Category Archives: LS32

LS32

Day 20

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 20 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month considered the doubts of Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and the innumerable Bodhisattvas, we consider the handsome, black-haired man twenty-five years who says men 100 years old are his children.

“World-Honored One! It is difficult for anyone in the world to believe this. It is as difficult as to believe a handsome, black-haired man twenty-five years old who points to men a hundred years old and says, ‘They are my sons,’ or as to believe men a hundred years old who point to a young man and say, ‘This is our father. He brought us up.’ You are like the young man. It is not long since you attained enlightenment. But it is many thousands of billions of kalpas since the great multitude of these Bodhisattvas began to practice the Way strenuously in order to attain the enlightenment of the Buddha. During that time they entered into, stayed in, and came out of many hundreds of thousands of billions of samadhis, and obtained great supernatural powers. They performed brahma practices for a long time. They learned good teachings one by one, and obtained the ability to answer questions skillfully. They are regarded as the treasures of the world of men by all the people of the world because they are rare. Today you say that, after you attained the enlightenment of the Buddha, you caused them to aspire for enlightenment, taught them, and led them into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

“World-Honored One! You did these deeds of great merit although it is not long since you attained Buddhahood. We believe that your words given according to the capacities of all living beings are infallible, and that we understand all that you know. But the beginners in Bodhisattvahood after your extinction, if they hear these words of yours, will not receive them by faith but commit the sin of violating the Dharma. Therefore, World-Honored One! Explain all this so that we may be able to remove our doubts and that the good men in the future may have no doubts when they hear these words of yours!”

The Daily Dharma from April 4, 2020, offers this:

World-Honored One! It is difficult for anyone in the world to believe this. It is as difficult as to believe a handsome, black-haired man twenty-five years old who points to men a hundred years old and says, ‘They are my sons,’ or as to believe men a hundred years old who point to a young man and say, ‘This is our father. He brought us up.’

Maitreya Bodhisattva explains his perplexity to the Buddha in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha has just revealed that all of the Bodhisattvas who have appeared from underground to continue teaching the Wonderful Dharma after the extinction of the Buddha have been taught by the Buddha in the time since he became enlightened. Maitreya realizes that his doubts are no different from the doubts of those gathered to hear the Buddha teach and asks the Buddha to explain. The Buddha says later that he sees the world differently than other living beings. But this does not mean that when our experience does not match what the Buddha teaches, we must keep silence and just accept what he tells us. It is only through sincere questioning that we find the Buddha’s mind and make it our own.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

2buddhas, d31b, WONS

The Importance of a ‘Good Friend’ on the Buddhist Path

In [Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva], the Buddha recounts that, once awakened to the dharma, King Śubhavyūha said that his two sons were his “good friends,” because they had enabled him to meet the Buddha. The Buddha underscores the point, saying: “You should know that a good friend is indeed the great spur [literally, “the great cause and condition”] that brings inspiration to others, causing … the thought of highest, complete enlightenment to awaken in them.” This passage has often been quoted to stress the importance of a “good friend” on the Buddhist path. This expression (Skt. kalyāvamitra; J. zenchishiki), also translated as “teacher” or “spiritual advisor,” broadly refers to one who assists another on the Buddhist path. Zhiyi, for example, divides “good friends” into the three categories of patrons, fellow practitioners, and teachers. The term has been variously interpreted. For example, in premodern Japan, in addition to its broader meaning of one who assists another’s practice, a “good friend” meant the ritual attendant who assisted someone at the time of death, helping that person to focus his or her thoughts on a buddha — usually Amitābha — in order to achieve birth in his pure land.

Nichiren gave considerable thought to the concept of a “good friend” and interpreted it in light of his understanding of the Final Dharma age. In an early but important essay called “On Protecting the Country,” he poses the question: In this deluded age, the Buddha has departed, and great teachers such as Nāgārjuna or Zhiyi no longer make an appearance. How then can one escape samsaric suffering? Because there are no worthy human teachers, Nichiren concluded that, in this age, the Lotus and Nirvāṇa sūtras are to be accounted “good friends,” in accord with Zhiyi’s statement: “At times following a good friend, and at times following the sūtra scrolls, one hears … the single truth of enlightened wisdom.” Nichiren’s insistence that the Lotus Sūtra is the “good friend” for the present age is perfectly in line with his frequent admonition, drawn from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, to “rely on the dharma and not on the person.”

