This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
In Senchu Murano’s English translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra we are offered this story about the past life of Śākyamuni and his disciple, Ānanda:
“Good men! Ānanda and I resolved to aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi under the Void-King Buddha at the same time [in our previous existence]. At that time Ānanda always wished to hear much while I always practiced strenuously. Therefore, I have already attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi[, but he has not yet]. Now he protects my teachings. He also will protect the store of the teachings of future Buddhas, teach Bodhisattvas, and cause them to attain [Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi], according to his original vow. Therefore, now he has been assured of his future Buddhahood.”
All of the other English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra adhere to this image of Ānanda being overly focused on learning while Śākyamuni takes action and becomes a Buddha, leaving Ānanda behind to be a keeper of Buddha knowledge.
Having bathed in Murano’s translation, I’ve written in the past:
While it is important to remember that a single Daimoku is the equivalent of reciting the entire Lotus Sutra, I think the point Chapter 9 is making is that just knowing stuff is not enough. You have to put that knowledge to work. In the above quote from today’s portion of Chapter 9, we learn that Śākyamuni and Ananda both aspired for enlightenment under the Void-King Buddha, but Ananda was too focused on learning and neglected his practice. In the future, he will protect the store of the teachings of future Buddhas, just as he does now, but he will also teach Bodhisattvas, and that will be how he becomes a Buddha named Mountain-Sea-Wisdom-Supernatural-Power-King.
H. Kern’s English translation of the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra offers a different view. Kern says:
Young men of good family, I and Ānanda have in the same moment, the same instant conceived the idea of supreme and perfect enlightenment in the presence of the Tathāgata Dharmagahanābhyudgatarāja, the Arhat. At that period, young men of good family, he (Ānanda) constantly and assiduously applied himself to great learning, whereas I was applying myself to strenuous labor. Hence I sooner arrived at supreme and perfect enlightenment, whilst Ānanda Bhadra was the keeper of the law-treasure of the Lords Buddhas; that is to say, young men of good family, he made a vow to bring Bodhisattvas to full development.
In Kern’s telling it is not a failing that has prevented Ānanda from becoming a Buddha, but a vow he made “to bring Bodhisattvas to full development.” This is not unlike Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva – Jizō in Japan – who vowed to rescue all beings in the six realms of existence before he would attain Buddhahood himself.
This aspect of Kern’s translation is not as clear in Hurvitz’s translation of the compiled extant Sanskrit Lotus Sutras.
Then indeed the Blessed One, recognizing in his own mind what was going on in the minds of those bodhisattvas, addressed those bodhisattvas as follows: ‘Identically, O sons of good family, in the same moment, at the same instant, was our thought, mine and that of Ānanda, raised up to unexcelled, right, perfect, enlightened intuition in the presence of Dharmagaganābhyudgatarāja [the King Ascended to the Dharma Sky] the Thus Gone One, the Worthy One, the Properly and Fully Enlightened One. There this man, O sons of good family, was bent on the status of one who has heard much, while I was bent on vigorous undertaking. Therefore I was the quicker to experience unexcelled, right, perfect, enlightened intuition. This fellow, on the other hand, this goodly Ānanda, became the very bearer of the treasure of the true dharma of the blessed buddhas. That is to say, whatever vow is taken for the perfection of bodhisattvas, that belongs, O sons of good family, to this very son of good family as well.’ “
Both versions, though, offer Ānanda in a different light than Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra.
Next: Shouldering the Buddha