Before leaving the lessons taught by the children of King Wonderful-Adornment in Chapter 27, I would like to offer a personal story.

As mentioned before, I spent my rebellious teen years proclaiming myself a born-again Christian. I was not so much joyful and elevated as I was annoying and sanctimonious. I vividly recall my mother shaking her head at my behavior and telling me: “You don’t show any sign of having experienced a religious transformation. I’ve seen it in others. You don’t show it.”

Looking back with more than a half-century of hindsight, I must admit she was right. I also believe my immersion in the Lotus Sutra has led to a recognizable change in me.

There is nothing miraculous about this. No divine intervention required. As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus writes in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:

“When it comes to the reward of practicing Buddhism, it lies solely in the change that takes place first in our own lives and then manifests in our environment. Buddhism is not about being rewarded with riches or material goods; those things are temporary and destructible. What we seek in our Buddhist practice is the indestructible enlightenment of the Buddha; something that the Lotus Sutra teaches us is possible.”

The point here is the focus within. As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus explains:

“If we think we can practice Buddhism and that this practice will change everyone in our lives to become agreeable or likeable or be some way that suits us, then we are working the wrong end of the formula. Buddhism is about changing ourselves, which in turn causes our environment to change. … The most effective thing to work on to become happy, to become enlightened, is one’s own life.”

Still, there’s a certain practicality in religious practice, as explained by Nikkyō Niwano in Buddhism for Today:

“If one earnestly takes refuge in a true faith, he will elicit a different response from other people. He begins to have feelings of optimism, confidence in life, and a positive attitude toward everything. Such feelings will naturally show in his face, speech, and conduct. Because of this change, those around him will be drawn to him because they feel buoyed up and strengthened by him. Accordingly, it is quite natural that his work should progress smoothly and that as a result he should come to be blessed with material wealth.”

Bottom line: True faith – combined with study and practice – transforms. As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus explains:

“In the story of King Wonderful-Adornment in Chapter 27, the two sons who vow to practice Buddhism and then vow to convert their father do so because they are able to manifest the benefits of their Buddhist practice. The truth of the teaching enables them to change their lives, giving them the joy of life and the capacity to turn around and save their father. Their faith and seeking spirit led them to Buddhism and their benefit enables them to share it.”
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Last Sunday, I offered my view of Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva, using the text of the chapter. Here are a couple of alternative views.

Gene Reeves explains in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“The Lotus Sutra teaches that we should reflect the Dharma in our own lives, especially in relation to those who are close to us, such as other members of our family. Just thinking we are Buddhist, or saying we are Buddhist, or belonging to a Buddhist organization, or even regularly performing Buddhist practices such as meditation or recitation, is not enough. It doesn’t mean much unless it affects how we behave in everyday life.

“And when this happens, all kinds of transformations are possible. When the King and Queen give their extremely valuable necklaces to the Buddha, the necklaces are transformed into a jeweled platform with a seat for the Buddha from which he emits light. The point of this, I think, is that when we devote ourselves to the Buddha, not only can our lives be transformed, but ordinary things as well. The necklaces can symbolize any gift to the Buddha. Here the necklaces are exceptionally valuable because they are from a king and queen. But every gift to the Buddha is valuable in its own way.

This is also illustrated by the two sons who have been asked by their mother to “show some wonders” to their father to convince him to allow them to join the Buddha.

As explains Nikkyō Niwano in Buddhism for Today:

“First, we must think of the true meaning of the two sons’ showing their father many kinds of supernatural deeds. This does not mean that they became able to display supernatural deeds by means of the Buddha’s teachings, nor that they stimulated their father’s curiosity by showing him such deeds. Their performing various supernatural deeds means that they completely changed their character and their daily lives by studying and believing the Buddha’s teachings. Their showing their father supernatural deeds thus means nothing but the fact that before their father they proved the true value of the Buddha’s teachings by their deeds and led him to be aroused to the aspiration for Perfect Enlightenment.

“When we lead others to the teachings of the Buddha, none will follow us only through hearing us praise the teachings. We must clearly show them the reason that the Buddha’s teachings are worshipful …

“The quickest and simplest way to lead others to the Buddha’s teachings is to justify the teachings by our own practice of them. Our first consideration is to show others living evidence: “I have changed in this way since believing in the Buddha’s teachings and practicing them.” There is no more powerful and direct a way of leading others.”

Putting our faith into daily practice, we work toward this transformation as we actualize our Bodhisattva vow to help all sentient beings.

In considering the lessons of Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva, I’m always struck by the fact that the two sons weren’t trying overtly to convert their father from his wrong views but to inspire him by showing what they had accomplished.

“The mother said to them, ‘Show some wonders to your father out of your compassion towards him! If he sees the wonders, he will have his mind purified and allow us to go to that Buddha.’

“Thereupon the two sons went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and displayed various wonders because they were thinking of their father. They walked, stood, sat, and reclined in the sky. Then they issued water from the upper parts of their bodies, and fire from the lower parts. Then they issued water from the lower parts of their bodies, and fire from the upper parts. Then they became giants large enough to fill the sky, became dwarfs, and became giant again. Then they disappeared from the sky and suddenly appeared on the earth. Then they dived into the earth just as into water, and stepped on the surface of water just as on the earth. [Then they went up to the sky and stayed there.]”

The transformation of his children – not the fantastical aerial feats but real-life changes in their lives – inspired the transformation of the father.

“By displaying these various wonders, they purified the mind of their father, that is, of the king, and caused him to understand the Dharma by faith.”

The father was now able to aspire for Enlightenment. His sons had been the spark that ignited his faith.

“After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samādhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way to them, teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

In the Lotus Sutra, we are directed to be teachers of the Dharma and at the same time to watch for and to appreciate those who are acting as our teachers.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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

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.”

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.”

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.”

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

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.”

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.”

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