The training and perfect dharma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kappas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tatakta's words. Good evening, thanks for coming. And how's the sound on line? Can you hear us okay? They can hear us okay. Great. So the Lotus Sutra, we have an ambition to cover the entire Lotus Sutra in five classes, which is pretty ambitious. We're not going to talk extensively about every chapter because that would be impossible.

[01:00]

And our first class was a general overview and just chapters 1 and 2. Well, we paid a lot of attention to chapter 2 because it's widely considered to be maybe the most important chapter in the Lord of Susha. So, diving right in. In chapters 1 and 2, you know, you had the Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha, sitting at Vulture Peak, surrounded by an assembly of thousands and thousands and thousands of men, women, gods, asuras, gandharvas, maharagas, kinnaras, demigods, strange beasts, and I think 80,000 bodhisattvas if memory serves, you know, big crowd. A lot of the Lotus Sutras like vastness, you know. It talks about big sizes and many many kappas in the past and everything seems like exaggerated.

[02:06]

I think this is to stretch our imagination and to stretch our ideas about time and space. That's what I get out of it. And they set this They set this up as, you know, first, he's just seated in Samadhi in chapter one. He doesn't say anything. Shakyamuni is just absorbed in the Samadhi of innumerable meanings. And then in chapter two, he begins to preach Dharma, skillful means. And the Buddha is set up as something like truly amazing. Like, whoa, you know. This is the Buddha. And it's emphasized over and over again how amazing the Buddha is. This is a setup. And there's a lot of dialogue with Shariputra in chapter two.

[03:11]

In chapter three, Shariputra gets a prediction of enlightenment. The Buddha says to Shariputra, in the future, again, Who knows how far in the future, you know, and how far in the past, how many eons ago they were practicing together. But in the future, you will be a Buddha, and your Buddha land will be like this. Usually it's all, everything's level in the Buddha lands. If you've been reading it, it's like everything's paved. Only it's like onyx, you know, not concrete. With like little ropes of like, When you go to the airport, you have these little things to keep people separated. They're gold. And trees with jewels. And everything's perfect. And there's no traffic. There's no biting insects. It's just perfect. And you know, Shari Pooch is pretty happy about that.

[04:19]

And astonished, too. And I think you're going to say more about this later on, right? Anyway, the paradigm shift. But then the Buddha goes on to tell a very, very famous parable. Maybe it's partially so famous because a lot of people read the Lotus Sutra, they get at least as far as chapter 3. So... A lot of people have heard about the parable of the burning house. Another thing I think about the Lotus Sutra is it's entertaining. It's entertainment. All this, you know, nowadays we got like CGI and special effects. You go to the movies and you're like, whoa. You read the Lotus Sutra, same thing. Whoa. Everything's like big, colorful, jewel, ornaments, you know, all the time.

[05:21]

Throughout the sutra you get this, you know, these special effects, this amazingness. But some people also like horror movies. And in the parable of the burning house, equally it goes on at length about how terrible it is in the burning house. It's really fun to read. If you haven't read it yet, you know, it might be also part of why it's so well known. You know, there's... Rats and bats and scorpions and raping dogs and all the pillars and beams. They're rotting and falling down and filth. It's just so disgusting. And it's all on fire. And yeah, it's a big, big, big house. Rich person's house. Rich man. And he's got a lot of kids.

[06:21]

Not so clear about how many kids. It's like 10, 20, 30, unknown. But a lot of kids, a lot of children in the burning house. And the parable goes, the father sees the house burning and he's like, kids, kids, get out of the house. There's only one exit out of the house. It was not built to code, you know. It's a small exit. There's only one way out. And all the kids are in, what are they doing? They're absorbed and playing with their toys. They're all playing with their toys, which is cool. But the Father says, this house is burning. I got to get them out of there. What a metaphor for our times. What a metaphor for the climate crisis, you know. Oh, anyway. So. to lure the kids out of the house.

[07:22]

He says, hey, outside I have even better toys, right? Even better. I got carts for you, really fun carts. What is it, goat cart, deer cart, and bull cart? Anyway, these carts for the kids to play with represent the three vehicles. They're vehicles. Three vehicles of the Shravaka, the Pateka Buddha, and the bodhisattvas. And he's trying to get together, and the kids are like, oh, carts, huh? Sounds kind of interesting. Okay. And so they come out of the house, and they want to play with their new toys, their new toys. These carts, they've been promised. But when they come out of the burning house, the father says, actually, I have something even better. And he gives them these amazing, big, big ox carts. They're like, you know, mag wheels and sound system with 16 speakers, luxurious upholstery, everything.

[08:32]

You know, I mean, it doesn't say that in the Lotus Sutra, but it does go into a lot of detail about how amazing these new carts are. What I find really interesting about this, and I said this also in the last class, is there's this inclusivity at work here. A lot of people think that the, you know, a lot of these Mahayana scriptures, and, well, I mean, justifiably, there's plenty of evidence, they're like dismissive of what they would call the lesser vehicle, the Hinayana. You know, the earlier teachings, the Pali Canon, we don't say Hinayana, we say the Theravada, the way of the elders. But the Lotus Sutra is saying, actually, that's good. the way the Pajekabunas is good, and by the way, the way the Bodhisattvas is good. I thought, we are doing the Bodhisattva way, this is what we are doing, Bodhisattva practice. Yes, yes, and the Lotus Sutra is saying, all of these, including the Bodhisattva way, will lead you to the one vehicle, the Ekkayana, which includes everything.

