Lotus Sutra

Title

The earliest known Sanskrit title for the sūtra is the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra, which translates to Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma. In English, the shortened form Lotus Sūtra is common. The Lotus Sūtra has also been highly regarded in a number of Asian countries where Mahāyāna Buddhism has been traditionally practiced. Translations of this title into the languages of some of these countries include:

Formation

In 1934, based on his text-critical analysis of Chinese and Sanskrit versions, Kogaku Fuse concluded that the Lotus Sutra was composed in four main stages. According to Fuse, the verse sections of chapters 1-9 and 17 were probably created in the first century BCE, with the prose sections of these chapters added in the first century CE. He estimates the date of the third stage, chapters 10, 11, 13-16, 18-20 and 27, around 100 CE. Chapters 21-26 belong to the last stage (around 150 CE).

According to Teiser and Stone, there is consensus about the stages of composition but not about the dating of these strata.

Tamura argues that the first stage of composition, chapters 2-9, was completed around 50 CE and expanded by chapters 10-21 around 100 CE. He dates the third stage, chapters 22-27, around 150 CE.

Karashima proposes another modified version of Fuse´s hypothesis with the following sequence of composition:

Versions and translations

Three translations of the Lotus Sūtra into Chinese are extant:

The Lotus Sūtra was originally translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa in 286 CE in Chang'an during the Western Jin Period (265-317 CE). However, the view that there is a high degree of probability that the base text for that translation was actually written in a Prakrit language has gained widespread acceptance. Jan Nattier has recently summarized this aspect of the early textual transmission of such Buddhist scriptures in China thus, bearing in mind that Dharmarakṣa's period of activity falls well within the period she defines: "Studies to date indicate that Buddhist scriptures arriving in China in the early centuries of the Common Era were composed not just in one Indian dialect but in several . . . in sum, the information available to us suggests that, barring strong evidence of another kind, we should assume that any text translated in the second or third century AD was not based on Sanskrit, but one or other of the many Prakrit vernaculars." It may have originally been composed in a Prakrit dialect and then later translated into Sanskrit to lend it greater respectability.

This early translation by Dharmarakṣa was superseded by a translation in seven fascicles by Kumārajīva´s team in 406 CE. According to Jean-Noël Robert, Kumārajīva relied heavily on the earlier version. The Sanskrit editions are not widely used outside of academia.

In some Chinese and Japanese sources the Lotus Sūtra has been compiled together with two other sutras which serve as a prologue and epilogue, respectively the Innumerable Meanings Sutra (Chinese: 無量義經; pinyin: Wúliángyì jīng Muryōgi kyō) and the Samantabhadra Meditation Sutra (Chinese: 普賢經; pinyin: Pǔxián jīng, Fugen kyō). This composite sutra is often called the Threefold Lotus Sutra or Three-Part Dharma Flower Sutra (Chinese: 法華三部経; pinyin: Fǎhuá Sānbù jīng, Hokke Sambu kyō).

Translations into Western languages

The first French translation of the Lotus Sutra, based on a Nepalese Sanskrit manuscript, was published by Eugène Burnouf in 1852. Hendrik Kern completed his English translation of an ancient Nepalese Sanskrit manuscript in 1884. Later translations into English, French, Spanish and German are based on Kumarajivas Chinese text.

Outline

One vehicle, many skillful means

This Lotus sutra is known for its extensive instruction on the concept and usage of skillful means – (Sanskrit: upāya, Japanese: hōben), the seventh paramita or perfection of a Bodhisattva – mostly in the form of parables. The many 'skillful' or 'expedient' means and the "three vehicles" are revealed to all be part of the One Vehicle (Ekayāna), which is also the Bodhisattva path. This is also one of the first sutras to use the term Mahāyāna, or "Great Vehicle". In the Lotus sutra, the One Vehicle encompasses so many different teachings because the Buddha's compassion and wish to save all beings led him to adapt the teaching to suit many different kinds of people. As Paul Williams explains:

Although the corpus of teachings attributed to the Buddha, if taken as a whole, embodies many contradictions, these contradictions are only apparent. Teachings are appropriate to the context in which they are given and thus their contradictions evaporate. The Buddha’s teachings are to be used like ladders, or, to apply an age-old Buddhist image, like a raft employed to cross a river. There is no point in carrying the raft once the journey has been completed and its function fulfilled. When used, such a teaching transcends itself.

