Lotus Sutra Class

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tension
learned

tonight we're gonna we're going to consider
chapters eleven twelve
but
maybe very quickly on to say word about your really chapters are we skipped the
they don't feel like you're missing something
have you read them already computer
yes you do in chapter nine
there are more predictions for nanda
he a little footnote years at the buddha says that
in past lives he is another were disciples together the good and and underwear disciples together he says and nanda
he was so and they both at the same time decided that they were gonna
achieve follow it
in an under
was focusing on wide knowledge is knowledge
but buddha was focusing on diligent effort
because of their granada the buddha became
the buddha and and under
became his disciple
who was the one who heard all of his talks and wrote them all down and that with a dumb but memorize them and was the the expert the teachings so
it sort of explains how know got where he was and also
kind of gives you the idea that don't have effort as primary over
over wide knowledge
you're sort of associate with the office
one who is what do i say that because neither didn't attain enlightenment through the but buddha buddha focused on on diligent effort and on the focused on wide knowledge buddha became buddha and and under became his disciple other later i have become food
so what sort of implies that done today
so and
when it was just a second limited slip some market
it's like an associate with opposite
yeah
that children had like was interesting and imaginative yeah
the boss folks and i do finally prophetic of wide knowledge and and because international this as an effort now so who knows us what it says here
dump some so that's kind of interesting anyway you know
but another receives a prediction of buddhahood remember this is one of the sensor that there's many predictions of buddhahood and in the distinguishing thing about it is that these are the our hearts who have been predicted to boot
your asura
thought that they were finished now are being given know thought they were finished and thought that these fees
hire teachings weren't for them now find out that first of all they are they're they're not finished and secondly they're gonna j enter into these fantastic
teachings and become buddhas so then a nanda receives a prediction sort does rahul and rahul is the buddhist son
who were
i think
in the sutra certainly and probably really is true that he was a disciple of buddha he became luck to anyone that's the burden of that chapter chapter nine and both
ananda and rahul every see predictions
and next chapter the buddha gives a long speech to a bodhisattva new medicine king
when she says various things
among other things and has this paragraph
medicine king that there should be an evil person
who is mine destitute of goodness should for the space of a copa appear in the presence of the buddha and constantly curse and reviled the buddha which isn't really an awful thing to do that persons are fit offense or offense would still be rather light
which is surprising because there's nothing worse practical and cursing and to file a buddha but if there were a person who spoke only one evil word to cursor defame the lay persons or monks or nuns who read and recite the lotus sutra
in that person's offense would be very great deal so this is one of the one of many many thing in the these chapters ahead this is a repeated endlessly repeated theme for that there's an element of the yeah i think i forget which one one of the chapters were coming to because a whole list of
similes about all these things that would be really bad but nothing compared to
re violent below to suit yourself
as we said earlier this is one feature of mahayana sutras is that day
a certain percentage of the words of the suture are given over to praising the sutra end also always we've also encountered this before to praising the sutra and also telling you the consequences of not
you know picking up the sutra
what was at first when you sent to not here right the offense would be like if you do if you compared to nantucket yeah he personally
if it would be what it would be worse the curse a lay person who is preaching the lotus sutra that will be who are worse than it would be to curve the bullet to his face as she
messianic passion

in this passage i am a market that was interesting another thing he says to medicine genius
madison king if there are a good when and good women who after the thus come on has entered extinction wished to expand this lotus sutra for the for kinds of believers how should they expanded
the answer is these good men and women should enter the thus come one's room
well the thus come robe sit in the thus come one seat and then for the sake of the for kinds of believers broadly expand the sutra
the thus come one's room
is the state of mind that shows great pity and compassion toward all living beings thus com once road up as the mind that is gentle and forbearing thus come on seat as the emptiness of all phenomena
so we'll see here and in subsequent chapters
pulling of the teaching of emptiness into the lotus sutra
it doesn't actually expand those teachings but it sort of wants to incorporate them into
as a kind of am
background teaching to the lotus sutra
this is on page one sixty six and my translation in the second paragraph and the third pregnant
and this is
these things the role of the room the ball seat these are buddhist things that are real things
but also take on a symbolic quality you you see this and said as well that the and is a monastery the abbot's room is a very important almost her
ritual i symbolic space
in the robe of course as we know as a ritualized symbolic object
so in order to teach the sutra you have to you should enter the and that the average the verse room where the buddha's robe and down
hey
sit on a good
