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Nikkyō Niwano and the Lotus Sutra

I’ve completed reading “Buddhism for Today: A Modern Interpretation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra,” and selected a number of quotes by Nikkyō Niwano that I will use in my upcoming daily 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra blog posts. I have enough of these quotes to spread over most of 2020.

Niwano’s insights into the Lotus Sutra are thought-provoking and I find those I’ve set aside inspiring. But his teachings are not without areas that present a problem for me. I emphasize that this is my problem. I wrote about this earlier when I introduced Buddhism for Today. Risshō Kōsei-kai, the organization Niwano founded in 1938 with Mrs. Myoko Naganuma, is not Nichiren Shu, and when the two differ on a doctrinal point, I’m going to rely on Nichiren Shu teachings. What follows are some quotes that I set aside as problematic.

[In Chapter 16] the Buddha then revealed his tactful methods in detail: “Good sons! All the sutras which the Tathāgata preaches are for the deliverance of the living. Whether speaking of himself or speaking of others, whether indicating himself or indicating others, and whether indicating his own affairs or the affairs of others, whatever he says is all real and not empty air.” …

In Risshō Kōsei-kai, when a member is admonished by a leader, he calls it “merit” (kudoku). It is indeed an unpleasant and unwelcome thing for anybody to be scolded or admonished by others. But since the Buddha’s salvation is often extended to us through such scoldings and admonitions, our salvation is realized when we receive these warnings with gratitude. The words “indicating the affairs of others” are most important, and we should always bear them in mind in our daily lives.

Buddhism for Today, p226-228

I spent 25 years practicing with Soka Gakkai and its lay-leader organizational structure. Perhaps that taints my view of scoldings during group counseling. The Risshō Kōsei-kai website’s “Basic Practice of Faith” describes the practice in this way: “One of the most important of Rissho Kosei-kai’s religious activities is a unique form of group counseling known as hoza. The members of a hoza group usually sit together in a circle, creating a warm, intimate atmosphere for open discussion. Members share problems and raise questions in the hoza as the other members listen and respond with compassion, trying to understand his or her problem, situation, and emotions.” Where does scolding belong in a Lotus Sutra-focused practice?

The word “repentance” has two meanings and applications. One is repentance in a general sense, the confession of our own past physical and mental misdeeds. Our minds are purified by such repentance, and because it frees us from a sense of sin, we feel greatly refreshed. There are cases too numerous to mention of Risshō Kōsei-kai members recovering from disease or being freed from family problems just by confessing their misdeeds before fellow members in group-counseling sessions. Psychoanalysts, especially those practicing depth analysis, have applied this principle in helping many disturbed people.

Recovery from illness is, of course, dependent on our repentance, whose true value consists in disclosing our buddha-nature.

Buddhism for Today, p423

I’m more than happy to accept the idea that repentance can have an effect on physical illness. Scientifically, this is an example of the non-dual nature of mind and body. We can make ourselves sick. It’s even an apt example of the Buddhist concept of our delusions causing our suffering. But “Risshō Kōsei-kai members recovering from disease or being freed from family problems” as a credit to their practice of repentance is just too close to Soka Gakkai’s “if you are sick chant; if don’t get better, chant more.” In Soka Gakkai, “cases too numerous to mention” of members being rewarded are standard fare for group meetings. For me, a practice focused on personal reward seems more appropriate for a hungry spirit than a Bodhisattva seeking to bring all sentient beings to the Buddha way.

Sakyamuni Buddha revealed that he instructed living beings occasionally by speaking of himself or speaking of others, occasionally by indicating himself or indicating others, and occasionally by indicating his own affairs or the affairs of others. Whatever he says is all real and not empty air — that is, there is nothing useless in what he says; all is for the purpose of elevating people and leading them to real enlightenment.

