Category Archives: LS32

LS32

Day 28

Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 28 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the great supernatural powers and the power of wisdom obtained by Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, we learn Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva’s samadhi and the benefits of this chapter.

Thereupon Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva planted deeply the roots of good. World-Honored One! What is the name of the samadhi by which he can transform himself into various living beings and appear in various places to save all living beings?”

The Buddha said to Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva:

“Good man! This is called the ‘samadhi by which one can transform oneself into any other living being.’ Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva entered into this samadhi and benefited innumerable living beings as previously stated.”

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, the eighty-four thousand people, who had come accompanying Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, obtained the ability to practice the samadhi by which they could transform themselves into other living beings. Innumerable Bodhisattvas of this Sahā-World also obtained the ability to practice this samadhi. They also obtained dharanis.

See Bodhisattva Followers of the Provisional Teachings

2buddhas, LS32, d28b

Bodhisattva Followers of the Provisional Teachings

For Nichiren, these two bodhisattvas, Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] and Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva], fell into the category of bodhisattvas who were followers of the provisional teachings and the trace teaching of the Lotus Sūtra and who had been active in the True and Semblance Dharma ages, but whose time had now passed. Neither figures prominently in his writings.

Two Buddhas, p239
LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 27 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we return to the top and Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha’s passing into Parinirvana.

“Having sung this gāthā, Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! You do not change, do you?’
“Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha said to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, ‘Good man! The time of my Nirvana is near at hand. The time of my extinction is coming. Prepare me a comfortable couch! I shall enter into Parinirvana tonight.’ “Then he instructed Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, saying, ‘Good man! I will transmit all my teachings to you. [I also will transmit] to you all the Bodhisattvas and all my great disciples. [I also will transmit] to you my teachings for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. I also will transmit to you the one thousand Sumeru worlds made of the seven treasures, the jeweled trees, the jeweled platforms, and the gods attending on me. I also will transmit to you the śarīras to be left after my extinction. Distribute my śarīras far and wide and make offerings to them! Erect thousands of stupas [to enshrine them]!’

“Having given these instructions to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha entered into Nirvana in the last watch of that night. Having seen the extinction of the Buddha, Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva was overcome with sorrow. He adored the Buddha all the more. He made a pyre of the candana grown on this shore of the sea, offered it to the body of the Buddha, and burned it. After it burned up, he collected the śarīras. He made eighty-four thousand stupas of treasures[, and put the śarīras therein]. He erected eighty-four thousand stupas[, and enshrined the urns therein]. The stupas were higher than the Third Dhyana-Heaven. They were adorned with yastis. Many streamers and canopies were hanging down [from the stupas]. Many jeweled bells also were fixed [on the stupas].

See The Lotus Sūtra and Its Practice in the Final Dharma Age

2buddhas, LS32, d26b, d27b, d28b, d29b

The Lotus Sūtra and Its Practice in the Final Dharma Age

Chapters Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five describe how specific bodhisattvas display their powers in the world to benefit sentient beings. As noted earlier, at one point in its compilation history, the Lotus Sūtra probably concluded with Chapter Twenty-Two, “Entrustment.” These three subsequent chapters represent a later stratum of the text, added as devotion to the bodhisattvas in question was gradually assimilated to the Lotus. From Nichiren’s standpoint, the bodhisattvas appearing in these chapters had received only the general transmission described in the “Entrustment” chapter. Either they had come from other worlds, or they were followers of Śākyamuni in his provisional guise as the Buddha of the trace teaching or shakumon portion of the sūtra. Thus, their work was chiefly confined to the True and Semblance Dharma ages. Yet, as we see, Nichiren drew on these chapters to make points about the Lotus Sūtra and its practice in the Final Dharma age.

Two Buddhas, p236
d23b, WONS

The Great Merit of Beginning Practicers

Grand Master T’ien-t’ai … wrote in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 10, “The eighteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra is entitled ‘The Merits of Rejoicing upon Hearing This Sūtra’ because the sūtra’s merit is superior to all other sūtras in every respect.” The Lotus Sūtra, more than any other sūtra, enlightens those whose capacity to understand is limited. Unaware of this, teachers of other sects maintain that only those with superior capacity in understanding can have faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Rebutting this, Grand Master Miao-lê stated in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 10, “Those erroneous teachers probably did not realize that even beginning practicers can have great merit; they insisted that the Lotus Sūtra can be practiced only by those with advanced training, slighting those with little training. Thus, the 18th chapter shows the great merit of beginning practicers, revealing the excellent merit of this sūtra. ”

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 40-41

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Day 26 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we return to today’s portion of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, and learn what is revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra.

