The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, pp149-150Let us look further into the five eyes. Are they produced from within or do they come from outside? The five eyes are not produced from within; nor do they come from outside; nor do they exist in the middle. Cultivate, use effort, and when your skill is sufficient you will have them naturally. Before sufficient skill is attained, no amount of seeking will cause them to function. Seeking is false thinking. Seeking without the thought of seeking brings a response.
In what way does one make an effort to open one’s eyes?
You need to be wise in managing affairs, and wise in cultivation. It is wise to recognize what is good and then courageously and vigorously work towards it. The characteristic of wisdom is to recognize and vow to cut off and cast out what is bad. Realizing something is good and yet not acting in accord with it is the characteristic of stupidity. It is stupid to recognize that something is bad business and still go ahead and become involved in it. If you are stupid, it is not easy to obtain the five eyes. In order to obtain them, everything you do must be done extremely clearly. You must be very precise and cannot be confused.
All posts by John Hughes
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 13, 2025
Anyone who, while sitting in the place of the expounding of the Dharma, persuades another person to sit down or shares his seat with him to hear Myōhō Renge Kyō when he sees him coming to the place, in his next life by his merits, will be able to obtain the seal of King Sakra, of the Brahman Heavenly-King or of a wheel-turning-holy-king.
Tao-sheng: The Great Trees
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p245My sons [, that is, the Bodhisattvas]
Who seek
The enlightenment of the Buddha exclusively,
Who believe that they will become Buddhas definitely,
And who have compassion towards others,
May be likened to the short {small} trees.By this [the Buddha] intends to explain that the bodhisattva path is the superior one, comparing it again to trees. “Trees” are meant for shade and covering. The Greater Vehicle has the connotation of “covering [in this sense] it is similar to trees. [Those who are in] the seventh stage (bhūmi) and [those who are] below are referred to as small trees whereas [those who are in] the eighth or above are spoken of as great trees.
Lotus Sutra Audiobook on YouTube
While reading Master Hsuan Hua’s 15-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra, I have been periodically corresponding with the publisher, the Buddhist Text Translation Society, to clarify whether what I perceive are errors are in fact errors or simply different interpretations of Buddhism. Having mostly read texts based on Japanese perspective, I’ve found Hsuan Hua’s Chinese focus noticeable different at times. During one of these email exchanges, I was alerted to the fact that the Dharma Realm Buddhist University’s YouTube channel includes an audiobook of the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra. With the exception of chapters 8, 9 and 13, each chapter is introduced with a synopsis. This synopsis is combined for chapters 15 and 16 and chapters 17 to 19. The text is based on the Buddhist Text Translation Society’s translation of Kumarajiva’s Chinese version of the Lotus Sutra.
Chapter 4, Faith and Understanding
Chapter 6, Conferring Predictions
Chapter 7, The Parable of the Conjured City
Chapter 8, Five Hundred Disciples Receive Predictions
Chapter 9, Predictions for Those in Need of Study and Those Beyond Study
Chapter 11, The Jeweled Stupa Appears
Chapter 13, Encouragement to uphold
Chapter 14, Practices of Peace and Joy
Chapter 15, Emerging from the Earth
Chapter 16, The Tathāgata’s Life Span
Chapter 17, The Discourse on Merit and Virtue
Chapter 18, The Merit of a Joyful Response
Chapter 19, The Merit and Virtue of a Dharma Teacher
Chapter 20, Bodhisattva Never Slighting
Chapter 21, The Spiritual Powers of a Tathāgata
Chapter 23, The Account of Bodhisattva Medicine King’s Past Lives
Chapter 24, Bodhisattva Wondrous Voice
Chapter 25, The Universal Door of Guan Yin Bodhisattva
Chapter 27, The Account of King Wonderful Adornment’s Past Lives
Vajra Sutra: Planting Seeds
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p146A Bodhisattva who commits himself to undertaking practices which are meritorious and virtuous should proceed without hesitation to do just that. Seeds planted in the field will in the future yield a harvest. There is no benefit in speculating on the size of the crop. Attention need only be paid to the planting and cultivation of the field. If care is taken and the conditions of earth, water, and wind are right, then the plants will grow. If the field is never planted, however, no yield at all can be expected. In just that way a Bodhisattva takes living beings across to the other shore without actually taking any living beings across. A Bodhisattva does not waste energy worrying about the outcome, he just does his work.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 12, 2025
My sons!
