Namo Buddhaya,
OPTIMISTIC SOTERIOLOGY IN BUDDHISM AND THE LOTUS SŪTRA
Above, I mentioned that the everlasting hell of monotheistic religions has the function of motivating their followers to have faith. Buddhism lacks this particular device, and it is certainly more thorough than the monotheistic religions in the optimism of its soteriology. Of course, even Buddhism is not uniformly optimistic. For example, according to the theory of five different natures which the Consciousness Only school established around the fourth century in India, all living beings do not necessarily get enlightened. This particular school of Buddhism is not particularly optimistic, it must be recognized. However, some of the people who cannot achieve complete enlightenment as Buddhas can still become arhats and cause-awakened ones (pratyekabuddha), the highest achievements in Nikāya Buddhism. In addition, people possessing the [p103] very lowest nature, who cannot become such saints, can remain ordinary people who are reborn throughout the six realms without ever falling into an everlasting hell. Hence, even the theory of five different natures can be said to be considerably optimistic compared with monotheistic beliefs.
There are aspects of the optimistic soteriology of Buddhism other than the nonexistence of everlasting hell, which we have just been discussing. Let us consider some of them now.
The Eternal Buddha as the Savior
The first aspect of Buddhism's optimistic soteriology that I would like to consider is that the Buddha never enters nirvāna until he finishes saving all the living beings with whom he has religious connections. The historical Buddha, Śākyamuni , entered nirvāna at the age of eighty, but Mahayana Buddhism, which developed afterwards, generated many other Buddhas to assist living beings after his death. Also, the Lotus Sūtra devised its own concept of the eternal Śākyamuni Buddha, a new figure of the Buddha that developed out of the historical figure. In the Life Span of the Thus Come One Chapter, in response to a question by Maitreya Bodhisattva about the Bodhisattvas emerging from the earth, Śākyamuni Buddha explains that an incredibly long period of time (shown by the parable of numberless major world-system dust-particle kalpas, already discussed above) had passed since he originally attained enlightenment, and also that his future lifespan would be virtually unending. In other words, he clarifies his own identity as the eternal Buddha Śākyamuni , which is one of the core ideas of the Lotus Sūtra . The main points of the Life-span of the Thus Come One Chapter are that (1) Śākyamuni Buddha possesses an eternal lifespan; (2) his entry into nirvfu:1a is merely intended as an "expedient display"; and (3) the eternal Buddha will appear to persons of deep faith.
It is common knowledge that the monotheistic religions posit an eternal God. And it can be said that Buddhism acquired its deepest religious meaning only after the Lotus Sūtra established the idea of the eternal Buddha Śākyamuni .
The Attainment of Buddhahood by All People
The Buddha saves all living beings. If we consider this from the perspective of living beings themselves, we may paraphrase this to say that everyone has equal access to Buddhahood. This idea is expounded in the Lotus Sūtra in the concept of the "one Buddha vehicle." The attainment of Buddhahood by all people is the most important message of the Lotus[p104] Sūtra , and it is still a valuable idea in the present world. This idea was also manifested in the concept of the universal Buddha nature inherent in living beings, a teaching which is found in the Mahāyāna Nirvāna Sūtra .
The idea of the "one Buddha vehicle" of the Lotus Sūtra holds that the three vehicles expounded for voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, and bodhisattvas are only expedient and provisional teachings, intended to suit the respective capacities of these different categories of sages. The real truth, the Sūtra declares, is that everyone is equally able to attain Buddhahood. To explain this a bit more, following the story of the Lotus Sūtra , the concept of the "one Buddha vehicle" occurs in the context of the explanation that the Buddha appeared in the sahii world for one great purpose. Śākyamuni Buddha clarified his one great purpose immediately after the episode of the five thousand arrogant persons. What was it? It was to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings, to show Buddha wisdom to all living beings, to cause living beings to awaken to Buddha wisdom, and to induce living beings to enter the path of Buddha wisdom. Namely, the Buddha appeared in this world to make it so that living beings would attain Buddhahood. According to this doctrine, even the voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones-who gave up seeking the extraordinarily lofty goal of Buddhahood and settled on becoming arhats and pratyekabuddhas-can attain Buddhahood.
