I’ve previously set aside several quotes from Nikkyō Niwano’s discussion of Chapter 24, Wonder Sound [Wonderful-Voice] Bodhisattva, but until now I didn’t find a home for his interpretations of the samādhis Wonder Sound practiced. In exploring this, I was surprised by what I discovered.
Buddhism for Today, p368-369THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE LAW-FLOWER.
The Buddha said: “At that time in the domain Adorned With All Pure Radiance there was a bodhisattva whose name was Wonder Sound, who for long had cultivated many roots of virtue, paid homage to and courted innumerable hundred thousand myriad koṭis of buddhas, and perfectly acquired profound wisdom. He had attained the contemplation of the wonderful banner sign, the contemplation of the Law-Flower, the contemplation of pure virtue, the contemplation of the Constellation King’s sport, the contemplation of causelessness, the contemplation of the knowledge seal, the contemplation of interpreting the utterances of all beings, the contemplation of collection of all merits, the contemplation of purity, the contemplation of supernatural sport, the contemplation of wisdom torch, the contemplation of the king of adornment, the contemplation of pure luster, the contemplation of the pure treasury, the contemplation of the unique, and the contemplation of sun revolution; such hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of great contemplations as these had he acquired, equal to the sands of the Ganges.”
Contemplation, samādhi in Sanskrit, means to concentrate one’s mind on a single object, not distracted by anything. Here are mentioned sixteen kinds of contemplations, each of which has a particular meaning. The contemplation of the wonderful banner sign means to believe firmly and unshakably that the Lotus Sutra is the core of all the teachings of the Buddha. The contemplation of the Law-Flower means to believe deeply in the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, practicing them oneself, and not to be distracted by anything. This contemplation is representative of all sixteen contemplations; the remaining fifteen can be said to be derived from the contemplation of the Law-Flower. The contemplation of pure virtue means one’s mental state of possessing pure virtue but not being conscious of it. A person who enters this contemplation is not arrogant or selfish, and his speech and conduct naturally influence those around him for the better. The contemplation of the Constellation King’s sport means to keep one’s mind upon desiring to be a buddha or a great bodhisattva who has been endowed with fine virtue from former lives and has the power to lead others freely by means of his virtue, and also to have a firm determination in one’s own desire for buddhahood.
The contemplation of causelessness means to devote oneself to the spirit of saving not only those related to oneself but also those unrelated to one. The contemplation of the knowledge seal means to concentrate one’s mind on abiding in such a mental state that one’s deep knowledge will exert a strong favorable influence upon the minds of others close to one. The contemplation of interpreting the utterances of all beings means being in the mental state of discerning the desires of all living beings and of meditating on preaching teachings suitable to them. The contemplation of collection of all merits means to concentrate one’s mind on the idea that the merits of all the teachings amount to only one merit, that both oneself and others will become buddhas. The contemplation of purity means to devote one’s heart and soul to a single object, by which one removes all illusions from one’s mind and keeps one’s body pure. The contemplation of supernatural sport means to endeavor so wholeheartedly as to maintain the mental state of being free from all circumstances.
The contemplation of wisdom torch means to devote oneself to the desire to direct the light of one’s wisdom into one’s surroundings, just as a torch throws its light afar. The contemplation of the king of adornment means to keep one’s mind upon desiring to be a person who has such virtue as to influence others. The contemplation of pure luster means to desire to purify one’s surroundings by emitting a spotless luster from one’s body. The contemplation of the pure treasury means to keep one’s mind upon the desire to fill one’s mind with purity. The contemplation of the unique means to have the firm ideal of attaining the same mental state as the Buddha and to practice the teachings toward that ideal. The contemplation of sun revolution means not to have a distracted mind but to desire to attain such a mental state as to cause all things to live, just as the life-giving sun shines incessantly on all things.
This is a good example of Nikkyō Niwano’s interpretive bent. In this case, my literalist obsession welcomes this offering of an alternative meaning to the text.
Since Nikkyō Niwano’s interpretation relies heavily on the second samādhi – the contemplation of the Law-Flower – I decided to compare his list with Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, which I use in my daily practice..
What I found was unexpected.
The 1975 Rissho Kosei-Kai translation, which is what Nikkyō Niwano uses in Buddhism for Today, lists 16 samādhis:
- the contemplation of the wonderful banner sign,
- the contemplation of the Law-Flower,
- the contemplation of pure virtue,
- the contemplation of the Constellation King’s sport,
- the contemplation of causelessness,
- the contemplation of the knowledge seal,
- the contemplation of interpreting the utterances of all beings,
- the contemplation of collection of all merits,
- the contemplation of purity,
- the contemplation of supernatural sport,
- the contemplation of wisdom torch,
- the contemplation of the king of adornment,
- the contemplation of pure luster,
- the contemplation of the pure treasury,
- the contemplation of the unique, and
- the contemplation of sun revolution;
Murano lists only 14 samādhis:
- the samadhi as wonderful as the banner of a general,
- the samadhi for the traveling of the king of the stars,
- the samadhi for freedom from causality,
- the samadhi for the seal of wisdom,
- the samadhi by which one could understand the words of all living beings,
- the samadhi by which one could collect all merits,
- the samadhi for purity,
- the samadhi for exhibiting supernatural powers,
- the samadhi for the torch of wisdom,
- the samadhi for the Adornment-King,
- the samadhi for pure light,
- the samadhi for pure store,
- the samadhi for special teachings, and
- the samadhi for the revolution of the sun.
Missing from Murano’s list are the Lotus and virtue samādhis.
I set about checking the other five English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese version of the Lotus Sutra.
The 2019 “modern” Rissho Kosei-Kai translation includes the Samadhi of the Dharma Flower and the Samadhi of Pure Virtue.
Leon Hurvitz’s Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, which is considered the gold standard for the translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese version, has the samādhi of the Dharma Blossom (saddharmapuṇḍarika) and the samādhi of Pure Excellence (vimaladatta).
The BDK English Tripiṭaka translation, which only offers Sanskrit terms, includes saddharmapuṇḍarika and vimaladatta in the list of 16 samādhis.
Gene Reeves offers the concentration of the Dharma Flower and the concentration of pure virtue.
Burton Watson includes the Dharma flower samadhi and the pure virtue samadhi.
Even H. Kern’s 1884 translation from the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit document has Saddharma-puṇḍarika (i.e., the Lotus of the True Law) and Vimala Datta (i.e., given by Vimala).
Over the course of my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice I’ve discovered a handful of what I consider typos in the Third Edition of Senchu Murano’s translation. This discrepancy, however, is something more significant.
Postscript: Checking with Rev. Shinkyo Warner, the editor of the Third Edition of Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, I learned that the two missing samādhis were in the Second Edition and were inexplicably dropped during the production of the Third Edition.