The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p298-299In East Asian Buddhist temples and art one can find portrayals of many different bodhisattvas, but only five are found over and over again, in nearly all temples and museums. Their Indian names are Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya, Manjushri, Kshitigarbha, and Samantabhadra. In English they commonly called Kwan-yin (from Chinese), Maitreya, Manjushri (both from Sanskrit), Jizo (from Japanese), and Universal Sage. All except Jizo are prominent in the Lotus Sutra, though in different ways. While both Kwan-yin and Universal Sage have entire chapters devoted to them, except for a mention of Kwan-yin as present in the great assembly of Chapter 1, they do not otherwise appear in the rest of the text, while Manjushri and Maitreya appear often throughout the Sutra. In typical Chinese Buddhist temples, where the central figure is a buddha or buddhas, to the right one can see a statue of Manjushri mounted on a lion, and to the left Universal Sage riding on an elephant, usually a white elephant with six tusks.
While both Kwan-yin and Maitreya are said to symbolize compassion and Manjushri usually symbolizes wisdom, Universal Sage is often used to symbolize awakened action, embodying wisdom and compassion in everyday life. Above the main entrance to Rissho Kosei-kai’s Great Sacred Hall, for instance, there is a wonderful set of paintings depicting Manjushri and wisdom on the right, Maitreya and compassion on the left, and in the middle, the embodiment of these in life – Universal Sage Bodhisattva.
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Doing the Work of the Buddha with the Strength of an Elephant
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p305-306It is significant that Universal Sage and his elephant come not to offer us a ride to some paradise above the masses of ordinary people but to bring the strength of an elephant for doing the Buddha’s work in the world, so that the Dharma can blossom in us, empowering us to be bodhisattvas for others, enabling us to see the Buddha in others and to experience the joy of seeing buddhas everywhere.
In doing the work of the Buddha, we should recognize that there are many kinds of Dharma – teachings, truths, and correct ways of doing things. In the Buddha’s time there were Hindu dharmas and Jain dharmas, dharmas stemming from one’s birth or caste, and dharmas appropriate to one’s stage of life. In many respects, the Buddha’s teachings provided an alternative to conventional Indian dharmas. Thus, in Buddhism, Dharma is always Buddha Dharma. In other words, Buddha Dharma is such that without the Buddha there is no Buddha Dharma and, since the Buddha is first and foremost a teacher, the Buddha is not the Buddha without Buddha Dharma. The Buddha and his Dharma, the Dharma and its teacher, cannot be separated into independent realities.
There is a very interesting passage in Chapter 28: “If there are any who receive and embrace, read and recite, remember correctly, practice, and copy this Dharma Flower Sutra, it should be known that they have seen Shakyamuni Buddha. It is as though they heard this sutra from the Buddha’s mouth. It should be known that they have made offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha. It should be known that the Buddha has praised them for doing good. It should be known that Shakyamuni Buddha has touched the heads of such people with his hand. It should be known that such people are covered by the robes of Shakyamuni Buddha.” (LS 397)
The Sutra itself, in other words, is not just an embodiment of Buddha Dharma but of Shakyamuni Buddha himself, and thus is one of the ways in which the Buddha appears to and for us.
The Power to be a Universal Sage
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p304-305In the Chapter 28 story, Universal Sage Bodhisattva promises that if anyone accepts and upholds the Dharma Flower Sutra he will come to that person mounted on a white elephant with six tusks. This can be understood to mean that taking the Sutra seriously gives one extraordinary strength or power. The elephant itself is often a symbol of strength or power, the whiteness of the elephant has been taken to symbolize purity, and the six tusks have been taken to represent both the six paramitas or transcendental bodhisattva practices and purification of the six senses. But if the elephant is taken to be a symbol of power, we should understand that this is not a power to do just anything. It is a power to practice the Dharma, strength to do the Buddha’s work in the world, power to be a universal sage.
Though the image does not come from this story but from the much more involved visualization of the Sutra of Meditation on the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, the elephant on which Universal Sage Bodhisattva rides is very often depicted as either walking on blossoming lotus flowers or wearing them like shoes. If the elephant is not standing, a lotus flower will be under the foot of Universal Sage. Such lotus blossoming should be understood, I believe, as an attempt to depict in a motionless picture or statue something that is actually very dynamic – the flowering of the Dharma.
Our ‘Good Friends’
QUESTIONS: Commonly speaking, “good friend” refers to a person.
Do you have any evidence for saying the dharma is a “good friend?”
ANSWER: Usually “good friends” are persons. However, true “good friends” do not exist in the Latter Age; so, there is much evidence of regarding dharmas as “good friends.” For instance it is stated in the Great Concentration and Insight, fascicle 1, “Following either ‘good friends’ or sūtras, we will be able to listen to Buddhahood of the One Vehicle truth (Lotus Sūtra) as preached above.” This passage regards sūtras as “good friends.”
It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 28 on the “Encouragement of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva, if there is anyone who can practice and uphold the Lotus Sūtra in this world, he had better think that it is all due to the divine help of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva.” It means that it is with the help of the “good friend,” Universal Sage Bodhisattva, that the ignorant in the Latter Age can have faith in the Lotus Sūtra.
The sūtra in the same chapter claims also, “Anyone who keeps faith in, recites, memorizes correctly, practices and copies this Lotus Sūtra should know that he is like those who see Śākyamuni Buddha in person and listen to Him preach this sūtra. You should know that he is making offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha.” According to this passage, the Lotus Sūtra is identical to Śākyamuni Buddha, who would enter Nirvana and never appear in front of those who do not believe in the Lotus Sūtra but would always appear in front of those who believe in the Lotus Sūtra as if he were alive in this world even after death.
It is also stated in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 11 on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” that when the Buddha of Many Treasures was practicing the bodhisattva way, he made a great vow, declaring, “If the Lotus Sūtra is preached anywhere in the worlds all over the universe after I have attained Buddhahood and passed away, my mausoleum Stupa will spring up on the spot so that I may listen to the sūtra and testify to it.” It means that when we, the ignorant in the Latter Age, chant the title of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha of Many Treasures will inevitably appear in order to carry out his original vow.
The sūtra also states in the same chapter, “The Buddha called together all the Buddhas preaching the dharma in the worlds throughout the universe in a single spot.” Thus, Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, all the Buddhas manifested in the worlds throughout the universe, the Universal Sage Bodhisattva and others are all our “good friends.” So long as we believe in the Lotus Sūtra, we are guided by these great teachers personally. In this sense, our merits accumulated from our previous lives are more than those of Bodhisattvas Good Treasures, Ever Weeping and King Spotted Feet so that we are able to meet better teachers than they were. This is because they met teachers of expedient sūtras while we met teachers of true sūtras; they met bodhisattvas of expedient sūtras and we met Buddhas and bodhisattvas of true sūtras.
Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 58-59
The Name of Universal Sage
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p295-296The title of Chapter 28 of the Lotus Sutra can reasonably be translated as “Encouragement of Universal Sage Bodhisattva.” There is widespread agreement among translators about the term “encouragement” in this title, but not about the name of the bodhisattva, in Sanskrit known as Samantabhadra.
In Chinese he is consistently known as P’u-hsien (Puxian) and in
Japanese, pronouncing the same Chinese characters, he is known as Fugen. The first of the two Chinese characters in the name means “universal” or “universally.” It is the same character as that found in the title of Chapter 25 of the Dharma Flower Sutra, the chapter on the Universal Gateway of Kwan-shih-yin Bodhisattva. In both cases, this universality has not so much to do with being everywhere as with being open or available to everyone.The meaning of the second character in the name of this bodhisattva is more problematic. It clearly can mean “virtue” or “virtuous,” and most often does. Thus, the name has been rendered as “Universal Virtue” or “Universal Good.” And since to be virtuous is to be worthy, one translator has used “Universally Worthy.” The character in question can also mean “wise” or “wisdom.” And so the name has also been translated as “Universally Wise.” In an attempt to combine virtue and wisdom in a single term, like one other translator of the Lotus Sutra, I think “Universal Sage” is the most appropriate name in English, as a sage is normally both virtuous and wise. The excellent translation of the Lotus Sutra into modern French also uses “Sage.”
Four Practices of The Bodhisattva Universal Sage
Buddhism for Today, p405-406As shown in this chapter and in the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal [Sage], the so-called closing sutra of the Lotus Sutra, the Bodhisattva Universal [Sage] is perfect in the following four practices:
- He himself practices the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.
- He protects the teachings from all persecutions.
- He bears witness to the merits obtained by one who practices the teachings and to the punishments suffered by one who slanders the teachings or persecutes its followers.
- He proves that even those who violate the teachings can be delivered from their sins if they are sincerely penitent.
The Bodhisattva Universal [Sage] encourages those who have finished hearing the Lotus Sutra and are beginning a new life with these words: “I vow to do these four practices as a conclusion of the practices of the Lotus Sutra. Try to be assiduous in your practices, without anxiety.”
His encouragement may be likened to the commencement address that the principal of a school delivers to the graduating students. They are now leaving school, carrying with them the truth that they have studied there. When they go out into the world, they are often puzzled as to how best to use what they have studied at school. Sometimes they have the unfortunate experience of having the truth they have studied denied by others, or even of being persecuted for it. “Whenever you have trouble, you can visit your old school. We will try to prove that the truth is not wrong. Moreover, we will teach you how you should apply the truth to each practical problem. If you fail in anything, we will show you how to overcome your failure.” In this way, the principal’s commencement speech guarantees the graduates the protection of their activities even after leaving school. No farewell speech of encouragement could be more inspiring than this.
Offering a Stem of Flower or Pinch of Incense to Lotus Sūtra
Regarding the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, it is preached in the “Universal Sage Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 8, “His wishes will all be fulfilled and he will be rewarded happily in this life” or “He will certainly be rewarded with a good fortune before his very eyes.” Grand Master T’ien-T’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “Words uttered by the son of Heaven do not contain a lie” and “The Buddha does not tell a lie.” Thus he who is reputed to be a wise ruler does not lie even if his life is at stake. How much more so with Śākyamuni Buddha! In a previous life when Śākyamuni Buddha was practicing Buddhism as King Universal Brightness, He was captured by King Kalmāshapāda and destined to be killed. However, he was allowed to return home to finish the incomplete practice of charity (fuse). Upon finishing it, King Universal Brightness surrendered to his captor to keep the precept of not telling a lie. When Śākyamuni Buddha was King Kālika in a previous life, He is said to have declared, “Those who only speak a few words of truth will fall into hell for not observing the precept against telling a lie.”
How much more so with the Lotus Sūtra, in which Śākyamuni Buddha Himself declared that He certainly was to expound the True Dharma! Moreover, the Buddha of Many Treasures proved it to be true and it was confirmed in a gorgeous assembly where various Buddhas from all the worlds in the universe gathered together as if the sun and the moon and the galaxy sat side by side. Therefore, if there is a lie in the Lotus Sūtra, we cannot believe anything in the world. Those who offer a stem of flower or a pinch of incense to the Lotus Sūtra, as precious as this, are as meritorious as those who offered donations to “ten thousand billion” Buddhas in the past.
Nanjō-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Nanjō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 15-16
Wisdom and Practice
Buddhism for Today, p405The Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī represents the Buddha’s wisdom, while the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue typifies the Buddha’s practice. These two bodhisattvas are regarded as a pair: the wisdom represented by Mañjuśrī symbolizes one’s realization of the truth and the practice typified by Universal Virtue one’s practice of the truth.
We have already studied the realization of the truth in the Law of Appearance. In the assembly of the Buddha’s preaching of this Law, the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī was the representative of the Buddha’s disciples. We learned the entity of the truth in the “one chapter and two halves” — the latter half of chapter 15, all of chapter 16, and the first half of chapter 17. In this assembly, the Bodhisattva Maitreya represented the disciples. We were taught the practice of the truth through the example of the practices of various bodhisattvas in the latter half of chapter 17 and the following chapters, which are defined as the concluding part of the Law of Origin. Finally, the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue appears in the last chapter of the Lotus Sutra. There is a deep significance to his appearance at this particular point.
The Promise of Protection
Two Buddhas, p262Samantabhadra specifically promises to protect those who “preserve this sūtra in the troubled world of five hundred years after.” … [T]he phrase “five hundred years after” was no doubt originally intended to designate the five hundred years following Śākyamuni’s parinirvāṇa, when the sūtra’s compilers believed they were living. However, East Asian commentators took the “five hundred years after” (which can also be read in Chinese as “the last five hundred years”) to mean the last of five five-hundred-year periods in the gradual decline of Buddhist practice and understanding said to take place over the 2,500 years following the Buddha’s passing. For Nichiren, it designated the beginning of the Final Dharma age, when he and his contemporaries believed they were living. This expression “five hundred years after” occurs twice in the “Bhaiṣajyarāja” chapter and three times in the present chapter. For Nichiren it predicted in the Buddha’s very words both the task being shouldered by himself and his disciples and the surety of its fulfillment. It designated the time when the buddhahood of ordinary people could be realized. As he wrote: “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō will spread for ten thousand years and beyond, far into the future. Its merit can open the blind eyes of all sentient beings in the country of Japan and block the road to the Hell without Respite [Avici]. … A hundred years’ practice in the Land of Bliss cannot equal the merit gained from one day’s practice in this defiled world, and propagation [of the dharma] throughout the two thousand years of the True and Semblance Dharma ages is inferior to a single hour’s propagation in the Final Dharma age. This is in no way because of Nichiren’s wisdom, but solely because the time makes it so.”
Practicers of the Lotus Sūtra Are Not Found Anywhere
Some raise the question:
Although there seem to be the three kinds of enemies of the Lotus in this world today, practicers of the Lotus Sūtra are not found anywhere. It is difficult for us to call you a practicer of the Lotus because there is a great deal of discrepancy. Affirming divine intervention in favor of a practicer, the Lotus Sūtra in the chapter on the “Peaceful Practices” says: “Heavenly servants will come to serve the man who upholds the Lotus Sūtra so that swords and sticks will not injure him, and poisons will not harm him;” in the fifth chapter on “The Simile of Herbs,” “His life in this world will be peaceful and he will be reborn in a better place in the future;” in the 26th chapter on “Mystic Phrases,” “Should anyone hate and speak ill of the man who upholds the Lotus Sūtra, his mouth will be sealed—anyone who does harm to him will have his head split into seven pieces like a twig of an arjaka tree;” and in the 28th chapter on the “Encouragement of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva,” “He will be rewarded with happiness in this present life;” and “If anyone, upon seeing a man upholding this sūtra, exposes his faults, justifiably or not, such a man will be afflicted with white leprosy.”
They have a good reason to doubt me. So I will answer their question to dispel their doubt. It is said in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” (20th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that the practicer of the Lotus will be spoken ill of, despised, or struck with sticks, tiles, and stones; while it is said in the Nirvana Sūtra that such a man will be killed or hurt. The Lotus Sūtra also states in the “Teacher of the Dharma” (10th) chapter that those who spread it will be the target of much hatred and jealousy even during the lifetime of the Buddha.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 103