In terms of “explaining retinues that are formed by principal nature” (Ming Li-hsing Chüan-shu), what Chih-i attempts to convey is that every being possesses the Buddha-nature. The relationship is thus formed by this inherent nature for attaining Buddhahood. Chih-i argues that the fundamental principle of the Buddha-nature that is equally possessed by sentient beings and the Buddha is evidenced in the Buddha’s statement in the Lotus Sūtra, emphasizing that all living beings are his children. Therefore, retinues that are formed by principal nature indicate children and father relationship between sentient beings and the Buddha. (Vol. 2, Page 290-291)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismAll posts by John Hughes
Day 11
Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 7 with the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the zenith, we begin again with what occurred when Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.
The Buddha said to the bhikṣus:
“When Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, five hundred billion Buddha-worlds in each of the ten quarters quaked in the six ways, and all those worlds, including those intercepted from the brilliant rays of light of the sun and the moon by the neighboring worlds, were illumined [by great rays of light], and the living beings of those worlds were able to see each other for the first time. They said to each other, ‘How did you appear so suddenly?’ The palaces of the gods of those worlds, including the palace of Brahmans, also quaked in the six ways. The great rays of light which illumined all those worlds were brighter than the rays of light emitted by those gods.
The Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1 offers this:
With the Lotus Sutra and our Buddhist practice we can even illuminate the sufferings we are experiencing as well as those we have experienced and with the wisdom learned we can forge a future with different outcomes. No matter how dark or how long darkness has existed in our lives, just as a light illuminates a cave that has been dark for hundreds of years, the Lotus Sutra can bring light and enlightenment to our lives.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1Liberating Ourselves From the Bonds of Suffering
Enlightenment is not the complete elimination of all problems. Instead it is the ability to see through the difficulty and realize those problems are illusions. Suffering is not the experience of pain; it is the experience of the relationship to pain. When we can transform our relationship with the difficulties in our lives and realize they are opportunities and no one is better qualified than ourselves to overcome them, by doing this we can liberate ourselves from the bonds of suffering.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraDaily Dharma – Jan. 22, 2019
Every Buddha vows at the outset:
“I will cause all living beings
To attain the same enlightenment
That I attained.”
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha holds nothing back from us. There is nothing hidden or secret in his teachings. He is not threatened by anyone who reaches his wisdom, since he knows this is the potential we all have in us. By his example we can discern between the knowledge that separates from others, and that which unites us with our fellow beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Nichiren’s Two Soteric Modalities
Nichiren’s teaching of exclusive commitment to the Lotus Sūtra in the Final Dharma age undergoes development from two perspectives. While it would be misleading to suggest that these exist as distinct categories in his thought, they may perhaps be thought of as two interconnected soteric modalities. The first is Nichiren’s emphasis on the importance of readiness to give one’s life for the Lotus Sūtra. Since, in Nichiren’s thought, only the Lotus leads to salvation, its devotees, out of compassion, must confront nonbelievers in the sūtra and strictly point out their errors. By enduring the abuse such efforts are likely to call forth, one’s past evil karma can be lessened or eradicated. To incur persecution for the Lotus Sūtra’s sake demonstrates the authenticity of one’s faith; to give one’s life for it is to guarantee one’s future Buddhahood. Nichiren developed this soteriology through his own reading of the Lotus and other sūtras and commentaries over the course of two exiles, various attempts on his life, and other ordeals he and his followers confronted in the course of his turbulent career.
Second, Nichiren taught that in the Final Dharma age, by arousing the mind of faith in the sūtra and chanting its title or daimoku in the phrase “Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō,” one can realize Buddhahood with this very body. In this act, the identity of the Buddha and the ordinary worldling is manifested, and the place of practice becomes the Buddha land. This modality has obvious continuities with the esoteric Tendai tradition from which Nichiren had emerged.
Of these two soteric modalities, the first—attaining Buddhahood by meeting persecution for the sūtra’s sake—stands out more prominently in the body of Nichiren’s writings. It is the “outward face,” so to speak, of his religion and represents his response to immediate circumstances as he and his followers began to meet opposition from the bakufu and to wrestle with the doubts such persecution engendered. After Nichiren’s death, the ethos of “not begrudging bodily life” for the practice and propagation of the Lotus Sūtra proved instrumental in enabling his fledgling community to emerge as an independent sect and to define and maintain its identity vis-ā-vis older and more established institutions. It is in many ways definitive of his tradition, and no comprehensive account of his thought could ignore it. Informing it, however, is the second or “inner” soteric modality, that of realizing Buddhahood in the moment of chanting the daimoku. This is what ties Nichiren to the nonlinear model of salvation that characterizes much of medieval Japanese Buddhism. (Page 241-242)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismRetinues Formed By Principal Nature
In terms of “explaining retinues that are formed by principal nature” (Ming Li-hsing Chüan-shu), what Chih-i attempts to convey is that every being possesses the Buddha-nature. The relationship is thus formed by this inherent nature for attaining Buddhahood. Chih-i argues that the fundamental principle of the Buddha-nature that is equally possessed by sentient beings and the Buddha is evidenced in the Buddha’s statement in the Lotus Sūtra, emphasizing that all living beings are his children. Therefore, retinues that are formed by principal nature indicate children and father relationship between sentient beings and the Buddha. (Vol. 2, Page 290-291)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismDay 10
Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.
