Chanting Growers Group

[Babbabud]

Encouragement

Encouragement

SGI President Ikeda's Daily Encouragement for January 25

The important thing is to hold on resolutely to one's convictions come what may, just as the Daishonin teaches. People who possess such unwavering conviction will definitely become happy.

 

[Marley]

Hello...

Hello...

Here a sunset picture, i also have another that will make u feell warm.





That a nice piece of encouragement there bubbabud

One love to all

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"Strengthen your resolve more than ever. Ice is made of water, but it
is colder than water. Blue dye comes from indigo, but when something
is repeatedly dyed in it, the color is better than that of the indigo
plant. The Lotus Sutra remains the same, but if our repeatedly
strengthen your resolve, our color will be receive more blessings than
they do."

(WND, 615)
The Supremacy of the Law
Written to Oto and her mother, Nichimyo, on August 4, 1275

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Chanting/Gongyo

Chanting/Gongyo

Cool site I was turned on to for those that would like to hear the chanting of Daimoku and Gongyo.

Also very helpful for those learning the pronunciation correctly and aren't able to chant with others on a regular basis which is important:

http://www.americangongyo.org/

 

[Babbabud]

Ill be gone a cpl day visiting PTD in the city ...hope everyone is feeling high and happy . See ya in cpl days
nam myoho renge kyo!!

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Have a safe trip Babba. See ya when you get back.

"Buddhism teaches that, when the Buddha nature manifests itself from
within, it will receive protection from without. This is one of its
fundamental principles."

(WND, 848)
The Three Kinds of Treasures
Written to Shijo Kingo on September 11, 1277

 

[Marley]

This is my wow picture

This is my wow picture

This justed makes me feel warm

peace

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Awesome Sunset Marley!!!.........WOW!!!

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Back in the place I call home. What a wonderful trip! Need a little time to shake off the effects of my travels but I have encountered some fine medicinal herb to take me to the place I need to be to get that done!

Thanks Bud! Home safe with no problems at all. Thank you to all that chanted for my safe journey! More to come real soon!

T

 

[Babbabud]

woooohoooooo !!! just walked in the door this moment what a great time ......wooohooo be back after a bit !!
nam myoho renge kyo !!!

 

[Babbabud]

going home

going home

the ride home after mrsB recieved her own gonyo book and beads this describes best how i felt

So good to hear you made it home safe
nam myoho renge kyo!!

 

[PassTheDoobie]

The Selection of the Time / WND pg. 538 (continued)

The Selection of the Time / WND pg. 538 (continued)

Question: The Great Teacher Dengyo was born in Japan in the time of Emperor Kammu. He refuted the mistaken beliefs that had held sway in Japan for the more than two hundred years since the time of Emperor Kim-mei and declared his support for the perfect wisdom and perfect meditation taught by the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai. In addition, he repudiated as invalid the ordination platforms that had been (90) established at three places in Japan to confer the Hinayana precepts brought over by the Reverend Ganjin, and instead set up a Mahayana specific ordination platform of the perfect and immediate enlightenment on Mount Hiei. This was the most momentous event that had ever taken place in India, China, Japan, or anywhere else in Jambudvipa during the eighteen hundred years following the Buddha's passing.

I do not know whether the Great Teacher Dengyo's inner enlightenment was inferior or equal to that of Nagarjuna and T'ien-t'ai, but I am convinced that, in calling upon all Buddhist believers to adhere to a single doctrine, he showed himself to be superior to Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu and to surpass even Nan-yüeh and T'ien-t'ai.

In general, we may say that during the eighteen hundred years following the passing of the Buddha these two men, T'ien-t'ai and Dengyo, were the true votaries of the Lotus Sutra. Thus Dengyo writes in his work The Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra: "The sutra says, 'If you were to seize Mount Sumeru and fling it far off to the measureless Buddha lands, that too would not be difficult. . . . But if after the Buddha has entered extinction, in the time of evil, you can preach this (91) sutra, that will be difficult indeed!' In commenting on this passage, I have this to say: Shakyamuni taught that the shallow is easy to embrace, but the profound is difficult. To discard the shallow and seek the profound is the way of a person of courage. The Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai trusted and obeyed Shakyamuni and worked to uphold the Lotus school, spreading its teachings throughout China. We of Mount Hiei inherited the doctrine from T'ien-t'ai and work to uphold the Lotus school and to disseminate its teachings throughout Japan."

