The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p80The central message of the simile of the cloud and rain is that the Buddha’s teachings, the Dharma, is equally available to everyone. The Dharma can be found anywhere, ready to nourish each and every one of us. All living beings participate in a process in which they are nourished by the same living energy as everyone else, a living energy that Buddhists call “Buddha Dharma.” But we are not all alike. We live in different cultures, have different histories, use different languages, are born in different generations, have different abilities to hear and understand, and so on. This why the one Dharma has to be embodied in many different teachings and practices.
Category Archives: LS32
The Joy of the World for a Child to Propagate His Father’s Dharma
In lands at the beginning of the Latter Age, the True Dharma is slandered and those who live there have poor capacity for comprehension and faith in Buddhism. Therefore, instead of relying on bodhisattvas from other worlds, the Buddha called out great bodhisattvas from underground to entrust them with the task of transmitting the five characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō, the essence of the “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter, to the people in this world. It was also because those guided by the teaching of the theoretical section were not the original disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha.
As for entrusting the task to bodhisattvas from underground, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “These have been My (Śākyamuni’s) disciples since time in the eternal past who should propagate My dharma.” Grand Master Miao-lê says of this in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra (Wén-chü-chi): “It will be the joy of the world for a child to propagate his father’s dharma.” And Tao-hsien’s Supplement to the Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra (Fu-chêngchi) says: “Because it was the dharma preached by the Eternal Buddha in the infinite past, the task of spreading it was entrusted to those who received His guidance in the eternal past.”
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 155
Day 8
Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered the expedient the rich man used to entice his son to work for him, we consider the son taking control of the storehouses but still living in a hovel.
“The rich man gave him a name and called him son. The poor son was glad to be treated kindly, but still thought that he was a humble employee. Therefore, the rich man had him clear dirt for twenty years. After that the father and son trusted each other. Now the son felt no hesitation in entering the house of his father, but still lodged in his old place.
“World-Honored One! Now the rich man became ill. He knew that he would die soon. He said to the poor son, ‘I have a great deal of gold, silver, and other treasures. My storehouses are filled with them. You know the amounts of them. You know what to take, and what to give. This is what I have in mind. Know this! You are not different from me in all this. Be careful lest the treasures be lost!’
“Thereupon the poor son obeyed his order. He took custody of the storehouses of gold, silver, and other treasures, but did not wish to take anything worth even a meal from them. He still stayed in his old lodging. He could not yet give up the thought that he was base and mean.
Being Led to the Buddha
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p71-72[S]ometimes we are being led to the Buddha even when we do not know it. Even when we are not looking for the Buddha Way, probably we are being led to it. At the beginning of this story, the son is not looking for his father, at least not consciously. He is satisfied with a very low level of existence, almost bare subsistence. He has no ambition and feels no need to improve himself. It is the father who seeks him out and guides him. But what he guides him to is a gradual recovery of his self-confidence, and hence of his strength and his ability to contribute. The son is given guidance by the father not only because he is weak, but also because he is strong, at least potentially. We can be led by the Buddha precisely because the potential to become awakened, to enter the Way, is already in us.
Day 7
Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.
Having last month witnessed the arrival of the son at his father’s estate, we conclude today’s portion of Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.“He immediately dispatched a man standing beside him to quickly bring back the poor son. The messenger ran up to the poor son and caught him. The poor son was frightened. He cried, ‘You Devil! I have done nothing wrong. Why do you catch me?’
“The messenger pulled him by force. The poor son thought, ‘I am caught though I am not guilty. I shall be killed.’ More and more frightened, the poor son fainted and fell to the ground. Seeing all this in the distance, the father said to the messenger, ‘I do not want him any more. Do not bring him forcibly! Pour cold water on his face and bring him to himself! Do not talk with him any more!’
“The father said this because he had realized that his son was too base and mean to meet a noble man [like his father]. He knew that the man was his son, but expediently refrained from telling to others that that was his son. [The messenger poured water on the son. The son was brought to himself.] The messenger said to him, ‘Now you are released. You can go anywhere you like.’
“The poor son had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He stood up and went to a village of the poor to get food and clothing.
You Are Important
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p69The Dharma Flower Sutra stresses that each of us is somebody important – important to himself or herself, important to others, and important to the Buddha. Each of us is a person of great potential. For this reason we are sought after by the Buddha. Buddha’s wealth – supreme awakening or enlightenment – is not something you have to earn or purchase in any way; it already belongs to you; it was yours from before your birth; it is your rightful inheritance.
