This is the fourth of the six perfections. It builds on the first three: Generosity, Observing the Precepts, and Patience. Generosity gets us going. It is the desire that others be free of suffering, whether or not we have the wisdom to free them from suffering. Generosity turns us from our common preoccupation with our personal suffering to at least notice the suffering of others. It leads us to the realization that our suffering, and our happiness, is not separate from the suffering and happiness in the world around us.
By observing the precepts, we build a foundation for this seemingly overwhelming task of benefiting all other beings. We take on what is relatively easy to control, namely our own thoughts, words and actions. We become more aware of the unconscious habits we live by, and how difficult it is to drop the habits that are no longer useful. This helps us understand both that it is possible for us to change, and how hard it is to change. We also begin to see how much we are like all those suffering beings we want to help, and realize that it is no easier for them to change than it is for us.
Patience gives us another perspective on change. We start to see time as a limitless resource. We are no longer confined in the bounded desperation of the present moment. We also learn that our own capacities, however limited they may seem, have the potential to grow beyond anything we can imagine, even if the time needed for that change is longer than we can imagine. What we still lack is the energy that keeps us moving. We are not just passive objects being propelled into enlightenment. We necessarily are part of the progress. We take the steps on the path ourselves.
This brings us to Endurance. This word gets the idea across, but to me it sounds too cold. “Endurance” could be taken to mean merely clenching one’s teeth and continuing in the face of adversity. While that can be part of it, we could also think of Endurance as persistence: getting right back on the horse after falling off. The idea of persistence at least gives a picture of putting our energy into something rather than being swept along lifelessly.
My favorite description of this perfection is one taught by some of my Tibetan Buddhist friends: “Enthusiastic Perseverance.” This way of looking at Endurance incorporates Patience. It is a picture of not just resisting something that discourages you from making progress. It is actively going after what you know you can do, even if you aren’t sure how to do it. It means not doubting your capacity to learn and, with time, to overcome whatever gets in your way. Even if there’s something you can’t do now, with practice you will be able to do it. Even if you find weaknesses or limits, you can overcome them, or even better, use them to your advantage.
We may even consider that this kind of Enthusiasm is what it takes for us to hear what the Buddha teaches. In Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra, Shariputra asks the Buddha twice to give his highest teaching. Twice the Buddha refuses. The third time, when Shariputra asks with enthusiasm, the Buddha consents to preach. If we listen to this Wonderful Dharma the same way we listen to a television or other background noise we are barely conscious of, we will not hear it. The Dharma is not just entertainment, meant to fill up time in our lives. It is telling us what our lives mean, and how to live them. To hear that, we have to listen to the Buddha’s words carefully, as we would listen to a doctor who is telling us how to cure a terrible illness. To do that, we must ask with enthusiasm for the teaching.
Another way to make sense of this Perfection of Enthusiasm is by looking at its opposite: Laziness. This is another idea I stole from my Tibetan friends. They say the Buddha taught three different kinds of Laziness. The first is what we are most familiar with. It’s the not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to put your bare feet on the cold floor, not wanting to deal with all the unpleasantness and dissatisfaction in the world. We all know this one. It’s usually felt more in the body than the mind, but the mind can generate it very easily. It can be hard to tell the difference between when we honestly need a rest and when we want to make another cup of coffee and read just one more meaningless article in the newspaper.
The other two types of laziness are more subtle: even harder to notice. One of them doesn’t look like laziness at all. It looks like perpetual busyness. I see it in myself when there is so much to do and there is no time to take care of the things I think are really important. That pilgrimage would be really wonderful but I only have so much vacation available. It would be great to spend 10 minutes doing my practice in the morning, but I have to fix breakfast and clean the house. In psychology this is known as “Displacement Activity.” We get so fixated on the demands that are right in front of us, that we forget long-term goals. We may even believe that someday all those daily demands will go away and time will just open up for us to do what we really want. So far in my life, this has not happened.
The last kind of laziness is the most insidious of all because it involves a belief that hides beneath the veneer of our awareness. This kind of laziness relies on the assumption not only that we cannot now do what we want to do, but that we could never do what we want to do. I could never write a book. I could never build a temple. I could never become as enlightened as the Buddha. If I don’t think the trip is possible, I won’t even start it. Or if I start it and get discouraged along the way, like the travelers in the story of the Magic City, I might give up halfway and miss out on the treasure at the end of the journey.
In theory then, it’s relatively easy to recognize that nothing good comes without perseverance. In reality, we do at times lose enthusiasm. How do we get our energy back? Working backwards through what we have learned about laziness, and what we know about patience, the first step should be obvious. We start by knowing that we can get our energy back. If we don’t think we can, then we won’t even try. This also shows us that no matter how drained we may feel, there is an energy within us. We just have to pay attention to what we are doing with it, then learn what we can do with it.
Being drained for awhile could be a good thing. It may be our body or mind telling us that we’ve been overdoing it. However, when the down time stretches into days or weeks, that’s a good indication that relaxation has become a habit, rather than a means for more progress.
One way to get our energy back is to notice what brings us joy. What attracts us in a way that washing dishes or going to the dentist does not? What are the things we enjoy doing rather than the things we do because they’re “good” for us? Here it is important to notice the difference between what gives us satisfaction and what gives us joy. Satisfaction comes from getting what we want. Satisfaction is what happens when you have a craving for ice cream and then you find it right there in your freezer waiting to be eaten. Joy is similar, and often mixed in with satisfaction, making it even more difficult to tell the two apart.
Joy comes from realizing how we can change. It can be in an “aha-moment” when the solution appears to something that had been a puzzle. It can come in each new word we pick up of a new language we are trying to master. It can come when someone recognizes in us something we are trying to improve, whether we’re trying to lose wait or gain calm.
Here is another way that joy is different from satisfaction: We can find joy in others’ joy. If I eat the ice cream, it means nobody else can get their satisfaction from what I have eaten. But when I share the joy in another’s accomplishment, that helps me realize what I can accomplish, and that my accomplishment can return the favor of their joy. There is no competition on the Bodhisattva path.
