"This Is What I Heard" - The Title

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"This is what I heard" (The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, Chapter 1, p 35)

"In the first volume of [T’ien-T’ai’s] The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra we find a passage that states, “The word ‘this’ [of ‘This is what I heard’] indicates the essence of a doctrine heard from the Buddha.” … 

The Flower Garland Sutra begins: “The Great and Vast Buddha Flower Garland Sutra. This is what I heard.”   The Wisdom Sutra begins: “The Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. This is what I heard.”   The Mahāvairochana Sutra begins: “The Mahāvairochana’s Protection through Supernatural Powers Sutra. This is what I heard.”   What does “this” indicate in these and all other sutras? It refers to the title of each sutra.   When the Buddha expounded a sutra, he put a title to it, revealing its ultimate principle. …

Our contemporaries think of the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo only as a name, but this is not correct. It is the essence, that is, the heart of the Lotus Sutra.   …  

Myoho-renge-kyo is neither the scriptural text nor its meaning, but the heart of the entire sutra.   Those who seek the heart of the sutra apart from its title are as foolish as the turtle who sought the monkey’s liver outside the monkey, or the monkey who left the forest and sought fruit on the seashore.”  (“This Is What I Heard”, WND-1, p859 - 861)

One thing worth pointing out here is that the title of this sutra is NOT “The Lotus Sutra” (Renge Kyo) but “The Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra”  (Myoho Renge Kyo).  The meaning in the title, the heart of the teaching is that there is a Mystic Law running throughout the universe based on cause and effect as symbolised by the Lotus Flower which seeds and blossoms at the same time.  Similarly, the Lotus Flower is a thing of great beauty (a revelation of Buddhahood) that is rooted within the dirt and muddy water (the Saha world).  

Again it’s easy to imagine this beautiful blossom just floating on the water, but underneath the surface, we can see that this beautiful flower is deeply rooted within the dirt at the bottom of the muddy pond.  So the title of the sutra contains this imagery of a strict Mystic law, the workings of cause and effect within our lives, and the phenomena of birth and the attainment of enlightenment occurring right where we are in an impure environment.

So what did I hear?  I heard "Myoho Renge Kyo" - the teaching of a Mystic Law based on the causes I make and their effects, and which will enable me to blossom and manifest my own Buddhahood even within the impure world in which I live.

LOTUS SUTRA - 1. INTRODUCTION

The Lotus Sutra begins with the INTRODUCTION chapter which sets the scene for the rest of the teaching.

After introducing the numerous individuals present at the assembly, Shakyamuni teaches the IMMEASURABLE MEANINGS SUTRA which sets the scene for this prologue sutra in the Lotus Sutra trilogy, explains that previous sutras were leading people towards this supreme teaching and outlines the immeasurable benefits of the Lotus Sutra.  After teaching this sutra, various omens occur and one of Shakyamuni's disciples explains that these signs usually occur before a buddha teaches the Wonderful Law of the Lotus Sutra.

Here is a list of the blog entries for the Introduction Chapter of the Lotus Sutra (and the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra)


THE LOTUS SUTRA – CHAPTER ONE  (INTRODUCTION)

“This is What I Heard” – The Title

“This is What I Heard” – The Recitation

The Greatest Show on Earth

THE IMMEASURABLE MEANINGS SUTRA The Path to Buddhahood Life Begins At 40 Water, Water Everywhere Do You Hear What I Hear? The Benefit of Human Revolution Equal Benefits

Flowers, Light, Music, ACTION!

Terms and Conditions May Apply

Nowadays we are used to signing up for things without reading the terms and conditions.  If you can’t wait to download i-tunes, just click [AGREE] and you’ve got it. Need an operation?  Sign an agreement.  Want to book a holiday online?  Just click [AGREE] and you’ve got it.  An upgrade to your internet browser?  [AGREE]  Signing up with a new gas or electricity provider?  [AGREE]  Whatever it is we want, we rarely read the terms and conditions, but just jump straight to the [AGREE] button. 

In Gosho such as “The One Essential Phrase” and “This is What I Heard”, Nichiren has assured us that even without understanding its meaning, we can gain benefit from chanting “Nam myoho renge kyo”, and that chanting "Nam myoho renge kyo" is the same as reading the whole sutra, but why not read the sutra itself and find out for yourself if you really are devoted to, and living your life in unity with, the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

If you’ve been practicing for a while, you have probably encountered a lot of the parables, philosophy and key points of the Lotus Sutra, either from Nichiren’s commentaries in his letters to followers, from President Ikeda’s writings or during chapter studies or discussion meetings, but why not read it for yourself?