The sutra emphasizes that all these seemingly different teachings are actually just skillful applications of the one Dharma and thus all constitute the "One Buddha Vehicle and knowledge of all modes". The Lotus sutra sees all other teachings are subservient to, propagated by and in the service of the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle leading to Buddhahood. The Lotus Sūtra also claims to be superior to other sūtras and states that full Buddhahood is only arrived at by exposure to its teachings and skillful means. Chapter ten of the Burton Watson translation states: "...Medicine King, now I say to you, I have preached various sutras, and among those sutras the Lotus is foremost!"

All beings have the potential to become Buddhas

The Lotus Sutra is also significant because it reveals that women, evil people and even animals have the potential to become Buddhas. It in fact teaches that beings have the potential become Buddhas in their present form, and provides instructions including: having faith in, following and practicing, not slandering, and truly refuting any slander of it and its teachings. That is, with the Lotus Sutra, people need neither practice austerities for countless kalpas nor wait for rebirth in a different physical form to become a Buddha (previous teachings held that women must be reborn as men and then practice for innumerable kalpas in order to become Buddhas). Thus through its many similes and parables, the Lotus sutra affirms the potential for all beings to become Buddhas, and furthermore provides instructions for all beings to becoming a Buddha in the present life.

The Lotus Sutra also teaches that the Buddha has many embodiments or emanations and these are the countless bodhisattva disciples. These bodhisattvas choose to remain in the world to save all beings and to keep the teaching alive. According to Gene Reeves: "Because the Buddha and his Dharma are alive in such bodhisattvas, he himself continues to be alive. The fantastically long life of the Buddha, in other words, is at least partly a function of and dependent on his being embodied in others." The Lotus sutra also teaches various dhāraṇīs or the prayers of different celestial bodhisattvas who out of compassion protect and teach all beings. The lotus flower imagery points to this quality of the bodhisattvas. The lotus symbolizes the bodhisattva who is rooted in the earthly mud and yet flowers above the water in the open air of enlightenment.

The universe outlined by the Lotus Sutra encompasses realms of gods, devas, dragons and other mythological beings, requiring numerous dimensions to contain them. Buddhas are described as the patient teachers, who constantly guide all beings to enlightenment. The radical message of the Lotus Sutra therefore includes the fact that all beings have the potential to become Buddhas and teach the Dharma here and now.

The nature of the Buddhas

Another concept introduced by the Lotus Sūtra is the idea that the Buddha is an eternal entity, who achieved nirvana eons ago, but remains in the world to help teach beings the Dharma time and again. He reveals himself as the "father" of all beings and evinces the loving care of just such a father. Moreover, the sutra indicates that even after the parinirvana (apparent physical death) of a Buddha, that Buddha continues to be real and to be capable of communicating with the world.

The idea that the physical death of a Buddha is the termination of that Buddha is graphically refuted by the appearance of another Buddha, who passed long before. In the vision of the Lotus Sūtra, Buddhas are ultimately immortal. Crucially, not only are there multiple Buddhas in this view, but an infinite stream of Buddhas extending infinitely in space in the ten directions and through unquantifiable eons of time. The Lotus Sūtra illustrates a sense of timelessness and the inconceivable, often using large numbers and measurements of time and space. The Buddha of the Lotus sutra states:

In this way, since my attainment of Buddhahood it has been a very great interval of time. My life-span is incalculable asatkhyeyakalpas [rather a lot of aeons], ever enduring, never perishing. O good men! The life-span I achieved in my former treading of the bodhisattva path even now is not exhausted, for it is twice the above number. Yet even now, though in reality I am not to pass into extinction [enter final nirvana], yet I proclaim that I am about to accept extinction. By resort to these expedient devices [this skill-in-means] the Thus Come One [the Tathagata] teaches and converts the beings.

