I’ve reached the final volume of Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra and the final chapter of the sutra. Still don’t have any idea what I’m going to do with the material I set aside, but the year-long journey has been entertaining.
While I’ve learned a lot from Hsuan Hua’s commentary, my self-exploration has had some interesting results. The best example of this happened the other day when I was reading his explanation of the Dharma Ages.
The first five hundred years [after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa] are [part of] the Proper Dharma Age, during which people are determined to attain liberation and many achieve it. During the second five-hundred-year period, people focus on meditative concentration practices. What happens in the third five-hundred-year period? People focus on building stūpas and monasteries. This is the Semblance Dharma Age. During the fourth five-hundred-year period, people have a strong desire for knowledge. They learn many sūtras, but they’re not interested in cultivation. They think that comprehension is enough, so they don’t practice what they learn; in this way, they’re just like Ānanda.
Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v14, ch28, p98-99
Just like Ānanda? That seemed harsh. In Chapter 9 of the Lotus Sutra a bunch of newbie Bodhisattvas whine about the prophecy of Ānanda’s future Buddhahood. As the Buddha explains in Chapter 9:
“Good men! Ānanda and I resolved to aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi under the Void-King Buddha at the same time [in our previous existence]. At that time Ānanda always wished to hear much while I always practiced strenuously. Therefore, I have already attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi[, but he has not yet]. Now he protects my teachings. He also will protect the store of the teachings of future Buddhas, teach Bodhisattvas, and cause them to attain [Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi], according to his original vow. Therefore, now he has been assured of his future Buddhahood.”
That’s from Senchu Murano’s translation. As I explained in “Ānanda’s Vow”, all of the other translations of Kumarajiva’s Chinese version of the Lotus Sutra generally agreed that Ānanda was deficient in his application of what he learned. But not H. Kern. His translation of an 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit version of the Lotus Sutra offered a different view of why Ānanda had lagged behind. Kern’s translation says:
Young men of good family, I and Ānanda have in the same moment, the same instant conceived the idea of supreme and perfect enlightenment in the presence of the Tathāgata Dharmagahanābhyudgatarāja, the Arhat. At that period, young men of good family, he (Ānanda) constantly and assiduously applied himself to great learning, whereas I was applying myself to strenuous labor. Hence I sooner arrived at supreme and perfect enlightenment, whilst Ānanda Bhadra was the keeper of the law-treasure of the Lords Buddhas; that is to say, young men of good family, he made a vow to bring Bodhisattvas to full development.
Fulfilling a vow to bring others to enlightenment before he himself seeks it sounds a lot better than Hsuan Hua’s declaration that Ānanda just didn’t practice what he learned. This led me to ask Google’s Gemini AI to explain the criticism of Ānanda.
I’ve uploaded the full response from Gemini: The Treasurer of Dhamma and the Primacy of Realization. Since that article is more than 3,000 words, I uploaded the text to Google’s NotebookLM and asked it to create a Video Overview. For those subject to TL:DR, here’s a seven minute explanation.
While I have several complaints about the artwork the AI created to illustrate the talk, the video does a nice job of summarizing the issues surrounding the criticism of Ānanda.
