Relationship between provisional and true

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nichiren-123
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Relationship between provisional and true

Post by nichiren-123 »

The provisional teachings, which include Hinayana and provisional Mahayana, were set forth according to the people’s capacity, as a means to lead them to the true teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

What I'm interested in is how the provisional teaching relates to the true teaching. The lotus sutra teaches the one vehicle but from what I've read I can't see how all the 'lesser' (i.e. partial/expedient) teachings fit into the one vehicle?

The way I see it, all the 84000 teachings of the buddha are different facets of the mystic law, Myoho Renge Kyo. What I'm making this thread for is to help me (and others hopefully) to see how this jigsaw fits together and hopefully recover expedient means from the dustbin, while putting them in their proper place.

Hope you guys can help me.

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Queequeg
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by Queequeg »

nichiren-123 wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:10 pm What I'm interested in is how the provisional teaching relates to the true teaching. The lotus sutra teaches the one vehicle but from what I've read I can't see how all the 'lesser' (i.e. partial/expedient) teachings fit into the one vehicle?
Here's an example:

When my young son resists brushing his teeth, I show him where I'm missing a molar, and explain that when I was his age, I didn't brush my teeth and this is what happened. He asks how that happened, and I explain that I didn't clean the food off my teeth and as the food rotted (we have a compost heap so he has an idea about how food rots), it rotted my teeth with it.

If I had pulled up a dentistry text book and just read from it to explain the chemical processes by which cavities formed and rot teeth, I would have lost his attention. Through this simple example and explanation, he has an idea, on terms he can understand, about why it is important to brush our teeth.

(The reality is, I had no adult molar under that molar, and when it fell out, that was that; but the story I made up gets him to do what is good for him in a general sense, and is basically true, though not true in this particular)

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha explains that he similarly tells stories, that are fictions in one sense, but true in a broader sense, in that they induce people to do what is good for them and which bring them closer to full awakening. For instance, the parables of the burning house and the dead doctor. He explains that his teachings conform to the capacities of his listeners, getting them to do what is good for them at the time, but that the real import can only be understood from the ultimate vantage of the Buddha.

The Essential Teaching is reality as well as the Buddha's complete knowledge of reality. The teachings he delivers are likewise in complete conformity with reality and are perfectly expressed to lead us toward awakening to reality. As deluded beings, we are limited in understanding. Not sharing in the Buddha's wisdom, our perspective of the teaching is limited.

We are constantly exposed to reality. We are reality. We have immediate access and should understand it as a Buddha does... but something is in the way: our ignorance. The Buddha tells us stories that induce us to untangle our ignorance. As we proceed on the path, the stories he tells us are different, and may even contradict previous stories he told us. All of these stories fundamentally express the Buddha's wisdom in response to the capacities of beings and the immediate needs they have to untangle the knots they face at that moment. The endeavor to untangle the knots is an incredibly massive process, and being caught in the knots, we are not able to see the complete picture, let alone what its like to see free of the knots. The Buddha, however, sees it all clearly, and carefully guides us to untangling the knots.

The Essential Teaching is that big picture of the Buddha's wisdom. The Provisional teachings are the myriad instructions for untangling the myriad knots.

What Nichiren warned was to not mistake the particular instructions for untangling the knots for the Buddha's complete wisdom, and urged us to always keep in mind that the Buddha's complete wisdom is the real context and the real goal.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
nichiren-123
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by nichiren-123 »

Queequeg wrote: Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:46 pm
nichiren-123 wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:10 pm What I'm interested in is how the provisional teaching relates to the true teaching. The lotus sutra teaches the one vehicle but from what I've read I can't see how all the 'lesser' (i.e. partial/expedient) teachings fit into the one vehicle?
Here's an example:

When my young son resists brushing his teeth, I show him where I'm missing a molar, and explain that when I was his age, I didn't brush my teeth and this is what happened. He asks how that happened, and I explain that I didn't clean the food off my teeth and as the food rotted (we have a compost heap so he has an idea about how food rots), it rotted my teeth with it.

If I had pulled up a dentistry text book and just read from it to explain the chemical processes by which cavities formed and rot teeth, I would have lost his attention. Through this simple example and explanation, he has an idea, on terms he can understand, about why it is important to brush our teeth.