Here lies the vastness and profundity of the Buddha’s teaching. Buddhism is not opposed to Christianity, Islam, and other teachings of great sages, such as Confucius, Mencius, and Lao-tzu. We understand that such saints and sages are the appearance of the Buddha in other forms and that their teachings are the manifestation of the Buddha’s teachings in other forms. I do not say this because I am a Buddhist but because so long as the Buddha is the great truth and great life of the universe, there can be no truth that is not included in the Buddha, and no law other than that of the Buddha. Accordingly, a narrow-minded Buddhist who indiscriminately criticizes other religions and thinks, for example, that Buddhism is a true religion, while Christianity is not, cannot claim to be a true Buddhist.

A right teaching is right regardless of who preaches it. Truth is truth regardless of who proclaims it. Buddhists revere a person who leads all living beings by such a right and true teaching as “the Buddha.” It follows naturally that they should not set themselves in opposition to other religions.

Buddhism for Today, p228-229

I’m not prepared to go this far. I don’t object to describing the eternal Sakyamuni Buddha as the lifeforce of the universe and the source of all right teachings. For me that falls within the realm of personal interpretation as illustrated in the infinite meanings described in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings. But to suggest that all religions arise from the eternal Sakyamuni’s teaching is just too far. The historical Buddha was not adverse to calling out wrong views held by religions of his day. Nichiren, of course, famously opposed those who did not base their faith on the Lotus Sutra. Niwano even defends Nichiren’s actions as necessary in this time.

Later in the book, Niwano offers a guideline for how to approach these differences in religions and religous practices:

Buddhism itself is a gentle teaching. This teaching is of course “right,” but it is not “self-righteous” in the sense of being opinionated and obstinate. As stated in the explanation of the Middle Path, the teaching of Buddhism is always in perfect accord with the truth, and its expression has the flexibility of perfect freedom. Therefore, a true Buddhist should not be obstinate or bigoted but should be flexible in accordance with the truth. Such an attitude is that of being gentle in mind.

Buddhism for Today, p250

These are, indeed, words to live by.

[T]he Buddha is an absolute existence. He exists everywhere inside and outside us and is constant, from the infinite past to the infinite future. He is an existence inseparable from us even if we want to part form him. Therefore, he is an absolute existence.

The Buddha can be compared to the air. Air always exists around us and even within our bodies. We cannot live for a moment without air, though we usually do not think about its existence. When we are confined in a small room and feel claustrophobic because of stale air, we open the windows and let in fresh air. At such times we are aware of the importance of air.

In the same way, the Buddha is the existence from which we cannot separate ourselves even if we want to, and which always causes us to live. He is an absolute and infinite existence. For this reason, we can devote ourselves to believing in the Buddha, depending upon him, and leaving everything to him.

Buddhism for Today, p220

This is an odd concept to apply to the Eternal Buddha Sakyamuni. For me it comes too close to the descriptions of the Judeo-Christian God. As a Buddhist, I believe in the emptiness of dependent origination. Susan Mattis, in her essay in A Buddhist Kaleidoscope, page 252-253, offers an excellent explanation of my view:

For Chih-i as for Nāgārjuna there is no reality or truth to be realized beyond the play of the ephemeral, conditioned elements of the realm of dependent origination; the ultimate, middle truth is nothing other than the realization of the true aspect of the phenomenal realm, that is, its empty, conditioned existence. This identity of ultimate truth and phenomena is for Chih-i the central and unequivocal teaching of the Lotus Sutra, the message embodied in the image of the Buddha pervading all realms of existence.

The Buddha’s teachings instruct us not to regard the changeable as the unchangeable. If we view things thoroughly and clearly, we can see all changes. To act according to changes with a flexible mind is the right way of living. At the same time, we should not be too bound by change, cither. To feel that we cannot do anything as well as young people because we have grown older, are too old to work efficiently any longer, and want only to live in comfort for the rest of our days is a way of thinking that is too influenced by change. There should be something unchanging within us even as we grow older. To make the best use of our experience, brains, technical skills, leadership, dignity, and other qualities, and to work for the benefit of people and society for our entire life is the right way to live. …

