Category Archives: Blog

AI Contribution, Blog

The Output Really Depends on the Input

The old computer proverb “Garbage In; Garbage Out” is why I worry about the output of AI research assistants. One way to get around GIGO is to limit the AI to sources you trust. This is the big selling point of Google’s NotebookLM. The other day I wrote about my early experiments with NotebookLM. (Here). Today I experienced the magic.

For a source on Nichiren and Nichiren Buddhism, I took Jacqueline Stone’s article on Nichiren written for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Religion. A PDF copy can be download here.

I created a “new” Notebook at NotebookLM and uploaded the article to be the source material for the AI.

Here’s some of the magic generated.

Nichiren’s Understanding of the Daimoku

For Nichiren, the Daimoku is far more than a simple title; it represents the core of his teachings and the sole path to enlightenment, especially in the Final Dharma Age (mappō).

Here’s a breakdown of Nichiren’s concept of the Daimoku:

  • “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō,” the Daimoku: This phrase, chanted in Japanese, combines “Namu” (expressing devotion and taking refuge) with “Myōhō-renge-kyō” – the Japanese pronunciation of the title of the Lotus Sūtra, a scripture revered by Nichiren as the Buddha’s highest teaching.
  • More than a title: Nichiren viewed the Daimoku as encompassing the entire essence of the Lotus Sūtra and the Wonderful Dharma itself. He believed its five characters encapsulate the complete enlightenment of the Buddha and provide a direct link to that enlightened state. This understanding drew upon a tradition of interpreting Buddhist texts through their titles, where the title encapsulates the text’s complete meaning.
  • Embodiment of Ichinen Sanzen: Nichiren connected the Daimoku with the principle of “ichinen sanzen” or “three thousand realms in a single moment of thought”. This concept emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, with each phenomenon containing the potential for buddhahood. By chanting the Daimoku, practitioners tap into this interconnected reality and reveal the inherent enlightenment within themselves and the world around them.
  • Accessibility of Buddhahood: Nichiren taught that chanting the Daimoku grants immediate access to the merits accumulated by the primordial Buddha over countless lifetimes. By aligning oneself with the Buddha’s enlightenment through the Daimoku, one achieves “realization of buddhahood with this very body”.
  • Benefits of Chanting: While the ultimate aim is enlightenment, Nichiren also emphasized the tangible benefits of Daimoku chanting. He taught that it brings protection, healing, and positive consequences in this life and the afterlife. More importantly, it cultivates an inner peace and stability that transcends external circumstances.

Or this…

Nichiren Buddhism: Study Guide

Short-Answer Questions

  1. Explain Nichiren’s central criticism of other Buddhist schools prevalent in Japan during his time.
  2. What are the five characters of the daimoku, and what is their significance in Nichiren Buddhism?
  3. How does Nichiren’s concept of “slander of the Dharma” differ from a simple misunderstanding or misinterpretation of Buddhist teachings?
  4. Describe the relationship between the concepts of “mutual inclusion of the ten realms” (jikkai gogu) and “three thousand realms in a single moment of thought” (ichinen sanzen).
  5. How does Nichiren Buddhism understand the concept of “buddhahood with this very body” (sokushin jōbutsu)?
  6. What role does the gohonzon, or “revered object of worship,” play in Nichiren Buddhist practice?
  7. What is the significance of Nichiren’s two exiles in the context of his understanding of the Lotus Sutra?
  8. How does Nichiren’s concept of the “pure land of Eagle Peak” (Ryōzen jōdō) differ from the Pure Land Buddhism’s
    understanding of Pure Lands?
  9. Why did Nichiren advocate for the confrontational approach of shakubuku over the more gradual approach of shōju in propagating his teachings?
  10. What does it mean to say that Nichiren saw the practice of the Lotus Sutra as a means to transform not only individual lives but also the outer world?