and the room and the robe have to do with compassion and gentleness and forbearance and the seat and you could see how that works the association or the sea has to do with penetration of emptiness
so that's that's just a quick summary of what what happens in chapters nine and ten and we come to a chapter eleven which is a really elaborate thing i was really into thinking it would really be great if for
ah you know steven spielberg or somebody would film that perfectly a fabulous thing
it's very visual and an astonishing it would be great really great special effects would really enhance this
this one just moping the treasure towers yeah which appears in mid air so forth i
yeah could you see it the other great and better than temple of doom
so at that time the buddhist presence there was a tower although in in the it's really means a stupor
no like a which
stoop as what it is and as stupid as a memorial shrine
what's not just any all kind of tower it's specifically a tower that you would see as a memorial because inside of tower is this extinct good and that when i when a buddha passes away or when a sage passes where they got a big super for that person and that's what this is huge one
and it just in other sitting around their the seen as they're all sitting there receiving chichibu has been talking to medicine king and in the middle of this of a sudden
this thing comes crashing up out of the earth in up to you could see it on a special affection of the earth's resources keep and a strange sort of comes out and hovers in mid air
as well
and then again if i'm flying yet unidentified flying stupendous of course midst the fragrance and as bad as and canopies made of gold and silver and finished on and on an honor
for mondor other flowers or raining down on it so this is really know amazing thing
and they're all these beings flying around dragons and yeah shes and are cancer as
garuda is and connors and humans not human beings thousand and ten thousand and millions of beings are surrounding this
stupid that rises up out of the earth and they're offering flowers incense necklaces streamers canopies they're playing music
so is this a major of it
and then a voice emanates from out of the tower and speaks
excellent excellent voice says him oni world honored one that you can take the great wisdom of equality
the body such as guarded and kept in mind by the buddha's this lotus sutra
so lotus chairs characterize as the great wisdom of equality
and this is really the essence of the lotus sutra
i was thinking most of the parable of than one one of the parallels that we read of the the teaching as a dharma rain
falling equally on everything even though the different plants are quite different the rain is equal equally for nurturing each one according to its own needs
universal completely given regardless of what the plants do or don't do
this is this is the essence of the lotus sutra teaching and this voice coming out of a stupid thing what a wonderful thing that you're doing this
of course

some people learn
in the assembly
the know what to make this and this is a pretty strange thing
and you know that this the rest of the sutra kind of has this form it's very repetitive but this is a different thing that's happening this this is not what usually happens that a stupa should appear from on the ground and the voice should come out of it so several other people in attendance are perplexed by this
in one of the police office there
understood this and asked the buddha what what is this tower why is this tower is the stoop appearing here
and why is there a voice coming from a super when they're on could there be a voice
and the buddha answer is this stupa is the body of
a buddha
and long time ago there was a buddha name many treasures
and many treasures was the he's not for he made of our
say
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 stoop i 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 and he took many many moons ago and now here is coming true and
this moment
are there are a couple of things about this first of all
and i could go on about this at length but i won't i will not but i just want to point out that one of the features of these great body surface is their bow power
that's one of the things that boys i was do as they make and tasked vous
and those vows that they make have a super spiritual power
so anaemic vows things happen you know
so the hole in my and of buddhism in general the whole idea of vowing
in most of the vase or altruistic vows that you will you will do this that for the benefit of others
this first thing in the second thing is you have to understand how astonishing this is that somebody saying that after i'm extinguished and hundred nevada i'm going to do this or that because well we thought that after you enter nirvana that was the if that's the whole point of her mom
and now this bodhisattvas a after i've enter nirvana and i'm already in a stupid i'm already disappeared and gone and dead
and in nirvana 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 to this christianity
having a lot lost similar things and seems like you know this
our coming and pretty similar in the end yeah like i say i'm i'm really sure my personally
and also there's some scholarship to indicate that there was contact between high-a
well not a robot now knowing that christ and early early those the people who because the the whole sense of the christian doctrine of course predate christ our within the jewish community there are all these currents and reinterpretations of the old testament which prefigured cries and cries gonna step into right into the middle
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 ever said there were a couple hundred years of buildup around this the spirit of
it's almost the same thing you know 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 toward something which we have heard about before where only the outer shell and this is now the colonel in the heart coming up this is what basically what christianity said and really
