Day 2 completes Chapter 1, Introductory

Yesterday’s consideration of the circle that is life brings my attention today to the circular relationship of the lives of the great disciples.

When we begin this second of the 32 days of the Lotus Sutra, Manjusri is answering Maitreya’s request to explain the meaning of the great omen seen by the multitude – the light emitted by Sakyamuni “from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down to the Avici Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world.” Manjusri tells about one of his long-ago lives and in doing so explains the story of a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light, who had 800 disciples.

One of the eight hundred disciples [of Wonderful-Light] was called Fame-­Seeking. He was attached to gain. He read and recited many sutras, but did not understand them. He forgot many parts of those sutras. Therefore, he was called Fame-Seeking. But he [later] planted the roots of good, and became able to see many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas. He made offerings to them, respected them, honored them, and praised them.

Maitreya, know this! Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva at that time was no one but myself; and Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva, no one but you. This good omen we see now is not different from what I saw at that time. Therefore, I think that the Tathagata of today also will expound the sutra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’

And in gathas:

There was a lazy man
Among the disciples
Of Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma.
[The lazy man] was attached to fame and gain.

Always seeking fame and gain,
He often visited noble families.
He did not understand what he had recited,
Gave it up, and forgot it.
Because of this,
He was called Fame-Seeking.

But he [later] did many good karmas,
And became able to see innumerable Buddhas.
He made offerings to them,
Followed them, practiced the Great Way,
And performed the six paramitas.
Now he sees the Lion-Like One of the Sakyas.

He will become a Buddha
In his future life.
He will be called Maitreya.
He will save innumerable living beings.

The lazy man who Lived after the extinction
Of [Sun-Moon-] Light Buddha was
No one but you.
Wonderful-Light, the Teacher of the Dharma, was I.

The ray of light of [Sun-Moon-] Light Buddha,
That is, the good omen, was the same as what I see now. Judging from this, the present Buddha also will expound The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Back in the days of my youth, when all telephones were wired (and they even had dials to “dial” a phone number), the handsets were often attached to the phone with a coiled wire. When relaxed, the coils appeared to be individual loops with beginnings and ends, but as you pulled on the coil you realized the beginnings and ends were an illusion and when you stretched the coil to its limit it became a single line. That’s today’s image for the circle of life.