Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p50-51The Sutra tells us that the Buddha says to himself, “I am the Father of the beings; I must rescue them from their woes and troubles and give them the joy of incalculable and limitless Buddha wisdom.” The word “Father” here is a symbol of the Buddha’s love and concern for his children, all living beings. A father will use any means to rescue his children from a dangerous situation. That is how the Buddha feels about us. He sees how we are attached to our games, living in an illusion, and because of this we are not able to see the danger of our situation. So out of his love for his children, all living beings, he uses various methods to lead them out of suffering.
A disciple of the Buddha is the spiritual child of the Buddha. Our parents brought us into the world; they give us our physical body. When we come to the practice, we are reborn into our spiritual life, thanks to the Buddha. In the sutras it is said that the disciple is “born from the mouth of the Buddha.” From the mouth of the Buddha comes the sound of the true teachings, and from the true teachings comes our spiritual life. This beautiful image of the Buddha as the spiritual father of all beings is a symbol of his great love. The idea of “father” here symbolizes only a heart of love that is able to embrace all beings. It is not about authority or domination. The father does not fly into a rage, he does not punish us and send us away. His only function is to love. And because the father loves his children, he uses many different ways – skillful means – to save beings from danger. The verses say:
Even though the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Resort to expedient devices,
The living beings whom they convert
Are all bodhisattvas.All the Buddhas throughout space and time, not just Shakyamuni Buddha, use these skillful means to help bring living beings out of the burning house. The Buddha’s original teachings – the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Three Dharma Seals, and dependent co-arising – contained the idea of the essential Buddha nature of all beings, their capacity for Buddhahood, in fact, their assurance of Buddhahood. Once living beings are able to enter the One Vehicle, they are all bodhisattvas. These two ideas in this chapter of the Lotus Sutra are very important.
Category Archives: d4b
Reconciling and Unifying the Teachings of the Three Vehicles into the One Vehicle
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p41-42The Buddha taught these three vehicles to respond to the different levels and capacities of beings, the different causes and conditions, and the different times and situations in which the teachings were given. The three-vehicles teaching is a skillful means in the historical dimension. In terms of the ultimate dimension, however, the Buddha always aims to reveal the deepest meaning, the absolute truth. The reason for all Tathagatas appearing in the world is to guide living beings to the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle, which is also called the Buddha vehicle – opening up, pointing out, awakening to, and entering the insight of the Buddha. So the philosophy of the One Vehicle revealed in the Lotus Sutra has been called “opening up the three to the one” or “gathering the three and returning them to the one.” The teaching of the three vehicles is but a skillful means; in fact, there is only One Vehicle. The Buddha says in a verse:
Within the Buddha Lands of the ten directions
There is the Dharma of only One Vehicle.
There are not two, nor are there yet three,
Save where the Buddha,
Preaching by resort to expedients,
And by merely borrowing provisional names and words,
Draws the beings to him.This passage is considered the essence of the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra. With this insight, the Sutra achieves something that all previous Mahayana sutras had not yet been able to do. It reconciles and unifies the teachings of the three vehicles into the One Vehicle, the great vehicle that has the capacity to carry all beings to the shore of liberation. This is the heart of the wonderful Dharma, and it is for this reason that the Lotus Sutra is regarded as the king of sutras, not because it expresses more profound or mystical theories, but because it reunites all the disciples and paths of practice into the one great family of the Buddha.
Understanding the Foundational Teaching of Skillful Means
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p35The second chapter of the Lotus Sutra is called “Expedient Devices.” The Sanskrit term upaya is often translated in English as “skillful means.” Skillful means are the various skillful ways we can use to fulfill our intentions and manifest our practice. This chapter is the real beginning of the Lotus Sutra in that it serves as the foundation for the entire Sutra. If we can understand the foundational teaching of skillful means we will be able to grasp the whole of the Sutra.
Leading People to the One Buddha Vehicle
The Lotus Sūtra, chapter 2, “Expedients,” states: “In preaching the dharma the World Honored One expounds the expedient teachings first and reveals the true teaching last;” “honestly casting away (‘cast away’ means ‘abandon’) the expedient teachings (the pre-Lotus sūtras, i.e. first three of the four doctrinal teachings or the four doctrinal teachings except the pure perfect teaching, first four of the five tastes: all sūtras except the Lotus Sūtra, or the tripiṭaka, common and distinct teachings taken into the perfect teaching), the Buddha solely preaches the One Vehicle true teaching of the Lotus Sūtra.” Moreover, “The Buddha preaches various teachings (the four periods and seven teachings refer to the pre-Lotus sūtras, and five periods and eight teachings refer to the entire teaching of the Buddha) for the purpose of leading the people into the One Buddha Vehicle.”
Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 242-243
Even A Child In Play
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 135“[E]ven a child in play who has built a Stupa for the Buddha out of a heap of sand – all are people who have attained the path of the buddhas.” This means that those who have produced the thought of enlightenment and who are carrying out bodhisattva practice will plant good roots of merit and be able to realize enlightenment. It is not the case that those who have not originally produced the thought of enlightenment, such as ordinary people and the disciples who are fixed [in the Small Vehicle], are able to attain it. The same applies to those such as the ones [who have honored the Buddha] “by nodding their head.”
Only Bodhisattvas
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p54-55Why does the Buddha say in Chapter 3 that he will teach the One Vehicle, but only to bodhisattvas? In the first chapter, we saw that the Dharma Flower Sutra celebrates both listening and teaching or preaching. In other words, it takes two to teach – teaching is not teaching unless someone is taught. Thus in the first chapter, heavenly flowers fall on both the Buddha and the audience. That idea is extended here with the idea that the Buddha preaches only to bodhisattvas. The point is that to hear the Dharma is to be already, to that degree, a bodhisattva. This is because to truly hear the Dharma is to take it into one’s life, thus to live by it, thus to be a bodhisattva. So it can be said that the buddhas come into the world only to convert people into bodhisattvas.
Affirmation of The Concrete
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p13-14William LaFleur describes how Tendai thought, especially Chih-i’s Mo-ho-chih-kuan and the Lotus Sutra, influenced a transformation of Japanese poetry in the twelfth century. He points out that in the Lotus Sutra there is a philosophical move that is the opposite of what predominated in the West under the influence of Platonism. In the Sutra, “the illustration is in no way subordinate to what it illustrates.” Not a shadow of something else more real, “the narratives of the Lotus are not a means to an end beyond themselves. Their concrete mode of expression is not ‘chaff’ to be dispensed with in order to attain a more abstract, rational, or spiritual truth.” The Sutra itself says:
Even if you search in all directions,
You will find no other vehicles –
Except the skillful means of the Buddha.In other words, apart from concrete events, apart from stories, teachings, actions, and so on, there is no Buddhism.
The Great Power in Tactful Means
Buddhism for Today, p45The World-honored One was silent and did not stop [the 5,000 who left]. This was because he thought that even if he forced them to remain, they could not understand his teaching and it would tend instead to produce an adverse result. He also considered that they would wish to seek a true teaching sometime in the future and would in time develop the capacity to understand it. His preaching to them at that time would be the quickest way to save them.
At first glance this attitude of the Buddha seems to indicate indifference to others, but his mind in its profundity was filled with the great wisdom and benevolence of the Buddha. This is clear from the incident recounted in chapter 8, “The Five Hundred Disciples Receive the Prediction of Their Destiny.” When he gave a great many arhats the prediction that they would become buddhas in accordance with their practice, he said to Kāśyapa, “The other band of śrāvakas will also be like them. To those who are not in this assembly, do you proclaim my words.” The Buddha’s words “those who are not in this assembly” refer to the five thousand monks who had risen from their seats and left the assembly earlier. The fact that he purposely did not stop them at that time demonstrates his great power in tactful means.
Practicing Solely the Lotus Sūtra
“Honestly” in the phrase of “honestly casting away the expedient” stated in the sūtra means that when a beginner practices the Lotus Sūtra, the beginner should be devoted to practicing solely the Lotus Sūtra, casting away all the other sūtras mentioned before; such is a really honest practicer. If, on the contrary, a beginner practices the various sūtras and the Lotus Sūtra simultaneously, just like highly trained bodhisattvas, this person would surely be regarded as a dishonest practicer. As the proverbs say: “A sage never served two rulers;” and “A virtuous wife does not remarry;” they describe the honest practicer.
Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 69
The Great Joy of the Lotus Sutra
Chapter II ends telling us that when we are able to overcome our hurdle of doubt and when joy wells up from within our lives, then we are able to become Buddhas. That is my wish for you as you read this writing on the Lotus Sutra. I wish for you to be able to experience the great joy of the Lotus Sutra.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra