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800years, d30b, Blog

800 Years: The Protection of 10 Rākṣasas Daughters

With faith, practice and study we advance along the path to enlightenment, but faith alone launches us on this journey and that same faith becomes our armor, inviting protection along the way. In particular, the faithful benefit from the 10 rākṣasas daughters, who promise in Chapter 26, Dhārānis, that those who read, recite and keep the Lotus Sūtra will have no trouble. These demon daughters and the Mother of Devils, Kishimojin, are encouraged by the Buddha to protect even those who only recite the Daimoku.

Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side points out Nichiren’s emphasis in his letters on the participation of the 10 rākṣasas daughters in the protection and testing of adherents:

“Nichiren saw the workings of the ten rāksasis in the events surrounding him, both great and small. He saw their roles as protecting Lotus devotees, occasionally testing their faith, aiding their practice, relieving their sufferings, and chastising those who obstruct their devotion. To a follower, the lay monk Myōmitsu, he wrote: ‘The ten rāksasis in particular have vowed to protect those who embrace the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore they must think of you and your wife as a mother does her only child … and safeguard you day and night.’ To two new parents, the samurai Shijō Kingo and his wife, Nichiren wrote that the ten rāksasis would watch over their infant daughter, so that ‘wherever she may frolic or play, no harm will come to her; she will “travel fearlessly, like a lion king”.’ He saw the protection of the ten rāksasis in the kindness of an elderly lay monk on Sado Island who had come to his aid, helping him to survive in exile, and in the devotion of a woman who had made him a robe to shield him from the cold in the recesses of Mount Minobu. Their protection was further evident to him in the fact that he had been able to escape unscathed from an attack on his dwelling in Kamakura and survived other threats as well. To two brothers whose father had threatened to disinherit them on account of their faith in the Lotus Sūtra, he suggested: ‘Perhaps the ten rāksasis have possessed your parents and are tormenting you in order to test your resolve.’ He also asserted that the ten rāksasis, along with other deities, had induced the Mongol ruler to attack Japan to chastise its people for abandoning the Lotus Sūtra.”

Two Buddhas, p247

There is an important, deeper meaning to the presence of the 10 rākṣasas daughters in Chapter 26. As Nikkyō Niwano explains in Buddhism for Today:

“These female demons with one voice declared before the Buddha that if anyone harassed the preachers of the sutra, they would protect the preachers and rid them of such persecution. Their declaration bears witness to the fact that the Buddha-mind is found even in these demons. Conversely, the teachings of the Lotus Sutra can be said to have the power to enable even these demons to become buddhas.”

Buddhism for Today, p389
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800years, d29b, Blog

800 Years: Compassion of the Bodhisattva

In the introduction to The Six Perfections, Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character, Dale S. Wright says:

“From the early beginnings of their tradition, Buddhists have maintained that nothing is more important than developing the freedom implied in their activity of self-cultivation—of deliberately shaping the kind of life you will live.”

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 3-4

The first of the Six Perfections is generosity, and it is generosity which exemplifies the interaction of our practice for self and others.

“If, engulfed in our own world of concerns, we do not even notice when someone near us needs help, we will not be able to practice generosity. Similarly, if we maintain a distant posture toward others that, in effect, prevents them from appealing to us for help, we will rarely find ourselves in a position to give. The first skill that is vital to an effective practice of generosity is receptivity, a sensitive openness to others that enables both our noting their need and our receptivity to their requests. Our physical and psychological presence sets this stage and communicates clearly the kind of relation to others that we maintain.”

Six Perfections: Buddhism & the Cultivation of Character, p 33

This is the lesson we are to take from Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

As Thich Nhat Hanh explains in Peaceful Action, Open Heart:

“Happiness is made of one substance – compassion. If you don’t have compassion in your heart you cannot be happy. Cultivating compassion for others, you create happiness for yourself and for the world. And because Avalokiteśvara is the embodiment of this practice, the Sutra says that we pay respect to him by bowing and touching our foreheads to the ground. This is an ancient Indian practice, a gesture of deep respect to one’s teacher.”

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p200

Gene Reeves suggests in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra that the sutra can be said to have a primary focus on wisdom when it emphasizes teaching the Dharma as the most effective way to help others. But compassion is the focus when you consider the message of the parables.

“The father of the children in the burning house does not teach the children how to cope with fire; he gets them out of the house. The father of the long-lost, poor son does not so much teach him in ordinary ways as he does by example and, especially, by giving him encouragement. The guide who conjures up a fantastic city for weary travelers does not teach by giving them doctrines for coping with a difficult situation; instead, he gives them a place in which to rest, enabling them to go on. The doctor with the children who have taken poison tries to teach them to take some good medicine but fails and resorts instead to shocking them by announcing his own death. All of these actions require, of course, considerable intelligence or wisdom. But what is emphasized is that they are done by people moved by compassion to benefit others.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p275-276

Our faith in the Lotus Sutra is manifest in our compassion.

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Kern, d7b, d8b, Blog

Comparing and Contrasting a Parable

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

H. Kern’s English translation of the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra offers interesting variation in the telling of parables compared to English translations of Kumārajīva’s fifth century Chinese Lotus Sutra.  The first example of this comes in Chapter 4 in what Kern describes as a parable “exemplifying the skill of the wise father in leading a child that has gone astray and lost all self-respect back to a feeling of his innate nobility and to happiness.”

Let’s begin with Senchu Murano’s version. After introducing the father and the missing son and their current situations, we are told the son becomes frightened and runs away after the father dispatches a messenger to bring him to the father:

“The messenger pulled him by force. The poor son thought, ‘I am caught though I am not guilty. I shall be killed.’ More and more frightened, the poor son fainted and fell to the ground. Seeing all this in the distance, the father said to the messenger, ‘I do not want him any more. Do not bring him forcibly! Pour cold water on his face and bring him to himself! Do not talk with him any more!’

“The father said this because he had realized that his son was too base and mean to meet a noble man [like his father]. He knew that the man was his son, but expediently refrained from telling to others that that was his son. [The messenger poured water on the son. The son was brought to himself.] The messenger said to him, ‘Now you are released. You can go anywhere you like.’

“The poor son had the greatest joy that he had ever had. He stood up and went to a village of the poor to get food and clothing.

Compare that with Kern’s telling:

At the same time, moment, and instant, Lord, he dispatches couriers, to whom he says: Go, sirs, and quickly fetch me that man. The fellows thereon all run forth in full speed and overtake the poor man, who, frightened, terrified, alarmed, seized with a feeling of horripilation all over his body, agitated in mind, utters a lamentable cry of distress, screams, and exclaims: I have given you no offence. But the fellows drag the poor man, however lamenting, violently with them. He, frightened, terrified, alarmed, seized with a feeling of horripilation all over his body, and agitated in mind, thinks by himself: I fear lest I shall be punished with capital punishment; I am lost. He faints away, and falls on the earth. His father dismayed and near despondency says to those fellows: Do not carry the man in that manner. With these words he sprinkles him with cold water without addressing him any further. For that householder knows the poor man’s humble disposition and his own elevated position; yet he feels that the man is his son.

The householder, Lord, skillfully conceals from everyone that it is his son. He calls one of his servants and says to him: Go, sirrah, and tell that poor man: Go, sirrah, whither thou likest; thou art free. The servant obeys, approaches the poor man and tells him: Go, sirrah, whither thou likest; thou art free. The poor man is astonished and amazed at hearing these words; he leaves that spot and wanders to the street of the poor in search of food and clothing.

Kern’s version offers a much clearer explanation of why the son was frightened. And the detail that the father sprinkled his son with cold water after he fainted without addressing him any further enhances our understanding of the depth of the father’s feelings for his son. This detail is dropped from the gāthās.

The details of the expedient used by the father to attract his son are significantly different.

Murano offers:

Thereupon the rich man thought of an expedient to persuade his son to come to him. He [wished to] dispatch messengers in secret. He said to two men looking worn-out, powerless and virtueless, ‘Go and gently tell the poor man that he will be employed here for a double day’s pay. If he agrees with you, bring him here and have him work. If he asks you what work he should do, tell him that he should clear dirt and that you two also will work with him.’

“The two messengers looked for the poor son. Having found him, they told him what they had been ordered to tell. The poor son [came back with them,] drew his pay in advance, and cleared dirt with them.

Kern expands this, offering:

In order to attract him the householder practices an able device. He employs for it two men ill-favored and of little splendor. Go, says he, go to the man you saw in this place; hire him in your own name for a double daily fee, and order him to do work here in my house. And if he asks: What work shall I have to do? tell him: Help us in clearing the heap of dirt. The two fellows go and seek the poor man and engage him for such work as mentioned. Thereupon the two fellows conjointly with the poor man clear the heap of dirt in the house for the daily pay they receive from the rich man, while they take up their abode in a hovel of straw in the neighborhood of the rich man’s dwelling.

Again, this detail is dropped from the gāthās.

At this point, it is Murano who adds details to clarify the timeline.

Kern says:

And that rich man beholds through a window his own son clearing the heap of dirt, at which sight he is anew struck with wonder and astonishment.

While Murano adds:

Seeing him, the father had compassion towards him, and wondered [why he was so base and mean]. Some days later he saw his son in the distance from the window. The son was weak, thin, worn-out, and defiled with dirt and dust.

As for the father taking up a disguise in order to chat with his son, and the son advancing until he takes over the household and the final revelation of the son’s inheritance, the differences in the two versions are more a product of Kern’s 19th century English vocabulary than the substance of the story.

In the gāthās Kern offers some curious added details. The boy is said to have run away because he was “seduced by foolish people.” And in describing the work the son will do, the rich man points out that the dirt is “replete with feces and urine.” But on a whole, the story in gāthās is even closer between versions than the prose.

Next: Disposition to Understanding by Faith

800years, d29b, Blog

800 Years: True Salvation

If the perfect bodhisattva seeks to save all sentient beings by whatever means necessary, then World-Voice-Perceiver is the exemplar. But for Nikkyō Niwano, writing in Buddhism for Today, none of the chapters in the Lotus Sutra is as badly misunderstood as Chapter 25.

The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra summarizes The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver with this:

“In this world, we have many problems and sorrows, and since we are not able to overcome them ourselves, we complain about them loudly. When World-Voice-Perceiver hears our voices, he immediately discerns what our problem is, solves it, and leads us towards enlightenment. That is the reason for his name. In Asia, millions of people chant his name sincerely for delivery from their troubles.”

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

Nikkyō Niwano sees such a practice as superficial and insufficient:

“[I]t is stated in chapter 25 … that anyone who keeps in mind the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World will be delivered from various sufferings. If we interpret this statement literally, it seems to mean that we do not have to work hard at practicing the Buddha’s teachings; but with such an attitude, none of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra will bear fruit. Anyone can easily understand that in the last six chapters the Buddha cannot have been so illogical and contradictory as to deny fundamentally all of the teachings preached up through chapter 22. It is surprising to find that for centuries many people have put a shallow interpretation on something that should be so easily understood and have turned to an easy, lazy faith that they thought would allow them to become free of suffering merely by keeping in mind the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World.

“When we read chapter 25 carefully and in depth, we understand that the supernatural powers of this bodhisattva are essentially identical with the power of the Law preached by the Tathāgata Sakyamuni. We also realize that we must depend spiritually upon the Law to the last, but that in cultivating and practicing it we should take the model of the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World as our immediate goal.”

Buddhism for Today, p351

As Nikkyō Niwano points out, we do not find salvation outside ourselves. We find salvation in the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha, who, because we all possess the 10 realms, is both within and outside us. Realization of this – faith in the teaching of the Lotus Sutra – brings salvation.

“Such a firm realization leads us to true peace of mind,” explains Niwano in Buddhism for Today. “At the same time, our speech and conduct come naturally to be in accord with the Buddha and will produce harmony in our surroundings. The Land of Eternally Tranquil Light, namely, an ideal society, will be formed when a harmonious world gradually spreads in all directions. True salvation comes about in this way.”

Buddhism for Today, p377-378

Or as Nichiren wrote in his Essay on Gratitude, chanting “Namu Myō hōRenge Kyō” swallows up the functions of “Namu Kanzeon bosatsu.”

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800years, d28b, Blog

800 Years: The Importance of this Suffering World

At the opening of Chapter 24, the Buddha Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom admonishes Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva not to put on airs when he visits Śākyamuni’s world:

“ ‘Do not despise that world! Do not consider it to be inferior to our world! Good Man! The Sahā-World is not even. It is full of mud, stones, mountains and impurities. The Buddha of that world is short in stature! So are the Bodhisattvas of that world. You are forty-two thousand yojanas tall. I am six million and eight hundred thousand yojanas tall. You are the most handsome. You have thousands of millions of marks of merits, and your light is wonderful. Do not despise that world when you go there! Do not consider that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of that world are inferior to us! Do not consider that that world is inferior to ours!’ ”

As Gene Reeves explains in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“We can only guess what is behind the concern contained in this statement. Obviously, the writers believed that someone was not taking this world seriously enough. Does it indicate a time and place where people thought some distant land, some faraway paradise, was to be preferred to this world? Does it indicate a reaction to a worldview that rejected the reality and importance of this world in favor of some ideal world? We cannot be sure. But it is very clear that both here and in many other places the Dharma Flower Sutra emphasizes the value and importance of life in this world, the home of Shakyamuni Buddha, in which the path of the bodhisattva can be taken, the land that is our only home and place of practice.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p261

Looking at this comparison of the world of Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom with Śākyamuni’s world, Nikkyō Niwano emphasizes in Buddhism for Today the difference in accomplishment for those who practice here, in the land of suffering, and those who practice in a pure land:

“The domain where the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation dwells is an ideal world situated in the heavens. For this reason the bodies of the buddhas and the bodhisattvas in that domain are extraordinarily large and of a wonderful brightness.

“On the other hand, what is the actuality? There is nothing impressive about it when compared with the ideal. The actuality appears to be far smaller, lower, and plainer than the ideal. A person who has perfected his character in such an actual world is far more sacred than an ideal form in the heavens, even if his body is small and has no apparent brightness. There is nothing more sacred than the attainment of the mental state of the Buddha in the actual world, where obstructions are often thrown up by evil-minded people. The Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation preached this earnestly to the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound.”

Buddhism for Today, p370

Like the lotus flower, we need the mud of this world to nurture us and to allow us to bloom.

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Kern, d6b, d7b, Blog

Variations to Puzzle Over

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

Many of the variations between H. Kern’s translation of the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit document and Kumārajīva’s fifth century translation fall into a category I call, “Now that’s interesting, but what does it mean?”

Consider the Parable of the Burning House. In the gāthās re-telling, Kern states:

62. In such a state is that awful house, where thousands of flames are breaking out on every side. But the man who is the master of the house looks on from without.

63. And he hears his own children, whose minds are engaged in playing with their toys, in their fondness of which they amuse themselves, as fools do in their ignorance.

64. And as he hears them he quickly steps in to save his children, lest his ignorant children might perish in the flames.

But Senchu Murano’s translation of Kumārajīva offers this:

The house was so dreadful.
[In that house] there were
Poisonings, killings and burnings.
There were many dangers, not just one.

At that time the house-owner
Was standing outside the gate.
He heard a man say to him:
“Some time ago
Your children entered this house to play.
They are young and ignorant.
They are engrossed in playing.”
Hearing this,
The rich man was frightened.
He rushed into the burning house.

All of the English translations of Kumārajīva include this point, but what is added to the meaning of the story to have someone telling the father his children are inside versus the father hearing his children inside?

Further down in the gāthās, Kern says:

105. This, Śāriputra, is the closing word of my law which now at the last time I pronounce for the weal of the world including the gods. Preach it in all quarters.

But Murano adds a caution:

Śāriputra!
I expound this seal of the Dharma
In order to benefit
[All living beings] of the world.
Do not propagate it carelessly
At the place where you are!

Again, the “do not propagate it carelessly” is unique to Kumārajīva, but why has it been added? Does Kumārajīva want to presage the later warnings about teaching to those who won’t benefit? Both Kern and Kumārajīva caution future preachers.

Kern:

111. But do not speak of this matter to haughty persons, nor to conceited ones, nor to Yogins who are not self-restrained; for the fools, always reveling in sensual pleasures, might in their blindness scorn the law manifested.

112. Now hear the dire results when one scorns my skillfulness and the Buddha-rules for ever fixed in the world; when one, with sullen brow, scorns the vehicle.

Murano:

Śāriputra
Do not expound this sūtra
To those who are arrogant and idle,
And who think that the self exists!

Do not expound it to men of little wisdom!
They would not be able to understand it
Even if they heard it
Because they are deeply attached to the five desires.

