For me, one of the best parts of Master Hsuan Hua’s commentaries is the inclusion of basic stories of Buddhism. The story of The King of Kalinga appeared both in the Hsuan Hua’s commentary on the Vajra Sutra and his Lotus Sutra commentary. I published the Vajra Sutra version earlier because I felt it was more complete. Below is Hsuan Hua’s story of The Deer Park.

Once, there were two deer kings living in the park. One deer king was a former incarnation of Śākyamuni Buddha, many lifetimes and many eons ago. He was the compassionate deer king. The other deer king was a former incarnation of Devadatta. At that time there was a king who went to the Deer Park to hunt. On every expedition, he brought many people with him, and they killed many deer.

So many deer were killed that they were on the verge of becoming extinct. The two deer kings had a meeting and decided that the deer king who was to become Sakyamuni Buddha would go present a petition to the hunting king, begging him for mercy. “What kind of petition shall we present?” asked the other deer king.

The compassionate deer king, the former incarnation of Śākyamuni Buddha, replied, “We shall tell the king of the country that every day we will send him two deer for his food. Then our herds will not become extinct, and he will have fresh venison daily. I am sure the king will agree to this. If he does not, pretty soon we will all be dead, and he will not have any deer meat at all. Besides, he cannot possibly eat that much meat. I suspect he lets most of it rot.”

The deer king Devadatta said, “Okay, let’s go appeal to him!”

The two of them went to the palace to present their petition. When they arrived at the gate, they met the palace guard, who immediately drew his sword to kill them. “Don’t kill us!” the two deer cried. “We have come today for an audience with the king. We want to present him with a petition.”

The guard was quite taken aback. “Weird,” he said. “Talking deer!” and he ran to see the king. He said, “For heaven’s sake, two talking deer have come to see you.”

The king raised an eyebrow and looked at the guard, “Talking deer? Oh yes, well tell them to come in, and we will see what kind of strange creatures they are.”

The two deer came in and said to the king, “You’ve been hunting our herds, Your Majesty, and many of our deer have been killed. You cannot possibly eat that much meat every day, can you? If you keep it up, we will disappear altogether, and you will not have any meat to eat. So we have a petition to present to you. Every day we will send you two deer to eat. Then you will not have to go hunting, but you will have meat to eat every day. If you continue to kill us at the rate you have been, you will wipe us out.” Keep in mind, at that time there were no refrigerators.

The king was surprised to hear deer talking like people. Hearing their request, he found it reasonable and agreed. “Every day you can send us two deer,” he said. And that is just what they did. This way, the king was able to eat fresh, tasty venison every day.

One day the deer king who was to become Śākyamuni Buddha appeared at the palace gate to offer himself for the king to eat. The king recognized the deer and said, “You are the king of one of the herds. How can you offer yourself? Have all the other deer in your herd been eaten?”

Śākyamuni, the deer king, replied, “Not only are there still deer in our herds, but their numbers are increasing daily. We two deer kings each watch over five hundred deer. Of the five hundred, only one goes each day as an offering to Your Majesty. Many fawns are born every day. Now our herds have doubled and redoubled. But now, for a special reason, I myself have come as your daily offering.”

“What reason?” asked the king.

“Today’s deer from my herd came with no problems, but in Devadatta’s herd there was an issue. The deer selected to be offered is pregnant. Her baby is due in a day or two, and she begged Devadatta to let her trade places with someone else, saying that once her baby is born she will gladly go to the king for food. But Devadatta would not hear of it. She came to me and asked me if a deer in my herd would trade with her. None of my deer wanted to go, of course. Hence, I volunteered myself and here I am.”

When the king heard this he thought, “How strange! Deer are living creatures, just like people. Why should I eat deer meat every day? They have feelings just like people do.” Then he recited the following verse:

You are like a person with a deer head,
While I am a deer with a human head.
From this day forward only vegetables I’ll eat;
I’ll never, ever eat another living being’s meat.

“You have the head of a deer,” the king said, “but your heart is extremely kind and compassionate. Your heart is kinder than that of most human beings. I may have a person’s head, but my heart is not as good as yours. From this day forward, I will not eat meat.”

Because of this experience, the king was moved to become a vegetarian. This story explains why that park was named the Deer Park.

I keep track of traffic to this website. I do it just for curiosity; there’s no financial incentive to gather in more eyeballs. I suppose I take a certain pride that somewhere between 30 and 50 unique visitors read what I’ve posted here each day. I remember when that average was 10 unique visitors. The five top draws according to recent statistics were:

Top content over the last 28 days

The popularity of the main landing page is understandable, as is the The Basic Nichiren Shu Service. The fact that Average Time on Page for this site runs more than three minutes is a reflection of the number of people who use this site for their daily practice. A woman who travels a lot for her job thanked me for making this available. Less obvious are Nichiren’s letter about Devadatta and Nikkyō Niwano’s explanation of the 10 Epithets of the Buddha from his Buddhism for Today.

For those who come for the 10 Epithets of the Buddha, I offer Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation from his commentary on the Lotus Sutra.

What does Tathagata mean? It’s given the following interpretation: “By following the true Path, one attains perfect awakening.” One moves forward on the true, down-to-earth path, the path that truly leads to Buddhahood. The path to Buddhahood is real, not an illusion. Moving forward on this true path, one attains the perfect awakening and becomes a Buddha. This is one way to explain it.

The best explanation of the term Tathagata, however, is found in the Vajra Sutra, which says that “The Tathagata does not come from anywhere, nor does he go anywhere. That is why he is called the Tathagata.” He doesn’t come from anywhere, but does he go anywhere? He goes nowhere as well. So he is known as the Tathagata or Thus Come One. Tatha [“thus”] represents stillness. Agata [“come”] represents movement. Movement does not obstruct stillness, and stillness does not obstruct movement. Movement itself is stillness, and stillness itself is movement. Movement and stillness are one.

Why is movement itself stillness and stillness itself movement? Why is there movement? Movement appears in contrast to stillness. Why is there stillness? Stillness appears in contrast to movement. Stillness is produced from movement; movement comes from stillness. This is why movement and stillness are one; they’re dual yet nondual. Even though they’re dual, they’re actually one. They’re like water and ice. Water is ice, and ice is water. The principle is the same. Therefore, movement does not obstruct stillness, and stillness does not obstruct movement. Stillness at its extreme becomes movement, and movement at its extreme becomes stillness.

We human beings move around during the day and remain still at night. However, while in stillness there is movement, and in movement there is stillness. During the day, people are generally on the move, but some may choose to sleep. Sleeping is stillness, and waking is movement. At night, most people sleep, but some don’t. That’s movement. Tathagata is the first of the ten titles of the Buddha.

One Worthy of Offerings

Living beings, for their part, should make offerings to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha, for his part, is worthy of receiving offerings from gods and humans. It is said,

To every supplication, there will be a response.
No entreaty will be left unanswered.

What is meant by “To every supplication, there will be a response”? Making offerings is a form of supplication. For example, those who make offerings to the Three Jewels hope to receive blessings and wisdom. Those who seek blessings and wisdom may make offerings to the Three Jewels.

One of Right and Universal Knowledge

Right knowledge refers to the understanding that the mind gives rise to the myriad phenomena; universal knowledge refers to the understanding that the myriad phenomena arise from the mind. It is said,

The Buddha taught all Dharmas in response to the minds of living beings.
In the absence of minds, what use would Dharmas be?

One of Perfect Clarity and Conduct

“Clarity” refers to the Buddha’s brilliance–that is, his wisdom. “Conduct” refers to the strength of his cultivation. Because the Buddha is perfect in both wisdom and cultivation, he is One of Perfect Clarity and Conduct.

Sugata, Knower of the World

Sugata is translated as “one who goes well,” meaning that the Buddha has gone to a good place. As Knower of the World, he understands everything in the world. There is no phenomenon, be It mundane or transcendent, that he doesn’t understand.

Unsurpassed One

Only a Buddha can be called the Unsurpassed One; other living beings cannot. Bodhisattvas are called Great Ones and are also known as Surpassed Ones. Buddhas are Unsurpassed Ones, for no one is above them.

Subduing and Regulating Hero

To subdue and regulate is akin to driving a car in a certain direction. To drive a car, you have to turn the steering wheel. Driving is similar to subduing and regulating. In northern China they have horse chariots that are driven by people. The driver cracks the whip, and the horse moves forward. To subdue and regulate is also similar to driving a horse cart. The Buddha is a great hero who subdues and regulates those in the three realms: the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the realm of the formless.

Teacher of Gods and Humans

The Buddha is a teacher of both the beings in the heavens and the people on earth.

Buddha

The Buddha has perfected all three kinds of awakening: self-awakening, the awakening of others, and the perfection of self-awakening and of practices. It is said,

Having perfected the three kinds of awakening and accomplished the myriad virtues,
one is called a Buddha.

World Honored One

The Buddha is honored both in the world and beyond.

In Volume 6, which covers Chapters 5, 6 and 7, Hsuan Hua expands on what Buddha means in discussing the 10 epithets in  his commentary on Chapter 6, Conferring Predictions.

9. Buddha.

What is a Buddha? Those who have heard the Dharma before will understand what Buddha means. Those who have not heard the Dharma will not know it. The Buddha is just a person, and a person is a Buddha. On the other hand, the Buddha is a Buddha and people are just people. We cannot assume that since the Buddha is a person, people are also Buddhas. The Buddha is a person who cultivated and then became a Buddha. How about people? If people cultivate, they can become Buddhas: if they do not cultivate, they cannot. Therefore, it is also said that the Buddha is a living being and that living beings are Buddhas. The Buddha is a living being who cultivated to become a Buddha, so living beings have to cultivate to become Buddhas. You cannot fail to cultivate yet claim to be a Buddha. That’s impossible! Even though the Buddha is a living being, he also has to cultivate. If, in the beginning, the Buddha had not cultivated, he would not have become a Buddha either.

Buddhahood is realized through cultivation, but how do you cultivate? You must first awaken yourself rather than demanding that others awaken. As the saying goes,

Awakened, one is a Buddha;
Confused, one is a living being

When you awaken, you are a Buddha among living beings. When you are confused, you are a living being who has not realized your Buddha nature. The only difference between the two is that one is confused and the other is awake. To awaken is to truly understand.

Those who are self-awakened are distinguished from ordinary people, who have not awakened. Not awakened to what?

They have not awakened to their own faults and offenses; they have not awakened to the fact that they have created so much karma. Luckily, the karma we have created has no physical form. Though empty space is truly vast, if our karma had shape and form, it would surely fill up the whole of space and break it open. But because karma doesn’t have a physical form, we don’t have to worry about storing it anywhere.

Nevertheless, it never leaves you; it follows you everywhere and all the time. Unawakened, you are an ordinary person. Self-awakened, you are no longer the same as ordinary people.

Your own awakening, however, does not have any merit; you still have to create merit. How do you do that? By awakening yourself and awakening others. You should think, “Having awakened myself, I will use the same methods and principles to awaken all living beings, so that everyone will attain awakening.” To awaken others is to walk the Bodhisattva Path, which distinguishes one from those of the Two Vehicles. Even though you are self-awakened and have awakened others, you’re awakening and practice has not yet reached perfection. To perfect your own awakening and the awakening of others is the perfection of awakening and of practices. There are three kinds of perfection in awakening-the perfection of self-awakening, the perfection of bringing others to awakening, and the perfection of awakening and of practices. When you perfect the three kinds of awakening and accomplish the myriad virtues, you will be called a Buddha.

As mentioned yesterday, Master Hsuan Hua did not see the Lotus Sutra as the ultimate teaching of Śākyamuni, as Zhiyi or Nichiren did. But while Hsuan Hua saw the Avataṃsaka Sutra – Flower Garland Sutra – as the king, he still warned people not to disparage the Lotus Sutra. Here’s a sampling from his commentary on Chapter 3, A Parable.

Those who don’t believe this sūtra / And who disparage it / Will destroy their disposition / For Buddhahood in this world. If people do not have faith in the Dharma Flower Sūtra and denounce it, they disconnect from their potential for realizing Buddhahood in this world. Destroying one’s disposition for Buddhahood is very serious; the karmic offenses of someone who does this are extremely grave. If one cuts off one’s disposition for Buddhahood, the potential for the hells comes forth. When the potential for the hells comes forth, one might fall into the hells. Why did I lecture on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra before lecturing on the Dharma Flower Sūtra? The Śūraṅgama Sūtra is not as strict on this point. So, whatever you do, be sure not to criticize the Dharma Flower Sūtra.

SŪTRA

O Śāriputra! This Dharma seal of mine
Is spoken because I wish
To benefit the world.
Wherever you go,
Do not proclaim it carelessly.

COMMENTARY

O Śāriputra! Although Śākyamuni Buddha was speaking directly to Śāriputra, he was also speaking to you, to me, and to all living beings of the present. In speaking to Śāriputra, he was also speaking to all Buddhists and Dharma masters who propagate the Buddhadharma by expounding the sūtras and teaching the Dharma.

This Dharma seal of mine / Is spoken because I wish / To benefit the world. The Buddha uses the Dharma seal of ultimate reality to certify that all living beings have the potential to realize Buddhahood. This Dharma seal is the most honorable and noble. It is not something to be used casually. The Buddha is speaking it now because he wants to benefit all living beings. What is meant by “benefit”? It refers to benefiting oneself as well as others. This Dharma seal is used to help all living beings. There are three worlds – the sentient world, the material world, and the world of perfect awakening. To “benefit the world” refers to benefiting the sentient world. The Buddha teaches the Dharma Flower Sūtra to benefit the sentient world.

Wherever you go, / Do not proclaim it carelessly. This Dharma is venerable and noble. You should not propagate it casually. Wherever you go, be sure not to criticize the Dharma Flower Sūtra casually. If you explain the Dharma to those who are not ready to hear it, they will disparage it. Then not only will you have failed to save them, you will have caused them to fall into the hells. Why should you not carelessly speak the sūtra? People might fall into the lower destinies because of you. Upon hearing this sūtra, most people will criticize it. They might say things like, “How can this be? How can it be that, without accruing any merit, we can still become Buddhas? That is just too good to be true. People are just people. How can they become Buddhas? The sūtras mislead people.” Those who utter a single sentence of criticism, such as “The sūtras mislead people,” will fall into the hell of incessant suffering. This principle will be discussed in more detail later in the sūtra. It is out of fear that people might criticize the sūtra and fall into the hells that the Buddha warned Śāriputra not to teach the sūtra casually. You can only explain the Dharma Flower Sūtra to those with the disposition for the Great Vehicle, who will bring forth faith upon hearing this text.

