In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that faith along with practice and study is an interdependent progression that moves us along the path to Buddhahood. The Ten Merits discussed in the final chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings illustrates how this works.
The first merit is contained within the sutra independent of any action by the listener: “My good children, first of all, this sutra can make an unawakened bodhisattva aspire to awakening.” This is the entry level of faith.
For the second through the fourth merits we witness a progression of benefits for those “beings who hear this sutra, whether the whole of it, a verse of it, or a phrase of it.” With the second merit they gain mastery of infinite meanings. In the third, their “delusions, while still existing, will be as if nonexistent.” And in the fourth, “they will gain courage and be able to ferry others across, although they will not be able to ferry themselves.”
With the fifth and sixth merit, we witness the abilities gained when “whether during the Buddha’s lifetime or after his passing away, there are good sons and good daughters who receive, embrace, read, recite, and copy this extremely profound and supreme Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.” In the fifth merit, “[a]lthough they are still bound by their delusions and cannot yet free themselves from all the faults of an ordinary person, they will be able to reveal the way of great bodhisattvas.” In the sixth merit, “they will be able to teach the Dharma for living beings and enable them to break free from the delusions of birth and death and overcome all sufferings.”
For the remainder of the merits, we consider the consequences of putting the sutra to work in our life.
In the seventh merit, we meet those who “rejoice, believe, and delight in” this sutra: “Although they will still be unable to practice the Six Paramitas, the Six Paramitas will be naturally present in them.”
In the eighth merit, we consider those who “look upon [this sutra] with reverence and trust, just as if it were the very body of the Buddha”: “They will teach others far and wide by expounding this supreme Great Vehicle Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, using this sutra to demonstrate to those who have never once believed in the rewards of good and evil they do indeed exist.”
In the ninth merit, we see what happens to those who “jump for joy at having attained something extraordinary”: “They will be able, in an instant, to completely eliminate the heavy hindrance of any bad karma remaining from their former lifetimes.”
Finally, in the tenth merit, “there are good sons and good daughters who greatly rejoice in attaining this sutra, appreciating so rare a thing”: “They will be able to encourage laypeople and monastics far and wide to receive, embrace, read, recite, copy, pay homage to, and expound this sutra, and practice it as taught.”
This is the progression made possible by faith.
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