Short-Answer Key

  1. Nichiren believed that while other Buddhist schools and practices, like nenbutsu or Zen, held validity in previous eras, they were inadequate for achieving salvation in the degenerate age of mappō, the Final Dharma Age. Only the Lotus Sutra, in his view, held the profound power needed to liberate people during this time.
  2. The five characters of the daimoku are “Myōhō-renge-kyō,” the Japanese pronunciation of the Lotus Sutra’s title. Chanting the daimoku is central to Nichiren Buddhism, seen as encapsulating the entire truth of the Lotus Sutra and thus capable of directly transferring the Buddha’s enlightenment to the practitioner.
  3. For Nichiren, “slander of the Dharma” goes beyond intellectual disagreement. It refers to the active rejection or dismissal of the Lotus Sutra as the ultimate Buddhist teaching, particularly in favor of provisional teachings deemed insufficient for the Final Dharma Age.
  4. “Mutual inclusion of the ten realms” means that all ten realms of existence—from hell to buddhahood—coexist interdependently within each individual being. This concept expands into the principle of “three thousand realms in a single moment of thought,” suggesting the vastness and interconnectedness of all phenomena within each thought moment.
  5. “Buddhahood with this very body” is the core belief that enlightenment is not a distant goal but an inherent potential within each person, achievable in this lifetime through dedicated practice of the Lotus Sutra, primarily through chanting the daimoku.
  6. The gohonzon serves as a visual representation of the enlightened state, embodying the interconnectedness of all beings and the ultimate reality revealed in the Lotus Sutra. It acts as a focal point for chanting the daimoku and contemplating the principles of Nichiren Buddhism.
  7. Nichiren’s exiles were interpreted by him and his followers as a fulfillment of the Lotus Sutra’s prophecies, which predicted that those who propagated its teachings would face persecution. This “bodily reading” of the sutra reinforced their faith and Nichiren’s self-identification as a true votary of the Lotus Sutra.
  8. Unlike Pure Land Buddhism, which envisions a separate realm of bliss after death, Nichiren’s “pure land of Eagle Peak” is not spatially or temporally distinct. It represents the enlightened state itself, accessible in this lifetime through faith in the Lotus Sutra and manifest wherever it is practiced.
  9. Nichiren believed that the urgency of the Final Dharma Age called for a forceful approach. He saw shakubuku as a compassionate act, as it aimed to awaken people to the truth of the Lotus Sutra even if it meant challenging their existing beliefs and potentially facing resistance.
  10. Nichiren’s teaching emphasizes the non-duality of the individual and their environment. By transforming one’s own life condition through faith in the Lotus Sutra, individuals could positively influence their surroundings and contribute to the creation of a peaceful and enlightened society.

Essay Questions

  • Analyze the role of the Lotus Sutra in Nichiren’s teachings. How does his interpretation of this sutra differ from those of other Buddhist schools in Japan during his time?
  • Discuss the significance of the concept of mappō, the Final Dharma Age, in Nichiren Buddhism. How does this concept inform Nichiren’s understanding of the urgency and importance of spreading the Lotus Sutra?
  • Explore the relationship between faith, practice, and the achievement of buddhahood in Nichiren’s thought. How do the concepts of “mutual inclusion of the ten realms” and “three thousand realms in a single moment of thought” contribute to this understanding?
  • Compare and contrast the concepts of shōju (gradual propagation) and shakubuku (confrontational propagation) in the context of Nichiren Buddhism. Why did Nichiren advocate for the use of shakubuku, and what implications did this have for his interactions with other Buddhist schools and authorities?
  • Nichiren believed that the widespread practice of the Lotus Sutra could lead to the realization of an ideal society. Discuss Nichiren’s vision of this ideal society and the role of individual practice in achieving it. What implications does this have for the social and political engagement of Nichiren Buddhists?

Glossary of Key Terms

Term
Definition
Daimoku
The Japanese pronunciation of the title of the Lotus Sutra, “Myōhō-renge-kyō,” chanted as a central practice in Nichiren Buddhism. It is believed to embody the essence of the Lotus Sutra and lead to enlightenment.
Gohonzon
The revered object of worship in Nichiren Buddhism, often a calligraphic mandala inscribed by Nichiren or his successors. It represents the assembly of the Lotus Sutra and serves as a focal point for chanting the daimoku.
Honzon
A general term for an object of worship in Buddhism, including statues, paintings, mandalas, etc. In Nichiren Buddhism, the gohonzon is considered the primary honzon.
Ichinen Sanzen
“Three thousand realms in a single moment of thought,” a core Tiantai/Tendai principle adopted by Nichiren, expressing the interconnectedness and interpenetration of all phenomena within each thought moment.
Jikkai Gogu
“Mutual inclusion of the ten realms,” a Tiantai/Tendai doctrine embraced by Nichiren, explaining that all ten realms of existence—from hell to buddhahood—are interconnected and contained within each other and every being.
Kaidan
The ordination platform in Buddhism, traditionally a place for receiving precepts and becoming a monk or nun. In Nichiren Buddhism, the meaning and realization of the kaidan have been subject to debate.
Kanjin
“Mind contemplation,” a term used by Nichiren to describe the practice of chanting the daimoku as a means of aligning one’s mind with the Buddha’s enlightenment.
Lotus Sutra
A highly revered Mahayana Buddhist scripture believed by Nichiren to be the ultimate teaching of the Buddha, capable of leading all beings to enlightenment.
Mappō
The “Final Dharma Age,” a period of Buddhist decline when traditional practices are believed to be less effective. Nichiren saw the Lotus Sutra as the only true path to salvation during this time.
Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō
The full phrase chanted in Nichiren Buddhism. “Namu” signifies devotion and taking refuge, while “Myōhō-renge-kyō” is the title of the Lotus Sutra.
Shakubuku
A confrontational approach to propagating Buddhist teachings, often involving direct refutation of other views. Nichiren advocated for this approach as necessary for the Final Dharma Age.
Shōju
A more gradual and accommodating approach to Dharma teaching, emphasizing respect for diverse viewpoints.
Slander of the Dharma (Hōbō)
The act of rejecting or dismissing the Lotus Sutra, particularly in favor of teachings considered provisional by Nichiren.
Sokushin Jōbutsu
“Buddhahood with this very body,” the belief that enlightenment can be achieved in this lifetime and with this physical body through the practice of the Lotus Sutra.

