Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

This begins the seventh time through and I am going to change the format for this month. In the six previous trips through the Lotus Sutra, I would scribble notes as I went along and later turn those notes into a post here. Two problems with that:

1. I’m stopping and taking notes and otherwise interrupting my reading of the day’s section of the sutra.
2. In many cases I print the same large sections of the day’s reading month after month.

Starting today, I’m going to attempt to summarize what I see as the principal point of the day’s reading and then provide a single quote that seems most relevant. The hope is that each reading will bring something new while underlining what I’ve read and discovered in past months.

And so, to begin:

Two important aspects of this first day’s reading need to be stressed. First, is the crowd. Everyone is here. We have great arhats, sravakas, bodhisattvas, bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, men, nonhuman beings, the kings of small countries, and the wheel-turning-holy-kings. Clearly, this teaching is for all living beings.

The other point is what everyone sees when Sakyamuni sends out a light illuminating all of the worlds in the east. This begins a platform from which Sakyamuni will preach. Here everyone sees what’s happening elsewhere. Tomorrow they learn of what happened in the past. Knowing what’s happening elsewhere now, knowing what happened before, listeners will see how the Buddha’s teachings are the same.

And that leads to today’s quote:

The light from [the white curls]
Between the eyebrows of the Buddha illumines
Eighteen thousand worlds to the east.
Those worlds look golden-colored.

I see from this world
The living beings of the six regions
Extending down to the Avici Hell,
And up to the Highest Heaven
Of each of those worlds.
I see the region to which each living being is to go,
The good or evil karmas he is doing,
And the rewards or retributions he is going to have.

I also see the Buddhas,
The Saintly Masters, the Lion-like Ones,
Who are expounding
The most wonderful sutra
With their pure and gentle voices,
And teaching
Many billions of Bodhisattvas.
The brahma voices of the Buddhas
Are deep and wonderful,
Causing people to wish to hear them.

I also see the Buddha of each of those worlds
Expounding his right teachings to all living beings
In order to cause them to attain enlightenment.
He explains his teachings
With stories of previous lives,
And with innumerable parables and similes.

To those who are confronted with sufferings,
And tired of old age, disease, and death,
The Buddha expounds the teaching of Nirvana,
And causes them to eliminate these sufferings.

To those who have merits,
Who have already made offerings to the past Buddhas,
And who are now seeking a more excellent teaching,
The Buddha expounds [the Way of] cause-knowers.

To the Buddha’s sons
Who are performing various practices,
And who are seeking unsurpassed wisdom,
The Buddha expounds the Pure Way.