In chapter twenty-six of the Lotus Sūtra various beings offer protective incantations called dhārāṇi to safeguard the practitioners of the Lotus Sūtra. One set of these is offered by a formerly malevolent spirit named Hārītī (J. Kishimojin) and her ten daughters and other children and attendants. Hārītī, whose name means “stealer of children,” is a female yakṣas, or yaksini, who originally came from the town of Rājagṛha. The yakṣas are one of the eight kinds of supernatural beings who are said to revere and protect the Dharma. Originally the yakṣas appeared as the spirits of the trees and forests and even villages; but they had a fierce side as well, and in their more demonic aspect came to be called rākṣasas. According to legend, Hārītī was obsessed with eating the children of Rājagṛha. Neither King Bimbisāra nor even the devas were able to stop her, so in desperation the townspeople turned to Śākyamuni Buddha. The Buddha visited her home while she was away and used his supernatural powers to hide her youngest son under his alms bowl. When Hārītī returned and could not find her son she was distraught and finally she herself sought out the Buddha. The Buddha then pointed out to her that if she felt so badly about missing even one child out of 500, she should consider how badly the parents of Rājagṛha must feel when she takes away their children when they have so few to begin with. Hearing this, Hārītī felt remorse and compassion for those she had harmed. She repented of her actions; took refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; took the five precepts; and vowed to protect the people of Rājagṛha. The Buddha then restored her youngest son to her. In return the Buddha had his monks, from that time on, make a symbolic offer of their food to the hungry ghosts. Hārītī came to be considered a protector of children and women giving birth as well as a protector of the Dharma, and her gentle image as a “giver of children” would sometimes cause her to be confused with Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. As can be seen in chapter twenty-six of the Lotus Sūtra, her fierce nature showed itself once more in her vow to protect the practitioners of the sūtra, for she and her children sang to the Buddha: “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.” (Murano 2012, p. 335) This statement is cited as one example of how the Lotus Sūtra also contains the method of subduing.
Open Your Eyes, p562-563Category Archives: LS32
The “Jiga-Ge” Verse
Now Hōren Shōnin, the principal mourner, states that he read and recited the “jiga-ge” verse every morning during the last 13 years. The merit of having done so is immeasurable, something only the Buddhas can comprehend.
The Lotus Sūtra is the bone-marrow of the holy teachings of the Śākyamuni Buddha preached during His lifetime. In particular, the “jiga-ge” verse at the end of the 16th chapter, “Life Span of the Buddha,” is the spirit of the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sūtra. It is the life of the Buddhas in the past, present, and future, and the “jiga-ge” verse is the eyes of the bodhisattvas throughout the universe. I am not speaking of the merit of the “jiga-ge” verse arbitrarily. It is clearly preached by the Buddha in the “Variety of Merits” chapter following the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter. According to this chapter, the number of people who became Buddhas by listening to the preaching of the “jiga-ge” verse are as numerous as the number of dust particles produced by smashing the triple-thousand worlds. What is more, those who attain enlightenment through the six chapters beginning with the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter, too, have done so due to the residual merit of the “jiga-ge” verse.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 55-56
Day 1
Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Having last month been introduced to the Buddha on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa in the City of King-House and the vast audience of great bhikṣus and bodhisattvas, we meet the gods and other creatures in the vast congregation.
Sakra-Devanam-Indra was also present. Twenty thousand gods were attending on him. There were also Beautiful-Moon God, Universal-Fragrance God, Treasure-Light God, and the four great heavenly-kings. Ten thousand gods were attending on them. Freedom God and Great-Freedom God were also present. Thirty thousand gods were attending on them. Brahman Heavenly-King who was the lord of the Saha-World, Great Brahman Sikhin, and Great Brahman Light were also present. Twelve thousand gods were attending on them.
There were also the eight dragon-kings: Nanda Dragon-King, Upananda Dragon-King, Sagara Dragon-King, Vasuki DragonKing, Taksaka Dragon-King, Anavatapta Dragon-King, Manasvin Dragon-King, and Utpalaka Dragon-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants. There were also the four kiṃnara-kings: Dharma Kiṃnara-King, Wonderful-Dharma Kiṃnara-King, Great-Dharma Kiṃnara-King, and DharmaKeeping Kiṃnara-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.
