Hui-chi Hsien-pen (Converging the Traces and revealing the Origin) is the function related to the Subtlety of the Original Effect. This is spoken of by Chih-i in terms of practice. All practices of the Buddha in the Traces can be traced back to the Origin. Therefore, when the Traces are made clear as the expedient means (denoting converging the Traces), the Origin is manifested (denoting revealing the Origin). (Vol. 2, Page 447)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismAll posts by John Hughes
Day 20
Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month heard Śākyamuni explain that he is the teacher of these Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, we learn of the doubts this causes among Maitreya and the other Bodhisattvas.
Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and the innumerable Bodhisattvas in the congregation doubted the Buddha’s words which they had never heard before. They thought:
‘How did the World-Honored One teach these great, innumerable, asaṃkhya Bodhisattvas, and qualify them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi in such a short time?’
[Maitreya Bodhisattva] said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! When you, the Tathāgata, were a crown prince, you left the palace of the Śākyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gaya, and attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. It is only forty and odd years since then.
“World-Honored One! How did you do these great deeds of the Buddha in such a short time? Did you teach these great, innumerable Bodhisattvas, and qualify them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi by your powers or by your merits?
“World-Honored One! No one can count the number of these great Bodhisattvas even if he goes on counting them for thousands of billions of kalpas. They have already planted roots of good, practiced the way, and performed brahma practices under innumerable Buddhas from the remotest past.
Nichiren discusses the importance of the question raised by Maitreya in his letter, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching:
Prince Shōtoku of Japan was a son of Emperor Yōmei, the thirty-second sovereign of Japan. When he was six years old, elderly men coming from Paekche, Koguryō, and T’ang China paid homage to the Emperor. The six-year old crown prince declared that they were his disciples, and these elderly men holding hands in reverence said that the crown prince was their teacher. It was indeed a wonder. It is also said in a non-Buddhist work that a certain man, while walking on a street, came across a young man about thirty years old beating an old man of about eighty years old on the street. Asked what was the matter, the story says, the young man answered that this elderly man he was beating was his son. The relationship between Śākyamuni and great bodhisattvas from underground is similar to these stories.
Therefore, Bodhisattva Maitreya and others asked a question, “World Honored One! When You were the crown prince, You left the palace of the Śākya clan and sat in meditation under the bodhi tree not far from the town of Gayā until You attained perfect enlightenment. It has only been forty years or so. How could You, World Honored One, achieve so much in so short a time?”
For forty years or so starting with the Flower Garland Sūtra, bodhisattvas have asked questions in every assembly to dispel the doubts all beings might have had. This, however, is the most serious question of all. In the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning, for instance, 80,000 bodhisattvas such as Great Adornment put forth a serious question concerning the apparent discrepancy in time required for attaining Buddhahood. While it has been said in the sūtras preached in the first forty years or so that it would take many kalpa, now it was preached that one could obtain Buddhahood quickly through the teaching of the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning. However serious the question of Great Adornment Bodhisattva was, that of Maitreya was more crucial. …
The thirty-six questions asked by Kāśyapa in the Nirvana Sūtra were also not as serious as the one asked by Maitreya. If the Buddha had not squarely answered the question to dispel this doubt, all the holy teachings of the Buddha’s lifetime would have appeared to be as worthless as bubbles, and the questions of everyone would have remained unanswered. Here lies the importance of the sixteenth chapter, “The Life Span of the Buddha,” of the Lotus Sūtra.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 72-74
Daily Dharma – April 5, 2019
I know the Way. I have opened the Way. I will expound the Way. Gods, men and asuras! Come and hear the Dharma!
The Buddha makes this declaration at the beginning of Chapter Five of the Lotus Sūtra. If anyone besides the Buddha had said this, we would accuse them of arrogance: pretending to know what they do not. The Buddha does not separate himself from us. Because he knows we can become as enlightened as he is, he does not place himself as superior. He also knows that unless we hear him, he cannot help us to become enlightened. To accept this help means taking responsibility for our progress on the path. We cannot continue alone but we must make our own effort.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Expression of Enlightenment
The present study has approached hongaku thought as representative of a new paradigm or “reimagining” of liberation that emerged and became influential in the early medieval period. This paradigm was characterized by nonlinearity, that is, by the conviction that enlightenment is directly accessible in the present moment, and that practice represents the expression of enlightenment, not merely the means to achieve it. This way of thinking about Buddhist liberation also stressed dependence upon a single factor, whether faith, insight, or a specific practice; access ibility, at least in theory, to all persons, even (or especially) those of limited capacity; and a deemphasis on moral cultivation as a causal factor necessary to salvation. This paradigm was shared by both Tendai and the new Kamakura schools. Given the difficulties of chronology, and the fact that the doctrines of medieval Tendai and of the new schools continued to undergo elaboration throughout the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, it is difficult to say that this paradigm simply and unproblematically “emerged” from Tendai. It developed within both Tendai and the new schools and was influenced by their interaction. By the latter medieval period, it had become an orthodoxy. (Page 362)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismThe Subtlety of the Original Land
Chu-chi Hsien-pen (Abiding in the Traces and revealing the Origin) is the function that is derived from the Subtlety of the Original Land. This refers to Śākyamuni Buddha, who is able to reveal his original land while abiding in his physical body at the present time in the Traces. (Vol. 2, Page 447)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 19
Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Having last month considered at the start of Chapter 15 the question posed by Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, who had come from the other worlds, we greet the many thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground.
