Today is the last day of my little break. Beginning tomorrow there will be fresh daily meditations. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this Dharma talk from August 2010.
Bodaite - Stairs to Enlightenment at Mount Minobu Kuon-ji
“Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death.” (Lotus Sutra Chapter XXIII)
Good morning, I hope everyone is doing well today. It has been terribly hot lately but Fall is soon approaching and the cooler weather is sure to return. This is something we think about without really giving it any thought at all. This statement requires a certain amount of faith based upon years and years of evidence going back beyond our lifetimes. We have faith it will be Fall soon and we believe it because the rotation of the planet around the sun and the angle of the earth in relation to the sun causes this shift in the sun angle which in turn marks the sun cycle of Fall. We have faith that as a result of this the weather will cool, though sometimes it does not. Or it may not cool as much as some like myself would wish for, a cold so cold it snows all the time.
We have little doubt about the change of seasons, we are certain of it without even thinking twice, but when it comes to our enlightenment we are not so certain. We may feel like some of the Buddha’s disciples during his life who said to the Buddha; “Although we hear you say to us, you will become Buddhas, we are still in doubts and fears about it.” Chapter VI And this is even after the Buddha has said in Chapter II; “All of you do not doubt me! I am the King of the Dharma.” Still we have doubts.
The Buddha tells us
“Know that when you remove your doubts, and when you have great joy, you will become Buddhas.”
But how do we remove our doubts, how can we help not having doubts. If even those people who practiced during the Buddha’s lifetime had doubts it stands to reason that we too would have even more doubts.
Let me share a little story here if I may:
“There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow.
An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, “Tightrope, I don’t believe you can do it, but I’m willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls.”
Now, Tightrope wrote back, “Sir, although I’ve never been to America and seen the Falls, I’d love to come.”
Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls — blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily.
The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, “Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?”
“Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it.”
“No,” said Tightrope, “do you really believe I can do it?”
“Well of course I do, you just did it.”
“No, no, no,” said Tightrope, “do you believe I can do it?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Promoter, “I believe you can do it.”
“Good,” said Tightrope, “then you get in the wheel barrow.”
The word believe, in Greek means “to live by”.
This is a nice story…makes you ask, how often do we say that we believe Christ can do it, but refuse to get in the wheelbarrow?
I do not know who to attribute this story to as there was no one listed and I do not know if the tightrope walker was the famous Phillippe Petit or Jean Gravelot or some other.
Belief by its definition implies a trust in something or a conviction based upon evidence. Faith is a belief in something for which there frequently is no firm proof. These are standard definitions for these two terms in the English language. But often we mix the two together never quite sure which one applies, or not caring about the distinctions.
Let us though, in this moment try to look at the two in the strictest of meanings. When we come to Buddhism and in particular to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra we, even today have very similar feelings about it as those present who heard the teaching directly from the Buddha. We may be amazed, we may like what we hear, we perhaps even have a propensity for belief, and we may even doubt its truth depending upon how we view our own potential.
I have experienced that in most people their lack of belief, or their lack of faith is often rooted in their own self doubt, they fail to believe in themselves. Perhaps in their lives they have been told by someone they are incapable or no good or not worthy, or they may have come to that conclusion on their own. Now confronted with a teaching that guarantees their enlightenment, that promises that they can be the best possible of humans, they have doubt. After all, why should it be possible for one teaching, one practice, one religion to counter all the years of evidence they have pilled up to prove their unwholesome condition of life, or their ineptitude, or any number of faults they have burdened themselves with. Even Shariputra who had been told over an over that he had scorched the seeds to his enlightenment was taken aback by the Buddha’s claim that with the Lotus Sutra he could finally attain perfect enlightenment.
So with all the evidence of their inability some do begin to practice. We could say that at this stage their faith or their willingness is based upon a desire to make things better. They have no evidence yet they are willing to try on the off chance that something may improve. This small kernel of faith or hope is the very thing required sometimes when we first approach the Lotus Sutra.
For others there is almost an immediate attachment or liking of the Lotus Sutra, we could almost say that for some there is an affinity to attraction. This is really not surprising since the Lotus Sutra is not a teaching about acquiring something that exists outside ourselves but awakening to what already exists within.
Given that the truth of the Lotus Sutra already resides within ourselves it is no wonder that the person filled with self doubt should find it difficult to believe in or have faith in the Lotus Sutra. If they already doubt themselves how much more so will they doubt the truth of the Lotus Sutra that says they are Buddhas.
I do not, I am afraid, have a magic bullet or magic pill that will eliminate the darkness that causes self doubt, except for the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.
“What is called faith is nothing unusual. Faith means putting one’s trust in the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions,
and the heavenly gods and benevolent deities, and chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.” Attributed to Nichiren Shonin but not considered authentic
By taking that first small step and chanting the Odaimoku and continuing to do so with out letting up even a person filled with the strongest self doubt can eventually acquire evidence in their own lives that will begin to offset all the evidence they have accumulated that would state they are incapable.
When we look from afar at the Buddha we may be in awe of such a great and noble person, thinking how can I become such a person like that? This is the wrong question to be asking ourselves. Our goal is not to be exactly like the Buddha but to become a Buddha in our own form, our own lives. This Buddha that you become will be much different than the Buddha you read about in the Sutras and history books. The Buddha you will become may be a mother, a housewife, a professional, an engineer, a waiter, a musician, a manager, a comedian, a sales clerk or any number of other things all of which the Buddha you read about could not do. The Buddha was not a web designer or graphic artist but you can become a Buddha who is. You may not be a teacher LIKE the Buddha but you can become a teacher as the Buddha was. Do you understand the difference?
In one case we are talking about the role we play or the role the Buddha played and in the other we are talking about the qualities manifested, the things that make us Buddhas.
In the little story that I used to begin this talk with we have a tightrope walker who could travel across distance on a wire and we had someone who could not. Yet the person who could not would have been able to cross the span on the wire through the aid of the one who could. If the person who could not put his trust in the person who could he would be able to manifest the act of crossing without the skill. On the other hand the tightrope walker without the skill of the promoter would not have accomplished the act of walking across the Niagara Falls except that he put his trust in the promoter to set things up so he could.
In the Lotus Sutra the Buddha says; “Know that when you remove your doubts, and when you have great joy, you will become Buddhas.” Chapter 2. When we can remove our doubts we will be free to manifest that which is already within us. When we remove our doubts we will have great joy. When we remove our doubts we will become Buddhas.
In this sentence he is not just referring to doubts about the teachings contained within the Lotus Sutra, he is talking about our own self doubt about our inherent abilities to manifest the Buddha within our lives.
Practicing the Lotus Sutra, chanting the Odaimoku, reciting the sutra daily all are the tools we can use to help to chisel away at our doubts. By doing these things we can begin to pile up evidence in favor of the truth of the teaching, just as the promoter in the story at the beginning was able to begin to remove his doubts about the tightrope walkers ability. As our doubts are removed then we can believe in the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, then we can begin to ‘act’ in accord with those teachings, then we can become Buddhas wherever we are whatever we are doing.
Let me close with this quote from the Lotus Sutra;
“Anyone who, while he is seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha, sees or hears this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and after hearing it, understands it by faith and keeps it, know this, will approach Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter X
