Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, pp257-259I will tell you a parable. Once upon a time there was a dangerous, bad road five hundred yojanas long.
After [having given to them] the feeling of approximation and a low level of knowledge [about his meaning], [the Buddha now] intends to show that when he previously preached the doctrine of the three vehicles [it] was designed to manifest the One. [However], beings seek to hold on to the three. Because of this he again points them to their past conditions, improvising the parable of the conjured city. This parable suggests that the two vehicles are not real, eventually returning to the Path of the One. The Path of the One is very difficult to get to because of the workings of illusion. However, the three spheres are muddy and hilly, and the road of the two vehicles is dangerous. This [road], five hundred [yojanas long], is the path that bodhisattvas are required to take and [is] very hard to traverse.
It was so fearful {a frightful place} that no men lived in the neighborhood.
Five hundred [yojanas] represent a very great distance: thus, “empty.” They are determined to work out their solitary enlighteninent [just for their own sake]: [thus], “devoid of human beings”. They have long endured hardships and suffering, subject to dangers that may come from anywhere, anytime: it is “a frightful place.”
Now many people wished to pass through this road in order to reach a place of treasures.
The endowment of great enlightenment [innate in every being] issues forth: they “wish to traverse” the steep “road.” [Those who] wish to traverse are not few; thus, “a great multitude.” Traversing it, they will obtain all kinds of pleasure; thus, “a cache of precious jewels.”
They were led by a man, clever, wise, and well informed of the conditions of the dangerous road.
Meeting with li is what is meant by passable; going astray from it is what is meant by impassable. When it comes to “knowing well” the “features,” there is just one person [who does]. By teaching the multitude to follow the “passable,” [the Buddha] makes [himself] the master “who leads” them.
He took them along this dangerous road, but halfway the people got tired of walking {get disgusted}. They said to him, ‘We are tired out. We are also afraid of the danger of this road. We cannot go a step farther. Our destination is still far off. We wish to go back.’
They are confused about where they are heading, obviously far away from the Path of the Buddha. They have long endured hardships and suffering, suffering [the cycle of] birth and death. Those of the Lesser Vehicle tend to be content with substitutes [for suffering] and easily fall prey to being pleased with them: they “get disgusted.” Despite this delusion, however, the original understanding is never lost: they “wish to turn back.” They turn back to the Dharma of the “guide,” which means that they proceed with the “guide,” but they obtain no “comfort” from him. They then intend to make an “entreaty” to convey this [need].
The leader, who knew many expedients, thought, ‘What a pity! They wish to go back without getting great treasures.’ Having thought this, he expediently made a city by magic {conjures up} at a distance of three hundred yojanas from the starting-point of this dangerous road.
Proceeding with him but finding no comfort as they follow the “guide,” they make their entreaty. The “guide,” listening to their entreaty, sympathetically realizes that they are in a pitiful state. Thus, as a device, he invents the transformative teaching of the two vehicles, telling them that they will attain nirvāṇa. A city is originally designed to protect [its people] from evils; [likewise] only in nirvāṇa is there no calamity. This [nature of nirvāṇa] is analogized in the designation [i.e., “city”]. What [the Buddha] exigently shows is unreal: he “conjures up.”
He said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Do not go back! You can stay in that great city, and do anything you like. If you enter that city, you will be peaceful.
The teaching of the two vehicles is the meaning implied here. [The Buddha] talks of it through a made-up story.
If you go on afterwards and reach the place of treasures, then you can go home.’
The intent here is the teaching of the two vehicles, designed to enable them to obtain Buddhahood; but [the Buddha] does not reveal this, showing this also by way of a made-up story.
They felt peaceful, thinking that they had already passed [through the bad road].
They have advanced to attain the result; that is, what they say to themselves [they have obtained], nirvāṇa.
Seeing that they had already had a rest and relieved their fatigue, the leader caused the city to disappear, and said to them, ‘Now the place of treasures is near. I made this city by magic in order to give you a rest.’
This again refers to nirvāṇa, which they say they have obtained: they “stop.” They prepare themselves to advance further: they “rest.” Because they have realized it, [the Buddha] preaches that the three are [in reality] the One: thus “dissolves the conjured city.” And he says that [the two vehicles] are made-up statements.
Medicine Master Sūtra
Below are quotes from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on The Sutra of the Merit and Virtue of the Past Vows of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p84-85Reciting the Name of Medicine Master Buddha
At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, we recite the name of Medicine Master Buddha in the morning and dedicate the merit to the Dharma-protectors of the City, praying that they will be safe from disasters and will enjoy long life. At noon we recite “Namo Fundamental Teacher Śākyamuni Buddha” in order to repay the kindness of Śākyamuni Buddha, who taught the Dharma to us. In the evening we recite the name of Amitabha Buddha, vowing to be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, where the three lower paths do not exist. In the Sahā world, we are troubled and afflicted every day, but in the Land of Ultimate Bliss and the Vaiḍūrya Land, there is only happiness.The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is a new monastery, and we recite the names of three different Buddhas in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. In this respect, we differ from monasteries in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries where they follow the Chinese Buddhist tradition and recite Amitabha Buddha’s name all the time. When monastics from other places visit the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, they think that we do everything wrong and do not understand the rules.