When he had said this, the ground of the Sahā-World, which was composed of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, quaked and cracked, and many thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas sprang up from underground simultaneously. Their bodies were golden-colored, and adorned with the thirty-two marks and with innumerable rays of light. They had lived in the sky below this Sahā-World. They came up here because they heard these words of Śākyamuni Buddha. Each of them was the leader of a great multitude. The Bodhisattvas included those who were each accompanied by attendants as many as sixty thousand times the number of the sands of the River Ganges. Needless to say, [they included those who were each accompanied by less attendants, for instance,] fifty thousand times, forty thousand times, thirty thousand times, twenty thousand times or ten thousand times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, or by attendants just as many of the sands of the River Ganges, or by attendants as many as a half, or a quarter of the number of the sands of the River Ganges, or by attendants as many as the sands of the River Ganges divided by a thousand billion nayuta, a billion, ten million, a million, ten thousand, a thousand, a hundred, ten, five, four, three or two attendants, or only by one attendant. [The Bodhisattvas] who preferred a solitary life came alone. The total number of the Bodhisattvas was innumerable, limitless, beyond calculation, inexplicable by any parable or simile.
Those Bodhisattvas who appeared from underground, came to Many-Treasures Tathāgata and Śākyamuni Buddha both of whom were in the wonderful stūpa of the seven treasures hanging in the sky. They [joined their hands together] towards the two World-Honored Ones, and worshipped their feet with their heads. Then they [descended onto the ground and] came to the Buddhas sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees, bowed to them, walked around them from left to right three times, joined their hands together respectfully, and praised them by the various ways by which Bodhisattvas should praise Buddhas. Then they [returned to the sky,] stood to one side, and looked up at the two World-Honored ones with joy. A period of fifty small kalpas elapsed from the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas’ springing up from underground till the finishing of the praising of the Buddhas by the various ways by which Bodhisattvas should praise Buddhas. All this while Śākyamuni Buddha sat in silence. The four kinds of devotees also kept silence for the fifty small kalpas. By his supernatural powers, however, the Buddha caused the great multitude to think that they kept silence for only half a day. Also by the supernatural powers of the Buddha, the four kinds of devotees were able to see that the skies of many hundreds of thousands of billions of worlds were filled with those Bodhisattvas.
Nichiren offers this description of these Bodhisattvas, who “are simultaneously followers of the Original Buddha and bodhisattvas who reside in the minds of us,” in his letter, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One:
The bodhisattvas described in the fifteenth chapter, “Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground,” who have sprung out of the great earth, as numerous as the number of dust-particles of 1,000 worlds, are followers of the Original Buddha Śākyamuni who resides within our minds.
They are like T’ai-kung-wang and Duke of Chou, retainers of King Wu of the Chou dynasty in ancient China, who at the same time served the King’s young son, King Ch’eng; or Takeuchi no Sukune of ancient Japan, a leading minister to Empress Jingu, who concurrently served her son, Prince Nintoku. Just like them Bodhisattvas Superior Practice (Jōgyō), Limitless Practice (Muhengyō), Pure Practice (Jōgyō), and Steadily Established Practice (Anryūgyō), the four leaders of these bodhisattvas sprung from the earth, are simultaneously followers of the Original Buddha and bodhisattvas who reside in the minds of us, ordinary people.
Therefore, Grand Master Miao-lê has declared in his Annotations on the Mo-ho chih-kuan (Mo-ho chih-kuan fu-hsing-chiian hungchiieh): “You should know that both our bodies and the land on which we live are a part of the 3,000 modes of existence which exist in our minds. Consequently, upon our attainment of Buddhahood, we are in complete agreement with the truth of ‘3,000 existences contained in one thought,’ and our single body and single thought permeate through all the worlds in the universe.”
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 147
Daily Dharma – April 4, 2019
Although we were your sons then as we are now, we wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. If we had aspired for the teaching of the Great Vehicle, you would have already expounded it to us.
Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana speak this passage in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This is before they tell the story of the Wayward Son. They explain their realization that the Buddha holds nothing back from us. The reason we hear expedient teachings rather than the highest teaching is because of the limits of our own aspiration. When we aspire to become Buddhas, we receive the highest teaching.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
The Sole Validity of a Particular Form of Faith or Practice
In medieval Tendai thought, the nonduality of the ordinary worldling and the Buddha forms the focus of argument; the particular form of practice one adopts is less important. In the new movements, this “nondual” standpoint is assimilated to claims for the sole validity of a particular form of faith or practice, which itself becomes the polemical touchstone, as the exclusive validity of the Lotus Sūtra does in the case of Nichiren. But this shift in focus is neither a rejection nor a fundamental transformation of the hongaku stance: Acceptance or denial of original enlightenment thought was not the fault line along which the “old”/”new” divide occurred. Far more important to the emergence of the new movements were such factors as their success in forming new institutions or kyōdan (including, as Matsuo Kenji has noted, the adoption of ordination procedures independent of the state-sponsored kaidan); their grounding in social and economic bases different from those of the Tendai temple-shrine complexes of the capital; and the particular ideological orientation inherent in their commitment to single practice, which served to define them over and against other Buddhists. (Page 361-362)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismThe Subtlety of the Original Land
Chu-pen Hsien-pen (Abiding in the Origin and revealing the Origin) is the function related to the Subtlety of the Original Land. This is spoken of by Chih-i in terms of the original intention of the Buddha. The Buddha abides eternally in the Original Land of Sahā in revealing his original body dharmakāya. (Vol. 2, Page 447)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 18
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month considered that all things are insubstantial, we consider in gāthās the proper practices and proper things to approach.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
A Bodhisattva who wishes
To expound this sūtra without fear
In the evil world
After [my extinction]
Should perform proper practices
And approach proper things.He should keep away
From kings, princes and ministers,
From other government officials,
From players of dangerous sports,
From caṇḍālas, from heretics,
And from aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.He should not approach arrogant people,
Or the scholars who are deeply attached
To the Three Stores of the Lesser Vehicle,
Or the bhikṣus
Who violate the precepts,
Or self-appointed Arhats,
Or the bhikṣunīs/
Who like to laugh playfully.He should not approach the upāsikās
Who are attached to the five desires
Or who seek in their present life
The extinction[-without-remainder].When they come to him
With good intent
In order to hear
About the enlightenment of the Buddha,
He should expound the Dharma to them
Without fear,
But should not wish to receive
Anything from them.He should not approach
Or make friends with a widow
Or with an unmarried woman
Or with a eunuch.He should not approach
Slaughterers or cooks
Or those who kill for profit,
Such as hunters or fishermen.He should not approach
Butchers
Or procurers
Of prostitutes.He should not approach
Dangerous wrestlers
Or makers of various amusements
Or immoral women.He should not expound the Dharma
To a woman in an enclosed place.
When he expounds the Dharma to her,
He should not laugh playfully.When he goes to a village to beg for food,
He should take a Bhikṣu with him.
If he cannot find a Bhikṣu [to take with him],
He should think of the Buddha with all his heart.These are the proper practices he should perform
And the proper things he should approach.
He should expound the Dharma peacefully
Only after doing all this!
This part of Chapter 14 is an example of why “Peaceful Practices” served as an unofficial Mahāyāna precepts.
I’ve been reading Paul Groner’s The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, which focuses almost entirely on Saichō’s effort to establish Mahāyāna precepts to distinguish his Tendai monks from the Nara establishment, which required new monks to take the Hinayāna precepts. Saichō’s efforts expanded on Chih-i’s concept of precepts, as Groner points out:
Besides the concept of a bodhisattva who performed Sudden practices, Chih-i also introduced another concept utilized by Saichō, the Perfect precepts (enkai). The term ‘Perfect precepts’ referred to Chih-i’s classification of Buddhist doctrine into four categories and designated the precepts appropriate for followers of the Perfect teaching. Chih-i equated the Perfect precepts with the precepts of the Buddha. They were realized through meditation, practice, and the development of a mind which was free from passions and thus able to perceive things as they really are (jissōshin). The Perfect precepts were usually not identified in Chih-i’s writings with any particular set of rules such as the precepts of the Fan wang ching (Sūtra of Brahma’s Net), Hinayāna sets or even with the anrakugyō (Serene and Pleasant Activities) of the Lotus Sūtra. Elsewhere, however, Chih-i stated that adherence to the Lotus Sūtra (jikyō) was equivalent to holding the most profound precepts. Such precepts were called absolute (rikai) and were free of specific content. They were realized in two ways. A monk or nun might gradually practice precepts of increasing subtlety until the Perfect precepts were attained, or he or she might attain them in an instant through Sudden practices. (Page 224-225)