DESCRIPTION

The Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra 妙法蓮華經 (The Lotus Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. It is the primary text for the Tiantai, Tendai, Nichiren and Soka Gakkai schools of Buddhism. It is also vastly influential on other schools of East Asian Buddhism, such as Zen. According to the British Buddhologist Paul Williams, "For many Buddhists in East Asia since early times, the Lotus Sūtra contains the final teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha—complete and sufficient for salvation." The American Buddhologist Donald S. Lopez Jr. writes that the Lotus Sūtra "is arguably the most famous of all Buddhist texts."

PART ONE: KUMĀRAJĪVA (344-413 AD)

Kumārajīva was born in in the kingdom of Kucha in the Tarim Basin (present day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region). His father was a Buddhist monk from Kashmir while his mother was a member of the Kucha royal family called Jīva.

When he was seven, his mother joined a nunnery and by age nine he was already studying the Agamas and the Sarvastivada Abhidharma. He later converted to Mahayana under the Kashmirian teacher Buddhayaśas.

At age 20, Kumārajīva received full monastic ordination and began studying Madhyamaka philosophy. He became a famous figure in Kucha, known for his breadth of studies and skill in debate.

In 379 CE his fame reached China and efforts were made by the Emperor to bring the renowned scholar to the Qin capital of Chang'an. To do this, an army was dispatched to conquer Kucha and return with Kumārajīva. However, when they defeated Kucha, the general of the army declared it his own state and became a warlord. Kumārajīva was captured and imprisoned for many years, during which time it is thought that he became familiar with the Chinese language.

In 401, Chinese imperial armies succeeded in defeating the warlord and Kumārajīva was finally brought east to the capital of Chang'an. There he led a court sponsored team of scholars who translated numerous Sanskrit Buddhist texts into the Chinese language. The Emperor looked upon him as his own teacher, and many young and old Chinese Buddhists flocked to him, learning from him directly in the Xiaoyao Gardens of the monastery where daily sessions were held (attended by over a thousand monks).

Within a dozen years, Kumārajīva's translation bureau translated about thirty five sutras in 294 scrolls.

PART TWO: PANJIAO CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS

By the time Kumārajīva is translating, so many sutras with such diverse teachings were now available to the Chinese reading/speaking world that it raised questions in regards to the relationship between them. What arose were a variety of ‘panjiao’ (判教) - classification systems for dividing the sutras into different types and, most importantly, different chronologies. Although there are dozens of different panjiao systems (see Chanju Mun, The History of Doctrinal Classification in Chinese Buddhism), there is one general framework that has persisted up to the modern period, supported predominately by the Tian-tai School(s):

• Āgama Period – 12 years
• Vaipulya Period – 8 years
• Prajñāpāramitā Period – 21 years
• Lotus & Nirvana Period – 8 years

PART THREE: THE READER’S VYĀKARAṆA

There are many wonderful and mysterious aspects to the Lotus Sutra. Most mysterious might be the content of the sutra itself. What is the teaching of the Lotus Sutra? Where does it begin? When does it conclude? The initial chapters of the text anticipate the Buddha’s teaching of the sutra, and even have him teaching other sutras in the meantime (which we do not learn the content of). Eventually, however, the characters start speaking of the Lotus Sutra that the Buddha has taught, in the past tense, and the reader is left wondering if they missed something. This ‘sutra without a sutra’ as well as ‘sutra within a sutra’ motif are both found in the Ghaṭikāra Sutta, a past life tale found in the Rājavagga section of the Majjhima Mikāya (#81).

The Lotus Sutra is also known for seven famous parables:

1. Parable of a Blazing House (Chapter 3)
2. Parable of the Father and His Lost Son (Chapter 4)
3. Parable of the Medicinal Herbs (Chapter 5)
4. Parable of the Phantom City (Chapter 7)
5. Parable of the Jewel in the Robe (Chapter 8)
6. Parable of the Precious Pearl in the Topknot (Chapter 14)
7. Parable of the Skillful Doctor (Chapter 16)

However, an overarching theme to the entire sutra, and to the parables, is the vyākaraṇa - the prediction of future Buddhahood.

In the early texts of the Āgamas, the Buddha often makes declarations, or what might be called predictions, concerning the future rebirth of people after they have died. In most cases, these predictions concern the persons level of spiritual attainment and state whether the person is a stream-enterer or once-returner, both bound for more terrestrial birth, a non-returner bound for rebirth in a heavenly realm, or that there is no rebirth in the case of arhats.

Mahayana sutras, on the other hand, veer away from the ‘soul-reinforcing’ ideas of traditional reincarnation, and the vyākaraṇa becomes the Buddhas declaration here and now that someone has achieved an ‘irreversible’ state of bodhisattva-ness and is therefore absolutely bound for the attainment of anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. This is then typically followed by the giving of the name that the person will have as a buddha, the name of their buddha land, its qualities, and the lifespan they will have as a buddha.

A very important aspect to the ‘mainstream’ Mahayana Buddhist understanding of the Bodhisattva Path and receiving vyākaraṇas is that adherents of the ‘lesser vehicle’ who have not generated bodhicitta - śrāvakas who seek enlightenment only for themselves - unfortunately cut off all desire, and therefore become apathetic towards the plight of others. As a result, they are incapable of make the great Bodhisattva Vow and miss out on riding the Great Vehicle all the way to Buddhahood.

This being the case, it comes as a great surprise to everyone in the Lotus Sutra when the Buddha gives Śāriputra, śrāvaka extraordinaire, the prediction of future Buddhahood. In fact, all ‘Hinayana’ practitioners, including the bhikṣuṇī nuns, receive predictions as the Buddha reveals the Ekayāna - the One Vehicle - that truth that the ‘three vehicles’ (which, in this context, means the śrāvaka path, the pratyekabuddha path, and the bodhisattva path) are all the same thing, just different upāy-ic manifestations for different kinds of people.

As if this weren’t enough, the Lotus Sutra then has the Buddha give the most radical vyākaraṇa, the prediction of the future Buddhahood of the one who reads the Lotus Sutra, which is of course…you.

SUGGESTED READING

📖 Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhist, The Doctrinal Foundations Chapter Seven

📖 Donald S. Lopez Jr. The Lotus Sūtra: A Biography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016)