So far we have been considering elderly people; let us now give some examples involving young people. Women have come to have equal rights with men under the law since the postwar constitution of Japan was promulgated. This was a dramatic change from the prewar days. In the new constitution women have been granted equal human rights, but they have not changed in their physical structure, which enables them to give birth to and nurture babies. They are unchangeable in this respect. If women try to behave like men in everything simply because equality of the sexes has been guaranteed in the constitution, it represents a way of thinking that is restricted by change and is inconsistent with reason. Though there may have been some Japanese women who intentionally behaved like men, most have assumed a modest manner. Among them, some women who have listened to the teachings of the Buddha have lived in a reasonable and womanly manner and have indeed been women worthy of Buddhism.

Buddhism for Today, p234-235

Niwano was born in 1906 to a farm family in northern Japan. His cultural attitude toward Japanese women behaving like men, and one assumes men behaving like women, is to be expected. It will be interesting to see whether Risshō Kōsei-kai changes such references when it re-issues this book in the future. Judging by what Risshō Kōsei-kai did to the Lotus Sutra when it re-edited its English translation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra last year, I expect references to “reasonable and womanly manner” and “women worthy of Buddhism” to disappear.

About five hundred years after the Buddha’s extinction, a belief centering on Amita Buddha (also called Amitābha and Amitāyus) began to spread from western India. Its believers sought rebirth in the Pure Land, the paradise of Amita, by relying completely on the power of this buddha. Although this buddha is regarded as having great compassion and the power to bring all living beings to the Pure Land, this faith is incomplete so long as it suggests the idea of salvation through relying absolutely on his power. It is impossible for living beings to achieve rebirth in the Land of Amita Buddha unless they realize the universal truth and endeavor actually to live according to it. The salvation of this buddha will be realized when people seek wisdom and practice the way leading to the perfection of their character. So that all living beings might not misunderstand this or fall into depending completely on the power of Amita Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha added the conditional phrase, “If there be any woman who hears this sutra and acts according to its teachings.” The faith of Amita Buddha will display its true power by virtue of the truth taught in the Lotus Sutra.

Buddhism for Today, p364

This Niwano quote comes in reference to the Medicine King chapter’s explanations of the benefits of hearing that chapter and specifically a woman being reborn in Amita Buddha’s western paradise. My problem here is the ambiguity. What does Niwano mean when he says, “The faith of Amita Buddha will display its true power by virtue of the truth taught in the Lotus Sutra”?

See Understanding the 12-Linked Chain of Causation, a lengthy comparison of Niwano’s explanation of the 12 linked chain of causation with Rev. Ryuei McCormick’s explanation in his new book, Open Your Eyes: A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening.

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A New Year

My wife has a theory that whatever you do on New Year’s Day will be your focus for the coming year. For example, she studiously avoids housework on this day. Instead, today she is making cookies. I spent way too much time configuring my new Pixel 4 phone, so to avoid technical dilemmas as my New Year focus I’ve fired up the laptop and I’m working on my blog as I listen to a Spotify channel called “Coffee Table Jazz.”

As can be surmised from the video above, I attended the New Year services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. Those are illegal fireworks being launched by residents of the nextdoor apartments. Don’t particularly care for driving at night and especially not after midnight on New Year’s Day, but I enjoy the year end and New Year services. We even had a stranger show up who lives in Tokyo but is visiting family in Sacramento. He heard about the service on our website. He said he routinely attends the midnight service in Tokyo.

2020 New Year altar

Today I offered some mochi and a tangerine on my altar. I’ve done some reconfiguring since the last time I posted a photo. I now have water cups for Kishimojin (left) and Daikokuten (right) that I purchased from Gasshodo. (Didn’t realize they were different sizes when I ordered them.)