The meaning of this passage is as follows: From the time of the Buddha's advent in the Wise Kalpa in the ninth period of decrease, when the human life span measured a hundred years, through the fifty years of his preaching life as well as during the eighteen hundred or more years after his passing, there might actually have been a small person only five feet in height who could nevertheless lift a gold mountain 168,000 yojanas or 6,620,000 ri in height and hurl it over the Iron Encircling Mountains faster than a sparrow flies, just as he might take a one- or two-inch stone and toss it a distance of one or two cho. But even if there should have been such a person, it would be rarer still for someone to appear in the Latter Day of the Law who could expound the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha did. Yet the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai and the Great Teacher Dengyo were just such persons, able to teach it in a manner similar to the Buddha.

In India the scholars never went as far as to propagate the Lotus Sutra. In China the teachers before T'ien-t'ai either passed over it or fell short of it. As for later men such as Tz'u-en, Fa-tsang, or Shan-wu-wei, they were the kind who say that east is west or declare that heaven is earth. And these are not opinions that the Great Teacher Dengyo put forward merely to enhance his own worth.

On the nineteenth day of the first month in the twenty-first year of the Enryaku era (802), Emperor Kammu paid a visit to the temple at Mount Takao. He summoned more than ten eminent priests from the six schools and seven major temples of Nara, including Zengi, Shoyu, Hoki, Chonin, Kengyoku, Ampuku, Gonso, Shuen, Jiko, Gen'yo, Saiko, Dosho, Kosho, and Kambin, to come to the temple to debate with the Dharma Teacher Sai-cho. But they became tongue-tied after their first words and could not speak a second or third time. Instead, all bowed their heads as one and pressed their palms together in a gesture of awe. The Three Treatises teachings concerning the two storehouses of teachings, the teachings of the three periods and the thrice turned wheel of the Law; the Dharma Characteristics doctrines con-cerning the teachings of the three periods and the five natures; and the Flower Garland doctrines of the four (92) teachings, the five teachings, the root teaching and the branch teachings, the six forms, and the ten mysteries - all their frameworks were utterly refuted. It was as though the beams and rafters of a great edifice had broken and collapsed. The proud banners of the ten and more eminent priests had also been toppled.

At that time the emperor was greatly amazed at the proceedings, and on the twenty-ninth day of the same month he dispatched [Wake no] Hiro-yo and [Otomo no] Kunimichi as imperial envoys to question the men of the seven temples and six schools at greater length. All of them in turn submitted a memorial acknowledging that they had been defeated in the debate and won over by Dengyo's arguments. "When we privately examine Profound Meaning and other commentaries by T'ien-t'ai, we find that they sum up all the teachings expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha in his lifetime. The full purport of the Buddha's doctrines is made clear, without a single point being left unexplained. The Tendai school surpasses all other schools, and is unique in pointing out the single way for all to follow. The doctrines that it expounds represent the most profound mystic truth and are something that we, students of the seven major temples and six schools, have never before heard of, and never before seen. Now at last the dispute that has continued so long between the Three Treatises and Dharma Characteristics schools has been resolved as dramatically as though ice had melted. The truth has been made abundantly clear, as though clouds and mist had parted to reveal the light of the sun, moon, and stars. In the two hundred or more years since Prince Shotoku spread the Buddhist teachings in this country, a great many sutras and treatises have been lectured upon, and their principles have been widely argued, but until now, many doubts still remained to be settled. Moreover, the lofty and perfect doctrine of the Lotus Sutra had not yet been properly explained and made known. Was it that the people who lived during this period were not yet qualified to taste its perfect flavor? (93)

"In our humble view, the ruler of our sacred dynasty has received the charge given long ago by the Thus Come One Shakyamuni and has undergone profound instruction in the pure and perfect teaching of the Lotus Sutra, so that the doctrines of the unique and wonderful truth that it expounds have for the first time been explained and made clear. Thus we, the scholars of the six schools, have for the first time understood the ultimate truth. From now on, all the beings in this world who are endowed with life will be able to embark on the ship of the wonderful and perfect truth and quickly reach the opposite shore. Zengi and the others of our group have met with great good fortune because of karmic bonds and have been privileged to hear these extraordinary words. Were it not for some profound karmic tie, how could we have been born in this sacred age?"

In China in past times, Chia-hsiang assembled some hundred other priests and, together with them, acknowledged the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai to be a true sage. And later in Japan, the more than two hundred priests of the seven temples of Nara proclaimed the Great Teacher Dengyo to be worthy of the title of sage. Thus, during the two thousand and more years after the passing of the Buddha, these two sages appeared in the two countries of China and Japan respectively. In addition, the Great Teacher Dengyo established on Mount Hiei an ordination platform for conferring the great precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment, precepts that even the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai had never propagated. How then can you deny that in the latter part of the Middle Day of the Law the wide proclamation and propagation of the Lotus Sutra was achieved?

Answer: As I have explained in my earlier discussion, a great truth that was not spread widely by Mahakashyapa or Ananda was in time propagated by Ashvaghosha, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, and Vasubandhu. As I have also explained in my discussion, there was a great truth that was not fully made known by Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, and the others, but was propagated by the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai. And, as I have further explained, it remained for the Great Teacher Dengyo to establish an ordination platform of the great precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment that were not spread widely by the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai Chih-che.

And, unbelievable as it may seem, there clearly appears in the text of the Lotus Sutra a correct Law that is (94) supremely profound and secret, one that, though expounded in full by the Buddha, in the time since his passing has never yet been propagated by Mahakashyapa, Ananda, Ashvaghosha, Nagarjuna, Asanga, or Vasubandhu, nor even by T'ien-t'ai or Dengyo. The most difficult and perplexing question is whether or not this profound Law can be broadly proclaimed and propagated throughout the entire land of Jambudvipa now at the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, the fifth of the five five-hundred-year periods following the Buddha's passing.


Notes:

90. The ordination platforms at Todai-ji temple in Nara, Yakushi-ji in Shimotsuke Province, and Kanzeon-ji in Kyushu.
91. Lotus Sutra, chap. 11.
92. Four teachings and the five teachings: Classifications of the Buddha's teachings. Both of these doctrines rank the Flower Garland Sutra and the Lotus Sutra first.
93. The ruler refers here to Emperor Kammu. This sentence indirectly praises Dengyo, who revealed and upheld the truth of the Lotus Sutra during Emperor Kammu's time.
94. This means that the Three Great Secret Laws are apparent in the passages of the Lotus Sutra when the sutra is read in light of its essential truth.

(to be continued)

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Congratulations Mrs. B! Wear those beads out! Learning Gongyo is nothing more than repetitions. Do it and it will come back to you. You are a Bodhisattva of the Earth, so the Lotus Sutra already lives inside of you. Just a little seeking spirit and a harmonious joining of your voice with your hubby's, and it will come tumblng out!

Well done my Brother!

Our heartfelt deep and sincere gratitude to both of you! We enjoyed ourselves very much and look forward to the next time! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

T

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo !!

Nam myoho renge kyo !!

Good morinng all Nice to be home and logged back on to ICmag.....what a great time we had. Ok for those of you that havent figured it out yet .... mrsB and I have just gotten home... had a great time in San Francisco where we met our very good friends PassTheDoobie , his amazingly beautiful wife, Stonegirl, and two of their beautiful children.

Words cannot decribe how wonderful it was to finally meet face to face and to get to spend a bit of time together actually looking each other in the eyes when we speak.The internet is awesome but believe me when i say there is something missing compared to being able to speak to one another face to face. Like they say a picture is worth a thousand words and looking someone in the eye when you speak is priceless.

Ok so when we were getting ready to first meet, PTD, mrsB and i talked about how much we smoke and that our buddy PTD would prolly go down hard after the first cpl hits with us and that maybe we should be easy on him.......NOT. As most of you know the "chimney" and I have been blessed with a cpl awesome harvest back to back so we have been smoking hard for many months straight and normally blow ppl that sit with us right out of the water in the first few minutes. I have to admit that after smoking a killer TW joint and then a SourD joint back to back we were all pretty toasted but to my total surprise PTD was still standing in front of us looking pretty wasted but ready for more..... gotta hand it to the guy because let me tell you we are in practice As the time went on PTD had to do alot of running back and forth between rooms as his son was not feeling well and PTD was doing the great father thing and helping out .... in between getting inundated by giant clouds of dank dank diesel smoke This guys is a true stoner believe me .... he held his mug awesome through all the powerful smoke and the going back and forth making sure mamma and the two kids were doing ok. Wow what a beautiful family Looks like i made two more awesome little friends Ok gonna let PTD chime in here a bit with this story then Ill get back to my take on a bit more. Let me say this though... wow we had a great time and learned so much
nam myoho renge kyo

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Were it not for some profound karmic tie, how could we have been born in this sacred age?"

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"And, unbelievable as it may seem, there clearly appears in the text of the Lotus Sutra a correct Law that is supremely profound and secret, one that, though expounded in full by the Buddha, in the time since his passing has never yet been propagated by Mahakashyapa, Ananda, Ashvaghosha, Nagarjuna, Asanga, or Vasubandhu, nor even by T'ien-t'ai or Dengyo. The most difficult and perplexing question is whether or not this profound Law can be broadly proclaimed and propagated throughout the entire land of Jambudvipa now at the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, the fifth of the five five-hundred-year periods following the Buddha's passing."

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Welcome home to all of you and glad it was a safe and enjoyable trip. Nice rainbow Babba; what a terrific sign of the environment to you and your Mrs. B!
BTW, PTD always has 'outsmoked' me!! That was not news to me. It is always a blur out there when we are together in that realm.

