The first part of chapter 1 of the Lotus Sutra, “Introduction,” is devoted to setting the scene for what is to follow in the sutra. It is, in a sense, the first chapter of a story that ends with chapter 22, “Entrustment.” It truly is an introduction, in that it both introduces the overarching story and creates a setting for this story, as well as introducing the reader to the special, even magical, world of Dharma Flower Sutra stories.
The Story
The Buddha, we are told, once lived on Holy Eagle Peak, near Rajagriha the capital of Magadha, where he was accompanied by a vast assembly—a great variety of twelve thousand monks, nuns, lay devotees, kings, arhats, eighty thousand bodhisattvas, gods, god kings, dragon kings, ashura kings, griffin kings, chimera kings, centaur kings, and many other kinds of fantastic supernatural mythical beings.
Having preached the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the Buddha entered deeply into meditative concentration (samadhi). Then, to prepare the assembly to hear the Buddha preach, various omens suddenly appeared—extremely rare flowers rained down from the heavens on everyone, the earth trembled in the six different ways that an earth can tremble, and the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the tufts of white hair between his eyebrows, lighting up eighteen thousand worlds to the east, so that the whole assembly could see these worlds in great detail, including their heavens and purgatories, all their living beings, and even their past and present buddhas.
Then Maitreya Bodhisattva asked Manjushri Bodhisattva why the Buddha was displaying such a wonder. Manjushri’s response provides a brief summary of all of the major teachings of the sutra. The Buddha, he says, intends to teach the great Dharma, send down the rain of the great Dharma, blow the conch of the great Dharma, beat the drum of the great Dharma, and explain the meaning of the great Dharma. He explains that in the past he has seen many other buddhas do the same thing in preparation for delivering a very great and difficult teaching, including Sun and Moon Light Buddha, who also displayed such a wonder before preaching the Dharma Flower Sutra.
“This Is What I Heard”
The Sutra begins: “This is what I heard.” This phrase occurs at the beginning of most Buddhist sutras to indicate that the sutra has come from the mouth of the Buddha. At the time the Buddha was alive, apparently writing had not yet been invented in India. The sutras are said to have been memorized and recited orally, originally by the Buddha’s disciple Ananda. None were actually written down until four or more centuries after the death of the Buddha.
We know that a written version of the Lotus Sutra was not completed until several centuries after the death of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it begins with “This is what I heard” in order to signify that it is an authentic embodiment of the Buddha’s teachings.
“Dharma”
While the Sanskrit term dharma is sometimes translated as “law,” I believe that for many readers this creates a false impression of how the term is used in the Dharma Flower Sutra and in Buddhism in general. It is translated as “law” because it was translated by Kumarajiva into Chinese as fa (pronounced hō in Japanese), a term that can reasonably be translated into English as “law.” But to many, the term “law” has negative connotations, reminding us of courts, police, and punishment. More important, the term “law” simply does not convey the rich meaning and significance of Buddha Dharma. That is why, like some other Buddhist terms, such as “nirvana,” “sutra,” or even “Buddha,” it has become a term in the English language. And this is why the Rev. Senchu Murano, of Nichiren-shu, while originally using “Law,” decided to use “Dharma” for the revised version of his very fine translation of the Lotus Sutra into English.1
While it can mean other things such as “way” or “method,” there are four chief ways in which “dharma” is used in Buddhism:
(1) things—all the objects of experience that we can see, feel, hear, and touch, often translated as “phenomenon”;
(2) the Buddha’s teaching, a use which is often extended to include Buddhist teachings and practices generally, and thus can mean Buddhism itself;
(3) the truth that is taught in the Buddha’s teachings, especially the highest truth disclosed in the awakening of the Buddha; and
(4) the reality that the truth reveals, that which enables and sustains all things in accord with interdependence.
Some Lessons:
(1) The Lotus Sutra as imaginative vision
As indicated in the first chapter, what the Dharma Flower Sutra offers is what we might call an imaginative vision. It not only does not ask us to accept its stories as though they were reports of historical facts; it invites us, from the very outset, to enter into a world that is very different from our ordinary world of historical facts, a world of stories in which strange things sometimes happen. In part, stories are used in the Dharma Flower Sutra to persuade and convince us, first of all, that we ourselves can take up the life of the bodhisattva.
(2) The Lotus Sutra is for all the living
Monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, gods, dragons, satyrs, centaurs, ashuras, griffins, chimeras, pythons, humans and non-humans, minor kings, and holy wheel-rolling kings, and others are all addressed by the Buddha in chapter 1. What we should understand from this is that the Buddha Dharma is not only for Buddhists, not only for those people who are good, and not only for human beings. Even gods and other heavenly creatures come to hear the Buddha’s teaching.