nation to judaism and this is what lotuses lotus sutra says in relation to early buddhism so i really feel the town of a lot of words even the in the concepts and he said via no less ram and a practical oh know that oh absolutely
more i gathered national oh yeah yeah somebody could write a terrific idea s sap and comparing it to is that this was first or second century
i mean that's what they say the new testament yes that's right mittens and probably a nest
that's right
yeah i think like i say scholarship it's hard to prove you know and sorry sir
putting together some evidence and interpreting it but i forget where i read it but i did read some scholarship and and i a one-hour about five hundred years between shock pneumonia and jesus which gives time for to contact and i i think i read somewhere that people speculate the numerous contact
so the great degrees for aware of buddhism and has knowledge of its conception that's how are the groups were clearly where buddhism yeah because they had conquered that part of india that's why if you go to the city center at tassajara you see a western face on the buddhist right
because they're they're those buddhists are those voters are actually like the one in the city centre in in a
tassajara it's astonishing but those buddhists are like gum
navy seventeen hundred years old can you imagine
they actually are from the second or third century why seventeen hundred years which wine and station the one and to the the foot on the main altar it's a gondola and buddha and gandhara was the part of any that was conquered by alexander
and if you look at that buddha the buddha does not have a chinese space and it doesn't an indian food has if it has it looks like a greek god that furthest leopard did you notice you should look at it's actually one of the most beautiful as i've ever seen as a stone stone and it's really more beautiful than any buddha i've seen in a museum or anywhere else
were in the world at epsom and haven't seen that many but seen a lot of them
because it's an as an incredible piece that put him where did we can me
baker oh she got him i forget where he
i came by an ancient member now
anyways you shouldn't you ever and you should get it's worth a trip to go over there just to see them because it's quite grown and it looks like greek so there's no doubt that that the greeks were aware of buddhism in the ethic that there wasn't contact we don't even these scholarship right there wasn't contact between these people's
is virtually impossible in a really it's impossible aka not be one person or two people people are traveling around it was a time of real spiritual format you know
so i mean it's pretty pretty clear enough just to visit to be clear that this this is the lotus sutra we're talking about
you won't find these kinds of things and other
maya sutras exactly and certainly an older situation i find it so i'm not saying that that buddhism and christianity are the same thing or and so on when i am saying that the lotus sutra
is very much seems to be
very much like the new testament the schools or religion that camera the new testament and in fact many the schools of buddhism that focused on louis which are very similar to christianity those are the schools of buddhism that are most similar christian
so anyway yeah that's right side spiritual this is this is the flavor of course is completely different here in that this is all happening in a mythical realm somebody somebody said the first week of class when when they said gee this is little far fetched isn't it
and if i thought that was quite funny because far isn't the word for this man that that have a say
the enough that really happened this a little far fetched that somebody could rise from the dead but here you could never apply a constantly farfetched to this stupa rising out of the ground with flowers and candy bars and minutes just beyond fetched and all that if i just can't remember
so anyway
so
no but there's more to this next that because in addition the fact that he made a vow
there is another wrinkle for the wow
that we need to know that
which the buddha
explains because the body such as come forward and say
we want to see the body of this boot we want to see this book because it's the stupa is locked up in this not locked up it's as stupid as you don't see the bullet in it so they come for this and we want to see this buddha
and so shakyamuni says to them
the vow of this many treasures buddha is that
i will show my body
when the lotus sutra is being preached if and only if
there will be those who ah
if if and only way if
the emanation the various buddhist that are in all directions which are the emanations of the buddha preached in the lotus sutra if all those emanations which are everywhere will come together in this place where i am and the center 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 array of life light from on of the tuft of hair in the middle of his forehead and this beam of life goes very far in a southerly direction and where it illuminates the many emanations
of shockingly would it in a southerly direction with all their cohorts and people and so on and when those buddhism a 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 into this world with ordinary world changes immediately into a place of clean a security and the whole thing is detail the ground was made of laps largely jewel trees adorned at ropes of goldmark up to a highways there were no villages towns or cities great caesar rivers mountains streams of forests great june
incense was burning and mandola flowers covered the ground and so on and so on
and there was a jewel tree in this world with a lot big lion seat underneath the tree and all these new multitudes of buddha's came in each one up their see his seat or her seat under
