Lotus Sutra

A Goryeo-illustrated manuscript of the Lotus Sutra, c.1340
Lotus Sutra Mandala, Honpoji, Toyama, Japan, c. 1326-28

The Lotus Sūtra (Sanskrit: Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra, literally Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma)[1] is one of the most popular and influential Mahayana sutras and the basis on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established. For many East Asian Buddhists, the Lotus sutra contains the ultimate and complete teaching of the Buddha and the reciting of the text is believed to be very auspicious.[2]

Title

The earliest known Sanskrit title for the sūtra is the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra, which translates to Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma.[3] In English, the shortened form Lotus Sūtra is common. The Lotus Sūtra has also been highly regarded in a number of Asian countries where Mahāyāna Buddhism has been traditionally practiced. Translations of this title into the languages of some of these countries include:

History and background

The oldest parts of the text (Chapters 1–9 and 17) were probably written down between 100 BCE and 100 CE, and most of the text had appeared by 200 CE.[4]

The Lotus Sūtra presents itself as a discourse delivered by the Buddha toward the end of his life. The tradition in Mahayana states that the sutras were written down during the life of the Buddha and stored for five hundred years in a nāga-realm. After this, they were reintroduced into the human realm at the time of the Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir.

Versions and translations

There were six translations of the Lotus Sūtra into Chinese. Three of these are extant:[5]

The Lotus Sūtra was originally translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa, aka Zhu Fahu, in 286 CE in Chang'an during the Western Jin Period (265-317 CE).[7][8][9] However, the view that there is a high degree of probability that the base text for that translation was actually written in a Prakrit language has gained widespread acceptance. Jan Nattier has recently summarized this aspect of the early textual transmission of such Buddhist scriptures in China thus, bearing in mind that Dharmarakṣa's period of activity falls well within the period she defines: "Studies to date indicate that Buddhist scriptures arriving in China in the early centuries of the Common Era were composed not just in one Indian dialect but in several . . . in sum, the information available to us suggests that, barring strong evidence of another kind, we should assume that any text translated in the second or third century AD was not based on Sanskrit, but one or other of the many Prakrit vernaculars."[10] It may have originally been composed in a Prakrit dialect and then later translated into Sanskrit to lend it greater respectability.[11]

This early translation by Dharmarakṣa was superseded by a translation in seven fascicles by Kumārajīva in 406 CE.[12][13] According to Jean Noël Robert, Kumārajīva relied heavily on the earlier version.[14] The Sanskrit editions[15][16][17][18] are not widely used outside of academia.

In some Chinese and Japanese sources the Lotus Sūtra has been compiled together with two other sutras which serve as a prologue and epilogue, respectively the Innumerable Meanings Sutra (Chinese: 無量義經; pinyin: Wúliángyì jīng Muryōgi kyō) and the Samantabhadra Meditation Sutra (Chinese: 普賢經; pinyin: Pǔxián jīng, Fugen kyō).[19] This composite sutra is often called the Threefold Lotus Sutra or Three-Part Dharma Flower Sutra (Chinese: 法華三部経; pinyin: Fǎhuá Sānbù jīng, Hokke Sambu kyō).

Outline of chapters

Illustrated Lotus Sutra handscroll, Kamakura period, c. 1257; ink, color, and gold on paper.
The floating jeweled stupa.

“Every day, I am thinking:

‘How can I lead all living beings

to enter the unsurpassed Way

so as to quickly acquire the body of a Buddha?’” (Lotus Sutra Chapter 16: Verse 3.23)

Avalokiteśvara appears for the first time in the Lotus Sūtra

Teachings

Portable shrine depicting Buddha Sakyamuni preaching the Lotus Sūtra.[35] The Walters Art Museum.

