The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra offers an interesting tale about a monk who constantly chants the Lotus Sutra. The lesson is applicable to Nichiren Buddhists.
Bhikshu Fada was from Hong Province. He had left home to become a monk at the age of seven, and constantly recited The Lotus Sutra. When he came to pay homage to the Master, he bowed but did not touch his head to the ground. The Master scolded him, saying, “If you bow without touching the ground, isn’t that like not bowing at all?”
You must have something on your mind.
What is your practice?”
He said, “I have recited The Lotus Sutra over three thousand times already.”
The Master said, “It doesn’t matter if you recited it ten thousand times. If you understood the Sutra’s meaning, you would not be so overbearing, and might be a fellow cultivator with me. You have applied effort in vain, yet don’t even understand how wrong you are.
Listen to my verse:
The point of bowing is to lower the banner of pride;
So why don’t you touch your head to the ground?
When your ego is in the way, offenses will arise,
But when you forget your achievement, then blessings are supreme.
The Master asked further, “What is your name?”
“Fada,” he answered.
The Master said, “Your name means ‘Dharma Penetrating, but what Dharma have you penetrated?!” He then spoke this verse:
Your name means “Dharma Penetrating,”
And you diligently recite without cease,
You recite in vain, mouthing empty words,
But one who knows his mind is a bodhisattva.
Because we have a karmic connection, I will now explain it to you:
Place your trust in a Buddha beyond words;
And lotuses will bloom from your mouth.
Hearing this verse, Fada remorsefully said, “From now on I will respect everyone. I, your disciple, have been reciting The Lotus Sutra without understanding its meaning, and have always harbored doubts. Venerable Master, your wisdom is deep and vast. Will you please explain the essentials of this sutra for me?”
The Master said, “The Dharma is profoundly penetrating, but your mind has not penetrated it. There is nothing doubtful in the sutra; the doubts are in your mind. You recite this sutra, but what do you think its core teaching is?”
Fada replied, “This student is dull and slow. All along I have only recited by rote, so how could I understand its main purport?”
The Master said, “I cannot read, but if you recite it for me, I will explain it to you.”
Fada then recited the sutra aloud. When he came to the chapter on Parables, the Master said:
Stop there! The central teaching of this sutra has always been about the reasons why the Buddha appears in this world. All of its parables address this. What are these reasons? The sutra says, “All Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the world because of the One Great Matter.” The One Great Matter is the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.
Ordinary people, confused about the external world, attach to appearances; confused inwardly, they cling to emptiness. If you can remain unmoved by appearances while right in the midst of appearances, and not cling to emptiness while in the midst of emptiness, then inside and out nothing will confuse you. If you understand this teaching, you will gain awakening in an instant. “The Buddha’s knowledge and vision” is simply this.
“Buddha” means awakened. Awakening could be divided into four aspects: one, initiating the Buddha’s knowledge and vision; two, demonstrating the Buddha’s knowledge and vision; three, fathoming the Buddha’s knowledge and vision; and four, becoming one with the Buddha’s knowledge and vision. If you investigate the initiating and demonstrating of the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, you can easily fathom and become one with it. The ‘Buddha’s knowledge and vision’ is just your fundamental true nature becoming manifest.
Be careful not to misconstrue the sutra’s intent by supposing that the “initiating,” “demonstrating,” “fathoming,” and “becoming” it describes is the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, a knowledge and vision that we do not share in. If you interpret it in this way, you discredit the sutra and demean the Buddha. Since the Buddha is already awakened, perfect in knowledge and vision, why would there be any need for him to do it again?! You should now believe that the knowledge and vision of the Buddha is just your own mind; there is no other Buddha.
It is only because living beings cover over their own light with lust and craving for sensory experiences, become enslaved to things outside and disturbed within, that the World Honored One is roused from his samadhi to exhort them to cease, to not seek outside themselves, and instead to realize they are the same as the Buddha. Thus, the [Sutra] speaks of “realizing the Buddha’s knowledge and vision.”
I, too, am always exhorting people to realize the Buddha’s knowledge and vision within their own minds. But ordinary people are perverse; confused and deluded, they do wrong. Their talk may be good, but their minds are bad. Greedy, hateful, envious, fawning and flattering, deceitful, and arrogant, they take advantage of others and harm living creatures. Thus, they only realize the knowledge and vision of living beings.
If you can constantly true your mind, activate your wisdom, observe and illuminate your own mind, refrain from evil while doing all that’s good – this is you, yourself “realizing the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.” Google Gemini IllustrationIn every moment of thought “realize the Buddha’s knowledge and vision”; don’t realize the knowledge and vision of living beings. Realizing the “Buddha’s knowledge and vision” is to rise above the worldly; realizing the knowledge and vision of living beings is mundane. If you simply labor away reciting [the Sutra], and cling to it as an achievement, how is that any different from the yak fondly admiring its own tail?
Fada said, “Does that mean I shouldn’t bother to recite the Sutra as long as I understand its meaning?”
The Master replied:
How could the Sutra impede your mindfulness? Confusion and enlightenment are in the person; harm and benefit depend on you. If your mouth recites and your mind practices, you “turn” the Sutra; but if your mouth recites while your mind does not practice, then the Sutra “turns” you. Listen to my verse:
When your mind is confused, you are “turned” by the Dharma Flower,
When your mind is awakened, you turn the Dharma Flower.
Reciting the Sutra so long without understanding,
Has made you an enemy of its meaning.
To recite free of thoughts is correct,
With thoughts, your reciting goes wrong.
When both “with” or “without” are gone,
You may ride forever in the White Ox Cart.
Hearing this verse, Fada, wept spontaneously; the words moved him to an awakening. He told the Master, “All these years until today I have never actually ‘turned’ the Dharma Flower (Lotus Sutra); instead I was turned by it.”
Fada further said, “The Sutra says, ‘Even if all the sravakas and bodhisattva disciples of the Buddha were to exhaust their minds trying to comprehend the Buddha’s wisdom, they could never fathom it.’ Now you would have ordinary people simply understand their own minds and call that ‘the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.’ Won’t this cause those lacking superior faculties to doubt and revile the Sutra? Also, the Sutra speaks of three carts, drawn by a sheep, a deer, and an ox, as well as the White Ox Cart. How are these different? Please, explain these once again.”
The Master said:
The Sutra’s meaning is clear; you are the one who is confused.
All the people of the three vehicles cannot fathom the Buddha’s wisdom; the fault lies in their thinking. The more they think, the further away they go. The Buddha originally taught this principle for ordinary people, not for Buddhas. Those who were unable to believe were free to leave the assembly. They were unaware that they were sitting on the White Ox Cart; instead they went outside seeking the three vehicles. How much more clearly could the Sutra say it: “There is only one vehicle, Buddhahood; no other vehicle.” Whether there might be two or three, and all the other countless provisional expedients, with the various stories, parables, and sayings – all these teachings are meant to lead to the One Buddha Vehicle. How can you not understand?! The three carts are provisional, an early and preliminary teaching. The one vehicle is real; meant for here and now. He is only teaching you to leave the provisional and return to the real. Once you return to the true and real, it too has no name.
You should understand that all the treasure and wealth comes from you; the carts’ “use” depends on you. Don’t keep thinking anymore of a “father,” the “children,” or the carts’ “use.” Not ruminating over this is called “holding-in-mind The Lotus Sutra.” Then throughout all time your hands will never drop the Sutra; from morning to night it is always in your mind.
When Fada received this teaching, he was overwhelmed with joy, and recited a verse:
Three thousand recitations of the Sutra Are forgotten with one word from Caoxi [Huineng]
Not grasping the transcendent meaning,
How could I ever stop lifetimes of madness?
Sheep, deer, and ox are just expedient devices, to
Skillfully lay out beginning, midway, and end.
Who could have imagined that within the burning house
Sat the Dharma King all along?
The Master said, “From now on you may be called ‘the sutra-reciting monk.”
From then on, although he understood the profound meaning, Fada continued to recite the Sutra unceasingly.
Clip and save these words:
It is only because living beings cover over their own light with lust and craving for sensory experiences, become enslaved to things outside and disturbed within, that the World Honored One is roused from his samadhi to exhort them to cease, to not seek outside themselves, and instead to realize they are the same as the Buddha. Thus, the [Sutra] speaks of “realizing the Buddha’s knowledge and vision.”
I, too, am always exhorting people to realize the Buddha’s knowledge and vision within their own minds. But ordinary people are perverse; confused and deluded, they do wrong. Their talk may be good, but their minds are bad. Greedy, hateful, envious, fawning and flattering, deceitful, and arrogant, they take advantage of others and harm living creatures. Thus, they only realize the knowledge and vision of living beings.
If you can constantly true your mind, activate your wisdom, observe and illuminate your own mind, refrain from evil while doing all that’s good – this is you, yourself “realizing the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.” In every moment of thought “realize the Buddha’s knowledge and vision”; don’t realize the knowledge and vision of living beings. Realizing the “Buddha’s knowledge and vision” is to rise above the worldly; realizing the knowledge and vision of living beings is mundane. If you simply labor away reciting [the Sutra], and cling to it as an achievement, how is that any different from the yak fondly admiring its own tail?