[09:42]

So it's not exclusive, and it's not saying, that these other ways are bad. Actually, throughout the sutra, it's saying, whatever your path is, ultimately, it's going to bring you to the one vehicle, the Ekyāna, and buddhod. How cool is that? Okay, your turn. We're going back and forth today. So, in the next chapter, chapter four, is the parable of the prodigal son. You know, roughly the same time as the gospels of the prodigal son, but it's a little different. We'll get to that in a minute. So it starts out in the four great shravakas, Sibudi, Mahakalyayana, Mahakasyapa, and Mahamadkalyayana heard about this

[10:45]

you know, this prediction of future Buddhahood. And they immediately arose from their seats and respectfully approached the Buddha with their right shoulder bared. That's why we wear neokesa, bearing the right shoulder. And they said, we, the leaders of the Sangha, are worn with years, believing that we had already attained nirvana and that there was nowhere further for us to go We did not go on to pursue supreme perfect awakening. Since long ago, you have been teaching the Dharma and all the while we have sat in our places, our bodies growing tired and inert, our thoughts intent only upon emptiness. We took no pleasure in considering bodhisattva-hood. Why is this? because the world-honored one had already caused us to escape the threefold world and gain our own realization of nirvana. Furthermore, we were so haggard with age that even supreme, perfect awakening did not attract our minds for a single moment.

[11:52]

This is a bit of a... throwing a lot of shade on the earlier teachings and attainments. We're all run down and old. I had the thought of Sashin on about day four. We're not even tempted by the ox carts anymore. And they go on to say why this was, and because they'd been teaching the Bodhisattva path and the path of the Shravakas and the Pratika Buddhas, but they thought that the Bodhisattva path had nothing to do with them. And this was just something that they were teaching on behalf of the Buddha, but they didn't realize that it could include them too. And when they heard this, when they heard the first predictions, they went, oh, and

[12:57]

So they said, now we have heard this Shravaka receive his assurance of supreme perfect awakening, and our hearts greatly rejoice. This immeasurably rare treasure, which we did not seek, has come to us of its own accord. So that's a really important point, that it doesn't matter whether you're looking for this, or you even have any of this in mind, It comes back again and again to this is your birthright. This is what you're born with. You have this and you will eventually attain this. And then they recount a parable to clarify their meaning. So I'm going to read that to you. I didn't get it all typed in. Sorry.

[14:08]

My bad, I lost my place. Okay, I will just tell the parable as best I can remember it. So, there was a man who had a son, and when the son was about 30 years old, he left. He left home. It doesn't say why or anything else, but the father went searching for him. He was heartbroken, but he could never find his son. Or maybe the son was, sorry, I'm getting this all confused. I apologize. So he went searching for his son, and eventually the son found him.

[15:28]

Like many, many years later, the son found him and just came upon this really beautiful house because the man had become very wealthy in the meantime. Wealthy, well-respected, powerful, so far above the state that they had been when they were living together as father and son. And the son, in seeing this huge house, was just, he was so abashed because the years had not been kind to him. It describes him as being covered with sores and scabs and gaunt and haggard. Often he couldn't find food. You know, he clearly had a really rough time and had kind of traveled from place to place looking for work, looking for food. And he just happened upon us. It's like, oh my God, if they see me around here, you know, they might, you know, force me into labor or something like that.

[16:30]

But the father had seen him. and he recognized his son. And seeing the son had fallen on such hard times, he skillfully sent a couple of his managers, so to speak, after the son, and have them really dressed down so that the son wouldn't be scared by them. And he said, oh, well, we have a job for you. We'll pay you double wages, and you'll be cleaning the dung out of the stables and cleaning the house. He said, that's great, because that met him where he was. So he went and did that, and over a period of like 20 years, he gradually moves up. It's noted not by any real effort of his own. The father comes in, dresses down periodically, talks to him, and says, oh, you look like you're coming along. And then he gives him more responsibility as he's able to do that. But it's all because he's the man's son, actually. You know, he's doing fine, but that's not why he's being promoted.

[17:34]

Because it's his son. Because the man has gotten old and he really wants to be able to give his treasure to his son. So gradually the son moves up through the levels and now he's finally the treasurer. He's managing all the affairs of the household. And one day the father gathers all these people together you know the town and just everybody together and he makes this big announcement that he's going to leave all of his possessions to his son and this is his son so until that moment nobody had known this was his son who is now you know again something that the son had not sought has come to him a station in life that he'd never imagined, never longed for, but over time, even though he's like the four disciples, you know, it's like they attained a certain level, but they didn't think to look for anything more.

[18:47]

So this story is not just about the four disciples, really, but it's about all of us, you know, not thinking that we can do this, that we too could be Buddhas, that we could have realization for ourselves. And often our own, you know, even if people have like very inflated self views, it's often because they feel very small on the inside. So it's not so many people who have just this deep confidence in their own being, but I think so many people come into that through practice of just having this deep trust in oneself and one's capacity for being, for being present and meeting things. There's a parable of the Prodigal Son in the Bible, too.

[19:49]

It's a much simpler story. What I like about the difference between this and the Bible is how long the Father takes to bring the guy along because he's got so much low self-esteem. He can't accept it until eventually he can't. Chapter 5 is underrated in my opinion. Personally, I really like Chapter 5. It's the parable of the medicinal herbs. And it's another parable. Basically, I mean, other stuff goes on in all these chapters. Basically, setting stuff up and saying which Buddhists and Bodhisattvas were there. That's inescapable. That's throughout the whole Lotus Sutra. So I'm not going to talk about that so much. But just take it for granted. Yeah, I think...