Another way to get our energy back is to notice how we are spending the energy we have. Are we applying it to impossible tasks? Trying, as the Buddha describes in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra, “to stop suffering by suffering”? One of the most common ways we have of losing our energy is by trying to change how other people think, rather than working with how we think. If we have doubts and fears of our own abilities, we believe we can change those by making other people give us certainty and courage.
We believe we can change how we dress, what we say, even what we do for people, and that will change what they think. We create an acceptable image of ourselves, then try to live up to that image. Or we coerce people by various forms of fear into saying things about us that we want to hear whether or not they are true. All this just to help change what we think about ourselves.
For one thing, we cannot know what others are really thinking. Most of the time we don’t even know what we are thinking. Most of what we do comes out of unconscious habit. Even when we do something intentionally, there are so many intentions at work there is no way to sort out which one is primary. This is why it is so important to learn about our own minds, and realize that they are fundamentally no different from others’ minds. The more we see that others are like us, the more dear they become, and the more determined we become to help them get what they really want.
All these attempts to change others’ minds are just other aspects of trying to manipulate the world outside us so that we can be happy. The six perfections are about our own practice. We are working to become more generous, not make others generous towards us. We are working to become conscious of what we do with our body, mind and speech, not control that of others. We are working to become more patient and enthusiastic rather than demanding patience and enthusiasm from others. We work to become more focused and wise, knowing we cannot focus anybody else, or give them wisdom.
As the Buddha taught, improving our practice will help others’ practice. As we become more generous, disciplined, patient, enthusiastic, focused and wise, others will improve also. But we are the ones taking the steps. Since we are more aware of what is in our own minds than anybody else can be, then we are responsible for dealing with what is in our minds, and not blaming others for what is in our minds.
Then again, we are not alone in our practice. We can get help from others, but only if we ask for it. Another way to kindle our enthusiasm and determination is so simple we often forget to do it. This is simply telling someone else about what we want to do. Now that my wife and I have moved to Tampa, I want to build a Nichiren Shu temple here in this city. I mentioned this to a dear friend of mine and he thanked me for telling him. He also reminded me to tell as many people as I can that this is something I want to do. It will be a lot of work and will involve many people working together. But unless others are aware of what we want to accomplish, it will not happen.
As Nichiren wrote in the Itai Doshin Ji, “All things are possible if people are united in one mind…Even if there are hundreds or thousands of people, if they are united in one, they are surely able to accomplish their aim.”
The perfection of Endurance, Persistence, Enthusiasm, however we come to think of it, this perfection unites us with the mind of the Buddha, and with each other. Generosity sets us on the Bodhisattva path. Precepts are the discipline that we build upon. Patience helps us grow our capacity. Endurance applies that capacity to our intent of benefiting all beings. What we still need is a way to concentrate that capacity, and the wisdom to see our practice in a larger context. These last two will come in future installments.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Since I have been able to get this to work, it seemed best to modify this post to hold on to the link to use for video chats. These will be either regularly scheduled (see the LNBC Facebook page) or as needed.
http://api.opentok.com/hl/embed/1emb8f4c8a1eace62a5c371fe0fb394361bf8aeb
When you hit the link, it should bring up a new web page that will show you who has already joined the chat. You should see a button that says “Join Chat”. You may also get a dialog asking if you want to allow your camera and microphone to be used in the chat. Answer “Allow” and you should get right in.
In March of 2007 I got an email from a Boy Scout leader in Lexington telling me of a project they were taking on later that month. On April 28, they were doing what they called a “multi-faith hike” and wanted to include our temple in their list of stops. Since that was such an auspicious day, and I always enjoy talking with people about the Dharma, how could I say no?
I replied and told him how delighted I would be to meet with them, but warned that since our temple is only about 300 square feet, we may not be able to accommodate a large group. He replied that he expected 20 people, including the scouts and their leaders, and sent me a list of questions that he thought would be helpful for me to use in my presentation to them.
Once I read the questions, I was even more certain that I wanted to talk with these young men. I too was a Boy Scout many years ago, so I was familiar with their activities and the values they worked to instill in their members. I thought it would also be great practice speaking to people who were interested in Buddhism but didn’t know that much about it.
I’m sharing these with you now since I often get requests from people for an overview of Buddhism in general and Nichiren-Shu Buddhism in particularly. This may also help people reading this to come up with answers for when others ask us these questions. (A version of this article has been published previously in the Nichiren Shu News.)
Here then are the questions.
- Who started your religion?
- What are the primary documents or scriptures of your faith?
- What are your main beliefs?
- What is required to be a member of your religion?
- What do you believe happens when and after we die?
- Describe the God you worship.
I should also mention that the group was spending only 20 minutes at our temple, since they also had a Muslim Mosque, a Jewish Temple, and a Methodist Church on their itinerary. So being able to cover all of these questions in that short time was another part of the challenge.
On the arranged day, I made sure I was there early. Candles and incense were lit at the Butsudan. I stood at the door outside the building that contains our temple so they would know they were in the right place. As the first few boys started trickling in, I directed them to where in the building to find our temple. For what seemed like five minutes there was a steady stream of them appearing. By the time the last stragglers came through our door there were almost 30 boys and men, crammed into every available square foot of our little temple.
Who Started Your Religion?
I told the boys that to answer this question there were two people we needed to talk about. I asked how many of them had heard of the Buddha. Several hands went up. One boy said he was a prince who lived a long time ago. One thought he was fat. One thought he was skinny.
Yes, I told them, the Buddha was born as a prince. He lived in northern India 500 years before Jesus was alive in another part of the world. In fact, he was the crown prince in his father’s kingdom, and could have anything he wanted. Even his name, Siddhartha, meant “every wish fulfilled.” In other words, he was more spoiled than Paris Hilton.
They knew exactly what I meant by that.
Even though the young Siddhartha had all the material comforts he could want, I continued, he knew there was more to life than just being comfortable. He wanted to know why people were so unhappy, and how he could make it so that nobody was ever unhappy again.
