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Does the Eternal Buddha’s Teaching Lose Its Potency?

I’ve been corresponding with a new Nichiren Shu follower who comes from a Pure Land tradition. In the course of explaining Nichiren’s objection to the nenbutsu I realized a question I had: Why do those who believe in the Lotus Sutra accept the concept that the Eternal Buddha Śākyamuni’s teaching progresses through three stages — Age of True Dharma, Age of Semblance Dharma and finally the Latter Age of the Dharma, mappō? Other Buddhas, yes. These stages are cited in the Lotus Sutra. But the Eternal Śākyamuni’s teaching?

The arrival of mappō was Honen’s rationalization for abandoning Śākyamuni for Amida. Nichiren countered this. As Jacqueline Stone in her Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism writes:

[The concept of human capacity], often invoked in the context of mappō discourse, refers to innate receptivity or capacity for achieving salvation through a particular teaching. “Capacity” forms an element central to the exclusive nenbutsu teaching of Honen, who argued that the superiority of a teaching depends not on its depth of philosophical content but on whether or not people can actually practice it; hence he maintained that the nenbutsu, readily accessible even to those of limited capacity who predominate in this evil age, is superior. For Nichiren, as for Hōnen, “capacity” was to be understood in universal terms; being advocates of exclusive practices, neither man focused on individual differences in receptivity but maintained that all persons can be saved through a single teaching. However, Nichiren did not base his argument for the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra solely on ease of practice. The Lotus Sūtra is the seed of Buddhahood; that is, encountering the Lotus Sūtra is the condition that enables salvation. Nichiren described the people of the Final Dharma age as “not yet having good [roots]” (honmi uzen), that is, without prior connection to the Lotus Sūtra that would ensure their enlightenment. Thus, persons of this age should, he said, all be instructed in the Lotus Sūtra; whether they accept it or slander it, they will in either case receive the seed of Buddhahood and eventually become Buddhas. Nichiren vehemently rejected the position of exclusive nenbutsu adherents, that the Lotus should be set aside as too profound for the benighted people of the Final Dharma age. He maintained, with Chan-jan, that “the more true the teaching, the lower the stage [of the practitioners it can bring to enlightenment].” It was in part to stress the ability of the Lotus to save even the lowly and sinful that Nichiren would refer to himself, later in life, as “the son of lowly people” and born of a caṇḍāla family.” (Page 253)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


What I’m puzzling over is why Nichiren – and especially followers of the Lotus Sutra today – didn’t reject the idea of mappō and instead suggest the whole concept was a skillful device used by the Buddha before the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. Without the question of mappō, we can focus instead on “the more true the teaching, the lower the stage [of the practitioners it can bring to enlightenment]” and the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

That essential teaching is found in Chapter 16 after Śākyamuni reveals that he was enlightened in a past so distant that it cannot be counted and will continue for a period twice that:

All this time I have been living in this Sahā-World, and teaching [the living beings of this world] by expounding the Dharma to them. I also have been leading and benefiting the living beings of one hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds outside this world.

“Good men! During this time I gave various names to myself, for instance, the Burning-Light Buddha. I also said, ‘That Buddha entered into Nirvāṇa.’ I did all these things only as expedients.

“Good men! When some people came to me, I saw the strength of the power of their faith and of the other faculties of theirs with the eyes of the Buddha. Then I named myself differently, and told them of the duration of my life differently, according to their capacities. l also said to them, ‘I shall enter into Nirvāṇa.’ I expounded the Wonderful Dharma with these various expedients, and caused the living beings to rejoice.

“Good men! When I saw that some people of little virtue and of much defilement were seeking the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, I told them, ‘I renounced my family when I was young, and attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [forty and odd years ago].’ In reality I became the Buddha in the remotest past as I previously stated. I told them this as an expedient to teach them, to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood.

