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  • The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin I/II
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  • The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras
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“Life Span of the Thus Come One” chapter | Dictionary of Buddhism | Nichiren Buddhism Library
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  • Lalitavistara

    [普曜経] (;  Fuyō-kyō)

  • Lamenting Heresy

    [歎異抄] ( Tan’ni-shō)

  • Lan-ch’i Tao-lung

    [蘭渓道隆] (PY Lanqi Daolong;  Rankei Dōryū)

  • Land of Actual Reward

    [実報土] ( jippō-do)

  • Land of Enlightened and Unenlightened Beings

    [凡聖同居土] ( bonshō-dōgo-do)

  • Land of Eternally Tranquil Light

    [常寂光土] ( jōjakkō-do)

  • Land of Joy

    [歓喜国] ( Abhirati;  Kangi-koku)

  • Land of Sages and Common Mortals

    [凡聖同居土] ( bonshō-dōgo-do)

  • Land of Tranquil Light

    [寂光土] ( jakkō-do)

  • Land of Transition

    [方便土] ( hōben-do)

  • Land of Wonderful Joy

    [妙喜国] ( Myōki-koku)

  • Lankāvatāra Sutra

    [楞伽経] (; Chin Leng-ch’ieh-ching;  Ryōga-kyō)

  • Larger Wisdom Sutra

    [大品般若経] ( Panchavimshatisāhasrikā-prajnāpāramitā; Chin Ta-p’in-pan-jo-ching;  Daibon-hannya-kyō)

  • last five-hundred-year period

    [後五百歳] ( go-gohyakusai)

  • Latter Day of the Law

    [末法] ( mappō)

  • Law

    [法] ( dharma;  hō)

  • Law Bright

    [法明如来] ( Dharmaprabhāsa;  Hōmyō-nyorai)

  • Law-devouring hungry spirit

    [食法餓鬼] ( jikihō-gaki)

  • Law-wheel

    [法輪] ( hōrin)

  • lay nun

    [尼] ( ama)

  • lay priest

    [入道] ( nyūdō)

  • Learned Youth

    [儒童] ( Mānava or Mānavaka;  Judō)

  • lecture hall

    [講堂] ( kōdō)

  • Legacy Teachings Sutra

    [遺教経] (Chin I-chiao-ching;  Yuikyō-gyō)

  • lessening one’s karmic retribution

    [転重軽受] ( tenjū-kyōju)

  • lesser vehicle

    [小乗] ( shōjō)

  • Letter to Shimoyama

    [下山御消息] ( Shimoyama-goshōsoku)

  • Liang Dynasty Biographies of Eminent Priests, The

    [梁高僧伝] (Chin Liang-kao-seng-chuan;  Ryō-kōsō-den)

  • Liang-hsü

    [良諝] (n.d.) (PY Liangxu;  Ryōjo)

  • Liang-pi

    [良賁] (717–777) (PY Liangbi;  Ryōhi)

  • Licchavi

    [離車] (, Pali;  Risha)

  • life-liberating practice

    [放生会] ( hōjō-e)

  • “Life Span” chapter

    [寿量品] ( Juryō-hon)

  • “Life Span of the Thus Come One” chapter

    [如来寿量品] ( Nyorai-juryō-hon)

  • Light Bright

    [光明如来] ( Rashmiprabhāsa;  Kōmyō-nyorai)

  • Light Sound Heaven

    [光音天] ( Ābhāsvara;  Kō’on-ten)

  • Lin-chi school

    [臨済宗] (PY Linjizong;  Rinzai-shū)

  • lion seat

    [師子座・獅子座] ( simhāsana;  shishi-za)

  • Lion Sound King

    [師子音王仏] ( Simhanādarāja;  Shishionnō-butsu)

  • lion’s roar

    [師子吼・獅子吼] ( simhanāda;  shishi-ku)

  • Lion’s Roar of Queen Shrīmālā Sutra

    [勝鬘師子吼経] ( Shōman-shishiku-kyō)

  • lion throne

    [師子座・獅子座] ( shishi-za)

  • little desire and contentment with a little gain

    [少欲知足] ( shōyoku-chisoku)

  • lobha

    [貪・貪欲] (, Pali;  ton or ton’yoku)

  • Lokakshema

    [支婁迦讖] (n.d.) (;  Shirukasen)

  • Lokāyata

    [順世外道] (, Pali;  Junse-gedō or Junsei-gedō)

  • Lokeshvararāja

    [世自在王仏] (;  Sejizaiō-butsu)

  • Long Āgama Sutra

    [長阿含経] (Chin Ch’ang-a-han-ching;  Jō-agon-gyō)

  • long broad tongue

    [広長舌] ( kōchō-zetsu)

  • lord of teachings

    [教主] ( kyōshu)

  • Lotus and Nirvana period

    [法華涅槃時] ( Hokke-nehan-ji)

