Category Archives: LS32

LS32

Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Day 31 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month witnessed King Wonderful-Adornment, Queen Pure-Virtue, and their two sons travel to the Buddha and hear Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, we hear Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha’s prediction for King Wonderful-Adornment.

“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to the four kinds of devotees, ‘Do you see this King Wonderful-Adornment standing before me with his hands joined together, or not? This king will become a bhikṣu under me, strenuously study and practice the various ways to the enlightenment of the Buddha, and then become a Buddha called Sala-Tree-King in a world called Great-Light in a kalpa called Great-Height-King. Sala-Tree-King Buddha will be accompanied by innumerable Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas. The ground of his world will be even. [King Wonderful-Adornment) will have these merits.’

See A Backstory for the King, Queen and Their Two Sons

2buddhas, LS32, d31b

A Backstory for the King, Queen and Their Two Sons

In his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra (Fahua wenju), Zhiyi provided a backstory about the past-life relationship of these four persons: the king, the queen, and their two sons. In the remote past, four monks were practicing austerities in pursuit of enlightenment. However, the struggle to obtain sufficient food and other necessities seriously hindered their practice. At length, one of them abandoned his efforts in order to support the other three. With his aid, they attained the way, while he, thanks to the merit gained by assisting them, was born repeatedly as a king in the human or heavenly realms. Eventually he became King Subhavyūha. By that point, however, he was exhausting his merit. Perceiving that his downward trajectory would soon lead him to rebirth in the hells, the other three whom he had once assisted resolved to repay their debt to him, choosing to be reborn as his consort and sons in order to lead him to the dharma.

Two Buddhas, p250
Daily Dharma, d13b

Daily Dharma – Oct. 31, 2019

The Nirvāṇa we attained was
Only part of the immeasurable treasures of yours.
We were like a foolish man with no wisdom.
We satisfied ourselves with what little we had attained.

Five hundred of the Buddha’s monks give this explanation in Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. They had spent all of their time with the Buddha working to rid themselves of suffering. While this is a remarkable achievement, it does not compare to the true purpose of the Buddha’s teaching. When these monks heard the Buddha teach the Lotus Sutra, and understood that their true purpose was to benefit others, they realized that their earlier practice was preparation. By remaining preoccupied with suffering, they had lost sight of the treasure of enlightenment.

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LS32

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Day 30 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered World-Holding Heavenly-King’s offering, we meet the ten rākṣasas and the Mother-Of-Devils and her children and attendants.

There are rākṣasas called 1. Lambā, 2. Vilambā, 3. Crooked-Teeth, 4. Flower-Teeth, 5. Black-Teeth, 6. Many-Hairs, 7. Insatiable, 8. Necklace-Holding, 9. Kuntī, and 10. Plunderer-Of-Energy-Of-All-Beings. These ten rākṣasas [and their attendants] came to the Buddha, together with Mother-Of-Devils and her children and attendants. They said to the Buddha simultaneously:

“World-Honored One! We also will protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma so that he may have no trouble. No one shall take advantage of the weak points of this teacher of the Dharma.”

Then they uttered spells before the Buddha:

“Ideibi (1), ideibin (2), ideibi (3), adeibi ( 4), ideibi (5), deibi (6), deibi (7), deibi (8), deibi (9), deibi (10), rokei (11), rokei (12), rokei (13), rokei (14), takei (15), takei (16), takei (17), tokei (18), tokei (19).”

[They said to the Buddha:]

“Anyone may step on our heads, but shall not trouble this teacher of the Dharma. Neither shall any yakṣa, rākṣasa, hungry spirit, pūtana, kṛtya, vetāda, kumbhāṇḍa, umāraka, apasmāraka, yakṣa-kṛtya or human kṛtya. Neither shall anyone who causes others to suffer from a fever for a day, two days, three days, four days, seven days or forever. Neither shall anyone who takes the shape of a man, a woman, a boy or a girl and appears in his dream.”

Then they sang in gāthās before the Buddha:

Anyone who does not keep our spells
But troubles the expounder of the Dharma
Shall have his head split into seven pieces
Just as the branches of the arjaka-tree [ are split].

Anyone who attacks this teacher of the Dharma
Will receive the same retribution
As to be received by the person who kills his parents,
Or who makes [sesame] oil without taking out worms [from the sesame],
Or who deceives others by using wrong measures and scales,
Or by Devadatta who split the Saṃgha.

Having sung these gāthās, the rākṣasas said to the Buddha:

“World-Honored One! We also will protect the person who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, and acts according to it so that he may be peaceful, that he may have no trouble, and that poison taken by him may be neutralized.”

See Kishimojin and the Ten Rāksasis

2buddhas, LS32, d30b

Kishimojin and the Ten Rāksasis

In Japan, Hāriti is known as Kishimojin. Nichiren clearly regarded her as a protector of the Lotus Sūtra. She appears on most of the mandalas that he inscribed, as do the ten rāksasis. The half-dozen references to Kishimojin in his writings all mention her together with these ten demon women, an association drawn from the “Dhārāṇi” chapter. In one instance, he refers to the ten rāksasis as “the mothers of all demons in the four continents,” and Kishimojin as “the mother of the ten rāksasis,” thus suggesting her power. In the larger religious culture, Kishimojin was often worshipped independently of the Lotus Sūtra, for example, in esoteric prayer rites to quell disasters and increase good fortune. After Nichiren’s time, as his tradition spread during Japan’s later medieval period and drew followers from a range of social groups, its protector deities diversified, and statues and paintings of Kishimojin began to be enshrined as independent images at some Nichiren temples. Represented in both fierce and gentle forms, Kishimojin was revered as a guardian of Lotus devotees, a destroyer of false views, and a grantor of prayers for this-worldly benefits, such as healing, safe childbirth, and the protection of children. Devotion to Kishimojin within the Nichiren tradition reached its height in Japan’s early modern period (roughly, seventeenth through nineteenth centuries) and drew both on her specific associations with the Lotus Sūtra as well as broader traditions of Kishimojin worship.
Two Buddhas, p244-245

LS32

Day 29

Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

Day 29 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the many ways World-Voice-Perceiver helps those in trouble, we consider the merits earned by anyone who keeps the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and bows and makes offerings to him even for a moment.

