All posts by John Hughes

LS32

Day 24

Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 24 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the twelve hundred merit of the tongue, we repeat in gāthās.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they at will become
As delicious as nectar.

When they e pound the Dharma to the great multitude
And lead them
By telling them the stories of previous lives, parables, and similes
With their deep, pure and wonderful voices,
The hearers will rejoice
And make excellent offerings to them.

All gods, dragons,
Yakṣas and asuras
Will come together
And hear the Dharma respectfully.

Anyone who expounds the Dharma, if he wishes,
Will be able to cause the living beings
Of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds
To hear his wonderful voice.

The wheel-turning-kings of great and small [countries],
Who have each one thousand children,
Will come with their children and attendants,
And join their hands together respectfully to hear the Dharma.

Gods, dragons, yakṣas,
Raksasas and pisacakas
Also will come joyfully,
And make offerings to him.

The Brahman-Heavenly-King,
King Mara, Freedom [God],
Great-Freedom [God],
And the other gods also will come to him.

The Buddhas and their disciples who hear
The voice of the expounder of the Dharma,
Will think of him, protect him,
And sometimes appear before him.

On my 21-day retreat encouraged by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we consider Day 14 of 21.

21days, Innumerable

Day 14 of 21

Continuing with the second and third stages of the Ten Blessings in the Sutra of Innumerable Blessings, we consider what accrues “if living beings can hear this sutra even once, even only one verse or phrase…”

[T]hey will master a hundred thousand myriad meanings. Yet in an innumerable number of eons they will not be able to explain the Dharma they received and embraced. Why is this? It is because the meanings of this sutra are innumerable.

Good sons, suppose that from one seed a hundred million seeds grow, and from each of those hundred million seeds another hundred million seeds grow, and this is repeated so that the seeds become innumerable. This sutra is like this. From one teaching a hundred thousand meanings grow, and from each of these hundred thousand meanings a hundred million meanings grow, and this is repeated so that the meanings become unlimited and innumerable. This being the case, this sutra is called Innumerable Meanings. Good sons, this is called the second amazing power of blessing of this sutra.

Not being able to explain the Dharma received seems pointless until you get to the next blessing.

[T]hey will master a hundred thousand myriad meanings. Even though they still have afflictions, it will be as if they do not. Even though they move through birth and death, they will not know fear. They will have compassion and sympathy for all the living. They will be brave in following all the teachings.

Just as a powerful man can easily shoulder and hold heavy things, the same is true of anyone who embraces this sutra. They can bear well the heavy treasure of unexcelled awakening and carry the living out of the way of birth and death on their backs. Even though they cannot yet save themselves, they will be able to save others. Just as the captain of a ferry who has to rest on this shore due to serious illness and inability to control his four limbs can cross over with a good solid ship that has everything needed to cross over to the other shore, one who embraces this sutra, though staying on this shore of ignorance, old age, and death due to the hundred and eight kinds of serious bodily illnesses with which he is afflicted in the five states of existence, can be saved from birth and death through practicing this powerful Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings as it is taught, saving living beings. Good sons, this is called the third amazing power of blessing of this sutra.

Even though they cannot yet save themselves, they will be able to save others. That is a real blessing.

Day 13 of 21Day 15 of 21

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 14, 2019

Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they eat will become
As delicious as nectar.

The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. With food and drink it is easy to see how different people will find the same food either delicious or disgusting. Our experience and beliefs shape what we are comfortable putting into our bodies, and whether we do so for the sake of our health or the pleasure that comes from experiencing their flavor. But when we find that something with good flavor is bad for our health, or vice versa, we can change our tastes. This is another example of how the Lotus Sūtra teaches us how to live in the world. We learn to embrace situations we once found frightening or intolerable. We increase our capacity with our focus on benefiting others. As a wise teacher once said, we learn to enjoy problems the way we enjoy ice cream.

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

LS32

Day 23

Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 23 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the great alms giver’s merits, we consider the merits of the 50th person who rejoices.

The Buddha said to Maitreya:

“Now I will tell you clearly. The merits of the person who gave all those pleasing things to the living beings of the six regions of four hundred billion asaṃkhya worlds, and caused them to attain Arhatship are less than the merit of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing even a gāthā of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. The merits of the former person are less than a hundredth or a thousandth of the merits of the latter person, or less than the merits of the latter person divided by a hundred thousand billion. [The superiority of the merits of the latter person to those of the former person] cannot be explained by any calculation, parable or simile.

