Category Archives: LS32

LS32, WONS

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 heard Śākyamuni’s reply to Maitreya question about the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground, he hear Śākyamuni explain that he is the teacher of these Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, having sung these gāthās, said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:

Now I will tell all of you in this great multitude, Ajita! [I know that] you have never seen these great, innumerable, asaṃkhya Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground. After I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi in this Sahā-World, I taught these Bodhisattvas, led them, trained them, and caused them to aspire for enlightenment. They lived in the sky below this Sahā-World. When they were there, they read many sūtras, recited them, understood them, thought them over, evaluated them, and remembered them correctly. Ajita! These good men did not wish to talk much with others [about things other than the Dharma] but to live in a quiet place. They practiced the way strenuously without a rest. They did not live among gods and men. They had no hindrance in seeking profound wisdom. They always sought the teaching of the Buddha. They sought unsurpassed wisdom strenuously with all their hearts.”

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

Ajita, know this, these great Bodhisattvas
Have studied and practiced
The wisdom of the Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.

They are my sons because I taught them
And caused them to aspire for great enlightenment.
They have been living in this world
[For the past innumerable kalpas].

They always practiced the dhuta.
They wished to live in a quiet place.
They kept away from bustling crowds.
They did not wish to talk much.

These sons of mine studied my teachings
Strenuously day and night
In order to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha.
They lived in the sky
Below this Sahā-World.

Resolute in mind,
They always sought wisdom,
And expounded
Various wonderful teachings without fear.

I once sat under the Bodhi-tree
In the City of Gaya,
Attained perfect enlightenment,
And turned the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma.

Then I taught them,
And caused them to aspire £or enlightenment.
Now they do not falter [in seeking enlightenment].
They will be able to become Buddhas.

My words are true.
Believe me with all your hearts!
I have been teaching them
Since the remotest past.

Nichiren offers his perspective on these Bodhisattvas in his letter A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One:

My disciples, think deeply! The countless bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground were disciples of Lord Śākyamuni Buddha ever since the time He had first resolved to seek Buddhahood. Nevertheless, they neither came to see Him when He attained Buddhahood under the bodhi tree, nor visited Him when He passed away under the twin śāla trees. Thus, they may very well be accused of not being filial.

Moreover, they did not attend the preaching of the fourteen-chapter theoretical section, and they were absent when the last six chapters of the essential section were preached. They came and left while the first eight chapters of the essential section were being preached. But these great high-ranking bodhisattvas made a vow in the presence of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and numerous Buddhas in manifestation that they would propagate the Five Characters transmitted to them at the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration. How can they not appear right now?

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 162

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 concluded Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, we consider the question posed by Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, who had come from the other worlds.

Thereupon the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, more than eight times the number of the sands of the River Ganges, who had come from the other worlds, rose from among the great multitude, joined their hands together towards the Buddha, bowed to him, and said:

“World-Honored One! If you permit us to protect, keep, read, recite and copy this sūtra, and make offerings to it strenuously in this Sahā-World after your-extinction, we will [do so, and] expound it in this world.”

Thereupon the Buddha said to those Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas:

“No, good men! I do not want you to protect or keep this sūtra because there are Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges in this Sahā-World. They are each accompanied by attendants also numbering sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges. They will protect, keep, read, recite and expound this sūtra after my extinction.”

The Daily Dharma from June 23, 2018, offers this:

No, good men! I do not want you to protect or keep this sūtra because there are Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges in this Sahā-World. They are each accompanied by attendants also numbering sixty thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges. They will protect, keep, read, recite and expound this sūtra after my extinction.

The Buddha makes this declaration to the uncountable number of Bodhisattvas who came from other worlds to hear him teach in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. These Bodhisattvas had responded to the Buddha’s question of who would keep and expound the Buddha’s highest teaching after his death. They promised that they would remain in this world of conflict and fulfill the Buddha’s request. After the Buddha spoke these words, an unimaginable number of Bodhisattvas came up from underground and paid their respects to the Buddha. We can understand this story, and this image, as showing that our capacity for enlightenment, and our ability to benefit all beings, is already within us. We do not need an outside agent to give these to us.