the jewel tree on top the lion seat
there was an endless number it says here of emanations of shakyamuni buddha from each other directions so this is a tremendous number of emanations and buddhists
and boudicca shakyamuni buddha kept in creating more space where he was to accommodate all these emanations
so this is detail and several pages bit by bit they all gather and the come

and at that point when they were all there
shakyamuni buddha rose from his seat and floated in midair for a moment in front of the stupor
and there was some kind of a door in front of stupid which shakyamuni buddha with his very own fingers pried open
a loud sound issued from it
when should just like to see this like in a video in this may get moving good a floats up and opens us up and as is big loud sound
comes from it like the son of a lock and crossbar being removed from a great city gate
one of the initial session no not another beautiful sound this is life
yeah and all at once the
this is a door being opened that hasn't been open for you know endless time and now he opens it
and there there it was many treasures buddha
seated and alliance it inside the treasure tower
this buddha who passed in apart nirvana ages ago is perfectly fine sitting there with the regular by just like all the other buddhist meditation
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 marvel that this could be self that there can be a buddha was already gone to nirvana and complete extinction who appears before them
so this is another astonishing thing
the i wanna mentioned the emanation this is a new idea that
and a buddha would have all these emanations this is why and 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 tacos come in as the i am the reincarnation of avalokiteshvara and another one says and i'm the reincarnation of of a lucky this far another was wet and i'm the reincarnation of of a lucky to as somebody whoever it is and the reason why they say that is because of the sushi because these buddhist of many emanations so all these buddhists are
are you know they can we be reborn rebirth of the emanations of buddhist there can be infinite
reverse of all these emanations to sing and so people could be well i'm partly the reincarnation of so and so and partly the reincarnation of so and so important the reincarnation of sorts of because of all these emanations mixing in their currently streaming sites or so this idea that there would be emanations from the buddha
is so interceptions yeah everything's every everything that's that's where that's why you could say such things right everything is connected everything's mixed with each other
an an iconic shame they know that she is facing an and
hey
well that's the thing that's what so astonishing about this idea here that's exactly the point is that you would think that in nevada there would be a ceasing that's it
but ah
but actually i the lotus sutra saying that is that the teaching of the lotus sutra and the ongoing effort of these voice office as goes beyond that
so this is in karma this is emanations of awakening
which are more fundamental and stronger than karma or no com
this is part of the
establishment of a radical differences of money on the homepage
exactly this is in effect what's happening hands
the bullet 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
think so
ah
which is the opposite of
the traditional teaching that everything passes away of is impermanent
so the real nature we could put it this way the real the the buddha is
the condition 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 understood you see that this impermanent condition world is actually the endless world buddha
so that the or this world that we see around us is none other than
the eternal body and buddha which seems to pass away
not really doesn't
where includes passing away he doesn't
while passing away as a show
in a close personal europe and was passing away but it's somehow the implication is that
that
the like the sameness of the passing away is buddha
i mean that there's an activity in there and the national this changes don't get stuck where there's and there's a sameness and their at bats
that's eternal and does the same list doesn't passed away already to ounce and hopper now
well like i say within the mythology of the sutra can do
is it saying that
personal way is like a phantom city
you know it's it's only since you couldn't see the real eternal nature everything i showed you passing away
as if as as resting place
say
so we can leslie leave it there will think about it to work with scorn
so it's a very astonishing a very surprising
let's see if so then what happens
then just like in issue so ceremony does have you are familiar with our ceremony she saw services i offer you my seat
please share my seat with me as will be safe and the she saw ceremony the leader of the practice perry says to the heads head monk please share my seat with me or that's what he says please share my seat with me to shakyamuni buddha and shakyamuni buddha climbs up into the stupor
since this next to and many treasures buddha
and then all the another the a police office say you as are so far away if only you would
employ your superpowers to let all of us sit with you to and that's when athletes they all sit there all that everybody's in a stupor on is meredith was rawlins to put together

so then
shakyamuni buddha sitting up there in the air with everyone
in the midst of the eternal body of would fc
says who is capable of broadly preaching the lotus sutra of the wonderful law in this world now as the time to do so were before long the buddha will enter nirvana the buddha wishes to entrust this lotus sutra of the wonderful law to someone so that may be preserved
well you might think want to wait a minute we just find out that would it doesn't really enter nirvana yeah now he say and when i enter nirvana and you're going to freak for love is going to take over after him after me
