Nichiren On Karma - part 30

your morning [Music] continues however it is now some 2200 years since that does come one's passing for many years the five impurities have flourished and good deeds in any connection are rare though a person may do good in the course of doing a single good deed he accumulates ten evil ones so that in the end for the sake of a small good he commits great evil quote unquote and yet in his heart he Prides himself on having practiced great good such are the times we live in so there we go with that good and evil crap again but please understand what nitroen is defining again it's not good or bad karma right everything in Buddhism relates to our Enlightenment and our practice of Enlightenment nitrin is speaking to Buddhists not people who are completely unaware so when he talks about good acts or evil acts he's talking about the actions that we take remember three thousand Realms in a single thought moment lots of actions most of which were completely unaware of but so it's all the more important that our momentum the direction we're influencing our life is consistent because that's what ameliorates the the balance sheet if you will of actions that take us toward Awakening and the enlightenment of others and actions that impede us or others worse yet do you see that's the discussion here and what he's saying is in our Modern Age as I've said many times we have so many constant distractions and and don't blame the phone and the internet I mentioned those things just to illustrate how many Avenues of distraction we have but the the real the meaningful distractions are what our mind is doing collecting those distractions replaying those yeah as many sources of distraction as we have in our lives our modern lives our minds and our brains are repeating manipulating adding amalgamating separating building databases in multitudes on each one of those distractions it's unfathomable the muck the fog of the samseric Mind and this is what nitrin is indicating when he says in that whole fog you do something kind for somebody but you're unaware of all of the things that you've done that are negative and and creating obstacles for yourself and those others and the good that you think you've may have done is almost irrelevant or perhaps even an obstacle but you don't you are unaware of the stack the fog that you've created on which you suppose that to be a positive thing when in fact you may be just adding to the negative balance sheet he's just indicate indicating how difficult it is to remain mule whole focused thank you for your efforts in regard to what nitrin just said yeah Buddhism ain't easy is it it's simple but it ain't easy [Laughter] so thank you thank you for your practice thank you for maintaining your practice and helping to grow this Sangha you know when you like And subscribe you help make this somehow more easily found for so many people out there that are looking for answers help support and our Sangha it's International it's all over the world so really I mean it when I say thank you it's awesome what you guys are doing keep on doing it and let's see if we can't read on here in this go show and find the moments of inspiration aha things that may relate to our very lives often when we read when we read nitrin correctly it seems so current right moreover you were born in the remote land of Japan a tiny island country in the East separated by two hundred thousand Rie of mountains and seas from the country of the thus come one's birth and you are a woman burdened by the five obstacles and bound by the three obediences how indescribably wonderful therefore that in spite of these hindrances you have been able to take resolve in the Lotus Sutra you see how everything nitrin talks about or Buddhism for that matter relates to the simple dedication of our minds on enlightenment versus hindrances to use this word to that goal that's your divide of where language tends to be good evil I don't agree with those words but you're going to see them constantly as you read through the scholarship of Buddhism understand that that is a cultural bias just understand what it's standing in for working toward Awakening or working to get in the way of it that's all that means because at in our practice of Buddhism what is our goal other than enlightenment you see it's simple even the wiser the Learned nutrient goes on such as those who have poured over all the sacred teachings profounded by shakimuni Buddha in the course of his lifetime and who have mastered both the esoteric and esoteric doctrines are these days abandoning the Lotus Sutra and instead reciting the nimbutsu why well probably for the very reason I don't know what's going on with my eyes today I apologize um the very reason I was uh just illustrating that it's simple but it's difficult it's difficult because this simple concept of enlightenment as it relates to our samseric life is abundant with tripwires and hindrances and negotiating those hindrances seeing through those hindrances avoiding them all together and slowing down their propagation in our moment-to-moment instantiations of potential is the business of maintaining of mind with the hood [Music] that's why it's called the