Tonight, we are going to consider chapters 11 and 12, but I'm going to start with chapter very quickly, I'll just say a word about the intervening chapters that we skipped, just to let you know, so you don't feel like you're missing something. Maybe you read them already, I hope you did, in case you didn't. In chapter 9, there are more predictions for Ananda. And a little footnote here is that the Buddha says that in past lives, he and Ananda were disciples together. The Buddha and Ananda were disciples together, he says. And Ananda was, and they both at the same time decided that they were

[01:15]

going to achieve full awakening. And Ananda was focusing on wide knowledge, gaining knowledge, but Buddha was focusing on diligent effort. And because of that, Ananda, the Buddha became the Buddha, and Ananda became his disciple, who was the one who heard all of his talks and wrote them all down, not wrote them down, but memorized them, and was the expert on the teachings. So, it sort of explains how Ananda got where he was, and also kind of gives you the idea that diligent effort is primary over wide knowledge. I was trying to look at something here. Why do I say that? Because Ananda didn't attain enlightenment,

[02:16]

and Buddha did. Buddha focused on diligent effort, and Ananda focused on wide knowledge. Buddha became Buddha, and Ananda became his disciple, although later on he would become Buddha. So, it sort of implies that, don't you think? So, say that again, that Buddha did what? Just a second, let me just look something up here. It's funny, you associate the opposite. You associate Ananda with diligent effort, and Buddha with wide knowledge. Yeah, I thought they said Buddha was focusing on diligent effort. Yeah, the Buddha was focusing on diligent effort. Well, I think of wide knowledge, and I think of Ananda, but... As effort, yeah. Well, who knows? That's what it says here. So, that's kind of interesting anyway, you know. But Ananda receives a prediction of Buddhahood. Remember, this is one of the themes here, that there's many predictions of Buddhahood,

[03:18]

and the astonishing thing about it is that these are the arhats who are being predicted to Buddhahood. The arhats who thought that they were finished and thought that these higher teachings weren't for them now find out that, first of all, they're not finished, and secondly, they're going to enter into these fantastic teachings and become Buddhists. So then Ananda receives a prediction, and so does Rahula, and Rahula is the Buddha's son, who, I think, in the sutra certainly, and probably really is true, that he was a disciple of Buddha. He became a monk too. Anyway, that's the burden of that chapter, Chapter 9, and both Ananda and Rahula receive predictions. In the next chapter, the Buddha

[04:19]

gives a long speech to a bodhisattva named Medicine King, in which he says various things. Among other things, it has this paragraph, Medicine King, if there should be an evil person who, his mind destitute of goodness, should for the space of a kalpa appear in the presence of the Buddha and constantly curse and revile the Buddha, which is, you know, really an awful thing to do, that person's offense would still be rather light, which is surprising, because there's nothing worse practically than cursing and defiling the Buddha. But if there were a person who spoke only one evil word to curse or defame the lay persons or monks or nuns who read and recite the Lotus Sutra, then that person's offense would be very great indeed. So this

[05:20]

is one of many, many things, and in these chapters ahead, this is a repeated, endlessly repeated thing, that there's, in one of the, I think, I forget which one, but one of the chapters we're coming to, there's a whole list of similes about all these things that would be really bad, but nothing compared to reviling the Lotus Sutra. So, as we said earlier, this is one feature of Mahayana Sutras, is that they, a certain percentage of the words of the Sutra are given over to praising the Sutra and also, and we've also encountered this before, to praising the Sutra and also telling you the consequences of not, you know, picking up the Sutra. So what was that first one you said? Did I not hear it right? The offense would be light if you cursed the Buddha, but not if you cursed a lay? It would be worse to curse a lay person who is preaching the Lotus Sutra. That would be

[06:21]

far worse than it would be to curse the Buddha to his face. I see. That's the idea. I see, I see. Then this passage I marked, I thought was interesting. Another thing he says to Medicine King is, Medicine King, if there are good men and good women who, after the Thus Come One has entered extinction, wish to expound this Lotus Sutra for the four kinds of believers, how should they expound it? And the answer is, these good men and good women should enter the Thus Come One's room, put on the Thus Come One's robe, sit in the Thus Come One's seat, and then, for the sake of the four kinds of believers, broadly expound this Sutra. The Thus Come One's room is the state of mind that shows great pity and compassion toward

[07:22]

all living beings. The Thus Come One's robe is the mind that is gentle and forbearing. The Thus Come One's seat is the emptiness of all phenomena. So, we'll see here, in subsequent chapters, a pulling of the teaching of emptiness into the Lotus Sutra. It doesn't actually expound those teachings, but it sort of wants to incorporate them into, as a kind of a background teaching to the Lotus Sutra. This is on page 166 in my translation, in the second paragraph, in the third paragraph. And this is, these things, the robe, the room, the bowl, the seat, these are Buddhist things that are real things, but also take on a symbolic quality. You see this in Zen as well.

[08:30]

In the Zen monastery, the abbot's room is a very important, almost a ritualized, symbolic space. And the robe, of course, as we know, is a ritualized, symbolic object. So, in order to teach the Sutra, you have to, you should enter the, not the abbot's, the Buddha's room, wear the Buddha's robe, and sit on the Buddha's seat. And the room and the robe have to do with compassion and gentleness and forbearance. And the seat, and you can see how that works, the association there. The seat has to do with penetration of emptiness. So that's just a quick summary of what happens in Chapters 9 and 10. Then we come to Chapter 11, which is a really elaborate thing. I was reading it and thinking it would really be great if Steven Spielberg or somebody would film this. It would be a fabulous thing.