[20:52]

The parable of the medicinal herbs doesn't get enough attention, frankly. People don't talk about that one so much. I mean, it's pretty simple. Just the Buddha says, when a great cloud forms and starts to rain, it rains on all the plants. If it's a small plant, it takes the amount of water from the rain that it needs and it's nourished. If it's a great big tree, It takes the amount of water it needs from the rain and it is nourished. Middle-sized plant, on and on and on. It's very beautiful imagery. You can really picture like a climax ecosystem on a mountainside or maybe a tropical island where there's every different kind of plant. And they're all being nourished according to what they need. But the rain is just the rain. It's a simple parable, but it makes an important point.

[21:55]

This is about Buddha nature, you know, which we all are. The line here from Chapter 5 that I really like the most is, the Dharma taught by the Tathagata is of a single flavor and a single attribute. Rain is rain. But we all need it where we are, you know. I identify as a little tulip, you know. Maybe I identify as a bay tree or an oak or a palm tree. You know, you get the picture. Everybody's different. Everybody's different. Everyone receives the Dharma as they receive it. But the Dharma is just the Dharma. I think that's quite a beautiful parable, actually. And chapter eight is the assurance of chapter six.

[22:55]

Chapter six. I have a question about this terrible, the plants chapter. Yes, yes. I had a question about time, because there's this interesting part where it's saying, all these living beings having heard this dharma gained peace and security in their present lives and afterward were born in good circumstances, Doipal in the way and being able to hear again the Dharma. Having heard the Dharma, they will be freed from obstacles and according to the Patsy will gradually enter the way. I just thought that idea of hearing again the Dharma was really interesting. Yes. You could say something more about that. Yes. Well, this is, yeah, like I was saying before, the Lotus Sutra plays with time a lot. And especially when we get into chapter 15 and 16, you know, oh, apparently the Lotus Sutra was being preached countless Kalpas in the past, you know, innumerable eons in the past, you know, geologic time.

[24:02]

The Lotus Sutra was there. There were Buddhas there preaching the Lotus Sutra, it turns out. So now they're happy to be reborn, just as I am happy to be reborn into a world where I can hear the Lotus Sutra. But, you know, they're not kidding. And, yeah, my take is it's to get us to stretch our ideas about space and time. And, you know, mostly, most people, I think, hold on to certain fixed views about who we are, where we are, and what this condition is. And, you know, it's 2025, and everything's terrible, and whatever, you know. But not so. Not so. That's what we think, maybe. Maybe that's what a lot of people think. Maybe not everybody. And the Lotus Sutra is really trying, I think, my opinion, trying to help us to loosen up with that.

[25:03]

Cool. Thank you. I had another thought about that as well. as it connects with the Lotus Sutra, which is like, is the Lotus Sutra actually there? Is the Lotus Sutra ever preached? Because I think it's pointed to kind of, I mean, who is it? Somebody talked about the perennial wisdom. You know, it's like these same threads keep coming up over and over again, like did God just get invented, you know, like some thousands of years ago? There's always been You know, it's like finding what's already there in terms of knowledge, experience, what it is to be human, the spiritual realm. Yeah, I can't quite articulate that, but there's this felt sense of like this, this is evergreen and yet it's always being reborn and it has always been, even though it also comes into being in its particular forms, in particular.

[26:14]

places and times. So chapter six, giving assurance of Buddhahood. So these are the predictions of enlightenment to Mahakasyapa, Subhuti, Mahakachayana, and Mahamadhyayana. And it's really fun because it describes in tremendous detail, to the degree that Greg was describing it before, what their new names will be, and what their Buddha lands will look like. They're all level, like the palm of your hand. Each one of them is different. Some have lapis lazuli ropes, and some have diamonds, and different plants. And each one is different, and all this detail. both past and future.

[27:14]

And when you read these, like over time, it's like this kind of kaleidoscopic, psychedelic images, you know, kind of a felt sense going on. Yeah, except it's rather than being like paintings, it's like three-dimensional, Yeah, like CGI, just moving around. It was interesting. When I went to India on a pilgrimage about, what, 35 years ago, I guess now, I was expecting a lot more of, I wasn't expecting a lot of bright colors because many of the things that I'm attracted to in Buddhist things are kind of more subdued and they look old and kind of worn, and I find that cool. And you'd go to like temples there and they had so many like neon lights and flashing and like halos around the booth.

[28:22]

And my first response was like horror. Oh wow. This is what people have been visualizing for hundreds and hundreds of years. I'm used to seeing things as being in much more muted colors because they're old. They were probably painted with very bright colors and given the opportunity to manifest what they've been visualizing, they went for it. That really changed my feeling about it. It's like, oh, they're visualizing this incredibly bright, alive, world oh yes chapter seven is the parable of the conjured city or sometimes called the parable of the magic city but like most of the chapters you know it sets up about

[29:32]

Well, this is an interesting story that takes place in infinite, boundless, and inconceivable myriads of kalpas in the past. Okay. And a kalpa, by the way, is the length of time it takes if a bird is flying by a mountain with a piece of silk in its beak once a year. It brushes the silk against the mountain peak, and a year later it comes back and does it again. It's the number of years it would take for that bird with that piece of silk in its beak to wear down that mountain. That's a cowboy. It tells the story of another Buddha. There's so many Buddhas in the Little Sutra. This Buddha is called Universal Surpassing Wisdom. And the Buddha Universal Surpassing Wisdom was just on the verge of attaining Anuttara Samyaksambodhi, unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment, as it says in the Heart Sutra.