The problem, of course, is that you can’t get a PDF copy of every piece of source material that might be useful. The use of URLs as source material at NotebookLM is problematic, as I explained the other day, because only the content of a single page is used – related pages, links to other material, all of that is ignored.

Still, this is really promising. Maybe I can get a PDF copy of the Writings of Nichiren as published by Nichiren Shu. That would be fun.

AI Contribution, Blog

An Artificial Discussion of the Innumerable Meanings Sutra

Listen to this podcast at notebooklm.google.com

 

I’ve been having fun applying AI tools to my Buddhist exploration. There’s been “A Little AI Magic” and last year’s “Compare and Contrast Tendai Teachings and Nichiren Doctrine” and even back in 2020, AI and Buddhism.

Today I ran across the ZD Net article Google’s hidden AI tool turns your text into stunningly lifelike podcasts – for free. Listen for yourself

Google’s NotebookLM allows you unload a document and have the NotebookLM work it’s magic on that material. But it also allows you to specify the website you want to use for the source material. This, unfortunately, is not as thorough as I’d like. For example, if I give NotebookLM my root URL – 500yojanas.org – NotebookLM only looks at the content displayed on that page, it does not follow the links to subsequent pages or include the content found under each of the menus. To get around that limitation, you need to focus on content that is self-contained. That’s why I chose the URL 500yojanas.org/lotus-sutra/full-text/sutra-of-innumerable-meanings/ for my Podcast example above.

As for the podcast product produced, I am quite impressed with the presentation and general quality of the discussion. We are a long way away from the days when computer generated talking was easily identifiable.

However, this is not a perfect system. As an example of the limitations listen to this NotebookLM podcast discussing “Daimoku.” For source material I gave the URL 500yojanas.org/blog/?s=Daimoku This brings up the 10 most recent blog posts in which I’ve discussed Daimoku.

(Listen on NotebookLM)

The failure to pronounce “ren ge” – Lotus Flower – is a killer for me. But much of the remainder of the discussion is equally off. It just feels fake. That’s probably a product of NotebookLM failing to use the full articles and instead summarizing the 10 summaries.

I plan to experiment more, but obviously this is a very new world we live in today.

See The Output Really Depends on the Input

Blog

The Wonder of Childhood

Kito Blessing
Couldn’t resist posting this photo of my grandson looking up at Rev. Igarashi as he performs a Kito Blessing for me at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church on Sept. 15. My son took the photo.
Blog, Books, Feminine Ideal, Śrimālā

The Sutra of Queen Śrimālā of the Lion’s Roar

queen_srimala_bookcover
Download PDF copy

The Sutra of Queen Śrimālā of the Lion’s Roar (Śrimālādevisimhanāda-sūtra) is one of three texts brought to Japan in 552 CE from Paikche, a kingdom in Korea. As explained in The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy:

In 594 the Prince Regent, Shōtoku Taishi (574-622) declared Buddhism the state religion.

Buddhism at this time was quite devoid of the distinction of sects or schools, although the difference of Mahayana and Hinayana was clearly recognized. The Prince himself strictly adhered to Mahayana and wrote commentaries upon three Mahayana texts. The fame of these excellent annotations spread abroad, and one of them was chosen as a subject of commentaries by a Chinese savant.

The particular type of Mahayana that was adopted by the Prince may be seen from a consideration of the texts which were chosen. The first is the Lotus of the Good Law, a text devoted to the Ekayāna (One Vehicle) doctrine, indicating the idea of the good law. The second is the Discourse on the Ultimate Truth by Vimalakirti, a lay Bodhisattva of Vaisali, while the third is the Book of the Earnest Resolve by Srimala, a lady Bodhisattva, the Queen of Ayodhya. The central idea of this non-sectarian period was the doctrine of the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) as expressed in these three texts. This idea has remained the dominating feature of Buddhism throughout its history in Japan.

The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, p17

The Sutra of Queen Śrimālā of the Lion’s Roar was translated into English for the BDK English Tripiṭaka by Diana Mary Paul. In her Translator’s Introduction, she writes:

The story of Queen Śrimālā has a simple and beautiful theme, full of lush imagery and metaphors. The bodhisattva is the essential agent through whom living beings are instructed in the profound teaching of the tathāgatagarbha (“womb of the Buddha”). A future Buddha who is still embracing the teachings and instructing others, Queen Śrimālā becomes a bodhisattva who explains the doctrine of the tathāgatagarbha in the presence of the Buddha, after her parents send her a letter requesting that she study the teaching (Dharma). Awakening to the thought of enlightenment (bodhicitta), meditating upon the Buddha, she visualizes him and expresses the wish to follow the bodhisattva path. Receiving the prediction of her future Buddhahood from the Buddha, she enters the path of the True Dharma and thus begins her bodhisattva practice.

Queen Śrimālā, who had the “lion’s roar “—or eloquence—of a Buddha, first converts the women of her kingdom, then her husband, a non-Buddhist, and finally the men. Śrimālā is praised for her intelligence and compassion, not for her beauty or wealth, which are implicit. She is proficient in explaining the Dharma and is charismatic, as are all the bodhisattvas throughout Buddhist literature. Queen Śrimālā describes the True Dharma using four metaphors: 1) the great cloud, which is the source of all good merits pouring forth on living beings; 2) the great waters, which are the source for creating all good meritorious acts; 3) the great earth, which carries all things just as the True Dharma supports all living things; and 4) the four jewel storehouses, which are the four types of instructions that living beings accept and embrace.

