Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

This begins the seventh time through and I am going to change the format for this month. In the six previous trips through the Lotus Sutra, I would scribble notes as I went along and later turn those notes into a post here. Two problems with that:

1. I’m stopping and taking notes and otherwise interrupting my reading of the day’s section of the sutra.
2. In many cases I print the same large sections of the day’s reading month after month.

Starting today, I’m going to attempt to summarize what I see as the principal point of the day’s reading and then provide a single quote that seems most relevant. The hope is that each reading will bring something new while underlining what I’ve read and discovered in past months.

And so, to begin:

Two important aspects of this first day’s reading need to be stressed. First, is the crowd. Everyone is here. We have great arhats, sravakas, bodhisattvas, bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, men, nonhuman beings, the kings of small countries, and the wheel-turning-holy-kings. Clearly, this teaching is for all living beings.

The other point is what everyone sees when Sakyamuni sends out a light illuminating all of the worlds in the east. This begins a platform from which Sakyamuni will preach. Here everyone sees what’s happening elsewhere. Tomorrow they learn of what happened in the past. Knowing what’s happening elsewhere now, knowing what happened before, listeners will see how the Buddha’s teachings are the same.

And that leads to today’s quote:

The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.

I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest Heaven
Of each of those worlds.
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.

I also see the Buddhas,
The Saintly Masters, the Lion-like Ones,
Who are expounding
The most wonderful sutra
With their pure and gentle voices,
And teaching
Many billions of Bodhisattvas.
The brahma voices of the Buddhas
Are deep and wonderful,
Causing people to wish to hear them.

I also see the Buddha of each of those worlds
Expounding his right teachings to all living beings
In order to cause them to attain enlightenment.
He explains his teachings
With stories of previous lives,
And with innumerable parables and similes.

To those who are confronted with sufferings,
And tired of old age, disease, and death,
The Buddha expounds the teaching of Nirvana,
And causes them to eliminate these sufferings.

To those who have merits,
Who have already made offerings to the past Buddhas,
And who are now seeking a more excellent teaching,
The Buddha expounds [the Way of] cause-knowers.

To the Buddha’s sons
Who are performing various practices,
And who are seeking unsurpassed wisdom,
The Buddha expounds the Pure Way.

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

So today I was immediately struck by the number of visitors who arrive today with Universal-Sage Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance, came from a world [in the distance of many worlds] to the east [of this Saha-World]. He was accompanied by innumerable, uncountable great Bodhisattvas. All the worlds quaked as he passed through. [The gods] rained down jeweled lotus-flowers, and made many hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds’ of music. He was also surrounded by a great multitude of innumerable gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings.

It goes on to say, “They reached Mt. Grdhrakuta of the Saha-World by their virtues and supernatural powers.” That supernatural merit travel is important. Imagine the number of draft animals necessary to haul that crowd. Cleaning up their mess would take a whole other type of supernatural powers.

OK. Couldn’t resist. Back to the point.

Asked by Universal-Sage Bodhisattva how people will hear of the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha’s extinction, Sakyamuni says:

The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things:

1. secure the protection of the Buddhas
2. plant the roots of virtue
3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment]
4. resolve to save all living beings.

The good men or women will be able to obtain this sutra after my extinction if they do these four things.

For those who succeed in these four steps, Universal-Sage Bodhisattva vows:

If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sutra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

And of particular interest to me:

If he forgets a phrase or a gatha of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will remind him of it, and read and recite it with him so that he may be able to understand it.

Universal-Sage Bodhisattva also vows:

Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sutra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas [in his previous existence]. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathagatas.

In response Sakyamuni makes his own vows:

Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sutra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’ He should be considered to be caressed by me on the head. He should be considered to be covered with my robe.

Of particular interest to me:

He will not be troubled by the three poisons. He will not be troubled by jealousy, arrogance from selfishness, arrogance from self-assumed attainment of enlightenment, or arrogance from self-assumed acquisition of virtues. He will want little, know contentment, and practice just as you do.

And when the show was over:

When the Buddha expounded this sutra, the great congregation including the Bodhisattvas headed by Universal-Sage, the Sravakas headed by Sariputra, and the other living beings such as gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings, had great joy, kept the words of the Buddha, bowed [to him], and retired.

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

One of my favorite chapters, I always have a hard time deciding what to focus on. For example, this time through I was struck by the powers of the two sons and how they obtained them.

The two sons had great supernatural powers, merits, virtues and wisdom. A long time ago, they had already practiced the Way which Bodhisattva should practice.

And…

They also had already obtained [the four states of mind towards all living beings:] compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality.

The Buddha of this time, Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom, expounded the Lotus Sutra with the aim of leading the boys’ father, King Wonderful-Adornment, who held heretical views. The sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, for their part, don’t immediately approach their father. Instead, they ask their mother to go hear the Lotus Sutra from Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom. It is the mother who reminds her children that they can’t abandon their father. That’s an interesting fact that stands out today.

