Two Buddhas, p173In Zhiyi’s parsing of the Lotus Sūtra, Chapter Fifteen begins the “origin teaching” (J. honmon) or second fourteen chapters of the sūtra, so called because in this latter section of the Lotus the Buddha casts off his transient guise as someone who first gained enlightenment in the present lifetime, and he reveals his true identity as the primordial buddha awakened immeasurable eons ago. As he had with the preceding “trace teaching” (shakumon), or first fourteen chapters, Zhiyi divided this section of the sūtra into three parts. The “introduction” corresponds to the first part of Chapter Fifteen, up to the Buddha’s response to Maitreya’s question about the identity of the bodhisattvas who have emerged from the earth (223). The “main exposition” consists of the remainder of Chapter Fifteen, the whole of Chapter Sixteen, and the first part of Chapter Seventeen (up to the end of Maitreya’s verses on 245). The remaining chapters then correspond to the “dissemination” portion. Though quite short – “one chapter and two halves,” as Nichiren termed it – the main exposition section of the origin teaching was revered by many Japanese Tendai teachers as the very heart of the sūtra and inspired great doctrinal innovation, especially in Nichiren’s own teaching.
Category Archives: LS32
Opening the Way for Women of the Latter Age
[T]he example of the dragon girl becoming a Buddha does not mean only her. It means the attainment of Buddhahood by all women. In the Hinayāna sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra a woman is not thought of in terms of attaining Buddhahood. Various Mahāyāna sūtras appear to recognize women attaining Buddhahood or going to the Buddha land, but only after they changed themselves to the good by giving up the evil. This is not an immediate attainment of Buddhahood in this world, which can only be possible through the “3,000 in one thought” doctrine. Therefore, what the Buddha promised in those Mahāyāna sūtras is in name only. On the other hand, the attainment of Buddhahood by the dragon girl in the Lotus Sūtra is meant as an example among many, opening the way for women of the Latter Age to attain Buddhahood or reach the Buddha land.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 90
Day 19
Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Having last month repeated in gāthās the Parable of the Priceless Gem in the Top-Knot, we consider the benefits of the peaceful ways of expounding the this sutra.
This is the most honorable sūtra.
It is superior to all the other sūtras.
I kept it [in secret]
And refrained from expounding it.
Now is the time to do so.
Therefore, I expound it to you now.Anyone who seeks
The enlightenment of the Buddha
And wishes to expound this sūtra
In peaceful ways after my extinction,
Should practice
These four sets of things.Anyone who reads this sūtra
Will be free from grief,
Sorrow, disease or pain.
His complexion will be fair.
He will not be poor,
Humble or ugly.All living beings
Will wish to see him
Just as they wish to see sages and saints.
Celestial pages will serve him.He will not be struck with swords or sticks.
He will not be poisoned.
If anyone speaks ill of him,
The speaker’s mouth will be shut.
He will be able to go anywhere
As fearless as the lion king.
The light of his wisdom will be
As bright as that of the sun.
Rejecting Peaceful Practices
Two Buddhas, p 169[Nichiren] explicitly rejected the “four kinds of practice” set forth in the chapter as unsuited to the present era. Those practices had been appropriate, he said, in the preceding eras, the ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, but they were not suited to the Final Dharma age. “The four peaceful practices [in the “Ease in Practice” chapter] correspond to shōjū,” he wrote. To carry them out now in the mappō era would be as misguided as sowing seeds in winter and expecting to reap the harvest in spring. Rather, Nichiren saw the situation in Japan in his day as demanding the shakubuku approach: “The present era is defined in the sūtras as an age of quarrels and disputes, when the pure dharma will be obscured and lost. At this point, the provisional and true teachings have become utterly confused. … When the time has come for the one vehicle to spread, the provisional teachings become enemies. If they generate confusion, they must be refuted from the standpoint of the true teaching. Of the two propagation methods, shōjū and shakubuku, this is shakubuku as it pertains to the Lotus Sūtra.”
Day 18
Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month heard the vow of eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, we hear the Bodhisattva’s vow in gāthās and conclude today’s portion of Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
Thereupon the Bodhisattvas sang in gāthās with one voice:
Do not worry!
We will expound this sūtra
In the dreadful, evil world
After your extinction.Ignorant people will speak ill of us,
Abuse us, and threaten us
With swords or sticks.
But we will endure all this.Some bhikṣus in the evil world will be cunning.
They will be ready to flatter others.
Thinking that they have obtained what they have not,
Their minds will be filled with arrogance.Some bhikṣus will live in aranyas or retired places,
And wear patched pieces of cloth.
Thinking that they are practicing the true Way,
They will despise others.Being attached to worldly profits,
They will expound the Dharma to men in white robes.
They will be respected by the people of the world
As the Arhats who have the six supernatural powers.They will have evil thoughts.
They will always think of worldly things.