We do not claim that what we do at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is correct. However, when we rise in the morning, we should emulate the vows of Medicine Master Buddha Who Quells Disasters and Lengthens Life. This will give us the fresh, youthful energy of dawn; an invigorating vitality like that of trees reviving after a drought or a spring bubbling forth from the ground. When we rise at dawn, the fire of our life burns brightly and everything is auspicious. At noon, we should be grateful to Śākyamuni Buddha for all the Dharma and sūtras that he taught us. At night, our thoughts return to the Land of Ultimate Bliss, the final haven where we wish to be reborn.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p23-24Two Buddhas, East and West
Śākyamuni buddha came to the Sahā world in order to help living beings resolve the problem of birth and death. He was born into a royal family, but he renounced the wealth of the kingdom and left his home in order to pursue the Truth. After he attained Buddhahood beneath the Bodhi Tree, he contemplated the conditions of living beings in the Sahā world and discovered that we have the deepest affinities with two Buddhas – Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathagata in the East and Amitabha Tathāgata in the West. …Although Akṣobhya (Medicine Master) Buddha is in the Vaiḍūrya Land and Amitabha Buddha is in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, both of these Buddhas teach and transform the living beings of the Sahā world. They have deep affinities with each and every one of us. Medicine Master Tathāgata is also known as “Medicine Master Buddha Who Quells Disasters and Lengthens Life;” Amitabha Tathāgata is known as both the “Buddha of Limitless Life” (Amitāyus) and the “Buddha of Limitless Light” (Amitābha).
If you are mindful of Medicine Master Buddha, he will bestow blessings and long life upon you and save you from disasters, illnesses, and offenses. He fulfills the wishes of all living beings. Amitabha Buddha enables beings to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. If you wish to be reborn in that land, simply recite Amitabha Buddha’s name. If you wish to be born in the Vaiḍūrya Land, then recite the name of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathagata.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p60Magnetic Vows
Every Buddha and Bodhisattva, before achieving Buddhahood, makes infinitely many great vows to benefit and help living beings. When he becomes a Buddha, his vows come true, and, like a magnet, they attract living beings from the ten directions. If his vows are great, then the power of the magnet is great, and no matter how many living beings there are and how heavy their karmic obstacles are, his vows can draw them in. Living beings, despite their ignorance, can sense that he wishes to help them, and so they feel especially close to him. Deep down in their souls they intuitively sense this affinity. In the past, Medicine King Bodhisattva burned his body and gave up his life as an offering to the Buddhas. We, in contrast, can’t even bear to burn a finger, let alone our whole bodies.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p62Ordinary Origins of Great Vows
Medicine Master Buddha made this vow in his past lives when he was still cultivating as a bhikṣu; he was no different from you, me, and other living beings then. But because he made great vows, he was able to achieve Buddhahood very quickly. We still haven’t become Buddhas, because we are too selfish, greedy, and quarrelsome, and we don’t want to make great vows.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 20, 2025
The merits to be given to the person who, after hearing Myōhō Renge Kyō, copies it, or causes others to copy it, cannot be measured even by the wisdom of the Buddha. Neither can the merits to be given to the person who copies Myōhō Renge Kyō and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense to burn, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, streamers, canopies, garments, and various kinds of lamps such as lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of campaka oil, lamps of sumanas oil, lamps of pāṭala oil, lamps of vārṣika oil, and lamps of navamālikā oil [to the copy of this sūtra].
Tao-sheng: Teaching the Dharma Blossom for the 16 Princes
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p256The sixteen princes were young boys at that time. They renounced the world and became śramaṇeras.
Until now he has preached the doctrine of the two vehicles. Now for the princes he preaches the Dharma Blossom.
The Buddha assented to the appeal of the śramaṇeras, but it was twenty thousand kalpas afterwards that he expounded to the four kinds of devotees the sūtra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’
This illustrates that li is so deep and the Tao is so recondite that they require meticulous scrutiny. This also makes beings admire and respect them.
Having completed the expounding of this sūtra, the Buddha entered a quiet room and practiced dhyāna-concentration for eighty-four thousand kalpas.
[By this the Buddha] wishes to manifest the virtues of the śramaṇeras.
The Medicine of Buddhism
On March 25, 2020, Ryusho Jeffus Shonin sent a card to my wife and me. On the cover was a blue print of a linoleum block carving Ryusho had done of Medicine Buddha. This was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, shelter-at-home mandates had been issued for both the state of New York, where Ryusho lived, and California, where we lived.
