Category Archives: LS32

Eyes, d16b, WONS

Nichiren and the Precepts

It is clear that Nichiren was no longer advocating even the Mahāyāna precepts of the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra. He believed that the practice of revering the true spirit of the Lotus Sūtra by invoking its title transcended any precept codes or particular Buddhist practices or lifestyles inherited from the past as those were all just provisional methods based on provisional teachings that were no longer efficacious. The following statements of his in other writings also express his view that faith in the Lotus Sūtra is what leads to buddhahood and not the observance of precepts:

Speaking of Ajātaśatru and Devadatta: “I am convinced that ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration commit sins more or less. Whether or not such a man can reach Buddhahood depends not on how serious his sin is but whether or not he believes in the Lotus Sūtra. (Hori 2002, p. 188)

It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, the “Appearance of the Stūpa of Treasures” chapter, ‘Upholding this sūtra is what is called observing the precepts.’ (Hori 2004, p. 214)

Open Your Eyes, p467-468
LS32

Day 24

Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 24 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the eight hundred merits of the body, we consider the 1200 merits of the mind.

“Furthermore, Constant-Endeavor! The good men or women who keep, read, recite expound or copy this sūtra after my extinction, will be able to obtain twelve hundred merits of the mind. When they hear even a gāthā or a phrase [of this sūtra] with their pure minds, they will be able to understand the innumerable meanings [of this sūtra]. When they understand the meanings [of this sūtra] and expound even a phrase or a gāthā [of this sūtra] for a month, four months, or a year, their teachings will be consistent with the meanings [of this sūtra], and not against the reality of all things. When they expound the scriptures of non-Buddhist schools, or give advice to the government, or teach the way to earn a livelihood, they will be able to be in accord with the right teachings of the Buddha. They will be able to know all the thoughts, deeds, and words, however meaningless, of the living beings of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds each of which is composed of the six regions. Although they have not yet obtained the wisdom-without-āsravas, they will be able to have their minds purified as previously stated. Whatever they think, measure or say will be all true, and consistent not only with my teachings but also with the teachings that the past Buddhas have already expounded in their sūtras.”

See Lapsing into Complacency and Conceit

LS32, d24b

Lapsing into Complacency and Conceit

[T]he major theme of the Buddha’s preaching in [Chapter 19] includes two points. The first is the Buddha’s encouragement to man to devote himself to his practice because if he practices the Lotus Sutra wholeheartedly he can improve both mentally and physically. The second is the Buddha’s admonition that because a true believer in the Lotus Sutra must fulfill the important duty of spreading the Buddha’s teachings, he should naturally possess the power to discern all things. That a person has not yet attained such a mental state is proof of the inadequacy of his personal practice. Therefore he must constantly examine himself so as not to lapse into complacency and conceit.

Buddhism for Today, p303
LS32

Day 23

Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 23 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month asked the benefits of those who rejoice at hearing the sūtra, we consider just how great those benefits are.

“Suppose the Jambudvipa was filled with wonderful treasures such as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, coral and amber; elephant-carts and horse-carts; and palaces and stately buildings made of the even treasures. Suppose a man who was seeking merits gave all those pleasing things [filling the Jambudvipa] to the living beings of four hundred billion asaṃkhya worlds according to their wishes. A world consists of the six regions. The living beings [of the six regions] are of one or another of the four kinds of births: oviparous, viviparous, from moisture, or without any medium. Some of them have form while others do not. Some have desire while others do not. Some have no feet while other have two feet or four or more. Having continued giving those alms to them for eighty years, this great almsgiver thought, ‘I gave those pleasing things to them according to their wishes. Now they are old and decrepit. They are more than eighty years old. Their hair is grey; and their face , wrinkled. They will die before long. I will lead them by the Dharma of the Buddha.’

“Then he collected them. He propagated the Dharma to them, led them by the Dharma, showed them the Dharma, taught them, benefited them, and caused them to rejoice. He caused them to attain in a moment the enlightenment of the Srota-āpanna, of the Sakrdāgāmin, of the Anāgāmin or of the Arhat, eliminate all āsravas, practice deep dhyāna-concentration without hindrance, and obtain the eight emancipations. What do you think of this? Do you think that the merits obtained by this great alms giver were many or not?”