Buddha way it's not the Buddha point it's the way because time space the construct of Life momentum constantly is being influenced by Myriad distractions distractions from what our singular goal of Buddhists enlightenment and if somebody tells you well stop worrying about it wait till you die just chantamida Buddha's name all day long it might make you feel better and when you die and you're out of this hell hole you'll go to that pure Buddha land that's not Buddhism my friends that's religion that's magical mystical baloney but many traditions right because this is the this is the hubris of man wanting to feel eternal right these leftovers from Hinduism like the bardos and all of these stages of death and blah blah blah blah it's all magical thinking it's not real it's not what's happening Buddhism is very direct very simple you're instantiated into into a human which creates an apparatus with the environment and the local organism here to emerge a mind a mind of observation Witness and cause making cause effect effect they happen at the same time right and with that tool that's sentient mind we can interact with the process of life itself wow how amazing is that nothing else can do that but without knowing that we tend to piss it away because it's too easy to go for the cookies and the ice cream it's too easy for to go for our base instincts instincts right food sex shelter that drives us we call it survival Instinct it's just craving manifesting we can call it a million things if you want the bottom line is what is it doing it's obfuscating what's our potential our potential for enlightenment for a complete manifestation and experience of the total potential of Life instead of just the base things wow I lived 80 years so I could eat have sex and own stuff wow congratulations great life many people think that that's the most you can do a lot of people think that this life is all about suffering that's what it's for how pathetic is that Buddhism shakimuni says it doesn't have to be change your mind observe the magnificence of the process and you won't be weighed down attached to obsessed by all of those they're just moment to moment that it's gone get in the flow everything's exciting here everything's a suchness it's a temporary manifestation don't get hung up wow there's no magic there that's just strict observation isn't it even the wiser the Learned as I said earlier such as those who have poured over the sacred teachings of course Master both they end up going the easy way certainly in Japan in his day that was the case there's a lot of that going on today there's other sects that were going on in nutrients time that he clearly astude but they're still existing today because I don't know fashion ease ego they're not about Buddhism they call themselves Buddhists but what good karma you must have formed in the past than to have been born a person able to recite even so much as a verse or phrase of the Lotus Sutra there's that language barrier thing again what good karma you must have formed in the past right how should that read how would I interpret that sentence how would I translate that differently you didn't form any good karma what you did is you influenced karma in a positive way oh same same thing no see we don't create Karma I just put up a document on threefoldlows.com I thought I'd talk about it today but here it is it's relevant again questions come up from time to time about Karma personal versus Karma environment how do how does our individual practice affect or influence our environment right this is a bit of a tripwire for especially beginners that that Unity of self and environment it just it's not obvious it's not obvious because samserically we see ourselves as individual unique units and to a degree because we're a formation of the total you the word I use is local I think that's kind of works the mind a little differently than saying unique individual we're really not we think of ourselves that way that's the tripwire of a self an identity and an ego that we keep trying to maintain we're just a local moment-to-moment manifestation of the engine of life right how did Joni Mitchell say or uh yeah in the Woodstock song We Are Stardust yeah but it's just that's we're made of all the same stuff we're just a local assembly that has its Tendencies and conditions and we have a sentient mind to observe the way we're expressing that potential and we can influence it that's our agency wow we can actually direct it affect it it's not like flipping a switch but over time we can what's the goal enlightenment right so what positive influences toward Enlightenment you must have made Impressions on influences on your karmic stream the karmic stream of which you are apart that you were able to encounter the Lotus Sutra yeah the Lotus Sutra has been here over well 2 700 years approximately right 27th centuries so it's not like it should be hard to find let's keep keeping people from finding it or finding it and not paying attention to it it's only one thing mind sentience are you sentient do you understand what sentience is or are you just plodding along through identity um when I read over your letter I felt as though my eyes were beholding something rarer than the adambara flower again with the other butterflower something even scarcer than the one-eyed Turtle encountering a floating log with a hollow in it that fits him exactly another reference to an expedient mean story move to the heartfelt admiration I thought that I would like to add just one word or one expression of my own rejoicing endeavoring in this way to enhance your experience your rewards your Merit I fear however that as clouds darken the moon or as dust defiles a mirror my brief and clumsy attempts at description will only serve to cloak and obscure the incomparably wonderful rewards you will receive being as I'm just a human with words constructed of my own thoughts may not align with yours the very example he gave to start with of men thinking they're doing good really adding to the obfuscation instead he's seeing that in his own attempts what humility and the thought pains me that I would somehow even by trying to congratulate you and support you that somehow you might interpret that I might say it in an improper way that to you becomes an encumbrance well you it's just like very simply you pay someone a compliment and somehow their feelings are hurt and you don't understand what or they don't want to talk to you anymore because they're embarrassed they're shy they don't like compliments that's their issue but they've it was sparked by your attempt although good see words are so difficult another reason why the first thing we must do as practitioners of Buddhism when we greet each other before we say anything Sancho or daimoku however long you want daimoku should always be the first thing at our encounters with people who don't know Buddhism with people who do know Buddhism because that's the only way to at least make an attempt to crack that gohanzan door in our mind so that Clarity Buddhism Buddha hood can influence understanding to understand what attitude and intent with us clumsy communication we call language [Music] yet in response to your question he says I could scarcely remain silent please understand that I'm merely joining my one drop to the rivers and the oceans or adding my torch to the Sun and the Moon hoping in this way to increase even slightly the volume of water or the Brilliance of the light he really really insincere about helping her understand and move toward the depth of her practice right but he's painfully aware of cultural stigma word stigma opinions so on and so forth right that the cultural stigma is very simply he's a man she's a woman there's so much cultural stigma loaded in that how do we get around it over it right Pierce through it he goes on first of all when it comes to the Lotus Sutra you should understand that whether one recites all eight volumes or only one volume one chapter one verse one phrase or simply the daimoku or the title the rewards are the same because Buddhism is about attitude and intent buddhahood is buddhahood is buddhahood it's not the words the recitation is important but always always always always with a sense of right reverence dedication confidence hmm it is like the water of the great ocean a single drop of which contains water from all the countless streams and rivers or like a jewel uh wish grinding Jewel which though only a single Jewel can shower all kinds of treasures upon The Wisher of course this is based on folklore right and the same is true of a hundred a thousand ten thousand or a million such drops of water or such jewels a single character of the Lotus Sutra is like such a drop of water or such a jewel and the hundred million characters are like a hundred million such drops or jewels right he's already told us the 69 384 characters that make up the 28 chapters of the Lord of Sutra are each and every one Mio formation the energy in formation the only remainder to that is form that's what we're experiencing on the other hand a single character of the other sutras nimboodsuzen and so on and so forth or even just the other sutras which are translations of shakimuni's sermons or the name of any of the various Buddhas amida or viral China so on and so forth is like one drop of water of a particular stream or river or like only one stone from a particular mountain or a particular sea one says drop does not contain the water of countless other streams and rivers and one such Stone does not possess the virtues that in um that inherit in innumerable other kinds of stones there's a typo there I don't understand so this is the Kool-Aid analogy right the uh what do they call it the karma Aid analogy I think that's in that self and environment document that I posted yeah you should check that out it's free you can download it or read it online it's just a PDF it's like four page maybe eight pages therefore when it comes to the Lord of Sutra it is praiseworthy to recite any chapter you have placed your trust in whichever chapter that may be generally speaking among all the sacred teachings of the thus come one none has ever been known to contain falsehoods yet when we consider the Buddhist teachings more deeply we find that even among the thus come ones golden words there exists various categories such as the Mayana and the hiniana the provisional the true teachings