What one should most avoid, Nichiren asserted, were “evil friends,” teachers such as Kūkai, who had said that the Lotus Sūtra was inferior to the esoteric teachings, or Hōnen, who had insisted that the Lotus should be set aside as beyond human capacity to practice in the latter age. When Nichiren spoke of such people as “evil friends,” he meant, not that they were morally corrupt or insincere, but that they were promoting incomplete teachings that, in his understanding, no longer led to buddhahood in the Final Dharma age. Occasionally he cited a passage from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, which says that “evil friends” are more to feared than mad elephants. It states, “Even if you are killed by a mad elephant, you will not fall into the three evil paths. But if you are killed by an evil friend, you are certain to fall into them. A mad elephant is merely an enemy of one’s person, but an evil friend is an enemy of the good dharma. Therefore, bodhisattvas, you should at all times distance yourselves from evil friends.” For his part, Nichiren expressed the fervent hope that people would “not mistakenly trust in evil friends, adopt false teachings, and spend their present life in vain.” This was the impetus behind his assertive proselytizing.

Two Buddhas, p256-257
LS32

Day 19

Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Day 19 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month witnessed the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground, we meet the leaders of those bodhisattvas and conclude today’s portion of Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Those Bodhisattvas had four leaders: 1. Superior-Practice, 2. Limitless-Practice, 3. Pure-Practice, and 4. Steadily-Established-Practice. These four [great] Bodhisattvas were the highest leaders [of those Bodhisattvas]. In the presence of the great multitude, they joined their hands together towards Śākyamuni Buddha, looked up at him, and inquired after him saying:

“World-Honored One! Are you in good health? Are you peaceful or not? Are the living beings, whom you are to save, ready to receive your teachings or not? Do they not fatigue you?’

Thereupon the four great Bodhisattvas sang in gāthās:

World-Honored One, are you peaceful?
Are you in good health?
Are you not tired
With teaching the living beings?
Are they ready
To receive your teaching,
Or are they not?
Do they not fatigue you?

Nichiren offered this observation about the four great leaders of the Bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth:

These four great bodhisattvas neither presented themselves at the seat of enlightenment under the bodhi tree where Śākyamuni Buddha attained Buddhahood for the first time, nor rushed to the vicinity of the Hiraṇyavati River when the Buddha passed away. During the eight years when the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle, moreover, they were neither among those holy people such as Bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī and Maitreya who assisted Him in preaching the preface and main discourse of the theoretical section, nor among such great bodhisattvas as Avalokiteśvara and Wonderful Voice who vowed to spread the sūtra after the death of the Buddha at the assembly in the epilogue of the essential section. Upholding solely this one great secret dharma, they retired to their true abode underground, not once reappearing in the world even after the death of the Buddha, for 2,000 years in the Ages of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma. This was, after all, because the Buddha entrusted to them the propagation of this one great secret dharma solely in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 160.

2buddhas, d31b, WONS

The Analogy of the Turtle and the Floating Piece of Wood

[I]n asking their parents’ permission — a requirement of the monastic rule — to renounce household life and become Buddhist monks, the two princes state that it is “difficult to meet a buddha, just as it is to see udumbara flowers or for a one-eyed turtle to find the hole in a floating piece of wood.” The uḍumbara tree was said to bloom once every three thousand years and thus stands as a symbol for an extremely rare opportunity. The same analogy occurs in the “Skillful Means” chapter to illustrate the rarity of hearing the Lotus Sūtra.

The analogy of the turtle and the floating piece of wood appears in a number of sūtras and commentaries, where it is used to illustrate the rarity of being born human and encountering the Buddha’s teaching. In a letter to a follower, the wife of the same Matsuno Rokurōzaemon mentioned above, Nichiren develops the analogy in great detail and applies it specifically to the Lotus Sūtra. To summarize his expanded version: A large turtle with only one eye and lacking limbs or flippers dwells on the ocean floor. His belly is burning hot, but the shell on his back is freezing cold. Only the rare red sandalwood has the power to cool the turtle’s belly. The turtle yearns to cool his belly on a piece of floating red sandalwood and at the same time to warm his back in the sun. However, he can rise to the ocean’s surface only once in a thousand years, and even then, he can rarely find a piece of floating red sandalwood. When he does so, it may not contain a hollow, or at least not one of the proper size to hold him. Even when he finds a floating sandalwood log with an appropriate hollow place, without limbs, he cannot easily approach it, and having only one eye, he mistakes east for west; thus, he cannot accurately judge the direction of the log’s drift and winds up moving in the wrong direction. Nichiren interprets: “The ocean represents the sea of the sufferings of birth and death, and the turtle is ourselves, living beings. His limbless state indicates our lack of good roots. The heat of his belly represents the eight hot hells of anger, and the cold of the shell on his back, the eight cold hells of greed. His remaining for a thousand years on the ocean floor means that we fall into the three evil paths and are unable to emerge. His surfacing only once every thousand years illustrates how difficult it is to emerge from the three evil paths and be born as a human even once in immeasurable eons, at a time when Śākyamuni Buddha has appeared in the world.”