“Good men! All the sūtras that I expounded [hitherto] were for the purpose of saving all living beings. I told the stories of my previous lives [in some sūtras,] and the stories of the previous lives of other Buddhas [in other sūtras]. I showed my replicas [in some sūtras,] and my transformations [in other sūtras]. I described my deeds [in some sūtras,] and the deeds of others [in other sūtras]. All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which l do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as [the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly. The living beings are various in their natures, desires, deeds, thoughts and opinions. Therefore, I expounded the dharma with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, similes and discourses, in order to cause all living beings to plant the roots of good. I have never stopped doing what I should do. As I said before, it is very long since I became the Buddha. The duration of my life is innumerable, asaṃkhya kalpas. I am always here. I shall never pass away.

And again in gāthās:

[This] pure world of mine is indestructible.
But the [perverted] people think:
“It is full of sorrow, fear, and other sufferings.
It will soon burn away.”

Because of their evil karmas,
These sinful people will not be able
To hear even the names of the Three Treasures
During asaṃkhya kalpas.

To those who have accumulated merits,
And who are gentle and upright,
And who see me living here,
Expounding the Dharma,
I say:
“The duration of my life is immeasurable.”
To those who see me after a long time,
I say, “It is difficult to see a Buddha.”

I can do all this by the power of my wisdom.
The light of my wisdom knows no bound.
The duration of my life is innumerable kalpas.
I obtained this longevity by ages of practices.

All of you, wise men!
Have no doubts about this!
Remove your doubts, have no more!
My words are true, not false.

The physician, who sent a man expediently
To tell his perverted sons
Of the death of their father in order to cure them,
Was not accused of falsehood although he was still alive.

In the same manner, I am the father of the world.
I am saving all living beings from suffering.
Because they are perverted,
I say that I pass away even though I shall not.
If they always see me,
They will become arrogant and licentious,
And cling to the five desires
So much that they will fall into the evil regions.

I know who is practicing the Way and who is not.
Therefore I expound various teachings
To all living beings
According to their capacities.

I am always thinking:
“How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?”

In this essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, all talk of stages of the Buddha’s teaching are revealed to be nothing but skillful means used to cause all living beings to plant the roots of good. To suggest otherwise negates or at the very least diminishes the Eternal Buddha’s teaching in the Lotus Sutra.

Blog, WONS

Daimoku Similes

During my recent hour-long walking meditations, I’ve been pondering how to describe the role of the Daimoku in Buddhist practice. Similes – comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid – seem the best bet.

Consider The Simile of the Magnifying Glass

IFTE-NB-001787
Lighting a fire with a magnifying glass

Let’s set the stage with some background from Nichiren’s letters:

The first thousand years following the Buddha’s extinction are called the Age of the True Dharma. During this period, many people kept the precepts and some attained Buddhahood. The next thousand years are called the Age of the Semblance Dharma. During this period, many people broke the precepts, and only a few attained Buddhahood. After the Age of the Semblance Dharma comes the Latter Age of Degeneration. This period is filled with people who neither keep nor break the precepts, but the country is filled with people who have no precepts.

Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 140.

Source

In the Latter Age of Degeneration, the pre-Lotus sūtras and the teaching of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra, which were suitable in the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, no longer enabled the people to shed delusions of life and death and attain Buddhahood.

Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 288

Source

In the Latter Age of Degeneration beginning 2,000 years after the passing of the Buddha, the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna sutras given to Kāśyapa, Ānanda, Mañjuśrī, Maitreya, Medicine King, Avalokiteśvara and others were no longer useful as medicine for living beings. It is because they were no longer effective as cures for the severe ailments of living beings. While the Buddha considered what to do about this, Superior Practice Bodhisattva emerged from the earth. The Buddha then ordered the bodhisattva to give the five characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō to all living beings throughout the Jambudvīpa.

Takahashi Nyūdō-dono Gohenji, A Response to Lay Priest Lord Takahashi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 74-75

Source

So today, more than 700 years later, we are well into the Latter Age of Degeneration, when the Buddha’s teachings have lost their vitality. It is much like the sun in winter in Upstate New York.

During the spring and summer and into the fall, the sun nourishes us with its warmth. But once winter settles in, that warmth is nowhere to be found. The same sun is there in the cloudless afternoon sky, but the temperature is 17 degrees Fahrenheit or even less.

In this endless winter of diminished warmth in the Latter Age of Degeneration, the Daimoku acts like a magnifying glass, focusing the Dharma rays to a single point. That focused energy is enough to set fire to karmic encumbrances or to burn away delusions.

The daimoku has two meanings: the daimoku which was practiced during the Ages of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma, and that which is practiced in the Latter Age of Degeneration. During the Age of the True Dharma, Bodhisattvas Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna chanted the daimoku solely for the sake of their own practice. During the Age of the Semblance Dharma, Grand Masters Nanyüeh and T’ien-t’ai chanted only the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō; they, too, chanted it for their own practices, not to guide other people. Their daimoku was a practice for attaining enlightenment based on the teaching of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. The daimoku which I, Nichiren, recite today in the Latter Age of Degeneration is the daimoku of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, which, unlike that of the previous ages, is not merely the practice for personal enlightenment but it is the practice also for benefitting others. This five-character daimoku is not just a title of the Lotus Sūtra; it contains the five profound meanings of the name, entity, quality, function and teaching.

Sandai Hiho Honjo-ji, The Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 289-290

Source

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A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife

Yasodhara_bookcoverLast week, I traveled to Red Wing, Minnesota, to attend the wedding of my brother’s oldest daughter. I took along “Yasodhara: A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife,” which has been gathering dust on my to-be-read pile of books. It was only later that I realized this was not a random decision.

The publisher, Speaking Tiger Books, offers this summary:

A long time ago, in a far-off kingdom, a boy and a girl, born on the same day, were destined to be together–and then painfully wrenched apart. The boy was Siddhattha, heir to the Sakya kingdom and the future Buddha; the girl was the beautiful and precocious Yasodhara, his friend who became his loving wife.

In this exquisitely crafted narrative, we encounter Yasodhara as a fiercely independent, passionate and resilient individual. We witness her joys and sorrows, her expectations and frustrations, her fairy-tale wedding, and her overwhelming devastation at the departure of her beloved.

It is through her eyes that we witness Siddhattha’s slow transformation, from a sheltered prince to a deeply sensitive young man. On the way, we see how the gods watch over the future Buddha from the clouds, how the king and his ministers try to keep the suffering of the world from him and how he eventually renounces the throne, his wife and newly-born son to seek enlightenment.

Resurrecting a forgotten woman from the origin stories of the Buddha, Vanessa R. Sasson combines the spirit of fiction and the fabulism of Indian mythology with impeccable scholarship, to tell the evocative and deeply moving story of an extraordinary life.

Vanessa R. Sasson
Vanessa R. Sasson
The author, Vanessa R. Sasson, is a professor of Religious Studies in the Liberal and Creative Arts and Humanities Department at Marianopolis College, Quebec. She is also a Research Fellow for the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State in South Africa, as well as Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University, Montreal.

In the author’s introduction, she explains the book in this way:

Yasodhara, the Buddha’s wife, is not the focus of most early Buddhist hagiographies. The literature preserves fragments of her life, but the focus is (unsurprisingly) usually on her husband. In this book, I have tried to bring together some of these early fragments into the shape of a modern novel, to tell her story from her perspective (as I imagine it). As the writing process unfolded, however, I came to appreciate how much information we are missing. The literature is genuinely scant where she is concerned— particularly regarding her youth. She is a key player during a few moments in the Buddha’s life, but otherwise, we know little about her. We know she produced their one and only son, that she was left behind when he made his Great Departure, and that when he returned to the palace seven years later, he took his son back to the forest with him. The Jatakas (past-life stories) refer to her in a number of accounts, suggesting that Yasodhara and the Buddha had been connected for lifetimes, but we do not know much more than that. Indeed, Yasodhara is so marginalized in some cases that she does not even receive a name. She is known simply as Rahulamata—Rahula’s mother. …

The story I have told here is, therefore, a story inspired by later hagiographies. It is not historical fiction, but perhaps what can be more appropriately labelled “hagiographical fiction” (if such a label existed). This book is my attempt at recreating a hagiography, inspired by hagiographies that belong to an earlier time.

The novel stands alone well by itself, “a story inspired by later hagiographies.” But for me the joy was reading each chapter with the notes that detail the sources of her inspiration.

