I feel it somehow fitting to begin this extended cycle through the Lotus Sutra with Nikkyō Niwano’s conclusion of his commentary on the Lotus Sutra in his book, Buddhism For Today: A Modern Interpretation of the threefold Lotus Sutra.
Buddhism for Today, p460When you have read through the entire Threefold Lotus Sutra and have examined yourself in the light of its teachings, you may find that the actual state of your mind is so imperfect as to seem hopeless, and you may feel at a loss as to what to do. I was told that someone confessed that he found it hard to approach the Lotus Sutra again after having read it because of its extreme profundity. I can understand why he felt cowed by the profundity of the sutra. I suspect, however, that he had not read the sutra deeply enough, and that if he had read it repeatedly, he would have come to regard it as the teaching capable of leading all of us directly to salvation. We should start our practice from even one teaching in the Lotus Sutra and from even the smallest act in our daily lives. The sutra itself exhorts us not to think that its teachings are beyond our capacities.
There is an appropriate story in the Sutra of a Hundred Parables (Hyakuyu-kyō) … . Once there was a very stupid man. As he was parched with thirst, he roamed here and there looking for water. While walking about, he luckily arrived at the shore of the Sindh River. For some reason, however, he just stood on the riverbank instead of drinking. A friend nearby wondered at his behavior and asked him, “Why don’t you drink the water in the river?” The man answered, “I am dying for a drink! But the river has so much water that I cannot possibly drink it all. So I am hesitating as to whether I should drink or not.”
I sincerely hope that no one will harbor such a foolish idea toward the teaching of the Threefold Lotus Sutra.
The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings list 10 benefits of progressively more impressive stature for those who read or hear the sutra, but the first benefit, when one is just introduced to the sutra, is its most profound:
(Reeves, p42)The Buddha said: “Good sons, first, this sutra leads a not-yet-awakened bodhisattva to aspire to awakening, leads one without human kindness to aspire to kindness, leads one with a murderous heart to aspire to great compassion, leads one who is jealous to aspire to respond with joy, leads one with attachments to aspire to impartiality, leads one who is greedy to aspire to generosity, leads one who is full of arrogance to aspire to be moral, leads one who is angry to aspire to patience, leads one who is lazy to aspire to perseverance, leads one who is distracted to aspire to meditation, leads one who is ignorant to aspire to wisdom, leads one who lacks concern for saving others to aspire to saving others, leads one who commits the ten evils to aspire to do ten good things, leads one who is willful to aspire to let things be, leads one who is prone to backsliding to aspire to never retreat, leads one who commits faulty acts to aspire to being faultless, and leads one who suffers from afflictions to aspire to detachment. Good sons, this is called the first amazing power of blessing of this sutra.”