Gone is my side altar, which looked like this:

My Decorations
My Decorations

Instead I’ve moved all of those “decorations” to some new glass shelves that I installed in corner next to the altar.

corner arrangement

Back in July I explained my gods on the altar and my decorations. In addition to Jizo (who I misspelled Jizu in my original post), I have added a collection of Hotei Bodhisattva statues that my son collected as a child. The larger Hotei is a contribution from my wife. The gold plated pagoda next to the Ryusho Jeffus’ painting belonged to my wife’s parents. It is from Japan but I have no idea which Japanese pagoda it represents. And, as illustrated, I’ve made an altar for Ryusho Jeffus’ gohonzon that he and Rev. Kanjin Cederman created for Jeffus’ book designed for prison inmates. The cup is another Gasshodo purchase.

I should point out that the slab of lapis lazuli and the crystal represent the purified Buddha lands described in the Lotus Sutra.

Happy New Year!

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Year-end Cleanup

2019 cleaning

The last Sunday of the year is the traditional day for cleaning the temple at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. This was my fourth time cleaning. Ven. Kenjo Igarashi cleans the altar and the statues, including dusting the inside of the Butsudan. My chore is to polish all of the brass. Rev. Igarashi’s son and wife and one other parishioner help out dusting and mopping the temple floor.

Following the cleanup, Mrs. Igarashi prepared noodles with mochi, mushrooms and hard-boiled eggs. I seriously don’t understand why more people don’t participate. The lunch alone is more than reward enough for me to come back next year.

2019 lunch

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Buddhism for Today

See The Cause of My Life

BuddhismForToday coverI am currently publishing here daily quotes taken from A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays On The Lotus Sutra, an anthology edited by Gene Reeves. My 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice is currently using The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers for my afternoon English recitation. And now I’m reading Buddhism for Today: A Modern Interpretation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra.

All three are published by Kosei Publishing, the printing arm of Rissho Kosei-Kai. And Buddhism for Today was written by the founder of Rissho Kosei-Kai, Nikkyō Niwano, 1906–1999.

I was incredibly impressed by the content of A Buddhist Kaleidoscope and I’m enjoying reading aloud this new translation of the The Threefold Lotus Sutra, but it was when I started Nikkyō Niwano’s commentary on the Lotus Sutra that I felt a need to step back and distance myself from Rissho Kosei-Kai doctrine.

My hunger for commentary on the Lotus Sutra is insatiable. Nikkyō Niwano’s stated reason for writing his commentary mirrors my own reason for maintaining this website:

I regret greatly that the Lotus Sutra, which includes the supreme teachings of the Buddha, appears to be so difficult and that it is studied by only a limited number of people and by specialists in religion. The Lotus Sutra is neither truly appreciated nor understood by people in general, and therefore it does not penetrate people’s daily lives. This is the first reason for my decision to write this book. My earnest desire is to explain the Lotus Sutra so that its spirit can be understood by modern people and gain their sympathy, although I have remained faithful to the original intent of the sutra to the last.

We cannot truly understand the Lotus Sutra by reading only part of it. It is both a profound teaching and a wonderful work of art, unfolding like a drama. Therefore, we cannot grasp its true meaning unless we read it through from beginning to end. However, it is not easy to read the sutra, with its difficult and unfamiliar terminology, from cover to cover, and to grasp its meaning. We need a commentary that will help us understand the sutra in the context of our lives today. This is the second reason for my decision to write this book.

At the same time, we must always honor the original intent of the Lotus Sutra, as it is a noble work of art. Even in translation we find in the sutra an indescribable power that permeates our hearts. I think that readers will be able to understand the Lotus Sutra all the more if they consult it while reading this book. I believe, too, that they will be able to sense something of the spirit of the Lotus Sutra from this book.

If readers who understand the spirit of the sutra recite key portions morning and evening, its spirit will become more and more strongly rooted in the depths of their minds, and will surely be manifested in the conduct of their daily lives so that a new life will open before them. In this hope and belief, I have written this book.