Returning to the topic of my trip, it wasn’t until near the end of the book that I realized why I was drawn to this tale. It was at the point in the story when Siddhattha, now the Buddha, returns to the Sakya palace. Yasodhara, who has felt abandoned by her husband and wears widow’s clothes, must now confront the loss of her 7-year-old son Rahula.

My parents divorced in 1960 when I was 9 years old and my brother 7. My mother threatened to kill herself if my father followed through with his attempt to gain custody. My brother and I lived with my mother and rarely saw our father once he moved away with his new wife. My mother never remarried. Later in life, I blind-sided my first wife with a divorce request because I was, as an acquaintance described it, “feeling my generations” – the male equivalent of the ticking biological clock. I could really relate to the tale of Yasodhara.

This weekend I watched as a lovely young couple married. They lived together for 10 years before exchanging vows. That’s longer than my parents’ marriage and longer than my first marriage. May they have a long and happy life as husband and wife.

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Long Past the Expiration Date

Yesterday’s post asking whether Chih-i believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death begged the question: What does it matter?

Nichiren considered himself a follower of Chih-i. And it’s Nichiren’s focus on Chih-i that gives the question whatever importance it may have. Personally, I believe the suggestion Chih-i believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha was a fabrication of later followers.

First, the rise of Pure Land Buddhism coincided with the fear that Śākyamuni’s teachings were entering the age of the decline of the Dharma, mappō, when their efficacy would be lost. But Chih-i did not live during the age of mappō. He clearly still felt the Lotus Sutra was the Śākyamuni’s ultimate teaching and still very much worth practicing.

That was very different by Nichiren’s time.

“A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra,” edited by Gene Reeves and published in 2002 by Kōsei Publishing includes an essay by Jacqueline I. Stone entitled “When Disobedience Is Filial and Resistance Is Loyal: The Lotus Sutra and Social Obligations in the Medieval Nichiren Tradition. In it she offers this observation about Nichiren’s dispute with then-current Tendai teaching.

Nichiren’s Tendai contemporaries, too, held the Lotus Sutra to be all inclusive, but generally took this to mean that, properly understood, any practice, such as chanting Amida Buddha’s name or invoking the Bodhisattva Kannon, could be considered practice of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren decried this interpretation as a confusion of the true and the provisional and rejected all other, “pre-Lotus Sutra” teachings as no longer suited to the present time of mappō. Like medicine that stands too long on the shelf and becomes poisonous, these other teachings and the practices based upon them were, in his view, not only soteriologically useless but positively harmful. For Nichiren, to willfully set aside or ignore the Lotus in favor of other, “lesser” teachings amounted to “slander of the Dharma” and would pull the practitioner down into the lower realms of rebirth.

Today this idea that all practices are the Lotus Sutra practice is still around and just as misguided. They put expiration dates on medicines for a reason. They should not be ignored.

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One Buddha Land

Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?

The question came up while I was making my way through “A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra,” edited by Gene Reeves and published in 2002 by Kōsei Publishing.

The suggestion that Chih-i believed in rebirth in the Western Pure Land comes from Lucia Dolce’s essay, “Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren.” (Aren’t titles of academic essays just so precious?)

Here’s the context in Dolce’s discussion of One Buddha-land (p:232-233):

According to Nichiren, in the second section of the Lotus Sutra Śākyamuni speaks of this Sahā world as the original land, a pure Buddha realm compared to which the other lands of the ten directions are mere conventional worlds. In Chih-i’s exegesis the “original land” is the land in which the original Buddha attained enlightenment, therefore the realm of only one type of Buddha. This “Sahā world of the original time” contrasts with the Sahā world where human beings live, which retains the characteristics of a “trace-land.” For Nichiren, on the contrary, there is only one Sahā world. Vulture Peak, the place where the Lotus Sutra is taught, represents both this world of ours and the most perfect world, the only possible “paradise.” There is no other reality, neither for humanity, nor for the Buddha. Whereas Chih-i apparently believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death*, Nichiren considered the assembly on Vulture Peak a symbol of those who, having received the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, are able to transform our Sahā world into a “resplendent land.”

* Dolce’s note supporting the idea that Chih-i “apparently” longed for Amida’s Western paradise: Cf. Tetsuei Satō, Tendai daishi no kenkyū, 556-59.

