All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 6

Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 6 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month completed today’s portion of Chapter 3, A Parable, we return to the top and Śāriputra saying the father cannot be accused of lying when he gave the larger carts to this children.

“The children rode in the large carts, and had the greatest joy that they had ever had because they had never expected to get them. Śāriputra! What do you think of this? Do you think that the rich man was guilty of falsehood when he gave his children the large carts of treasures?”
Śāriputra said:

“No, World-Honored One! He saved his children from the fire and caused them to survive. [Even if he had not given them anything,] he should not have been accused of falsehood because the children should be considered to have already been given the toys [they had wished to have] when they survived. He saved them from the burning house with the expedient. World-Honored One! Even if he had not given them the smallest cart, he should not have been accused of falsehood because he thought at first, ‘I will cause them to get out with an expedient.’ Because of this, he should not. Needless to say, he was not guilty of falsehood when he remembered his immeasurable wealth and gave them the large carts in order to benefit them.”

The Introduction to the Lotus Sūtra offers this on the three carts:

From the theoretical standpoint, [The Parable of the Burning House] explains the relationship between the Three Vehicles and the One Vehicle. The three toy carts – the sheep-cart, deer-cart, and bullock-cart – respectively represent the Sravaka-Vehicle of the “hearers,” the Pratyekabuddha-Vehicle of the “private Buddhas,” and the Bodhisattva-Vehicle of those who serve and enlighten others. The large white bullock cart which is given to each of the children symbolizes the One Buddha Vehicle. The rich man first offered his children three kinds of carts as expedients, but in the end he gave each of them an identical large white bullock-cart. Obviously the Buddha told this parable to illustrate that the One Vehicle is true and the three are mere expedients. The differences between the One Vehicle and the Three Vehicles, which were discussed theoretically in Chapter Two, are now explained in a graphic story that anyone can understand and remember.

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

21days, Innumerable

21 Days: Innumerable Instructions

The final quote from the The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings collected during my 21-Day Retreat (Reeves, p49):

At that time, the Buddha spoke to the great one Magnificently Adorned Bodhisattva and the other eighty thousand bodhisattva great ones: “You should deeply respect this sutra, practice it as the Dharma, transform everyone everywhere with it, and continue to diligently promulgate it. You should protect it carefully day and night, enabling the living to obtain the benefits of the Dharma. This is truly great kindness and great compassion. Using the divine power of your vows, you should protect this sutra and not let anyone put doubts or other obstacles in its way. Then you should have it practiced widely in Jambudvipa, and have all the living observe, read, recite, copy, and make offerings to it without fail. Because of this, you will be able to attain supreme awakening quickly.”

Lotus Seeds

The Inexpressible True Nature of Reality

Quote

The practice of chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo expresses our deep faith and joy in the inexpressible true nature of reality, which embraces all things without exception. Ultimately, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo expresses the realization that we ourselves are the embodiments of the Wonderful Dharma, and thus capable of transforming every aspect of our lives into the life of a Buddha.

Lotus Seeds

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 30, 2019

As we look at each others’ faces, we notice our facial expression changes from time to time. It is full of delight, anger or calm sometimes; but other times it changes to greed, ignorance or flattery. Anger represents hells; greed – hungry spirits; ignorance – beasts; flattery – asura demons; delight – gods; and calm – men. Thus we can see in the countenance of people six realms of illusion, from hells to the realm of gods. We cannot see the four realms of holy ones (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattvas and Buddhas), which are hidden from our eyes. Nevertheless, we must be able to see them too, if we look for them carefully.

Nichiren wrote this passage in his treatise on Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable (Kanjin Honzon-Shō). In other writings, he described Hell as not being in the earth and Heaven as not in the sky, but both within the two meter frame of our own bodies. In this work he shows us to look outside ourselves and recognize these realms in the beings with whom we share our world. The higher realms of devotion, perseverance, generosity and wisdom are more difficult to recognize, so difficult that we sometimes wonder whether they exist at all. With the Buddha’s teachi

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

LS32

Day 5

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Day 5 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month consider the reaction of the gods to the prediction for Śāriputra by the great multitude, we repeat in gāthās.

Thereupon the gods, wishing to repeat what they had said, sang in gāthās:

The Buddha turned the wheel of the teaching of the Four Truths
At Varanasi a long time ago.
He taught that all things are composed of the five aggregates
And that they are subject to rise and extinction.

Now he turns the wheel of the Dharma,
The most wonderful, unsurpassed, and greatest.
The Dharma is profound.
Few believe it.
So far we have heard
Many teachings of the World-Honored One.
But we have never heard
Such a profound, wonderful, and excellent teaching as this.
We are very glad to hear this
From the World-Honored One.