(The reality is, I had no adult molar under that molar, and when it fell out, that was that; but the story I made up gets him to do what is good for him in a general sense, and is basically true, though not true in this particular)

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha explains that he similarly tells stories, that are fictions in one sense, but true in a broader sense, in that they induce people to do what is good for them and which bring them closer to full awakening. For instance, the parables of the burning house and the dead doctor. He explains that his teachings conform to the capacities of his listeners, getting them to do what is good for them at the time, but that the real import can only be understood from the ultimate vantage of the Buddha.

The Essential Teaching is reality as well as the Buddha's complete knowledge of reality. The teachings he delivers are likewise in complete conformity with reality and are perfectly expressed to lead us toward awakening to reality. As deluded beings, we are limited in understanding. Not sharing in the Buddha's wisdom, our perspective of the teaching is limited.

We are constantly exposed to reality. We are reality. We have immediate access and should understand it as a Buddha does... but something is in the way: our ignorance. The Buddha tells us stories that induce us to untangle our ignorance. As we proceed on the path, the stories he tells us are different, and may even contradict previous stories he told us. All of these stories fundamentally express the Buddha's wisdom in response to the capacities of beings and the immediate needs they have to untangle the knots they face at that moment. The endeavor to untangle the knots is an incredibly massive process, and being caught in the knots, we are not able to see the complete picture, let alone what its like to see free of the knots. The Buddha, however, sees it all clearly, and carefully guides us to untangling the knots.

The Essential Teaching is that big picture of the Buddha's wisdom. The Provisional teachings are the myriad instructions for untangling the myriad knots.

What Nichiren warned was to not mistake the particular instructions for untangling the knots for the Buddha's complete wisdom, and urged us to always keep in mind that the Buddha's complete wisdom is the real context and the real goal.
Isn't the whole of Buddhism encapsulated in the mystic law of Myoho Renge Kyo?
Are the provisional teachings not part of the one vehicle?
If so, then surely you can study the provisional to learn more about the true?


"No expedient or provisional teaching lead directly to enlightenment"
So surely you can use the provisional teachings as an indirect way to strengthen faith in Myoho Renge Kyo? As long as I recognise that (in the end), Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is the only way to achieve enlightenment?

What I'm really saying is that I feel like discarding expedient means completely is like throwing out the baby with the bath water?
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by markatex »

Nichiren explicitly says that understanding the earlier teachings is necessary in order to comprehend the Lotus Sutra.
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by Queequeg »

nichiren-123 wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 3:15 pm
Isn't the whole of Buddhism encapsulated in the mystic law of Myoho Renge Kyo?
Are the provisional teachings not part of the one vehicle?
If so, then surely you can study the provisional to learn more about the true?


"No expedient or provisional teaching lead directly to enlightenment"
So surely you can use the provisional teachings as an indirect way to strengthen faith in Myoho Renge Kyo? As long as I recognise that (in the end), Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is the only way to achieve enlightenment?

What I'm really saying is that I feel like discarding expedient means completely is like throwing out the baby with the bath water?
Are these rhetorical questions?
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
nichiren-123
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by nichiren-123 »

Queequeg wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 8:08 pm
nichiren-123 wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 3:15 pm
Isn't the whole of Buddhism encapsulated in the mystic law of Myoho Renge Kyo?
Are the provisional teachings not part of the one vehicle?
If so, then surely you can study the provisional to learn more about the true?


"No expedient or provisional teaching lead directly to enlightenment"
So surely you can use the provisional teachings as an indirect way to strengthen faith in Myoho Renge Kyo? As long as I recognise that (in the end), Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is the only way to achieve enlightenment?

What I'm really saying is that I feel like discarding expedient means completely is like throwing out the baby with the bath water?
Are these rhetorical questions?
I guess they are. But I'm interested to hear YOUR view's on these questions.

So I guess they are both rhetorical and serious...

I'm genuinely interested to know if what I've written (i.e. what I currently believe) is true or not.
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by Queequeg »

nichiren-123 wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 8:26 pm
Queequeg wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 8:08 pm Are these rhetorical questions?
I guess they are. But I'm interested to hear YOUR view's on these questions.

So I guess they are both rhetorical and serious...

I'm genuinely interested to know if what I've written (i.e. what I currently believe) is true or not.
More or less, along with Mark, I agree, one should study all the teachings.
nichiren-123 wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 3:15 pm
Isn't the whole of Buddhism encapsulated in the mystic law of Myoho Renge Kyo?
Are the provisional teachings not part of the one vehicle?
If so, then surely you can study the provisional to learn more about the true?


