Category Archives: Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary

Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary

Using Śāriputra’s Failure to Explain the Meaning of Bodhisattva Mahāsattva

Back on June 18 I published Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation of why Śāriputra failed to become a bodhisattva. This came from volume 4 of Master Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra. In volume 8, while discussing the appearance of the jeweled stupa, Master Hsuan Hua retells Śāriputra story and adds details not included in the earlier telling.

I have explained Bodhisattva Mahāsattva many times. People who’ve come often to listen to the sūtra lectures all know what it means. I believe those who’ve never listened to the sūtra lectures won’t understand it if I don’t explain it in detail. So I’ll explain it again.

What is a Bodhisattva? Bodhi means “enlightenment.” Sattva means “sentient being.” A Bodhisattva enlightens all sentient beings; he is also an enlightened being among sentient beings. Mahāsattva means “great sentient being,” referring to a great Bodhisattva who is not only an enlightened one among living beings but also benefits himself and others while practicing the Bodhisattva Path.

Practicing the Bodhisattva Path is to benefit others and pay no attention to oneself. Bodhisattvas teach, transform, and rescue all living beings, enabling them to leave suffering and attain bliss. So they are called great Bodhisattvas. They’d be willing to give up their very lives for the sake of living beings. When practicing the Bodhisattva Path in past lives, Śākyamuni Buddha gave up his life over one thousand times. Even if living beings failed to respond to his teaching, he’d still give up his life to save them if necessary. This is practicing the Bodhisattva Path.

The Bodhisattva Path isn’t easy to practice. Do you all remember the story about Šariputra? Śāriputra resolved to practice the Bodhisattva Path because he heard the Buddha praising the Bodhisattva Path as the highest and most wonderful Path leading to Buddhahood. Because he wanted to realize Buddhahood quickly, Śāriputra made the resolve and practiced the Bodhisattva Path. He was the most intelligent of all the Buddha’s Śrāvaka disciples and had a very good memory. Having heard just how fine it is to practice the Bodhisattva Path, Śāriputra vowed to practice it.

Having vowed to practice the Bodhisattva Path, Śāriputra was walking down the road when he thought, “I’ll do what I need to do, no matter how difficult it is. I’ll definitely practice the Bodhisattva Path. Just as Śākyamuni Buddha gave his life, I’ll give whatever it is that someone asks of me, even my life.” Just then, while Śāriputra was walking down the road, he saw someone walking along and crying.

“Why is this man sobbing while he’s walking? How strange! This man must be experiencing some difficulty. I’ll ask him how I can help him resolve his problem, since I’m practicing the Bodhisattva Path.”

So Śāriputra asked him, “Why are you crying, sir?”

“Oh, I have a problem so difficult that no one can help me.”

“Don’t be so sure! I can help you! Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Can you really help me? I believe you’ll refuse to help me. It would be useless to tell you about it.”

“I’m willing to help you regardless of how difficult the situation may be.”

So the man told Śāriputra, “My mother has an incurable disease. The physician said that my mother needs a human eye to treat her illness. I went to the herbal medicine shop for a human eye, but they didn’t have any. Since I couldn’t purchase an eye, my mother’s condition won’t improve.”

Śāriputra said, “Don’t worry! You just need one eye? I’ll give you my eye!” He took a knife and gouged out one of his eyes for the man. Then he handed the man his right eye and said, “Now take it back for your mother to eat.”

The man picked it up and looked at it, saying, “Ugh! I don’t want the right eye but the left. This eye is useless. It stinks!” He threw it on the ground and squashed it with his foot.

Śāriputra said, “Gosh, it sure is difficult to practice the Bodhisattva Path! Okay, I’m not going to practice the Bodhisattva Path anymore.” And he went to cultivate the Lesser Vehicle Dharma.