[30:33]

And then, didn't. Rather, some helpful beings came along and gave him a place to practice, a tree to sit under, to practice. And he sat under that tree for ten kappas. And this is the source of a line in the Song of the Jewel Mira Samadhi that we chant here sometimes. When about to fulfill the way of Buddhahood, Dongshan says, one gazed at a tree for ten eons. It's the kind of stuff that makes Dharma study fun. That's where that line comes from. It comes from the Lotus Sutra. And before this Buddha, had renounced the world. He had 16 sons. And they go with their grandfather to pay homage to this Buddha and ask him for teachings.

[31:36]

Guess what? He preaches the Lotus Sutra to them. And the Lotus Sutra explains how all 16 of these sons go on to become Buddhas. And it names all the Buddhas. Some of them you may recognize, such as Akshobya Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, and, of course, Shakyamuni Buddha. And then, the Buddha Universal Surpassing Wisdom goes on to tell the parable of the Magic City. Magic City, the story goes, there is a leader of a caravan. It's going to go, you know, Buddhism was spread on the Silk Road, right? There's trading, trading routes. It's how Buddhism got spread throughout Asia, along these trading routes. And so, This is pretty relatable, telling the story of a caravan, a big caravan of traders, and they're going to go to this distant, distant place, and the leader of the caravan sees that they're all getting really tired and discouraged.

[32:38]

Like, they just... Let's go back. I think we should give up. This is too hard. Maybe they're like the four Shravakas that Linda was talking about, you know, just being tired. I can't do this anymore. We've all been there. And so the leader of the caravan says, all right, I know what to do. And he conjures up this magical city and says, come, you've arrived. Take your rest. And so they do that. And they're very happy to do that and take their rest. And then the leader of the caravan says, Well, actually, this is just a make-believe place. But now that you're feeling better, can we go on? And they do. Of course, this is, the parable is about, you know, the other vehicles.

[33:42]

The way of the Shravaka, probably mostly the way of the Shravaka, Pateka Buddha and Bodhisattva. Like, they're good, right? But that ain't it. So, it's like, come, enjoy your nirvana. That's good, your nirvana, great. Here we are, nirvana. Good, this is what you were looking for. So enjoy that. And then, now, let's keep going. This is so Zen. I mean, this is Soto Zen in a nutshell. Gyoji, continuous practice, you know. We never stop. It's all about the journey, not the destination. But anyway, it's a fun little parable. Chapter 8. So, 500 arhats present themselves to the Buddha, and they're regretful that they were content to attain the lesser wisdom.

[34:43]

And they receive assurances, and by this point, perhaps, The Buddha is tired of giving them all names in the future because he gives them all the same name. And their name is Universal Illumination. That reminds me of the story Mark told about his layordination, do you remember that? That Mel apologized to everybody because he gave everybody the same poem on the back of their rock suit. Yeah. That was me. I did you kind of with Marla. So this is, all these people, all these beings are speaking to the Buddha and they say, we rejoice to receive something we never had before and revere the Buddha of boundless wisdom. Now in the presence of the world honored one, we regret our oversights and mistakes.

[35:47]

From the immeasurable Buddha treasures, we took only the small portion of Nirvana, and like ignorant fools, we deemed it to be sufficient. Here's the parable. We were like the poor man who went to the house of a close friend. That friend, being very rich, served him many rare delicacies, and took a priceless gem and made an unspoken gift of it before he departed, sewing it into the lining of the man's robe, while the man lay there unaware. After the man got up, he journeyed to another land. Seeking food and clothing to sustain himself, he underwent great hardships to stay alive. Feeling satisfied with what little he could obtain, and wishing for nothing better, feeling satisfied with what little he could obtain and wishing for nothing better.

[36:52]

So again, this is kind of referring back to monastics. They're satisfied with what they have, they're content with their lot, and they wish for nothing more. He was unaware of the priceless gem within the lining of his robe. Later, when the friend who made a gift of the gem saw this poor man, he painstakingly rebuked him. Like, why are you walking around, you know, there's a gem in the, I'm of your robe. I couldn't help thinking, you know, really? He didn't tell him, he just sewed it into his robe. How was I to know? Nonetheless, he painstakingly rebuked him. and showed him the gem sewn into his robe. When the poor man saw this gem, he was overjoyed. With wealth and property, he could satisfy the five desires as he wished. So it is with us.

[37:55]

Throughout the long night, the world honored one, ever compassionate, taught and transformed us, causing the seed of the highest aspiration to be sown. Causing the seed of the highest aspiration. to be Buddha, to be sung, but because of our ignorance, we were unaware of it. Attaining but the small portion of nirvana, we deemed it sufficient and sought no more. Our bodies and minds are completely filled with joy. So this is also striking to me because Because the man just, and the disciples are expressing, you know, this is so beautiful. Like, I've completely forgotten about all the hardships and all the sufferings that I had in my life. That's like completely dropped off.

[38:56]

Now that I have, you know, I've been introduced to the way of becoming Buddha. Because I was thinking, you know, I'd be mad, you know, You've been withholding this from me. You didn't tell me. And I think a lot of us, even when we start coming into something and we feel, you know, it's like, oh, but all that suffering, you know, I see now that it was just, there was a shift that needed to happen, but I didn't know how to do it. And that's, again, so much of the theme of the Lotus Sutra is whatever has brought us to this point, has brought us to this point. This is part of our path. This is part of our gift. We can't do without it. We can't dispense with it. So it's all part of the path, even the many stages of whatever's happening in each lifetime. I'm wondering if you could speak to the way that class works in a lot of these stories, because I find it kind of hard

[40:07]

to reckon with it and I'm wondering what like how to kind of hold it of the like the monastics um giving up things in order to um pursue enlightenment but also in a lot of the stories it's like you know and then and then they went to the beautiful house and then you know and then everything was good and then they got a jewel and then everything was good and there's like this like wealth like almost like a prosperity gospel vibe happening, but I don't quite know, like, I don't know, it's making me think of like, like, I don't know, I'm just wondering if there's ways to think about that and understand that in like context of, yeah. I just want to say for those online, the question was about how class figures into this.