I understand that centuries before Nichiren, the Tendai school adopted the Invocation of Amida’s Name. As the monk Chingen of Yokawa on Mount Hiei wrote in his “Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan“:

“In the fourteenth year of Shōwa [848], Jikaku returned to Japan [from China]. It is said that Jikaku’s efforts were responsible for half of the transmission of the Law to Japan. He introduced the Invocation of Amida’s Name, the Hokke Repentance Rites, the Kanjō Consecration Rites, and the Shari Relics Meeting.” (Page 34)

According to Chinden, Jikau, on his deathbed, “told Priest Enjun to recite and pay his respects to the Hokekyō [Lotus Sutra] which preaches the great and fair knowledge of Amida.”

One can understand why Nichiren lamented what he considered to be the most deplorable false doctrine of Grand Master Jikaku, who denigrated the Lotus Sūtra and regarded the Shingon teaching to be supreme. (See translator’s note to Jikaku Daishi no Koto, Concerning Grand Master Jikaku, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 215.)

So, back to my question: Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?

Next

Blog, LS32

Which Lotus Sutra

20190725_Reeves_LotusSutra
Tabbed and ready to go

Today I began what will be my 44th cycle of 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra posts. At the start of cycle 43 I had intended to make two cycles through The Threefold Lotus Sutra as translated by Bunnō Katō, et al. and revised by W.E. Soothill et al. in 1975. I just couldn’t make it. Today’s post 21 Days: Lost in Translation illustrates part of my disappointment with this translation. But, worse still, this is just not a translation that lends itself to reading aloud and that is a serious failing when you are using it as I am.

As a result I’ve switched a cycle early to Gene Reeves 2008 translation of The Lotus Sutra. Like the Threefold Lotus Sutra, Reeves translation includes The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva. It was Reeves’ translation that I have used most often in my 21-Day Retreat posts.

Having read those auxiliary sutras I know what to expect as I cycle through the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra. For example, I am not a fan of Reeves’ decision to change “dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas” to “dragons, satyrs, centaurs, asuras, griffins, chimeras, pythons.” I’m also not a fan of using Law in place Dharma.

Still as I start this cycle I know Reeves’ translation at the very least lends itself well to my daily reading aloud.

Update July 27, 2019: I was in error saying Reeves’ translation uses Law instead of Dharma. The Threefold Lotus Sutra translation is the one that uses Law instead of Dharma.

21days, Blog

With the Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva

“World-Honored One! The bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās who seek, keep, read, recite and copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], if they wish to study and practice this sūtra, should concentrate their minds [on study and practice] strenuously for three weeks. When they complete [the study and practice of] three weeks, I will mount a white elephant with six tusks, and appear before them with my body which all living beings wish to see, together with innumerable Bodhisattvas surrounding me. I will expound the Dharma to them, show them the Way, teach them, benefit them, and cause them to rejoice.

Chapter 28: The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva

With the encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva I concentrated my mind on study and practice strenuously for three weeks. It was a very unusual 21 days.

Let me set the stage: On June 29, my wife left for Upstate New York to prepare her parents’ house for sale. Her flight home is schedule July 24. Ostensibly, I was left behind to care for our cats and watch over the house and perhaps harvest a few of those year-round “Honey, Do…” that ripen and demand to be harvested.

In reviewing my wife’s travel plans it occurred to me that I had an excellent opportunity from July 1 to July 21 to take up the encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva to concentrate my mind on study and practice strenuously for three weeks.

So I declared a 21-day stay-cation retreat, promising to wear my dark blue samue between sunrise and sunset including while preforming a daily one-hour walking meditation.

Before I started I imagined that I would add a half-hour midday service to my existing practice during which I would recite aloud a portion of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and, when that was completed, The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva (Reeves). But by the end of the first day I felt that was not ambitious enough. Beginning with Day 2, I began reciting all of both sutras as separate midday practices. Each takes about one hour to recite.

For the first two weeks I walked an hour, performed my morning service, recited first one sutra and then the other and finished the day with my regular evening service. Between each element I would read and write.

Still, I had this nagging feeling that “I have now made these offerings, yet I do not think that they are enough,” to quote Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva.

