Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 119-120[The Tathāgata says] “The wisdom of all the buddhas is profound and vast,” causing those in the great assembly to feel respect and openly want to hear what the Tathāgata teaches. It should be known that two kinds of profundity are included in the meaning of the word “profound.” What are these two? 1) The profundity of realization that is expressed as “the wisdom of all the buddhas is profound and vast” and 2) the profundity of the scripture that is expressed as “the gateway to their wisdom is profound and vast.” “Profundity” is the generic characteristic for the former and the individual characteristic for the latter.
The profundity of realization has five types: l) the profundity of the meaning means the profundity that is based on a certain meaning, 2) the profundity of the essence of true reality, 3) the profundity of inner realization, 4) the profundity of the basis, and 5) the profundity of the unsurpassable. What is “profound” is great enlightenment. “Great enlightenment” means the highest, complete enlightenment realized by the tathāgatas. Why is it profound? It is profound because “none of the disciples or self-enlightened buddhas are capable of knowing it.” “Wisdom” means all-encompassing omniscience. Just as it says in the Lotus Sutra:
The wisdom of all the buddhas is profound and vast. The gateway to their wisdom is difficult to ascertain, difficult to apprehend, difficult to know, difficult to understand, and difficult to enter. None of the disciples or self-enlightened buddhas are capable of knowing it.
Category Archives: LS32
Day 2
Chapter 1, Introductory (Conclusion).
Having last month considered the reaction of the four kinds of devotees of the world of Sun-Moon-Light Buddha, we conclude Chapter 1, Introductory.
Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma,
Kept the store of the Dharma of the Buddha, and expounded
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
For eighty small kalpas.Led by Wonderful-Light, those eight princes resolved
To attain unsurpassed enlightenment.
[Wonderful-Light said to them:]
“You will be able to see countless Buddhas.”Having made offerings to [countless] Buddhas,
Those princes followed them, practiced the Great Way,
And became Buddhas in succession.
Each of them assured another of his future Buddhahood.The last God of Gods
Was called Burning-Light Buddha.
As the leader of seers,
He saved innumerable living beings.There was a lazy man
Among the disciples
Of Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma.
[The lazy man] was attached to fame and gain.Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking.But he [later] did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.
He made offerings to them,
Followed them, practiced the Great Way,
And performed the six paramitas.
Now he sees the Lion-Like One of the Sakyas.He will become a Buddha
In his future life.
He will be called Maitreya.
He will save innumerable living beings.The lazy man who lived after the extinction
Of [Sun-Moon-] Light Buddha was
No one but you.
Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma, was I.The ray of light of [Sun-Moon-] Light Buddha,
That is, the good omen, was the same as what I see now.
Judging from this, the present Buddha also will expound
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.The good omen I see now is like that of old.
This is an expedient employed by the Buddhas.
The present Buddha is also emitting a ray of light
In order to reveal the truth of the reality [of all things].[Mañjuśrī said to the multitude:]
All of you, know this, join your hands together,
And wait with one mind!
The Buddha will send the rain of the Dharma
And satisfy those who seek enlightenment.The Buddha will remove
Any doubt of those who seek
The teaching of the Three Vehicles.
No question will be left unresolved.
Warning: Life Changing Events Ahead
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p 37-38The chapter ends in this way:
The time has come for people to understand.
With your palms together, wait single-mindedly!
The Buddha will pour the rain of the Dharma
To satisfy those who seek the Way.If those who seek after the three vehicles
Have any doubts or regrets,
The Buddha will remove them
So that none whatever remain. (LS 74)In effect, the first chapter is a warning – a warning that you are entering an imaginative territory, a world that can change your life, and that such a change in you can be significant for the entire cosmos. The world of the imagination can be a frightening and even dangerous place, precisely because it invites us into a world that is new and unfamiliar and therefore difficult to understand.
It may place demands on us by assuring us that we can be and do much more than we ever believed possible – yet if we respond to it in joy, our entry into this transformative world can be very rewarding.
Why Did the Tathāgata Address Only Śāriputra?
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 119Why did he address only Venerable Śāriputra and none of the other disciples? It is because [Śāriputra’s] deep wisdom was in accordance with the Tathāgata.
There are five explanations of why [the Tathāgata] did not address the bodhisattvas: 1) [he wanted] to make the disciples do what had to be done; 2) [he wanted] to make the disciples change their minds and strive for great enlightenment; 3) [he wanted] to protect the disciples from fears and trepidation; 4) he wanted to make the others [gathered there have] good intentions; and 5) he wanted all the disciples not to give rise to the thought of having completed their task.