Buddhism for Today, pxvi

And yet I am put off by Nikkyō Niwano’s view of modern Nichiren Buddhism:

From the standpoint of the history of the human race, two thousand five hundred years [since the death of Śākyamuni] is only a short time. In Japan, Buddhism, which was introduced from China, had a strong power for a time whenever a learned or distinguished priest appeared. But after a short time this power declined quickly. The thirteenth-century priest Nichiren, the founder of the Nichiren sect, for example, is believed to have infused new life into Japanese Buddhism. However, following his death, the teachings diverged from his true intention and degenerated into formalism.

Buddhism for Today, pxiv

And again:

The Lotus Sutra is thought to have been recorded about seven hundred years after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha. I see a deep meaning in the fact that the changes in Buddhism during its first seven hundred years established a pattern of change that has been followed throughout its long history. In the twentieth century, when Buddhism has adhered too much to form and has lost the power to save people, a religious movement has again arisen among lay devotees to restore Buddhism to Śākyamuni’s true teachings and by the efforts of these lay believers is now spreading throughout Japan.

This new movement to reevaluate the Buddha’s teachings has been spreading throughout the world, not only in Japan. In Western countries, there are many people who are unsatisfied with monotheism, atheism, or materialism d finally seek the solution to their problems in Buddhism.

Buddhism for Today, pxv

I have heard before the argument that Nichiren temples in Japan focus too much on memorial and funeral services, which pay the bills, and not enough, if at all, on propagation. I actually don’t know. And since my only experience in formal Nichiren services is based on five years of American temple practice that followed more than a quarter-century of organized lay services, what I have to say really doesn’t amount to much.

In the future I may write more about this, but for now I feel strongly that eliminating the priesthood and replacing it with a lay-leadership is a bad proposition. Yes, more can be done toward propagation and inspiring existing members to broaden their understanding of the Lotus Sutra, but the priests I’ve met in America – with strengths and weaknesses like us all – are invaluable.

Nikkyō Niwano’s introduction to Buddhism for Today also raises some doctrinal questions for me:

[D]uring the seven hundred years following Nichiren’s death, the true spirit of the Lotus Sutra was again forgotten. Some people in Japan even believe that they can be saved merely by beating hand drums and repeating over and over again the formula including the title of the Lotus Sutra, Namu Myōhō Renge-kyō – I take refuge in the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law – or that their prayers will be answered if they only worship the verbal [?] mandala written by Nichiren, which centers on this formula.

The contents and spirit of the Lotus Sutra are very holy. The practice of its teaching is also holy. We lead ordinary everyday lives, but by understanding the teaching of the sutra, believing it, and practicing it, we try to approach a state of mind free from illusion and suffering. We realize that people should live in harmony and render service to each other. If one has such a feeling for even a few hours a day, his health and circumstances will naturally change for the better – this is his true salvation. That all the people in the world have such feelings and live happily – this is the ultimate idea and vow expressed in the Lotus Sutra.

Indeed, the Lotus Sutra is the teaching of human respect, self-perfection, and peace. In short, it is the teaching of humanism. Today, just seven hundred years after the death of Nichiren, we must restore the spirit of the Lotus Sutra and establish a better life for the sake of ourselves, our families, our societies, and the entire world.

Buddhism for Today, pxxii

Nikkyō Niwano doesn’t discuss this topic further so I’m unsure what he imagines replaces Namu Myōhō Renge-kyō. I can’t imagine moving the Daimoku out of the center of my practice of Buddhism. The Daimoku enhances my study and practice of the Lotus Sutra.

And then there’s this:

Some people argue over the relative merits of various sutras and even harbor the illusion that the comparative merits of the sutras stem from differences in Sakyamuni’s teachings. This is a serious mistake. No sutra was compiled by Sakyamuni himself. The fact is that he preached his numerous sermons to countless people during the fifty years between his first sermon to the five monks at the Deer Park in (Benares) and his death at eighty years of age. From among these many sermons each group of disciples and their followers placed in their own sutras the sermons that they had heard directly or had been taught by others. Through whatever sutra we may study the teachings of Sakyamuni, Sakyamuni himself is the same honored one who casts the same light of wisdom on us. Therefore, although the Lotus Sutra is certainly the most excellent teaching among the many sutras, it reflects a basic misunderstanding to despise other sutras by excessively extolling the Lotus Sutra.

