Hopefully by this time you have at least seen a photo of the cover of the Daily Lotus, a collection of Lotus Sutra quotations. Depicted on the front cover is a Dharma Wheel. Over the years I have collected photos of utility hole covers, man-hole covers if you will, that are decorated with the Dharma Wheel, the universal symbol of Buddhism.
I’ve found it curious that such an image would be used and have often thought about how Jews, or Christians would feel if the image were a symbol of their religion. I do realize that many of these covers are made in India and so this wheel is also an image which represents that great nation. Still it is interesting to me.
Back in 2010 I visited the Nichiren practitioners in the Raleigh-Durham area to hold a service and to encourage them in their practice. While on that trip I spotted this particular cover in Meredith, NC. As is my practice I don’t clean off the surface and simply take the photo as it is when I find it.
It may seem odd that I would use such an image for this book. My reason for doing so is because these utility hole covers, usually cast iron, are part of our daily lives even if we don’t think about them or are aware of their existence. They are part of the ordinariness of our lives and so frequently relegated to the unseen and unimportant.
For the valuable people who perform the valuable functions beneath the ground to maintain whatever is beneath these covers provide access. The Lotus Sutra is like that as well. Beneath the surface of the Lotus Sutra lies the most important teaching of the Buddha. The Lotus Sutra is our access point to the truth that all Buddhas attained enlightenment by and teach to enable all beings to become enlightened.
To many of the people in our environments our practice is unobserved and perhaps even unnoticed. We may simply be ordinary persons in their environment. Yet we are the Bodhisattvas who in the Lotus Sutra arose from beneath the earth and vowed to practice the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra.
To me it seems quite appropriate to use this image of the Dharma Wheel as found on a cast iron utility hole cover.
If you have already purchased a copy of the book I hope you are enjoying it. If you’ve not already purchased a copy I hope you will consider taking advantage of this useful aid to your faith, practice, and study of the Lotus Sutra.
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