“Ajita! The merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma are immeasurable, limitless, asaṃkhya. Needless to say, so are the merits of the first person who rejoices at hearing [this sūtra] in the congregation. His merits are immeasurable, limitless, asaṃkhya and incomparable.

On my 21-day retreat encouraged by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we consider Day 13 of 21.

21days, Innumerable

Day 13 of 21

Yesterday outlined stages associated with the Ten Blessings springing from the Sutra of Innumerable Blessings, beginning with the first blessing, which had no requirements (Reeves, p42):

“Good son, would you rather hear how this sutra has ten amazing powers of blessing or not?”

Magnificently Adorned Bodhisattva said: “We want to hear!”

The Buddha said: “Good sons, first, this sutra leads a not-yet-awakened bodhisattva to aspire to awakening, leads one without human kindness to aspire to kindness, leads one with a murderous heart to aspire to great compassion, leads one who is jealous to aspire to respond with joy, leads one with attachments to aspire to impartiality, leads one who is greedy to aspire to generosity, leads one who is full of arrogance to aspire to be moral, leads one who is angry to aspire to patience, leads one who is lazy to aspire to perseverance, leads one who is distracted to aspire to meditation, leads one who is ignorant to aspire to wisdom, leads one who lacks concern for saving others to aspire to saving others, leads one who commits the ten evils to aspire to do ten good things, leads one who is willful to aspire to let things be, leads one who is prone to backsliding to aspire to never retreat, leads one who commits faulty acts to aspire to being faultless, and leads one who suffers from afflictions to aspire to detachment. Good sons, this is called the first amazing power of blessing of this sutra.”

Before the aspirant hears this sutra even once, even only one verse or phrase, …

Day 12 of 21Day 14 of 21

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 13, 2019

We were satisfied with the elimination
Of illusions within ourselves.
What we accomplished was that elimination.
We did nothing more.

These verses are sung by Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. They use the parable of the wayward son in this chapter to describe their own realization that the Buddha had not held any teaching back from them. Instead, the Buddha earlier allowed them to remain in the satisfaction of ending their own suffering. But before they can continue their progress towards the Buddha’s own enlightenment, they must give up their preoccupation with suffering, as the boy in the parable had to give up his idea of himself as a lowly hired worker, rather than the heir to his father’s treasure.

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

LS32

Day 22

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Day 22 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the merits of those who keep or copy the Lotus Sūtra, we repeat in gāthās the merits of anyone who keeps this sūtra.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

Anyone who keeps this sūtra
After my extinction
Will be able to obtain
Innumerable merits a previously stated.

He should be considered
To have already made various offerings.
He should be considered
To have already built a stupa
With a yasti soaring up to the Heaven of Brahman,
The upper part of it being the smaller,
A stupa which was adorned with the seven treasures,
And with thousands of billions of jeweled bells
Sounding wonderful when fanned by the wind.
He should be considered to have already enshrined
My śarīras in this stupa,
And offered flowers, incense, necklaces, heavenly garments,
And various kinds of music to it,
And lit lamps of perfumed oil around it for innumerable kalpas.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.

Anyone who keeps this sūtra should be considered
To have already built a monastery
Made of the cow-head candana,
installed with thirty-two beautiful hall ,
Eight times as tall as the tala-tree,
Provided with delicious food and drink,
With wonderful garments and bedding,
With accommodations for one hundred thousand people,
With gardens, forests, and pools for bathing,
And with promenades and caves for the practice of dhyāna.
He should be considered lo have already offered
That monastery to me in my presence.

Anyone who not only understands
This sūtra by faith
But also keeps, reads and recites it,
And copies it, or causes others to copy it,
And strews flowers, incense,
And incense powder to a copy of it,
And lights lamps of the perfumed oil
Of sumanas, campaka, and atimuktaka
Around the copy of this sūtra
And offers the light thus produced to it,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.
His merits will be as limitless as the sky.

Needless to say, so will be the merits of the person
Who keeps this sūtra, gives alms, observes the precepts,
Practices patience, prefers dhyāna-concentrations,
And does not get angry or speak ill of others.

On my 21-day retreat encouraged by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we consider Day 12 of 21

21days, Innumerable

Day 12 of 21

The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings has three chapters, the last of which is called variously Ten Beneficial Effects, Ten Merits or Ten Blessings. Over the next few days I’m going to focus on these Blessings (Reeves), but before I start I want to underscore the graduated scale and the focus of these blessings.