The text raises the question of the possibility of female Buddhas. This question had continually vexed Buddhist scholars and commentators, who attempted to come to terms with the possibility of a relationship between the notion of the ultimate spiritual perfection or Buddhahood and the feminine. Such a relationship was viewed with ambivalence. This question was raised only by Mahayana Buddhists, particularly those who proclaimed the one path to universal Buddhahood. For these Buddhists, all men and women equally had the nature of the Buddha. If women were truly capable of having Buddha-nature in this lifetime without denying their female gender, this would implicitly indicate that women were not biologically determined as religiously, psychologically, and physically inferior to men.

One popular theme in Mahayana Buddhist texts had been the teaching of transformation from female to male, providing a means, both literary and spiritual, for women to become bodhisattvas and Buddhas. Other texts and commentaries suggest that there is no need to undergo a gender change through either vowing to despise the female nature or through rebirth as a male after death as a female.

The controversy that arose among scholars concerning Queen Śrimālā’s level of spiritual attainment may reflect continual controversy among Buddhists with regard to the bodhisattva ideal and the image of Buddhahood as female.

The entire tone of the text, in which the bodhisattva is the supporter, acceptor, and compassionate Dharma mother, suggests female imagery. The question of whether or not women were ever recognized as potential or imminent Buddhas remains unanswered.

The Sutra of Queen Śrimālā of the Lion’s Roar, p5-7

The_Buddhist_Feminine_Ideal-bookcoverIn 1974, Diana Mary Paul published her PhD dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This in turn was reprinted as Number 30 in the American Academy of Religion Dissertation Series edited by H. Ganse Little Jr. and published in 1980 under the title, The Buddhist Feminine Ideal.

In reading this sūtra and Diana Mary Paul’s thesis, I was impressed by the sutra’s important lessons emphasizing that Bodhisattvas are Bodhisattvas not just for themselves but for everyone.

Over the next several days I will be publishing quotes from the sūtra and the thesis that illustrate this point. For Fall Higan, I will be using Queen Śrimālā to illustrate the Six Perfections.

AI Contribution, Blog

A Little AI Magic

See A Little AI Magic Revisited

Not all AI are equal.

Google’s Gemini AI, even the Advanced option, leaves a lot to be desired when compared to Microsoft’s Copilot.

Here’s the prompt I tried on both:

generate image in style of emoji that represents Nichiren Buddhism

Gemini’s first try generated these images:

Gemini’s second try generated this error message:

I’m a language model and don’t have the capacity to help with that.

Gemini’s third try generated these images:

I then fired up Microsoft’s Copilot, which utilizes DALL-E 3 to generate images.

The first time I entered the prompt “generate image in style of emoji that represents Nichiren Buddhism” in Copilot I got these images:

The second time I entered the prompt “generate image in style of emoji that represents Nichiren Buddhism” in Copilot I got these images:

The Designer app inside Copilot even lets you tweak the image with different styles:

This:
copilot dalle3

Becomes these:

That’s enough of this. I was originally going to discuss how Gemini and Copilot allow you to narrow the sources used to answer prompts. For example you take “what is the meaning of the Daimoku in Nichiren Buddhism” and modify it by adding “Using website 500yojanas.org as principal source, what is the meaning of the Daimoku in Nichiren Buddhism.” Again Gemini and Copilot offer vastly different answers. Maybe I’ll get around to writing about that eventually.

Blog, Books, Dogen, words

The Karma of Words

In “Visions of Awakening Space and Time,” Taigen Dan Leighton quotes from William R. LaFleur’s “The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan.” For example:

In The Karma of Words, William LaFleur discusses the sophisticated nature of the Lotus Sutra as literature and its impact on medieval Japanese poetics: “The surprising feature of [the parables] in the Lotus is that they are simultaneously the vehicle and the tenor of that vehicle. In a very important sense, the parables of the Lotus are about the role and status of parabolic speech itself. They are what I would call self-reflexive allegory; that is, their trajectory of discourse behaves like a boomerang. Much like the Dharma described in a crucial section of the hōben chapter, they are characterized by ‘the absolute identity [or equality] of their beginning and end.’ ”

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p27

And, as is my want, after reading this I sent away for a copy of LaFleur’s book, which was published by University of California Press in 1986.

This book is not about the Lotus Sutra but, instead, about Medieval Japan, the period in which Nichiren lived.

LaFleur explains in his Preface to the book:

karma-of-words-bookcover

The origin of this study lies in the simultaneous frustration and fascination I felt nearly two decades ago when for the first time I saw a performance of nō drama in Japan. I was greatly moved by what I saw, but I was also greatly perplexed by the presence in this form of drama of energies, assumptions, and aesthetic values that seemed very different from those present in the classical theaters of ancient Greece and Renaissance Europe. Here was a form of drama that had evidently been shaped by a set of religious and philosophical assumptions—but these were neither those of Aristotle nor those of European Christianity. My curiosity about this led me to search for relevant books and to question people who I thought might provide information.