Having last month concluded Day 10’s portion of Chapter 7 with the princes begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the dharma, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 6: Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and the prediction for the future Buddhahood of Subhūti.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, having understood the wishes of the great disciples, said to the bhikṣus:
“In his future life, this Subhūti will see three hundred billion nayutas of Buddhas, make offerings to them, respect them, honor them, praise them, perform brahma practices, complete the Way of Bodhisattvas, and become a Buddha on the final stage of his physical existence. He will be called Beautiful-Form, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. The kalpa in which he will become that Buddha will be called Having-Treasures; and his world, Treasure-Born. The ground [of his world] will be even, made of crystal, adorned with jeweled trees, and devoid of mounds, pits, rubble, thorns and dirt. Jeweled flowers will cover the ground to purify it. The people of that world will live in buildings of wonderful treasures. His disciples in Śrāvakahood will be numberless, beyond calculation or comparison. The Bodhisattvas will be many thousands of billions of nayutas in number. The duration of the life of that Buddha will be twelve small kalpas. His right teachings will be preserved for twenty small kalpas. The counterfeit of his right teachings will be preserved also for twenty small kalpas. That Buddha will always stay in the sky, expound the Dharma to the multitude, and save innumerable Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Bhikṣus!
Now I will tell you.
Listen to me
With one mind!Subhūti, a disciple of mine,
Will be able
To become a Buddha
Called Beautiful-Form.He will make offerings
To many billions of Buddhas, and practice
According to the practices of the Buddhas,
And finally attain great enlightenment.On the final stage of his physical existence,
He will obtain the thirty-two physical marks,
And become as beautiful and as wonderful
As a mountain of treasures.The world of that Buddha
Will be the purest.
Anyone will be happy to see it.
That Buddha will save
Innumerable living beings
Of that world.Many Bodhisattvas
In the world of that Buddha
Will be clever.
They will turn
The irrevocable wheel of the Dharma,
And adorn that world.The Śrāvakas in that world also
Will be countless.
They will have the six supernatural powers,
Including the three major supernatural powers.
They will have the eight emancipations.
They will be exceedingly powerful and virtuous.The supernatural powers
Employed by that Buddha
For the expounding of the Dharma
Will be inconceivable.As many gods and men
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Will join their hands together
And listen to the words of that Buddha.The duration of the life of that Buddha
Will be twelve small kalpas.
His right teachings will be preserved
For twenty small kalpas.
The counterfeit of his right teachings
Also will be preserved for twenty small kalpas.
The Daily Dharma from July 11, 2018, offers this:
The supernatural powers
Employed by that Buddha
For the expounding of the Dharma
Will be inconceivable.
The Buddha sings this verse in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra after predicting the future Buddhahood of his disciple Subhūti. Anything we do not understand can seem supernatural. Things we find common in our modern world would seem magical to those who lived in the Buddha’s time. It is only through our greater understanding that we can create our modern wonders. It should not then surprise us that with the Buddha’s mind, which he reminds us that we too can reach, the things we can accomplish will seem magical to those mired in delusion.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
A Single Reality
According to the Three Truths, all things exist by virtue of their dependence upon all other things, and each thing contributes to the existence of all other things. Another way of saying this is that all things are manifestations of the underlying process of cause and effect, which unites them all. If all things are temporary manifestations of a single all-encompassing network of cause and effect, then nothing is truly separate from anything else. Body and mind, living beings and their environment, even the realms of delusion and awakening are not ultimately separate. They are all part of a single reality, which is revealed when one puts the Lotus Sutra into practice through Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.
Lotus SeedsDaily Dharma – Jan. 21, 2019
Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva have already obtained those great merits. Because they planted the roots of virtue under many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas [in their previous existence], they obtained those inconceivable merits. All gods and men in the world should bow to those who know the names of these two Bodhisattvas.
The Buddha gives this explanation to the great multitude gathered to hear him in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. These two Bodhisattvas had been brothers under a great King in their previous life. They used wonders to lead their parents to a Buddha who was teaching the Wonderful Dharma in that world. By knowing the story of these two Bodhisattvas, we also know about the Wonderful Dharma and the Ever-Present Buddha who leads us through all our lives to his enlightenment. When we realize that through our practice we are worthy of respect from all beings, including ourselves, there is no need to demand respect from anyone. We are secure in our assurance of enlightenment.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
A Medieval Paradigm of Buddhist Liberation
The argument advanced here is not that Nichiren did or did not embrace original enlightenment thought, but that Tendai original enlightenment thought and Nichiren’s teaching both represent different appropriations and developments of a new, distinctively medieval paradigm of Buddhist liberation, embodied in different social and institutional contexts and given a different ideological thrust. The example of Nichiren and his later tradition will serve to illustrate that the doctrines of the new Kamakura Buddhism cannot be understood simply as emerging from the matrix of medieval Tendai original enlightenment thought, nor simply as reacting against it, nor as retaining its philosophical subtleties while eliminating its morally ambiguous areas. Rather, the various streams of both medieval Tendai and the new Kamakura Buddhism, in a complex web of mutual influences, now appropriating, now rejecting, together developed and were themselves expressions of a shared “nonlinear” reconception of the problem of salvation, which in each case was fleshed out in the specifics of a different religious vision and ideological orientation. (Page 241)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism