Chapter 1. the Introduction
The first chapter is the Introduction. This chapter describes the time and location of the Lotus Assembly, the categories and numbers of the participants, and the origin of the assembly. “Origin” refers to the reason why the Buddha began teaching this sutra. For instance, most Mahayana scriptures begin with a disciple requesting the Dharma or asking a question, leading the Buddha to explain or answer, thereby speaking a sutra. There are also some scriptures that the Buddha spoke without being asked. What, then, is the origin of the Lotus Sutra? Let us look at the text. Almost all Buddhist sutras begin with “Thus have I heard” and use “At one time” to express the time of the assembly. “Thus have I heard” means: “This is what I heard.” “At one time” means: “There was a certain time.” Because during the Buddha’s lifetime, no scriptures were yet committed to writing, the Sravaka disciples learned the Dharma through hearing and memorizing. After the Buddha’s Nirvana, the disciples gathered to compile and organize the Buddha’s scriptures. Therefore, the beginning of every scripture uses “Thus have I heard” to indicate that the content is a faithful record of everything the Buddha said at that time, without the addition of personal speculation or opinion. Another reason every sutra begins with “Thus have I heard” is that this was the Buddha’s final instruction; he enjoined his disciples to transmit the Dharma in this way. As for using “At one time” to represent the time, there are two explanations. First, during Shakyamuni Buddha’s time, Indian history was not recorded using specific years and months. Second, from the perspective of the Tathagata, time and space are illusory. The assembly addressed by the Tathagata included sentient beings from the three realms and six paths, and different beings have different definitions of time; thus, it is impossible to define a Buddhist sutra using the time of any single realm. Therefore, “At one time” is used simply to express that there was such a time.
The location of this assembly was at Grdhrakuta Mountain in the city of Rajgir. Rajgir was a small city in the kingdom of Magadha in Central India. This city was surrounded by five mountains, one of which was called Vulture Peak, also known as Grdhrakuta Mountain. The scriptures record that the Buddha frequently held assemblies and taught Great Bodhisattvas at Vulture Peak. This was also the location where the Buddha held the Lotus Assembly.
How many beings attended this Dharma assembly? The scriptures state there were the fourfold disciples following the Buddha: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. There were Arhats who had attained the first through fourth stages of realization, Pratyekabuddhas, Great Bodhisattvas, the eight classes of divine beings, and Brahma Kings from various realms with their retinues. According to the counts in the text, the assembly at the Lotus Peak numbered in the millions.
As a side note, given how grand the Lotus assembly was and that the Buddha had no microphone at the time, how could every being hear him speak? Furthermore, how could everyone hear the Buddha’s teaching so clearly? It is because the “Tathagata” is our very own mind. Can you not hear the voice of your own heart? Every being can clearly hear their own mind speaking; they can hear the Tathagata speaking. That is the spiritual power of the Tathagata! It is also a function inherent in each of us. The Tathagata is your mind; even a deaf person can hear what is being said within their own heart. Therefore, not a single being failed to hear the Tathagata’s teaching. The scriptures say, “The Buddha preaches the Dharma with a single voice, and all beings understand it according to their own kind.” This means that although all beings speak different languages, they can all understand what the Buddha is saying. For example, if there is a flower here, whether you are French, British, or Chinese, when you see it, the French person will express its beauty and name in French, the Chinese person in Chinese, and the British person in English. Beings in the six realms are the same; their internal sounds manifest in the languages of those six realms. The Buddha preaches with one voice, and you translate it with your own inherent faculty, spontaneously producing the understanding that corresponds to you. Since the Tathagata is your original mind, and in the highest teachings the Tathagata is formless and markless—it is your heart —we are fundamentally Buddhas. Thus, no being fails to hear the Buddha’s teaching.
Now let us look at the origin of this sutra’s preaching. The text says that after Shakyamuni Buddha spoke the Sutra of Infinite Meaning, he sat in the lotus position and entered samadhi. What did this Sutra of Infinite Meaning say? To put it simply, it described the purpose and sequence of the Buddha’s forty years of teaching. It covered the Three Vehicles of Buddhism, yet the sutra states that up to that point, the “Truth” had not yet been spoken. To use an analogy: a PhD supervisor is teaching kindergarten students. This supervisor has always adjusted to the capacity of the listeners, teaching kindergarten, elementary, and middle school curricula. He has led these children from kindergarten all the way to middle school. However, as he nears the end of his life and approaches Nirvana, he has still not taught the theories mastered at the PhD level—the truths he truly understands. This is because a supervisor can only communicate as an equal when facing another supervisor of the same level. Kindergarteners do not need, nor would they understand, such high-level theories. However, one cannot say that while he was teaching kindergarten, elementary, or middle school, what he taught was not his own realization or the Buddha Dharma; it was also a manifestation of his wisdom. In the Sutra of Infinite Meaning, the Buddha laments that he has not yet spoken the true insight possessed by the Buddhas, namely the “True Reality of All Dharmas.” This sets the stage for the subsequent preaching of the Lotus Sutra, the One Vehicle, and the Ultimate Truth.