Look! Even a person as intelligent as Śāriputra couldn’t cultivate the Bodhisattva Path. When Śāriputra said that he couldn’t practice the Bodhisattva Path anymore, the man soared into the air immediately. He was actually a god who had come to test Śāriputra. The eye that he’d just gouged out was back in his head as if nothing had happened. He felt as if he’d been dreaming. “How is my eye back? Didn’t I gouge it out?” This was actually a state that Śāriputra had not recognized; therefore, he couldn’t practice the Bodhisattva Path. It proved to be too much for him. When you practice the Bodhisattva Path, take care not to be like Śāriputra.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v8, p29-31
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary

Help Others Instead of Yourself

In Nichiren Buddhism, we are told that practice and learning are required to keep Buddhism alive. (See this post.) But Chinese Master Hsuan Hua offers a different perspective: Help others instead of yourself.

We are all gathered here to investigate the Buddhadharma, and we should put into practice all that we know, no matter how little it may be. If you fail to apply what you know, then it would be better if you didn’t know it at all. Before learning any Buddhadharma, you cannot put it into practice, as you are unaware of it. However, once you have learned the Buddhadharma, you should cultivate the teachings in a serious, down-to-earth manner. You should walk solidly on the ground, leaving a footprint with every step you take. This is how pragmatic you should be as you advance in your cultivation.

Benefiting others is of utmost importance in cultivation. Help others instead of yourself. Forget about yourself. Cultivation is about helping others selflessly in all that you do. What are the most crucial aspects of cultivation? Do not be jealous, obstructive, or afflicted. You must end afflictions. If you do not end afflictions, you will not be able to end birth and death. You can end afflictions by transforming them into bodhi. Having transformed them into bodhi, you will always be wise, leaving ignorance behind. If you are afflicted, you will always be ignorant, never gaining wisdom. Do not get afflicted over trivial matters. Do not be jealous or obstructive. This is very important. So, just as we study the Buddhadharma every day, we must put it into practice every day. As the saying goes,

Words spoken wonderfully, words spoken well,
If not put into practice, are not the Path.

No matter how eloquent and wonderful your words are, if you do not cultivate honestly and diligently, you will never attain the Path. There are a few people here who are about to become awakened. All they have to do is to cultivate their resolve to benefit others and forget about themselves.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v6, p189-190
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary

Eight Consciousnesses

Below is an entry from the Glossary which is repeated in each of Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra. Again, another example of the value of these books.

Eight consciousnesses, Ch. 八識, ba shi.

The eightfold division of the mind taught by the Consciousness-Only School (Ch.唯識 weishi; Skt. Yogācāra).

This school describes the mind as a system of seven active consciousnesses (Skt. Vijñāna) that develop out of the eighth consciousness (Skt. Ālayavijñāna; Ch. Translit. 阿赖耶識 alaiye shi). The first five are the physical sense consciousnesses; the sixth is cognitive consciousness; and the seventh mediates between the first six and the eighth.

This eighth consciousness accounts for karmic continuity from life to life and during states of concentration in which the first seven cease. The eighth takes as its primary object the karmic impressions brought about by activity in the first six; because of this, it is often called the “storehouse consciousness” – that is, the metaphorical storehouse of karma. The seventh (Skt. Manas-vijñāna; Ch. Translit. 末那識 mona shi) takes the eighth as its primary object and mistakes it for a persistent self. The seventh is thus the origin of self-identity in the mind.

The seventh also transmits karmic impressions from the first six to the eighth; in doing so, it imbues them with a sense of self that is said to “defile” the eighth consciousness. When conditions arise for the ripening of karma “stored” in the eighth, karmic impressions pass once again through the seventh on their way to the six, where they give rise to various objects and circumstances of experience. On their way through the seventh, the karmic impressions again receive the imprint of self. This circular process – from sense impression to karmic impression and back, always mediated by the sense of self – is described as the “consciousness-only” nature of deluded experience. While the first seven consciousnesses are acquired at conception, relinquished at death, and may be inactive during states of deep concentration, the eighth continues indefinitely and without interruption until its transformation (along with the other seven) into wisdom by means of spiritual cultivation. The transformation of deluded consciousness into the omniscient wisdom of a Buddha is the project of Bodhisattva practice according to the Consciousness-Only School.

Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, LS32, LS45

The Cause of All Suffering

Following yesterday’s discussion of the Four Siddhānta, I’m offering a short discussion of greed and suffering from Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary on Chapter 3, A Parable.

The cause of all suffering / Can be traced to desire. Of all the factors that aggregate into suffering, greed is foremost. What is greed? It is insatiability. No matter how much one gets, one always wants more. Let’s say you start off with nothing, and you somehow acquire 100 dollars. Before you had 100 dollars, you were satisfied with the idea of acquiring that much money. But once you get that 100 dollars, you feel it is not enough.

“I need 1,000,” you think. But when you get 1,000, you still aren’t satisfied.

“I want to buy some clothes, a house, and some property. A thousand is simply not enough. If I had 10,000 dollars, I’d really be satisfied. In fact, I’d retire. I’d never work again or want anything else. That would be enough for me!”

But once you’ve gotten 10,000 dollars, the price of goods and supplies has inflated. For example, when I first arrived in San Francisco, the price of a box of tofu was two cents. But over time, there has been inflation, and a box of tofu is now much more expensive. Then you think, “I would like to retire, but I need 100,000 to pay all my expenses after retirement, so I can’t retire yet.” As a result, you greedily go after 100,000, but it’s still not enough. When you attain 100,000, your greed is entirely out of hand, and you dream of becoming a millionaire.

But before you get 1,000,000 dollars, impermanence befalls you and it is your time to die. As you die, you think, “I wanted 1,000,000, but I never did reach my goal. I’ll try again next life, for sure.” In your next life, you again work like a horse so you can leave money for your children. What benefits does greed bring? The text says, “The cause of all suffering / Can be traced to desire.” Greed always brings misery, for greed is the root of suffering.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v4, p455-456
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, LS32, LS45

Four Accomplishments

This is still another example of how Chinese Master Hsuan Hua weaves basic Buddhist teachings within his commentary on the Lotus Sutra. This comes from Chapter 7, The Parable of the Conjured City.

Looking at things from the perspective of the individuals being taught, we can consider the four siddhāntas. What is a siddhānta? Siddhānta is a Sanskrit word that means “accomplishment.” The four siddhāntas are:

  1. The worldly siddhānta. This refers to benefiting the world. Originally there was nothing, but something was created out of nothing, which brought delight to the beings who beheld it. The worldly siddhānta brings benefit to the world.
  2. The siddhānta for individuals. This benefits every individual by helping them attain repose and comprehension.
  3. The corrective siddhānta. This has the function of preventing misdeeds and guarding against enemies. It refers to corrective methods that benefit living beings by disciplining them.
  4. The siddhānta of the supreme truth. Eventually, living beings arrive at the state of ultimate nirvāṇa. In other words, they realize the supreme truth and obtain its benefits.

This explanation of the four siddhāntas is given according to the potentials of the individuals being taught. From the perspective of the Buddha’s response body, there are four more ways to explain the conjured city.

  1. The transformation of the world. The Buddha uses provisional and expedient Dharma so that living beings in the world will benefit from it. The conjured city is an example of this.
  2. The transformation of individuals. The Buddha teaches all living beings to undertake small acts of kindness.
  3. Transformation through correction. The Buddha teaches all living beings to get rid of the delusions arising from incorrect views and incorrect thoughts.
  4. Transformation according to the supreme truth. The Buddha teaches all living beings to attain the great fruition of the Great Vehicle – that is, to finally attain Buddhahood.
Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v6, p146-147
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary

Five Precepts

This is another example of how Chinese Master Hsuan Hua weaves basic Buddhist teachings within his commentary on the Lotus Sutra. This comes from Chapter 4, Faith and Understanding.

There are five precepts: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, and no taking intoxicants. Some people might say, “One should refrain from killing and stealing. Sexual misconduct is a little harder, but one should also refrain from it. Lying is no good, one should refrain from it. But what problem is there with drinking alcohol or taking intoxicants? Why include that in the precepts? The Buddha must have made a mistake when he set up the precepts. Drinking alcohol should not be prohibited.”

Do you think this reasoning is correct? It may seem to have some logic, but it is actually completely wrong. Alcohol confuses the mind. Once you drink, you might kill or steal, even though you normally would not have. You might have completely abstained from sexual misconduct; however, when you are drunk, your mind gets confused and your desires are inflamed. You might lie too. Before you are drunk, you are clear that you have taken the five precepts and that you should not lie. But when you are drunk, you may deny breaking the precepts even though you did, thereby lying in the process. So then you have broken the precept against lying as well.

This reminds me of a story about the five precepts. There was a layman who took the five precepts and decided to stop drinking. He did not drink for two or three years, until the urge suddenly hit him one day. He thought, “Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying are definitely to be avoided. But it is not going to make any difference if I drink a little wine.” He bought some wine, took it home, and got ready to drink.

Chinese people drink wine differently from Westerners. Instead of going to a bar and downing glass after glass without eating anything, Chinese people like to have some appetizer to go with their wine. This layman got some wine to drink, but there was no appetizer to go with it. Quite coincidentally, the neighbor’s chicken ran over to his house. When he saw it, he thought, “If I deep-fry the chicken, it will taste quite good with the wine. This is perfect!” Since he had already had some wine and wanted to drink some more, he forgot that killing was against the precepts. He wanted an appetizer to go with the wine, and the little chicken came at the right time. He thought, “This is a gift heaven sent me to go with the wine. Perhaps god has pitied me for not drinking for so long and has sent me this chicken to go with the wine.” Without a second thought, he cut off the chicken’s head and poured boiling water over it to remove the feathers. Then he deep-fried it with oil and salt until it was crispy. He started to eat it with the wine. The more he ate, the better the chicken tasted and the more he enjoyed the wine. Since he had not had chicken for a long time, he was so carried away that he even ate the chicken bones. He was about ninety percent drunk when the neighbor lady knocked on his door. “Did my chicken come this way? Did you see it?” she asked him.

The neighbor came to look for her chicken, which he had already devoured. If he admitted that he had killed and eaten the chicken, his neighbor would certainly not forgive him. Therefore, he lied by saying, “No, I did not see a chicken.”

Because he drank, he had broken the precepts against killing and stealing. Even though the chicken ran over on its own, he still took it and killed it without the owner’s permission. If stealing is defined as taking without permission, this counts as stealing. When the owner came to look for her chicken, he said he did not see it and thus broke the precept against lying too. By this time, he had broken four of the five precepts. Since he was drunk, lust arose in him. When he saw how pretty the neighbor lady was, he locked the door behind her and raped her. Thus, he broke all five precepts. Because he drank wine, he broke the other four precepts. So in Buddhism there is a precept against alcohol and intoxicants, which you must not break.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v5, p45-47
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, LS32, LS45

The Five Desires

Following yesterday’s example of how Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary expands the Lotus Sutra, I offer another example of how he uses the sutra to explain basic Buddhist concepts.

SUTRA

“Bhikṣus, you should know that the Tathagata possesses skillful means and profound understanding of the dispositions of living beings. Knowing that they aspire to lesser Dharmas and are deeply attached to the five desires, he teaches them nirvana. When they hear this teaching, they will immediately believe and accept it.”

