Monthly Archives: March 2016

LS32

Day 27

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

And today, like yesterday, amusement with “What if…” what I read is literally true turns to ash in the previous life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva as Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva.

While Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings only burns his forearms instead of his whole body and he does get his arms restored in today’s reading, Sakyamuni goes on to say to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva:

Anyone who aspires for, and wishes to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, should offer a light to the stupa of the Buddha by burning a finger or a toe. Then he will be given more merits than the person who offers not only countries, cities, wives and children, but also the mountains, forests, rivers and ponds of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and various kinds of treasures.

That statement, however, is followed by a big “but” that encourages those who shy from setting flame to self:

But the merits to be given to the person who fills the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds with the seven treasures and offers that amount of the seven treasures to the Buddhas, to the Great Bodhisattvas, to the Pratyekabuddhas, and to the Arhats, are less than the merits to be given to the person who keeps even a single gatha of four lines of this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The following list of the Lotus Sutra’s position in the universe is one of my favorites:

Star-King-Flower! Just as the sea is larger than the rivers, this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is more profound than any of the other sutras expounded by the Tathagatas. Just as Mt. Sumeru is the largest of all the mountains including earth mountains, black mountains, the Small Surrounding Iron Mountains, the Great Surrounding Iron Mountains, and the Ten Treasure Mountains, this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is above all the other sutras. Just as the Moon God is brighter than the stars, this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma gives us more light as the Sun God dispels all darkness, this sutra drives away all the darkness of evils. Just as the wheel-turning-holy-king is superior to the kings of small countries, this sutra is more honorable than the other sutras. Just as King Sakra is the king of the thirty-three gods, this sutra is the king of all the sutras. Just as the Great Brahman Heavenly-King is the father of all living beings, this sutra is the father of all the sages and saints, of the Sravakas who have something more to learn, of the Sravakas who have nothing more to learn, and of those who aspire for Bodhisattvahood. Just as Srota-apannas, Sakrdagamins, Anagamins, Arhats, and Pratyekabuddhas are superior to ordinary men, this sutra is superior to any of the other sutras expounded either by Tathagatas or by Bodhisattvas or by Sravakas. The person who keeps this sutra is superior to any other living being. Just as Bodhisattvas are superior to Sravakas or to Pratyekabuddhas, this sutra is superior to any other sutra. Just as the Buddha is the king of the Dharma, this sutra is the king of all the sutras.

That couldn’t be clearer, which makes the promise that follows seem almost redundant:

Star-King-Flower! This sutra saves all living beings. This sutra saves them from all sufferings, and gives them great benefits. All living beings will be able to fulfill their wishes by this sutra just as a man who reaches a pond of fresh water when he is thirsty, just as a man who gets fire when he suffers from cold, just as a man who is given a garment when he is naked, just as a party of merchants who find a leader just as a child who meets its mother, just as a man who gets a ship when he wants to cross [a river], just as a patient who finds a physician, just as a man who is given a light in the darkness, just as a poor man who gets a treasure, just as the people of a nation who see a new king enthroned, just as a trader who reaches the seacoast. Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death. The merits to be given to the person who, after hearing this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, copies it, or causes others to copy it, cannot be measured even by the wisdom of the copies this sutra and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense to burn, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, streamers, canopies, garments, and various kinds of lamps such as Lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of campaka oil, lamps of sumanas oil, lamps of patala oil, lamps of varisika oil, and lamps of navamalika oil [to the copy of this sutra].

After Sakyamuni offers women a special reason to adore this chapter of the Lotus Sutra, my male “What if…” literalist fantasy suffers still another blow:

Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises [this chapter], saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.

There are, of course, serious lessons and serious promises. As Sakyamuni explains after transmitting this chapter to Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva:

Star-King-Flower! Protect this sutra by your supernatural powers! Why is that? It is because this sutra is a good medicine for the diseases of the people of the Jambudvipa. The patient who hears this sutra will be cured of his disease at once. He will not grow old or die.

What if…?

