July–September 2010, Volume 37
Features
Tackling the Question “What Is the Lotus Sutra?”
The International Lotus Sutra Seminar
by Gene Reeves
What began as a single planned “final” meeting between Japanese Buddhist scholars and American Christian theologians, whose purpose was to explore aspects of the Mahayana scripture that is one of the world’s great religious classics, has become an ongoing series of sessions that are increasingly both intellectually and spiritually rewarding.
Groping Through the Maze of the Lotus Sutra
by Miriam Levering
The author compares herself to an unprepared explorer who found that the sutra text lacked a number of things she expected to find within its pages.
A Phenomenological Answer to the Question “What Is the Lotus Sutra?”
by Donald W. Mitchell
This author has found the Lotus Sutra to be a source of transformative goodness in the lives of Buddhists, and a motivational force to bring healing and unity to the world.
The Materiality of the Lotus Sutra: Scripture, Relic, and Buried Treasure
by D. Max Moerman
What is the Lotus Sutra? The scripture itself provides one ready answer: The Lotus Sutra is a Buddha relic. Like a number of other early Mahayana sutras, the Lotus Sutra asserts an equivalence between a roll of scripture and a relic of the Buddha. Employing a new theory of embodiment, the Lotus Sutra replaces the Buddha’s corporeal remains with his textual corpus. The material form of the Buddha’s word, rather than the material remains of the Buddha’s body, is recognized as the central object of veneration and, as such, is to be enshrined in a stupa, a reliquary previously reserved for the remains of a buddha. . . .
Seminar Report
The Lotus Sutra Eludes Easy Definition: A Report on the Fourteenth International Lotus Sutra Seminar
by Joseph M. Logan
Reflections
Like the Lotus Blossom
by Nichiko Niwano
The Japanese poet Saigyo (1118–90), known for such works as his Sankashu (Mountain Cottage Collection), left us this verse: “The lotus blooming, / The waves beating / On the shore – / My mind hears them / As the preaching of the Dharma.” . . .
The Buddha’s Teachings Affect All of Humankind
by Nikkyo Niwano
Niwano Peace Prize
Women, Work, and Peace
by Ela Ramesh Bhatt
The Niwano Peace Foundation presented the twenty-seventh Niwano Peace Prize to Ms. Ela Ramesh Bhatt, the founder and former secretary-general of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat State, India. Her contribution to the empowerment of socially and economically oppressed women in India and elsewhere through the activities of the SEWA has won her recognition around the world. The prize was presented in Tokyo on May 13. The following is the recipient’s acceptance speech.