"Let others hate you if they will. What have you to complain of, if you
are cherished by Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, and the
Buddhas of the ten directions, as well as by Brahma, Shakra, and the
gods of the sun and moon? As long as you are praised by the Lotus
Sutra, what cause have you for discontent?"

(WND, 464)
The Unity of Husband and Wife
Written to Nichigen-nyo on January 27, 1275

 

[PassTheDoobie]

The Selection of the Time / WND pg. 538 (continued)

The Selection of the Time / WND pg. 538 (continued)

Question: What is this secret Law? First, tell me its name, and then I want to hear its meaning. If what you say is true, then perhaps Shakyamuni Buddha will appear in the world once more, or Bodhisattva Superior Practices will once again emerge from the earth. Speak quickly, for pity's sake!

They say that the Tripitaka Master Hsüan-tsang, after dying and being reborn (95) six times, was finally able to reach India, where he spent nineteen years. But he claimed that the one vehicle doctrine of the Lotus Sutra was a mere expedient teaching, and that the Agama sutras of Hinayana Buddhism represented the true doctrine. And the Tripitaka Master Pu-k'ung, when he paid a return visit to India, his homeland, announced that the Buddha of the "Life Span" chapter of the Lotus Sutra was Amida! This is like saying that east is west or calling the sun the moon. They drove their bodies in vain and exerted their minds to no avail.

But fortunately, because we were born in the Latter Day of the Law, without taking a single step, we can complete [the bodhisattva practice] that requires three asamkhya kalpas, and without feeding our head to a tigress, we can obtain the unseen crown of the (96) Buddha's head.

Answer: This Law is revealed in the text of the Lotus Sutra, so it is an easy matter for me to explain it to you. But first, before clarifying this Law, there (97) are three important concerns that I must mention. It is said that, no matter how vast the ocean, it will not hold (98) within it the body of a dead person, and no matter how thick the crust of the earth, it will not support one who (99) is undutiful to one's parents. According to the Buddhist teaching, however, even those who commit the five cardinal sins may be saved, and even those who are unfilial may gain salvation. It is only the icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief, those who slander the Law, and those who pretend to be foremost in observing the precepts who cannot be forgiven.

The three sources of difficulty mentioned above are the Nembutsu school, the Zen school, and the True Word school. The first, the Nembutsu school, has spread throughout Japan, and the Nembutsu is on the lips of the four categories of Buddhists. The second, the Zen school, has produced arrogant priests who talk of their three robes and one begging bowl, and who fill the area within the four seas, regarding themselves as the enlightened leaders of the whole world. The third, the True Word school, is in a class by itself. It receives support from Mount Hiei, To-ji, the seven temples of Nara, and Onjo-ji, as well as from the high priestly officials including the chief priest of Mount Hiei, the prelate of (100) Omuro, the chief official of Onjo-ji, and supervisors of the various temples (101) and shrines. Since the sacred mirror kept in the lady officials' quarters of the imperial palace was destroyed by (102) fire, the precious mudra of the Thus Come One Mahavairochana has been regarded as a mirror of the Buddha to take its place; and since the precious (103) sword was lost in the western sea, the five honored ones of the True Word (104) school have been looked upon as capable of cutting down the enemies of the Japanese nation. So firmly entrenched are these beliefs that, though the stone that marks the duration of a kalpa might be worn completely (105) away, it would seem that they would never be overthrown, and though the great earth itself might turn upside down, people would never question them.

When the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai defeated in debate the leaders of the other schools of northern and southern China, the True Word school's teachings had not yet been introduced to that country, and when the Great Teacher Dengyo won victory over the six schools of Japan, the True Word doctrines escaped refutation. On several occasions they have managed to evade their powerful opponents, and on the contrary, have succeeded in over-shadowing and imperiling the great teaching of the Lotus Sutra. In addition, the Great Teacher Jikaku, who was a disciple of the Great Teacher Dengyo, went so far as to adopt the doctrines of the True Word school, obscure the Tendai doctrines of Mount Hiei, and turn the entire school into a sphere of the True Word school. But who could effectively oppose such a person of authority as Jikaku?

Thus, helped on by prejudiced views, the false doctrines of the Great Teacher Kobo continued to escape condemnation. It is true that the Reverend Annen did voice a certain opposition to Kobo. But all he did was to demote the Flower Garland Sutra from second place and substitute the Lotus Sutra for it; he still ranked the Lotus Sutra as inferior to the Mahavairochana Sutra. He was nothing more than an arranger of worldly compromises.

Question: In what way are these three schools in error?