I wanted to recite the entire threefold Lotus Sutra in a single day. Better still, I wanted to recite it in shindoku on one day and in English the next. Since I don’t have shindoku versions of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, the English would suffice. I vowed to do this on Saturday and Sunday, the final two days of my 21-day stay-cation retreat.

During the final week, I tested how long it takes to recite one fascicle (there are eight in the Lotus Sutra, plus the other two sutras). And I pushed my entire practice – morning service, Innumerable Meanings, Contemplation of Universal Sage, evening service – into a single session to get a feel for sitting for hours in front of my altar.

On Friday, as a final exercise, I extended my morning service daimoku to one hour and added an hour of daimoku after each of the sutras and concluded by extending my evening service daimoku to one hour. I was chanting in front of my altar from 6:30am to after 5pm, with short breaks between elements.

As I prepared for Saturday and Sunday I had expectations that it would take, maybe, 12 hours to accomplish my morning service and recitation of the complete Lotus Sutra and my evening service. I was wrong.

On Saturday I did my morning walking meditation from 5:07am to 6:17am. I took a short nap and began my morning service just before 7am. The sutra of Innumerable Meanings required just under an hour and the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sutra in shindoku consumed 9 hours and 21 minutes. The Contemplation of Universal Sage took just over an hour. I finished a very abbreviated evening service at 9:50pm, having taken a handful of small breaks during the day. It had been a 14 hour and 54 minute day, not counting the walking meditation.

On Sunday, the final day of my retreat, I decided to skip the walking meditation and instead start with the instructions offered by Universal Sage (Reeves, p420):

If anyone wants to reach supreme awakening rapidly and see the buddhas in the ten directions and Universal Sage Bodhisattva in this life, they should purify themselves by taking a bath, putting on clean clothes, burning rare incense, and living in a secluded place. They should recite and read the Great Vehicle sutras and think about the meaning of the Great Vehicle.

I showered, dressed in a clean samue and began my morning service at 5:50am. The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings required an hour. The English recitation of the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sutra consumed 9 hours and 58 minutes. The Contemplation of Universal Sage took a little more than an hour. And I concluded a full evening service at 7:50pm, exhausted but happy that I had finished that day and the 21 days.

Over the next couple of weeks I expect to publish daily quotes from the two sutras to add to those I posted in the final 14 days of my 21-day stay-cation retreat.

Day 1 of 21

21days, Blog

Day 7 of 21

In Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman (Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 257-258), Nichiren writes in part:

At the beginning of the Kalpa of Construction, when the world is being created, gods were born with excellent rewards of virtuous acts in previous lives, and men were not evil. Therefore, heavenly beings were shiny in body, pure in spirit, as bright as the sun and moon, and as brave as the lion and elephant. When the Kalpa of Construction was over and the world entered the Kalpa of Continuance, heavenly beings from the previous period grew old and declined like the waning moon, newly born gods were mostly equipped with inferior rewards of actions in their previous lives. As a result, the three calamities and seven disasters occurred all over the world and people everywhere began experiencing sufferings and joys.

Then the Buddha appeared in this world and prepared the panacea of life, that is Buddhism, for the gods and people. Like oil added to a lamp or a cane supporting an elderly person, heavenly beings regained the authority and power they possessed in the Kalpa of Construction.

I bring this up to illustrate my attitude toward and interaction with divine beings and protective deities. As I see it, the more I practice, the more I recite sutras, the more daimoku I chant, the more I feed these gods and protective deities and the more their influence grows. Fat and happy gods!

This is especially true with a recent addition to my altar: Shichi Fukujin, the Seven Happy Gods.

20190705_fukurokuju1000
Fukurokuju
Fukurokuju 福禄寿 Represents Longevity
From Japanese fuku, “happiness”; roku, “wealth”; and ju, “longevity.” Brought from China’s Taoist-Buddhist traditions, Fukurokuju is the God of Wealth, Happiness, and Longevity. He is usually represented with customary clothes of a Chinese scholar, holding a walking stick with a scroll tied to it. He is the only one from the seven who has the ability to revive the dead.

