Bodhichitta.

The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law Chapter 4 - Faith Discernment

2012-02-15T06:40:00.000-08:00

At that time the wisdom-destined Subhuti, Maha-Katyayana, Maha-Kashyapa, and Maha-Maudgalyayana, hearing from the Buddha the unprecedented Law and the prediction by the World-honored One of Shariputra's [future destiny of] Perfect Enlightenment, were struck with wonder and ecstatic with joy. Thereupon they rose from their seats, and, arranging their garments, humbly baring their right shoulders, placing their right knees on the ground, with one mind folding their hands, bending their bodies in reverence, and gazing upon his honored face, addressed the Buddha, saying:

"We, heads of the monks, in years moreover worn out, consider that we have attained nirvana, and that there is nothing more we are able to undertake, so we do not press forward to seek after Perfect Enlightenment. The World-honored One for a long time has been preaching the Law, and we all the time seated in our places have become weary in our bodies and neglectful, only thinking of the void, of the formless, and of nonfunction,1 but in regard to the bodhisattva-laws, their supernatural displays, the purifying of the buddha-lands, and the perfecting of all living beings, our hearts have not taken delight. Wherefore? [Because we have fancied that] the World-honored One had caused us to escape the triple world and to obtain [proof of] nirvana, and besides, now we are [so] worn with age that in regard to Perfect Enlightenment, for which the Buddha instructs bodhisattvas, we have not conceived a single fond thought of joy.

Now we, in the presence of the Buddha, hearing that shravakas are predicted to [attain] Perfect Enlightenment, are extremely glad in our minds and have obtained that which we have never experienced before. Unexpectedly we now of a sudden hear this rare Law. Profoundly do we congratulate ourselves [on] having acquired so great and good a gain, an inestimable jewel, without the seeking. World-honored One! Now let us have the pleasure of speaking in a parable to make plain this meaning.

"It is like a man who, in his youth, leaves his father and runs away. For long he dwells in some other country, for ten, twenty, or fifty years. The older he grows, the more needy he becomes. Roaming about in all directions to seek clothing and food, he gradually wanders along till he unexpectedly approaches his native country. From the first the father searched for this son, but in vain, and meanwhile settled in a [certain] city. His home became very rich, his goods and treasures incalculable: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, coral, amber, crystal, and other gems, so that his granaries and treasuries overflow; he has many youths and slaves, retainers and attendants, and numberless elephants, horses, carriages, animals to ride, cows, and sheep. His revenues and investments spread to other countries, and his traders and customers are many in the extreme.

"At this time the poor son, wandering through village after village and passing through countries and cities, at last reaches the city where his father has settled. The father has always been thinking of his son, and though he has been parted from him over fifty years, he has never spoken of the matter to anyone, only pondering it himself and cherishing regret in his heart as he reflects: 'Old and worn, I own much wealth--gold, silver, and jewels, granaries and treasuries overflowing--but I have no son. Someday my end will come and my wealth will be scattered and lost, for there is no one to whom I can leave it.' Thus does he earnestly, whenever he thinks of his son, repeat this reflection: 'If I could only get [back] my son and commit my wealth to him, how contented and happy should I be, with never any more anxiety!'

"World-honored One! Meanwhile the poor son, hired for wages here and there, unexpectedly arrives at his father's house. Standing by the gate, he sees from afar his father seated on a lion couch, his feet on a jeweled footstool, revered and surrounded by Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and citizens, and with strings of pearl worth thousands and myriads adorning his body; attendants and young slaves with white fly whisks wait upon him right and left; he is covered by a precious canopy from which hang streamers of flowers; perfume is sprinkled on the earth, all kinds of famous flowers are scattered around, and precious things are placed in rows; some he accepts, others he rejects. Such is his glory, and the honor of his dignity. The poor son, seeing his father possessed of [such] great power, was seized with fear, regretting that he had come to [this] place, and secretly reflected thus: 'This must be a king or someone of royal rank; it is no place for me to obtain anything for the hire of my labor. I had better go to some poor hamlet, where there is a place to hire out my labor, and food and clothing are easier to get. If I tarry here long, I may suffer oppression and forced labor.'

"Having reflected thus, he hastily runs away. Meanwhile the rich elder on his lion seat has recognized his son at first sight and with great joy in his mind has thus reflected: 'Now I have the one to whom my treasuries of wealth are to be made over. Always have I been thinking of this [my] son, with no means of seeing him; but suddenly he himself has come and my longing is satisfied. Though worn with years, I still yearn [for him].'

"Instantly he dispatches his attendants to rush after him and fetch him back. Thereupon the messengers hasten forth to seize him. The poor son, surprised and scared, loudly cries his complaint: 'I have committed no offense against you; why should I be arrested?' The messengers all the more hasten to lay hold of him and compel him to go back. Thereupon the poor son thinks to himself that [though] he is innocent yet he will be imprisoned, and that will certainly mean his death, so that he is all the more terrified, faints away, and falls on the ground. The father, seeing this from afar, gives the messengers his word: 'There is no need for this man. Do not fetch him by force. Sprinkle cold water on his face to restore him to consciousness and do not speak to him any further!'2 Wherefore? The father, knowing that his son's disposition is inferior, knowing that his own lordly position has caused distress to his son, yet profoundly assured that he is his son, tactfully says nothing to others that this is his son. A messenger says to the son: 'I now set you free; go wherever you will.' The poor son is delighted, [thus] obtaining the unexpected. He rises from the ground and goes to a poor hamlet in search of food and clothing.

"Then the elder, desiring to attract his son, sets up a device. Secretly he sends two men of doleful and undignified appearance, [saying]: 'You go and visit that place and gently say to the poor man: "There is a place for you to work here; you will be given double wages." If the poor man agrees, bring him back and give him work. If he asks what work do [you] wish him to do, then you may say to him: "It is for removing [a heap of] dirt that we hire you, and we both also would work along with you."' Then the two messengers went in search of the poor son and, having found him, placed [before him] the above proposal. Thereupon the poor son, having received his wages beforehand, joins with them in removing the dirt [heap]. His father, beholding the son, is struck with compassion for and wonder at him.

"Another day he sees at a distance through a window his son's figure, gaunt, lean, and doleful, filthy and unclean from the piles of dirt and dust; thereupon he takes off his strings of jewels, his soft attire and ornaments, and puts on again a coarse, torn, and dirty garment, smears his body with dust, takes a dustpan in his right hand, and with an appearance of fear3 says to the laborers: 'Get on with your work, don't be lazy.' By [such] a device he gets near his son, to whom he soon afterward says: 'Aye, [my] man, you stay and work here, do not go again elsewhere; I will increase your wages; whatever you need, bowls, utensils, rice, wheat flour, salt, vinegar, and so on; have no hesitation; besides, there is [an] old and worn-out servant whom you shall be given if you need him. Be at ease in your mind; I am as it were your father; do not be worried again. Wherefore? I am old and advanced in years, but you are young and vigorous; all the time you have been working, you have never been deceitful, lazy, angry, or grumbling; I have never seen you have such vices as these, like the other laborers. From this time forth you shall be as my own begotten son.'

"Thereupon the elder gives him a name anew and calls him a son. Then the poor son, though he rejoices at this happening, still thinks of himself as a humble hireling. For this reason, for twenty years he continues to be employed for removing dirt. After this period, there is confidence between them and he goes in and out and at his ease, though his abode is still the original place.

"World-honored One! Then the elder becomes ill and, knowing that he will shortly die, says to the poor son: 'Now I possess abundant gold, silver, and precious things, and my granaries and treasuries are full to overflowing. The quantities of these things, and the [amounts] which should be received and given, [I want] you to understand in detail. Such is my mind. Do you agree to this my will. Wherefore? Because now I and you are of the same mind. Be increasingly mindful so that there be no waste.'

"Then the poor son accepts his instructions and commands, and becomes acquainted with all the goods, gold, silver, and precious things, as well as all the granaries and treasuries, but has no idea of expecting to receive [as much as] a meal, while his abode is still the original place and his sense of inferiority too he is still unable to abandon.

"After a short time has passed, again the father, knowing that his son's ideas have gradually been enlarged and his will well developed, and that he despises his previous [state of] mind, on seeing that his own end is near, commands his son [to come] and at the same time gathers together his relatives, and the kings, ministers, Kshatriyas, and citizens. When they are all assembled, he thereupon addresses them, saying: 'Know, gentlemen, this is my son begotten by me. It is over fifty years since, from a certain city, he left me and ran away to endure loneliness and misery. His former name was so and so and my name is so and so. At that time in that city I sought him sorrowfully. Suddenly in this place I met and regained him. This is really my son and I am really his father. Now all the wealth which I possess belongs entirely to my son, and all my previous disbursements and receipts are known by this son.'

"World-honored One! When the poor son heard these words of his father, great was his joy at such unexpected [news], and thus he thought: 'Without any mind for or effort on my part these treasures now come of themselves to me.'

"World-honored One! The very rich elder is the Tathagata and we all are as the Buddha's sons. The Tathagata has always declared that we are his sons. World-honored One! Because of the three sufferings, in the midst of births and deaths we have borne all kinds of torments, being deluded and ignorant and enjoying [our] attachment to trifles. Today the World-honored One has caused us to ponder over and remove the dirt of all diverting discussions of [inferior] laws [or things]. In these we have been diligent to make progress and have got [but] a day's pay [for our effort] to reach nirvana.4 Having got this, we greatly rejoiced and were contented, saying to ourselves: 'For our diligence and progress in the Buddha-law what we have received is ample.'

But the World-honored One, knowing beforehand that our minds were attached to low desires and delighted in inferior things, lets us go our own way and does not discriminate against us, [saying]: 'You shall [yet] have control of the treasury of Tathagata-knowledge.' The World-honored One by his tactful power tells of the Tathagata-wisdom, [but] we, [though] following the Buddha and receiving [but] a day's wage of nirvana, have deemed it a great gain and never devoted ourselves to seeking after this Great-vehicle.

We also have declared and expounded the Tathagata-wisdom to bodhisattvas, but in regard to this [Great-vehicle] we have never had a longing for it. Wherefore? The Buddha, knowing that our minds delight in inferior things, by his tactful power teaches according to our [capacity], but still we do not perceive that we are really Buddha-sons. Now we have just realized that the World-honored One does not begrudge the Buddha-wisdom. Wherefore? From of old we are really sons of the Buddha, but only have taken pleasure in minor matters; if we had had a mind to take pleasure in the great, the Buddha would have preached the Great-vehicle Law to us. Now he in this sutra preaches only the One-vehicle; and though formerly in the presence of bodhisattvas he spoke disparagingly of shravakas who were pleased with minor matters, yet the Buddha had in reality been instructing them in the Great-vehicle. Therefore we say that though we had no mind to hope or expect it, [yet] now the great treasure of the King of the Law has of itself come to us, and such things that Buddha-sons should obtain we have all obtained."

Then Maha-Kashyapa, desiring to proclaim this meaning over again, spoke [thus] in verse:

"We on this day
Have heard the Buddha's voice teach
And are ecstatic with joy at
Having obtained the unprecedented.
The Buddha declares that [we] shravakas
Will become buddhas;
[His] peerless collection of treasures
We have received without seeking.
It is like a youth,
Immature and ignorant,
Who leaves his father and runs away
To other lands far distant,
Wandering about in many countries
For over fifty years.
His father, with anxious care,
Searches in all directions.
Wearied with his search,
He abides in a certain city.
Where he builds a house,
Enjoying the pleasures of life;5
Very rich in his house,
With abundance of gold and silver,
Moonstones and agates,
Pearls and lapis lazuli,
Elephants, horses, oxen, and sheep,
Palanquins, litters, carriages,
Husbandmen, young slaves,
And a multitude of people;
His revenues and investments
Spread even to other countries;
His traders and customers
Are found everywhere;
A thousand myriad kotis of people
Surround and honor him;
Constantly by the king
He is held in affection;
All the ministers and noble families
Honor him highly;
For all these reasons
His guests are many;
Such are the abundance of his wealth
And the greatness of his power.
But his years are wearing away
And he grieves the more over his son;
Morning and night he ponders:
'The time of my death is approaching;
My foolish son has left me
For over fifty years;
These things in my storehouses -
What shall I do [with them]?'
At that time the poor son
Seeks food and clothing
From city to city,
From country to country,
Sometimes getting something,
Sometimes nothing;
Famished, weak, and gaunt,
Covered with scabs and sores,
Gradually he passes along
To the city where his father dwells.
Hired for wages he roams about,
At last reaching his father's house.
At that very hour the elder
Within his gates
Has set up a great jeweled curtain
And sits on a lion seat
Surrounded by his attendants,
Everybody taking care of him.
Some are counting
Gold, silver, and precious things,
[Others] incoming and outgoing goods,
Noting and recording bonds.
The poor son, seeing his father
So noble and splendid,
Thinks: 'This must be a king
Or one of royal rank.'
Alarmed and wondering, [he says]:
'Why have I come here?'
Again he thinks to himself:
'If I tarry [here] long,
I may suffer oppression
And be driven to forced labor.'
Having pondered thus,
He runs off in haste
In search of some poor place,
That he may go and hire his labor.
At that time the elder
On the lion seat,
Seeing his son from afar,
Secretly recognizes him
And instantly orders servants
To pursue and fetch him back.
The poor son cries in alarm,
Faints away, and falls on the ground, [saying]:
'These men have caught me;
I shall certainly be killed.
Why, for food and clothing,
Did I come here?'
The elder, knowing that his son,
Being foolish and inferior,
Will not believe in his word,
Nor believe that he is his father,
With tactful method
Again dispatches other men,
One-eyed, squat, common,
And unimposing, [saying]:
'You [go and] tell him,
Saying: "You be hired along with us
To remove dirt and rubbish
And you shall be given double wages."'
The poor son hearing this
Is glad, and comes with them,
For the purpose of removing dirt
And cleansing outhouses.
The elder, through a lattice,
Continually sees his son,
And thinks of him as foolish
And pleased with humble things.
Then the elder,
Donning a tattered dirty garment,
Takes a dirt hod,
Goes to where his son is,
And by [this] device gets near him,
Bidding him be diligent, [saying]:
'I have [decided to] increase your wages,
Besides oil for your feet,
And plenty of food and drink,
And thick warm mats.'
Then with sharp words he thus chides:
'Get you on with the work.'
Again he speaks gently:
'You are as if you were my son.'
The elder, being wise,
Gradually causes him to go in and out,
And after twenty years
Employs him in house affairs,
Showing him gold and silver,
Pearls and crystal,
And the incoming and outgoing of things;
All these he makes him know.
Still he dwells without,
Lodging in a hovel,
For himself thinking of penurious things,
[Saying]: 'These things are not mine.'
The father, knowing his son's mind
Has gradually developed,
And wishing to give him his wealth,
Gathers together his relatives,
Princes and ministers,
Kshatriyas and citizens.
In this great assembly,
He announces: 'This is my son,
Who left me and went elsewhere
Fifty years ago;
Since I saw my son arrive,
Twenty years have passed.
Long ago in a certain city
I lost this son;
In wandering round in search of him,
At last I arrived here.
All that I have,
Houses and people,
I entirely give to him;
He is free to use them as he will.'
The son thinks of his former poverty
And inferior disposition,
[Yet] anew from his father
Obtains such great treasures,
Together with houses and buildings
And all this wealth,
[And so] rejoices greatly
On receiving such unexpected [fortune].
So it is with the Buddha;
Knowing that we are pleased with trifles,
He did not before proclaim,
'You will become buddhas,'
But said that we
Who are attaining faultlessness
And perfect in Hinayana
Are his shravaka disciples.
The Buddha commands us:
'Preach the most high Way,
And that these who practice it
Will become buddhas.'
We, receiving the Buddha's teaching,
For the sake of great bodhisattvas,
By numerous reasonings,
By various parables,
And by so many expressions,
Preach the supreme Way.
The sons of the Buddha,
Hearing the Law from us,
Day and night ponder over
And with unflagging zeal practice it.
Then the buddhas
Will predict of them:
'You, in a future generation,
Shall become buddhas.'
The mystic Law
Of all the buddhas
[Can] only to bodhisattvas
Be expounded in full reality,
So not to us [till now]
Was this truth preached.
Just as that poor son
Who came to be near his father,
Though he knew all the goods,
Had no hope of possessing them,
[So] we, though we proclaimed
The treasury of the Buddha-law,
Yet had no will or wish for it,
Being also like him.
We, with the extinction of inward [fires],6
Considered ourselves satisfied;
Having thus settled this matter,
Nothing more remained to be done.
Even if we had heard
Of the purification of buddha-lands
And the conversion of living beings,
We would never have rejoiced.
And wherefore?
[Because we fancied that] all things
Were altogether void,
Without birth, without extinction,
Nothing large, nothing small,
Without fault, without effort.
Thinking thus,
With no conception of joy,
We, for long,
Neither coveted nor were attached
To the Buddha-wisdom,
Nor had we any will or wish [for it].
But we, in regard to the Law,
Considered we had reached finality.
We, for a long time
Practicing the Law of the Void,
Obtained release from the triple world's
Distressing troubles,
Dwelling in the final bodily state
Of nirvana [in which form still] remains;
Being instructed by the Buddha, [we thought]
We had, without a doubt, attained the Way
And that we had therefore
Repaid the Buddha's grace.
Though we, for the sake
Of all Buddha-sons,
Have preached the Bodhisattva-law
That they should seek the Buddha-way,
Yet we, in regard to this Law,7
Had never any wish or pleasure.
Our Leader saw and let us alone,
Because he looked into our minds;
[So] at first he did not stir up our zeal
By telling of the true gain.
Just as the rich elder,
Knowing his son's inferior disposition,
By his tactfulness
Subdues his mind,
And afterward gives him
All his wealth,
So is it with the Buddha
In his display of rarities.
Knowing those who delight in trifles,
And by his tactfulness
Subduing their minds,
He instructs them in the greater wisdom.
Today we have obtained
That which we have never had before;
What we have not previously looked for
Now we have unexpectedly obtained,
Just as that poor son
Obtained inestimable treasures.
World-honored One! Now we
Have got the Way and got the fruit,
And, in the faultless Law,
Attained to clear vision.8
We for long
Having kept the Buddha's pure commands,
Today for the first time
Obtain their fruit and reward.
In the Law of the Law-king,
Having long practiced holy deeds,9
Now we have attained to the faultless,
Peerless great fruit;
Now we are
Really hearers of the sound,10
Who cause all beings to hear
The sound of the Buddha-way.
Now we are
Really arhats,
Who, in all the worlds
Of gods, men, Maras, and Brahmans,
Universally by them
Are worthy of worship.
The World-honored One, in his great grace,
By things which are rare
Has compassion for and instructs
And benefits us;
Through countless kotis of kalpas,
Who could repay him?
Service by hands and feet,
Homage with the head,
All kinds of offerings,
Are all unable to repay him.
If one bore [him] on one's head,11
Or carried [him] on one's shoulders
Through kalpas [numerous] as the sands of the Ganges;
Or revered him with one's whole mind,
Or with the best of food,
Or garments of countless value
And all kinds of bed things,
Or every sort of medicament;
Or with ox-head sandalwood12
And all kinds of jewels
Erected stupas and monasteries;
Or carpeted the ground with precious garments;
With such things as these
To pay homage
Through kalpas as the sands of Ganges,
Yet one would be unable to repay.
Buddhas rarely [appear with their]
Infinite and boundless,13
Inconceivably
Great transcendent powers;
They are faultless and effortless,
The kings of the Law,
Who are able, for inferior [minds],
Patiently [to bide their time] in this matter,
And for common folk attached to externals
To preach as is befitting.
Buddhas in the Law
Attain to supreme power.
Knowing all living beings,
With their various desires and pleasures,
And their powers,
[So] according to their capacities,
By innumerable parables,
They preach the Law to them.
According as all living beings
In past lives [have planted] good roots.
[The buddhas,] knowing the mature
And the immature,
And taking account of each,
Discriminating and understanding,
In the One-vehicle, as may be befitting,
They preach the three."*

HERE ENDS
THE SECOND FASCICL

The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma - A Wonderful Video from The Supreme Master TV

2012-02-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma, Chapter - A Wonderful Video

2012-02-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

The Lotus Sutra - Chapter 4 Faith Discernment

2012-02-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

At that time Shariputra, ecstatic with joy, instantly rose up, folded his hands, and looking up at the honorable face, spoke to the Buddha, saying: "Now, hearing the sound of the Law from the World-honored One, I am filled with ecstasy, obtaining that which I have never experienced before. Wherefore? Because of yore when I heard of such a Law as this from the Buddha and saw bodhisattvas who were predicted to become buddhas, we were never prepared for these things and greatly distressed ourselves at having lost the Tathagata's infinite knowledge.

World-honored One! Constantly when dwelling alone in mountain forests or under trees, whether sitting or walking, I was occupied with this thought: 'We equally have entered the Law-nature.1 [But] why does the Tathagata save us by the small-vehicle law?' This is our own fault, not the World-honored One's. Wherefore? [Because] had we attended to his preaching in regard to the accomplishment of Perfect Enlightenment, we should certainly have been delivered by the Great-vehicle. Whereas we, not understanding [his] tactful method of opportune preaching, on first hearing the Buddha-law [only] casually believed, pondered, and bore witness to it.

World-honored One! Ever since then I have passed whole days and nights in self-reproach. But now, on hearing from the Buddha the unprecedented Law which I have never before heard, I have ended all my doubts and regrets, am at ease in body and mind, and am happily at rest. Today I indeed know that I am really a son of the Buddha, born from the mouth of the Buddha, evolved from the Law, and have obtained a place in the Buddha-law."

At that time Shariputra, desiring to announce this meaning over again, spoke thus in verse:

"I, hearing the voice of the Law,
Have obtained the unprecedented;
My heart is full of joy
And all nets of doubts are gone.
From of yore have I received the Buddha's teaching
And shall not miss the Great-vehicle.
The voice of the Buddha is very precious,
Able to rid all creatures of distress.
I, now freed from imperfections,
Hearing it, am also rid of anxiety.
When dwelling in mountain valleys
Or abiding under forest trees,
Whether sitting or walking to and fro,
I ever pondered on this matter
And deeply accused myself, lamenting:
'Why am I [so] self-deluding?
We also are Buddha-sons
Who have equally entered the faultless Law,
[Yet] we cannot, in the future,
Proclaim the supreme Way.
The golden thirty-two [signs],
The ten powers and [eight] emancipations
Are all included in the one Law,
Yet [I] do not attain them.
The eighty kinds of excellence,2
The eighteen unique characteristics,
Merits such as these
I have entirely missed.'
When alone I was walking to and fro
And saw the Buddha in the great assembly,
His fame filling the universe,
Abundantly benefiting all creatures,
I thought I had lost this advantage
And that I had deluded myself.
Always by day and by night
I ever pondered these things,
Desiring to ask the World-honored One
Whether I had lost [my opportunity] or not.
Ever did I see the World-honored One
Extolling the bodhisattvas;
Therefore by day and night
I have pondered such things as these.
Now I hear the voice of the Buddha
Opportunely preaching the Law,

Faultless and inscrutable,
Which causes all to reach the wisdom throne.
Formerly I was attached to heretical views,
Being a teacher of heretical mendicants.3
The World-honored One, knowing my heart,
Uprooted my heresy and taught me nirvana.
[Thus] having completely freed myself from heretical views
And obtained proof of the Law of the Void,
Then in my mind I said to myself:
'I have attained extinction.'
But now I have perceived
This is not the real extinction.
Whenever one becomes a buddha,
He possesses all the thirty-two signs;
Gods, men, and yakshas,
Dragons and other spirits revere him.
Then it may be said:
'Extinction is forever complete, nothing remaining.'
The Buddha in the great assembly
Proclaims [that] I shall become a buddha.
Hearing such a voice of the Law,
All doubts and regrets have been removed.
On first hearing the Buddha's preaching,
In my mind there was fear and doubt
Lest it might be Mara acting as Buddha,
Distressing and confusing my mind.
[But when] the Buddha, with various reasonings
And parables, speaks so skillfully,
One's heart is peaceful as the sea.
On hearing, my nets of doubts were broken.
The Buddha preaches that the infinite, extinct
Buddhas of past worlds
Calmly established [and] in tactful ways
All likewise expounded this Law.
The present and future buddhas,
Countless in their numbers,
Also with tactful ways
Proclaim such a Law as this.
The present World-honored One,
After his birth and leaving home,
Having gained the Way and rolled the Law-wheel,
Also has preached with tactfulness.
It is the World-honored One who preaches the true Way;
The Evil One4 has no [such] truths [as] these.
Hence I know for certain that
This is not Mara acting as Buddha,
But because I had fallen into nets of doubts,
I conceived it as the doing of Mara.
Hearing the gentle voice of the Buddha,
Profound and very refined,
Expounding the pure Law,
My heart is filled with joy,
My doubts and regrets are forever ended,
[I am] at rest in real wisdom.
I am sure I shall become a buddha,
Revered by gods and men,
And rolling the supreme Law-wheel,
Shall teach many bodhisattvas."

At that time the Buddha said to Shariputra: "Now I declare in this great assembly of gods, men, ascetics, Brahmans, and others. Of yore, in the presence of twenty thousand kotis of buddhas, for the sake of the supreme Way, I continuously taught you, while you also for long nights [and days] have followed me and received my teaching. By reason of my tactful guidance, you have been born into my Law. Shariputra! Of yore I caused you to resolve on the Buddha-way.

But you have now entirely forgotten it and so consider that you have attained extinction. Now again desiring to cause you to recollect the Way which you originally resolved to follow, I preach for all the shravakas this Great-vehicle sutra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law, by which bodhisattvas are instructed and which the buddhas watch over and keep in mind.

"Shariputra! In a world to come, after infinite, boundless, and inconceivable kalpas, when you shall have served some thousand myriad kotis of buddhas, maintained the Right Law, and completed the way which bodhisattvas walk, you shall become a buddha whose title will be Flower Light Tathagata, Worshipful, All Wise, Perfectly Enlightened in Conduct, Well Departed, Understander of the World, Peerless Leader, Controller, Teacher of Gods and Men, Buddha, World-honored One, and whose domain shall be named Undefiled, whose land will be level and straight, pure and ornate, peaceful and prosperous, replete with celestial people; with lapis lazuli for earth, having eight intersecting roads with golden cords to bound their cities, and by each road a line of precious-seven trees always [filled] with flowers and fruits. The Tathagata Flower Light also will teach and convert all living creatures by the three vehicles.

"Shariputra! When that buddha appears, though it is not in an evil age, he will preach the three-vehicle Law because of his original vow. Its kalpa will be named Ornate with Great Jewels. For what reason is it named Ornate with Great Jewels? Because in that domain the bodhisattvas are considered the great jewels. These bodhisattvas will be infinite, boundless, inconceivable, beyond computation or compare, such as none can apprehend who has not a buddha's wisdom.

Whenever they walk, jewel flowers will receive their feet. These bodhisattvas will not have started in this conception for the first time, for all of them will have cultivated the roots of virtue for a long time, purely performing noble deeds under infinite hundred thousand myriad kotis of buddhas, being always praised by buddhas, constantly practicing the Buddha-wisdom, perfecting the great spiritually pervading [power], knowing well the way of all the laws, and being upright and genuine [in character], firm in will and thought. Such bodhisattvas as these will fill that domain.

"Shariputra! The lifetime of the Buddha Flower Light will be twelve minor kalpas, except the time during which he, being a prince, has not yet become a buddha. And the lifetime of the people of his domain will be eight minor kalpas. The Tathagata Flower Light, at the expiration of twelve minor kalpas, will predict the future destiny of the Bodhisattva Full of Firmness5 to Perfect Enlightenment and will declare to all the bhikshus:

'This Bodhisattva Full of Firmness shall next become a buddha, whose title will be Calmly Walking on Flowery Feet Tathagata, Arhat, Samyaksambodhi. The domain of the buddha also will be of like character.'

"Shariputra! After the extinction of this Flower Light Buddha, the Righteous Law will abide in the world during thirty-two minor kalpas and [then] the Counterfeit Law will also abide in the world during thirty-two minor kalpas."
At that time the World-honored One, desiring to proclaim this teaching over again, spoke thus in verse:

"Shariputra! In an age to come,
You shall become a buddha, honored for universal wisdom,6
By name and title Flower Light,
And you shall save innumerable creatures.
Paying homage to numberless buddhas,
Perfecting bodhisattva-actions
And the merits of the ten powers and so on,
It shall be evident that [you have attained] the supreme Way.
After infinite kalpas have passed
There will be a kalpa named Ornate with Great Jewels,
And a world named Undefiled,
Pure and flawless,
With lapis lazuli for its ground,
With golden cords defining its ways,
With trees variegated by the precious seven,
Always having flowers and fruits.
All the bodhisattvas of that domain,
Ever firm in will and thought,
Of supernatural powers and paramitas
All in complete possession,
Under numberless buddhas
Having well learned the bodhisattva-way:
Such leaders as these
Shall be converted by the Buddha Flower Light.
[That] buddha, when he is a prince,
Will abandon his domain and give up earthly glory,
And in his last bodily existence
Will leave home and achieve the Buddha-way.
The Buddha Flower Light will dwell in the world
For a lifetime of twelve minor kalpas,
And the people of his domain
Will live for eight minor kalpas.
After that buddha's extinction
The Righteous Law will abide in the world
For thirty-two minor kalpas,
Widely saving living creatures.
At the expiration of Righteous Law,
The Counterfeit Law [will abide] for thirty-two [minor kalpas].
His relics will be widely dispersed,
Universally worshiped by gods and men.
The doings of the Buddha Flower Light,
Such as these will be his deeds.
That most holy honored of men,
Most excellent and incomparable,
He is really you yourself;
Therefore rejoice and be glad."

At that time all the four groups of bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas, and upasikas, and gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, and others, all the great assembly, seeing that Shariputra in the presence of the Buddha had received his prediction of Perfect Enlightenment, rejoiced greatly in unbounded ecstasy, each divesting himself of the robe he wore and offering it in homage to the Buddha, while Shakra Devendra, the Lord Brahma, and others, with countless divine sons, also paid homage to the Buddha with wonderful heavenly robes and celestial mandarava flowers, maha-mandarava flowers, and so on.

The celestial robes bestrewed, remaining in the sky, whirled round of themselves and hundreds of thousands of myriads of sorts of heavenly musical instruments all at once made music in the sky. And, raining numerous heavenly flowers, they uttered these words: "Of old at Varanasi the Buddha first rolled the wheel of the Law and now again rolls the supreme and greatest Law-wheel."

Thereupon all the divine sons, desiring to announce this meaning over again, spoke [thus] in verse:

"Of old, at Varanasi,
[Thou] didst roll the Law-wheel of the Four Noble Truths
And discriminately preach the laws
Of the rise and extinction of the five aggregates,
And now again thou dost roll the most wonderful,
Supreme, great wheel of the Law,
The Law which is extremely profound
And which few are able to believe.
We for a long time past
Have often heard the World-honored One preach,
[But] we have never before heard such
A profound, mystic, and supreme Law.
The World-honored One preaching this Law,
We all follow it with joy.
The great wise Shariputra
Now has received the Honored One's prediction.
We also in like manner
Must certainly become buddhas,
Who in all worlds
Are the most honored and peerless.
The Buddha-way is beyond conception
And is preached by opportune tactful methods.
May all our happy karma
In the present world or past worlds,
And the merit of seeing the Buddha,
All turn to the Way of buddhahood."

Thereupon Shariputra spoke to the Buddha, saying: "World-honored One! I now have no doubts or regrets. In person, before the Buddha, I have received my prediction of Perfect Enlightenment. [But] these twelve hundred self-controlled ones, who of yore abode in the [four] stages of learning,7 were always instructed by the Buddha, saying: 'My Law is able to give freedom from birth, decrepitude, disease, and death, and the final attainment of nirvana.' Each of these who are under training and no longer under training is also free from [false] views about the self and about 'existence' or 'nonexistence,' and considers he has attained nirvana. But now, in the presence of the Buddha, hearing that which they have never heard before, they have all fallen into doubts and perplexities.

Good! World-honored One! Please state the reasons to the four groups so that they may be free from doubts and regrets."

Then the Buddha spoke to Shariputra: "Have I not before said that the buddhas, the world-honored ones, by various reasonings, parables, and terms preach the Law tactfully, all for the purpose of Perfect Enlightenment? All these teachings are for the purpose of transforming bodhisattvas. But Shariputra! Let me now again in a parable make this meaning still more clear, [for] intelligent people through a parable reach understanding.

"Shariputra! Suppose in a [certain] kingdom, city, or town there is a great elder, old and worn, of boundless wealth, and possessing many fields, houses, slaves, and servants. His house is spacious and large, having only one door, and with many people dwelling in it, one hundred, two hundred, or even five hundred in number. Its halls and chambers are decayed and old, its walls crumbling, the bases of its pillars rotten, the beams and rooftree toppling and dangerous. On every side at the same moment fire suddenly starts and the house is in flames. The sons of the elder, say ten, twenty, or even thirty, are in this dwelling. The elder, on seeing this conflagration spring up on every side, is greatly startled and reflects thus:

'Though I am able to get safely out of this burning house, yet my children in the burning house are pleasurably absorbed in amusements, without apprehension, knowledge, surprise, or fear. Though the fire is pressing upon them and pain and suffering are imminent, they do not mind or fear and have no impulse to escape.'
"Shariputra! This elder ponders thus: 'I am strong in my body and arms. Shall I get them out of the house by means of a flower vessel,8 or a bench,9 or a table?'10 Again he ponders: 'This house has only one gate; moreover, it is narrow and small; [my] children are young, knowing nothing as yet and attached to their place of play; perchance they will fall into and be burned in the fire.

I must speak to them on this dreadful matter, [warning them] that the house is burning and that they must come out instantly lest they be burned and injured by the fire.' Having reflected thus, according to his thoughts, he notifies his children: 'Come out quickly, all of you!'

"Though the father, in his pity, lures and admonishes with kind words, yet the children, joyfully attached to their play, are unwilling to believe him and have neither surprise nor fear, nor any mind to escape; moreover, they do not know what is the fire [he means], or what the house, and what he means by being lost, but only run hither and thither in play, glancing at their father. Then the elder reflects thus: 'This house is burning in a great conflagration. If I and my children do not get out at once, we shall certainly be burned up by it. Let me now by some tactful means cause my children to escape this disaster.' Knowing that to which each of his children is predisposed and all the various attractive playthings and curiosities to which their natures will joyfully respond, the father informs them, saying:

'The things with which you are fond of playing, so rare and precious--if you do not [come and] get them, you will be sorry for it afterward. Such a variety of goat carts, deer carts, and bullock carts is now outside the gate to play with. All of you must come quickly out of this burning house, and I will give you whatever you want.' Thereupon the children, learning of the attractive playthings mentioned by their father, and because they suit their wishes, every one eagerly, each pushing the other and racing against each other, comes scrambling out of the burning house.

"Then the elder, seeing his children have safely escaped and are all in the square, sits down in the open, no longer troubled but with a mind at ease and ecstatic with joy. Then each of the children says to their father: 'Father! Please now give us those lovely things you promised us to play with, goat carts, deer carts, and bullock carts.' Shariputra! Then the elder gives to each of his children equally a great cart, lofty and spacious, adorned with all the precious things, surrounded with railed seats, hung with bells on its four sides, and covered with curtains, splendidly decorated also with various rare and precious things, linked with strings of precious stones, hung with garlands of flowers, thickly spread with beautiful mats, supplied with rosy pillows, yoked with white bullocks of pure [white] skin, of handsome appearance, and of great muscular power, which walk with even steps and with the speed of the wind, having also many servants and followers to guard them. Wherefore? Because this great elder is of boundless wealth and all his various treasuries and granaries are full to overflowing. So he reflects thus: 'My possessions being boundless, I must not give my children inferior small carts. All these children are my sons, whom I love without partiality. Having such great carts made of the precious seven, infinite in number, I should with equal mind bestow them on each one without discrimination.

Wherefore? Because if I gave them to the whole nation, these things of mine would not run short--how much less to my children!' Meanwhile each of the children rides on his great cart, having got that which he had never had before and never expected to have. Shariputra! What is your opinion? Has that elder, in giving great carts of the precious substances to his children equally, been somewhat guilty of falsehood?"

Shariputra said: "No, World-honored One! That elder only caused his children to escape the disaster of fire and preserved their bodies alive--he committed no falsity. Why? He has in such a manner preserved their bodies alive and also they have obtained those playthings; how much more by tactful means has he saved them from that burning house! World-honored One! Even if that elder did not give them one of the smallest carts, still he is not false. Wherefore? [Because] that elder from the first formed this intention: 'I will by tactful means cause my children to escape.' For this reason he is not false. How much less [so] seeing that this elder, knowing his own boundless wealth and desiring to benefit his children, gives them great carts equally!"

The Buddha said to Shariputra: "Good! Good! It is even as you say. Shariputra! The Tathagata is also like this, for he is the father of all worlds, who has forever entirely ended all [his] fear, despondency, distress, ignorance, and umbrageous darkness and has perfected [his] boundless knowledge, powers, and fearlessness; is possessed of great spiritual power and wisdom; has completely attained the paramitas of tactfulness and wisdom; who is the greatly merciful and greatly compassionate, ever tireless, ever seeking the good, and benefiting all beings. And he is born in [this] triple world, the old decayed burning house, to save all living creatures from the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, suffering, foolishness, darkness, and the three poisons, and teach them to obtain Perfect Enlightenment.

He sees how all living creatures are scorched by [the fires of] birth, old age, disease, death, grief, and sorrow, and suffer various kinds of distress by reason of the five desires and the [greed for] gain; and how, by reason of the attachments of desire and [its] pursuits, they now endure much suffering and hereafter will suffer in hell, or as animals or hungry spirits; even if they are born in a heaven, or amongst men, there are such various kinds of sufferings as poverty, distress, separation from loved ones, and union with hateful beings.

Absorbed in these things, all living creatures rejoice and take their pleasure, while they neither apprehend nor perceive, are neither alarmed nor fear, and are without satiety, never seeking to escape but in the burning house of this triple world running about hither and thither, and although they will meet with great suffering, count it not a cause for anxiety.

"Shariputra! The Buddha, having seen this, then reflects thus: 'I am the father of all creatures and I must snatch them from suffering and give them the bliss of the infinite, boundless Buddha-wisdom for them to play with.'

"Shariputra! The Tathagata again reflects thus: 'If I only use spiritual power and wisdom, casting aside every tactful method, and extol for the sake of all living creatures the wisdom, powers, and fearlessness of the Tathagata, living creatures cannot by this method be saved. Wherefore? As long as all these creatures have never escaped birth, old age, disease, death, grief, and suffering, but are being burned in the burning house of the triple world, how can they understand the Buddha-wisdom?'

"Shariputra! Even as that elder, though with power in body and arms, yet does not use it but only by diligent tact resolutely saves [his] children from the calamity of the burning house and then gives each of them great carts made of precious things, so is it with the Tathagata; though he has power and fearlessness, he does not use them, but only by his wise tact does he remove and save all living creatures from the burning house of the triple world, preaching the three vehicles: the shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and Buddha vehicles. And thus he speaks to them: 'All of you! Do not delight to dwell in the burning house of the triple world. Do not hanker after [its] crude forms, sounds, odors, flavors, and contacts.

[For] if, through hankering, you beget a love [of it], then you will be burned by it. Get you out of the triple world and attain to the three vehicles, the shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and Buddha vehicles. I now give you my pledge for this, and it will never prove false. Do you only be diligent and zealous!' By these tactful means does the Tathagata lure all creatures forth, and again speaks thus: 'Know ye! All these three vehicles are praised by sages; [in them you will be] free and independent, without wanting to rely on anything else. Riding in these three vehicles, by means of perfect faculties,11 powers,12 perceptions,13 ways,14 concentrations, emancipations, and contemplations, you will as a matter of course be happy and gain infinite peace and joy.'

"Shariputra! If there are living beings who have a spirit of wisdom within and, following the Buddha, the World-honored One, hear the Law, receive it in faith, and zealously make progress, desiring speedily to escape from the triple world and seeking nirvana for themselves, these will [have the vehicle] named the shravaka-vehicle, just as some of those children come out of the burning house for the sake of a goat cart. If there are living beings who, following the Buddha, the World-honored One, hear the Law, receive it in faith, and zealously make progress, seeking self-gained wisdom,15 delighting in the tranquillity of [their] individual goodness, and deeply versed in the causes and reasons of the laws, these will [have the vehicle] named the pratyekabuddha-vehicle, just as some of those children come out of the burning house for the sake of a deer cart.

If there are living beings who, following the Buddha, the World-honored One, hear the law, receive it in faith, diligently practice, and zealously advance, seeking the complete wisdom, the wisdom of the Buddha, the natural wisdom, the wisdom without a teacher, and the knowledge, powers, and fearlessness of the Tathagata, who take pity on and comfort innumerable creatures, benefit gods and men, and save all [beings], these will [have the vehicle] named the Great-vehicle. Because the bodhisattvas seek this vehicle, they are named mahasattvas. They are like those children who come out of the burning house for the sake of a bullock cart.

"Shariputra! Just as that elder, seeing his children get out of the burning house safely to a place free from fear, and, pondering on his immeasurable wealth, gives each of his children a great cart, so also is it with the Tathagata. Being the father of all living creatures, if he sees infinite thousands of kotis of creatures by the teaching of the Buddha escape from the suffering of the triple world, from fearful and perilous paths, and gain the joys of nirvana, the Tathagata then reflects thus: 'I possess infinite, boundless wisdom, power, fearlessness, and other Law-treasuries of buddhas. All these living creatures are my sons to whom I will equally give the Great-vehicle, so that there will be no one who gains an individual nirvana,16 but all [gain] nirvana by the same nirvana as the Tathagata.

All these living creatures who escape the triple world are given the playthings of buddhas, concentrations, emancipations, and others, all of one form and one kind, praised by sages and able to produce pure, supreme pleasure.' Shariputra! Even as that elder at first attracted his children by the three carts and afterward gave them only a great cart magnificently adorned with precious things and supremely restful, yet that elder is not guilty of falsehood, so also is it with the Tathagata: there is no falsehood in first preaching three vehicles to attract all living creatures and afterward saving by the Great-vehicle only.

Wherefore? Because the Tathagata possesses infinite wisdom, power, fearlessness, and the treasury of the laws, and is able to give all living creatures the Great-vehicle Law, but not all are able to receive it. Shariputra! For this reason know that the buddhas, by their tactful powers, in the One Buddha-vehicle discriminate and expound the three."

The Buddha, desiring to proclaim this teaching over again, spoke thus in verse:

"Suppose there is an elder
Who has a large house,
And for long this house has been old,
Is also falling and decayed,
With lofty halls in dangerous condition,
Pillar bases broken and rotten,
Beams and rooftree toppling and leaning,
Foundation and steps in a state of collapse,
Walls and partitions ruined and cracked,
Their plaster crumbling away,
Thatch in disorder and dropping,
Rafters and eaves awry and slipping,
Its surrounding fences bent and distorted,
Filled with all kinds of refuse.
Five hundred people
Are dwelling within it.
Owls, hawks, and vultures,
Crows, magpies, pigeons, doves,
Black snakes, vipers, scorpions,
Centipedes, millipedes,
Geckos, galley worms,
Weasels, ferrets, rats, and mice,
All sorts of evil creatures,
Run about in every direction;
There are places stinking with excrement and urine,
Overflowing with uncleanliness,
Where dung beetles and worms
Flock together.
Foxes, wolves, and jackals
Bite and trample each other
To gnaw [human] carcasses,
Scattering their bones and flesh.
Following these, packs of dogs
Come, striving to snatch and grab,
And gaunt with hunger skulk about
Seeking food everywhere,
Quarreling and scuffling,
Snarling and barking.
Such is the fearfulness of that house
Full of variety.
In every direction there are
Goblins and ogres,17
Yakshas and malign demons,
Who devour the flesh of men;
All sorts of venomous insects
And evil birds and brutes
Hatch or suckle their broods,
Each hiding and protecting its own;
Yakshas come striving with each other
To seize and eat them;
When they have eaten their fill,
Their evil minds become inflamed,
And the sound of their quarreling
Is dreadful in the extreme
Kumbhanda demons
Crouch on the earth and mold,
Sometimes springing from the ground
A foot or two high,
Wandering about to and fro,
Giving full rein to their sports;
Seizing dogs by their feet,
Striking them so that they lose their voices,
Twisting their legs around their necks,
Frightening dogs for their own amusement.
Also there are demons
Tall of stature,
Naked, black, and lean,
Always dwelling in that [house],
Who emit great and dreadful sounds,
Bellowing in search of food.
Again there are demons
With throats [narrow] as a needle.
And there are demons
With heads like a bullock's.
Some eat human flesh,
Some devour dogs;
Their locks are all disheveled,
They are cruel and fiendish,
And, oppressed by hunger and thirst,
Race about crying and calling.
Yakshas and hungry ghosts,
Evil birds and brutes
Hungrily hurry in all directions,
Peeping and looking through window and lattice.
Such are its plagues,
Terrible beyond measure.
This decaying old house
Belongs to a man
Who has just gone outside
But a little while ago,
Whereupon that house
Of a sudden catches fire.
All at once, in every direction,
Its flames are in full blaze;
Rooftree, beams, rafters, pillars
With cracking sound burst open,
Break, split, and topple down;
Walls and partitions crumble.
Demons and spirits
Bellow and cry aloud;
Hawks, vultures, and other birds,
Kumbhanda demons and others
Hurry about in alarm,
Powerless to escape.
Evil beasts and venomous insects
Hide away in holes and cavities;
Pishacaka demons
Also take up their abode therein.
For lack of merits
They are driven by the fire,
Cruelly hurting each other,
Supping and devouring each other's flesh and blood.
Creatures of the jackal tribe
Are already dead in herds.
The bigger evil beasts
Come striving to devour [them].
Fetid smoke and bursting flames
Fill and choke the surrounding [air].
Centipedes and millipedes
And all kinds of venomous snakes,
Burned by the fire,
Run contending from their holes.
Kumbhanda demons
Thereon seize and eat them.
And hungry demons,
Their heads ablaze with fire,
Tormented with hunger, thirst, and heat,
Rush about confused and in distress.
Such is the state of that house,
Dreadful in the extreme,
With horrid calamities and conflagration
And disasters not a few.
At this very time the master of the house
Is standing outside the gate,
When he hears someone saying:
'All of your children
A little while ago in their play
Came into this house
In their youth and ignorance,
Enjoying themselves with their amusements.'
On hearing this, the elder
In alarm enters the burning house,
With intent to save them
From the harm of burning.
So he tells his children
Of all the [impending] dangers, saying:
'There are evil demons and venomous worms,
And calamitous fire is spreading;
Sufferings upon sufferings
Follow each other unceasing;
Venomous snakes and vipers,
All kinds of yakshas,
Kumbhanda demons,
Jackals, foxes, and dogs,
Hawks, vultures, owls,
And all sorts of galley worms
Are tormented by hunger and thirst
And to be feared in the extreme.
Even these distresses are hard to deal with;
How much more this conflagration?'
The children, unheeding,
Though they hear their father's admonition,
Remain attached to their pleasures
And do not stop their play.
Thereupon the elder
Begins to reflect thus:
'My children, [acting] in this manner,
Add to my anxiety and distress.
Now this house [really]
Has nothing to delight in,
Yet all my children,
Bewitched by their play,
Take no notice of my instructions
And will be injured by the fire.'
Instantly he ponders,
Arranges a device,
And says to his children:
'I have many varieties
Of rare playthings,
Excellent carts wonderfully bejeweled,
Goat carts and deer carts
And great bullock carts,
Now all just outside the door;
Come out, all of you!
I, for your sakes,
Have made these carts.
You may roam and play with them
At your own will and pleasure.'
When the children hear him tell
Of such carts as these,
They immediately rush in rivalry,
Scampering forth,
And reach the open ground,
Away from harm.
The elder, seeing his children
Escape from the burning house,
Takes his place in the square,
Sitting on the lion throne,
And congratulates himself, saying:
'Now I am joyful.
All these children,
Brought up with so much difficulty,
Stupid, little, and ignorant,
Entered this dangerous house,
Abounding with venomous worms
And fearful goblins.
Conflagrations and raging flames
Broke out on every side,
But all these children were
Fascinated by their play.
Now I have rescued them
And caused them to escape from harm.
Therefore, all you people!
Now I am joyful.'
Then the children,
Knowing their father is sitting at ease,
All come to the father
And speak to the father, saying:
'Please give to us
The three kinds of precious carts
As you promised, [saying]:
"If you children come out,
I will give you three carts
And you can [choose] whichever you like."
Now is the very time;
Be pleased to give them [to us].'
The elder is very rich
And has treasuries full of
Gold, silver, lapis lazuli,
Moonstone, and agate.
With all kinds of precious things
[He has] made great carts,
Magnificently adorned and splendidly decorated,
Surrounded with railed seats,
Hung with bells on every side,
Strung with golden cords,
And with networks of pearls
Spread over them;
Festoons of golden flowers
Hang down here and there;
Many colors and varied decorations
Surround and encircle;
Soft silks and silk floss
Make the cushions;
The best quality of fine felt,
Worth thousands of kotis,
Snow white and pure,
Is spread above [the cushions].
There are great white bullocks,
Sleek, strong, and active,
Of finest shape,
Yoked to the precious carts;
There are numerous retinues
Tending and guarding them.
These excellent carts
Are equally given to all the children.
Then the children,
Ecstatic with joy,
Riding these precious carts,
Roam in every direction,
Playing joyfully
Just as they wish, without hindrance.
I tell you, Shariputra!
I also am like this,
The most honored of all the sages,
The father of the world;
All living beings
Are my sons
[But] are deeply attached to earthly pleasures
And without wisdom.
The triple world is not safe,
Just as the burning house,
Full of all kinds of sufferings,
Was greatly to be feared.
Ever there are distresses of birth,
Old age, disease, and death;
Such fires as these
Are burning ceaselessly.
The Tathagata, freed from
The burning house of the triple world,
Tranquilly lives in seclusion,
Abiding in peace in the woodland.
Now this triple world
All is my domain;
The living beings in it
All are my sons.
But now this place
Abounds with distresses;
And I alone
Am able to save and protect them.18
Though I taught and admonished them,
Yet they did not believe,
For they were imbued with desires
To which they were greedily attached.
Therefore, tactfully
I tell them of the three vehicles
Which cause all living beings
To know the sufferings of the triple world,
And reveal and expound
The way of escaping from the world.
If all these sons
Are resolved in their minds,
They will perfectly have the three clear views
And the six transcendent faculties,
And will become pratyekabuddhas
Or bodhisattvas who never slide back.19
Shariputra!
I, for the sake of all beings,
By means of this parable
Preach the One Buddha-vehicle.
If all of you are able
To receive these words in faith,
You shall all be able
To accomplish the Buddha-way.
This vehicle is wonderful,
Pure, and supreme;
In all the worlds
There is nothing more exalted;
It is that which the Buddha rejoices in
And which all living creatures
Should praise,
Worship, and adore.
Infinite thousands of kotis
Of powers, emancipations,
Meditations, and wisdom,
And the Buddha's other laws:
Such is the vehicle provided20
To cause all my sons,
Night and day for many kalpas,
Ever to take their recreation in it,
With bodhisattvas
As well as shravakas
Riding in this precious vehicle
Directly to the wisdom throne.
For these causes and reasons,
[Though] one searches in every direction,
There is no other vehicle
Except the Buddha's device.21
I tell you, Shariputra!
All you people
Are my sons;
I then am father.
You, for successive kalpas
Burning in many sufferings,
Have I wholly rescued,
That you may escape the triple world.
Though I previously preached that
You [would attain] extinction,
You have only become free from birth and death,
And have not [attained] real extinction.
What you have now to do
Is only [to attain] the Buddha-wisdom.
If there be any bodhisattvas
Amongst this assembly,
Be you able wholeheartedly to obey
The real Law of the buddhas.
Though buddhas, world-honored ones,
[Convert] by tactful methods,
[Yet] living creatures transformed by them
Are all bodhisattvas.
If there are any of little wit
Who are deeply attached to desires and passions,
[The Buddha] for their sake
Preaches the truth of suffering.
All the living with joyful hearts
Attain the unprecedented.
The truth of suffering preached by the Buddha
Is real without differentiation.
If there are any living beings
Who do not know the source of suffering,
Deeply attached to the cause of suffering,
And unable to forsake it even for a moment,
[The Buddha] for the sake of them
Preaches the Way22 by tactful methods, [saying]:
'The cause of all suffering
Is rooted in desire.'
If desire be extinguished,
[Suffering] has no foothold.
To annihilate all suffering
Is called the third truth.
For the sake of the truth of extinction
To observe and walk in the Way,
Forsaking all bonds of suffering,
This is called the attaining of emancipation.
From what have these people
Attained emancipation?
Merely to depart from the false
Is called emancipation.
But they have not yet really attained
Entire emancipation.
[So] the Buddha declares that these people
Have not yet really reached extinction.
Because these people have not yet gained
The supreme Way,
I am unwilling [to declare]
That they have attained extinction.
I am the king of the Law,
Absolute in regard to the Law,
Pacifying all creatures,
And therefore appear in the world.
Shariputra!
This my seal of the Law,23
Because of my desire to benefit
All the world, is [now] expounded
Wherever you roam;
Do not recklessly proclaim it.
If there be any hearers
Who joyfully receive with profound obeisance,24
You may know these people
Are of avivartika.
If there be any who receive
This sutra-law in faith,
These people must have already
Seen buddhas of past times,
Revered and worshiped them,
And heard this Law.
If there be any people who are able
To believe your preaching,
They must have seen me
And also seen you
And these bhikshus,
As well as [these] bodhisattvas.25
This Law-Flower Sutra
Is preached for [men of] profound wisdom.26
Men of shallow knowledge, hearing it,
Go astray, not understanding.
All the shravakas
And pratyekabuddhas
Cannot by their powers
Attain this sutra.
Shariputra!
Even you into this sutra
Can [only] enter by faith;
How much [more difficult] for the other shravakas.
All the other shravakas,
Because of believing the Buddha's words,
Obediently follow this sutra;
But it is not that they themselves have knowledge.
Again, Shariputra!
To those who are haughty and lazy27
And to those with self-centered views,
Do not preach this sutra.
Common shallow people
Deeply attached to the five desires,
Who on hearing cannot apprehend,
Do not preach it to them.
If any people do not believe in
And vilify this sutra,
Then they cut [themselves] off [from] all
The buddha-seeds in the worlds;28
Or if again they sullenly frown,
And cherish doubts and perplexities,
Listen to my declaration
Concerning the recompense of such people's sin:
Whether during the Buddha's lifetime
Or after his extinction,
If there be any who slander
Such a sutra as this,
Who, seeing those who read and recite,
Write or hold this sutra,
Scorn and despise, hate and envy them
And bear them a tenacious grudge.
Concerning the recompense of such people's sin,
Listen now again:
After their lifetimes end
They will enter into the Avici hell
For a complete kalpa,
Being born again at each kalpa's end
And thus revolving
In innumerable kalpas;
When they come out of hell,
They will be degraded to animals,
Such as dogs or jackals,
With lean-cheeked forms,
Blue-black, with scabs and sores,
Knocked about by men;
Moreover, by men
Hated and scorned,
Constantly suffering hunger and thirst,
Bones and flesh withered.
During life beaten with thorns29
And after death with potsherds and stones,
Because of cutting [themselves] off from the buddha-seed
They receive such recompense for their sin.
Perhaps they become camels,
Or are born amongst asses,
Always carrying burdens on their backs,
Being beaten with sticks,
Thinking only of water and grass,
Knowing nothing else.
Because of slandering this sutra,
Such is their punishment.
Some[times] becoming jackals,
They enter a village,
Their bodies scabbed with sores,
Having not even an eye,
By all the boys
Beaten and stoned,
Suffering bitter pains,
At times even [beaten] to death.
When they have thus died,
Again they each receive a serpent's body
Of a shape as long as
Five hundred yojanas.
Deaf and stupid, without feet,
They wriggle about on their bellies,
By many kinds of insects
Stung and devoured,
Day and night in misery,
With never any rest.
Because of slandering this sutra,
Such is their punishment.
Should they become human beings,
Their powers [of life] are blunted,
Short and ugly, palsied and lame,
Blind, deaf, and humpbacked;
Whatever they may say,
People do not believe;
Their breath is vile,
They are possessed by demons,
They are needy and menial,
Ordered about by others,
Often ill and emaciated,
Having none on whom to rely;
Though they are dependent on others,
These take no notice of them;
Even if they gain anything,
They instantly forget and lose it;
If they make use of means of healing
And follow the usual methods of treatment,
Other ailments will only be added,
Or, again, they will cause [their patients] to die;
If they themselves are ill,
None will save and cure them;
Though they take good medicine,
[Their disease] becomes increasingly severe;
If other people cause rebellion,
And plunder and rob,
For such crimes as these
The retribution pervertedly falls on them.
Such sinners as these
Never see the Buddha,
The king of all the holy ones,
Who preaches the Law, instructs, and transforms.
Such sinners as these
Are always born in distress;
Mad, deaf, and confused in mind,
They never hear the Law;
During kalpas innumerable
As the sands of the Ganges,
Whenever they are born they are deaf and dumb
And with deficient natural powers;
They constantly dwell in the hells
As their pleasure gardens,
Or in other evil states
As their dwellings;
Among asses, hogs, and dogs
Are the places where they [must] go.
Because of slandering this sutra,
Such is their punishment.
If they become human beings,
They are deaf, blind, and dumb,
Poor, needy, and feeble,
As their own ornament;
Dropsy and scurf,
Scabs, sores, and abscesses,
All such ills as these
Will be there apparel.
Their bodies are always fetid abodes,
Filthy and unclean;
They are deeply absorbed in themselves,
They become angrier and angrier,
Their carnal passions are utterly inflamed,
They are no better than animals;
Because of slandering this sutra,
Such is their punishment.
I say [to you], Shariputra!
Those who slander this sutra,
If I told the tale of their evils,
I could not exhaust them in a whole kalpa.
For this cause and reason
I especially say to you:
Amongst undiscerning people,
Do not preach this sutra.
If there be any who are clever,
Of clear wisdom,
Learned and of strong memory,
Who seek after the Buddha-way,
To such people as these,
Then, you may preach it.
If any have ever seen
Hundreds of thousands of kotis of buddhas,
Cultivated many roots of goodness,
And been firm in their innermost minds,
To such people as these,
Then, you may preach it.
If any have zealously progressed,
Constantly maintained kindly hearts,
And never spared body and life,
Then you may preach it to them.
If any have been reverent,
With unvarying mind,
Having left all the ignorant
And dwelt alone in mountains and swamps,
To such people as these,
Then, you may preach it.
Again, Shariputra!
If you see any
Who give up bad friends
And make friends of the good,
To such people as these,
Then, you may preach it.
If you see Buddha-sons
Who keep the commands in purity,
Like pure bright jewels,
Who seek the Great-vehicle sutra,
To such people as these
Then, you may preach it.
If any be free from irascibility,
Of upright character and patient,
Always compassionate to all beings
And reverent to the buddhas,
To such people as these,
Then, you may preach it.
Further, if there be Buddha-sons
Who, in the general assembly,
With pure hearts,
By various reasonings,
Parables, and expressions,
Expound the Law without hesitation,
To such people as these
Then, you may preach it.
If there be bhikshus
Who, for the sake of perfect knowledge,
Seek the Law in every direction,
Folding their hands in profound obeisance,
Only pleased to receive and keep
The Great-vehicle sutra,
Even without accepting
A single verse of any other sutra,
To such people as these,
Then, you may preach it.
Like a man who with all his mind
Seeks for the Buddha's relics,
So those who seek the sutra and,
Having obtained it, receive it with profound obeisance,
And who are not again
Bent on seeking other sutras,
And also have never minded
Books of other philosophies,
To such people as these
Then, you may preach it.
I say to you, Shariputra!
Were I to speak [in detail] of [all] these kinds
Of seekers after the Buddha-way,
In a whole kalpa I could not finish.
Such people as these
Are able to believe and discern.
You should to them preach
The Sutra of the Flower of the Wonderful Law.

The Lotus Sutra - Chapter 2 - Tactfulness

2012-02-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

At that time the World-honored One, rising quietly and clearly from contemplation, addressed Shariputra: "The wisdom of buddhas is very profound and infinite. Their wisdom-school is difficult to understand and difficult to enter, so that the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot apprehend it. Wherefore? [Because] the buddhas have been in fellowship with countless hundred thousand myriad kotis of buddhas, perfectly practicing the infinite Law of all buddhas, boldly and zealously advancing and [making] their fame universally known, perfecting the very profound, unprecedented Law and preaching, as opportunity served, its meaning [so] difficult to understand. Shariputra!

Ever since I became Buddha, with various reasonings and various parables I have widely discoursed and taught, and by countless tactful methods have led living beings, causing them to leave all attachments. Wherefore? [Because] the Tathagata is altogether perfect in his tactfulness and paramita of wisdom. Shariputra! The wisdom of the Tathagata is broad and great, profound and far-reaching; [his mind] is infinite;1 [his expositions] are unimpeded;2 [his] powers,3 [his] fearlessness,4 [his] meditations,5 [his] emancipations,6 [his] contemplations have enabled him to enter into the boundless [realms] and to accomplish all the unprecedented Law. Shariputra! The Tathagata is able to discriminate everything, preach the laws skillfully, use gentle words, and cheer the hearts of all. Shariputra! Essentially speaking, the Buddha has altogether fulfilled the infinite, boundless, unprecedented Law. Enough, Shariputra, there is no need to say more. Wherefore?

[Because] the Law which the Buddha has perfected is the chief unprecedented Law, and difficult to understand. Only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom the Reality of All Existence, that is to say, all existence7 [has] such a form, such a nature, such an embodiment, such a potency, such a function, such a primary cause, such a secondary cause, such an effect, such a recompense, and such a complete fundamental whole."8
At that time the World-honored One, desiring to proclaim this teaching over again, spoke thus in verse:

"Immeasurable are the world's heroes.
[Embracing] gods and men in the world
[Among] all the living creatures,
None can know the buddhas.
The Buddha's powers and fearlessness,
Emancipations and contemplations,
And the Buddha's other laws
No one is able to measure.
Of yore I followed countless buddhas,
And perfectly trod the [right] ways
Of the profound and wonderful Law,
Which are difficult to perceive and perform.
During infinite kotis of kalpas,
After pursuing all those ways,
Having obtained the perfect fruit on the wisdom throne,
I was able perfectly to understand.
Such great effects as these,
The meaning of every nature and form:
I and other buddhas in the universe
Alone can understand these things.
This Law is inexpressible,
It is beyond the realm of terms;
Among all the other living beings
None can apprehend it
Except the bodhisattvas
Who are firm in the power of faith.
The disciples of all the buddhas
Who have offered worship to the buddhas
And have ended all their faults
And dwell in this last bodily state,
Such men as these
Have not powers equal [to such knowledge].
Though the world were full
Of beings like Shariputra
Who with utmost thought combined to measure it,
They could not fathom the Buddha-wisdom.
Indeed though the universe were full
Of beings like Shariputra,
And the rest of [my] disciples
Filled the world in every quarter,
[Who] with utmost thought combined to measure it,
They also could not understand.
Though pratyekabuddhas of keen intelligence,
In their last faultless bodily stage,
Also filled every region of the universe,
Numerous as bamboo in the woods,
[If] these with united mind
Through infinite kotis of kalpas
Wished to ponder the Buddha's real wisdom,
[They] could not know the least part.
Though newly vowed bodhisattvas
Who have worshiped countless buddhas,
Have penetrated all meanings,
And can ably preach the Law,
[Abounding] as rice and hemp, bamboo and reeds,
Filled the world in every quarter,
[If] with one mind by mystic wisdom,
Through kalpas like the sands of the Ganges,
All these were to ponder together,
They could not know the Buddha-wisdom.
Though bodhisattvas, free from falling back,
Numerous as the sands of the Ganges,
With one mind investigated together,
They too could not understand.
Again I say to Shariputra:
'The faultless and inscrutable,
Profound and mysterious Law
I now have wholly attained.
Only I know these truths,
As also do the buddhas of the universe.
Know, Shariputra!
The words of buddhas do not differ.
In the laws preached by the Buddha
[You] should beget great strength of faith,
For at length after the Buddha's [preparatory] teaching
He must [now] proclaim the [perfect] Truth.'
I address all the shravakas
And seekers after the vehicle of pratyekabuddhas,
Those whom I have freed from the bondage of suffering
And who have reached nirvana:
'The Buddha employs his tactful powers;
He shows [the Way] by the three-vehicle teaching.
All beings have various attachments;
He leads them to obtain escape.'"

At that time in the great assembly there were shravakas and faultless arhats, Ajnata-Kaundinya and others, twelve hundred in number, and bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas, and upasikas, who had vowed to be shravakas and pratyekabuddhas - all these reflected thus: "For what reason does the World-honored One now extol the tactful way so earnestly and say these words: 'The Law which the Buddha has obtained is very profound and difficult to comprehend. That which he proclaims has a meaning so hard to understand that all the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas are unable to attain it'? [As yet] the Buddha has declared only one principle of emancipation, and we also, obtaining this Law, reach nirvana. But now we do not know where this principle leads."

At that time Shariputra, apprehending the doubt in the minds of the four groups and also himself not having mastered [the meaning], spoke to the Buddha, saying: "World-honored One! What is the cause and what the reason for so earnestly extolling the paramount tactful method and the very profound, mysterious Law, difficult to understand, of the buddhas? From of yore I have never heard such a discourse from the Buddha. At present these four groups are altogether in doubt. Will the World-honored One be pleased to explain these things, why the World-honored One extols so earnestly the very profound and mysterious Law, [so] difficult to understand."
Then Shariputra, desiring to announce this meaning over again, spoke thus in verse:

"O Wisdom Sun! Great Holy Honored One!
At length thou hast preached this Law,
[And] declared thyself to have obtained such
Powers, fearlessness, and contemplations,
Meditations, emancipations, and other
Inconceivable laws.
About the Law obtained on the wisdom throne
No one [has been] about to utter any question,
And I find it hard to fathom [the meaning]
And also am unable to ask questions.
Without being asked thou thyself hast spoken,
Extolling the way thou hast walked,
That thy most mysterious wisdom
Is that which the buddhas obtained.
All the faultless arhats
And those who are seeking nirvana
Have now fallen into nets of doubt.
Why does the Buddha speak thus?
Seekers after pratyekabuddhahood,
Bhikshus and bhikshunis,
Gods, dragons, and spirits,
Gandharvas and other beings
Scan each other in perplexity,
And look expectant to the Honored of Men.9
What may be [the meaning of] this matter?
We would the Buddha will explain.
In [this] assembly of shravakas
The Buddha says I am the chief [of the disciples],
But I, now, of my own wisdom
Am in doubt and cannot understand
Whether it is the final Law
Or is the way to progress [there].
The sons born of the Buddha’s mouth
With folded hands wait expectantly.
Be pleased to send forth the mystic sound
And now proclaim the truth as it is.
Gods, dragons, spirits, and others,
Numerous as the sands of the Ganges;
Bodhisattvas aspiring to be buddhas,
Fully eighty thousand in number;
Also, from myriads of kotis of countries,
Holy wheel-rolling kings are here,
With folded hands and reverent hearts,
Desiring to hear the perfect Way."

At that time the Buddha said to Shariputra: "Enough, enough, there is no need to say more. If I explain this matter, all the worlds of gods and men would be startled and perplexed."

Shariputra again said to the Buddha: "World-honored One! Be pleased to explain it! Be pleased to explain it! Wherefore? [Because] in this assembly there are numberless hundred thousand myriad kotis of asamkhyeya living beings who have already seen the buddhas, whose perceptions10 are keen and whose wisdom is clear. If they hear the Buddha's teaching, they will be able to believe it respectfully."
Then Shariputra, desiring to announce this meaning over again, spoke thus in verse:

"King of the Law, Most High Honored One!
Be pleased to explain without misgiving!
In this assembly are countless beings
Who can respectfully believe."

The Buddha again [said]: "Enough, Shariputra! If I explained this matter, all the worlds of gods, men, and asuras would be startled and perplexed, and haughty11 bhikshus might fall into the great pit."12
Then the World-honored One once again spoke in verse:

"Enough, enough, no need to say more.
My Law is subtle and inscrutable;
Those who are haughty
On hearing would not believe it respectfully."

Then Shariputra once again said to the Buddha: "World-honored One! Be pleased to explain it! Be pleased to explain it! In this present assembly there are, equal with me, hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis who, in former lives, have followed the Buddha and been transformed by him. Such men as these can certainly believe respectfully and throughout the night will peacefully rest and in various ways be abundantly benefited."
Then Shariputra, desiring to announce this meaning over again, spoke thus in verse:

"Most High and Honored of the Living!
Be pleased to explain the paramount Law!
I am the eldest son of the Buddha.
Condescend to explain it discriminately.
In this assembly countless beings
Are able respectfully to believe this Law.
The Buddha already in his former lives
Has taught such living beings.
All with one mind, folding their hands,
Desire to hear the Buddha's words.
There are twelve hundred of us
And others aspiring to be buddhas.
Be pleased, for the sake of these beings,
To condescend to explain it discriminately.
If these hear this Law,
They will beget great joy."

At that time the World-honored One addressed Shariputra: "Since you have already thrice earnestly repeated your request, how can I refuse to speak? Do you now listen attentively to, ponder, and remember it! I will discriminate and explain it for you."

When he had thus spoken, in the assembly some five thousand bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas, and upasikas straightway rose from their seats and, saluting the Buddha, withdrew. Wherefore? [Because] the root of sin in these beings was so deep and their haughty spirit so enlarged that they imagined they had attained what they had not attained and had proved what they had not proved. In such error as this they would not stay; and the World-honored One was silent and did not stop them.

Thereupon the Buddha addressed Shariputra: "Now in this congregation I am free from [useless] twigs and leaves, and have nothing but all that are purely the true and real. It is good, Shariputra, that such extremely haughty ones as those are gone away. Now carefully listen and I will expound [the matter] for you." Shariputra said: "So be it, World-honored One; I desire joyfully to listen."
The Buddha addressed Shariputra: "Such a wonderful Law as this is [only] preached by the buddha-tathagatas on [rare] occasions, just as the udumbara flower is seen but once in [long] periods. Shariputra, believe me, all of you; in the Buddha's teaching no word is false. Shariputra, the meaning of the laws which the buddhas expound as opportunity serves is difficult to understand.

Wherefore? [Because] I expound the laws by numberless tactful ways and with various reasonings and parabolic expressions. These laws cannot be understood by powers of thought or discrimination; only the buddhas can discern them. Wherefore? [Because] the buddhas, the world-honored ones, only on account of the one [very] great cause appear in the world. Shariputra, why [do I] say that the buddhas, the world-honored ones, only on account of the one [very] great cause appear in the world? Because the buddhas, the world-honored ones, desire to cause all living beings to open [their eyes] to the Buddha-knowledge so that they may gain the pure [mind], [therefore] they appear in the world; because they desire to show all living beings the Buddha-knowledge, they appear in the world; because they desire to cause all living beings to apprehend the Buddha-knowledge, they appear in the world; because they desire to cause all living beings to enter the way of the Buddha-knowledge, they appear in the world.13 Shariputra, this is why it is [only] on account of the one [very] great cause that buddhas appear in the world."

The Buddha addressed Shariputra: "The buddha-tathagatas teach only bodhisattvas. Whatever they do is always for one purpose, that is, to take the Buddha-knowledge and reveal it to all living beings. Shariputra! The Tathagata, by means of the One Buddha-vehicle,14 preaches to all living beings the Law; there is no other vehicle, neither a second nor a third. Shariputra! The laws of all the buddhas in the universe also are like this. Shariputra! The buddhas in times past, by infinite, numberless tactful ways and with various reasonings and parabolic expressions, expounded the laws for the sake of all living beings. All these laws are for the One Buddha-vehicle, [so that] all those living beings, who have heard the Law from the buddhas, might all finally obtain perfect knowledge.

"Shariputra! The future buddhas who are to appear in the world will also, by infinite, numberless tactful ways and with various reasonings and parabolic expressions, expound the laws for the sake of all living beings. All these laws are for the One Buddha-vehicle, [so that] all those living beings who hear the Law from the buddhas shall finally obtain perfect knowledge.

"Shariputra! The buddhas, the world-honored ones, at present in innumerable hundred thousand myriad kotis of buddha-lands in the universe, who are so greatly benefiting and rejoicing all living beings, these buddhas, by infinite, numberless tactful ways and with various reasonings and parabolic expressions, also expound the laws for the sake of all living beings. All these laws are for the One Buddha-vehicle, [so that] all those living beings who hear the Law from the buddhas finally obtain perfect knowledge.

"Shariputra! All these buddhas teach only bodhisattvas, desiring to show all living beings the Buddha-knowledge, desiring to cause all living beings to apprehend the Buddha-knowledge, and desiring to cause all living beings to enter the Way of the Buddha-knowledge. Shariputra! I, at the present time, am also like them. Knowing that all living beings have many kinds of desires deeply attached in their minds, I have, according to their capacity, expounded the laws by various reasonings, parabolic expressions, and tactful powers. Shariputra! Such [teachings] all are in order to secure perfect knowledge of the One Buddha-vehicle. Shariputra! In the whole universe there are not even two vehicles,15 how much less a third.16

"Shariputra! The buddhas appear in the evil ages of the five decays, that is to say, decay of the kalpa, decay through tribulations, decay of all living creatures, decay of views, and decay of lifetime. Thus, Shariputra! Because in the disturbed times of kalpa decay all living beings are very vile, being covetous and envious, bringing to maturity every root of badness, the buddhas by tactful powers in the One Buddha-vehicle discriminate and expound the three. Shariputra! If my disciples who call themselves arhats or pratyekabuddhas [will] neither hear nor understand that the buddha-tathagatas teach only bodhisattvas, these are not the Buddha's disciples nor arhats nor pratyekabuddhas.

"Again, Shariputra! [If] those bhikshus and bhikshunis who claim that they have already become arhats [and say]: 'This is our last bodily state [before] final nirvana,' and thereupon do not again devote themselves to seek after Perfect Enlightenment, you must know that this class are all extremely conceited. Wherefore? [Because] there is no such thing as a bhikshu who has really obtained arhatship if he has not believed this Law. [But] there is an exceptional case when, after the Buddha's extinction, there is no [other] buddha present. Wherefore? [Because] after the Buddha's extinction it is hard to find persons who [can] receive and keep, read and recite, and explain the meaning of such sutras as these. [Only] if they meet other buddhas can they, in this [same] Law, obtain [the] solution. Shariputra! You should with all your heart believe and discern, receive and keep the word of the Buddha. No word of the buddha-tathagatas is false; there is no other vehicle, but only the One Buddha-vehicle."
At that time the World-honored One, desiring to proclaim this teaching over again, spoke thus in verse:

"Bhikshus and bhikshunis
Obsessed by utmost arrogance,
Upasakas [filled with] self-conceit,
Upasikas with unbelief,
Four groups such as these,
Five thousand in number,
Perceiving not their errors
And faults in the commandments,
Careful only of their flaws:
Such small wit they showed,
These dregs of the assembly, who
Because of the Buddha's splendid virtue withdrew;
These men of little virtuous happiness
Are incapable of receiving this Law.
[Now] this assembly has no twigs and leaves,
But only those who are true and real.
Shariputra! Listen carefully to
The laws obtained by the buddhas, which,
By infinite tactful powers,
They expound for all creatures.
What they all entertain in their minds,
All the ways they practice,
How many kinds are their desires,
And their former karmas, good and evil,
The Buddha knows all these perfectly.
With various reasonings and parables,
Terms and tactful powers,
He causes them all to rejoice,
Preaching either sutras,
Or gathas, or former things,17
Or birth stories,18 or the unprecedented,19
And also preaching by reasonings,20
By parables21 and geyas,
And by upadesha scriptures.
The dull who delight in petty rules,22
Who are greedily attached to existence,
Who, under innumerable buddhas,
Do not walk the profound and mystic Way,
Who are harassed by all the sufferings -
Because of these I preach nirvana.
I [have] set up such tactful ways
To enable them to enter the Buddha-wisdom.
[But] I have never said: 'You all
Shall accomplish the Buddha-way.'
The reason why I have never [so] said
Is that the time for saying it had not arrived.
[But] now is the very time,
And I have resolved to preach the Great-vehicle.
These nine divisions23 of my Law
Preached according to [the capacity] of all creatures
Are [but] the introduction to the Great-vehicle,
Hence I preach this sutra.
There are sons of the Buddha whose minds are pure,
Who are gentle and clever-natured,
And who, in innumerable Buddha-regions,
Have walked the profound and mystic Way;
On behalf of these sons of the Buddha
I preach this Great-vehicle sutra.
And I predict that such men as these
In the world to come will accomplish the Buddha-way.
Through their deep-hearted mindfulness of the Buddha
And observance of the pure commandments,
These, hearing that they may become buddhas,
Are filled throughout with great joy.
The Buddha knows their mind and conduct,
And therefore preaches to them the Great-vehicle.
[If] shravakas or bodhisattvas
Hear the Law which I preach,
Even be it but one verse,
All, without doubt, become buddhas.
In the buddha-lands of the universe
There is only the One-vehicle Law,
Neither a second nor a third,
Except the tactful teachings of the Buddha.
But by provisional expressions
He has led all living creatures,
Revealing the Buddha-wisdom.
In the appearing of buddhas in the world
Only this One is the real fact,
For the other two are not the true.
They never by a smaller vehicle24
Save all living creatures.
The Buddha himself abides in the Great-vehicle,
In accordance with the Law he has attained,
Enriched with powers of meditation and wisdom,
And by it25 he saves all creatures.
I, proving the supreme Way,
The Great-vehicle, the universal Law,
If I convert by a smaller vehicle
Even but one human being,
I shall fall into grudging -
A thing that cannot be.
If men turn in faith to the Buddha,
The Tathagata will not deceive them,
[For he] has no covetous and envious desires
And is free from all the sins of the laws.
So the Buddha, in the universe,
Is the one being perfectly fearless.
I, by my signs-adorned body,26
With their shining illuminate the world,
And am worshiped by countless multitudes,
For whom I preach the seal of reality.27
Know, Shariputra!
Of yore I made a vow,
Wishing to cause all creatures
To rank equally without difference with me.
According to the vow I made of old,
Now [all] has been perfectly fulfilled
For converting all living beings
And leading them to enter the Buddha-way.
Whenever I meet any creatures
I teach them all by the Buddha-way.
[But] the unwitting [remain] confused
And, going astray, never accept my teaching.
I know that all these creatures
Have never practiced the fundamental goodness,
Are firmly attached to the five desires,
And through infatuation are in distress;
By reason of these desires,
They have fallen into the three evil paths;
Transmigrating in the six states of existence,
They suffer the utmost misery.
Received into the womb in minute form,
Life after life they ever increase and grow,
Poor in virtue and of little happiness.
They are oppressed by all the distresses;
They have entered the thickets of heretical views,
Such as 'existence' or 'nonexistence';28
Relying on these [false] views,
Altogether sixty-two,29
They are deeply attached to these false laws,
Firmly holding, unable to give them up,
Self-sufficient and self-inflated,
Suspicious, crooked, and faithless in mind;
During thousands and milliards of kalpas
They have not heard the name of a buddha,
Nor have they heard the True Law;
Men such as these can hardly be saved.
For this reason, Shariputra,
I set up a tactful way for them,
Proclaiming the way to end sufferings,
Revealing it through nirvana.
Though I proclaim nirvana,
Yet it is not real extinction.
All existence,30 from the beginning,
Is ever of the nirvana-nature.
When a son of the Buddha has fulfilled his course,
In a world to come he becomes a buddha.
[Only] by my powers of tactfulness
Do I manifest the three-vehicle Law.
[For] all the world-honored ones
Expound the One-vehicle Way.
Now let all in this great assembly
Be free from doubts and perplexities.
The buddhas do not differ in their statements;
There is One only and no second vehicle.
In the past countless kalpas
Innumerable extinct buddhas,
In hundreds, thousands, and milliards,
Whose numbers cannot be counted,
All such world-honored ones as these
With various reasonings and parables
And innumerable tactful powers
Have proclaimed the various laws.
[But] all these world-honored ones
Proclaimed the One-vehicle Law,
Converting numberless creatures
To enter the Buddha-way.
Moreover, the great holy masters,
Knowing that which all the worlds
Of gods, men, and other creatures
Deeply desire in their hearts,
In addition, by varying tactfulness,
Assist in revealing the first principles.
If there are any beings
Who have met the former buddhas;
If, having heard the Law, they have given donations;
If they have kept the commandments and been persevering,
Been assiduous, meditative, and wise;
Having kept these various ways of happiness and virtue,
Such beings as these
Have all attained the Buddha-way.
After the extinction of buddhas,
Men with good and soft minds for the truth,
Such living beings as these
Have all attained the Buddha-way.
After the extinction of buddhas,
Those who worshiped their relics
And built many kotis of sorts of stupas,
With gold, silver, and crystal,
With moonstone and agate,
With jasper and lapis lazuli,
Clearly and broadly decorated,
Handsomely displayed on every stupa;
Or those who built stone shrines
Of sandalwood and aloes,
Eaglewood and other woods,
Of brick, tiles, and clay;
Or those who in the wilds
Raised earth for buddhas' shrines;
Even children, in their play,
Who gathered sand for a buddha's stupa:
All such beings as these
Have attained the Buddha-way.
If men for the sake of buddhas
Have erected images
Carved with the [characteristic] signs,
[They] have all attained the Buddha-way.
Or those who with the precious seven,
With brass, red and white copper,
With wax, lead, and tin,
With iron, wood, and clay,
Or with glue and lacquer
Have adorned and made buddhas' images,
All such ones as these
Have attained the Buddha-way.
Those who have painted buddhas' images
With the hundred blessing-adorned signs,
Whether done by themselves or by employing others,
Have all attained the Buddha-way.
Even boys in their play
Who with reed, wood, or pen
Or with the fingernail
Have drawn buddhas' images,
All such ones as these,
Gradually accumulating merit
And perfecting hearts of great pity,
Have attained the Buddha-way;
Indeed, by influencing the bodhisattvas,
Have saved countless creatures.
If men to the stupas and shrines,
To the precious images and paintings,
With flowers, incense, flags, and umbrellas
Have paid homage with respectful hearts;
Or employed others to perform music,
Beat drums, blow horns and conchs,
Panpipes and flutes, play lutes, harps,
Guitars, gongs, and cymbals,
Such mystic sounds as these,
All played by way of homage;
Or with joyful hearts
By singing have extolled the merits of buddhas
Even though in but a low voice,
[These too] have attained the Buddha-way.
Even anyone who, with distracted mind,
With but a single flower
Has paid homage to the painted images
Shall gradually see countless buddhas.
Or those who have offered worship,
Were it by merely folding the hands,
Or even raising a hand,
Or by slightly bending the head,
By thus paying homage to the images
Gradually see innumerable buddhas,
Attain the supreme Way,
Extensively save countless creatures,
And enter the formless nirvana,
As [when] firewood is finished the fire dies out.
If any, [even] with distracted mind,
Enter a stupa or temple
And cry but once 'Namah Buddha,'
They have attained the Buddha-way.
If any from the buddhas of the past,
Whether in existence or already extinct,
Have heard this Law,
They have all attained the Buddha-way.
All the future world-honored ones,
Infinite in their number,
All these tathagatas
Also by tactful ways preach the Law.
All of the tathagatas
By infinite tactful ways
Save all living creatures
To enter the Buddha's faultless wisdom.
Of those who hear the Law
Not one fails to become a buddha.
[This is] the original vow of the buddhas:
'By the Buddha-way which I walk,
I desire universally to cause all creatures
To attain the same Way along with me.'
Though the buddhas in future ages
Proclaim hundreds, thousands, kotis,
Countless schools of doctrine,
In reality they are [but] the One-vehicle.
The buddhas, the honored ones,
Know that nothing has an independent existence31
And that buddha-seeds32 spring from a cause,33
So they reveal the One-vehicle.
All things abide in their fixed order,
[Hence] the world abides forever.34
Having apprehended this on the wisdom throne,
The leaders proclaim it in tactful ways.
Whom gods and men pay homage to,
The present buddhas in the universe,
Whose number is as the sands of the Ganges,
And who appear in the world
For the relief of all creatures,
These also proclaim such a Law as this.
Knowing the supreme nirvana,
Though by reason of their tactful powers
They display various kinds of ways,
Really they are [but] the [One] Buddha-vehicle.
Knowing the conduct of all creatures,
What they entertain in their deepest minds,
The karma they have developed in the past,
Their inclinations and zeal,
And their capacities, keen or dull,
With various kinds of reasonings,
Parables, and narrations,
As they could respond, so have they tactfully taught.
Now I also in like manner
For the relief of all creatures
By various kinds of doctrine
Promulgate the Buddha-way.
I, by my power of wisdom,
Knowing the natures and inclinations of creatures,
Tactfully proclaim the laws
[Which] cause all to obtain gladness.
Know, Shariputra!
I, observing with the Buddha's eyes,
See the creatures in the six states of existence,
Poor and without happiness and wisdom,
In the dangerous path of mortality,
In continuous, unending misery,
Firmly fettered by the five desires
Like the yak caring for its tail,
Smothered by greed and infatuation,
Blinded and seeing nothing;
They seek not the Buddha, the mighty,
And the Law to end sufferings,
But deeply [fall] into heresies,
And seek by suffering to be rid of suffering.
For the sake of all these creatures,
My heart is stirred with great pity.
When I first sat on the wisdom throne,
Looking at [that] tree and walking about it
During thrice seven days,
I pondered such matters as these:
'The wisdom which I have obtained
Is wonderful and supreme.
[But] all creatures are dull in their capacities,
Pleasure-attached and blind with ignorance.
Such classes of beings as these,
[I saw,] how can they be saved?'
Thereupon all the Brahma kings
And Lord Shakra of all the gods,
The four heavenly beings who protect the worlds,
Also the god Great Sovereign
And all the other heavenly beings,
With hundreds of thousands of myriads of followers,
Respectfully saluted with folded hands,
Entreating me to roll the wheel of the Law.35
Then I pondered within myself:
'If I only extol the Buddha-vehicle,
All creatures, being sunk in suffering,
Will not be able to believe this Law,
And by breaking the Law through unbelief
Will fall into the three evil paths.
I had rather not preach the Law,
But instantly enter nirvana.'
Then, on remembering what former buddhas
Performed by their tactful powers,
[I thought:] 'The Way which I have now attained
I must preach as the tripartite vehicle.'
While I was pondering thus,
All the buddhas in the universe appeared
And, with sacred voice, cheered me in response:
'Excellent! Shakyamuni!
The first of leaders!
Having attained this supreme Law,
Thou art following after all the buddhas
In using tactful powers.
We, too, have all attained
This most wonderful, supreme Law,
[But] for the sake of the many kinds of creatures,
We divide and preach [it] in three vehicles.
Those of little wisdom delight in petty laws,
Not believing that they can become buddhas,
Hence we, by tactful ways,
Divide and preach the [natural] results.
Though we also proclaim the three vehicles,
It is only for teaching the bodhisattvas.'
Know, Shariputra!
Hearing the voices of the Holy Lions,
Profoundly clear and mystic,
I saluted them, 'Namah buddhas,'36
And again reflected thus:
'Having come forth into the disturbed and evil world,
I, according to the buddhas' behest,
Will also obediently proceed.'
Having finished pondering this matter,
I instantly went to Varanasi.
The nirvana-nature of all existence,
Which is inexpressible,
I by [my] tactful ability
Preached to the five bhikshus.37
This is called [the first] rolling of the Law-wheel,
Whereupon there was the news of nirvana38
And also the separate names of Arhat,
Of Law, and of Samgha.39
From distant kalpas onward
I have extolled and indicated the Law of nirvana
For the perpetual end of mortal distress;
Thus have I continuously spoken.
Know, Shariputra!
When I saw the Buddha-sons
Bent on seeking the Buddha-way,
In countless thousands and myriads of kotis,
All, with reverent hearts,
Draw near to [me] the Buddha;
They had already heard from the buddhas
The Law which they tactfully explained.
Then I conceived this thought:
'The reason why the Tathagata appears
Is for preaching the Buddha-wisdom;
Now is the very time.'
Know, Shariputra!
The stupid and those of little wit,
The tied to externals and the proud
Cannot believe this Law.
But now I am glad and fearless;
In the midst of the bodhisattvas
Frankly put aside tactfulness
And only proclaim the supreme Way.
[You] bodhisattvas hearing this Law,
Having all got rid of the nets of doubts,
[You] twelve hundred arhats
Will all become buddhas.
In the same fashion that the buddhas,
Past, present, and future, preach the Law,
So also will I now
Proclaim the undivided Law.
The appearing of buddhas in the world
Is far apart and of rare occurrence,
And when they do appear in the world,
With [equal] rareness do they proclaim this Law.
Even in infinite countless kalpas,
Rarely may this Law be heard;
And those who are able to listen to this Law,
Men such as these are also rare.
It is like the udumbara flower,
Which all love and enjoy,
Seldom seen by gods and men,
Appearing but once in [long] periods.
So he who, hearing the Law, extols it joyfully
And utters but one single word of it
Has already paid homage to
All the buddhas in the three worlds.
Such a one is exceedingly rare,
[Rarer] than the udumbara flower.
Be you free from doubts;
I am the king of the Law40
And declare to all the assembly:
'I, only by the One-vehicle Way,
Teach the bodhisattvas,
And have no shravaka disciples.'
Know, all of you, Shariputra,
Shravakas, and bodhisattvas,
That this Wonderful Law
Is the mystery of all the buddhas.
Because the evil world of the five decadences
Only delights in sensual attachments,
[Its] creatures such as these
Never seek the Buddha-way.
The wicked in generations to come,
Who hear the One-vehicle preached by the Buddha,
In their delusion and unbelief
Will break the Law and fall into evil ways.
[But] there are beings, modest and pure,
Devoted to seeking the Buddha-way;
For such as these [I] must
Widely extol the One-vehicle Way.
Know, Shariputra!
The Law of the buddhas is thus:
By myriads of kotis of tactful ways
They proclaim the Law as opportunity serves.
[But] those who will not learn
Are not able to discern it.
[But] you already know
The expedient tactful ways of
The buddhas, the leaders of the world.
Have no further doubts;
Rejoice greatly in your hearts,
Knowing that you will become buddhas.

A Nice Break From the Day

2012-02-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Lotus Sutra Parables - A YouTube Video

2012-02-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

A Synopsis of the Lotus Sutra by Fotopoulou Sophia

2012-02-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

A Synopsis of The Lotus Sutra by Fotopoulou Sophia

Personally, I have found different versions, reflections, thesis, explanations, analysis, and opinions, about the Lotus Sutra. This Sutra is one of the most profound sutras in the timeline of Buddhism. It is supposed to have been one of the latest discourses of the Buddha. The following synopsis is the most interesting writings I've read... so, I place it here, for you to read... The composer calls it "The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment".

To give a brief idea of what we are concerned with in the White Lotus Sutra I have chosen to call it the Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment. But in its own symbolic terms, the title of the sutra, if we attend carefully to it, speaks for itself. It’s as though the sutra is bursting with symbolism to the extent that even its title--Saddharma-Pundarika Sutra in the original Sanskrit--is symbolic. Before we start investigating the symbols within the sutra, then, let’s have a look at what the title might mean.

Saddharma is usually translated ‘good law’ or ‘good doctrine?the doctrine of course being the teaching of the Buddha--but this translation isn’t really good enough. Sat or sad comes from a Sanskrit root which means ‘to exist’, so it means something more like ‘true’ or ‘real’, ‘genuine’ or ‘authentic’. In the same way, although we may be used to translating ‘Dharma’ as ‘doctrine’ or ‘teaching’, it is more accurately rendered ‘truth’, or even ‘the ultimate nature of things’.

Taking the two together, then, the essential meaning of saddharma is ‘the real truth’, and this is how we can best translate it. Incidentally, the same goes for the Pali equivalent saddhamma, which occurs many times in the Dhammapada.

Pundarika means ‘lotus’ or, more specifically, ‘white lotus’. Although we have only one word in English which has to make do for lotuses of all colours, in Sanskrit lotuses of different colours have different names. So we have ‘the white lotus of the real truth’. What does this title suggest? Lotuses usually grow in muddy ponds; but although the plants grow in the mud, the flowers bloom out of the water, so that their petals are pure and unstained. Because of this, the lotus has become a symbol of purity-- purity in the midst of impurity.

It has come to symbolize the presence of the Unconditioned in the midst of the conditioned--if you like, the presence of the spiritual in the midst of the worldly--unstained by the conditions in which it appears. So the title of the sutra is suggesting that although the real truth appears in the midst of the world, it is not tainted by any worldly considerations.

The word sutra is the most common term for a Buddhist scripture, so that Buddhists refer to the sutras just as Christians might speak of the Bible. But although it tends to be used so generally, sutra has a specific meaning. It comes from a word meaning ‘a thread: so it suggests a number of topics strung together on a common thread of discourse. The form of a sutra is almost always the same. First you get a description of where the discourse was given, what was going on, and who was present. That is followed by the main body of the text, which usually consists of a teaching of the Dharma, the real truth, by the Buddha himself. The sutra then ends with an account of the effect of the Buddha’s teaching on the people listening.