COMMENTARY

Bhikṣus, you should know that the Tathagata possesses skillful means and profound understanding of the dispositions of living beings. Knowing that they aspire to lesser Dharmas and are deeply attached to the five desires… Śākyamuni Buddha said to the bhikṣus, “You should know!” Know what? The Dharma that the Tathagata teaches is the provisional Dharma. Why does he teach the provisional Dharma? Because the potentials of living beings vary. If you were to teach them the ultimate Dharma, they probably wouldn’t believe it; if you were to teach them through skillful means, then they probably would believe it.

The expedient Dharma-doors that the Tathagatas use are always in accord with living beings. Why does the Buddha use expedient Dharma-doors to teach living beings? He does so because all living beings have individual conditions that allow them to be taken across through specific skillful means. The Buddha teaches them accordingly. What’s meant by living beings with conditions that allow them to be taken across through specific skillful means? For example, the Buddha, “knowing that they aspire to lesser Dharmas,” can see that their vision of things is small. Since all these living beings know are petty things and minor principles, they wouldn’t understand if you were to speak to them about the entire universe. They know only their small problems, so they wouldn’t understand it if you tried to talk to them about the problems of the world. Their resolve is to just cultivate a tiny path. They continue to be “deeply attached to the five desires.”

The five desires are the desires for wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep.

  1. Wealth. In this world, if you have wealth, you can buy any material goods, so people are attached to their wealth. If they could see through it, then they wouldn’t be attached to it; being unable to see through it, people fight over money. I’ve often told you that the word money in Chinese [錢 qian], is composed of two swords [戈ge] and the radical for gold [金 jin]. This means that “You have a sword, I have a sword, and the two of us fight over the gold.” So those with money will have a lot of trouble; those who don’t have money won’t have this problem. But everyone wants money, and they aren’t afraid of the trouble it brings. If you know how to use money properly, you can create blessings; if you don’t know how to use it well, you’ll commit offenses. With money you can either create merit or else commit a lot of offenses. Therefore, money is really the worst thing there is! Money is filthy! You’ll often see people counting money by spitting on their fingers when they count the bills. Who knows how many germs are on that money? It’s quite unsanitary, yet no one seems to mind. When it comes to money, people seem to like it, and they aren’t concerned about hygiene.
  1. Sex. This is the desire for nice-looking forms and the attachment to attractive appearances.
  1. Fame. This is greed for celebrity. When someone praises you, you’re elated. If someone says something bad about you, you may feel even more hurt than if you’d been stabbed in the heart with a knife. Reputation is very important to people, but it’s just one of the five desires.
  1. Food. This refers to the food we eat every day. If you have one kind of food to eat but not another kind, you may not feel satisfied. If you have that kind of food but not this kind, you may not feel satisfied either. If you eat both kinds of food at the same time, you won’t be able to eat much of either one, so you still won’t feel satisfied. There’s no way that you can ever satisfy your desire for food. If you cultivate the Path, you mustn’t look upon food and drink as being overly important. You should think of them as medicine that you use to keep your body from becoming dehydrated and emaciated. Don’t get too attached to food.
  1. Sleep. Everyone likes to sleep. You might feel that sleeping for one hour is not enough, nor is sleeping for two, three, four, or five hours. Finding sleep immensely enjoyable, you feel you must sleep at least seven or eight hours a night.

These are the five desires to which living beings are attached and which they find extremely important. They can’t get along without money. Nor can they go without sex. They have to have some fame, and they can’t be lacking food or sleep either. They tend to be deeply attached to one or more of these five desires.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v6, p321-324
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, LS32, LS45

Hsuan Hua’s Take On The Parable of the Conjured City

Below is another example of how Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary expands the Lotus Sutra. In this case he is commenting on the Parable of the Conjured City. (This has been edited to remove duplication.)

For example, suppose there is a treacherous, difficult road, five hundred yojanas in length, that runs through a desolate wasteland filled with terrors. Śākyamuni Buddha set up an analogy for the assembly. Why did he teach expedient Dharmas and the principles of the Two Vehicles? One yojana is 80 li [about 25 miles]. Ten yojanas would then be 800 li [about 250 miles], and 100 yojanas would be 8,000 li [about 2,500 miles]. Therefore, a road of 500 yojanas would be 40,000 li [about 12,500 miles] long. This road was extremely dangerous and difficult to travel. Let’s assume there were bandits as well as jackals, wolves, tigers, and panthers. There was no human presence at all along the 500 yojanas. It was very scary to walk down this road.

Suppose a large group of people wish to travel this road to reach a land of treasures. Suppose a large number of people wanted to reach a place where precious treasures were stored, but to get there they had to take a perilous road that was 500 yojanas in length. The 500 yojanas are an analogy for the hardships we need to pass through while cultivating the Buddhadharma and walking the Buddha’s Path. The land of treasures represents the highest realization-Buddhahood. At the midpoint of their journey waits a city, the conjured city of the Two Vehicles.

Among them is a guide of intelligence and penetrating clarity who knows well the passable and impassable parts of the dangerous road. The guide, who is intelligent and wise and knows the way, is a metaphor for the Buddha. He knows how great the dangers are and how to avoid them. He knows which ways are clear and which are blocked.

He will lead the group through this hardship. The guide wants to lead all the people along the difficult path.

Halfway through their journey, the group he is leading grows weary and wishes to turn back. If you do something but quit halfway, that is to “grow weary” and “turn back.” If you cultivate and cultivate but then stop, you have become weary and are retreating halfway. They say to the guide, “We are exhausted and afraid, so we cannot go any farther. Our destination is still far from here. We want to turn back now. We are now extremely tired. We really don’t want to go any farther along this dangerous road. Since there’s still a long way to go, we’d rather turn back. We don’t want to go on.”

Their guide, who possesses many expedients, thinks, “How pitiful they are! How can they renounce the great treasures and turn back?” This guide, who has many expedient Dharma-doors at his disposal, thinks that these living beings are pathetic. How can they abandon their quest for the great treasures of Buddhahood and go back? So thinking, he conjures up a city through skillful means at a point three hundred yojanas along the dangerous road. The five hundred yojanas are a metaphor for the five destinies of rebirth: gods, humans, hungry ghosts, animals, and hell beings. Asuras are not mentioned because they can be found in each one of the five realms. While transmigrating through the five realms, you may be a cow or a horse. If you aren’t a human being, you may be a ghost. You may fall into the hells or ascend to the heavens. Life in the five destinies is extremely dangerous. These people had traveled three hundred yojanas along the road, which was more than half their journey. This represents the fact that they had reached a halfway point in their process of transcending the five realms. At that point in their journey, the Buddha conjured up a city.

And then the guide says to them, “Do not be afraid. Do not turn back! Do not think of retreat. You can stay in this great city and do as you please. You can live here and do what-ever you like.” The conjured city, representing the fruition of the Two Vehicles, was not real. However, the Buddha told them that if they reached the city – that is, if they attained Arhatship – they could do as they pleased, because “having completed their task and cultivated pure conduct to perfection, they would no longer be subject to the cycle of birth and death.”

Then the exhausted group rejoiced greatly over this un-precedented opportunity, saying, “We have now escaped this terrible road and will soon find peace and tranquility.” At that time they were extremely tired and couldn’t walk another step. They represent people who have cultivated for a long time and feel tired from working so hard. Hearing there was a city where they could stop and rest, they were filled with joy. They thought that now they had the chance to live in a fine city, one where they had never been before. The city, a metaphor for the spiritual attainment of Śrāvakas, is called a conjured city. They thought to themselves that they’d escaped that terrible road, a road that included the destinies of gods and humans as well as the lower realms of animals, hell beings, and hungry ghosts; they thought they would soon attain peace and tranquility.

The group then proceeded into the conjured city and believed that they had gained liberation and attained peace and tranquility. At that time all of them entered the conjured city and thought they’d been taken across and had reached the level of the highest tranquility.

