Buddhism for Today, p279-280While both the concept of appealing for help by calling the name of the bodhisattva and the idea that Kwan-yin takes on many forms remained important elements in Kwan-yin devotion and religious practices, a great many other stories, extra-canonical stories, especially stories of embodiments of Kwan-yin, attracted popular attention in China. The most common of these stories to come down to the present day is the story of Princess Miao-shan. Taught to them by their mothers and grandmothers, it has had much influence on how Kwan-yin is perceived and understood by Chinese Buddhists.
Miao-shan (meaning “wonderfully good”) was the third daughter of King Miao-chuang. She was naturally attracted to Buddhism, keeping a vegetarian diet from a young age, reading Buddhist scriptures during the day, and meditating at night. Having no sons, the King hoped to choose an heir from among his sons-in-law. When Miao-shan became old enough to marry, unlike her two older sisters who had married men chosen by their father, she refused to be married to anyone. angered her father so much that he found a variety of ways in which to punish her. For a while, for example, she was made to do hard work in the garden. When those tasks were completed, she was allowed to go to the White Sparrow nunnery, where she underwent further trials designed to discourage her from becoming a nun. But she persevered. So the King burned down the temple, killing the five hundred nuns who lived there, and he had Miao-shan executed for disobedience.
While her body was being protected by a mountain spirit, Miao-shan’s spirit traveled to a purgatory, where she was able to save many beings by preaching the Dharma to them. Returning to earth, she went to Fragrant Mountain, meditated for nine years, and became fully awakened.
By this time her father the King had become very ill with a mysterious incurable disease. Disguised as a wandering monk, Miao-shan went to her father and told him that there was only one thing that could save him – a medicine that was made from the eyes and hands of someone who had never felt anger. And she even told him where such a person could be found. There she secretly offered her own eyes and hands to be turned into medicine, which was taken by the King, curing him of his disease.
The King then went to Fragrant Mountain to give thanks to the one who had saved him. There he immediately recognized the ascetic without eyes or hands as his own daughter. Overwhelmed with remorse, the King and his entire family converted to Buddhism. And Miao-shan was transformed into her real form – Kwan-yin with a thousand arms and eyes. Soon after this, Miao-shan died and her remains were placed in a pagoda.
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Voice Perceiver Universal Gate
The chapter “Bodhisattva Voice Perceiver” is also known as the chapter “Universal Gate.” Since the first half of this chapter tells of the merits of a person who pays homage to the Bodhisattva World Voice Perceiver (Avalokiteśvara), this chapter is named “Voice Perceiver.” It is also named “Universal Gate” since the latter half tells of the merits of a person who takes refuge with the Lotus Sūtra which the Bodhisattva Voice Perceiver maintains.
Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 133-134
The Bodhisattva Model
Of course, those who would follow the bodhisattva way should see great bodhisattvas as models for us and not be looking to gods or goddesses for special favors.
A Chinese poem of unknown origins says:
The Dharma-body of Kwan-yin
Is neither male nor female.
If even the body is not the body,
What attributes can there be? …’
Let it be known to all Buddhists:
Do not cling to form.
The bodhisattva is you:
Not the picture or the image.
The Bodhisattva Example
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p273-274The two elements that have been lifted out of this story and widely used for various purposes are the idea that calling the name of the Bodhisattva will be sufficient to save one from any kind of difficulty and the idea that Kwan-yin [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva] takes on a great variety of forms or bodies.
Nikkyo Niwano of Rissho Kosei-kai said that Chapter 25 is the most misunderstood chapter of the Lotus Sutra. What he meant by this is that, properly understood, bodhisattvas are not gods from whom we should expect to receive special treatment, even in times of great trouble; bodhisattvas should be models for how we ourselves can be bodhisattvas, at least some of the time. In the Horin-kaku Guest Hall at the Tokyo headquarters of Rissho Kosei-kai there is a very large and magnificent statue of the Thousand-armed Kannon. In each of the hands we can see an implement of some kind, tools that represent skills that can be used to help others. When Founder Niwano first showed that statue to me, he emphasized that it should not be understood to mean that we should pray to Kannon to save us from our problems; rather, we should understand that the meaning of Kannon’s thousand skills is that each one of us should develop a thousand skills for helping others.
The Status of Bodhisattvas
Buddhism for Today, p378-379[T]here is a great misunderstanding of the status of bodhisattvas. True salvation is realized only through the Buddha. … Salvation comes from our realization of the existence of the truth, and there is only one truth. A bodhisattva is one who has a great will to save others, and he can certainly save all living beings suffering from illusion and suffering on specific occasions. Fundamental salvation, however, is not brought about except by our realization of the existence of the Buddha. How does a bodhisattva manifest his salvation to living beings? This is, of course, a salvation revealed by him to save them from their illusions and suffering on specific occasions. A much more important working of his salvation, however, is to transmit the Buddha’s teachings as his messenger and to provide us with a good example of religious life. The true salvation of the bodhisattva lies in leading us to salvation through his good example.
The great bodhisattvas have perfected their virtues, and each is possessed of special virtues peculiar to him. For example, the Bodhisattva Never Despise is characterized by his practice of paying respect to others and disclosing their buddha-nature. The Bodhisattva Medicine King displays his distinctive character in his practice of repaying the Buddha’s grace through his personal practice of the teachings. The Bodhisattva Wonder Sound is characterized by his practice of having a great regard for the realization of an ideal. We can model ourselves after the special virtues of one or another of the various bodhisattvas.
The Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World is not a buddha but a bodhisattva. He is one whom we regard as a model, but he should not be the object of our prayers for salvation. In this chapter, the Buddha declares the supernatural power of the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World as a model in order to cause us to wish to be as splendid as this bodhisattva and to try all the harder to practice the teachings of the
Lotus Sutra.
Causes of Misunderstanding World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva
Buddhism for Today, p377-378The causes of … misunderstanding [of Chapter 25: The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva] are basically two. The first is their superficial idea of salvation, which they seek in something outside themselves. As has already been explained in chapter 16, salvation lies in our awareness of the existence of the Eternal Buddha, who is omnipresent both within and outside us, and in our earnest and heartfelt realization that we are caused to live by the Buddha.
Such a firm realization leads us to true peace of mind. At the same time, our speech and conduct come naturally to be in accord with the Buddha and will produce harmony in our surroundings. The Land of Eternally Tranquil Light, namely, an ideal society, will be formed when a harmonious world gradually spreads in all directions.
True salvation comes about in this way. Misunderstanding salvation is caused by our mistakenly regarding it as meaning freedom from pain and distress through the help of some outside agency. This is just like a person who suffers from a headache caused by constipation and takes aspirin for the headache. He will temporarily feel relief from his headache because of the medicine, but he will not recover completely so long as he is not cured of his constipation, the root cause. In the same way, to rely completely on power outside oneself will not cause one to be truly saved from suffering, even though he may be relieved of an immediate problem.
Superficially and Literally
Buddhism for Today, p377Of the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra, there is none that has been more misinterpreted than this one. Having been interpreted superficially and literally, it has been regarded as teaching an easygoing faith: anyone who calls upon the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World will be delivered instantly from all his sufferings.
To be sure, the first half of this chapter deals for the most part with the supernatural power of this bodhisattva, declaring that if living beings keep in mind and revere the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World, they will be freed from the seven dangers of fire, water, wind, sword, demon, torture, and robbery. If they continue to revere the bodhisattva, they will be delivered from the four human sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death. If they revere the bodhisattva still more, they will be emancipated from the three poisons of desire, anger, and foolishness, and they will be able to obtain the kind of children they desire.
When ordinary people read chapter 25 with a shallow understanding, it is only to be expected that they will fall into an easygoing faith. Such a misinterpretation of this chapter comes from their insufficient understanding of the teachings preached in the rest of the Lotus Sutra. If they could truly understand at least chapter 16, “Revelation of the [Eternal] Life of the Tathāgata,” they could not misunderstand chapter 25 in this way.
The Supernatural Powers of This Bodhisattva equal the Power of the Law
Buddhism for Today, p351[W]e are very wrong in our judgment if we interpret the form of salvation superficially. For example, it is stated in chapter 25, “The All-Sidedness of the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World,” that anyone who keeps in mind the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World will be delivered from various sufferings. If we interpret this statement literally, it seems to mean that we do not have to work hard at practicing the Buddha’s teachings; but with such an attitude, none of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra will bear fruit. Anyone can easily understand that in the last six chapters the Buddha cannot have been so illogical and contradictory as to deny fundamentally all of the teachings preached up through chapter 22. It is surprising to find that for centuries many people have put a shallow interpretation on something that should be so easily understood and have turned to an easy, lazy faith that they thought would allow them to become free of suffering merely by keeping in mind the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World.
When we read chapter 25 carefully and in depth, we understand that the supernatural powers of this bodhisattva are essentially identical with the power of the Law preached by the Tathāgata Sakyamuni. We also realize that we must depend spiritually upon the Law to the last, but that in cultivating and practicing it we should take the model of the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World as our immediate goal. It is most regrettable that misunderstanding and simplistic interpretations of Buddhist sutras have sunk deeply into the minds of the general public over a period of many centuries, vitiating the true spirit of Buddhism. It is earnestly hoped that readers of this book will not make the same mistake.
Representing the Compassionate Workings Inherent in the Daimoku
Two Buddhas, p241-242[Given Avalokiteśvara’s] popularity, Nichiren occasionally sought to disengage Avalokiteśvara from a Pure Land context and assimilate him to the Lotus Sūtra. In one rather humorous passage, he depicts Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, another bodhisattva attendant of Amitābha, as being utterly dismayed on hearing the Lotus Sūtra preached directly by Śākyamuni Buddha himself and learning that the teachings associated with Amitābha’s pure land were merely provisional. When Amitābha himself confirms this (since all buddhas assemble to testify to the Lotus Sūtra’s truth), Avalokiteśvara reflects that it would be pointless now to return to Amitābha’s land and instead joins the other eighty thousand bodhisattvas who are attending the Lotus assembly, “vowing in all sincerity to protect practitioners of the Lotus Sūtra as he, in the words of the ‘Avalokiteśvara’ chapter, ‘wanders throughout the Sahā world.’ ”
Some temples within the Nichiren tradition have incorporated Avalokiteśvara among the various protectors enshrined on their premises. In such cases, the bodhisattva is understood as representing the compassionate workings inherent in the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, and protecting its propagation.
Bodhisattvas of the Pre-Lotus Sūtra and Trace Teachings
Two Buddhas, p241Nichiren acknowledged the tradition that held Zhiyi’s teacher Huisi to have been an embodiment of Avalokiteśvara in this world. However, Huisi had lived during the Semblance Dharma age, and Nichiren represents him as spreading only the trace teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. He saw Avalokiteśvara, like Mañjuśrī, Bhaiṣajyarāja, and Samantabhadra, as bodhisattvas of the pre-Lotus Sūtra and trace teachings. “Since they were not bearers Myōhō-renge-kyō], they were perhaps unequal to propagating it in the Final Dharma age,” he suggested.