The key to survival for our country, to reaching enlightenment, to winning out a successful life; is to be able to believe. The key to being able to believe when the evidence is not obvious is to be able to cultivate wisdom. Belief and understanding are keys to being able to navigate the murky paths we often have to tread. But what do we do when people are untrustworthy, tricky, treacherous, or base? Do we give up? No.
The story of Bodhisattva Never Despise illistrates this. It is in the Lotus Sutra. It depicts a fellow who never gave up on his people or his country.
http://lotus.nichirenshu.org/lotus/sutra/english/watson/lsw_chap20.htm
So what does this have to do with trust? Well the point is that, regardless of how nasty a person is, somewhere inside is going to achieve Buddhahood. If Government is corrupt, it is because we let it be corrupted, especially in a democracy, but monarchy and oligarchy both only exist when people let them exist. If we all let our Buddhahood shine, the words of the lotus Sutra will come to us, and we can transform this land into a Buddha land. There is no inevitability to Mappo. As long as people uphold a spirit of never disparage.
Chris
The Buddha starts:
"At that time the Buddha said to the bodhisattva and mahasattva Gainer of Great Authority: 'You should understand this. When monks, nuns, laymen or laywomen uphold the Lotus Sutra, if anyone should speak ill of them, curse or slander them, he will suffer severe recompense for his crime, as I have explained earlier. And I have also explained earlier the benefits gained by those who uphold the sutra, namely, purification of their eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind."
Purifying eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind requires cultivation. How do we do this? With years of meditation? No. The Lotus Doesn't tell you "do this or do that" the voice instead tells a story:
"Gainer of Great Authority, long ago, an immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable number of asamkhya kalpas in the past, there was a Buddha named Awesome Sound King Thus Come One, worthy of offerings, of right and universal knowledge, perfect clarity and conduct, well gone, understanding the world, unexcelled trainer of people, teacher of heavenly and human beings, Buddha, World-Honored One. His kalpa was called Exempt from Decay and his land was called Great Achievement."
So this story creates a scenario where a Buddha in a distant universe reached enlightenment, and brought about an entire Kalpa (long time) of peace and prosperity. He did this by laying out concepts of enlightenment:
"This Buddha Awesome Sound King during the age when he lived preached the Law for heavenly and human beings and asuras. For those who were seeking to become voice-hearers he responded by preaching the Law of the four noble truths so that they could transcend birth, old age, sickness and death and eventually attain nirvana. For those seeking to become pratyekabuddhas he responded by preaching the Law of the twelve-linked chain of causation. For the bodhisattvas, as a means to lead them to anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, he responded by preaching the Law of the six paramitas so they could eventually gain the Buddha wisdom."
So he teaches according to each persons capacity, so that people could discover for themselves what he'd become enlightened to. But of course the content of enlightenment is the same whatever means is used to bring it out.
"Gainer of Great Authority, this Buddha Awesome Sound King had a life span of kalpas equal to four-hundred thousand million nayutas of Ganges sands. His correct Law endured in the world for as many kalpas as there are dust particles in one Jambudvipa. His counterfeit Law endured in the world for as many kalpas as there are dust particles in the four continents. After this Buddha had finished bringing great benefits to living beings, he passed into extinction."
So, this story explicitly segues on the concept of Correct Law, and Counterfeit law. Correct law is what it says it is; insights and practices founded on reality, wisdom and a clear vision of where things can go. Counterfeit law looks like correct law, but the vision is garbled, the wisdom is imperfect, and the resulting reality dysfunctional.
But then the Buddha offers something new:
"After his Correct Law and Counterfeit Law had come to an end, another Buddha appeared in the same land. He too was named Awesome Sound King Thus Come One, worthy of offerings, of right and universal knowledge, perfect clarity and conduct, well gone, understanding the world, unexcelled worthy, trainer of people, teacher of heavenly and human beings, Buddha, World-Honored One. This process continue until twenty-thousand million Buddhas had appeared one after another, all bearing the same name."
In most narratives about the three ages, the degredation is portrayed as inevitable. But in this story that degredation is shown as the result of people playing doctor with dharma. The first folks hear it clearly, their disciples get it garbled, and each generation gets it even more confused and distorted, until finally a correct law is replaced with its counterfeit.
In most conceptions of "end times", the "end times" are seen as either the end of the material world, or a segue to a magical rebirth and the punishment of the wicked. The world is so utterly destroyed that some magical agency must intervene and create a new one. This is therefore a reinterpretation of the concept of the "end times." There is nothing fixed in stone that there will be only "one Buddha" in a Universe.
On the contrary the Buddha can return over and over again. If but people realize the scope, purpose and methodology of the Buddha path and the path of Bodhisattva. The wheel can be restarted as many times as necessary as long as the counterfeit can be replaced with the correct. I love Burton Watson's translation as "correct" and "counterfeit" the issue isn't that people's capacities decline. On the contrary the issue is that the correct gets replaced with the counterfeit, not only in the field of religion but in all fields of human conception. The enemy of Buddhism is never people as people, it is people operating under bad conceptions.
The same land can have one Buddha after another. They might be given the same name or in some cases renamed, but the law they teach is Buddhism so long as the subject is reaching enlightenment, the goal is enlightenment, and people are able to reach enlightenment through its practice. What counts is not the names and terms, but the wisdom, truth and "skillfulness" of the teachings.
It is the shift in conception that makes the difference. But how does one re-establish a direct connection with the law after years of authority, people playing doctor with doctrines and practice, and resulting confusion and dysfunction.
The practice necessary to cultivate a direct connection with Buddhism is illustrated by bringing in Bodhisattva Never despise.
"After the original Awesome sound King Thus Come One had passed into extinction, and after his Correct Law had also passed away, in the period of his Counterfeit Law, monks of overbearing arrogance exercised great authority and power."
Now this is the period of the Counterfeit Law. Some People think they are practicing Buddhism but don't reach enlightenment because their practice is selfish, self interested, and their conception of Buddhism is wrong. Others sincerely try to practice but are deluded by teachers who are selfish, confused, and/or attached to wrong concepts. The result is whole hordes of people teaching and practicing "counterfeit law". Because the concepts are dysfunctional, practices based on them don't yield good fruit. Because of that people are frustrated and angry when they should be too busy with practice, study and sharing to bother with such emotions. They think they are teaching and practicing Buddhism and their pride in their attached views causes them to think that even though they are practicing a counterfeit law it is a correct one.
However, even though that is true, the "enemy" is not these people. It is their conception of Buddhahood that is holding them back.
"At this time there was a bodhisattva monk named Never Disparaging. Now, Gainer of Great Authority, for what reason was he named Never Disparaging? This monk, whatever persons he happened to meet, whether monks, nuns, Laymen or laywomen, would bow in obeisance to all of them and speak words of praise, saying, 'I have profound reverence for you, I would never dare treat you with disparaging and arrogance. Why? Because you are all practicing the bodhisattva way and are certain to attain Buddhahood.'"
The point of Bodhisattva Never Despise is that each person has the power, innate ability, and potential to reach enlightenment. These people are having trouble reaching that final state, not just because they have the wrong conception of Buddhahood but because instead of admitting that it takes life time effort, they pretend they are already there. Instead of working with others to reach enlightenment they prefer to pose as experts, as teachers. This leads to two problems. One is that they don't get feedback about their own reality. The other is that the very effort to pose as an expert leads to withholding information, and in turn not getting the feedback information one needs in order to improve oneself. Bodhisattva Never despise didn't need to criticize these people.
"This monk did not devote his time to reading or reciting the scriptures, but simply want about bowing to people."
If the available scriptures are counterfeit, why attach to them? This is not Patriarchal Zen, where the monks purposely ignored sutras, but it is simply someone seeking enlightenment directly. If there are genuine sutras to attach to, then perhaps they are worth effort. But if people possess Buddhahood in them, then if we bow to them, the Buddha will eventually bow back to us. We can learn from everyone; by watching what they say and do, and by learning from their contusions as they do wrong things, say wrong things, and demonstrate that their concepts are faulty in the process. So, when the scriptures available are faulty, the best way to learn Buddhism is to bow to everyone and learn from everyone. One need not be naive or gullible to do this.