The turtle mistaking east for west, Nichiren continues, means that ordinary people in their ignorance confuse inferior and superior among the Buddha’s teachings, clinging to provisional teachings that have lost their efficacy and rejecting the one teaching that can lead to enlightenment. And the rarity of the turtle finding a floating sandalwood log with a hollow in it just big enough to hold him means that “even if one should meet the Lotus Sūtra, it is rarer and more difficult still to encounter the daimoku, which is its heart, and chant Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō.” In this way, Nichiren stressed the inconceivable good fortune of his followers, who had not only been born as humans and met the Lotus Sūtra but, although living in a degenerate age in a remote country far from the Buddha’s birthplace, were able to chant the wonderful dharma of the daimoku.

Two Buddhas, p254-256
LS32

Day 18

Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.

Day 18 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the Bodhisattva’s place of practice and the truths he should know, we repeat in gāthās the proper practices a Bodhisattva should perfrom.

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

A Bodhisattva who wishes
To expound this sūtra without fear
In the evil world
After [my extinction]
Should perform proper practices
And approach proper things.

He should keep away
From kings, princes and ministers,
From other government officials,
From players of dangerous sports,
From caṇḍālas, from heretics,
And from aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.

He should not approach arrogant people,
Or the scholars who are deeply attached
To the Three Stores of the Lesser Vehicle,
Or the bhikṣus
Who violate the precepts,
Or self-appointed Arhats,
Or the bhikṣunīs/
Who like to laugh playfully.

He should not approach the upāsikās
Who are attached to the five desires
Or who seek in their present life
The extinction[-without-remainder].

When they come to him
With good intent
In order to hear
About the enlightenment of the Buddha,
He should expound the Dharma to them
Without fear,
But should not wish to receive
Anything from them.

He should not approach
Or make friends with a widow
Or with an unmarried woman
Or with a eunuch.

He should not approach
Slaughterers or cooks
Or those who kill for profit,
Such as hunters or fishermen.

He should not approach
Butchers
Or procurers
Of prostitutes.

He should not approach
Dangerous wrestlers
Or makers of various amusements
Or immoral women.

He should not expound the Dharma
To a woman in an enclosed place.
When he expounds the Dharma to her,
He should not laugh playfully.

When he goes to a village to beg for food,
He should take a Bhikṣu with him.
If he cannot find a Bhikṣu [to take with him],
He should think of the Buddha with all his heart.

These are the proper practices he should perform
And the proper things he should approach.
He should expound the Dharma peacefully
Only after doing all this!

The Daily Dharma from Oct. 1, 2019, offers this:

When they come to him
With good intent
In order to hear
About the enlightenment of the Buddha,
He should expound the Dharma to them
Without fear,
But should not wish to receive
Anything from them.

The Buddha makes this explanation to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. In our zeal to practice this Wonderful Dharma we may come to expect that because this is such a wonderful teaching, we deserve to be rewarded for providing it to others. With this expectation, we then lose our focus on using the Dharma to benefit others and instead use it to benefit ourselves. When we show how to give freely, without expectations, we embody generosity, the same generosity the Buddha himself demonstrated when he provided the teaching to us.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

