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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

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.

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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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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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

Oeshiki at Ro-O Zan

Kanjin Cederman, Buffalo Ro-O Zan
Kanjin Cederman Shonin during the Oct. 16 service at the Buffalo Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple

Enjoyed attending the celebration of the Parinirvana of Nichiren at the Buffalo Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple. I’ve been in Rochester, New York, for a week helping my brother-in-law move and took the opportunity to visit Kanjin Cederman’s temple in North Tonawanda, New York, in the suburbs of Buffalo. The temple occupies a portion of the Masonic Sutherland Lodge. Cederman and his family have been masons for generations and he was able to secure the space in a corner of the lodge complex as a temporary home for his Buffalo Ro-O Zan Enkyoji Nichiren Buddhist Temple.

800 Years: The Burning Question

Does faith in the Lotus Sutra require burning a finger or a toe? After all, Chapter 23, which describes the previous life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva as Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, states:

“Anyone who aspires for, and wishes to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, should offer a light to the stupa of the Buddha by burning a finger or a toe. Then he will be given more merits than the person who offers not only countries, cities, wives and children, but also the mountains, forests, rivers and ponds of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and various kinds of treasures.”

Gene Reeves in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra openly admits that this is his least favorite chapter for this reason. The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra felt compelled to point out:

“The offering of burning the body, which plays such a prominent part of this chapter, should not be taken literally.”

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra

I was 11 in 1963 when Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk, set himself ablaze in a busy Saigon intersection on June 11. Thich Quang Duc was protesting the Catholic leaders of the South Vietnamese government. Over the months more Buddhist monks immolated themselves until a US-backed coup overthrew the regime in November of that year. In the years of anti-war protests that followed in the late 1960s, the example of these Vietnamese Buddhist monks was a beacon.

Thich Nhat Hanh knew Thich Quang Duc personally and had practiced with him in Vietnam. In Peaceful Action, Open Heart, Thich Nhat Hanh stressed that Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation was no more a suicide than Jesus’ death on the cross. It was an act of compassion:

“Because of his great compassion, he was able to sit very still as the flames engulfed him, in perfect samadhi, perfect concentration.”

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p160

In The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Reeves offered a historical perspective on burning body parts as demonstrations of faith:

“A great many Chinese monks right down to the middle of the twentieth century followed the practice of burning off one or more of their fingers as a sign of dedication and devotion. Until very recently, virtually all Chinese monks and nuns, and I believe those in Vietnam as well, when receiving final ordination, used moxa, a kind of herb used in traditional Chinese medicine, to burn small places on their scalps, where the scars usually remained for life. This ritual burning was taken to be a sign of complete devotion to the three treasures – the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

“While deeply sympathetic with those who show such great devotion by sacrificing their bodies by fire, it is not a practice I can recommend to anyone. It is much better, I believe, to sacrifice our bodies through dedicated work, in a sense burning our bodies much more slowly.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p243-244

As the Introduction to the Lotus Sura stresses, the story Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva is meant to symbolize “the spirit of giving one’s whole self, believing wholeheartedly, embracing the Most-Venerable-One, and offering to serve the truth with all one’s body and soul.”


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800 Years: Our Bodhisattva Practice

One overriding theme of the Lotus Sutra is that all of those who put their faith in the sutra are Bodhisattvas. Our practice is the Bodhisattva practice, and the final chapters of the Lotus Sutra explain how we accomplish that practice.

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

“[W]hat is the job that needs to be done? The more general answer is that the Dharma needs to be widely shared – so, especially with the Buddha no longer able to do so directly, bodhisattvas are responsible for teaching, and thus perpetuating, Buddha Dharma. The Sutra is concerned not only with teaching the Dharma in the ordinary sense; it is concerned with having the Dharma be embodied, having it be a central part of the lives of people. Early in [Chapter 23], Shakyamuni Buddha says, ‘For incalculable hundreds of thousands of billions of eons, I have studied and practiced this rare Dharma of supreme awakening.’ Notice that he says both ‘studied’ and ‘practiced.’ Practicing the Dharma goes beyond studying it to embody it in one’s life. Thus bodhisattvas have a responsibility not only of teaching the Dharma by words, but also by demonstrating and exemplifying it in their actions.

“It is because of this role as exemplars of the Dharma that bodhisattvas, both mythical and human, can be models for us. Because they are said to have many marvelous powers, people may pray to a bodhisattva for relief from some kind of danger or suffering, but that is not the most useful way to understand our relationship to such bodhisattvas. … If various bodhisattvas have found skills and powers with which to help others, we too can develop skill in ways of helping others.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p235

And one who practices in this manner is a light to the world. As Nichiren writes in “Shijō Kingo-dono Nyōbō Gohenji”:

“The ten parables preached in the ‘Medicine King Bodhisattva’ chapter of the Lotus Sūtra seem to compare the relative merits of the Lotus Sūtra against all other Buddhist scriptures, though this is not the true intent of Śākyamuni Buddha. In actuality, what the Buddha is preaching is that when we compare the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra against the practicer of all other scriptures of Buddhism, the former is like the sun and moon while the latter is like stars and lights.

“How do we know this? We know this because of the most important statement in the eighth parable: ‘Likewise, one who is able to uphold this sūtra is the most superior of all living beings.’ These 22 Chinese characters are the foremost essence of the entire Lotus Sūtra. …

“Therefore, anyone in this world, male or female, laity or clergy, who upholds the Lotus Sūtra will be regarded by the Buddha to be the lord of all living beings and revered by the King of the Brahma Heaven and Indra. When I think of this, my joy is beyond expression.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II,
Pages 120-121


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Senchu Murano’s Insight

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


Before leaving Chapter 2, I want to address some differences between Senchu Murano’s English translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra and the English translations of others.

During my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice I’ve used Leon Hurvitz’s translation and admired its academic thoroughness. I’ve puzzled over Gene Reeves’ decision to use Greek and Roman names for Indian mythological creatures. The BDK English Tripiṭaka translation’s use of Sanskrit names for Buddhas made it unusable for my purposes. And I found the “Modern” Rissho Kosei-Kai translation’s effort at gender neutrality distracting.

For me, the Third Edition of Murano’s translation has been my reference point. I started with Murano back in 2015 because it was the translation sold by Nichiren Shu’s Nichiren Buddhist International Center. As I’ve cycled through the Lotus Sutra more than 75 times I’ve become intimately familiar with Murano’s version of the teaching.

Now as I compare and contrast English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra with H. Kern’s English translation of an 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit document, I want to acknowledge the particular touch Murano applied.

The verses at the conclusion of Chapter 2 serve as a good example.

In Kern’s translation this is rendered:

139. Let this mystery be for thee, Śāriputra, for all disciples of mine, and for the eminent Bodhisattvas, who are to keep this mystery.

140. For the creatures, when at the period of the five depravities, are vile and bad; they are blinded by sensual desires, the fools, and never turn their minds to enlightenment.

141. (Some) beings, having heard this one and sole vehicle manifested by the Jina, will in days to come swerve from it, reject the Sūtra, and go down to hell.

142. But those beings who shall be modest and pure, striving after the supreme and the highest enlightenment, to them shall I unhesitatingly set forth the endless forms of this one and sole vehicle.

143. Such is the mastership of the leaders; that is, their skillfulness. They have spoken in many mysteries; hence it is difficult to understand (them).

144. Therefore try to understand the mystery of the Buddhas, the holy masters of the world; forsake all doubt and uncertainty: you shall become Buddhas; rejoice!

Hurvitz, who used both Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation and a Sanskrit compilation of the Lotus Sutra, offers:

Śāriputra, be it known that
The Buddhas’ dharma is like this:
By resort to myriads of millions of expedient devices
And in accord with what is appropriate for the situation, they preach the dharma;
But they who have not practiced it
Cannot understand this.
All of you, knowing now
That the buddhas, the teachers of the ages,
In accord with what is peculiarly appropriate have recourse to expedient devices,
Need have no more doubts or uncertainties.
Your hearts shall give rise to great joy,
Since you know that you yourselves shall become buddhas.

Reeves simplifies this:

It should be understood, Shariputra,
That the Dharma of the buddhas is like this.
With trillions of skillful means, in accord with what is good
They teach the Dharma.
Those who have not practiced and studied it
Cannot fully understand this.
But all of you,
Knowing that the buddhas,
The teachers of the worlds,
Use skillful means
According to what is appropriate,
Should have no more doubt.
Your hearts should be filled with great joy,
For you know that you too will become buddhas.

Senchu Murano’s translation clarifies and focuses this message:

Śāriputra [and others], know this!
As a rule, the Buddhas expound the Dharma
With billions of expedients as stated above,
According to the capacities of all living beings.

Those who do not study the Dharma
Cannot understand it.
You have already realized
The fact that the Buddhas, the World-Teachers, employ expedients,
According to the capacities of all living beings.
Know that, when you remove your doubts,
And when you have great joy,
You will become Buddhas!

The twist here in Murano’s telling is the role of “joy.” Others suggest that the result of understanding will be joy – Your hearts shall give rise to great joy – but for Murano, joy is a prerequisite – “When you have great joy, You will become Buddhas!”

Title Understanding

Another example of Murano’s special touch comes in the choice of the title for Chapter 4.

Leon Hurvitz and Burton Watson offer “Belief and Understanding.”  Gene Reeves and the modern Rissho Kosei-Kai translation offer “Faith and Understanding.”

Again, Murano offers an additional layer of meaning by marrying two separate aspects into a dynamic relationship with his choice of the title “Understanding by Faith.”

Interestingly, the only other Nichiren priest to translate  Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra into English, Bunno Kato, chose a similar title for Chapter 4, “Faith-discernment.”  (See the Introduction to W.E. Soothill’s 1930  “The Lotus of the Wonderful Law or The Lotus Gospel.”)


Next: Śāriputra’s Future

800 Years: Variable Speed Transmission

Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, is considered the specific transmission of the daimoku in the Latter Age of Degeneration of the Dharma given to the bodhisattvas from underground led by Jōgyō. Chapter 22, Transmission, is the general transmission given to the rest of the gathering. Nichiren describes the scene in his letter “Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji”:

“[A]s Śākyamuni Buddha stepped out of the Stupa of Many Treasures and stood in the air, the original disciples of the Buddha such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice, disciples of the Buddhas in manifestation such as Bodhisattva Great Mañjuśrī, Great King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun, the moon, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Dragon King, the ten female rākṣasa demons, and others gathered in the vast world of four-trillion nayuta, as numerous as the pampas grass in the Musashino Field or trees on Mt. Fuji. They waited knelt side by side with their heads bowed to the ground, their hands together in gasshō, beads of perspiration forming from all the body-heat. Like an affectionate mother stroking the head of her child, Śākyamuni Buddha placed His hand upon their heads three times and entrusted them with the Lotus Sūtra. Then accepting the request of Śākyamuni Buddha, Bodhisattva Superior Practice, the sun and moon, and others vowed to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 132-133

As Gene Reeves explains in Stories of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha’s placing his hand on the heads of the bodhisattvas is a gesture of trust, but also something more:

“Though not in this chapter, in various places in the Dharma Flower Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has said that he is the father of this world. Further, bodhisattvas are regarded as children of the Buddha. There is, in other words, a kind of familial relation, a relation of affection between the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Here, the placing of his hand on the heads of bodhisattvas indicates that the relationship is not only one of trust in a formal sense but displays a religious faith which goes beyond calculations of ability and such. Just as in early chapters of the Sutra he has assured shravakas of becoming buddhas, here the Buddha assures bodhisattvas that they can do the job that needs to be done.

“The bodhisattvas, in turn, assure the Buddha that they will indeed carry on his ministry of spreading the Dharma. In other words, the relationship of trust between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas is a mutual one, based on personal assurance.

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p234

Whether we consider ourselves among the bodhisattvas who rose from unground or among the general gathering doesn’t matter. As the History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism explains:

“To answer the message of the Lotus Sūtra, we should think of this transmission as coming directly to us. Receiving this transmission, we must ourselves commit to becoming teachers of the Dharma and messengers of the Tathāgata and put this transmission into action.”

History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 94

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