it's a contradiction
experience life experience device because no-one that that's what i said before very clearly you said before if i don't appeared in and nevada the nolan will pick up the lotus sutra everybody will just rely on me
should rely on a teacher computer best features disappears
so that you have to rely on yourself
that's why the boot appear to enter nirvana
because if everybody would have depended on the buddha forever
they would never really go to awaken it
so one way or another the teacher has to disappear at the right moment
so then we have many verses hear about how who can guard the law who will make a vow to ensure that this sutra will endure
ah anyone who will preserve the sutra will be great person and just as if they had made tremendous
ah given tremendous to offerings to buddha is
then it goes into this this is where all these tremendous similes or when i want to read some of these preserved for the wonderful and the burden of all these symbolizes
that there are many difficult things
many difficult teachings
but nothing is more difficult
then understand that even one word this lotus sutra
so it starts some
this is a difficult matters this
it is proper that you should make a great vibe because it's such a difficult matter yet have a big strong wow
the other suitors are as numerous as the ganges sense but though you expand those sutras this is not worth regarding as difficult if you were to seize matsumura biggest mountain in this world you were to pick it up and fling it far off to measure lists boot
lance this tour would not be very difficult
if you use the toe of your foot to move the thousand million fold world booting it far away to other lands and football
there would not be too difficult
if you stood at the summit of being heaven
and for the sake of the assembly preached countless other suitors that to would not be difficult
but if after the buddha as entered extinction in the time of evil you can preach the sutra that will be difficult indeed
now this thing was a time of evil this is really important thing
because
the early on
in all such as the buddha had said
that down
see everything is impermanent that was one of his main teaching thrive so then somebody could say what about the dharma but about the buddha or they impermanent to
and the buddha was a paragon of consistency
and he suggests they are the buddha is permanent i will pass and by nirvana cause i'm a permanent and the dharma is also implement the dharma will not last forever
he said they are going to be three ages of the dharma one age will be when the dharmas 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 as they won't be a teacher there will be a buddha in the world but you can still practiced but the third age and they had he actually put time limits and all these things the third age is called
did a this is what this they mean here by the age of evil the age of decline at dawn in which you actually cannot practise the dharmesh possible even though the teaching is there nobody can practice it because this that the power has gone out of it and then it will disappear
so he actually said that no pious buddhists were pondering after many years and of course they had all these calculations just like a fundamentalist christians are calculating when was the date of creation fundamentalists buddhists returned to calculate when was the age of the real diamond when was the age of the sort of
mediocre dharma and when was the agent was impossible to practice and they actually made calculations and they had different ideas but this was one of the key factors in dog as time because many calculations had indicated that in kamakura japan that was the age of the
don't stay diamond you couldn't practice
and so and gets too many great credit rating scheme and yeah but you see
they were most radical these this is where the big sex in japan that that follow the lotus sutra were created at that time
even the lotus sutra have been around for a thousand years that's when nature and said yes this is the age as a declining dharma no one can practice in this age
these clowns like dog think you in two thousand and is enough forget it you can't do that in this age there was a time when you could do that when the buddha was of and know you can't do it anymore
and we read the lotus sutra we know there's only one thing to do
in this age says right here if after the buddha has entered extinction in the time of evil you can preach the suitor that will be difficult in the that's the only thing you can do better so that was their practice and then narrowed it down they figured out that not all each just like they often didn't in asia asia that they made that the preaching of a suitor into a c
symbolic ritualized act so they said just recite the name of the sutra just bow to the sutra the offer incense to the sutra and that's the only thing that's the way to practice in this age because other forms of practice or impossible
so this is what you say here and this is really difficult this is the only way and it's hard to do this is what you have to do during that and gifts and sam
an intensity to an ashton percent or and ten teaching them and they started her an error and at the different agents they at this great teaching came out in that time at like had a parody and
what if you
yeah you're saying the lotus two trillion in the evil that would that would really be difficult to if that was concerned an major decline and yet the teachings was coming forth that time that it
and it would be million pure well some people thought that and dogan address this question and he
basically answered it by making them a
a fairly sophisticated analysis of time in which he said that end
in what she said that the age of the decline of the dharma and the age of the birth of the diamond are occurring on each moment so don't use that as an excuse that this is declining age so you cannot practise that's baloney know there's no such thing except moment after moment that's that's what
