The Lotus Sutra Part 6

Then the living beings will be glad in mind, having gained what they never had before.

The rule of suffering which the Buddha preaches is true and never varies.

If there are living beings who do not understand the root of suffering, who are deeply attached to the causes of suffering and cannot for a moment put them aside, because they are that way, the Buddha uses expedient means to preach the way.

As to the cause of all suffering, it has its root in greed and desire.

If greed and desire are wiped out, it will have no place to dwell.

To wipe out all suffering- this is called the third rule.

For the sake of this rule, the rule of extinction, one practices the way.

And when one escapes from the bonds of suffering this is called attaining emanc.i.p.ation.

By what means can a person attain emanc.i.p.ation?

Separating oneself from falsehood and delusion- this alone may be called emanc.i.p.ation.

But if a person has not truly been able to emanc.i.p.ate himself from everything, then the Buddha will say he has not achieved true extinction, because such a person has not yet gained the unsurpa.s.sed way.

My purpose is not to try to cause them to reach extinction.

I am the Dharma King, free to do as I will with the Law.

To bring peace and safety to living beings- that is the reason I appear in the world.

I say to you, Shariputra, this Dharma seal of mine I preach because I wish to bring benefit to the world.

You must not recklessly transmit it wherever you happen to wander.

If there is someone who hears it, responds with joy and gratefully accepts it, you should know that person is an avivartika.

If there is someone who believes and accepts the Law of this sutra, that person has already seen the Buddhas of the past, has respectfully offered alms to them and listened to this Law.

If there is someone who can believe what you preach then that person has seen me, and has also seen you and the other monks and the bodhisattvas.

This Lotus Sutra is preached for those with profound wisdom.

If persons of shallow understanding hear it, they will be perplexed and fail to comprehend.

As for all the voice-hearers and pratyekabuddhas, in this sutra there are things that are beyond their powers.

Even you, Shariputra, in the case of this sutra were able to gain entrance through faith alone.

How much more so, then, the other voice-hearers.

Those other voice-hearers it is because they have faith in the Buddha's words that they can comply with this sutra, not because of any wisdom of their own.

Also, Shariputra, to persons who are arrogant or lazy or taken up with views of the self, do not preach this sutra.

Those with the shallow understandings of ordinary persons, who are deeply attached to the five desires, cannot comprehend it when they hear it.

Do not preach it to them.

If a person fails to have faith but instead slanders this sutra, immediately he will destroy all the seeds for becoming a Buddha in this world.

Or perhaps he will scowl with knitted brows and harbor doubt or perplexity.

Listen and I will tell you the penalty this person must pay.

Whether the Buddha is in the world or has already entered extinction, if this person should slander a sutra such as this, or on seeing those who read, recite, copy and uphold this sutra, should despise, hate, envy, or bear grudges against them, the penalty this person must pay listen, I will tell you now: When his life comes to an end he will enter the Avichi h.e.l.l, be confined there for a whole kalpa, and when the kalpa ends, be born there again.

He will keep repeating this cycle for a countless number of kalpas.

Though he may emerge from h.e.l.l, he will fall into the realm of beasts, becoming a dog or jackal, his form lean and scruffy, dark, discolored, with scabs and sores, something for men to make sport of.

Or again he will be hated and despised by men, constantly plagued by hunger and thirst, his bones and flesh dried up, in life undergoing torment and hards.h.i.+p, in death buried beneath the tiles and stones.

Because he cut off the seeds of Buddhahood he will suffer this penalty.

If he should become a camel or be born in the shape of a donkey, his body will constantly bear heavy burdens and have the stick or whip laid on it.

He will think only of water and gra.s.s and understand nothing else.

Because he slandered this sutra, this is the punishment he will incur.

Or he will be born as a jackal who comes to the village, body all scabs and sores, having only one eye, by the boys beaten and cuffed, suffering grief and pain, sometimes to the point of death.

And after he has died he will be born again in the body of a serpent, long and huge in size, measuring five hundred yojanas, deaf, witless, without feet, slithering along on his belly, with little creatures biting and feeding on him, day and night undergoing hards.h.i.+p, never knowing rest.

Because he slandered this sutra, this is the punishment he will incur.

If he should become a human being, his faculties will be blighted and dull, he will be puny, vile, bent, crippled, blind, deaf, hunchbacked.

The things he says people will not believe, the breath from his mouth will be constantly foul, he will be possessed by devils, poor and lowly, ordered around by others, plagued by many ailments, thin and gaunt, having no one to turn to.

Though he attached himself to others, they would never think of him; though he might gain something, he would at once lose or forget it.

Though he might practice the art of medicine and by its methods cure someone's disease, the person would grow sicker from some other malady and perhaps in the end would die.

If he himself had an illness, no one would aid or nurse him, and though he took good medicine, it would only make his condition worse.

If others should turn against him, he would find himself plundered and robbed.

His sins would be such that they would bring unexpected disaster on him.

A sinful person of this sort will never see the Buddha, the king of the many sages, preaching the Law, teaching and converting.

A sinful person of this sort will constantly be born amid difficulties, crazed, deaf, confused in mind, and never will hear the Law.

For countless kalpas numerous as Ganges sands he will at birth become deaf and dumb, his faculties impaired, will constantly dwell in h.e.l.l, strolling in it as though it were a garden, and the other evil paths of existence he will look on as his own home.

Camel, donkey, pig, dog- these will be the forms he will take on.

Because he slandered this sutra, this is the punishment he will incur.

If he should become a human being, he will be deaf, blind, dumb.

Poverty, want, all kinds of decay will be his adornment; water blisters, diabetes, scabs, sores, ulcers, maladies such as these will be his garments.

His body will always smell bad, filthy and impure.

Deeply attached to views of self, he will grow in anger and hatred; aflame with licentious desires, he will not spurn even birds or beasts.

Because he slandered this sutra, this is the punishment he will incur.

I tell you, Shariputra, if I were to describe the punishments that fall on persons who slander this sutra, I could exhaust a kalpa and never come to the end.

For this reason I expressly say to you, do not preach this sutra to persons who are without wisdom.

But if there are those of keen capacities, wise and understanding, of much learning and strong memory, who seek the Buddha way, then to persons such as this it is permissible to preach it.

If there are persons who have seen hundreds and thousands and millions of Buddhas, have planted many good roots and are firm and deeply committed in mind, then to persons such as this it is permissible to preach it.

If there are persons who are diligent, constantly cultivating a compa.s.sionate mind, not begrudging life or limb, then it is permissible to preach it.

If there are persons who are respectful, reverent with minds set on nothing else, who separate themselves from common folly to live alone among mountains and waters, then to persons such as this it is permissible to preach it.

Again, Shariputra, if you see a person who thrusts aside evil friends and a.s.sociates with good companions, then to a person such as this it is permissible to preach it.

If you see a son of the Buddha observing the precepts, clean and spotless as a pure bright gem, seeking the Great Vehicle Sutra, then to a person such as this it is permissible to preach it.

If a person is without anger, upright and gentle in nature, constantly pitying all beings, respectful and reverent to the Buddhas, then to a person such as this it is permissible to preach it.

Again, if a son of the Buddha in the midst of the great a.s.sembly should with a pure mind employ various causes and conditions, similes, parables, and other expressions to preach the Law in unhindered fas.h.i.+on, to a person such as this it is permissible to preach it.

If there are monks who, for the sake of comprehensive wisdom, seek the Law in every direction, pressing palms together, gratefully accepting, desiring only to accept and embrace the sutra of the Great Vehicle and not accepting a single verse of the other sutras, to persons such as this it is permissible to preach it.

If a person, earnest in mind, seeks this sutra as though he were seeking the Buddha's relics, and having gained and gratefully accepted it, that person shows no intention of seeking other sutras and has never once given thought to the writings of the non-Buddhist doctrines, to a person such as this it is permissible to preach it.

I tell you Shariputra, if I described all the characteristics of those who seek the Buddha way, I could exhaust a kalpa and never be done.

Persons of this type are capable of believing and understanding.

Therefore for them you should preach of the Wonderful Law.

CHAPTER FOUR: BELIEF AND UNDERSTANDING.

At that time, when the men of lifelong wisdom Subhuti, Mahakatyayana, Mahakashyapa, and Mahamaudgalyayana heard from the Buddha a Law that they had never known before, and heard the World-Honored One prophesy that Shariputra would attain anuttara-samyaksambodhi, their minds were moved as seldom before and danced for joy. At once they rose from their seats, arranged their robes, bared their right shoulders and bowed their right knees to the ground. Pressing their palms together with a single mind, they bent their bodies in a gesture of respect and, gazing up in reverence at the face of the Honored One, said to the Buddha: "We stand at the head of the monks and are all of us old and decrepit.

We believed that we had already attained nirvana and that we were incapable of doing more, and so we never sought to attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

"It has been a long time since the World-Honored One first began to expound the Law.

During that time we have sat in our seats, our bodies weary and inert, meditating solely on the concepts of emptiness, non-form, and non-action. But as to the pleasures and transcendental power of the Law of the bodhisattva or the purifying of Buddha lands and the salvation of living beings-these our minds took no joy in. Why is this? Because the World-Honored One had made it possible for us to transcend the threefold world and to attain the enlightenment of nirvana.

