The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p190Some interpreters of the Lotus Sutra may prefer to think that this space below the earth is a symbolic reference to the popular Mahayana Buddhist idea of emptiness. These bodhisattvas, they claim, emerge from emptiness. This could be right. But the Lotus Sutra is not much concerned with the concept of “emptiness,” using it in a positive sense only very few times. So it seems to me to be unlikely that it is what is behind this story. What this story wants to affirm, I believe, is not the reality of emptiness, but the reality and importance of this world, this world of suffering, a world that is, after all, Shakyamuni Buddha’s world and our world.
Category Archives: LS32
Dwelling in the Place of Action
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p90The first of the Four Ways [Peaceful Practices] is that the bodhisattva who wishes to offer teachings must dwell in the place of action and the place of closeness. “Dwelling in the place of action” means practicing patience and seeking harmony with others in everything that you do. If you are patient and tolerant of others, then you can create peace and joy for yourself, and thanks to that, those around you will also feel peaceful and joyful. Patience is not weakness, but a stance of moderation and restraint. You do not try to force people to adopt your views. “Dwelling in the place of closeness” means that practitioners do not choose to approach those who have worldly power, who practice wrong livelihood, or who have wrong intentions. This does not mean that you reject such people, but you do not seek them out to try to convert them.
Day 18
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, we hear Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva ask the Buddha how an ordinary Bodhisattva should go about preaching the Lotus Sutra.
Thereupon Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, the Son of the King of the Dharma, said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! These Bodhisattvas are extraordinarily rare. They made a great vow to protect, keep, read, recite and expound this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the evil world after your extinction because they are following you respectfully. World-Honored One! How should an [ordinary] Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas expound this sūtra in the evil world after [your extinction]?”
The Buddha said to him:
“A Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who wishes to expound this sūtra in the evil world after [my extinction] should practice four sets of things.
“First, he should perform proper practices, approach proper things, and then expound this sūtra to all living beings.
See A Happy Life
Three Truths About 10 Worlds
This was written in advance of Sunday’s meeting of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area. Having whined at an earlier meeting that discussion of the Lotus Sutra didn’t include enough actual discussion of the Lotus Sutra, it was decided to allow attendees more opportunity to contribute. In the future, Mark Herrick will provide his overview of that month’s chapter on the first Sunday and the third Sunday will be given over to the “favorite” verses of attendees. Today’s service, an unusual fifth Sunday service was a dry run. Here’s a video of today’s discussion.
In Chapter 1, Introductory, the stage is set for the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. While I normally focus on the this stage as a whole, elements of this staging invite closer inspection. Consider the ray of light emitted by Śākyamuni from the white curls between his eyebrows, illuminating all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east. That light reaches down to the Avchi Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world.
The congregation can see from this world the living beings of the six regions of those worlds.
Mañjuśrī recalls seeing the same good omen from a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light. That Tathagata emitted a ray of light from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand Buddha-worlds in the east just as Śākyamuni did.
Consider for a moment that we don’t normally see this simultaneous nature of the 10 worlds. We see our provisional existence but not how each world interpenetrates the other. In our provisional existence we imagine nine realms separate from us, nine doors leading to a different place and within each of those nine doors. Interconnected, but not interpenetrating.
With the light of the Buddha’s wisdom, the simultaneous existence of the 10 worlds is revealed in the same way that the light of our Sun passing through a prism reveals the rainbow of colors inside.
These are not two truths — a separate 10 worlds or an interpenetrating existence; a provisional reality or emptiness — but one truth, the Middle Way.
As explained in Lotus Seeds:
The Truth of the Middle Way is the teaching that Emptiness and Provisionality are different ways of pointing out that the reality of anything, including our own lives, transcends the categories of existence and non-existence.
Lotus Seeds
Upon Entering Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p86This passage [showing the naga girl attaining Buddhahood] in the Sutra offers another glimpse into the ultimate dimension. Right in that very place and in that very moment, the entire assembly was able to see a young child instantly realize the fruit of anuttara samyak sambodhi, the highest, most perfect enlightenment. This is the world of the ultimate dimension; there is nothing more to do or learn in order to be a Buddha and serve as a Buddha. Once you have arrived in the ultimate dimension it becomes possible to relax and do everything you need to do joyfully, without fear or anxiety. You recognize your innate Buddha nature and in that very moment you are already a Buddha, you are already what you want to become.
Day 17
Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
Having last month considered the meeting of Accumulated-Wisdom and Mañjuśrī bodhisattvas, we consider Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva’s question about Mañjuśrī’s efforts to teach the dharma.Mañjuśrī said to Accumulated-Wisdom, “Now you see the living beings whom I taught in the sea.”
Thereupon Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva praised him with gāthās:
Possessor of Great Wisdom and Virtue!
You were brave in saving innumerable living beings.
