CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE Lotus Sutra
BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
CHICO DHARMA STUDY GROUP
AND
AWAKENING 101
The period between the Second Council and the first century B.C.E. saw the growth
of Mahayana literature in India and the emergence of a number of important texts. The
first to appear were transitional works like the Lalitavistara and Mahavastu, which belong
to derivative schools of the Mahasanghikas and describe the career of the Buddha in
exalted, supra mundane terms. These were followed by more than a hundred definitive
Mahayana sutras, like the former, composed in Sanskrit and hybrid Sanskrit.
Most of these sutras are quite extensive; examples include the Lotus Sutra, the Perfection
of Wisdom Sutra in eight thousand lines, the Samadhiraja Sutra, and the Lankavatara
Sutra. They make liberal use of parables and examples and put forward the major themes
of the Mahayana tradition in a discursive, didactic way. These ideas were supported some
time later by the systematic arguments found in the commentarial or exegetical literature,
known as shastras, composed by outstanding figures like Nagarjuna, Asanga, and
Vasubandhu.
Among the many Mahayana sutras now available to us, I will devote this and the next
two chapters to three that exemplify important themes and phases in the development of
Mahayana Buddhism: (1) the Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika Sutra), (2) the Heart
Sutra (Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra), and (3) the Lankavatara Sutra.
In many ways, the Lotus is the foundation sutra of the Mahayana tradition. It has great
influence in the Mahayana Buddhist world, not only in India but also in China and Japan,
where it is the favorite text of the T'ien-t'ai and Nichiren schools. Moreover, insofar as it
expounds the way of great compassion, the Lotus Sutra represents the essence of the
Mahayana tradition's fundamental orientation, which is great compassion.
Let us examine a number of themes in the Lotus Sutra that I feel are particularly
important for an understanding of the Mahayana tradition. Let us look first at what the
sutra has to say about the Buddha. In Chapter 14, I mentioned a number of suggestions
found in the Theravada canon that point to the supramundane and transcendental nature
of the Buddha. This theme is elaborated on in formative, transitional texts like the
Mahavastu and Lalitavistara. In the Lotus Sutra, the supramundane, eternal, and ever-
active nature of the Buddha is explained very clearly and in considerable detail. The
message is that the form of the Buddha Shakyamuni perceived by people in the sixth
century B.C.E. was simply an apparition of the transcendental Buddha projected for the
purpose of enlightening sentient beings. Although the world perceived the birth of
Siddhartha among the Shakya clan, the event of his great renunciation, the years of his
struggle for enlightenment, his attainment of enlightenment under the bodhi tree, his
forty-five years of teaching, and his passing away into extinction at the age of eighty, all
this was in fact merely a show for the purpose of enlightening sentient beings.
The case for this idea is advanced in the Lotus Sutra with the help of the parable of the
physician that appears in chapter sixteen of the text. In this parable, a well-qualified and
famous physician who has been away from home for a long time returns to find that his
sons have taken poison and are seriously ill. He sets about preparing an excellent remedy
for them according to his knowledge of medicine. Some of his sons immediately take the
medicine he offers and are cured of their illness.
Other sons, however, although they have looked forward to their father's return and
assistance, are now unwilling to take the medicine he offers because they are already too
deeply affected by the poison. They fail to appreciate the excellent properties of the
medicine and continue in their grave illness. Seeing this, their father devises a way to
induce them to be cured: he tells them that he is already advanced in years, that the time
of his death is near, and that he must again travel to another country. He then leaves and
has a message sent back to his sons telling them that he has died. Moved by the news of
their father's death--and desperate now that there will be no one to look after them and
cure them--they take the medicine and are cured. Hearing of their recovery, the father
returns and is happily reunited with his sons.
Through this parable, we are given to understand that the Buddha's appearance in the
world is like the return of the physician who has journeyed to a neighboring country.
Upon his return, he finds that his sons, the people of the world, have ingested the poison
of greed, anger, and delusion and are distressed, ill, and suffering. He devises a cure for
their suffering, which is the Dharma, the path to liberation. Although some of the people
of the world follow the path and achieve liberation, there are others who are too deeply
afflicted by the poison of greed, anger, and delusion and who therefore refuse to follow
the path which is good in the beginning, middle, and end. As a result, a device has to be
employed to induce and encourage them to take the medicine, follow the path, and
achieve liberation. That device is the apparent extinction of the Buddha--his entry into
final nirvana. According to this parable, therefore, the historical Buddha never really
lived and never really died, but was simply one of the many appearances of the
supramundane, transcendental Buddha.
The sutra reinforces this point in chapter eleven, through the appearance of an earlier
Buddha, the Buddha Prabhutaratna, who had become a Tathagata, or enlightened one,
eons before. While Shakyamuni is engaged in preaching the Lotus Sutra (as described in
that sutra itself), Prabhutaratna appears to the assembled multitude, who see him within a
jeweled stupa, his body perfectly formed. This is another indication not only that the
Buddha Shakyamuni has not yet entered into final extinction, but also that the Buddhas
who preceded him did not do so.
According to the Lotus Sutra, then, Buddhas possess a supramundane and transcendental,
indefinite nature; they also respond and cater to the needs of sentient beings according to
their individual abilities. In chapter five of the sutra, the Buddha uses the similes of rain
and of light to illustrate this point. He says that, just as rain falls on all vegetation--trees,
shrubs, medicinal herbs, and grasses--without discrimination, and each according to its
nature and capacity takes nourishment from the rain, so the Buddhas, through their
appearance in the world and their teachings, nourish all sentient beings, each according to
his or her individual ability--whether great, like the tall trees; middling, like smaller trees
and shrubs; or low, like the grasses. Just as each plant benefits from rain according to its
capacity, so every sentient being benefits from the appearance of the Buddha according to
his or her capacity. And just as the light of the sun and moon falls equally on hills,
valleys, and plains, illuminating each according to its position and in its own way and
time, so the Buddha's presence sheds light on all sentient beings--be they high,
middling, or low--according to their individual positions and capacities. It is in this sense
that the infinite, supramundane Buddha appears in countless forms to benefit sentient
beings: in the form of an Arhat, a Bodhisattva, a friend of virtue, and even in the form of
an ordinary, unenlightened sentient being.
We know that it is difficult to know the ultimate nature of reality, the truth: the way
things really are is not amenable to words. This is why the Buddha remained silent when
he was asked whether the world is infinite or finite, both or neither, and whether the
Tathagata exists or does not exist after death, or both or neither. The ultimate nature of
reality has to be realized by oneself. This is reflected in the distinction between the
Dharma that one becomes acquainted with indirectly, through the help of others, and the
Dharma that one realizes for oneself. But this realization of the truth does not come
easily. It has to be achieved by oneself, and it has to be the result of a direct, inner
realization. Thus, motivated by great compassion, the Buddhas appear in the world to
teach and help sentient beings achieve this realization of the ultimate nature of reality by
stages. They do this through skillful means, according to the capacities and inclinations of
sentient beings.
This idea regarding the differing capacities and inclinations of sentient beings is not
peculiar to the Mahayana tradition. In the Theravada canon, also, the Buddha likens the
varying capacities of living beings to the different positions of lotuses in a pond--some
are submerged, others are partly submerged, and still others are free of the water and
blossoming in the clear air and sunlight. Similarly, living beings are of inferior, middling,
and superior capacity. The Theravada tradition also includes the idea of the Buddha's
skillful means, as exemplified in different ways of teaching, such as directly and
indirectly. This idea is reflected, too, in the distinction between the conventional and the
ultimate truth. This notion of skillful means is developed and refined in the Mahayana
tradition and is an extremely important theme of the Lotus Sutra.
Because the ultimate nature of reality is difficult to realize, and because sentient beings
differ in their capacities and inclinations, the Buddhas resorted to skillful means to lead
each and every sentient being to the ultimate goal of enlightenment, according to his or
her own way and inclination. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra explains that the vehicle of the
Bodhisattvas, the vehicle of the Pratyekabuddhas (or 'private Buddhas'), and the vehicle
of the disciples are nothing more than skillful means calculated to suit the differing
capacities and inclinations of sentient beings.
