pure Land comes from Lucia Dolce’s essay, “Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren.” (Aren’t titles of academic essays just so precious?)

Here’s the context in Dolce’s discussion of One Buddha-land (p:232-233):

According to Nichiren, in the second section of the Lotus Sutra Śākyamuni speaks of this Sahā world as the original land, a pure Buddha realm compared to which the other lands of the ten directions are mere conventional worlds. In Chih-i’s exegesis the “original land” is the land in which the original Buddha attained enlightenment, therefore the realm of only one type of Buddha. This “Sahā world of the original time” contrasts with the Sahā world where human beings live, which retains the characteristics of a “trace-land.” For Nichiren, on the contrary, there is only one Sahā world. Vulture Peak, the place where the Lotus Sutra is taught, represents both this world of ours and the most perfect world, the only possible “paradise.” There is no other reality, neither for humanity, nor for the Buddha. Whereas Chih-i apparently believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death*, Nichiren considered the assembly on Vulture Peak a symbol of those who, having received the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, are able to transform our Sahā world into a “resplendent land.”

* Dolce’s note supporting the idea that Chih-i “apparently” longed for Amida’s Western paradise: Cf. Tetsuei Satō, Tendai daishi no kenkyū, 556-59.

I understand that centuries before Nichiren, the Tendai school adopted the Invocation of Amida’s Name. As the monk Chingen of Yokawa on Mount Hiei wrote in his “Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan“:

“In the fourteenth year of Shōwa [848], Jikaku returned to Japan [from China]. It is said that Jikaku’s efforts were responsible for half of the transmission of the Law to Japan. He introduced the Invocation of Amida’s Name, the Hokke Repentance Rites, the Kanjō Consecration Rites, and the Shari Relics Meeting.” (Page 34)

According to Chinden, Jikau, on his deathbed, “told Priest Enjun to recite and pay his respects to the Hokekyō [Lotus Sutra] which preaches the great and fair knowledge of Amida.”

One can understand why Nichiren lamented what he considered to be the most deplorable false doctrine of Grand Master Jikaku, who denigrated the Lotus Sūtra and regarded the Shingon teaching to be supreme. (See translator’s note to Jikaku Daishi no Koto, Concerning Grand Master Jikaku, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 215.)

So, back to my question: Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?

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21days, Universal Sage

21 Days: Purifying Their Six Sense Organs

From The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva (Reeves, p410):

Then, with one voice from different mouths, the bodhisattvas will have followers purify their six sense organs.

One will say, “You should reflect on the Buddha.”
Another will say, “You should reflect on the Dharma.”
Another will say, “You should reflect on the monastic community.”
Another will say, “You should reflect on morality.”
Another will say, “You should reflect on generosity.”
Another will say, “You should reflect on the heavens.”

“These six methods express an aspiration to become a buddha. They give birth to bodhisattvas. Before the buddhas, you should now confess your past sins and sincerely repent.

Lecture on Lotus Sutra, d19b, d20b

Practicing and Changing Our Lives

Four leaders of the Bodhisattvas who emerged from the ground are named, and they are Superior-Practice, Limitless-Practice, Pure-Practice, and Steadily-Established-Practice. I think it is important to note that practice lies at the heart of their names. In Nichiren’s writing titled Shoho Jiso Sho we are encouraged to practice and endeavor because without practice and without study there really is no such thing as Buddhism. At the heart of Buddhism is making great effort at practicing and changing our lives, something that does not happen without concerted continued effort.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 31, 2019

Having thought this, he said to his children as he had thought, ‘Come out quickly!’ He warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.

This passage is part of the Parable of the Burning House, told by the Buddha in Chapter Three of the Lotus Sūtra. In this story, he compares us living in this world of conflict to children playing in a dangerous house. As the children in the story were too distracted by their games to hear their father’s warnings, we are often too distracted by the attachments of our world to hear the voice of the Buddha.

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