He left home and became a wandering holy man. For a long time he tried to live with very little food and water and got to be very skinny, just as the one boy described. But that practice made him so weak that he almost drowned while he was bathing in a river. As he lay exhausted on the bank, a kind shepherd girl brought him a bowl of milk mixed with grain. He ate it. As he felt the strength coming back into his body, he realized that the extremes of denying himself or indulging himself would not lead to what he sought; he had to find a “middle way.”
After he recovered, he spent a night meditating under a sacred tree. As the morning star came up over the horizon, he became aware that he had realized what he was looking for. People around him immediately recognized that something wonderful and profound had happened. They asked him, “Are you a man? Have you become a God? What has happened to you?” His answer was, “I am awake.”
The other person I told the Boy Scouts about was of course Nichiren, the founder of our branch of Buddhism. I explained how he lived 750 years ago in Japan. He was born into the lower classes as the son of a fisherman. But people saw his intellect and curiosity even as a child, and he was taken in as a novice at a monastery near the village where he grew up. In those days, the only way to learn how to read and write, if you were not part of the nobility, was by becoming a monk.
What are the Primary Documents of your Faith?
After the Buddha “woke up” or became enlightened, he spent 40 years traveling through what is now northern India teaching people about what he had found. In those 40 years he taught many different things to different people at different times.
For example, when he first started teaching, he told people that to be able to end their suffering, they had to give up their families, their jobs, their homes, their towns and their possessions. They had to come live as monks and nuns in the communities he set up. He gave them all rules for living with each other and for living with people outside that community. Even today, 2500 years later, there are still many of these communities all over the world where people work and live together to practice what the Buddha taught.
Later in his life, the Buddha told people something that seemed to contradict what he had taught before. He said that people could become enlightened without leaving their homes or their loved ones. He did not prevent people from joining the other communities he had set up if they thought they had to. But he gave them things to learn and ways of living their normal lives that would help them wake up to the same realization he had found.
It is said that there are over 14,000 sutras, or collections of what the Buddha taught during his lifetime. There were many other examples of the Buddha teaching one thing to one group of people at one time and another group of people at another time. For many people this was very confusing. They wanted to know which of these teachings they should believe.
When Nichiren was 17 years old, about the same age as several of the Boy Scouts who were listening to me, he made a vow that he would become the wisest man in all of Japan and solve this mystery. For the next 17 years, Nichiren walked all over Japan, studying each of the sutras he could find and talking with the great Buddhist scholars of his time. He covered an area as far as between Cincinnati, Lexington and Atlanta, all on foot. He wanted to know which of the sutras, which of the collections of the Buddha’s teachings was closest to the Buddha’s own mind, to his own understanding, to his own Enlightenment.
In the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren found the answer to this mystery. The reason the Buddha taught things differently at different times was because different people have different abilities to understand and practice what the Buddha was trying to teach. Just like when the Boy Scouts teach somebody how to make a fire, they may need to start with showing how to use matches properly. More advanced people can learn how to use flint and steel. In both cases the overall goal is making a fire. One just has to suit their methods to the ability of who is being taught.
Nichiren concluded that the Lotus Sutra was the most profound of the Buddha’s teachings, and the one that would lead us in our time to becoming just as enlightened as the Buddha. Based on what we learn from Nichiren, in our branch of Buddhism, we focus on the Lotus Sutra.
We approach the Lotus Sutra differently than other people may approach the central documents of their faiths. We do believe it contains information that the Buddha left for our benefit. However it does not contain a list of commandments and instructions telling us what to do and what not to do. There are many parables in it that necessarily must be interpreted, just as the whole book must be interpreted. We use Nichiren and each other as guides for how to interpret this book, but ultimately each of us has to make sense of it for ourselves.
This is just like the instructions in the Boy Scout manual. One has to take those instructions, make sense of them, and do something with them. It’s not like you can look at the section on knots, memorize everything it has to say about the square knot and say you know the square knot. You have to take pieces of rope in your hands, use the instructions to make a knot, test it, see if you’ve done it right, and if not try again. Then you have to take what you have learned there and apply it to your life. Like putting up a tent or building a tower. Learning the Buddha’s teachings is exactly like this.
What are your Main Beliefs?
This question I had to answer slightly differently from how it was posed. It made more sense to talk about what the Buddha taught rather than what we believe. To us faith means something different than it may mean to other people. As I am fond of saying, this practice isn’t something where somebody tells you to just check your brain at the door on your way in and believe everything I or anybody else tells you whether it makes sense or not. Faith and understanding do not oppose each other. Using your mind is essential to this practice.
There is a story of how the Buddha was teaching in a town called Kalama, which was at the crossroads of several trade routes. Many teachers would come to this town and tell people different ideas about how to live and what was important. When the Buddha and his group of monks arrived the people of Kalama asked him how they could tell whether something somebody taught them was true.
The Buddha told them not to believe something because it was written in a book, or because other people did it, or because it had been done that way for a long time or even because he himself told them that it was true. He advised them to take a teaching, apply it to their lives, and then to use their own judgment to decide whether it was harmful or beneficial. If beneficial they should continue it; if harmful they should stop it. Just like what I had said before about knots, we need to take the Buddha’s teachings and try them for ourselves in our lives for them to mean something.
What did the Buddha teach? Let’s start with happiness. The Buddha realized that most people, and even he himself before he became enlightened, go through life wanting to feel good as much as possible and feel bad as little as possible. When we feel good we say we are happy and when we feel bad we say that we are unhappy or that we are suffering.
The first thing the Buddha taught about happiness was that suffering exists. No matter how much we may want to deny it, or ignore it or want it to go away there are times when we are unhappy.
The next thing the Buddha taught was that there was a cause or a reason that suffering exists. It’s not because we are bad or some God hates us. It’s not even because we don’t have something we want. It’s because don’t want what we have. Even better, we can learn to get a lot more control over our own minds and our desires than we do over what goes on in the world around us, even though we think we’re better at manipulating the world than our minds.
