Two Buddhas, p187-188Medieval Japanese Tendai thinkers of various teaching lineages shared a loose consensus that the enlightenment of the primordial Śākyamuni Buddha was “hidden in the depths” of the “Lifespan” chapter and could be accessed through the practitioner’s “mind contemplation” or “mind discernment” (J. kanjin). Kanjin in the Tiantai/Tendai tradition was originally a broad term for practice, in contrast to doctrinal study. Though interpretations varied, by Nichiren’s time, kanjin had come to mean the essence of the Tendai Lotus teachings and was often associated specifically with the “Lifespan” chapter. For Nichiren, now in the mappō era, the “mind discernment” that opens the primordial buddha’s awakening to all people is the chanting of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō. He took the daimoku to be the “good medicine” that the excellent doctor leaves for his children in the “Lifespan” chapter’s narrative. In his reading, this chapter’s revelation of the primordial buddha’s constant presence in this world immediately collapses all temporal and spatial separation between the Buddha and the devotee. “Two thousand years and more have passed since the Buddha entered nirvāṇa,” he wrote. “But for those who embrace the Lotus Sūtra, at each day, each hour, each moment, the Buddha’s voice reaches them, conveying to them the message, ‘I do not die.’ ” Through chanting the daimoku, the timeless realm of the Buddha’s original enlightenment is retrieved in the present moment; ordinary people manifest buddhahood just as they are, and their world becomes the buddha land.
Category Archives: LS32
Day 22
Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.
Having last month heard the Buddha tell Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva the benefits of anyone who hears that his life is so long, and understands it by faith even at a moment’s thought, we repeat in gāthās the benefits to be received for believing for just a moment.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Suppose someone practiced
The five paramitas
For eighty billion nayuta kalpas
In order to attain the wisdom of the Buddha.Throughout these kalpas he offered
Wonderful food and drink,
Excellent garments and bedding,
And monasteries made of candana
And adorned with gardens and forests
To the Buddhas,
To the cause-knowers, to the disciples,
And to the Bodhisattvas.Throughout these kalpas he made
These various and wonderful offerings
In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha.He also observed the precepts,
Kept purity and faultlessness,
And sought the unsurpassed enlightenment
Extolled by the Buddhas.He was patient, gentle,
And friendly with others.
Even when many evils troubled him,
His mind was not moved.He endured all insults and disturbances
Inflicted upon him by arrogant people who thought
That they had already obtained the Dharma.He was strenuous and resolute in mind.
He concentrated his mind,
And refrained from indolence
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas.He Lived in a retired place
For innumerable kalpas.
He sat or walked to avoid drowsiness
And to concentrate his mind.By doing so, he became able to practice
Many dhyāna-concentrations.
His mind was peaceful, not distracted
For eighty billion kalpas.With these merits of concentration of his mind,
He sought unsurpassed enlightenment, saying:
“I will complete all these dhyāna-concentrations,
And obtain the knowledge of all things.”He performed
The meritorious practices
As previously stated
For hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas.The good men or women who believe my longevity,
Of which I told you,
Even at a moment’s thought
Will be able to obtain more merits than he.
Living A Life Of Self-Confidence
Buddhism for Today, p259-260Almost all people who enter a religious faith have some form of suffering. It is natural for them to want to free themselves from such sufferings, and they are not to be blamed for this. But when they are concerned only with the desire to recover from illness or to be blessed with money, they are merely attaching themselves to the idea of “disease” or “poverty.” Though they wish to rid themselves of these problems, instead they become their victims because their minds grasp the idea of illness or poverty so tightly that they cannot let go.
People who believe in religion only in order to receive divine favors in this world easily retrogress from their stage of development in that faith. This is because they cannot truly understand the eternity of the Buddha’s life, and at the same time the eternity of man’s life. They think only of the present and begin to doubt the teaching or grow tired of it unless clear material merits are manifested. But there are some people who cannot receive such merits in this world because of deep and inextinguishable unfavorable karma from their former lives, even if they have faith in a true religion, purify their minds, and devote themselves to the bodhisattva practice for the benefit of others in society.
Nevertheless, people who can believe in the immortality of the Buddha’s life can also feel confident of their own eternal life. Therefore they can live with self-confidence, realizing, “If we only continue this way, we are sure to extinguish our former karma eventually and will approach the mental state of the Buddha step by step.” Even if they do not immediately recover from illness or become suddenly blessed with tangible wealth, their minds will be composed. Even if they seem to outsiders to be suffering, their minds are free of suffering. This is the attitude adopted by a real believer.
The Awakened Reality of the Buddha
Two Buddhas, p187“In terms of realizing buddhahood with this very body,” Nichiren wrote, “the trace teaching is the gate that affords entry, while the origin teaching holds its true meaning, that is, its actualization.” Where the trace teaching presents buddhahood as a potential inherent in the nine realms of unenlightened beings, the origin teaching shows the buddha realm revealed through the Buddha’s conduct in the nine realms, represented in particular by the bodhisattva realm. The buddha realm has no separate existence or mode of expression apart from the nine realms. Rather, the nine realms, without losing their individual character, are purified, elevated, and positively redirected in the light of the realized buddha realm. This is the awakened reality of the Buddha, which Nichiren termed “the single thought-moment comprising three thousand realms in actuality” (ji no ichinen sanzen). For him, this revelation had one sole scriptural locus: it was “hidden in the depths” of the “Lifespan” chapter of the origin teaching of the Lotus Sūtra.
Day 21
Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.
Having last month considered the skillfull physician and what happened while he was away, we consider the medicine and the unwillingness of some sons to take the medicine.