2buddhas, d31b, WONS

The Ikegami Family Battle

Some of Nichiren’s followers actually found themselves [at odds with their parents]. Among them were two brothers, samurai of the Ikegami family living in Kamakura. They may have been direct vassals of the Hōjō family who ruled the Bakufu or military government. The elder was called Munenaka, and the younger, Munenaga. Their father, Yasumitsu, was a supporter of the eminent monk Ryōkan-bō Ninshō, widely acclaimed as a holy man for his acts of public charity and scrupulous adherence to the precepts. By Nichiren’s account, however, Ninshō’s machinations had brought about his second arrest and exile to Sado Island; Nichiren and his followers had learned to regard Ninshō as an enemy. Because their father revered this cleric, the two brothers, like Śubhavyūha’s two sons, must have felt that they had been born into a “house of wrong views.” Yasumitsu demanded that Munenaka, whose faith was the stronger, renounce his commitment to the Lotus Sūtra and to Nichiren. When Munenaka refused, his father disowned him. At this point, the younger brother began to waver, swayed perhaps by a more conventional understanding of the obedience owed to one’s father and by the unexpected opportunity to replace Munenaka as his father’s heir. Nichiren admonished him, “If you obey your father who is an enemy of the Lotus Sūtra and abandon your brother who is a votary of the one vehicle, are you really being filial? In the end, you should resolve single-mindedly to pursue the buddha way like your brother. Your father is like King Śubhavyūha, and you brothers are like the princes Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra. Their situation occurred in the past while yours is happening in the present, but the principle of the Lotus Sūtra remains unchanged.”

In the end, perhaps strengthened by Nichiren’s admonishment, the younger brother stood firmly by his elder brother and refused to abandon his faith. Eventually the two were even able to convert their father, and Nichiren praised them as Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra reborn.

Two Buddhas, p253-254
LS32

Day 17

Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.

Day 17 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded Chapter 12, Devadatta, we begin Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and hear Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, along with Arhats and Śrāvakas, vow to uphold the Lotus Sūtra.

Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, together with their twenty-thousand attendants who were also Bodhisattvas, vowed to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One, do not worry! We will keep, read, recite and expound this sūtra after your extinction. The living beings in the evil world after [your extinction] will have less roots of good, more arrogance, more greed for offerings of worldly things, and more roots of evil. It will be difficult to teach them because they will go away from emancipation. But we will patiently read, recite, keep, expound and copy this sūtra, and make various offerings to it. We will not spare even our lives [in doing all this].”

At that time there were five hundred Arhats in this congregation. They had already been assured of their future attainment [of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. They said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One! We also vow to expound this sūtra [but we will expound it] in some other worlds [rather than in this Sahā-World].”

There were also eight thousand Śrāvakas some of whom had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn. They had already been assured of their future attainment [of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. They rose from their seats, joined their hands together towards the Buddha and vowed:

“World-Honored One! We also will expound this sūtra in some other worlds because the people of this Sahā-World have many evils. They are arrogant. They have few merits. They are angry, defiled, ready to flatter others, and insincere.”

See Holding Firm

b4today, LS32, d17b

Holding Firm

This chapter is called Kanji-hon in Japanese. Kan means to exhort or urge others to the teaching, while ji means to hold or to receive and keep. This chapter relates how the virtuous bodhisattvas, who had well understood through the Buddha’s preaching hitherto how precious the teaching of the Wonderful Law-Flower Sutra is, made a firm resolution to spread abroad this sutra after the extinction of the Buddha, no matter what difficulties they might encounter, and how they vowed to practice it in the presence of the Buddha. One must be firmly resolved to preach the teaching oneself before one exhorts others to it. It is noteworthy that the title, “Exhortation to Hold Firm,” does not refer to the exhortation of others to the teaching but to the resolution and vow of the bodhisattvas themselves. This is an essential point that we must not overlook.

Buddhism for Today, p161
2buddhas, d31b, WONS

The Choice Between Parents and the Lotus Sutra

Cases of family discord inevitably arose among Nichiren’s followers when their relatives opposed his teaching. Nichiren often cited [Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva] to stress that, when faced with the choice between following one’s parents’ wishes or being faithful to the Lotus Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra must take precedence. Such a stance flew in the face of common understandings of filial piety, an important cultural value of Nichiren’s time. A writing attributed to him, possibly authored by a close disciple with his approval, states:

“King Śubhavyūha, the father of Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra, adhered to heretical teachings and turned his back on the buddha-dharma. The two princes disobeyed their father’s orders and became disciples of the buddha Jaladharagaritaghoṣasusvaranakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijn͂a, but in the end they were able to guide their father so that he became a buddha called Sālendrarāja [“King of the Sāla Trees”]. Are they to be called unfilial? A sūtra passage explains: ‘To renounce one’s obligations and enter the unconditioned is truly to repay those obligations.’ Thus, we see that those who cast aside the bonds of love and indebtedness in this life and enter the true path of the buddha-dharma are persons who truly understand their obligations.”

