The Nature
of the Buddha's power
If one doubts the strength of the
Buddha when he says, "I alone can save them"; if one is suspicious of
the rope held out by the Lotus Sutra when its teachings declare that one can
"gain entrance through faith"; if one fails to chant the Mystic Law
which guarantees that "[concerning this man's attainment of Buddhahood, ] there can assuredly be no doubt, " then
the Buddha's power cannot reach him and it will be impossible for him to scale
the embankment of enlightenment.
Thus it was that the
eight-year-old daughter of the dragon king was able to come out of the vast sea
and in an instant give proof of the power of this sutra, and Bodhisattva Jogyo of the essential teaching emerged from beneath the
great earth and demonstrated the unfathomably long life span of the Buddha.
This, the Lotus, is the king of sutras, defying description in words, the
wonderful Law that is beyond the mind's power to comprehend.
Questions and
Answers on Embracing the Lotus Sutra
Nichiren Daishonin
wrote this Gosho in the third month of 1263, shortly
after he had been pardoned and had returned to Kamakura following two years of exile on the Izu peninsula
There
are three meanings of myo given in On the Daimoku of
the Lotus Sutra by Nichiren Daishonin
He says This sutra opens the door of expedient teachings
and reveals the true aspect of reality."
"To open" indicates the quality or
power which activates a life, like opening a secret repository, and causes it
to pervade the entire universe. Miao-lo stated that
"to reveal is to open."
To be endowed and perfect" means, for instance, that
each drop in the ocean contains the same elements and properties as the ocean
itself. It means enlightenment Myo means "fully
endowed, " which in turn has the meaning of
"perfection."
"To revive" is, , to create value and
also means to revitalise, to create , to open the
gateway to unlimited Human Potential. It also means to cure and to return to life.and to cure the uncurable. The Lotus Sutra, however, can cure the dead
as well as the living, and therefore it has the character myo
in its title.
The
fundamental power is invisible and is "the ultimate spiritual reality
behind the universe." Since the fundamental power is beyond the
imagination, it is myo (mystic), and since we cannot
see it, it is "death." But the force does exist, unseen but
definitely underlying all phenomena (ho).
The Entity of the
Mystic Law
- Totaigi Sho
On the Daimoku of
the Lotus Sutra by Nichiren Daishonin