  • lotus as a metaphor

    [譬喩蓮華] ( hiyu-renge)

  • Lotus meditation

    [法華三昧] ( hokke-sammai or hokke-zammai)

  • lotus of the entity

    [当体蓮華] ( tōtai-renge)

  • Lotus school

    [法華宗] (Chin Fa-hua-tsung;  Hokke-shū)

  • Lotus Sutra

    [法華経] ( Saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra; Chin Fa-hua-ching;  Hoke-kyō)

  • Lotus Sutra and Its Traditions, The

    [法華伝記] (Chin Fa-hua-chuan-chi;  Hokke-denki)

  • Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law

    [正法華経] (Chin Cheng-fa-hua-ching;  Shō-hoke-kyō)

  • Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law

    [妙法蓮華経] ( Saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra; Chin Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching;  Myoho-renge-kyo)

  • Lotus Treasury World

    [蓮華蔵世界・華蔵世界] ( Kusuma-tala-garbha-vyūhālamkāra-loka-dhātu-samudra or Padma-garbha-loka-dhātu;  Rengezō-sekai or Kezō-sekai) (1) (2)

  • Lou-lan

    [楼蘭] (PY Loulan;  Rōran)

  • Lumbinī

    [藍毘尼] (, Pali;  Rambini)

  • Lung-men caves

    [竜門石窟] (PY Longmen;  Ryūmon-sekkutsu)

  • Lü school

    [律宗] (PY Lüzong;  Risshū)

“Life Span of the Thus Come One” chapter [如来寿量品] ( Nyorai-juryō-hon): Abbreviated as the “Life Span” chapter. The sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, in which Shakyamuni Buddha reveals that he originally attained enlightenment in the far distant past rather than in his present life in India as his listeners generally thought. The chapter title “The Life Span of the Thus Come One” means the duration of Shakyamuni’s life as a Buddha, that is, how much time has passed since he originally attained Buddhahood. T’ien-t’ai (538–597) of China ranks it as the key chapter of the essential teaching, or the latter fourteen chapters of the sutra. The chapter opens with three exhortations and four entreaties, in which the Buddha three times admonishes the multitude to believe and understand his truthful words, and the assembly four times begs him to preach. Shakyamuni then says, “You must listen carefully and hear of the Thus Come One’s secret and his transcendental powers.” He proceeds to explain that, while all heavenly and human beings and asuras believe that he first attained enlightenment in his present lifetime under the bodhi tree, it has actually been an incalculable length of time since he attained enlightenment. He then offers a dramatic description of the magnitude of this immeasurably long period. He describes taking a vast number of worlds, grinding them to dust, and then traversing the universe, dropping a particle each time one passes an equally vast number of worlds. Having exhausted all the dust particles, one takes all the worlds traversed, whether they have received a dust particle or not, and grinds them to dust. Then Shakyamuni says: “Let one particle represent one kalpa. The time that has passed since I attained Buddhahood surpasses this by a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million nayuta asamkhya kalpas.” Commentaries on this chapter refer to this cosmically immense period as “numberless major world system dust particle kalpas.” In the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni thus refutes the view that he attained enlightenment for the first time in this life in India and reveals his original attainment of enlightenment in the remote past. T’ien-t’ai refers to this in The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra and The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra as “opening the near and revealing the distant,” “casting off the transient and revealing the true,” and “opening the transient and revealing the true.” Here, “the transient” means Shakyamuni’s transient status, and “the true” means his true identity. From his original attainment of Buddhahood, Shakyamuni declares, he has constantly been here in this sahā world preaching the Law, appearing as many different Buddhas and using various means to save living beings. Though he says that he enters nirvana, he merely uses his death as a means to arouse in people the desire to seek a Buddha. He then illustrates this idea with the parable of the skilled physician and his sick children. In the parable, the children of a skilled physician have accidentally swallowed poison. Having lost their senses, they refuse the medicine their father offers them as an antidote. The father then goes off to a remote place and sends a message informing his children he has died. Shocked to their senses, the children take the medicine their father has left for them and are cured. The Buddha is compared to the father in this parable, living beings to the children who have drunk poison, and the Buddha’s entry into nirvana to the father’s report of his own death—an expedient means to arouse in people the aspiration for enlightenment. The chapter concludes with a verse section, which restates the important teachings of the preceding prose section.
  In Profound Meaning, T’ien-t’ai interprets the “Life Span” chapter as revealing the three mystic principles of the true cause (the cause for Shakyamuni’s original attainment of enlightenment), the true effect (his original enlightenment), and the true land (the place where the Buddha lives and teaches). He interprets the passage “Originally I practiced the bodhisattva way . . . “ as indicating the stage of non-regression, or the eleventh of the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, which he explained as the true cause that enabled Shakyamuni to attain Buddhahood. In answer to the question of what Shakyamuni practiced in order to reach the stage of non-regression, Nichiren (1222–1282) identified it as the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.


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