[09:37]

It's very visual and astonishing. It would be great. Special effects would really enhance this one. Just building the treasure tower would be... Yeah, which appears in mid-air and so forth. Really? Yeah, could you see it? It would be great. It would be better than the Temple of Doom. So, at that time in the Buddha's presence, there was a tower, although in the, it's really, it means a stupa. You know, like a, which, a stupa is what it is. And a stupa is a memorial shrine. So it's not just any old kind of tower. It's specifically a tower that you would see as a memorial, because inside the tower is this extinct Buddha. You know, when a Buddha passes away or when a sage passes away, they build a big stupa for that person. And that's what this is. Huge one. And it just, you know, they're sitting around there. The scene is

[10:43]

they're all sitting there receiving teaching. Buddha's been talking to Medicine King. And in the middle of this, all of a sudden, this thing comes, you know, crashing up out of the earth. You know, you could see it in the special effects. You know, the earth sort of starts falling. And this thing just sort of comes out and hovers in mid-air. That's what happens. And then... Unidentified flying object. Yeah. Unidentified flying stupa. And it's, of course, amidst the fragrance. It has banners and canopies made of gold and silver. And it's on and on and on and on. Mandarava flowers are raining down on it. So this is really, you know, amazing thing. And there are all these beings flying around, dragons and yakshas and all kinds of Garudas and Kanaras and humans, non-human beings. Thousands, ten thousand, millions of beings are surrounding this stupa

[11:46]

that rises up out of the earth. And they're offering flowers, incense, necklaces, streamers, canopies. They're playing music. So this is a major event. And then a voice emanates from out of the tower and speaks. Excellent, excellent, the voice says. Shakyamuni, world-honored one, that you can take the great wisdom of equality. A law to instruct the Bodhisattvas, guarded and kept in mind by the Buddha, is this Lotus Sutra. So the Lotus Sutra here is characterized as the great wisdom of equality. And this is really the essence of the Lotus Sutra. I was thinking most of the parable, one of the parables that we read, of the teaching as the Dharma rain, falling equally on everything. Even though the different plants are quite different, the rain is equal, equally falling, nurturing each one according to its own needs. Universal,

[12:49]

completely given, regardless of what the plants do or don't do. This is the essence of the Lotus Sutra's teaching. And this voice coming out of the stupa saying, what a wonderful thing that you're doing this. Of course, some people in the assembly didn't know what to make of this, and this is a pretty strange thing. And you know, the rest of the Sutra kind of has this form. It's very repetitive, but this is a different thing that's happening. This is not what usually happens, that a stupa should appear from out of the ground and a voice should come out of it. So several of the people in attendance are perplexed by this. And one of the Bodhisattvas there understood this and asked the Buddha, what is this tower? Why is this tower, this stupa, appearing here? And why is there a voice coming from a stupa?

[13:54]

How could there be a voice? And the Buddha answers, this stupa is the body of a Buddha. And a long time ago there was a Buddha named Many Treasures, and Many Treasures was a Bodhisattva. He made a vow saying, if after I have become a Buddha and entered extinction, in the lands of the Ten Directions there is any place where the Lotus Sutra is being preached, then my stupa will come up out of the ground so that I can listen to the Sutra, and then I will praise and testify to the truth of the Sutra. That's the vow that he took many, many moons ago, and now here it's coming true in this moment. Now there are a couple of things about this. First of all, and I could go on about this

[15:00]

at length, but I will not, but I just want to point out that one of the features of these great Bodhisattvas is their vow power. That's one of the things that Bodhisattvas do is they make fantastic vows, and those vows that they make have a super spiritual power. So when they make vows, things happen. So in Mahayana Buddhism in general, the whole idea of vowing, and mostly the vows are altruistic vows, that you will do this and that for the second thing is you have to understand how astonishing this is that somebody is saying that after I'm extinguished and entered nirvana, I'm going to do this or that because, well, we thought that after you entered nirvana, that was the end. That's the whole point

[16:00]

of nirvana. And now this Bodhisattva is saying, after I've entered nirvana and I'm already in a stupa and I'm already disappeared and gone and dead, and in parinirvana, completely used up, I'm going to reappear when I hear the Lotus Sutra. So that's pretty astonishing. So when you were saying the other night about Buddhism and Christianity having a lot of similar things, and it seems like this rising from the dead or coming again. Pretty similar, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, like I said, I'm really sure, personally, and also there's some scholarship to indicate that there was contact between, yeah. Well, I don't know about Christ, but early, the

[17:04]

people, because the whole sense of the Christian doctrine, of course, predated Christ. Within the Jewish community, there were all these currents and reinterpretations of the Old Testament, which prefigured Christ, and then Christ kind of stepped right into the middle of that. That's why there was this wave of energy around Christ, because he didn't just appear and suddenly start saying these things that nobody had ever said. There were a couple of hundred years of build-up around this spirit of, it's almost the same thing, this kind of spirit of the inner teaching, the true teaching is universal and offered freely to everyone, and these rules and regulations and progressive steps towards something, which we have heard about before, were only the outer shell, and this is now the kernel and the heart coming out. This is basically what Christianity said in relation to Judaism, and this is what Lotus Sutra says in relation to early Buddhism. And a lot of the words are the same.