In some sutras, although the Buddha is present, he stays in the background and one of his disciples speaks, in which case the text ends with the Buddha giving his approval to what the disciple has said, thus making the discourse his own, as it were. Sometimes, especially in Mahayana sutras, it is not even a question of the Buddha giving his approval. A disciple may be doing the actual speaking, but he speaks under the direct inspiration of the Buddha, so that in truth the Buddha is speaking through him. But however it is spoken, it is important to understand that whatever is said in the body of a sutra is not just issuing from the ordinary level of consciousness. It isn’t something that has been worked out intellectually.

It isn’t a proof or an explanation of something in the mundane sense. It is a truth, a message, even a revelation, issuing from the depths of the Enlightened consciousness, the depths of the Buddha nature. This is the essential content of any Buddhist scripture, and this is its purpose: to communicate the nature of Enlightenment and show the way leading to its realization.

So we can translate the complete title of this particular communication of the Enlightened mind as ‘the Scripture of the White Lotus (or if you like the Transcendental Lotus) of the Real Truth’. We could scarcely hope to convey in English all the associations of the Sanskrit words, so the translation is only approximate, but it will do.

As a literary document, the White Lotus Sutra--to revert to the short version of the title--belongs to the first century of the Christian era, that is, five hundred years after the death of the Buddha. But although we know when the sutra was first written down, this, of course, does not give us any clue as to when it was first composed. It is hard for us to imagine, but for practically the whole of that first five hundred year period the Buddha’s teaching was passed on by word of mouth. Not a word of it was written down.

Indeed, there is no evidence that the Buddha himself could read and write. In those days writing was not a very respectable accomplishment. Corrupt businessmen who wanted to keep a record of their international transactions might write things down, but it was not a proper occupation for religious people. So the Buddha just used to teach in the form of discourses, and people would listen to what he had to say, commit it to memory, and then repeat it to their own disciples. In this way the teachings of Buddhism--and of Hinduism too--were passed on from generation to generation, like the lighted torch passed from one runner to another at the start of the Olympic Games.

But eventually Indian Buddhists did start to write down the Buddha’s teachings. We don’t really know why. Perhaps memories had grown weaker since the Buddha’s day. Perhaps people didn’t feel so confident, and felt there was a danger that the teachings would be lost if they were not written down. Or perhaps reading and writing had become more respectable, so that it was natural to make the teachings available in written form. But whatever the reason, in the first century CE there was a general writing down of the teachings, and the White Lotus Sutra was among the teachings that became scriptures--’scripture’ literally meaning a written document--at that time.
The teachings of Buddhism were written down in various languages-- Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Apabhramsa, Paisaci, and so on--and the White Lotus Sutra was one of the first to be written down in Sanskrit.

But although Sanskrit is the language of ancient India, it doesn’t necessarily follow that India was where the text was first written down. By this time Buddhism, especially Mahayana Buddhism, had spread into central Asia, and it may have been there that the White Lotus Sutra was first recorded. After all, we know that the Pali scriptures originated from Sri Lanka, not India, at around the same time. But wherever the White Lotus Sutra was written down, it was written in a mixture of two kinds of Sanskrit: ‘Pure’ Sanskrit and ‘Buddhist Hybrid’ Sanskrit. Pure Sanskrit follows the rules laid down by the grammarian Panini, so it is sometimes called Paninian Sanskrit. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (sometimes simply called Mixed Sanskrit) is Sanskrit mixed with Prakritisms to produce a less ‘correct’, more colloquial language.

So the sutra is written in a combination of these two kinds of Sanskrit. It also combines prose and verse, the prose being in Pure, Paninian, Sanskrit and the poetry in Hybrid Sanskrit. This already makes the text quite distinctive. What makes it curious, not to say odd, from a literary point of view, is its structure. The prose and verse come alternately first you get a prose passage of a few pages, and then comes a passage in verse.

The curious thing is that the verse passage repeats almost exactly what has just been said in prose (with a few contractions and expansions). Some scholars would have it that the verse sections are older than the prose, but there’s no real proof of that. The whole work, both prose and verse, is divided into twenty-seven chapters, or twenty-eight in some versions--and makes quite a substantial volume.

The original texts of many Buddhist scriptures have been lost, but in the case of the White Lotus Sutra we are fortunate. Copies were discovered in the nineteenth century, and there have been more recent discoveries too--in Nepal, where several copies were unearthed, in the sands of the desert of central Asia, and in Kashmir, where copies were found only a few decades ago.

There are also ancient translations of the work into Chinese, Tibetan, and other languages. The standard Chinese translation is the work of Kumarajiva, one of the greatest of all Buddhist translators and scholars, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, during the T’ang dynasty, a time when Buddhism was thriving in China. For hundreds of years Kumarajiva’s translation exerted an influence on Chinese culture comparable to that of the Authorized Bible on English culture, and it is still considered by the Chinese to be a masterpiece of their classical literature. And as well as making such an impact on the literary world, Kumarajiva’s great achievement also inspired many Chinese artists, resulting in the development of a whole tradition of illustrating well-known scenes from the sutra.

Until fairly recently, only one complete translation of the sutra had been published in English. This was the work of the Dutch scholar Henrich Kern, published in the Sacred Books of the East series in 1884, and still in print. As this was the first translation, and as in those days people didn’t know the real meaning of a number of important Buddhist technical terms, it isn’t surprising that Kern’s version is less than perfect, although it is very good for its time. It’s rather unimaginative, and it contains some extremely odd footnotes.

For one thing, the translator seems to be obsessed by the idea that the whole of Buddhism can be explained in terms of astronomy. He also tries to make out that nirvana is quite literally equivalent to the state of physical extinction: Enlightenment equals death, in other words. Very odd. A much more readable, although incomplete, version of the sutra became available in 1930 in the form of a translation of Kumarajiva’s Chinese text made by Bunno Kato and revised by Professor William Soothill, an English missionary who lived for a time in China. Although Soothill was a Christian, he does succeed in conveying the devotional fervour and the spiritual mood of the original text.’

The first sentence of the text is translated in the same way in whatever version you read. Indeed, the opening words are the hallmark of any Buddhist sutra, and the English translation, with its distinctive, slightly antiquated form, has a sort of magic about it, like ‘Once upon a time’. When we hear or read the words ‘Thus have I heard’ (evam maya srutam in Sanskrit), we know at once that a teaching of the Buddha is to follow. But who has ‘heard’? Who is the speaker?

According to tradition it is Ananda. Ananda was the Buddha’s cousin, his disciple, and for twenty years his constant attendant and travelling companion. And Ananda is said to be the principal source of the oral tradition. We are told that his memory was so good that he was able to remember almost word for word whatever the Buddha said, and pass it on to the other disciples. If he happened to be out on an errand when the Buddha gave a teaching, he would get the Buddha to repeat it to him so that he had stored away in his memory a collection of everything that the Buddha had ever said.

I must confess that when I first came into contact with Buddhism, I did tend to wonder whether such a thing was possible. But during my twenty years in India, I certainly did meet both Indians and Tibetans who could reel off hundreds and hundreds of pages of scriptures by heart. And later, when I came back to England, I got to know somebody with a memory almost like a tape recorder.

He would say, ‘On the eighth of July three years ago, you said...’ and would proceed to reel off, word for word, exactly what I had said--the order in which I had touched on certain topics, the logical stages of the argument, all the illustrations I had used, everything--together with the time of day and the circumstances. So I thought to myself, ‘If it is possible for someone in London in the twentieth century to have such a phenomenal memory, no doubt it was possible in ancient India too’, and I became convinced that the Buddha did have in Ananda someone with this extraordinary capacity to remember discourses and conversations.

But although these words, ‘Thus have I heard’, have a literal, historical significance, they also suggest something more esoteric. In reality, the Buddha is not outside us. The Buddha nature is not outside us, but within us--’This very body the Buddha’, as the Zen tradition has it. And we could say that there’s not just an Ananda outside, in the realm of history; there’s also an Ananda inside us. And just as the historical Ananda listened to the Buddha, so the Ananda inside us hears the voice of truth within. Ananda, we could say, is our own ordinary mind listening to the utterance of our own Enlightened consciousness.

It’s as though within us we have two consciousnesses, a lower one and a higher one. The lower consciousness usually ignores the higher one and goes its own way, or maybe doesn’t even know that the higher one exists. But if that lower consciousness just stops and listens for a while, if it is receptive, it becomes aware of the voice of the higher consciousness. Like Ananda listening to the voice of the Buddha, our ordinary mind can be receptive to the higher mind, the Enlightened mind, within us. Taking this line of thought a bit further, we can say that the whole drama of cosmic Enlightenment takes place not only without, on the stage of the cosmos, but also within, in the recesses of our own heart.

Although the opening words of the sutra may be very familiar, once we are past them we find ourselves in a very unfamiliar world indeed. The world of the Mahayana sutra is almost the kind of thing you find in science fiction, on a more spiritual, transcendental level. So before we delve into the parables, myths, and symbols of the sutra, we need an introduction to this strange world.

You probably won’t make much sense of it, and I’m afraid I’m not going to offer much help. I’m just going to relate some of the events described in the sutra and leave them to make their own effect, however strange, however bizarre, however unintelligible. For your part, just read it like a story. And whatever you do, don’t think. Don’t try to work it all out. Don’t ask yourself what it all means. Just let your mind stop ticking and take it all in. If you want to set your intellect to work on it, you can do that later on. For the moment, just absorb the content of the sutra as though you were watching a film in the darkness.

This is something transcendentally surrealistic, and you really haven’t a hope of working it all out, so just let your rational mind go to sleep for a while and allow the pictures to have their effect. --And don’t be afraid of allowing yourself to feel.

The sutra opens on the Vulture’s Peak. In geographical terms, the Vulture’s Peak is an enormous rocky crag where the Buddha used to stay when he wanted to get away from it all. From there he could see for many miles around. In those days he would have been able to see, far in the distance, the tens of thousands of roofs of Rajagriha, the capital city of Magadha, which was one of the great kingdoms of northem India at that time. But there are no roofs there now. You can still visit the Vulture’s Peak, and it still commands a magnificent view, but there is no city any more. All you can see is dense leopard-inhabited jungle, and here and there a few ancient Buddhist, Jain, and even prehistoric Cyclopean ruins.

Symbolically speaking, the Vulture’s Peak represents the summit of earthly existence. Go beyond it, and you’re in the world of the transcendental, the world of the purely spiritual. So when the sutra describes the Buddha as seated on the Vulture’s Peak, it is placing him half way between heaven and earth. And he is surrounded there by tens of thousands of disciples of various kinds. We are told that there are twelve thousand Arhats, those who have reached nirvana in the Hinayana sense of the destruction of passions, without positive knowledge and illumination. Then there are eighty thousand Bodhisattvas, and also tens of thousands of gods and other non-human beings with their retinues.

And we are told that the Buddha delivers to this huge assembly a great discourse on infinity, a very popular Buddhist topic. He speaks eloquently for a long time, and everybody is deeply moved. Indeed, the effect of the Buddha’s teaching is such that beautiful flowers of many colours start raining down from the heavens, and the whole universe shakes and trembles in six different ways. Then, having finished his discourse, the Buddha enters into deep meditation; and while he is meditating, there comes forth from a spot between his eyebrows a brilliant ray of pure white light. It’s like a great searchlight sweeping all around the universe so that it is possible to see hundreds of millions of miles into the depths of space.

In that intense light innumerable world systems are discovered in all the directions of space. And in every world system can be seen much the same thing as is going on in this one: a Buddha preaching, surrounded by disciples, and Bodhisattvas practising the six great disciplines.

So this is the spectacle revealed by the ray of light, which issues from the Buddha as he sits there meditating. Naturally the great assembly is astonished, and everybody wonders what it means, and what is going to happen. The Bodhisattva Maitreya, the future Buddha, as he is sometimes called, enquires of Manjusri, who is the wisest of the Bodhisattvas, traditionally regarded as the incarnation of Wisdom, ‘What is going on? What does this great occurrence signify?’ And Manjusri says, ‘I believe--in fact I’m sure--it means that the Buddha is about to proclaim the White Lotus Sutra.’

And as Manjusri says this, the Buddha slowly emerges from his meditation. He opens his eyes and says, as though speaking to himself, ‘The Truth in its fullness is very difficult to understand.’ So difficult is it, he says, that only the Buddhas, only the fully Enlightened ones, are able to understand it. Only they, and no one else, can understand the Truth in its fullness (which may be a salutary reflection for us). Everybody else, the Buddha tells the assembly, has to approach the truth gradually, step by step; and the Buddha takes this into account in his teaching.

He takes people by the hand and leads them one step at a time. First he teaches the Arhat Ideal of gaining nirvana in the sense of the extinction of passions, and only then, when that has been achieved and understood, does he expound the higher, more Mahayanistic ideal of the realization of perfect Buddhahood through following the career of the Bodhisattva.

If he revealed the highest truth all at once, the Buddha goes on to explain, people would be so terrified that they would be unable to receive and assimilate it. Incidentally, this is rather like what happens at the point of death, according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In that instant, Reality in its fullness dawns on the mind in one blinding flash. If the mind could bear it, that moment could be the dawning of Enlightenment itself, but it is too much for the mind to bear, and it just shrinks back, terrified, and falls to ever lower levels of reality until it finds a level where it feels at home. Because people are afraid of Reality in this way, although the Buddha knows the full Truth, he can’t take the risk of revealing it to his disciples all at once.

He has to take them so far and then show them the next stage, until eventually they reach the ultimate goal. On this occasion, he looks round the assembly and says that he’s not sure whether even now everybody present is ready to hear what he has to say. For there is, he now reveals, something more for them to learn. Even the Arhats among them do not yet know the highest Truth.

This revelation provokes a dramatic incident. Five thousand of the disciples present simply get up and walk out. They murmur among themselves, ‘Something more to learn? That’s impossible. We’re Enlightened, we’ve got nirvana. What more could there possibly be to learn? What is the Buddha talking about? Maybe he’s getting a bit senile. Something more to learn?--not for us!’ And with that they give the Buddha a perfunctory bow, just for old times’ sake, and out they all go, shaking the dust of the assembly from their sandals.

This is a trap into which we can fall only too easily. Mistaking intellectual understanding for true knowledge, we can fool ourselves into thinking that there’s no further to go, nothing more to learn. And of course as soon as we start thinking like that, we can’t possibly learn any more. This is the biggest danger of all, and many people, like the five thousand disciples, succumb to it. I’m reminded of an episode in English religious history when Oliver Cromwell had dealings with a number of religious sectaries who got into a terrific argument over some knotty points of scripture. They were so obstinate, so immovable, that in the end Cromwell wrote to them, in desperation, ‘Reverend Sirs, I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.’

In the sutra, however, the Buddha doesn’t say anything; he just lets the disciples leave. And when they have gone, he simply says ‘Now the assembly is quite pure.’ In other words, now everyone present is receptive, prepared to consider that there may be something more for them to learn. So the Buddha goes on to reveal the highest Truth to this pure assembly. He tells them that his previous teaching of the three yanas is only provisional, an expedient made necessary by the diversity of temperaments among his disciples. Now these three yanas are not the Hinayana, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana.

I’m afraid that in Buddhism we get lots of terms with double meanings. The yanas the Buddha is talking about here are a different set--consisting of the Sravakayana (the way of the disciple), the pratyekabuddhayana (the way of the ‘privately Enlightened’ one), and the bodhisattvayana (the way of the Bodhisattva).

I don’t want to go into technicalities here--it’s more important to grasp the general principle that between them these three yanas symbolize different possible approaches to Enlightenment. The first two are different forms of spiritual individualism--the first perhaps being a bit more negative than the second--and the third is of course the Bodhisattva Ideal. When the Buddha says that his teaching of these three yanas was only provisional, he means--as he goes on to explain--that in reality there is only one way, ekayana. This is the Great Way, the Mahayana, the way leading to perfect Buddhahood.

All roads lead to Rome; all the yanas, all the different ways-individualistic and altruistic--are useful up to a point, but ultimately they all converge into the Way. In other words, there is only one process of Higher Evolution, and all participate in it to the extent that they make an effort to develop. The Buddha tells the assembly that if anyone offers even a flower with faith and devotion, they are already--in principle--on the path to Buddhahood. One thing leads to another.

A small act of faith leads to a bigger act of faith, a small practice of the Way leads to a bigger practice, and in this manner, step by step, you gradually begin to tread the Great Way, the one way leading to perfect Enlightenment. There is no good deed, no humanitarian act, that falls outside the scope of the Way.

On hearing this teaching Sariputra, the oldest and wisest of the Buddha’s disciples, is filled with joy. Although he is old, he is prepared to learn. His only regret, he says, is that he has spent so long at a lower level of understanding. But the Buddha encourages him, and tells him that at a time in the distant future he too will realize supreme Enlightenment as a perfect Buddha. He even tells him what his name will be. But not all the disciples are like Sariputra. Some of them are rather disturbed and perplexed by the new teaching. Have they been wasting their time? Was the old practice completely useless? What should they do next?

To reassure them, the Buddha tells the first of the great parables of the sutra, the parable of the burning house. And we see here for the first time the effect of symbolism. Four leading elders who were still in doubt after hearing the Buddha’s abstract statement of the higher teaching are now convinced. They now realize that they can go beyond the stage of eradication of negative emotions, and proceed to positive illumination, supreme Knowledge, Wisdom, Enlightenment ... and they are overjoyed. One of them, Mahakasyapa, gives expression to their joy by telling a parable on their behalf, the parable--or myth--of the return journey.

When the parable has been told, the Buddha praises the four elders, and proceeds to shed more light on the way he leads sentient beings to Enlightenment. We already know that he teaches step by step, holding back the highest truth until his disciples are ready to hear it. Now we learn, that he also adapts his teaching to suit the varying capacities of different people. To illustrate this, he tells two more parables: the parable 0f the rain-cloud and the parable of the sun. He follows the parables by predicting that Mahakasyapa and the other elders will also become perfect Buddhas, even announcing what their names will be.

Then, turning from the future to the past, and once more addressing the whole assembly, the Buddha tells them about another Buddha, a Buddha who lived millions and millions of years before his own time. The Buddha tells the story because the career of this Buddha in some respects paralleled his own. The majority of the followers of this Buddha, too, had followed the Hinayana path of the Arhat.

Only sixteen of them--they were his own sons from the period before he became a monk--had aspired to perfect Buddhahood as Bodhisattvas. But sooner or later, the Buddha says, all the followers of this Buddha would enter the Great Way, the Mahayana. To illustrate this, the Buddha tells the parable of the magic city--and as we will not be looking at this parable in depth, I will recount it briefly here.
A party of travellers is bound for a place called Ratnadvipa (’the Place of Jewels’), and has employed a guide to show them the way through the dense forest. It is a very difficult, dangerous road, and long before they have reached their destination the travellers become exhausted, and say to their guide ‘We can’t go another step. Let’s all go back.’ But the guide thinks ‘That would be a pity. They’ve come so far already. What can I do to persuade them to keep going?’

Well, apparently the guide has some sort of magic power, because what he does is conjure up a magic city. He says to the travellers, ‘Look! There’s a city right here in front of us. Let’s rest there and have something to eat, and then we’ll decide what to do next.’ The travellers, of course, are only too pleased to stop and have a rest. They have a meal and spend the night in the magic city, and in the morning they feel much better, and decide that they will carry on with their journey after all. So the guide makes the magic city disappear and leads the travellers on to their destination, the Place of Jewels.’

The meaning of the parable is not hard to fathom in the context of the sutra. The guide is of course the Buddha, and the travellers are the disciples. The Place of Jewels is supreme Enlightenment, and the magic city is the Hinayana nirvana--nirvana as the comparatively negative state of freedom from passions, without positive spiritual illumination. And, as the parable suggests, the Buddha first of all speaks in terms of nirvana in the ordinary psychological sense.

Only when this teaching has been assimilated--only when the disciples have rested in the magic city-does he lead them on to the higher spiritual goal of perfect Buddhahood, the Place of Jewels.

We could use the same parable to describe the process of teaching meditation. When people first come along to learn to meditate, they quite often ask ‘What is the goal of meditation?’ You wouldn’t usually reply, straight off, ‘Well, the goal of meditation is to become like a Buddha’, because that’s the last thing most people want to be. They’re not interested in anything religious or spiritual; they just want peace of mind in the midst of their everyday life and work. And it’s perfectly true to say that meditation gives you peace of mind.

But when they’ve been meditating for some time, and they start to experience peace of mind through meditation, then they might ask ‘Well, is this all, or is there something more to meditation?’ That would be the right time to say ‘Yes, there is something more. Peace of mind in the ordinary psychological sense is not the final goal of meditation, but only an intermediate stage. Beyond it there’s a spiritual goal--Enlightenment, knowledge of the Truth, knowledge of Reality--which in Buddhist terms is called perfect Buddhahood.’ Here ‘peace of mind’ is the magic city in which the traveller is nourished and rested for the long journey to Enlightenment.
When the Buddha has told the parable of the magic city, we begin to see the effect of all these parables on the audience. More and more disciples come forward to confess their previously limited understanding and announce their acceptance of the new teaching.

The Buddha predicts that the monk Purna, together with five hundred other distinguished Arhats, will gain supreme Enlightenment, and in their joy these Arhats also tell a parable, the parable of the drunkard and the jewel. More and more disciples are then predicted to perfect Buddhahood, and eventually all the Hinayana disciples are converted, and decide to aspire to supreme Enlightenment as Bodhisattvas.

There are, of course, thousands of Bodhisattvas already present, Bodhisattvas who have followed the Great Way from the beginning. The Buddha now turns to them, and impresses upon them that the White Lotus Sutra is tremendously important and must be preserved at all costs. The text should be read, recited, copied, expounded, and even ceremonially worshipped, the Buddha says. And all the Bodhisattvas promise to protect the sutra.

Then, suddenly, something extraordinary happens--extraordinary even by the standards of this extraordinary sutra. In the midst of the assembly, from the depths of the earth, there springs up a stupa, a colossal, unbelievably magnificent stupa, which towers into the sky. A stupa is a monument, which is made to contain the relics--fragments of bone and so on--of the Buddha or one of his disciples. Following a pre-Buddhistic practice, the first stupas were very simple--just a mound of earth, a sort of tumulus. But the stupa, which appears out of the earth in the White Lotus Sutra is made not of brick, not of stone, not even of marble, but of the seven precious things--gold, silver, lapis lazuli, moonstone, agate, pearl, and camelian. What is more, it is beautifully decorated with flags and flowers, and it is emitting light, fragrance, and music in all directions.

One can just imagine the scene. There are all these astonished disciples--only the Buddha isn’t astonished--and this enormous stupa towering into the sky. And as they all gaze up at the stupa in amazement, from the midst of it there comes forth a thunderous voice which cries ‘Excellent, excellent, Sakyamuni! You are well able to preach the White Lotus Sutra. All that you say is true.’ (Sakyamuni of course is the Buddha, whom we can call ‘our’ Buddha because he appeared in our world.) At this the disciples are absolutely agog. What does it all mean? Whose is the voice? Whose is the stupa? So the Buddha explains that the stupa contains the preserved body of a very ancient Buddha called Abundant Treasures (Prabhutaratna in Sanskrit), who lived millions upon millions of years ago.

During his lifetime Abundant Treasures had made a vow that after his death, the stupa in which his remains were enshrined would spring forth wherever the White Lotus Sutra was being expounded. What is more, he had vowed that he himself would bear testimony to the truth of the teaching.

The whole assembly is very impressed by this explanation, and they ask if it isn’t possible for the stupa to be opened so that they can see the body of this ancient Buddha, still miraculously preserved after millions of years. But Sakyamuni tells them that it’s not as easy as all that. According to another vow, which Abundant Treasures made, Sakyamuni has to fulfil a certain condition before the preserved body of the ancient Buddha can be seen. The condition is that Sakyamuni must summon into his presence all the Buddhas who have ever emanated from him, and who are now teaching the Doctrine throughout the universe.

And at once Sakyamuni proceeds to fulfil the condition, so that the assembly’s wish can be granted. Once more he sends out a great ray of light, which reveals the Buddhas in all the universes in the ten directions of space. And at 0nce those Buddhas understand that this is a signal, and tell their own Bodhisattvas ‘Now I’ve got to go on a joumey to the Saha-world, millions of miles across the universe, because Buddha Sakyamuni has sent for me.’

In Buddhism, each Buddha-world, each universe, has got a name. 0urs is called the Saha-world, ‘the world of endurance’, because here there’s a lot to be endured. According to the Buddhist scriptures, our world is not a particularly good one; there are lots of other worlds with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas where conditions are much better. So Sakyamuni doesn’t want these incoming Buddhas to see the imperfection of his own little universe, and sets about preparing it for their arrival. He transforms the whole earth into brilliant blue light, like lapis lazuli, with golden cords stretching across it to mark off the blue ground into squares. Inside these squares, we’re told, there spring up beautiful trees made entirely of jewels--trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit--and thousands of feet tall.

The earth, which is strewn with all sorts of heavenly flowers, smokes with sweet-smelling incense. And to complete the purification process, all the gods and men who are not part of the assembly are transferred somewhere--we’re not told precisely where, but they’re sort of bundled out of the way--and all the villages, towns and cities, mountains, rivers, and forests, disappear.

Hardly is this transformation completed when five hundred Buddhas arrive from the different directions of space, each accompanied by a great Bodhisattva, and take their seats on five hundred magnificent lion thrones under five hundred jewel trees. Such is the scale of things that they completely take up all the available space, and the Buddhas have barely begun to arrive. So Sakyamuni hastily purifies untold millions of worlds in all the directions of space, and they are all instantly occupied by streams of incoming Buddhas, who take their seats beneath jewel trees and pay their respects to the Buddha Sakyamuni by offering a double handful of jewel flowers.

Now that all these millions of Buddhas, with their attendant Bodhisattvas, are gathered together in one place, the condition laid down by Abundant Treasures has been fulfilled. So Sakyamuni floats up into the sky until he is level with the great door of the stupa, draws back the bolt, and flings open the door with a sound like thunder to reveal the body of Abundant Treasures within. And even though the body of the ancient Buddha is millions upon millions of years old, it is perfectly preserved, seated cross-legged within the stupa. Awe-struck at the sight, the assembly take up handfuls of jewel flowers and scatter them so that they rain down over the two Buddhas.

And it turns out that it is not just that Abundant Treasurer’s body has been perfectly preserved. The ancient Buddha is actually still alive after all these years, and he asks Sakyamuni to come and share his throne. So Sakyamuni goes to sit next to Abundant Treasurers in the stupa--this deeply symbolic and significant scene became a favourite one with Chinese Buddhist artists. The whole assembly, looking up into the sky at the two Buddhas, desires to be raised up to the same level, so Sakyamuni exerts his supernormal powers and lifts all the assembly, all the millions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, up into the air until they are level with himself and Abundant Treasures.

At this point, Sakyamuni cries out in a loud voice ‘Who among you is able to preach the White Lotus Sutra in the Saha-world? The time of my death is at hand. To whom can I entrust the Lotus of the True Law?’ There then follows a whole series of episodes-possibly added to the sutra after the main body of it was completed--which I am going to omit, partly for the sake of brevity, and partly because they rather break up the continuity of the action. After these diversions, two Bodhisattvas come forward in response to the Buddha’s demand, and promise that they will preserve and spread the White Lotus Sutra after the Buddha’s death. And all the Arhats who have been predicted to perfect Buddhahood give a similar pledge.

Attention now turns to two nuns who are present, standing a little to one side. These are Mahaprajapati, the Buddha’s aunt and foster-mother, and Yasodhara, his wife in the days before he left home, both of whom became nuns after the Buddha’s Enlightenment, under his guidance. They are feeling rather sorrowful because nothing has so far been said about Enlightenment for them, but the Buddha assures them that they are sure of becoming perfectly Enlightened one day. In response, they too pledge to protect the White Lotus Sutra.

There are many irreversible Bodhisattvas in the assembly--’irreversible’ in that they have gone so far on the path that they cannot fall back into lower states, and are irrevocably bound for perfect Buddhahood. They now announce that they are determined to make the White Lotus Sutra known throughout the whole universe, and they join the rest of the assembly in begging the Buddha to have no anxiety about the sutra’s future, even in the dreadful days, which lie ahead. A dark age is approaching, they say, a time of war and confusion, bloodshed and evil, but they tell the Buddha ‘Do not worry. Even in the terrible age that is coming, we shall remember the teaching. We shall preserve it, we shall protect it, and we shall propagate it.’

We are swiftly made aware that the preservation of the sutra will be no easy task. The Bodhisattva Manjusri comments that it is a tremendous responsibility, and the Buddha agrees, and goes on to list four qualities, which the Bodhisattvas who want to fulfil this mission must have. First, they must be perfect in conduct. Second, they must confine themselves to ‘proper spheres of activity’--which means that they must avoid unsuitable company and dwell inwardly in the true nature of Reality. Third, they must maintain happy, peaceful states of mind, unaffected by zeal or envy. And fourth, they must cultivate feelings of love towards all living beings. The Buddha explains these four qualities in some detail, and then tells another parable, the parable of the wheel-rolling king, or universal monarch. (A ‘wheel-rolling’ king is one who sets turning the wheel of the Dhanna, that is, one who rules according to the Buddha’s teaching.)

The story goes like this. There was once a king who went to war because he wished to extend his domain. His soldiers fought so heroically that the king was very pleased with them, and gave them all the rewards they deserved. He gave them houses, land, clothes, slaves, chariots, gold, silver, gems--in fact, everything he had in his palace. The only thing he didn’t give away was the magnificent crest jewel that he wore in his own turban. Eventually, however, he was so pleased with the soldiers’ bravery that he took the crest jewel itself and handed it over to them. So, as the Buddha goes on to explain, he himself is like the wheel-rolling king. Seeing the efforts that his disciples have made to practise his teachings, seeing how bravely they have fought against Mara, he rewards them with more and more teachings and blessings. In the end, keeping nothing back, he gives them the supreme teaching, the White Lotus Sutra.

Having heard this parable, the great Bodhisattvas who have come from other world systems with their own Buddhas offer their services too. But Sakyamuni says ‘No, your services are not necessary. I have innumerable Bodhisattvas here in my own Saha-world, and they will protect the White Lotus Sutra after my death.’ As he says this, the universe shakes and trembles, and from the space underneath the earth there issues an incalculable host of irreversible Bodhisattvas. One by one they salute in turn all the Buddhas present, and sing their praises. Although this takes an extraordinary length of time--fifty minor aeons, during which the whole assembly stays completely silent--it actually seems, through the power of the Buddha, as though only a single afternoon has passed.