  • Blessing 1 comes with the sutra. It simply leads to certain outcomes. The rest require specific attitudes and actions.
  • Blessing 2 and 3: If living beings can hear this sutra even once, even only one verse or phrase …
  • Blessing 4 begins the same as 2 and 3 with “living beings” and then adds: If a bodhisattva can hear this sutra, even one phrase or verse, once, twice, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand or ten thousand times, a million or ten million times, or an unquantifiable, innumerable number of times, like the number of sands of the Ganges…
  • Blessing 5 and 6 continue the focus on Bodhisattva behavior: If good sons or good daughters, either during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his extinction, receive and embrace, read, recite, and copy this profound and unexcelled Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings …
  • Blessing 7 shifts focus beyond the Bodhisattva: If good sons or good daughters are able to hear this sutra either during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his extinction, and rejoice, have faith, and gain an unprecedented consciousness; if they receive and embrace, read, recite, copy, and explain the sutra, and practice it as it teaches; if they aspire to become awakened; if they cause all good roots to sprout, show great compassion, and want to relieve all living beings of suffering…
  • Blessing 8: If good sons or good daughters, either during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his extinction, find anyone who has received this sutra …
  • Blessing 9: If good sons or good daughters, receiving this sutra either during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his extinction, dance for joy, attain the unprecedented, receive and embrace, read and recite, copy and make offerings to this sutra, and everywhere explain its meaning through analysis for the sake of living beings…
  • Blessing 10: If good sons or good daughters, receiving this sutra either during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his extinction, greatly rejoice from experiencing such an unprecedented thing, receive and embrace, read and recite, copy, and make offerings to this sutra on their own accord, practice as it teaches, and also lead many monks and laypeople to receive and embrace, read and recite, copy, and make offerings to this sutra, explain it, and practice it in accord with the Dharma…

I’m inspired by this progression from no effort (1), to effort for oneself (2 and 3), to aspiring to be a Bodhisattva (4,5 and 6), to beginning the Bodhisattva practice (7 and 8), fulfilling the Bodhisattva practice (9) and finally “greatly rejoice from experiencing” practice for oneself and all living beings (10).

This is a road map for the aspirant.

Day 11 of 21Day 13 of 21

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – July 12, 2019

World-Honored One! I bring you a message from Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. [He wishes to say this.] Are you in good health? Are you happy and peaceful or not? Are the four elements of your body working in harmony or not? Are the worldly affairs bearable or not? Are the living beings easy to save or not? Do they not have much greed, anger, ignorance, jealousy, stinginess and arrogance, or do they? Are they not undutiful to their parents, or are they? Are they not disrespectful to śramaṇas, or are they? Do they not have wrong views, or do they? Are they not evil, or are they? Do they not fail to control their five desires, or do they?

The passage above is how Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva greets Śākyamuni Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva asks not only about the Buddha, but about those whom the Buddha benefits with his teaching. The Buddha answers that those he teaches have prepared through innumerable lives to receive his wisdom. The questions of Wonderful-Voice show how we obscure the teaching through our delusion and attachments.

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

LS32

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered whether the physician in the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children lied to his children, we repeat in gāthās why he expediently shows his Nirvāṇa.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

It is many hundreds of thousands
Of billions of trillions
Of asaṃkhyas of kalpas
Since I became the Buddha.

For the past innumerable kalpas
I have always been expounding the Dharma
To many hundreds of millions of living beings
In order to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood.

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.

Although I always live here
With the perverted people
I disappear from their eyes
By my supernatural powers.

When they see me seemingly pass away,
And make offerings to my śarīras,
And adore me, admire me,
And become devout, upright and gentle,
And wish to see me
With all their hearts
At the cost of their lives,
I reappear on Mt. Sacred Eagle
With my Saṃgha,
And say to them:
“I always live here.
I shall never be extinct.
I show my extinction to you expediently
Although I never pass away.
I also expound the unsurpassed Dharma
To the living beings of the other worlds
If they respect me, believe me,
And wish to see me.
You have never heard this
Therefore, you thought that I pass away.”

I see the [perverted] people sinking
In an ocean of suffering.
Therefore, I disappear from their eyes
And cause them to admire me.
When they adore me,
I appear and expound the Dharma to them.

On my 21-day retreat encouraged by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we consider Day 11 of 21.