One vehicle, many skillful means

This Lotus sutra is known for its extensive instruction on the concept and usage of skillful means – (Sanskrit: upāya, Japanese: hōben), the seventh paramita or perfection of a Bodhisattva – mostly in the form of parables. The many 'skillful' or 'expedient' means and the "three vehicles" are revealed to all be part of the One Vehicle (Ekayāna), which is also the Bodhisattva path. This is also one of the first sutras to use the term Mahāyāna, or "Great Vehicle". In the Lotus sutra, the One Vehicle encompasses so many different teachings because the Buddha's compassion and wish to save all beings led him to adapt the teaching to suit many different kinds of people. As Paul Williams explains:

Although the corpus of teachings attributed to the Buddha, if taken as a whole, embodies many contradictions, these contradictions are only apparent. Teachings are appropriate to the context in which they are given and thus their contradictions evaporate. The Buddha’s teachings are to be used like ladders, or, to apply an age-old Buddhist image, like a raft employed to cross a river. There is no point in carrying the raft once the journey has been completed and its function fulfilled. When used, such a teaching transcends itself.[36]

The sutra emphasizes that all these seemingly different teachings are actually just skillful applications of the one dharma and thus all constitute the "One Buddha Vehicle and knowledge of all modes". The Lotus sutra sees all other teachings are subservient to, propagated by and in the service of the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle leading to Buddhahood.[5] The Lotus Sūtra also claims to be superior to other sūtras and states that full Buddhahood is only arrived at by exposure to its teachings and skillful means. Chapter ten of the Burton Watson translation states: "...Medicine King, now I say to you, I have preached various sutras, and among those sutras the Lotus is foremost!"

All beings have potential to become Buddhas

The Lotus sutra is also significant because it reveals that women, evil people and even animals can be bodhisattvas and have the potential to attain full Buddhahood. It also teaches that all people equally can attain Buddhahood in their present form. That is, through the Lotus Sutra, people need neither practice austerities for countless kalpas nor wait for rebirth in a different physical form (previous teachings held that women must be reborn as men and then practice for innumerable kalpas in order to become Buddhas). Through its many stories and parables, the Lotus sutra affirms the spiritual equality of all beings.[37]

The Lotus sutra also teaches that the Buddha has many embodiments or emanations and these are the countless bodhisattva disciples. These bodhisattvas choose to remain in the world to save all beings and to keep the teaching alive. According to Gene Reeves: "Because the Buddha and his Dharma are alive in such bodhisattvas, he himself continues to be alive. The fantastically long life of the Buddha, in other words, is at least partly a function of and dependent on his being embodied in others."[38] The Lotus sutra also teaches various dhāraṇīs or the prayers of different celestial bodhisattvas who out of compassion protect and teach all beings. The lotus flower imagery points to this quality of the bodhisattvas. The lotus symbolizes the bodhisattva who is rooted in the earthly mud and yet flowers above the water in the open air of enlightenment.[39]

The universe outlined by the Lotus sutra encompasses realms of gods, devas, dragons[note 1] and other mythological beings, requiring numerous dimensions to contain them. Buddhas are portrayed as the patient teachers of all such beings who can be bodhisattvas and will ultimately become Buddhas themselves. The radical message of the Lotus sutra is then that all beings can embody the nature of the Buddha and teach his dharma here and now.

The nature of the Buddhas

Another concept introduced by the Lotus Sūtra is the idea that the Buddha is an eternal entity, who achieved nirvana eons ago, but remains in the world to help teach beings the Dharma time and again. He reveals himself as the "father" of all beings and evinces the loving care of just such a father. Moreover, the sutra indicates that even after the parinirvana (apparent physical death) of a Buddha, that Buddha continues to be real and to be capable of communicating with the world.

The idea that the physical death of a Buddha is the termination of that Buddha is graphically refuted by the appearance of another Buddha, who passed long before. In the vision of the Lotus Sūtra, Buddhas are ultimately immortal. Crucially, not only are there multiple Buddhas in this view, but an infinite stream of Buddhas extending infinitely in space in the ten directions and through unquantifiable eons of time. The Lotus Sūtra illustrates a sense of timelessness and the inconceivable, often using large numbers and measurements of time and space. The Buddha of the Lotus sutra states:

In this way, since my attainment of Buddhahood it has been a very great interval of time. My life-span is incalculable asatkhyeyakalpas [rather a lot of aeons], ever enduring, never perishing. O good men! The life-span I achieved in my former treading of the bodhisattva path even now is not exhausted, for it is twice the above number. Yet even now, though in reality I am not to pass into extinction [enter final nirvana], yet I proclaim that I am about to accept extinction. By resort to these expedient devices [this skill-in-means] the Thus Come One [the Tathagata] teaches and converts the beings.[41]

Impact

Rinmetsudojihonzon, reputed to be the Gohonzon (object of devotion, also known as a 'script mandala') that was with Nichiren at his bedside when he died. The central characters are the title of the Lotus sutra.