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – March 18, 2016

The Buddhas sat at the place of enlightenment,
And obtained the hidden core.
Anyone who keeps this sūtra will be able
To obtain the same before long.

The Buddha speaks these verses in Chapter Twenty-One of the Lotus Sūtra. They are his assurance to us as those who follow and practice the Lotus Sūtra that we are firmly on the path to enlightenment, no matter what challenges we find in the world.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 26

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Today’s reading begins with Sakyamuni addressing the Bodhisattvas led by Superior Practice who have vowed to take upon themselves the job of expounding the Lotus Sutra after Sakyamuni’s extinction.

The supernatural powers of the Buddhas are as immeasurable, limitless, and inconceivable as previously stated. But I shall not be able to tell all the merits of this sutra to those to whom this sutra is to be transmitted even if I continue telling them by my supernatural powers for many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas of kalpas. To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathagata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathagata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathagata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathagata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sutra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sutra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!

And in the gathas, I smile with the idea of bringing joy to all the Buddhas:

Anyone who keeps this sutra will be able to cause me to rejoice.
He also will be able to bring joy
To [the Buddhas of] my replicas
And also to Many-Treasures Buddha who once passed away.

He also will be able to see
The present, past and future Buddhas
Of the worlds of the ten quarters,
Make offerings to them, and cause them to rejoice.

This chapter ends with this promise:

Therefore, the man of wisdom
Who hears the benefits of these merits
And who keeps this sutra after my extinction,
Will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
Definitely and doubtlessly.

In the next chapter we get the actual transmission of the Lotus Sutra to the Bodhisattvas who arose from the sky below the Saha World.

In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathagata, you should expound this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to them, and cause them to hear and know [this sutra] so that they may he able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive [this sutra] by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.

For me and my amusement at wondering “What if…” Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, is the most troubling. How is a literalist like myself – a bemused reader who relishes the opportunity to suspend disbelief – to interpret the actions of Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva when he decides his offerings to Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha after he preached the Lotus Sutra are just not serious enough.

Having made these offerings [to the Buddha], he emerged from the samadhi, and thought, ‘I have now made offerings to the Buddha by my supernatural powers. But these offerings are less valuable than the offering of my own body.’

Then he ate various kinds of incense taken from candana, kunduruka, turuska, prkka, aloes and sunac, and drank perfumed oil taken from the flowers of campaka and other flowers[. He continued doing all this] for twelve hundred years. Then he applied perfumed oil to his skin, put on a heavenly garment of treasures in the presence of Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha, sprinkled various kinds of perfumed oil on the garment, and set fire to his body, making a vow by his supernatural powers. The light of the flame illumined the worlds numbering eight thousands of millions of times the number of the sands of the River Ganges.

Clearly Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings was a great Bodhisattva with the most exquisite of supernatural powers. But instead of being inspired to metaphorically offer my own body to the task of expounding the Lotus Sutra, I’m reminded of the literal burning alive of a Buddhist monk June 10, 1963, to protest persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War.

Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva’s flaming tribute burned for 1,200 years until his body was consumed. He then returned as the son of a king. He said to his father:

Great King, know this, [in my previous existence]
I walked about this world, and at once obtained
The samadhi by which I can transform myself
Into any other living being. With a great endeavor,
I gave up my own dear body.

Lecture on Lotus Sutra

A Buddhist Ecosystem

Quote

If we say we are Buddhist but have no practice or don’t follow the precepts we are like a plant with no stem or tree without a trunk. It won’t be possible for us to support our faith and wisdom without the connection the stem provides. So too our practice, our chanting Odaimoku is the connection that allows our faith and our wisdom to grow. Our faith harmoniously supports our practice and wisdom. You could say that study is our mind, which are the branches holding the leaves or wisdom of our lives. Our manifestation of enlightenment is dependent upon our faith, our practice, and our study. Without all three we cannot effectively maintain the kind of life that is capable of manifesting our innate Buddha potential.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – March 17, 2016

Bhikṣus, know this! I can enter skillfully deep into the natures of all living beings. Because I saw that they wished to hear the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and that they were deeply attached to the five desires, I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa to them. When they heard that teaching, they received it by faith.

