The Single Moment of Faith and Rejoicing

Shakyamuni Buddha asserts that his spiritually awakened life is not bounded by birth or death in chapter 16, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” of the Lotus Sutra. As the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha, he is always present, helping us to quickly realize buddhahood. More profoundly, this has been taken to mean that buddhahood itself has no beginning or end. It is already the present reality of our lives though we do not realize it. How can we realize it? According to the Lotus Sutra, simply hearing this teaching and taking faith in it is enough: “Know that, when you remove your doubts, and when you have great joy, you will become buddhas!”[1]

In Chapter 17, “The Variety of Merits,” of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha expounds the incalculable merits that come to those who can have ever-deepening levels of faith in the unborn and deathless nature of the Buddha’s awakening that is revealed in chapter 16. The Buddha first speaks of the merits of those who hear directly from him about his awakened lifespan and can take faith in his teaching in terms of what the Tiantai school of Buddhism would later call the four depths of faith.[2] (1) He says that anyone who understands by faith for even a moment of thought will obtain more merits than those who practice the first five of the six perfections (generosity, morality, patience, energy, and meditation but wisdom is excepted), and will never falter in walking the way to unsurpassed perfect awakening.[3] (2) Furthermore, those who then go on to understand the meaning of his words will obtain innumerable merits that will help them attain buddhahood.[4] (3) It then goes without saying that those who hear it, keep it, disseminate it to others, and make offerings to the Lotus Sutra will obtain merits that will help them attain the knowledge of the equality and difference of all things, which is the wisdom of the Buddha.[5] (4) Finally, those who develop deep faith will see the Buddha teaching the assembly in the pure land of Vulture Peak.[6]

The Buddha then addresses the merits gained by those who take faith after his seeming extinction, or parinirvana. He does so in terms of what the Tiantai school of Buddhism would later call the five stages of practice.[7] These five stages of practice would apply to those of us who are trying to take faith in and practice the Lotus Sutra today, 2,500 years after the death of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha. First is the stage of rejoicing:

Furthermore, the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sutra but rejoice at hearing it after my extinction, should be considered, know this, to have already understood my longevity by firm faith.[8]

Second is the stage of reading and reciting:

It is needless to say this of those who [not only rejoice at hearing this sutra but also] read, recite, and keep it. They also should be considered to be carrying me on their heads.[9]

Third is the stage of expounding it to others:

Anyone who, after hearing this sutra, keeps or copies it or causes others to copy it after my extinction, should be considered to have already built many hundreds of thousands of billions of monasteries … Therefore, I say, ‘Anyone who keeps, reads or recites this sutra, expounds it to others, copies it, causes others to copy it, or makes offerings to a copy of it after my extinction, need not build a stupa or monastery, or make offerings to the Sangha.’[10]

Fourth is the stage of practicing the six perfections:

Needless to say, anyone who not only keeps this sutra but also gives alms, observes the precepts, practices patience, makes endeavors, concentrates his mind, and seeks wisdom, will be able to obtain the most excellent and innumerable merits. His merits will be as limitless as the sky is in the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate quarters, the zenith, and the nadir. These innumerable merits of his will help him obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.[11]

Fifth is the stage of mastering the six perfections:

Anyone who reads, recites or keeps this sutra, expounds it to others, copies it, or causes others to copy it [in my lifetime], should be considered to have already built stupas and monasteries, made offerings to the Sangha of shravakas, praised them, praised bodhisattvas for their merits by hundreds of thousands of billions of ways of praising, expounded this Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra to others with various stories of previous lives according to the meanings of it, observed the precepts without fallacy, lived with gentle persons, practiced patience, refrained from anger, become resolute in mind, preferred sitting in meditation, practiced deep concentrations of mind, become strenuous and brave, practiced good teachings, become clever and wise, and answered questions satisfactorily. Ajita! Any good man or woman who keeps, reads, or recites this sutra after my extinction will also be able to obtain these merits. Know this! He or she should be considered to have already reached the place of awakening, approached unsurpassed perfect awakening, and sat under the tree of awakening.[12]

It is in these passages that the Buddha describes how to put into practice the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra. It all begins with a single moment of faith and rejoicing in the Lotus Sutra that leads to understanding and then unfolds in terms of the five practices of keeping, reading, reciting, expounding, and copying the sutra that are spoken of throughout the sutra itself beginning in chapter 10, “The Teacher of the Dharma.” It culminates finally in the practice and mastery of all of the six perfections. But even the first stage of faithfully rejoicing in the unborn and deathless awakened lifespan of the Buddha is said to bring about more merit than the practice of all the other perfections together except wisdom. Most people assume that the practice of Buddhism should involve meritorious practices such as the generous support of the Sangha, giving food and clothing to the poor, the cultivation of ethics, or the practice of meditation. The Lotus Sutra, however, does not propose any such formal practice. Instead, it states very boldly that a single moment of faith and joy in the message of the Lotus Sutra can bring about more merit than any of the practices typically associated with Buddhism. What does the Lotus Sutra mean by this?