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

Lecture on Lotus Sutra, d17b

Implicit and Explicit Predictions

In Chapter 13, the predictions for Maha-Prajapati Biksuni and Yasodhara Biksuni come about in an indirect sort of way. The Buddha notices his aunt, the woman who raised him after his mother died in child birth, looking at him. I can just imagine it to be one of those looks only a mother could give a child, something on the order of a scolding without words. This would be a look that probably told the Buddha, hey aren’t you forgetting something.

At any rate the Buddha guesses what his aunt is thinking and asks her if she thought that somehow she had been left out of all the predictions that have now covered every practitioner type, Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas. He says he had already assured the Sravakas of their enlightenment and that he did not exclude her from that general grouping. In this I believe the Buddha realizes that even though he had implicitly included women in the general prediction, he realizes now that the women really need it clearly stated not just for them but for the males in the congregation.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

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 first set of peaceful practices, we consider that all things are insubstantial.

“The Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas also should know the following truth. All things are insubstantial. They are as they are. Things are not perverted. They do not move. They do not go. They do not turn. They have nothing substantial just as the sky has not. They are inexplicable. They are not born. They do not appear. They do not rise. They are nameless. They are formless. They have no property. They are immeasurable and limitless. They have no obstacle or hindrance. He should see all this. Things can exist only by dependent origination. Only perverted people say, ‘Things are permanent and pleasant.’ This truth is the second thing he should approach.”

The Daily Dharma from Dec. 18, 2018, offers this:

The Buddha gives this explanation to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra in which he describes the peaceful practices of a Bodhisattva. The Buddha does not see the world as we do. This section explains how changing our view changes the world. When we no longer see beings with power to overwhelm us, and see beings in whom delusions have been created, we see our abilities to cut the root of those delusions and benefit them. These passages are what make the Lotus Sutra difficult to believe and understand, since they go against our habits of manipulating the world to become happy. As we learn to work with our minds, then we truly change the world.

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

LS32, WONS

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 witnessed the daughter of the dragon-king become a Buddha and concluded Chapter 12, Devadatta, we begin today’s portion of Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sūtra, with Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s vow to uphold the Lotus Sūtra.

Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, 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].”

Nichiren used this chapter’s prediction of the difficulty in spreading the dharma to explain the troubles he faced. For example, in his Letter to Hōren:

It is most important for a man of wisdom to spread the Lotus Sūtra by keeping the difference of time in mind. For instance, for those who are thirsty, water is just what is necessary, not a bow and arrow or arms. What is needed for a naked person is clothing, not water. One can understand the overarching principle through this one example. If a fierce god spreads the Lotus Sūtra, you should donate your own flesh to him because a fierce god is fond of flesh. It is useless to donate clothing or other food to him. If an evil king tries to destroy the Lotus Sūtra, never obey his order even at the cost of life. When high priests who observe the precepts and are devoted to the pursuit of faith pretend to spread the Lotus Sūtra outwardly, but try to destroy it inwardly, you must reprimand them vigorously. The Lotus Sūtra, “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra” chapter, admonishes us to, “Solely to venerate the Supreme Way without sparing one’s own life.” It is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “Even at the cost of life, one should not conceal the king’s orders.” Grand Master Chang-an interprets this in his Annotation on the Nirvana Sūtra, “The reason why it is said that even at the cost of life one should not conceal the teaching is because life is not as important as the Dharma. We must spread the Dharma even at the cost of life.”

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 58

Source

LS32, WONS

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 witnessed Many-Treasures Buddha in the stūpa of treasures offer a half of his seat to Śākyamuni, we repeat in gāthās with Śākyamuni’s explanation of Many-Treasures Buddha in the stūpa of treasures and the Buddhas of the replicas.

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

The Saintly Master, the World-Honored One,
Who had passed away a long time ago,
Came riding in the stūpa of treasures
To hear the Dharma [directly from me].
Could anyone who sees him
Not make efforts to hear the Dharma?

It is innumerable kalpas
Since he passed away.
He wished to hear the Dharma at any place
Because the Dharma is difficult to meet.

His original vow was this:
“After I pass away,
I will go to any place
To hear the Dharma.”

