Quotes

Lotus Path

Seeking the Dharma from Devadatta

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“I offered him anything he wanted. I collected fruits, drew water, gathered firewood, and prepared meals for him. I even allowed my body to be his seat. I never felt tired in body and mind. I served him for a thousand years. In order to hear the Dharma from him, I served him so strenuously that I did not cause him to be short of anything.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XII)

This passage, from the Devadatta Chapter tells how the Buddha served Devadatta in a previous life so that he could be taught the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra. When I think about the truth of the Buddha being present in all beings as taught by Never-Despising Bodhisattva I can’t help but think that we can begin to really understand the teaching of the Lotus Sutra when we serve other beings, when we can help them as the Buddha did seeking the Dharma from Devadatta.

Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1

Physicians Good Medicine

The Reality of Hard Work

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How many of us expect some fantastical spiritual awakening? How great is the disappointment when the everyday results seem mundane at best and even unnoticeable? An easy assent to some experience is followed by the reality that hard work is necessary to maintain or even re-experience that same spiritual high. It all seems now to be much harder than one expected.

Physician's Good Medicine

The Buddhist Prophet

Everlasting Fundamental Relationship

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We have ever been Buddha’s children, but, up to the present, we have been blind to his presence and work, just like the prodigal son in the parable in the fourth chapter of the Scripture. We are now awake to this everlasting fundamental relationship, and thereby shall surely attain Buddhahood, because the Tathagata is constantly caring for us and watching over us, as he says: ‘Now, this threefold realm of existence is my dominion, And all beings therein are my children. Yet existence is full of troubles and tribulations, I alone am the protector and savior.’

Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet

Spring Writings

‘Chant Odaimoku Obstinately’

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Nichiren Shonin said, “Chant Odaimoku obstinately.” It is best to chant Odaimoku loudly, with a positive mind, as many times as possible, because the power of Odaimoku is relative to one’s mind. It is difficult to explain with words how Odaimoku works. The proof of its effectiveness is found by chanting it.

Spring Writings

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

Unwrapping Buddhism

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[In the Simile of the Herbs] small herbs represent humans and deities. The middle plants represent hearers and private Buddhas or Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas. Finally, the large plants represent Bodhisattvas. The rain of the Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra is intended to be a teaching that is appropriate for all practitioners of the Dharma. No longer is there a separate teaching for different practitioners. The Lotus Sutra is the culmination of all the previous teachings of the Buddha. The Lotus Sutra represents a shift from teachings by expedients to teaching the fundamental truth. You could say that with the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha has taken the wrapper off of Buddhism.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Lotus Seeds

The Perfection of Meditation

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Of the Six Perfections – generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom – the perfection of meditation indicates that we should cultivate full awareness of all of our thoughts, words, and deeds in all places and at all times. Meditation enables us to focus our minds so that we an engage in self-reflection and direct our minds to the highest teaching of the Buddha. The practice of meditation ultimately allows us to abide in a stale of clear and spacious awareness in which we directly perceive the true nature of life for ourselves.

Lotus Seeds

Awakening to the Lotus

Four Noble Truths

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The first thing the Buddha taught was the Four Noble Truths. Put simply, these are:

  • Life is Suffering
  • There is a cause for Suffering
  • Suffering can be overcome
  • The way to overcome suffering is the Eightfold Path
Awakening to the Lotus

Awakening to the Lotus

Suffering

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The unsatisfactoy nature of life is summarized in Buddhism by the “Four Sufferings,” which are birth (called suffering because it inevitably leads to the next three), old age, sickness and death. A more complete explanation of suffering – and a further expansion on why birth is considered suffering – is found in the “Eight Sufferings.” These eight include the Four Sufferings and adds the suffering of being separated from loved ones and other things one desires to keep, encountering people or circumstances that one dislikes, not being able to get things that one desires, and being attached to things that are impermanent, including one’s own mind and body.

Awakening to the Lotus

The Magic City

Be Nice

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My father would frequently say that you should always be nice to people because you never know when you might be running for sheriff or when you might be running from the sheriff.

The Magic City: Studying the Lotus Sutra

Doctrines of Nichiren

The Great Self

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This Truth is to be found everywhere and always— in the past, the present, and the future ; it exists in every part of space, above and below, to the right and to the left, in front and behind. Look up – there are the sun, the moon, and millions of stars; look down – there are mountains, rivers, plants, trees, and minerals; between these there are human beings, animals, birds, reptiles and insects. Well, all these things are nothing but subjective phases in consciousness of each man’s individual Self. They are all contained in a single act of thought; in fact, there is no distinction between the individual Self and the whole external world. When once this Truth is apprehended, we are said to have attained to the Great Self, that is, the summit of all enlightenment. This attainment is referred to in the words of Buddha as found in the [Lotus Sutra]: “I have been the Buddha of Original Enlightenment from all eternity.”

Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)