When all the salutations and songs are over, the Buddha Sakyamuni and the four leaders of the great host of irreversible Bodhisattvas exchange greetings. The implication seems to be that Sakyamuni is claiming all these newly appeared Bodhisattvas as his own disciples. The assembly can scarcely believe it. The Buddha assures them ‘Yes, these are indeed my own disciples, and they have been following the Great Way for a very long time. You haven’t seen them before because they live under the earth.’ But this isn’t good enough for the perplexed disciples. They say ‘Look here. You gained Enlightenment under the bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya only forty years ago. How can you possibly have trained such a fantastic number of Bodhisattvas in that time? A few hundred, a few thousand even, we could believe-but this many? And they seem to belong to past ages and to other world systems too. How can you possibly claim them all as your disciples? It’s as ridiculous as a young man of twenty-five pointing to a crowd of wizened centenarians and saying that they are all his sons.’

The Buddha, of course, has a reply to all this scepticism. And this reply is a central revelation, as the Mahayana sees it, making this scene the climax of the whole drama of cosmic Enlightenment. The Buddha says that he did not really gain Enlightenment only forty years ago. In fact, he says, he gained Enlightenment an uncountable, incalculable number of millions of ages ago. In other words, he makes the rather staggering claim that he is eternally Enlightened. By now it is obvious that this is no longer the historical Sakyamuni speaking, but the universal, cosmic principle of Enlightenment itself.

All these millions of ages, he says, he has been teaching and preaching in many different forms, and in many different worlds. He has appeared as Dipankara Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, and so on. He is not really born, does not really attain Enlightenment, does not really die, but only appears to do so, just to encourage people. If he stayed with them all the time, he says, people would not appreciate him or follow his teaching. And to illustrate this, he tells the parable of the good physician.

This great declaration that the Buddha is eternally Enlightened produces a tremendous effect on the assembly. Hosts of disciples attain various spiritual insights, powers, understandings, and blessings, while flowers, incense, and jewels rain down from the sky, celestial canopies are raised on high, and countless Bodhisattvas sing the praises of all the Buddhas--a display which provides an apt setting for the Buddha’s next teaching. For he now explains that the development of faith in his eternal life, faith in the sense of an emotional response, is equivalent to the development of wisdom. Such faith, we may say, is wisdom expressed in emotional terms.

If you have this sort of faith, you will see and hear the universal Buddha on the spiritual Vulture’s Peak eternally preaching the White Lotus Sutra. What is more, the Buddha says, the merits of listening to the White Lotus Sutra are very great, and the merits of preaching it even greater--and of course it’s very de-meritorious to disparage the sutra in any way.

This warning introduces the episode of the Bodhisattva Never Direct. Never Direct, the Buddha says, was a Bodhisattva who lived millions of years ago. He used to go around saying to people ‘It is not for me to direct you. You are free to do anything you like. But I would advise you to take up the Bodhisattva career so that ultimately you may become perfect Buddhas.’ Now some of the people on the receiving end of this got very fed up with Never Direct. Why on earth should they want to become Buddhas? Many of them became so angry that they abused the Bodhisattva, hit him with sticks, pelted him with stones, and generally gave him a very rough time indeed. Nothing daunted, however, and not bearing his abusers any ill-will, Never Direct would just retreat to a safe distance and continue to cry out ‘It is not for me to give you any direction. You will all become Buddhas.’ This is how he got his nickname, Never Direct. Sakyamuni ends the story by saying that he himself was Never Direct in a previous life, and some of those who were his persecutors in those days are now his disciples.

At this point it’s the turn of the irreversible Bodhisattvas from under the earth to speak. They also promise to protect the White Lotus Sutra, and say that they will preach it throughout the whole universe. Their promise sparks off all manner of mantels and wonders. The Buddhafields in all the directions of space begin to shake and tremble, and all the inhabitants of those distant worlds look down into the Saha-world and see it revealed, like looking down through the depths of the water and seeing something at the bottom. They see the Buddhas Sakyamuni and Abundant Treasures seated on their joint lotus throne in the middle of the stupa, and they see the countless millions of great Bodhisattvas.

Sakyamuni is joyfully hailed by all the gods, who shower down flowers, incense, and jewels which merge in a huge mass, like clouds massing together, and form a jewelled canopy which covers the whole sky. Marvel upon marvel takes place, until all the worlds in the universe are seen to reflect one another like millions of mutually reflecting mirrors, and interpenetrate one another like innumerable beams of intersecting coloured light. Eventually all these universes, with all their beings, all their Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, are fused into one harmonious Buddha-field, one cosmos wherein the principle of Enlightenment reigns supreme.

For one last time, the Buddha extols the merits of the sutra, and reminds the assembly of the importance of preserving it and propagating it. Then he rises from his lion throne in the midst of the sky and places his right hand in blessing on the heads of the countless irreversible Bodhisattvas. At last, requesting the Buddhas present to return to their own domains, he says ‘Buddhas, peace be upon you. Let the stupa of the Buddha Abundant Treasures be restored as before.’ Everybody rejoices--and thus the great drama concludes.

The Lotus Sutra - Chapter 3

2012-02-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

At that time the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Great Adornment said to the Buddha again: "World-honored One! The World-honored One has preached this Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, a wonderful, profound, and supreme Great-vehicle. It is truly profound, profound, and profound. Wherefore? In this assembly, all the bodhisattva-mahasattvas, all the four groups, gods, dragons, demons, kings, subjects, and all the living beings, hearing this Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, a profound and supreme Great-vehicle, never fail to obtain the realm of dharanis, the three laws, the four merits, and the aspiration to enlightenment.

It should be known that this Law is reasonable in its logic, unsurpassed in its worth, and protected by all the buddhas of the three worlds. No kind of demon or heretic can break into it, nor can any wrong view or life and death destroy it. Wherefore? Because hearing [it] but once is keeping all the laws.

"If a living being can hear this sutra, he will acquire a great benefit. Wherefore? If he practices it sincerely, he will quickly accomplish supreme buddhahood without fail. If a living being cannot hear [it], it should be known that he loses a great benefit. He will never accomplish supreme buddhahood even after a lapse of infinite, boundless, inconceivable asamkhyeya kalpas. Wherefore? Because he does not know the great direct way to enlightenment, he meets with many sufferings in walking steep ways.

"World-honored One! This sutra is inconceivable. World-honored One! Be pleased to explain the profound and inconceivable matter of this sutra out of benevolence for all the people. World-honored One! From what place does this sutra come? For what place does it leave? At what place does it stay? Whereupon does this sutra make people quickly accomplish Perfect Enlightenment, having such infinite merits and inconceivable powers?"

At that time the World-honored One addressed the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Great Adornment: "Excellent! Excellent! Good sons; just so, just so, just as you say. Good sons! I preach this sutra as profound, profound, and truly profound. Wherefore? Because it makes people quickly accomplish supreme buddhahood; hearing [it] but once is keeping all the laws; it greatly benefits all the living; there is no suffering in practicing the great direct way. Good sons! You ask where this sutra comes from, where it leaves for, and where it stays.

Do listen attentively. Good sons! This sutra originally comes from the abode of all buddhas, leaves for aspiration of all the living to the buddhahood, and stays at the place where all the bodhisattvas practice. Good sons! This sutra comes like this, leaves like this, and stays like this. Therefore this sutra, having such infinite merits and inconceivable powers, makes people quickly accomplish supreme buddhahood.

"Good sons! Do you want to hear how this sutra has ten inconceivable merit-powers?" The Bodhisattva Great Adornment said: "We heartily want to hear." The Buddha said: "Good sons! First, this sutra makes the unawakened bodhisattva aspire to buddhahood, makes a merciless one raise the mind of mercy, makes a homicidal one raise the mind of great compassion, makes a jealous one raise the mind of joy, makes an attached one raise the mind of detachment, makes a miserly one raise the mind of donation, makes an arrogant one raise the mind of keeping the commandments, makes an irascible one raise the mind of perseverance, makes an indolent one raise the mind of assiduity, makes a distracted one raise the mind of meditation, makes an ignorant one raise the mind of wisdom, makes ones who lacks concern for saving others raise the mind of saving others, makes one who commits the ten evils raise the mind of the ten virtues, makes one who wishes for existence aspire to the mind of nonexistence, makes one who has an inclination toward apostasy build the mind of nonretrogression, makes one who commits defiled acts raise the mind of undefilement, and makes one who suffers delusions raise the mind of detachment.

Good sons! This is called the first inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Secondly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if a living being can hear this sutra but once, or only one verse and phrase, he will penetrate into a hundred thousand kotis of meanings, and the law kept by him cannot be explained fully even in infinite kalpas. Wherefore? It is because this sutra has innumerable meanings.

"Good sons! Suppose that from one seed a hundred thousand myriad seeds grow, from each of a hundred thousand myriad seeds another hundred thousand myriad seeds grow, and in such a process seeds increase to an unlimited extent. This sutra is like this. From one law a hundred thousand meanings grow, from each of a hundred thousand meanings a hundred thousand myriad meanings grow, and in such a process meanings increase to an unlimited and boundless extent. Such being the case, this sutra is called Innumerable Meanings. Good sons! This is the second inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Thirdly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if a living being can hear this sutra but once, or only one verse and phrase, he will penetrate into a hundred thousand myriad kotis of meanings. After that, his delusions, even though existent, will become as if nonexistent; he will not be seized with fear, though he moves between birth and death; and he will raise the mind of compassion for all the living, and obtain the spirit of bravery to obey all the laws. A powerful wrestler can shoulder and hold any heavy thing. The keeper of this sutra is also like this. He can shoulder the heavy treasure of supreme buddhahood, and carry living beings on his back out of the way of birth and death. He will be able to relieve others, even though he cannot yet relieve himself.

Just as a ferry master, though he stays on this shore owing to his serious illness and unsettled body, can be made to cross over by means of a good and solid ship that has the quality of carrying anyone without fail, so also is it with the keeper of this sutra. Though he stays on this shore of ignorance, old age, and death owing to the hundred and eight kinds of serious illness,1 with which his body under the existence of all the five states is seized and ever afflicted, he can be delivered from birth and death through practicing this strong Mahayana Sutra of Innumerable Meanings as it is preached, which realizes the deliverance of living beings. Good sons! This is called the third inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Fourthly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if a living being can hear this sutra but once, or only one verse and phrase, he will obtain the spirit of bravery, and relieve others, even though he cannot yet relieve himself. He will become the attendant [of the buddhas] together with all the bodhisattvas, and all the buddha-tathagatas will always preach the Law to him. On hearing [it], he will keep the Law entirely and follow it without disobeying. Moreover, he will interpret it for people extensively as occasion calls.

"Good sons! Suppose that a new prince is born of a king and queen. A day, two days, or seven days, and a month, two months, or seven months passing away, he will attain the age of one, two, or seven. Though he cannot yet manage national affairs, he will come to be revered by people and take all the great king's sons into his company. The king and queen will always stay and converse with him with special and deep affection because he is their little child. Good sons! The keeper of this sutra is also like this. The king - the Buddha - and the queen - this sutra - come together, and this son - a bodhisattva - is born of them.

If the bodhisattva can hear one phrase or verse of this sutra once, twice, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, myriad times, myriad kotis of times, or innumerable and numberless times like the sands of the Ganges, he will come to shake the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world, though he cannot yet realize the ultimate truth, and will take all great bodhisattvas into his attendance, while being admired by all of the four classes and the eight guardians, though he cannot yet roll the great Law-wheel with the sacred voice like the roll of thunder.

Entering deeply into the secret law of the buddhas, he will interpret it without error or fault. He will always be protected by all the buddhas, and especially covered with affection, because he is a beginner in learning. Good sons! This is called the fourth inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Fifthly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if good sons or good daughters keep, read, recite, and copy the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, such a profound and supreme Great-vehicle, either during the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, they will realize the way of great bodhisattvas though they cannot yet be delivered from all the faults of an ordinary man and are still wrapped in delusions. They will fill with joy and convince those living beings, extending a day to a hundred kalpas, or shortening a hundred kalpas to a day. Good sons! These good sons or good daughters are just like a dragon’s son who can raise clouds and cause a rainfall seven days after his birth. Good sons! This is called the fifth inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

“Good sons! Sixthly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if good sons or good daughters keep, read, and recite this sutra either during the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, even though clothed in delusions, they will deliver living beings from the life and death of delusions, and make them overcome all sufferings, by preaching the Law for them. After hearing it, living beings will put it into practice, and attain the law, the merit, and the way, where there will be equality and no difference from the Buddha Tathagata.

Suppose that a king, in journeying or falling ill, leaves the management of national affairs to his prince, though he is an infant. Then the prince, by order of the great king, leads all the government officials according to the law, and propagates the right policy, so that every citizen of the country follows his orders exactly as if the king were governing. It is the same with good sons or good daughters keeping this sutra. During the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, these good sons will propagate the doctrine, preaching exactly as the Buddha did, though they themselves cannot yet live in the first stage of immobility, and if living beings, after hearing [their preaching], practice it intently, they will cut off delusions and attain the law, the merit, and the way. Good sons! This is called the sixth inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Seventhly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if good sons or good daughters, hearing this sutra either during the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, rejoice, believe, and raise the rare2 mind; keep, read, recite, copy, and expound it; practice it as it has been preached; aspire to buddhahood; cause all the good roots to sprout; raise the mind of great compassion; and want to relieve all living beings of sufferings, the Six Paramitas will be naturally present in them, though they cannot yet practice the Six Paramitas. They will attain the assurance of the law of no birth in their bodies; life and death, and delusions will be instantly destroyed; and they will rise to the seventh stage of bodhisattva.

"Suppose there is a vigorous man who tries to destroy an enemy on behalf of his king and after the enemy has been destroyed, with great joy, the king gives him half the kingdom as a prize. Good sons or good daughters who keep this sutra are like this. They are the most vigorous of all ascetics. They come to attain the Law-treasure of the Six Paramitas even though they are not consciously seeking it. The enemy of death and life will be naturally destroyed, and they will be made comfortable by the prize of a fief, realizing the assurance of no birth as the treasure of half the Buddha-country. Good sons! This is called the seventh inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Eighthly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if good sons or good daughters, either during the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, see someone who has received this sutra, they will make him revere and believe it exactly as if he saw the body of the Buddha; they will keep, read, recite, copy, and worship this sutra with joy; serve and practice it as the Law; firmly keep the commandments and perseverance; they will also practice almsgiving; raise a deep benevolence; and explain the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, this supreme Great-vehicle, widely to others. To one who for a long time does not at all recognize the existence of sinfulness and blessedness, they will show this sutra, and force him to have faith in it with all sorts of expedients.

By the strong power of this sutra, he will be made to stir up faith and to convert suddenly. After stirring up faith, he will endeavor so valorously that he can acquire the virtue and power of this sutra, and attain the way and the merit. In this way, these good sons or good daughters will attain the assurance of the law of no birth in their bodies of men or women by the merit of having been enlightened, reach the upper stage, become the attendants [of the buddhas], together with all the bodhisattvas convert living beings quickly, purify buddha-lands, and attain supreme buddhahood before long. Good sons! This is called the eighth inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Ninthly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if good sons or good daughters, receiving this sutra either during the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, leap for joy; acquire the unprecedented; keep, read, recite, copy, and adore this sutra; and explain its meaning discriminatingly and widely for living beings, they will instantly destroy the heavy barrier of sins resulting from previous karma and become purified, acquire great eloquence, gradually realize all paramitas, accomplish all samadhis and shuramgama-samadhi, enter the great gate of dharani, and rise up to the upper stage quickly with strenuous efforts. They will spread their divided bodies in all the lands of ten directions, and relieve and emancipate entirely all living beings who suffer greatly in the twenty-five abodes. Thus such a power can be seen in this sutra. Good sons! This is called the ninth inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! Tenthly, the inconceivable merit-power of this sutra is as follows: if good sons or good daughters, receiving this sutra either during the Buddha's lifetime or after his extinction, greatly rejoice; raise the rare mind; keep, read, recite, copy, and adore this sutra of their own accord; practice it as it has been preached; also induce many monks and lay people to keep, read, recite, copy, adore, and expound this sutra, and practice it as the Law, these good sons or good daughters will obtain the innumerable realms of dharani in their bodies because it is wholly by the merciful and friendly instruction of these good sons or good daughters that other people attain the way and the merit through the power of the practice of this sutra. They will make vast oaths and great vows of numberless asamkhyeya naturally and from the beginning in the stage of ordinary men, and raise a deep desire to relieve all living beings.

They will realize the great compassion, thoroughly abolish all sufferings, gather many good roots, and bring benefit to all. They will explain the favor of the Law and greatly enliven the withered; give all living beings the medicine of the Law, and set all at ease; gradually elevate their view to live in the stage of the Law-cloud.3 They will spread favor extensively, grant mercy to all suffering living beings, and lead them into the [Buddha-]way. Thereupon these persons4 will accomplish Perfect Enlightenment before long. Good sons! This is called the tenth inconceivable merit-power of this sutra.

"Good sons! The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, such a supreme Great-vehicle, has an extremely great divine power and is unsurpassed in its worth. It makes all ordinary men accomplish the sacred merit, and makes them free from life and death forever. Thereupon this sutra is called Innumerable Meanings. It makes all the living sprout the innumerable ways of all the bodhisattvas in the stage of ordinary men, and makes the tree of merit grow dense, thick, and tall. Therefore this sutra is called inconceivable merit-power."

At that time the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Great Adornment, with the eighty thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas, said to the Buddha with one voice: "World-honored One! The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, such a profound, wonderful, and supreme Great-vehicle preached by the Buddha, is reasonable in its logic, unsurpassed in its worth, and protected by all the buddhas of the three worlds. No kind of demon or heretic can break into it, nor can any wrong view or life and death destroy it. Thereupon this sutra has ten such inconceivable merit-powers.

It greatly benefits innumerable living beings, makes all bodhisattva-mahasattvas attain the contemplation of Innumerable Meanings, a hundred thousand realms of dharani, all the stages and assurances of bodhisattva, and the accomplishment of the four way-merits of pratyekabuddha and arhat. The World-honored One has preached such a Law willingly for us in compassion, and made us obtain the benefits of the Law abundantly. This is immensely marvelous and unprecedented. It is difficult to repay the merciful favor of the World-honored One."

At the close of these words, the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world was shaken in the six ways;5 various kinds of celestial flowers, such as utpala, padma, kumuda, and pundarika, rained down from the sky; and numberless kinds of celestial perfumes, robes, garlands, and treasures of priceless value also rained and came rolling down from the sky, and they were offered to the Buddha, all the bodhisattvas and shravakas, and the great assembly. The celestial bins and bowls were filled with all manner of celestial delicacies, which gave satisfaction naturally to anyone who [just] saw them and smelled their perfume. The celestial banners, flags, canopies, and playthings were placed everywhere, and celestial music was played in praise of the Buddha.

Also the buddha-worlds, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, in the east were shaken in the six ways; celestial flowers, perfumes, robes, garlands, and treasures of priceless value rained down; the celestial bins and bowls, and all sorts of celestial delicacies gave satisfaction naturally to anyone who [just] saw them and smelled their perfume. The celestial banners, flags, canopies, and playthings were placed everywhere, and celestial music was played in praise of those buddhas, those bodhisattvas and shravakas, and the great assembly. So, too, was it in the southern, western, and northern quarters, in the four intermediate directions, in the zenith and nadir.

At that time the Buddha addressed the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Great Adornment and the eighty thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas: "You should entertain a deep respect for this sutra, practice it as the Law, instruct all widely, and propagate it earnestly. You should protect it heartily day and night, and make all living beings obtain the benefits of the Law. This is truly great mercy and great compassion, so, offering the divine power of a vow, you should protect this sutra and not let anybody put obstacles in its way. Then you should have it practiced widely in Jambudvipa, and make all the living observe, read, recite, copy, and adore it without fail. Because of this you will be made to attain Perfect Enlightenment rapidly."

At this time the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Great Adornment rose up from his seat, went up to the Buddha with the eighty thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas, made obeisance at his feet, a hundred thousand times made procession round him, and then going forth to kneel, said to the Buddha with one voice: "World-honored One! We have been placed under the mercy of the World-honored One to our delight. The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, this profound, wonderful, and supreme Great-vehicle, has been preached for us. We will widely propagate this sutra after the Tathagata's extinction in obedience to the Buddha's command, and let all keep, read, recite, copy, and adore it. Be pleased to have no anxiety! With the vow-power, we will let all the living observe, read, recite, copy, and adore this sutra, and acquire the marvelous merit of this sutra."

At that time the Buddha said in praise: "Excellent! Excellent! All good sons; you are really and truly the Buddha's sons. You are persons who abolish sufferings and remove calamities thoroughly with great mercy and great compassion. You are the good field of blessings for all living beings. You have been the great good leaders extensively for all. You are the great support for all living beings. You are the great benefactors of all living beings. Always bestow the benefits of the Law extensively on all."

At that time all in the great assembly, greatly rejoicing together, made salutation to the Buddha and, taking possession [of the sutra], withdrew.

The Lotus Sutra - Chapter 2

2012-02-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

At that time the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Great Adornment, with the eighty thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas, finished praising the Buddha with this verse and said to the Buddha in unison: "World-honored One, we, the assemblage of the eighty thousand bodhisattvas, want to ask you about the Tathagata's Law. We are anxious that the World-honored One should hear us with sympathy.

The Buddha addressed the Bodhisattva Great Adornment and the eighty thousand bodhisattvas: "Excellent! Excellent! Good sons, you have well known that this is the time. Ask me what you like. Before long, the Tathagata will enter parinirvana. After nirvana, there shall be not a doubt left to anybody. I will answer any question you wish to ask.

Thereupon the Bodhisattva Great Adornment, with the eighty thousand bodhisattvas, said to the Buddha in unison with one voice: "World-honored One! If the bodhisattva-mahasattvas want to accomplish Perfect Enlightenment quickly, what doctrine should they practice? What doctrine makes bodhisattva-mahasattvas accomplish Perfect Enlightenment quickly?

The Buddha addressed the Bodhisattva Great Adornment and the eighty thousand bodhisattvas: "Good sons, there is one doctrine which makes bodhisattvas accomplish Perfect Enlightenment quickly. If a bodhisattva learns this doctrine, then he will accomplish Perfect Enlightenment.

World-honored One! What is this doctrine called? What is its meaning? How does a bodhisattva practice it?

The Buddha said: "Good sons! This one doctrine is called the doctrine of Innumerable Meanings. A bodhisattva, if he wants to learn and master the doctrine of Innumerable Meanings, should observe that all laws1 were originally, will be, and are in themselves void in nature and form; they are neither great nor small, neither appearing nor disappearing, neither fixed nor movable, and neither advancing nor retreating; and they are nondualistic, just emptiness. All living beings, however, discriminate falsely: 'It is this' or 'It is that,' and 'It is advantageous' or 'It is disadvantageous'; they entertain evil thoughts, make various evil karmas, and [thus] transmigrate within the six realms of existence; and they suffer all manner of miseries, and cannot escape from there during infinite kotis of kalpas.

Bodhisattva-mahasattvas, observing rightly like this, should raise the mind of compassion, display the great mercy desiring to relieve others of suffering, and once again penetrate deeply into all laws. According to the nature of a law, such a law emerges. According to the nature of a law, such a law settles. According to the nature of a law, such a law changes. According to the nature of a law, such a law vanishes. According to the nature of a law, such an evil law emerges. According to the nature of a law, such a good law emerges.

Settling, changing, and vanishing are also like this. Bodhisattvas, having thus completely observed and known these four aspects from beginning to end, should next observe that none of the laws settles down even for a moment, but all emerge and vanish anew every moment; and observe that they emerge, settle, change, and vanish instantly. After such observation, we see all manner of natural desires of living beings. As natural desires are innumerable, preaching is immeasurable, and as preaching is immeasurable, meanings are innumerable.

The Innumerable Meanings originate from one law. This one law is, namely, nonform. Such nonform is formless, and not form. Being not form and formless, it is called the real aspect [of things]. The mercy which bodhisattva-mahasattvas display after stabilizing themselves in such a real aspect is real and not vain. They excellently relieve living beings from sufferings. Having given relief from sufferings, they preach the Law again, and let all living beings obtain pleasure.

"Good sons! A bodhisattva, if he practices completely the doctrine of the Innumerable Meanings like this, will soon accomplish Perfect Enlightenment without fail. Good sons! The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, such a profound and supreme Great-vehicle, is reasonable in its logic, unsurpassed in its worth, and protected by all the buddhas of the three worlds. No kind of demon or heretic can break into it, nor can any wrong view or life and death destroy it. Therefore, good sons! Bodhisattva-mahasattvas, if you want to accomplish supreme buddhahood quickly, you should learn and master the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, such a profound and supreme Great-vehicle."

At that time the Bodhisattva Great Adornment said to the Buddha again: "World-honored One! The preaching of the World-honored One is incomprehensible, the natures of living beings are also incomprehensible, and the doctrine of emancipation is also incomprehensible. Though we have no doubt about the laws preached by the Buddha, we repeatedly ask the World-honored One for fear that all living beings should be perplexed. For more than forty years since the Tathagata attained enlightenment, you have continuously preached all the laws to living beings--the four aspects, suffering, voidness, transience, selflessness, nonlarge, nonsmall, nonbirth, nondeath, one aspect, nonaspect, the nature of the law, the form of the law, void from the beginning, noncoming, nongoing, nonappearance, and nondisappearance.

Those who have heard it have obtained the law of warming, the law of the highest, the law of the best in the world,2 the merit of srota-apanna, the merit of sakridagamin, the merit of anagamin, the merit of arhat, and the way of pratyekabuddha; have aspired to enlightenment; and ascending the first stage, the second stage, and the third stage, have attained the tenth stage. Because of what difference between your past and present preaching on laws do you say that if a bodhisattva practices only the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, a profound and supreme Great-vehicle, he will soon accomplish supreme buddhahood without fail? World-honored One! Be pleased to discriminate the Law widely for living beings out of compassion for all, and to leave no doubt to all Law-hearers in the present and future."

Hereupon the Buddha said to the Bodhisattva Great Adornment: "Excellent! Excellent! Great good sons, you have well questioned the Tathagata about such a wonderful meaning of the profound and supreme Great-vehicle. Do you know that you will bring many benefits, please men and gods, and relieve living beings from sufferings. It is truly the great benevolence, and the truth without falsehood. For this reason you will surely and quickly accomplish supreme buddhahood. You will also make all living beings in the present and future accomplish supreme buddhahood.

"Good sons! After six years' right sitting under the Bodhi tree of the wisdom throne, I could accomplish Perfect Enlightenment. With the Buddha's eye I saw all the laws and understood that they were inexpressible. Wherefore? I knew that the natures and desires of all living beings were not equal. As their natures and desires were not equal, I preached the Law variously. It was with tactful power that I preached the Law variously. In forty years and more, the truth has not been revealed yet. Therefore living beings' powers of attainment are too different to accomplish supreme buddhahood quickly.

"Good sons! The Law is like water that washes off dirt. As a well, a pond, a stream, a river, a valley stream, a ditch, or a great sea, each alike effectively washes off all kinds of dirt, so the Law-water effectively washes off the dirt of all delusions of living beings.

"Good sons! The nature of water is one, but a stream, a river, a well, a pond, a valley stream, a ditch, and a great sea are different from one another. The nature of the Law is like this. There is equality and no differentiation in washing off the dirt of delusions, but the three laws, the four merits, and the two ways3 are not one and the same.

"Good sons! Though each washes equally as water, a well is not a pond, a pond is not a stream or a river, nor is a valley stream or a ditch a sea. As the Tathagata, the world's hero, is free in the Law, all the laws preached by him are also like this. Though preaching at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end all alike effectively wash off the delusions of living beings, the beginning is not the middle, and the middle is not the end. Preaching at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end are the same in expression but different from one another in meaning.

"Good sons! When I rolled the Law-wheel of the Four Noble Truths for the five men, Ajnata-Kaundinya and the others, at the Deer Park in Varanasi after leaving the king of trees, I preached that the laws are naturally vacant, ceaselessly transformed, and instantly born and destroyed. When I discoursed explaining the Twelve Causes and the Six Paramitas for all the bhikshus and bodhisattvas in various places during the middle period, I preached also that all laws are naturally vacant, ceaselessly transformed, and instantly born and destroyed.

Now in explaining the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, a Great-vehicle, at this time, I preach also that all laws are naturally vacant, ceaselessly transformed, and instantly born and destroyed. Good sons! Therefore the preaching at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end are the same in expression but different from one another in meaning. As the meaning varies, the understanding of living beings varies. As the understanding varies, the attainment of the law, the merit, and the way also varies.

"Good sons! At the beginning, though I preached the Four Truths for those who sought to be shravakas, eight kotis of heavenly beings came down to hear the Law and raised the desire for enlightenment. In the middle, though I preached in various places the profound Twelve Causes for those who sought to be pratyekabuddhas, innumerable living beings raised the aspiration for enlightenment or remained in the stage of shravaka. Next, though I explained the long-term practice4 of bodhisattvas, through preaching the twelve types of sutras of Great Extent, the Maha-Prajna, and the voidness of the Garland Sea, a hundred thousand bhikshus, myriad kotis of men and gods, and innumerable living beings could remain in the merits of srota-apanna, sakridagamin, anagamin, and arhat or in the law appropriate to the pratyekabuddha.

Good sons! For this reason, it is known that the preaching is the same, but the meaning varies. As the meaning varies, the understanding of living beings varies. As the understanding varies, the attainment of the law, the merit, and the way also varies. So good sons! Since I attained the way, and stood to preach the Law for the first time, till I spoke the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the Great-vehicle, today, I have never ceased from preaching suffering, voidness, transience, selflessness, nontruth, nonreality, nonlarge, nonsmall, nonbirth in origin, and also nondeath at present, one aspect, nonaspect, and the form of the law, the nature of the law, noncoming, nongoing, and the four aspects by which all the living are driven.

"Good sons! For this reason, all the buddhas, without a double tongue, answer widely all voices with one word; though having one body, reveal bodies innumerable and numberless as the sands of the Ganges of a hundred thousand myriad kotis nayutas; in each body, display various forms countless as the sands of some hundred thousand myriad kotis nayutas asamkhyeya Ganges, and in each form show shapes countless as the sands of some hundred thousand myriad kotis nayutas asamkhyeya Ganges. Good sons! This is, namely, the incomprehensible and profound world of buddhas. Men of the two vehicles cannot apprehend it, and even bodhisattvas of the ten stages cannot attain it. Only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom it well.

"Good sons! Thereupon I say: the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the wonderful, profound, and supreme Great-vehicle, is reasonable in its logic, unsurpassed in its worth, and protected by all the buddhas of the three worlds. No kind of demon or heretic can break into it, nor can any wrong view or life and death destroy it. Bodhisattva-mahasattvas, if you want to accomplish supreme buddhahood quickly, you should learn and master the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, such a profound and supreme Great-vehicle."

After the Buddha had finished explaining this, the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world was shaken in the six ways; various kinds of celestial flowers, such as utpala, padma, kumuda, and pundarika, rained down naturally from the sky; and innumerable kinds of celestial perfumes, robes, garlands, and treasures of priceless value also rained and came rolling down from the sky, and they were offered to the Buddha, all the bodhisattvas and shravakas, and the great assembly. The celestial bins and bowls were filled with all sorts of celestial delicacies; celestial banners, flags, canopies, and playthings were placed everywhere; and celestial music was played in praise of the Buddha.

