This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
Many of the differences between H. Kern’s translation of the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra and Kumārajīva’s fifth century Chinese translation of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra are subtle. For example, just prior to the start of the final gāthās of Chapter 2, the Buddha cautions those who claim to be Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas. As Senchu Murano translates:
“Śāriputra! Some disciples of mine, who think that they are Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas, will not be my disciples or Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas if they do not hear or know that the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, teach only Bodhisattvas.
“Śāriputra! Some bhikṣus and bhikṣunīs do not seek Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi because they think that they have already attained Arhatship, that they have already reached the final stage of their physical existence, and that the Nirvāṇa attained by them is the final one. Know this! They are arrogant because it cannot be that the bhikṣus who attained Arhatship do not believe the Dharma. Some bhikṣus who live in a period in which no Buddha lives after my extinction may not believe the Dharma after they attain Arhatship because in that period it will be difficult to meet a person who keeps, reads, and recites this sūtra, and understands the meanings of it. They will be able to understand the Dharma when they meet another Buddha.”
The question of whether the Buddha teaches only Bodhisattvas has been addressed before. The question I want to consider today is why Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas are being criticized. Kern’s translation is much clearer:
“Now, Śāriputra, such disciples, Arhats, or Pratyekabuddhas who do not hear they are actually being called to the Buddha-vehicle by the Tathāgata, who do not perceive, nor heed it, those, Śāriputra, should not be acknowledged as disciples of the Tathāgata, nor as Arhats, nor as Pratyekabuddhas.
“Again, Śāriputra, if there be some monk or nun pretending to Arhatship without an earnest vow to reach supreme, perfect enlightenment and saying, ‘I am standing too high for the Buddha-vehicle, I am in my last appearance in the body before complete Nirvāṇa,’ then, Śāriputra, consider such a one to be conceited. For, Śāriputra, it is unfit, it is improper that a monk, a faultless Arhat, should not believe in the law which he hears from the Tathāgata in his presence. I leave out of question when the Tathāgata shall have reached complete Nirvāṇa; for at that period, that time, Śāriputra, when the Tathāgata shall be wholly extinct, there shall be none who either knows by heart or preaches such Sūtras as this. It will be under other Tathāgatas, &c., that they are to be freed from doubts.”
We are told repeatedly in Chapter 2 that there is only One Vehicle. And, as Kern underscores, that vehicle is the Buddha Vehicle, the one necessary to reach supreme, perfect enlightenment. If you are not on that path riding in that vehicle, you haven’t been paying attention.
It is important to emphasize that in Kern’s translation we are dealing with people who heard “from the Tathāgata in his presence” and still didn’t understand.
The problem for those who were not privileged to hear directly from the Buddha are far bleaker in Kern’s translation: “[W]hen the Tathāgata shall be wholly extinct, there shall be none who either knows by heart or preaches such Sūtras as this.”
Translators of Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra found this warning watered down:
Murano: “[I]n that period it will be difficult to meet a person who keeps, reads, and recites this sūtra, and understands the meanings of it.”
Reeves: “[I]t will be difficult to find people who can receive, embrace, read, recite, and understand a sutra such as this.”
The modern Rissho Kosei-Kai translation: “[I]t is difficult to find anyone who will receive, embrace, read, and recite such a teaching as this and understand its meaning.”
Yes, it would literally be difficult to understand the Lotus Sutra when there is “none who either knows by heart or preaches such Sūtras as this.” But difficult is not impossible. Kumārajīva’s Chinese Lotus Sutra subtly offers a sliver of hope for everyone living after the extinction of the Buddha.