Thereupon the Buddha said to the great Bodhisattvas headed by Superior-Practice:
“The supernatural powers of the Buddhas are as immeasurable, limitless, and inconceivable as previously stated. But I shall not be able to tell all the merits of this sūtra to those to whom this sūtra is to be transmitted even if I continue telling them by my supernatural powers for many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas. To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction! In any world where anyone keeps, reads, recites, expounds or copies this sūtra, or acts according to its teachings, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra is put, be it in a garden, in a forest, under a tree, in a monastery, in the house of a person in white robes, in a hall, in a mountain, in a valley, or in the wilderness, there should a stupa be erected and offerings be made to it because, know this, the place [where the stupa is erected] is the place of enlightenment. Here the Buddhas attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Here the Buddhas turned the wheel of the Dharma. Here the Buddhas entered into Parinirvana.”

See The Great Omens of the ‘Transcendent Powers’ Chapter

2buddhas, LS32, d25b, d26b

The Great Omens of the ‘Transcendent Powers’ Chapter

In [Chapters 21 and 22], Śākyamuni Buddha entrusts the teachings of the Lotus Sūtra for propagation in the future. To make clear the momentousness of the occasion, he first displays his awe-inspiring transcendent powers. According to Zhanran, of the ten powers described, the first five — from Śākyamuni and all other buddhas extending their tongues to the heavens of Brahmā to the buddha worlds of the ten directions quaking in six ways — were intended for beings in his lifetime. The remaining supernatural events — from all beings in those worlds beholding the buddhas present on their lion thrones at the Lotus assembly to the worlds of the ten directions becoming pellucid, as though they were one buddha land (284) — were intended for beings of the future.

Though he acknowledged this reading, Nichiren concluded that ultimately the entire display was directed to the future, when the four leaders of the bodhisattvas of the earth would appear in order to spread the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō. He also assimilated these extraordinary happenings to contemporary portents: “The quaking of the earth in the ‘Introduction’ chapter was limited to a single world system, but in the ‘Transcendent Powers’ chapter the lands of the various buddhas all shook violently, quaking in six different ways. The [earthquakes and other] omens of our own time are just like this. The great omens of the ‘Transcendent Powers’ chapter portend that the essence of the Lotus Sūtra will spread widely after the Buddha’s nirvāṇa, when the two thousand years of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages have passed and the Final Dharma age has begun.”

Two Buddhas, p215
LS32

Day 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Day 25 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered what became of Never-Despising Bodhisattva, we learn who was Never-Despising Bodhisattva in the past.

“Great-Power-Obtainer! What do you think of this? The Never-Despising Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself. If I had not kept, read or recited this sūtra or expounded it to others in my previous existence, I should not have been able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi so quickly. Because I kept, read and recited this sūtra, and expounded it to others under those past Buddhas, I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi quickly.

“Great-Power-Obtainer! The four kinds of devotees: the bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās at that time failed to meet the Buddha, hear the Dharma, and see the Saṃgha for twenty thousand million kalpas because they abused me with anger. They suffered much in the Avici Hell for one thousand kalpas. Having expiated their sin in this way, they met [me, who was] Never-Despising Bodhisattva again, and were led into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

“Great-Power-Obtainer! What do you think of this? The four kinds of devotees who always abused [me, who was] that Bodhisattva at that time are now present here in this congregation in the persons of the five hundred Bodhisattvas including Bhadrapala, the five hundred bhikṣunīs including Lion-Moon, and the five hundred upāsakās including Thinking-Of-Buddha. Now they do not falter in seeking Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

“Great-Power-Obtainer, know this! This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma benefits Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and causes them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, they should keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra after my extinction.”

See Innate Buddha Nature

2buddhas, LS32, d25b

Innate Buddha Nature

[T]he Lotus Sūtra itself does not contain the words “buddha nature,” a concept developed in later Mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. For that reason, some early Chinese exegetes argued that the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, and not the Lotus, represented the Buddha’s highest teaching. In contrast, the “three great masters of the Sui dynasty” – Huiyuan, Zhiyi, and Jizang – drew on the Sadāparibhūta chapter to argue that the idea of innate buddha nature is fully present in the Lotus Sūtra, even though that specific phrase does not occur there.

Two Buddhas, p207-208
Lecture on Lotus Sutra, d16b

Participating in the Grand Drama

Every day we look around us and we see our worlds our lives as being perhaps small and full of suffering or troubles. Yet the image that is presented to us in the ceremony in the air is an expansive one and one of great beauty. Just as the seating of the two Buddhas side by side presents us with a view of the eternity of time, the image of the joined worlds is one of infinite space. So now we have an expansive time element and an expansive space element all in one moment.

When we place ourselves in front of the Honzon as presented in the Lotus Sutra in these chapters we place ourselves outside of our present time and our present space. Again this allows us the opportunity to view our current condition in this life as really one of great reward. How many people everyday participate in such a grand drama?

It is not easy for us to see this as we live out our lives and experience our day-to-day problems. Yet this is the invitation that the Buddha makes to us – to realize that we are not merely some lonely person chanting Odaimoku and practicing the Lotus Sutra, but that we are actually participants in a drama unlike anything that can be contained by either space or time.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra