Minobu wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:10 pm
from another thread we have this
_johnarundel_ wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2020 4:44 pm
Finally, in our current age of Mappo, because of our lower capacities, we must receive the seed of Buddhahood for the first time by chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to the Gohonzon, which is how common mortals can attain Buddhahood in their present form, as taught by Nichiren Daishonin.
couple things about this statement to ponder.
a) At ceremony in the air the Four Leaders of the Bodhisattvas of The Earth ,with Bodhisattvas in the numbers of more than sixty thousand times the grains of sand in the Ganges River,came to ceremony in the air. As explained these are Bodhisattvas trained by Lord Sakyamuni Buddha in the infinite past, and remained dormant if you will , for the work to be done during Mappo. dormant meaning in the sense, at mappo they rise to the occasion, This is what Lord Sakyamuni Buddha trained them for.
b) The Eternal Buddha MyoHo RenGe Kyo is exactly that, Eternal ,and every sentient has a Buddha nature.
It's like taking the three thousand moments of Ichinen Sanzen out of the picture till this true buddha of kuon ganjo arrives on scene...
So this concept of receiving the seed of Buddhahood for the first time seems a concept purely designed in Nichiren shoShu to support their narrative.
which only causes angst if i mention it so i won't...
but this narrative is not common to anyone but Nichiren shoshu and goes against the grain of what a) and b) is explained .
This has never made sense to me.
Buddhanature is the reality of all beings. In ordinary beings, it is obscured.
In a narrative sense, there is this notion that all beings, since beginningless time have been coursing in samsara, oblivious to their real condition. We say the seed was figuratively planted at some point, but its more like pointing at the end of the rainbow - its always beyond reach, but puts beginningless time in terms of cause and effect, which is functionally necessary. It is functionally necessary because we clearly are not awakened, but we are headed to awakening, and our effort (non-effort?) is required to that end.
I've never understood the sowing part; it never sat well with me, and I am relieved I have no reason to account for it.
The only way it makes sense is that samsara is so long and so traumatic that most of us forget what we were taught. The Lotus opens with Manjusri explaining to Maitreya that he heard the Lotus Sutra before, but he (Maitreya) has forgotten. That is remarkable - Maitreya, who will appear in this world as the next Buddha, doesn't even remember the last time he was taught the Lotus Sutra. How does an ordinary person of ordinary intelligence and achievement possibly remember their past learning? Planting a seed is not actually planting a seed - its a reminder of what one has already learned, many many many times before - but we've squandered each opportunity only to fall back into the spin cycle of samsara.
In the Tiantai framework, Buddhanature is threefold - Buddhanature as Direct Cause 正因仏性, Buddhanature as Complete Cause 了因仏性, and Buddhanature as Conditioned Cause 縁因仏性. The first is Buddhanature as our actual reality, our real identity as Buddha; the second is the teaching of our actual reality, ie. the Buddha pointing out our real nature to us; the third is the practices we undertake to realize Buddhahood ourselves. The sowing seems to relate to the second aspect of Buddhanature.
Zhiyi pointed out, if Buddhanature were not our real nature, then it could not be taught to us. That said, to propose a being without Buddhanature is nonsensical.