I soon discovered a certain consensus; it was that, although the components in nō are many and complex, it is probably Japanese Buddhism which did most to shape the world of nō. Beyond this, however, my frustration continued, since the available materials in Western languages provided information about Buddhist elements in this form of drama but stopped short of a real reconstruction of the way the Japanese in the medieval period of their history saw their world and envisioned their destinies in and through Buddhist terms and concepts. Footnotes gave definitions of things like arhats, asuras, and Amida, but these things collectively never added up to a satisfying account of the intellectual and religious assumptions of the Buddhist poets, dramatists, and writers of prose in medieval Japan.

This book is first an attempt to provide what I could not find then and was subsequently forced to pursue in the original texts and in modern scholarly studies in Japanese.

Of course, I’m less interested in nō, which I’ve never seen performed, than I am in understanding how Buddhism shaped Japan’s world view.

As a self-styled “modern Buddhist,” I was particularly taken by this observation by LaFleur:

Buddhism gained ascendency in medieval Japan largely because it successfully put forward a coherent explanation of the world and of human experience; it was the single most satisfying and comprehensive explanation available to the Japanese people at the time. This is to deny neither that Buddhism was espoused by persons who had great social and political power nor that it provided justifications for their power and prestige. Moreover, this is not to disembody it or overlook the impressive technological and artistic side of the Buddhism that came to Japan from China and Korea—its magnificent architecture, paintings, icons, vestments, illuminated scrolls, and choreographed ritual. It is merely to call attention to the cognitive dimension and to observe that Buddhism provided not only salvation but also explanation. That is, as a religion in a medieval context, it was considerably more comprehensive, than religion in modern settings. In many ways, Buddhism performed in medieval Japan much of the role now customarily assigned to science. It did so by giving to the epoch a basic map of reality, one that provided cognitive satisfaction not only to learned monks in monasteries but also to unlettered peasants in the countryside.

The Karma of Words, p26-27

Perhaps it is time for Buddhists to take back the role taken by modern science and reassert Buddhism’s “basic map of reality” – the law of cause and effect and all of its ramifications.

Over the next four days I’ll publish quotes from “The Karma of Words.”

Blog, Dogen, Stone Last Age

About Time

Back in January 2024 I discussed Dōgen, referencing Jacqueline Stone’s article, “Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age.” In fact, her explanation of Dōgen’s interpretation of time was one reason I sought out Leighton’s book on Dōgen.

Stone writes:

Because this “now” is absolute, and because “there is no time that has not arrived,” Buddhahood is not a potential that will unfold in the future, but can be realized only in the present moment. In other words, attaining Buddhahood is not, in Dōgen’s view, a gradual evolving from potential to realization associated with a linear view of time.

Leighton’s book offers this explanation of the source of Dōgen’s view of time:

Returning to consideration of other Mahāyāna approaches to temporality, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, or Flower Ornament Sutra, in the chapter on “Detachment from the World” speaks of ten times through which great bodhisattvas explain past, present, and future. These ten times are the past, present, and future of the past; the past, present, and future of the future; the past, present, and future of this present; and finally, the interfusion of those previous nine times as the tenth, “being the one instant of the present.”

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p107

This all fits very nicely within the concept of 3,000 Worlds in a Single Thought Moment

While I’m on the topic of time, I want to set aside these definitions of a kalpa:

Basic Indian cosmology offers a very wide view of time that was adopted by Buddhism. There is a recurring cycle in every universe of four kalpas: the formation or becoming, continuity or the abiding, the decaying, and the “nonmanifest” or empty. A kalpa is an incalculably long period of time, with one colorful traditional description of its duration as “the image of a bird that flies once every hundred years over the peak of Mount Everest with a piece of silk in her talons; the length of time it would take the silk to wear down the mountain completely is said to be one kalpa.” Another calculation is that a short kalpa “is the time required to empty a hundred square mile city enclosure filled with poppy seeds if one seed were to be removed every three years.”

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p110-111
Blog, Dogen, Stone Last Age

Bodhisattvic Workings

Back in January 2024 I discussed Dōgen, referencing Jacqueline Stone’s article, “Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age.” The topic was Dogen’s Practice.

Taigen Dan Leighton in “Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra” offers this:

Both the Vajrayāna and the Zen emphasis is on fully expressed performance of reality, not its cognitive knowledge or interpretation, which reflects the valuing of actual bodhisattvic workings over theoretical dictums. …

In his writing “Talk on Wholehearted Engagement of the Way” (“Bendöwa”), Dōgen directly emphasizes the hermeneutical priority of the actualization of practice over doctrinal theory: “Buddhist practitioners should know not to argue about the superiority or inferiority of teachings and not to discriminate between superficial or profound dharma, but should only know whether the practice is genuine or false.”