[41:10]

It seems like all good is in prosperity. I have some thoughts, but you seem to have some thoughts. Or you could say caste as well. And there still is a pretty rigid caste system in India to this day. But it definitely existed then. And it's been pointed out that the people, men, I sort of surfaced this in the first class when we wanted to address the issue of misogyny head-on. So the men, basically, who wrote the Lotus Sutra were all well-educated. It's beautiful literature. They were all well-educated, which means they were well-to-do. They were undoubtedly all either Brahmana or Kshatriya caste. Yeah, I think that their thinking and their way of relating and their way of storytelling was completely informed by their privilege.

[42:18]

Absolutely. Absolutely. So it comes across that way. I'm glad that you bring that up. Yeah, Alan. Isn't there also this, with the prodigy of the son, he needs to have the self-esteem to accept the riches? Uh-huh. I mean, that's about, there are parables, right? So it's about Buddha nature, right? But yeah, they're telling the story in this way that, you know, these men who wrote the Lotus Sutra, that's their background, you know? They did come from, absolutely, you know, a peasant, someone who's the lowest caste or an outcast, they're not going to have the ability or the education to... you know, go be a monastic and do something like write the Lotus Sutra. So that's where it's coming from. You know, so it's important to take that into account, that background. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, yeah, it's just as relevant as the misogyny, actually. Thank you. Thank you.

[43:20]

A follow-up question kind of just like I've never thought about was like, were most of the monastics Brahmins, like period, or like... It was wide open. One of the... unusual things about the Buddha was that he was open to all cases. And even though he was second level, he was a warrior caste, not Raman. He was Kshatriya. Kshatriya. Yeah. Joe. I think that was, I found a very interesting question and I think it's good to have that context, but I think too that given that that's kind of what Shakyamuni Buddha did was say like, everyone's welcome to come. It doesn't matter what caste you are. Like anyone can come. And I can imagine someone from a lower strata of society being given the opportunity to move up was mind-boggling. You know, like absolutely like unheard of. And so I think it's the joy of that surprise or that like, oh wow, I'm your son or I have this place now or I have this jewel.

[44:29]

I think In that context, I find it interesting relating to the Buddha not following that caste system, even though a lot of the followers probably were still having that background and upbringing. Suzuki Roshi talked about one of the Buddha's earliest disciples, who I cannot name, was a barber. And barber is a pretty lowly profession and lowly caste. But Suzuki Roshi said, he said, very far up the top. Because they do that according to seniority in Japan. So this barber guy, when he joined the order, he joined the order very early. So he was pretty senior. And so he was respected as a senior monk. There are a couple of questions online. Paolo is first, if you want to take an online question.

[45:30]

Paolo, please. Yeah, thank you so much for this. This is like Ryushin said it once and I loved it. Dharma is a ton of fun. And the Lotus Sutra is a kaleidoscope. You know, the Mahayana was was really it's such an interesting point in Buddhist history. It was kind of a necessary step and in many ways democratizing force. And it was the beginnings of of feminine voices being heard. You know, Tara would be developed and there already was a, you know, a kind of spiritual revolution within Buddhism against the class system that was reaffirmed in Mahayana and made even. stronger in a lot of ways, ironically enough by many people that were well-educated. Buddhism in Asian history has often been very urban. The more urban the civilizations were and the more cosmopolitan, the more that it propagated and the better it did.

[46:31]

But, you know, the Mahayana itself was a democratizing force at that time. And the distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana, the way that it existed at that time, really no longer exists. You go to Theravada environments and they dedicate the merit of all the practice to all the sentient beings. And Mahayana and both have influenced each other deeply since a kind of cross-pollination. And, you know, at that time, the old guard, there had always been a kind of subtle but not overly serious schism that in the sangha between kind of the old guard and the more conservative folks and those that were a little more liberal liberal leaning and and populist and by the time that mahayana begins to develop um the buddhist old guard had become very wealthy the monasteries had become um huge ivory towers uh very elitist um the belief was you had to be a full arhat to hold any authority within the community or claim to be an arhat

[47:37]

And there had long been a simmering democratizing force within Buddhism to make it accessible to people, to to ordinary people, again, whether educated or not. So I think the class distinctions, it's it's always been in many ways inherently educated and upper class. But it also has this democratizing energy behind it and. There was something else in there that was really that's really vital. Like, you know, and all of this can already be found, like everything that's that is further delineated by Mahayana is already in the sutras. Like, but it's just kind of made in a sense like postmodern, you know, it becomes this kind of updated. way of making Buddhism at that time once again modern. And even Nagarjuna, you know, if anyone ever had claimed to being the second Buddha, it's him.

[48:45]

And, you know, he kind of discusses in his own writings the subtlety and intricate work of mapping out emptiness and doing it in a way that was reason-based and, again, kind of using modern language. But then spends so much of his writing just praising again and again just the sheer spiritual genius of Shakyamuni Buddha. And he says at one point, he asks the assembly, you know, bhikkhus and bikinis, you know, who are the two practitioners is greater? The person who follows the ethical path and holds their vinyana vows earnestly and with discipline and is deeply established in concentration and meditation. And does it for themselves? Is this a virtuous person? And everyone answers, of course. And he says, and what if the second person who does all those same things, but does it not only for themselves, but for everyone else, which of the two is more virtuous? And of course, the assembly says the second practitioner is the more virtuous.