20190705_hotei1000
Hotei
Hotei 布袋 Represents Happiness
Said to be an incarnation of Miroku (Maitreya) Bodhisattva, Hotei (a.k.a Budai) is the God of Happiness and Abundance. He is supposedly based on an actual person, a Chinese hermit Budaishi (d. 917). He is represented as a Buddhist monk with a smiling face and a prominent belly, holding a sack and a wooden staff, usually seated or sleeping in his bag. Outside Japan, he is known as “Laughing Buddha.”

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Daikoku
Daikoku 大黒天 Represents Fortune
Originally a Hindu warrior deity named Mahākāla, once introduced in Japan he became the God of Wealth and Prosperity. Daikoku evolved from the Buddhist form of the Indian deity Shiva intertwined with the Shinto god Ōkuninushi. He is well known for his happy-looking smile and is often presented with a bag on this shoulder filled with money and a magic mallet standing on two bales of rice.

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Ebisu
Ebisu 恵比須 Represents Honesty
Also known as Yebisu or Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami. The God of Fishing, Shipping and Commerce, he is the only one to have his origins in Japan. Ebisu is very popular among farmers and sailors. He is commonly presented wearing formal court clothes or hunting robes. He is often presented with a fishing rod in his right hand and a large red sea bream under his left arm.

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Jurojin
Jurōjin 寿老人 Represents Wisdom
The God of Wisdom, he originated from the Chinese Taoist god, the Old Man of the South Pole. He is commonly presented as an old man wearing a hat with a long white beard holding a knobbed walking staff with a scroll tied to it. He is often confused with Fukurokuju. A black deer always accompanies Jurōjin as a messenger and as symbol of longevity.

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Benzaiten
Benzaiten 弁財天 Represents Joy
Benzaiten (Benten) was originally the Hindu goddess of water Sarasvati. In her Japanese representation, she is the Goddess of Arts and Knowledge. Her common form is a beautiful woman dressed in a flowing Chinese-style dress and playing the biwa. She is frequently depicted riding on, or accompanied by, a sea dragon.

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Bishamon
Bishamon 毘沙門天 Represents Dignity
The Buddhist guardian of the north (Vaiśravaṇa), Bishamon is the God of Warriors (not war). He is also a God of Defense Against Evil. Almost always dressed in armor with a fierce look and standing over one or two demons symbolizing the defeat of evil. In one hand he has a weapon to fight against evil influences and suppress the enemies. On the other hand he holds a treasure pagoda or stupa, which is his main identifying attribute.

At this point I should digress and explain the difference between statues and what I have been told are “just decoration.”

A few years ago my wife found a cute wooden Jizo Bodhisattva statue and I took it to Rev. Kenjo Igarashi at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church and asked him whether this would be worthwhile to add to my altar.

He smiled and said, “No. This is just decoration.”

No problem. I have a side altar where I keep my “decorations,” which today in addition to Jizo Bodhisattva includes a traveling Tibetan prayer box stuffed with flags and a Buddha incense burner draped in a necklace. (These are all donations from my wife.)

Then last month, I noticed a box containing the Seven Happy Gods had been donated to the church rummage sale. The porcelain figurines were made in Japan and purchased in the 1987. Someone had labeled each of them (mislabeling Fukurokuju as Jurojin) and crafted a display stand.

The Seven Happy Gods sparked my interest because my step-mother, who lived in Japan during the Korean War (her father was an Army general), had a wooden set of these in her home in Florida. Her’s were certainly just decorations.

Could these statues be eye-opened and added to my altar? I went to Rev. Igarashi expecting to have to re-arrange my decorations. Instead I was surprised to find him receptive to the idea. He took the box and said he’d get back to me.

A day or so later he said that, Yes, he could eye-open the Seven Happy Gods. But, he cautioned, I would need to make them part of my practice. He said the figurines had been eye-opened before but the effect had withered. Basically they had starved to death.

After the next Sunday service I picked up the eye-opened Seven Happy Gods and took them home. I’ve learned their names and each day I devote a portion of my daimoku to each. I’m not expecting any “benefit” from having these gods on my altar. Instead, I’m enjoying the idea of nourishing divine spirits, helping them regain the authority and power they possessed.