But the Buddha didn’t stop there. He said he had learned how to end suffering, how to become happy through what he called the eightfold path. First we have to see things clearly, then we have to think about them clearly, then we have to speak the truth, then we can know how to do what is right, then we can live in the world without harming other people, then we can know how to apply our efforts and energies properly, then we begin to understand how our mind works, then we know how to concentrate our mind on what is important.
All these steps can seem either very easy or very difficult. And mastering them is a wonderful thing to do. But then later in his life the Buddha taught something else. He explained how what he taught about suffering was just a preparation for what he really wanted to explain, namely that anybody could become just as awakened as he was.
In some religions this is heresy. To think that one of us humans with all our flaws and difficulties can become just as wise and good as Jesus, or Mohammed or any of the beings that other religions consider as the most perfect example of what we can become, to think we could be just like them is taken as a sign of pride and arrogance.
There used to be these bracelets with the initials “WWJD” on them. I don’t know if people still wear them, but the initials stand for “What Would Jesus Do?” and the idea was for the bracelet to remind its wearers that they should do their best to act like Jesus in every situation of their lives. Isn’t this trying to become like Jesus?
If we know that we can become just like the Buddha, and we want to become just like Buddha, how do we do it? The Buddha taught that the essential thing we need is a strong determination to benefit other people all the time. We should want them to be happy. Why? Not because he tells us what to think. It is because they themselves want to be happy.
Instead of defining our happiness by what we want, we should define our happiness by how much we help people get what they want, by being of service to other people. This is very much like what is in the Boy Scout Law: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. All these are meant to guide Boy Scouts to be a benefit to each other and the world in general.
What is Required to be a Member?
I chose to answer this question slightly differently from how it was asked. The real question is how can we practice what the Buddha taught? The answer is that we don’t have to be Buddhists to learn from the Buddha.
Anybody can read or listen to the teachings, think them over carefully, try to put them to work in their life, and see if they work. Then you go back, get more teachings, try those out, and so on. It’s just like in Boy Scouts when you learn what you need to become a Tenderfoot, then once you do that you learn how to become Second Class, and so on all the way up to Eagle Scout.
If you can do this as part of a group, it is much easier. Just like it’s easier to be a Boy Scout when you have a Troop to work with instead of just trying to do it by yourself. You can do a lot more on a camping trip with other people than you can do by yourself.
The Buddha knew this too. He taught how important it was to have what he called a Sangha, or a group of people working together to practice his teachings. He knew that different people have different abilities, different talents, different experiences and different perspectives on things. Until someone could become as enlightened as he is, no one person has all the answers.
It’s like the story of the blind men standing around the elephant, a story that many of the boys had heard. I was even able to get two or three to tell the story for themselves, how one man had the elephant’s trunk and thought the elephant was like a rope; another had its ear and thought it was like a heavy coat; another had its leg and thought it was like a tree; another put his hands on the side of the elephant and thought it was like a wall. None of the men was wrong, but none of them had the whole truth either.
I told them that there are some specific things that someone can do to become a member of our branch of Buddhism, but that we were happy to practice with anybody whether they are members or not.
What Happens When and After we Die?
Time was getting late. The boys were interested in hearing more but one of their leaders looked at me and pointed at his watch. I suppose they had another appointment to keep.
I explained that there were times that people asked the Buddha questions and he would not answer them. The reason is that he knew that if he answered one way or the other it would not help them either with their happiness or with becoming a Buddha.
One thing he did say was that there is not a permanent heaven or a permanent hell. Since all of us, all beings, are eventually going to become Buddhas, then even the beings who are suffering in hell or who are completely full of joy in heaven will eventually leave those places and continue their progress towards becoming Buddhas.
Something that Nichiren taught is that heaven and hell are just states of our minds. When we are angry we are in hell; when we have joy we are in heaven. There are of course other states of mind besides these two. Both the Buddha and Nichiren talked about these two, and more importantly how we can move from the more difficult states of mind, like anger, to states of mind that are more similar to our true nature, like generosity.
Describe the God we Worship
Many religions believe there is a powerful supreme being who controls what goes on in the world every day and decides after we die whether we go to heaven or hell. We don’t believe that.
We believe things happen for a reason and that the Buddha’s teachings help us find that reason. And while we don’t really worship the Buddha or even the statues and other representations we have of him, we work to develop a deep reverence and gratitude for what the Buddha taught.
Maybe the closest thing we have to what other religions call a God, I explained to them, is a teaching included in the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha said this teaching is the most difficult to believe and understand.
The Buddha taught that even though people looked at him and saw a man who was born in what is now northern India, left home, became enlightened, and taught for several decades, the real “Ever Present” Buddha existed before that man was born and will continue to exist for a countless number of years after that man dies. In all that time this Ever-Present Buddha is teaching all beings in all worlds, even the ones in heaven and hell, teaching them how to become just as enlightened as he is. He teaches whether we listen or not and whether we practice his teachings or not. He is always thinking, “How can I cause all beings to set themselves on the path to Enlightenment and quickly become Buddhas?”
Seeing Off
There were a few minutes left for questions. One boy wanted to know what the Kanji characters on the case for my inkin (ceremonial bell) meant. His father went to Japan many times each year and had brought things back for him with writing like that on it.
Some wanted to know how many members we had in our temple and how many members there were overall in Nichiren Shu. I told them there were several thousand in North America and Hawaii, and many millions in Japan.
Some wanted to know whether I was always a Buddhist and how I became a Buddhist. I told them that I was brought up as a Christian and decided about 15 years ago to take up this practice. However if they wanted to hear more details about why, they would have to come back, which I told them all they were welcome to do any time.
Their leader then thanked me sincerely for talking with them. I thanked them for including our temple on their hike. A few were interested in taking some pamphlets with them. I could hear lots of conversations in the hallway as they filed out that gave me the impression they had heard something interesting. I also noticed that several of the boys were taking pictures of our building as they left. I do hope to see any of them again soon.