Also the buddha-worlds, as many as the sands of the Ganges, in the direction of the east were shaken in the six ways; celestial flowers, perfumes, robes, garlands, and treasures of priceless value, celestial bins, bowls, and all sorts of celestial delicacies, celestial banners, flags, canopies, and playthings rained down; and celestial music was played in praise of those buddhas, those bodhisattvas, the shravakas, and the great assembly. So, too, was it in the southern, western, and northern quarters, in the four intermediate directions, in the zenith and nadir.

At this time thirty-two thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas in the assembly attained to the contemplation of the Innumerable Meanings. Thirty-four thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas obtained the numberless and infinite realms of dharani and came to roll the never retrogressing Law-wheel of buddhas all over the three worlds. All the bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, great wheel-rolling kings, small wheel-rolling kings, kings of the silver wheel, iron wheel, and other wheels, kings and princes, ministers and people, men and women, and great rich persons, and all the groups of a hundred thousand followers, hearing together the Buddha Tathagata preaching this sutra, obtained the law of warming, the law of the highest, the law of the best in the world, the merit of srota-apanna, the merit of sakridagamin, the merit of anagamin, the merit of arhat, and the merit of pratyekabuddha; attained to the bodhisattva's assurance of the law of no birth;6 acquired one dharani, two dharanis, three dharanis, four dharanis, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten dharanis, a hundred thousand myriad kotis of dharanis, and asamkhyeya dharanis as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges; and all came to roll the never-retrogressing Law-wheel rightly. Infinite living beings gained the aspiration to Perfect Enlightenment

The Lotus Sutra - Chapter 1

2012-01-31T18:01:00.001-08:00

Bloggers note: The Lotus Sutra is very long - each chapter requires a lot of reading. I decided to go ahead and post each chapter in full rather than break it up into sections, so I'll probably be adding a chapter every other day. This translation from japanese to english by Bunno Kato was the easiest for me to understand, but I think it remains true to the original in content and meaning.

Thus have I heard. Once1 the Buddha was staying at the City of Royal Palaces on Mount Gridhrakuta with a great assemblage of great bhikshus, in all twelve thousand. There were eighty thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas. There were gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, and mahoragas, besides all the bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas, and upasikas.

There were great wheel-rolling kings, small wheel-rolling kings, and kings of the gold wheel, silver wheel, and other wheels; further, kings and princes, ministers and people, men and women, and great rich persons, each encompassed by a hundred thousand myriad followers. They went up to the Buddha, made obeisance at his feet, a hundred thousand times made procession around him, burned incense, and scattered flowers. After they variously worshipped, they retired and sat to one side.

Those bodhisattvas' names were the Son of the Law-king Manjushri, the Son of the Law-king Great Dignity Treasury, the Son of the Law-king Sorrowlessness Treasury, the Son of the Law-king Great Eloquence Treasury, the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Bodhisattva Leader, the Bodhisattva Medicine King, the Bodhisattva Medicine Lord, the Bodhisattva Flower Banner, the Bodhisattva Flower Light Banner, the Bodhisattva King Commanding Dharanis at Will, the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World, the Bodhisattvas Great Power Obtained, the Bodhisattva Ever Zealous, the Bodhisattva Precious Seal, the Bodhisattva Precious Store, the Bodhisattva Precious Stick, the Bodhisattva Above the Triple World, the Bodhisattva Vimabhara 2, the Bodhisattva Scented Elephant, the Bodhisattva Great Scented Elephant, the Bodhisattva King of the Lion's Roar, the Bodhisattva Lion's Playing in the World, the Bodhisattva Lion's Force, the Bodhisattva Lion's Assiduity, the Bodhisattva Brave Power, the Bodhisattva Lion's Overbearing, the Bodhisattva Adornment, and the Bodhisattva Great Adornment: such bodhisattva-mahasattvas as these, eighty thousand in all.

Of these bodhisattvas there is none who is not a great saint of the Law-body. They have attained commands, meditation, wisdom, emancipation, and the knowledge of emancipation. With tranquil minds, and constantly in contemplation, they are peaceful, indifferent, nonactive, and free from desires. They are immune from any kind of delusion and distraction.

Their minds are calm and clear, profound and infinite. They remain in this state for hundreds of thousands of kotis of kalpas, and all the innumerable teachings have been revealed to them. Having obtained the great wisdom, they penetrate all things, completely understand the reality of their nature and form, and clearly discriminate existing and nonexisting, long and short.

Moreover, well knowing the capacities, natures, and inclinations of all, with dharanis and the unhindered power of discourse, they roll the Law-wheel just as buddhas do. First, dipping the dust of desire in a drop of the teachings, they remove the fever of the passions of life and realize the serenity of the Law by opening the gate of nirvana and fanning the wind of emancipation.

Next, raining the profound Law of the Twelve Causes, they pour it on the violent and intense rays of sufferings--ignorance, old age, illness, death, and so on; then pouring abundantly the supreme Mahayana, they dip all the good roots of living beings in it, scatter the seeds of goodness over the field of merits, and make all put forth the sprout of buddhahood. With their wisdom [brilliant] as the sun and the moon, and their timely tactfulness, they promote the work of Mahayana and make all accomplish Perfect Enlightenment speedily; and with eternal pleasure wonderful and true, and through infinite great compassion, they relieve all from suffering.

These are the true good friends for all living beings, these are the great field of blessings for all living beings, these are the unsummoned teachers 3 for all living beings, and these are the peaceful place of pleasure, relief, protection, and great support for all living beings. They become great good leaders or great leaders for living beings everywhere. They serve as eyes for blind beings, and as ears, nose, or tongue for those who are deaf, who have no nose, or who are dumb; make deficient organs complete; turn the deranged to the great right thought. As the master of a ship or the great master of a ship, they carry all living beings across the river of life and death to the shore of nirvana.

As the king of medicine or the great king of medicine, they discriminate the phases of a disease, know well the properties of medicines, dispense medicines according to the disease, and make people take them. As the controller or the great controller, they have no dissolute conduct; they are like a trainer of elephants and horses who never fails to train well, or like a majestic and brave lion that inevitably subdues and overpowers all beasts.

Bodhisattvas, playing in all paramitas, being firm and immovable at the stage of tathagata, purifying the Buddha-country with the stability of their vow power, will rapidly accomplish Perfect Enlightenment. All these bodhisattva-mahasattvas have such wonderful merits as seen above.

Those bhikshus' names were Great Wisdom Shariputra, Supernatural Power Maudgalyayana, Wisdom Life Subhuti, Maha-Katyayana, Maitrayani's son Purna, Ajnata-Kaundinya, Divine Eye Aniruddha, Precept-keeping Upali, Attendant Ananda, Buddha's son Rahula, Upananda, Revata, Kapphina, Vakkula, Acyuta,4 Svagata, Dhuta Maha-Kashyapa, Uruvilva-Kashyapa, Gaya-Kashyapa, and Nadi-Kashyapa. There are twelve thousand bhikshus such as these. All are arhats, unrestricted by all bonds of faults, free from attachment, and truly emancipated.

At that time the Bodhisattva-Mahasattava Great Adornment, seeing that all the groups sat in settled mind, rose up from his seat, went up to the Buddha with the eighty thousand bodhisattva-masattavas in the assembly, made obeisance at his feet, a hundred thousand times made procession round him, burned celestial incense, scattered celestial flowers, and presented the Buddha with celestial robes, garlands, and jewels of priceless value which came rolling down from the sky and gathered all over like clouds.

The celestial bins and bowls were filled with all sorts of celestial delicacies, which satisfied just by the sight of their color and the smell of their perfume. They placed celestial banners, flags, canopies, and playthings everywhere; pleased the Buddha with celestial music; then went forth to kneel with folded hands, and praised him in verse, saying with one voice and one mind:

Great! The Great Enlightened, the Great Holy Lord,
In him there is no defilement, no contamination, no attachment.
The trainer of gods and men, elephants and horses,
His moral breeze and virtuous fragrance
Deeply permeate all.
Serene is his wisdom, calm his emotion,
And stable his prudence.
His thought is settled, his consciousness is extinct,
And thus his mind is quiet.
Long since, he removed false thoughts
And conquered all the laws of existence.
His body is neither existing nor nonexisting;
Without cause or condition,
Without self or others;
Neither square nor round,
Neither short nor long;
Without appearance or disappearance,
Without birth or death;
Neither created nor emanating,
Neither made nor produced;
Neither sitting nor lying,
Neither walking nor stopping;
Neither moving nor rolling,
Neither calm nor quiet;
Without advance or retreat,
Without safety or danger;
Without right or wrong,
Without merit or demerit;
Neither that nor this,
Neither going nor coming;
Neither blue nor yellow,
Neither red nor white;
Neither crimson nor purple,
Without a variety of color.
Born of commandments, meditation,
Wisdom, emancipation, and knowledge;
Merit of contemplation, the six divine faculties,
And the practice of the way;
Sprung of benevolence and compassion,
The ten powers, and fearlessness;
He has come in response
To good karmas of living beings.
He reveals his body,
Ten feet six inches in height,
Glittering with purple gold,
Well proportioned, brilliant,
And highly bright.
The mark of hair curls as the moon,
In the nape of the neck there is a light as of the sun.
The curling hair is deep blue,
On the head there is a protuberance.
The pure eyes, like a stainless mirror,
Blink up and down.
The eyebrows trail in dark blue,
The mouth and cheeks are well formed.
The lips and tongue appear pleasantly red,
Like a scarlet flower.
The white teeth, forty in number,
Appear as snowy agate.
Broad the forehead, high-bridged the nose,
And majestic the face.
The chest, with a swastika mark,
Is like a lion's breast.
The hands and feet are flexible,
With the mark of a thousand spokes.
The sides and palms are well rounded,
And show in fine lines.
The arms are elongated,
And the fingers are straight and slender.
The skin is delicate and smooth,
And the hair curls to the right.
The ankles and knees are well defined,
And the male organ is hidden
Like that of a horse.
The fine muscles, the collarbone,
And the thigh bones are slim
Like those of a deer.
The chest and back are shining,
Pure and without blemish,
Untainted by any muddy water,
Unspotted by any speck of dust.
There are thirty-two such signs,
The eighty kinds of excellence are visible,
And truly, there is nothing
Of form or nonform.
All visible forms are transcended;
His body is formless and yet has form.
This is also true
Of the form of the body of all living beings.5
Living being adore him joyfully,
Devote their minds to him,
And pay their respects wholeheartedly.
By cutting off arrogance and egotism,
He has accomplished such a wonderful body.
Now we, the assemblage of eighty thousand,
Making obeisance all together,
Submit ourselves to the saint of nonattachment,
The trainer of elephants and horses,
Detached from the state of thinking,
Mind, thought, and perception.
We make obeisance,
And submit ourselves to the Law-body,
To all commands, meditation, wisdom,
Emancipation, and knowledge.
We make obeisance,
And submit ourselves to the wonderful character.
We make obeisance,
And submit ourselves to the unthinkable.
The sacred voice sounds eight ways,6
As the thunder sounds.
It is sweet, pure, and greatly profound.
He preaches the Four Noble Truths,
The Six Paramitas, and the Twelve Causes,
According to the working of the minds of living beings.
One never hears without opening one's mind
And breaking the bonds of the infinite chain of life and death.
One never hears without reaching srota-apanna,
Sakridagamin, anagamin, and arhat;
Reaching the state of pratyekabuddha,
Of nonfault and noncondition;
Reaching the state of bodhisattva,
Of nonlife and nondeath;
Of obtaining the infinite dharani
And the unhindered power of discourse,
With which one recites profound and wonderful verses,
Plays and bathes in the pure pond of the Law,
Or displays supernatural motion
By jumping and flying up,
Or freely goes in or out of water and fire.
The aspect of the Tathagata's Law-wheel is like this.
It is pure, boundless, and unthinkable.
Making obeisance all together,
We submit ourselves to him
When he rolls the Law-wheel.
We make obeisance,
And submit ourselves to the sacred voice.
We make obeisance,
And submit ourselves to the Causes, Truths, and Paramitas.
For infinite past kalpas,
The World-honored One has practiced
All manner of virtues with effort
To bring benefits to us human beings,
Heavenly beings, and dragon kings,
Universally to all living beings.
He abandoned all things hard to abandon,
His treasures, wife, and child,
His country and his palace.
Unsparing of his person as of his possessions,
He gave all, his head, eyes, and brain,
To people as alms.
Keeping the buddhas' precepts of purity,
He never did any harm,
Even at the cost of his life.
He never became angry,
Even though beaten with sword and staff,
Or though cursed and abused.
He never became tired,
In spite of long exertion.
He kept his mind at peace day and night,
And was always in meditation.
Learning all the law-ways,
With his deep wisdom
He has seen into the capacity of living beings.
As a result, obtaining free power,
He has become the Law-king,
Who is free in the Law.
Making obeisance again all together,
We submit ourselves to the one
Who has completed all hard things.

The Lotus Sutra - Introduction

2012-01-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Lotus Sutra

Of the countless scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, few are more widely read or revered than the Lotus Sutra. Its teachings thoroughly permeate most schools of Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan. Yet its origins are shrouded in mystery.

The sutra's name in Sanskrit is Saddharma-pundarika Sutra, or "Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law." It is a matter of faith in some schools of Buddhism that the sutra contains the words of the historical Buddha. However, most historians believe the sutra was written in the 1st or 2nd century CE, probably by more than one writer. A translation was made from Sanskrit to Chinese in 255 CE, and this is the earliest historical documentation of its existence.

As with so many of the Mahayana sutras, the original text of the Lotus Sutra is lost. The several early Chinese translations are the oldest versions of the sutra that remain to us. In particular, a translation into Chinese by the monk Kamarajiva in 406 CE is believed to be the most faithful to the original text.

In 6th century China the Lotus Sutra was promoted as the supreme sutra by the monk Chih-i, founder of the Tiantai school of Mahayana Buddhism, called Tendai in Japan. In part through Tendai influence, the Lotus became the most revered sutra in Japan. It deeply influenced Japanese Zen and also is an object of devotion of the Nichiren school.

The Setting of the Sutra

In Buddhism, a sutra is a sermon of the Buddha or one of his principal disciples. Buddhist sutras usually begin with the traditional words, "Thus I have heard." This is a nod to the story of Ananda, who recited all of the historical Buddha's sermons at the First Buddhist Council and was said to have begun each recitation this way.

The Lotus Sutra begins, "Thus I have heard. At one time the Buddha was in Rajagriha, staying on Mount Gridhrakuta." Rajagriha was a city on the site of present-day Rajgir, in northeastern India, and Gridhrakuta, or "Vulture's Peak," is nearby. So, the Lotus Sutra begins by making a connection to a real place associated with the historical Buddha.

However, in a few sentences the reader will have left the phenomenal world behind. The scene opens to a place outside ordinary time and space. The Buddha is attended by an unimaginable number of beings, both human and nonhuman -- monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, heavenly beings, dragons, garudas, and many others, including bodhisattvas and arhats. In this vast space eighteen thousand worlds are illuminated by a light reflected by a hair between the Buddha's eyebrows.

The sutra is divided into several chapters -- 28 in the Kamarajiva translation -- in which the Buddha or other beings offer sermons and parables. The text, partly prose and partly verse, contains some of the most beautiful passages of the world's religious literature.

It could take years to absorb all the teachings in such a rich text. However, three principal themes dominate the Lotus Sutra.

All Vehicles Are One Vehicle

In early passages the Buddha tells the assembly that his earlier teachings were provisional. People were not ready for his highest teaching, he said, and had to be brought to enlightenment by expedient means. But the Lotus represents the final, highest teaching, and supersedes all other teaching.

In particular, the Buddha addressed the doctrine of triyana, or "three vehicles" to nirvana. Very simply, the triyana describes people who realize enlightenment by hearing the Buddha's sermons, people who realize enlightenment for themselves through their own effort, and the path of the bodhisattva. But the Lotus Sutra says that the three vehicles are one vehicle, the buddha vehicle, through which all beings become buddhas.

All Beings May Become Buddhas

A theme expressed throughout the sutra is that all beings may attain buddhahood and attain Nirvana. A significant point is that in the dialogues the Buddha promises several women that they will attain buddhahood without having to be reborn as men.

The Buddha is presented in the Lotus Sutra as dharmakaya -- the unity of all things and beings, unmanifested, beyond existence or nonexistence, unbound by time and space. Because the dharmakaya is all beings, all beings have the potential to awaken to their true nature and attain buddhahood.

The Importance of Faith and Devotion

Buddhahood may not be attained through intellect alone. Indeed, the Mahayana view is that the absolute teaching cannot be expressed in words or understood by ordinary cognition. The Lotus Sutra stresses the importance of faith and devotion as means to realization of enlightenment. Among other significant points, the stress on faith and devotion makes buddhahood more accessible to laypeople, who do not spend their lives in ascetic monastic practice.

The Parables

A distinctive feature of the Lotus Sutra is the use of parables. The parables contain many layers of metaphor that have inspired many layers of interpretation. This is merely a list of the major parables:

The Burning House. A man lures his children out of a burning house.

The Prodigal Son. A poor, self-loathing man gradually learns that he is wealthy beyond measure.

The Medicinal Herbs. Although they grow in the same ground and receive the same rain, plants grow in different ways.

The Phantom City. A man leading people on a difficult journey conjures an illusion of a beautiful city to give them the heart to keep going.

The Gem in the Jacket. A man sews a gem into his friend's jacket. However, the friend wanders in poverty not knowing that he possesses a gem of great value.

The Gem in the King's Top-Knot. A king bestows many gifts but reserves his most priceless jewel for a person of exceptional merit.

The Excellent Physician. A physician's children are dying of poison but lack the sense to take medicine.

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 31 & 32, Final

2012-01-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

Chapter 31

The lord Buddha continued:

"If any person were to say that the Buddha, in his teachings, has constantly referred to himself, to other selves, to living beings, or to a universal self, what do you think, would that person have understood my meaning?"

Subhuti replied, "No, blessed lord. That person would not have understood the meaning of your teachings. For when you refer to those things, you are not referring to their actual existence, you only use the words as figures of speech, as symbols. Only in that sense can words be used, for conceptions, ideas, limited truths, and spiritual truths have no more reality than have matter or phenomena."

Then the lord Buddha made his meaning even more emphatic by saying:

"Subhuti, when people begin their practice of seeking to attaining total Enlightenment, they ought to see, to perceive, to know, to understand, and to realize that all things and all spiritual truths are no-things, and, therefore, they ought not to conceive within their minds any arbitrary conceptions whatsoever."

Chapter 32

Buddha continued:

"Subhuti, if anyone gave to the Buddha an immeasurable quantity of the seven treasures sufficient to fill the whole universe; and if another person, whether a man or woman, in seeking to attain complete Enlightenment were to earnestly and faithfully observe and study even a single section of this Sutra and explain it to others, the accumulated blessing and merit of that latter person would be far greater."

"Subhuti, how can one explain this Sutra to others without holding in mind any arbitrary conception of forms or phenomena or spiritual truths? It can only be done, Subhuti, by keeping the mind in perfect tranquility and free from any attachment to appearances."

"So I say to you -
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:"

"Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream."

"So is all conditioned existence to be seen."

Thus spoke Buddha.

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 28, 29 & 30

2012-01-30T06:08:00.000-08:00

Chapter 28

The lord Buddha continued:

"Subhuti, if someone gives treasures equal to the number of sands on the shores of the Ganges river, and if another, having realized the egolessness of all things, thereby understands selflessness, the latter would be more blessed than the one who practiced external charity. Why? Because great disciples do not see blessings and merit as a private possession, as something to be gained."

Subhuti inquired of the lord Buddha, "What do you mean 'great disciples do not see blessings and merit as a private possession'?"

The Buddha replied:

"Because those blessings and merit have never been sought after by those great disciples, they do not see them as private possessions, but they see them as the common possession of all beings."

Chapter 29

The Buddha said:

"Subhuti, if any person were to say that the Buddha is now coming or going, or sitting up or lying down, they would not have understood the principle I have been teaching. Why? Because while the expression 'Buddha' means 'he who has thus come, thus gone,' the true Buddha is never coming from anywhere or going anywhere. The name 'Buddha' is merely an expression, a figure of speech."

Chapter 30

The lord Buddha resumed:

"Subhuti, if any good person, either man or woman, were to take 3,000 galaxies and grind them into microscopic powder and blow it into space, what do you think, would this powder have any individual existence?"

"Subhuti replied, "Yes, lord, as a microscopic powder blown into space, it might be said to have a relative existence, but as you use words, it has no existence. The words are used only as a figure of speech. Otherwise the words would imply a belief in the existence of matter as an independent and self-existent thing, which it is not."

"Furthermore, when the Most Honored One refers to the '3,000 galaxies,' he could only do so as a figure of speech. Why? Because if the 3,000 galaxies really existed, their only reality would consist in their cosmic unity. Whether as microscopic powder or as galaxies, what does it matter? Only in the sense of the cosmic unity of ultimate being can the Buddha rightfully refer to it."

The lord Buddha was very pleased with this reply and said:

"Subhuti, although ordinary people have always grasped after an arbitrary conception of matter and galaxies, the concept has no true basis; it is an illusion of the mortal mind. Even when it is referred to as 'cosmic unity' it is unthinkable and unknowable."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapters 24, 25, 26 & 27

2012-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Chapter 24

The Buddha continued:

"Subhuti, if a person collected treasures as high as 3,000 of the highest mountains, and gave them all to others, their merit would be less than what would accrue to another person who simply observed and studied this Sutra and, out of kindness, explained it to others. The latter person would accumulate hundreds of times the merit, hundreds of thousands of millions of times the merit. There is no conceivable comparison."

Chapter 25

"Subhuti, do not say that the Buddha has the idea, 'I will lead all sentient beings to Nirvana.' Do not think that way, Subhuti. Why? In truth there is not one single being for the Buddha to lead to Enlightenment. If the Buddha were to think there was, he would be caught in the idea of a self, a person, a living being, or a universal self. Subhuti, what the Buddha calls a self essentially has no self in the way that ordinary persons think there is a self. Subhuti, the Buddha does not regard anyone as an ordinary person. That is why he can speak of them as ordinary persons."

Chapter 26

Then the Buddha inquired of Subhuti:

"What do you think Subhuti? Is it possible to recognize the Buddha by the 32 physical marks?"

Subhuti replied, "Yes, Most Honored One, the Buddha may thus be recognized."

"Subhuti, if that were true then Chakravartin, the mythological king who also had the 32 marks, would be called a Buddha."

Then Subhuti, realizing his error, said, "Most Honored One, now I realize that the Buddha cannot be recognized merely by his 32 physical marks of excellence."

The Buddha then said:

"Should anyone, looking at an image or likeness of the Buddha, claim to know the Buddha and worship him, that person would be mistaken, not knowing the true Buddha."

Chapter 27

"However, Subhuti, if you think that the Buddha realizes the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind and does not need to have all the marks, you are mistaken. Subhuti, do not think in that way. Do not think that when one gives rise to the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind, one needs to see all objects of mind as nonexistent, cut off from life. Please do not think in that way.

One who gives rise to the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind does not contend that all objects of mind are nonexistent and cut off from life. That is not what I say."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 22 and 23

2012-01-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

Chapter 22

Subhuti again asked, "Blessed lord, when you attained complete Enlightenment, did you feel in your mind that nothing had been acquired?"

The Buddha replied:

"That is it exactly, Subhuti. When I attained total Enlightenment, I did not feel, as the mind feels, any arbitrary conception of spiritual truth, not even the slightest. Even the words 'total Enlightenment' are merely words, they are used merely as a figure of speech."

Chapter 23

"Furthermore Subhuti, what I have attained in total Enlightenment is the same as what all others have attained. It is undifferentiated, regarded neither as a high state, nor a low state. It is wholly independent of any definite or arbitrary conceptions of an individual self, other selves, living beings, or a universal self."

"Subhuti, when someone is selflessly charitable, they should also practice being ethical by remembering that there is no distinction between one's self and the selfhood of others. Thus one practices charity by giving not only gifts, but through kindness and sympathy. Practice kindness and charity without attachment and you can become fully enlightened."

"Subhuti, what I just said about kindness does not mean that when someone is being charitable they should hold onto arbitrary conceptions about kindness, for kindness is, after all, only a word and charity needs to be spontaneous and selfless, done without regard for appearances."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 21

2012-01-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

"Subhuti, do not maintain that the Buddha has this thought: 'I have spoken spiritual truths.' Do not think that way. Why? If someone says the Buddha has spoken spiritual truths, he slanders the Buddha due to his inability to understand what the Buddha teaches. Subhuti, as to speaking truth, no truth can be spoken. Therefore it is called 'speaking truth'."

At that time Subhuti, the wise elder, addressed the Buddha, "Most Honored One, will there be living beings in the future who believe in this Sutra when they hear it?"

The Buddha said:

"The living beings to whom you refer are neither living beings nor not living beings. Why? Subhuti, all the different kinds of living beings the Buddha speaks of are not living beings. But they are referred to as living beings."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 20

2012-01-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

"Subhuti, what do you think, should one look for Buddha in his perfect physical body?"

"No, Perfectly Enlightened One, one should not look for Buddha in his perfect physical body. Why? The Buddha has said that the perfect physical body is not the perfect physical body. Therefore it is called the perfect physical body."

"Subhuti, what do you think, should one look for Buddha in all his perfect appearances?"

"No Most Honored One, one should not look for Buddha in all his perfect appearances. Why? The Buddha has said perfect appearances are not perfect appearances. Therefore they are called perfect appearances."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 19

2012-01-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

The Buddha continued:

"What do you think Subhuti? If a follower were to give away enough treasures to fill 3,000 universes, would a great blessing and merit incur to him or her?"

Subhuti replied, "Honored one, such a follower would acquire considerable blessings and merit."

The lord Buddha said:

"Subhuti, if such a blessing had any substantiality, if it were anything other than a figure of speech, the Most Honored One would not have used the words 'blessings and merit'."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 18

2012-01-24T18:45:00.000-08:00

The Buddha then asked Subhuti, "What do you think? Does the Buddha have human eyes?"

"Subhuti replied, "Yes, he has human eyes."

"Does he have the eyes of Enlightenment?"

"Of course, the Buddha has the eyes of Enlightenment, otherwise he would not be the Buddha."

"Does the Buddha have the eyes of transcendent intelligence?"

"Yes, the Buddha has the eyes of transcendent intelligence."

"Does the Buddha have the eyes of spiritual intuition?"

"Yes, lord, the Buddha has the eyes of spiritual intuition."

"Does the Buddha have the eyes of love and compassion for all sentient beings?"

Subhuti agreed and said, "Lord, you love all sentient life."

"What do you think, Subhuti? When I referred to the grains of sand in the river Ganges, did I assert that they were truly grains of sand?"

"No blessed lord, you only spoke of them as grains of sand."

"Subhuti, if there were as many Ganges rivers as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges, and if there were as many buddhalands as there are grains of sand in all those innumerable rivers, would these buddhalands be considered numerous?"

"Very numerous indeed, lord Buddha."

"Subhuti, I know the mind of every sentient being in all the host of universes, regardless of any modes of thought, conceptions or tendencies. For all modes, conceptions and tendencies of thought are not mind. And yet they are called 'mind'. Why? It is impossible to retain a past thought, to seize a future thought, and even to hold onto a present thought."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 17

2012-01-24T06:30:00.000-08:00

At that time, the venerable Subhuti then asked the Buddha, "World-Honored One, may I ask you a question again? If sons or daughters of a good family want to develop the highest, most fulfilled and awakened mind, if they wish to attain the Highest Perfect Wisdom, what should they do to help quiet their drifting minds and master their thinking?"

The Buddha replied:

"Subhuti, a good son or daughter who wants to give rise to the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind must create this resolved attitude of mind: 'I must help to lead all beings to the shore of awakening, but, after these beings have become liberated, in truth I know that not even a single being has been liberated.'

Why is this so? If a disciple cherishes the idea of a self, a person, a living being or a universal self, then that person is not an authentic disciple. Why? Because in fact there is no independently existing object of mind called the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind."

"What do you think, Subhuti? In ancient times, when the Buddha was living with Dipankara Buddha, did he attain anything called the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind?"

"No, Most Honored One. According to what I understand from the teachings of the Buddha, there is no attaining of anything called the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind."

The Buddha said:

"You are correct, Subhuti. In fact, there does not exist any so-called highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind that the Buddha attains. Because if there had been any such thing, Dipankara Buddha would not have predicted of me, 'In the future, you will come to be a Buddha known as The Most Honored One'. This prediction was made because there is, in fact, nothing to be attained. Someone would be mistaken to say that the Buddha has attained the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind because there is no such thing as a highest, most fulfilled, or awakened mind to be attained."

"Subhuti, a comparison can be made with the idea of a large human body. What would you understand me to mean if I spoke of a 'large human body'?"

"I would understand that the lord Buddha was speaking of a 'large human body' not as an arbitrary conception of its being, but as a series of words only. I would understand that the words carried merely an imaginary meaning. When the Buddha speaks of a large human body, he uses the words only as words."

"Subhuti, it is just the same when a disciple speaks of liberating numberless sentient beings. If they have in mind any arbitrary conception of sentient beings or of definite numbers, then they are unworthy of being called a disciple. Subhuti, my teachings reveal that even such a thing as is called a 'disciple' is non-existent. Furthermore, there is really nothing for a disciple to liberate."

"A true disciple knows that there is no such thing as a self, a person, a living being, or a universal self. A true disciple knows that all things are devoid of selfhood, devoid of any separate individuality."

To make this teaching even more emphatic, the lord Buddha continued,

"If a disciple were to speak as follows, 'I have to create a serene and beautiful Buddha field', that person is not yet truly a disciple. Why? What the Buddha calls a 'serene and beautiful Buddha field' is not in fact a serene and beautiful Buddha field. And that is why it is called a serene and beautiful Buddha field. Subhuti, only a disciple who is wholly devoid of any conception of separate selfhood is worthy of being called a disciple."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 16

2012-01-23T09:32:00.001-08:00

"Furthermore, Subhuti, if a good man or good woman who accepts, upholds, reads or recites this Sutra is disdained or slandered, if they are despised or insulted, it means that in prior lives they committed evil acts and as a result are now suffering the fruits of their actions. When their prior life's evil acts have finally been dissolved and extinguished, he or she will attain the supreme clarity of the most fulfilled, and awakened mind."

"Subhuti, in ancient times before I met Dipankara Buddha, I had made offerings to and had been attendant of all 84,000 million Buddhas. If someone is able to receive, recite, study, and practice this Sutra in a later, more distant age, then the happiness and merit brought about by this virtuous act would be hundreds of thousands of times greater than that which I brought about by my service to the Buddhas in ancient times. In fact, such happiness and merit cannot be conceived or compared with anything, even mathematically.

If I were to explain all this in detail now some people might become suspicious and disbelieving, and their minds may even become disoriented or confused. Subhuti, you should know that the meaning of this Sutra is beyond conception and discussion. Likewise, the fruit resulting from receiving and practicing this Sutra is beyond conception and discussion."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 15

2012-01-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

"Subhuti, if on the one hand, a son or daughter of a good family gives up his or her life in the morning as many times as there are grains of sand in the Ganges river as an act of generosity, and gives as many again in the afternoon and as many again in the evening, and continues doing so for countless ages; and if, on the other hand, another person listens to this Sutra with complete confidence and without contention, that person's happiness will be far greater. But the happiness of one who writes this Sutra down, receives, recites, and explains it to others cannot even be compared it is so great."