[18:06]

Even the concepts are the same, yeah. No, that's right. Oh yeah, all of that. Oh, absolutely. Oh yeah, somebody could write a terrific essay comparing it to, yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, I think, like I say, scholarship, it's hard to prove, you know, it's always putting together some evidence and interpreting it, but I forget where I read it, but I did read some scholarship. Well, there were about 500 years between Shakyamuni and Jesus, which gives time for there to be contact, and I think I read somewhere that people speculate that there was contact, so that the Greeks were aware of Buddhism and had some knowledge of its concepts and that

[19:09]

sort of thing. Oh, the Greeks were clearly aware of Buddhism, yeah, because they had conquered that part of India. That's why if you go to the city center of Tassajara, you see a western face on the Buddhists, right? Because those Buddhists are actually, like the one in the city center in Tassajara, it's astonishing, but those Buddhists are like maybe 1700 years old. Can you imagine? Yeah, they actually are from the 2nd or 3rd century. 1700 years. Wait, which one in the city center? The one on the altar, the Buddha on the main altar. That's a Gandharan Buddha, and Gandhara was the part of India that was conquered by Alexander. And if you look at that Buddha, that Buddha does not have a Chinese face, and it doesn't have an Indian face. It looks like a Greek god, that face of that Buddha. Did you notice? You should look at it. It's actually one of the most beautiful Buddhas I've ever seen. Is it stone? It's stone, and it's really more beautiful than any Buddha I've seen in a museum or anywhere

[20:12]

in the world. I mean, I haven't seen that many, but I've seen a lot of them. So it's that one. Because I think that's an incredible piece, that Buddha, yeah. Where did we get it? Pekaroshi got it, right? I forget where he... Oh, he came by it. I can't remember now. Anyway, it's worth a trip to go over there just to see that, because it's quite incredible. And it looks like Greek. So there's no doubt that the Greeks were aware of Buddhism, and that there wasn't contact. We don't even need scholarship, right? But there wasn't contact between these peoples. It's virtually impossible. You know, really, it's impossible. How could there not be one person or two people? People were traveling around, and it was a time of real spiritual foment, you know? So, I mean, it's pretty clear. Now, just to be clear, this is the Lotus Sutra we're talking about. You won't find these kinds of things in other Mahayana sutras, exactly, and certainly in the older sutras you don't

[21:17]

find it. So I'm not saying that Buddhism and Christianity are the same thing, and so on, but I am saying that the Lotus Sutra is very much, seems to be, very much like the New Testament, the schools of religion that came out of the New Testament. And, in fact, many of the schools of Buddhism that focus on the Lotus Sutra are very similar to Christianity. Those are the schools of Buddhism that are most similar to Christianity. So anyway, yeah, that's right. So that's very true. The flavor, of course, is completely different here in that this is all happening in a mythical realm. Somebody said the first week of the class, they said, gee, this is a little far-fetched, isn't it? And I thought that was quite funny because far-fetched isn't the word for this, man. You could say about the New Testament, well, I don't know if that really happened. That's a little far-fetched that somebody could rise

[22:17]

from the dead, but here you could never apply a concept like far-fetched to this stupa rising out of the ground with the flowers and khandharas. I mean, it's just beyond fetched at all. So anyway, no, but there's more to this than that because in addition to the fact that he made that vow, there's another wrinkle to the vow that we need to know about, which the Buddha explains because the bodhisattvas come forward and say, we want to see the body of this Buddha. We want to see this Buddha because the stupa is locked up. I mean, it's not locked up, but it's the stupa that you don't see the Buddha in it. So they come forward and they say, we want to see this Buddha. And so Shakyamuni says to them, the vow of this many treasures Buddha is that

[23:22]

I will show my body when the Lotus Sutra is being preached if and only if there will be those who, if and only if the emanation, the various Buddhas that are in all the directions, which are the emanations of the Buddha preaching the Lotus Sutra, if all those emanations, which are everywhere, will come together in this place where I am and the Sutra is being preached, once they all get there, I will show my body. So that's the next thing, is that. So then the Buddha, as he did at the beginning of the Sutra, emits a ray of light from out of the tuft of hair in the middle of his forehead, and this beam of light goes very far in a southerly direction where it illuminates the many emanations

[24:25]

of Shakyamuni Buddha in the southerly direction with all their cohorts and people and so on. And when those Buddhas in the southerly direction get the psychic message from the Buddha, they all come running to this place. And the same thing happens with all the other directions, all the ten directions. And when they all come, this world, this ordinary world, changes immediately into a place of cleanness and purity and the whole thing is detailed. The ground was made of lapis lazuli, jeweled trees adorned it, ropes of gold marked off the eight highways. There were no villages, towns or cities, great seas or rivers, mountains, streams or forests. Great jeweled incense was burning and mandarava flowers covered the ground and so on and so on. And there was a jeweled tree in this world with a big lion seat underneath the tree, and all these multitudes of Buddhas came and each one took their seat, his seat or her seat,

[25:28]

under the jeweled tree on top of the lion seat. There was an endless number, it says here, of emanations of Shakyamuni Buddha from each of the directions. So this is a tremendous number of emanations of Buddhas. And Shakyamuni Buddha kept creating more space where he was to accommodate all these emanations. So this is detailed in several pages, bit by bit, they all gather and they all come. And at that point when they were all there, Shakyamuni Buddha rose from his seat and floated in mid-air for a moment in front of the stupa. And there was some kind of a door in front of the stupa which Shakyamuni Buddha, with his very own fingers, pried open.

[26:35]

A loud sound issued from it. Wouldn't you just like to see this in a video? Wouldn't this be good? Buddha floats up in mid-air, opens this up and there's this big loud sound that comes from it, like the sound of a lock and crossbar being removed from a great city gate. It's not a beautiful sound, is it? No, no, not a beautiful sound. This is like... Yeah, and all at once, this is a door being opened that hasn't been opened for endless time. And now he opens it. And there he was, many treasures Buddha, seated on a lion's seat inside the treasure tower. This Buddha who passed into Parinirvana ages ago is perfectly fine, sitting there with a regular body, just like all the other Buddhas, meditating.

[27:42]

And he says, Excellent, excellent, Shakyamuni Buddha, you have preached this Lotus Sutra in a spirited manner. I have come here in order that I might hear this Sutra. And everyone marveled that this could be so, that there could be a Buddha who has already gone to Nirvana, in complete extinction, who appears before them. So this is another astonishing thing. I want to mention the emanations. This is a new idea, that a Buddha would have all these emanations. This is why in Tibetan Buddhism, even down to the present day, a great Bodhisattva will appear not only to be reborn in one person, but you'll see many tulkus come in and say, I am the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara. And another one says, and I am the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara. Another one says, and I am the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, or somebody, whoever it is. And the reason why they say that is because of this Sutra, because the Buddhas have many emanations.

[28:50]

So all these Buddhas, they could be reborn, rebirths of the emanations of Buddhas. There could be infinite rebirths of all these emanations. And so people could be, well I am partly the reincarnation of so-and-so, and partly the reincarnation of so-and-so, and partly the reincarnation of so-and-so, because of all these emanations mixing in their karmic stream and so-and-so. So this idea that there would be emanations from the Buddha. Yeah, everything is everything. That's why you could say such things. Everything is connected, everything is mixed with each other. Of the karmic stream that you are a little bit confused with, I would think that in higher nirvana there would cease to be karma. Well that's the thing, that's what's so astonishing about this idea here. That's exactly the point, is that you would think that in nirvana there would be a ceasing, that's it.

[29:51]

But actually, what the Lotus Sutra is saying is that the teaching of the Lotus Sutra and the ongoing effort of these bodhisattvas goes beyond that. So this isn't karma, this is emanations of awakening, which are more fundamental and stronger than karma or no karma. So this is part of the establishment of the radical differences of Mahayana Buddhism. Exactly. This is in effect what's happening here. The Buddha is saying, I am eternal. The Buddha is not something that lives and dies. The Buddha is not an impermanent creature. The real Buddha is always present in all these myriad forms in all directions. And so, which is the opposite of the traditional teaching that everything passes away, everything is impermanent.

[31:09]

So the real nature, we could put it this way, the Buddha is the conditioned nature of all reality, which is passing away constantly, which is what, that's what it appears to be. But, when you hear the Lotus Sutra and really understand this teaching, you see that this impermanent conditioned world is actually the endless world of Buddha. So that this world that we see around us is none other than the eternal body of Buddha, which seems to pass away, but really doesn't. Or it includes passing away, I mean it doesn't. Well, passing away is a show. It includes passing away, you're right, it includes passing away. But it's somehow, the implication is that deeper than passing away is this fact.

[32:17]

Is it like the sameness of the passing away is Buddha? I mean that there's an equanimity in there and there's all this change and stuff, but somewhere there's a sameness in there and that's eternal? The sameness doesn't pass away, all the details and all the... Well, like I say, within the mythology of this sutra, it's saying that passing away is like a phantom city. It's only since you couldn't see the real eternal nature of everything, I showed you passing away as a resting place. So let's leave it there, we'll think about it some more. So this is very astonishing, very surprising.

[33:20]

Let's see, so then what happens? Then, just like in the Shuso ceremony, those of you who are familiar with our ceremony, Shuso ceremony says, I offer you my seat, please share my seat with me. That's what we say in the Shuso ceremony. The leader of the practice period says to the head monk, please share my seat with me, well that's what he says, please share my seat with me, to Shakyamuni Buddha. And Shakyamuni Buddha climbs up into the stupa and sits next to many treasures Buddha. And then all the bodhisattvas say, you buddhas are so far away, if only you would employ your superpowers to let all of us sit with you too, and that's what happens, they all sit, then everybody's in the stupa, all these myriads of buddhas are all in the stupa together. So then, Shakyamuni Buddha sitting up there in the air with everyone,

[34:30]

in the midst of the eternal body of Buddha you see, says, who is capable of broadly preaching the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law in this world? Now is the time to do so, for before long the Buddha will enter nirvana, the Buddha wishes to entrust this Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law to someone, so that it may be preserved. Now you might think, wait a minute, we just found out that the Buddha doesn't really enter nirvana, yet now he's saying, I'm going to enter nirvana and you're going to preach the law, who's going to take over after me? It's a contradiction, right? An expedient device. Yeah, an expedient device. Because that's what he said before very clearly, he said before, if I don't appear to enter nirvana then no one will pick up the Lotus Sutra, everybody will just rely on me. You shouldn't rely on your teacher, the best teacher disappears,

[35:36]

so that you have to rely on yourself. That's why the Buddha appeared to enter nirvana, because if everybody would have depended on the Buddha forever, they would never really go to awakening. So one way or another, the teacher has to disappear at the right moment. So then we have many verses here about who can guard the law, who will make a vow to ensure that this sutra will endure, anyone who will preserve this sutra will be a great person, just as if they had made tremendous, given tremendous offerings to Buddhas. Then it goes into this, this is where all these tremendous similes are, and I want to read you some of these because they're really wonderful. And the burden of all these similes is

[36:38]

that there are many difficult things and many difficult teachings, but nothing is more difficult than understanding even one word of this Lotus Sutra. So it starts, this is a difficult matter, it says. It is proper that you should make a great vow, because it's such a difficult matter, you have to have a big, strong vow. The other sutras are as numerous as the Ganges sands, but though you expound those sutras, this is not worth regarding as difficult. If you were to seize Mount Sumeru, the biggest mountain in this world, if you were to pick it up and fling it far off to measureless Buddha lands, this too would not be very difficult. If you use the toe of your foot to move the thousand-million-fold world,

[37:43]

booting it far away to other lands like a football, that would not be too difficult. If you stood at the summit of being, heaven, and for the sake of the assembly preached countless other sutras, that too would not be difficult. But if, after the Buddha has entered extinction, in the time of evil, you can preach this sutra, that would be difficult indeed. Now, this thing about the time of evil, this is a really important thing. Early on, in old sutras, the Buddha had said that everything is impermanent. That was one of his main teachings. So then somebody could say, what about the Dharma? What about the Buddha? Are they impermanent too? And the Buddha was a paragon of consistency.

[38:46]

And he said, yes, they are. The Buddha is impermanent. I will pass into parinirvana because I am impermanent. And the Dharma is also impermanent. The Dharma will not last forever. He said there are going to be three ages of the Dharma. One age will be when the Dharma is really strong, when the Buddha is alive. And the second age will be when the Dharma is, you can still practice the Dharma, because the spirit is still there, but it won't be as good, because there won't be a teacher there. There won't be a Buddha in the world, but you can still practice. But the third age, and he actually put time limits on all these things. The third age is called, this is what they mean here by the age of evil, the age of the decline of the Dharma, in which you actually cannot practice the Dharma. It's impossible. Even though the teaching is there, nobody can practice it because the power has gone out of it. And then it will disappear. So he actually said that. Now, pious Buddhists were pondering that for many years,

[39:51]

and of course they had all these calculations, just like fundamentalist Christians are calculating when was the date of creation. Fundamentalist Buddhists were trying to calculate when was the age of the real Dharma, when was the age of the sort of mediocre Dharma, and when was the age when it was impossible to practice. And they actually made calculations, and they had different ideas. But this was one of the key factors in Dogen's time, because many calculations had indicated that in Kamakura, Japan, that was the age of the doomsday Dharma. You couldn't practice. And so... Some of the greatest writings came out of that time. Yeah. But you see, this is where the big sects in Japan that followed the Lotus Sutra were created at that time. Even though the Lotus Sutra had been around for a thousand years, that's when Nichiren said, yes, this is the age of the declining Dharma.

[40:54]

No one can practice in this age. These clowns like Dogen who think you can do zazen and this and that, forget it. You can't do that in this age. There was a time when you could do that, when the Buddha was around, but now you can't do it anymore. And we read the Lotus Sutra, we know there's only one thing to do in this age. It says right here, if after the Buddha has entered extinction, in the time of evil, you can preach this sutra, that will be difficult indeed. That's the only thing you can do. So that was their practice. And they narrowed it down, they figured out that not only, just like they often did in Asia, they made the preaching of the sutra into a symbolic ritualized act. So they said, just recite the name of the sutra, just bow to the sutra, just offer incense to the sutra, and that's the only thing. Other forms of practice are impossible. So this is what he's saying here. And this is really difficult, this is the only way. And it's hard to do, but this is what you have to do.

[41:56]

I mean, that then gives some kind of intensity to, I mean, or some support of Dogen's teaching? Because if somebody sort of heard that and they were thinking about the different ages, but yet this great teaching was coming forth at that time, that would have a purity, it would be, it says, if you can recite the Lotus Sutra in the time of evil, that would really be difficult. So if that was considered an age of decline, and yet the teaching was coming forth at that time, that it would really be pure? Well, some people thought that, and Dogen addressed this question, and he basically answered it by making a fairly sophisticated analysis of time, in which he said that, you know, in which he said that the age of the decline

[42:57]

of the Dharma and the age of the birth of the Dharma are occurring on each moment. So don't use that as an excuse, that this is a declining age so you can't practice, that's baloney, you know. There's no such thing until he got around it. And of course there were people who, clearly the Kamakura period in Japan was a period of tremendous religious upheaval, and people did find, and many people were impressed by Dogen and other Zen teachers at that time. So they didn't buy this argument, but others did. Anyway, so this sutra, you see, becomes, what's happening here is that this sutra, which carries this teaching of the universal, eternal nature of reality itself as Buddha, and the road to that is this sutra itself, and the veneration and practice and recitation of this sutra. Faith, basically.