Some of you may be thinking, “[people failing into hell for slandering the Lotus Sūtra] is all the Buddha’s fault. If he had not taught the Dharma Flower Sūtra, nobody would fall into the hells. He taught the Dharma Flower Sūtra, and as a result, many people have fallen into the hells. Why? They criticized the Dharma Flower Sūtra. If the Buddha had never taught the Dharma Flower Sūtra, it would be impossible to criticize it. If no one criticized it, no one would fall into the hells. So in the end, it more or less amounts to Śākyamuni Buddha sending people to the hells.”

Do you think this argument is sound? Think about it and make your own judgment. This person argued no one would fall into the hells if Śākyamuni Buddha had not taught the Dharma Flower Sūtra, but because he did, many people have gone to the hells. The argument should not be one-sided. This person seems to be arguing in favor of living beings and against Śākyamuni Buddha. If you develop an argument from the perspective of living beings, you should also do that for Śākyamuni Buddha. I now present an argument from Śākyamuni Buddha’s side.

You may say that if Śākyamuni Buddha had not taught the Dharma Flower Sutra, no one would have fallen into the hells. But if Śākyamuni Buddha had not taught the Dharma Flower Sūtra, no one would have become a Buddha either. If someone falls into the hells, you cannot blame the Buddha, because he was very clear in saying that criticizing the sūtra is a grave offense. Since you already know that it is an offense, you should not criticize the sūtra. If you do not criticize the sūtra, you will not increase your risk of falling into the hells.

But if you insist on going ahead and criticizing this sūtra even more just to spite the Buddha, you will fall even deeper into the hells. There is not the slightest doubt about this. Śākyamuni Buddha warned us that whoever disparages the Dharma Flower Sutra will fall into the hells or turn into a hungry ghost or an animal and suffer in the three lower realms for countless eons. So why would you want to disparage the Dharma Flower Sūtra? If you do, you are deliberately pitting yourself against the Buddha. If nobody disparages it, nobody will fall into the hells. Therefore, you cannot say that people fall into the hells because the Buddha taught the Dharma Flower Sūtra.

Since Śākyamuni Buddha taught the Dharma Flower Sutra, just think of how many people it has inspired or will inspire to bring forth the bodhi resolve and attain Buddhahood in the future. More living beings will become Buddhas than will fall into the hells. I think those who will fall into the hells must be extremely ignorant, for they don’t believe anything at all. They know very well that Śākyamuni Buddha said that it is an offense to criticize the Dharma Flower Sūtra, yet they will do so. Who can save living beings like that? Actually, there is someone. Who is that? It’s Earth Store Bodhisattva. The Earth Store Sūtra describes how he saves this type of living being from the hells. When they have fallen into the hells and suffered enough to learn their lesson, Earth Store Bodhisattva will go down into the hells to teach the dharma to them. At that time they will finally understand. Their karmic offenses will be eradicated, and they will be reborn in the heavens or among human beings. Therefore, don’t worry about the people who criticize the sūtra and fall into the hells. Just select a good path for yourself and go forward. Do not worry about offenders or be upset about those in the hells.

People who study the Buddhadharma are supposed to take care of themselves and not mind other people’s business. There is a saying:

Others’ wrongs, others’ obsessions,
Are their bad karma and their transgressions.

Therefore, do not buy stock in someone else’s unwholesome “company” and become a shareholder. If you know they are not making money, then why do you still want to take a loss? Why insist on doing business in the red? If you see other people getting afflicted, you should stop and think, “Oh, affliction is really no good. I should sever it.” Do not inspect other people’s clothes and say, “Hey! Your clothes are stained and dirty,” without realizing that your own clothes are even dirtier. Don’t wash others’ clothes for them and forget about washing your own. The vow goes, “Buddhahood is unsurpassed; I vow to realize it.” You should all cleanse your own minds and hearts. Sweep out all those deluded thoughts. Don’t allow them to race back and forth in your minds.

What is a deluded thought? Thoughts about anything that you dislike are deluded thoughts of affliction. Thoughts about what you like are deluded thoughts of happiness. All your thoughts are deluded thoughts. You are either liking something or disliking it. Liking is deluded thinking, and so is disliking. What is to be done? Just let it go! If you let it go, then there won’t be any more liking or disliking. That is the ultimate truth of the Middle Way. You will no longer give rise to afflictions or have any worries.