The passage explaining the Buddha's one great purpose is a direct expression of the "one Buddha vehicle" of the Lotus Sūtra , and as such is the most important religious message of the entire scripture. In the Simile and Parable Chapter, gods in the assembly said about this message, "In the past at VaraQasi the Buddha first turned the wheel of the Law. Now he turns the wheel again, the wheel of the unsurpassed, the greatest Law of all." (T9.12a; translation by Burton Watson, the Lotus Sūtra [New York: Columbia University Press, 1993], p. 54) This statement equates the Lotus Sūtra with the first turning of the wheel of the Law at Mrga-dāva of Vārānasi. On that earlier occasion, the Buddha accepted Brahma's request and went to Mrga-dāva to teach the five practitioners who had been his friends in religious training. The Buddha expounded the middle way transcending self-indulgence and self-mortification, the four noble truths, and the eightfold right path. This occasion is widely known as the first turning of the wheel of the Law; in contrast the "one Buddha vehicle" of the Expedient Means Chapter of the Lotus Sūtra is regarded as the second turning of the wheel of the unsurpassed Law.
[p105] The greatest religious message in the Lotus Sūtra, I think, is the idea of the "one Buddha vehicle" as expressed in such vividly dramatic form in the practice of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. The Bodhisattva Never Disparaging Chapter includes the following narrative. During the period of the Counterfeit Dharma of the very first Buddha in the series of twenty thousand million Buddhas, who bore the name King of Awesome Sound, monks of overbearing arrogance exercised great authority and power. At that time there was a bodhisattva monk by the name of Never Disparaging. Whatever people he happened to encounter, whether monks, nuns, laymen or laywomen, he would bow in obeisance to all of them and speak words of praise, saying a certain set of words. According to the Kumārajīva translation of the Lotus Sūtra, he would say, "I have profound reverence for you. I would never dare treat you with disparaging and arrogance. Why? Because you are all practicing the bodhisattva way and are certain to attain Buddhahood." (T 9.50c; Watson, p.266)
There is no phrase in the Sanskrit text corresponding to the "bow in obeisance" in the Kumārajīva translation. In the Sanskrit, Bodhisattva Never Disparaging merely utters the preceding words, with no mention of bowing to beings in obeisance. Despite this difference between the Kumārajīva translation and the Sanskrit text, the actions of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging express an attitude that attributes the utmost dignity to all humankind, bespeaking the possibility that all human beings will, without fail, become Buddhas if they practice the bodhisattva way. In other words, the scripture counsels us to respect all human beings equally as future Buddhas.
However, certain persons became exceedingly exercised over Bodhisattva Never Disparaging's bestowals of prophecy of future Buddhahood, since he was not yet a Buddha himself and thus had no recognizable power or authority to make such momentous statements. However, even though he was severely persecuted, he kept up this practice for his entire life. His dedication also represents a great revelation for us in the present age. His behavior indicates that· we should believe firmly in our own abilities to attain Buddhahood, and it conveys the idea that all other people are none other than potential Buddhas, all of whom have the ability to attain Buddhahood. What is important here is not a practice of offering something concrete to the other people, but rather the undertaking to teach us all to awaken to our own fundamental dignity. When I bow in obeisance to another person as Buddha, in response his Buddha nature bows in obeisance to me as Buddha-even though it has not yet manifested sufficiently in either of us. In other words, here the [p106] scripture establishes the idea that respecting other people is directly connected with the manifestation of own Buddha natures. The concept of peaceful coexistence is required by the age in which we live. In the Lotus Sūtra the idea of coexistence is based on the interdependent relationship between people, in which we mutually respect each other as beings of integrity, all of us with the prospect of attaining Buddhahood. The author of A Friend to One who Dwells in Solitude (Kankyo no tomo), Keisei (1189-1268), was a monk in the Jimon line of the Japanese Tendai school and the elder brother of the powerful aristocrat Kujō Michi'ie (1193-1252). The ninth tale in the first fascicle of A Friend to One who Dwells in Solitude bears the title, "The Story of an Old Monk from the East who emulated the bowing practice of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging." Keisei says of the meaning of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging's practice, "Generally speaking, the heart that embraces this behavior of refusing to belittle others perhaps bows to the fact that the Buddha nature exists deep within the chest of every living being. Deluded beings such as ourselves may not be directly aware of this principle, but even before we become enlightened we are fully endowed with Buddha nature, and there is no creature, even as seemingly lowly as an ant or a cricket, that deserves to be looked down upon. Even among the hells and the realms of hungry ghosts there is not a single being that does not possess the Buddha nature. Hence, if you are truly cognizant of this principle, you will not fail to respect even the lowly birds and beasts." So saying, Keisei infers that a slightly earlier historical example of a Japanese priest named Genjō shōnin, who bowed to birds and beasts, might have its foundation in the notion that even animals have the Buddha nature.