Chapter Three of the Lotus Sutra uses a compelling parable to explain the nature of
skillful means. The story it tells is this: Suppose there is a rich man who inhabits an old
house and who has a number of children. One day the house suddenly catches on fire.
The father, seeing that it will soon be engulfed in flames, calls to his children to come
out, but they are absorbed in their play and do not heed his words. Being familiar with the
inclinations of his children, the father thinks of a skillful device to induce them to leave
the house. Knowing they are fond of toys, he calls to them to come out at once because
he has brought them all different kinds of toy carts. The children abandon their play and
rush out to get the carts. Once they are safely away from the burning house, the father
gives each and everyone of them only the most excellent cart, the vehicle of the
Buddhas.
It is easy to see that in this parable the house is the world, the fire is the fire of the
afflictions, the father is the Buddha, and the children are the people of the world. The toy
carts are the vehicles of the Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas, and disciples.
Elsewhere in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha explains that he taught the Hinayana path for
those who believe in the existence of the world, and the Mahayana for those whose merit
is well matured. To have taught only the Hinayana would have been miserly, yet had he
taught only the Mahayana, many would have despaired of achieving the goal of
enlightenment and not entered the path at all. Thus the Hinayana and Mahayana are
expedient devices for the people of the world, designed to suit their different capacities
and inclinations.
The Buddha also says in the sutra that Arhats like Shariputra and Rahula will all
eventually attain Buddhahood. He then likens the nirvana of the Arhats to an illusory city
conjured up by a wise guide who is leading a party of travelers to a vast treasure. On the
way, the travelers grow weary and tired. They despair of reaching their goal, so the guide
conjures up the appearance of a city that has all the amenities needed for them to rest and
recover their strength. Thereafter, they will be able to continue their journey until they
eventually reach the treasure. In this parable the guide is the Buddha, the travelers are the
people of the world, and the illusory city is the nirvana of the Arhats.
The message of skillful means is further explained in the Lotus Sutra by other parables
and similes. For example, in chapter four there is the parable of a son who has been
parted from his father at a young age and who spends the better part of his life in poverty
and suffering, ignorant of his origins. His father, longing to see his son again and hand
down his vast inheritance to him, is grieved by his inability to locate him. One day, the
son happens to come to his father's house. Seeing the splendor of the household and the
respect the servants have for the master of the house, he becomes conscious of his
inferiority and attempts to flee, but his father recognizes him and sends men to bring him
back. Unable to recognize his father in return, the son is terrified and protests his
innocence. Seeing the situation, the father tells his men to let him go.
Some time later, the father sends his men, dressed in poor apparel, to offer his son the
work of sweeping out dung in the cow sheds of the household. His son accepts this
menial task and works for some time. Gradually, the father increases his wages. All the
while, the son is unaware that the master is in fact his own father, and the father refrains
from revealing it so as not to upset or frighten him. Eventually the son is elevated to the
position of foreman. Only when he has thus broadened his vision and aspirations does his
father reveal to him his origins and hand over to him his inheritance. At that point the son
realizes his nobility and is overjoyed by his achievement.
In the same way, the Lotus Sutra says that we are all sons of the Buddha and will all
achieve the inheritance of Buddhahood. But because our ambitions and aspirations are
paltry, the Buddha has set us disciplines whereby we will gradually develop and expand
our vision until we realize our true nature and kinship and are ready to accept this
inheritance of Buddhahood.
The central theme of the Lotus Sutra is the working of skillful means out of great
compassion. Out of great compassion, the Buddhas appear in the world. Out of great
compassion, they exercise their skillful means in countless ways, through countless
forms, devices, practices, and vehicles. All these are calculated to suit the varying
capacities and inclinations of sentient beings so that each one can, in his or her own way
and time, aspire to and achieve full and perfect enlightenment, the enlightenment of the
Buddha. It is because of this message--with its universality, optimism, and
encouragement for all--that the Mahayana tradition has been able to win such
phenomenal popularity not only in India but also in Central and East Asia.
