The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p174-175The Dharma Flower Sutra makes frequent reference to “upholding” the Sutra. What does it mean to “uphold” the Sutra? The Chinese character used here can mean such things as “keep,” “hold,” “uphold,” or “take care of.” Usually, when translating it in the Dharma Flower Sutra, I have used the term “embrace.” It occurs in several combinations that are important in the Sutra, especially (in Japanese pronunciation) as juji, “receive and embrace”; buji, “honor and embrace”; goji, “protect and embrace”; and jisetsu, “embrace and explain”; and there are many others. I like to use “embrace” because, for the Dharma Flower Sutra, what is involved is not a matter either of storage or of defending, but of following or adhering to the teachings of the Sutra by embodying them in one’s life.
But in Chapter 13, what is of most direct concern is propagating the Sutra in the face of great difficulties, spreading its teachings to others despite many obstacles, leading others to embrace it. So here, in the title of Chapter 13, it seems fitting to think of being encouraged to “uphold” the Sutra.
Category Archives: d17b
A Rival Teacher?
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p149Some scholars believe that stories of Devadatta’s evil deeds were invented later to discredit the leader of a group that was a rival to the main Buddhist organization, a Buddhist saint whose rival organization lasted for several centuries and probably only died with the death of Buddhism in India, long after the time of the Buddha. (See Reginald A. Ray’s Buddhist Saints in India, pp 162-78)
Realizing Buddhahood Within Three Lifetimes
Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}Saichō argued that the story of the dragon king’s daughter was significant for all sentient beings, not just for one individual. Her story revealed that the power of the Lotus Sutra could be effective for virtually any sentient being. Even if a person could not emulate the dragon king’s daughter’s rapid realization of buddhahood, merely recognizing and appreciating her achievement was sufficient to lead a person to a significant advance in practice as demonstrated by the achievements of those beings who witnessed the dragon king’s daughter’s realization. Since not all sentient beings possessed the same religious faculties, Saichō admitted that those with lesser abilities might require additional time to realize buddhahood, but they would still realize buddhahood much more rapidly than the Hossō practitioner who was said to require three incalculable eons. If those with superior faculties did not realize enlightenment in this life, they surely would realize buddhahood within three lifetimes.
The dragon king’s daughter who converted others (to the ultimate teaching) had not undergone a long period of religious austerities; nor had the sentient beings who were converted undergone a long period of austerities. Through the wondrous power of the sutra, they all realized buddhahood with their bodies just as they are (sokushin jōbutsu). Those with the highest grade of superior faculties realize buddhahood in one lifetime; those with the medium grade of superior faculties require two lifetimes to realize buddhahood. And those with the lowest grade of superior faculties will realize buddhahood within three lifetimes. They will meet the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, enter the ranks of the bodhisattvas, and acquire the dhārāṇi which will enable them to master nonsubstantiality.
Saichō and Sokushin Jōbutsu
Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}Saichō’s discussions of the rapid realization of buddhahood are found in his polemical writings criticizing the Hossō school and defending Tendai teachings. He argued that Tendai teachings were superior because they led to buddhahood more rapidly than Hossō practices. Tendai practices could benefit everyone, but Hossō practices would not result in buddhahood for anybody in Japan because nobody could follow them. Saichō argued that the perfect religious faculties (enki) of the Japanese had already matured so that they need not bother with lesser teachings.
Saichō introduced and developed the term sokushin jōbutsu [attainment of buddhahood in this very body] in his last written work, Hokke shūku, as a part of his program to demonstrate the superiority of the Lotus Sutra and the Tendai interpretation of it. The power of the Lotus Sutra to lead the practitioner to realization with his current body is introduced as the eighth of ten reasons why the Lotus Sutra is superior to other texts. The following passage demonstrates how Saichō employed the description of the dragon king’s daughter to prove that the Lotus Sutra applied to all sentient beings and would quickly bring them salvation.
This passage (about the dragon king’s daughter) concerns those beings who can realize buddhahood only with difficulty and reveals the power of the Lotus Sutra to help them. She is an animal, (one of lower levels of the) six destinies [realms], obviously the result of bad karma. She is female and clearly has faculties which are not good. She is young and thus has not been practicing religious austerities for a long time. And yet, the wondrous power of the Lotus Sutra endows her with the two adornments of wisdom and merit. Thus we know that the power of the Lotus Sutra reveals it to be the jewel among the scriptures and a rarity in the world.
Buddhahood In This Very Body
Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}The earliest use of the term sokushin jōbutsu [attainment of buddhahood in this very body] in a T’ien-t’ai text is found in the Fa-hua wen-chii chi (T34, no.1719), Chan-jan’s subcommentary on Chih-i’s line-by-line commentary on the Lotus Sutra, the Fa-hua wen-chii (T34, no.1718). Since the term appears in Chan-jan’s discussion of the dragon king’s daughter’s realization of buddhahood, the section of the Lotus which Saichō chose as the basis of his discussion of sokushin jōbutsu, Chan-jan’s use of the term undoubtedly played a vital role in shaping Saichō’s views on the subject. Both Chih-i and Chan-jan mentioned a text entitled [P’u-sa-ch’u] t’ai-ching (T12, no.384) in their discussions of the dragon king’s daughter. In the T’ai-ching, the transformation of women into men and their subsequent realization of buddhahood, a common theme in early Mahāyāna sutras, is described. Like many of the Mahāyāna texts in which buddhahood and women are mentioned, the T’ai-ching argues against clinging to discriminations between concepts such as male and female. According to Chih-i:
The T’ai-ching states that “the women in the realms of Mara, Sakra and Brahma all neither abandoned (their old) bodies nor received (new) bodies. They all realized buddhahood with their current bodies (genshin).” Thus these verses state that the dharma nature is like a great ocean. No right or wrong is preached (within it). Ordinary people and sages are equal, without superiority or inferiority.
Chan-jan, in commenting on this passage, used the term sokushin jōbutsu to describe the realization of both the dragon king’s daughter and the women in the T’ai-ching. Saichō’s use of the term clearly was derived from Chan-jan’s subcommentary, and his discussion of sokushin jōbutsu is primarily based on the story of the dragon king’s daughter in the “Devadatta” chapter of the Lotus.
Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p171The reason for the chapter title, “Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra,” may be obscure, as it is not so much that the bodhisattvas or nuns are encouraged as that they themselves promise or make a vow to endure and persist in teaching the Sutra despite rejection and persecution.
This concern and promise follow from the request of the Buddha at the end of Chapter 11, where Shakyamuni Buddha asks that anyone who can embrace, read, and recite the Sutra come before him now and make such a vow.
Now, here in Chapter 13, bodhisattvas respond: “We will cherish neither our bodies nor our lives but care only for the unexcelled way. In ages to come, we will protect and uphold what the Buddha has entrusted to us.” And they promise that they will go to preach the Dharma to anyone who seeks it. “We are emissaries of the WorldHonored One,” they declare, and say that they will teach the Dharma well, facing multitudes without fear. (LS 259—60)
Words such as these were very important to Nichiren and to many of his followers over the centuries who suffered abuse and persecution as a consequence of being ardent, sometimes fanatical, devotees of the Lotus Sutra.
Seeing the Buddha in All Those We Encounter
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p151Basic to the teachings of this Sutra is a kind of promise, an assurance, that each and every living being has the potential to become a buddha. This tells us something about ourselves, of course, but here the light is shining in the other direction, encouraging us to see the buddha in others—regardless of their moral or other qualities.
In an important sense, this story [about Devadatta] is not so much about Devadatta as it is about Shakyamuni Buddha. It does not teach us that Devadatta was able to become a buddha because his inner intentions were really good, or because he changed his ways and became a good man, or because of anything else he did or did not do. What this story teaches is that the Buddha is one who can see the buddha in others. And that is what we are encouraged by this story to do – to look for and see the buddha in all those we encounter.
Attainment of Buddhahood by Women
[I]gnorant people today should believe in Śākyamuni Buddha as the Most Venerable One (honzon), and they will automatically be able to avoid being unfilial to the Buddha. If they, moreover, believe in the Lotus Sūtra, they will also be able to avoid unknowingly committing the sin of slandering the True Dharma. Besides, as it is said that women have the five hindrances and the three to obey (parents, husband, and children), women are disliked in the world and abandoned in the holy scriptures of the Buddha’s lifetime teachings. Only in the Lotus Sūtra does a female dragon attain Buddhahood and many nuns were guaranteed to be future Buddhas. If all the women in the world should abandon this sūtra, which other sūtra should they then embrace?
Zemmui-shō, Treatise on Śubhākarasiṃha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 54-55
The Stories of Devadatta and the Dragon Princess
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p147In Chinese and Japanese versions of the Lotus Sutra and in translations from Chinese, the stories of Devadatta and the dragon princess comprise Chapter 12, while in Indian versions they appear at the end of the previous chapter. This gives a stronger impression of the chapter being an interruption of the longer story that begins in Chapter 11 with the emergence from the ground of the Stupa of Abundant Treasures Buddha. Originally these two stories may have circulated independently of the Lotus Sutra as one or two different texts. Putting them in a separate chapter in this way gives more emphasis and importance to them.
Superficially there is not much reason for these two stories to be together. In terms of characters, they have nothing in common. What makes sense – both in terms of their being together in one chapter and of the chapter being inserted at this point in the Sutra – is the teaching of universal awakening found throughout the Lotus Sutra. The chapter reinforces the idea that there can be no exception to the teaching that everyone is to some degree on the bodhisattva path to becoming a buddha – including those regarded as evil, and even women, who too often in India were regarded as inherently evil.
An Inspired Teaching
The Mahāyāna response … to the question as to when a teaching can be considered to have been taught by the Buddha is that it does not matter whether or not it was taught by the historical Buddha, but whether it conforms to the truth, to those teachings we know the historical Buddha did teach, to the renunciation of defilement, and to revealing the praiseworthy qualities of nirvāṇa, the unconditioned. Of course, this criteria comes down to the subjective judgment of those who are evaluating a given teaching, but this is certainly in line with the Buddha’s advice to the Kālāmas when he told them that they should not depend upon external authorities, traditions, or even their own speculations, but rather to depend upon what they come to know for themselves directly is wholesome and praiseworthy and to be put into practice. Mahāyānists may consider the Śākyamuni Buddha who speaks in the Mahāyāna sūtras as the personification of a wisdom tradition whose initial inspiration is found, but not limited to, the life and teachings of the historical Gautama Buddha.
In the case of Nichiren and those who follow him, there is certainly the conviction that the Lotus Sūtra is an inspired teaching, and furthermore that it expresses the ultimate intent of the Buddhist tradition as a whole — the buddhahood or perfect and complete awakening of all people without exception. To bring this point home, Nichiren adds to the three proclamations two additional proclamations from chapter twelve of the Lotus Sūtra: the prediction of buddhahood given to Devadatta and the transformation of the dragon king’s daughter into a buddha. Based on these two exhortations or additional proclamations, Nichiren asserts that the Lotus Sūtra guarantees that all men and women can attain buddhahood. This universal guarantee of buddhahood is where Nichiren, basing himself on the Lotus Sūtra, believes that all the teachings of all the other sūtras, Mahāyāna and pre-Mahāyāna, are leading. It is, therefore, up to us to accept this with trust and joy, put it into practice, and find out for outselves.
Open Your Eyes, p498-499