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Kishimojin
In addition to the newly arrived Happy Gods, I also have Kishimojin 鬼子母神: Mother of Demon Children. In the “Dhāranī” (twenty-sixth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Kishimojin and 10 rākṣasas daughters pledge before Shakyamuni Buddha to safeguard the votaries of the sutra. Kishimojin is revered as a god of procreation and easy delivery.

The print and the amulet were purchased from Rev. Ryusho Jeffus several years ago. (The Kishimojin amulet and a amulet Gohonzon I purchased compose my traveling altar.)

My Altar
My Altar
My Decorations
My Decorations

Day 6 of 21Day 8 of 21

21days, Blog

Day 5 of 21

20190705_pacer_map_snapshotSuddenly today I realized the difference between walking for an hour simply to exercise and walking for an hour meditating on Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo. They are not the same.

Namu

The left foot steps.

Myo

The right foot.

Ho

The left foot.

Ren

The right foot.

Ge

The left foot.

Kyo

The right foot.

Homage to the Dharma Flower

The left foot.

Wonderful Lotus Sutra

The right foot.

Homage to the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra, again and again and again.

And all the while the mind is quiet, allowing the senses to heighten.

The sounds.

Each step rhythmic, here a crunch of gravel, there the scrap of a leaf, step, step, step. Birds chirp and sing on the left, now the right, nearby, faraway. Cars pass close, the sound rushing closer and then racing away. Distant sounds fade in and out. Aircraft fly overhead.

The smells.

Suburban lawns freshly watered. Rose bushes and honeysuckle. The unscented cool morning air.

The sights.

Dawn’s light peaking over homes and between tree branches. In a yard up ahead, a flower is bathed in a single ray of sunlight while all around is still in shade. The flowers glow as if radiating the light themselves. As I approach I consider pulling out my phone and taking a photo. I don’t. I realize a snapshot of this moment would not be real. The causes and conditions that placed this plant here and the sun there with the trees so arranged just as I walked up mindful of Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo – what would a photo show?

That moment was perfect and then it was another moment.

Day 4 of 21Day 6 of 21

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The Threefold Lotus Sutra

Three Lotus Sutras

I completed two cycles through Leon Hurvitz’s translation “Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma.” Revered for its academic thoroughness, I found the text less useful for my purpose. Leon Hurvitz’s translation is pretty and ornate, but Senchu Murano’s English translation of the Lotus Sutra is much better suited for the task of propagation.

For example, here’s Hurvitz’s final gāthā from Day 14 and the opening prose from Day 15:

Medicine King, I now proclaim to you
The scriptures that I preach;
And among these scriptures
The Dharma Blossom is foremost.

At that time, the Buddha again declared to Medicine King, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva: “The scriptural canons I preach are in the incalculable thousands of myriads of millions, whether already preached, now being preached, or still to be preached. Yet among them this Scripture of the Dharma Blossom is the hardest to believe, the hardest to understand.

Senchu Murano’s translation of the same final gāthā from Day 14 and the opening prose from Day 15:

Medicine-King! I will tell you.
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Is the most excellent sūtra
That I have ever expounded.

Thereupon the Buddha said again to Medicine-King Bodhisattva mahāsattvas:
“I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.

One of my many items on my To-Do List is to collect quotes such as these for use in encouraging new practitioners. A envision a Daily Encouragement, incorporating easily digested morsels that taken over time provide a healthy Dharma meal.

Tabbed for my 32-days of of the Lotus Sutra practice, The Threefold Lotus Sutra will be the text I use for the English translation for the next two months.

I have read The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings only once or twice and never read the entire Sutra of Meditation on Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. I have three weeks coming up when the wife will be away and I’ll have no distractions. I hope to replicate the The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who says in Chapter 28 of the Lotus Sutra:

“World-Honored One! The bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās who seek, keep, read, recite and copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], if they wish to study and practice this sūtra, should concentrate their minds [on study and practice] strenuously for three weeks. When they complete [the study and practice of] three weeks, I will mount a white elephant with six tusks, and appear before them with my body which all living beings wish to see, together with innumerable Bodhisattvas surrounding me. I will expound the Dharma to them, show them the Way, teach them, benefit them, and cause them to rejoice.