Today is the second day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. As explained in a Nichiren Shu brochure:
For Buddhists, this period is not just one characterized by days with almost equal portions of light and dark. Rather, it is a period in which we strive to consciously reflect upon ourselves and our deeds.
The today we consider the Perfection of Precepts. For this Fall Higan week I’m using Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on the Lotus Sutra in which he discusses the 10 advantages of each pāramitā.
The ten advantages of practicing the pāramitā of upholding precepts are:
- One will perfect omniscient wisdom. If one upholds the precepts well, one can attain omniscient wisdom.
- One will study what the Buddhas study. One will learn from the same source as the Buddhas do. The Buddha took the precepts as his teacher. So it’s said that the vajra-bright jeweled precepts are the source of all Buddhas. All Buddhas come forth from precepts.
- One will not be despised by the wise. If you uphold the precepts, only ignorant people will speak ill of you. Wise people won’t criticize you. Ignorant people will naturally criticize you, because they’re confused about right and wrong. Why? They have no wisdom. They mistake right for wrong, black for white. These are the acts of ignorant people. If you uphold precepts, wise people won’t speak ill of you; they’ll praise you instead. …
- One will not retreat from one’s resolve. This is the most important advantage. One vows, “I will seek the Buddha-dharma no matter how hard it is. I don’t care if I starve to death or freeze to death. I’m not going to retreat. If no one makes offerings to me, that’s the very best thing.” You shouldn’t be greedy for offerings. You shouldn’t drop hints to people in the hope that they’ll buy you things and then think, “I must have virtue and be quite the cultiva-tor. People are making offerings to me!” That would be wrong! You should vow, “I will seek Buddhahood even if it means giving up my head, eyes, brains, marrow, flesh, hands, and feet-even my very life!” …
- One will dwell peacefully in proper conduct. Peacefully dwelling in proper conduct means performing proper, not improper, conduct. Proper conduct benefits others rather than yourself. If you’re scheming, your conduct is improper; if you aren’t scheming, your conduct is proper.
- One will cast aside birth and death. One shouldn’t cling to birth and death, thinking, “My life is most precious. I have to make nice offerings to my body-give it good and nutritious food as well as vitamins to make it strong.” It may get stronger, but the stronger your body becomes, the weaker your wisdom gets. When your wisdom becomes weak, even if your body is strong, it isn’t genu-inely strong. Because your wisdom life can’t grow, you must cast aside birth and death altogether. You shouldn’t hold on to your physical life at the expense of the life of your wisdom. Look upon birth and death as unimport-ant, thinking, “If I live, I live; if I die, I die,” while at the same time making sure to cultivate. If you fail to cultivate, thinking that birth and death are no problem, then you’ll never be able to break away from the cycle of birth and death. You must see birth and death as unimportant yet still cultivate to end birth and death.
- One will long for and delight in nirvāṇa. One thinks, “What I delight in most is nirvana-the Dharma of transcending birth and death.” Nir means “not coming into being”; vāṇa means “not ceasing to be.” The goal of upholding the precepts is to attain nirvāṇ
- One will attain an unfettered mind. What’s meant by an unfettered mind? One may have much wisdom and make a great resolve for bodhi, but then one becomes tied up by the ten fetters of greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, the view of self, extreme views, the view of clinging to precepts and austerities, the view of attachment to views, and wrong views. These ten fetters bind up your mind so that wisdom cannot come forth. To attain an unfettered mind is to become liberated.
- One will attain supreme samādhi. This is no ordinary samādhi. This samādhi power is formidable! Nothing can disturb it – nothing! It’s an inconceivable level of supreme concentration.
- One will not lack the wealth of faith. To have faith is to have wealth. People without faith are poor. If you don’t believe the Dharma Master when he lectures on the Dharma, then you won’t be able to make a resolve for bodhi. If you can’t make a resolve for bodhi, you’re poor. Not lacking the wealth of faith means you have great faith. When you’re full of faith, you’re wealthy.
This is a brief explanation of the ten advantages of upholding the precepts. If one were to go into detail, a great deal more could be said.