The mother said to them, ‘Show some wonders to your father out of your compassion towards him! If he sees [the wonders], he will have his mind purified and allow us to go to that Buddha.’

Thereupon the two sons went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and displayed various wonders because they were thinking of their father.

And wonders they performed.

By displaying these various wonders, they purified the mind of their father, that is, of the king, and caused him to understand the Dharma by faith.

Seeing [these wonders displayed by] the supernatural powers of his sons, the father had the greatest joy that he had ever had.

For me, the importance of this chapter is the role the children played. As they explain to their mother after convincing their father to hear the Buddha:

We did the work of the Buddha for the sake of our father.

And perhaps more important is the father’s perspective on what has happened:

After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samadhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

Underline the words They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence. The sons were the king’s teacher, but the seed of good that sprouted already existed in the king.

Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

Last year Ryusho Jeffus, who runs Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Temple, in Charlotte, NC, published a children’s book based on this story from the Lotus Sutra. The book, “King Wonderful Adornment,” was illustrated by Kanjo Grohman, a novice Nichiren Shu priest in training at Seattle Choezan Enkyo-ji.

I love the illustrations but the book doesn’t go beyond the point where the king agrees to go hear the Buddha. Missing for me is the point of the story: the father’s roots of good and the promise that “The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives.” Children reading this book will miss the best part: The children – with their compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality – were their father’s teacher.

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs.

We begin with a matter of merits:

Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva rose front his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and said to him:

“World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read, recite, understand or copy the Sutra of th Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?”

The Buddha said to him:

“Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?”

“Very many, World-Honored One!” The Buddha sajd: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite even a single gatha of four lines of this sutra, understand the meanings of it or act according to it.”

And with that we get protective dharanis from Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva. They are followed by Vaisravana Heavenly-King, the Protector of the World and World-Holding Heavenly-King, both of whom are represented on the corners of the Mandala Gohonzon. (See illustration from Lotus World)

Finally we get my favorite protectors, the 10 raksasis daughters; their mother, Hariti, and her other children and their attendants.

The daughters are listed in the Lotus Sutra:

1. Lamba
2. Vilamba
3. CrookedTeeth
4. Flower-Teeth
5. Black-Teeth
6. Many-Hairs
7. Insatiable
8. Necklace-Holding
9. Kunti
10. Plunderer-Of-Energy-Of-All-Beings.

The daughters, their mother and her other children and attendants all vow to protect the teacher of the Dharma:

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 Sarngha.

And in response the Buddha praises them:

The Buddha said to the raksasis:

“Excellent, excellent! Your merits will be immeasurable even when you protect the person who keeps only the name of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Needless to say, so will be your merits when you protect the person who keeps the sutra itself, and makes to a copy of this sutra hundreds of thousands of offerings such as flowers, incense, necklaces, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, streamers, canopies, music, and various lamps like lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of sumanas-flower oil, lamps of campaka flower oil, lamps of varsika-flower oil, and lamps of utpala-flower oil. Kunti! You [raksasis] and your attendants should protect this teacher of the Dharma.”

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.

This chapter about a visiting Bodhisattva offers a nice reminder about how visitors should behave:

When [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva] was illumined by the light of Sakyamuni Buddha, he said to the Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha:

World-Hopored One! I wish to visit the Saha-World, bow to Sakyamuni Buddha, attend on him, and make offerings to him. I also wish to see Manjusri Bodhisattva, who is the Son of the King of the Dharma. [I also wish to see] Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva, Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva, Superior-Practice-Intent Bodhisattva, Adornment-King Bodhisattva, and Medicine-Superior Bodhisattva.

Thereupon Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha said to Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva:

Do not despise that world! Do not consider it to be inferior [to our world]! Good Man! The Saha-World is not even. It is full of mud, stones, mountains and impurities. The Buddha [of that world] is short in stature! So are the Bodhisattvas [of that world]. You are forty-two thousand yojanas tall. I am six million an eight hundred thousand yojanas tall. You are the most handsome. You have thousands of millions of marks of merits, and your light is wonderful. Do not despise that world when you go there! Do not consider that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of that world are inferior [to us]! Do not consider that that world is inferior [to ours.]

This is the first of two chapters in which we learn that Bodhisattvas can be where needed and transform themselves into the living beings suitable for transmitting the Lotus Sutra. As Sakyamuni explains to Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva:

Flower-Virtue! Now you see Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva here and nowhere else. But formerly he transformed himself into various living beings and expounded this sutra to others in various places. He became King Brahman, King Sakra, Freedom God, Great-Freedom God, a great general in heaven, Vaisravana Heavenly-King, a wheel-turning-holy-king, the king of a small country, a rich man, a householder, a prime minister, a brahmana, a bhiksu, a bhiksuni, an upasaka, an upasika, the wife of a rich man, that of a householder, that of a prime minister, that of a brahmana, a boy, a girl, a god, a dragon, a yaksa, a gandharva, an asura, a garuda, a kimara, a mahoraga, a human being or a nonhuman being. [After he transformed himself into one or another of these living beings,] he expounded this sutra, and saved the hellish denizens, hungry spirits, animals, and all the other living beings in the places of difficulties. When he entered an imperial harem, he became a woman and expounded this sutra.