Who will protect Myōhō Renge Kyō?
Make a great vow
To preserve Myōhō Renge Kyō forever!
Tao-sheng: The Approachable Buddha
The cloud covered the sun,
And cooled the earth.
It hung down
As low as if we could reach it.
This symbolizes that through the transformation body (nirmāṇakāya) [the Buddha] makes contact with beings, so that he appears approachable [to them] step by step.
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p245
Vajra Sutra: Adornments Without Adornment
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p144When an ordinary person does meritorious deeds he becomes attached to subject and object. “I did that meritorious deed. He is the recipient of my good deed.” That is the way a common person thinks.
Bodhisattvas should adorn Buddhalands without the thought of adornment. That is not to say they should not adorn Buddhalands. It means they should adorn them as if they had done nothing.
To adorn a Buddhaland is to cause the country of a Buddha to be especially beautiful. Our offerings of flowers, fruit, and incense to the Triple Jewel are adornments of Buddhalands. That is not to say you should not adorn Buddhalands. It means you should adorn them, and yet not adorn them. Offerings to the Triple Jewel of flowers, fruit, and incense also serve as adornments for Buddhalands.
From the point of view of common truth there is adornment of Buddhalands. From the point of view of actual truth there is no adornment. If viewed from the doctrine which is perfectly fused without obstruction, adornment is merely a name and nothing more.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 11, 2025
[The rākṣasas] sang in gāthās before the Buddha:
Anyone who does not keep our spells
But troubles the expounder of Myōhō Renge Kyō
Shall have his head split into seven pieces
Just as the branches of the arjaka-tree [are split].Anyone who attacks this teacher of Myōhō Renge Kyō
Will receive the same retribution
As to be received by the person who kills his parents,
Or who makes [sesame] oil without taking out worms [from the sesame],
Or who deceives others by using wrong measures and scales,
Or by Devadatta who split the Saṃgha.
Tao-sheng: All Belong to the Same One
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p244-245The various teachings I expound are of the same content, of the same taste. Those who emancipate themselves [from the bonds of existence,] from illusions, and from birth and death, will finally obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things. But those who hear or keep my teachings or read or recite the sutras in which my teachings are expounded, or act according to my teachings, do not know the merits that they will be able to obtain by these practices.
The Dharma being of “a single mark,” li has no different “flavors” (rasa). Even though living beings are all identically soaked in the marsh of the Tao, they do not realize that this is so.
Why is that? It is because only I know their capacities, appearances, entities and natures. Only I know what teachings they have in memory, what teachings they have in mind, what teachings they practice, how they memorize the teachings, how they think of the teachings, how they practice the teachings, for what purpose they memorize the teachings, for what purpose they think of the teachings, for what purpose they practice the teachings, and for what purpose they keep what teachings.
What living beings “think back on” is not the same: it may be morality (śīla), or it may be almsgiving (dāna). Hence, it is said, “what things they think back on.” “[What things] they think ahead to” and “[what things] they cultivate” also are like this.
For the sake of attaining to the minds of the three vehicles, one is mindful of almsgiving. For the sake of attaining to the minds of men and gods, one is mindful of almsgiving. “[How they] think ahead” and “[how they] practice” also are like this.
In hopes of gaining the fruits of the three vehicles, one is mindful of almsgiving. Expecting the retribution of men and gods, one is mindful of almsgiving.
This sums up the three [statements] covered so far. By resort to what means “by means of what good deed as cause.” What dharma they gain means “what retribution they receive as effect.” Cause and effect all lead to the Buddha, but living beings do not realize it. All hold on to what they think is different; only the Buddha is aware that they all belong to the same [One].