南無妙法連華教
This was put together in preparation for a video call with the Lexington Sangha on November 13, 2011. Of course anybody else who wants to use it as a study guide is more than welcome. And comments or questions to this board are also welcome. Hopefully you all know how much I enjoy discussion!
Background
This chapter is part of the “essential section” or “hommon” of the Lotus Sutra. This section starts with Chapter 16 where the Buddha reveals his attainment of enlightenment in the remotest past, and the continuation of his existence, helping other beings to become enlightened, for an unimaginable amount of time into the future. The section contains examples of Bodhisattvas leading beings to enlightenment, tying closely to the Buddha’s declaration in Chapter 2 that he “teaches only Bodhisattvas” and Taho Buddha’s declaration in Chapter 12 that the Lotus Sutra is the “Dharma for Bodhisattvas.” One way to think of this essential section is that it contains instructions and examples for what we as Bodhisattvas can do.
The “provisional section” or “shakumon” of the Lotus Sutra that precedes Chapter 16 covers the assurance that the Sravakas who hear the teachings of the Buddha and the Pratyekabuddhas who have understood the principles of reality have not become completely enlightened. The Buddha tells them that since he is teaching the Lotus Sutra, all of them will continue their practice and reach perfect enlightenment.
Elements of Chapter 18
Chapter 18 opens with a question from Maitreya Bodhisattva, who has already been assured that he will become a Buddha. Maitreya asks, “How many merits will come to those who enjoy hearing this Lotus Sutra?” The Buddha answers with a simile. First he asks those listening to imagine either an ordained person or lay person hearing this Lotus Sutra, enjoying it, then repeating it to the best of their ability to someone else. That second person then does the same with a third person, on until a fiftieth person hears what the forty-ninth person has picked up and enjoys it.
The Buddha then describes someone else who makes exorbitant offerings to innumerable people, then leads those people to attain the enlightenment of Sravakas or Pratyekabuddhas. He asks Maitreya how great the merits are of this almsgiver and teacher. Maitreya answers that while the merits from giving alms are great, the merits of teaching the Dharma are greater.
The Buddha agrees, but then says that for this fiftieth person who enjoys hearing whatever has survived the imperfect transmission of the Lotus Sutra through forty-nine other people, the merits are incomparably greater. Even greater are the merits of the first person who hears the Sutra and then transmits it to someone else.
Questions
The first thing we could consider here is, What is the difference between the two teachings? How do we understand that the merits of this Lotus Sutra are greater than those that come from giving alms or leading people by the pre-Lotus teachings? What does it mean that this chapter is in the “essential section” of the Sutra. Is it also contrasting the essential and provisional sections?
We might also consider what we mean by merits. Are these Buddha brownie-points? What does it mean to have them? What do we do with them?
Another thing to think about is what gets transmitted from the first person to the fiftieth person. We all knows how stories get modified as they are told. Some elements are lost. Others are added. What remains? What gets lost?
The last question I have (hoping of course that there will be others) is, “What does this Chapter mean for us as Bodhisattvas?
Filed under: Dharma Talks
We just got back from Santa Fe where I defended the thesis that has been consuming my time for the last year. I’ve added to the audio section of this blog recordings of the defense and a talk I gave on the Lotus Sutra the day before. Each is about an hour. The talk on the Lotus Sutra includes questions and discussion at the end. Enjoy!
Filed under: Background
It’s painfully obvious that I haven’t posted much here lately. My writing energies have been directed lately towards this paper on the Lotus Sutra I’ve been working on for over a year now. Good news is that I now have at least a draft. Maybe I’ll post some excerpts here.
What’s amazing though is this blog is still getting about 10 hits a day, even though I’m breaking #1 rule of blogging: post often. Maybe that means what’s already here is interesting enough. I sure hope so!
I keep getting questions about what I recommend as books about Buddhism for people either starting out, or who have been practicing awhile and want to broaden their knowledge. So I finally decided to pull some books off my shelves and write down some ideas. If you have any ideas for more, please feel free to post them.
First, for relative beginners, which of course is all of us:
Buddhism for Today, Nikko Niwano - This is an overview of the Lotus Sutra and some of the central ideas in it. Good for getting a toehold on this difficult, but of course wonderful book.
The Sutra of Hui-Neng, Thomas Cleary, translator. Hui-Neng was the fifth and last patriarch of Zen in China. His story tells why, and also shows how the Buddha’s teachings were transformed in their encounter with Chinese culture.
Early Buddhist Discourses, John Holder, Translator – Good anthology from the first of the Buddha’s teachings.
The Visible Here and Now, Ayya Khema. Her commentary on the Buddha’s teachings on the rewards of spiritual practice. She is another modern author who brings the Dharma down to earth.
When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron – This is about dealing with difficulty in life, and how the main difficulty is our not wanting difficulties. It’s about learning to live securely in an unstable world.
Old Path, White Clouds, Thich Nhat Hanh – This is another biography of the Buddha, done in TNH’s typical warm, simple style.
A Path with Heart, Jack Kornfield – Another more modern author with his take on meditation and how this fits with the Buddha’s teachings.
Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, Ayya Khema – She starts with meditation, then makes the entire book a meditation. This is a good book to read several times.
Loving-Kindness, Sharon Salzberg – Guide for working with our emotions and cultivating the intention of benefitting all beings.
Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung, Ajahn Brahm – The author is from England and was ordained as a Theravada (Hinayana) monk in Thailand. It contains some wonderful stories and analogies, using his almost Pythonesque sense of humor.
The Good Heart, His Holiness the Dalai Lama – This taken from a series of lectures and discussions on the Christian Gospels. It shows the many parallels and differences between what Jesus taught and what the Buddha taught.
And for more advanced readers:
Buddha Dharma, Numata Center – This is a massive compilation of excerpts from a wide range of Sutras. You get the early teachings, stories of the Buddha’s life, wisdom teachings, Amida Buddha, and even excerpts from the Lotus Sutra.
