Source elements of the Lotus Sutra lists Rahula, the Buddha’s son, as foremost of all who loved learning. Lotus World has him foremost in inconspicuous practice. Either way, he is an example to follow for those who take faith in the Lotus Sutra.
In his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra, Rev. Ryusho Jeffus offers this explanation of what the Buddha calls Rāhula’s “secret practices”:
“It is the ordinary day-to-day practice that each of us performs that is actually the great secret practice of Rāhula. It isn’t fame or acquiring a big name that is required to attain enlightenment. It isn’t being famous that will lead others to practice the Lotus Sutra. It is our practice of the Lotus Sutra in our everyday lives that will enable countless others just like us to ultimately take faith in the Lotus Sutra. We should not be discouraged, instead we can look at Rāhula who will become Walking-On-Flowers-Of-Seven-Treasures Buddha and we too can walk on the flowers of the seven treasures of Myoho-Renge-Kyo.”
Here is another place where Nikkyō Niwano’s principle of half a step fits. We must lead by example, but not from far in front, acting superior, but a measured half-step ahead, showing what’s possible.
While everyone who takes faith in the Lotus Sutra is declared a child of the Buddha, one can imagine that it wasn’t easy for Rāhula to be inconspicuous when his father was Śākyamuni. As Gene Reeves points out in Stories of the Lotus Sutra:
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p115-116“While the name Ananda means ‘bliss’ or ‘joy,’ the name Rāhula means ‘obstruction,’ ‘bond,’ or ‘fetter.’ Born just shortly before the future Buddha left home to pursue enlightenment, it is said that he was named Rāhula by his grandfather after the future Buddha announced immediately after the birth of his son that an ‘obstruction’ (rāhula) had been born. Like many sons of noble Shakya families of the time, the future Buddha apparently had been thinking of leaving home from a fairly young age. It is said that his own father, the king, had arranged for his marriage to Yaśodharā when he was nineteen in order to discourage him from leaving home. Ten years later, Rāhula was born, and it was said that Shakyamuni called him Rāhula because he created “bonds” of affection. This story would later be used to show how a bond of love can be an impediment or hindrance to one who wants to follow the life of a monk.”
As Reeves explains, Rāhula was about 7 when his father returned home for the first time. As the child of divorced parents, I have always favored the story that Rāhula’s mother pushed her son to go ask his father, whom he’d never met, to give him his inheritance and his wealth. Divorced parents are like that. That the Buddha made Rāhula the heir to his spiritual wealth by taking him on as a novice monk says all we need to know about the Buddha’s love for all his children.
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