Quotes

buddhaseed

Getting Involved in the Buddha’s Life

Quote

We get involved in the Buddha’s life by devoting ourselves to participating in the Buddha’s activities. We can carry out the Buddha’s activities by using our bodies to carry out His work. This is attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form or Sokushin Jöbutsu. It is essentially attaining Buddhahood by receiving the teaching of the Lotus Sutra and expressing the teachings through one’s body.

This means to believe in the Lotus Sutra, to respect the Buddha, to chant the Odaimoku, and to realize oneself to be a messenger of the Buddha; and thus, work to help Him.

In the Teacher of the Dharma Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha states, “The good men or women who expound even a phrase of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma eve to one person even in secret after my extinction, know this, are my messengers. They are dispatched by me. They do my work.” (Murano, p. 172)

Buddha Seed: Understanding the Odaimoku

Doctrines of Nichiren

Selfish Motives

Quote

Now selfish motives and disinterested motives form the point of differentiation between the good and the bad. Therefore it was that Sakyamuni chiefly insisted on the doctrines that we ought to forget the difference between Self and Non-Self, that we ought to pursue the conduct of Fugen [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] or the Personification of Reason, and that we ought to live in peace with all our neighbours.

Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)

Lotus Path

Good Friends

Quote

Having good friends in a Sangha and a reliable teacher can help us fact-check our assumptions and conclusions, just as the Sangha at the time of the Buddha went to Manjusri.

Going to some skilled person to see what he has learned and what he has experienced can be a great aid in our practice of Buddhism. Yes, we ultimately have to personally absorb and inculcate into our own lives the truth of the matter, but having a good friend, a Sangha support, a teacher can help us to navigate the storehouse of treasures of Buddhism.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

History of Japanese Religion

The Bond of Karma

Quote

Human life, according to the teaching of Karma, is an endless continuity of deeds and retributions extending to the infinite past and to the future far beyond the ken of any mortal being, and including the existences in all possible realms, celestial, human, bestial, infernal, and so on. Moreover, the bond of Karma is not limited to the continuity of one’s individual life, but extends to the ties of association binding fellow beings together in a group or realm of existence. The relationship of parents and children, of husband and wife, of any social, racial, or national groups, all are manifestations of Karma working to perpetuate the inherited links of deeds and dispositions.

History of Japanese Religion

Lotus World

Two Buddhas

Quote

In Nichiren Buddhist Gohonzons, the two Buddhas are shown forming the anjali mudra (Japanese, gassho-in), the hand gesture in which both palms are placed together in front of the heart to indicate an attitude of praise and reverence. This is the same mudra that Nichiren Buddhist practitioners use when chanting the Odaimoku. It is unusual for Buddhas to be shown making this mudra, but in this case it indicates that both Shakyamuni Buddha and Many Treasures Tathagata have come together to praise the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra to which they have awakened and to praise the Buddha nature in all sentient beings.

Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon

Summer Writings

Living in Harmony

Quote

All the teachings of Buddhism are based on peace and harmony. This does not mean peace and harmony within only human society, but also encompasses animals, plants and everything in nature. The teachings direct us to live harmoniously and respect all living beings. This is the way of a peaceful mind and a mind of enlightenment, which Buddhists aspire to.

Summer Writings

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Beyond Blind Faith

Quote

Frequently in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha encourages us to remove our doubts and have strong faith. I need to emphasize that this faith is not a blind faith based upon merely taking someone’s word for something. It is critical that each of us base our faith on our practice and our study. Proving the validity of the teachings in the Lotus Sutra is very important to having no doubts.

All of this is based upon the Dharma as taught by the Buddha in the Lotus Sutra. This is our intention to fully embrace and experience with our own lives the truth and actuality of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra for ourselves.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Lotus Seeds

Traces Left in the Sand by a Person Walking on the Beach

Quote

The first half of the Lotus Sutra is the theoretical section, which is called the Trace or Imprint Gate. The Trace Gate consists of the first 14 chapters in which the Buddha is still seen as the historical Shakyamuni Buddha who attained awakening 2,500 years ago. It is called the Trace Gate because it covers the teaching of the One Vehicle by the historical Shakyamuni Buddha … and these teachings are the traces or imprints of the teaching of eternal life by the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha. The historical life of the Buddha and his teaching is like a print made of soft wax by a seal, or like traces left in the sand by a person walking on the beach.

Lotus Seeds

Awakening to the Lotus

Shoju and Shakubuku

Quote

Nichiren Shonin spoke of one other practice required of Buddhists: to express compassion and gratitude to our fellow humans; this is propagation of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. There are two forms of propagation, shoju and shakubuku. Shoju means gentle persuasion, and is used to describe the propagation of one who sets a good example. People are naturally drawn to such a person and seek to emulate him or her. However, the means that Nichiren Shonin advocated for his time and for the Declining Age of the Dharma in general is shakubuku, which means to break and subdue. However, this does not mean subduing people, being rude and dogmatic, or breaking violently. Instead, this simply means to speak the truth about the primary effectiveness of the Lotus Sutra and to speak truthfully about the deficiencies of other teachings. This does not mean attacking people with an attitude of insulting their beliefs; Nichiren Shonin says that the correct form of shakubuku is shown in the example of Bodhisattva Never Despise in Chapter Twenty of the Lotus Sutra.

Awakening to the Lotus

Basics

Kleshas

Quote

Buddhism employs the all-inclusive term klesha to mean the mistaken thoughts and actions that obstruct our attainment of enlightenment. (Kleshas are also thought of as impurities, and eliminating them is described as purifying the mind.) The most fundamental of these obstructions are the three poisons: greed, anger, and foolishness. Greed is desire for and attachment to things regarded as pleasant and enjoyable, and anger is aversion and resistance to things regarded as unpleasant and undesirable. Greed and anger are the same as craving, since craving is a mistaken desire, a mistaken love or hate of things. Foolishness, a lack of knowledge of the truth, is identical with ignorance in the Twelve-linked Chain of Dependent Origination. The three poisons, then, can be reduced to craving and ignorance, the fundamental causes of all suffering.
Basic Buddhist Concepts