Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

We begin today with Śākyamuni reminding Śāriputra why it is that all Buddhas use expedients:

Did I not tell you, ‘The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, expound the Dharma with expedients, that is, with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, with various similes, and with various discourses only for the purpose of causing all living beings to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi’? All these teachings of the Buddhas are for the purpose of teaching Bodhisattvas.

Śākyamuni offers the parable of the burning house to explain the need for expedients. In previous readings I’ve focused on the children and their unwillingness to listen to warnings about the dangers in the house:

‘Come out quickly!’ [The father] warned them with these good words out of his compassion towards them, but they were too much engrossed in playing to hear the words of their father. They were not frightened or afraid. They did not wish to come out. They did not know what a fire was, what a house was, and what they would lose. They ran about happily. They only glanced at their father occasionally.

And so the expedient of bribing the children with toys saved the day. But today the more important aspect seemed to be why the Buddha needed to resort to expedient at all:

Śāriputra! The rich man did not save his children by his muscular power although he was strong enough. He saved them from the burning house with a skilful expedient and later gave them each a large cart of treasures.

In the same manner, I save all living beings from the burning house of the triple world, not by my powers or fearlessness, but with a skillful expedient. I expounded the teaching of the Three Vehicles: the Śrāvaka-Vehicle, Pratyekabuddha-Vehicle, and Buddha-Vehicle, as an expedient. I said, ‘Do not wish to live in the burning house of the triple world! Do not crave for inferior forms, sounds, smells, tastes or things tangible! If you cling to them and crave for them, you will be burned by them. Get out of the triple world quickly and obtain the teaching of the Three Vehicles: the Śrāvaka-Vehicle, Pratyekabuddha-Vehicle, and Buddha-Vehicle! I now assure you that you will never fail [to obtain those vehicles]. Exert yourselves, make efforts!’

With this expedient, I caused them to advance.

The children must make the effort. The father can’t save the children with his strength; Śākyamuni can’t save us with his supernatural powers. The children, in the end, must save themselves.

I led all living beings at first with the teaching of the Three Vehicles. Now I will save them by the Great Vehicle only. Why is that? It is because, if I had given them the teaching of the Great Vehicle at first directly from my store of the Dharma in which my immeasurable wisdom, powers and fearlessness are housed, they would not have received all of the Dharma. Śāriputra! Therefore, know this! The Buddhas divide the One Buddha-Vehicle into three by their power to employ expedients.

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable

Śāriputra needs no further explanation to understand. He feels like dancing for joy:

Today I have realized that I am your son, that I was born from your mouth, that I was born in [the world of] the Dharma, and that I have obtained the Dharma of the Buddha.

Śāriputra explains in gāthās his earlier puzzlement:

I once was attached to wrong views,
And became a teacher of the aspirants for the teaching of Brahman.
You expounded to me the teaching of Nirvāṇa,
And removed my wrong views because you understood me.
I gave up all those wrong views,
And attained the truth that nothing is substantial.

At that time I thought
That I had attained extinction.
But now I know
That the extinction I attained is not the true one.
When I become a Buddha in the future,
I shall be adorned with the thirty-two marks,
And respected
By gods, men, yakṣas, and dragons.
Only then I shall be able to say
That I have eliminated all [illusions].

In the midst of the great multitude,
You said to me, “You will become a Buddha.”
Hearing this truthful voice,
All my doubts are gone.

But Śākyamuni explains that Śāriputra had simply forgotten his past lessons:

Śāriputra! I caused you to aspire for the enlightenment of the Buddha in your previous existence. You forgot all this, and thought that you had already attained extinction. In order to cause you to remember the Way you practiced under your original vow, I now expound to the Śrāvakas this sūtra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’

This time around I’ll ignore the heavenly garments whirling in the sky and the gods, sans garments, dancing about and instead focus on the message of the gods:

The Buddha turned the wheel of the teaching of the Four Truths
At Vārāṇasī a long time ago.
He taught that all things are composed of the five aggregates
And that they are subject to rise and extinction.

Now he turns the wheel of the Dharma,
The most wonderful, unsurpassed, and greatest.
The Dharma is profound.
Few believe it.
So far we have heard
Many teachings of the World-Honored One.
But we have never heard
Such a profound, wonderful, and excellent teaching as this.
We are very glad to hear this
From the World-Honored One.

Śāriputra, a man of great wisdom,
Was assured of his future Buddhahood.
We also shall be able
To become Buddhas,
And to receive
The highest and unsurpassed honor in the world.

The Buddha expounds his enlightenment, difficult to understand,
With expedients according to the capacities of all living beings.
We obtained merits by the good karmas which we did
In this life of ours and in our previous existence.
We also obtained merits by seeing the Buddha.
May we attain the enlightenment of the Buddha by these merits!

Day 4 completes Chapter 2, Expedients, and closes the first volume of the Lotus Sutra.

Today is the gāthās of the chapter and in it we get a better understanding of why the 5,000 people walked out when Śākyamuni agreed to expound the Dharma:

Some bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs
Were arrogant.
Some upāsakas were self-conceited.
Some upāsikās were unfaithful.
Those four kinds of devotees
Were five thousand in number.

They could not see their own faults.
They could not observe all the precepts.
They were reluctant to heal their own wounds.
Those people of little wisdom are gone.
They were the dregs of this congregation.
They were driven away by my powers and virtues.

They had too few merits and virtues
To receive the Dharma.
Now there are only sincere people here.
All twigs and leaves are gone.

Their loss:

Any Śrāvaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gāthā
Of this sūtra which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.

Śākyamuni explains that there is only One Vehicle anywhere “except when the Buddhas teach expediently.” Were he to withhold the Great Vehicle “I shall be accused of stinginess.”

Know this, Śāriputra!
I once vowed that I would cause
All living beings to become
Exactly as I am.

That old vow of mine
Has now been fulfilled.
I lead all living beings
Into the Way to Buddhahood.

And while it may be true that:

The Buddhas, the Most Honorable Bipeds,
Expound the One Vehicle because they know:
“All things are devoid of substantiality.
The seed of Buddhahood comes from dependent origination.”

Knowing “the natures and desires of all living beings” means knowing when expedients are needed:

Seeing with the eyes of the Buddha
The living beings of the six regions, I thought:
“They are poor, and devoid of merits and wisdom.
They incessantly suffer because they are taken
To the rough road of birth and death.
They cling to the five desires
Just as a yak loves its tail.

They are occupied with greed and cravings,
And blinded by them.
They do not seek the Buddha who has great power.
They do not seek the Way to eliminate sufferings.
They are deeply attached to wrong views.
They are trying to stop suffering by suffering.”

I realize this is getting long. Again, I could just copy and paste and be done with it. But every day I practice before a Mandala Gohonzon that includes gods and heavenly kings and it’s interesting or inspiring or something to understand their role.

I for the first time sat at the place of enlightenment[,]
[And attained enlightenment].
For three weeks afterwards,
I gazed on the tree,
Or walked about, thinking:
“The wisdom I obtained is
The most wonderful and excellent.
The living beings [of the six regions]
Are dull, attached to pleasures,
And blinded by stupidity.
How shall I save them?”

On that occasion King Brahman,
Heavenly-King Śakra,
The four heavenly world-guardian kings,
Great-Freedom God, and other gods [of each world],
And thousands of millions of their attendants
Joined their hands together [towards me] respectfully,
Bowed to me,
And asked me to turn the wheel of the Dharma.

Śākyamuni chose the path of past Buddhas and divided the One Vehicle into three but that only goes so far:

Śāriputra, know this!
Then I saw many sons of mine,
Thousands of billions in number,
Seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha.
They came to me respectfully.
They had already heard
Expedient teachings
From the past Buddhas.

I thought:
“I appeared in this world
In order to expound my wisdom.
Now is the time to do this.”

Śāriputra, know this!
Men of dull capacity and of little wisdom cannot believe the Dharma.
Those who are attached to the appearances of things are arrogant.
They cannot believe it, either.

I am now joyful and fearless.
I have laid aside all expedient teachings.
I will expound only unsurpassed enlightenment
To Bodhisattvas.

And underlining for emphasis:

Śāriputra, other Śrāvakas, and Bodhisattvas!
Know this!
This Wonderful Dharma is
The hidden core of the Buddhas.

Day 3 opens Chapter 2, Expedients.

I want to copy and paste the entire day’s reading here. Instead I continue my meager efforts to distill what I’ve read.

The wisdom of the [present] Buddhas is profound and immeasurable. The gate to it is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. [Their wisdom] cannot be understood by any Śrāvaka or Pratyekabuddha because the [present] Buddhas attended on many hundreds of thousands of billions of [past] Buddhas, and practiced the innumerable teachings of those Buddhas bravely and strenuously to their far-flung fame until they attained the profound Dharma which you have never heard before, [and became Buddhas,] and also because [since they became Buddhas] they have been expounding the Dharma according to the capacities of all living beings in such various ways that the true purpose of their [various] teachings is difficult to understand.

I do hear the Buddha’s voice:

The Tathāgatas divide [the Dharma] into various teachings, and expound those teachings to all living beings so skillfully and with such gentle voices that living beings are delighted.

It is delightful. No purely intellectual study can fathom this; only faith can reveal it:

The Dharma cannot be shown.
It is inexplicable by words.
No one can understand it
Except the Buddhas
And the Bodhisattvas
Who are strong in the power of faith.

Hence Śāriputra’s confusion:

“World-Honored One! Why do you extol so enthusiastically [what you call] the highest [Truth, and the power of the Buddhas to employ] expedients? [Why do you extol] the Dharma which [you say] is profound, wonderful, and difficult to understand? I have never heard you say all this before. The four kinds of devotees also have the same doubts. World-Honored One! Explain all this! Why do you extol so enthusiastically the Dharma which [you say] is profound, wonderful, and difficult to understand?”

It takes three requests by Śāriputra to demonstrate enough enthusiasm to overcome the Buddha’s concern:

“No. If I do, all the gods, men and asuras in the world will be frightened and perplexed, and arrogant bhikṣus will fall into a great pit.”

And when he finally agrees to expound the Dharma 5,000 among the four types of believers – bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and upāsikās – up and left.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Śāriputra: “Now this congregation has been cleared of twigs and leaves, only sincere people being left. Śāriputra! Those arrogant people may go. Now listen to me attentively! I will expound [the Dharma] to you.”

It is because the Dharma cannot be understood by reasoning that “various teachings with innumerable expedients” are used. But there is still only goal:

“Śāriputra! What is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds? The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Śāriputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.”

Don’t confuse the expedients necessary to reach people of various capacities with the Dharma:

“Śāriputra! I also expound various teachings to all living beings only for the purpose of revealing the One Buddha-Vehicle. There is no other vehicle, not a second or a third.”

And again:

“Śāriputra! All the Buddhas in the past expounded various teachings to all living beings with innumerable expedients, that is to say, with stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses, only for the purpose of revealing the One Buddha-Vehicle. The living beings who heard those teachings from those Buddhas finally obtained the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.”

Buddhas in the future will do the same just as they do in the present.

“Śāriputra! So do I. I know that all living beings have various desires. I also know that they have attachments deep in their minds. Therefore, I expound various teachings to them with stories of previous lives, parables, similes and discourses, that is to say, with various expedients according to their natures.

“Śāriputra! I do all this for the purpose of causing them to realize the teaching of the One Buddha-Vehicle, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things. Śāriputra! There is not a second vehicle in the worlds of the ten quarters. How can there be a third?”

This can’t be rationalized and intellectually examined:

“Śāriputra and all of you present here! Understand the Dharma by faith with all your hearts! There is no vehicle other than the One Buddha-Vehicle.”