Those who do not believe this sūtra
But slander it,
Will destroy the seeds of Buddhahood
Of all living beings of the world.

Some will scowl at this sūtra
And doubt it.
Listen! I will tell you
How they will be punished.

I expect to have many more of these “Now that’s interesting, but what does it mean?” discussions.

Next: Comparing and Contrasting a Parable

Blog

Family Oeshiki

20221023_oesiki-web
Attended the Oeshiki service Sunday at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. From left, John, Mary, Alexis and Richard and showing but not shown, my grandson Edwin.
800years, d28b, Blog

800 Years: In the Service of Others

If anything can be said to be a practice of those who take faith in the Lotus Sutra, it is the Bodhisattva practice of helping others. In Chapter 23, we learned that Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva obtained a samādhi by which he could transform himself into any other living being. He even caused others to obtain this samādhi. But he himself did not demonstrate this samādhi. It is in Chapter 24 that we see this samādhi put to practice by Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva:

“This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva protects all living beings in this Sahā-World. He transforms himself into one or another of these various living beings in this Sahā World and expounds this sūtra to all living beings without reducing his supernatural powers, [his power of] transformation, and his wisdom. He illumines this Sahā World with the many rays of light of his wisdom, and causes all living beings to know what they should know.”

The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra explains that while such transformations may seem miraculous, they can be a product of our daily practice:

“[W]hen we sincerely devote ourselves to the service and welfare of others, we can reach a stage of nonself – real selflessness – and become one with them. In appearance, we may even look like one of them. An adult playing happily with children may look like a child himself. He may feel like a child, too. The children may even consider him to be one of them. Such ‘transformations’ are far from impossible, but they do require a special state of mind. The samādhi by which one can transform himself into other living things is an expression of the Bodhisattva-spirit of devoting one’s self to others.”

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

By far the more famous Bodhisattva who performs this samādhi in the Lotus Sutra is World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva, whom we meet in Chapter 25. As Gene Reeves points out in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, the fact that multiple bodhisattvas posses this power underscores that every bodhisattva can have it:

“We are not talking about magical tricks here. The ability to take on different forms according to what is needed means just that, an ability to adapt to different situations, particularly to the different needs of people. Taking on different forms is no more and no less than the ability to serve others usefully, practically, and effectively. This is a power given not only to the bodhisattvas Kwan-yin and Wonderful Voice, but to each and every one of us.

“Thus, one obvious meaning of this story for us is that we too can become bodhisattvas who take on different forms and roles in order to help others. And there is another side to this, even its opposite – anyone can be a bodhisattva for us. If Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva can take on any form, anyone we meet might be Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva in a form designed to help us!”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p265-266

The task for the faithful is to see how we can help others and allow others to help us.

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800years, d26b, d27b, Blog

800 Years: The Problem with Literalism

The Buddha’s suggestion in Chapter 23 that anyone who seeks enlightenment should burn a finger or a toe is an example of what Gene Reeves decries in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra as “literalism”:

“It can lead to extreme acts that benefit no one. Devotion is good; devotion to the Buddha is good; devotion to the Dharma Flower Sutra is good. But acts of devotion have to be examined with additional criteria to determine whether they are in accord with the Dharma as a whole, whether they promote or retard one’s progress along the way, and whether they are likely to lead to a reduction in suffering. There could be very exceptional circumstances, perhaps once in ten million eons, when such a sacrifice is called for. …

“Religious devotion not tempered by intelligence and wisdom can be dangerous, both to others and to oneself. Sound practice, skillful practice of the Buddha Way, requires that we develop to the fullest all of our capacities for doing good.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p246-247

Chapter 23 is not the only place in the Lotus Sutra where literalism can be problematic. Take for example World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva’s promised interventions:

“If anyone, guilty or not, calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is bound up in manacles, fetters, pillories or chains, those things in which he is bound up will break asunder, and he will be saved.”

Should we encourage the criminal who believes the Lotus Sutra is a “Get Out of Jail Free” card?

And then there are places where what’s literally promised might not be wanted. For example:

“Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises this chapter, saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.”

I confess that I tend toward the literalist view. I want the promises of the Lotus Sutra to be true and therefore I want to do everything I can to have that come true, even burning a finger. I haven’t lit my finger on fire but I have developed a little ritual that pays homage the idea.

When I light incense at the start of my service I offer the light of the flaming incense stick to my statue of Kannon Bodhisattva, Jizo Bodhisattva, to the Seven Happy Gods, to the Buddhas in manifestation, to my Gohonzon and to Kishimon and the 10 rākṣasas daughters. I then extinguish the flame by pinching the incense between my thumb and forefinger.

Later in my service, when I burn a half-stick of incense for my final Daimoku, I say, “Offer the light thus produced” as I offer the light to my altar and conclude “by burning a finger” as I extinguish the flame between thumb and forefinger.

I have developed small patches of brown calluses on my thumb and forefinger. I cherish them as marks of my faith.

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Kern, d5b, Blog

Śāriputra’s Future

This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.

In Senchu Murano’s translation of the Buddha’s prediction for Śāriputra, we get this picture:

“Śāriputra! After a countless, inconceivable number of kalpas from now, you will be able to make offerings to many thousands of billions of Buddhas, to keep their right teachings, to practice the Way which Bodhisattvas should practice, and to become a Buddha called Flower-Light, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. The world of that Buddha will be called Free-From-Taint. That world will be even, pure, adorned, peaceful, and fertile, where gods and men will prosper. The ground of that world will be made of lapis lazuli; the roads will fan out from the center to the eight directions. Those roads will be marked off by ropes of gold, and the trees of the seven treasures on the roadsides will always bear flowers and fruit. Flower-Light Tathāgata will also lead the living beings [of his world] by the teaching of the Three Vehicles.

“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.

Now, compare that with H. Kern’s translation:

Again, Śāriputra, at a future period, after innumerable, inconceivable, immeasurable Æons, when thou shalt have learnt the true law of hundred thousand myriads of koṭis of Tathāgatas, showed devotion in various ways, and achieved the present Bodhisattva-course, thou shalt become in the world a Tathāgata, &c., named Padmaprabha, endowed with science and conduct, a Sugata, a knower of the world, an unsurpassed tamer of men, a master of gods and men, a Lord Buddha.

At that time then, Śāriputra, the Buddha-field of that Lord, the Tathāgata Padmaprabha, to be called Viraja, will be level, pleasant, delightful, extremely beautiful to see, pure, prosperous, rich, quiet, abounding with food, replete with many races of men; it will consist of lapis lazuli, and contain a checker-board of eight compartments distinguished by gold threads, each compartment having its jewel tree always and perpetually filled with blossoms and fruits of seven precious substances.

Now that Tathāgata Padmaprabha, &c., Śāriputra, will preach the law by the instrumentality of three vehicles. Further, Śāriputra, that Tathāgata will not appear at the decay of the Æon, but preach the law by virtue of a vow.

I’ve struggled over the Buddha’s assertion that Śāriputra will teach the three vehicles even though “the world in which he appears will not be an evil one.” Why not emulate Mañjuśrī? “In the sea [Mañjuśrī] expounded only the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.” But Kern’s translation agrees that Śāriputra “will preach the law by the instrumentality of three vehicles” after pointing out that his world will be “level, pleasant, delightful, extremely beautiful to see, pure, prosperous, rich, quiet, abounding with food, replete with many races of men.”

Given this agreement it seems safe to assume that this is an important point being made by the Lotus Sutra, and I should just accept this and move on.

Which brings me to another puzzle. This one occurs whenever Kern is describing the world of a future Buddha.

For example, Murano says Śāriputra’s “world will be made of lapis lazuli; the roads will fan out from the center to the eight directions. Those roads will be marked off by ropes of gold, and the trees of the seven treasures on the roadsides will always bear flowers and fruit.”

Kern agrees that it will consist of lapis lazuli, but he says it will “contain a checker-board of eight compartments distinguished by gold threads, each compartment having its jewel tree always and perpetually filled with blossoms and fruits of seven precious substances.”

This “checkerboard” image is used repeatedly by Kern, while all of the English translations of Kumārajīva speak of roads branching out in eight directions. For example, Hurvitz says: “It shall have vaiḍūrya for soil in an eightfold network of highways, each bordered with cords of pure gold.”

I have no clue what Kern was imagining when he described a world of eight compartments distinguished by gold threads.

Next: Variations to Puzzle Over