There were also the four gandharva-kings: Musical GandharvaKing, Musical-Voice Gandharva-King, Beautiful Gandharva-King, and Beautiful-Voice Gandharva-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.
There were also the four asura-kings: Balin Asura-King, Kharaskandha Asura-King, Vemacitrin Asura-King, and Rahu Asura-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.
There were also the four garuda-kings: Great-Power-Virtue Garuda-King, Great-Body Garuda-King, Great-Fulfillment GarudaKing, and Free-At-Will Garuda-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.
A Sutra for All the Living
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p32Monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, gods, dragons, satyrs, centaurs, ashuras, griffins, chimeras, pythons, humans and nonhumans, minor kings, and holy wheel-rolling kings, and others are all addressed by the Buddha in Chapter 1. What we should understand from this is that Buddha Dharma is not only for Buddhists, not only for those people who are good, and not only for human beings. Even gods and other heavenly creatures come to hear the Buddha’s teaching.
There is an important truth here. While the Lotus Sutra, like any book, is very much a human creation, its significance goes beyond the human. The range of concern, in other words, is not limited to the human species, but extends to all the living. In part, this sense of cosmic importance is a reflection of the rich Indian imagination at the time the sutras were being compiled. People simply assumed that the world was populated with a rich variety of what we regard as mythical beings.
This imaginative vision urges us to reach out beyond what our eyes can see and our hands can touch, to understand ourselves as being significantly related to a much larger universe that is located in and transcends ourselves, our families, countries, and even species. It is a vision that urges us to imagine ourselves as part of a vast cosmos in which our own lives are important.
Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1
Having mentioned yesterday the idea that merits vary according to own’s karma, I want to show how this plays into what the Buddha chose to teach.
“O you of good intent! By virtue of sitting upright and properly for six years at the place of the Way beneath the bodhi tree, I realized and achieved the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. With the insight of a buddha I perceived that not everything should be explained. What is the reason for this? It is that the conditioned desires of all living beings are not the same. Since conditioned desires differ, ways of expounding the Dharma are many and various. For more than forty years I have expounded the Dharma in all manner of ways through adeptness in skillful means, but the core truth has still not been revealed. That is why living beings differ regarding realization of the Way, and do not realize and quickly achieve ultimate enlightenment.
“O you of good intent! The Dharma is like water that can wash away dirt and grime. Whether coming from a well or a pond, a stream or a river, a valley or a ditch, or an ocean, the water contained in all of these can effectively wash all kinds of dirt and grime away. So it is also with the water of the Dharma: it can cleanse living beings of the dirt of all delusive worldly passions. O you of good intent! The character of the water is the same even though streams, rivers, wells, ponds, valleys, ditches, and oceans are each different and distinct. So it is also with the character of the Dharma: it removes and washes away the dirt of delusive passions equally and without discrimination; the three teachings,14 the four fruits, and the two ways, however, are not one and the same.
“O you of good intent! Although the water from all of these places is cleansing, a well is not a pond, a pond is neither a stream nor a river, and valleys and ditches are not oceans. The Tathāgata—Hero of the World, in total command of the Dharma—has expounded various teachings that are also like this. The initial-period discourses, the middle-period discourses, and the latter-period discourses are all able to remove and wash away delusive worldly passions of living beings. But the initial-period discourses are not the middle ones, and the middle-period discourses are not the latter ones. The initial-, middle-, and latter-period discourses express the same thing, yet they differ from each other in meaning.
The sutra goes on to explain the differences of the various teachings and then concludes:
“And so, you of good intent, starting from when I established the Way and first began to expound the Dharma, until this moment in which I am discoursing on the all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, there has never been a time when I have not expounded suffering, emptiness, ever changingness, nonexistence of self, non-reality, non-unreality, non- greatness, non-smallness, intrinsic non-origination, continuing non-cessation, the formlessness of all things, that aspects and natures of phenomena neither come nor go, and that the four modes are the dynamic of living beings.
“O you of good intent! What all this means is that the buddhas have but one message: they are able to conform universally to all voices by means of a single sound. From a single body they are able to manifest embodiments as countless and immeasurable as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each embodiment, manifest various shapes as countless as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each shape, display appearances as countless as some millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands. O you of good intent! This, in fact, is the profound and unimaginable realm of all of the buddhas! It is neither knowable by those of the two vehicles nor reachable by bodhisattvas in the tenth development stage! Only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom it completely! O you of good intent! Thus do I expound the transcendent, profound, incomparable, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra! Its content and principles are true and correct, and its value is supreme and unsurpassed. It is embraced by the buddhas of the past, present, and future together. It is impervious to the influence of disruptive forces and the influence of differing views, and is neither corrupted nor destroyed by any deluded perception or the cycle of births and deaths. If great-being bodhisattvas wish to achieve ultimate enlightenment quickly, they should achieve mastery in the practice of this deeply profound, unsurpassed, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra.”
Underscore: the buddhas have but one message.
Between Day 32 and Day 1: Equality and Differences
Last month I mentioned the goal of practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, this month I was struck by the equality and differences in this.
Ānanda! When monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, heavenly beings (devas), nāgas, others of the eight classes of ever-present guardian spirits, or any living beings are internalizing6 the Great Vehicle sutras, practicing in accordance with the Great Vehicle, aspiring to a Great Vehicle consciousness, and would be pleased to see an embodiment of the bodhisattva Universal Sage, take joy in seeing the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha, be happy to see Śākyamuni Buddha as well as buddhas that emanate from him, and be glad to achieve purification of the six sense faculties, they should learn this way of contemplation. Beneficial effects of this contemplation are the elimination of encumbrances and the perception of extraordinary and wondrous things.
As a result of resolutely internalizing and keeping faith with it, and wholeheartedly pursuing mastery of it, a practitioner will become continuously conscious of the Great Vehicle without immersion into a specialized focus of mind, and he or she will gain perception of Universal Sage within the course of one to three-times-seven days. A practitioner who has great encumbrances will gain perception of him after seven-times-seven days have passed. A practitioner with greater encumbrances will gain perception after one more rebirth, and a practitioner with yet more serious encumbrances will gain perception after two more rebirths. Further, a practitioner with even graver encumbrances will gain perception after three more rebirths. Karmic consequences differ like this—that is why there are variations in my ways of explanation.
It is fitting that the closing sutra of the Threefold Lotus Sutra reminds us that the promises made will reward everyone. We are all equal. It is the encumbrances of our past karma that create the illusion of differences in individual rewards. This is markedly underscored in Chapter 17 of the Lotus Sutra in the discussion of The Variety of Merits received by those who had heard from the Buddha that the duration of his life was so many kalpas.
What the Buddha had in Mind
After entrusting the essential dharma of five characters to the bodhisattvas who appeared from underground, the Buddha ascended from the Stupa of Treasures. Standing in the sky, the Buddha tapped the heads of Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun and moon, the Four Heavenly Kings and others three times, and entrusted them with the expanded and concise teachings of the Lotus Sūtra (though without the essential dharma) as well as all the sūtras preached before and after the Lotus Sūtra. This was for the sake of saving the people in the 2,000-year period of the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma. Thereafter, when the Buddha preached the Nirvana Sūtra, He again expounded the Lotus as well as pre-Lotus sūtras, entrusting them to such great bodhisattvas as Mañjuśrī. This was the preaching regarding the benefit of gleaning after the harvest of the Lotus Sūtra.
Thus what the Buddha transmitted was not the same, so the task of propagation after the death of the Buddha was limited according to the content of transmission. Accordingly Kāśyapa, Ānanda and others spread only the Hinayāna sūtras without expounding the Mahāyāna sūtras. Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga and others spread the provisional Mahāyāna sūtras without preaching the One Vehicle true teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Even though they preached the Lotus Sūtra, they merely suggested its teaching, or they preached merely a part of the theoretical section without discussing the beginning and ending of the Buddha’s guidance.
