Following up on the quotes from Gene Reeves’ Translator’s Introduction to his 2008 translation of the The Lotus Sutra, I continue my Office Lens housecleaning with a quote from Burton Watson’s Translator’s Introduction to his 1993 translation of The Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus is not so much an integral work as a collection of religious texts, an anthology of sermons, stories and devotional manuals, some speaking with particular force to persons of one type or in one set of circumstances, some to those of another type or in other circumstances. This is no doubt one reason why it has had such broad and lasting appeal over the ages and has permeated so deeply into the cultures that have been exposed to it.

The present translation is offered in the hope that through it readers of English may come to appreciate something of the power and appeal of the Lotus Sutra, and that among its wealth of profound religious ideas and striking imagery they may find passages that speak compellingly to them as well. (Page xxii)