[49:51]

So Mahayana kind of was just a way of maybe co-opting the original spirit of Buddha Dharma. and bringing it back. Sorry, guys. Thank you very much. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Erna. Hello. Yeah, thank you for this class. I raised my hand back when you were talking about caste and wealth and that. But, you know, when I... read those things, I mean, maybe it's just how, maybe it really is about wealth, I don't know, but it seems like, that always seems like a metaphor. Is it possible that that's a metaphor for, you know, the poor life is the life of suffering, you know, that one from delusion and all of that. And I asked that question because, you know, because you didn't,

[50:56]

speak to that, you spoke about, you know, the other things that you did. And, you know, in my background, a Calvinist, they do believe that wealth is the demonstration that you're doing right by God. So it's not, you know, it is within some religious beliefs that. So I just wanted to ask that question of what you thought about, is it really just metaphorical? I think I, yeah. I think something like the Lotus Sutra operates on so many different levels at the same time. So it can be quite literal that the Brahmins or whoever are elevated, but it can also be metaphorical. And I think one of the ways it operates as metaphor is that in early Buddhism, so much of it was about the raft that takes us across from samsara to nirvana. But when you've gone over, then you let go of the raft.

[51:56]

And the image is, well, it's done its work. You don't put the raft on your head and drag it around with you. But here it's saying there's not a separation. You can still enjoy the skillful means that you've been using. And we'll get into this a little more later about that it really changes the relationship with desire because desire was really a, that was kind of the problematic thing, especially for, I mean, the Buddha taught the middle way, which is between, you know, sense indulgence and asceticism and finding a different way. But this is about making a completely different relationship with the whole problem of desire because saying whatever you're doing, you will still end up as a Buddha. We're all going to the same place, whatever it looks like on your way there. I don't think those are mutually exclusive.

[53:00]

The same impulse that had the kids playing with the toys in the burning house had the kids coming out of the burning house. It's the same impulse. Shall we press on? We shall. Press on. We've got the whole Lotus Sutra. Is it me? Chapter 9, assurance given to those trained and still in training. Let's see, the next predictions of enlightenment would be Ananda and Rahula, cousin and son, family members. It was a family thing. 2,000 Shravaka disciples. Just a family thing. And 8,000 novice bodhisattvas. The predictions just keep coming. Starts with Shariputra, then the four Shravakas, then more and more and more.

[54:05]

It's like Oprah Winfrey, you get a prediction of enlightenment, you get a prediction, and you get a prediction, right? You begin to catch on. It's kind of like the father with the son in the parable of the prodigal son. He has to bring him along slowly. And the sutra is bringing us along slowly. First it sets up the Buddha as this incredible being, like unparalleled. How can we possibly compare ourselves to Shakyamuni Buddha sitting up there on Vulture Peak surrounded by this immense retinue. And then more and more people are giving these predictions of enlightenment. And then we might start to think, oh, that could be me too. Could it possibly? That's what I got. Yeah, that's right at the point where you start thinking, could it be me too?

[55:10]

That's the next one. We still got to wait until chapter 13 before it's Buddha's mom, but oh well. Let's reorder the chapters. What's that? Let's reorder the chapters. Reorder the chapters. So the chapter 10 is called Teachers of the Dharma, and it begins, at that time the world-honored one spoke to Bodhisattva Medicine King, thereby addressing the 80,000 great beings. And here we go again. Medicine king, do you see in this great assembly innumerable heavenly beings, dragon kings, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, gurudas, kimnaras, maharagas, human and non-human beings, as well as monks and nuns and laymen and laywomen who seek shravakahood, pratika buddhahood, or the Buddha way. And it repeats this over and over again. And this repetition When you're reading it, it can be a little repetitive, but hearing it or chanting it, it kind of builds in power because you have to keep looking at it again and it's like, what's this about?

[56:24]

Again, it's saying everybody, everybody. I bestow the assurance of supreme perfect awakening upon all of these beings who, in the presence of the Buddha, hear even a single verse or a single phrase of the wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra and through it experience even a moment of rejoicing. So there's two things in there that are really notable. One is that he gives the assurance in the presence of the Buddha. So that's in the Pali Canon, actually. The Buddha of the present time can give predictions of enlightenment to others, but only in the presence of the Buddha, and there's one. So that will bear more coming up. What do they call it? The premonition of what's to come. And the other is that to hear even a single verse or a single phrase of the Lotus Sutra and through it experience even a moment of rejoicing.

[57:30]

So it's not even like thoroughly grokking the whole Lotus Sutra, it's just even hearing a phrase or a verse, and it's not that you have to have faith in it or do something with it, it's just that you rejoice in hearing that even to entertain the possibility that you and all beings could become Buddha. So just to even, I think, let that in, you know, to have this experience of this heart opening in response to this teaching. And again, going back to like the prodigal son and all these stories that, you know, of feeling unworthy, like I can't do that, you know, I can't manifest this. But to allow that opening starts a change right there. It begins a transformation.

[58:31]

I think many people feel the beginnings of that when they meet a teacher or a mentor. It doesn't have to be a Buddhist teacher, but someone that you feel really sees you, really values you, and that opens possibility. And it could have been your mom or your grandma. It could have come much later in life. but it gives you this feeling of what's possible in the world in a very powerful way. So this is like magnified. The Buddha further said to Medicine King, Moreover, I also bestow the assurance of supreme perfect awakening upon those people who, after the passing of the Tathataka, hear even a single verse or a single phrase of the wondrous flower sutra, and thereby experience even a moment of rejoicing. So, now again, it's expanding the framework of space and time.