the exoteric the esoteric doctrines these distinctions arise from the sutras themselves right and accordingly we find that they are roughly outlined in the commentaries of the various Scholars and teachers to State the essence of the matter among the doctrines profounded by Buddha in the 50 or more years of his teaching live those put forward in the first 40 or more years are of a questionable nature not because he was incorrect but because questionable again I I questioned the word usage but they're questionable in that their name they're incomplete their their provisional steps of learning and training to get to the ultimate teaching the Lotus method right we can say so because the Buddha himself clearly stated in the immeasurable meaning Sutra the opening Sutra to the lotus quote in these 40 more than 40 years I have not yet revealed the truth end quote direct quote from that Sutra right and in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha himself proclaims concerning its every word and phrase quote honestly discarding Expedia means I will now preach only the unsurpassed way the ultimate method end quote moreover to make the point again many Treasures Buddha sprang up from the Earth to add his testimony declaring the Lotus Sutra of the wonderful law so and so forth all that you have said have expounded is the truth end quote remember the treasure Tower chapter um and the Buddhas of the ten directions all gathered at the assembly where the Lotus Sutra was being preached and extended their tongues to give further support to the assertion that not a single word of the Lotus Sutra is false it was as though a great king his consort and his most venerable subjects had all with one Accord given their word and of course you know the analogy of the tongues when they is the word being spread being taught being propagated right I see a lot of dropped frames I apologize for hitches in the video I will get a more powerful computer one of these days I have heard rumors and maybe some of you know this I have heard from um uh a video maker that I watch on YouTube saying that the paid version of Da Vinci resolve which is what I use it's not I don't use the paid version I use the free version he was alluding to the fact that when you pay for the software there are vast improvements not only in tools which I'm not that complicated in these videos but it caught my ear he said in performance that it actually works much faster I did I never heard that before if any of you have experience with deficiency resolve the free version versus the purchased version as far as performance specifically um that may be justification enough that would be cheaper than waiting to build the perfect video editing computer that maybe if I simply put the money into the software I might get rid of a lot of these stupid glitches like skipped frames let me know if you know anything about that I'd be curious to hear your your thoughts your experiences right all right Back To Nature what was I suppose that a man or a woman who has recited even a single word of the Lotus Sutra were to be dragged down by the unfathomably heavy uh repercussions of karma from committing the 10 evil Acts now if you're reading along with me you know I changed that sentence and the five cardinal sins are the four major offenses and falls into the evil or the lower paths right samsara has total grip on you even if the Sun and Moon should never again emerge from the East even if the great Earth itself should turn over even if the tides of the great ocean should cease to ebb and flow even if broken stones are made whole and even if the Waters of the streams and rivers cease to flow into the ocean no woman who believes in the Lotus Sutra could ever be dragged down by worldly faults and fall into the lower paths so what does that that word salad mean simply this if your the word believe is used here I'm going to say confidence if you're resolve your determination and your confidence whether it's behind your scholarship of all of the teachings or just a phrase of the Lotus Sutra if you commit your confidence and your resolve to namum it doesn't matter what mystical magical things are imposed on your mind like the Earth turning over and rivers backing up and right none of those things could happen but even if you were to be wrapped around with that rhetoric it wouldn't affect you it wouldn't affect you your determination your determination in the Lotus Sutra your determination in the chat your favorite chapter your knowledge your confidence in your Enlightenment through your practice of the Lotus Sutra it's unassailable so long as you have confidence that's not an outlandish thing to say when you break it down this way right if a woman who believes in the Lotus Sutra should ever fall into the lower paths as a result of jealousy or ill-temper or because of excessive greed then the duskum one shakamuni the Buddha many treasures and the Buddhas of the ten directions would immediately be guilty of breaking their vow The Vow that they upheld over the span of countless kalpas never to tell a lie their offense would be even greater than the Wild falsehoods and deceptions of devadata or the outrageous lies told by kokalika