To begin with, what exactly is meant by “merit”? Merit refers to the wholesome effects that come through making good causes. Merit is what accrues to a person who performs good deeds such as making offerings – such as food, clothing, shelter, or medicine, incense, flowers, and so forth – to the Buddha or for the support of the Sangha. It can also come from acts of renunciation or self-sacrifice to save other beings from suffering, such as those exemplified by the Buddha in his many past lives as a bodhisattva. These merits are karmic seeds that come to fruition in the form of long life, wealth, beauty, prestige, opportunities to meet good teachers and gain wisdom, or even rebirth in the heavens. Merit can also be dedicated or transferred to others, which is a meritorious act in itself. Mahayana Buddhist services always end with a dedication of merit wherein the merit accrued from the service and accompanying offerings is transferred to the Three Treasures to further their power of saving all beings and also to all sentient beings to enable them to attain favorable circumstances for attaining liberation from suffering. Attaining buddhahood is believed to occur when a bodhisattva not only realizes the true nature of reality but also generates sufficient merit to attain the powers and abilities that make a buddha such a consummate teacher of spiritual awakening.

But how much merit does it take to attain buddhahood? Is the innumerable merit accrued from having a single moment of understanding by faith while hearing the Lotus Sutra from the Buddha or attaining the stage of rejoicing by hearing the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha’s seeming extinction sufficient to attain buddhahood? In “The Simile of the Herbs,” the fifth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha says, “You spoke of my merits very well. My true merits are just as you said. In reality, however, I have more merits. They are innumerable, asamkhya.” [13] How could anyone ever collect that much merit? These questions, however, assume that buddhahood is something we need to earn. As if buddhahood had a price tag on it in terms of merit. When the price is paid, then one can have buddhahood. But think about this? Doesn’t this make buddhahood something conditioned, something that begins when certain conditions are met and therefore may cease when conditions change?

This is exactly what the Buddha denies in the chapter called, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata.” In that chapter the Buddha says:

All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which I do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way [as the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly. [14]

The true nature of buddhahood is that it is unconditioned. Being unconditioned it is unconditionally present though obscured. Why is it obscured to us? Because we do not even know what our own true nature is. As the Buddha says in the above passage, neither the living beings nor the Buddha appear or disappear. Neither living beings nor the Buddha are real or unreal. Both are empty and so ungraspable, but that emptiness of any fixed substantial existence is also a fullness of causes and conditions. This is beyond having or not having, it just is. It is simply thus. This is the thus or suchness that only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom. How can we get this, how can we understand or grasp it? It is exactly when we stop trying to grasp it and allow ourselves to live it that we can be said to awaken and discover a life that is beyond the boundaries of birth and death, the unconditioned that unborn and deathless. Still, this is easier said than done. That is why it initially takes faith, a firm and even joyful confidence that this is so. This is what the Buddha means when he speaks of understanding his longevity by firm faith. He is not talking about believing that the Buddha lingers on in chronological time as some ghostly being. He is talking about faith in buddhahood (his buddhahood and our buddhahood) as unconditioned and unconditional. Elusive as it may be, it is not something earned by a large though finite amount of merit, it is a reality that one awakens to that was there all along.

This is what incalculable merit is really about. It is not an immensely large but countable quantity of some kind of wholesome karmic credit. Incalculable merit is to enter the unconditioned, the boundless, to stop feeling the need to calculate merit to get or have buddhahood (or the pure land, or sainthood, or heaven, or whatever else one was trying to get that one believed one didn’t already have). It is to be done with the finite efforts of trying to accrue merit or earn anything. It is to have faith that the unconditioned, which is the unborn and deathless life of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha, of our own buddhahood, is always unconditionally present and working in and through everything that is the wholeness of all our lives flowing on together.

The Buddha insists that even the wisest of his disciples, Shariputra, can only understand the Lotus Sutra through faith. [15] But faith in Buddhism is not just blindly believing the Buddha or a particular sutra, even the Lotus Sutra. It is to let go of trying to understand with the head and to allow the heart to open and rest in what is real in the very place and moment where one is living. Here we can come and see what the Buddha is trying to convey. Here we can awaken to what truly is through “abiding firmly with resolute conviction in a state of clearness, tranquility, and freedom.” [16] In our practice of chanting the Odaimoku, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, we are giving ourselves a chance to let go of everything else and discover what it is to proclaim and abide in the wonder of the Dharma; to see, hear, take in, and enjoy the unborn and deathless true nature of this moment; and through such joyful faith be led into the perfect wisdom and incalculable merit of the Eternal Buddha.

[1] Lotus Sutra, p. 51

[2] Writings of Nichiren Shonin: Faith and Practice Vol. 4, p. 107

[3] Lotus Sutra, pp. 260-261

[4] Ibid, p. 263

[5] Ibid, pp. 263-264

[6] Ibid, p. 264

[7] Writings of Nichiren Shonin: Faith and Practice Vol. 4, p. 107

[8] Lotus Sutra, p. 264

[9] Ibid, p. 264

[10] Ibid, p. 265

[11] Ibid, p. 265

[12] Ibid, pp. 265-266

[13] Ibid, p. 108

[14] Ibid, p. 249

[15] Ibid, p. 82

[16] Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment p. 16