He further states that Shakyamuni appeared in the world and expounded his teachings to show people the most meaningful and fulfilling way to conduct themselves as human beings. He suggests that Bodhisattva Never Disparaging is the example of such conduct that practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism should strive to follow. So who was Never Disparaging and how did he conduct himself? He was a bodhisattva who lived in the remote past, at a time when arrogant monks held great authority and power.
Despite being mocked and attacked, Never Disparaging persevered in his practice of respecting all people. As a result, he attained Buddhahood.
And seeing what he had achieved, many who had once slandered him became his followers and took faith in the sutra. Striving with the same conviction as Never Disparaging, Nichiren persevered amid intense persecution to awaken all people to their inherent Buddha nature and help them establish absolute happiness through the practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. We, too, can learn important lessons from Never Disparaging and Nichiren: belief in the dignity and unlimited potential of all people; living based on the vow to lead all people to happiness; and the spirit to persevere in faith.
Naturally, it may be easy to be respectful to some people, but it is very challenging to be respectful to every person in our environment. As Buddhists, however, it is important to strengthen our faith and conviction that all people inherently possess Buddhahood and act accordingly. No matter how much we talk about the correct teaching and doctrines of Nichiren Buddhism, if we slander and malign one another, in our hearts we are betraying the spirit of the Daishonin.
Please do not forget this point. Humans are emotional beings. And there will invariably be times when we have to engage in activities with someone we may not like or get along with. At such times, you should chant earnestly to be able to unite, get along with and respect that person.
In the process, you will be able to transform your own life condition. And the words that issue from his mouth are the sounds of the Wonderful Law. Even when the wardens of hell take up their clubs and berate offenders, [the offenders submit to the berating and so] their true entity is a kind of bow of obeisance.
They would not dare to respond out of mere disparagement. If the offenders suppose that the wardens are punishing them unjustly, then in turn they are unjustly berating the bodhisattva Never Disparaging. This is what is meant by the practice of shakubuku. There are fourteen such positions from which the bow of obeisance is conducted. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: The first position is that represented by the bow of obeisance carried out in the treasure tower. This is because the stupa or tower is composed of the five elements.
The five elements are earth, water, fire, wind, and space. The stupa made of these is known as the treasure tower. Vast as the Dharma-realm is, it is composed of nothing more than these five elements.
Therefore it has been taught that the bow of obeisance is carried out within the treasure tower. Treat this as secret, treat this as secret. Point Eighteen, concerning the bow of obeisance based on the passage on opening, showing, awakening, and causing to enter chapter two, Expedient Means.
He interprets this understanding to mean the understanding that all living beings possess innate Buddhahood. To open up the Buddha nature that is innate in them, the Buddhas appear in the world. Treat it as secret. Hence it indicates a place where the bow of obeisance is carried out. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: Living beings as a whole fail to free themselves from the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death, but continue to wander deludedly in impermanence, change, and extinction.
Therefore they fail to realize that they are capable of achieving enlightenment in a future existence. But when they come to realize this fact, then they will understand the doctrine that earthly desires are enlightenment and the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. And when they do so, the person who has taught them has performed a bow of obeisance to them.
When the left and right hands of the bower are held apart, this symbolizes the fact that earthly desires [and enlightenment], the sufferings of birth and death [and nirvana], and the four kinds of believers of overbearing arrogance and the bodhisattva Never Disparaging are all quite separate entities. But when the two hands are brought together in a bow of obeisance, this symbolizes the fact that earthly desires are enlightenment, and that the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. Then a bow of obeisance is performed to the fact that the Buddha nature inherent in the four kinds of believers of overbearing arrogance and the Buddha nature inherent in the bodhisattva Never Disparaging are both manifestations of the single Wonderful Law.
Point Twenty-two, concerning the bow of obeisance related to the Dharma nature. And then he bows to the four kinds of believers who in their ignorance are overbearingly arrogant.
In doing so, he is performing a bow of obeisance to the Buddha nature dormant and undeveloped in living beings. Point Twenty-three, concerning the bow of obeisance related to ignorance. But when one recognizes this and performs a bow of obeisance, then one is bowing in obeisance to Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the principle in which good and bad are not two different things, in which correct and incorrect are one and the same.
Point Twenty-four, concerning the bow of obeisance related to the two characters that make up renge, or lotus blossom. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: Renge stands for the two factors of cause and effect. Where there is a bad cause, it will produce a bad effect; where there is a good cause, it will produce a good effect.
The persons addressed by the bodhisattva Never Disparaging in their inner lives possess good causes that represent the three inherent potentials of the Buddha nature.
Point Twenty-five, concerning the bow of obeisance related to the Land of Actual Reward. Before the Lotus Sutra clarified that Shakyamuni had attained buddhahood in the remote past, it was taught that before becoming a buddha in India he had purged the nine worlds and their delusions from his life.
