[T]he object of worship not only is held physically to embody the three thousand realms in one thought-moment but also represents an attempt to depict this reality visually. In the case of configurations of statues, this enlightened reality of the eternal Buddha, described in the Lotus Sūtra as the assembly in open space above Eagle Peak, is only suggested by the presence of the Buddha’s original disciples, the four bodhisattvas, or by the two Buddhas, Śākyamuni and Many-Jewels (Prabhūtaratna, Tahō), seated side by side in the jeweled stūpa. Nichiren’s mandala, however, is much more detailed. Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō is written vertically in large characters down the center. At the top, this central inscription is flanked by the two Buddhas, Śākyamuni and Many Jewels, who are in turn flanked by the four bodhisattvas. Below them, in the next row, are representatives of the bodhisattvas who are followers of the Buddha of the provisional and trace teachings, such as Fugen (Samantabhadra) and Monju (Mañjuśrī), and the great voice-hearers, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana, flanked by the Buddhist tutelary deities Brahmā and Indra, and King Mara of the deva realm. In lower rows still are representatives of the six realms: the devas of the sun, moon, and stars, King Ajātaśatru, the wheel-turning king, the asura king, the dragon king, the raksasa Kishimojin (Hariti) and her ten daughters, and the Buddha’s cousin and traitorous disciple Devadatta. Also represented in the assembly are the sun goddess Tenshō Daijin and Hachiman Daibosatsu, who for Nichiren together represented the kami of Japan. Beside them, the patriarchs T’ien-t’ai Ta-shih (Chih-i) and Dengyō Daishi (Saichō) are also accorded a place. The four deva kings guard the four corners of the mandala, and to either side appear the Siddham “seed characters” for the esoteric deities Fudo Myōō and Aizen Myōō, representing, respectively, the doctrines of “saṃsāra is nirvāṇa” (shoji soku nehan) and “the defilements are bodhi” (bonnō soku bodai). Passages from the sūtra, expressing its blessings and protection, are inscribed to the right and left sides of the assembly; the choice of inscriptions sometimes varied according to the individual mandala. At the bottom is Nichiren’s signature and the words: “This is the great mandala never before revealed in Jambudvipa during the more than 2,220 years since the Buddha’s nirvāṇa.” (Page 277)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismAll posts by John Hughes
Aspects of the Word Sūtra
Chih-i illustrates that sūtra that is taken as the foundation for teaching (Chiao-pen) entails two aspects. On the one hand, it means that, based on single truth from the Word of the Buddha, there flow out countless speeches and teachings, such as the Common and Separate Teachings that can cause beings to attain the Path. On the other hand, based on the teaching of the Buddha, the bodhisattvas have made vast commentaries to explain the meanings in sūtras, which can also cause others to attain the Path. Sūtra that is taken as the foundation for practice (Hsin-pen) means that when one practices according to the teaching of the Buddha (whether it is Common or Separate Teaching), through these various Dharma-doors, one is able to attain the Ultimate Truth. Sūtra that is taken as the foundation for doctrine (I-pen) means that one doctrine can be derived from one sentence, and countless doctrines can be derived from countless sentences. It can also be the case that countless doctrines are derived from one sentence, and one doctrine is derived from countless sentences. Chih-i comments that summarizing these three aspects (teaching, practice and doctrine) in terms of the Dharma-door means that they are identical to the three ways to wisdom: hearing, thinking and cultivation (Wen Ssu Hsiu; Skt., śrutactābhāvanā), respectively. (Vol. 2, Page 391)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 22
Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.
Having last month considered what those who believe will see, we consider who those rejoice at hearing the longevity of the Buddha after his extinction.
“Furthermore, the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sūtra but rejoice at hearing it after my extinction, should be considered, know this, to have already understood my longevity by firm faith. It is needless to say this of those who [not only rejoice at hearing this sūtra but also] read, recite and keep it. They also should be considered to be carrying me on their heads. Ajita! They need not build a stupa or a monastery in my honor, or make the four kinds of offerings’ to the Saṃgha because those who keep, read and recite this sūtra should be considered to have already built a stupa or a monastery or made offerings to the Saṃgha. They should be considered to have already erected a stupa of the seven treasures tall enough to reach the Heaven of Brahman, the upper part of the stupa being the smaller. They should be considered to have already equipped the stupa with streamers, canopies and jeweled bells, and enshrined my śarīras therein. They also should be considered to have already offered flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, drums, music, reed pipes, flutes, harps, various kinds of dances, and songs of praise sung with wonderful voices [to the stupa ] continuously for many thousands of billions of kalpas.
