Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 419-420According to the biographical literature about the Buddha, Devadatta was a rival of Prince Siddhārtha in the military arts. Early sutras say he brought schism to the Saṃgha. For example, according to the Saṃghabhedakkhandhaka (Cullavagga, V11.3) Devadatta offered to replace the Buddha, then advanced in years, at the head of the Saṃgha. “WorldHonored One, you are old and aged; entrust the community to me.” The Buddha refused and censured his self-interest. In anger, Devadatta left the Saṃgha. Thereupon the Buddha announced that Devadatta’s speech and conduct bore no relation to Buddhism. Devadatta went to Prince Ajātaśatru, incited him to usurp the throne, and planned various schemes for the Buddha’s destruction. Nevertheless, all his plans failed: his hired assassins became converted, the rock he threw from the top of Vulture Peak merely grazed the Buddha, and the maddened elephant prostrated itself before Śākyamuni. Devadatta then decided to provoke a schism in the Saṃgha, and went to the Buddha proposing five rules to be made compulsory for monks (bhikṣus):
- That they should spend their lives in the forest (āraññaka); entering a town should be a sin.
- That they should live only on what they had received through begging (piṇdapātika); receiving food requested should be a sin.
- That they should wear only clothes made of rags from dust heaps (paṃsukūlika); receiving the clothing of the laity should be a sin.
- That they should dwell at the foot of a tree (rukkhamūlika); entering a dwelling should be a sin.
- That they should not eat fish or meat; doing so should be a sin. (Some sources say “milk and butter” instead of “fish and meat.”)
When the Buddha refused to sanction these rules, Devadatta went to Vesāli (Vaiśālī), won five hundred Vajji (Vṛji) monks to his way of thinking, and set up a separate community at Gayāsisa.
The early sutras record that Devadatta fell into hell for his evil action in splitting the Saṃgha.
Category Archives: d17b
Continuity In, And Development Of, Lotus Thought
Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 210-211Because the Mahayana sutras all possess to some extent the underlying conviction that their task was to win others over to their belief, it is very difficult to distinguish, among the intermingling of intellectual influences, exactly which ideas were borrowed and which were lent. Further, unlike the treatises of the Abhidharma, the authors of the Mahayana sutras did not lend their names to their works, but put them in the mouth of Ānanda; it is therefore all the harder to clarify the actual circumstances of transmission.
The first half of the Lotus Sutra (the theoretical teachings, called the “secondary gate”; Jpn., shakumon) is concerned with giving concrete expression to the idea of “explaining the three and revealing the one” in the “Tactfulness” chapter, giving predictions of future buddhahood to the arhats and pratyekabuddhas and including all three vehicles in the one. This reflects a powerful new viewpoint. From the time of early Mahayana and the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, the bodhisattva vehicle had been praised as superior to the others, and the possibility of arhats and pratyekabuddhas gaining buddhahood was not acknowledged. The possibility of buddhahood for women and for Devadatta, who had fallen into hell for slandering the Dharma, remained unadmitted. When a movement grew up within Mahayana demanding the potential of enlightenment for all beings through the enlarged compassion of the Buddha, the formation of the “Devadatta” chapter became a necessity. This trend reached its culmination in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which taught that all beings without exception possess the buddha-nature and buddhahood is possible even for icchantikas (incorrigibles), even though they have no aspiration for enlightenment (bodhicitta). This is clearly in the line of Lotus thought.
The latter half of the Lotus Sutra (the essential teachings, called the “primary gate”; Jpn., honmon), deals with the true and expedient teachings of the Eternal Original Buddha, set forth in the chapter “Revelation of the [Eternal] Life of the Tathāgata.” This development may be traced as stemming from the monotheistic tendencies of the early Mahayana sutras coupled with the growth in Hinduism of faith in a supreme deity. The idea of an eternal, original Buddha exerted an influence on the concept of Amitābha/Amitāyus (characterized by eternal light and eternal life) in the Pure Land sutras, and on Vairocana Buddha (the Dharma Body of Wisdom) of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.
These, then, are two aspects that portray the continuity and development of Lotus thought in Mahayana sutras.
Embracing the Nāga cult
Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 424The Lotus Sutra records that the eight-year-old daughter of the Nāga (Dragon) King attained buddhahood in the southern region. According to the chapter “The Nāga and Birds” in the fourth varga (Shih-chi Ching, “Origin of the Worlds”) of the Chinese translation of the Dirgha-āgama (Ch’ang-a-han Ching, translated by Buddhayagas and Chu Fo-nien in 412-13; T. 1:127-29), at the bottom of the sea was the Sāgara palace. The Cheng-fa-n’ien-ch’u Ching (T. 721; Saddharma-smṛtyupasthāna Sūtra, translated by Prajñāruci in 539) says that there is a great sea (the Arabian Sea) past the mountain called Gurjara in the southern part of Jambudvipa. Five hundred yojanas under this sea is the palace of the Dragon King, adorned with many kinds of jewels (T. 17:405b). We can safely conjecture that behind these traditions is the fact of the prosperity of Gandhāra and Kashmir as centers for East-West trade during the Kuṣāṇa dynasty, and the inflow of riches with the expansion of seaborne trade between the west coast of India and the Roman Empire. In the depiction in the “Devadatta” chapter of the daughter of the Dragon King offering the Buddha a pearl, we may suppose that those people who supported the Nāga cult had a connection with the merchants of that trade, and that with the expansion of the idea of compassion in Buddhism, such low class non-Aryan people became the object of salvation and received predictions of buddhahood; thus it is possible to infer that here we have the Nāga cult (and the buddhahood of women) symbolically being embraced by Buddhism.
The Responsibility of Bodhisattvas
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p172This teaching of universal salvation, of the potential in all living beings to become buddhas, is always also about us, the hearers and readers of the Dharma Flower Sutra. The focus of the chapter is the question of how the Dharma will survive in a hostile world without Shakyamuni Buddha to teach it. The answer is that it is a responsibility of bodhisattvas to teach and proclaim the Dharma everywhere. Among such bodhisattvas are women. This means that anyone can grow spiritually through encountering women and that one can meet the Buddha in a woman. This was very important in the development of Buddhism in China, and subsequently in the rest of East Asia, as it fostered the growth in devotion to Kwan-yin, in which the Buddha is encountered in female form.
‘Jōzon Myōhōko, Shinjin Mukeken’
In another past lifetime of the Buddha he was the ruler of a great country because of the accumulation of virtue in the past. But he was neglectful in ruling the country. His 100 ministers and all the people revered him as a consequence of the pleasurable results of his former observance of the ten virtuous acts. But this would prove to be like the flame of a lamp flickering in the wind, or a dream on a spring night, or the brief blooming of morning glories on a bamboo fence. Though he had followed the virtuous precepts in his past lives, now that he had been born as the ruler of a great country he was enticed by the murderous demon of impermanence and spent his life in vain, neglecting to practice the good. [If he continued in this way] he would sink into the bottomless flames of the Hell of Incessant Suffering, where there is no distinction between warriors and peasants. The flames of the three torments would scorch him, his five limbs would be bound in iron cords, and the gag of the three torments would be inserted into his mouth. The monstrous jailers of hell armed with tridents and screaming callously, would punish him by stabbing him all over his body. The sounds of his cries would reach up to the heavens, and in his grief he would fall to the ground. His 100 ministers and all his people would be unable to come to his aid, nor could his family and loved ones come to save him. [He thought of his beloved wife] with whom he slept and awoke on the same bed within the brocade curtains. Together they were like two birds with one wing each who must fly together in the heavens, or like two trees with branches intertwined on the earth. The days and months they had spent together had amassed into years, but not even she and their children could come to visit him. Reflecting on these things he opened his storehouses and donated gold and silver and all the seven treasures in order to support the Saṃgha. He donated elephants and horses, and even his wife and children to them. Later he blew a conch seeking for the great Dharma. He beat a drum seeking for the great Dharma. He sought the Dharma in all directions. At that time there was a seer named Asita. This seer came to the king saying, “I can teach you the True Dharma if you are able to serve me well.” The king rejoiced and entered the mountains, where he collected fruit, gathered firewood, picked vegetables, and drew water for a thousand years. All the while he constantly recited, “Jōzon Myōhōko, Shinjin Mukeken,” which means, “Because I am seeking the Wonderful Dharma I do not feel tired in body and mind.” Through this practice he was able to obtain the Dharma of the five Chinese characters: myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō. This king would become Śākyamuni Buddha in a future life. In our country there is a Japanese poem that tells how he received the Dharma by serving his master. When a sūtra is copied and presented this verse is sung: “I obtained the Lotus Sūtra by gathering firewood, picking vegetables, and drawing water.” Hearing this I am overcome with emotion.
Minobu-san Gosho, Mt. Minobu Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 126-127
Time and Effort and True Awakening
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p163In the context of the Dharma Flower Sutra, it is not surprising to find that a dragon or young person can become a buddha, but that someone can do so suddenly is quite surprising – because it goes against the Sutra’s often repeated assertion that the way to becoming a buddha is long and arduous. Indeed, this is the point of the tale of the weary travelers and the fantastic castle-city in Chapter 7. This story about the dragon princess is the only place in the Dharma Flower Sutra where it is said that one can become a buddha suddenly.
At least in Japan and China, and quite likely in India as well, there was controversy over whether or not sudden awakening is possible. What we find in the Dharma Flower Sutra can be taken as another example of its tolerance of diverse views. Taken as a whole, it seems to say that becoming a buddha is normally, perhaps almost always, a long and difficult path, but that there can be exceptions. Rather than articulating this exception as a kind of doctrine, however, the Sutra simply makes it part of a story, illustrating the exception without entering into debate on the subject.
True awakening is difficult and rare; sudden awakening is much rarer still. If profound awakening happens at all, and certainly if it happens suddenly – in ourselves or in others, like those at the end of this story – we too should be amazed and grateful. But let us not suppose that there is some shortcut to true awakening through the use of drugs or some other esoteric practices. True awakening takes much time and effort.
The Eloquence of Bodhisattvas
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p239Throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra there are references to the eloquence of bodhisattvas. Already at the beginning of Chapter 1 we are told that the eighty thousand bodhisattvas present had all “taught with delight and eloquence.” Later, in Chapter 17, the Buddha says, “When I taught that the length of the [Buddha’s] life is very long … bodhisattva great-ones as numerous as the specks of dust in an entire world delighted in being eloquent and unhindered in speech.” Even the bodhisattva called “Never Disrespectful,” because he always went around bowing to people and telling them that he would never disrespect them, is said to have “powers of joyful and eloquent speech.” And of the dragon princess, a young girl, it is said that her “eloquence knows no bounds.” (LS 251)
Such an emphasis on eloquence is simply another indication of the importance of the teaching role of bodhisattvas. Of course, not everyone who follows the Dharma Flower Sutra will become truly eloquent, and certainly not automatically. But there is a strong suggestion that those who seek to spread the Dharma must strive to overcome reticence and shyness in order to be able to speak freely without being hindered by worries about embarrassing oneself. In many cases, this may require training and much practice, but it is an integral part of the bodhisattva path. Being shy should not be an excuse for leaving the teaching of the Dharma to others.
Even A Girl
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p161While today we can regret the fact that early Buddhists failed to challenge the assumption that a buddha must always have a male body, it is not surprising that this was simply assumed in this story of the dragon princess.
It is an incorrect representation of the story, however, to claim that the Sutra “insists” on such a transformation. What is insisted on is the claim that “even” a girl can become a buddha. Since by definition buddhas are male, the story simply says in one brief phrase that her body was transformed into that of a male during the process of her becoming a buddha. There is no insistence. It is simply assumed to be a necessary step in becoming a buddha.
What Kinds of Doctrines Are Expounded in the Lotus Sūtra?
What kinds of doctrines are expounded in such a precious sūtra entitled the Lotus Sūtra? Beginning with the “Expedients” chapter in the first fascicle, the sūtra expounds that bodhisattvas, Two Vehicles (Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha) and ordinary people are all able to attain Buddhahood, though there is no actual proof yet. Suppose a guest visits you for the first time. He looks fine, speaks politely, and there is nothing dubious about his words, but until you confirm the truth about him, it would be difficult to believe him from merely his words. In such a case, if something important happens one after another to confirm his words, you can trust him thereafter without hesitation.
Although we believed the doctrine of attainment of Buddhahood by all living beings because it was preached by the Buddha, it was difficult for some to fully accept it because of the lack of actual proof. However, it all became clear when the most important doctrine of becoming a Buddha with one’s present body was expounded in the “Devadatta” chapter in the fifth fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra. It is like turning black lacquer into white or purifying dirty water by putting a wish-fulfilling gem in it. The Buddha helped a small snake, who was actually a daughter of the dragon king, attain Buddhahood with her present body. From that moment, no one could have the slightest doubt about all men attaining Buddhahood. Therefore, the Lotus Sūtra expounds attainment of Buddhahood by all people after the model of enlightenment of women. Grand Master Dengyō of Mt. Hiei, who first spread the true meaning of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan, annotated in his Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sūtra, “Neither the dragon girl, who became a Buddha to preach the dharma, nor the people who heard her preach the dharma needed a roundabout way to Buddhahood. They immediately attained Buddhahood with their present bodies by the power of the Wonderful Dharma.”
Sennichi-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Reply to My Lady Nun Sennichi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 146-147
Devadatta
Devadatta was a grandson of King Siṃhahanu, a son of King Dropodana who was an uncle of Śākyamuni Buddha, and an elder brother of Venerable Ānanda. His mother was a daughter of Suprabuddha. As a member of the Wheel-turning Noble King’s clan, Devadatta was a man of distinguished background in the continent of Jambudvīpa. Prior to entering the Buddhist Order, he lost to Prince Siddhārtha for the hand of Princess Yaśodharā and was possessed with the idea that Siddhārtha was his sworn enemy. After entering the priesthood, moreover, he was rebuked by the Buddha before a crowd of human and heavenly beings, “You are a fool who eats the saliva of other people.” Moreover, he greatly valued fame and satisfying desires and felt envious of the Buddha being regarded with such respect by people. Thus Devadatta practiced the five ways, pretending to be more venerable than the Buddha; branded the wheel of 1,000 spokes (one of the Buddha’s 32 physical characteristics) on the sole of his foot; collected fireflies to pretend that he, like the Buddha, had a white curl between the eyebrows; preached all the Buddhist teachings, said to be 60,000 or 80,000 in number, as if they all are his own; established a precept dais on Mt. Gayāśīrṣa to induce many disciples of the Buddha; and attempted to inject poison into the Buddha’s foot through his own toenail. Moreover, he beat Nun Utpalavarṇā to death, and threw a large stone causing the Buddha’s foot to bleed.
Thus, he committed the three rebellious sins (causing the Buddha’s body to bleed, causing disunity in the Buddhist order, and killing an arhat), and in the end gathered all the evils in all of India and caused harm to the Buddha and His disciples and donors. King Bimbisāra, the primary supporter of the Buddha, sent 500 vehicles filled with donations daily to the Buddha. Envious of this, Devadatta seduced Crown Prince Ajātaśatru to imprison the father king and finally crucified him with seven-foot-long nails. Because of such grave sins as these, Devadatta finally fell into the Hell of Incessant Suffering through the hole in the ground of the northern gate of the town of Rājagṛha. All the people in the whole world without exception witnessed this event, believing that Devadatta would never be able to come out of this hell even after having spent incalculable number of aeons (kalpa as many as the number of dust-particles of the great earth) there. Nevertheless, he was made to become the Heavenly King Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra. This is indeed inexplicable yet precious. If Devadatta does not become a Buddha, the numerous evil people who were induced by him to enter into the evil comradeship would never be able to escape the torment of the Hell of Incessant Suffering. It is solely due to the great favor of the Lotus Sūtra that all of Devadatta’s evil comrades too, are allowed to be Buddhas. Devadatta and his numerous followers, accordingly, will stay in the residences of those who practice the Lotus Sūtra. Thus, I feel we can count on them.
Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 64-65