Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered the sravakas appreciation of what the Buddha had accomplished, we conclude Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.
No one will be able to repay your favors
Even if he tries to do so
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas.
No one will be able to repay your favors
Even if he bows to you respectfully,
And offers you his hands, feet or anything else.No one will be able to repay your favors
Even if he carries you on his head or shoulders
And respects you from the bottom of his heart
For as many kalpas
As there are sands in the River Ganges,
Or even if he offers you
Delicious food, innumerable garments of treasures,
Many beddings, and various medicines,
Or even if he erects a stupa-mausoleum
Made of the cow-head candana,
And adorns it with treasures,
Or even if he covers the ground
With garments of treasures
And offers them to the Buddha
For as many kalpas
As there are sands in the River Ganges.The Buddhas have
Great supernatural powers.
Their powers are rare, immeasurable,
Limitless and inconceivable.The Buddhas are the Kings of the Dharma
They are free from asravas, from cause and effect.
The Buddhas practice patience
In order to save inferior people.
They expound the Dharma according to the capacities
Of the ordinary people who are attached to forms.The Buddhas expound the Dharma
In perfect freedom.
Knowing the various desires and dispositions
Of all living beings,
They expound the Dharma
With innumerable parables
And with innumerable similes
According to their capacities.Some living beings planted the roots of good
In their previous existence.
Some of the roots have fully developed.
Seeing all this, the Buddhas understand
The capacities of all living beings,
And divide the teaching of the One Vehicle into three,
According to the capacities
Of all living beings.
Tomorrow in the Simile of Herbs we’ll get the Buddha’s side of this concept of the dharma being different according to the capacities of living beings. For now, I’ll add today’s quote from Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1 and place it in the context of the poor son and his path toward carving his own image of himself as the inheritor of his father’s wealth.
When we think of carving an image of the Buddha I suspect that generally we think in terms of taking some material and simply carving a Buddha. But if we think about this in terms of our lives and sculpting our day and lives we can see another meaning to this.
If we want ourselves to be like the Buddha, an image of the Buddha, we need to carve it out of our lives. Every day, slowly and carefully, chipping away at all the things in our lives that are keeping us from being Buddhas.
Lotus Path: Practicing the Lotus Sutra Volume 1