According to Jonathan Silk, the influence of the Lotus Sutra in India may have been limited, but "it is a prominent scripture in East Asian Buddhism."[42] The sutra has most prominence in Tiantai (sometimes called "The Lotus School"[43]) and Nichiren Buddhism.[44] It is also very influential in Zen Buddhism.

Tao Sheng, a fifth-century Chinese Buddhist monk wrote the earliest commentary on the Lotus sutra.[45][46] Tao Sheng was known for promoting the concept of Buddha nature and the idea that even deluded people will attain enlightenment.

Zhiyi, the generally credited founder of the Tiantai school of Buddhism, was the student of Nanyue Huisi[47] who was the leading authority of his time on the Lotus Sūtra.[43] Zhiyi's philosophical synthesis saw the Lotus sutra as the final teaching of the Buddha and the highest teaching of Buddhism.[48] He wrote two commentaries on the sutra: Profound meanings of the Lotus sutra and Words and phrases of the Lotus sutra. Zhiyi also linked the teachings of the Lotus sutra with the Buddha nature teachings of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and made a distinction between the "Eternal Buddha" Vairocana and the manifestations. In Tiantai, Vairocana (the primeval Buddha) is seen as the 'Bliss body' - Sambhogakāya - of the historical Gautama Buddha.[48]

Consequently, the Lotus Sūtra is a very important sutra in Tiantai[49] and correspondingly, in Japanese Tendai (founded by Saicho, 767–822). Tendai Buddhism was the dominant form of mainstream Buddhism in Japan for many years and future proponents of the Lotus Sūtra Nichiren and Dogen[50] were trained as Tendai monks.

Nichiren, a 13th-century Japanese Buddhist monk, founded an entire school of Buddhism based on his belief that the Lotus Sūtra was "the highest and ultimate teaching of Buddhism"[51] and that it "contained the essence of the Buddha's enlightenment and that it held the key to transforming people's suffering and enabling society to flourish."[52] Nichiren held that chanting the name of the Lotus sutra - Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō - was the only way to practice Buddhism in the degenerate age of mappo and was the highest practice of Buddhism.[48] In the modern era Nichiren Buddhism has been influential through lay movements such as the Risshō Kōsei Kai, Soka Gakkai and Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga.

Dogen, the 13th-century Japanese founder of Sōtō Zen Buddhism, used the Lotus Sūtra often in his writings. According to Taigen Dan Leighton, "While Dogen's writings employ many sources, probably along with his own intuitive meditative awareness, his direct citations of the Lotus Sūtra indicate his conscious appropriation of its teachings as a significant source"[53] and that his writing "demonstrates that Dogen himself saw the Lotus Sutra, 'expounded by all buddhas in the three times,' as an important source for this self-proclamatory rhetorical style of expounding."[54] In his Shobogenzo, Dogen directly discusses the Lotus sutra in the essay Hokke-Ten-Hokke, "The Dharma Flower Turns the Dharma Flower". The essay uses a dialogue from the Platform Sutra between Huineng and a monk who has memorized the Lotus sutra to illustrate the non-dual nature of dharma practice and sutra study. [53] The Soto Zen monk Ryōkan also studied the Lotus Sutra extensively and this sutra was the biggest inspiration for his poetry and calligraphy.[55]

The Rinzai Zen master Hakuin Ekaku achieved enlightenment while reading the third chapter of the Lotus Sutra.[56]