"No expedient or provisional teaching lead directly to enlightenment"
So surely you can use the provisional teachings as an indirect way to strengthen faith in Myoho Renge Kyo? As long as I recognise that (in the end), Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is the only way to achieve enlightenment?

What I'm really saying is that I feel like discarding expedient means completely is like throwing out the baby with the bath water?
As Mark pointed out, Nichiren did not teach that one should "discard" anything. The Trace Teachings, however, need to be understood through the view of the Original Teaching.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by Queequeg »

All the teachings that Shakyamuni Buddha expounded during his lifetime—all the eight volumes and twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra, the first four flavors of teachings that preceded the sutra, and the Nirvana Sutra that came after the Lotus—make an unbroken series of teachings like one perfect sutra.
-Nichiren, Kaimoku-sho
Now we should go on to survey the entire range of the Thus Come One Shakyamuni’s teachings, the exoteric and esoteric as well as Hinayana and Mahayana, and specifically the sutras on which each school, such as the Flower Garland and the True Word, depends for its doctrine. For example, the Flower Garland Sutra describes Vairochana Buddha seated on the lotus pedestal extending in the ten directions; the Great Collection Sutra, a cloud of Buddhas who had gathered together; the Wisdom Sutra, the emergence of one thousand Buddhas teaching the nonduality of pure and impure; and the Mahāvairochana and Diamond Crown sutras, the more than twelve hundred honored ones. These sutras all explain the past practices of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Buddhahood he consequently attained in this life, but they do not reveal the original cause for his enlightenment in the remote past.
-Nichiren, Kaimoku-sho

What is that original cause? The Great Man called it Myohorengekyo.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by dude »

...honestly discarding the provisional teachings, the Thus Come One must now reveal the truth.

- Lotus Sutra, chapter two

I'm gonna review the preceding posts several times before I comment further.
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by Sherab »

dude wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:08 pm ...honestly discarding the provisional teachings, the Thus Come One must now reveal the truth.

- Lotus Sutra, chapter two

I'm gonna review the preceding posts several times before I comment further.
My 2 cents: Discarding of the provisional teachings should only be done when one has progressed far along the path and is at some point near the end of the path.

If you look at vajrayana teachings, there is a progressive letting go of the conduct and attitudes that one adopt when one started out on the path and progressing in the middle stages. But this letting go of the conduct and attitudes does not mean the whole scale abandoning of what was taught in the lower paths, but rather a more subtle conduct and attitude arising from a greater and more refined understanding and insight as to the intention of the lower teachings.

In brief, one should only "discard" the provisional teachings only when the time is right.
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

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dude wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:08 pm ...honestly discarding the provisional teachings, the Thus Come One must now reveal the truth.

- Lotus Sutra, chapter two
The meaning of that line cannot be divorced from the message of the Upaya Chapter.

In the preceding chapter, the Buddha displays the marvel of being seated in the immeasurable meanings samadhi and emitting a beam of light that illuminates the eastern direction, causing the assembly to see all the beings from the hells to the heavens, including Buddhas and all who tread the Buddha path. Maitreya is dumbfounded by this display and asks Manjusri what the significance is. Manjusri explains he saw this marvel previously right before he saw a previous Buddha preach the Lotus Sutra. Manjusri reminds Maitreya that he was there also as Manjusri's lazy disciple.

In the Upaya chapter, Shakyamuni emerges from the samadhi and addressing Sariputra praises his own wisdom, explaining, "You can not understand. Only Buddhas can understand it." This prompts Sariputra to ask Shakyamuni to expound this teaching, promising he will believe the teaching. The Buddha refuses at first, but then agrees. He then explains that up until that day, from the time he attained enlightenment at Gaya, he had taught according to the capacities of the people he was addressing. He explains that though he appears to teach three vehicles, he really only teaches one vehicle.

Though only that line about discarding the provisional is often quoted by Nichiren, its meaning can only be understood in its context.

