Two Buddhas, p82-83[I]n interpreting the parable of the burning house, the Buddha says to Śāriputra: “Now this triple world is my property and the sentient beings in it are my children. There are now many dangers here and I am the only one who can protect them.” Nichiren interpreted this passage as expressing Śākyamuni Buddha’s three virtues of sovereign, teacher, and parent, which are mentioned briefly in a commentary on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra by Zhiyi’s disciple Guanding (561-632). Nichiren asserted repeatedly that only Śākyamuni Buddha of the Lotus Sūtra possesses these virtues with respect to all beings of the present, Sahā world: He protects them, like a powerful ruler; he guides them, like an enlightened teacher; and he extends compassionate affection to them, like a benevolent parent. In contrast, other buddhas, such as Mahāvairocana (J. Dainichi), Bhaiṣajyaguru (Yakushi), or Amitābha (Amida), have no such connection to this world-sphere: “The buddha Amitābha is not our sovereign, not our parent, and not our teacher.” This reading enabled Nichiren to depict the devotion to the buddha Amitābha, so popular in his day, as the unfilial act of honoring a stranger above one’s own parent, or as even a form of treason, such as venerating the ruler of China or Korea over the ruler of Japan.
Category: d6b
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Śākyamuni Buddha’s Three Virtues of Sovereign, Teacher and Parent
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A Vehicle To Carry Lotus Sūtra Practitioners to ‘Pure land of Vulture Peak’
Two Buddhas, p82By Nichiren’s time, educated people were often familiar with these stories, and the Lotus Sūtra’s message that all could attain buddhahood was widely accepted — although how that buddhahood was to be achieved and how long it might take were subjects of debate. Nichiren himself sometimes alludes to these parables in advocating the daimoku as the path of realizing buddhahood in the present age, but he rarely dwells on them at length.
Nichiren makes only limited reference to the parable of the burning house that occupies most of this chapter’s narrative. In a few passages, he refers to the great cart drawn by a white ox metaphorically as the vehicle that will carry Lotus Sūtra practitioners to “the pure land of Vulture Peak,” that is, the realm of enlightenment, or as a war chariot that he rides in a great dharma battle between true and provisional teachings. He does not provide an extended discussion of the parable itself. Rather, as we go through these initial chapters of the Lotus, we will see how Nichiren drew out the significance of other passages that might not seem central to the sūtra’s narrative but that assume considerable importance in his reading, a reading that was shaped by the sūtra’s reception history, by his contemporary circumstances, and by his own perspective.
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Opening Buddhahood as a Real Possibility to Anyone
Two Buddhas, p82In the Lotus Sūtra’s narrative, Śāriputra is the first śrāvaka to receive the Buddha’s prediction of his future buddhahood. “When Śāriputra heard this,” Nichiren wrote, “he not only cut off the illusions arising from primal ignorance and reached the stage of the true cause [for liberation] but was acclaimed as the [future] tathāgata Padmaprabha [Lotus Light]. … This was the beginning of the attainment of buddhahood by all beings of the ten realms.”
For Nichiren, … the Lotus Sūtra’s message that persons of the two lesser vehicles could attain buddhahood was not about extending this possibility to a group of previously excluded individuals but, rather, established the mutual inclusion of the ten realms as the ground that, for the first time, opened buddhahood as a real possibility to anyone.
