Source elements of the Lotus Sutra, p 327-328The Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, Fa-hua lun (Saddharmapuṇḍarīkopadeśa, T. 1519, variant T. 1520), by Vasubandhu and translated into Chinese twice early in the sixth century, states:
The chapters following teach seven parables for the sake of living beings and the seven kinds of defilements they possess, in order to overcome the seven kinds of overweening pride.
It summarizes the seven parables as follows:
- The parable of the burning house has been narrated for those who, seeking after power, perversely vaunt their assertion that they possess the Truth and seek after merits. In this world they burn the greatest from the fire of the various defilements and seek after reward in terms of the state of a heavenly being, which remains defiled with the outflows that obstruct enlightenment. These people are enabled to accumulate roots of goodness and the merits of samādhi in this world, and to be gladdened by expedients, so that later they will be able to enter true nirvana.
- The parable of the poor son has been narrated for those who, seeking the liberation of a śrāvaka, possess a singly directed pride in superior knowledge. They reason perversely that their own vehicle is no different from that of the Tathāgata. Through this parable, such people will be enabled to board the Great Vehicle, the one revealed through the three.
- The parable of the rain has been narrated for those who, seeking the Great Vehicle, have the arrogance of a singly directed resolve, reasoning perversely that there is no such thing as a śrāvaka or a pratyekabuddha vehicle. The parable allows them to know that there are other vehicles. Though the buddhas and tathāgatas preach the Dharma equally without discrimination, the seeds that sprout within living beings depend on the various roots of goodness.
- The parable of the magic city has been narrated for those who arrogantly believe that what is not real has being. They perform the samādhis (concentrations) and samāpattis (final, unperturbed samādhis) that are still defiled by the outflows, and though they know that nirvana is not real, they still pursue it. They are enabled through skillful expedients to enter the magic city, the city of nirvana, which is the city of the dhyānas and the samādhis. They pass through this city and enter the city of true nirvana.
- The parable of the priceless jewel has been narrated for those who, though not having false illusions, still do not realize that they have long possessed the roots of goodness of the Great Vehicle. They do not seek the Great Vehicle, but their narrow and inferior minds give rise to deluded understanding so that they think theirs is the first vehicle. Through the parable they are able to recall their past roots of goodness and learn to enter samādhi.
- The parable of the king’s jewel has been narrated for those who are arrogant in the accumulation of merits. Though they hear the teaching of the Great Vehicle, they attach themselves to teachings that are not of the Great Vehicle. The parable enables them to hear the teachings of the Great Vehicle, and through them receive the secret predictions of the buddhas-tathāgatas, the same as if they had completed the ten stages.
- The parable of the physician has been narrated for those who have pride in not accumulating merits. Remaining in the first vehicle, they have not in the past practiced and accumulated roots of goodness, so that even though they hear of the first vehicle, they cannot in their hearts believe in it. The parable shows them “the proper quantity of nirvana” … by enabling them to bring to fruition those roots that have not yet borne fruit.
Category Archives: d7b
A World Filled with Poor Sons
Buddhism for Today, p71[Another] important thing to learn from chapter 4 is that those who are fortunate enough to have encountered the Lotus Sutra and have been able to understand it and believe in it can fly straight to the Buddha’s arms. However, today’s world, in the evil ages of the five decays, is filled with “poor sons.” We cannot be said to have actually practiced the spirit of the Lotus Sutra unless we save as many of these poor sons as possible. The only thing we can do to save them and lead them is to understand the spirit of the Buddha’s tactful means as illustrated in this chapter. At the same time, we must follow the Buddha’s example in using tactful means; we must not forget that to follow another’s good example is a shortcut to reaching the goal.
Our Unconditional Inheritance
This was written in advance of the Feb. 21, 2021, meeting of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is discussing Chapter 4 of the Lotus Sutra this month.