I placed the Medicine Buddha card among my “decorations” (see this explanation) and put a generic Buddha incense burner in front of it to represent Medicine Buddha. Hung above this area of my “decorations” is a 16-inch long Medicine Buddha prayer flag garland that my son and his girlfriend brought home from one of their trips.
Each morning and evening I begin gongyo offering light from a burning incense stick to my “decorations” – Kannon and Jizo bodhisattvas, the Shichi Fuku Jin (Seven Happy Gods) and the Funjin Sho Butsu (Śākyamuni’s replicas). The Medicine Buddha card and statue and a Tibetan prayer box and flags represent the Buddhas in manifestation who appear in Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.
I bring this all up because I recently purchased and read the Medicine Master Sūtra with commentary by Master Hsuan Hua. I’m going to place the book behind the card so that the statue, card and sutra create Medicine Buddha “decorations.”
Having this year discovered Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra, I’ve been reviewing the other sutras that he’s left commentaries on. For me, as a Nichiren Buddhist – as someone who holds that the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha’s highest teaching – I consider these other sutras as the expedient teachings that all flow into the ocean of the Lotus Sutra.
While Medicine Buddha can bestow blessings and long life upon believers and save them from disasters, illnesses, and offenses, his powers pale in comparison to the benefits of offering devotion to the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.
In Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, Śākyamuni says, “I am leaving this good medicine here. Take it! Do not be afraid that you will not be cured!”
In Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Śākyamuni says, “Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death.”
And later in Chapter 23, the Buddha tells Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva to use his supernatural powers to protect the Lotus Sūtra: “Why is that? It is because this sūtra is a good medicine for the diseases of the people of the Jambudvipa. The patient who hears this sūtra will be cured of his disease at once. He will not grow old or die.”
I welcome the addition of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathāgata to my practice, but for me it’s more like the guy who wears both suspenders and a belt to hold up his pants.
Next: Medicine Master Sūtra
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 19, 2025
Anyone who keeps
Myōhō Renge Kyō
Should be considered to have given up his pure world and come here
Out of his compassion towards all living beings.Know that he can appear wherever he wishes!
He should be considered
To have appeared in this evil world
In order to expound Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Tao-sheng: Twelve Causes
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p254-256Then he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes
Ignorance (avidyā): There are one hundred and eight kinds of depravities (kleśa), becoming numerous, [so to speak,] when they are applied to the various affairs. In reality, however, it can be said that there is no more than one kind of delusion. Ignorance represents all delusions. It is shown in desire (or “greed”) and attachment (or “seizure”). Desire for and attachment to that which is useless and has been valued from the past, all this we call “ignorance.”
Karmic legacy {predisposition} (saṃskāras): When karma committed through body, mouth, and mind appears in the present, it means that [a karmic legacy] exists, which causes a future effect to exist. When retribution is drawn to the background, the process is then completed and phenomena come into existence. When the creation of phenomena is passed, [what is left] we call karmic legacy. Karmic legacy has to do with transmigration in the realm of birth and death.
Cognition {consciousness} (vijñāna): Cognition is the beginning of the present body, which means that the phenomenon of life comes into being
Name and visible form (nāmarūpa): As cognition becomes a seed, it can give rise to “name and visible form.” The four aggregates (skandhas) are referred to as name; the fifth [aggregate, which is] consciousness (vijñāna), accounts for “visible form.” They also are said to be in the womb, in an obscure and dark state. There is little consciousness of suffering and pleasure; there is no more than just “name.”
The six sense organs (saḍāyatana): The six sensations arise to appropriately match the six qualities (gums).
Contact {Impression} (sparśa): Once sensations and qualities appear, the consciousness of body comes into existence. The body consciousness is delicate and subtle. The three things join together. “To join together” is what is meant by contact.
Perception {feeling} (vedanā): Once sensations and qualities join together, there is [the process of deciding] whether it is agreeable or not. Next the three states of perception arise.
Craving (tṛṣṇā): Pleasure conditions perception. To follow one’s will is called craving. With craving one is attached to something. He who is attached to something is one whose root of birth and death (saṃsāra) is deep. Hence, stretching everywhere are the branches of [birth and death].
Grasping (upādāna): Because of the obstruction caused by craving, the four categories of grasping arise. By “grasping” one is able to grasp birth and death (saṃsāra).
Becoming {Existence} (bhava): Because of the four kinds of grasping, the three kinds of karma are produced. They are referred to as becoming, in the sense that they can bring about “becoming.”
Birth (jāti): Because of the three kinds of karma, the shoots [of life] crave and grasp water and moisture, duly developing into birth.
Aging and dying (jarāmarana): As birth secures one in the state of undyingness, this is the residence of craving and compassion.