but how could such a thing ever happen thus a person who Embraces the Lotus Sutra is absolutely assured of its Rewards everything he's saying is about building confidence isn't it number one on the other hand even if one does not commit a single evil deed throughout one's entire lifetime and observes the five precepts the eight precepts the ten precepts the ten good precepts the 250 precepts the 500 precepts oh my goodness you're such a good little Scout or countless numbers of precepts even if one learns all the other sutures by heart makes offerings to all the other Buddhas and bodhisattvas and accumulates immeasurable Merit oh you're such a good scout if one but fails to put one's resolve in the Lotus method or if one has resolved has resolved in it but considers that it ranks on the same level as the other sutras and the teachings of the other Buddhas or if one recognizes its superiority but constantly engages in the other religious disciplines I didn't and that's in the translation practicing the law of Sutra only from time to time because it's part of my collection you know I check it out or if one Associates on friendly terms now this is important I've been invited to speak in centers of other religions even claiming to be Universal religions or methodists or all sorts of religions around I'm in the Bible Belt and I've been invited to go and speak but I won't set foot in their centers I will not do it my refrain is always the same if somebody in your congregation is interested in Buddhism let them come to me if they can't make that effort then anything I say will be irrelevant to them they will use it as fodder against Buddhism not against me I could care less what they think of me but just as nature was just saying no matter how eloquent I may try to speak to their mind is set in another place and they will use my words no matter how eloquent against Buddhism creating massive obstacles I can't allow for that to happen but if they make just the smallest effort to come to my school then I can impose upon them to chant before we speak and in the presence of this budsadan no matter how I speak to them about Buddhism there will be an honest clear transfer of energy confidence enlightenment that we will experience together what they do with that when they leave that's on them but they cannot take that and well I suppose they could speak poorly they could get scared out of their pants but it's still their individual experience right there are the only ones who heard my words transmitted in the light of gohanzan um so or if one Associates on friendly terms with monks of the nembutsu not other religions but religions claiming to be Buddhism who do not have confidence in the Lotus Sutra but slander it one in the same if you don't have confidence in a little suture once again nature Nails this point but instead slander it how do you slander it by going over to the nimbutsu and being friendly with them just being friendly with them their influence will penetrate you there it is again this constant refrain that I have with you guys that our actions our Enlightenment radiates from us we influence our environment all the time with words yeah but just entering the room or if one thinks that those who insist the Lotus Sutra does not suit the people's capacity in the latter age are guilty of no fault then all the Merit of the countless good acts one has performed throughout one's life will suddenly vanish you will have betrayed your own enlightenment moreover the rewards resulting from one's practice of the Lotus Sutra will for sometime be obscured and one will fall into the great Citadel of the Avicii hell you're right back in samsara as surely as rain falls from the skies or rocks tumble down from the Peaks into the valleys so it's not just a matter of being resolved and confident in your practice of the Lotus Sutra but it's also to be very alert constantly engaged with your the way so that you can repel avoid the energies of distraction pulling you away hmm must be vigilant is the word I was looking for even if one has committed the ten evil Acts or the five cardinal sins so long as one does not turn one's back on the Lotus Sutra one will without doubt be reborn in the pure land and attain buddhahood and where are you reborn it's not after death it's in the next moment moment to moment moment birthday it's a measure of time that only occurs in a sentient mind on the other hand we read in the suture that even if one observes the precepts Embraces all the other sutras and believes in the various Buddhism Buddhists if one fails to take resolve in The Lord of Sutra one is certain to fall into the evil paths or lower paths limited though my ability may be when I observe the situation in the world these days it seems to me that the great majority of both lay Believers and members of the clergy are guilty of slandering the correct teaching there's such a lack of conviction it's the only reason that the Lotus method isn't spreading more quickly not quickly enough for nutrients certainly not quickly enough as nature would say for Japan so we still have a little ways to go to finish here but he's really addressing this wife of uh hiki Saburo yoshimoto foreign to return to your question so that's a good turning point in the discussion I think this is where we'll pause as I said before though no chapter of the Lotus Sutra is negligible among the entire 28 chapters the expedient means chapter and the lifespan chapter are particularly outstanding so this this is the basis for gongyo right here it's not the only place he mentions it but here it is right so that's the basis of this letter anyway and we'll talk more about that in the next podcast is it clear to you that all of this discussion about positive negative good influence bad influence resolve doubt that all of it is really under the umbrella term Karma is that does is that gelling for you because that's what it is again please uh Avail yourself of the oh the document the button on the uh course study materials page on threefoldlows.com is called um self V environment V for versus self versus environment and it's a it's a loan button right now it doesn't have a uh anyway it's all alone in one line um self the environment um check that document out see if that doesn't if there's not some rhetoric or words that I put into that document that maybe will turn the light on on Karma what it actually is as opposed to the plethora of misunderstanding and misuse even in these documents yeah it's just so misunderstood in in the early days and I'll say this just to close in the early days of teachings even shakeemuni the interpretation not shakamuni but the interpretation of his dialogue about Karma again you're talking about hinduists right the brahmanas had a lot of power over the populace because of their mystical magical interpretations hundreds of deities and their imposition on the citizens of India to tell them what their lives would be the limitations of their lives they still have arranged marriages today it's still part of that the elders know best and you're just ignorant and entire castes of society are ignorant kept so it's super authoritarian right and and the the the flip side of authoritarianship is equally disgusting if not more is that once you start commanding people to be a certain way people quickly find comfort in being told what to do so they want authoritarian regimes ah how frustrating then to bring this ultimate Liberation philosophy of Buddhism into that environment consider that think about that when you read these things so early on many traditions of Buddhism took Karma to mean that you got what you got that if you were hindered in any way whether it was well socioeconomic right that that was your karma boom and I know you still hear that today but the difference is the key difference that these traditions and religions don't get or don't propagate is that shakiramuni was talking about the the strong energy samseric energy of formations with Tendencies and conditions but what he didn't say was that that was permanent he especially made sure even in the four noble truths that this is not permanent this is something malleable that you can influence that you can alter oh they all conveniently forget that I don't know how because it's so plain to see but yeah as I've said before the very energies that want to be instantiate is in itself a craving we are born of Cravings but the Cravings doesn't have to be our existence they're just brought brought us here and this is what shakimuni is saying fine we have that engine of craving desire that makes it so we keep reproducing the cells in our bodies so that we stay alive and experience but our mind our mind is free from that process our mind doesn't have to be yet another instantiation of craving our mind can see with equanimity the entire process with Fascination compassion right yeah that's what the mind can do but people who misunderstand Karma they just don't want to go there when they go to the mind they use the mind to sift samsara it's something different than samsara it's outside of trans samsara it's so hard to get craving creatures to make that paradigm shift but we can do it easily through chanting the more we do it the more we open that perception that sentient mind of suchness of Buddhism yeah thank you thank you for listening thank you for being here thank you for your practice please help support this Sangha like subscribe that's the very important to the YouTube algorithms beyond that uh you know purchases I want to make in software what notwithstanding uh the the cost of just putting this resource together you guys who buy books ebooks who donate through PayPal or uh patreon all these videos are available on patreon there's no cost there um just the portal to allow to provide for you to do one-time or regular donations so grateful for those efforts those of you who are doing that you're you're [Music] Bounty is greatly appreciated take care of your health keep your practice strong and I will see you in the next okay bye for now [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Threefold Lotus Kwoon

Views: 74

Keywords: buddhism, buddha, nichiren, sylvain, threefold, lotus, sutra, sutta, ichinen, sanzen, myo, ho, ren, ge, kyo, Gohonzon, Karma, Dharma, quantum, gosho, study, resource

Id: EdZmSAc4Sa4

Length: 50min 17sec (3017 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2023