Even when they live in aranyas,
They will take pleasure in saying that we have faults.They will say of us,
“Those bhikṣus are greedy for worldly profits.
Therefore, they are expounding
The teachings of heretics.
They made that sūtra by themselves
In order to deceive the people of the world.
They are expounding that sūtra
Because they wish to make a name for themselves.”In order to speak ill of us, in order to slander us
In the midst of the great multitude,
In order to say that we are evil,
They will say to kings, ministers and brahmanas,
And also to householders and other bhikṣus,
“They have wrong views.
They are expounding
The teachings of heretics.”
But we will endure all this
Because we respect you.They will despise us,
Saying to us [ironically],
“You are Buddhas.”
But we will endure all these despising words.There will be many dreadful things
In the evil world of the kalpa of defilements.
Devils will enter the bodies [of those bhikṣus]
And cause them to abuse and insult us.We will wear the armor of endurance
Because we respect and believe you.
We will endure all these difficulties
In order to expound this sūtra.We will not spare even our lives.
We treasure only unsurpassed enlightenment.
We will protect and keep the Dharma in the future
If you transmit it to us.World-Honored One, know this!
Evil bhikṣus in the defiled world will not know
The teachings that you expounded with expedients
According to the capacities of all living beings.They will speak ill of us,
Or frown at us,
Or drive us out of our monasteries
From time to time.
But we will endure all these evils
Because we are thinking of your command.When we hear of a person who seeks the Dharma
In any village or city,
We will visit him and expound the Dharma [to him]
If you transmit it to us.Because we are your messengers,
We are fearless before multitudes.
We will expound the Dharma.
Buddha, do not worry.We vow all this to you
And also to the Buddhas who have come
From the worlds of the ten quarters.
Buddha, know what we have in our minds!
Perseverance Before the Three Kinds of Powerful Enemies
Two Buddhas, p162-163What particularly drew Nichiren’s attention in Chapter Thirteen … was the verse section … , comprising twenty lines in Kumārajiva’s Chinese version, in which eighty myriad kotis of nayutas of advanced bodhisattvas who have gathered from other worlds all vow to Śākyamuni Buddha to preach the Lotus Sūtra throughout the worlds of the ten directions, going on to enumerate the trials they are willing to undergo in order to disseminate the sūtra in an evil age after his final nirvāṇa. Based on this passage, in his commentary on Zhiyi’s Lotus Sūtra lectures, Zhanran formulated the concept of “three kinds of powerful enemies” who will obstruct Lotus Sūtra devotees: ignorant lay people, who will speak ill of them or attack them with staves and swords; deceitful monks of false wisdom who in their conceit “think they have attained what they have not”; and prominent monks who make a show of holiness, acting like forest-dwelling saints, but are actually greedy and arrogant and who slander Lotus devotees to persons in authority, including kings, ministers, and members of the priestly caste, as well as to other monks and lay householders. Sentenced to exile for the second time, Nichiren wrote that while the three types of enemies predicted in the “Perseverance” chapter were much in evidence in his day, not one of the eighty myriad kotis of nayutas of bodhisattvas who had pledged themselves to the Lotus Sūtra’s propagation was to be seen. There was only himself. Accordingly, he resolved, “I will propagate this sūtra on behalf of those eighty myriad kotis of nayutas of bodhisattvas. May they extend to me their aid and protection.”
Absolutely True Without Violating Precept Against Lying
The Buddha in the past as an ordinary person practiced Hinayāna sūtras. Having received the Five Precepts, He strictly upheld the fourth precept: not to tell lies. He did not breach this precept at the cost of His fortune or His life. Next, practicing the Mahāyāna precepts, He observed the Ten Major Precepts, the fourth of which prohibits telling lies. As he firmly upheld this precept for immeasurable kalpa (aeons), He finally was able to become a Buddha with a long and wide tongue, one of the 32 characteristics of the Buddha. This long and wide tongue of the Buddha covers the Buddha’s face, reaching the hair of His head. Or, it is said, it reaches the Brahma Heaven. There are five seal like letters on the tongue, which is bronze in color. Two gems under the tongue pour out nectar. These characteristics all stem from the virtue of observing the precept of not lying. With this tongue the Buddha has said, “Even if the eyes of various Buddhas throughout the past, present, and future should fall on the great earth, no woman in this dharma world would be able to become a Buddha.” Therefore, it seems that all women in the world can never attain Buddhahood regardless of what happens in the world.
Accordingly, once born as a woman, it seems useless even if she is chosen as the Empress, Empress Dowager, or Grand Empress Dowager. It seems to be worthless also for a woman to practice meritorious acts or perform Buddhist services. It is inexplicable, however, that the attainment of Buddhahood by women is allowed in this “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. Is this sūtra deceitful, or is that sūtra not truthful? Is either guilty of lying? One Buddha is making two opposing statements, which is impossible to believe.