The twelve causes and conditions involve all the three periods of past, present, and future [lives]. However, the names [of the three] are invisibly revealed in accordance with the trace of transformation. How? Two are present in the past, eight in the present, and two in the future. Because of ignorance and karmic legacy, suffering in this life is induced; thus, if one intends to cut it off right now, then consequently [upon cutting it off] there will be no more birth and death. Birth and death are the locus of the various calamities. How can one not fear it? Thus these two beginnings are shown. Many made inquiries into the meaning of the words, but men drift in the three worlds because of the twelve [causes and] conditions; so if [causes and] conditions are destroyed, it means that stupidity and ignorance are cut dead by the knife of wisdom, and that the water of craving is scorched and dried off by the fire of knowledge. The lofty net [of knowledge] opens up over the four corners all over the six forms of existence. Nonrebirth (anutpatti or ajāti) surpasses the eight apexes [of suffering?].
Vajra Sutra: The Equality of Emptiness and Existence
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p187-188“How can you say emptiness is existence and existence is emptiness? That is too confused,” you may say.
Is it the principle that is confused, or is it you, or I? When you are confused you think that emptiness is emptiness and existence is existence. When the confusion is cleared, you know that emptiness and existence are equal. Do not attach to either annihilationism or eternalism. The equality and non-duality of emptiness and existence is called the Middle Way. Here true emptiness does not obstruct wonderful existence and wonderful existence does not obstruct true emptiness. True emptiness is wonderful existence; wonderful existence is true emptiness. When there is existence, then emptiness manifests; when there is emptiness, then existence is apparent. There is no emptiness, and there is no existence. They are not two. The non-duality of emptiness and existence is the equality of emptiness and existence.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for May 18, 2025
Thereupon Medicine-King Bodhisattva rose front his seat, bared his right shoulder, joined his hands together towards the Buddha, and said to him:
“World-Honored One! How many merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read, recite, understand or copy Myōhō Renge Kyō?”
The Buddha said to him:
“Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?”
“Very many, World-Honored One!”
The Buddha said: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite even a single gāthā of four lines of Myōhō Renge Kyō, understand the meanings of Myōhō Renge Kyō or act according to Myōhō Renge Kyō.”
Tao-sheng: Four Courses and Three Turnings
Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p253-254“Thereupon Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata, having assented to the appeals made by the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the words of the ten quarters and also by the sixteen princes, turned the wheel of the teaching [of the four truths] three times, making twelve proclamations altogether.
[The Buddha] depicted [what happened in] the past to compare it with the present; this idea becomes evident here. [The Thus Come One] Victorious through Great Penetrating Knowledge preached the teaching of the three vehicles in the past for the Brahma kings, and preached the scripture of the Dharma Blossom for the sixteen princes. That the youngest of the princes was Śākyamuni means that for contemporary people he already had preached this Dharma. Now as he ascends a [Dharma] throne, he revives the past transformative teaching, preaching again the path of the One preceded by the three. “The three turns of the Dharma wheel” are as follows:
The first [turn] was made for when the Buddha proclaimed to Kauṇḍinya [and four other mendicants, to the effect that] “[what constitutes the self or] body is suffering. You should know it, then you will attain the four ‘spokes’ of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. This forms the root of what you have not yet known.”
The second was made for when the Buddha proclaimed to the five men, [to the effect that] “you have known about suffering, and also obtained the four ‘spokes’ of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. This forms the root of what you have already known.”
The third. was made for when the Buddha proclaimed to the five men, [to the effect that] “you have known about suffering. You don’t have to know again. You have also attained the four ‘spokes’ of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. This forms the root of what you had no knowledge of.”
There are four courses and three turnings in one proclamation; hence, there are twelve (in total). In this way, one who does not yet know should know: one who does not yet know the cause [of suffering] should know it; one who does not yet know the extinction [of suffering] should know it; and one who does not yet know the path [to extinction] should know it. In this way in each truth [of the four noble truths] there are the four courses of seeing, knowing, understanding, and awakening. One proclamation encompasses the four truths. The three proclamations contain the Dharma wheel of forty-eight “spokes.” “Twelve” is the outcome of [the four truths applied to] the three proclamations. The “forty-eight,” when we speak of them in terms of the [four] truths, are “the twelve causes and conditions” (pratītya-samutpāda) [multiplied by] the four truths. “The four truths” spell out the facts involved (shih) in detail, whereas the terms [of the process] are made brief. “The twelve causes and conditions” spell out the terms in detail, whereas the facts involved are made brief. As their faculties were sharp, when [the Buddha] preached merely the arising and destruction of the twelve [causes and conditions], they immediately comprehended for themselves, coming up with the Dharma medicine that would free them from suffering without fail, which means that they had reached the end of the path (tao).