Maitreya said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! I think that his merits were many, immeasurable and limitless. His merits were already immeasurable when he gave all those pleasing things to them. Needless to say, so were his merits when he caused them to attain Arhatship.”

The Buddha said to Maitreya:

“Now I will tell you clearly. The merits of the person who gave all those pleasing things to the living beings of the six regions of four hundred billion asaṃkhya worlds, and caused them to attain Arhatship are less than the merit of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing even a gāthā of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. The merits of the former person are less than a hundredth or a thousandth of the merits of the latter person, or less than the merits of the latter person divided by a hundred thousand billion. [The superiority of the merits of the latter person to those of the former person] cannot be explained by any calculation, parable or simile.

“Ajita! The merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma are immeasurable, limitless, asaṃkhya. Needless to say, so are the merits of the first person who rejoices at hearing [this sūtra] in the congregation. His merits are immeasurable, limitless, asaṃkhya and incomparable.

See Practicing for Oneself and Others

LS32, d23b

Practicing for Oneself and Others

The teaching of the Lotus Sutra is not limited to saving oneself from suffering; its aim is the bodhisattva practice of saving many others from their sufferings. When a person hears a single verse of the Lotus Sutra and receives it with joy, his feeling of joyful acceptance is sure to develop into the power of saving other people. …

For example, a person’s own enlightenment can be compared to one hundred koku of rice in a warehouse. He can live on such a large amount of rice all his life, but that is all that he can do. The rice may be eaten by weevils or grawed by rats or may rot without his realizing it. On the other hand, the sense of joy one first feels in receiving the Lotus Sutra is like one sho of rice seed sown in a field. These seeds have the possibility of growing and increasing to hundreds or thousands of koku of rice. Here lies the reason that the merits of a person who, hearing a single verse of the Lotus Sutra, receives it with joy are far more than those gained in the practice of giving the greatest material donations or even of bestowing the donation of the Law, causing others to attain arhatship. Thus we realize that while the merits obtained by giving something to others are great, the merits of its receivers are also great.

Buddhism for Today, p291
LS32

Day 22

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Day 22 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month repeated in gāthās the benefits to be received for believing for just a moment, we consider those who have firm faith.

Those who firmly believe [my longevity ],
And have no doubts about it
Even for a moment,
Will be able to obtain more merits [than he].

The Bodhisattvas who have practiced the Way
For the past innumerable kalpas,
Will believe my longevity
When they hear of it.

They will receive this sūtra on their heads,
And wish:
“May we live long and save all living beings
Just as the World-Honored One of today,
Who is the King of the Śākyas, [saves them]
By expounding the Dharma without fear
At the place of enlightenment
With [a voice like] a lion’s roar!
When we sit at the place of enlightenment,
Respected by all living beings,
May we preach that we also shall live
As long [as the World-Honored One of today]!”

Those who have firm faith,
And who are pure and upright,
And who hear much and memorize all teachings,
And who understand my words
According to their meaning,
Will have no doubts [about my longevity].

“Furthermore, Ajita! Those who hear of my longevity of which I told you, and understand the meaning of my words, will be able to obtain innumerable merits, which will help them attain the unsurpassed wisdom of the Tathāgata. Needless to say, those who hear this sūtra, cause others to hear it, keep it, cause others to keep it, copy it, cause others to copy it, or offer flowers, incense, necklaces, banners, streamers, canopies, perfumed oil, and lamps of butter oil to a copy of it, will be able to obtain immeasurable merits. These merits will help them obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

See Believing in a Righteous Faith and Endeavoring To Practice It

b4today, LS32, d22b

Believing in a Righteous Faith and Endeavoring To Practice It

[There are] twelve merits that a believer can obtain by holding an unshakable belief in the Buddha’s infinite life. In brief, the Buddha teaches us that if we establish the basic idea of faith, we can infinitely generate the power both to deepen our own faith and to extend it to others. He also teaches us that we can expect to surely gain the supreme merit of attaining Perfect Enlightenment in the future if we thoroughly devote ourselves to deepening our own faith.

It is, of course, very difficult to attain Perfect Enlightenment. As preached in this chapter, some bodhisattvas cannot attain it unless they practice religious disciplines for eight more lives. How much less can we know how many years and how much effort it will cost ordinary people?

What great hope it gives us to know that we will surely attain Perfect Enlightenment at some time if we only believe in a righteous faith and endeavor to practice it. As long as we have this hope, life is happy and worth living. A person earns or loses money; he falls in love or is disappointed in love; he rises to a higher position in time or he loses his job because of a trifling mistake; he brings up his child successfully or loses it. If we pass through life in this way with no purpose, merely repeating vain feelings of joy and sorrow, even though each moment seems to be substantial and important, we will have an inexpressible sense of emptiness upon looking back over our life. But if our life has the strong backbone of a righteous faith running through it, and if we have a firm belief that we can advance to Perfect Enlightenment step by step even though life has its apparent ups and downs, its various joys and sorrows, we will be able to pass easily through whatever hardships may come, however long life’s journey may be and however many rebirths it may entail.

Buddhism for Today, p263-264
d14b, WONS

Reasons Why the Lotus Sūtra Is Supreme

Now let us compare the merit of worshiping our Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha, not for an hour or two or a day or two but for as long as a kalpa (aeon) by putting the palms of our hands together before Him, looking up at His face with two eyes, bowing our heads and forgetting all other things, as if trying to extinguish the fire in one’s own head, as if a thirsty person thinks of only water and hungry people think of nothing but food—merit of ceaseless devotion to the Buddha as along as a kalpa—to the merit of praising and giving alms to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration without sincerity, as if a stepmother praises a stepchild. It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra that the merit of praising or giving alms to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration, even if not from a believing heart, is a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, and hundred million times superior to the merit of the physical, verbal and mental devotion to the Buddha for as long as a kalpa. Grand Master Miao-lê interprets this, “His merit is superior to the merit of devoting to a Buddha worthy of the ten epithets for the Buddha.” The ten epithets are the ten titles of the Buddha praising His virtue. Miao-lê is saying that the merit of devoting to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the merit of devoting to the Buddha equipped with the ten epithets. This is one of the 20 reasons why the Lotus Sūtra is supreme among all the Buddhist scriptures enumerated by Grand Master Miao-lê.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 48-49

LS32

Day 21

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Day 21 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the medicine and the unwillingness of some sons to take the medicine, we repeat the length of time since Śākyamuni became a buddha in gāthās:

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:

It is many hundreds of thousands
Of billions of trillions
Of asaṃkhyas of kalpas
Since I became the Buddha.

For the past innumerable kalpas
I have always been expounding the Dharma
To many hundreds of millions of living beings
In order to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood.

In order to save the [perverted] people,
I expediently show my Nirvāṇa to them.
In reality I shall never pass away.
I always live here and expound the Dharma.

Although I always live here
With the perverted people
I disappear from their eyes
By my supernatural powers.

When they see me seemingly pass away,
And make offerings to my śarīras,
And adore me, admire me,
And become devout, upright and gentle,
And wish to see me
With all their hearts
At the cost of their lives,
I reappear on Mt. Sacred Eagle
With my Saṃgha,
And say to them:
“I always live here.
I shall never be extinct.
I show my extinction to you expediently
Although I never pass away.
I also expound the unsurpassed Dharma
To the living beings of the other worlds
If they respect me, believe me,
And wish to see me.
You have never heard this
Therefore, you thought that I pass away.”

See The Omnipresent Buddha

b4today, LS32, d21b

The Omnipresent Buddha

Because the Original Buddha is omnipresent, a virtuous person will naturally be able to perceive his teachings that are incomprehensible to ordinary men, just as a television set with good reception transmits a sharp picture. However, ordinary people cannot come in contact with the Buddha’s teachings until such great religious leaders as the Lord Sakyamuni, Chih-i, Prince Shōtoku, Saichō, Dōgen, and Nichiren appear in this world and directly preach the Law.

Even if people of little virtue happen to live in the same age as such religious leaders, they cannot come in contact with the teachings preached by them. This is because … the appearance of buddhas means that we are aware of them. The same thing can be said of the words “to see a buddha.” However often we hear the Buddha’s teachings, we cannot see a buddha unless we direct our mind toward him. This is how we should interpret the words “to see a buddha.” Although the Original Buddha exists in all times and in all places, his salvation does not appear unless we see a buddha in the true sense. Simply because the Original Buddha always exists close to us, we cannot expect his help if we are idle and lead greedy and self-centered lives.

Buddhism for Today, p241-242