LS32

Day 22

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Day 22 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits, we return to the start and consider

Thereupon the innumerable, asaṃkhya living beings in the great congregation, who had heard from the Buddha that the duration of his life was so many kalpas as previously stated, obtained great benefits.

At that time the World-Honored One said to Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva:

“Ajita! When I said that the duration of my life was so long, six hundred and eighty billion nayuta living beings, that is, the living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges, obtained the truth of birthlessness. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas numbering one thousand times the number of these living beings obtained the dharanis by which they could memorize all that they had heard. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of earth of a Sumeru-world obtained eloquence without hindrance. Another group of Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of earth of a Sumeru world obtained the dharanis by which they could memorize many hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of earth of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds obtained the faculty of turning the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of earth of one million Sumeru-worlds obtained the faculty of turning the wheel of the pure Dharma. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of earth of one thousand Sumeru-worlds obtained the faculty of attaining Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi after eight rebirths. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas four times the number of the particles of earth of the four continents obtained the faculty of attaining Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi after four rebirths. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas three times the number of the particles of earth of the four continents obtained the faculty of attaining Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi after three rebirths. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas twice the number of the particles of earth of the four continents obtained the faculty of attaining Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi after two rebirths. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the particles of earth of the four continents obtained the faculty of attaining Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi immediately after this life. Living beings as many as the particles of earth of eight Sumeru-worlds aspired for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

See Four Stages of Faith, Five Stages of Practice

Buddha Taught

Volitional Action

Now, the Pali word kamma or the Sanskrit word karma (from the root kr to do) literally means ‘action,’ ‘doing.’ But in the Buddhist theory of karma it has a specific meaning: it means only ‘volitional action,’ not all action. Nor does it mean the result of karma as many people wrongly and loosely use it. In Buddhist terminology karma never means its effect; its effect is known as the ‘fruit’ or the ‘result’ of karma (kamma-phala or kamma-vipāka).

Volition may relatively be good or bad, just as a desire may relatively be good or bad. So karma may be good or bad relatively. Good karma (kusala) produces good effects, and bad karma (akusala) produces bad effects. ‘Thirst,’ volition, karma, whether good or bad, has one force as its effect: force to continue—to continue in a good or bad direction. Whether good or bad it is relative, and is within the cycle of continuity (saṃsāra). An Arahant, though he acts, does not accumulate karma, because he is free from the false idea of self, free from the ‘thirst’ for continuity and becoming, free from all other defilements and impurities (kilesā, sāsavā dhammā). For him there is no rebirth.

What the Buddha Taught, p32
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 14, 2024

Anyone who does not keep our spells
But troubles the expounder of the Dharma
Shall have his head split into seven pieces
Just as the branches of the arjaka-tree [are split].

The ten rakṣasī demons and Mother-of-Devils sing these verses in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. They are among the many gods and other supernatural beings who vow to protect all those who keep and practice the Buddha Dharma. These verses help us to understand the nature of those who create harm in the world and to develop a heart of compassion towards them. The nature of delusion is that it sets up a world separate from the world we all share. It puts a barrier between us and the world out of fear that this world will harm us. The Buddha’s teachings show us how to develop the courage to live in harmony with this world, rather than splitting ourselves from it, and splitting ourselves in it.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered whether the excellent physician was guilty of a falsehood, we consider the expediency of the Buddha’s Nirvāṇa.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:[1, 2]

It is many hundreds of thousands
Of billions of trillions
Of asaṃkhyas of kalpas
Since I became the Buddha.

For the past innumerable kalpas
I have always been expounding the Dharma
To many hundreds of millions of living beings
In order to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood.

In order to save the [perverted] people,
I expediently show my Nirvāṇa to them.
In reality I shall never pass away.
I always live here and expound the Dharma.