“Ajita! Anyone who, after hearing this sūtra, keeps or copies it or causes others to copy it after my extinction, should be considered to have already built many hundreds of thousands of billions of monasteries, that is to say, innumerable monasteries, each of which was installed with thirty-two beautiful halls made of red candana, eight times as tall as the tala-tree, and spacious enough to accommodate one hundred thousand bhikṣus. He also should be considered to have already furnished [those monasteries] with gardens, forests, pools for bathing, promenades, and caves for the practice of dhyāna, and filled [those monasteries] with clothing, food, drink, bedding, medicine, and things for amusements, and offered [those monasteries] to me and to the Saṃgha of bhikṣus in my presence. Therefore, I say, ‘Anyone who keeps, reads or recites this sūtra, expounds it to others, copies it, causes others to copy it, or makes offerings to a copy of it after my extinction, need not build a stupa or a monastery, or make offering to the Saṃgha.’ Needless to say, anyone who not only keeps this sūtra but also gives alms, observe the precepts, practices patience, makes endeavors, concentrates his mind, and seeks wisdom, will be able to obtain the most excellent and innumerable merits. His merits will be as limitless as the sky is in the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate quarters, the zenith, and the nadir. These innumerable merits of his will help him obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.
Nichiren uses this section of this chapter to underscore the various levels of practice.
Because in a later section, when speaking of the fourth stage of practice the sūtra says, “Needless to say, anyone who not only keeps this sūtra but also gives alms, observes the precepts, practices patience, makes endeavors, concentrates his mind, and seeks wisdom, will be able to obtain the most excellent and innumerable merits.” This passage from the sūtra makes it clear that people in the first, second, and third stages of practice should refrain giving alms, observing the precepts, and the rest of the first five bodhisattva practices until they arrive at the fourth stage of practice and then they are allowed to begin practicing them. Therefore, if they are only allowed to practice them at this stage, we know that they should refrain from practicing them in the first stage.
Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 104
See also this portion of the same letter.
Calming Our Rough Seas
There is a story told of Nichiren on his way to his second exile, his trip to Sado Island. It is said that the water was so rough that all those on board the boat feared for their lives. According to the story, Nichiren took one of the oars and with the blade wrote the Odaimoku onto the surface of the water in order to calm the sea.
Whether or not you believe this happened exactly as it is told, there is certain documentary support for believing that he actually did attempt to do this. Still, the fact of the matter is that Nichiren placed all of his faith in the power of the Lotus Sutra. We too can cast the Odaimoku upon the ocean of our suffering, and with our practice we can calm the waters. We can change ourselves so that we can safely and confidently navigate the rough seas in which we may find ourselves.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1Daily Dharma – April 7, 2019
Furthermore, the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sūtra but rejoice at hearing it after my extinction, should be considered, know this, to have already understood my longevity by firm faith.
The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Maitreya in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. After learning the merits of understanding the ever-present nature of the Buddha, Maitreya hears that this understanding is present in anyone who finds joy in this sūtra. From the parables told earlier in the sūtra, we know that this joy is not the same as the joy that comes from ending suffering. It is the joy in our awakening Buddha nature.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Active Honzon
Nichiren spoke of his object of worship as embodying “the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment as actuality,” a statement that may be understood in two ways. First, as underscored by recent studies in Buddhist art history, icons and mandalas in premodern Japan were seen not as merely symbolic or representational but as participating in and actively embodying the sacred powers of the beings or principles they depicted. Nichiren explains this idea in terms of the concept of the Buddhahood of grasses and trees (sōmoku jōbutsu), or more broadly, of insentient beings, a principle encompassed by the doctrine of the three thousand realms in one thought-moment:
Both inner and outer writings permit the use of wooden and painted images as objects of worship, but the reason for this has emerged [only] from the T’ien-t’ai school. If plants and trees did not possess cause and effect [i.e., the nine realms and the Buddha realm] in both physical and mental aspects, it would be useless to rely on wooden and painted images as objects of worship. … Were it not for the Buddha-seed which is the three thousand realms in one thought-moment, the realization of Buddhahood by sentient beings and [the efficacy of] wooden and painted images as objects of worship would exist in name but not in reality.
For this reason, Nichiren insisted that only the Lotus Sūtra, the textual source of the ichinen sanzen principle, was efficacious in the eye-opening ritual for consecrating Buddha images. (Page 276-277)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismThe Subtlety of the Original Cause
P’o-chi Hsien-pen (Destroying the Traces and revealing the Origin) is the function related to the Subtlety of the Original Cause. This is spoken of by Chih-i in terms of destroying the attachment of the Three Vehicles to the Traces. By unraveling the Traces concerning Śākyamuni Buddha’s recent enlightenment, his original attainment of Buddhahood from the incalculable past as the Origin is revealed. (Vol. 2, Page 447)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 21
Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.