so that's how 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 this fun and they were most people were impressed by dogan and others and teachers at that time so they didn't buy this argument but i'll others diff
anyway so this sutra you see becomes that what's happening here is that the sutra which carries the station of universal the universal eternal nature of reality itself as buddha
and the road to that is this suitor itself and the veneration and practice and recitation of the sutra face basically
so that the the schools that focus on the lotus sutra faith schools
if there were a person who took the empty sky in his hand and walked all around with it
that would not be difficult but if effort after i have passed into extinction one can ride out and embrace this sutra and cause others to ride it out comprehensive that will be difficult to do indeed if one took the great earth place it on his toenail and ascended to the
rama heavens with the whole earth your newtonian this would not be very hard
but after the buddhist passed into extinction in the time is evil one can even for a little while read this sutra
that will 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
but if after i have passed into extinction if one can embrace this sutra and expanded to even one person
that will be difficult indeed
then it goes on on
so that's the power of the suit saying
buddha appearing in a stupor in the sky teaching us that the buddha doesn't really die and that the good as many many emanations we learn all this we had no idea before there was this kind of dimension to the tissue with didn't too surprising thing
then we come the chapter twelve just the david doctor the famous david data chapman
celebrity says he's telling a story about a past life in this chapter
he says many
many lifetimes ago i
looked i know about this lotus sutra and i was looking all over for it
and i became what am i was born as the ruler of a kingdom as that king i made vows that i would do anything that i could do if i can only find someone who had preached the lotus sutra to me
and so a seer came on arose and said i can do it
and said if you will serve me know 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 were you know he he
gave the seer you said if he picks fruit for they drew water for me gather firewood he gave his meals even laid down so that the seer could use his own body as a couch
as for this king do
in the thousand four thousand years he served him like that
and then
the syrup
preach the spree sutra
so here's the astonishing part
the buddhist is now i was that kings i said
but the seer who preach the lotus sutra for me
was david up
it will be abused the christian analogy and it would be loaded like saying that the judas it was actually
jesus is teacher
you know like that
this i stuck as david that there was a bad guy david that there was a betrayer of the buddha tried to kill the mood and so on committed grave
since it gives the buddha so the idea that i was that king and david data was a good friend to me not only a good friend but i was able to become fully endowed with the six perfections with pity compassion joy and equanimity with the thirty two months of a buddha and the minor marks in the
bob loblaw all the powers and this know the other thing only because of david data
he was my teacher
this makes the point even as deeply as it could be made of the universal nature of this teaching even david data now it's going to receive a prediction
and that's what happens next buddha predicts they've adapted will be a bullet such such a good allow and so on and so on so on
ha
so
buddha says to the assembly it's in the future there a good man of good women who on hearing this chapter is david out the chapter of lotus sutra
believe it and revered with pure hearts and do not have doubts or from perplexities they will never fallen to hell where the roma the lower realms of existence
they will be born in the presence of the buddha's of the ten directions and in a place where they are born they will constantly hear this sutra
so then that seems to be the end of the
stupor saw all these emanated buddhas are sitting there they well should we go home now
in buddhist as well before you go home you should go and talk to manjushri
talk about dine with manjushri before you go home
in 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 is so
that's where the
price the pyramids to are supposed to come from you know
underneath the ocean
so that's why manjushri was associated with those taxi merges remind the ocean and he's also suspended in midair sitting there of the assembly
and the one of the body surfaces how many many things that you convert down there at the bottom of the ocean manjushri said in measurable numbers
and then of course they all appear
countless body suffers appear in there hovering in the air to
and then she says when i was in the bottom of the ocean i preached the lotus sutra
so again that the lotus interest you're incorporating
the price part of me to into itself without really going into details are explaining expounding the for that to the lotus sutra is making it clear to us that the price the perimeter is the philosophy and the doctrine that stands behind the possibility of all these wonders that the lotus sutra is teaching us the impossible just
like you said before that because of emptiness and current condition called production as the nature of the world as how come the buddhist eternal that's how come the bridge just go to distinction as that's how come
the buddha has all examinations as how come everything and the lotus sutra comes to be
that's a kind of co-opting of the whole teaching and putting it in their backup follows the me as coexists with second time for us it was it was pretty much the a family know i was pretty much around the same hand an yeah