[59:36]

It's not just in Shakyamuni Buddha's lifetime that it goes beyond that. This is just the devotional aspect of the Lua Sutra. devotional practice. And basically, that's the foundation of another religion called Nichiren Buddhism, right? When Michael McCormick was here last Saturday, you know, he's standing at the front of the volume map, just saying the name of the Lotus Kutra, homage to the Lotus Kutra. That was Nichiren's thing. The chapter is just like a verse or a phrase or anything. Nichiren said, okay, we'll just do that. That's the devotional practice. We're just going to say the name of the Lotus Sutra. They studied the Lotus Sutra as well, of course, but Nichiren really believed that that practice was enough and was available to anybody.

[60:45]

And again, I think you can look at that particular piece of it in a couple of different ways. One is you could say, well, that's skillful means. You know, I think for most of the time, the people who've been in it have considered it the decline of the Dharma, you know, after the first few hundred years, after the Buddha. So how are we capable of practicing? You know, we're not just like encountering the Buddha's teaching and having an awakening experience right there. So you could say, oh, this is skillful means or this is kind of like making it accessible for people in a really difficult time but another way to look at it is again like decoupling our ideas of like cause and effect like i'm going to put in this huge effort and then i'm going to get this huge reward because we pretty much know that's not exactly what happens we put in this huge effort and somewhere in the the struggle of the effort, something actually lets go, but it's about the letting go, not the effort, but you can't let go if there's no effort, et cetera.

[61:54]

Sounds about right. And it's also saying that it's not, you know, it's again, it's kind of non-localizing it. It's not like me or this or pointing to this or that. So if it's the Buddha's teaching, it could... And there's the pebble hitting the rock which awakens. There's all this instantaneous awakening. So it could be just a phrase. It could be just a word. It's not what we think it is, but something about, and yet we have to engage in it. We have to engage in it. Genpo. Yeah, it just seems like we're getting great, asymptotically close to Dogen's question, right? Because if everyone is guaranteed enlightenment in countless eons from now, then why would we practice? If it's a foregone conclusion, then what's the purpose of practice?

[62:59]

Remember, Dogen as a kid was a Tendai monk. He memorized the Lotus Sutra. He was fully on board. It's much less abstract hearing the way that we're talking about the Loda Sutra tonight. It feels very doctrinally relevant. Yes. Yes. I think the Loda Sutra has deeply affected all of Zen, but not always in super direct ways. Instead of being parables, it's koans. It's a different set of you know, cultural references at the time. I just wanted to add that, you know, at different points it comes out, not everyone who hears the Lunas Sutra is rejoicing. There were, to begin with, the 500 who walked out. 5,000.

[64:00]

5,000, the 5,000 who walked out, even before they heard it. No, and then, You know, there's all this thing through it about, you know, some people make a mockery of the Buddha and just what came up for me is, you know, people who are deeply attached to a fixed view and it can be hard to let go and see that there's something else in the world. you know, that there's some other more positive vision in the world because it means letting go of what they've been holding on to, of what's been an anchor for them, of what's been their identity. So. Okay. Nice. Chugging along here. We said we were going to do chapter 3 through 10. Chapter 11. Chapter 11.

[65:02]

Why not? We got a little time. So chapter 11 is very significant. If, like Suzuki Roshi said, it might be helpful to approach the Lotus Sutra as orchestral music and just let it wash over you. But chapter 11 might be like where the orchestra goes. It's a big deal. This is the chapter of the Jewel Stupa. rising up out of the ground. And the jewel stupa is bigger than the Salesforce tower. I forget, I used to know what a Yojana was, but it's really a lot. Everything is a lot. Say what? I think it's how much time it takes for an army to get through .8 and .8 feet. Okay, okay. That's a Yojana. And this is like, whatever it is, 75 Yojana tall and 50 Yojana. It's really big stupa.

[66:06]

And it's decorated, of course, it's the Lotus Sutra. You know, it's got all these bells and garlands and banners hanging off of it and incense wafting through the air. And it rises up. And all the monks and all the people in the assembly are like, what is this? What does it mean? What does it mean? You know, what does it mean? Yes, Ilan, what does it mean? What is a stupa? Oh, good question. Very good question. So you see these throughout Asia. The question is, what is a stupa? Especially in Southeast Asia, you see them a lot. And they're reliquaries. They hold remains of typically, historically, the Buddha. You know, when the Buddha was apparently cremated, and sometimes you keep things, cremation wasn't as effective.

[67:13]

Nowadays, cremation is like so hot, it's just pure ash. But there's little bits, right? And they divide the bits up and they put them in the stupa and revere them, because it's like revering the Buddha. You know, it's a trace of, like, the Buddha lift. And not just the Buddha, Shakyamuni, but other great teachers have had stupas built for them. So it's a really important point. So thanks for asking. Because the sutra says, you know, the Buddha says, well, who's the Buddha in this stupa? But... So the imagery... It tells a big story because exactly, Ilana, the stupas are for remains of dead teachers, dead Buddhas, right? The stupa opens up.