Śāriputra, a man of great wisdom,
Was assured of his future Buddhahood.
We also shall be able
To become Buddhas,
And to receive
The highest and unsurpassed honor in the world.

The Buddha expounds his enlightenment, difficult to understand,
With expedients according to the capacities of all living beings.
We obtained merits by the good karmas which we did
In this life of ours and in our previous existence.
We also obtained merits by seeing the Buddha.
May we attain the enlightenment of the Buddha by these merits!

When I was last at this point in the cycle, I commented on the lack of comment in any of my books about gods rejoicing. This time through I’m reminded of my addition of the Seven Happy Gods to may altar (explained here) and my new appreciation of how my practice benefits gods too.

Then the Buddha appeared in this world and prepared the panacea of life, that is Buddhism, for the gods and people. Like oil added to a lamp or a cane supporting an elderly person, heavenly beings regained the authority and power they possessed in the Kalpa of Construction.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 257-258

21days, Universal Sage

21 Days: Seeing Past Lives

Here’s another quote from The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva that I want to keep around (Reeves, p410):

Then Universal Sage Bodhisattva will emit another ray of light from between his eyebrows, the sign of a great man, and he will send it into the hearts of followers. After this ray has entered their hearts, followers themselves will remember that under countless hundreds and thousands of buddhas in the past they had received and embraced, read and recited the Great Vehicle sutras. Having the ability to penetrate clearly to previous states of existence, they will see their own former bodies with complete clarity, exactly as if they had the ability to see into the past.

WONS

Protection Against Suffering

Your late husband would not have been subject to such a suffering because he was a follower of Nichiren, a practicer of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sūtra states: “Those who call upon the name of the Buddha will not be burned even if they fall into a great fire; they will immediately run ashore if carried away by a flood.” It states also: “Fire cannot burn the merit of practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, and water cannot wash it away.” How reliable it is!

Ueno-dono Goke-ama Go-henji, A Response to the Nun, Widow of Lord Ueno, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 48

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 29, 2019

I sought the Great Dharma strenuously
Because I wished to save all living beings.
I did not wish to benefit myself
Or to have the pleasures of the five desires.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Twelve of the Lotus Sūtra. He describes his previous life as a great king who abandoned his throne, his wealth, and all the advantages of his position in society for the sake of enlightenment. In that life he realized that having pleasure as a goal was not making him happy, and only through the vow of the Bodhisattva to benefit all beings could he learn to see the world as it is.

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

LS32, WONS

Day 4

Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

DAY 4 FULL TEXT

Having last month concluded Chapter 2, Expedients, we begin again with the gāthās explaining why the 5,000 listeners left as Śākyamuni was about to talk.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Some bhikṣus and bhikṣunīs
Were arrogant.
Some upāsakās were self-conceited.
Some upāsikās were unfaithful.
Those four kinds of devotees
Were five thousand in number.

They could not see their own faults.
They could not observe all the precepts.
They were reluctant to heal their own wounds.
Those people of little wisdom are gone.
They were the dregs of this congregation.
They were driven away by my powers and virtues.

They had too few merits and virtues
To receive the Dharma.
Now there are only sincere people here.
All twigs and leaves are gone.

Nichiren had this to say about the “twigs and leaves”:

When the “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra was preached, 5,000 self-conceited ones did not believe in what they heard and withdrew from the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Nevertheless, they became Buddhas in three months’ time because they did not slander the Lotus Sūtra. Referring to this incident, it is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “Both believers and non-believers will be born in the Immovable Land.” Those who heard the Lotus Sūtra can become Buddhas even if they do not put faith in the sūtra, so long as they do not slander it, due to the inexplicable merit of having heard the sūtra. This is like the person bitten by a poisonous snake called shichibuja who is bound to fall within taking seven steps and is unable to take the eighth step due to the inexplicable work of the poison. Or it is also like an embryo that changes its shape within seven days and never stays in one shape for more than eight days.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 52

21days, Innumerable

21 Days: The Sutra for the Common People

Another quote (Reeves, p48) from the The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings to be kept handy:

“Good sons, such an unexcelled Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings has extremely great divine power and is unsurpassed in value. It leads all the common people to attain sacred fruit, and forever frees them from life and death. This is why this sutra is called Innumerable Meanings. It makes the tree of blessings grow, prosper, and flourish, and it leads all the living, while at the stage of common people, to have innumerable buds of the way of all the bodhisattvas. Therefore this sutra is called ‘the inconceivable power of blessings.’ “