yeah run the same time
then comes this part that's also very famous
where somebody just pops up and says sir
but you think there any
things who have been able to achieve budo quickly
the long process
and manjushri says there is this daughter
the dragon king where i was just down there in front of the ocean she's eight years old
and she understood this whole thing
in the wake of an eye
they can't believe it they say we know that the shakyamuni buddha
practice for immeasurable yes
before he became a buddha
in fact this has always been one of my favorite to thanks you know
the brooded there's not a if you look in the homes you figure if the buddha practice for countless lifetimes before today and in this world it stands to reason that he practiced in every possible place at there isn't this world
so everywhere you go you're standing on ground that were booed actually practiced in a former life
that's what is censored that's how long would it be practice along that and made a sacrifice of his own body and practice austerities and practice giving up his life for the sake of living beings in every possible place in this million
old world and you're telling me that this a year old girl in a wink of an i attain buddhahood how could this be
and then shouted putra comes back into the sutra now number shy putra is always the big sour puss
who are caused by the rulebook
and
can understand emptiness medicine
is the defender of the faith
and so on 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
big why
because a woman's body is soil the defile not just a law how could you attain the unsurpassed body so now he pulls this honor not only is it amazing that she could do it also fast after to put us along but but not only that but surely it wouldn't it be shy putra who would say this night
you're a woman's woman's body is subject to the five obstacles and so has all these defects
and
the dragon girl and a precious jewel
and she pulled it out of her pocket and gave it to the buddha
and she said to to see that and then
yes didn't i do that rather quickly given a jeweler adequately yes
well just so quickly can i obtain enlightenment
employ your supernatural powers and watch me attain buddhahood even quicker than i just handed that jewel over the good and right before their very eyes
she instantly changed into a man
and she carried out all the infinite practices of a bodhisattva
such as cetera and became a buddha right there before their eyes
in the whole world quake and tremble that support nasty on chapter
so this has been much written about in much disgust
have you can imagine
oh yes is allowing here i love their hearts were filled with great joy and off from a distance paid have a concerted effort
that's a stay of mine
there's another sutra
can remember which one it is and maybe it's the i think it's probably the vimalakirti sutra
where you have the same kind of thing happening only with different variations were the presumed the filed a woman practitioner turns into a man when when when questioned by jerry putra or someone like shape with trends innova and then turns around and turnstile put her 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 this young woman not only one of the kit a young woman amina and a young girl
instantly surpasses even buddha
but then you could analyze and wanna say well but yes and to do that she had a turn into a man so how good is that that was it really say
so
it'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 david data and a young girl at a young girl would be also so this is even making more graphically and more shockingly the point at this lotus sutra is a universal teaching that every single one will be a good
a
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 our hearts who after diligent effort of many lifetimes of be able to achieve nirvana and then there would be extinction now we're hearing not always extinction not real
but every single creature
will receive the prediction of being a bullet every single creature with unexceptional receive his prediction you and i and everybody that you mean
will be a buddha sunday
very different feeling here
and certainly that kind of faith and that kind of sense of all beings have the buddha nature are the buddha nature is certainly a part of them
that's the basis present in our in our way of practice
so just very quickly on 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 this chapter
after having opened the way with this young girl
the buddhists stepmother
it was his aunt
in the buddha's wife was also unknown
but also receive predictions they go to s a g
is sounding better and better you think we can get in on this and he says of course of course and then predicts that they will reverse
as
no it doesn't say that actually no
although i think the word buddha implies that a male the doesn't say specifically you will be turned into a man of the opponents as you will be a buddha
and they've are that they will preach the lotus sutra
and the
i don't get the impression she stared
the girl know it doesn't say she stated
she turned back in owner
was she
molina
then
to to just one final piece and they were done via
in the last page is here in the first section of visual ninety four when ninety five
again a very christian kind of notion here
the early christians almost took pride in their the defile for their religion
you know they're being marked the hope the whole notion of martyrdom you you will be you will you'll stick to this doctrine and you will be stone and you will be burned and you will this will be your salvation while a very similar thing happens here page one any for there will be men with evil in their hearts ca
constantly thinking of worldly affairs
they will borrow the name of forest dwelling monks and take delight in proclaiming our false those of us who are here to the lotus sutra they will say things like these ones are greedy for profit and support and therefore they preached non buddhist doctrines and fabricate their own scriptures to dilute the people of the world that's what they're gonna say about
