Lesson 1 covers “The Virtuous Practices,” the first chapter of the Innumerable Meanings Sutra. An interesting lesson in translation was discovered.
When I read The Virtuous Practices Chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings in the new translation from Rissho Kosei-Kai I discovered a significant difference between that translation and the one I normally use. The part in question comes after the description of how the Buddha’s enlightened state has allowed him to remove himself from the provisional world.
“He has forever put an end to fantasies and delusional thoughts,
Having transcended all elements of experience,
His physical existence is neither being nor nothingness.
It has neither causes nor conditions and is neither itself nor something else.
It is neither square nor round, not short or long;
Neither appearing nor disappearing, not arising or perishing;
Neither created nor arisen, not made or produced;
Neither sitting nor lying, not walking or stopping;
Neither moving nor turning, not calm or quiet;
Neither advancing nor retreating, not in safety or danger;
Neither right nor wrong, having no gain or loss;
Neither this nor that, not coming or going;
Neither blue nor yellow, not red or white;
Neither crimson nor purple, and not any other color.
He is born of precepts, meditation, wisdom, emancipation, and perception.
He springs forth from the merits of samadhi, the six transcendent powers, and the practices that assist the Way.
He arises from compassion, the ten powers, and fearlessness.
And he comes forth as a result of his good karma as a living being.”
Note in that last line: He comes forth as a result of his good karma as a living being.
I use the BDK English Tripiṭaka translation in my practice, which renders that last line:
“And emerges according to the good karmic actions of living beings.”
In reading these verses I’ve always enjoyed this revelation that the Buddha, having removed himself from provisional existence, shows himself and makes himself available to us because of “the good karmic actions of living beings.” My good causes make it possible to see the Buddha in my life.
I have three additional translations of this sutra.
Gene Reeves says, “He emerges from / The good actions of living beings”
Burton Watson says, “emerging because of the good actions of living beings.”
And the 1975 edition of Rissho Kosei-Kai’s translation says, “He has come in response / To good karmas of living beings.”
This is not an insignificant difference. The Buddha’s reliance on the “good karmas of living beings” is an important lesson we need to take to heart.
As a postscript, I want to point out another difference I found in this translation. This one, however, is less important.
In the third chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the “Modern Translation” of the Threefold Lotus Sutra offers this:
“Good children, this sutra is like a single seed from which come a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand more, and from each of these in turn come another hundred or thousand or ten thousand more. In such manner, they multiply on and on to infinity.”
In reading this, I recognized that this was another example where this translation differs with the BDK Tripiṭaka that I use:
“O you of good intent! This sutra can be likened to a single seed from which a thousand million seeds result. And each of these seeds, in turn, also results in a thousand million in number. In this way, the production of seeds is limitless in measure.”
While this is perhaps inconsequential, the actual number of seeds produced by these formulations is wildly different. The “Modern Translation” will take much more cycles of seeds generating seeds to get to an infinite number.
Gene Reeves uses “a hundred million seeds grow.”
Burton Watson uses “hundreds, thousands, ten thousands of other seeds.”
The 1975 edition of the Threefold Lotus Sutra uses “a hundred thousand myriad seeds grow.”