Translations in Western languages

Translations from Sanskrit manuscripts

Translations from the Chinese of Kumārajīva

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The eight dragons who are mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, are known in Japan as the hachidai ryuuou (八大竜王), and appear throughout Japanese Buddhist art.[40]

References

  1. ↑ Emmanuel 2013, p. 512.
  2. ↑ Williams 1989, p. 149.
  3. ↑ Hurvitz 1976.
  4. ↑ Williams 2009, p. 150.
  5. 1 2 The English Buddhist Dictionary Committee 2002.
  6. ↑ Stone 2003, p. 471.
  7. ↑ Taisho vol.9, pp. 63-134
  8. ↑ Karashima 1988, p. VIII.
  9. ↑ Zürcher 2006, p. 57-69.
  10. ↑ Nattier 2008, p. 22.
  11. ↑ Watson 1993, p. IX.
  12. ↑ Taisho vol. 9, no. 262, CBETA
  13. ↑ Karashima 2001, p. VII.
  14. ↑ Robert 2011, p. 63.
  15. ↑ Kern 1908-1912.
  16. ↑ Vaidya 1960.
  17. ↑ Jamieson 2002, pp. 165–173.
  18. ↑ Yuyama 1970.
  19. ↑ Suguro 1998, p. 4.
  20. ↑ Apple 2012, p. 99.
  21. ↑ Murano 1967, p. 25.
  22. ↑ Pye 1978, p. 37-39.
  23. ↑ Lai 1981, p. 91.
  24. ↑ Pye 1978, p. 40-42.
  25. ↑ Murano 1967, p. 34-35.
  26. ↑ Pye 1978, p. 42-45.
  27. ↑ Pye 1978, p. 48.
  28. ↑ Murano 1967, pp. 38-39.
  29. ↑ Pye 1978, p. 46.
  30. ↑ Zimmermann 1999, p. 162.
  31. ↑ Murano 1967, p. 39.
  32. ↑ Pye 1978, p. 51-54.
  33. ↑ Zimmermann 1999, p. 159.
  34. ↑ Murano 1967, pp. 65-66.
  35. ↑ The Walters Art Museum.
  36. ↑ Williams 1989, p. 151.
  37. ↑ Reeves 2008, p. 6.
  38. ↑ Reeves 2008, p. 14.
  39. ↑ Reeves 2008, p. 1.
  40. ↑ Shiki 1983, p. 17.
  41. ↑ Hurvitz 1976, p. 239.
  42. ↑ Silk 2001, pp. 87,90,91.
  43. 1 2 Kirchner 2009, p. 193.
  44. ↑ "The Final Word: An Interview with Jacqueline Stone". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  45. ↑ Teiser 2009.
  46. ↑ Kim 1985, pp. 3.
  47. ↑ Magnin 1979.
  48. 1 2 3 Williams 1989, p. 162.
  49. ↑ Groner 2000, pp. 199–200.
  50. ↑ Tanahashi 1995, p. 4.
  51. ↑ "About Buddhism". SGI USA. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  52. ↑ "Who is Nichiren Daishonin?". SGI USA. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  53. 1 2 Leighton 2005, pp. 85–105.
  54. ↑ Leighton.
  55. ↑ Leighton 2007, pp. 85–105.
  56. ↑ Yampolsky 1971, pp. 86-123.

Sources

Further reading

  • Cole, Alan (2005). Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature. University of California Press. Chapters 2 and 3 of this work present a close reading of the first four chapters of the Lotus Sūtra.
  • Rawlinson, Andrew (1972). Studies in the Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka), Ph. D. Thesis, University of Lancaster. OCLC 38717855
  • Shinjo Suguro, Nichiren Buddhist International Center, trans. (1998): Introduction to the Lotus Sutra, Fremont, Calif.: Jain Publishing Company. ISBN 0875730787
  • Tanabe, George J.; Tanabe, Willa Jane (ed.) (1989). The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1198-4. 
  • Tola, Fernando, Dragonetti, Carmen (2009). Buddhist positiveness: studies on the Lotus Sūtra, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publ., ISBN 978-81-208-3406-4.

External links

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