The Buddhas of my replicas
As innumerable
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Also came here
From their wonderful worlds,
Parting from their disciples,
And giving up the offerings made to them
By gods, men and dragons,
ln order to hear the Dharma,
See Many-Treasures Tathāgata,
Who passed away [a long time ago],
And have the Dharma preserved forever.

I removed innumerable living beings from many worlds,
And purified those worlds
By my supernatural powers
In order to seat those Buddhas.

Those Buddhas came under the jeweled trees.
The trees are adorned with those Buddhas
Just as a pond of pure water is adorned
With lotus flowers.

There are lion-like seats
Under the jeweled trees.
Those Buddhas sat on the seats.
The worlds are adorned
With the light of those Buddhas as bright
As a great torch in the darkness of night.

Wonderful fragrance is sent forth
From the bodies of those Buddhas
To the worlds of the ten quarters.
The living beings of those worlds
Smell the fragrance joyfully,
Just as the branches of a tree bend before a strong wind.
Those Buddhas employ these expedients
In order to have the Dharma preserved forever.

Nichiren points out in his Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching letter that all of this is preparatory for what’s coming in Chapter 16:

Now in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, a step was taken in preparation for revealing the Eternal Buddha in the sixteenth chapter on “The Life Span of the Buddha.” It is stated in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures” chapter that Śākyamuni Buddha, who had attained enlightenment for the first time only forty years or so before under the bodhi tree at Buddhagayā, India, called the crowd of Buddhas, who had obtained Buddhahood as far before as a kalpa or ten, “My manifestations.” This was against the principle of equality among Buddhas and greatly surprised everyone. If Śākyamuni Buddha had attained enlightenment only forty years or so before, large crowds of people all over the universe would not be waiting for His guidance. Even if He was capable of appearing in manifestation to guide them in various worlds, it would have been of no use. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 9, “Since there are so many of His manifestations, we should know that He has been the Buddha for a long time.” It represents the consternation of the great assembly, men and gods who were surprised at the great number of Buddhas in manifestation (funjin).

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 69-70

Source

LS32

Day 15

Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Day 15 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 11 with Śākyamuni emitting a ray of light, we return to Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and Śākyamuni explanation that the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.

Thereupon the Buddha said again to Medicine-King Bodhisattva mahāsattvas:

“I have expounded many sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands of billions. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.

Nichiren explains the importance of this statement by the Buddha in his Essay on Gratitude:

The comparative superiority of all the sūtras preached during fifty years or so by Śākyamuni Buddha is declared in chapter 10 of the Lotus Sūtra, “The Teacher of the Dharma”: “I have expounded numerous sūtras. I am now expounding this sūtra. I also will expound many sūtras in the future. The total number of the sūtras will amount to many thousands, ten thousands and millions of them. This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.”

Even if this statement of the Lotus Sūtra were uttered by Śākyamuni Buddha alone, anybody from the highest ranking bodhisattvas down should respect and believe in it. The Buddha of Many Treasures, coming from the Eastern Hōjō World, attested to its truth. Besides, various Buddhas in manifestation from all the worlds in the universe gathered to verify its truth “with their long and wide tongues extended to the Brahma Heaven” just as Śākyamuni Buddha did, and returned to their respective lands.

The three phrases of “already preached, being now preached, and going to be preached” (i, kon, tō) include all the sūtras preached not only by Śākyamuni Buddha during fifty years or so of His preaching but also by all the Buddhas from all the worlds in the universe through the past, present, and future. These numerous sūtras are all compared with the Lotus Sūtra. Suppose that these Buddhas, from all the worlds in the universe, who presented themselves at the assembly of the Lotus Sūtra and added their seals of approval, should return to their respective homelands and say to their disciples that there is a sūtra superior to the Lotus Sūtra, would their disciples trust them at all?

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 5.

Source

LS32

Day 14

Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Day 14 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month heard Śākyamuni’s prediction of who will become a Buddha, we consider the consequences of speaking ill of someone who keeps the Lotus Sūtra.

