Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p225In order to better understand [Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva], we have to understand how Mahayana Buddhism became established as a viable religion in China. Chinese society was strongly influenced by the teachings of Confucianism, which especially upheld the importance of filial duty – the duty and reverence of children toward their parents and ancestors. This ideal has been one of the underpinnings of Chinese society and culture from the time of Confucius in the fifth century B.C.E. to the present day Given this cultural context, we can see that the Buddhist ideal of renunciation – leaving one’s home and family to become a monk or nun, a seeker of truth – would have been difficult to accept.
Someone who is practicing always has the capacity to return home in order to liberate their family from suffering. No one practices just for himself or herself alone. When followers of Confucianism condemned Buddhism as failing to practice filial piety, the practitioners had to prove the opposite, that in following the path of the Buddha they were also following the path of humanity and filial piety. In the story of bodhisattva Quan Am of the Southern Seas (written in Vietnamese Nom script), we have the following verse:
The suchness of the Buddha’s path is very wonderful, our heart is loyal with filial piety and the first thought we have is to look after humanity.
Filial piety is our aim to be able to liberate from suffering those who are close to us. Our humanity is our aim, to be able to rescue all living beings from drifting and sinking in the ocean of suffering.
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The Lesson of Chapter 27
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p223-225Chapter 27 of the Lotus Sutra, “The Former Affairs of the King Fine Adornment,” was one of the chapters added later to the Sutra. It tells of a king named Shubhavyuha (Fine Adornment), who was the previous life of Flower Virtue, one of the bodhisattvas in the Lotus Sutra assembly. Two other bodhisattvas in the assembly, Medicine King and Superior Medicine, were the sons of King Fine Adornment in their previous lives. Through their practice and understanding of the Lotus Sutra, which they heard taught by the Buddha of that place and time, they were able to lead their father to the path of the Buddhadharma. Also present is the bodhisattva Marks of Adornment, who in a former life was called Pure Virtue, and was the wife of King Fine Adornment and the mother of his two sons.
The Buddha introduces these bodhisattvas and speaks of their past lives to convey to the Sangha that the practice of the Lotus Sutra can lead to effects beyond compare, and this has the effect of increasing and ensuring the assembly’s confidence and faith in the practice. This chapter shows us that we have the capacity to take our practice into our families and communities in order to help them become liberated from suffering. We do not practice for ourselves alone but also in order to help others – this is the way of the bodhisattva that is extolled in the Lotus Sutra.
When we enter the bodhisattva path, it is natural that parents and immediate family members are the first objects of our practice. We can see this in the example of Shakyamuni Buddha himself, who soon after his enlightenment taught the Dharma to his aunt Mahāprajāpatī, his former wife, Yasodhara, his son, Rāhula, and his father, Śuddhodana. …
The presence of bodhisattvas like Medicine King, Superior Medicine, and Flower Virtue in the Lotus Sutra show us that the practice of the path of liberation has the capacity not only to liberate us but also to bring others out of suffering – beginning with our parents and siblings, our immediate family, and ultimately extending to all beings.
The Dimension of Action
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p142-143One of the most important and influential schools of Chinese Buddhism, the Tiantai school, divides the Lotus Sutra into two parts: the first fourteen chapters representing the historical dimension and the last fourteen chapters representing the ultimate dimension. But this method has some shortcomings. There are elements of the ultimate dimension in the first fourteen chapters and elements of the historical in the second. There is also a third very important dimension, the dimension of action.
These dimensions cannot be separated; they inter-are. Here is an example. When we look at a bell we can see that it is made of metal. The manifestation of the bell carries the substance of metal within. So within the historical dimension – the form of the bell – we can see its ultimate dimension, the ground from which it manifests. When the bell is struck, it creates a pleasant sound. The pleasant sound created by the bell is its function. The purpose of a bell is to offer sound in order for us to practice. That is its action. Function is the dimension of action, the third dimension along with, and inseparable from, the historical and ultimate dimensions.
We need to establish a third dimension of the Lotus Sutra to reveal its function, its action. How can we help people of the historical dimension get in touch with their ultimate nature so that they can live joyfully in peace and freedom? How can we help those who suffer open the door of the ultimate dimension so that the suffering brought about by fear, despair, and anxiety can be alleviated? I have gathered all the chapters on the great bodhisattvas into this third action dimension, the bodhisattva’s sphere of engaged practice.
‘Off the Path’
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p286It is interesting that we find the Dharma Flower Sutra here being sensitive to the possibility of families having members with different religious perspectives. Sometimes the term “heretical” has been used to translate the Chinese/Japanese term gedo, which literally means “off the path,” where the path is the Way of the Buddha. It simply means non-Buddhist. Actually, one could say that Buddhism itself is a Hindu heresy. “Heresy” means departure from something already established, some “orthodoxy,” and is always more or less within some tradition. Thus “Christian heresy” is possible and so is “Buddhist heresy” but that is not what is meant by gedo, especially here, where the King is a follower of brahman views, that is, of orthodox views.
Our Relationship With the Buddha
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p293-294One of the truly liberating teachings of the Dharma Flower Sutra and Mahayana Buddhism generally is that one does not have to become a monk or nun in order to follow the bodhisattva way of being, just like the Buddha himself, a Dharma teacher. As we see most explicitly in Chapter 10 of the Dharma Flower Sutra, anyone can be a Dharma teacher for others. Such Dharma teachers are all children of the Buddha. But here being a child of the Buddha is not so much an alternative, as it is when one leaves home to follow a buddha, as it is an addition, a kind of fulfillment of being a child of one’s biological parents. This is what is symbolized in this story by the fact that the whole family – father, mother, children, and servants – gives up domestic life in order to follow a buddha together.
Thus, the meaning of this story for us is that we can be children of our parents and parents of our children, or have no children at all, and still be children, true followers, of the Buddha. potential to be a true child of the Buddha, according to the Dharma Flower Sutra, is not initially something we have to earn or learn, it is given to us, just as both our parents and our children are given to us. Relationships created by birth can be grossly distorted or even forgotten, but cannot be completely destroyed or abolished. So, from the moment of our birth, our relationship with the Buddha, a relationship that has close affinities to the relationship of a parent with a child, is always being given to us and can never be completely rejected or abolished.
The Power of Practice
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 148The power of practice is illustrated by five entrances: l) the power from teaching, 2) the power from the practice of undertaking hardships, 3) the power from protecting living beings from difficulties, 4) the power from the excellence of merits, and 5) the power from protecting the Dharma.
- The power from teaching has three entrances to the Dharma that are shown in the chapter “Supernatural Powers”: [the buddhas] extend their long, broad tongues in order to cause [those present] to remember; [they] coughed [before] speaking the verses in order to cause [those present to listen, and after having made them listen they caused them not to abandon the true practice; [they] snapped their fingers to enlighten living beings and to cause those who were practicing the path to attain enlightenment.
- The power from the practice of undertaking hardships is illustrated in the chapter “Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja” [Medicine King]. The chapter “Bodhisattva Gadgadasvara” [Wonderful Voice] also illustrates the power from the practice of undertaking hardships [in regard to] giving guidance to living beings.
- The power from protecting living beings from difficulties is shown in the chapter “Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara” and the chapter “Magical Spells.”
- The power from the excellence of merits is shown in the chapter “King Śubhavyūha.” The two boys have such power through the roots of good merit [they had planted] in past lives.
- The power from protecting the Dharma is shown in the chapter “Bodhisattva Samantabhadra” and in later chapters.
The Merits Will Bear Blossoms and Fruit.
The chapter “Wonderful Adornment King” is expounded for women. It tells of a wife recommending Buddhism to her husband. If a wife recommends the Lotus Sūtra to her husband in the Latter Age of Degeneration, her merit will be the same as that of Lady Jōtoku, or Pure Virtue. The merits would be much more upon you both, a husband and wife, who believe together in the Lotus Sūtra. You are like a bird that has two wings or a vehicle with two wheels. Everything will surely be achieved by you. With heaven and earth, sun and moon, sunshine and rain, plants and trees of the merits will bear blossoms and fruit.
Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 137
The Role of Pratyekabuddhas
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p289-290In the Lotus Sutra, the term pratyekabuddha is used to refer to monks who go off into forests by themselves to pursue their own awakening in solitude. But while the term is used frequently in the early chapters and pratyekabuddhas are made prominent by being named as one of the four holy states of buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and shravakas, we never learn anything at all about any particular pratyekabuddha. While we hear the names of a great many buddhas, bodhisattvas, and shravakas in the Lotus Sutra, we never encounter the name of even a single pratyekabuddha. This leads me to think that, at least for the Lotus Sutra, pratyekabuddhas are not very important.
Though there probably was a historic forest-monk tradition in India, in the Lotus Sutra the pratyekabuddha seems to fill a kind of logical role. That is, there are those who strive for awakening primarily in monastic communities, the shravakas, and there are those who strive for awakening in ordinary communities, the bodhisattvas. There needs to be room for those who strive for awakening apart from all communities – the pratyekabuddhas. But from the bodhisattva perspective of the Dharma Flower Sutra, pratyekabuddhas are in a sense irrelevant. Since they do not even teach others, they indeed do no harm, but neither do they contribute to the Buddha’s work of transforming the world into a buddha land.
Protecting All Women Who Uphold the Lotus Sūtra
It says in the “Bodhisattva Wonderful Voice” chapter that there was a bodhisattva named Myōon or Wonderful Voice, in the eastern world of the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation. This bodhisattva was once Lady Jōtoku, or Pure Virtue, the wife of King Wonderful Adornment in the age of the Buddha Cloud Thunder Roll King. She became Bodhisattva Wonderful Voice by virtue of venerating the Lotus Sūtra. When Śākyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sūtra in the Sahā World, she came and promised that she would protect all women who upheld the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration.
Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 133
We All Need Good Friends and Teachers
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p289King Wonderfully Adorned praises his sons, calling them his friends or teachers, and Wisdom Blessed Buddha responds that good friends or teachers do the work of the Buddha, showing people the Way, causing them to enter it, and bringing them joy.
The term used here, zenchishiki in Japanese, is not easy to translate. Some use “good friends,” some “good teachers.” Perhaps good “acquaintances” or “associates” would be a good translation, for there is a sense in which our good friends are always also our teachers. The point is that the help or guidance of others can be enormously useful. Entering the Way, becoming more mindful or awakened, is not something best done in isolation. We all need good friends and teachers.