Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p83-84Faith is emphasized throughout the Lotus Sutra. The Sanskrit terms used for it are shraddha (faith) and adhimukti (faith and understanding). In addition, prasada (pure faith) is used once or twice. None of these words means the kind of absolute devotion to an absolute person indicated by the term bhakti. They signify entering the Buddha way, reforming oneself, setting one’s resolve, and purifying one’s heart. With this kind of preparation one can devote oneself to the discipline, grow in wisdom, and become awakened.
This conception of faith has consistently underlain Buddhism. There is a place in the first chapter of Nagarjuna’s Great Wisdom Discourse, that says, “Entering the great sea of Buddha-dharma is accomplished with the power of faith and attained by the power of wisdom.” The Lotus Sutra also keeps this basic principle. Chapter 17, for example, while emphasizing a single moment of faith (shraddha) or faith and understanding (adhimukti) says that they go beyond five of the six transcendental practices, but adds “except the perfection of wisdom.” That is, among the six practices for becoming awakened, only the last one, wisdom, or prajña, is put above faith.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Sept. 3, 2025
Likewise, those who uphold the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra can change the black (evil) karma, which they committed in this life or during the numerous kalpa (aeons) in the past, into white (good) great karma, not to speak of the meritorious good acts performed in the past since the eternal past, which will all be changed to golden-colored.
Myōhō-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Reply to My Lady, the Nun Myōhō
Yoshiro Tamura: The Merits of the Reward Body
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p116When it came to the theory of three Buddha-bodies, Zhiyi gave primary importance to the reward body. Commenting on chapter 16, he claims that “the main theme throughout this chapter is the revelation of the three bodies. But if we take it differently, it is really concerned with the reward body. The real intention is to discuss the merits of the reward body. ” The reward body is a figure of merit attained, in which eternal life is active in the actual world. To truly understand the reward body is to feel the throbbing life of the eternal Buddha in the midst of concrete, actual reality woven from joy and sadness, suffering and pleasure, good and evil.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Sept. 2, 2025
The Lotus School … is based on the most truthful words of all teachings of the Buddha. Not only does the Lotus Sūtra consist of true words but also provisional sūtras preached by the Buddha during His lifetime, upon flowing into the great ocean of the Lotus Sūtra, are all converted to the sūtra of the true words by the power of the Lotus Sūtra. Let alone the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra.
Myōhō-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Reply to My Lady, the Nun Myōhō
Yoshiro Tamura: Everlasting Bodhisattva Practice
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p104-105The Everlasting Buddha is not a Creator but unceasingly engages in bodhisattva practice. Moreover, the sutra teaches that our becoming a buddha is substantially the same as it is for the Everlasting Original Buddha, but is expressed in different terms. For what purpose, then, does the sutra insist upon the idea of Everlasting Original Buddha? We can summarize it in the following three points:
- It resolves views of the Buddha—in other words, its purpose is to bring together and make coherent the various buddhas. In this regard, we can say that whereas we find the unity of Dharma or truth in chapter 2, we find the unity of Buddha or the personal in chapter 16.
- It shows that we can see the personal life of the Everlasting Original Buddha wherever there is unified truth—that is, it reveals that the unifying truth of the cosmos is not merely a matter of natural law, but that the eternal body of truth, which affects all life, is personal and dynamically alive.
- It shows that the dynamism of eternal life can inspire us in the midst of religious practice within this life. This is why chapter 16 teaches that Shakyamuni Buddha is the Everlasting Original Buddha and that he has never ceased doing bodhisattva practice.
The Lotus Sūtra’s Spiritual Potency
Note: This is another in the monthly excerpts from “Tales of the Lotus Sutra.”
There was a certain bhikṣunī, her name [long since] forgotten, who lived on the outskirts of the Kunshan district of Suzhou. She became a nun at an early age and took to constant recitation of the Lotus Sūtra, which she performed devotedly a day for some twenty-odd years. In appearance she was unusually beautiful and refined, so much so that anyone who caught sight of her was struck immediately with affection for her. During the first year of the Yongchang era [689] a certain district office manager named Zhu began to entertain wicked fantasies about her and sought to press her with his less than honorable designs. Yet the bhikṣunī remained firm in her chastity and refused to give in to him.
Angered by her rejection, Zhu made a great deal of trouble for the abbey and intentionally sought to disrupt their regular means of livelihood. The bhikṣunīs were at a total loss as to where to turn to rid themselves of this plight. Whereupon, the nun who kept the Lotus said, “How could the Lotus Sūtra fail to show its spiritual potency in this matter?” She then donned her purified robe, entered the Buddha hall, burned incense, and professed [solemn] vows.
Not long thereafter the office manager, availing himself of some official pretext, came to the abbey to pass the night. His heart, of course, harbored other intentions. But the very instant he sought to find his way to the nun’s quarters, his lower extremities were seized with a burning pain and his male member dropped off. Rivulets of perspiration streamed from his skin, leprous ulcers broke out over his entire body, and his eyebrows, beard, and sideburns all fell out. The office manager grievously recanted, but even after trying a hundred remedies, he still was never completely cured.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Sept. 1, 2025
Except for bodhisattvas such as Superior Practice and Limitless Practice, highest-ranking leaders of the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth, no one is allowed to appear in the 500-year period at the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration and to spread the five letters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō, which is the substance of all existing things. Furthermore, no one else can form the Most Venerable One (honzon) with the two Buddhas, Śākyamuni and Many Treasures, seated side by side inside the Stupa of Treasures. This is because these (daimoku and honzon) are the gist of the “actual three thousand existences contained in one thought” doctrine expounded in the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, and it should be spread by bodhisattva disciples of the Original Buddha.
Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality
Yoshiro Tamura: The Seven Parables of the Lotus Sutra
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p90[In the parable of the good physician], a father—a physician—cannot convince his children, whose minds have been warped by poison, to take an antidote. So he leaves some medicine for them, disappears, and then sends someone to tell his children that he is dead. Hearing this, a deep longing for the father arises in the hearts of the children, bringing them to take the medicine. As a result they are cured and their eyes opened. Hearing that they had recovered, the father reappears. The children in the parable correspond to lost and wandering beings, and the father corresponds to the Everlasting Original Buddha. The father’s disappearance is comparable to that of the Everlasting Original Buddha, who has a kind of temporary extinction in order to correct the people’s hearts and minds and open their eyes.
The parables of the three carriages in chapter 3, and of the lost son in chapter 4, the simile of the rain and plants in chapter 5, the parables of the magic city in chapter 7, the jewel in the hem in chapter 8, the jewel in the topknot in chapter 14, and this parable of the physician’s sons in chapter 16 are called the seven parables of the Lotus Sutra and have been highly valued from ancient times.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Aug. 31, 2025
In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, you should expound Myōhō Renge Kyō to them, and cause them to hear and know Myōhō Renge Kyō so that they may be able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive Myōhō Renge Kyō by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.”
Having heard these words of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas were filled with great joy. With more respect than ever, they bent forward, bowed, joined their hands together towards him, and said simultaneously. “We will do as you command. Certainly, World-Honored One! Do not worry!”
Yoshiro Tamura: the Concrete and Actual Shakyamuni Buddha
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p89[The] Lotus Sutra maintains that the actual and concrete Shakyamuni is in reality a version of the eternal. That is, the eternity of Shakyamuni Buddha that is emphasized is not a truth-body behind him, but the concrete and actual Shakyamuni himself. In other words, the concrete, historical, actual Shakyamuni is the living embodiment of eternal life. His death or extinction, on the other hand, was just an expression of a convenient, temporary device.
The Buddha appears to be invisible in the teaching of chapter 16, in order to open the eyes of those who have narrow ways of thinking about being and nonbeing, and such. This is his so-called extinction. Those who have their eyes open know that the concrete and actual Shakyamuni Buddha exists eternally. This matter is summarized in lines of beautiful poetry in the verses at the end of the chapter. Kumarajiva’s translation of them begins with a phrase that has been lovingly recited from ancient times: “Since I became a buddha . . .”