See Opening the Provisional to Reveal the Truth

Buddha Taught

Thirst for Re-Existence

Every one will admit that all the evils in the world are produced by selfish desire. This is not difficult to understand. But how this desire, ‘thirst’, can produce re-existence and re-becoming (ponobhavikā) is a problem not so easy to grasp. It is here that we have to discuss the deeper philosophical side of the Second Noble Truth corresponding to the philosophical side of the First Noble Truth. Here we must have some idea about the theory of karma and rebirth.

There are four Nutriments (āhāra) in the sense of ‘cause’ or ‘condition’ necessary for the existence and continuity of beings: (1) ordinary material food (kabaliṅkārāhāra), (2) contact of our sense-organs (including mind) with the external world (phassāhāra), (3) consciousness (viññānāhara) and (4) mental volition or will (manosañcetanāhāra).

Of these four, the last mentioned ‘mental volition’ is the will to live, to exist, to re-exist, to continue, to become more and more. It creates the root of existence and continuity, striving forward by way of good and bad actions (kgsalākxalakamma). It is the same as ‘Volition’ (cetanā). We have seen earlier that volition is karma, as the Buddha himself has defined it. Referring to ‘Mental volition’ just mentioned above the Buddha says : ‘When one understands the nutriment of mental volition one understands the three forms of ‘thirst’ (taṇhā).’ Thus the terms ‘thirst’, ‘volition’, ‘mental volition’ and ‘karma’ all denote the same thing: they denote the desire, the will to be, to exist, to re-exist, to become more and more, to grow more and more, to accumulate more and more. This is the cause of the arising of dukkha, and this is found within the Aggregate of Mental Formations, one of the Five Aggregates which constitute a being.

Here is one of the most important and essential points in the Buddha’s teaching. We must therefore clearly and carefully mark and remember that the cause, the germ, of the arising of dukkha is within dukkha itself, and not outside; and we must equally well remember that the cause, the germ, of the cessation of dukkha, of the destruction of dukkha, is also within dukkha itself, and not outside. This is what is meant by the well-known formula often found in original Pali texts: ‘Whatever is of the nature of arising, all that is of the nature of cessation.’ A being, a thing, or a system, if it has within itself the nature of arising, the nature of coming into being, has also within itself the nature, the germ, of its own cessation and destruction. Thus dukkha (Five Aggregates) has within itself the nature of its own arising, and has also within itself the nature of its own cessation.

What the Buddha Taught, p30-32
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 13, 2024

They will be able to recognize all the sounds and voices inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, although they have not yet obtained heavenly ears. Even when they recognize all these various sounds and voices, their organ of hearing will not be destroyed.

The Buddha gives this explanation to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. As we shed our delusions and see the world more for what it is, we begin to see and understand things not visible or comprehensible to those still mired in their suffering and attachment. Knowing the suffering we have left behind, we may be lured into abandoning this world and those in it. In this chapter, the Buddha shows that all of the sense organs we have in this life, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought, all of these can be used either to increase our delusion or bring us towards awakening. The Buddha reached enlightenment in this world, and so do we.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 20

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Maitreya’s doubts, we consider the reason for Maitreya’s doubts.

“World-Honored One! It is difficult for anyone in the world to believe this. It is as difficult as to believe a handsome, black-haired man twenty-five years old who points to men a hundred years old and says, ‘They are my sons,’ or as to believe men a hundred years old who point to a young man and say, ‘This is our father. He brought us up.’ You are like the young man. It is not long since you attained enlightenment. But it is many thousands of billions of kalpas since the great multitude of these Bodhisattvas began to practice the Way strenuously in order to attain the enlightenment of the Buddha. During that time they entered into, stayed in, and came out of many hundreds of thousands of billions of samadhis, and obtained great supernatural powers. They performed brahma practices for a long time. They learned good teachings one by one, and obtained the ability to answer questions skillfully. They are regarded as the treasures of the world of men by all the people of the world because they are rare. Today you say that, after you attained the enlightenment of the Buddha, you caused them to aspire for enlightenment, taught them, and led them into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

The Daily Dharma offers this:

World-Honored One! It is difficult for anyone in the world to believe this. It is as difficult as to believe a handsome, black-haired man twenty-five years old who points to men a hundred years old and says, ‘They are my sons,’ or as to believe men a hundred years old who point to a young man and say, ‘This is our father. He brought us up.’