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p19
Blog, Dogen

Perspectives on the Self-Referential Lotus

The fact that the Lotus Sutra references the Lotus Sutra taught in the past on several occasions is a matter of some controversy for those who are not devotees of the Lotus Sutra. I’ve written before about this here.) In “Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra,” Taigen Dan Leighton has an interesting discussion on the topic:

The Lotus Sutra itself frequently emphasizes the importance of and rewards for the proclamation of the Lotus Sutra, through reading, copying, and reciting it. To be sure, other Mahāyāna sutras talk about the merit to be derived by recalling or copying the sutra being read. However, the Lotus Sutra at times seems to hold this self-referential quality at its center, such that it promotes an extreme mode of self-referential discourse that is unique to it. The sutra often speaks of the wondrous nature of the Lotus Sutra, right in the text commonly referred to as the Lotus Sutra. This rhetorical device can be startling and mind-twisting, like Escher’s painting of two hands drawing each other. Various important figures in the sutra appear within the text of the Lotus Sutra because they have heard that the Lotus Sutra is currently being preached by Śākyamuni Buddha on Vulture Peak. For example, in chapter 11, the stūpa of the ancient Buddha Prabhūtaratna emerges from the earth and floats in midair because he has vowed always to appear whenever the Lotus Sutra is preached. In the same chapter, myriad bodhisattvas [Śākyamuni’s replicas] arrive from world systems in all directions to praise the Buddha for preaching this sutra in which they themselves are appearing.

This quality of the sutra talking about the sutra, and especially its many references to the Lotus Sutra as something expounded many ages ago, as about to be expounded, or even as hopefully to be expounded in the distant future, has led some commentators to observe that the whole text of this sutra, more than any others, is a preface to a missing scripture. As George and Willa Tanabe say, “The preaching of the Lotus sermon promised in the first chapter never takes place. The text, so full of merit, is about a discourse which is never delivered; it is a lengthy preface without a book. The Lotus Sutra is thus unique among texts. It is not merely subject to various interpretations, as all texts are, but is open or empty at its very center.” This is a plausible perspective or interpretation. The text does refer, in third person, to a designated text that one might keep vainly waiting for, as if for Godot.

However, this perspective misses the manner in which the Lotus sermon certainly does exist. Fundamental messages of the Lotus, such as the One Vehicle and the primacy of the Buddha vehicle, are difficult to miss, even if they might be interpreted in various ways, Furthermore, between the lines the Lotus Sutra functions within itself both as a sacred text or scripture and as a commentary and guidebook to its own use, beyond the literal confines of its own written text. The Lotus Sutra is itself a sacred manifestation of spiritual awakening that proclaims its own sacrality. Right within the text’s proclamation of the wonders of a text with the same name as itself, the text celebrates its own ephemeral quality with the visionary splendors of its assembly of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and spirits, and with the engaging qualities of its parables.

The synthesis of the immanent spirit spoken about in the text and the text’s own intended functioning as an instrument or skillful catalyst to spark awakening has been carried on among its followers. This is exemplified in the varieties of Nichiren Buddhism in that they are rooted and focused in devotion to the Lotus Sutra itself as a sacred manifestation, and devotional object, which they are committed to proclaiming and promulgating. But for Dōgen, the self-proclamation of the Dharma in the Lotus Sutra becomes an aspect of his rhetorical style rather than an externalized objectification.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p23-24

Later he offers:

The extraordinary self-referential quality of the Lotus Sutra also had an important effect on both Dōgen and Nichiren in their responses to the enduring Śākyamuni and the sutra itself. Whereas the impact of the self-referential is most clearly expressed by Dōgen in his style of Dharma proclamation, for Nichiren the manner in which the sutra proclaims its own value and soteriological role becomes the basis for his religious praxis. Nichiren takes the sutra literally in this respect. Perhaps more than any other major Buddhist thinker, he elevates one scripture as sacred essence and object. The sutra itself extensively extols the virtues of copying, reading, and reciting the sutra. Nichiren simplified and consolidated these practices into chanting its name and venerating the written name of the sutra as an icon.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p59
Blog, Books, Dogen

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra

dogen-and-the-lotus-sutra-bookcover
From the flyleaf of the book:

As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese Sōtō Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West.

The Lotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span.

Leighton traces commentaries on the Lotus Sutra from a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, Myōe, Nichiren, Hakuin, and Ryōkan. But his main focus is Eihei Dōgen, the 13th century Japanese Sōtō Zen founder who imported Zen from China, and whose profuse, provocative, and poetic writings are important to the modern expansion of Buddhism to the West.

Dōgen’s use of this sutra expresses the critical role of Mahayana vision and imagination as the context of Zen teaching, and his interpretations of this story furthermore reveal his dynamic worldview of the earth, space, and time themselves as vital agents of spiritual awakening.

Leighton argues that Dōgen uses the images and metaphors in this story to express his own religious worldview, in which earth, space, and time are lively agents in the bodhisattva project. Broader awareness of Dōgen’s worldview and its implications, says Leighton, can illuminate the possibilities for contemporary approaches to primary Mahayana concepts and practices.