Appearing in this world as the avatars of Avalokiteśvara and Medicine King Bodhisattva, Grand Masters Nan-yüeh and T’ien-t’ai expounded both the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna sūtras, provisional and true teachings, the theoretical and essential sections of the Lotus Sūtra, as well as such doctrines as the beginning and ending of the Buddha’s guidance and the eternal relationship between the Buddha and His disciples. Moreover, they advocated the theory of “sūtras which had been preached, are being preached, and will be preached,” claiming that the Lotus Sūtra was supreme among all the holy teachings preached in the lifetime of the Buddha. Their critical classification of teachings is superior to those of commentators in India and many masters in China. Tripiṭaka masters of both old and new translations do not equal to Nan-yüeh and T’ien-t’ai at all. Founders of both exoteric and esoteric Buddhist schools cannot compete with them. The two grand masters, however, were still basing themselves on the whole or parts of the Lotus Sūtra without expounding its essence, the five characters. Although they themselves knew it, they did not convey this to others. It was solely because they correctly remembered what was entrusted to them and respected what the Buddha had in mind.
Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 162.
Day 32
Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month concluded Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we return to the top and witness the arrival of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance, came from a world [in the distance of many worlds] to the east [of this Sahā-World]. He was accompanied by innumerable, uncountable great Bodhisattvas. All the worlds quaked as he passed through. [The gods] rained down jeweled lotus-flowers, and made many hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds of music. He was also surrounded by a great multitude of innumerable gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. They reached Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa of the Sahā-World by their virtues and supernatural powers. [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] worshiped [the feet of] Śākyamuni Buddha with his head, walked around the Buddha [from left] to right seven times and said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which you expounded in this Sahā World, from a remote world in which lives Treasure-PowerVirtue-Superior-King Buddha. I came here with many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattvas in order to hear and receive [this Sūtra]. World-Honored One! Tell me how the good men or women who live after your extinction will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!”
The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:
“The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: 1. secure the protection of the Buddhas, 2. plant the roots of virtue, 3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and 4. resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”
The Name of Universal Sage
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p295-296The title of Chapter 28 of the Lotus Sutra can reasonably be translated as “Encouragement of Universal Sage Bodhisattva.” There is widespread agreement among translators about the term “encouragement” in this title, but not about the name of the bodhisattva, in Sanskrit known as Samantabhadra.
In Chinese he is consistently known as P’u-hsien (Puxian) and in
Japanese, pronouncing the same Chinese characters, he is known as Fugen. The first of the two Chinese characters in the name means “universal” or “universally.” It is the same character as that found in the title of Chapter 25 of the Dharma Flower Sutra, the chapter on the Universal Gateway of Kwan-shih-yin Bodhisattva. In both cases, this universality has not so much to do with being everywhere as with being open or available to everyone.The meaning of the second character in the name of this bodhisattva is more problematic. It clearly can mean “virtue” or “virtuous,” and most often does. Thus, the name has been rendered as “Universal Virtue” or “Universal Good.” And since to be virtuous is to be worthy, one translator has used “Universally Worthy.” The character in question can also mean “wise” or “wisdom.” And so the name has also been translated as “Universally Wise.” In an attempt to combine virtue and wisdom in a single term, like one other translator of the Lotus Sutra, I think “Universal Sage” is the most appropriate name in English, as a sage is normally both virtuous and wise. The excellent translation of the Lotus Sutra into modern French also uses “Sage.”
Spreading the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration
The heart of this essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” (an absolute faith in the five-character title of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma), was not transmitted even to the most trusted disciples such as Bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī or Medicine King, and certainly not the lower-ranking bodhisattvas. Instead the Buddha called out numerous bodhisattvas from underground, for whom He expounded it during the preaching of eight chapters following the fifteenth chapter in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra and entrusted them with the task of spreading it in the Latter Age of Degeneration.
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 148