In his Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, Master Hsuan Hua often quotes from Zhiyi of the Tiantai School, the same Zhiyi whom Nichiren relied upon in establishing the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra. Hsuan Hua is not a strict adherent of Zhiyi’s teaching. This is particularly pronounced when the subject of the Avataṃsaka Sutra – Flower Garland Sutra – comes up. Although Zhiyi recognized  the Avataṃsaka Sutra as presenting the highest pinnacle of the Buddha’s insight and represented the sudden teaching method, Zhiyi ultimately maintained that the Perfect Teaching (which represents the Buddha’s highest insight) is set forth in its pure form only in the Lotus Sutra. Here are two examples of where Hsuan Hua places the Avataṃsaka Sutra above and beyond the Lotus Sutra.

Now that I have finished lecturing on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, I am lecturing on the Dharma Flower Sūtra. When I have finished lecturing on it, I intend to lecture on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra for you. That is even more wonderful because it is the king of the sūtras. The Dharma Flower Sūtra is also a king of sūtras, but it is not as magnificent as the Avataṃsaka Sutra. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is really the king of the kings of sūtras. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra can be likened to a gold wheel-turning sage king, while the Dharma Flower Sūtra can be likened to a silver wheel-turning sage king. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra can be likened to a copper wheel-turning sage king. These three are kings among all sūtras.

I have not yet begun lecturing on the Avataṃsaka Sutra, but I can first talk a little about its background. After the Buddha realized Buddhahood, the first thing he did was to teach the Avataṃsaka Sutra. When he taught it, those of the Two Vehicles could not hear him. They could not even see him. It is said,

They had eyes but could not see Nişyanda Buddha;
They had ears but could not hear the perfect, sudden teaching.

The Buddha manifested a body ten thousand feet high to teach the sūtra, and although they had eyes, they could not see it. They had ears, but they could not hear the perfect, sudden teaching.

When the Buddha taught the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, those of the Two Vehicles could not understand it; only the Great Vehicle Bodhisattvas were able to understand it. Later, it was taken by the dragon king to his palace and disappeared from the human realm. Then, the fourteenth patriarch, Nagarjuna [Dragon Tree] Bodhisattva, who had mastered all worldly literature, used his spiritual powers to go to the dragon palace to take a look at their Tripiṭaka collection. There he found the three-volume set of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. The first volume contains verses as many as dust motes in ten trichiliocosms, with chapters as numerous as dust motes in one set of four great continents. The first and second volumes were too long for Bodhisattva Nagarjuna to remember, so he memorized the third volume, the last volume. When he returned to the human realm, he wrote this sūtra out from memory. Since Bodhisattva Nagarjuna had an excellent memory, he remembered it in its entirety after reading it just once. That is the source of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.

After we finish the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra, we shall proceed to listen to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. By then, you will understand the three kings of Buddhist sūtras. Then you will be able to understand all the other sūtras on your own, without having them explained to you. Here in the West, the Buddhadharma has just begun to flourish. It is fitting that the Great Vehicle Dharma be propagated in order to teach and transform the Great Vehicle Bodhisattvas.

The twelve hundred Arhats present
Will all attain Buddhahood.

The Buddha gave all his disciples predictions of future Buddhahood.

In hundreds of thousands of eons, it is not easy to encounter the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra. Though one may encounter the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra, it is difficult to be able to read and recite it. Even if you are able to read and recite it, should you study it for hundreds of thousands of eons, you still may not understand its meaning. Finally, it is most difficult to hear it explained.

Now, in the entire world, there are very few places where the Dharma Flower Sūtra is explained. Rare as it is, I am now explaining it. In the future, we will study the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, which is even more difficult to encounter. In China, it would be difficult to find even one occasion when the Avataṃsaka Sūtra was lectured on during the past hundred years.

The principles of the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra are wonderful beyond words. Similarly, the principles of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra are so magnificent that they also surpass words. Without a solid foundation in learning, one would not be able to understand much less explain the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Therefore, no one feels capable of explaining it. For example, one passage says that those who cultivate samadhi will enter samadhi in the west and emerge from samadhi in the east. Those who enter samadhi in the south will emerge from it in the north. It says that those who enter samadhi through the eyes will emerge from samadhi through the ears. It further says that those who enter samadhi through the nose will emerge from samādhi through the tongue.

What does all this mean? What does it mean to enter samadhi through the nose and emerge from samadhi through the tongue? Within the six sense faculties, you enter through one and exit through another. This passage is confusing! What is going on? What on earth is entering and exiting?

In the future, if there are those who like to study the Buddhadharma and who wish to truly understand it, they should have the answers to such questions. But don’t worry. Don’t be concerned. Unlike Dharma Master Xuanzang, who walked to India from China seeking the Dharma, wearing himself out and blistering his feet, you can remain in your own country and listen to lectures on the wonderful Dharma. In the future, your options will be much better than those of Dharma Master Xuanzang.

In reading Hsuan Hua’s Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, I’ve been repeatedly impressed with the depth of the work. Particularly impressive has been the use of explanatory footnotes. Here’s an example from Volume 3, Chapter 2, Expedients.

