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800years, Blog

800 Years: Managing Expectations

Here, at this transition between The Variety of Merits chapter and The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing this Sutra chapter, I want to address expectations. Specifically, I want to discuss the expectations we should have when we declare faith in the Lotus Sutra.

When I first chanted the Daimoku in 1989 as a member of Nichiren Shoshu of America and later Soka Gakkai, I had no idea what to expect. I simply accepted that this was a Buddhist practice, and, at the start, that was all I wanted. But it was not long before I became troubled by the singular emphasis placed on material rewards. Looking for a job? Chant. Want a new girlfriend? Chant. Need a new car? Chant. Surely there must be more to Buddhism, I thought.

Nikkyō Niwano explains the perils of such a focus in one’s practice in Buddhism for Today:

“Almost all people who enter a religious faith have some form of suffering. It is natural for them to want to free themselves from such sufferings, and they are not to be blamed for this. But when they are concerned only with the desire to recover from illness or to be blessed with money, they are merely attaching themselves to the idea of ‘disease’ or ‘poverty.’ Though they wish to rid themselves of these problems, instead they become their victims because their minds grasp the idea of illness or poverty so tightly that they cannot let go.”

Buddhism for Today, p259

Another way to look at this, is to realize that focusing on material pleasures pins one’s life in the realm of hungry spirits. There can be no lasting satisfaction when one’s focus remains on self-interest without consideration for all others. But that doesn’t mean we are without extraordinary benefits from our practice of the Lotus Sutra.

Nichiren often encouraged believers to expect practical, even supernatural, benefits from their practice. As he writes in “Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers”:

“And yet even though a finger might point to the great earth and miss it, a person tie up the sky, the ocean’s tide lack an ebb and flow, or if the sun should rise in the west, there cannot be a time when the prayer of a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra is not answered. If the various bodhisattvas, human and heavenly beings, eight kinds of gods and demi-gods who protect Buddhism, the two sage bodhisattvas (Medicine King and Brave Donor Bodhisattvas), two heavenly kings (Jikoku-ten and Bishamon-ten), and ten female rākṣasa demons, or even one out of 1,000, do not rush to protect practicers of the Lotus Sūtra, they commit the sin of fooling Śākyamuni and the other Buddhas above and in the nine realms below. Thus, they will protect the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra without fail regardless if the practicers are insincere, unwise, impure, and do not observe the precepts so long as they chant “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 68

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800years, d22b, d23b, d24b, Blog

800 Years: The merits of religious practice

In discussing faith it is important to acknowledge the merits that flow to us from our practice and the impact of those merits on our lives. Thich Nhat Hanh explains it this way in Peaceful Action, Open Heart:

“Chapters 17, 18, and 19 of the Lotus Sutra all have to do with the idea of merit. The word “merit” (Sanskrit: punya), when rendered in Chinese is made up of two characters. The first character means “daily practice or daily work,” and the second means “virtuous conduct.” Merit is a kind of spiritual energy that can be accumulated when we maintain a steady practice. This energy protects us and brings us joy and insight.”

Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p121

What daily practice entails and what qualifies as virtuous conduct are as varied as those who embrace the Lotus Sutra, but Nikkyō Niwano offers this guideline in Buddhism for Today:

“In considering the merits of religious practice, we must place great importance on being upright in character and gentle in mind, as taught in chapter 16. We should focus our gaze on the Buddha alone, not worrying ourselves about divine favors in this world. We should be united with the Buddha and act obediently according to his guidance. If our actual life should consequently change for the better, that is a natural phenomenon produced because our minds and actions have been set in the direction of the truth. We should receive such phenomena gratefully and frankly.”

Buddhism for Today, p260

Whatever the practice, the merit that flows from our faith has a real, observable impact on our emotional and physical lives. This is the true measure of the depth of our faith. As Nikkyō Niwano explains in Buddhism for Today:

“The mental happiness, hope, and self-confidence of those who have attained true faith are not frothy and superficial but deep and firm-rooted in their minds. These people have calm, steadfast minds not agitated by anything – fire, water, or sword – because they maintain a mental attitude of great assurance, realizing, ‘I am always protected by the Buddha as an absolute existence; I am caused to live by the Buddha.’

“It is natural that life should change dramatically as soon as we attain such a mental state. It is impossible for our life not to change when our attitude changes. Our mental state changes because of faith, and through the change in our mind, our life changes at the same time. These are the merits of religious practice. Therefore faith is naturally associated with merits.

“The merits of religious practice appear not only in man’s mind but also in his body and his material life. Because his mind, his body, and the material things around him are composed of the same void (energy), it stands to reason that his body should change according to changes in his mind, and at the same time that the material things around him should change. It is irrational and unscientific to admit mental merits but deny physical and material ones.”

Buddhism for Today, p257-258
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b4today, Blog

The Cause of My Life

Yesterday I finished an eight-month-long study of the Lotus Sutra offered by Rissho Kosei-Kai. I had been drawn by the promise of an “advanced course examining all the chapters in detail of the Threefold Lotus Sutra.” What I failed to fully appreciate was that this would solely be “as interpreted through the writings of Nikkyo Niwano, founder of Rissho Kosei-kai.” It became clear at the first class that the “advanced course” would be nothing more than a review of Nikkyō Niwano’s Buddhism for Today, with most of each hour-and-a-half session spent reading aloud passages from the book.

But I stuck with it for 34 Wednesday evenings because, frankly, no one else that I’m aware of is offering such discussions. In order to make the class more useful I decided to write an essay on the topic of each day’s class in advance. Thirty-three essays are available here.

Many of the essays I wrote praised what Nikkyo Niwano had written in Buddhism for Today, but several were critical. I was even motivated to write blog posts outside the class:

In keeping with my generally ambivalent attitude toward the teachings of Nikkyō Niwano, I want to conclude with a discussion of Nikkyō Niwano’s teaching that we are caused to live by Śākyamuni.

This comes up in several places in Buddhism for Today. Take for example this quote from the discussion of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata:

Our awareness of being caused to live is our true salvation. Our absolute devotion to the truth that imparts life to us, so that we utter “Namu” in our hearts, must be said to be the highest reach of faith.

Buddhism for Today, p206

In the discussion of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits, we are instructed:

The mental happiness, hope, and self-confidence of those who have attained true faith are not frothy and superficial but deep and firm-rooted in their minds. These people have calm, steadfast minds not agitated by anything – fire, water, or sword – because they maintain a mental attitude of great assurance, realizing, “I am always protected by the Buddha as an absolute existence; I am caused to live by the Buddha.”

Buddhism for Today, p257

Nikkyō Niwano summarizes this teaching in his discussion of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva:

As has already been explained in chapter 16, salvation lies in our awareness of the existence of the Eternal Buddha, who is omnipresent both within and outside us, and in our earnest and heartfelt realization that we are caused to live by the Buddha.

Buddhism for Today, p377-378

But I chafe under this idea that “all beings are caused to live by the universal truth.” For me, this universal truth is a condition, not a cause. There are just two causes for our provisional existence: ignorance of the Dharma or a Bodhisattva vow to give up personal enlightenment and return to this Sahā World in order to save everyone.

In defense of my opposing view, I want to offer some quotes from The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism’s discussion of prarītyasamutpāda, dependent origination:

In one of the earliest summaries of the Buddha’s teachings (which is said to have been enough to bring Śāriputra to enlightenment), the Buddha is said to have taught: “When this is present, that comes to be. / From the arising of this, that arises. / When this is absent, that does not come to be. / From the cessation of this, that ceases.” This notion of causality is normatively described in a sequence of causation involving twelve interconnected links (nidāna), which are often called the “twelvefold chain” in English sources: (l) ignorance, (2) predispositions, or volitional actions, (3) consciousness, (4) name and form, or mentality and materiality, (5) the six internal sense-bases, (6) sensory contact, (7) sensation, or feeling, (8) thirst, or attachment, (9) grasping, or clinging, (10) existence or a process of becoming, (11) birth or rebirth, and (12) old age and death, this last link accompanied in its full recital by sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.

And:

This chain of dependent origination stands as the middle way between the two “extreme views” eternalism — viz., the view that there is a perduring soul that continues to be reborn unchanged from one lifetime to the next — and annihilationism — the view that the person ceases to exist at death and is not reborn — because it validates the imputed continuity of the personality, without injecting any sense of a permanent substratum of existence into the process. Thus, when the Buddha is asked, “Who is it who senses?,” he rejects the question as wrongly framed and rephrases it as, “With what as condition does sensation occur? By contact … .” Or when asked, “Who is it who is reborn?,” he would rephrase the question as “With what as condition does birth occur? By becoming … .” Accurate understanding of dependent origination thus serves as an antidote to the affliction of delusion and contemplating the links in this chain helps to overcome ignorance.

(For a discussion of Nikkyo Niwano’s understanding of this twelvefold chain see Understanding the 12-Linked Chain of Causation.)

Then again, consider this from the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism:

Another denotation of prarītyasamutpāda [dependent origination] is a more general one, the notion that everything comes into existence in dependence on something else, with such dependence including the dependence of an effect upon its cause, the dependence of a whole upon its parts, and the dependence of an object on the consciousness that designates it. This second meaning is especially associated with the Mādhyamika school of Nāgārjuna, which sees a necessary relation between dependent origination and emptiness (śūnyatā), arguing that because everything is dependently arisen, everything is empty of independence and intrinsic existence (svabhāva). Dependent origination is thus central to Nāgārjuna’s conception of the middle way: because everything is dependent, nothing is independent, thus avoiding the extreme of existence, but because everything is originated, nothing is utterly nonexistent, thus avoiding the extreme of nonexistence.

Is “dependently arisen” the same as “caused to live”?

This is why studying the Lotus Sutra is fun.

Kern, d1b, Innumerable, Blog

Rock and Roll in the Time of Śākyamuni

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

Having lived through the 1971 San Fernando Earthquake, I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of the world quaking in six ways. We first hear of this phenomena  in Chapter 1 after the World-Honored One expounded a sūtra of the Great Vehicle called the “Innumerable Teachings, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.”

Senchu Murano’s translation puts the scene this way without explanation:

Thereupon the gods rained mandārava-flowers, mahā-mandārava-flowers, mañjūṣaka-flowers, and mahā-mañjūṣaka-flowers upon the Buddha and the great multitude. The world of the Buddha quaked in the six ways.

None of the other English translations of Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra offers an explanation of what is meant.

H. Kern, in his translation of an 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra, however, offers this:

And as soon as the Lord had entered upon his meditation, there fell a great rain of divine flowers, Mandāravas and great Mandāravas, Mañjūṣakas and great Mañjūṣakas, covering the Lord and the four classes of hearers, while the whole Buddha field shook in six ways: it moved, removed, trembled, trembled from one end to the other, tossed, tossed along.

That’s a fascinating image of what shaking the earth feels like.

At 6am on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1971, I was awakened by what sounded like a freight train bearing down on my house. The sound grew louder and louder as the windows above my bed shook violently and then the train passed on. Fortunately nothing broke as that wave “moved, removed, trembled, trembled from one end to the other, tossed, tossed along.”

In Zuisō Gosho, Writing on Omens, Nichiren offers what’s meant by shaking the world in six ways from T’ien-t’ai’s perspective:

Among the six omens, the trembling of the earth indicates that the earth trembled in six different ways. Interpreting the earth trembling in six ways, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 3:

“The east is blue in color, and it controls the liver, which in turn controls the eyes. The west is white in color, and it controls the lungs, which in turn control the nose. Therefore, saying that the east was raised and the west was lowered means the rise of the merit of the eyes and the decrease in the worldly passions of the nose. In contrast, saying that the west was raised and the east was lowered means that the merit of the nose appears while the evil passions of the eyes decrease. Likewise, the rise and fall of the south and north and those of the center and the four directions mean either the appearance of merit or the decrease of evil passions in the ears and the tongue and in the mind and body respectively.”

Grand Master Miao-lê explains the above in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “As the eyes and nose represent the east and west, the ears and tongue logically represent the south and north. The center is the mind and the four directions represent the body. The body is equipped with the four sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, and tongue) and the mind reacts to them all. Therefore, it is said that the body and mind rise and fall alternately.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 121

I’d like to think that during the 1971 earthquake the merit of my eyes rose and the worldly passions of my nose decreased. My body and mind certainly rose and fell. But at the time I knew nothing of Buddhism or the Lotus Sutra.

Next: The name of the sutra taught by the Buddha at the start of the Lotus Sutra

800years, d22b, Blog

800 Years: The First Moment of Faith

An important lesson from the very start of Chapter 17 is that the benefits of the Lotus Sutra are deeply tied to our first moment of faith, not to our subsequent practice. The Buddha says in gāthās:

“With these merits of concentration of his mind,
He sought unsurpassed enlightenment, saying:
‘I will complete all these dhyāna-concentrations,
And obtain the knowledge of all things.’

“He performed
The meritorious practices
As previously stated
For hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas.

“The good men or women who believe my longevity,
Of which I told you,
Even at a moment’s thought
Will be able to obtain more merits than he.”

That’s not to say study and practice are unimportant. As the Buddha explains:

“Those who have firm faith,
And who are pure and upright,
And who hear much and memorize all teachings,
And who understand my words
According to their meaning,
Will have no doubts [about my longevity].”

But that first moment of faith is vital. As Nichiren writes in “Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice”:

“In the Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, Miao-lé writes: ‘The single moment of understanding by faith is foremost of the practices in the essential section.’ The first of the four depths of faith in the time when the sutra was taught is the single moment of understanding by faith and the first of the five stages of practice after the Buddha’s passing away is the stage of rejoicing. Within these two can be found all 100 realms, 1,000 aspects, and 3,000 modes of existences as if in a treasure chest. They are the gate out of which all the Buddhas of all time and space emerge.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page101

This single moment of understanding by faith is essential and is to be cherished. Attempting to do too much too quickly will only prove detrimental. As Nichiren warns:

“Fascicle nine of the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra says, ‘The beginner is afraid that getting drawn into the myriad activities that are supporting conditions will hinder their practice of right action. At this time, they should solely uphold this sutra which is the best kind of offering. By dispensing with other matters in order to uphold the principle they will gain enormous benefit.’

“This commentary says that the supporting conditions are the first five of the six bodhisattva practices. A beginner who tries to practice them as well will hinder his own right action of faith. For instance, if a small boat overloaded with treasure tries to cross the ocean, both the boat and the treasure will sink. The phrase ‘solely uphold this sutra’ does not even refer to the whole sutra but only to upholding the daimoku, not any other passages.”

Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 105

We need not rush to perfect our practice. We should instead seek to deepen our faith.

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800years, d22b, Blog

800 Years: The Merit of Generating Faith

Chapter 16, the Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, is without a doubt the most important in the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, it is no surprise that we learn in Chapter 17 that “Anyone who hears that my life is so long, and understands it by faith even at a moment’s thought, will be able to obtain innumerable merits.’ ”

It is Chapter 17 which establishes how to be true practitioners. As explained in Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side:

“Zhiyi enumerated ‘four stages of faith’ and ‘five stages of practice’ of the Lotus Sūtra. The four stages of faith are (1) to arouse even a single thought of willing acceptance (also translated as “a single moment’s faith and understanding”); (2) to understand the intent of the sūtra’s words; (3) to place deep faith in the sūtra and expound it widely for others; and (4) to perfect one’s own faith and insight. The “five stages of practice” are (1) to rejoice on hearing the Lotus Sūtra; (2) to read and recite it; (3) to explain it to others; (4) to practice it while cultivating the six perfections; and (5) to master the six perfections. …

“Within these two models of the path, Nichiren focused on the first stage of faith, arousing a single moment’s faith and understanding, and the first stage of practice, rejoicing on hearing the Lotus Sūtra.

Two Buddhas, p194-195

The merit of generating this faith is immeasurable, as Nikkyō Niwano explains in Buddhism for Today:

“In brief, the Buddha teaches us that if we establish the basic idea of faith, we can infinitely generate the power both to deepen our own faith and to extend it to others. He also teaches us that we can expect to surely gain the supreme merit of attaining Perfect Enlightenment in the future if we thoroughly devote ourselves to deepening our own faith. …

“A person earns or loses money; he falls in love or is disappointed in love; he rises to a higher position in time or he loses his job because of a trifling mistake; he brings up his child successfully or loses it. If we pass through life in this way with no purpose, merely repeating vain feelings of joy and sorrow, even though each moment seems to be substantial and important, we will have an inexpressible sense of emptiness upon looking back over our life. But if our life has the strong backbone of a righteous faith running through it, and if we have a firm belief that we can advance to Perfect Enlightenment step by step even though life has its apparent ups and downs, its various joys and sorrows, we will be able to pass easily through whatever hardships may come, however long life’s journey may be and however many rebirths it may entail.”

Buddhism for Today, p263-264

As the Buddha promises:

“It cannot be that the good man who obtained merits by understanding my longevity by faith even at a moment’s thought falters in walking the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

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Kern, d1b, Blog

Ānanda’s Status when the Lotus Sutra Was Taught

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

In comparing and contrasting H. Kern’s translation of the 11th century Sanskrit Lotus Sutra with Senchu Murano’s translation of Kumārajīva’s fifth century Chinese translation, the differences can be significant if not particularly important.

For example, if you read only translations of Kumarajiva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra you could be forgiven for believing Ānanda was an arhat when he heard the sermon on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa.

The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism offers this explanation of Ānanda’s position among the followers of Śākyamuni:

Ānanda was known for his extraordinary powers of memory; he is said to have heard all 84,000 sermon topics (82,000 taught by the Buddha and 2,000 taught by other disciples) and was able to memorize 15,000 stanzas without omitting a syllable. He therefore played a key role in the recitation of the Buddha’s teachings at the first council held at Rājagṛha shortly after the Buddha’s death. However, Mahākāśyapa, who convened the council, specified that all five hundred monks in attendance must be arhats, and Ānanda was not. On the night before the opening of the council, Ānanda achieved the enlightenment of an arhat as he was lying down to sleep, as his head fell to the pillow and his feet rose from the ground. He is therefore famous for achieving enlightenment in none of the four traditional postures (īryāpatha): walking, standing, sitting, or lying down.

Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra lists 21 arhats as present when the Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra. Senchu Murano offers this list:

  1. Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya,
  2. Mahā-Kāśyapa,
  3. Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa,
  4. Gaya-Kāśyapa,
  5. Nadi- Kāśyapa,
  6. Śāriputra,
  7. Great Maudgalyāyana,
  8. Mahā-Kātyāyana,
  9. Aniruddha,
  10. Kapphina,
  11. Gavampati,
  12. Revata,
  13. Pilindavatsa,
  14. Bakkula,
  15. Maha-Kausthila,
  16. Nanda,
  17. Sundarananda,
  18. Pūrṇa who was the son of Maitrāyanī,
  19. Subhūti,
  20. Ānanda, and
  21. Rahula.

Murano adds, “They were great Arhats well known to the multitude. There were also two thousand [Śrāvakas], some of whom had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn.”

It was surprising to read H. Kern’s translation of this same section.

As discussed earlier, Kern lists 26 arhats, but not Ānanda. Instead, Kern ends the list of arhats with this sentence:

with them yet other great disciples, as the venerable Ananda, still under training, and two thousand other monks, some of whom still under training, the others masters

Kumārajīva’s translation is famous for being written in a natural style that made it very popular. One can imagine Kumārajīva’s team of translators considering this detail of Ānanda’s status and deciding that it was too insignificant to disrupt the flow of the story. It’s certainly not of critical importance.

Next: Rock and Roll in the Time of Śākyamuni

800years, d21b, Blog

800 Years: Tuning in to the Original Buddha

Of all the concepts found in the Lotus Sutra the most profound and difficult to understand is the concept raised in Chapter 16 that the Buddha is always present. He didn’t die and, since he has always been teaching here, he was never born.

“All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which l do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as the living beings of the triple world do.”

In the Introduction to Buddhism for Today, Nikkyō Niwano offers a wonderful way to relate to the idea of an ever-present Original Buddha.

“The human form in which the Original Buddha appeared in this world is the historical Sakyamuni as the appearing Buddha. We can easily understand the relationship between the two when we consider the relationship between electric waves and television. The electric waves emitted by television transmitters fill our surroundings. We cannot see, hear, or touch them, but it is a fact that such electric waves fill the space around us. When we switch on our television sets and tune them to a particular channel, the same image appears and the same voice is heard through every set tuned to that wavelength. The Original Buddha is equivalent to the person who speaks from the television studio. He is manifest not only in the studio but also permeates our surroundings like electric waves. The appearing Buddha corresponds to the image of this person that appears on the television set and to the voice emanating from it. The appearing Buddha could not appear if the Original Buddha did not exist, just as no television image could appear and no voice be heard if electric waves did not exist. Conversely, we cannot see the Original Buddha except through the appearing Buddha, just as we cannot receive electric waves as images and voices except through the medium of a television set.”

Buddhism for Today, pxxv

In his Introduction, Nikkyō Niwano accuses the schools of Nichiren Buddhism of slipping into merely formalism and disparages those who say beating a drum or chanting the Daimoku is all that’s needed. I would argue that formalism and the drum and the Daimoku are each a valid means with which “to tune the wavelength of our own lives to that of the truth of the universe.” Yes, it is a mistake to say one is more essential than the other, as exclusivists do. Yet these are all beneficial devises. We need to recognize that we each have different causes and conditions, and so one device may be more effective than another for each of us.

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800years, d21b, Blog

800 Years: The Eternal Śākyamuni is always available

Sometimes easy is better. That’s certainly true when attempting to judge the faith necessary to practice the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra. Here’s a very useful translation of a portion of Chapter 16 from Rev. Jodo Kiyose’s Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra:

“The reason why you are suffering as you are right now is because you have totally failed to reflect upon your half-hearted ways of life filled with worldly desires, without paying any attention to the right religion and the right faith, and not being mindful of making any efforts.

“Those who continue to conduct good deeds for the world, for its people – with the right faith at heart – are released from the binding of self-attachments and neither fool themselves nor others. People of these kinds will understand that I am expounding my teachings here all the time.

“To those who seek the Way of the Buddha in such states of mind, I teach them that the Buddha’s life is eternal. To those who do not seek the faith, I teach them to have faith in him.

“Thus my wisdom works at my own will. Since I have limitless wisdom and have gained an eternal life, I am capable of saving all people. And these incomparable powers can be obtained thanks to my own endeavor practiced day by day without rest.”

The Eternal Śākyamuni is always available to us. As Gene Reeves explains in his Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“When the Dharma Flower Sutra says that the Buddha is somehow embodied or represented in all directions throughout time and space, it is not claiming that the Buddha is somehow beyond time and history – in fact, it is saying something that is nearly the opposite: namely, that no matter where we go, whether on foot or by spaceship, and no matter when in our lives, whether celebrating our eighteenth birthday or lying on our deathbed, there is no place and no time in which the Buddha is not available to us.

“The father returns home after the children have been shocked into taking the medicine and have recovered. The children are able to see him once again. By taking good medicine, the Dharma, people are able to see the Buddha, even though he died some twenty-five hundred years ago. To incorporate the Dharma into one’s life is to be able to see the Buddha. The Buddha can be found in anybody and anything at all. This is what it means for the Buddha to be universal: he is to be found whenever and wherever we look for him.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p206-207

And when our faith needs bolstering, we need only reflect on the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha of Chapter 16, who knows “who is practicing the Way and who is not.” We are the beneficiaries of his great compassion and commitment as the father of the world:

“I am always thinking:
‘How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?’ ”

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Kern, d1b, Blog

Where is Upali?

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

Continuing last week’s discussion of the arhats present at the opening of the Lotus Sutra, I want to explore a puzzle that was mentioned to me by Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick some time ago.

Where is Upali?

Śākyamuni had ten major disciples, each with specific strengths. Rev. Ryuei McCormick lists these in his “Lotus World“:

  • Shariputra, foremost in wisdom
  • Mahakashyapa, foremost in ascetic practices
  • Ananda, foremost in hearing the sutras
  • Subhuti, foremost in understanding emptiness
  • Purna, foremost in expounding the Dharma
  • Maudgalyayana, foremost in supernatural powers
  • Katyayana, foremost in explaining the Dharma
  • Aniruddha, foremost in clairvoyance (the divine eye)
  • Upali, foremost in observing the precepts
  • Rahula, foremost in inconspicuous practice

The exact arrangement varies by source. Revata Khadiravaniya replaces Subhuti in the Etadaggavagga (Aṅguttara-Nikāya), according to Source Elements of the Lotus Sutra. But Upali, who was foremost in observing the precepts, is always listed among the 10 major disciples.

Upali is not present among the arhats at the beginning of the Lotus Sutra in either H. Kern’s 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra or Kumārajīva’s 5th century Chinese translation. As a consequence, Upali is the only one of ten major disciples who does not receive a specific prediction of future buddhahood from Śākyamuni.

Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick wondered aloud about this once to me and I offered that perhaps it had to do with Upali’s focus on the precepts. My theory: The writers of the Lotus Sutra didn’t have a high regard for precept mongers, and Upali was foremost among them.

In Kern’s translation my theory gets a boost with the addition of Upananda to the list of arhats present at the opening of the Lotus Sutra.

From the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism:

Upananda: Sanskrit and Pāli proper name of a monk disciple of the Buddha, who was regularly chastised for his greed. There are numerous stories in the vinaya of his attempts to procure the best and most of all offerings made to monks, and especially of robes and food. The Buddha typically rebukes Upananda for his misconduct, and then goes on to promulgate a new rule of conduct in order to deter monks from committing such transgressions in the future.

So, not only is Upali missing from the Lotus Sutra, but the monk whose bad behavior caused the Buddha to craft many of the precepts is included.

In the Lotus Sutra, 22 individuals are given personal predictions of their future Buddhahood:

  1. Shariputra, Chapter 3
  2. Mahakashyapa, Chapter 6
  3. Ananda, Chapter 9
  4. Subhuti, Chapter 6
  5. Purna, Chapter 8
  6. Maudgalyayana, Chapter 6
  7. Katyayana, Chapter 6
  8. Aniruddha, Chapter 8
  9. Rahula, Chapter 9
  10. Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa, Chapter 8
  11. Gaya­Kāśyapa, Chapter 8
  12. Nadī-Kāśyapa, Chapter 8
  13. Kālodāyin, Chapter 8
  14. Udāyin, Chapter 8
  15. Aniruddha, Chapter 8
  16. Revata, Chapter 8
  17. Kapphina, Chapter 8
  18. Bakkula, Chapter 8
  19. Cunda, Chapter 8
  20. Svāgata, Chapter 8
  21. Maha-Prajapati, Chapter 13
  22. Yaśodharā, Chapter 13

One can assume Upali is included when the Buddha says in Chapter 8:

“All the other Śrāvakas also will [become Buddhas].
Tell this to the Śrāvakas
Who are not present here!”

But he is clearly excluded from the Lotus Sutra. This absence is underscored by the fact that Upali and Upananda are both listed as present to hear the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, which is considered to have been the preface to the Lotus Sutra.

Next: Ānanda’s status.