O Śāriputra!
You should know that through the buddha-eye
I see beings wandering in the six states of existence
Who are poor, deprived of merit and wisdom,
Who are entering into the bitter path of birth and death,
And are suffering repeatedly and without end.
They are deeply attached to the desires of the five senses,
Just as yaks are attached to their tails.
Obstructed by greed, they are blind and cannot see.
They do not seek the buddha who has great power,
Nor the Dharma that cuts off suffering.
Deeply immersed in false views,
They try to eliminate suffering through suffering.
I feel great compassion
For such sentient beings.
Sitting on the terrace of enlightenment for the first time,
Looking at the bodhi tree
And walking about,
During those twenty-one days
I was thinking thus:
The wisdom I have attained
Is subtle and supreme.
But the faculties of sentient beings are dull.
They are attached to pleasures and blinded by delusion.
How can I save such beings?
Then Brahma and his devaputras, Śakra,
The world-protectors of the four quarters,
Maheśvara and the other devas,
Together with a retinue of hundreds
Of thousands of myriads of attendants,
Paid their respects with palms pressed together
And begged me to turn the wheel of the Dharma.
Then I thought:
If I only praise the buddha vehicles,
Those beings who are submerged in suffering
Will not believe this Dharma.
Because they reject and do not believe the Dharma,
They will fall into the three troubled states of being.
I would rather not teach the Dharma
And instead immediately enter nirvana.
Then I thought of the power of skillful means (upaya)
Practiced by past buddhas.
This path that I have attained
Should now also be taught as the three vehicles.
When I thought this,
The buddhas of the ten directions appeared
And with beautiful voices praised me saying:
O Śākyamuni! Splendid!
O Supreme Leader,
You have attained the highest Dharma,
And yet still use the power of skillful means,
Following all the other buddhas.
We too have attained the best and utmost Dharma
And with discretion have explained the three vehicles
For the sake of sentient beings.
Those with little wisdom
Seek inferior teachings
And do not believe that they will become buddhas.
That is why we use skillful means
And with discretion teach of various results.
Although we teach the three vehicles
It is just for the instruction of the bodhisattvas!
O Śāriputra!
You should know
That when I heard this profound
And beautiful roar of the Noble Lions,
I chanted with joy, “Homage to the buddhas!” (Namo Buddhaya!)
And I thought:
Since I have been born in this defiled world
I will follow the other buddhas
And expound what they have expounded.
After contemplating this
I set out for Vārāṇasī.
All dharmas have the tranquil character
Of the Dharma:
This could not be expressed in words,
So I taught the five monks
Through the power of skillful means.
This I named: “Turning the Wheel of the Dharma,”
And immediately the word nirvana appeared in it
And the different designations for Arhat (Buddha),
Dharma, and Sangha.
From a great many kalpas ago
I have always taught like this:
I have praised and illuminated
The teaching of nirvana,
Saying that it ends the sufferings
Of birth and death.
O Śāriputra!
You should know that I see
Immeasurable thousands of myriads of koṭis
Of the Buddha’s heirs,
Who, having set out for the buddha path,
And heard the Dharma explained with skillful means,
Have respectfully come before the Buddha.
Then I thought:
The reason why the Tathāgatas appear is
To explain the wisdom of the buddhas.
Now is precisely the right time for this!
O Śāriputra!
You should know that
Those who have dull faculties and little wisdom,
And those who are attached to mere signs and
Are arrogant cannot accept this teaching.
Now I am happy and fearless.
Having openly set aside skillful means, (Also translated: "Honestly discarding the provisional teachings...)
I will teach only the highest path

To all the bodhisattvas.
Having heard this teaching
The bodhisattvas and twelve hundred arhats,
Freeing themselves from the web of doubt,
Will all become buddhas.
Just as the buddhas in the three periods
Of the past, present, and future,
Teach the true nature of the Dharma,
Now I too will expound the Dharma
That is beyond conception.
All the buddhas
Appear in worlds far away
And are difficult to meet.
Even if they appear in this world
It is difficult to hear their teaching.
Even in immeasurable, innumerable kalpas
It is difficult to hear this Dharma,
And those who are able to hear this Dharma
Are also hard to find.
They are just like the uḍumbara flower
Which appears only once in a very long while
And, beloved by all,
Is considered a wonder among devas and humans.
Those who, hearing this teaching,
Happily praise the buddhas
By uttering even a single word
Have already paid homage to all buddhas
Of the three periods.
Such people are even more extraordinary
Than the uḍumbara flower.
All of you, have no doubts!
I, the King of the Dharma,
Now proclaim to the great assembly:
I lead and inspire the bodhisattvas
Only with the path of the single vehicle;
I am here without disciples.
O Śāriputra and all of you!
The śrāvakas and bodhisattvas should know
That this True Dharma is the hidden essence
Of all the buddhas.
In the troubled worlds of the five kinds of defilement,
Sentient beings are only attached to various desires,
And ultimately do not seek the path of the buddhas.
In the future the impure will hear
The Buddha teach the single vehicle,
But they will be confused and will not accept it.
They will reject the Dharma
And fall into the troubled states of being.
To those who are modest and pure,
And seek the path of the buddhas,
I will praise extensively
The path of the single vehicle.
O Śāriputra!
You should know that the Dharma
Of all the buddhas is like this.
They teach the Dharma
With myriads of koṭis of skillful means,
According to the capacities of sentient beings;
The inexperienced cannot understand this.
You have come to know with certainty the skillful means
Of the buddhas, the Teachers of the World,
That are expounded in accordance
With people’s capacities.
All of you, have no further doubts!
Let great joy arise in your hearts
And know that you will all become buddhas!

This explains that the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha's Wisdom. This does not mean that one should "discard" everything else. Rather, one should understand that the teaching of the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha's teaching as to the real import of all his teachings. He is, to put it colloquially, pulling back the curtain and showing us what is really happening as he teaches the various upaya. Zhiyi called this, "Opening the Trace (Provisional) to reveal the Real".

The Buddha's wisdom is beyond conception, beyond description, and cannot be explained in words. The Buddha, however, resorts to conventions such as words, in order to direct beings to realize the same wisdom he has. The remarkable thing is, these conventions, in pointing to the Truth are themselves the Truth, though not in the obvious or literal way the unawakened think. They are the true instructions of the Buddha that lead to wisdom. This is illustrated throughout the Lotus, for instance with the parable of the burning house - the father's real intent in offering toys to the children is not to give them toys but to lure them out of the burning house. Similarly, the Buddha here explains that the promise of nirvana is not the Buddha's real intent, but rather, its a device, a coarsely constructed concept that the ignorant beings of this world can aspire to that will lure them out of samsara.

This does not negate all those teachings about purifying our minds or even nirvana, but it does cast them in a new light - we purify our minds not with the goal of nirvana in mind, but with Buddhahood in mind, the concept of nirvana helps us understand samsara - put it into context.

If you've seen the Karate Kid - "wax on, wax off." Ralph is not learning how to polish cars, he is actually learning how to block punches. Eventually Miyagi shows him how those motions he practiced while waxing the car could be used to block punches. That is another telling of the Lotus Sutra - Ancient Oriental Secret.

What does this mean for Nichiren?

Well, for one, he does not teach nirvana and from his perspective, once the provisional teachings are opened, why would one bother? He does not, however, reject these teachings in whole - anyone who has read his writings will immediately know - he certainly studied them and referred to them constantly. Rather, interpreting them from the perspective of the Lotus, he employed them freely to illustrate the Sublime Dharma.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
dude
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by dude »

Sherab wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:25 pm
dude wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:08 pm ...honestly discarding the provisional teachings, the Thus Come One must now reveal the truth.

- Lotus Sutra, chapter two

I'm gonna review the preceding posts several times before I comment further.
My 2 cents: Discarding of the provisional teachings should only be done when one has progressed far along the path and is at some point near the end of the path.

If you look at vajrayana teachings, there is a progressive letting go of the conduct and attitudes that one adopt when one started out on the path and progressing in the middle stages. But this letting go of the conduct and attitudes does not mean the whole scale abandoning of what was taught in the lower paths, but rather a more subtle conduct and attitude arising from a greater and more refined understanding and insight as to the intention of the lower teachings.

In brief, one should only "discard" the provisional teachings only when the time is right.

My two cents (which may be worth less than that.

I am way too ignorant of Vajrayana and have a lot of reading to do before I comment on it.

Nichiren stated, for his own reasons that I don't fully understand, that the Japan of his day was particularly suited for the Mahayana teachings and the people of that place and time had a relationship with same.

With qualification I won't go into now, I do agree that one must walk before crawling, and a step by step approach is not to be dismissed out of hand.
Having said that, nothing ever surprised me more than finding that, even before I learned the meaning of the Hokekyo (Lotus Sutra ) I could gain benefit and insight by simply saying the words and passages, that is, reciting the sutra and chanting the title.
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Queequeg
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Re: Relationship between provisional and true

Post by Queequeg »

dude wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:00 pm
Nichiren stated, for his own reasons that I don't fully understand, that the Japan of his day was particularly suited for the Mahayana teachings and the people of that place and time had a relationship with same.
Because the Mahayana spread there, as opposed to the Hinayana. If the people were karmically disposed to Hinayana, that is what would have spread.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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