Flower-Virtue! This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva protects all living beings in this Saha-World. He transforms himself into one or another of these various living beings in this Saha-World and expounds this sutra to all living beings without reducing his supernatural powers, [his power of] transformation, and his wisdom. He illumines this Saha World with the many [rays of light] of his wisdom, and causes all living beings to know what they should know.

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

What struck me today in reading about this long-long-long-long ago Buddha called Powerful-Voice-King was the use of the Three Vehicles by a Buddha:

Powerful-Voice-King Buddha expounded the Dharma to the gods, men and asuras of his world. To those who were seeking Sravakahood, he expounded the teaching suitable for them, that is, the teaching of the four truths, saved them from birth, old age, disease and death, and caused them to attain Nirvana. To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching suitable for them, that is, the teaching of the twelve causes. To the Bodhisattvas who were seeking Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, he expounded the teaching suitable for them, that is, the teaching of the six paramitas, and caused them to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.

For me, this underlined the idea that to hear the Lotus Sutra is something special.

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Expound this sutra only once
In hundreds of millions of billions of kalpas,
That is, in an inconceivable number of kalpas.

Therefore, anyone who hears this sutra
And practices the Way
After my extinction,
Should have no doubts about [this sutra].

He should expound this sutra with all his heart;
Then he will be able to meet Buddhas
Throughout all his existences,
And quickly attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.

Of course, the main point of this chapter is the story of Never Despising, a bodhisattva who took on the form of a bhiksu in “the age of the counterfeit of the right teachings of the first Powerful-Voice-King Tathagata.”

He did not read or recite sutras. He only bowed to the four kinds of devotees. When he saw them in the distance, he went to them on purpose, bowed to them, and praised them, saying, ‘I do not despise you because you can become Buddhas.’

He was not well-received and, instead, was routinely abused. But he never despaired or became angry.

When he was about to pass away, he heard [from a voice] in the sky the twenty thousand billion gathas of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which had been expounded by the Powerful-Voice-King Buddha. Having kept all these gathas, he was able to have his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind purified as previously stated. Having his six sense-organs purified, he was able to prolong his life for two hundred billion nayuta more years. He expounded this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to many people [in his prolonged life]. The arrogant bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas and upasikas, that is, the four kind of devotees who had abused him and caused him to be called Never-Despising, saw that he had obtained great supernatural powers, the power of eloquence, and the great power of good tranquility. Having seen all this, and having heard the Dharma from him, they took faith in him, and followed him.

And the kicker to the story:

The Never-Despising Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself. If I had not kept, read or recited this sutra or expounded it to others in my previous existence, I should not have been able to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi so quickly. Because I kept, read and recited this sutra, and expounded it to others under those past Buddhas, I attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi quickly.

Again we learn of the recurring relationship between the Buddha and his followers:

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 bhiksunis including Lion-Moon, and the five hundred upasakas including Thinking-Of-Buddha. Now they do not falter in seeking Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

Today’s reading concludes with the opening of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathagathas, in which we have the Bodhisattvas who emerged from the sky below the Saha-World vowing to uphold the Lotus Sutra and Sakyamuni and all of his replicas demonstrating their appreciation:

Thereupon the World-Honored One displayed his great supernatural powers in the presence of the multitude, which included not only the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahasattvas who had already lived in this Saha-World [before the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground], headed by Manjusri, but also bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. He stretched out his broad and long tongue upwards until the tip of it reached the World of Brahman. Then he emitted rays of light with an immeasurable variety of colors from his pores. The light illumined all the worlds of the ten quarters. The Buddhas who were sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees also stretched out their broad and long tongue and emitted innumerable rays of light. Sakyamuni Buddha and the Buddhas under the jeweled trees displayed these upernatural powers of theirs for one hundred thousand years.

Recently I’ve been reading Nichiren’s Senji-sho, Selecting the Right Time, and came across a footnote that explains the tongues:

Having a long tongue is one of the Buddha’s 32 physical excellences, considered a sign of truly spoken words.

What happens next was even more impressive:

Then they pulled back their tongues, coughed at the same time, and snapped their fingers. These two sounds [of coughing and snapping] reverberated over the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters, and the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways. By the supernatural powers of the Buddhas, the living beings of those worlds, including gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, and mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings, saw the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees in this Saha-World. They also saw Sakyamuni Buddha sitting by the side of Many-Treasures Tathagata on the lion-like seat in the stupa of treasures. They also saw that the many hundred of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahasattvas and the four kind of devotees were surrounding Sakyamuni Buddha respectfully. Having seen all this, they had the greatest joy that they had ever had.