Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p79Chapter 14 contains the parable of the jewel in the topknot. A powerful king rewards his soldiers for their achievements. The precious jewel in the topknot of his hair is the only thing he does not give to anyone, reserving it for a soldier of especially great merit. Just as the Buddha, who is king of the truth, has preached the Dharma in various ways, the Lotus Sutra is reserved for those who will practice the bodhisattva way in the future.
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.
Hsuan Hua Lotus Sutra Commentary, v8, p29-31I 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.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Aug. 20, 2025
Anyone who keeps, reads or recites Myōhō Renge Kyō, expounds Myōhō Renge Kyō to others, copies Myōhō Renge Kyō, causes others to copy Myōhō Renge Kyō, or makes offerings to a copy of Myōhō Renge Kyō after my extinction, need not build a stupa or a monastery, or make offering to the Saṃgha.’ Needless to say, anyone who not only keeps Myōhō Renge Kyō but also gives alms, observe the precepts, practices patience, makes endeavors, concentrates his mind, and seeks wisdom, will be able to obtain the most excellent and innumerable merits. His merits will be as limitless as the sky is in the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate quarters, the zenith, and the nadir. These innumerable merits of his will help him obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.
Yoshiro Tamura: ‘Embrace and Accept’
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p78-79Chapter 14 teaches that bodhisattvas who devote themselves to the social application of the truth should develop the habit of self-reflection. Whereas the previous chapter has the so-called stern, “break and subdue” method of conversion, this chapter has the mild, “embrace and accept” method of leading others. It discusses ways of admonishing oneself and controlling one’s behavior, speech, attitudes, and will. These are called the four kinds of trouble-free or “safe and easy” practice.
The chapter also advises against such things as getting too close to kings, ministers, other high officials, and the like, smiling or laughing or having a covetous attitude while preaching to women, and putting others down or abusing them with talk about their likes and dislikes or good and bad points. It gives detailed instructions on such things as not forgetting to be compassionate and respectful to others, or praying that all will be saved. Even though we are in this world, the emptiness of all things should not be forgotten. And bodhisattvas should dwell “as peacefully and unmoved as Mount Sumeru.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Aug. 19, 2025
The patient who hears Myōhō Renge Kyō will be cured of his disease at once. He will not grow old or die.
Yoshiro Tamura: ‘Safe and Easy Practices’
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p50[T]he bodhisattva way of chapter 14, “Safe and Easy Practices,” is quiet and passive when compared to the previous chapter. For this reason some have seen it as being different in quality, and as having been inserted at a later time. From early times it has been interpreted as being inferior and taught for beginner bodhisattvas who cannot follow the difficult practices of martyrdom and self-sacrifice found in chapter 13. But the audience for this chapter was none other than bodhisattvas. Furthermore, the first part of the chapter advocates bodhisattva practice in the latter age. So it could well be thought of as a kind of follow-up to chapter 13. It teaches a quiet and passive bodhisattva practice because it advocates that followers of the bodhisattva way engage in self-reflection on practical knowledge and missions, perhaps as a way of maintaining individual self-identity. It makes sense if we understand it in such a way.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Aug. 18, 2025
For eight thousand million kalpas
Offer to the keeper of Myōhō Renge Kyō
The most wonderful things to see,
Hear, smell, taste and touch!If you make these offerings,
And hear Myōhō Renge Kyō even for a moment,
You will rejoice and say,
“Now I have obtained great benefits.”
Yoshiro Tamura: Suffering for the Truth
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p77-78Chapter 13, the martyrdom chapter, tells of the consciousness-raising of bodhisattvas, in which they become envoys of the Buddha by pledging to take the Buddha’s orders seriously as they undergo suffering by working for the realization of truth. These bodhisattvas promised:
Though many ignorant people
Will curse and abuse us
Or attack us with swords and sticks,
We will endure it all.In an evil age of a muddied eon,
Full of dreadful things,
Evil spirits will take possession of others
To curse, abuse, and insult us.But, revering and trusting in the Buddha,
We will wear an armor of patient endurance.
We will cherish neither our bodies nor our lives,
But care only for the unexcelled way.Repeatedly we will be driven out
And exiled far from stupas and monasteries.
Remembering the Buddha’s orders,
We will endure all such evils.
We will go there and teach the Dharma Entrusted to us by the Buddha.We are emissaries of the World-Honored One.
Facing multitudes without fear,
We will teach the Dharma well.This section was very moving to Nichiren, who read it as something to be taken to heart and put into practice.
Myōhō Renge Kyō Promise for Aug. 17, 2025
Medicine-King! I will tell you.
Myōhō Renge Kyō
Is the most excellent sūtra
That I have ever expounded.
Yoshiro Tamura: Exaltation of the Spirit of Martyrdom
Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p48-49Chapter 13, “Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra,” also teaches entrusting to bodhisattvas the mission of disseminating the Dharma in the evil age, and especially emphasizes the practice of martyrdom by bodhisattvas who are so entrusted. The chapter closes with bodhisattvas vowing to disseminate the Dharma despite intolerable suffering. Nichiren, who suffered many hardships in his life, and his followers, who were also believers in the Lotus Sutra, were encouraged and supported by this exaltation of the spirit of martyrdom, and by the teaching of “the apostles of the Tathagata” found in chapter 10. These teachings also gave them a sense of being among the religious elite and helped create strong bonds of communal friendship. Some contemporary scholars comment that this bodhisattva sense of being an apostle or a martyr is unique within Buddhism.
Because the Lotus Sutra generates such a bodhisattva spirit, some suspect that a distinct group produced it. Even if such a group did exist, since there is no concrete evidence for it, the idea that it existed is no more than conjecture. Rather, the bodhisattva spirit that the Lotus Sutra emphasizes was a radical version of the idea of the bodhisattva way that is generally found in Mahayana Buddhism. So it seems that we need not treat the Lotus Sutra as a special case.