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman – Not exactly a Buddhist text, but there is a tremendous amount of material on working with the mind. Mr. Goleman has also done a series of interviews with the Dalai Lama in a companion work called Destructive Emotions.
The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Jay Garfield, translation and commentary – This is Nagarjuna’s take on emptiness and dependent origination. Not an easy read, but you will come away from it with a new appreciation of what emptiness is, and more importantly what existence is.
The Heart of Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Norman Waddell and Masao Abe, translators – Another very difficult but rewarding book. Anybody who thinks Zen is about ignoring the Buddha’s teachings and just sitting is in for a wonderful surprise.
The Diamond Sutra, Mu Soeng, translator – Another of the Wisdom Sutras. Any translation is probably ok, but this is my favorite. “A rose is not a rose. Therefore we call it a rose.” Believe it or not, these two sentences will make sense after you’ve read this. Thich Nhat Hanh also has a good commentary on this sutra.
The Heart Sutra, Red Pine, translation and commentary – This is one of the shortest sutras, but extremely potent. Red Pine gives a thoughtful and detailed examination of one of the most well-known teachings of the Buddha.
The Lotus Sutra, Senchu Murano, translator – There are several other translations available, but this is my favorite. Definitely not an easy read either, but it has a way of working on you that is inexplicable.
Fire in the Lotus, Daniel Montgomery – Can be hard to find a copy of this, but it’s the best take I’ve seen on the history and ideas of Nichiren Buddhism. I’ve heard there will be a new edition out soon. Let’s hope so!
The Nichiren Order of North America, the body that oversees all of the Nichiren Shu temples in the continental U.S. and Canada, came out a few weeks ago with a small pamphlet entitled “A Guide to the Nichiren Shu.” It covers a creed of Nichiren Shu, pledges of lay members, how to set up and maintain a home altar, descriptions of home practice, and a section about various temple activities, including commemorative days of Nichiren Shu. It seems to have been intended for current Nichiren Shu members, or at least people already familiar with Buddhism.
This morning at our temple in Lexington, we talked about this guide. The consensus is that we still need to come up with something for beginners, the people who have heard of Buddhism but don’t know yet what it’s about. We need to address questions like, Who was the Buddha? What is enlightenment? Why would someone want to be enlightened? Who was Nichiren? What can we learn about living today from how he lived 750 years ago?
Those questions can be addressed more specifically another time, but variations of them did come up in our conversation this morning. The first part of the creed says: “We consider the Lotus Sutra as personally experienced by Nichiren Shonin to be the foundation of our life.” What does that “personally experienced” part mean? Isn’t just the Lotus Sutra the foundation of our life?
There is more to the Lotus Sutra than just a printed book that we revere. The Sutra itself says we have to live it. Nichiren talked about “reading the Sutra with my body” meaning putting its teachings into practice and making it a part of his life. We who follow the Lotus Sutra need to act by the teachings, not just learn the theory. This is how we personally experience the Sutra. And using Nichiren’s experience of the Sutra as a guide doesn’t mean just copying what he did in his life. We have to nourish the same faith in our hearts that he had. Then the actions will come out naturally and be suited to our time.
The Guide has a half page on the pledges of lay members. We probably spent more time on this than any other part of the pamphlet. The first pledge about following Nichiren’s teachings and doing the duties of a Nichiren Shu member created some confusion. I suppose I haven’t been doing my job as a priest! We read some of Nichiren’s instructions as part of our formal services. These include having faith in the Omandala Gohonzon, and encouraging others to do the same, even with just a word or phrase. There are many other instructions and images he gave to his followers while he was alive, and we would do well to study all of those. But this one probably sums them up. Our first duty as a Nichiren Shu member is to conduct our lives by the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Shonin. We should also support other Nichiren Shu members in our practice, and help to maintain the temples, home altars and other facilities we use to nourish the seed of Buddhahood in all beings.
This led into the next question about ancestors. Why is there so much of an emphasis on ancestors in this practice? Part of it is to go against the habitual idea we have about coming from nowhere, or of creating ourselves. When we think of what the people before us did to make it possible for us to be alive today, we go against this habit and start to create a mind of gratitude.
But what does reverence mean? Do we have to think that all of our ancestors were wonderful people who always did everything right? There was a story about a woman whose mother died several years ago. Shortly after this happened she had lunch with a friend whose own mother had also died recently. The first question her friend asked this woman was, “Has the whitewashing started yet?” There is an axiom that we should say nothing but good of the dead. But if this is misunderstood it can lead to making them seem like something they are not. Everyone has flaws. Everyone struggles with the situations in their lives and nobody always makes the right choices. We can remember our ancestors even with their warts. We don’t have to gloss over their failures or the mistakes they made. Ultimately this helps us to become more tolerant of our own struggles, and those of the people alive with us today.
One man in our group talked about how for years he resented his parents and how they raised him. Then as he learned more about his father growing up as an orphan, and his mother growing up as one of a dozen children, he came to realize that they did the best they could with what they had. Some of the things he wanted of them they were simply not capable of. What’s wonderful though is that once he had this realization, his own mind became more peaceful. This is the point. We don’t harm our ancestors by resenting them or even ignoring them. And we don’t benefit them by just wishing them well. We improve our own minds by showing reverence to them. We learn to see things for what they are.
In our temple we do a version of memorial services at Higan and Obon. At those services we have a list of the ancestors of all temple members and we wish for all of them to be free of suffering and realize the enlightenment of the Buddha. Having regular memorial services for specific ancestors is not part of American culture, but maybe we should do it more often. Especially if there is a relative for whom someone still has some resentment, going through the process of welcoming the protective deities, reciting the Sutra, and dedicating our merit for their benefit can be very powerful.
Then there is a question of who our ancestors are. We usually think of our them as parents, grandparents and other blood relatives who have come before us. But truly then can be anyone who has had an effect on our lives. This is of course obvious when people have been adopted, or not raised by their biological parents. It can also be when we want to recognize and appreciate someone who has been a special influence in our lives, whether we are related to them or not. It is good of course to start with our own families, but it doesn’t need to be limited to them.