“Endless-Intent! Suppose a good man or woman keeps the names of six thousand and two hundred million Bodhisattvas, that is, of as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges, and offers drink, food, clothing, bedding and medicine to them throughout his or her life. What do you think of this? Are his or her merits many or not?”

Endless-Intent said, “Very many. World-Honored One!”

The Buddha said:

“Anyone who keeps the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva and bows and makes offerings to him even for a moment, will be given as many merits as to be given to the good man or woman as previously stated. The merits will not be exhausted even after hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas. Endless-Intent! Anyone who keeps the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva will be given these benefits of innumerable merits and virtues.”

See Avalokiteśvara

2buddhas, LS32, d29b

Avalokiteśvara

Unlike Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva], who would seem to appear only in the Lotus Sūtra, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva] features in numerous texts and has been revered throughout Asia, down to and including the present time. Avalokiteśvara has been worshipped in many guises. The Dalai Lama is regarded as an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara. In China, this bodhisattva was often represented in female form. In Japan one finds pilgrimage routes dedicated to the bodhisattva comprising thirty-three sites, one for each of his manifestations listed in this chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. He also figures prominently in the Pure Land tradition as the right-hand attendant of the buddha Amitābha, accompanying him when he descends to welcome his devotees at the moment of death and escort them to his pure land.

It was possibly because of these Pure Land connections that Nichiren makes so little mention of Avalokiteśvara, despite the pervasiveness in medieval Japan of devotion to this bodhisattva. On the mandalas he inscribed for his followers, Nichiren wrote the names of representative bodhisattvas of the trace teaching below the names of the leaders of the bodhisattvas of the earth. Usually he chose Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra as these representatives; no extant mandala in his hand bears the name of Avalokiteśvara.

Two Buddhas, p240-241
Lecture on Lotus Sutra, d19b, d20b

Our Active Practice

What we have taking place with the appearance of these Bodhisattvas from beneath the ground is a shift in the Lotus Sutra from theory to action. We, as those Bodhisattvas, manifest that life condition not by sitting around thinking about it or by some theoretical endeavor but by actually living our lives, by doing, by being. This is not a theoretical practice nor is it a practice only for oneself. This is a practice of engagement, of action, and of involvement with society teaching others and showing others by the example of our lives, not just our theories.

Remember we approach the Buddha and ask him how he is doing, not what he can do for us. The famous speech by John Kennedy, a president of my lifetime, keeps coming to mind. I can almost hear it today, and recall watching it on television as a youth. We should be asking what we can do for others and what we can do for Buddhism, not what Buddhism can do for us or what we can get out of Buddhism.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

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 learned of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva’s transformations, we consider the great supernatural powers and the power of wisdom obtained by Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.

“Flower-Virtue! This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva protects all living beings in this Sahā-World. He transforms himself into one or another of these various living beings in this Sahā World and expounds this sūtra to all living beings without reducing his supernatural powers, [his power of] transformation, and his wisdom. He illumines this Sahā World with the many [rays of light] of his wisdom, and causes all living beings to know what they should know. He also does the same in the innumerable worlds of the ten quarters, that is, in as many worlds as, there are sands in the River Ganges. He takes the shape of a Śrāvaka and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by a Śrāvaka. He takes the shape of a Pratyekabuddha and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by a Pratyekabuddha. He takes the shape of another Bodhisattva and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by that Bodhisattva. He takes the shape of a Buddha and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by a Buddha. He takes these various shapes according to the capacities of those who are to be saved. He shows his extinction to those who are to be saved by his extinction. Flower-Virtue! Such are the great supernatural powers and the power of wisdom obtained by Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.”

See Bodhisattvas Who Meet the Needs of Sentient Beings

2buddhas, LS32, d27b, d28b, d29b

Bodhisattvas Who Meet the Needs of Sentient Beings

[Chapter 24] and the preceding, “Bhaiṣajyarāja” [The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva] chapter feature bodhisattvas who manifest themselves in a variety of forms in order to meet the needs of sentient beings. Chapter 24 enumerates thirty-four appearances assumed by the bodhisattva Gadgadasvara [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] through his mastery of the samādhi of manifesting all physical forms, the same samādhi attributed to the bodhisattva Sarvarūpasaṃdarśana [Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva] in Chapter 23. Chapter 25 similarly lists thirty-three forms assumed by the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva]. The phrase “gateway to everywhere” (J. fumon), sometimes translated as “universal gate,” in the title of Chapter 25 refers to precisely this activity by which buddhas and bodhisattvas assume various forms to aid suffering beings. An eleventh-century poem based on this chapter celebrates the universal compassion of Avalokiteśvara:

the world is saved
because no one can shut
the gate to everywhere:
O who will not enter?

Two Buddhas, p239