Thursday, November 6, 2014

What do you mean the Jeweled Vehicle isn't Daisaku Ikeda?

The Lotus Sutra states:

"Mounting this jeweled vehicle, they directly arrive at the place of enlightenment." (Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3, verse section)

Nichiren commenting on this passage of the Lotus Sutra states:

"The jewels of this jeweled vehicle are the seven precious substances which adorn the great cart. The seven jewels are precisely the seven orifices in one's head, and these seven orifices are precisely the [seven characters] na-mu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo, the essential Dharma for the Final Dharma Age. For us, living beings, the five characters of the daimoku will become a boat at the river of the three crossings ; they will remove the cold in the crimson-lotus hell. In the hell of burning heat, they will become a cool breeze, and on the mountains of death, they will become lotus blossoms. When we are thirsty, they will become water, and when we are hungry, they will become food. When we are naked, they will become a robe. They will become a wife, a child, retainers, a clan--benefitting all living beings by conferring their inexhaustible responsive workings. This is the meaning of "directly arriving at the place of enlightenment." Accordingly, the fact that one dwells nowhere else but in the Land of Tranquil Light is called "directly arriving at the place of enlightenment." You should fix your mind on the word "directly" and ponder it." [STN3:2563-64] 

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