ah
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 that we're going to like turn the other cheek sort of
and say you are all no dot brutus anyway
this sutra we will bear these difficult things
we care nothing for our bodies or our lives but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way
very similar kind of thing and there is a kind of strain and these lotus sutra type practitioners of a kind of martyrdom and almost like care
pushing it you know
isn't i'm probably
what people were saying oh exactly that's exactly in fact ashura at the and about it as exactly what people were saying yeah that's what when they saw the lotus sutra there are many people who said the five thousand who left symbolize all these people who were saying justice
sure exactly what they say 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 telling me the buddha's eternal look at the suture the suture says everything buddhists himself says i'm not eternal you know you're telling us all these things and it's absolutely contrary to what the teaching say
we never saw this to to before it's completely non vote is completely heretical a shame on you for for calling yourselves disciples of of our teacher mean that some surely what they said exactly
yeah
so i think we said for next time
that we're gonna do fifteen and sixteen
and anybody who wants to can also try to read them maybe chapter twenty five the famous chapter on avalokiteshvara it's the kind of nine chapter you want to read that one
and we'll just thus gift thorns and between and will meet next tuesday where the final meeting had a real whirlwind their relationship here with lotus sutra
and yes accurate
mm exactly as instructed
once on a the chair
turning one chapter capture thus the chapter i think where the buddha
says explicitly that
he never dies
yeah
yeah that an infinite number of body surface come on the ground and the buddha reveals the eternity of his life yeah
so that's kind of like the punchline of this whole thing it's implied here but it doesn't become explicit or there
yes hey sarah
i'm it at one time the probably are several producer when you recommend that one could read a chapter and we read the commentary well cliff notes sir cliff notes trafficking well the only one you know i'd say the truth i have never read a commentary on the lotus sutra i mean i read articles about and stuffer
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 as sunder raj to hazard a book of talks and essays on topics in the lotus sutra
sanga russia to yeah and i and i think the title of the books on like the lotus the white lotus of the cosmic some
but they had it in the bookstore
you'll have to investigate and they can i think it has the word for some reason he translates lotus sutra as white lotus sutra so they can as white lotus and title x i think
i found this in the used bookstore
the mama or nurse asked those
food is a translation by
emmys ease tell my yeah he's an old translator
from sanskrit he was a he was a articulation
christian missionary i think sitio british or christian missionary lot of the early he did a lot of translate early on action pictures
to put in her eyes really i can really see why all this like visit started catching on in his sixties psychedelic
the capital
and all the paintings the tankers and honest and
as a picture of the stitcher
it was about five thousand lines that are they don't have a nice guy well
now they don't have it in the sky we still need against gilbert yeah extraordinary and and hm this is an actual
our trust that around us
right chancellor experimental
this one and ten
most translated from chinese and run
yeah
so
i was gonna do suggest a little assignment for next time in addition to the reading
since we're finishing up at least our as much as stitches were going to do this time around i wonder if everybody would like to write a little poem anybody if you don't have to be nicer
a little poem expressing your what you have heard and learned from the sutra that would be interesting
what is it that the thanks to 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 or
using using the imagery from the sutra if you like but you know after you can can be completely and nothing to do with anything specific about the sutra can just have something do with your own feeling
but that would be interesting and i'm not saying everybody has to do that but if if a bunch of you did it would be interesting to end our time with lotus sutra with a few of these poems see what you don't come up with just two four lines
hair short gotta enter so than 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 and i mean if you've made five lines nobody would complain
our six lines but don't write a four-page or after narrative farmers of year
just because it's challenging to do that and then you really have to sort of investigate what first of all you have to think what is it that is the main point and i really get out of this what do i really feel how is my practice changed my view of the dharma changed after reading this suitor and then yeah to say
then okay well that's how it's changed the how to i express that what kind of image where i come up with our were kind of
real story or whatever when i come off with the sort of express that so anyway try of fire as this this do not no big deal with doing something whatever comes to mind
might be a nice where they will will remind me kiss i forget to my goodness
then at the end of the class will just here are we have come on
yeah i'll try to regard to that you are sure i'm a sincere that are our
so
okay thank you for next class and i again i really think it's very kind of europe come on on thursday night china as a circle
time when you could be something else
the our