"And if he happened to see any of the four kinds of believers far off in the distance, he would purposely go to where they were, bow to them and speak words of praise, saying, 'I would never dare disparage you, because you are all certain to attain Buddhahood!'"
Talking to people one learns what works and what doesn't work. This is the approach that the Dalai Llama is advocating. He's recommending a great critique of what works and doesn't work in all the existent religions. In a sense he's following the example of Bodhisattva Never despise. So did Nichiren. Nichiren had one sutra he trusted and studied and devoted himself to it, but mostly he spent his time talking to people and visiting monasteries and Monks. Later he criticized their teachings as counterfeit law.
"Among the four kinds of believers there were the those who gave way to anger, their minds lacking in purity, and they spoke ill of him and cursed him, saying, 'This ignorant monk - were does he come from, presuming to declare that he does not disparage us and bestowing on us a prediction that we will attain Buddhahood? We have no use for such vain and irresponsible predictions!'"
But Bodhisattva Never despise got a similar result without needing to criticize, to attack, to lamblast them, their own lack of confidence in what they were doing was already doing that. All he had to do was to express genuine mettawaves (the real things) and talk to people. When people are twisted, friendly advice is received as slander, and people respond to lies with efforts to shut a person up or slander them personally.
And I can see him now. "I am indeed ignorant, but thanks to meeting you I'm sure that both of us will reach enlightenment. Surely, since you know so much about Buddhism you will reach enlightenment!"
"Many years passed in this way, during which this monk was constantly subjected to curses and abuse. He did not give way to anger, however, but each time spoke the same words, 'You are certain to attain Buddhahood.' When he spoke in this manner, some among the group would take sticks of wood or tiles and stones and beat and pelt him. But even as he ran away and took up his stance at a distance, he continued to call out in a loud voice, ' I would never dare disparage you, for you are all certain to attain Buddhahood!' And because he always spoke these words, the overbearing arrogant monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen gave him the name Never Disparaging."
By not giving way to anger, we cultivate courage, forebearance, wisdom and develop grace. We learn to tell fact from fiction, truthsayers from liars, and we can learn from our freinds and even more importantly from our enemies.
"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 been previously preached by the Buddha Awesome Sound King, and he was able to accept and uphold them all. Immediately he gained the kind of purity of vision and purity of the faculties of the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind that have been described above. Having gained this purity of the six faculties, his life span was increased by two hundred ten million nayutas of years, and he went about widely preaching the Lotus Sutra for people."
So in the story the mere act of not despising people, never giving up on learning and sharing correct concepts, and thus challenging the arrogance and forebearance of others enables a return of "correct" law.
On an interpetative level, looking at counterfeit teachings enables us to distinguish what is true and what is false. And if we are humble enough to admit that nobody or tradition has the answers 100% right, then we can open our minds to hear the "million verses" of the actual lotus sutra (which is bigger than the 26 volumes) in our heart.
And when we don't give up on people. With some folks it is infectuous. People start talking, they start looking within, they start to see that Buddhahood was for everyone. Incorrect concepts can't stand the light of day. Esotericism proves to be either something worth sharing, or garbage. Authorities prove to have clay feet. We are in it together. The Buddha was there all along. By not giving up, we make the cause to eventually hear all the verses.
Similarly in the world around us, the tyranny, injustice and official violence of authorities as much illustrates the importance of liberty, justice and equality, as does anything written on a piece of paper, or mouthed at a podium. Like Bodhisattva Never Despise we can say to people "you too can vote." "This country belongs to you." Even as folks try to take it away from us. When it turns out that our military goes to the darkside, we can see that we were right when we decried torture and claimed universal and general rights. Their denial proves that they are genuine needs. The misery caused by oppression proves that they are necessary to the tranquility and well being of our Country, which is after all the World.
Chris
Posted by cholte at May 14, 2009 10:37 PM