Answer: Let us first consider the Pure Land school. In China in the time of the Ch'i dynasty, there was a priest named T'an-luan. He was originally a follower of the Three Treatises school, but when he read the treatise by Nagarjuna entitled Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra, he espoused the two categories of the difficult-to-practice way and the easy-to-practice way. Later there was a man called the Meditation Master Tao-ch'o, who lived during the T'ang dynasty. Originally he had given lectures on the Nirvana Sutra, but when he read T'an-luan's account of his conversion to faith in the Pure Land teachings,Tao-ch'o abandoned the Nirvana Sutra and likewise changed over to the Pure Land faith, establishing the two categories of the Sacred Way teachings and the Pure Land teachings. In addition, Tao-ch'o had a disciple named Shan-tao who posited two types of religious practice that he called sundry practices and correct practices.

In Japan some two hundred years after the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, in the time of the Retired Emperor Gotoba, there lived a man named Honen. Addressing his words to all priests and lay believers, he stated: "Buddhist teachings are based upon the capacities of the people of the period. The Lotus Sutra and the Mahavairochana Sutra, the doctrines of the eight or nine schools including the Tendai and True Word, the teachings of the Buddha's lifetime - the Mahayana and Hinayana, the exoteric and esoteric, provisional and true teachings - as well as the schools based on them, were all intended for people of superior capacities and superior wisdom who lived during the two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days of the Law. Now that we have entered the Latter Day of the Law, no matter how diligently one may practice such teachings, they will bring no benefit. Moreover, if one mixes such practices with the practice of the Nembutsu addressed to the Buddha Amida, then the Nembutsu will be rendered ineffective and will not lead the believer to rebirth in the Pure Land.

"This is not something that I have taken it upon myself to declare. Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and the Dharma Teacher T'an-luan both designate such practices as the difficult-to-practice way. Tao-ch'o says that not a single person ever attained enlightenment through them, and Shan-tao affirms that not even one person in a thousand can be saved by them.

"These persons whom I have quoted were all leaders of the Pure Land school, and so you may be inclined to question their words. But there is the sage of former times Eshin, unsurpassed by any wise priests of the Tendai or True Word school in the latter age. He stated in his work entitled The Essentials of Rebirth in the Pure Land that the doctrines of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism are not the kind of teaching that can free us from the sufferings of birth and death. Moreover, the work entitled The Ten Conditions for Rebirth in the Pure Land by Yokan of the Three Treatises school states the same opinion. Therefore, if people will abandon the Lotus Sutra, True Word, and other teachings and devote themselves entirely to the Nembutsu, then ten persons out of ten and a hundred persons out of a hundred will be reborn in the Pure Land."

These pronouncements of Honen precipitated debates and disputes with the priests of Mount Hiei, To-ji, Onjo-ji, and the seven major temples of Nara. But Eshin's words in the preface to his Essentials of Rebirth in the Pure Land appeared to be so compelling that (106) in the end Kenshin, the chief priest of Mount Hiei, surrendered to the Nembutsu doctrine and became a disciple of Honen.

In addition to that, even people who were not disciples of Honen began to recite the Nembutsu to Amida Buddha far more often than they paid reverence to any other Buddha, their mouths continually murmuring it, their minds constantly occupied with it, until it seemed that everyone throughout the country of Japan had become a follower of Honen.

In the past fifty years, every person within the four quarters of the nation has become a follower of Honen. And if everyone has become a follower of Honen, then every person in the country of Japan is a slanderer of the Law. Now, if a thousand sons or daughters should band together to murder one parent, then all one thousand of them would be guilty of committing the five cardinal sins. And if one of them as a result should fall into the Avichi hell, then how could the others escape the same fate?

In the end, it would seem as though Honen, angry at having been condemned (107) to exile, turned into an evil spirit and took possession of the sovereign and the priests of Mount Hiei and Onjo-ji who had earlier persecuted him and his disciples, causing these persons to plot rebellion or to commit other evil acts. As a result, they were almost all destroyed by the Kamakura authorities in eastern Japan. The few priests of Mount Hiei or To-ji who managed to survive are treated with contempt by lay men and women. They are like performing monkeys that are laughed at by the crowd, or subjugated barbarians who are despised even by children.

The men of the Zen school, taking advantage of this situation, pronounced themselves observers of the precepts, deceiving the eyes of the people and putting on such lofty airs that, no matter what false doctrines they presumed in their madness to put forward, these doctrines were not recognized as erroneous.

This school called Zen claims to represent a "separate transmission outside the sutras," which was not revealed by Shakyamuni Buddha in the numerous sutras preached during his lifetime but was whispered in secret to the Venerable Mahakashyapa. Thus the proponents of this school maintain that, if one studies the various sutras without understanding the teachings of the Zen school, one will be like a dog trying to bite at a clap of thunder or a monkey grasping at the moon's reflection in the water.