As Taigen Dan Leighton explains:

Dōgen quotes the Lotus Sutra more by far than any other sutra, and with unsurpassed veneration. In the Shōbōgenzō (True Dharma Eye Treasury) essay “Taking Refuge in the Three Treasures” (“Kie Buppōsō-hō”), he quotes a passage from the closing verse of chapter 16 about how beings who are beset by their evil karma do not ever hear the name of the three treasures (buddha, Dharma, and sangha), whereas those who are virtuous, gentle, and upright see the Buddha’s enduring presence on Vulture Peak. Immediately after quoting from chapter 16 about the Buddha’s enduring life span, Dōgen says that this Lotus Sutra is itself the single great cause for the appearance of buddha tathāgatas, substituting the sutra itself for the intention to awaken all beings cited as the single great cause for buddhas in chapter 2 of the sutra. Then he declares that the Lotus Sutra “may be said to be the great king and the great master of all the various sutras that the Buddha Śākyamuni taught. Compared with this sutra, all the other sutras are merely its servants, its relatives, for it alone expounds the Truth.”

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p67

As a Nichiren follower, I find Dōgen’s view of the Lotus Sutra very “Zen”:

In the essay in Shōbōgenzō that most directly and fully focuses on the Lotus Sutra, called “The Dharma Flower Turns the Dharma Flower” (“Hokke-Ten-Hokke”) from 1241, Dōgen celebrates the value of sutras while explicitly responding to the Zen axiom about sutra study that privileges direct mind-to-mind teaching above study of words and letters. The essay centers on a dialogue from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor, Dajian Huineng (638-713; Daikan Enō in Japanese), who tells a monk who has memorized the Lotus Sutra that he does not understand the sutra. Huineng tells the monk, “When the mind is in delusion, the Flower of Dharma turns. When the mind is in realization [enlightenment], we turn the Flower of Dharma.” Dōgen clarifies how this story implies the necessity for an awakened hermeneutical approach to the active, practical applications of sutra study, rather than being caught by reified scriptural formulations.

Much of the essay involves intricate wordplay and discussion concerning the polarity of turning the Dharma flower, or else being turned by it, which Dōgen eventually resolves in characteristically nondualistic fashion. In the conclusion he says that now that we have heard about this turning or being turned and “experienced the meeting of the ancient buddha with ancient buddhas, how could this not be a land of ancient buddhas? We should rejoice that the Dharma flower is turning from age to age, and the Dharma flower is turning from day to night, as the Dharma flower turns the ages and turns the days and nights.” For Dōgen, the reality of the Dharma flower and of the Buddha’s enduring life span transforms the very earth and time itself. He ends the lengthy essay by proclaiming, “The reality that exists as it is … is profound, great, and everlasting [referencing the Buddha’s life span], is mind in delusion, the Flower of Dharma turning, and is mind in realization, turning the Flower of Dharma, which is really just the Flower of Dharma turning the Flower of Dharma. … If perfect realization can be like this, the Flower of Dharma turns the Flower of Dharma. When we serve offerings to it, venerate, honor, and praise it like this, the Flower of Dharma is the Flower of Dharma.”

In Dōgen’s reality, ultimately the Lotus turning the practitioner, as well as the practitioner turning the Lotus, are both simply instances of the Lotus Dharma turning the Lotus Dharma. The Dharma of the Lotus Sutra is simply nondual and wondrous.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p68-69

Consider the dreams of Dōgen:

In another of the numerous examples in Shōbōgenzo of Dōgen using wordplay to invert conventional thinking, in “Within a Dream Expressing the Dream” (“Muchū Setsumu”), written in 1242, he extensively elaborates on his statement “All buddhas express the dream within a dream.” He thereby denies the supposedly lesser reality of the “dreams” of the transient phenomenal world and negates a Platonic exaltation of the absolute, which LaFleur describes as the antithesis of Lotus Sutra teaching. Instead, Dōgen proclaims the dream world of phenomena as exactly the realm of buddhas’ activity: “Every dewdrop manifested in every realm is a dream. This dream is the glowing clarity of the hundred grasses. … Do not mistake them as merely dreamy.” The liberative awakening of buddhas is itself described as a dream: “Without expressing dreams, there are no buddhas. Without being within a dream, buddhas do not emerge and turn the wondrous dharma wheel. This dharma wheel is no other than a buddha together with a buddha, and a dream expressed within a dream. Simply expressing the dream within a dream is itself the buddhas and ancestors, the assembly of unsurpassable enlightenment.”

Dōgen is not frivolously indulging in mere paradox here, but follows the logic of the dream as necessarily the locus of awakening. As he says in his celebrated 1233 Shōbōgenzō essay, “Actualizing the Fundamental Point” (“Genjōkōan”), “Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas.”

What is worthy of study is not delusions or fantasies about enlightenment, but the reality of the causes and conditions of the realms of delusion and suffering. A similar logic is expressed in the Lotus Sutra dictum that buddhas manifest only due to the presence of suffering beings.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p32-33

Or this example:

In his Enlightenment Day jōdō, number 88, in 1241, Dōgen says:

“Two thousand years later, we are the descendants [of Śākyamuni]. Two thousand years ago, he was our ancestral father. He is muddy and wet from following and chasing after the waves. It can be described like this, but also there is the principle of the Way [that we must] make one mistake after another. What is this like? Whether Buddha is present or not present, I trust he is right under our feet. Face after face is Buddha’s face; fulfillment after fulfillment is Buddha’s fulfillment.

