Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping This Sūtra, is most often discussed in the context of the hardships the expounder of the Lotus Sutra must expect after the death of the Buddha. But for me, what stands out is the silence of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas’ reaction.
Let’s start following the predictions for Mahā-Prajāpatī Bhikṣunī, Yaśodharā Bhikṣunī and their attendants:
“Thereupon the World-Honored One looked at the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. These Bodhisattvas had already reached the stage of avaivartika, turned the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma, and obtained dhārāṇis. They rose from their seats, came to the Buddha, joined their hands together towards him with all their hearts, and thought, ‘If the World-Honored One commands us to keep and expound this sūtra, we will expound the Dharma just as the Buddha teaches.’
“They also thought, ‘The Buddha keeps silence. He does not command us. What shall we do?’ ”
“In order to follow the wish of the Buddha respectfully, and also to fulfill their original vow, they vowed to the Buddha with a loud voice like the roar of a lion:
“ ‘World-Honored One! After your extinction, we will go to any place [not only of this Sahā-World but also] of the worlds of the ten quarters, as often as required, and cause all living beings to copy, keep, read and recite this sūtra, to expound the meanings of it, to act according to the Dharma, and to memorize this sūtra correctly. We shall be able to do all this only by your powers. World-Honored One! Protect us from afar even when you are in another world!’ ”
As the Introduction of the Lotus Sutra offers, “ ‘Encouragement for Keeping This Sutra’ means encouraging people to uphold it in spite of certain difficulties. It also implies effort and patience.”
For me there is no more powerful demonstration of faith than upholding the Lotus Sutra in the absence of encouragement. The effort and patience needed to act are two of six perfections all Bodhisattvas must master.
In The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Gene Reeves explains the meaning of “upholding” the Sutra.
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p174-175“Usually, when translating it in the Dharma Flower Sutra, I have used the term “embrace.” It occurs in several combinations that are important in the Sutra, especially (in Japanese pronunciation) as juji, “receive and embrace”; buji, “honor and embrace”; goji, “protect and embrace”; and jisetsu, “embrace and explain”; and there are many others. I like to use “embrace” because, for the Dharma Flower Sutra, what is involved is not a matter either of storage or of defending, but of following or adhering to the teachings of the Sutra by embodying them in one’s life.
“But in Chapter 13, what is of most direct concern is propagating the Sutra in the face of great difficulties, spreading its teachings to others despite many obstacles, leading others to embrace it. So here, in the title of Chapter 13, it seems fitting to think of being encouraged to ‘uphold’ the Sutra.
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