Category Archives: WONS

WONS

‘As Long as One has Strong Faith’

When Tripiṭaka Master Kumārajīva brought the Lotus Sūtra to China, the Heavenly King Vaiśravaṇa dispatched countless soldiers to escort him safely over the Pamirs. When Priest Dōshō read the Lotus Sūtra in a waste land, innumerable tigers came together to protect him. You will also be protected in the same way; the thirty-six earthly deities and the twenty-eight heavenly gods will protect you. Moreover, two heavenly gods always accompany each person just as a shadow follows the body. One is called God Dōshō, and another is God Dōmyō. Both protect a person by accompanying him on both his shoulders, so that Heaven will not punish the innocent by mistake, not to speak of a lady with virtue like you. Grand Master Miao-lê has stated: “As long as one has strong faith, he certainly will receive greater protection.” It means that the stronger one’s faith is, the greater the gods’ protection.

Oto Gozen Go-shōsoku, A Letter to Lady Oto, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 120

Eyes, WONS

Circumstances Determine Method

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In Kaimoku-shō, Nichiren describes the circumstances that determine which method should be followed, making it clear that in the Latter Age of Degeneration both ways must be applied depending on the circumstances. His concern was which method to apply to Japan at that time.

“So, when the land is full of evil and ignorant people, the way of embracing should take precedence as preached in the ‘Peaceful Practices’ (fourteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. However, when there are many cunning slanderers of the True Dharma, the way of subduing should take precedence as preached in the ‘Never Despising Bodhisattva’ (twentieth) chapter.

“It is the same as using cold water when it is hot and fire when it is cold. Plants and trees are followers of the sun, so they dislike the cold moon. Bodies of water are followers of the moon, so they lose their true nature when it is hot. As there are lands of evil men as well as those of slanderers of the True Dharma in this Latter Age of Degeneration, there should be both embracing and subduing as means of spreading the True Dharma. Therefore, we have to know whether Japan today is a land of evil men or that of slanderers in order to decide which of the two ways we should use.” (Hori 2002, p.111 adapted)

Nichiren further clarifies that according to Zhiyi (538-597) and Guanding, one must be sure of the conditions of the time and choose which method to use accordingly. What is the difference between “evil and ignorant people” and “cunning slanderers of the True Dharma”? By “evil and ignorant people” Nichiren means those who are ignorant of Buddhism and who commit unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental actions without reference to Buddhist teachings. In a letter attributed to Nichiren, the author wrote of these kinds of people: “Paradoxical as it may seem, evil people who have not the least understanding of the principle of cause and effect and who are not dedicated to any Buddha whatsoever would appear to be the ones free from error with respect to Buddhism.” (WNDI, p. 173) Slanderers, on the other hand, are those who have heard the Dharma and in fact have become Buddhists, but they choose provisional teachings over the
True Dharma taught in the Lotus Sūtra and even reject the latter.

Open Your Eyes, p569-570
WONS

Women Cannot Attain Buddhahood Without Lotus Sūtra

On Mt. Sacred Eagle, northeast of Rājagṛha in Magadha, India, Śākyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra for eight years in front of the Buddha of Many Treasures and numerous Buddhas from all the worlds in the universe. Listening to Him directly, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai remembered Śākyamuni Buddha declaring that the Holy Teachings of the Buddha preached during His lifetime of 50 years were all for the benefit of the people; and that He has preached the impossibility of attaining Buddhahood by women in various sūtras preached in the first 42 years until He revealed in the Lotus Sūtra that women, too, would be able to become Buddhas. In a great country called China, located across mountains and seas, 108,000 Chinese li away to the northeast of Mt. Sacred Eagle, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai appeared as a messenger of the Buddha 1,500 years or so after the Buddha passed away, and declared conclusively that women cannot attain Buddhahood without the Lotus Sūtra.

Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 47

WONS

‘Revealing the Truth by the Absolute View’

“Revealing the truth by the absolute view” in the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra is completely different from the Perfect Teaching of the pre-Lotus sūtras. It is said in the tenth fascicle of the Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra: “The Lotus Sūtra is completely different from other sūtras in expressing ‘Opening the provisional and revealing the truth’ and ‘Opening the Manifestation and revealing the Substance.’ In this sense the Lotus Sūtra is totally different from other sūtras.” The fourth fascicle on the Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra states that the Lotus Sūtra and other sūtras are the same if the wisdom of the Buddha is a characteristic of the Lotus Sūtra. The meaning of this commentary seems to be that only the Lotus Sūtra reveals the truth and merges all the provisional teachings though both the Lotus Sūtra and various pre-Lotus sūtras explain the wisdom of the Buddha. This is the excellent point of the absolute subtlety in the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. It is clear that the various pre-Lotus sūtras are teachings by which nobody can attain Buddhahood. The reason is that the Perfect Teaching of the pre-Lotus sūtras does not contain the absolute subtlety by which people can attain Buddhahood in spite of the fact that three kinds of dharma (mind, the Buddha and people) should be respectively made “myō” (supreme teaching) by the two views of the absolute and relative subtleties.

Nijō Sabutsu Ji, Obtaining Buddhahood by the Two Vehicles, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 234

WONS

Statues and Portraits of the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha

During the two millenniums after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, some worshiped Śākyamuni Buddha accompanied by Kāśyapa and Ananda as described in the Hinayāna sūtras; others worshiped Him accompanied by such bodhisattvas as Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra as He appeared in quasi-Mahāyāna sūtras, the Nirvana Sūtra, or the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. Many wooden statues and portraits were made of Śākyamuni Buddha as He preached Hinayāna or quasi-Mahāyāna sūtras, but statues and portraits of the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha revealed in “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra were never made. Now in the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration, is it not the time that such statues and portraits are made for the first time?

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 149

LS32, WONS

Day 3

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Day 3 Text with annotationsPlay MP3
Having last month learned of the inexplicable nature of the dharma in gāthās, we learn of the difficulty of understanding the Dharma.

Even the Buddhas’ disciples who made offerings
To the [past] Buddhas in their previous existence,
[Even the disciples] who eliminated all asravas,
[Even the disciples] who are now at the final stage
Of their physical existence,
Cannot understand [the Dharma].

As many people as can fill the world,
Who are as wise as you, Śāriputra, will not be able
To measure the wisdom of the Buddhas,
Even though they try to do so with their combined efforts.

As many people as can fill the worlds of the ten quarters,
Who are as wise as you, Śāriputra,
Or as many other disciples of mine
As can fill the ksetras of the ten quarters,
Will not be able to know [the wisdom of the Buddhas]
Even though they try to do so with their combined efforts.

As many Pratyekabuddhas as can fill
The worlds of the ten quarters, or as many as bamboo groves,
Who are wise enough to reach
The final stage of their physical existence without āsravas,
Will not be able to know
Even a bit of the true wisdom of the Buddhas
Even though they continue trying to do so with all their hearts
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas.

As many Bodhisattvas as rice-plants, hemps, bamboos or reeds,
Or as can fill the ksetras of the ten quarters,
Who have just begun to aspire for enlightenment,
Who made offerings to innumerable Buddhas in their previous existence,
Who understand the meanings of the Dharma [in their own ways],
And who are expounding the Dharma [as they understand it],
Will not be able to know the wisdom of the Buddhas
Even though they continue trying to do so with all their hearts
And with all their wonderful wisdom
For as many kalpas as there are sands in the River Ganges.

As many never-faltering Bodhisattvas
As there are sands in the River Ganges
Will not be able to know the wisdom of the Buddhas
Even though they try to do so with all their hearts.

We may not be able to know the wisdom of the Buddhas, but we certainly try.

“Two Buddhas” discusses different ideas of liberation. The Kegon and Zen traditions hold that “the differentiated phenomena of the world are in their essence no different from the one mind and thus originally pure. From this perspective, the purpose of Buddhist practice is to dispel delusion and return the mind to its original clarity. …

“This model explains principle and phenomena as nondual, but it does not value them equally. The one mind is original, pure, and true, while concrete phenomena are ultimately unreal, arising only as the one mind is filtered through human ignorance. From that perspective, the ordinary elements of daily experience remain at a second-tier level as the epiphenomena of a defiled consciousness. Zhiyi termed this perspective the “realm of the conceivable” – understandable, but not yet adequately expressing the true state of affairs. He himself expressed a different, more subtle view. … [H]e states: ‘Were the mind to give rise to all phenomena, that would be a vertical [relationship]. Were all phenomena to be simultaneously contained within the mind, that would be a horizontal [relationship]. Neither horizontal nor vertical will do. It is simply that the mind is all phenomena and all phenomena are the mind. … [This relationship] is subtle and profound in the extreme; it can neither be grasped conceptually nor expressed in words. Therefore, it is called the realm of the inconceivable.’