"Subhuti, we can summarize by saying that the merit and virtue of this Sutra is inconceivable, incalculable and boundless. The Buddha has declared this teaching for the benefit of initiates on the path to Enlightenment; he has declared it for the benefit of initiates on the path to Nirvana. If there is someone capable of receiving, practicing, reciting, and sharing this Sutra with others, the Buddha will see and know that person, and he or she will receive immeasurable, incalculable, and boundless merit and virtue.

Such a person is known to be carrying the Supreme Enlightenment attained by the Buddha. Why? Subhuti, if a person is satisfied with lesser teachings than those I present here, if he or she is still caught up in the idea of a self, a person, a living being, or a universal self, then that person would not be able to listen to, receive, recite, or explain this Sutra to others."

"Subhuti, wherever this Sutra shall be observed, studied and explained, that place will become sacred ground to which countless spiritually advanced beings will bring offerings. Such places, however humble they may be, will be revered as though they were famous temples, and countless pilgrims will come there to worship. Such a place is a shrine and should be venerated with formal ceremonies, and offerings of flowers and incense. That is the power of this Sutra."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 14

2012-01-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

At that time, after listening to this Sutra, Subhuti had understood its profound meaning and was moved to tears.

He said, "What a rare and precious thing it is that you should deliver such a deeply profound teaching. Since the day I attained the eyes of understanding, thanks to the guidance of the Buddha, I have never before heard teachings so deep and wonderful as these. Most Honored One, if someone hears this Sutra, and has pure and clear confidence in it they will have a profound insight into the truth.

Having perceived that profound insight, that person will realize the rarest kind of virtue. Most Honored One, that insight into the truth is essentially not insight into the truth, but is what the Buddha calls insight into the truth."

"Most Honored One, having listened to this Sutra, I am able to receive and retain it with faith and understanding. This is not difficult for me, but in ages to come - in the last five hundred years, if there is a person who hears this Sutra, who receives and retains it with faith and understanding, then that person will be a rare one, a person of most remarkable achievement. Such a person will be able to awaken pure faith because they have ceased to cherish any arbitrary notions of their own selfhood, other selves, living beings, or a universal self.

Why? Because if they continue to hold onto arbitrary conceptions as to their own selfhood, they will be holding onto something that is non-existent. It is the same with all arbitrary conceptions of other selves, living beings, or a universal self. These are all expressions of non-existent things. Buddhas are Buddhas because they have been able to discard all arbitrary conceptions of form and phenomena, they have transcended all perceptions, and have penetrated the illusion of all forms."

The Buddha replied:

"So it is, Subhuti. Most wonderfully blest will be those beings who, on hearing this Sutra, will not tremble, nor be frightened, or terrified in any way. And why? The Buddha has taught this Sutra as the highest perfection. And what the Buddha teaches as the highest perfection, that also the innumerable Blessed Buddhas do teach. Therefore is it called the 'highest perfection'."

"Subhuti, when I talk about the practice of transcendent patience, I do not hold onto any arbitrary conceptions about the phenomena of patience, I merely refer to it as the practice of transcendent patience. And why is that? Because when, thousands of lifetimes ago, the Prince of Kalinga severed the flesh from my limbs and my body I had no perception of a self, a being, a soul, or a universal self. If I had cherished any of these arbitrary notions at the time my limbs were being torn away, I would have fallen into anger and hatred."

"I also remember Subhuti that during my five hundred previous lives I had used life after life to practice patience and to look upon my life humbly, as though I were a saint called upon to suffer humility. Even then my mind was free of arbitrary conceptions of the phenomena of my self, a being, a soul, or a universal self."

"Therefore, Subhuti, disciples should leave behind all distinctions of phenomena and awaken the thought of the attainment of Supreme Enlightenment. A disciple should do this by not allowing their mind to depend upon ideas evoked by the world of the senses - by not allowing their mind to depend upon ideas stirred by sounds, odors, flavors, sensory touch, or any other qualities. The disciple's mind should be kept independent of any thoughts that might arise within it.

If the disciple's mind depends upon anything in the sensory realm it will have no solid foundation in any reality. This is why Buddha teaches that the mind of a disciple should not accept the appearances of things as a basis when exercising charity. Subhuti, as disciples practice compassion and charity for the welfare of all living beings they should do it without relying on appearances, and without attachment. Just as the Buddha declares that form is not form, so he also declares that all living beings are, in fact, not living beings."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 12 & 13

2012-01-20T06:42:00.000-08:00

Chapter 12.

"Furthermore, Subhuti, if any person in any place were to teach even four lines of this Sutra, the place where they taught it would become sacred ground and would be revered by all kinds of beings. How much more sacred would the place become if that person then studied and observed the whole Sutra! Subhuti, you should know that any person who does that would surely attain something rare and profound. Wherever this Sutra is honored and revered there is a sacred site enshrining the presence of the Buddha or one of the Buddha's most venerable disciples."

Chapter 13.

Subhuti said to the Buddha, "By what name shall we know this Sutra, so that it can be honored and studied?"

The lord Buddha replied, "This Sutra shall be known as
'The Diamond that Cuts through Illusion'.

By this name it shall be revered and studied and observed. What does this name mean? It means that when the Buddha named it, he did not have in mind any definite or arbitrary conception, and so named it. This Sutra is hard and sharp, like a diamond that will cut away all arbitrary conceptions and bring one to the other shore of Enlightenment."

"What do you think, Subhuti? Has the Buddha taught any definite teaching in this Sutra?"

"No lord, the Buddha has not taught any definite teaching in this Sutra."

"What do you think, Subhuti? Are there many particles of dust in this vast universe?"

Subhuti replied: "Yes, many, Most Honored One!"

"Subhuti, when the Buddha speaks of particles of dust, it does not mean I am thinking of any definite or arbitrary thought, I am merely using these words as a figure of speech. They are not real, only illusion. It is just the same with the word universe; these words do not assert any definite or arbitrary idea, I am only using the words as words."

"Subhuti, what do you think? Can the Buddha be perceived by means of his thirty-two physical characteristics?"

"No, Most Honored One. The Buddha cannot be perceived by his thirty-two physical characteristics. Why? Because the Buddha teaches that they are not real but are merely called the thirty-two physical characteristics."

"Subhuti, if a good and faithful person, whether male or female, has, for the sake of compassion and charity, been sacrificing their life for generation upon generation, for as many generations as the grains of sands in 3,000 universes; and another follower has been studying and observing even a single section of this Sutra and explains it to others, that person's blessings and merit would be far greater."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 11

2012-01-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

"Subhuti, if there were as many Ganges rivers as the number of grains of sand in the Ganges, would you say that the number of grains of sand in all those Ganges rivers would be very many?"

Subhuti answered, "Very many indeed, Most Honored One. If the number of Ganges rivers were that large, how much more so would be the number of grains of sand in all those Ganges rivers."

"Subhuti, I will declare a truth to you. If a good man or a good woman filled over ten thousand galaxies of worlds with the seven treasures for each grain of sand in all those Ganges rivers, and gave it all away for the purpose of compassion, charity and giving alms, would this man or woman not gain great merit and spread much happiness?"

Subhuti replied, "Very much so, Most Honored One."

"Subhuti, if after studying and observing even a single stanza of this Sutra, another person were to explain it to others, the happiness and merit that would result from this virtuous act would be far greater."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 10

2012-01-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Buddha then continued, "What do you think, Subhuti? When I was in a previous life, with Dipankara Buddha, did I receive any definite teaching or attain any degree of self-control, whereby I later became a Buddha?"

"No, honorable one. When you were a disciple of Dipankara Buddha, in truth, you received no definite teaching, nor did you attain any definite degree of self-control."

"Subhuti, know also that if any Buddha would say, 'I will create a paradise,' he would speak falsely. Why? Because a paradise cannot be created nor can it not be uncreated."

"A disciple should develop a mind which is in no way dependent upon sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensory sensations or any mental conceptions. A disciple should develop a mind which does not rely on anything."

"Therefore, Subhuti, the minds of all disciples should be purified of all thoughts that relate to seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and discriminating. They should use their minds spontaneously and naturally, without being constrained by preconceived notions arising from the senses."

"Suppose, Subhuti, a man had an enormous body. Would the sense of personal existence he had also be enormous?"

"Yes, indeed, Buddha," Subhuti answered. "His sense of personal existence would be enormous. But the Buddha has taught that personal existence is just a name, for it is in fact neither existence nor non-existence. So it only has the name 'personal existence'."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 9

2012-01-18T07:21:00.001-08:00

Buddha then asked, "What do you think, Subhuti, does one who has entered the stream which flows to Enlightenment, say 'I have entered the stream'?"

"No, Buddha", Subhuti replied. "A true disciple entering the stream would not think of themselves as a separate person that could be entering anything. Only that disciple who does not differentiate themselves from others, who has no regard for name, shape, sound, odor, taste, touch or for any quality can truly be called a disciple who has entered the stream."

Buddha continued, "Does a disciple who is subject to only one more rebirth say to himself, 'I am entitled to the honors and rewards of a Once-to-be-reborn.'?"

"No, Lord. 'Once-to-be-reborn' is only a name. There is no passing away, or coming into, existence. Only one who realizes this can really be called a disciple."

"Subhuti, does a venerable One who will never more be reborn as a mortal say to himself, 'I am entitled to the honor and rewards of a Non-returner.'?"

"No, Perfectly Enlightened One. A 'Non-returner' is merely a name. There is actually no one returning and no one not-returning."

"Tell me, Subhuti. Does a Buddha say to himself, 'I have obtained Perfect Enlightenment.'?"

"No, lord. There is no such thing as Perfect Enlightenment to obtain. If a Perfectly Enlightened Buddha were to say to himself, 'I am enlightened' he would be admitting there is an individual person, a separate self and personality, and would therefore not be a Perfectly Enlightened Buddha."

Subhuti then said, "Most Honored One! You have said that I, Subhuti, excel amongst thy disciples in knowing the bliss of Enlightenment, in being perfectly content in seclusion, and in being free from all passions. Yet I do not say to myself that I am so, for if I ever thought of myself as such then it would not be true that I escaped ego delusion. I know that in truth there is no Subhuti and therefore Subhuti abides nowhere, that he neither knows nor does he not know bliss, and that he is neither free from nor enslaved by his passions."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 9

2012-01-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 8

2012-01-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

"Let me ask you Subhuti? If a person filled over ten thousand galaxies with the seven treasures for the purpose of compassion, charity, and giving alms, would this person not gain great merit and spread much happiness?"

"Yes, Most Honored One. This person would gain great merit and spread much happiness, even though, in truth, this person does not have a separate existence to which merit could accrue. Why? Because this person's merit is characterized with the quality of not being merit."

The Buddha continued, "Then suppose another person understood only four lines of this Sutra, but nevertheless took it upon themselves to explain these lines to someone else. This person's merit would be even greater than the other person's. Why? Because all Buddhas and all the teachings and values of the highest, most fulfilled, most awakened minds arise from the teachings in this Sutra. And yet, even as I speak, Subhuti, I must take back my words as soon as they are uttered, for there are no Buddhas and there are no teachings."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 7

2012-01-16T12:17:00.001-08:00

Then Buddha asked Subhuti, "What do you think, Subhuti, has the Buddha arrived at the highest, most fulfilled, most awakened and enlightened mind? Does the Buddha teach any teaching?"

Subhuti replied, "As far as I have understood the lord Buddha's teachings, there is no independently existing object of mind called the highest, most fulfilled, awakened or enlightened mind. Nor is there any independently existing teaching that the Buddha teaches. Why? Because the teachings that the Buddha has realized and spoken of cannot be conceived of as separate, independent things and therefore cannot be described. The truth in them is uncontainable and inexpressible. It neither is, nor is it not. What does this mean? What this means is that Buddhas and disciples are not enlightened by a set method of teachings, but by an internally intuitive process which is spontaneous and is part of their own inner nature."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 6

2012-01-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Subhuti respectfully asked the lord Buddha, "Most Honored One! In the future, if a person hears this teaching, even if it is a only a phrase or sentence, is it possible for that person to have a true faith and knowledge of Enlightenment awaken in their mind?"

"Without a doubt, Subhuti. Even 500 years after the Enlightenment of this Buddha there will be some who are virtuous and wise, and while practicing compassion and charity, will believe in the words and phrases of this Sutra and will awaken their minds purely. After they come to hear these teachings, they will be inspired with belief. This is because when some people hear these words, they will have understood intuitively that these words are the truth."

"But you must also remember, Subhuti, that such persons have long ago planted the seeds of goodness and merit that lead to this realization. They have planted the seeds of good deeds and charity not simply before one Buddhist temple, or two temples, or five, but before hundreds of thousands of Buddhas and temples. So when a person who hears the words and phrases of this Sutra is ready for it to happen, a pure faith and clarity can awaken within their minds."

"Subhuti, any person who awakens faith upon hearing the words or phrases of this Sutra will accumulate countless blessings and merit."

"How do I know this? Because this person must have discarded all arbitrary notions of the existence of a personal self, of other people, or of a universal self. Otherwise their minds would still grasp after such relative conceptions. Furthermore, these people must have already discarded all arbitrary notions of the non-existence of a personal self, other people, or a universal self. Otherwise, their minds would still be grasping at such notions. Therefore anyone who seeks total Enlightenment should discard not only all conceptions of their own selfhood, of other selves, or of a universal self, but they should also discard all notions of the non-existence of such concepts."

"When the Buddha explains these things using such concepts and ideas, people should remember the unreality of all such concepts and ideas. They should recall that in teaching spiritual truths the Buddha always uses these concepts and ideas in the way that a raft is used to cross a river. Once the river has been crossed over, the raft is of no more use, and should be discarded. These arbitrary concepts and ideas about spiritual things need to be explained to us as we seek to attain Enlightenment. However, ultimately these arbitrary conceptions can be discarded. Think Subhuti, isn't it even more obvious that we should also give up our conceptions of non-existent things?"

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 5

2012-01-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

"Subhuti, what do you think? Can the Buddha be recognized by means of his bodily form?"

"No, Most Honored One, the Buddha cannot be recognized by means of his bodily form. Why? Because when the Buddha speaks of bodily form, it is not a real form, but only an illusion."

The Buddha then spoke to Subhuti: "All that has a form is illusive and unreal. When you see that all forms are illusive and unreal, then you will begin to perceive your true Buddha nature."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 4

2012-01-13T15:49:00.000-08:00

"Furthermore, Subhuti, in the practice of compassion and charity a disciple should be detached. That is to say, he should practice compassion and charity without regard to appearances, without regard to form, without regard to sound, smell, taste, touch, or any quality of any kind. Subhuti, this is how the disciple should practice compassion and charity. Why? Because practicing compassion and charity without attachment is the way to reaching the Highest Perfect Wisdom, it is the way to becoming a living Buddha."

"Subhuti, do you think that you can measure all of the space in the Eastern Heavens?"

"No, Most Honored One. One cannot possibly measure all of the space in the Eastern Heavens."

"Subhuti, can space in all the Western, Southern, and Northern Heavens, both above and below, be measured?"

"No, Most Honored One. One cannot possibly measure all the space in the Western, Southern, and Northern Heavens."

"Well, Subhuti, the same is true of the merit of the disciple who practices compassion and charity without any attachment to appearances, without cherishing any idea of form. It is impossible to measure the merit they will accrue. Subhuti, my disciples should let their minds absorb and dwell in the teachings I have just given."

I'm Out of Town!

2012-01-10T19:14:00.001-08:00

Hi, I've been pet sitting for a friend for the last several days so I havent' posted to the blog. I'll be home in a day or so and I'll be posting regularly again. Thanks!

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 3

2012-01-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

Note: This is a fantastic translation - its very easy to read and it I think it is true to the original.

"All living beings, whether born from eggs, from the womb, from moisture, or spontaneously; whether they have form or do not have form; whether they are aware or unaware, whether they are not aware or not unaware, all living beings will eventually be led by me to the final Nirvana, the final ending of the cycle of birth and death. And when this unfathomable, infinite number of living beings have all been liberated, in truth not even a single being has actually been liberated."

"Why Subhuti? Because if a disciple still clings to the arbitrary illusions of form or phenomena such as an ego, a personality, a self, a separate person, or a universal self existing eternally, then that person is not an authentic disciple."

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 2

2012-01-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

After a time a most venerable monk named Subhuti, who was sitting in the congregation, rose from his seat.

He uncovered his right shoulder, placed his right knee on the ground, and as he joined his palms together he respectfully bowed and then addressed the Buddha:

"Most Honored One, It is truly majestic how much knowledge and wisdom your monks and disciples have been given through your most inspired teachings! It is remarkable that you look after our welfare so selflessly and so completely."

"Most Honored One, I have a question to ask you. If sons and daughters of good families want to develop the highest, most fulfilled and awakened mind, if they wish to attain the Highest Perfect Wisdom, what should they do to help quiet their drifting minds and help subdue their craving thoughts?"

The Buddha then replied:
"So it is as you say, Subhuti. Monks and disciples have been favored with the highest favor by the Buddha, the monks and disciples have been instructed with the highest instruction by the Buddha. The Buddha is constantly mindful of the welfare of his followers. Listen carefully with your full attention, and I will speak to your question."

"If sons and daughters of good families want to develop the highest, most fulfilled and awakened mind, if they wish to attain the Highest Perfect Wisdom and quiet their drifting minds while subduing their craving thoughts, then they should follow what I am about to say to you. Those who follow what I am about to say here will be able to subdue their discriminative thoughts and craving desires. It is possible to attain perfect tranquility and clarity of mind by absorbing and dwelling on the teachings I am about to give."

Then the Buddha addressed the assembly.

The Diamond Sutra - Chapter 1

2012-01-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

This is what I heard.

At one time the Buddha was staying in the Jeta Grove, near the city of Sravasti.

With him there was a community of 1,250 venerable monks and devoted disciples.

One day before dawn, the Buddha clothed himself, and along with his disciples took up his alms bowl and entered the city to beg for food door to door, as was his custom.

After he had returned and eaten, he put away his bowl and cloak, bathed his feet, and then sat with his legs crossed and body upright upon the seat arranged for him.

He began mindfully fixing his attention in front of himself, while many monks approached the Buddha, and showing great reverence, seated themselves around him.

What is a Sutra?

2012-01-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

The common dictionary meaning of the word ‘Sutra’ in Sanskrit is thread, string or cord. The word ‘Sutra’ as used in literary context has a wider meaning. One of the ancient texts called “Padma Purana” offers the following definition of the word ‘Sutra’ in a literary context:

“That which is of few words, unequivocal, expresses a vast idea in a gist form, is non-repetitive and doesn’t contain any fault is known as a Sutra.”

In other words, a Sutra is an aphoristic or cryptic statement which expresses a vast idea within a few words. Some scholars say that extremely important works were written in Sutra form so that they could be easily memorized and retained for the benefit of posterity. A Sutra is like a quick note jotted down by a speaker, on which he would elaborate when delivering a lecture.

According to the ancient authors, a Sutra should have six characteristics:

“Clear conception, technical language, laying down the process, rules, analogy and authority are the six characteristics of a Sutra.”

Many an important work in ancient times were written in Sutra form. “Brahma Sutras” by Vyasa, which expound the Vedanta philosophy, “Yoga Sutras” by Patanjali which deal with Yoga philosophy, “Bhakti Sutras” by Narada, which explain Bhakti Yoga, “Nyaya Sutras” by Gautama which delve into the Nyaya philosophy are examples of some great works written in Sutra form.

>Sutras, being very brief, are not easy to unravel. A work in Sutra form is usually elaborated by what is called a “Bhashyam” or commentary. Bhashyam is defined as:

"That which elaborates the meaning of the Sutra in words synonymous to those of the Sutra as well as in its own words is a Bhashya."

The following are the characteristics of a Bhashya or Commentary:

>"Division of the words, explaining the meaning of words, derivation of words, meaning of the sentences and answering the objections are the five characteristics of Bhashya."

The Heart Sutra

2012-01-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

Translation by Edward Conze

Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy!

Avalokita, The Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond. He looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own-being they were empty.

Here, Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.

Here, Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.

Therefore, Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and non-attainment.

Therefore, Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainment that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana.

All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this:

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!

The Four Seals of Dharma

2012-01-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

In the 26 centuries since the life of the Buddha, Buddhism has developed into diverse schools and sects. As Buddhism reached into new regions of Asia it often absorbed remnants of older regional religions. Many local "folk Buddhisms" sprang up that adopted the Buddha and the many iconic figures of Buddhist art and literature as gods, without regard to their original meaning.

Sometimes new religions sprang up that were Buddhist in appearance but which retained little of the Buddha's teachings. On the other hand, sometimes new schools of Buddhism arose that approached the teachings in fresh and robust new ways, to the disapproval of traditionalists. Questions arose -- what is it that distinguishes Buddhism as a distinctive religion? When is "Buddhism" actually Buddhism?

Those schools of Buddhism based on the Buddha's teachings accept the Four Seals of Dharma as the distinction between true Buddhism and "sorta looks like Buddhism." Further, a teaching that contradicts any of the Four Seals is not a true Buddhist teaching.

The Four Seals are:

All compounded things are impermanent.
All stained emotions are painful.
All phenomena are empty.
Nirvana is peace.

Let's look at them one at a time.

1. All Compounded Things Are Impermanent
Anything that is assembled of other things will come apart -- a toaster, a building, a mountain, a person. The timetables may vary -- certainly a mountain may remain a mountain for 10,000 years. But even 10,000 years is not "always." The fact is that the world around us, which seems solid and fixed, is in a state of perpetual flux.

Why is this so important to Buddhism?

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that impermanence makes all things possible. Because everything changes, there are seeds and flowers, children and grandchildren. A static world would be a dead one. Mindfulness of impermanence leads us to the teaching of dependent origination. All the compounded things are part of a limitless web of interconnection that is constantly changing. Phenomena become because of conditions created by other phenomena. Elements assemble and dissipate and re-assemble. Nothing is separate from everything else.

Finally, being mindful of the impermanence of all compounded things, including ourselves, helps us accept loss, old age and death. This may seem pessimistic, but it is realistic. There will be loss, old age and death whether we accept them or not.

2. All Stained Emotions Are Painful.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama translated this seal "all contaminated phenomena are of the nature of suffering." The word "stained" or "contaminated" refers to actions, emotions and thoughts conditioned by selfish attachment, or by hate, greed and ignorance.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, a Bhutanese lama and filmmaker, said,

"All emotions are pain. All of them! Why? Because they involve dualism. This is a big subject now. This we have to discuss for a while… From the Buddhist point of view, as long as there is a subject and object, as long as there is a separation between subject and object, as long as you divorce them so to speak, as long as you think they are independent and then function as subject and object, that is an emotion, which includes everything, almost every thought that we have."

It is because we see ourselves as separate from other things that we desire them, or are repulsed by them. This is the teaching of the Second Noble Truth, which teaches that the cause of suffering is craving or thirst (tanha). Because we divide the world into subject and object, me and everything else, we continually grasp for things we think are separate from ourselves to make us happy. But nothing ever satisfies us for long.

3. All Phenomena Are Empty.

Another way to say this is that nothing has intrinsic or inherent existence, including ourselves. This relates to the teaching of anatman, also called anatta. Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists understand anatman somewhat differently. Theravada scholar Walpola Rahula explained,

"According to the Buddha's teaching, it is as wrong to hold the opinion 'I have no self' (which is the annihilationist theory) as to hold the opinion 'I have a self' (the eternalist theory), because both are fetters, both arising out of the false idea 'I AM'. The correct position with regard to the question of Anatta is not to take hold of any opinion or views, but to try to see things objectively as they are without mental projections, to see that what we call 'I', or 'being', is only a combination of physical and mental aggregates, which are working together interdependently in a flux of momentary change within the law of cause and effect, and that there is nothing permanent, everlasting, unchanging and eternal in the whole of existence." (Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, 2nd ed., 1974, p. 66)

Mahayana Buddhism teaches the doctrine of shunyata, or "emptiness." Phenomena have no existence of their own and are empty of a permanent self. In shunyata, there is neither reality not not-reality; only relativity. However, shunyata also is an absolute reality that is all things and beings, unmanifested.

4. Nirvana Is Peace.

The fourth seal sometimes is worded "Nirvana is beyond extremes." Walpola Rahula said "Nirvana is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is therefore beyond our conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, existence and non-existence." (What the Buddha Taught, p. 43)

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche said, "In many philosophies or religions, the final goal is something that you can hold on to and keep. The final goal is the only thing that truly exists. But nirvana is not fabricated, so it is not something to be held on to. It is referred to as 'beyond extremes.'"

Nirvana is defined in diverse ways by the various schools of Buddhism. But the Buddha taught that Nirvana was beyond human conceptualization or imagination, and discouraged his students from wasting time in speculations about Nirvana.

This Is Buddhism

The Four Seals reveal what is unique about Buddhism among all the world's religions. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche said, "Whoever holds these four [seals], in their heart, or in their head, and contemplates them, is a Buddhist."

Koan #38 - Gisho's Work

2012-01-02T10:52:00.001-08:00

Gisho was ordained as a nun when she was just ten years old. She received training just as the little boys did. When she reached the age of sixteen she traveled from one Zen master to another, studying with them all.

She remained three years with Unzan, six years with Gukei, but was unable to obtain a clear vision. At last she went to the master Inzan.

Inzan showed her no distinction at all on account of her sex. He scolded her like a thunderstorm. He cuffed he to awaken her inner nature.

Gisho remained with Inzan thirteen years, and then she found that which she was seeking!

In her honor, Inzan wrote a poem:

This nun studied thirteen years under my guidance.
In the evening she considered the deepest koans,
In the morning she was wrapped in other koans.
The Chinese nun Tetsuma surpassed all before her,
And since Mujaku none has been so genuine as this Gisho!
Yet there are many more gates for her to pass through.
She should receive still more blows from my iron fist.

After Gisho was enlightened she went to the province of Banshu, started her own Zen temple, and taught two hundred other nuns until she passed away one year in the month of August.

Koan #62 - In the Hands of Destiny

2012-01-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

A great Japanese warrior named Nobunaga decided to attack the enemy although he had only one-tenth the number of men the opposition commanded. He knew that he would win, but his soldiers were in doubt.

On the way he stopped at a Shinto shrine and told his men: "After I visit the shrine I will toss a coin. If heads comes, we will win; if tails, we will lose. Destiny holds us in her hand."

Nobunaga entered the shrine and offered a silent prayer. He came forth and tossed a coin. Heads appeared. His soldiers were so eager to fight that they won their battle easily.

"No one can change the hand of destiny," his attendant told him after the battle.

"Indeed not," said Nobunaga, showing a coin which had been doubled, with heads facing either way.

Koan #50 - Ryonen's Clear Realization

2011-12-31T09:19:00.000-08:00

The Buddhist nun known as Ryonen was born in 1797. She was a granddaughter of the famous Japanese warrior Shingen. Her poetical genius and alluring beauty were such that at seventeen she was serving the empress as one of the ladies of the court. Even at such a youthful age fame awaited her.

The beloved empress died suddenly and Ryonen's hopeful dreams vanished. She became acutely aware of the impermanency of life in this world. It was then that she desired to study Zen.

Her relatives disagreed, however, and practically forced her into marriage. With a promise that she might become a nun after she had borne three children, Ryonen assented. Before she was twenty-five she had accomplished this condition. Then her husband and relatives could no longer dissuade her from her desire. She shaved her head, took the name of Ryonen, which means to realize clearly, and started on her pilgrimage.

She came to the city of Edo and asked Tetsugyu to accept her as a disciple. At one glance the master rejected her because she was too beautiful.

Ryonen then went to another master, Hakuo. Hakuo refused her for the same reason, saying that her beauty would only make trouble.

Ryonen obtained a hot iron and placed it against her face. In a few moments her beauty had vanished forever.

Hakuo then accepted her as a disciple.

Commemorating this occasion, Ryonen wrote a poem on the back of a little mirror:

In the service of my Empress I burned incense to
perfume my exquisite clothes
Now as a homeless mendicant I burn my face to
enter a Zen temple.
When Ryonen was about to pass from this world, she wrote another poem:

Sixty-six times have these eyes beheld the changing
scene of autumn
I have said enough about moonlight,
Ask no more.
Only listen to the voice of pines and cedars when no
wind stirs.

Koan #19 - The First Principle

2011-12-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

When one goes to Obaku temple in Kyoto he sees carved over the gate the words "The First Principle". The letters are unusually large, and those who appreciate calligraphy always admire them as being a mastepiece. They were drawn by Kosen two hundred years ago.

When the master drew them he did so on paper, from which the workmen made the large carving in wood. As Kosen sketched the letters a bold pupil was with him who had made several gallons of ink for the calligraphy and who never failed to criticise his master's work.

"That is not good," he told Kosen after his first effort.

"How is this one?"

"Poor. Worse than before," pronounced the pupil.

Kosen patiently wrote one sheet after another until eighty-four First Principles had accumulated, still without the approval of the pupil.

Then when the young man stepped outside for a few moments, Kosen thought: "Now this is my chance to escape his keen eye," and he wrote hurriedly, with a mind free from distraction: "The First Principle."

"A masterpiece," pronounced the pupil.

Koan #90 - The Last Rap

2011-12-30T06:52:00.000-08:00

Tangen had studied with Sengai since childhood. When he was twenty he wanted to leave his teacher and visit others for comparitive study, but Sengai would not permit this. Every time Tangen suggested it, Sengai would give him a rap on the head.

Finally Tangen asked an elder brother to coax permission from Sengai. This the brother did and then reported to Tangen: "It is arranged. I have fixed it for you to start on your pilgrimage at once."

Tangen went to Sengai to thank him for his permission. The master answered by giving him another rap.

When Tangen related this to his elder brother the other said: "What is the matter? Sengai has no business giving premission and then changing his mind. I will tell him so." And off he went to see the teacher.

"I did not cancel my permission," said Sengai. "I just wished to give him one last smack over the head, for when he returns he will be enlightened and I will not be able to reprimand him again."

Koan #86 - The Living Buddha & the Tubmaker

2011-12-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

Zen masters give personal guidance in a secluded room. No one enters while teacher and pupil are together.

Mokurai, the Zen master of Kennin temple in Kyoto, used to enjoy talking with merchants and newspapermen as well as with his pupils. A certain tubmaker was almost illiterate. He would ask foolish questions of Mokurai, have tea, and then go away.

One day while the tubmaker was there Mokurai wished to give personal guidance to a disciple, so he asked the tubmaker to wait in another room.

"I understand you are a living Buddha," the man protested. "Even the stone Buddhas in the temple never refuse the numerous persons who come together before them. Why then should I be excluded?"

Mokurai had to go outside to see his disciple.

What is a Koan?

2011-12-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

A Zen koan can refer to stories, parables, small statements or even a few words of a phrase that reference a larger story used in the practice of Zen Buddhism. They may be taken from the sayings or accounts of Buddhist teachers from the past or they may originate from modern day. Koans can be studied from a historical or literature perspective or contemplating them can form part of meditative practice.