Buddhism for Today, pxviii

How can one not excessively extol the Lotus Sutra after reading and reciting it?

As Nichiren writes:

There are ten similes preached in the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter, the first of which is the simile of a great ocean. Let me speak of this simile. In the continent of Jambudvīpa, where we human beings live, there are 2,500 rivers. In the continent of Aparagodānīya there exists 5,000 rivers. Altogether 25,900 rivers flow in the four continents lying in the four directions from Mt. Sumeru. Some of these rivers are as long as 100 or 250 miles. Others are as short as 25 miles, 100 yards, or six feet. None of these rivers, however, can compare to an ocean in depth.

Likewise, the Lotus Sūtra is supreme among all the sūtras—all the sūtras expounded before the Lotus Sūtra such as the Flower Garland Sūtra, the Āgama sūtras, the Hōdō sūtras, the Wisdom Sūtra, the Revealing the Profound and Secret Sūtra, the Amitābha Sūtra, the Nirvana Sūtra, the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra, the Diamond Peak Sūtra, the Sūtra on the Act of Perfection, and the Sūtra of Mystic Glorification—all the sūtras preached by Śākyamuni Buddha, the Great Sun Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Life, Medicine Master Buddha as well as all the sūtras preached by all the Buddhas in the past, present and future.

Yakuō-bon Tokui-shō, The Essence of the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” Chapter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 28

See Nikkyō Niwano and the Lotus Sutra

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Practicing with Ryusho in the Hospital

Ryusho Jeffus from hospital
Rev. Ryusho Jeffus hosted a Lostus Sutra Service from his hospital room in Arizona.
Ryusho's bedside altar
Ryusho’s hospital beside altar setup for the online Myosho-ji Temple service.

Had a rare opportunity to attend online Lotus Sutra service broadcast from a hospital room. In particular, the hospital room of Rev. Ryusho Jeffus, who has been hospitalized in Arizona since Nov. 6, when he suffered a collapsed lung during a flight from Syracuse to California.

I’ve been attending the online Myosho-ji Temple services since 2015, when Ryusho was located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ryusho moved to Syracuse in 2017, and last month, he formally retired.

When I was new to Nichiren Shu I read several of his books and was inspired by Ryusho’s focus on putting the Lotus Sutra into practice in one’s daily life, making the Lotus Sutra relevant in a universal, modern context. Personally, I imagine the Lotus Sutra creating a foundation, walls and roof of a beautiful house. You enter this house in faith and within this structure make this house a home with your practice. Contrary to those who criticize the Lotus Sutra for having no central teaching, it is the very emptiness left by the Lotus Sutra that provides the space for personal practice.

Ryusho plans to hold additional services. He maintains a service calendar on the temple website, Myoshoji.org.

Service guests
Attending the service were friends from Portugal, France, the Czech Republic and both coasts of the United States.
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Traveling Practice

Halfway through an eight-day trip to Rochester, New York, I finally have an opportunity to put some stuff here.

The purpose of the trip is to finish clearing out my wife’s childhood home in Churchville, NY, and load up a small container — 6x7x8 feet — that will be shipped home to Sacramento.

Service in Lewiston
Shami Kanjo Grohman and his wife, Kirstin, in the front of the crowd who gathered Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019, for the service and potluck at Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple

Being in western New York has provided an opportunity to attend services at Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple in Lewiston, New York. My wife and I attended the Sunday, Nov. 3, service with Shami Kanjo Grohman and his wife, Kristin. The dozen practitioners who attended filled the small sanctuary situated inside the Crazy Train Apothecary to overflowing. Each person received a paper omamori amulet from Kanjo. Afterward, a wonderful vegan potluck was served.