There is an important truth here. While the Lotus Sutra, like any book, is very much a human creation, its significance goes beyond the human. The range of concern, in other words, is not limited to the human species, but extends to all the living. In part, this sense of cosmic importance is a reflection of the rich Indian imagination at the time the sutras were being compiled. People simply assumed that the world was populated with a rich variety of what we regard as mythical beings.
This imaginative vision urges us to reach out beyond what our eyes can see and our hands can touch, to understand ourselves as being significantly related to a much larger universe that is located in and transcends our selves, families, countries, and even species. It is a vision that urges us to imagine ourselves as part of a vast cosmos in which our own lives are important.
(3) Sharing the Dharma
In this story, the Buddha intends “to teach the great Dharma, to send down the rain of the great Dharma, to blow the conch of the great Dharma, to beat the drum of the great Dharma, and to explain the meaning of the great Dharma.”
This represents an interesting mix of emotional and intellectual practices. The meaning of the Dharma rain will be discussed at length later in this series. For now it is enough to say that it is a symbol of equality among the living, in that all the living equally receive the Dharma without discrimination or distinction.
The meaning of the conch and the drum is not so obvious. Almost certainly they are instruments used to lead an army in battle, to inspire and motivate soldiers to move forward. Similarly, those who receive the Dharma Flower Sutra in their hearts are not merely comforted by it; they are motivated to practice it passionately and to share it with others. Buddhism is in this sense a missionary religion. Here in chapter 1 of the Lotus Sutra we can see that the Dharma is intended for all the living and that those who share it should enthusiastically share it with others. We can also think of the sound of the conch as representing the beauty of the Dharma, while the sound of the drums represents the power of the Dharma.
It is important to notice, also, that even enthusiastic teaching is to be accompanied by explanation of the Dharma. This suggests that we should not attempt to make only emotional appeals on behalf of the Dharma or treat it only as an object of faith. It is equally important that the Dharma be understood. What is both embraced and understood will have a more lasting value than what is embraced merely on an emotional basis. This is probably truer now than it was when the sutra was composed. Today people are trained to think scientifically, rationally, and critically. For the Dharma Flower Sutra to be accepted by modern people, it has to be carefully taught and explained, and even criticized, in terms that people can understand.
(4) Heavenly flowers
That heavenly flowers rain both on the Buddha and on the whole assembly is very important. It means that it is not only beautiful and rewarding to preach the Dharma; it is also beautiful and rewarding to hear it. It is, in other words, one of the ways in which there is equality among all of those in the congregation, including the Buddha. This shows that there should be no sharp distinction between teachers and learners. While many forms of Buddhism have adopted a kind of system in which some are authorized to be permanent teachers and others to be students, the Dharma Flower Sutra teaches that we should all be both teachers and learners. Nevertheless there will be times when some are in special positions as teachers or as learners—but this should always be understood as temporary and relative. All can and need to be teachers, and all can and need to be learners.
As any good teacher knows, what makes students good is not the ability to repeat what the teachers have said, but the ability to think critically and creatively about what has been said, thereby helping the teacher to be a learner. It is a remarkable feature of many of the stories in the Dharma Flower Sutra that the person who represents the Buddha is a learner, one who tries things, makes mistakes, and learns from experience.
(5) Other omens
In the first chapter we are introduced to the kinds of omens that occur in various stories in the sutra—flowers rain from heaven, the earth shakes in the six ways it can shake,2 drums can be heard in the heavens, the Buddha emits rays of light, etc.—which indicate that nature itself is moved by the Buddha. The Buddha Dharma is not merely about something in our heads; it is about the whole world. Note also that these omens appeal to different senses—we see light; we see and smell flowers; we feel the earth shake; and we hear drums beating. This means that we are to embrace the Dharma not only with our minds, but with our senses as well, with our whole being.
(6) The Buddha’s light lights up all the worlds
The Buddha is the Buddha not only of this saha world, in which suffering has to be endured and can be, but of all worlds, past and future, here and elsewhere. This is the major teaching of the second half of the Dharma Flower Sutra and will be discussed later. For now it may be enough to note that the vision enabled by the light from the Buddha is four-dimensional—it involves seeing not only other worlds, but also the past and anticipated futures of those worlds.
