This was written in advance of the Jan. 17, 2021, meeting of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is discussing Chapter 3 of the Lotus Sutra this week. This post extends last month’s discussion of Does the Buddha Only Teach Bodhisattvas?
In Chapter 3, the Buddha explicitly states that Śāriputra will become a Buddha in a distant future.
Śāriputra! Although the world in which he appears will not be an evil one, that Buddha will expound the teaching of the Three Vehicles according to his original vow.
This has always bothered me. Back in March 2019 in my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra post, I wrote:
This prediction of Śāriputra’s future world is one of the great mysteries to me. After more than 40 times reading the Lotus Sūtra, I simply cannot fathom why Śāriputra, as the Buddha Flower-Light, will teach the Three Vehicles. None of the other predictions of future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas includes this detail.
Today, nearing completion of my 59th trip through the Lotus Sutra, I have a new appreciation of what I believe is being taught here.
In Chapter 3, Śāriputra explains that he considered himself a śrāvaka and the teaching he had received before as something different from what Bodhisattvas were given. After hearing in Chapter 2 that the Buddha teaches only Bodhisattvas and that the division of the Buddha’s teachings into different vehicles is actually an expedient teaching device, Śāriputra now understood his error.
I always saw you praising the Bodhisattvas.
Therefore, I thought this over day and night.
Now hearing from you,
I understand that you expound the Dharma
According to the capacities of all living beings.
You lead all living beings
To the place of enlightenment
By the Dharma-without-āsravas, difficult to understand.
The misunderstanding – the thought that he was taught a lesser teaching – is Śāriputra’s. Thinking there are three separate vehicles mistakes what Śākyamuni did, what other Buddhas are doing and what Śāriputra will do when he becomes a Buddha.
Śākyamuni’s original vow is discussed toward the end of Chapter 2, Expedients.
I thought:
“If I extol only the Buddha-Vehicle,
The living beings [of the six regions] will not believe it
Because they are too much enmeshed in sufferings to think of it.
If they do not believe but violate the Dharma,
They will fall into the three evil regions.
I would rather enter into Nirvana quickly
Than expound the Dharma to them.”
But, thinking of the past Buddhas who employed expedients,
I changed my mind and thought:
“I will expound the Dharma which I attained
By dividing it into the Three Vehicles.”
So too will Shariputra.
Chih-i offers this explanation in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra:
Chu-i Yung-san (Abiding in the one and employing the three) is the function related to the Subtlety of Benefits. This is spoken of by Chih-i in terms of the Buddha’s original vow. The Buddha vowed to expound the Three Vehicles in the mundane world. This original vow of the Buddha denotes “abiding in the one,” and expounding the Three Vehicles denotes “employing the three.” (Vol. 2, Page 446)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism
Later in the same book we learn:
In terms of the functions that can be summarized by the Worldly Siddhānta, “abiding in the three and revealing the one,” and “abiding in the one and employing the three” are said by Chih-i to correspond with the Worldly Siddhānta. This is because by abiding at the Three Vehicles and by employing the Three Vehicles, the Buddha caters to the intellectual capabilities of living beings. Complying with the needs of beings in teaching various vehicles belongs the Worldly Siddhānta. (Vol. 2, Page 449)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism
Śāriputra, like all Buddhas, will abide in the one and employ the three.