Having last month learned why Śākyamuni says ‘I shall pass away,’ we begin the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children.
“Good men! All the Buddhas, all the Tathāgatas, do the same as I do. [They expound their teachings] for the purpose of saving all living beings. Therefore, [their teachings] are true, not false.
“I will tell you a parable. There was once an excellent and wise physician. He was good at dispensing medicines and curing diseases. He had many sons, numbering ten, twenty, or a hundred. [One day] he went to a remote country on business. After he left home, the sons took poison. The poison passed into their bodies, and the sons writhed in agony, rolling on the ground. At that time the father returned home. Some sons had already lost their right minds while the others still had not. All the sons saw their father in the distance and had great joy. They begged him on their knees, saying, ‘You came back safely. We were ignorant. We took poison by mistake. Cure us, and give us back our lives!’
“Seeing his sons suffering so much, the father consulted books of prescriptions, and collected good herbs. having a good color, smell and taste. He compounded a medicine by pounding and sieving the herbs, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is a very good medicine. It has good color, smell and taste. Take it! It will remove the pain at once and you will not suffer any more.’
“The sons who had not lost their right minds saw that this good medicine had a good color and smell, took it at once, and were cured completely. But the sons who had already lost their right minds did not consent to take the medicine given to them, although they rejoiced at seeing their father come home and asked him to cure them, because they were so perverted that they did not believe that this medicine having a good color and smell had a good taste.
Nichiren discusses the sick children in his letter A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One:
When we think of the Buddha’s intent reflected upon the clear mirror of these scriptures, we see that His appearance in this world was not for the sake of those who heard Him preach the Lotus Sūtra for eight years on Mt. Sacred Eagle. It was for those in the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, and in the Latter Age of Degeneration. More precisely, it was not for the sake of those in the 2,000 years of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, but for those like myself in the beginning of the Latter Age. The “sick ones” refer to the slanderers of the Lotus Sūtra after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha. It was “for those who did not perceive and accept this medicine excellent both in color and flavor” that the Buddha said he would “leave this excellent medicine.”
If we think of it this way, we can see why the bodhisattvas from underground did not appear during the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma. The 1,000-year Age of the True Dharma was appropriate for Hinayāna and provisional Mahāyāna Buddhism, but not fit for the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra in terms of both the “capacity” of those to be taught and the “time” for it to be preached. Therefore, four ranks of Bodhisattva-teachers (Four Reliances) preached the Hinayāna and provisional Mahāyāna teachings in order for the people to attain Buddhahood by nurturing the seed of Buddhahood that they had received during the lifetime of Śākyamuni Buddha. They did not preach the Lotus Sūtra then because they knew that if they had preached it, many people would have slandered it rendering it impossible to nurture the seed of Buddhahood. The capacity of the people for comprehension then was like that of those who listened to the Buddha preach in the first four of the five periods during His lifetime.
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 161
Daily Dharma – April 6, 2019
The merits of the Buddha are beyond the expression of our words. Only the Buddha, only the World-Honored One, knows the wishes we have deep in our minds.
In Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sutra, Pūrṇa has these words in mind while looking at the face of the Buddha. The thoughts we have are mostly words, and the words are about the things we want. Words can help us make sense of the world around us, especially the words the Buddha uses to teach us. But words can also confuse us when we mistake our expectations for the reality of the world. When the Buddha calls us to become Bodhisattvas, to realize that our happiness is linked to that of all beings, his words open a part of our mind with which we are not familiar. He asks us to set aside the habits we have learned from this world of conflict and see his world in a new way.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Gasshō
“In the precept lineage [kaike],” Kōen writes, “the profound Ultimate is transferred by means of concrete ritual forms (jisō).” The most distinctive ritual form of the kai kanjō is its elaborations of the mūdra of the palms placed together (gasshō). This mūdra, says Kōen, was performed by Śākyamuni and Many Jewels in the jeweled stūpa and represents the fusion of the object of contemplation and the wisdom that realizes it (kyōchi myōgō), as well as the supramundane truth and the worldly truth being a single suchness (shinzoku ichinyo). Cause and effect, dependent and primary recompense, the single thought-moment and the three thousand realms, yin and yang–all dharmas are encompassed in the gesture of gasshō, which is called the “mūdra of the true aspect” (jissō no in). The Enkai jūroku chō elaborates three kinds of gasshō corresponding to the “three kinds of Lotus Sūtra,” the classification of the Buddha’s teachings employed by Saichō to subsume them within the One Vehicle. (Page 136)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism