The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p193In this story [of the bodhisattvas from the earth] there is also an affirmation of human life, reflecting a humanistic, positive regard for human life in this world. In greeting the Buddha, the bodhisattvas from below ask the Buddha whether he is in good health and peaceful, whether the living beings here are ready to receive the Dharma, and whether they are exhausting him. His reply is that he is in good health, that the living beings of this world are ready to receive the Dharma, and that they do not wear him out because they have already learned some important things in previous lives, where they have planted roots of goodness. Thus, a positive regard for human beings is affirmed: just as in the story of the gem in the hair, the treasure, the Dharma Flower Sutra, is given because there are many of great merit; here too there is a positive regard for human beings in general.
Nikkyo Niwano, founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, connects this story and its message of world-affirmation with the idea that Shakyamuni Buddha became awakened not as someone sent to earth by a god or as one who received a divine revelation from a transcendent realm, but through his own efforts as a human being. In this respect, Buddhism, he said, is quite different from most, perhaps all, other religions.
It is appropriate, therefore, that Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan – a great monastery in Taiwan, with branches all over the world, which is strongly oriented to serving people in this world and in this time – calls his teaching “Humanistic Buddhism.”
Category Archives: d20b
The Golden Yellow Leaf and The Teachings of Interdependence and No-Self
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p110-111This part of the Lotus Sutra is concerned with “appearance.” In order to be able to reach the minds of human beings, who are still attached to their perception of the historical dimension of reality, the world of birth and death, coming and going, existence and nonexistence, the Buddha appeared as a historical person called Shakyamuni. He appeared to be born, to realize the path, teach the Dharma for forty years, and then to “disappear” into nirvana. But this manifestation of the Buddha was only a kind of skillful pretense in order to enter the world of human beings and help them to liberation.
One day while practicing walking meditation in the Upper Hamlet, I looked down and saw that I was about to step on a golden yellow leaf. It was in the autumn, when the golden leaves are very beautiful. When I saw that beautiful golden leaf, I did not want to step on it and so I hesitated briefly. But then I smiled and thought, “This leaf is only pretending to be gold, pretending to fall from the tree.” In terms of the historical dimension, that leaf was born on a branch as a new green bud in the spring, had clung to that branch for many months, changed color in autumn, and one day when a cold wind blew, it fell to the ground. But looking deeply into its ultimate dimension, we can see that the leaf is only pretending to be born, to exist for a while, and to grow old and die. The teachings of interdependence and no-self reveal to us the true unborn and undying nature of all phenomena. One day that leaf will pretend to be born again on the branch of another tree, but she is really just playing a game of hide and seek with us.
We are also playing a game of hide and seek with one another. It is not only the Buddha who pretends to be born and to enter nirvana, we also pretend to be born, to live for a while, and to pass away. You may think that your mother has passed away and is no longer here with you. But her passing away was just a pretense, and one day, when the causes and conditions are sufficient, she will reappear in one form or another. If you have enough insight you will be able to recognize your mother in her other forms. We need to look deeply into all those we love and recognize their true nature. We love our teacher, our father and mother, our children, our brothers and sisters, and when someone we love passes away, we feel great sorrow and believe we have lost that person. But ultimately nothing is lost. The true nature of those we love is unborn and undying. If we can be in touch with the ultimate dimension, we shall smile with the yellow leaf, just as we can smile at all the other changes that take place in our lives.
So with the help of their teacher, the disciples on the The Gridhrakuta Mountain Peak saw into their own true Buddha nature. And just as the life span of a Buddha is limitless, so too the life span of all beings is limitless in the ultimate dimension.
Beyond Time and Space
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p108In Chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra, “Welling Up Out of the Earth,” we begin to see the unborn and undying nature of the Buddha. From the point of view of our conventional understanding, we see reality as limited by the two barriers of time and space. But the Lotus Sutra reveals to us the eternal presence of the Buddha; time and space are not separate.
