Gongyo—which includes reciting portions of the “Expedient Means” and “Life Span of the Thus Come One” chapters of the Lotus Sutra morning and evening—is part of daily practice for Nichiren Buddhists. This series will carry Ikeda Sensei’s explanations of gongyo, section by section. The full text can be found in The Heart of the Lotus Sutra, pp. 30–31.
Niji seson. Ju sanmai. Anjo ni ki. Go shari-hotsu. Sho-but chi-e. Jinjin muryo. Go chi-e mon. Nange nannyu. Issai shomon. Hyaku-shi-butsu. Sho fu no chi.
Literal translation: At that time the World-Honored One calmly arose from his samadhi and addressed Shariputra, saying: “The wisdom of the Buddhas is infinitely profound and immeasurable. The door to this wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to
enter. Not one of the voice-hearers or pratyeka-buddhas is able to comprehend it.” (The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, p. 56)
Ikeda Sensei:
The “wisdom of the Buddhas” is the wisdom that shines like a sun within the Buddha. Shakyamuni praises this wisdom as “infinitely profound and immeasurable.” It is “infinitely profound” because it penetrates down to the truth that is the very foundation of life. It is “immeasurable” because its light broadly illuminates all things.
Because the wisdom of the Buddhas reveals life in its entirety, the Buddha’s state of life is said to be expansive and profound. …
Shakyamuni doesn’t praise the wisdom of the Buddhas to say that the Buddha alone is great. In fact, it is just the opposite; his purpose is to
encourage others. In effect, he is saying: “Therefore, all of you, too, should make this same great wisdom of the Buddhas shine in your own lives and become happy.”
Wisdom is the path to happiness. Money, status, skill at getting by in the world—none of these can enable us to overcome the fundamental sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death. The only way is to cultivate the wisdom with which our lives are inherently endowed.
The Lotus Sutra’s purpose is to enable all people to cultivate supreme wisdom in their hearts and advance along the great path of indestructible happiness. Nichiren Daishonin writes, “The treasures of the heart are the most valuable of all” (“The Three Kinds of Treasure,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 851). That is why Shakyamuni began by extolling the wisdom of the Buddhas, the supreme wisdom.
The next part of the passage reads, “The door to this wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter.” Here Shakyamuni again praises the Buddha wisdom but from a slightly different perspective.
The “door to this wisdom” is the door to the realm of Buddha wisdom. Shakyamuni expounded various teachings as means to enable people to enter this realm. … For example, at different times, he taught that life is suffering, that nothing is constant, that happiness lies in extinguishing all desires and that people should seek to awaken to the principle of dependent origination. In this way, Shakyamuni expounded teachings that the people could best understand.
These specific teachings, however, did not represent the Buddha’s true purpose. The true purpose lay in enabling all people to enter the path of wisdom, the path for becoming a Buddha.
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