“The father thought, ‘These sons are pitiful. They are so poisoned that they are perverted. Although they rejoice at seeing me and ask me to cure them, they do not consent to take this good medicine. Now I will have them take it with an expedient.’
“He said to them, ‘Know this! Now I am old and decrepit. I shall die soon. lam leaving this good medicine here. Take it! Do not be afraid that you will not be cured!’ Having thus advised them, he went to a [remote] country again. Then he sent home a messenger to tell them, ‘Your father has just died.’
“Having heard that their father had passed away from this world, leaving them behind, they felt extremely sorry. They thought, ‘If our father were alive, he would love and protect us. Now he has
deserted us and died in a remote country.’“They felt lonely and helpless because they thought that they were parentless and shelterless. Their constant sadness finally caused them to recover their right minds. They realized that the medicine had a good color, smell and taste. They took it and were completely cured of the poison. On hearing that they had recovered their health, the father returned home, and showed himself to them.
“Good men! What do you think of this? Do you think that anyone can accuse this excellent physician of falsehood?”
“No, World-Honored One!”
The Buddha said:
“I am like the father. It is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of asaṃkhyas of kalpas since I became the Buddha. In order to save the [perverted] people, I say expediently, ‘I shall pass away.’ No one will accuse me of falsehood by the [common] law.”
The Invitation To Take the Medicine of Salvation
Buddhism for Today, p248The Buddha never tries to force open our mouths and cram his excellent medicine down our throats. It is a sacred task for us to take it in our hands and put it into our mouths ourselves. The Buddha uses various means so tactfully that we quickly feel inclined to do so. That is, he indicates himself or indicates others, indicates his own affairs or the affairs of others. Of these indications, the greatest and the most urgent is that he himself has become extinct. Realizing that, those who have felt complacently that they can hear his teachings whenever they like or lazy people who have become tired of the teachings cannot help suddenly becoming serious. This is the most important reason that the Buddha’s extinction is a tactful means full of his great compassion.
Standing in the Vanguard of History
Two Buddhas, p177-178One can imagine how identification with the task of the bodhisattvas of the earth must have inspired and sustained those followers of Nichiren, in his own lifetime and later, who upheld their faith in the face of opposition. Its implication, that one has been born into this world to aid in a vast salvific task, could invest even the most ordinary life with immense meaning. This dimension of Nichiren’s teaching helps explain its ongoing attraction in the contemporary world. However humble one’s place in society or how limited one’s personal resources or abilities, to be a follower of Nichiren was to stand in the vanguard of history as someone who, having embraced the sole teaching leading to buddhahood in the present age, shoulders the responsibility to preserve and transmit it.
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.
Having last month heard the World-Honored One repeat to Maitreya in gāthās, we consider the doubts of Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and the innumerable Bodhisattvas.
Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and the innumerable Bodhisattvas in the congregation doubted the Buddha’s words which they had never heard before. They thought:
‘How did the World-Honored One teach these great, innumerable, asaṃkhya Bodhisattvas, and qualify them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi in such a short time?’
[Maitreya Bodhisattva] said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! When you, the Tathāgata, were a crown prince, you left the palace of the Śākyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gaya, and attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. It is only forty and odd years since then.
“World-Honored One! How did you do these great deeds of the Buddha in such a short time? Did you teach these great, innumerable Bodhisattvas, and qualify them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi by your powers or by your merits?
“World-Honored One! No one can count the number of these great Bodhisattvas even if he goes on counting them for thousands of billions of kalpas. They have already planted roots of good, practiced the way, and performed brahma practices under innumerable Buddhas from the remotest past.
The Four Great Vows and the Four Great Bodhisattvas
[T]he four groups, also through the divine power of the Buddha, saw the bodhisattvas, who filled the space of innumerable domains. Among this host of bodhisattvas there were four leading teachers: Eminent Conduct (Jōgyō), Boundless Conduct (Muhengyō), Pure Conduct (Jōgyō), and Steadfast Conduct (Anryūgyō).
As explained in the discussion of the vow (gan) in chapter 9, the general vow (sōgan) that should be made by all who practice the Buddha-way consists of the following four great vows of the bodhisattva (shi gu-seigan), each of which is identified with one of the four great bodhisattvas mentioned above :
- Shūjō muhen seigan-do. However innumerable living beings are, I vow to save them. (Steadfast Conduct)
- Bonnō mushū seigan-dan. However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them. (Pure Conduct)
- Hōmon mujin seigan-gaku. However limitless the Buddha’s teachings are, I vow to study them. (Boundless Conduct)
- Butsudō mujō seigan-jō. However infinite the Buddha-truth is, I vow to attain it. (Eminent Conduct)
These four great fundamental vows are thus represented by the above four bodhisattvas. Conversely, the four bodhisattvas can be said to be the symbols of the fundamental vows of all Buddhists.
Buddhism for Today, p179-180Embracing the Daimoku with the ‘Same Mind’ as Nichiren
Two Buddhas, p177The claim that those who chant the daimoku are Śākyamuni Buddha’s disciples from the remotest past might initially seem at odds with Nichiren’s idea that people in the Final Dharma age have never before received the seed of buddhahood. The apparent contradiction resolves, however, when we recall that for Nichiren and other Buddhist thinkers of the time, the term “remotest past” (kuon) signified not merely an immensely long time ago in linear, historical terms, but also carried the meaning of timelessness, and thus, of the Buddha’s constant presence. The practice and propagation of the Lotus Sūtra in the mappō era is the juncture where the linear time of ordinary experience and the timeless realm of the Buddha intersect. In embracing the daimoku with the “same mind” as Nichiren, one immediately becomes a disciple of the ever-present primordial Śākyamuni Buddha and is encompassed in his enlightened realm.