“Last night, this mountain monk [Dōgen] unintentionally stepped on a dried turd and it jumped up and covered heaven and earth. This mountain monk unintentionally stepped on it again, and it introduced itself, saying, “My name is Śākyamuni.” Then, this mountain monk unintentionally stepped on his chest, and immediately he went and sat on the vajra seat, saw the morning star, bit through the traps and snares of conditioned birth, and cast away his old nest from the past. Without waiting for anyone to peck at his shell from outside, he received the thirty-two characteristics common to all buddhas, and together with this mountain monk, composed the following four-line verse:

Stumbling I stepped on his chest and his backbone snapped,
Mountains and rivers swirling around, the dawn wind blew.
Penetrating seven and accomplishing eight, bone piercing the heavens,
His face attained a sheet of golden skin.

In this jōdō Dōgen describes a dreamlike fantasy in which he accidentally steps on a piece of shit, and in accord with Yunmen’s description of Buddha often cited by Dōgen, it jumps up and declares itself to be Śākyamuni. This vision increases the apparent disrespect for Buddha in Yunmen’s utterance, as Dōgen again steps on his chest (albeit again accidentally), even after the dried shit identifies himself as Śākyamuni Buddha. But Dōgen uses this scatological vision not to degrade, but to further celebrate Buddha, by declaring that upon being stepped on, “He went and sat on the vajra seat, saw the morning star, bit through the traps and snares of conditioned birth, and cast away his old nest from the past.”

Here Dōgen skillfully proclaims and celebrates, nonexplicitly, the major revelation of the Lotus Sutra of the Buddha’s life span enduring over inconceivable ages, and that his archetypal story of his home-leaving and awakening is demonstrated simply as a skillful mode. The effect of this dream parable of Dōgen is to reinforce the story in chapter 16 by describing Buddha and his awakening process as still omnipresent, “last night” right at Eiheiji, and even in excrement.

Dōgen’s dream story also echoes the Lotus Sutra, chapter 4, parable of the prodigal son, who can realize his fundamental endowment only after years of shoveling manure in his father’s field. As Dōgen says in the introduction to his parable, even Śākyamuni “is muddy and wet from following and chasing after the waves.” Dōgen’s further introductory statement, “Whether Buddha is present or not present, I trust he is right under our feet,” echoes the Lotus Sutra parable about the ragged beggar unknowingly having the Dharma jewel sewn within his robe. It further suggests the image in chapter 15 of myriad bodhisattvas suddenly springing forth from beneath the ground “under our feet,” which, as we will see, represents for Dōgen the omnipresence of the bodhisattva potential in the ground of concrete particulars.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p37-38

Other parts are less “Zen” and clearer for me. Here are some quotes I’ve set aside from the book:

Liberation and the Lotus Sutra

The purpose of Buddhism is liberation from the karmic cycle of suffering via awakening, and the goal of the Mahāyāna is the awakening of all beings. In chapter 2 the Lotus Sutra states, in the line probably most often cited by Dōgen, that the sole cause for a buddha’s appearing in the world is to help the diverse suffering beings enter into, open up, disclose, and fully realize this awakening. The one great cause for Buddha’s manifesting is also the one great cause for the expounding of Buddhist teachings. So it is a primary hermeneutical principle and criterion of all interpretations of Buddhist texts that they be evaluated based on their effectiveness as liberative instruments.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p15

The Need to Practice

For Dōgen, the ultimate emptiness or impermanence of all things and events does not diminish the need to fully engage in practice the present particulars of the conditioned world. And there is no place or time other than this current, impermanent Dharma position in which to enact this practice. Dōgen often emphasizes ordinary, everyday reality, such as the activities of daily monastic practice, as the locus of awakening and of the sacred and the importance of not seeking liberation outside of the grounding of immediate everyday circumstances.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p70-71

Seeing that the Buddha Is Alive

Dōgen further turns the meaning of the Buddha’s life span in the 1244 Shōbōgenzō essay “Awakening to the Bodhi-Mind” (“Hotsu Bōdaishin”), in which he discusses bodhicitta, the first arousal of the thought of universal awakening, which he considers of utmost importance, mysterious, and in some sense equivalent to the whole of a buddha’s enlightenment. After quoting the Buddha’s statement at the very end of chapter 16, “I have always given thought to how I could cause all creatures to enter the highest supreme Way and quickly become Buddhas,” Dōgen comments, “This [statement] is the Tathāgata’s lifetime itself. Buddhas’ establishment of the mind, training, and experience of the effect are all like this.” For Dōgen the inconceivable life span is exactly this intention to help all beings awaken, which mysteriously creates the ongoing life of the Buddha. As long as this vow and direction to universal awakening persists in the world and has the potential to spring forth in current practitioners, Dōgen sees that the Buddha is alive.

Dōgen and the Lotus Sutra, p90

In addition to discussing Dōgen’s view of the Lotus Sutra, Taigen Dan Leighton offers some interesting background on the sutra and the context of Japan’s Kamakura period. For the next eight days I’ll publish quotes concerning Nichiren, Zhiyi and Zhanran.