After the Buddha opened these expedient teachings for everyone, he entered samadhi, specifically the “Samadhi of the Station of Infinite Meaning.” What is “Samadhi”? It is a state of meditative concentration in which Buddhas and Bodhisattvas exercise their spiritual powers. In this state, many Bodhisattvas enter different dimensions to save sentient beings and perform deeds that benefit others. This is called the “Samadhi of Playful Sport” or “Sporting in Ultimate Emptiness.” Because the Buddha had just spoken the Sutra of Infinite Meaning, his entry into meditation was called the “Infinite Meaning Samadhi.” Within this samadhi, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas manifest various divine transformations. What transformation did Shakyamuni Buddha manifest? While the Buddha remained motionless in body and mind, rare and precious heavenly flowers poured down like a waterfall, scattering over the Buddha and the entire assembly. Furthermore, the worlds ofthe Buddhas shook, rivers boiled, bells rang without being swung, Dharma drums sounded without being struck, jeweled trees swayed, and birds sang in harmony. The Dharma realm experienced the “six types of tremors,” a scene of extraordinary wonder. At that moment, the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the white tuft between his eyebrows (this white tuft is a very long white hair, usually coiled like a sun). This light illuminated eighteen thousand worlds to the East. Through this light, all members of the assembly, whether they possessed spiritual powers or not, could see the Buddhas of those worlds practicing the Way, preaching the Dharma, and entering Nirvana. They could also see the actual conditions of the beings in the six realms of those worlds as they lived, practiced, and studied the Buddha Dharma.
There is a phenomenon here that deserves attention. When the Buddha emits light in other Mahayana sutras, he generally illuminates the worlds of the ten directions, but today he only illuminated the East. Is this a hint? In our world, the appearance of a Buddha is often compared to the rising sun. The sun rises, illuminating all things and saving all beings, serving as a navigator through the dark night for ignorant beings. The sun rises in the East to illuminate the West, and when it sets in the West, it illuminates the East. In the human realm, the setting of the sun in the West represents the Buddha’s manifestation of Nirvana. The pouring down of rare heavenly flowers predicted that the Lotus Sutra was about to be spoken. The Buddha would no longer merely teach according to individual capacity; whether the assembly understood it or not, he was going to teach the ultimate doctrine before his Nirvana, as his time manifesting in the human realm was growing short. The falling flowers—Mandarava, Great Mandarava, Manjushaka, and Great Manjushaka—showed the rarity of the Lotus Sutra, for its insight is attained only by the Tathagatas. Why did these auspicious signs suddenly appear, and why did the Buddha manifest such a state of divine transformation? While the assembly marveled at these rarities, many began to feel doubt. Maitreya Bodhisattva acted as their representative, asking about the cause on behalf of himself and the assembly. However, the Buddha remained in samadhi and had not yet emerged. Therefore, Maitreya Bodhisattva went to ask Manjushri Bodhisattva, who was foremost in wisdom. Manjushri told him an ancient story from countless eons ago. In the infinite past, there were twenty thousand consecutive Buddhas who appeared in the world, all named “Sun Moon Torch Buddha.” When the last Sun Moon Torch Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, he—just like Shakyamuni Buddha now—spoke a Sutra of Infinite Meaning and then entered the Infinite Meaning Samadhi, with the same auspicious signs appearing in the assembly. After emerging from samadhi, Sun Moon Torch Buddha proclaimed the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law and prophesied in the assembly that Virtue Store Bodhisattva would become a Buddha after him. Based on this, Manjushri inferred that Shakyamuni Buddha was about to proclaim the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law today.
While telling this story, Manjushri Bodhisattva also recalled certain events regarding his and Maitreya’s practice of the Dharma at that time. When Sun Moon Torch Buddha proclaimed the Lotus Sutra, Manjushri was known as “Wonders of Light Bodhisattva.” He led eight hundred disciples to hear the Dharma in that assembly. Sun Moon Torch Buddha used Wonders of Light Bodhisattva as the catalyst to proclaim this Mahayana sutra, titled the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law. After Sun Moon Torch Buddha passed into extinction, Wonders of Light Bodhisattva upheld the Lotus Sutra for eighty small eons, explaining it to others. This Sun Moon Torch Buddha had eight children before he left home; after his extinction, they all took Wonders of Light Bodhisattva as their teacher and practiced under him. All have now attained Buddhahood. The last child to become a Buddha was named “Dipamkara Buddha.” Dipamkara also took eight hundred disciples, among whom was one named “Fame-Seeking Bodhisattva.” Because this person was constantly attached to fame and gain, he repeatedly read various scriptures but could not master or understand the Buddha’s intent. He often forgot the meaning of the sutras, yet he had also accumulated deep roots of goodness and thus was able to meet countless hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas. Before them, he showed respect, heard the Dharma, offered praise, and made offerings. This Fame- Seeking Bodhisattva was the previous incarnation of the current Maitreya Bodhisattva. Why does Manjushri remember these ancient stories while Maitreya has forgotten? Manjushri said: Maitreya Bodhisattva was unwilling to let go of fame and gain; he loved socialized with wealthy and prominent families, and the veils of fame and profit obscured his self-nature. Not only did he often forget the scriptures back then, but now he does not even remember participating in that assembly. Seeing this, we should reflect on what marks we are attached to and what attachments we have not let go. Perhaps we too once met countless Buddhas and were present at their preachings, yet now we remember nothing.