The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p61-62Let’s look further at each of the three things that Shariputra realized:
He is a child of the Buddha. Here, and throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra, the primary meaning of “child of the Buddha” is “bodhisattva.” Here, Shariputra realizes that while being a shravaka, he is also a bodhisattva, actually more deeply and profoundly a bodhisattva. But being a child of the Buddha has other implications as well.What Shariputra originally set out to find was an understanding of the world in which death is not the end of everything – that is, a world in which everything comes to nothing. In other words, he sought meaning in life, he wanted his own life to be meaningful, to amount to something more than death.
Basically, he found two things. First, he found that nothing can separate us from what Christians call the love of God and Buddhists the compassion of the Buddha. The Dharma Flower Sutra teaches repeatedly that the Buddha is all around us, nearer than we think. He is the father of us all, the Compassionate One. The second important meaning of this metaphor is that we owe our lives not only to our biological parents and ancestors, but even more to the process, the Dharma, by which we live and are sustained. Chinese and Japanese Buddhism place enormous stress on the importance of biological ancestors, but in the teaching that we are all children of the Buddha, we should realize that biology is only one of the ways in which we inherit from the past. What we learn from our teachers – usually to be sure in the first instance from our mothers or primary caretakers, but also from a whole company of teachers, including those we encounter in books – has an enormous impact on shaping who and what we are. And those of us who are significantly drawn to the Buddha Dharma will be especially aware of our indebtedness both to the Buddha and to the tradition that has made his Dharma available to us. In an important sense, we ourselves are children of the Buddha.
Category Archives: LS32
Day 4
Day 4 concludes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered what the Buddha thought upon seeing people of no wisdom, we consider how all Buddhas utilize expedients to teach the dharma.
I expounded the teaching of the Three Vehicles
Only as an expedient.
All the other World-Honored Ones also
Expound the teaching of the One Vehicle [with expedients].The great multitude present here
Shall remove their doubts.
The Buddhas do not speak differently.
There is only one vehicle, not a second.The number of the Buddhas who passed away
During the past innumerable kalpas was
Hundreds of thousands of billions,
Uncountable.All those World-Honored Ones expounded
The truth of the reality of all things
With various stories of previous lives, parables and similes,
That is to say, with innumerable expedients.All those World-Honored Ones expounded
The teaching of the One Vehicle,
And led innumerable living beings [with expedients]
Into the Way to Buddhahood.All those Great Saintly Masters
Who knew the deep desires
Of the gods, men, and other living beings
Of all the worlds,
Revealed the Highest Truth
With various expedients.
The Meaning of Dharma
While it can mean other things such as “way” or “method,” there are four chief ways in which “dharma” is used in Buddhism:
- things—all the objects of experience that we can see, feel, hear, and touch, often translated as “phenomenon”;
- the Buddha’s teaching, a use which is often extended to include Buddhist teachings and practices generally, and thus can mean Buddhism itself;
- the truth that is taught in the Buddha’s teachings, especially the highest truth disclosed in the awakening of the Buddha; and
- the reality that the truth reveals, that which enables and sustains all things in accord with interdependence.
The Father of All
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p50-51The Sutra tells us that the Buddha says to himself, “I am the Father of the beings; I must rescue them from their woes and troubles and give them the joy of incalculable and limitless Buddha wisdom.” The word “Father” here is a symbol of the Buddha’s love and concern for his children, all living beings. A father will use any means to rescue his children from a dangerous situation. That is how the Buddha feels about us. He sees how we are attached to our games, living in an illusion, and because of this we are not able to see the danger of our situation. So out of his love for his children, all living beings, he uses various methods to lead them out of suffering.
A disciple of the Buddha is the spiritual child of the Buddha. Our parents brought us into the world; they give us our physical body. When we come to the practice, we are reborn into our spiritual life, thanks to the Buddha. In the sutras it is said that the disciple is “born from the mouth of the Buddha.” From the mouth of the Buddha comes the sound of the true teachings, and from the true teachings comes our spiritual life. This beautiful image of the Buddha as the spiritual father of all beings is a symbol of his great love. The idea of “father” here symbolizes only a heart of love that is able to embrace all beings. It is not about authority or domination. The father does not fly into a rage, he does not punish us and send us away. His only function is to love. And because the father loves his children, he uses many different ways – skillful means – to save beings from danger. The verses say:
Even though the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Resort to expedient devices,
The living beings whom they convert
Are all bodhisattvas.All the Buddhas throughout space and time, not just Shakyamuni Buddha, use these skillful means to help bring living beings out of the burning house. The Buddha’s original teachings – the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Three Dharma Seals, and dependent co-arising – contained the idea of the essential Buddha nature of all beings, their capacity for Buddhahood, in fact, their assurance of Buddhahood. Once living beings are able to enter the One Vehicle, they are all bodhisattvas. These two ideas in this chapter of the Lotus Sutra are very important.
Day 3
Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.
Having last month heard Śāriputra repeat in gāthās his puzzlement over what the Buddha has said, we consider Śāriputra’s request and the Buddha’s response.Thereupon the Buddha said to him,
“No, no, I will not. If I do, all the gods and men in the world will be frightened and perplexed.”Śāriputra said to him again:
“World-Honored One! Explain it, explain it! The many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of living beings in this congregation have active functions of mind and clear wisdom because they have seen the [past] Buddhas in their previous existence. If they hear you, they will respect and believe you.”