[43:58]

So the schools that focus on the Lotus Sutra are faith schools. If there were a person who took the empty sky in his hand and wrote it, that would not be difficult. But if after I have passed into extinction, one can write out and embrace this sutra and cause others to write it out, copy it, see, that would be difficult indeed. If one took the great earth, placed it on his toenail, and ascended to the Brahma heavens with the whole earth on your toenail, this would not be very hard. But after the Buddha one can even for a little while read this sutra, that would be difficult indeed. If when the fire comes at the end of the kalpa, one can load dry grass on his back and enter the fire without being burned, that would not be difficult.

[45:02]

But if after I have passed into extinction, if one can embrace this sutra and expound it to even one person, that would be difficult indeed. And on and on and on and on. So, that's the power of the sutra. Buddha appearing in the stupa in the sky, teaching us that the Buddha doesn't really die, and that the Buddha has many, many emanations. We learn all this. We had no idea before that there was this kind of dimension to the teaching. It's a surprising thing. Then we come to chapter 12, which is the Devadatta, the famous Devadatta chapter. So the Buddha says, he's telling a story about a past life in this chapter. He says, many lifetimes ago I

[46:04]

looked, I knew about this Lotus Sutra and I was looking all over for it. And I became, I was born as the ruler of a kingdom and as that king I made vows that I would do anything that I could do if I could only find someone who would preach the Lotus Sutra to me. And so a seer came, arose and said, I can do it. And said, if you will serve me, the seer said to this king, if you will serve me I will preach the Lotus Sutra for you. And the king was thrilled by this and began to, you know, he gave the seer, he said he picked fruit for him, he drew water for him, he gathered firewood, he gave him his meals, he even laid down so that the seer could use his own body as a couch. That's what this king did. For a thousand years he served him like that. And then

[47:07]

the seer preached the sutra. So here's the astonishing part. The Buddha says, now I was that king, as I said, but the seer who preached the Lotus Sutra for me was Devadatta. It would be, to use the Christian analogy again, it's like saying that Judas was actually Jesus' teacher. You know, like that. Because Devadatta was a bad guy. Devadatta was a betrayer of the Buddha. He tried to kill the Buddha and so on and committed grave sins against the Buddha. So the idea that I was that king and Devadatta was a good friend to me. But I was able to become fully endowed with the Six Perfections with pity, compassion, joy and equanimity

[48:12]

with the 32 marks of a Buddha and the 80 minor marks and the blah blah blah and all the powers and this and that and the other thing only because of Devadatta. He was my teacher. This makes the point even as deeply as it could be made of the universal nature of this teaching. Even Devadatta now is going to receive a prediction and that's what happens next. The Buddha predicts Devadatta will be a Buddha in such and such a Buddha land and so on and so on and so on. So Buddha says to the assembly if in the future there are good men or good women who on hearing this chapter this Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra

[49:13]

believe it and revere it with pure hearts and do not have doubts or perplexities they will never fall into hell or the lower realms of existence. They will be born in the presence of the Buddhas of the ten directions and in the place where they are born they will constantly hear this sutra. So then that seems to be the end of the stupa. So all these emanated Buddhas are sitting there saying well should we go home now? And Buddha says well before you go home you should go and talk to Manjushri. Talk about Dharma with Manjushri before you go home. And Manjushri was at that time sitting on a huge lotus petal. He had emerged from the palace of the Dragon King in the ocean. The palace of the Dragon King

[50:15]

that's where the Prajnaparamita texts are supposed to come from. Underneath the ocean. So that's why Manjushri who's associated with those texts emerges from under the ocean and he's also suspended in mid-air sitting there at the assembly. And one of the Bodhisattvas says how many living beings did you convert down there at the bottom of the ocean? And Manjushri said immeasurable numbers. And then of course they all appear. Countless Bodhisattvas appear and they're hovering in the air too. And then Manjushri says when I was in the bottom of the ocean I preached the Lotus Sutra. So again the Lotus Sutra is here incorporating the Prajnaparamita into itself without really going into details or explaining or expounding the Prajnaparamita. The Lotus Sutra is making it clear to us that the Prajnaparamita

[51:18]

is the philosophy and the doctrine that stands behind the possibility of all these wonders that the Lotus Sutra is teaching us being possible just like you said before. That because of emptiness and conditioned co-production as the nature of the world that's how come the Buddha is eternal. That's how come the Buddha doesn't go to extinction. That's how come the Buddha has all these emanations. That's how come everything in the Lotus Sutra comes to be. So it's a kind of a co-opting of that whole teaching and putting it in there because it was pretty much around the same time. Then comes this part that's also very famous where somebody just pops up and says do you think there are any beings who have been able to achieve Buddhahood quickly

[52:21]

without going through really long process. And Manjushri says there is this daughter of the Dragon King where I was just down there by the ocean. She's eight years old and she understood this whole thing in the wink of an eye. They can't believe it. They say we know that Shakyamuni Buddha practiced for immeasurable eons before he became a Buddha. In fact, and this has always been one of my favorite things, if you look in the whole, you figure, if the Buddha practiced for countless lifetimes before today in this world, it stands to reason that he practiced in every possible place that there is in this world. So everywhere you go

[53:24]

you're standing on ground where Buddha actually practiced in a former life. That's what he says here. He practiced so long and made a sacrifice of his own body and practiced austerities and practiced giving up his life for the sake of living beings and he practices in every possible place in this million-fold world and you're telling me that this eight-year-old girl in the wink of an eye attained Buddhahood? How could this be? And then Sariputra comes back into the sutra now. Remember, Sariputra is always the big sourpuss who goes by the rule book and can't understand emptiness and is the defender of the faith and so on.

