Category Archives: d16b

d16b, WONS

Keeping Their Promises at the Cost of Their Lives

[W]hen Śākyamuni Buddha who is a compassionate father, the Buddha of Many Treasures who is a compassionate mother, as well as Buddhas from all the worlds throughout the universe who assist the compassionate parental Buddhas to bear witness to the truth of the Lotus Sūtra came together in one place shining brightly as if the suns and moons were put together, the Buddha addressed the great crowd: “Who will uphold and recite and spread this Lotus Sūtra after My passing? State your vow now before Me.” The Buddha repeated this three times (“Appearance of a Stupa of Treasures” chapter). Then numerous great bodhisattvas filling the worlds in eight directions numbering 400 tens of thousand millions nayuta all vowed, lowered their heads deeply, held hands in the form of gasshō, and said in unison: “We will do exactly as the World Honored One commanded us.” They swore this three times loudly without sparing their voices (“Transmission” chapter). How can they not bear the suffering of the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra?

Fan Yü-ch’i of ancient China gave his head to Ching K’o, and a man called Chi Cha presented his treasured sword upon the gravestone of the Lord of Hsü in order to fulfill their promises. They were foreigners in China, uncivilized as Ainus. Nevertheless, they kept their promises at the cost of their lives, how much more so the great bodhisattvas who from the first have been deeply compassionate and vowed to bear the suffering of other people! Even without the commandment of the Buddha, how can they abandon the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra? Moreover, the Lotus Sūtra is the one that enabled them to attain Buddhahood, and receiving the solemn words of the Buddha, they made a vow respectfully before the Buddha. There is no question whatsoever that they will help the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra.

Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 65-66

d15b, d16b, Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Witness to the Truth

Even before the Lotus Sutra the Buddha intended his disciples to actively engage in teaching and transmitting the teachings. The difference in the Lotus Sutra is that now there is nothing being held back. The Buddha has broken down all the barriers and finally agreed to reveal the fundamental truth of all Buddhas. It is to this that Many Treasures Buddha responds based upon his vow. When we teach others about the Lotus Sutra we call Many Treasures Buddha to be witness to the truth we are sharing. You could say the magnet to attract Many Treasures Buddha is to teach others about the Lotus Sutra.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

stories, LS32, d16b

The Reality of Both the One and the Many

This image of the reality of one and many can also be seen in the image of Shakyamuni Buddha bringing together billions and billions of worlds to create a temporary unification of them into a single buddha land. Their reality as many lands does not disappear when they are brought together to function as one. Later in the Sutra they will return to being, as they were, many. In this way, Shakyamuni Buddha, as well as being the buddha of this world, is at the same time the Universal Buddha – the buddha who, by virtue of his embodiments, is represented or present everywhere throughout the universe.

One reason that this holding together of the reality of both the one and the many is important in the Dharma Flower Sutra is that it provides a general framework for understanding the One Vehicle of many skillful means. It provides, in other words, a way of understanding through images how the many ways of Buddhism can all have an importance and reality within one Buddhism.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p142-143
Peaceful Action, d15b, d16b

Our Emanation Bodies

We should not think that it is only the Buddha who has so many manifestation bodies. If we look deeply we will also see that we have many emanation bodies as well. In the 1960s, I wrote a book called The Miracle of Mindfulness to help people learn the practice of mindfulness. In writing the book I drew upon the Satipatthana Sutta. But it is a simple book, very practical and easy to understand. I wrote it in the form of a letter to the workers of the School of Youth for Social Service, a community of young people we had established in Vietnam to help rebuild communities that were destroyed by the war. The book was intended to help our students practice mindfulness as they went about the difficult and sometimes dangerous work of relieving the suffering of the Vietnamese people. I saw that the practice of mindfulness would be very useful in this kind of situation. If our students were able to maintain mindfulness, to breathe and smile and keep a fresh outlook when bringing relief to others, their practice of mindfulness would at the same time nourish their hearts of loving kindness and compassion so that they could continue to do such difficult work. If they worked under too much stress and difficulty all the time and were not able to maintain mindfulness, if they became angry or resentful or began to feel sorry for themselves, they would not be able to achieve anything in their work. So I wrote The Miracle of Mindfulness to help these students.

At the time I wrote that small book, I could not have imagined the effect it would have in the world. It has been translated into twenty-five languages, reprinted many times, distributed in countries throughout the world, and I still receive letters from people who have experienced tremendous transformations in their lives and work from reading this simple book and learning the practice of mindfulness. This shows that we are not able to measure or anticipate the full effect over time of the work we do. Our works, our actions, our very way of being are our emanation bodies that travel through the world widely and continue to have an effect on others for a long time.

Every one of us has many emanation bodies in all parts of the world, but the result of these emanation bodies is not something we can easily measure. If we, like Buddha Shakyamuni, were to realize the miracle of gathering together all our manifestation bodies in an instant in one place, we would feel such great happiness, joy of a kind that we rarely experience. So we need to remember that our studies and practice are not only for our individual benefit but also benefit our family, community, nation, and the entire Earth. Our mistakes cause others to suffer, and our success in the practice can benefit many others. This is why it is so important to practice the art of mindfulness, so that our emanation bodies offer only love and compassion and bring benefit, not harm, to others.

The Buddha shows great faith in us by entrusting the wonderful Dharma to us. We can repay this trust and faith by becoming the arms and hands of the Buddha and continuing the Tathagata’s great work of leading all beings to the shore of liberation.

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p134-136
stories, LS32, d16b

How to Keep the Buddha Alive

The human death of Shakyamuni Buddha creates a problem for those who would follow after him – how to keep him alive despite his death, and how to keep his teaching, the Dharma, alive without him to teach it.