Zen is a false doctrine that appeals to the kind of people in Japan who have been abandoned by their fathers and mothers because of their lack of filial devotion or dismissed from service by their lords because of their outrageous conduct, to young priests who are too lazy to apply themselves to their studies, and to the disreputable nature of courtesans. Even though its followers have all embraced the precepts, they are no more than swarming locusts feeding upon the people of the nation. That is why heaven glares down in anger and the gods of the earth shudder.

The True Word school is a far greater source of trouble than the other two schools I have discussed above, a major form of error, and I would therefore like to discuss it in outline here.

In the reign of Emperor Hsüan-tsung of the T'ang dynasty, the Tripitaka masters Shan-wu-wei, Chin-kang-chih, and Pu-k'ung brought the Mahavairochana, Diamond Crown, and Susiddhikara sutras from India and introduced them to China. The teachings of these three sutras are very clearly set forth. If we look for the basic principle, we find that it consists in unifying the two vehicles of voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones in the one vehicle of bodhisattvas and repudiating the two vehicles to reveal the one vehicle. As far as practices go, the school employs mudras and mantras.

Such a doctrine cannot compare even with the one vehicle of Buddhahood that is taught in contrast to the three vehicles [of voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, and bodhisattvas] in the Flower Garland and Wisdom sutras, nor is it even as profound as the specific teaching or the perfect teaching that preceded the Lotus Sutra, as clarified by the T'ien-t'ai school. In its basic meaning at least, it corresponds merely to the two lower types of teachings: the Tripitaka teaching and the connecting teaching.

The Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei no doubt realized that, if he were to expound the teachings set forth in these sutras [he brought from India], he would be ridiculed by the men of the Flower Garland and Dharma Characteristics schools and laughed at by those of the T'ien-t'ai school. And yet, since he had gone to all the trouble of bringing these works from India, probably he did not feel inclined simply to remain silent on the matter.

At this time there was a priest of the T'ien-t'ai school called the Meditation Master I-hsing, a perverse man. Shan-wu-wei went to him and questioned him on the Buddhist doctrines taught in China. Acharya I-hsing, deceived as to his motives, not only revealed to Shan-wu-wei the main principles of the Three Treatises, Dharma Characteristics, and Flower Garland doctrines, but even explained the teachings of the T'ien-t'ai school to him.

Shan-wu-wei realized that the T'ien-t'ai teachings were even finer than he had supposed when he had heard of them in India, and that the doctrines of the three sutras he had brought could never compete with them. But he set about to deceive I-hsing, saying: "My good priest, you are one of the cleverest men of China, and the T'ien-t'ai school has a truly profound and wonderful teaching. But the True Word school whose teachings I have brought to China excels it in the fact that it employs mudras and mantras."

I-hsing appeared to find this reasonable, and the Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei then said to him: "Just as the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai wrote commentaries on the Lotus Sutra, so I would like to compose a commentary on the Mahavairochana Sutra in order to propagate the True Word teachings. Could you write it down for me?" I-hsing replied, "That would be easy enough."

"But in what way should I write?" I-hsing asked, saying: "The T'ien-t'ai school is unassailable, and though each of the other schools of Buddhism has competed in trying to refute its doctrines, none has gained the slightest success because of a single point. That point is the fact that in the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, an introductory teaching to the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha declares that in the various sutras that he has preached during the previous forty and more years he has not yet revealed the truth, thus invalidating the doctrines based upon those various sutras. And in the 'Teacher of the Law' and 'Supernatural Powers' chapters of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha states that no sutras that will be preached in later times can ever equal the Lotus Sutra. In the passage of the 'Teacher of the Law' chapter concerning the comparison of the Lotus Sutra and others preached at the same time, he also makes clear the superiority of the Lotus Sutra. To which of these three categories - the sutras preached before the Lotus Sutra, those preached contemporaneously with it, or those preached later - should the Mahavairochana Sutra be assigned?"

At that point, the Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei hit upon an exceedingly cunning idea. "The Mahavairochana Sutra," he explained to I-hsing, "begins with a chapter called the 'Stage of the Mind.' Just as in the case of the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, which refutes all the sutras that had been preached in the previous forty and more years, this 'Stage of the Mind' chapter invalidates all other sutras. The remaining chapters of the Mahavairochana Sutra, from the 'Entering the Mandala' chapter through the end, became known in China in two versions, the Lotus Sutra and the Mahavairochana Sutra, though in India they constituted a single sutra. Shakyamuni Buddha, addressing Shariputra and Maitreya, preached the Mahavairochana Sutra, which he called the Lotus Sutra, but he omitted the explanations of the mudras and mantras and expounded only the doctrines. This is the work that the Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva introduced to China and that the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai employed. At the same time, however, the Thus Come One Mahavairochana, addressing Vajrasattva, preached the Lotus Sutra, which he called the Mahavairochana Sutra. This is the work now called the Mahavairochana Sutra, a work that I often saw when I was in India. Therefore, I want you to explain that the Mahavairochana Sutra and the Lotus Sutra are to be savored as works that are essentially the same in flavor, like water and milk. If you do so, then the Mahavairochana Sutra can stand superior to all the other sutras preached in the past, present, and future in the same way that the Lotus Sutra does.