Lunch in Lewiston
Me and Mary and Ryusho Jeffus in Syracuse, NY, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2019

The next day, my wife and I traveled east to Syracuse for lunch with Ryusho Jeffus. Ryusho has been an inspiration for my practice since I moved from Soka Gakkai to Nichiren Shu in 2015. See this blog post marking my first 500 days of practice.

Microtel Micro Altar
My Microtel micro altar
Portrait of my practice
Portrait of my practice

Each time I stay in a motel I create my traveling altar. In addition to my Gohonzon mandala pendant and Kishimojin amulet that I received from Ryusho Jeffus in 2016, I’ve added Kanjo’s omamori. I created my traveling altar in January of last year. See this post. And documented the motel iterations here here and here as I drove cross country bringing my wife’s father’s car to California in October 2018. My traveling altars are a stark contrast to my ornate — dare I say suggest cluttered? — home altar. See this altar description.

My Altar
My altar at home.
2buddhas, Blog, d18b

A Variable Transmission for the One Vehicle

Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping This Sūtra, opens with Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, together with their twenty-thousand attendants who were also Bodhisattvas, vowing to the Buddha that they will keep, read, recite and expound this sūtra in the difficult Sahā world after the Buddha’s extinction.

The Buddha does not reply.

Then after the arhats and śrāvakas and the Buddha’s step-mother and former wife all offer to teach the dharma in other lands outside the Sahā world, the Buddha silently looks “at the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. These Bodhisattvas had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dhārāṇis.” These Bodhisattvas are waiting for the Buddha to command them to keep and expound the Lotus Sūtra.

The Buddha remains silent.

This has always puzzled me. These Bodhisattvas, unlike those in Chapter 15, are not identified as having come from other worlds. Are the “eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas” of Chapter 13 a subset of the “Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, who had come from the other worlds” in Chapter 15?

I’ve found an answer to my puzzlement in Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side, although it is hidden behind misleading shorthand in the book.

In the post Bodhisattvas from Other Worlds, I discuss the book’s suggestion that all of the Bodhisattvas who volunteer at the start of Chapter 13 “have arrived from other worlds.”

I posted on the Nichiren Shu group on Facebook the question, “With the exception of Maitreya, are all of the great bodhisattvas listed in Chapter 1, Introductory, from other worlds?”

In response, Michael McCormick said: “As far as I can tell, yes, the bodhisattva’s whose names I am familiar with in that opening passage are bodhisattvas who are of a more cosmic nature and two of them, Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta are particularly associated as attendants of Amitabha Buddha. I think the idea is that the only bodhisattva officially associated with this particular world is Maitreya Bodhisattva. The Lotus Sutra, being a relatively early Mahayana sutra, is taking the assumed cosmology and personnel of the teachings found in the Agamas and Pali canon and spinning it.”

But I believe the answer is more nuanced, and that nuance is provided by Jacqueline Stone’s explanation of how Nichiren saw the transmission of the Lotus Sūtra.

Chapters Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five describe how specific bodhisattvas display their powers in the world to benefit sentient beings. … From Nichiren’s standpoint, the bodhisattvas appearing in these chapters had received only the general transmission described in the “Entrustment” chapter. Either they had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching or shakumon portion of the sūtra. Thus, their work was chiefly confined to the True and Semblance Dharma ages.

Two Buddhas, p236

It is Nichiren’s explanation that “[the Bodhisattvas] had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching” that explains why the Buddha does not answer the Bodhisattvas who volunteer to spread the Lotus Sūtra in Chapter 13.

Stone quotes Nichiren’s letter “Kashaku hōbō metsuazai shō” to explain:

As for the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō: Śākyamuni Buddha not only kept them secret during his first forty-some years of teaching, but also refrained from speaking of them even in the trace teaching, the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra. Not until the “Lifespan” chapter did he reveal the two characters renge, which [represent the five characters and] indicate the original effect and original cause [of the Buddha’s enlightenment]. The Buddha did not entrust these five characters to Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Maitreya, Bhaiṣajyarāja, or any other such bodhisattvas. Instead he summoned forth from the great earth of Tranquil Light the bodhisattvas Viśiṣṭacāritra, Anantacāritra, Vlśuddhacāritra, and Supratiṣṭhitacāritra along with their followers and transmitted the five characters to them.

