Chapter 28. Encouragement of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (part 2)
We have finished discussing the twenty-eight chapters, but a few chapters in the middle were skipped: the predictions of enlightenment for all the Bodhisattvas and all the Sravaka disciples, as well as the merits we gain from studying the Lotus Sutra. Let us look at these merits together, and finally, we shall receive the prediction of enlightenment given to us by Shakyamuni Buddha, and thus we shall attain the Way.
Let us look at the merits. First is the “Chapter on the Ancient Deeds of Medicine King Bodhisattva.” Why did the Buddha specifically speak of the merit of hearing this chapter? It is to tell us the importance of severing the “view of the body” in this age of the Decline of the Dharma. We all place great importance on this physical body. You feel that if this body is ugly, you are ugly. This is a mistaken view. If the body becomes ugly, you think you have become ugly; if the body is not beautiful, you feel you are not beautiful; if the body is beautiful, you feel you are beautiful. Does a beautiful body mean you are truly beautiful? Does an ugly body mean you have truly become ugly? Certainly not, right? Yet we often cling to this external beauty, which is why severing the view of the body is so important. Especially for many girls—and men too—who cannot let go of their desires and habits, they place great weight on their own sensations. “I’m so tired,” “I’m this or that,” “I want this”—every day they are obsessed with their own feelings. “Anyway, I’m annoyed,” “I’m uncomfortable”—it’s always “I, I, I.” In reality, it is just a small sensation of this physical body, nothing more than a feeling. If you put all your heart into your sensations, how can you practice the Bodhisattva path? To walk the Bodhisattva path, one cannot care about one’s own sensations; otherwise, how could it be called “patience under provocation”?
Regarding the merit of hearing the “Chapter on the Ancient Deeds of Medicine King Bodhisattva,” first, it speaks of women. If a woman hears this chapter and can uphold it, then after her life as a woman ends, she will never again receive a female body throughout all future lives. After the passing of the Tathagata, in the five hundred years of the Age of the Semblance Dharma, if a woman hears this sutra and practices according to its teachings, then at the end of this current life, she will be reborn in the Land of Peace and Happiness—this Land of Peace and Happiness is the Land of Ultimate Bliss. In that land, Amitabha Buddha is surrounded by numerous great Bodhisattvas. She will be born by transformation from a lotus flower, sit upon a jeweled throne, and no longer be troubled by greed and desire, nor by anger or delusion. She will never again be troubled by the defilements of arrogance or jealousy, and she will obtain the spiritual powers of a Bodhisattva and attain the Patience of the Non-arising of Dharmas. This patience is the realm of no-birth and no-death, where one no longer cycles through samsara.
After attaining the realm of the Patience of the Non-arising of Dharmas, her eyes will become pure and untainted. With these pure eyes, she can see Buddhas as numerous as the sands of seven million two thousand billion nayutas of Ganges Rivers. This means that from the Land of Ultimate Bliss, she can see this many Tathagatas; it is not that she has to travel to each one individually, but rather she uses her pure eyes. If we had pure eyes now, we could sit in the Sahā World and see the Tathagatas of the ten directions and the three periods of time!
At that time, these Tathagatas will each praise her from afar, saying: “Excellent, excellent, virtuous man! You have been able to uphold, read, and contemplate this Lotus Sutra within the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha.” Why do all the Buddhas praise her so? This refers to the woman who upheld the Lotus Sutra; she has already been reborn in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, developed pure eyes, and sees these Tathagatas praising her—praising her for her previous life. They say: “Excellent, excellent, that you were able to uphold, read, and contemplate this Lotus Sutra within the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha.” Why? Because it is not easy in our world! It requires a great deal of merit to even hear the Lotus Sutra. Because our world is called the “Five Turbidities Evil World,” you have great merit to be able to hear, copy, and uphold the Lotus Sutra.
Thus the Buddhas praise: “That you could uphold, read, recite, and contemplate this Lotus Sutra in Shakyamuni Buddha’s world and explain it to others—the merit you have obtained is immeasurable and boundless. Great fires cannot burn it, floods cannot submerge it. Your merit could not be exhausted even if a thousand Buddhas spoke of it together. You have now been able to break through the bonds of demons and destroy the army of the demon of birth and death; all other enemies have also been destroyed. By utilizing the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, if you delve deeply into them, you can achieve this and obtain these merits. Virtuous man, hundreds of thousands of Buddhas guard you with their spiritual power. Among all the gods and humans in all worlds, none can compare to you, except for the Tathagata. The wisdom and meditative concentration of Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and even Bodhisattvas cannot compare to yours.” If, after hearing the “Chapter on the Ancient Deeds of Medicine King Bodhisattva,” one can rejoice and praise it, such a person will, in this present life, always have a fragrance like a blue lotus emanating from their mouth, and the pores of their body will always emit the fragrance of Ox-head sandalwood.
The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Sutra is the best medicine for the illnesses of the sentient beings of Jambudvipa. If a person is ill and hears this sutra, their illness will be removed; they will not even grow old or die. This is the merit of hearing just this one chapter, the “Ancient Deeds of Medicine King Bodhisattva” ! The Buddha does not speak falsely! We have all heard it, so we shall have these merits. Remember this!
The second is the merit of hearing the “Chapter on the Life Span of the Tathagata,” and then the merit of hearing this entire sutra. If sentient beings hear that the Buddha’s life span is so long and can produce a single moment of faith and understanding, the merit they obtain will be limitless. Here I must tell you: because the realm of the Tathagata is not something we can know through conceptual thought and discrimination, everything begins with entry through faith. At first, just believe. Through this faith, we slowly resonate with the Tathagata’s insight and understand the Tathagata’s realm, thereby understanding ourselves. It turns out that we ourselves are formless and markless, immeasurable and boundless, and originally possessed of immeasurable merit.
Today, simply by hearing the Lotus Sutra, we can obtain so much merit—let us believe this first. If there are virtuous men or virtuous women who, for the sake of seeking Unsurpassed, Complete, and Perfect Enlightenment, practice the five paramitas—namely, the paramita of giving, the paramita of precept-keeping, the paramita of patience, the paramita of diligence, and the paramita of meditative concentration (excluding the paramita of wisdom)—for a period as long as eighty million billion nayutas of kalpas, the merit they obtain from this cannot compare to the merit of one moment of faith and understanding upon hearing of the Buddha’s long life span. The merit of those five paramitas does not reach a hundredth, a thousandth, or even a hundred-thousand-ten-thousand-billionth part of the merit of that faith. Practicing the first five of the six paramitas for immeasurable kalpas is not as good as believing in this single chapter, the “Life Span of the Tathagata.” It cannot even be calculated by numbers or described by metaphors. Because you believe in this chapter, you are neither born nor do you die; your merit is perfected. If virtuous men and women possess such merit, they will ultimately attain the unsurpassed fruit of Buddhahood without falling back because by hearing this.
Once you reach this chapter, you will no longer cling to appearances. You will be free from birth and death; you will realize you are not this thing of birth and death, nor are you this transient physical body.