bcol01 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:25 pm
I'm still trying to understand this. Would love your insights on the subject. I want to understand better.
一念三千 [ichinen sanzen] literally means "ONE" [一] "STATE OF ATTENTION" [念] (contains) "THREE THOUSAND" [三千].
The translation as "three thousand thoughts in a single moment of life" is not entirely correct (although it does not mean that it is completely wrong). It is used by the Soka Gakkai to adapt Tientai's doctrine to Josei Toda's thinking about "vital force".
This "nen" [念] of "ichinen" corresponds to the Sanskrit "smrti" (in pali: sati), which literally means "to remember", although in Western Buddhism people translate it as "mindfullness", and corresponds to a practice specific Buddhist.
In Classical Sutras, like Nikayas, there are 4 foundations for "nen", in Pali they are called "satipatthana" and in Sanskrit "smrtyupasthana", which consists of remembering 4 considerations.
In the Chinese Agamas, in addition to these four considerations, there are 10 other considerations that should be remembered by the Buddhist practitioner. The first of these considerations is the so-called Nembutsu [念仏], the second is the so-called "Nen-ho" [remember the Dharma], among others.
This "nen" 念 is the same as 一念 "ichinen". In other words, literally, the term is not a "moment of life", but rather a state of attention, a circumstance provided by the practice of Buddhist meditation.
That is to say, a moment of "mindfulness" contains all 3,000 realms of existence 三千.
This perspective is a way of expounding the Mahayana doctrine as it is expounded in the Lotus Sutra.
In the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra in the Chinese version of Kumarajiva [this does not exist in the other Chinese versions nor in Sanskrit] we have the exposition of the 10 thusness (ju nyo ze), which in the liturgy of most Nichirenist schools is repeated three times during the recitation of the Sutra. These ten elements deal with the ten aspects of "complete reality" (nyo ze -> "thus").
When these ten aspects that make up reality are thought of in terms of the ten realms [six of samsara and four outside of samsara], each of which contains all ten realms along with the three elements of manifestation of existence [five aggregates of the subject, the environment and the beings that live in the realm] (10 * 10 * 10 * 3) we have reached the number of 3000 "dharmas", or 3000 realms of existence.
This means in practice that the real nature of each of these 3000 dharmas is "ichinen", or the "unique moment of attention". That is, each dharma, from those in the lowest state as well as that in the highest state, has no inherent quality that can be distinguished between them.
The big difference between this perspective of Tientai and that of classical Buddhism is that dharmas are extended to terms of environment and society.
In classical Buddhism (from the Sutras) the dharmas analyzed are these:
- 5 aggregates (form, perception, sensation, volition and consciousness) that make up an individual.
- 6 senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste)
- 12 sense bases (6 organs + 6 objects when they come into contact)
- 18 spheres (the result of the process between the previous elements).
Here, Buddhism thinks only in terms of the subject, but in the Tientai school, from the Lotus Sutra onwards, dharmas are also thought of in terms of objects: the environment and the other subjects that make up that society.
Thus, not only sensitive beings have the possibility of achieving enlightenment, but also the insensitive beings that make up the environment (the earth, more specifically).
The essential state of each of these dharmas, both in terms of subject and object, is 'Ichinen', a state of unified mind in mindfulness.
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But one important thing: the ichinen sanzen in Nichiren's teaching is "Ji no Ichinen Sanzen", or "ichinen sanzen of reality", whereas what I said corresponds to "Ri no Ichinen Sanzen", or "ichinen sanzen principles".