Two Buddhas, p219-220

To shorthand this by saying — as the book does repeatedly — these Bodhisattvas are all from other worlds, distracts the reader from the distinction between the trace teaching and the origin teaching and the significance of the transmission of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō to the Bodhisattvas who have been the Buddha’s students since the beginningless past.

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2019 Oeshiki Service

Oeshiki Service decorations

Attended traditional Oeshiki Service today at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. The service, which is normally held closer to Oct. 13, Nichiren’s death, was delayed because the Fall Food Bazaar and Rummage Sale was held on Oct. 12.

Following the service everyone adjourned to the social hall for a meal prepared by the fujinkai.

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Tricycle Talks to Two Authors

Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side authors Donald Lopez, Jr. and Jacqueline Stone sit down with Tricycle Editor and Publisher James Shaheen.

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Two Stars for Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side

It didn’t take long for me to realize Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side wasn’t what I had expected. I wrote a Two Star review on Amazon:

Jacqueline I. Stone gets 5 stars for her contribution to this book. Donald S. Lopez Jr. gets a negative three. Stone is famous for her scholarly work on the Lotus Sutra and the 13th century monk Nichiren. Lopez has no appreciation for this sutra and consistently demonstrates his disdain for all Mahayana Buddhism. Stone’s contribution to this book, which seeks to marry her insight into how the Lotus Sutra was interpreted in medieval Japan with a chapter by chapter analysis of the sutra, just can’t survive Lopez’s poison.

Over the last several days I’ve been inputting the quotes from Stone’s portion of the book that I will use as part of my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice. I should have enough material to fill three, maybe four, rotations, although as I progress fewer and fewer of the quotes will address that day’s reading.

Having finished the book, I’ve amended my Amazon review. It’s still two stars:

At the conclusion of the book, the authors say:

Our first aim in this volume was to introduce readers to the rich content of the Lotus Sūtra, one of the most influential and yet enigmatic of Buddhist texts, and to provide a basic chapter-by-chapter guide to its often-bewildering narrative. Our secondary aims were related to hermeneutics. Through the example of the Lotus Sūtra, and its reading by Nichiren, one of its most influential devotees, we have sought to illuminate the dynamics by which Buddhists, at significant historical moments, have reinterpreted their tradition. Thus, this study has taken a very different perspective from that of commentaries intended primarily to elucidate the Lotus Sūtra as an expression of the Buddhist truth or as a guide to Buddhist practice. Our intent is not to deny the sūtra’s claim to be the Buddha’s constantly abiding dharma; rather, we have been guided by the conviction that the full genius of the Lotus as a literary and philosophical text comes to light only when the sūtra is examined in terms of what can be known or even surmised about the circumstances of its compilation. Adopting that perspective suggests how the compilers may have grappled with questions new to their received tradition and how they refigured that tradition in attempting to answer them. (Page 263)

This first aim is reasonably accomplished but it is the secondary aim that is well wide of the target. Lopez is responsible for this and his claim that “Our intent is not to deny the sūtra’s claim to be the Buddha’s constantly abiding dharma” is undermined by denigration of all Mahayana teachings throughout the book, the most glaring example being his description of the Lotus Sutra on Page 56:

The Lotus Sūtra, like all Mahāyāna sūtras, is an apocryphal text, composed long after the Buddha’s death and yet retrospectively attributed to him.

Yes, I would have been happier if Lopez and Stone had chosen instead to write a book “intended primarily to elucidate the Lotus Sūtra as an expression of the Buddhist truth or as a guide to Buddhist practice.” But describing all Mahayana Buddhism as somehow outside Mainstream Buddhism does not illuminate how Buddhists over the years have dynamically reinterpreted their tradition.