We also talked about “Training every Morning and Evening.” Ideally we are practicing all the time with every breath we take. In reality most of us aren’t there yet. One of the tools we have in our Nichiren Shu tradition is a home altar where we can practice every day where we live. We also have temples where it is good to practice with other people, but the home altar is another means of making the Lotus Sutra part of our lives. If we can do it every morning and evening, that’s wonderful. If we can just do it daily, that’s wonderful. If we can only bow in reverence to it as we hurry out the door on our way to work in the morning, that’s a start.
I have found that taking the time, even if it’s only 15 minutes, to read from the Lotus Sutra, think about what it means, and dedicate myself to the benefit of all beings, that always makes things go better in my day. No, I don’t always do things as well as I want. But I wonder how many more problems there would be if I weren’t practicing at all. There is a standard exchange I have with one of our members. He tells me that this is a difficult practice. I tell him that not practicing is even more difficult.
Reading the descriptions in the pamphlets of all the items on the altar, one member asked, Is this all just attachment? She knows of someone who spent $1000 on a statue for her altar. Is this what we have to do? Isn’t that just showing off, feeding our egos by trying to make our altar better than someone else’s?
Many years ago I got a letter from a prison inmate who wanted me to help him convince the officials where he was incarcerated that he needed candles, incense, statues and flowers for the altar in his cell. I wrote back that the only thing he needed for his altar is a mind of faith. If he is able to get the other items, that’s great. Otherwise he has to use what’s available.
We talked about how this is like what people use to equip their kitchens. Some people don’t use their kitchens at all. Some only use a microwave to cook. Others have elaborate setups with all sorts of gadgets that other people may not even know how to use. What we have on our altars is like this. Nichiren said that it’s enough to just have a copy of the Lotus Sutra, or a single statue. If we also want to use candles, incense, food offerings and flowers, and we know what they mean and how to use them, then that’s wonderful. But it is not good to be competitive about it, comparing our altars with what other people have. If we get an idea for something to add to our own, that can be nice. But for some people a very simple altar can be as effective as the grand display at Minobusan Kuonji.
Finally we talked about the Omandala Gohonzon as part of the altar. But since that could easily generate another thousand words, I’ll leave it for another post.
This was a Dharma Talk I gave at the Hawaii Nichiren Mission on January 24, 2010
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Let me start this talk by thanking you all for bringing my wife Sandra and me to visit you here in Hawaii. The last two weeks in Kentucky have been unseasonably cold, so it is wonderful to be here enjoying your sunshine and warm air. Bishop Imai asked me to speak to you this morning about my experience with cancer. But since this is supposed to be a Dharma Talk, let me start by talking about the Dharma.
Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra has the parable of the doctor whose children take poison by mistake. The doctor mixes an antidote, but some of the children have lost their right minds and won’t take it. He decides to tell them that he is going away on business, and then sends word back that he has died. In Bishop Murano’s translation, there is a sentence that is difficult for me to understand. Speaking of the children when they hear of the death of their father: “Their constant sadness finally caused them to recover their right minds.”
Does this mean that we have to be miserable and depressed to recover our right minds? Do we have to wake up every morning dreading the disasters that the day will bring? This does not sound like what Chapter 27 calls the four states of mind we should seek: compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality. What does sadness have to do with recovering our right minds? Through my experience with cancer, I believe I understand this sentence much better.
In August of 2007, I went in for a regular annual physical. Part of this was a blood test which came back slightly abnormal. I was sent to see a specialist who recommended taking a tissue sample. I agreed, expecting it all to be a futile exercise; everything was sure to come back normal.
The first clue I got that something was wrong was when I called for results and was told I needed to meet with the doctor in person. And I had to bring my wife. It’s a good thing she was there because I couldn’t hear anything he said after he told me I had cancer. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. I’m a vegetarian health nut who rides his bicycle to work every day. How could I have cancer?
That night I called my family to tell them about it. I wasn’t sure right away who else I should tell. Then I realized it was better for people to hear directly from me rather than whatever strange rumors would come up if I didn’t say anything. I also saw that my telling people could benefit them. They would realize that cancer could happen to anybody. Not hiding that I had cancer would also give people the chance to help me. This turned out to be tremendously important. People I barely knew let me know that they had survived cancer, and they knew that I would too.
All of this is much easier to talk about now. At the time I was pretty freaked out. It took several weeks after the diagnosis before I felt normal again. What is remarkable is that I was never troubled by self-pity. I never asked what I had done to deserve this, or thought that some evil deity was out to get me. I’m sure one reason for this is that I have our daily practice. Each morning I sit in front of our Omandala Gohonzon and dedicate myself to the benefit of all beings. And I have the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which tell me that I am a Bodhisattva who has chosen this life, all the joys and troubles of this life, to help others.
Soon I got busy looking at my options for treatment. I talked with almost a dozen medical professionals. Read several books. Found out that my cancer was caught early and that my chances for a full recovery were very good. I chose surgery, spent 36 hours in the hospital, and recovered at home for three weeks before I went back to work. Since then I’ve had two years of clean tests. Three more years and I have officially beaten it. In many ways I got off easy. No radiation or chemotherapy was necessary. Other people with cancer go through much worse.
Let’s go back to that story about the doctor and his children. Can sadness really help us recover our right minds? Maybe if we think about grief rather than sadness, it will make more sense. The parable in Chapter 16 is about death. But grief can happen not just over death, but with any loss. Losing a job. Having a house burn down. Losing something we want. Or getting something we don’t want. We could see any kind of suffering as a loss.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross published a book, On Death and Dying, in which she described five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. We don’t go through these stages on order. Sometimes we go back and forth between them. None of these stages are inherently bad. These are all normal, human reactions. The idea is not to get stuck in any of the first four, to let ourselves reach the last one. There we see our loss for what it is, and lose our attachment to what we have lost.
No doubt I went through all five stages, repeatedly, with my cancer. At first I was just like those kids in the story. I didn’t need any medicine. Nothing was wrong with me. There had to be a mistake somewhere. I couldn’t have cancer.