The logic here is that abandoning the Lotus Sūtra to satisfy one’s parents might please them in the short run, but by so doing, one severs both them and oneself from the sole path of liberation in the present age. Because such an act constitutes “slander of the dharma,” it can only lead to suffering for all concerned in this and future lifetimes. By upholding faith in the Lotus Sūtra, however, one can realize buddhahood oneself and eventually lead one’s parents to do the same.

Two Buddhas, p252-253
LS32

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.

Day 16 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures with the Hōtōge verses, we return to the top and the Buddhas of the 10 directions traveling to the Sahā World.

Thereupon each of the Buddhas of the [worlds of the] ten quarters said to the Bodhisattvas under him, “Good men! Now I will go to Śākyamuni Buddha of the Sahā-World. I also will make offerings to the stūpa of treasures of Many-Treasures Tathāgata.”
At that instant the Sahā-World was purified. The ground of the world became lapis lazuli. The world was adorned with jeweled trees. The eight roads were marked off by ropes of gold. The towns, villages, cities, oceans, rivers, mountains, forests and thickets were eliminated. The incense of great treasures was burned; mandārava flowers, strewn over the ground; and jeweled nets and curtains with jeweled bells, hung over the world. The gods and men were removed to other worlds except those who were in the congregation.

At that time each of the Buddhas was accompanied by an attendant who was a great Bodhisattva. Some of the Buddhas came under the jeweled trees in the Sahā-World. The jeweled trees were five hundred yojanas tall, and adorned with branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. Under the jeweled trees were lion-like seats five yojanas tall, adorned with great treasures. The Buddhas sat cross-legged on the seats [under the jeweled trees]. The seats [under the jeweled trees] in the [Sahā-World composed of] one thousand million Sumeru-worlds were, however, too few to receive all the Buddhas of Śākyamuni Buddha’s replicas who were to come from the worlds even of one of the ten quarters. [Seeing this,] Śākyamuni Buddha purified two hundred billion nayuta worlds of each of the eight quarters [neighboring the Sahā-World] to receive all the Buddhas of his replicas. The hells, the regions of hungry spirit , the regions of animals, and the regions of asuras [of those worlds] were eliminated; and the gods and men [of those worlds] were removed to other worlds. The ground of those purified world became lapis lazuli. The worlds were adorned with jeweled trees five hundred yojanas tall. The trees were adorned with branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. Under the trees were lion-like seats of treasures five yojanas tall, adorned with various treasures. The great oceans, rivers, the Mucilinda Mountains, the Maha-Mucilinda Mountains, the Surrounding Iron Mountains, the Great Surrounding Iron Mountains, the Sumeru Mountains, and all the other great mountains [of those worlds] were eliminated, and all those worlds were amalgamated into one Buddha-world [that is, into the world of Śākyamuni Buddha). The jeweled ground of this [expanded] world was even. Jeweled curtains and canopies adorned with streamers were hung over this [expanded] world; the incense of great treasures, burned; and jeweled flowers of heaven, strewn over the ground.

Śākyamuni Buddha again purified two hundred billion nayuta more worlds of each of the eight quarters [neighboring the expanded world] to seat all the Buddhas of his replicas. The hells, the regions of hungry spirits, the regions of animals, and the regions of asuras [of those worlds] were eliminated; and the gods and men [of those worlds] were removed to other worlds. The ground of those purified worlds became lapis lazuli. The worlds were adorned with jeweled trees five hundred yojanas tall. The trees were adorned with branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. Under the trees were lion-like seats of treasures five yojanas tall, adorned with great treasures. The great oceans, rivers, the Mucilinda Mountains, the Maha-Mucilinda Mountains, the Surrounding Iron Mountains, the Great Surrounding Iron Mountains, the Sumeru Mountains, and all the other great mountains [of those worlds] were eliminated, and all those worlds were amalgamated into one Buddha-world [that is, into the world of Śākyamuni Buddha]. The jeweled ground of this [expanded] world was even. Jeweled curtains and canopies adorned with streamers were hung over this [expanded] world; the incense of great treasures, burned; and jeweled flowers of heaven, strewn over the ground.

In regard to this wondrous display, Nichiren writes:

We do not see a shadow in the dark. Man does not see a flight path of a bird in the air. We do not see the path of a fish in the sea. We do not see everyone in the world reflected on the moon. However, a person with “heavenly eyes” sees all these. The scene of the chapter “Appearance of a Stupa of Treasures” exists in the mind of Lady Nichinyo. Though ordinary people do not see it, Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and Buddhas throughout the universe recognize it. I, Nichiren, also can see it. How blessed are you!

Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 137-138