The Buddha gives this explanation to the Bhikṣus (monks and nuns) gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. As difficult as it is to hear the Buddha’s highest teaching, he would not give it to us unless we were ready to receive it. Still, we who would receive it must set aside his earlier teachings as a means to our personal happiness, and see them as preparations to learn how to benefit all beings. Our faith in the Buddha is the confidence that we will become as enlightened as he is, and that he is helping all of us on the path to that enlightenment.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 25

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

What struck me today in reading about this long-long-long-long ago Buddha called Powerful-Voice-King was the use of the Three Vehicles by a Buddha:

Powerful-Voice-King Buddha expounded the Dharma to the gods, men and asuras of his world. To those who were seeking Sravakahood, he expounded the teaching suitable for them, that is, the teaching of the four truths, 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 suitable for them, that is, the teaching of the twelve causes. To the Bodhisattvas who were seeking Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, he expounded the teaching suitable for them, that is, the teaching of the six paramitas, and caused them to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.

For me, this underlined the idea that to hear the Lotus Sutra is something special.

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Expound this sutra only once
In hundreds of millions of billions of kalpas,
That is, in an inconceivable number of kalpas.

Therefore, anyone who hears this sutra
And practices the Way
After my extinction,
Should have no doubts about [this sutra].

He should expound this sutra with all his heart;
Then he will be able to meet Buddhas
Throughout all his existences,
And quickly attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.

Of course, the main point of this chapter is the story of Never Despising, a bodhisattva who took on the form of a bhiksu in “the age of the counterfeit of the right teachings of the first Powerful-Voice-King Tathagata.”

He did not read or recite sutras. He only bowed to the four kinds of devotees. When he saw them in the distance, he went to them on purpose, bowed to them, and praised them, saying, ‘I do not despise you because you can become Buddhas.’

He was not well-received and, instead, was routinely abused. But he never despaired or became angry.

When he was about to pass away, he heard [from a voice] in the sky the twenty thousand billion gathas of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which had been expounded by the Powerful-Voice-King Buddha. Having kept all these gathas, he was able to have his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind purified as previously stated. Having his six sense-organs purified, he was able to prolong his life for two hundred billion nayuta more years. He expounded this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to many people [in his prolonged life]. The arrogant bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas and upasikas, that is, the four kind of devotees who had abused him and caused him to be called Never-Despising, saw that he had obtained great supernatural powers, the power of eloquence, and the great power of good tranquility. Having seen all this, and having heard the Dharma from him, they took faith in him, and followed him.

And the kicker to the story:

The Never-Despising Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself. If I had not kept, read or recited this sutra or expounded it to others in my previous existence, I should not have been able to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi so quickly. Because I kept, read and recited this sutra, and expounded it to others under those past Buddhas, I attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi quickly.

Again we learn of the recurring relationship between the Buddha and his followers:

The four kinds of devotees who always abused [me, who was] that Bodhisattva at that time are now present here in this congregation in the persons of the five hundred Bodhisattvas including Bhadrapala, the five hundred bhiksunis including Lion-Moon, and the five hundred upasakas including Thinking-Of-Buddha. Now they do not falter in seeking Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

Today’s reading concludes with the opening of Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathagathas, in which we have the Bodhisattvas who emerged from the sky below the Saha-World vowing to uphold the Lotus Sutra and Sakyamuni and all of his replicas demonstrating their appreciation:

Thereupon the World-Honored One displayed his great supernatural powers in the presence of the multitude, which included not only the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahasattvas who had already lived in this Saha-World [before the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground], headed by Manjusri, but also bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. He stretched out his broad and long tongue upwards until the tip of it reached the World of Brahman. Then he emitted rays of light with an immeasurable variety of colors from his pores. The light illumined all the worlds of the ten quarters. The Buddhas who were sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees also stretched out their broad and long tongue and emitted innumerable rays of light. Sakyamuni Buddha and the Buddhas under the jeweled trees displayed these upernatural powers of theirs for one hundred thousand years.

Recently I’ve been reading Nichiren’s Senji-sho, Selecting the Right Time, and came across a footnote that explains the tongues:

Having a long tongue is one of the Buddha’s 32 physical excellences, considered a sign of truly spoken words.

What happens next was even more impressive:

Then they pulled back their tongues, coughed at the same time, and snapped their fingers. These two sounds [of coughing and snapping] reverberated over the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters, and the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways. By the supernatural powers of the Buddhas, the living beings of those worlds, including gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, and mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings, saw the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees in this Saha-World. They also saw Sakyamuni Buddha sitting by the side of Many-Treasures Tathagata on the lion-like seat in the stupa of treasures. They also saw that the many hundred of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahasattvas and the four kind of devotees were surrounding Sakyamuni Buddha respectfully. Having seen all this, they had the greatest joy that they had ever had.

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – March 16, 2016

Although we were your sons then as we are now, we wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. If we had aspired for the teaching of the Great Vehicle, you would have already expounded it to us.

Subhūti, Mahā-Kātyāyana, Mahā-Kāśyapa, and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana speak this passage in Chapter Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This is before they tell the story of the Wayward Son. They explain their realization that the Buddha holds nothing back from us. The reason we hear expedient teachings rather than the highest teaching is because of the limits of our own aspiration. When we aspire to become Buddhas, we receive the highest teaching.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32, Blog

Day 24

Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

We continue today with the merits to be received by “the good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sutra.” As I read the Lotus Sutra over and over again, I love to imagine, What if? What if what I read is literally true:

Those who keep this sutra also will be able to recognize the gods [and things] in heaven by smell while they are staying [in the world of men]. … They will be able to recognize the gods by smell. They will be able to recognize from afar the scent that Sakra-Devanam-Indra gives forth when he satisfies his five desires and enjoys himself in his excellent palace, or when he expounds the Dharma to the Trayastrimsa Gods at the wonderful hall of the Dharma, or when he plays in the gardens.

Or…

Anyone who keeps
This Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Will be able to know by smell
Whether the gods are walking, sitting, playing or performing wonders.

Or…

He will be able to know by smell
Whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl,
Or a child of ambiguous sex,
Or the embryo of a nonhuman being.

He will be able to know by smell
Whether a woman is an expectant mother,
Or whether she will give an easy birth
To a happy child or not.

He will be able to know by smell
What a man or a woman is thinking of,
Or whether he or she is greedy, ignorant or angry,
Or whether he or she is doing good.

He will be able to recognize by smell
The gold, silver, and other treasures
Deposited underground,
And the things enclosed in a copper box.

He will be able to know by smell
The values of various necklaces,
And the deposits of their materials,
And also to locate the necklaces [ when they are lost].

“What if…” is just such fun. I really love the Lotus Sutra and Buddhism and the empowerment that comes from believing that we have Buddhahood inherent in each and every one of us.

Twice each day I read the Verses for Opening the Sutra, in which it says:

“Anyone can expiate his past transgressions, do good deeds, and attain Buddhahood by the merits of this sutra. It does not matter whether he is wise or not or whether he believes the sutra or rejects it.”

“What if…” is so incredibly better than the alternative.

Today, is March 15, 2016, the date of several presidential primaries. While I was waiting for my wife at a train station, I listened on the car radio to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio announce he was dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination after losing in Florida, his home state. Why quit now? Apparently, Rubio now realizes it’s “not God’s plan that I be president in 2016.”

I’ve never understood how that “god’s plan” could work. Blaming god for failing to convince voters that you are the best candidate for the job seems so silly.

OK. Maybe it is not as “silly” as imagining gaining the ability to “smell whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl, or a child of ambiguous sex, or the embryo of a nonhuman being.”

But the promise of the Lotus Sutra is infinitely greater than any religion in which one is reduced to blaming “god’s plan” as the controlling factor in all events.

As Ryusho Jeffus writes in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

No longer is there a fundamental difference between the enlightenment of people and the enlightenment of Buddhas. The Buddha is showing us the path to an enlightenment that is exactly like that of all Buddhas. This is really what I think is remarkable.

This is the religion in which I choose to put my faith, and why I count myself as one of the “good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sutra.”

Daily Dharma

Daily Dharma – March 15, 2016

The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!

The Buddha sings these verses to those gathered to hear him teach in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra. He has already said that we must leave behind the expedient teachings tailored to our minds and take on the highest teaching which is the Buddha’s own mind. He knows how difficult this is for us, that we cannot hear it through our understanding alone, so he asks us to use our whole being to hear him.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 23

Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

One of my favorite concepts in the Lotus Sutra is the example of the 50th person to hear and rejoice.

The Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahasattva: ‘Ajita! Suppose a bhiksu, a bhiksuni, an upasaka, an upasika, or some other wise person, whether young or old, rejoices at hearing this sutra in a congregation after my extinction. After leaving the congregation, he or she goes to some other place, for instance, to a monastery, a retired place, a city, a street, a town, or a village. There he or she expounds this sutra, as he or she has heard it, to his or her father, mother, relative, friend or acquaintance as far as he or she can. Another person who has heard [this sutra from him or her], rejoices, goes [to some other place] and expounds it to a third person. The third person also rejoices at hearing it and expounds it to a fourth person. In this way this sutra is heard by a fiftieth person. Ajita! Now I will tell you the merits of the fiftieth good man or woman who rejoices at hearing [this sutra].

And those merits are huge.

“Ajita! The merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma are immeasurable, limitless, asamkhya. Needless to say, so are the merits of the first person who rejoices at hearing [this Sutra] in the congregation. His merits are immeasurable, limitless, asamkhya and incomparable.

And this promise makes me want to stand outside the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church waiving a sign when services are scheduled:

Anyone who[, while he is staying outside the place of the expounding of the Dharma,] says to another person, ‘Let us go and hear the sutra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma which is being expounded [in that place],’ and causes him to hear it even for a moment, in his next life by his merits, will be able to live with the Bodhisattvas who obtain dharanis.

Of course, that’s a minimum-wage merit compared to the earnings of those who devote their lives to the Lotus Sutra:

“Ajita, look! The merits of the person who causes even a single man to go and hear the Dharma are so many. It is needless to speak of the merits of the person who hears [this sutra] with all his heart, reads it, recites it, expounds it to the great multitude, and acts according to its teachings.

And in gathas:

Anyone who persuades others to sit and hear this sutra
In the place where the Dharma is expounded,
Will be able to obtain the seat of Sakra or of Brahman
Or of a wheel-turning-holy-king by his merits.

Needless to say, boundless will be the merits
Of the per on who hears this sutra with all his heart,
And expounds its meanings,
And acts according to its teachings.

In the next chapter we get a wonderful, as in full of wonder, list of merits to be given to the teacher of the Dharma.

The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind. They will be able to adorn and purify their six sense-organs with these merits.

And this will be done with their natural sense organs.

Although they have not yet obtained heavenly eyes,
They will be able to see all this
With their natural eyes.

And…

Their ears given by their parents will be purified, not defiled.
With their natural ears,
They will be able to recognize the sounds of voices
Of the one thousand million sumeru-worlds.

One final point: Today’s two chapters listing the merits speak consistently about “good men or women.” The merits to be earned from the Lotus Sutra are not limited to men or to women reborn as men. Even without the Devadatta chapter, the Lotus Sutra benefits men and women equally. In fact, I would argue that the lesson of the Dragon King’s daughter is only peripherally about the enlightenment of women, which is covered in the promises made to Sakyamuni’s step-mother and former wife in Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra. The 8-year-old dragon girl is both very young and a member of the non-human world. Her quick transformation and enlightenment underlines the universal power of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, complementing the evil Devadatta, who was Sakyamuni’s teacher at one point and tormentor at another and eventually becomes a Buddha himself.