Day 6
Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month witnessed the great joy the children had riding in the carts, we consider how the Budddha lured the children to safety.“Śāriputra! The rich man did not save his children by his muscular power although he was strong enough. He saved them from the burning house with a skillful expedient and later gave them each a large cart of treasures.
“In the same manner, I save all living beings from the burning house of the triple world, not by my powers or fearlessness, but with a skillful expedient. I expounded the teaching of the Three Vehicles: the Śrāvaka-Vehicle, Pratyekabuddha-Vehicle, and Buddha-Vehicle, as an expedient. I said, ‘Do not wish to live in the burning house of the triple world! Do not crave for inferior forms, sounds, smells, tastes or things tangible! If you cling to them and crave for them, you will be burned by them. Get out of the triple world quickly and obtain the teaching of the Three Vehicles: the Śrāvaka-Vehicle, Pratyekabuddha-Vehicle, and Buddha-Vehicle! I now assure you that you will never fail [to obtain those vehicles]. Exert yourselves, make efforts!’
“With this expedient, I caused them to advance. I said to them again, ‘Know this! This teaching of the Three Vehicles is extolled by the saints. This teaching saves you from any attachment or bond or desire. Ride in these Three Vehicles, eliminate āsravas, obtain the [five] faculties, the [five] powers, the [seven] ways to enlightenment, and the [eight right] ways, and practice dhyāna concentrations, emancipations, and samadhis so that you may be able to enjoy immeasurable peace and pleasure!’
See Means and Ends
Means and Ends
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p53-54Even the very fancy carriage that the father gives to the children is, after all, only a carriage, a vehicle. All of our teachings and practices should be understood as devices, as possible ways of helping people. They should never be taken as final truths.
Appropriate means are means, not ends. In this sense they have only instrumental and provisional importance. While it is true that the notion of skillful means is sometimes used to describe something provisional, it is important to recognize that being instrumental and provisional does not mean that such methods are in any sense unimportant. At one point at least, the Dharma Flower Sutra even suggests that it is itself an appropriate means. The context is one in which the Sutra is praising itself and proclaiming its superiority over others (“those who do not hear or believe this sutra suffer a great loss”), but then has those who embrace the Sutra in a future age say:
When I attain the Buddha way,
I will teach this Dharma to them
By skillful means,
That they may dwell within it.
Day 5
Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable
Having last month heard reaction of the great multitude to Śāriputra’s prediction, we consider Śāriputra’s doubts.Thereupon Śāriputra said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! Now my doubts are gone. You assured me of my future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. These twelve hundred people now have freedom of mind. When they had something more to learn, [that is to say, when they had not yet completed their study for Arhatship,] you taught them, saying, ‘My teaching is for the purpose of causing you to emancipate yourselves from birth, old age, disease, and death, and to attain Nirvāṇa.’ The [two thousand] people, including those who have something more to learn and those who have nothing more to learn, also think that they attained Nirvāṇa because they emancipated themselves from such a view as ‘I exist,’ or ‘I shall exist forever,’ or ‘I shall cease to exist.’ But [both the twelve hundred people and the two thousand people] are now quite perplexed because they have heard from you [the Dharma] which they had never heard before. World-Honored One! In order to cause the four kinds of devotees to remove their doubts, explain why you said all this to them! ”
Thereupon the Buddha said to Śāriputra:
“Did I not tell you, ‘The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, expound the Dharma with expedients, that is, with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, with various similes, and with various discourses only for the purpose of causing all living beings to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi’? All these teachings of the Buddhas are for the purpose of teaching Bodhisattvas.
Only Bodhisattvas
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p54-55Why does the Buddha say in Chapter 3 that he will teach the One Vehicle, but only to bodhisattvas? In the first chapter, we saw that the Dharma Flower Sutra celebrates both listening and teaching or preaching. In other words, it takes two to teach – teaching is not teaching unless someone is taught. Thus in the first chapter, heavenly flowers fall on both the Buddha and the audience. That idea is extended here with the idea that the Buddha preaches only to bodhisattvas. The point is that to hear the Dharma is to be already, to that degree, a bodhisattva. This is because to truly hear the Dharma is to take it into one’s life, thus to live by it, thus to be a bodhisattva. So it can be said that the buddhas come into the world only to convert people into bodhisattvas.