[54:25]

He comes back and he says to the dragon girl, You suppose that in this short time you have been able to attain the unsurpassed way? This is hard to believe. Why? Because a woman's body is soiled and defiled not a vessel of the law. How could you attain the unsurpassed bodhi? So now he pulls this on her. Not only is it amazing that she could do it all so fast after doing Buddha so long but not only that, but wouldn't it be Sariputra who would say this, right? You're a woman. A woman's body is subject to the five obstacles and so on, and has all these defects. And the dragon girl had a precious jewel and she pulled it out of her pocket and gave it to the Buddha and she said, Did you see that? And he said, Yes.

[55:25]

Didn't I do that rather quickly? You gave him a jewel rather quickly? Yes. Well, just so quickly can I attain enlightenment. Employ your supernatural powers and watch me attain Buddhahood even quicker than I just handed that jewel over to Buddha. And right before their very eyes she instantly changed into a man. And she carried out all the infinite practices of a bodhisattva etc., etc., and became a Buddha right there before their eyes. And the whole world quaked and trembled and so forth. And that's the end of the chapter. So this has been much written about and much discussed. You can imagine. Yes? There's a line here I love. Their hearts were filled with great joy

[56:27]

and all from a distance came running towards us. There's another sutra. I can't remember which one it is. I think it's probably the Vimalakirti Sutra where you have the same kind of thing happening only with different variations where the presumed defiled woman practitioner turns into a man when questioned by Shariputra or someone like Shariputra and then turns around and turns Shariputra into a woman. Of course what the sutra is trying to tell us is that the idea that a woman can't attain Buddhahood is ridiculous. This young woman, not only a woman but a kid, a young woman, I mean a young girl can attain Buddha. But then you can analyze it more

[57:30]

and say, well, but yes, in order to do that she had to turn into a man so how good is that? Is that really saying? So, that's true. But in a way these are two examples in this chapter of people who from the standpoint of the old way would not be capable of becoming awakened. Devadatta and a young girl. So this is even making more graphically and more shockingly the point that this Lotus Sutra is a universal teaching that every single one will be a Buddha. This idea is really you have to understand what this must have been like for somebody who felt like there was one Buddha and maybe a handful of Arhats who after diligent effort

[58:30]

of many lifetimes would be able to achieve Nirvana and then there would be extinction. Now we're hearing not only is extinction not real but every single creature will receive the prediction of being a Buddha. Every single creature without exception will receive this prediction. You and I and everybody that you meet will be a Buddha someday. Very different feeling here. And certainly that kind of faith and that kind of sense of all beings have the Buddha nature or are the Buddha nature is certainly a part of Zen. That's the basis for Zazen in our way of practice. So just very quickly five more minutes to just go over the next chapter in which I know you weren't supposed to have read it but I just wanted to just tell you that

[59:31]

in this chapter after having opened the way with this young girl the Buddha's stepmother who's his aunt and the Buddha's wife who is also a nun will also receive predictions. They go to the Buddha and they say, gee this is sounding better and better. Do you think we could get in on this? And he says, of course. Of course. And then predicts that they will be Buddhists. As men? No, it doesn't say that actually. No. Although I think the word Buddha implies a male but it doesn't say specifically you will be turned into a man and be a Buddha. It says you will be a Buddha. And they vow that they will preach the Lotus Sutra. And... I didn't get the impression she stayed a man. The girl? No, it doesn't say

[60:31]

she stayed a man, no. No, she turned back. She turned back into a woman. Was she a nun? I don't know. Then... Just one final piece and then we're done. The... In the last pages here in the verse section of page 194 and 195, again a very Christian kind of notion here. The early Christians almost took pride in their being defiled for their religion. You know? They're being... The whole... notion of martyrdom. You will be... You will stick to this doctrine and you will be stoned and you will be burned and you will... This will be your salvation. Well, a very similar thing happens here. Page 194.

[61:31]

There will be men with evil in their hearts constantly thinking of worldly affairs. They will borrow the name of forest-dwelling monks and take delight in proclaiming our faults. Those of us who adhere to the Lotus Sutra, they will say things like, These monks are greedy for profit and support and therefore they preach non-Buddhist doctrines and fabricate their own scriptures to delude the people of the world. That's what they're going to say about us. But because we revere the Buddha, we will bear all these evils and though they treat us with contempt, saying, we will say to them, you are all no-doubt Buddhists, even though they say this to us. We're going to turn to them. We're going to turn the other cheek, sort of, and say, you are all no-doubt Buddhists anyway. In order to preach this sutra, we will bear these difficult things. We care nothing for our bodies or our lives,

[62:32]

but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way. A very similar kind of thing. And there is a kind of strain in these Lotus Sutra type practitioners of kind of martyrdom and almost like pushing it, you know. Isn't that probably what people were saying? Oh, exactly. That's exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what people were saying. Yeah. That's what, when they saw the Lotus Sutra, there were many people who said the five thousand who left symbolized all these people who were saying just this. Yeah. Sure. Exactly what they're saying. You made this up. We never saw this text before. Where does this come from? Show me where, you know. And look at this. You're telling me the Buddha is eternal? Look at the sutra. The sutra says everything the Buddha himself says. I'm not eternal. You know. You're telling us all these things and it's absolutely contrary to what the teachings say. We never saw this sutra before. It's completely non-Buddhist, completely heretical.