Meditating on a Zen koan is meant to help the person transcend daily thought patterns to arrive at a more enlightened mental place. Koans can pose questions or puzzles that tend to resist being “solved” by rational thought. Rather, they need to be experienced and pondered to create greater spiritual awareness. There are huge numbers of examples of koans, including the famous, “What is the sound of one hand clapping," which is sometimes just stated as, “What is the sound of one hand.”

From a rational or intellectual perspective, it’s not easy to make sense of such a puzzle. Some people would say a single hand not clapping against another could hardly make a sound. But practitioners of Zen would say trying to answer this question from an intellectual perspective would completely miss the point of this Zen koan. The question is to be experienced and dwelt on in a much more open, meditative manner that bypasses intellectual or realistic thought. Once you are able to not look at this as merely a question to be answered in a rational way, you may come close to finding your own answer.

In the practice of some forms of Buddhism, students or practitioners may be asked to provide answers to a Zen koan after some contemplation. When these answers represent a valid departure from intellectual, there may be no “correct” answer, but rather a number of answers that are equally true. Sometimes students ponder not only a Zen koan question, but also answers from students and spiritual leaders of the past.

There are a number of collections of Zen koan literature, including the revered The Gateless Gate, which was written in the 12th or 13th century CE. Yet you can look outside of Buddhism to discover koans. Many look at the teachings of people like Jesus Christ as full of koans.

Like the practice of Zen, some in Christianity believe that you can’t simply “interpret” Christ’s words from an intellectual perspective. You have to go deeper and ponder some of his statements (often in prayer) in order to arrive at a spiritual understanding of what they mean, and many accept that there is no single valid interpretation of things like Christ’s parables.

Surprising the Master - A Zen Story

2011-12-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

The students in the monastery were in total awe of the elder monk, not because he was strict, but because nothing ever seemed to upset or ruffle him. So they found him a bit unearthly and even frightening.

One day they decided to put him to a test. A bunch of them very quietly hid in a dark corner of one of the hallways, and waited for the monk to walk by. Within moments, the old man appeared, carrying a cup of hot tea. Just as he passed by, the students all rushed out at him screaming as loud as they could.

But the monk showed no reaction whatsoever. He peacefully made his way to a small table at the end of the hall, gently placed the cup down, and then, leaning against the wall, cried out with shock, "Ohhhhh!"

Transient - A Zen Story

2011-12-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

A famous spiritual teacher came to the front door of the King's palace. None of the guards tried to stop him as he entered and made his way to where the King himself was sitting on his throne.

"What do you want?" asked the King, immediately recognizing the visitor.

"I would like a place to sleep in this inn,"
replied the teacher.

"But this is not an inn," said the King,
"It is my palace."

"May I ask who owned this palace before you?"

"My father. He is dead."

"And who owned it before him?"

"My grandfather. He too is dead."

"And this place where people live for a short time and then move on - did I hear you say that it is NOT an inn?"

An Essay on Buddhism from BuddhaNet.net

2011-12-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Three Marks of Existence

Buddhism has been described as a very pragmatic religion. It does not indulge in metaphysical speculation about first causes; there is no theology, no worship of a deity or deification of the Buddha. Buddhism takes a very straightforward look at our human condition; nothing is based on wishful thinking, at all. Everything that the Buddha taught was based on his own observation of the way things are. Everything that he taught can be verified by our own observation of the way things are.

If we look at our life, very simply, in a straightforward way, we see that it is marked with frustration and pain. This is because we attempt to secure our relationship with the "world out there", by solidifying our experiences in some concrete way. For example, we might have dinner with someone we admire very much, everything goes just right, and when we get home later we begin to fantasise about all the things we can do with our new-found friend, places we can go etc. We are going through the process of trying to cement our relationship. Perhaps, the next time we see our friend, she/he has a headache and is curt with us; we feel snubbed, hurt, all our plans go out the window. The problem is that the "world out there" is constantly changing, everything is impermanent and it is impossible to make a permanent relationship with anything, at all.

If we examine the notion of impermanence closely and honestly, we see that it is all-pervading, everything is marked by impermanence. We might posit an eternal consciousness principle, or higher self, but if we examine our consciousness closely we see that it is made up of temporary mental processes and events. We see that our "higher self" is speculative at best and imaginary to begin with. We have invented the idea to secure ourselves, to cement our relationship, once again. Because of this we feel uneasy and anxious, even at the best of times. It is only when we completely abandon clinging that we feel any relief from our queasiness.

These three things: pain, impermanence and egolessness are known as the three marks of existence.

The Four Noble Truths

The first sermon that the Buddha preached after his enlightenment was about the four noble truths. The first noble truth is that life is frustrating and painful. In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, there are times when it is downright miserable. Things may be fine with us, at the moment, but, if we look around, we see other people in the most appalling condition, children starving, terrorism, hatred, wars, intolerance, people being tortured and we get a sort of queasy feeling whenever we think about the world situation in even the most casual way. We, ourselves, will some day grow old, get sick and eventually die. No matter how we try to avoid it, some day we are going to die. Even though we try to avoid thinking about it, there are constant reminders that it is true.

The second noble truth is that suffering has a cause. We suffer because we are constantly struggling to survive. We are constantly trying to prove our existence. We may be extremely humble and self-deprecating, but even that is an attempt to define ourselves. We are defined by our humility. The harder we struggle to establish ourselves and our relationships, the more painful our experience becomes.

The third noble truth is that the cause of suffering can be ended. Our struggle to survive, our effort to prove ourselves and solidify our relationships is unnecessary. We, and the world, can get along quite comfortably without all our unnecessary posturing. We could just be a simple, direct and straight-forward person. We could form a simple relationship with our world, our coffee, spouse and friend. We do this by abandoning our expectations about how we think things should be.

This is the fourth noble truth: the way, or path to end the cause of suffering. The central theme of this way is meditation. Meditation, here, means the practice of mindfulness/awareness, shamata/vipashyana in Sanskrit. We practice being mindful of all the things that we use to torture ourselves with. We become mindful by abandoning our expectations about the way we think things should be and, out of our mindfulness, we begin to develop awareness about the way things really are. We begin to develop the insight that things are really quite simple, that we can handle ourselves, and our relationships, very well as soon as we stop being so manipulative and complex.

The Five Skandhas

The Buddhist doctrine of egolessness seems to be a bit confusing to westerners. I think this is because there is some confusion as to what is meant by ego. Ego, in the Buddhist sense, is quite different from the Freudian ego. The Buddhist ego is a collection of mental events classified into five categories, called skandhas, loosely translated as bundles, or heaps.

If we were to borrow a western expression, we could say that "in the beginning" things were going along quite well. At some point, however, there was a loss of confidence in the way things were going. There was a kind of primordial panic which produced confusion about what was happening. Rather than acknowledging this loss of confidence, there was an identification with the panic and confusion. Ego began to form. This is known as the first skandha, the skandha of form.

After the identification with confusion, ego begins to explore how it feels about the formation of this experience. If we like the experience, we try to draw it in. If we dislike it, we try to push it away, or destroy it. If we feel neutral about it, we just ignore it. The way we feel about the experience is called the skandha of form; what we try to do about it is known as the skandha of impulse/perception.

The next stage is to try to identify, or label the experience. If we can put it into a category, we can manipulate it better. Then we would have a whole bag of tricks to use on it. This is the skandha of concept.

The final step in the birth of ego, is called the skandha of consciousness. Ego begins to churn thoughts and emotions around and around. This makes ego feel solid and real. The churning around and around is called samsara -- literally, to whirl about. The way ego feels about its situation (skandha of feeling) determines which of the six realms of existence it creates for itself.

The Six Realms

If ego decides it likes the situation, it begins to churn up all sorts of ways to possess it. A craving to consume the situation arises and we long to satisfy that craving. Once we do, a ghost of that craving carries over and we look around for something else to consume. We get into the habitual pattern of becoming consumer oriented. Perhaps we order a piece of software for our computer. We play with it for awhile, until the novelty wears out, and then we look around for the next piece of software that has the magic glow of not being possessed yet. Soon we haven't even got the shrink wrap off the current package when we start looking for the next one. Owning the software and using it doesn't seem to be as important as wanting it, looking forward to its arrival. This is known as the hungry ghost realm where we have made an occupation out of craving. We can never find satisfaction, it is like drinking salt water to quench our thirst.

Another realm is the animal realm, or having the mind like that of an animal. Here we find security by making certain that everything is totally predictable. We only buy blue chip stock, never take a chance and never look at new possibilities. The thought of new possibilities frightens us and we look with scorn at anyone who suggests anything innovative. This realm is characterised by ignorance. We put on blinders and only look straight ahead, never to the right or left.

The hell realm is characterised by acute aggression. We build a wall of anger between ourselves and our experience. Everything irritates us, even the most innocuous, and innocent statement drives us mad with anger. The heat of our anger is reflected back on us and sends us into a frenzy to escape from our torture, which in turn causes us to fight even harder and get even angrier. The whole thing builds on itself until we don't even know if we're fighting with someone else or ourselves. We are so busy fighting that we can't find an alternative to fighting; the possibility of alternative never even occurs to us.

These are the three lower realms. One of the three higher realms is called the jealous god realm. This pattern of existence is characterised by acute paranoia. We are always concerned with "making it". Everything is seen from a competitive point of view. We are always trying to score points, and trying to prevent others from scoring on us. If someone achieves something special we become determined to out do them. We never trust anyone; we "know" they're trying to slip one past us. If someone tries to help us, we try to figure out their angle. If someone doesn't try to help us, they are being uncooperative, and we make a note to ourselves that we will get even later. "Don't get mad, get even," that's our motto.

At some point we might hear about spirituality. We might hear about the possibility of meditation techniques, imported from some eastern religion, or mystical western one, that will make our minds peaceful and absorb us into a universal harmony. We begin to meditate and perform certain rituals and we find ourselves absorbed into infinite space and blissful states of existence. Everything sparkles with love and light; we become godlike beings. We become proud of our godlike powers of meditative absorption. We might even dwell in the realm of infinite space where thoughts seldom arise to bother us. We ignore everything that doesn't confirm our godhood. We have manufactured the god realm, the highest of the six realms of existence. The problem is, that we have manufactured it.

We begin to relax and no longer feel the need to maintain our exalted state. Eventually a small sliver of doubt occurs. Have we really made it? At first we are able to smooth over the question, but eventually the doubt begins to occur more and more frequently and soon we begin to struggle to regain our supreme confidence. As soon as we begin to struggle, we fall back into the lower realms and begin the whole process over and over; from god realm to jealous god realm to animal realm to hungry ghost realm to hell realm. At some point we begin to wonder if there isn't some sort of alternative to our habitual way of dealing with the world. This is the human realm.

The human realm is the only one in which liberation from the six states of existence is possible. The human realm is characterised by doubt and inquisitiveness and the longing for something better. We are not as absorbed by the all consuming preoccupations of the other states of being. We begin to wonder whether it is possible to relate to the world as simple, dignified human beings.

The Eightfold Path

The path to liberation from these miserable states of being, as taught by the Buddha, has eight points and is known as the eightfold path. The first point is called right view -- the right way to view the world. Wrong view occurs when we impose our expectations onto things; expectations about how we hope things will be, or about how we are afraid things might be. Right view occurs when we see things simply, as they are. It is an open and accommodating attitude. We abandon hope and fear and take joy in a simple straight-forward approach to life.

The second point of the path is called right intention. It proceeds from right view. If we are able to abandon our expectations, our hopes and fears, we no longer need to be manipulative. We don't have to try to con situations into our preconceived notions of how they should be. We work with what is. Our intentions are pure.

The third aspect of the path is right speech. Once our intentions are pure, we no longer have to be embarrassed about our speech. Since we aren't trying to manipulate people, we don't have to be hesitant about what we say, nor do we need to try bluff our way through a conversation with any sort of phoney confidence. We say what needs to be said, very simply in a genuine way.

The fourth point on the path, right discipline, involves a kind of renunciation. We need to give up our tendency to complicate issues. We practice simplicity. We have a simple straight-forward relationship with our dinner, our job, our house and our family. We give up all the unnecessary and frivolous complications that we usually try to cloud our relationships with.

Right livelihood is the fifth step on the path. It is only natural and right that we should earn our living. Often, many of us don't particularly enjoy our jobs. We can't wait to get home from work and begrudge the amount of time that our job takes away from our enjoyment of the good life. Perhaps, we might wish we had a more glamorous job. We don't feel that our job in a factory or office is in keeping with the image we want to project. The truth is, that we should be glad of our job, whatever it is. We should form a simple relationship with it. We need to perform it properly, with attention to detail.

The sixth aspect of the path is right effort. Wrong effort is struggle. We often approach a spiritual discipline as though we need to conquer our evil side and promote our good side. We are locked in combat with ourselves and try to obliterate the tiniest negative tendency. Right effort doesn't involve struggle at all. When we see things as they are, we can work with them, gently and without any kind of aggression whatsoever.

Right mindfulness, the seventh step, involves precision and clarity. We are mindful of the tiniest details of our experience. We are mindful of the way we talk, the way we perform our jobs, our posture, our attitude toward our friends and family, every detail.

Right concentration, or absorption is the eighth point of the path. Usually we are absorbed in absentmindedness. Our minds are completely captivated by all sorts of entertainment and speculations. Right absorption means that we are completely absorbed in nowness, in things as they are. This can only happen if we have some sort of discipline, such as sitting meditation. We might even say that without the discipline of sitting meditation, we can't walk the eightfold path at all. Sitting meditation cuts through our absentmindedness. It provides a space or gap in our preoccupation with ourselves.

>The Goal

Most people have heard of nirvana. It has become equated with a sort of eastern version of heaven. Actually, nirvana simply means cessation. It is the cessation of passion, aggression and ignorance; the cessation of the struggle to prove our existence to the world, to survive. We don't have to struggle to survive after all. We have already survived. We survive now; the struggle was just an extra complication that we added to our lives because we had lost our confidence in the way things are. We no longer need to manipulate things as they are into things as we would like them to be.

The River - The Nadi Sutra

2011-12-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said, "Monks, suppose there were a river, flowing down from the mountains, going far, its current swift, carrying everything with it, and — holding on to both banks — kasa grasses, kusa grasses, reeds, birana grasses, & trees were growing. Then a man swept away by the current would grab hold of the kasa grasses, but they would tear away, and so from that cause he would come to disaster. He would grab hold of the kusa grasses... the reeds... the birana grasses... the trees, but they would tear away, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.

"In the same way, there is the case where an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person — who has no regard for noble ones, is not well-versed or disciplined in their Dhamma; who has no regard for men of integrity, is not well-versed or disciplined in their Dhamma — assumes form (the body) to be the self, or the self as possessing form, or form as in the self, or the self as in form. That form tears away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.

"He assumes feeling to be the self, or the self as possessing feeling, or feeling as in the self, or the self as in feeling. That feeling tears away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.

"He assumes perception to be the self, or the self as possessing perception, or perception as in the self, or the self as in perception. That perception tears away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.

"He assumes (mental) fabrications to be the self, or the self as possessing fabrications, or fabrications as in the self, or the self as in fabrications. Those fabrications tear away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.

"He assumes consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness. That consciousness tears away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.

"What do you think, monks — Is form constant or inconstant?"

"Inconstant, lord."

"And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?"

"Stressful, lord."

"And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: 'This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am'?"

"No, lord."

"...Is feeling constant or inconstant?"

"Inconstant, lord."...

"...Is perception constant or inconstant?"

"Inconstant, lord."...

"...Are fabrications constant or inconstant?"

"Inconstant, lord."...

"What do you think, monks — Is consciousness constant or inconstant?"

"Inconstant, lord."

"And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?"

"Stressful, lord."

"And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: 'This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am'?"

"No, lord."

"Thus, monks, any form whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every form is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'

"Any feeling whatsoever...

"Any perception whatsoever...

"Any fabrications whatsoever...

"Any consciousness whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every consciousness is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'

"Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with consciousness. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'"

Translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Is That So? - A Zen Story

2011-12-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter's accusation, he simply replied "Is that so?"

When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. "Is that so?" Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.

For many months he took very good care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. "Is that so?" Hakuin said as he handed them the child.

The Moon Cannot Be Stolen - A Zen Story

2011-12-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

A Zen Master lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening, while he was away, a thief sneaked into the hut only to find there was nothing in it to steal.

The Zen Master returned and found him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered, but he took the clothes and ran away.

The Master sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, " I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."

The Nature of Things

2011-12-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung.

The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know it's nature is to sting?"

"Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."

Knowing Fish - A Zen Story

2011-12-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river.

"Look at the fish swimming about," said Chuang Tzu, "They are really enjoying themselves."

"You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves."

"You are not me," said Chuang Tzu. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

No Fear - A Zen Story

2011-12-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master.

Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was.

When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger.

"You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!"

But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved.

"And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

We'll See - A Zen Story

2011-12-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.

"Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"We'll see," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.

"How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"We'll see," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

"We'll see," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

"We'll see" said the farmer.

Essay Questions on Buddhism

2011-12-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

I found these four essay questions on Buddhism on a college website for a world religions class. I think I'll attempt to answer the questions here on the blog. If any reader wants to write one or more, I'd love to post them and credit you.

* The Four Noble Truths form the basis of Buddhist beliefs. Explain the Four Noble Truths and show how they were illustrated by specific events in the life of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha).

* Buddhism prescribes the Eightfold Path as a way to more closely approach nirvana. Choose at least four components of the Path and describe how you observe those goals in your life. (Note: This questions neither assumes you are, nor requires you to be, a Buddhist.)

* If you were Buddhist, would you be a Therevadan or a Mahayanan Buddhist? Of course, you answer should both explain your choice and display an understanding of basic beliefs of that particular form of Buddhism.

* Is Buddhism a religion? Some say that it obviously is a religion. Others argue that it is instead a "philosophy of life". Still others claim that it is a "non-theistic" religion. Explain your position on this issue. Defend your answer with specific reasons and arguments.

Working Very Hard - A Zen Story

2011-12-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, "I am devoted to studying your martial system. How long will it take me to master it."

The teacher's reply was casual, "Ten years."

Impatiently, the student answered, "But I want to master it faster than that. I will work very hard. I will practice everyday, ten or more hours a day if I have to. How long will it take then?"

The teacher thought for a moment,
"20 years."

I Don't Know - A Zen Story

2011-12-18T18:52:00.000-08:00

The emperor, who was a devout Buddhist, invited a great Zen master to the Palace in order to ask him questions about Buddhism.

"What is the highest truth of the holy Buddhist doctrine?" the emperor inquired.

"Vast emptiness... and not a trace of holiness," the master replied.

"If there is no holiness," the emperor said, "then who or what are you?"

"I do not know," the master replied.

Nature's Beauty - A Zen Story

2011-12-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous Zen temple. He had been given the job because he loved the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old Zen master.

One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old master watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the temples.

When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. "Isn't it beautiful," he called out to the old master. "Yes," replied the old man, "but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I'll put it right for you."

After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master walked to the tree near the center of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk, and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. "There," said the old man, "you can put me back now."

It Will Pass

2011-12-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!" "It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!'

"It will pass,"
the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

Hyakujo's Fox

2011-12-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

Once when Hyakujo delivered some Zen lectures an old man attended them, unseen by the monks. At the end of each talk when the monks left so did he. But one day he remained after the had gone, and Hyakujo asked him: `Who are you?'

The old man replied: `I am not a human being, but I was a human being when the Kashapa Buddha preached in this world. I was a Zen master and lived on this mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether the enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him: "The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation." For this answer evidencing a clinging to absoluteness I became a fox for five hundred rebirths, and I am still a fox. Will you save me from this condition with your Zen words and let me get out of a fox's body? Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened man subject to the law of causation?'

Hyakujo said: `The enlightened man is one with the law of causation.'

At the words of Hyakujo the old man was enlightened. `I am emancipated,' he said, paying homage with a deep bow. `I am no more a fox, but I have to leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my funeral as a monk.' The he disappeared.

The next day Hyakujo gave an order through the chief monk to prepare to attend the funeral of a monk. `No one was sick in the infirmary,' wondered the monks. `What does our teacher mean?'

After dinner Hyakujo led the monks out and around the mountain. In a cave, with his staff he poked out the corpse of an old fox and then performed the ceremony of cremation.

That evening Hyakujo gave a talk to the monks and told this story about the law of causation.

Obaku, upon hearing this story, asked Hyakujo: `I understand that a long time ago because a certain person gave a wrong Zen answer he became a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now I was to ask: If some modern master is asked many questions, and he always gives the right answer, what will become of him?'

Hyakujo said: `You come here near me and I will tell you.'

Obaku went near Hyakujo and slapped the teacher's face with this hand, for he knew this was the answer his teacher intended to give him.

Hyakujo clapped his hands and laughed at the discernment. `I thought a Persian had a red beard,' he said, `and now I know a Persian who has a red beard.'

Mumon's comment: `The enlightened man is not subject.' How can this answer make the monk a fox?

`The enlightened man is at one with the law of causation.' How can this answer make the fox emancipated?

To understand clearly one has to have just one eye.

Controlled or not controlled?
The same dice shows two faces.

A Philosopher Asks Buddha

2011-12-15T16:17:00.000-08:00

A philosopher asked Buddha: `Without words, without the wordless, will you you tell me truth?'

The Buddha kept silence.

The philosopher bowed and thanked the Buddha, saying: `With your loving kindness I have cleared away my delusions and entered the true path.'

After the philosopher had gone, Ananda asked the Buddha what he had attained.

The Buddha replied, `A good horse runs even at the shadow of the whip.'

The Buddhist Concept of Impermanence

2011-12-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

Early Buddhism dealt with the problem of impermanence in a very rationale manner. This concept is known as anicca in Buddhism, according to which, impermanence is an undeniable and inescapable fact of human existence from which nothing that belongs to this earth is ever free.

Buddhism declares that there are five processes on which no human being has control and which none can ever change. These five processes are namely, the process of growing old, of not falling sick, of dying, of decay of things that are perishable and of the passing away of that which is liable to pass. Buddhism however suggests that escape from these is possible and it's through Nirvana.

Hinduism also believes in the impermanent nature of life. But it deals with this problem differently. According to Hinduism, impermanence can be overcome by locating and uniting with the center of permanence that exists within oneself. This center is the Soul or the self that is immortal, permanent and ever stable.

According to Hinduism, Atman is the fundamental truth that exists in every being, while at the microcosmic level it is Brahman who is the fundamental and supreme truth of all existence. He who realizes Atman verily becomes Brahman and attains immortality.

The Buddha differed radically with this most fundamental concept of Hinduism and in line with his preaching the early Buddhists did not believe in the existence of a permanent and fixed reality which could be referred to as either God or soul. According to them what was apparent and verifiable about our existence was the continuous change it undergoes.

Thus early Buddhism declares that in this world there is nothing that is fixed and permanent. Every thing is subject to change and alteration. "Decay is inherent in all component things," declared the Buddha and his followers accepted that existence was a flux, and a continuous becoming.

According to the teachings of the Buddha, life is comparable to a river. It is a progressive moment, a successive series of different moments, joining together to give the impression of one continuous flow. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, where as in reality it is not. The river of yesterday is not the same as the river of today. The river of this moment is not going to be the same as the river of the next moment. So does life. It changes continuously, becomes something or the other from moment to moment.

Take for example the life of an individual. It is a fallacy to believe that a person would remain the same person during his entire life time. He changes every moment. He actually lives and dies but for a moment, or lives and dies moment by moment, as each moment leads to the next. A person is what he is in the context of the time in which he exists. It is an illusion to believe that the person you have seen just now is the same as the person you are just now seeing or the person whom you are seeing now will be the same as the person you will see after a few moments.

Even from a scientific point of view this is true. We know cell divisions take place in each living being continuously. Old cells in our bodies die and yield place continuously to the new ones that are forming. Like the waves in a sea, every moment, many thoughts arise and die in each individual . Psychologically and physically he is never the same all the time. Technically speaking, no individual is ever composed of the same amount of energy. Mental stuff and cellular material all the time. He is subject to change and the change is a continuous movement.

Impermanence and change are thus the undeniable truths of our existence. What is real is the existing moment, the present that is a product of the past, or a result of the previous causes and actions. Because of ignorance, an ordinary mind conceives them all to be part of one continuous reality. But in truth they are not.

The various stages in the life of a man, the childhood, the adulthood, the old age are not the same at any given time. The child is not the same when he grows up and becomes a young man, nor when the latter turns into an old man. The seed is not the tree, though it produces the tree, and the fruit is also not the tree, though it is produced by the tree.

The concept of impermanence and continuous becoming is central to early Buddhist teachings. It is by becoming aware of it, by observing it and by understanding it, one can find a suitable remedy for the sorrow of human life and achieve liberation from the process of anicca or impermanence.

Koan #73 - Ten Successors

2011-12-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

Zen pupils take a vow that even if they are killed by their teacher, they intend to learn Zen. Usually they cut a finger and seal their resolution with blood. In time the vow has become a mere formality, and for this reason the pupil who died by the hand of Ekido was made to appear a martyr.

Ekido had become a severe teacher. His pupils feared him. One of them on duty, striking the gong to tell the time of day, missed his beats when his eye was attracted by a beautiful girl passing the temple gate.

At that moment Ekido, who was directly behind him, hit him with a stick and the shock happened to kill him.

The pupil's guardian, hearing of the accident, went directly to Ekido. Knowing that he was not to blame, he praised the master for his severe teaching. Ekido's attitude was just the same as if the pupil were still alive.

After this took place, he was able to produce under his guidance more than ten enlightened successors, a very unusual number.

Koan #47 - The Stingy Artist

2011-12-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

Gessen was an artist monk. Before he would start a drawing or painting he always insisted upon being paid in advance, and his fees were high. He was known as the "Stingy Artist."

A geisha once gave him a commission for a painting. "How much can you pay?" inquired Gessen.

"Whatever you charge," replied the girl, "but I want you to do the work in front of me."

So on a certain day Gessen was called by the geisha. She was holding a feast for her patron.

Gessen with fine brush work did the painting. When it was completed he asked the highest sum of his time.

He received his pay. Then the geisha turned to her patron, saying: "All this artist wants is money. His paintings are fine but his mind is dirty; money has caused it to become muddy. Drawn by such a filthy mind, his work is not fit to exhibit. It is just about good enough for one of my petticoats."

Removing her skirt, she then asked Gessen to do another picture on the back of her petticoat.

"How much will you pay?" asked Gessen.

"Oh, any amount," answered the girl.

Gessen named a fancy price, painted the picture in the manner requested, and went away.

It was learned later that Gessen had these reasons for desiring money:

A ravaging famine often visited his province. The rich would not help the poor, so Gessen had a secret warehouse, unknown to anyone, which he kept filled with grain, prepared for those emergencies.

From his village to the National Shrine the road was in very poor condition and many travellers suffered while traversing it. He desired to build a better road.

His teacher had passed away without realizing his wish to build a temple, and Gessen wished to complete this temple for him.

After Gessen had accomplished his three wishes he threw away his brushes and artist's materials and, retiring to the mountains, never painted again.

Koan #76 The Stone Mind

2011-12-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves.

While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?"

One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind."

"Your head must feel very heavy," observed Hogen, "if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."

Lamp to the Path of Enlightenment Part 4

2011-12-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

(32) If you train yourself well in the three
trainings of ethical discipline
By living in accord with the vows
that are the very nature of engaged bodhichitta
And which are a cause for purifying completely
your body, speech, and mind,
Your respect for the three trainings in ethical
discipline will increase.

(33) Through this (will come) the completely
purified, full state of enlightenment;
For, by exerting yourself in the vows of the
bodhisattva vows, You will fully complete the
networks needed For total enlightenment.

(34) As for the cause that will fully complete
these networks Having the nature of positive
force and deep awareness, All the Buddhas have
asserted that it is The development of advanced
awareness.

(35) Just as a bird without fully developed wings
Cannot fly in the sky,
Likewise lacking the force of advanced awareness,
You will be unable to fulfill the aims of
limited beings.

(36) Whatever positive force is had in a day
and a night By someone possessing advanced
awareness Is not had even in a hundred lifetimes
By someone lacking advanced awareness.

(37) Therefore, if you would wish to fully complete,
Quickly, the networks for total enlightenment,
Make effort and thereby come to attain
Advanced awareness. It is not to be had by the lazy.

(38) Someone who has not achieved a stilled settled
mind Will not attain advanced awareness.
Therefore, repeatedly exert effort
To actualize a stilled settled mind.

(39) However, should the factors for a stilled
settled mind be weak, Then even if you have meditated
with great effort
And even if for thousands of years,
You will not attain single-minded concentration.

(40) Therefore, maintain well the factors mentioned
In the chapter on A Network for Single-Minded
Concentration. Then place your mind on something
constructive: Namely one of the appropriate
objects of focus.

(41) When a yogi actualizes a stilled settled mind,
He or she attains as well advanced awareness.
Training in Higher Discriminating Awareness
However, if you have failed to apply yourself
to far-reaching discriminating awareness,
You will be unable to deplete the obscurations.

(42) Therefore, in order to rid yourself of all
obscurations, without exception, Regarding the
disturbing emotions and knowable phenomena,
Always meditate on the yoga of far-reaching
discriminating awareness Together with methods.

(43) This is because discriminating awareness
lacking methods As well as methods lacking
discriminating awareness
Have been said still to be bondage.
Therefore, never abandon having both.

(44) To get rid of doubts concerning
What is discriminating awareness and what
are methods, I shall clarify the actual division
Between methods and discriminating awareness.

(45) The Triumphant One has explained that
Leaving aside far-reaching discriminating awareness,
All networks of constructive factors,
Such as far-reaching generosity and so forth,
are the methods.

Lamp to the Path of Enlightenment Part 3

2011-12-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

(21) As for the seven classes for individual liberation,
The Accordingly Progressed has asserted in his explanations
That those of glorious abstinence are supreme;
And those are the vows for fully ordained monks.

(22) Through the ritual well expounded in
Take the (bodhisattva) vows
From an excellent, fully qualified guru.

(23) Know that an excellent guru is someone who
Is skilled in the vow ceremony,
By nature lives by the vows,
Has the confidence to confer the vows,
and possesses compassion.

(24) However, if you have made effort in this
And have been unable to find such a guru,
There is a ritual other than that for receiving the vows,
Which I shall explain in full.

(25) Concerning this, I shall write here very clearly
How Manjushri generated bodhichitta in previous times
when he was King Ambaraja,
Just as is explained in The Sutra of
An Adornament for Manjushri's Buddha-Field.

(26) "Before the eyes of my Guardians,
I generate bodhichitta
And, inviting all wandering beings as my guests,
I shall liberate them from uncontrollable rebirth.

(27) From now until my attainment
Of a supreme purified state,
I shall never act with harmful intentions,
An angered mind, miserliness, or jealousy.

(28) I shall live according to abstinent behavior;
I shall rid myself of negativities and attachment/greed.
Taking joy in the vows of ethical discipline,
I shall continually train myself as the Buddhas have done.

(29) I shall take no delight in attaining enlightenment
By a speedy means for my own self,
But shall remain until the end of the future,
If it be a cause for (helping) one limited being.

(30) I shall cleanse everything into
Immeasurable, inconceivable realms
And remain everywhere in the ten directions
For those who have called my name.

(31) I shall purify all the actions
Of my body and speech,
And purify as well the actions of my mind:
I shall never commit any destructive acts."