However, it is preached in the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning, “The truth has not been revealed in 40 years or so,” and in the Nirvana Sūtra, “The Buddha has never uttered a false word, but if people make a false statement, He will follow their mind.” When we contemplate these scriptural statements, it seems untrue that the Buddha has ever negated rebirth in the Pure Land or attaining Buddhahood by women. It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, “As for the Buddha’s Dharma, the truth will necessarily be revealed after a long time;” and “the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma … is nothing but true.” Contemplating these statements, I believe the Lotus Sūtra, that preaches certain rebirth in the Pure Land or attainment of Buddhahood by women, is absolutely true without violating the precept against lying.
Yakuō-bon Tokui-shō, The Essence of the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” Chapter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 33-34
Day 17
Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra.
Having last month heard the prediction for Devadatta’s future enlightenment, we greet Mañjuśrī who has been teaching in the palace of the Dragon-King Sagara.
At that time Many-Treasures, the World-Honored One, who had come from the nadir,’ was accompanied by a Bodhisattva called Accumulated-Wisdom. The Bodhisattva said to Many-Treasures Buddha, “Shall we go back to our home world?”
Śākyamuni Buddha said to Accumulated-Wisdom:
“Good man, wait for a while! A Bodhisattva called Mañjuśrī is coming. See him, talk about the Wonderful Dharma with him, and then go back to your home world!”
Thereupon Mañjuśrī came sitting on a one-thousand-petaled lotus-flower as large as the wheel of a chariot. He was accompanied by other Bodhisattvas who were also sitting on jeweled lotus-flowers. Mañjuśrī had sprung up from the palace of Dragon-King Sagara in the great ocean, gone up to the sky[, and traveled through the sky towards Mt. Sacred Eagle]. Having reached Mt. Sacred Eagle, he descended from the lotus flower, came to the two World-Honored Ones,” and worshipped their feet with his head. Having completed the worship, he came to Accumulated-Wisdom, exchanged greetings with him, retired and sat to one side.
Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva asked Mañjuśrī, “You went to the palace of the dragon-king. How many living beings did you lead into the Way to Bodhi there?”
Mañjuśrī answered, “Their number is immeasurable, incalculable, inexplicable, unthinkable. Wait for a while! You will be able to see them.”
No sooner had he said this than innumerable Bodhisattvas, who were sitting on jeweled lotus-flowers, sprang up from the sea, came to Mt. Sacred Eagle, went up to the sky, and stayed there. All these Bodhisattvas had been led [into the Way to Bodhi] by Mañjuśrī. They had already performed the Bodhisattva practices. [Up in the sky] they [began to] expound the six pāramitās. Some of them were formerly Śrāvakas. When they were Śrāvakas, they expounded the Śrāvaka practices in the sky. Now they were acting according to the truth of the Void of the Great Vehicle.
Mañjuśrī said to Accumulated-Wisdom, “Now you see the living beings whom I taught in the sea.”
‘One Example that Applies to All’
Two Buddhas, p 157Nichiren maintained that the Lotus Sūtra enables women to attain buddhahood as women, because it embodies the mutual encompassing of the ten dharma realms. He writes: “The other Mahāyāna sūtras would seem to permit women to attain either buddhahood or birth in the pure land [of Amitābha], but that is an attainment premised on changing their [female] form, not the direct manifestation of buddhahood grounded in the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. Thus, it is an attainment of buddhahood or pure land birth in name but not reality. The nāga girl represents the ‘one example that applies to all.’ Her attainment of buddhahood opened the way for the attainment of buddhahood … by all women of the latter age.”
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.
Having last month repeated the story of Many-Treasures Tathāgata in gāthās, we hear the Buddha say to the great multitude: Who will protect and keep this sūtra, and read and recite it after my extinction?
(The Buddha said to the great multitude.)
Who will protect
And keep this sūtra,
And read and recite it
After my extinction?
Make a vow before me to do this!Many-Treasures Buddha,
Who had passed away a long time ago,
Made a loud voice like the roar of a lion
According to his great vow.Many-Treasures Tathāgata and I
And the Buddhas of my replicas,
Who have assembled here,
Wish to know who will do [all this].My sons!
Who will protect the Dharma?
Make a great vow
To preserve the Dharma forever!Anyone who protects this sūtra
Should be considered
To have already made offerings
To Many-Treasures and to me.Many-Treasures Buddha vowed to go
About the worlds of the ten quarters,
Riding in the stūpa of treasures,
In order to hear this sūtra [directly from the expounder].Anyone [who protects this sūtra] also
Should be considered to have already made offerings
To the Buddhas of my replicas, who have come here
And adorned the worlds with their light.Anyone who expounds this sūtra
Will be able to see me,
To see Many-Treasures Tathāgata,
And to see the Buddhas of my replicas.