[68:16]

There's a living Buddha in there. What? That's crazy. There's a living Buddha in there. Brabhutaratna, many treasures thus come one. He and Shakyamuni turns out they're BFFs. They're really tight. They're very, very good friends from many Kappas in the past, of course. And Many Treasures does come one. A stupor rises up in the air and he invites Shakyamuni to come up and sit next to him. So this is a visual reification of chapter two. Yūbutsu, yōbutsu. Only a Buddha and a Buddha can understand the true nature of reality. So here we have it in this, you know, you can visualize it, this amazing stupa, two living Buddhas seated side by side.

[69:20]

You should have mentioned that two Buddhas cannot, only one Buddha per age. They used to think that. Again, this is like breaking the stupa's time. Yeah. So it's revolutionary on several levels. But it's very significant that the stupa opens up and there's a living Buddha in there. Not dead. Alive. And he invites Shakyamuni to come up and sit next to him. And the rest of the assembly on Vulture Peak is like... We can barely see you. You're so far away. And so another powerful image is that he's magic to lift everyone else up. Everyone else is raised up to the same level so that they can see and they can hear the Dharma being preached by Shakti Muni and many treasures thus come one, Prabhupada Ratta.

[70:21]

So it's very significant. And They stay up there until the end of the sutra. Lots of other stuff is going to go on. We're going to cover it. But everything we're talking about, you have to remember that Shakyamuni and Prabhupada Ratna are still, they're there now in that stupa until chapter 22, is it? At least chapter 22 is like the end of the sutra. The other chapters were add-ons. So they stay there, up in the sky in the stupa for the rest of the Lotus Sutra. And more can be said about it. I thought it would be kind of neat if we ended this class with chapter 11 and probably begin next week with chapter 11 again, because it's kind of a big deal and it's one of my favorite parts.

[71:22]

And I don't know if any of you are reading the really good commentary, contemporary, pretty recent commentary by Lopez and Stone. It's called Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side. That's the name of the book, and it's pretty good, although it's a lot about Nichiren, but still very, very good commentary, contemporary commentary on the Lotus Sutra, highly recommended. And I said, I think I said previously, this is the... source or inspiration for the leader of the practice period and the shusō sitting next to each other. That also recapitulates yūbutsu, yōbutsu, two Buddhists seated side by side. Yes? So that's it? That's step one?

[72:24]

No, there's a lot to Chapter 11, but that's the main thing that's going on. So, it brings up the point of, like, Sangha. You know, like, Sangha? Sangha, yeah. Right? Yeah. Okay. Because you said it's like a big deal. Yeah, it is. So, it's like to see what is the point they were bringing up. Yeah. I say, for me, The stupa opens up and it's not full of relics. There's a living Buddha in there. That is a big deal. And then secondly, Shakyamuni goes up and sits next to him. And they're seated side by side. And that's like, like I said, you know, recapitulating Yui Butsu, Yo Butsu. Yeah. Yui Butsu, Yo Butsu. Omi a Buddha and a Buddha sitting there side by side. And the third thing is lifting up the rest of the sonda. to their level so they can more easily see and hear the teachings.

[73:31]

We have a question online. Hi, Marley. Marley. Hello. It was a long day, but I'm glad I'm here. Speaking of commentaries, I've been reading my way through Thich Nhat Hanh's on this, which is is real fun and uh one thing he points out about this chapter um that is really sticking to me is it's like you always have to pay attention whether people are looking down or up or on the ground or up in the sky because every time you're up there you're really about to go here's some real wild ultimate level stuff and every time they get back on the ground it gets a little more down to earth for a minute and that stuck with me while you well you well you said all this stuff just now so Thank you. You know, that we may not tune into unless we have, it's like, oh, watch for this.

[74:38]

You know, the contemporary readers would be very much aware of that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yes. Back to chapter three for a minute. This question I should have asked back then. Can you explain the three vehicles, what each of them is and how they kind of relate to the greater vehicle? Yeah. Shravaka, I think it means voice hearer. And it's like the old-school polycanon, Theravadan teaching of do this, follow this path, four noble truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, practice, probably monastically, and become an Arha. And the voice that they're hearing is the Buddha's. And there was no written language at the time. So they needed to hear the teaching of the Buddha in order to awaken. And the Pratyeka Buddha is a self-awakened Buddha.

[75:40]

It's kind of mysterious. It's someone who becomes a Buddha somehow on their own. Do you want to talk to Shakyamuni Buddha? Is he an example of that? Yes, but no. Because it could have been Shakyamuni Buddha. In fact, according to the story, maybe it almost was. But depending on which version of the story, somebody, or maybe it was God's maybe it was humans, convinced Shakyamuni to teach. So that's the difference between Shakyamuni and Petyaka Buddha. Petyaka Buddha is like... I'm alright Jack, you know, but they're enlightened. So this is a good way to make a distinction. So the Shravakas and the Pratyeka Buddhas are seeking to get off the cycle of the wheel of rebirth. And they will, you know, when you're in Arhat, you won't come back. You're a stream-enterer, a once-returner, and a non-returner to the painful cycle of suffering.

[76:45]

A bodhisattva is one who voluntarily keeps coming back to take all beings across. So that is definitely Shakyamuni. He had the thought, this is all that I ever wanted. I have finally achieved what I've been seeking for, and it's great. And I don't think anyone else can understand. I thought, well, I think some people can understand. So he went and found the five aesthetics he practiced with. So yeah, it's that turning back, and then it's also transforming our relationship with the suffering of the world, like going back into it with gladness and joy, and not with the suffering that we were carrying before. And that's it for time. Thank you all so much. Thank you.

[77:47]

Kings are numberless, I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Diaries are boundless, I vow to lecture them. With those ways unsurpassable, I vow to become it Thank you everybody Thank you

[78:28]

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