“Medicine-King! An evil man who speaks ill of me in my presence with evil intent for as long as a kalpa is not as sinful as the person who reproaches laymen or monks with even a single word of abuse for their reading and reciting the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

“Medicine-King! Anyone who reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, know this, will be adorned just as I am. I will shoulder him. Wherever he may be, bow to him! Join your hands together towards him with all your heart, respect him, make offerings to him, honor him, and praise him! Offer him flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, canopies, banners, streamers, garments, food and various kinds of music! Make him the best offerings that you can obtain in the world of men! Strew the treasures of heaven to him! Offer him heaps of the treasures of heaven! Why is that? It is because, while he is expounding the Dharma with joy, if you hear it even for a moment, you will immediately be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

This problem with criticism of those who practice the Lotus Sūtra is a constant concern in Nichiren’s writings. In his “Treatise on Protecting the Nation” he writes:

Preaching the sin of abusing upholders of the Lotus Sūtra, “The Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra states, “Suppose a person with evil intent keeps speaking ill of the Buddha in His presence for as long as a kalpa (aeons), his sin is rather light. Suppose a person utters a word to curse lay persons or monks who read and recite the Lotus Sūtra, his sin is extremely grave.”

The sin of cursing just one upholder of the Lotus Sūtra is as serious as this. How much more serious the sin of writing books, causing people all over Japan to curse the upholders of the Lotus Sūtra! How much more serious the sin of discouraging practicers of the Lotus Sūtra by designating this sūtra the teaching through which not even one out of 1,000 persons would be able to attain Buddhahood!

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 30

Source

LS32

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Day 13 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the reaction of the five hundred Arhats to Śākyamuni’s prediction, we conclude Chapter 8 with Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and the others repeating what they had said in gāthās.

Thereupon Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and the others, wishing to repeat what they had said, sang in gāthās:

Your assurance of our future Buddhahood
Gives us unsurpassed peace.
Hearing your voice, we have the greatest joy that we have ever had.
We bow to you, to the Buddha of Immeasurable Wisdom.

Now in your presence,
We reproach ourselves for our faults.
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.

Suppose a poor man visited
His good friend, who was very rich.
The friend feasted him
With delicacies.

He fastened a priceless gem
Inside the garment of the man as a gift to him,
And went out without leaving a word.
The sleeping man did not notice [the gift].

The man woke up, and went to another country.
He worked to get food and clothing.
He had much difficulty
In earning his livelihood.

He satisfied himself with what little he earned.
He did not wish to get anything more.
He did not notice the priceless gem
Fastened inside his garment.

The good friend who gave the gem to the poor man
Happened to see him later.
He blamed him severely,
And showed him the gem fastened [inside the garment].

Seeing the gem,
The poor man had great joy.
Now he satisfied his five desires
With many treasures.

We are like the poor man.
In the long night you taught us
Out of your compassion towards us,
And caused us to aspire for unsurpassed [enlightenment].

Because we had no wisdom, we did not notice that.
The Nirvāṇa we attained was only part [of your wisdom].
Satisfying ourselves with it,
We did not wish to attain anything more.

Now you have awakened us, saying:
“What you attained was not true extinction.
When you have the unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha,
You will attain true extinction.”

Hearing from you that we are assured
Of becoming Buddhas one after another,
And that our worlds will be adorned,
We are joyful in body and mind.

The Daily Dharma from Feb. 6, 2019, offers this:

He satisfied himself with what little he earned.
He did not wish to get anything more.
He did not notice the priceless gem
Fastened inside his garment.

These verses are part of a story told by Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and other disciples in Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. It is about a man whose friend gives him a jewel while he is asleep. Not realizing he has this treasure, the man returns to his ordinary life, desperate to make a living and satisfy his ordinary desires. The story shows how we live when we forget about the jewel of Buddha nature we carry with us.

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

Daily Dharma, d2b

Daily Dharma – Feb. 25, 2019

Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking. But he [later] did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.

Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva sings these verses in Chapter One of the Lotus Sūtra. They are part of a story he tells about Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva (Gumyō, Yaśaskāma). This shows that each of the innumerable Bodhisattvas who are helping us to become enlightened use different ways of reaching people. Even those enmeshed in the suffering of self-importance, who use this Wonderful Dharma to make themselves seem superior to others, simply because they are leading others to this teaching, they too are creating boundless merit.

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