Maitreya Bodhisattva explains his perplexity to the Buddha in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha has just revealed that all of the Bodhisattvas who have appeared from underground to continue teaching the Wonderful Dharma after the extinction of the Buddha have been taught by the Buddha in the time since he became enlightened. Maitreya realizes that his doubts are no different from the doubts of those gathered to hear the Buddha teach and asks the Buddha to explain. The Buddha says later that he sees the world differently than other living beings. But this does not mean that when our experience does not match what the Buddha teaches, we must keep silence and just accept what he tells us. It is only through sincere questioning that we find the Buddha’s mind and make it our own.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Buddha Taught

Thirst

The Second Noble Truth is that of the arising or origin of dukkha (Dukkhasamgdaya-ariyasacca). The most popular and well-known definition of the Second Truth as found in innumerable places in the original texts runs as follows:

‘It is this “thirst” (craving, taṇhā) which produces re-existence and re-becoming (ponobhavikā), and which is bound up with passionate greed (nandīrāgasahagatā), and which finds fresh delight now here and now there (tatratafrābhinandinī), namely, (1) thirst for sense-pleasures (kāma-taṇhā), (2) thirst for existence and becoming (bhava-taṇhā) and (3) thirst for non-existence (self-annihilation, vibhava-taṇhā).’

It is this ‘thirst’, desire, greed, craving, manifesting itself in various ways, that gives rise to all forms of suffering and the continuity of beings. But it should not be taken as the first cause, for there is no first cause possible as, according to Buddhism, everything is relative and inter-dependent. Even this ‘thirst,’ taṇhā, which is considered as the cause or origin of dukkha, depends for its arising (samudaya) on something else, which is sensation (vedanā), and sensation arises depending on contact (phassa), and so on and so forth goes on the circle which is known as Conditioned Genesis (Paṭicca-samuppāda).

What the Buddha Taught, p29
Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – May 12, 2024

This sūtra is
The most excellent.
To keep this sūtra
Is to keep me.

The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. We may believe that before we can practice we need to find a Buddha or another enlightened being alive in our world to guide us. These verses remind us of the ever-present Buddha Śākaymuni who was revealed in the Lotus Sūtra. Whether or not we see him as another human in our presence, he is always guiding us to enlightenment. The Buddha also reminds us that by living as he has shown us in the Lotus Sūtra, as Bodhisattvas who exist for the benefit of all beings, we show our respect for him and bring his wisdom to life.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Day 19 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered in gāthās the recommended attitude for those who keep this sūtra, we consider the Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Top-Knot.

I will tell you a parable.
A wheel-turning-holy-king was powerful.
Some of his soldiers
Distinguished themselves in war.
He was glad to honor them.
He gave them elephants or horses,
Vehicles or ornaments,
Paddy fields or houses,
Villages or cities,
Garments or various treasures,
Menservants or maidservants,
Or other valuables.

He took a brilliant gem
Out of his top-knot
And gave it to the bravest man
Who had done the most difficult feats.

I am like the king.
I am the King of the Dharma.
I have the great power of patience
And the treasury of wisdom.
I save all living beings in the world by the Dharma
Out of my great compassion towards them.

The people were under the pressure
Of various sufferings.
They were fighting with the Maras
In order to emancipate themselves
From suffering.
Because I saw all this,
I expounded various teachings to them.
I expounded many sūtras with skillful expedients.

Now I know that they can understand the Sutra
Of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Therefore, I expound it to them lastly
Just as the king took the brilliant gem
Out of his top-knot
And gave it [to the bravest man lastly].

See Worthy of the Jewel in His Topknot

On the Journey to a Place of Treasures