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Our Spiritual Parent
We can compare the Buddha’s method with that of parents who raise their children with tender loving care. Most of the time, the children are not aware of how much is being done for them. They take their parents’ love for granted. Often they fully appreciate all that their parents have done for them only after the parents have died. Then they wish they had displayed more gratitude when they had the chance. The parents, on the other hand, must be careful, and not give their children everything they ask for. Pampered children can quickly become spoiled and helpless. Their parents will not be able to care for them forever.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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The Unity of All Religions
Great Master Chih-i extolled the teaching of the One Vehicle as the unifying principle of Buddhism, presenting it as the doctrine which “opens the Three to reveal the One (Vehicle)” or “encompasses the three with the One.” Since the Three Vehicles symbolize all the sects of Buddhism united through this principle, the One Vehicle could also mean the unity of all the religions of the world, non-Buddhist as well as Buddhist.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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A Father and His Children
The Lotus Sutra contains seven parables, three of which are best known. The first is the “Parable of the Burning House of the Triple World” in Chapter Three. The second is the “Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son” in Chapter Four. The “Parable of the Physician and His Children” is presented in Chapter Sixteen. These three parables allegorically show the relationship between the Buddha and living beings by presenting a parental relationship. That is, faith in the Buddha is similar to the faith of a child in his father; and the Buddha’s compassion toward living beings is like a father’s love for his children. In other words, natural feelings drawn from the norms of everyday life eventually lead us toward faith in the Buddha.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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Dividing One Buddha Vehicle Into Three
The Sanskrit word upaya (“expedient”) conveys the meaning of leading to or approaching the goal. The Three Vehicles are such expedients leading to the goal, the true teaching of the One Buddha Vehicle. Expedients are not just means to an end; they have significance in and of themselves. They are valid steps in the process leading to the truth, the insight of the Buddha. Conversely speaking, the One Buddha Vehicle (the final single truth) is revealed in the form of expedient teachings, valid according to the complexity of our world view. So the sutra says, “The Buddhas divide the One Buddha Vehicle into three as an expedient” (p. 33).
Thus expedients equal the truth in essence. It is not true that “a white lie can be an expedient.” A lie, white or black, is not an expedient in the Buddhist sense. An expedient is true within its own context.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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An Image of the Buddha’s Personality
[The Parable of the Burning House] presents the Buddha as a concerned parent, and so brings an intimacy into the relationship between the Buddha and us ordinary people. On our part, the Buddha appears like a father to be loved and trusted in faith. On the Buddha’s part, living beings like us are his children to be saved with compassion. In all of Buddhist literature, there is no other example quite as vivid as this one in the Lotus Sutra, which presents the Buddha as the Savior of suffering humanity. Here in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha touches our hearts with a clear-cut image of his personality.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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The Great Vehicle
The Great Vehicle … teaches that there is only one true and perfect enlightenment, that of the Buddha. Anyone who achieves it becomes a Buddha, too. The Lotus Sutra teaches that everyone – whether they be “hearers,” “private Buddhas,” or Bodhisattvas – can attain true perfect enlightenment and become Buddhas. This perfect enlightenment of the Buddha is called anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
A key idea of the Lotus Sutra is that the three separate vehicles of “hearers,” “private Buddhas,” and Bodhisattvas are united in One Vehicle, the Buddha Vehicle.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
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Kamon
The studies conducted over so many centuries made possible a deeper understanding of the Lotus Sutra, and methodological standards for its interpretation were established. One example is called Kamon. It is a classification of the twenty-eight chapters into several sets for a systematic explanation of their meaning.
The major Kamon is the “Three Parts of Each of the Two Divisions of the Lotus Sutra” which was established by Great Master Chih-i. Most commentators since his time have accepted his guidelines. …
[T]he “Three Parts of Each of the Two Divisions of the Lotus Sutra” refers to the division of the Sutra into two main sections: the first half, consisting of Chapters One through Fourteen, and the second half, consisting of Chapters Fifteen through Twenty-eight. Kamon gives a detailed explanation of the reason for this division. The first half is named Shakumon, literally “imprinted gate.” Its main purpose is to teach how “hearers” and Pratyekabuddhas can attain Buddhahood in the One Vehicle. The second half is called Hommon, which means “Primal Gate” or “Primal Mystery.” This part reveals Sakyamuni to be the infinite, absolute Buddha, the Buddha who attained enlightenment in the remotest past but still leads living beings in the present. These two points are considered the fundamental ideas of the Lotus Sutra.
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra