Category Archives: LS32

Tao-sheng: The Purpose of the Buddha’s Prophecy

“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Virtue-Store. Sun-Moon-Light Buddha assured him of his future Buddhahood. The Buddha said to the bhikṣus, ‘This Virtue-Store Bodhisattva will become a Buddha immediately after me. He will be called Pure-Body, the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha.’

“Having assured him of his future Buddhahood, the Buddha then entered into the Nirvāṇa-without-remainder at midnight. “

[Consequently] they sought for the Dharma earnestly with the utmost effort. The motive for [the Buddha’s] gift to Womb of Excellence (Śrīgarbha) of the prophecy that he would later become a Buddha is to attract those with [excessive] self-esteem. If they hear suddenly that the Buddha is about to [enter] nirvāṇa, which means that there will be no Sage [to guide them] from then on, they will then immediately stop their journey in the middle of the path they have trodden. Another reason [the Buddha] conferred the prophecy of his future Buddhahood on Womb of Excellence is because people of the world, seeking after fame and profit, tend to be very fond of holding on to what is near while rejecting that which is far off, and he wanted to admonish them from such proclivities.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p177

Tao-sheng: Expressing the Utmost Respect for the Dharma

“Sun-Moon-Light Buddha emerged from his samādhi, and expounded the sūtra of the Great Vehicle to Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva and others without rising from his seat for sixty small kalpas.”

What he preached at this particular time he was going to continue preaching for sixty kalpas. How can this be true? This time span is used [merely] to express the utmost respect for the Dharma.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p177

The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra

BTTS Lotus Sutra
Available from Buddhist Text Translation Society

Beginning today I’m using a new translation of the Lotus Sūtra for my daily practice.

The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra was published in 2020 by the Buddhist Text Translation Society. The sūtra itself is volume 15 of a commentary on the Lotus Sūtra given by Hsuan Hua in San Francisco in a series of almost daily lectures between November 1968 and November 1970.

This elegant softcover edition, which was printed in Taiwan, has a gatefold cover. The front gatefold offers:

The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra (Sanskrit: Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra) presents the One Buddha Vehicle as Śākyamuni Buddha’s ultimate teaching and a unifying path that embraces and reconciles the variety of Buddhist doctrines as well as the provisional teachings of the Three Vehicles. Provisional and ultimate are shown to be nondual, and their nonduality epitomizes “the essence of things as they really are.” The sūtra also emphasizes that the potential for awakening is ever-present in sentient beings and declares that all of them will one day realize Buddhahood. Famous for its parables, the Lotus Sūtra demonstrates the countless skillful means (upāya) that Buddhas use to lead living beings to liberation.

The Buddhist Text Translation Society, the Dharma Realm Buddhist University and the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association hold the copyright for this translation.

The back cover gatefold offers this on the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association:

The Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (formerly the Sino-American Buddhist Association) was founded in 1959 by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua in the hopes of making the Buddha’s genuine teachings available throughout the world. To this end, it is committed to the translation and propagation of the Buddhist canon, the promotion of ethical and moral education, and the benefit of all living beings. For more information, please visit www.drba.org.

The back cover gatefold also offers this brief biography for Hsuan Hua:

Even as a child, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua was a diligent cultivator, bowing to the Buddhas, his parents, and many other beings first thing in the morning and last thing at night. When his mother died, he sat by her grave for three years as an observance of filial respect. After that he left the home life under Venerable Master Changzhi and later received the transmission of the Weiyang Chan lineage from Venerable Master Hsu Yun (Xuyun), becoming its ninth patriarch. He went to Hong Kong in 1949 to propagate the Dharma there, and in 1962 brought the Buddha’s teaching to America, where he established the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, the Buddhist Text Translation Society, the International Translation Institute, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and many branch monasteries, and various educational institutes including Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Developing Virtue Secondary School, and Instilling Goodness Elementary School.

It is worth noting that while Hsuan Hua was a patriarch of the Weiyang Chan lineage, he did not limit himself strictly to chan teachings.

Buddhism: A Brief Introduction
Available Free (plus shipping cost) from the Buddhist Text Translation Society

In Buddhism: A Brief Introduction, a book “Based on the Compassionate Teachings of the Venerable Tripitaka master Hsuan Huan,” Chan is described as having four distinguishing characteristics:

  1. It is not established by words,
  2. It is a special transmission outside the teachings,
  3. It directly points to the human mind,
  4. Through it, one sees one’s own nature and becomes a Buddha.

Chan is transmitted directly from one mind to another mind. Its teaching simply directs the individual to see one’s own inherent, true mind, referred to as “seeing the nature and returning to the source.” That is, the enlightened teacher, profoundly aware of the mind of his student, certifies that the student’s mind is indeed truly “awakened”. This is a direct certification, mind to mind, that can only be done by a Sage.

Buddhism: A Brief Introduction, p89-90

However, the Buddhism that Hsuan Hua brought to America was much more. His Buddhism incorporates the Vinaya School of the Theravada tradition, the “Secret School” – esoteric teaching of mantras – and what is described as “The Teaching (Scholastic) School.”

As explained in Buddhism: A Brief Introduction:

The Chan School exclusively investigates Chan (Dhyana or Zen) meditation. The Teaching School emphasizes scholastic inquiry, exegesis, lecturing sūtras and interpreting and expounding Dharma. The Vinaya School focuses on questions of ethics and cultivating moral self-discipline. Vinaya students strive to be “awesome, majestic, and pure in Vinaya, great models for the three realms of existence”. Then there is the Secret School. “Secret” means “no mutual knowing”. And finally, the Pure Land School teaches the exclusive mindfulness and recitation of “Na Mo A Mi To Fo” (‘Homage to Amitabha Buddha’) the “Vast Six Character Name”.

Some people say that Chan School is the highest of the five. Others claim that the Teaching School, or the Vinaya School, is highest. Cultivators of the Secret School say “The Secret School is supreme.” Practitioners of the Pure Land Dharma-door say, “The Pure Land Dharma door is first, it is superior.” Actually, all Dharmas are equal; there is no high or low. “Highest” is everyone’s own personal opinion; whatever school you like, you claim to be the highest.

Buddhism: A Brief Introduction, p117-118

For my purposes as a follower of Nichiren and his view of the primacy of the Lotus Sūtra and the efficacy of chanting the Daimoku, my favorite is, of course, the Teaching School. It is this aspect of Hsuan Hua’s Buddhism that has brought about this new translation of the sūtra and fourteen volumes of commentary of the The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sūtra.

Tao-sheng: The 800 Disciples of Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva

“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light. He had eight hundred disciples.”

The eight hundred disciples are featured to indicate that it is not only now that Maitreya has sought advice from Mañjuśrī, but that in the past he also received instruction [from him] as his pupil. Now he has again become the one who inquires [about the portents]: he is bound to obtain enlightenment [this time].

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p176

Tao-sheng: Sun-Moon-Light Buddha’s Expounding Innumerable Teachings Sūtra

“Thereupon the last Sun-Moon-Light Buddha expounded a Sūtra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Innumerable Teachings, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ “

This is cited now in order to corroborate that the present portents are identical with [those in the past].

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p176

Tao-sheng: The Importance of the Eight Sons

He had eight sons born to him before he renounced the world.

The reason why the eight sons appear is twofold. First, to prove what Mañjuśrī says about what happened in the remote past, namely, that he was none other than the master of Torch Burner (Dīpaṃkara), [that is, Fine Luster (Varaprabha)], and that Torch Burner was in turn the master of Śākyamuni. As such, there cannot be anything false in what Mañjuśrī has said. Second, speaking in reverse, [it suggests that] one’s longevity [makes one] gradually open up one’s eyes.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p176

Reciting the Lotus Sutra in Shindoku

View of altar with Shindoku sutra and recording in foreground
The Shindoku version of the Lotus Sutra and my phone displaying the shindoku recordings in front of my altar.

Today I began my monthlong recitation of the Lotus Sutra in shindoku. In my morning service, I play the recording for the chapter found here on my phone and follow along in the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of Greater New England’s Myoho Renge Kyo Romanized.

For the 10 previous years, I recited a portion of the Lotus Sutra in the morning and then read aloud the same section of the sutra in English in the evening. That was my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice. This year I decided to recite an entire chapter of the sutra in shindoku each day for the 28 days of February.

I will continue my 45-day cycle of reading aloud the Lotus Sutra in English in the evening.

Tao-sheng: 20,000 Buddhas

“After his extinction there appeared a Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. After his extinction there appeared another Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. In the same manner, seventy thousand Buddhas appeared in succession, all of them being called Sun-Moon-Light with the surname Bharadvaja.”

The purpose underlying the description of twenty thousand buddhas as witnesses for Śākyamuni Buddha is to describe the transformative teaching of the two vehicles, and thus to expound the beauty of the One Vehicle. Thus he must describe a wide variety of Buddhas. Although there are many [of these buddhas,] their path (tao) is in the end one.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p176

Tao-sheng: Right Teachings

He expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end.

[The true Dharma] that is good at beginning refers to the voice hearers (Śrāvakas); good at middle refers to the pratyekabuddhas; and good at end refers to the bodhisattvas. Listed next are those who belong to the three vehicles, and that is followed by a description of the events involved. The three kinds of transformative teaching (hua) also were preached earlier; what was said there remains true in the present case, as well.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p176

Sho-teng: Ten Titles of the Buddha

“Good men! Innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One.

What will be plainly spoken of from now on is simply what happened in the remote past, [Mañjuśrī] is going to describe what really happened. It is the story of the Buddha Sun-and-Moon Glow.

The Thus Come One (Tathāgata) preached freely in accordance with his aims; thus it is referred to as Immeasurable. But here just “ten” attributes are mentioned. Why [ten]? Ten represents the full and ultimate number (or infinity), with the implication that the li of the Thus Come One is perfect and faultless and that the Tao is omnipresent; hence, [the word] ten is employed.

What does [the title] “Thus Come One” (Tathāgata) mean? Although the myriad dharmas are different from each other, they are one and in a [mysterious] way the same. [Why did] the coming of the Sagely body [take place]? He has come [in incarnated form] to transform the myriad creatures; hence, the title Thus Come One.

[Deserver of Offerings] The fertile fields of ‘the utmost Tao’ can produce wonderful fruits. With both external marks (laḳṣaṇa) and ties (saṁyojana?) dispelled, he can be called [worthy of] offerings.

[Perfectly Enlightened One] There is no place that knowledge does not permeate: it is “universal.” This knowledge is not depraved; it is “right” (or correct).

[Man of Wisdom and Practice] When the actions (karman) of body, mouth, and mind are in conformity with knowledge, there is what can be called enlightenment and conduct. [The word] perfect means that as his wisdom is universal, his knowledge and conduct, too, must be complete and perfect.

[Well-Gone ] [The Buddha’s] existence and disappearance provided beings with immeasurable benefits. His trace was exhausted under ‘the twin trees.’ He was then “gone” for [the good of] beings, and beings benefited from this. How can it not be “well”?

[Knower of the World] What does [the title] [the one who] understands the world (lokavid) mean? The five aggregates (pañcaskanda) are what make up the World. The Thus Come One came to the world and untied the bonds and knots.

[Unsurpassed Man] The man is lofty; the path [to him] is cut off (or [his] Tao is absolute). No one can stand equal with him.

[Controller of Men] It is hard to regulate evils, and the immature and woeful [deeds caused by] body and mouth. The Buddha can suppress them and regulate beings. He thus can be called regulator.

[Teacher of Gods and Men] Having completely mastered the wondrous technique of regulation, he can be the teacher of gods (devas) and men.

[Buddha, the World-Honored One] Buddha refers to awakening. He was awakened and enlightened to [the truth of] birth and death. Armed with the previous ten virtues, his general title [representing all his virtues] is Buddha, World-Honored One.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p174-175