When Daffodils Manifest
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p108In the Upper Hamlet of Plum Village where I live there is an area where wild daffodils manifest in late February. When we first arrived on the land to begin building Plum Village, we were not aware that there were so many beautiful daffodils, hundreds of thousands of them, waiting there to manifest in early spring. We had only a historical perception of the land; we had not yet seen its ultimate dimension. The daffodils don’t bloom any other time of the year, and then suddenly tens of thousands of them spring up, just like the bodhisattvas welling up from the Earth. When these golden flowers manifest, it is very beautiful, and so we have named that place “Treasure of the Dharma Body.” You can’t see the Dharma realm (dharmadhatu), until it manifests to you. If you’re too attached to your perception of the historical dimension of reality, you may not be able to see the ultimate dimension manifest. When you know how to look deeply into the historical dimension, you touch the ultimate dimension.
Bodhisattvas Are Emerging From the Earth Still
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p194-195It is important to recognize that the bodhisattvas who spring up from the earth are not merely historical beings of the past. They include ourselves. Shakyamuni Buddha was a historical person. He was born, lived, and died on earth. So too were the leading shravakas who appear in the Dharma Flower Sutra – Shariputra, Ananda, Subhuti, Katyayana, Kashyapa, Maudgalyayana, and others. These are the names of historical people. But the famous, and not so famous, bodhisattvas are not historical, at least not in the same sense. Manjushri, Maitreya, Universal Sage (Pǔxián/Fugen/Samantabhadra), Earth Store (Dìzàng/Jizo/Kshitigharba), and Kwan-yin (Kannon/Avalokiteshvara) are the five most prominent bodhisattvas in East Asian religion and art. Though all, especially Manjushri, Maitreya, and Kwan-yin, are believed to have been embodied in a variety of historical figures, none is an actual historical figure. The same is true of other bodhisattvas who have important roles in the Dharma Flower Sutra, bodhisattvas such as Never Disrespectful, Medicine King, and Wonderful Voice, and the four leading bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth in Chapter 15. Although some are believed to have been embodied in one or more historical figures, none is historical in the sense that Shakyamuni, Shariputra, and you and I are historical. Rather, they are models for us, setting examples of bodhisattva practices that we can follow.
But the enormous horde of bodhisattvas who well up from the earth with the four leaders are perhaps a little different. They appear, not in historical time, but in a powerful story. The text says that the four groups, the monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, could see these bodhisattvas “by the divine powers of the Buddha.” This is another way of referring to the human imagination, to the power that we all have to transcend everyday life, the power to see the buddha in others. The bodhisattvas are nameless, and, except for greeting and showing respect to all the buddhas, in this story and in subsequent chapters of the Sutra they do nothing. We can understand this to mean that in a sense they are not yet. The emergence of bodhisattvas from the earth is not a one-time event in ordinary time, but an ongoing process – bodhisattvas are emerging from the earth still. And not only, of course, in India, but virtually everywhere there are human beings. If we use our own powers of imagination, we can see bodhisattvas emerging from the earth all around us! We ourselves can be among them.
The Reality and Importance of this world
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p190Some interpreters of the Lotus Sutra may prefer to think that this space below the earth is a symbolic reference to the popular Mahayana Buddhist idea of emptiness. These bodhisattvas, they claim, emerge from emptiness. This could be right. But the Lotus Sutra is not much concerned with the concept of “emptiness,” using it in a positive sense only very few times. So it seems to me to be unlikely that it is what is behind this story. What this story wants to affirm, I believe, is not the reality of emptiness, but the reality and importance of this world, this world of suffering, a world that is, after all, Shakyamuni Buddha’s world and our world.
The Bodhisattva Way
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p193-194The bodhisattva way is affirmed throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra. The Sutra does not reject other ways, neither the shravaka way nor the pratyekabuddha way, but it does make them subordinate to the way of bodhisattvas, which, revealingly, is also called “the Buddha Way.” This is because the bodhisattva way is understood to be a path leading one to becoming a buddha, that is, to embodying the Buddha in one’s life. Lesser goals may be useful and effective in leading one to the bodhisattva way, but they should be regarded as entrances to the way, or resting places along the way.
Thus it is that the four great bodhisattvas – Superior Practice, Unlimited Practice, Pure Practice, and Firm Practice – who lead the great horde of bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth are said to display, or correspond to, the four great bodhisattva vows:
Firm Practice: However innumerable living beings are, I vow to save them all;
Pure Practice: However innumerable hindrances are, I vow to overcome them all;
Unlimited Practice: However innumerable the Buddha’s teachings are, I vow to master them all;
Superior Practice: However supreme the Buddha Way is, I vow to reach it.
These four vows make clear what the way of the bodhisattva is: It is devotion to the goal of helping everyone to attain the potential they have within themselves to be a buddha.
The Ongoing Process of the Emergence of Bodhisattvas from the Earth
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p194-195It is important to recognize that the bodhisattvas who spring up from the earth are not merely historical beings of the past. They include ourselves. Shakyamuni Buddha was a historical person. He was born, lived, and died on earth. So too were the leading shravakas who appear in the Dharma Flower Sutra – Shariputra, Ananda, Subhuti, Katyayana, Kashyapa, Maudgalyayana, and others. These are the names of historical people. But the famous, and not so famous, bodhisattvas are not historical, at least not in the same sense. Manjushri, Maitreya, Universal Sage (Pǔxián/Fugen/Samantabhadra), Earth Store (Dìzàng/Jizo/Kshitigharba), and Kwan-yin (Kannon/Avalokiteshvara) are the five most prominent bodhisattvas in East Asian religion and art. Though all, especially Manjushri, Maitreya, and Kwan-yin, are believed to have been embodied in a variety of historical figures, none is an actual historical figure. The same is true of other bodhisattvas who have important roles in the Dharma Flower Sutra, bodhisattvas such as Never Disrespectful, Medicine King, and Wonderful Voice, and the four leading bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth in Chapter 15. Although some are believed to have been embodied in one or more historical figures, none is historical in the sense that Shakyamuni, Shariputra, and you and I are historical. Rather, they are models for us, setting examples of bodhisattva practices that we can follow.
But the enormous horde of bodhisattvas who well up from the earth with the four leaders are perhaps a little different. They appear, not in historical time, but in a powerful story. The text says that the four groups, the monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, could see these bodhisattvas “by the divine powers of the Buddha.” This is another way of referring to the human imagination, to the power that we all have to transcend everyday life, the power to see the buddha in others. The bodhisattvas are nameless, and, except for greeting and showing respect to all the buddhas, in this story and in subsequent chapters of the Sutra they do nothing. We can understand this to mean that in a sense they are not yet. The emergence of bodhisattvas from the earth is not a one-time event in ordinary time, but an ongoing process – bodhisattvas are emerging from the earth still. And not only, of course, in India, but virtually everywhere there are human beings. If we use our own powers of imagination, we can see bodhisattvas emerging from the earth all around us! We ourselves can be among them.
The Vow of the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang Up from Underground
My disciples, think deeply! The countless bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground were disciples of Lord Śākyamuni Buddha ever since the time He had first resolved to seek Buddhahood. Nevertheless, they neither came to see Him when He attained Buddhahood under the bodhi tree, nor visited Him when He passed away under the twin śāla trees. Thus, they may very well be accused of not being filial.
Moreover, they did not attend the preaching of the fourteen-chapter theoretical section, and they were absent when the last six chapters of the essential section were preached. They came and left while the first eight chapters of the essential section were being preached. But these great high-ranking bodhisattvas made a vow in the presence of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and numerous Buddhas in manifestation that they would propagate the Five Characters transmitted to them at the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration. How can they not appear right now?
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 162
Hiding in Plain Sight
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p189The bodhisattvas are said to spring up from the sky or empty space that is below the earth. Exactly what is meant by the empty space below the earth is unclear. Probably this was simply the most convenient way to have this huge number of bodhisattvas be hidden from view, yet not be in less-than-human regions, nor be among the heavenly beings, yet still be in this world. The dramatic effect of the story is dependent on the existence of these bodhisattvas being unknown to all but Shakyamuni, so they have to be hidden somewhere. But it is also important for the thrust of the story that they not be from some other world, or even from one of the heavens or purgatories associated with this world. In other words, both for the sake of the story and for the sake of the central message of the Dharma Flower Sutra, it is important that these bodhisattvas be both hidden and somehow of this world. Thus the Buddha says, “They are my children, living in this world… .”