Day 1
Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory
Having last month witnessed the heavenly flowers falling over the entire congregation, we witness the Buddha emit a ray of light from the white curls between his eyebrows.Thereupon the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down to the Avchi Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world. The congregation saw from this world the living beings of the six regions of those worlds. They also saw the present Buddhas of those worlds. They also heard the Dharma expounded by those Buddhas. They also saw the bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās and upāsikās of those worlds who had already attained [the various fruits of] enlightenment by their various practices. They also saw the Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas [of those worlds] who were practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas [in various ways] according to the variety of their karmas which they had done in their previous existence, and also according to the variety of their ways of understanding [the Dharma] by faith. They also saw the past Buddhas [of those worlds] who had already entered into Parinirvana. They also saw the stupas of the seven treasures which had been erected to enshrine the śarīras of those Buddhas after their Parinirvana.
The World of Enchantment
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p15-16In Chapter 1 of the Sutra, before the vast assembly, having already preached the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the Buddha entered deeply into meditative concentration. Then, to prepare the assembly to hear the Buddha preach, various omens suddenly appeared – flowers rained down from the heavens on everyone, the earth trembled and shook, and the Buddha emitted a ray of light from between his eyebrows, lighting up eighteen thousand worlds to the east, so that the whole assembly could see these worlds in great detail, including their heavens and purgatories, all their living beings, and even their past and present buddhas. Surely we are being advised here that we are entering a different world, and a different kind of world, a world that is at once rich in fantasy and at the same time anchored in this world.
Thus the Dharma Flower Sutra opens up and reveals this world as a magical world, a world in which flowers rain down from the heavens, drums sound by themselves, and Shakyamuni Buddha lights up all the worlds with beams of light streaming from between his eyebrows. It is a world in which an illusory castle-city provides a resting place for weary travelers, in which a Stupa emerges from the ground so that an extinct buddha from long ago can praise Shakyamuni for teaching the Dharma Flower Sutra, where the Bodhisattva Wonderful Voice, with his nearly perfect, giant, and radiant body, from another world makes flowers appear on Holy Eagle Peak and then comes through countless millions of worlds with eighty-four thousand other bodhisattvas to visit Shakyamuni Buddha and others, and where the Bodhisattva Universal Sage comes flying through the sky on his white elephant with six tusks to visit and help those in this world.
I call this a world of enchantment. And enchantment, here, means a certain kind of fascination with the ordinary world. It means finding the special, even the supernatural, within the ordinary world of our existence. It means seeing this world itself as different, as special – as important and valuable. And this means that our lives – how we live and what we do – are important, not only for ourselves, but also for the Buddha and for the entire cosmos.
The Accomplishment of the Conditions for the Buddha’s Great Intention
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 109-110Eight statements illustrate the accomplishment of the conditions for the Buddha’s great intention. The meaning of these eight statements should be known. What are they?
- [The Tathāgata] wanted to expound the great Dharma.
- He wanted to rain down the rain of the great Dharma.
- He wanted to beat the drum of the great Dharma.
- He wanted to raise the banner of the great Dharma.
- He wanted to light the torch of the great Dharma.
- He wanted to blow the conch of the great Dharma.
- He wanted the drum of the great Dharma to incessantly beat.
- He wanted to teach the great Dharma.
These eight statements show that the Tathāgata wanted to teach the great Dharma. Why are these called the eight great intentions? It is because they eliminate the doubts of skeptics, and also because they cause those who have already eliminated their doubts to nourish and fully develop their knowledge body. The Buddha teaches two subtle realms to those with fully developed faculties: The subtle realm of the disciples and the subtle realm of the bodhisattvas.
The two statements referring to the drum of the great Dharma show that it can be heard even at a distance. To enter a subtle realm is to advance to a higher pure truth; to have already advanced to the unsurpassed pure truth is to advance to omniscience and attain direct perception; to have [already] advanced to omniscience and attained direct perception is to establish the meaning of the words and passages for all the Dharma. To have established the meaning of the words and passages is to enter the inexpressible knowledge of realization and to see the wheel of the Dharma in motion.
The Buddha’s Intent Reflected Upon Clear Mirror of Scriptures
When we think of the Buddha’s intent reflected upon the clear mirror of these scriptures, we see that His appearance in this world was not for the sake of those who heard Him preach the Lotus Sūtra for eight years on Mt. Sacred Eagle. It was for those in the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, and in the Latter Age of Degeneration. More precisely, it was not for the sake of those in the 2,000 years of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, but for those like myself in the beginning of the Latter Age. The “sick ones” refer to the slanderers of the Lotus Sūtra after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha. It was “for those who did not perceive and accept this medicine excellent both in color and flavor” that the Buddha said he would “leave this excellent medicine.”