"As to the mudras and mantras, if they are used to adorn the doctrine of the mind, which is expressed in the term a single moment of life comprising three thousand realms, this will constitute a secret teaching in which the three mysteries are provided. And with this doctrine containing the three mysteries, the True Word will prove superior to the T'ien-t'ai school, which speaks only of the mystery of the mind. The True Word school is like a general of the first rank who dons armor, slings his bow and arrows over his shoulder, and fastens a sword at his waist. But the T'ien-t'ai school, with nothing but the mystery of the mind, is like a general of the first rank who is stark naked."

Acharya I-hsing wrote all this down just as Shan-wu-wei dictated it.

Throughout the 360 states of China, there was no one who knew about this ruse. At first there were some disputes over the relative merits of the T'ien-t'ai and True Word teachings. But Shan-wu-wei was the kind of person who was able to command a great deal of respect, whereas the men of the T'ien-t'ai school were regarded lightly. More-over, at this time there were no men of wisdom such as the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai had been. Thus day by day the T'ien-t'ai school lost more ground to the True Word school, and finally all debate ceased.

As more and more years have gone by, these fraudulent beginnings of the True Word school have become completely obscured and forgotten. When the Great Teacher Dengyo of Japan went to China and returned with the teachings of the T'ien-t'ai school, he also brought back the True Word teachings. The T'ien-t'ai doctrine he recommended to the emperor of Japan, but the True Word teachings he turned over to the eminent priests of the six schools to study. Dengyo had already established the superiority of the T'ien-t'ai teachings over those of the six schools before he went to China. After he came back from China, he attempted to establish an ordination platform for conferring the precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment, but this involved (108) him in a great deal of controversy. He had many enemies and probably felt that establishing the ordination platform would be difficult enough to accomplish even if he devoted all his efforts to it. Or perhaps he felt that the refutation of the True Word teachings should be left until the Latter Day of the Law. In any event, he did not discuss the True Word teachings in the presence of the emperor, or make any clear pronouncement on the matter to his disciples. However, he did leave a one-volume secret work entitled A Clarification of the Schools Based on T'ien-t'ai's Doctrine, in which he describes how various priests of the seven schools were won over to T'ien-t'ai's teachings. In the preface to that work, he mentions the fraudulence of the True Word teachings.

The Great Teacher Kobo went to T'ang China during the Enryaku era, when the Great Teacher Dengyo (109) went. There he studied the teachings of the True Word school under Hui-kuo of the temple called Ch'ing-lung-ssu. After returning to Japan, he pronounced judgment on the relative merits of the doctrines preached by Shakyamuni in the course of his life, declaring that the True Word teachings ranked first, the Flower Garland second, and those of the Lotus Sutra third.

The Great Teacher Kobo enjoys a quite unusual amount of respect among the people of our time. However, although I hesitate to touch on such matters, in questions of the Buddhist teaching, he committed a rather unusual number of errors. If we stop to consider the matter in general, it would appear that when he went to China he merely learned the ritual mudras and mantras that are used by the True Word school and introduced these to Japan. But he does not seem to have delved into the doctrines of the school to any great extent. After he returned to Japan and observed the situation at the time, he saw that the Tendai school was flourishing to an unusual degree, and he concluded that it would be difficult to propagate the True Word doctrines that he himself adhered to. Therefore, he adopted the viewpoint of the Flower Garland school, whose doctrines he had studied earlier in Japan, declaring that the Flower Garland Sutra was superior to the Lotus Sutra. But he realized that, if he simply asserted the superiority of the Flower Garland Sutra over the Lotus Sutra in the same manner as the Flower Garland school, people would not be likely to pay much heed to his words. He consequently gave a new twist to the (110) Flower Garland doctrine, declaring that his argument represented the true intent of the Mahavairochana Sutra, Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment by Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, and Shan-wu-wei, thus bolstering his position with absurd falsehoods. And yet the followers of the Tendai school failed to speak out strongly against him.


