Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City

Today’s reading is all about the light that illumines all the worlds of the 10 directions when Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. The Brahman-heavenly-kings of each direction gather up their flower trays and their palaces and head off into the light to find out if a god of great virtue or a Buddha has appeared somewhere in the universe.

Great Brahman-heavenly-king Sikhin representing the five hundred billion worlds of the zenith explains it this way:

How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.

The All-Knower, the Most Honorable One of Gods and Men,
Opens the gate of the teachings as sweet as nectar,
And saves all living beings
Out of his compassion towards them.

There has been no Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Before you appeared,
The worlds of the ten quarters were dark.

The living beings in the three evil regions
And asuras are increasing.
The living beings in heaven are decreasing.
Many fall into the evil regions after their death.

They do not hear the Dharma from a Buddha.
Because they did evils,
Their appearances are getting worse;
And their power and wisdom, decreasing.
Because they did sinful karmas,
They lose pleasures and the memory of pleasures.
They are attached to wrong views.
They do not know how to do good.
They are not taught by a Buddha;
Therefore, they fall into the evil regions.

Now you have appeared for the first time after a long time,
And become the eyes of the world.
You have appeared in this world
Out of your compassion towards all living beings,
And finally attained perfect enlightenment.
We are very glad.
All the others also rejoice at seeing you,
Whom they have never seen before.

Our palaces are beautifully adorned
With your light.
We offer them to you.
Receive them out of your compassion towards us!

May the merits we have accumulated by this offering
Be distributed among all living beings,
And may we and all other living beings
Attain the enlightenment of the Buddha!

Also note that everyone arriving at the world of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathagata also saw that the sixteen princes were begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma. We’ll come back to them tomorrow.

Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.

It’s not so much what’s said today about the future Buddhahood of the senior disciples that interests me as the promises of what is to come in the Lotus Sutra.

At the end of Chapter 6, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood, we get a teaser:

Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!

And in the opening of Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, we are reminded of why we should pay attention to this story of a long, long, long ago Buddha called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence:

I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom; I also remember
The Sravakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].

Bhiksus, know this!
My wisdom is pure, wonderful,
Free from asravas and from hindrance.
I know those who lived innumerable kalpas ago.

Today and yesterday; yesterday and today.

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Today’s reading covers the Simile of the Herbs and this gathas section resonates the clearest on this reading.

I see all living beings equally.
I have no partiality for them.
There is not ‘this one’ or ‘that one’ to me.
I transcend love and hatred.

I am attached to nothing.
I am hindered by nothing.
I always expound the Dharma
To all living beings equally.
I expound the Dharma to many
In the same way as to one.

I always expound the Dharma.
I do nothing else.
I am not tired of expounding the Dharma
While I go or come or sit or stand.
I expound the Dharma to all living beings
Just as the rain waters all the earth.

I am not tired of giving
The rain of the Dharma to all living beings.
I have no partiality for them,
Whether they are noble or mean,
Whether they observe or violate the precepts,
Whether they live a monastic life or not,
Whether they have right or wrong views,
Whether they are clever or dull.

Those who hear the Dharma from me
Will reach various stages
[Of enlightenment]
According to their capacities.

We are different; the Dharma is not. Each of us grows to our own capacity; the Buddha loves us all unconditionally.

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Today’s parable, The Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son, shifts the discussion of the need for expedient teachings from the Buddha’s perspective to that of his senior followers.

Unwilling to believe they deserved to be equal to the Buddha, these disciples settled for lesser teachings.

Although we expounded to the sons of the Buddha
The teachings for Bodhisattvas in order to cause them
To seek the enlightenment of the Buddha,
We did not wish to attain
The same enlightenment for ourselves.
You, our Leader, left us alone because you knew this.
You did not persuade us
To seek the enlightenment of the Buddha.
You did not say
That we should be able to have real benefits.

The rich man knew
That his son was base and mean.
Therefore, he made him nobler
With expedients,
And then gave him
All his treasures.

In the same manner,
You knew that we wished
To hear the Lesser Vehicle.
Therefore, you did a rare thing.
You prepared us with expedients,
And then taught us the great wisdom.

Today we are not what we were then.
We have obtained
What we did not expect
To obtain
Just as the poor son obtained
The innumerable treasures.

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Parable of the Burning House

While there is a lot of material covered today, much of it repeated in gathas from the other day, what stands out is the sales talk the Buddha gives for this Great Vehicle he has brought onto the showroom floor.

Sariputra!
With this parable I expounded
The teaching of the One Buddha-Vehicle
To all living beings.
All of you will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
If you believe and receive
These words of mine.

This vehicle is
The purest and most wonderful.
This is unsurpassed by any other vehicle
In all the worlds.
This vehicle is approved with joy by the Buddhas.
All living beings should extol it.
They should make offerings to it,
And bow to it.

The powers, emancipations, dhyana-concentrations, wisdom,
And all the other merits [of the Buddhas],
Many hundreds of thousands of millions in number,
Are loaded in this vehicle.

I will cause all my children
To ride in this vehicle
And to enjoy themselves
Day and night for kalpas.

The Bodhisattvas and Sravakas
Will be able to go immediately
To the place of enlightenment
If they ride in this jeweled vehicle.

Therefore, even if you try to find another vehicle
Throughout the worlds of the ten quarters,
You will not be able to find any other one
Except those given by the Buddhas expediently.

Well, I’m sold.

Day 6 continues Chapter 3, A Parable

Parable of the Burning House

The Buddha’s children are ignorant and when the Buddha attempts to explain the danger, they are too distracted by their playthings and their false sense of security to pay attention. For me, for today, what stands out is that the Buddha, with all of his supernatural powers, couldn’t just carry us out of the burning house.

I have appeared in the triple world, which can be likened to the rotten and burning house, in order to save all living beings from the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation, stupidity, darkness, and the three poisons, to teach all living beings, and to cause them to attain Anuttara-samyak-sarnbodhi. I see that all living beings are burned by the fires of birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation. They undergo various sufferings because they have the five desires and the desire for gain. Because they have attachments and pursuits, they have many sufferings in their present existence, and will suffer in hell or in the world of animals or in the world of hungry spirits in their future lives. Even when they are reborn in heaven or in the world of humans, they will still have many sufferings such as poverty or parting from their beloved ones or meeting with those whom they hate. Notwithstanding all this, however, they are playing joyfully. They are not conscious of the sufferings. They are not frightened at the sufferings or afraid of them. They do not dislike them or try to get rid of them. They are running about this burning house of the triple world, and do not mind even when they undergo great sufferings.[‘]

Sariputra! Seeing all this, I [also] thought, ‘I am the father of all living beings. I will eliminate their sufferings, give them the pleasure of the immeasurable wisdom of the Buddha, and cause them to enjoy it.’

Sariputra! I also thought, ‘If I extol my insight, powers, and fearlessness in the presence of those living beings only by my supernatural powers and by the power of my wisdom, that is to say, without any expedient, they will not be saved because they have not yet been saved from birth, old age, disease, death, grief, sorrow, suffering and lamentation, but are burning up in the burning house of the triple world. How can they understand the wisdom of the Buddha?’

Sariputra! 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.

Day 5 begins Chapter 3, A Parable.

Sariputra’s concern that he wasn’t taught the Bodhisattva practice and instead had to settle for a lesser teaching is answered by the Buddha:

Now I will tell you in the presence of this great multitude including gods, men, sramaras, and brahmanas. Under two billion Buddhas in the past, I always taught you in order to cause you to attain unsurpassed enlightenment. You studied under me in the long night. I led you with expedients. Therefore, you have your present life under me.

Sariputra! 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 Sravakas this sutra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’

We have been the Buddha’s disciples over and over again in past lives and accumulated the merits that today allow us to hear the Lotus Sutra today.

Day 4 finishes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first volume of the Sutra of the Lotus flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Again, the many, many facets of this section of Chapter 2 threaten to overwhelm my attempt to single out what I see as the most important aspect of today’s reading.

What stands out today is this gathas:

Know this, Sariputra!
I once vowed that l 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.

This teaching says EVERYONE can become a Buddha. Not a lesser being who just eliminates suffering of birth and death. Exactly like the Buddha. There is no lesser goal just as there is no lesser vehicle than the Great Vehicle, the Truth of Equality. This will be the topic – told from various perspectives – of the next several chapters.

Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

If anything will challenge my effort this time through to limit my quotes to the single aspect that strikes me as most important or interesting today, it is Chapter 2, Expedients. There’s just too much good stuff.

The concept that “the wisdom of the Buddha” is too difficult to understand by pure intellect only raises the question, “Why does the World-Honored One extol so enthusiastically the power of the Buddhas to employ expedients?” And those two things bring us to what is, in my mind today, the most important aspect of this teaching: The One Great Purpose.

Sariputra! 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. Sariputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.

The Buddha said to Sariputra:

The Buddhas, the Tathagatas, teach only Bodhisattvas. All they do is for one purpose, that is, to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings, to cause them to obtain the insight of the Buddha.

Today’s Daily Dharma had an interesting explanation for why we should not be embarrassed to ask questions:

When we allow ourselves to wonder, to question, to become aware of the mystery of existence, and resist being ashamed of not knowing, then we are coming to understand the Buddha’s own mind.

Day 2 completes Chapter 1, Introductory

I’d like to begin today with something I picked up today while reading Etsu Sugimoto’s autobiography, “A Daughter of the Samurai.”

Etsu, who lived in Japan at the start of the Meji period, was given the education of a girl who was supposed to be destined to be a priestess. Her first teacher instructed her in the Confucius classics.

“I was only six years old, and of course I got not one idea from this heavy reading. My mind was filled with many words in which were hidden grand thoughts, but they meant nothing to me then. Sometimes I would feel curious about a half-caught idea and ask my teacher the meaning. His reply invariably was:

“Meditation will untangle thoughts from words,” and “A hundred times reading reveals the meaning.”

The chanting of namu-myoho-renge-kyo is my meditation and this my “hundred times reading” in search of meaning.

On with the show…

Today’s portion of Chapter 1 confirms for the congregation that what they are seeing as the result of the light being emitted by Sakyamuni is the same omen witnessed long ago in a previous life by Manjusri. The one aspect of today’s reading that stands out is the rarity of hearing the Lotus Sutra.

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 skilful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Sravakahood, 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 Nirvana. 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-sambodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

After he died, another Buddha named Sun-Moon-Light did the same and then another Buddha named Sun-Moon-Light did the same and then another and another and another until a total of 20,000 Buddhas had expounded these right teachings. It was the last Sun-Moon-Light who, like Sakyamuni, preached the Great Vehicle called the ‘Innumerable Teachings, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas’ and entered into the samadhi for the purport of the innumerable teachings.

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 Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.