Moreover, having put his finger on the fact that spite and ridicule towards others will naturally disappear if we know that all beings have Buddha nature, Keisei cites the words of Fu Xi 1t~ (also known as the great being Shanhui, 497-569), "Night after night, I sleep in the embrace of the Buddha; morning after morning, I arise with the Buddha." Keisei found great inspiration in these words. The statement by Fu Xi shows that we who possess the Buddha nature are engaged with the Buddha in all our actions. If each and every person had the awareness of acting as a Buddha, how would the world change? I think cruel bullying at schools and office, as well as sexual and other types of harassment, cannot be fundamentally solved unless we awaken to the fundamental dignity of self and others.
In addition, the Lotus Sūtra says that everybody attains Buddhahood. What kind of existence is Buddhahood? The creator god of monotheistic [p107] religions tends to be described as some kind of superman. But here I would like to consider the "eighteen unshared properties," that is, qualities that only Buddhas possess. These eighteen include ten powers, four fearlessnesses, three kinds of tranquillity, and great pity. The ten powers are the powers of wisdom that Buddhas possess: (l) the power of distinguishing between what is true and what is not; (2) the power of knowing karmic cause and result; (3) the power of knowing all the stages of the various kinds of meditation practice; (4) the power of discerning the superiority or inferiority of all people's religious capacities; (5) the power of knowing people's various wishes; (6) the power of knowing the various realms in which beings exist; (7) the power of knowing in what realm people will be reborn; ( 8 ) the power of remembering the past lifetimes of himself and other people; (9) the power of knowing the death and birth of all people in the future; and (10) the power of knowing that all his earthly desires have been eradicated. The four fearlessnesses are four types of confidence: (I) fearlessness in declaring oneself to have obtained the highest and correct enlightenment; (2) fearlessness in declaring oneself to have extinguished all desires; (3) fearlessness in explaining about earthly desires to disciples; and (4) fearlessness in explaining about the way of extinguishing earthly desires to disciples. The three kinds of tranquility are three aspects of a Buddha's quality of serenity, that a Buddha's mind remains tranquil and undisturbed regardless of the approval, disapproval, or mixed reactions of his disciples listening to his preaching. Great pity is the unlimited compassion for people that a Buddha possesses.
The two main qualities of a Buddha are basically wisdom and compassion, as described in these eighteen unshared properties. Unshakeable confidence and imperturbability may be added to the basic qualities of wisdom and compassion. Since the importance of compassion might give an impression of gentleness, perhaps we should add courage to this list of basic qualities. "Exerting oneself bravely and vigorously," as given in the Expedient Means Chapter, represents in effect the practice of showing courage. Needless to say, many of the properties that a Buddha possesses are based on his realization of the truth. Here the word "truth" corresponds to "dharma" in Sanskrit. In short, understanding the truth, and the possession of wisdom, compassion, courage, confidence, imperturbability and so on, have been regarded as Buddha's properties throughout the history of Buddhism.
[p108] The New Interpretation of Rebirth: Valuing of the Real World
Next I would like to take up the new interpretation of Mahayana Buddhism concerning rebirth and emancipation. In the Nikāya Buddhism, practitioners aim to emancipate themselves from the world of rebirth and to enter nirvana by severing all earthly desires. In other words Nikāya Buddhism, according to this interpretation, regards rebirth and nirvana as two entirely different principles, with the former to be abandoned in favor of the latter. Buddhism is often criticized as a pessimistic religion, and this negative appraisal might capture this aspect of the Nikāya Buddhist worldview.
However, Mahayana Buddhism developed an affirmative evaluation of this world of rebirth as a place where people practice the way of the bodhisattva. According to the Teacher of the Law Chapter, those who embrace faith in the Lotus Sūtra after the passing of the Buddha are believed to have already attained true enlightenment in their past lives, and yet out of deep compassion they relinquish the fruits of their good karma and voluntarily choose to be born in this evil world to propagate the Lotus Sūtra for the sake of all sentient beings. This is the concept underlying the characteristics of the Bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth.
Moreover, this idea is clearly manifested in the core idea of the Lotus Sūtra that the eternal Buddha Śākyamuni does not enter nirvaQ.a, but remains in the saha world, preaching on Eagle Peak so as to save living beings. According to the Life-span of the Thus Come One Chapter, the eternal Buddha Śākyamuni 's location on Eagle Peak is a place where living beings are happy and at ease. This description led to the concept of the "pure land of Eagle Peak." At the same time there arose the idea that the saha world is in itself the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light, that is, that this seemingly impure land is in itself a pure land. It would be pointless were this idea to only philosophical speculation by aristocrats isolated from the hardships of real life. On the contrary, the teaching that the real world is a place where human beings can be happy and at ease should encourage us to reconstruct our own society as such a world.