Notes:

95. This indicates how difficult it was to reach India from China at that time. Hsüan-tsang is said to have died and been reborn six times on his perilous journey to India.
96. For three asamkhya kalpas, bodhisattvas carry out the six paramitas and ten thousand practices to benefit others and attain near-perfect enlightenment. Shakyamuni was born in a past life as Prince Sattva and gave his body to a starving tigress to save her and her cubs. He was then able to obtain "the unseen crown of the Buddha's head," one of a Buddha's eighty characteristics.
97. The "three important concerns" refers to the refutation of the Nembutsu, Zen, and True Word doctrines, which are explained subsequently.
98. This refers to one of the eight wonders of the ocean described in the Nirvana Sutra. The "body of a dead person" represents icchantikas, persons of incorrigible disbelief; monks who commit the four unpardonable offenses of killing, theft, sexual intercourse, and lying; people who commit the five cardinal sins; and those who slander the Mahayana teachings.
99. Reference is to a passage in the Flower Garland Sutra, in which the god of the earth refuses to protect three types of persons: those who cause the death of their king, those who are unfilial toward their parents, and those who deny the law of cause and effect or slander the three treasures of Buddhism.
100. Prince Dojo, a son of Emperor Gotoba who had entered the priesthood. This generally means the title of a retired emperor or prince who entered the priesthood and lived at Ninna-ji, a True Word temple in Kyoto. Omuro is another name for Ninna-ji.
101. The supervisors refer here to those of the head temple of the True Word school at Mount Koya, Kumano Shrine, and elsewhere.
102. The sacred mirror is one of the three divine symbols of the Japanese imperial throne, the others being the sword and the jewel. The mirror was lost in a fire in 960.
103. The sword was lost in 1185 at the battle of Dannoura, in which the Minamoto clan defeated the Taira.
104. The five honored ones refer to the five wisdom kings of the esoteric True Word teachings. They are Immovable; Conqueror of the Threefold World; Kundali; Great Awesome Virtue; and Diamond Yaksha. Depicted as angry figures, they are said to conquer obstacles.
105. According to The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, a kalpa is longer than the time required to wear away a cube of stone 40 ri (one ri is about 600 meters) on each side, if a heavenly nymph alights on it and brushes it with a piece of cloth once every hundred years.
106. Kenshin (1130-1192) was the sixty-first chief priest of Enryaku-ji. He converted to the Pure Land teachings while still the chief priest of a Tendai temple.
107. Honen was exiled to Tosa in 1207 by the Retired Emperor Gotoba, who was later unsuccessful in his attempt to rebel against the Kamakura shogunate, an incident known as the Jokyu Disturbance.
108. In 819 Dengyo expressed to the emperor his desire that a Mahayana ordination platform be built on Mount Hiei. His request provoked intense opposition from the priests of the six schools in Nara.
109. Kobo went to China in 804. Dengyo sailed to China in the same fleet, though on a different ship.
110. The Flower Garland school adopts a comparative classification called the "ten doctrines," ranking the Flower Garland teachings in the tenth and highest place, and the Lotus Sutra in the ninth. Kobo, imitating the "ten doctrines," formulated the "ten stages of the mind." The tenth stage is the stage of the realization of esoteric truth, that is, Buddhahood. Kobo asserted that only the True Word school's teachings correspond to this stage and relegated the Flower Garland and Tendai doctrines to the ninth and eighth stages, respectively.

(to be continued)

 

[Mrs.Babba]

Good Times

Good Times

The world is so big,yet so small at the same time....we met the PTD family and it was like we were old friends, they are very special ppl and I'm so glad we were able to meet...I chanted for the first time with PTD and Babba so maybe it was a sign of great things to come....cant wait to see you guys again and hope all your days are filled with joy and happiness
Thank You soooo very much for the wonderful gift, I will never forget it

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"'The “Benefits of Responding with Joy' chapter of the Lotus Sutra states:

"'Suppose there is a person who is sitting in the place where the Law is expounded, and when another person appears, the first person urges him to sit down and listen, or offers to share his seat and so persuades him to sit down. The benefits gained by this person will be such that when he is reborn he will be in a place where the lord Shakra is seated, where the heavenly king Brahma is seated, or where a wheel-turning sage king is seated.' (LS18, 247–48)

"This is certainly a description of the great benefits accruing to all our noble members who joyously participate in discussion meetings. Their family members, too, are all sure to enjoy an elevated state of life befitting great leaders. Boundless fortune will gather from 10,000 miles away in the homes they open as activity centres for kosen-rufu to their fellow members, who are equal to Buddhas. In the light of the Buddhist law of cause and effect, this is guaranteed."

SGI Newsletter No. 6712, THE LIGHT OF THE CENTURY OF HUMANITY, Discussion Meetings: A Soka Gakkai Tradition—Part 1 [of 2], translated Jan. 26th, 2006