It seems like I got through this stage quickly. But then even after the surgery, I wondered if the surgeon would come back and say that they had taken out healthy tissue; there had never been any cancer after all. Of course if I had remained in denial, I would not have done anything about the cancer. I would have gone on with my life until I got so sick that I may not have been able to be cured.
Anger was another phase I experienced. Maybe more like irritability. I didn’t realize it at first, but it turned out to be a very good thing I had told people I had cancer. They put up with my being so moody. I had an excuse. Still there are many things I did and said that I now regret.
The bargaining was when I started weighing options. I learned what the different possibilities were, talked with many people about the pros and cons, and made a good decision about what to do. Depression was also brief, although through the whole process I did not sleep well and felt exhausted most of the time.
Once I made my decision, I got to acceptance. The morning of the surgery, I was prepped and on the gurney, tubes coming out of my arms and famished from not having eaten in 24 hours. The surgeon came by and joked about setting me up at a table for one. I told him I had been looking forward to that day for six weeks, since the afternoon I had scheduled the surgery with him. I meant every word.
This is how we use the process of grief to get to our right minds. We start by facing our suffering. We don’t deny it. We don’t hide it. We aren’t embarrassed by it. We come to accept our suffering. This is part of our humanity: We are unhappy. We don’t get what we want and get what we don’t want. This is the first noble truth: Suffering exists.
But we can’t just accept suffering. We have to accept the Wonderful Dharma. We can be like the children in that story. We can know that we are unhappy and not think there is anything we can do about it. We keep doing the wrong things to make ourselves happy. We keep taking the wrong medicine. The Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra takes us beyond the four noble truths. It nourishes the seed of Buddhahood within us. It helps us realize that we are Bodhisattvas and shows us how to benefit all beings.
In his letter to Myoichi Ama, Nichiren Shonin wrote:
Those who put their faith in the Lotus Sutra are like winter, for many hardships come incessantly. Winter is surely followed by spring. We have never heard or seen that winter returns to fall. We have never heard that those whose faith is in the Lotus Sutra return to become ordinary people. The Lotus Sutra says, “All people who listen to this sutra will attain Buddhahood.”
I’m not sure if the concept of winter means much to people who live in Hawaii. I have heard that there are places on Big Island where you can visit snow if you want. In this quote when Nichiren says winter I think he just means suffering. What do we do with these hardships?
In Chapter 10 of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha teaches:
These good men or women (meaning us) are great Bodhisattvas. They should be considered to have appeared in this world by their vow to expound the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma out of their compassion towards all living beings.
We chose to take on the hardships in our lives because we knew we could use them to benefit all beings. We know that we are going to become Buddhas. So survival is not the point. We don’t have to just endure what we have and hope for something better.
Feeling good is not the point. But it is the result. It is a different kind of joy than what comes from getting what we want. It is the joy of using what we have, rather than wishing for what we don’t have. It’s being able to use disappointment, sadness, or even cancer in our process of becoming Buddhas. Not because these are the things we want. Just because they are all that we have.
Now I certainly wouldn’t recommend to anybody that they get cancer. As Molly Ivins said, from experience, cancer does not make you a better person. And I don’t believe I say this just because I survived it. But strange as it may sound, having cancer was one of the highlights of my life. To this day I have been able to use that experience to spread the Wonderful Dharma. And it has given others the chance to benefit me.
Thank you all again for bringing us to Hawaii. We hope to return soon.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
Filed under: Dharma Talks
Five years have passed since the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean destroyed so many people, animals and villages. Here in Lexington there was a memorial service in early January of 2005 for all the victims of the disaster. I was one of the representatives from many faith communities asked to come and present remarks. Fortunately I saved what I had prepared. Today it seems relevant in light of the continuing disasters we face, both ecological and political.
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Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
Honor be to the Buddhas, to all the great teachers of the worlds of the ten directions.
Honor be to the Dharmas, to all the great wisdom of the worlds of the ten directions.
Honor be to the Sanghas, to all the communities of faith of the worlds of the ten directions.
The first teaching of the Buddha Shakyamuni was the reality of suffering. Despite all our best efforts to make ourselves comfortable, despite all the wonders of our science, our medicine, our engineering, suffering exists in the world.
When we face a calamity as great as the earthquake and tsunami last month, when the pictures and stories of destruction, disease, death and desperation on a scale unimaginable strike us here, even from half a world away, we cannot help but be moved to understand the reality of what the Buddha taught.
As we come together here today let us ask for the end of all suffering in the world, particularly among those directly affected by this disaster, and their families and friends present with us in this room. May we know the presence of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni and the protective deities who have vowed to defend all those who seek compassion and wisdom.
May we open our eyes to the suffering that exists around us and within us right here right now. May we awaken our hearts of compassion, and desire to benefit all living beings. May we cultivate seeds of wisdom and learn what we can do that will bring a genuine benefit to others and ourselves.
May this tragedy remind us of the fragility of life, of how much we depend on this earth for nourishment, warmth, and shelter. May we be reminded of the great debt we owe to all those who came before us, who built the farms, buildings cities, countries and everything that makes our lives possible.
May we know that as this tragedy has overcome the barrier of great distance to affect us here, the efforts we undertake here will overcome the barrier of even greater distances and bring benefits to all.
May we pledge to set aside any dislikes and animosities we have for each other and freely mix together as milk and water. May we respect and value our differences and work together with one mind to serve the good of all. May we know the power of generosity and the integrity of patience.
May the choking weeds of fear, stinginess and arrogance be uprooted from our hearts and the fragrant seeds of wisdom, charity and tranquility be sown in their place. May peace permeate the entire world and all beings enjoy peace and happiness.
In our work and our meditation, let us endeavor to increase our understanding and appreciation of what others have given and contributed to us, and to develop constant, mindful consideration of how our thoughts and actions will beneficially contribute to others.
May the merits we accumulate by the offering of our work be distributed among all living beings, and may we and all other living beings attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo!