Therefore, he was able to appear as a bodhisattva taking various forms as he carried out Buddhist practice in subsequent lifetimes in the past. But even while appearing and acting as a bodhisattva, buddhahood always existed within his life. In this way he embodied the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds.
Shakyamuni, the buddha who attained enlightenment in the remote past, is in fact free from the endless cycle of birth and death, but in order to cause people to seek his teachings, he passes away. Further, the sutra explains that this eternal buddha always dwells in the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light, which is none other than this saha world where ordinary people of the nine worlds live.
This is known as the principle that the saha world is the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. He appears whenever and wherever there are people who seek the Buddha single-mindedly and strive in Buddhist practice without begrudging their lives. Because the sutra depicts them as emerging in vast numbers from beneath the ground, they are known as the Bodhisattvas of the Earth and are considered to have been dwelling in the realm of fundamental truth.
The Bodhisattvas of the Earth are countless in number, each leading an entourage of followers as numerous as the sands of sixty thousand Ganges, the greatest and most venerated river in India. These bodhisattvas had been constantly taught and instructed by Shakyamuni since the remote past and had already come to uphold the fundamental teaching for attaining buddhahood. Possessing within them the same enlightened life state as Shakyamuni, they are charged with the mission to widely spread the Mystic Law in the evil age known as the Latter Day of the Law.
In response to their vow, Shakyamuni entrusts them with propagating his teaching in the age after his passing, charging them with transmitting the great Law into the future. In view of these sutra passages, two major questions still remain. Nichiren Daishonin makes it clear that the time when the Bodhisattvas of the Earth will appear is in the Latter Day of the Law, and the great Law they will spread is the Mystic Law, or Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
The Daishonin himself fulfilled the instructions contained in this entrustment of the teachings by Shakyamuni described in the Lotus Sutra. That is, it is the Daishonin who appeared at the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, taught Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to all people, and spread it with selfless dedication.
In this sense, the Daishonin is himself a Bodhisattva of the Earth, whose role accords in particular with that of their leader, Bodhisattva Superior Practices.
If you are of the same mind as Nichiren, you must be a Bodhisattva of the Earth. And if you are a Bodhisattva of the Earth, there is not the slightest doubt that you have been a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha from the remote past. Never Disparaging is one of the figures appearing in the Lotus Sutra who depicts Shakyamuni as he carried out Buddhist practices in a former lifetime. He consistently venerates everyone he encounters, no matter who they are, including even those who attack or persecute him, bowing in respect and reciting to each a phrase known as the twenty-four-character Lotus Sutra.
While preaching this twenty-four-character Lotus Sutra, Never Disparaging is attacked by arrogant people who throw rocks and hit him with sticks, but he perseveres in his practice of consistently praising them and treating them with respect. The sutra explains that it was through the benefit deriving from these actions that Never Disparaging became a buddha.
The Latter Day of the Law is described as an age of contention or conflict. And the only way to resolve conflict and create a society of humanity and peace is for each person to believe in the buddha nature of both themselves and others, and to consistently act in a manner that shows respect for people.
Buddhism teaches the loftiest form of human behavior—actions that respect others—and encourages all people to act in this manner. The purpose of the appearance in this world of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, lies in his behavior as a human being.
In the Latter Day of Law, it is inevitable that those who spread the Lotus Sutra will encounter great difficulties. Nichiren Daishonin propagated the Lotus Sutra and encountered major persecutions for doing so, just as the sutra predicted. Nichiren Daishonin referred to himself as the votary of the Lotus Sutra—the genuine practitioner of the sutra who carried out its teachings exactly as instructed while facing and overcoming great persecutions in order to propagate the Mystic Law.
Through these examples, Shakyamuni emphasizes the great difficulty of accepting and spreading the Lotus Sutra in the time after his passing and calls on bodhisattvas to make a vow to propagate the sutra in the Latter Day of the Law. The six difficult acts are 1 to propagate the Lotus Sutra widely, 2 to copy it or cause someone else to copy it, 3 to recite it even for a short while, 4 to teach it even to one person, 5 to hear of and accept it and inquire about its meaning, and 6 to maintain faith in it.
The reason that propagating the Lotus Sutra is so difficult is that doing so invites very real hardships in the form of opposition and persecution. Collectively, they are called the three powerful enemies. They are defined as arrogant laypeople, arrogant priests, and arrogant false sages. The first of the three powerful enemies, arrogant laypeople, refers to people who, ignorant of the Buddhist teachings, attack the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra.
Because the Daishonin endeavored to spread the Lotus Sutra, such people slandered him and attacked him with swords and staves, just as the sutra predicted. The third powerful enemy, arrogant false sages, refers to high-ranking Buddhist priests who pass themselves off as sages or saints and use their status and influence to persecute the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra.
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