If we think of it this way, we can see why the bodhisattvas from underground did not appear during the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma. The 1,000-year Age of the True Dharma was appropriate for Hinayāna and provisional Mahāyāna Buddhism, but not fit for the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra in terms of both the “capacity” of those to be taught and the “time” for it to be preached. Therefore, four ranks of Bodhisattva-teachers (Four Reliances) preached the Hinayāna and provisional Mahāyāna teachings in order for the people to attain Buddhahood by nurturing the seed of Buddhahood that they had received during the lifetime of Śākyamuni Buddha. They did not preach the Lotus Sūtra then because they knew that if they had preached it, many people would have slandered it rendering it impossible to nurture the seed of Buddhahood. The capacity of the people for comprehension then was like that of those who listened to the Buddha preach in the first four of the five periods during His lifetime.
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 161
Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1
At the start of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings’ third chapter, Ten Beneficial Effects, the Bodhisattva Fully Composed asks a question:
“World-honored One! This sutra is beyond thought and word! I earnestly wish that the World-honored One, out of compassion and sympathy for the great assembly, would explain the profound and wondrous matters of this sutra in detail. World-honored One! What is this sutra’s origin, what is its extent, and where does it abide to accordingly possess such immeasurable, inconceivably powerful beneficial effect that it enables all to quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment?”
The World-honored One then addressed the great-being bodhisattva Fully Composed, saying: “Well done, you of good intent! Well done! It is just like this; it is just as you have said. O you of good intent! I have declared that this sutra is surpassingly profound in depth, and surpassingly deep in truth. Why is this so? Because it enables all to quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment, because upon hearing it one can intuit all dharmas, and because it greatly benefits all living beings—because of it they will travel the great direct route with no hardships to detain them.
“O you of good intent! You ask, “What is this sutra’s origin, what is its extent, and where does it abide?” You must hear clearly and well! O you of good intent! This sutra originally comes from within the place where buddhas dwell; it encompasses all living beings that have awakened the aspiration for enlightenment; and it abides in any place where bodhisattvas practice. O you of good intent! This sutra has such an origin, such an extent, and such a place where it abides. That is why this sutra can possess such immeasurable, inconceivably powerful beneficial effect and enable all to quickly achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment.
For the next ten months I will walk through the 10 Beneficial Effects detailed in the final chapter of the sutra.
Why the Great Assembly Relied on Mañjuśrī
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 107-108Now why did the Buddha, the Blessed One, manifest this miraculous sign? He did so to explain the great Dharma; he manifested a great sign to explain the reason; he manifested a great sign to teach the Lotus Sutra. The Tathāgata manifested a great marvel in order to explain the words and passages of the incomprehensible meaning of the true Dharma (saddharma) that he had attained.
There are two explanations [for why the great assembly] esteemed and relied on Mañjuśrī. What are these two? 1) Because [Mañjuśrī] had [previously] witnessed these states (dharmas), and 2) because he was removed from the causes and conditions [that affected the great assembly] and had accomplished these states (dharmas) within his mind.
A variety of marvels were revealed in order to show various events. It should be well known that the marks of the events were [the marks of] origination, decay, subsistence, and impermanence. Since Mañjuśrī was able to recall these events, and since he had accomplished his task and the cause and the result were complete, he witnessed these states (dharmas).
There are two tasks that he had accomplished: 1) the accomplishment of merits and 2) the accomplishment of wisdom. “That the cause was complete” means he had accomplished omniscience. There is also another type of cause referred to as the condition. “That the condition was complete” means that the various signs had occurred. “That the result was complete” means that Mañjuśrī would explain the true Dharma (saddharma) [to the assembly]. It should be known that various different buddha lands were revealed in order to show the various differences and distinctions in those lands. “Pure land” means the dwelling place of living beings that have no defilements. Just as it says in the Lotus Sutra,
[The Buddha’s ray of light] illuminated all the eighteen thousand worlds in the east . . . and rendered visible the splendor of all those buddha worlds.
“The tathāgatas were foremost” since all the bodhisattvas and others take refuge in them, and since the tathāgatas are the ones who have attained self-mastery among those in the great assemblies of the [buddha] lands, just as it says in the Lotus Sutra, “And all the buddhas abiding in those lands were seen…”