In this blog, I want to try and highlight a lot of the key points of the Lotus Sutra, but I would also encourage you to read it for yourself as well and discuss it with other members of your district.  The version I use is “The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras” as translated by Burton Watson, which is available to buy at SGI bookstores or via Amazon, or can be viewed online here.

From my own experience, after chanting, reading “The Lotus Sutra”, chanting, studying Nichiren’s commentaries on it, chanting, re-reading it, chanting, studying President Ikeda’s commentaries on it and chanting again, I found that rather than chanting like I'd just clicked [AGREE] my gongyo and daimoku were infused with a deeper understanding of the wisdom and reality of this profound and mystic teaching.

The Heart of Shakyamuni's Teaching

After leaving prison on 3^rd July 1945, Josei Toda returned home and in the evening made the following vow:

 “Gohonzon and Nichiren Daishonin!  I, Josei Toda, swear to work to achieve kosen-rufu.”  (The Human Revolution: Vol. 1, p26-27)

Over the coming months he tried to encourage and motivate some of the old Soka Gakkai members who had turned their back on their faith due to pressure from the military government, and he thought about how he could realize the vow he had made.  Towards the end of the year he had started to focus on concrete plans to ensure the spread of Nichiren Buddhism and he decided that a basic course of study on The Lotus Sutra would be an essential step on the road to kosen-rufu.  He wanted members of the Soka Gakkai to become familiar with the Lotus Sutra and develop a deeper understanding of the importance, and relevance today, of Shakyamuni’s highest teaching.  Volume One of The Human Revolution, recalls Josei Toda's first lecture:

"When you make a general survey of Shakyamuni’s lifetime teachings, comparing each with [T’ien-t’ai’s classification system which grouped all of the sutras according to the five periods when they were written and the eight different teachings], you will easily understand that the doctrine of Myoho-renge-kyo (the Lotus Sutra) is the highest teaching, the very core and foundation of Shakyamuni’s Buddhism.  Therefore, without understanding it, you cannot reach the heart of his teaching.”  (HR1, p185)

President Ikeda later explains that “what Toda intended to do was to help people understand living Buddhism.  They were preoccupied with the idea that Buddhism had nothing to do with daily life; that the dead Buddhism which had prevailed up to that time was unnecessary and too difficult to understand.  Toda was determined to make people discard this preconception.”   (HR1, p226-227)

The Lotus Sutra is the source of our faith and practice as Nichiren Buddhists, and many of Nichiren’s letters explain, commentate on, and praise the Lotus Sutra.  Following in his mentor's footsteps, President Ikeda also held lectures on the Lotus Sutra, especially chapters 2 and 16, and he has also released “The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra” (Volumes I – VI) - a series of dialogues with three leaders from the Soka Gakkai Study Department on the complete sutra. 

India, Japan & The Lotus Sutra

In the Gosho “This is What I Heard”, Nichiren writes, “The heart of each sutra is contained in its title. For example, the land of India has seventy states, and its borders measure ninety thousand ri, yet the people, animals, plants, mountains, rivers, and earth within them are all included in the single word, India. … In like manner, the teachings of a sutra are encompassed in its title.” (WND-1, p859)

Nichiren later wrote to lay nun Myoho:  “Included within the two characters [日本] representing Japan is all that is within the country’s sixty-six provinces: the people and the animals, the rice paddies and the other fields, those of high and low status, the nobles and the commoners, the seven kinds of treasures and all the other precious gems.  Similarly, included within the title, or daimoku, of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the entire sutra without the omission of a single character.”   (The One Essential Phrase, WND-1, p922)

This is an interesting point and while the name of a country does indeed contain within it the geographical, political, social, economic and spiritual nature of the country, if we are lacking in knowledge of a particular country, the name will have no meaning to us or only elicit some generalized stereotypes, which may or may not be true.   And, in the same way, even though Nichiren reassures us in "This is What I Heard" that “Those who chant Myoho-renge-kyo [the title of the Lotus Sutra] even without understanding its meaning realize not only the heart of the Lotus Sutra, but also the “main cord,” or essential principle of the Buddha’s lifetime teachings.”  (WND-1, p860), there is always the possibility that if we are lacking in knowledge of the Lotus Sutra, we may practice, or teach others, our own interpretation of the Mystic Law.  

Within “The One Essential Phrase”, Nichiren also writes:  “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is only one phrase or verse, but it is no ordinary phrase, for it is the essence of the entire sutra. …  Everything has its essential point, and the heart of the Lotus Sutra is its title, or the daimoku, of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.  Truly, if you chant this in the morning and evening, you are correctly reading the entire Lotus Sutra.  Chanting daimoku twice is the same as reading the entire sutra twice, one hundred daimoku equal one hundred readings of the sutra, and one thousand daimoku, one thousand readings of the sutra. Thus, if you ceaselessly chant daimoku, you will be continually reading the Lotus Sutra.  The sixty volumes of the T’ien-t’ai doctrines give exactly the same interpretation.”  (WND-1, p922-923)

From the above Gosho extracts, some priests of the Nichiren Shoshu school claimed that it was no longer necessary to study the Lotus Sutra, or even possible to gain benefit from doing so, as it had been replaced by Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo.

But, in addition to these two Gosho, Nichiren draws on wisdom from the Lotus Sutra in many of his letters to his followers, so he obviously saw it as an essential text for our faith.  Even Josei Toda realized that an understanding of the Lotus Sutra would be essential to ensure the widespread propagation of Nichiren Buddhism and personally, I have found my own faith has deepened as I have studied and come to grips with the profound wisdom of the Lotus Sutra from a Nichiren Buddhist perspective.   

The ONE-derful Law of the Lotus

“The Lotus Sutra is like the seed, the Buddha like the sower and the people like the field.”(WND-1, p748)

In the Forward to Burton Watson’s “The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras”, Daisaku Ikeda writes: 

“From Early Times the Lotus Sutra has been known as “the king of sutras.” …

The Lotus Sutra clearly and definitively reveals the buddha nature that is an integral part of the lives of all people. And it makes clear that the Buddha desires and acts so that all people, by opening up this buddha nature inherent within themselves, may attain the state of buddhahood for themselves. The sutra further stresses that the continued observance of such action is the true mission of the bodhisattva, and never ceases to praise the observance of this practice.

The buddha nature, which is inherent in all living beings, is a universal and fundamental source or fountain of hope.  When it is fully brought to light, it allows all human beings to realize their highest level of personal development and to attain unparalleled happiness and good fortune.  And the Lotus Sutra is the text that most forcefully asserts this truth.”

THREE BUDDHAS

Within the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni talks about several other buddhas that have taught this sutra, and even though the words may be different, they all contain the one same universal truth.

Here are three of the Buddhas mentioned in the Sutra, the chapter they appear in, and how long their sutra was or lasted.

BUDDHA SUN MOON BRIGHT	Chapter 1	“At this time the buddha Sun Moon Bright arose from his samadhi and … preached the great vehicle sutra called The Lotus of the Wonderful Law… For sixty small kalpas* the Buddha remained in his seat without rising, and the listeners in the assembly at that time also remained seated there for sixty small kalpas*” (p48)
BUDDHA GREAT UNIVERSAL WISDOM EXCELLENCE	Chapter 7	The buddha preached this [Lotus of the Wonderful Law] sutra for a period of eight thousand kalpas*, never once stopping to rest” (p171) ”preaching this Lotus Sutra in verse as numerous as Ganges sand” (p178)
BUDDHA AWESOME SOUND KING	Chapter 20	When this monk was on the point of death, he heard up in the sky fully twenty thousand, ten thousand, a million verses of the Lotus Sutra that had previously been preached  by the Buddha Awesome Sound King” (p309)

* A kalpa is approximately 16 million years!! So we have a Lotus Sutra in Chapter 1 lasting for 960 million years and a Lotus Sutra in Chapter 7 of infinite verses over 128,000,000,000 years !!!!