[63:33]

Shame on you for calling yourselves disciples of our teacher. I mean, that's surely what they said. Exactly. Yeah. So, I think we said for next time that we were going to do 15 and 16. And anybody who wants to can also try to read maybe chapter 25, the famous chapter on Avalokiteshvara. It's kind of a great chapter if you want to read that one. And we'll just skip the ones in between. And we'll meet next Tuesday for the final meeting. We had a real whirlwind relationship here with the Lotus Sutra. And, yes. I heard that I can't remember exactly but I was going to say that 15 and 16 are like the turning points of the Lotus Sutra. Turning points? Key chapters. That's the chapter, I think, where the Buddha says explicitly that

[64:35]

he never dies. Yeah. Yeah. An infinite number of Bodhisattvas come out of the ground and the Buddha reveals the eternity of his life. So that's kind of like the punchline of this whole thing. It's implied here. Right. But it doesn't become explicit until there. Uh-huh. Yes. Is there a book of commentary that one or there probably are several but is there one you recommend that one could read a chapter and then read the commentary and click it? Well, Cliff Notes, yeah. Cliff Notes, right. Well, the only one, you know, I have to tell you the truth, I have never read a commentary on the Lotus Sutra. I mean, I've read articles about it and stuff but and I don't know if there is. There are many, of course, traditional commentaries but I don't know whether any of them are translated into English. The one that I know about that is good is Sangharaksita has a a book of talks and essays on topics in the Lotus Sutra. Sangharaksita.

[65:36]

Sangharaksita, yeah. And I and I think the title of the book is something like the Lotus, the White Lotus of the Cosmic something. But they had it in the bookstore. Okay. You'll have to investigate. I think it has the word for some reason he translates Lotus Sutra as White Lotus Sutra. So I think it has White Lotus in the title. I think. I found this in a used bookstore. It says, The Lotus of the Wonderful Law or The Lotus Aspen. Is it a translation? It's by W.E. Satil. Oh yeah, he's an old translator from from Sanskrit, I think. He was a, he was a I think he was a a Christian missionary, I think, Satil. British Christian missionary.

[66:37]

A lot of the early he did a lot of translating early on. Pictures? Pictures. The stupids. You know, I really I can really see why all this why Buddhism started catching on in the 60s. Psychedelic. Probably. And all the paintings, you know. Yeah, Thangkas and all that stuff. Yeah. There's a picture of the stupa. They don't have it in the sky, though. Yeah, they don't have it in the sky. Yeah, I think Spielberg. This is, yeah. Yeah. This one? Yeah, I mean I was trying to follow the little translation. Oh, he's translating

[67:38]

from Chinese, I'm wrong. Excuse me. Yeah. So, um It's sort of a simple reclaiming art. Mm-hmm. I was going to suggest a little assignment for next time in addition to the reading. Since we're finishing up at least our as much of the sutras we're going to do this time around I wonder if everybody would like to write a little poem. Anybody. You don't have to, but it would be nice. A little poem expressing your what you have heard and learned from the sutra. That would be interesting. What is it that so think about what it is that what is the message for you? What have you gotten out of this sutra if anything? And make it a four-line poem. Using using the imagery from the sutra if you like, but you don't have to. It can be completely

[68:39]

have nothing to do with anything specific about the sutra. It can just have something to do with your own feeling. But that would be interesting and I'm not saying everybody has to do that, but if a bunch of you did it would be interesting to end our time with a lot of sutra with a few of these poems and see what people come up with. Just in four lines you say? Short gatha, you know. So in other words you see what I'm getting at. Rather than a long exposition of doctrine and so on, something pithy that, you know, from the heart imagistic that would that would kind of capture the essence of it. I mean if you made five lines nobody would complain. Or six lines. But don't write a four-page narrative poem or something, you know. Just because it's challenging to do it that way. Then you really have to sort of investigate. First of all you have to think what is it that is the main point? What did I really get out of this? What do I really feel? How has my practice changed? My view of the Dharma

[69:39]

changed after reading the sutra? And then you have to say then, okay, well that's how it's changed. Now how do I express that? What kind of image would I come up with? Or what kind of little story or whatever would I come up with to sort of express that? So anyway, try your best. Just do. No big deal. Do something, whatever comes to mind. It might be a nice way. Then remind me in case I forget that I did this. Then at the end of the class we'll just hear what we have come up with. Can you write one too? Yeah, I'll try to remember to do that. I'm sure I'll remember. Because you're the poet. Right. So, okay, thank you for tonight's class. And again, I really think it's very kind of you to come out on a Thursday night, which I know is sort of a time when you could be doing something else. May our intention

[70:41]

May our intention

[70:42]

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