All of the Tathāgatas,
By countless skillful means,
Will lead all living beings across
To realize the Buddhas’ nonoutflow wisdom.
Of those who have heard the Dharma,
None will fail to become a Buddha.

These six lines refer to “the oneness of people.” The Dharma Flower Sutra can be understood through the ten wonders of the door of the original and the ten wonders of the door of the derivative.

A note at this point references this note at the end of the chapter.

Editorial Note About the Ten Wonders:
In the Fahua xuanyi (Profound Meanings of the Dharma Flower), Master Zhiyi of the Tiantai School explains the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra through three groupings of ten wonders. In his commentary, Venerable Master Hua refers only to the first two:

1. The ten wonders of the door of the derivative (Ch.門十秒)
2. The ten wonders of the door of the original (Ch.本門十分)
3. The ten wonders of the contemplation of the mind (Ch.觀心十秒)

1. The ten wonders of the door of the derivative pertain to the first half of the Dharma Flower Sutra (chaps. 1-14). The Tiantai School classifies the Dharma that Śākyamuni Buddha taught from the time of his awakening until he started teaching the Dharma Flower Sutra as the Dharma of the Three Vehicles of Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas, and the teaching of the Dharma Flower Sutra as the One Vehicle Dharma, the Buddha Vehicle. Based on his explanation. of “the essence of things as they really are (諸法實相)”in chapter a “Skillful Means,” Master Zhiyi asserts that the Dharma set forth for the Three Vehicles is introduced to expediently unfold the ultimate teaching. The Dharma of the Three Vehicles is provisional. The Dharma Flower Sutra is the ultimate teaching, which is the perfect teaching of the One Vehicle – that is, the Buddha Vehicle. The perfect teaching of the One Vehicle transcends the contradistinction between the provisional and the ultimate, in that the provisional is the ultimate and the ultimate is the provisional. The provisional and the ultimate are nondual; this nonduality embodies “the essence of things as they really are.” From the perspective of the perfect teaching, both the provisional and the ultimate possess “wonders” or “subtleties.” This is known as the wonder that transcends dualities.

The ten wonders of the first half of the Dharma Flower Sūtra, which elucidate the subtleties of the Buddha’s provisional manifestations (“the derivative”), are the wonders of:

i. His state of thusness: the ultimate truth that all Buddhas hold in reverence and realize.

ii. His wisdom: a Buddha’s omniscient wisdom arising from such realization.

iii. His practice: all practices leading to that realization.

iv. His position: the realization of varied attainments.

v. The three principles: The three principles are thusness, meditation upon and understanding of it, and extension of this understanding to all its workings. The three, taken from chapter to of the Dharma Flower Sutra, “The Dharma Teacher,” are respectively symbolized by the Tathagata’s room, which represents compassion; the Tathagata’s robe, which represents gentleness and forbearing; and the Tathagata’s throne, which represents the emptiness of all phenomena. These three principles guide the propagation of the Dharma Flower Sutra. Although they are three in name, they are none other than the One Vehicle Dharma, the supreme truth. The One Buddha Vehicle is replete with these three principles.

vi. His response: In stillness, without thought, the Buddha responds to every situation. Transcending time, he manifests everywhere at once. This is an inconceivably wondrous response. It is also like a bright mirror, clear and translucent, that reflects any number of images without discrimination. Without the least effort, it reflects whatever is there.

vii. His spiritual powers: All the spiritual powers that the Buddha applies in saving living beings accord with the One Vehicle teaching, without distinctions of inferiority and superiority.

viii. His teaching the Dharma: The Buddha can skillfully and perfectly explain all kinds of Dharma according to principle, inspiring all living beings to unfold, show, awaken to, and realize the knowledge and vision of the Buddhas.

ix. His retinue: The Buddha has a great retinue of faithful followers.

x. His benevolence: The Buddha benefits living beings by inspiring them to undertake various practices.

2. The ten wonders of the door of the original pertain to the second half of the Dharma Flower Sutra (chaps. 15-28). This section discusses the eternal, original Buddha. Through manifesting in various forms to save living beings, Śākyamuni Buddha reveals his origins in the distant past. The Buddha actually realized Buddhahood immeasurable, limitless billions of koṭis of nayutas of cons ago. Since then, the Buddha has always remained in the Sahā world, teaching the Dharma to transform living beings, as described in chapter 16, “The Tathagata’s Life Span,” and other chapters. While the first half of the sutra focuses on the Buddha’s expedient teaching of the Three Vehicles to unfold the One Buddha Vehicle, the second half reveals the Buddha’s distant origins through his various provisional manifestations.

The ten wonders of the second half of the Dharma Flower Sutra differ from those of the first set. They elucidate the subtleties of the Buddha’s eternal origins (“the original”), from which his provisional manifestations derive. These ten wonders are:

i. The formative stage of practice

ii. The fruition of awakening

iii. His (Buddha) land

iv. His response

v. His spiritual powers

vi. His teaching of the Dharma

vii. His retinue

viii. His nirvana

ix. His life span

x. His benevolence

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v3, p248