(7) The worlds of the Dharma
In the Lotus Sutra there are worlds, heavens, purgatories, and so on, making up a very rich imaginary cosmos. Much has been written about Indian and Buddhist cosmology, but none of it is very helpful in facilitating better understanding of the Dharma Flower Sutra. In the sutra, cosmology is used, not as quasi-scientific description of the universe, but to enhance the place and importance of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Dharma Flower Sutra preached by him, and the world of Shakyamuni Buddha, this “saha world.” It is important to realize from the outset that the cosmological episodes—the mysterious and even magical events that occur in the Dharma Flower Sutra—are imaginative stories, used for the practical purpose of transforming the minds and hearts and lives of the readers or hearers of the sutra. They are used for the purpose of having us understand—not only in our heads, but also spiritually, in the depths of our beings—that how we live our lives is important, not only for ourselves and those close to us, but for the whole cosmos as well.
We should also recognize that each preacher or teacher of the Dharma must be so in his or her own smaller world, be it a university, a business, a playground, a home, or whatever. There are buddhas in temples to inspire us, but what the Dharma demands of us is that it be shared, taught, and embodied everywhere, that is, wherever we are.
In other words, from the perspective of the Dharma Flower Sutra what is most important is not finally the miraculous actions of the gods and heavenly bodhisattvas and buddhas, but the everyday actions of the people of this world.
(8) The Buddha needs an assembly
The Bible begins with the book of Genesis, a creation story in which God is initially all by himself. Then he decides to create the world. Later Christian theologians would develop the idea that this creator God is radically independent. Already perfect and complete in every way, he is in need of nothing and no one.
The perspective of the Dharma Flower Sutra and Buddhist views in general are vastly different. Here, and it should become increasingly apparent as we go through the stories in this text, the Buddha begins with an assembly. Surely he does not need this particular assembly, this particular set of individuals, but he cannot do what he vows to do without the help of others, especially bodhisattvas and Dharma teachers.
We might even say that the Buddha could not be the Buddha without the great assembly. The Buddha, after all, is primarily a teacher and preacher. And a teacher is not really a teacher unless there is at least one learner. Even more important in the Dharma Flower Sutra, the Buddha needs others to carry on his teaching practice after he is no longer active in this world. So the Buddha is doubly dependent on the assembly: he needs others both to receive his teachings and to share them with others.
This is why, in a sense, the unmentioned main focus throughout these stories is the hearer or reader of them. When contemplating any of the stories of the Dharma Flower Sutra, we would do well to ask oneself where we ourselves fit into the story—to remember in this case that I myself am a member of the great assembly gathered before the Buddha. That is what it means to be a hearer or reader of the Dharma Flower Sutra.
(9) The Three Vehicles
Manjushri indicates that all buddhas have taught the four truths and nirvana for those who sought to be shravakas (monks who hears the Buddha’s teachings), the teaching of the twelve causes and conditions for those who sought to be pratyekabuddhas (self-enlightened ones), and the six transcendental practices (perfections) for the sake of bodhisattvas.
These three sets of teachings represent the variety of different teachings and emphases within Buddhism. Here “three” is used to represent variety, but most often what is discussed and contrasted are two ways of encountering the Dharma, that of the shravaka and that of the bodhisattva. The three teachings are also presented as particularly important teachings, important in the sense that they have been effective. The point is not only that there are various teachings, though that is important, but an emphatic presentation that these various teachings actually work, that they are skillful and appropriate in that they can lead to following the bodhisattva way of helping others and becoming a buddha.
The chapter ends in this way:
The time has come for people to understand. / With your palms together, wait single-mindedly! / The Buddha will pour the rain of the Dharma / To satisfy those who seek the Way.
If those who seek after the three vehicles / Have any doubts or regrets, / The Buddha will remove them / So that none whatever remain. (LS 74)3
In effect, the first chapter is a warning—a warning that you are entering an imaginative territory, a world that can change your life—and that such a change in you can be significant for the entire cosmos. The world of the imagination can be a frightening and even dangerous place, precisely because it invites us into a world that is new and unfamiliar and therefore difficult to understand.
It may place demands on us by assuring us that we can be and do much more than we ever believed possible—yet if we respond to it in joy, our entry into this transformative world can be very rewarding.
Notes
- The Lotus Sutra: The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, translated by Senchu Murano. 1974. 2nd edition, Tokyo: Nichiren Buddhist International Center, 1991.
- While these six ways in which the earth can shake are often referred to in the Lotus Sutra, they are never listed or described there. In the Flower Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra, however, they are listed as: moving, rocking, springing out or gushing, shocking, quivering, and roaring.
- The Lotus Sutra: A Contemporary Translation of a Buddhist Classic, translated by Gene Reeves, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008.
Gene Reeves (1933–2019) was a Unitarian Universalist minister and dean of the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. He also studied and taught Buddhism, particularly the Lotus Sutra, in Japan. After retiring from the University of Tsukuba, he served as an international advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai. He was the author of a number of articles and the author of The Stories of the Lotus Sutra (Wisdom, 2010).
