I have frequently spoken with people who are the only practitioner in their household and sometimes they express concern that the other person doesn’t practice. To this I have to say, yes they do! By their indirect support of you as a person, and especially if they do not interfere with your belief in and practice of the Lotus Sutra, they are in fact indirectly having a deep relationship with the Lotus Sutra through your practice.
Practice GuideQuotes
The Three Bodies of the Buddha
The Noumenal or Spiritual Body of the Buddha, is the Truth itself; the second, the Compensation Body, is the Intellect, which can discover the Truth; the third, the Body of Transformation or Impermanence, is that which is the object of worship to the vulgar.
Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)Our Buddhist Corrective Lenses
In many ways, even if we have perfect or near perfect eyesight, we all need corrective lenses. Our Buddhist practice helps us to create the correct lens through which to see the reality of life, the true nature of cause and effect. If we look through distorted lenses, not seeing the suffering caused by our unskillful actions we will continue to manifest results we may not wish to experience. Buddhism helps us abandon the distortions that bring on suffering. By following the Eightfold Path we can begin to see how our distorted views cause suffering for ourselves and for others.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1Getting Better
Over the years, my Buddhist practice has given me the tools to change and the direction in which to make those changes. The Lotus Sutra has been the key. The Buddha doesn’t preach to the congregation that they are defective. He doesn’t tell them that they will not attain enlightenment in this Saha world because they were broken or bad. Instead, he points out that after a certain length of time and after certain practices they will attain enlightenment. None of this is punishment. Can we also be as kind and gentle with ourselves even as we strive to make changes in our lives?
Giving ourselves the space to make changes to the good will guarantee our enlightenment. This is freedom from suffering. You are not a broken person; you can be better though. We all can be better.
Physician's Good MedicineThe Tathagata’s Messenger
The Truth abides eternally, but it is an abstraction, a dead law, without the person who perpetuates the life of the Truth. The Buddha Sakyamuni, in his human manifestation, was the one, the Tathagata par excellence; but who shall be the one in the future, nay in the present, in these days of degeneration and vice? This was the question of Nichiren, who at last, as the result of his hard experience and perilous life, arrived at the conclusion that he himself was the man destined to achieve the task of the Tathagata’s messenger.
Nichiren, The Buddhist ProphetWith Devoted Faith to the Eternal Buddha
The Buddha is said to have passed away about two thousand five hundred years ago, but really He lives here as the Eternal Buddha, and is saving people everywhere in different forms. This story is expounded for the first time in the final teaching, the Lotus Sutra.
“Since I became the Buddha, I have been expounding the teachings to hundreds of millions of living beings for many hundreds of innumerable aeons to lead them into the Way to Buddhahood. In order to save the people, I expediently showed them my passing away. In reality I shall never be extinct. I always live here, and expound the teaching according to people’s capacities. I am always thinking: ‘How shall I cause all living beings to enter into the unsurpassed Way and quickly become Buddhas?’ ”
– The Lotus Sutra, Chapter XVI
With devoted faith to the Eternal Buddha, we will naturally be endowed with Buddha’s wisdom, be lead to approach Buddhahood and have a good life.
Spring WritingsPlanting Faith and Practice in Harmony
Looking at the plants themselves [in the Simile of the Herbs] we can say that roots equal faith, stems equal precepts or practice, branches equal firm mind, and leaves equal wisdom. Plants as they grow must do so with each part in proportion to the others. A plant will not stay alive long if it has a massive root system sucking up nourishment and no stem or branches or leaves with which to transport the nourishment or to process it through photosynthesis. If there is a strong stem, lots of leaves, but no roots to soak up moisture and chemicals from the soil then the leaves will eventually whither and die. All of the parts of a plant must be developed in harmony with each other.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraThe Perfection of Wisdom
Of the Six Perfections – generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom – the perfection of wisdom is accomplished when our views are in accord with the reality or the world as it truly is. That is, we have insight into the dynamic and interdependent nature of all things. The perfection of wisdom is expressed through our faith in the Wonderful Dharma, which enables us to have confidence and trust in our Buddha-nature – our capacity to view life with the insight and wisdom of the Buddha.
Lotus SeedsThe Path to Enlightenment
The path to enlightenment is a life-long journey. One year or 500 days is simply a small portion of that journey.
The Magic City: Studying the Lotus SutraThe Perception of Sakyamuni
This discovery was made by Sakyamuni when he was thirty years of age. It was after his perception of this truth that Sakyamuni was called the Subordinate Buddha; while, as the Buddha of Original Enlightenment, i.e., as the personification of Truth, he is called the Original Buddha. Then, desiring to teach the people that any one of them could likewise become Buddha, he advanced the doctrines contained in a sacred work called the Kegon Kyo. But they were very slow to understand; their intelligence, in fact, was insufficient to grasp so great a truth; so he was obliged to confine his instructions for more than forty years to the Disciplines, the practice of which was necessary as a preparation for the reception of the higher doctrines. It was only when he was seventy years old that he was able to revert to his former project. Then he taught what will be found in the first [volume] of the [Lotus Sutra]: “It is only Buddhas, i.e., enlightened ones, who can, with the Buddha, investigate the reality of things.” This refers to the doctrine that all things in all times and all departments of space are, in essence, originally identical with the Buddha, and contain in themselves the three bodies of the Buddha, viz., the Spiritual or Noumenal Body, the Compensation Body, and the Body of Transformation or Impermanence.
Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)