When we say we have faith in the Lotus Sutra, is it faith in the 69,384 Chinese characters of Kumārajīva’s translation? Or is it something else?
In Chapter 1, Mañjuśrī recalls when he was Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva in a time “innumerable, inconceivable, asaṃkhya kalpas ago.” At that time, Sun-Moon-Light Buddha taught the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. It took Sun-Moon-Light Buddha sixty small kalpas to complete the telling of this sutra.
In Chapter 7, we learn of a Buddha named Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence who lived a countless, limitless, inconceivable, asaṃkhya number of kalpas ago. At the request of his 16 sons, that Buddha expounded the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. It took that Buddha eight thousand kalpas to complete the expounding of the Lotus Sūtra.
In Chapter 11, when the Stupa of Treasures springs up from underground, we are told that when the Buddha inside the reliquary was yet practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas, he made a great vow: ‘If anyone expounds a sūtra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in any of the worlds of the ten quarters after I become a Buddha and pass away, I will cause my stūpa-mausoleum to spring up before him so that I may be able to prove the truthfulness of the sūtra and say ‘excellent’ in praise of him because I wish to hear that sūtra [directly from him].’
In Chapter 12, we learn that when Śākyamuni was a king in a previous life he sought the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma for innumerable kalpas without indolence and met a seer who promised to teach him the sutra of the Great Vehicle called the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
In Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva heard from a voice in the sky the twenty thousand billion gāthās of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
In Chapter 23, we are told that innumerable kalpas ago there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue. He expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, to the other Bodhisattvas, and also to the Śrāvakas. In all, Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva heard the eight hundred thousands of billions of nayuta of kankaras of bimbaras of asaṃkhyas of gāthās of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
In Chapter 27, innumerable, inconceivable, asaṃkhya kalpas ago, a Buddha called Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom expounded the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, wishing to lead King Wonderful-Adornment [and] also out of his compassion towards all living beings.
The Lotus Sutra self-referencing the Lotus Sutra is criticized by some, but they mistake the meaning.
The Saddharma, the law of nature, is one. Just as Namu Myoho Renge Kyo encompasses all 69,384 Chinese characters of Kumārajīva’s translation, those Chinese characters encompass the eight hundred thousands of billions of nayuta of kankaras of bimbaras of asaṃkhyas of gāthās and the twenty thousand billion gāthās of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma and the teaching that took sixty small kalpas to complete.
One vehicle. One Dharma.
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