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 carries Ikeda Sensei’s explanations of gongyo. This section, part of the prose section of the “Life Span” chapter, is no longer recited during our morning and evening prayers, but we have included it here for its invaluable content. The full text can be found in The Heart of the Lotus Sutra, pp. 173–76.
Hi nyo go hyaku sen man noku. Nayuta. Asogi. Sanzen dai sen sekai. Ke shi u nin. Matchi mijin. Ka o tobo. Go hyaku sen man noku. Nayuta. Asogi koku. Nai ge ichi-jin. Nyo ze to gyo. Jin ze mijin. Sho zen-nanshi. O i unga. Ze sho sekai. Ka toku shiyui. Kyokei chi go. Shu fu. Mi-roku bo-sat to. Ku byaku butsu gon. Seson. Ze sho sekai. Muryo muhen. Hi sanju sho chi. Yaku hi shin-riki sho gyu. Issai shomon. Hyaku-shi-butsu. I mu-rochi. Fu no shiyui. Chi go genshu. Gato ju. A-yui-ot-chi-ji. O ze ji chu. Yaku sho fu das seson. Nyo ze sho sekai. Muryo muhen.
Literal translation: “Suppose a person were to take five hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million nayuta asamkhya major world systems and grind them to dust. Then, moving eastward, each time he passes five hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million nayuta asamkhya worlds he drops a particle of dust. He continues eastward in this way until he has finished dropping all the particles. Good men, what is your opinion? Can the total number of all these worlds be imagined or calculated?”
The bodhisattva Maitreya and the others said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One, these worlds are immeasurable, boundless—one cannot calculate their number, nor does the mind have the power to encompass them. Even all the voice-hearers and pratyekabuddhas with their wisdom free of outflows could not imagine or understand how many there are. Although we abide in the stage of non-regression, we cannot comprehend such a matter. World-Honored One, these worlds are immeasurable and boundless.” (The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, p. 266)
Ikeda Sensei:
In the cosmology of ancient India, one major world system is itself an immense expanse. In a single world, there is a sun and a moon, and in the center, there is a Mount Sumeru, which towers unimaginably high. It might be compared to the concept of a solar system.
A major world system consists of one billion such worlds. In the “Life Span” chapter, however, Shakyamuni speaks of “five hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million nayuta asamkhya major world systems.” This indicates a number of worlds so huge as to far exceed even the grand scale of the cosmos as we know it. …
The grains of dust must be dropped one at a time. If one continues in this manner until one runs out of dust, then how many worlds will one pass during this interval? This is what Shakyamuni asks Bodhisattva Maitreya and the others. It is clear that no one can answer him.
In response, Bodhisattva Maitreya, who in the “Life Span” chapter represents the assembly, replies, “These worlds are immeasurable, boundless—one cannot calculate their number, nor does the mind have the power to encompass them.” “Nor does the mind have the power to encompass them” indicates that comprehension is beyond even the wisdom of voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones and great bodhisattvas who have attained the stage of nonregression. It is not simply a matter of magnitude of number or length of time; understanding in fact depends on one’s state of life.
That it is unknowable to even great bodhisattvas at the stage of nonregression, who are said to have already extinguished a measure of darkness, means that one cannot grasp the remote past of the “Life Span” chapter without conquering the fundamental darkness from which all illusions and desires spring.
This is why Shakyamuni so strongly emphasized the need to “believe and understand” at the outset of the “Life Span” chapter. Nichiren Daishonin says, “The single word ‘belief’ is the sharp sword with which one confronts and overcomes fundamental darkness or ignorance” (The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, pp. 119–20). …
While listening to Shakyamuni’s preaching, Maitreya and the others in the assembly no doubt felt as though they were being drawn powerfully into the great state of life of the Buddha who freely moves through the universe.
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