At that time the guide, knowing that they had rested and that their fatigue was gone, dissolved the conjured city. When they had rested and restored their energy and had settled down, the Buddha made the conjured city vanish and said, “All of you, come along, let us go! The land of treasures is near. The great city was merely something I conjured up as a place for you to take a rest.” The guide told them that they were not far from the land of treasures. This means that if the Śrāvakas, having attained the fourth stage of Arhatship, were to turn toward the Great Vehicle, they would be close to Buddhahood. The conjured city that they lived in was created by the Buddha so they could take a rest in it. It wasn’t real, so they shouldn’t have mistaken the false for the true.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v6, p327-333
Blog, Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, LS32, LS45

Why Śāriputra as a Buddha Will Teach the Three Vehicles

Over the my years reading the Lotus Sutra I’ve puzzled over why the Buddha predicts that when Śāriputra becomes the the Buddha Flower-Light he “will also lead the living beings [of his world] by the teaching of the Three Vehicles.” Why not just teach the Lotus Sutra? I dealt with this in detail back in early 2021 in my post Abiding in the One and Employing the Three. In Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary on Chapter 3, A Parable, he offers a succinct answer.

SUTRA

“Tathagata Flower Radiance shall also teach and transform living beings by means of the Three Vehicles. Śāriputra, when this Buddha appears in the world, although it will not be a troubled age, because of his past vows he shall teach the Dharma of the Three Vehicles.”

COMMENTARY

Tathagata Flower Radiance shall also teach and transform living beings by means of the Three Vehicles: Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas. Śāriputra, when this Buddha appears in the world, although it will not be a troubled age characterized by the five turbidities, because of his past vows he shall teach the Dharma of the Three Vehicles. Why is that? In the past, he learned the Buddhadharma from Śākyamuni Buddha. Since his teacher taught the Dharma of the Three Vehicles, as his disciple, Śāriputra aspired to follow his teacher’s example. Therefore, even though he shall not be born in the troubled world of the five turbidities, he will nevertheless teach the expedient Dharma of the Three Vehicles.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v4, p38
Hsuan Hua, Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary

Meritorious Virtue and It’s Certain Reward

Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s belief in immutability of the law of cause and effect is illustrated in a number of ways throughout his 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra.

There are eleven kinds of meritorious virtue derived from making Buddha images and statues:

  1. Your sight is bright and clear in life after life. Your eyes are very bright and can see things very clearly. Why do you have this reward? It is because you made Buddha images in your past lives.
  2. You will be born in wholesome places. There will be no bad people in the places where you will be born. Your neighbors, friends, and relatives will all be good people. You will not encounter bad people or beasts.
  3. You will always be born to a noble family that is wealthy and honored.
  4. Your body will be purple-golden in color. Why aren’t our bodies purple-golden? It is because we did not make Buddha images in our past lives.
  5. You will possess an abundance of wealth. You will be surrounded by an abundance of precious treasure, including pearls and other valuables.
  6. You will be born to a family of worthy and kind people.
  7. You may be born as an emperor. The merit from making Buddha images enables you to become an emperor in the future. In countries where there is no emperor, you could become a president; both are state leaders. Otherwise you can find a country that is still ruled by an emperor and be born there.
  8. You can be a wheel-turning sage king. This position is even more honorable than that of a state ruler. A wheel-turning sage king who cultivates will soon become a Buddha.
  9. You may be born in the Brahma heavens. You may become a king in the human realm or be born in the Brahma heavens, with a life span of an eon.
  10. You will not fall into the three lower realms – the realms of hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals.
  11. Life after life in the future, you will continue to revere the Three Jewels. Life after life, you will take refuge with the Three Jewels and will not fall into the three lower realms.

These are the eleven kinds of meritorious virtues derived from making Buddha images. If we have the opportunity, we should make more Buddha images. If you make Buddha images, your appearance will be transformed to perfection.

Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v3, p181-182