This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
Back in July 2016 after having read the Lotus Sutra 10 or so times, I commented upon the patriarchal worldview of Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva. Nothing in the chapter seemed likely to encourage female practicers. It was as if this chapter were solely designed to encourage teenage boys.
But then I read H. Kern’s English translation of the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra. In his Chapter 26, Encouragement of Samantabhadra, Kern has the newly arrived bodhisattva say:
I have come hither, O Lord, from the field of the Lord Ratnategobhyudgata, the Tathāgata, &c., as I am aware, Lord, that here in the Sahā-world is taught the Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law, to hear which from the mouth of the Lord Śākyamuni I have come accompanied by these hundred thousands of Bodhisattvas Mahāsattvas. May the Lord deign to expound, in extension, this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law to these Bodhisattvas Mahāsattvas.
Note that Kern doesn’t have Samantabhadra say anything about the sex of these Bodhisattvas.
Senchu Murano’s translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra offers a different picture:
“World-Honored One! I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which you expounded in this Sahā World, from a remote world in which lives Treasure-Power-Virtue-Superior-King Buddha. I came here with many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattvas in order to hear and receive [this Sūtra]. World-Honored One! Tell me how the good men or women who live after your extinction will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!”
The other English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra follow Murano’s translation and specify that Universal-Sage Bodhisattva is asking about both men and women practicers.
And yet in Kern’s telling, the Buddha focuses his response solely on women who practice.
So addressed, the Lord said to the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Samantabhadra: These Bodhisattvas, young man of good family, are, indeed, quick of understanding, but this is the Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law, that is to say, an unmixed truth. The Bodhisattvas exclaimed: Indeed Lord; indeed, Sugata. Then in order to confirm, in the Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law, the females among the monks, nuns, and lay devotees assembled at the gathering, the Lord again spoke to the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Samantabhadra: This Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law, young man of good family, shall be entrusted to a female if she be possessed of four requisites, to wit: she shall stand under the superintendence of the Lords Buddhas; she shall have planted good roots; she shall keep steadily to the mass of disciplinary regulations; she shall, in order to save creatures, have the thoughts fixed on supreme and perfect enlightenment. These are the four requisites, young man of good family, a female must be possessed of, to whom this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law is to be entrusted.
The equivalent portion of Kumārajīva’s Lotus Sutra ignores this focus on female followers. As Murano offers:
The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:
“The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: 1. secure the protection of the Buddhas, 2. plant the roots of virtue, 3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and 4. resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”
Again, the other English translators of Kumārajīva’s Lotus Sutra agree with Murano.
After vowing protection against being captivated by women, both Kern’s version and Kumārajīva’s promise followers of the Lotus Sutra rebirth in heaven, where eighty-four thousand goddesses – or in Kern’s telling, nymphs – will serve them. Only Murano specifies that this reward is reaped only by male Bodhisattvas.
Anyone who copies this sūtra will be reborn in the Heaven of the Trāyastriṃs̒a Gods immediately after his present life. On that occasion, eighty-four thousand goddesses will come and receive him, making many kinds of music. A crown of the seven treasures will be put on his head, and he will enjoy himself among the ladies in waiting.
Kern and the other English Kumārajīva translators use the inclusive “they.” (I’m going to ignore the Modern Risshō Kōsei-kai translation‘s decision to change “goddesses” to “heavenly beings” and “ladies in waiting” to “refined attendants.”)
Perhaps it’s my narrow male view that makes it seem unlikely that female followers will be encouraged by the promise of receiving the attentions of goddesses and ladies in waiting as a reward for practicing the Lotus Sutra. Still, if you remove Murano’s focus on male followers, the patriarchal criticism is certainly diminished.