28 – 24 – 5

Nichiren Daishonin writes about Bodhisattva Never Disparaging and his own propagation and persecution in a letter to his disciples and lay supporters called “On the Buddha’s Prophecy”:

“The twenty-four characters of Never Disparaging and the five characters of Nichiren are different in wording, but accord with the same principle. The end of the Buddha Awesome Sound King’s Middle Day and the beginning of this Latter Day of the Law are exactly the same in method of conversion.”  (WND-1, p400)

Just before he passed away, Shakyamuni taught his version of the Lotus Sutra, and, according to Nichiren’s letter, he says that during the Middle Day of the Law, Bodhisattva Never Disparaging propagated the twenty-four character teaching and that in the early part of the Latter Day of the Law, he was propagating the five character teaching.

SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA	THE 28 CHAPTER LOTUS SUTRA	Apart from the Opening and Closing Sutras, there are 28 chapters in Shakyamuni’s Lotus Sutra.
BODHISATTVA NEVER DISPARAGING	THE 24 CHARACTER LOTUS SUTRA “I have profound reverence for you, I would never dare treat you with disparagement or arrogance. Why? Because you are all practicing the bodhisattva way and are certain to attain Buddhahood.”	In Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation, Bodhisattva Never Disparaging’s phrase  consists of twenty-four characters.
NICHIREN DAISHONIN	THE 5 CHARACTER LOTUS SUTRA “MYO-HO-REN-GE-KYO”	“Included within the title, or daimoku, of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the entire sutra consisting of all eight volumes, twenty-eight chapters, and 69,384 characters, without the omission of a single character.“ (WND-1, p922) “Myoho-renge-kyo is neither the scriptural text nor its meaning, but the heart of the entire sutra.”   (WND-1, p861)

"The same Lotus Sutra is expressed in different ways depending on the Buddha who preaches it, the time it is preached, and the capacity of the people to understand it."  Josei Toda

We can see that throughout the different periods of time from the pre-Shakyamuni Lotus Sutras, mentioned in The Lotus Sutra, to more recent times, that the Lotus Sutra has got shorter and shorter, and has gone from millions of verses to five characters.  It’s important to recognize though that it’s not the length of the sutra, or how long it takes to preach it, but the fact that they are all the universal Lotus Sutra in which a buddha reveals the ONE SINGLE LAW that can cause someone who aspires to seek enlightenment to achieve absolute happiness and gain supreme perfect enlightenment in this lifetime.

“Though the teaching I am now propagating seems limited, it is extremely profound.  That is because it goes deeper than the teaching expounded by T’ien-t’ai, Dengyō, and others.  It is the three important matters [the object of devotion of the essential teaching, namely the Gohonzon, the daimoku of the essential teaching and the sanctuary of the essential teaching, or the place where we practice] in the “Life Span” chapter of the essential teaching.  Practicing only the seven characters of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo seems limited, but since they are the master of all the Buddhas of the three existences, the teacher of all the bodhisattvas in the ten directions, and the guide that enables all living beings to attain the Buddha way, it is profound.”  (“Earthly Desires Are Enlightenment”, WND-1, p317)

The Structure of the Lotus

(1)      Introduction (2)      Expedient Means (3)      Simile and Parable (4)      Belief and Understanding (5)      The Parable of the Medicinal Herbs (6)      Bestowal of Prophecy (7)      The Parable of the Phantom City (8)      Prophecy of Enlightenment for Five Hundred Disciples (9)      Prophecies Conferred on Learners and Adepts (10)   The Teacher of the Law (11)   The Emergence of the Treasure Tower (12)   Devadatta (13)   Encouraging Devotion (14)   Peaceful Practices		T       . H      T E      E O     A R      C E      H T       I I       N C      G A      S L       .
(15)   Emerging from the Earth (16)   The Life Span of the Thus Come One (17)   Distinctions in Benefits (18)   The Benefits of Responding with Joy (19)   Benefits of the Teacher of the Law (20)   The Bodhisattva Never Disparaging (21)   Supernatural Powers of the Thus Come One (22)   Entrustment (23)   Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King (24)   The Bodhisattva Wonderful Sound (25)   The Universal Gateway of the Bodhisattva Perceiver of the World's Sounds (26)   Dharani (27)   Former Affairs of King Wonderful Adornment (28)   Encouragements of the Bodhisattva Universal Worthy		E S S E N T I A L	T E A C H I N G S
1   Introduction    2 – 17   Revelation 17 – 28   Transmission	PARTS IN RED take place on EAGLE PEAK       PARTS IN BLUE are the CEREMONY IN THE AIR [CHAPTERS IN YELLOW] feature BODHISATTVAS OF THE EARTH