During the Feb. 7 presentation on Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, it was suggested that the rich man’s initial failure to bring his son to him was in some way an illustration that the Buddha is fallible. That suggestion is as wrong as it would be to say that the rich man in Chapter 3 reveals the Buddha is neglectful since he fails to maintain his property and allows his small children to play unsupervised in knowingly dangerous surroundings.
The point in Chapter 4 of the rich man dispatching a messenger to bring his son to him is to illustrate that our inheritance is unconditioned. We are the Buddha’s children. Nothing is required of us to inherit. It is only because we can’t believe we could have such great fortune that the Buddha must bring us along in steps, helping us to gain confidence.
The dire condition of the Triple World (the rich man’s manor house) is the manifestation of our delusions, our misperception. As we will learn in Chapter 16, “I do not see the triple world in the same way as [the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly.” And in gāthās: “[This] pure world of mine is indestructible. / But the [perverted] people think: / “It is full of sorrow, fear, and other sufferings. / It will soon burn away.”
The father pines for his missing son and wishes to welcome him home, but the poor son faints in fright
The poor son is incapable of believing he could be wealthy beyond measure. Instead, when he is released and told he is free to go, “The poor son had the greatest joy that he had ever had.”
The poor son, too base and mean, chooses to live in poverty and deprivation.
Maintaining Faith and Discernment
Buddhism for Today, p71[After abandoning a servile spirit,] the second mental attitude that we learn from chapter 4 is to maintain both faith and discernment toward the Lotus Sutra. Without both, we cannot fly surely to the Buddha’s arms. We are liable to deviate from the right course, either to a wrong one or to a blind alley in human life. If this should happen to us, we need to read the Lotus Sutra over again. In that way we can be sure of finding the way to return our lives to the right course, because the Lotus Sutra includes teachings that are applicable to people in all situations; we can come to our senses by beginning with any portion of the sutra. This is how we can escape from blind alleys in human life.
Awakening Aspiration for Buddhahood
Grand Master Chang-an states in his Annotations on the Nirvana Sūtra, “The one body of the Buddha is equipped with the three virtues of the lord, master and parent.”
The Lotus Sūtra, chapter 3 on “A Parable” preaches:
“This triple world (realms of desires, form and non-form) entirely belongs to Me (the World Honored One, the most venerable in the triple world, whose domain consists of 25 regions in the triple world or the six lower realms of the dharma world—four continents, lower four realms, six heavens in the realm of desire, Great Brahma Heaven, four meditation heavens in the realm of form, four heavens in the realm of non-form, the non-thought heaven, and heaven of not returning). The people in them are all My children (children of Dharma-nature who established the bond with Śākyamuni Buddha in the eternal past; the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 5, explains this, “All people are equally equipped with the same Buddha nature, so they are equal children of the Buddha”). Nevertheless, this world is full of troubles and difficulties. I alone can save all living beings.” The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, explains this, “Properly speaking, all living beings will awaken aspiration for Buddhahood by following this Buddha, and proceed to Buddhahood following the Buddha without falling back to a lower spiritual stage.
Thus it is Śākyamuni Buddha alone who is equipped with the three virtues of the lord, master and parent.
Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 245-246
The Buddha and This Dangerous World
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p203-204We should notice that, as in the parable of the burning house of Chapter 3 of the Sutra, the dangers – the fire and many other terrible things in Chapter 3 and the poison in Chapter 16 – are found in the fathers’ houses. Some have raised questions as to why the Buddha would be so careless as to have such a fire-hazard of a house or why he would leave poison lying around in a house full of children. This kind of question probably presupposes that the Buddha is somehow all-powerful and creates and controls the world. But that is not a Buddhist premise. In the Dharma Flower Sutra the point of having the danger occur in the Buddha’s home is to indicate a very close relationship between the Buddha and this world. The world that is dangerous for children is the world in which the Buddha – like all of us – also lives. …
The parables in the Dharma Flower Sutra do not say that the fathers created the burning house or the poison found in the home of the physician. Shakyamuni Buddha has inherited this world, or perhaps even chose to live in this world, in order to help the living. The dangers in this world are simply part of the reality of this world. Indeed, it is because of them that good medicine and good physicians are needed here.
Buddha-Wisdom
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p 239-240The Buddha, the text says, gives to living beings “buddha-wisdom, tathagata-wisdom, natural wisdom.” This phrase has sometimes been taken to refer to three different kinds of wisdom, but I think the three terms are intended to be equivalent, three different ways of saying “buddha-wisdom.” The fact that Tathagata, often translated as “Thus Come One,” is simply another of the ten epithets of the Buddha, would indicate that there is no difference between buddha-wisdom and tathagata-wisdom, and the logic of the phrase would suggest that if there is no difference between these two, there is no difference among the three; they are just three ways of talking about the same thing.
If this is correct, it means that buddha-wisdom, or at least the buddha-wisdom given to human beings, is a kind of natural wisdom. Natural wisdom is a kind of inherent wisdom, a wisdom that is not given from outside but arises naturally. Thus, we are being told here that in teaching Buddha Dharma we can rely on our own inherent wisdom. This is, of course, entirely consistent with the idea that we all have a buddha-nature, a capacity to be a buddha for others.
Such wisdom should not be understood, as terms such as “inherent” might suggest, as something independent of others. In the first place, it is not something we ourselves individually create. It is a gift to us, something we have all received. Second, just as having buddha-nature does not mean that we are already fully buddhas, having natural wisdom does not mean that our wisdom cannot or should not be developed and enhanced by knowledge. What it does mean is that we have a natural capacity to do this, a capacity to become better informed, more knowledgeable, wiser in dealing with others.
Our buddha-wisdom is like the inheritance of the poor son in the parable in Chapter 4 of the Dharma Flower Sutra and discussed in Chapter 7. Our inheritance is ours – it cannot be taken away from us. But it can be severely restricted in use, or it can be expanded greatly through experience and education.
Basic Lessons
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p72One of the basic lessons of the Lotus Sutra is that one can find in every situation that there is something to be learned. Sometimes an unpleasant situation or task can be understood as being a present given to us by the Buddha, an opportunity for learning and growth, just as the son in this story received from his father the present of shoveling dung. We can learn from just about any situation, even from very unpleasant ones, if we approach it with a right attitude.
Dharma Doors
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p52-53The Buddha says in a gatha:
I am the Dharma King,
With respect to the Dharma acting completely at will.The Buddha, the Dharma King, grasps the true nature, the ultimate dimension, of all things (dharmas) and therefore has the ability to use various skillful means to teach beings in the phenomenal realm – this world of form and appearances called “samsara.” The various teachings are Dharma doors, and a Buddha is someone who can enter any of these Dharma gateways at will and use them in a very free and skillful way, just as a great poet knows how to use words with great artistry and skill. So the teachings may appear in different forms, but ultimately they all lead to the One Vehicle, the Buddha vehicle, in which all beings realize their innate Buddha nature. This is absolute freedom in the field of time and space, nirvana right in the realm of samsara, and this is the great insight of the Buddha that was renewed in the Mahayana.
A Loving Father
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p55In many of the parables in the Dharma Flower Sutra, it is a father figure who represents the Buddha. It is possible that the use of such stories influenced the teachings of the Dharma Flower Sutra, leading it, probably more than any other Buddhist text, to emphasize the father-like nature of the Buddha, personalizing him as it were. Over and over, the Lotus Sutra uses personal language to speak of an ultimately important reality. Far from being “absolute,” or even “omniscient,” as the Buddhist tradition has sometimes claimed, the Buddha of the Dharma Flower Sutra is someone who is very concerned for his children. This means, in effect, that the happiness of the Buddha, the fulfillment of the Buddha’s purpose, depends – again – on us.