Thereupon Śāriputra, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in a gāthā:
King of the Dharma, Most Honorable One!
Explain it! Do not worry!
The innumerable living beings in this congregation
Will respect and believe you.The Buddha checked him again, saying, “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.”
Thereupon the Buddha repeated this in a gāthā:
No, no, I will not say any more.
My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.
If arrogant people hear me,
They will not respect or believe me.Thereupon Śāriputra said to him again:
“World-Honored One! Expound the Dharma, expound the Dharma! The hundreds of thousands of billions of living beings in this congregation like me followed the [past] Buddhas and received their teachings in their consecutive previous existences. They will respect and believe you. They will be able to have peace after the long night and obtain many benefits.”
Thereupon Śāriputra, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Most Honorable Biped!
Expound the Highest Truth!
I am your eldest son.
Expound the Dharma!The innumerable living beings in this congregation
Will respect and believe the Dharma.
They have been taught by the [past] Buddhas
In their consecutive previous existences.
They are joining their hands together [towards you],
Wishing with all their hearts to hear and receive your words.Expound the Dharma
To us twelve hundred men,
And also to the other people
Who are seeking Buddhahood!
We shall be very glad to hear the Dharma.
The other people will also.
The Daily Dharma from Feb. 21, 2020, offers this:
No, no, I will not say any more.
My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.
If arrogant people hear me,
They will not respect or believe me.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. This was his response the first time Śāriputra asked to receive the Buddha’s highest teaching. The Buddha knew we must be prepared for his wisdom. We must discern clearly the difference between what we know and what we do not know. Because all things are impermanent, the truths we cling to may no longer apply. The ignorance and confusion at the root of our suffering will disappear as we set aside what is no longer true and gain wisdom.
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Burning Craving
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p49When we hear this story [of the burning house], we may think it’s just a children’s story and that it doesn’t really have anything to do with our lives. But if we look more deeply into our minds and the state of mind of those around us, we see that this parable expresses the truth about our situation. We’re full of craving, always running after things. We want to become the director or president of a company, we want to buy a beautiful car or a nice house, or go on an exotic vacation. We don’t see that the world we’re living in, driven by craving and delusion, is like a burning house.
Day 2
Chapter 1, Introductory (Conclusion).
Having last month heard Mañjuśrī’s response to Maitreya, we learn from Mañjuśrī of a long-ago Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light.“Good men! Innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. He expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The meanings of those teachings were profound. The words were skillful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Śrāvakahood, he expounded the teaching of the four truths, a teaching suitable for them, saved them from birth, old age, disease, and death, and caused them to attain Nirvāṇa. To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, a teaching suitable for them. To Bodhisattvas, he expounded the teaching of the six paramitas, a teaching suitable for them, and caused them to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.
“After his extinction there appeared a Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. After his extinction there appeared another Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. In the same manner, seventy thousand Buddhas appeared in succession, all of them being called SunMoon-Light with the surname Bharadvaja.
Like a Burning House – Full of Traps and Dangers
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p47-48A phrase that appears often in Buddhist texts is, “The three realms are in disturbance, just like a house on fire.” According to classical Buddhist thought, the three realms are three levels of existence in the world of samsara: the realm of desire (kamadhatu), the ordinary world we inhabit, where beings are subject to the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion; the realm of form (rupadhatu), a higher realm of existence in which beings have severed some attachments; and the realm of formlessness (arupadhatu), the highest realm of samsaric existence in which beings are free of attachment to form. Even though the higher two of the three realms may offer some respite from the afflictions, all three are still samsara. None of the three realms can provide real peace or security. They are like a burning house, full of traps and dangers.
Imagine a group of chickens in a cage. They fight each other to get the corn, and they fight over whether the corn or the rice tastes better. And while they are competing with each other over a few kernels of corn or grains of rice, they are unaware that in a few hours they will be taken to the slaughterhouse. We too live in a world full of insecurity, but we don’t see it because we’re so caught up in our craving and delusions.
Day 1
Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Having last month considered the reaction of Maitreya Bodhisattva to the worlds revealed by the light emitted by the Buddha, we repeat his reaction in gāthās.Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva, wishing to repeat what he had said, asked him in gāthās:
Mañjuśrī!
Why is the Leading Teacher
Emitting a great ray of light
From the white curl between his eyebrows?[The gods] rained mandārava-flowers
And mañjūṣaka-flowers.
A breeze carrying the fragrance of candana
Is delighting the multitude.Because of this, the ground has become
Beautiful and pure;
And this world quaked
In the six ways.The four kinds of devotees
Are joyful.
They are happier than ever
In body and mind.The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest HeavenOf each of those worlds.
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.
See Heavenly Flowers
Heavenly Flowers
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p33-34That heavenly flowers rain both on the Buddha and on the whole assembly is very important. It means that it is not only beautiful and rewarding to preach the Dharma; it is also beautiful and rewarding to hear it. It is, in other words, one of the ways in which there is equality among all of those in the congregation, including the Buddha. This shows that there should be no sharp distinction between teachers and learners. While many forms of Buddhism have adopted a kind of system in which some are authorized to be permanent teachers and others to be students, the Dharma Flower Sutra teaches that we should all be both teachers and learners. Nonetheless there will be times when some are in special positions as teachers or as learners – but this should always be understood as temporary and relative. All can and need to be teachers, and all can and need to be learners.