“In Zhiyi’s understanding, phenomena do not arise from a pure mind or abstract prior principle. “Principle” means that the material and the mental, subject and object, good and evil, delusion and enlightenment are always nondual and mutually inclusive; this is the ‘real aspect of all dharmas’ that only buddhas can completely know, referred to in the ‘Skillful Means’ chapter. This perspective revalorizes the world, not as a realm of delusion, but as the very locus of enlightenment. The aim of practice, then, is not to recover a primal purity, but to manifest the buddha wisdom even amid ignorance and delusion.”
Two Buddhas, p203-205

As Nichiren writes:

For those who are incapable of understanding the truth of the “3,000 existences contained in one thought,” Lord Śākyamuni Buddha, with His great compassion, wraps this jewel with the five characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō and hangs it around the neck of the ignorant in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 164

Eyes, d25b, WONS

Subduing Evil by Never Despising

[T]he story of Never Despising Bodhisattva in chapter twenty of the Lotus Sūtra is cited by Nichiren as an example of the method of subduing evil. In the chapter the Buddha tells of a bodhisattva who lived during the age of the counterfeit Dharma of the Powerful-Voice-King Buddha. This bodhisattva’s sole practice was to bow to all he met and say to them, “l respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is that? It is because you will be able to practice the Way of bodhisattvas and become buddhas.” (Murano 2012, p. 292) Because of this he was called Never Despising Bodhisattva. The arrogant monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen at that time felt that he was speaking falsely and so abused him and even threw things at him. Though forced to run away, Never Despising Bodhisattva did not relent and continued to assure people “in a loud voice from afar” (Murano 2012, p. 293) that they would become buddhas. In time, those who abused him became his followers and took faith in the teaching that they would be able to attain buddhahood. The Buddha goes on to say that Never Despising Bodhisattva was himself in a past life and that because he was able to lead so many people into the way to perfect and complete awakening he was able to meet many hundreds of thousands of millions of buddhas and expound the Lotus Sūtra and ultimately become a buddha himself. Those who abused him had to expiate their sins in the Avici Hell but afterwards were able to become bodhisattvas themselves and meet many buddhas including Śākyamuni Buddha.

In the story of Never Despising Bodhisattva the method of subduing evil becomes clear. The bodhisattva does not berate or argue with others, nor does he resort to the coercive power of the state. Rather, he forthrightly proclaims the True Dharma that all beings can attain buddhahood in the face of disbelief, abuse, and even violence. Never Despising Bodhisattva is not only motivated by compassion, but his sole practice is a gesture of reverence and respect for the buddha-nature in all beings. When faced with abuse and violence he does not allow himself to be hurt but retreats to a safe distance. Instead of retaliating in kind he continues to voice his deepest conviction and reverence. The method of subduing therefore is about having the courage and compassion to stand up for what is right and to give voice to the True Dharma even though one may meet with derision or even persecution.

Open Your Eyes, p564-565
WONS

‘Wear the Gentle Mind and Forbearance as a Robe’

In ancient India, there lived a man named Śaṇavāsa, who was the third of the 24 Buddhist masters entrusted to transmit the Dharma. It is said he was born wearing a robe. This was due to his donation of a robe to the cause of the Buddha Dharma in his previous existence. Therefore, it is preached in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Wear the gentle mind and forbearance as a robe.”

Nanjō-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Nanjō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 18

d21b, WONS

The “Jiga-Ge” Verse

Now Hōren Shōnin, the principal mourner, states that he read and recited the “jiga-ge” verse every morning during the last 13 years. The merit of having done so is immeasurable, something only the Buddhas can comprehend.

The Lotus Sūtra is the bone-marrow of the holy teachings of the Śākyamuni Buddha preached during His lifetime. In particular, the “jiga-ge” verse at the end of the 16th chapter, “Life Span of the Buddha,” is the spirit of the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sūtra. It is the life of the Buddhas in the past, present, and future, and the “jiga-ge” verse is the eyes of the bodhisattvas throughout the universe. I am not speaking of the merit of the “jiga-ge” verse arbitrarily. It is clearly preached by the Buddha in the “Variety of Merits” chapter following the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter. According to this chapter, the number of people who became Buddhas by listening to the preaching of the “jiga-ge” verse are as numerous as the number of dust particles produced by smashing the triple-thousand worlds. What is more, those who attain enlightenment through the six chapters beginning with the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter, too, have done so due to the residual merit of the “jiga-ge” verse.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 55-56

Eyes, WONS

The Question of Killing Slanderers

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How did Nichiren understand [Nirvāṇa Sūtra stories of people killed for slandering the Mahāyāna]? In Risshō Ankoku-ron, Nichiren stated that while King Sen’yo and King Virtuous may have killed slanderers of the Dharma in the past, since the appearance of Śākyamuni Buddha the correct method is to simply deny them offerings. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra told those stories of the previous lives of Śākyamuni Buddha in order to emphasize the gravity of slandering the True Dharma and the great virtue of defending the True Dharma but such methods are not being advocated in the present. Instead, the withholding of alms and especially state support from corrupt monks and the support and protection of true monks should now be followed. In accordance with our current laws and the wise separation of church and state, I believe this means that each of us must discern what teachings or causes we should or should not support with our time and money and that the protection of the law should extend equally to all so that there will be no question of religious persecution arising from either the government or the actions of private individuals or institutions. Every religious or spiritual teaching should be free to stand or fall on its own merits or lack thereof.

Open Your Eyes, p562