This great congregation and I understand
That you expounded
The truth of the reality of all things,
Revealed the teaching of the One Vehicle,
And led those innumerable living beings
[Into the Way] to Bodhi quickly.Mañjuśrī said, “In the sea I expounded only the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.”
Accumulated-Wisdom asked Mañjuśrī:
“The sūtra is exceedingly profound and wonderful. This is the treasure of all the sūtras. It is rare in the world. Do you know anyone who acted according to this sūtra so strenuously that he has already been qualified to become a Buddha quickly?”
Mañjuśrī answered:
“Yes. There is a daughter of Dragon-King Sagara [among those whom I taught]. She is eight years old. She is clever. She knows the karmas of all living beings. She obtained dhārāṇis. She keeps all the treasury of the profound and hidden core expounded by the Buddhas. She entered deep into dhyāna-concentration, and understood all teachings. She aspired for Bodhi in a ksana, and reached the stage of irrevocability. She is eloquent without hindrance. She is compassionate towards all living beings just as a mother is towards her babe. She obtained all merits. Her thoughts and words are wonderful and great. She is compassionate, humble, gentle and graceful. She [has already been qualified to] attain Bodhi[, and to become a Buddha quickly].”
The Naga Princess
That this girl is a dragon is interesting in itself. In the Indian text she is a naga, the daughter of the Naga King. Along with the garuda, nagas are very commonly found on South East Asian Theravada Buddhist temples. As was the case for most Indian mythical creatures, there were no corresponding mythical creatures in China. The Chinese had no nagas, but they did have dragons, and, both being associated with the sea, that was close enough to suggest translating “naga” into “dragon.” And so it is that in English one sometimes finds this girl referred to as a “Naga Princess.”
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p157
Reeves offers this footnote:
Nagas are a kind of sea serpent, often depicted as large king cobras. In Southeast Asia, however, they are thought of as mythical sea serpents and are often depicted a such in Southeast Asian Buddhist temples, usually resembling large snakes more than dragons. But Chinese translators of Buddhist texts did not have nagas in their imaginations. They were, however, quite familiar with dragons, an old symbol of good fortune in China. Thus, typically, naga was translated into lóng, the Chinese word for “dragon.” That is why dragons are so prominent in East Asian Buddhist temples and absent from those in Southeast Asia.
Though repeatedly referred to as a dragon princess, in this story it is as if the girl were human, and, apart from her introduction, that is the way she is treated in the story, and in subsequent Buddhist art. Almost always she is not imagined or depicted as a dragon but as a girl.
A Red Leaf
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p85In [Chapter 12] we also learn about an eight-year-old girl, the daughter of the naga king, who has the capacity to become a Buddha. This girl has a jewel of incalculable value, equal to the trichiliocosm (the cosmos), which she offered to the Buddha. What is the meaning of this? When we have something that is very precious, we say that it is as valuable as the trichiliocosm. Suppose while practicing walking meditation in the autumn we pick up a red leaf. If we’re able to see the ultimate dimension of that leaf, all the phenomena of the universe that helped create it – the galaxies, the sun and moon, the clouds and rain, the rivers and soil – then quite naturally that one small leaf becomes a very precious jewel, as valuable as the trichiliocosm. And if we give that leaf as an offering to the Buddha, then the merit of our offering is no less than the merit of the daughter of the naga king who offered a precious jewel to the Buddha. So we must not think that if we do not have precious jewels or wealth, then we have nothing to offer the Buddha. A pebble or a leaf, if we are able to see its true nature, has the same value as an incalculably precious jewel. When we can see into the ultimate dimension of things in this way, we can see their true value as something infinitely precious.
How to Keep the Buddha Alive
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p145-146The 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.
Day 16
Day 16 concludes Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures, and completes the Fourth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered the easy and difficult tasks, we conclude Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures with the Hōtōge verses.Since I attained
The enlightenment of the Buddha,
I have expounded many sūtras
In innumerable worlds.This sūtra is
The most excellent.
To keep this sūtra
Is to keep me.Good men!
Who will receive and keep this sūtra,
And read and recite it
After my extinction?
Make a vow before me
[To do all this]!It is difficult to keep this sūtra.
I shall be glad to see
Anyone keeping it even for a moment.
So will all the other Buddhas.
He will be praised by all the Buddhas.
He will be a man of valor,
A man of endeavor.
He should be considered
To have already observed the precepts,
And practiced the dhuta.
He will quickly attain
The unsurpassed enlightenment of the Buddha.Anyone who reads and recites this sūtra in the future
Is a true son of mine.
He shall be considered to live
On the stage of purity and good.Anyone, after my extinction,
Who understands the meaning of this sūtra,
Will be the eye of the worlds
Of gods and men.Anyone who expounds this sūtra
Even for a moment in this dreadful world,
Should be honored with offerings
By all gods and men.[Here ends] the Fourth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Each time at this point I enjoy recalling the story of why the Hōtōge verses are recited with a unique beat.