Impact

According to Jonathan Silk, the influence of the Lotus Sutra in India may have been limited, but "it is a prominent scripture in East Asian Buddhism." The sutra has most prominence in Tiantai (sometimes called "The Lotus School") and Nichiren Buddhism. It is also influential in Zen Buddhism. However, Lokesh Chandra hails the Lotus Sutra as having been extremely important in India as evidenced by the large numbers of artworks from the Lotus Sutra and depicting Avalokiteshwara that permeate Indian museums. Furthermore, Chandra opines that the famous Buddhist university Nalanda appears to have got its very name from the Lotus Sutra. The National Archives of India considers the Lotus Sutra to be a highly revered and influential text.

Buddhism in China

Tao Sheng, a fifth-century Chinese Buddhist monk wrote the earliest commentary on the Lotus sutra. Tao Sheng was known for promoting the concept of Buddha nature and the idea that even deluded people will attain enlightenment.

Zhiyi, the generally credited founder of the Tiantai school of Buddhism, was the student of Nanyue Huisi who was the leading authority of his time on the Lotus Sūtra. Zhiyi's philosophical synthesis saw the Lotus sutra as the final teaching of the Buddha and the highest teaching of Buddhism. He wrote two commentaries on the sutra: Profound meanings of the Lotus sutra and Words and phrases of the Lotus sutra. Zhiyi also linked the teachings of the Lotus sutra with the Buddha nature teachings of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and made a distinction between the "Eternal Buddha" Vairocana and the manifestations. In Tiantai, Vairocana (the primeval Buddha) is seen as the 'Bliss body' - Sambhogakāya - of the historical Gautama Buddha.

Buddhism in Japan

Consequently, the Lotus Sūtra is a very important sutra in Tiantai and correspondingly, in Japanese Tendai (founded by Saicho, 767–822). Tendai Buddhism was the dominant form of mainstream Buddhism in Japan for many years and future proponents of the Lotus Sūtra Nichiren and Dogen were trained as Tendai monks.

Nichiren, a 13th-century Japanese Buddhist monk, founded an entire school of Buddhism based on his belief that the Lotus Sūtra is "the Buddha´s ultimate teaching", and that the title is the essence of the sutra, "the seed of Buddhahood". Nichiren held that chanting the name of the Lotus sutra - Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō - was the only way to practice Buddhism in the degenerate age of Dharma decline and was the highest practice of Buddhism. In the modern era Nichiren Buddhism has been influential through lay movements such as the Risshō Kōsei Kai and Soka Gakkai.

Dogen, the 13th-century Japanese founder of Sōtō Zen Buddhism, used the Lotus Sūtra often in his writings. According to Taigen Dan Leighton, "While Dogen's writings employ many sources, probably along with his own intuitive meditative awareness, his direct citations of the Lotus Sūtra indicate his conscious appropriation of its teachings as a significant source" and that his writing "demonstrates that Dogen himself saw the Lotus Sutra, 'expounded by all buddhas in the three times,' as an important source for this self-proclamatory rhetorical style of expounding." In his Shobogenzo, Dogen directly discusses the Lotus sutra in the essay Hokke-Ten-Hokke, "The Dharma Flower Turns the Dharma Flower". The essay uses a dialogue from the Platform Sutra between Huineng and a monk who has memorized the Lotus sutra to illustrate the non-dual nature of dharma practice and sutra study. The Soto Zen monk Ryōkan also studied the Lotus Sutra extensively and this sutra was the biggest inspiration for his poetry and calligraphy.

The Rinzai Zen master Hakuin Ekaku achieved enlightenment while reading the third chapter of the Lotus Sutra.

Influence on Art

The Lotus Sutra has had a great impact on literature and art. Its ideas and images are writ large in great works of Chinese and Japanese literature such as The Dream of the Red Chamber and The Tale of Genji. Various events from it are depicted in religious art and poetry.