"Moreover, we are old and decrepit. When we heard of this anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, which the Buddha uses to teach and convert the bodhisattvas, our minds were not fill ed with any thought of joy or approval. But now in the presence of the Buddha we have heard this voice-hearer receive a prophecy that he will attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi and our minds are greatly delighted. We have gained what we have never before. Suddenly we have been able to hear a Law that is rarely encountered, something we never expected up to now, and we look upon ourselves as profoundly fortunate. We have gained great goodness and benefit, an immeasurably rare jewel, something unsought that came of itself.

"World-Honored One, we would be pleased now to employ a parable to make clear our meaning. Suppose there was a man, still young in years, who abandoned his father, ran away, and lived for a long time in another land, for perhaps ten, twenty, or even fifty years.

As he drew older, he found himself increasingly poor and in want. He hurried about in every direction, seeking clothing and food, wandering farther and farther afield until by chance he turned his steps in the direction of his homeland.

"The father meanwhile had been searching for his son without success and had taken up residence in a certain city. The father's household was very wealthy, with immeasurable riches and treasures. Gold, silver, lapis Lazuli, coral, amber, and crystal beads all filled and overflowed from his storehouses. He had many grooms and menservants, clerks and attendants, and elephants, horses, carriages, oxen, and goats beyond number. He engaged in profitable ventures at home and in all the lands around, and also had dealings with many merchants and traveling vendors.

BELIEF AND UNDERSTANDING.

"At this time the impoverished son wandered from village to village, pa.s.sing through various lands and towns, till at last he came to the city where his father was residing. The father thought constantly of his son, but though he had been parted from him for over fifty years, he had never told anyone else about the matter. He merely pondered to himself, his heart filed with regret and longing. He thought to himself that he was old and decrepit. He had great wealth and possessions, gold silver and rare treasures that filled and overflowed from his storehouses, but he had no son, so that if one day he should die, the wealth and possessions would be scattered and lost, for there was no one to entrust them to.

"This was the reason he constantly thought so earnestly of his son. And he also had this thought: If I could find my son and entrust my wealth and possessions to him, then I could feel contented and easy in mind and would have no more worries.

"World-Honored One, at that time the impoverished son drifted from one kind of employment to another until he came by chance to his father's house. He stood by the side of the gate, gazing far off at his father, who was seated on a lion throne, his legs supported by a jeweled footrest, while Brahmans, n.o.blemen, and householders, uniformly deferential, surrounded him. Festoons of pearls worth thousands or tens of thousands adorned his body, and clerks, grooms and menservants holding white fly whisks stood in attendance to left and right. A jeweled canopy covered him, with flowered banners hanging from it, perfumed water had been sprinkled over the ground, heaps of rare flowers were scatted about, and precious objects were ranged here and there, brought out, put away, handed over and received. Such were the many different types of adornments, the emblems of prerogative and marks of distinction.

"When the impoverished son saw how great was his father's power and authority, he was filled with fear and awe and regretted he had ever come to such a place. Secretly he thought to himself; This must be some king, or one who is equal to a king. This is not the sort of place where I can hire out my labor and gain a living. It would be better to go to some poor village where, if I work hard, I will find a place and can easily earn food and clothing. If I stay here for long, I may be seized and pressed into service! Having thought in this way, he raced from the spot.

At that time the rich old man, seated on his lion throne, spied his son and recognized him immediately. His heart was filled with great joy and at once he thought: Now I have someone to entrust my storehouses of wealth and possessions to! My thoughts have constantly been with this son of mine but I had no way of seeing him. Now suddenly he had appeared of himself, which is exactly what I would have wished. Though I am old and decrepit, I still care what becomes of my belongings.

"Thereupon he dispatched a bystander to go after the son as quickly as possible and bring him back. At that time the messenger raced swiftly after the son and laid hold of him. The impoverished son, alarmed and fearful, cried out in an angry voice, 'I have done nothing wrong! Why am I being seized?' But the messenger held on to him more tightly than ever and forcibly dragged him back.

BELIEF AND UNDERSTANDING.

"At that time the son thought to himself, I have committed no crime and yet I am taken prisoner. Surely I am going to be put to death! He was more terrified than ever and sank to the ground, fainting with despair.

"The father, observing this from a distance, spoke to the messenger, saying, 'I have no need of this man. Don't force him to come here, but sprinkle cold water on his face so he will regain his senses. Then say nothing more to him!'

"Why did he do that? Because the father knew that his son was of humble outlook an ambition, and that his own rich and eminent position would be difficult for the son to accept.

He knew very well that this was his son, but as a form of expedient means he refrained from saying to anyone, 'this is my son.'

"The messenger said to the son, "I am releasing you now. You may go anywhere you wish.'

The impoverished son was delighted, having gained what he had not had before, and picked himself up from the ground and went off to the poor village in order to look for food and clothing.