Chapter 11 introduces in a special way the idea that the solution to this difficult problem is a matter of embodiment – the Buddha can be kept alive by those who embody him by embracing and following his teachings. And it is precisely because Shakyamuni Buddha was a human being – with a human body and other human limitations – that we human beings can be expected to embody the Dharma, that is, be the Buddha, in our lives, despite our having human bodies and very human limitations. It is through being embodied in very imperfect human beings that the life of the Buddha can become so long that it can even be said to be “eternal.”

[H]aving established through the powerful image of Buddhas coming to this world from all directions that the Buddha is somehow represented throughout the universe, the chapter ends with an appeal to those who can take up the difficult task of teaching the Dharma after the Buddha’s extinction to make a great vow to do so. The difficulty of teaching the Dharma is expressed in what has come to be known as “the nine easy practices and six difficulties.” They dramatically express the difficulty of teaching the Dharma. But this is not done to discourage us. The point, rather, is to have us understand that we too are called, even challenged, not to be teachers of a dead Dharma, of dead doctrine from the distant past, but to be teachers of the Dharma by embodying the very life of the Buddha, which is itself the Dharma, in our whole lives.

Through living the Dharma as much as possible ourselves, the Buddha too continues to live in our world.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p145-146
d16b, WONS

The Heart of the Eleventh Chapter of the Lotus Sūtra

I now realize, though dimly, the heart of the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures.” It is stated in this chapter: “Even a man as powerless as I can throw Mt. Sumeru over to countless numbers of Buddha lands. … Even more so, it is not easy to uphold the Lotus Sūtra in the evil world after the death of the Buddha.” Grand Master Dengyō interprets this in his Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sūtra (Hokke shūku): “The Buddha has determined that it is easy to spread the sūtras which are shallow in meaning, and difficult to spread those which are profound in meaning. A man should leave the shallow and take the deep. Therefore, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, putting faith in Śākyamuni Buddha, spread the Lotus Sūtra in China; and all the kinsfolk of Mt. Hiei, receiving the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra from T’ien-t’ai, spread it in Japan.”

Kembutsu Mirai-ki, Testimony to the Prediction of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 178

d15b, d16b, WONS

A Shadow in the Dark

We do not see a shadow in the dark. Man does not see a flight path of a bird in the air. We do not see the path of a fish in the sea. We do not see everyone in the world reflected on the moon. However, a person with “heavenly eyes” sees all these. The scene of the chapter “Appearance of a Stupa of Treasures” exists in the mind of Lady Nichinyo. Though ordinary people do not see it, Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and Buddhas throughout the universe recognize it. I, Nichiren, also can see it. How blessed are you!

Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 138

stories, LS32, d15b, d16b

The Teaching of the Truth

Whatever else it is, the great Stupa in this story is a literary device providing a reason for assembling all of the buddhas from all directions. This Stupa springing out of the earth from the past could be material from a dream, or from a rich imagination. But it can also be said that Abundant Treasures Buddha symbolizes the truth, the Dharma that does not change and is a kind of ground or basis for all teaching of the Dharma. In this way, Shakyamuni Buddha can symbolize the teacher of the Dharma. And the two buddhas sitting together on a single seat would indicate both that the teacher is to be respected as much as the truth itself, and the opposite, namely, that however devoted we may be to Shakyamuni Buddha for teaching, we should remember that our devotion should be based on his teaching the truth.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p143
Vasubandhu, d15b, d16b

The Realm of the True Characteristic of the Buddhas

The Stupa of Prabhūtaratna Tathāgata manifesting the purity of all the buddha lands shows that in the realm of the true characteristic of the buddhas there is the splendor of various jeweled arrays. It reveals eight things: 1) the stupa, 2) the extent, 3) the consolidation, 4) the establishment, 5) the manifestation of countless buddhas, 6) being removed from impurities, 7) the prolific adornment, and 8) occupying the same seat in the stupa.

  1. “The stupa” is revealed to show the establishment of the Tathāgata’s relics.
  2. “The extent” is an expediency showing the splendor and purity of all the buddha lands. This purity, which transcends mundane reality, is produced from roots of good merit without outflows. It is not the case that it is produced from mundane roots of good merit with outflows.
  3. “The consolidation” is revealed to show that the pure absolute body of all the buddhas is incorporated in the single essence of the body of Buddha Prabhūtaratna.
  4. “The establishment” is revealed to show the self-mastery of the absolute body of all the buddhas, the tathāgatas.
  5. “The manifestation of countless buddhas” is revealed to show there is no difference in the acts done by the buddhas.
  6. “Being far removed from impurities” is revealed to show the universality and the purity of all the buddha worlds.
  7. “The prolific adornment” is revealed to show the same adorned nature of all buddha worlds.
  8. “[Prabhūtaratna and Śākyamuni] occupying the same seat in the stupa” is revealed to show that transformation buddhas and non-transformation buddhas, absolute buddhas and enjoyment buddhas, all accomplish a great deed.

Hereafter, it should be known that the power of the Dharma, the power of preserving it, and the power of practice are shown.
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 144-145

stories, d15b, d16b

The Past Alive Today

Abundant Treasures Buddha, we are told several times, is extinct, having died in the distant past and his body presumably having been cremated. Yet here he is in the present, speaking and acting very much alive. This seems to cast some doubt on the reality of death or the meaning of “extinction.” But it expresses an important truth – the past is not merely dead and gone; it is alive, or at least can be, in the present.

This is not to say that the Dharma Flower Sutra denies the pastness of the past or abolishes the reality of time. But it does affirm that in an important sense the past can be alive in the present. This is, of course, an anticipation of what the Sutra affirms about Shakyamuni Buddha. He too died and was cremated long ago, but is alive still.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p144