"Excuse me, Buddha, but..."

On page 109 of the Lotus Sutra*, Shakyamuni Buddha says:

I am the Dharma king,

free to do as I will with the Law.

My response is: “Except violate it.” Would I actually say such a thing, were I fortunate enough to be in the presence of the World-Honored One? You bet. In fact, I believe the Buddha would have welcomed such a response since he wouldn't have had any use for sissies who just go along without questioning.

The Three Treasures of Buddhism

Buddhists are supposed to take refuge in the three treasures, which are, generally speaking:

• The Buddha

• The Law

• The Buddhist Order

The Nichiren Shoshu Temple agrees with the first two, substituting this for the third: the Treasure of the Priest or, more broadly speaking, the Treasure of the Nichiren Shoshu Temple's Priesthood. How crass, in light of these words from page 201 as spoken by Shakyamuni Buddha:

QUOTE:

Medicine King, if there should be an evil person who, his mind destitute of goodness, should for the space of a kalpa appear in the presence of the Buddha and constantly curse and revile the Buddha, that person's offense would still be rather light. But if there were a person who spoke only one evil word to curse or defame the lay persons or monks or nuns who read and recite the Lotus Sutra, then his offense would be very grave.

Medicine King, these people who read and recite the Lotus Sutra – you should understand that these people adorn themselves with the adornments of the Buddha; they are borne upon the shoulders of the thus come one.

:UNQUOTE.

I am such a lay person, who highlighted “lay persons” above in yellow. The passage doesn't say, “...or defame the priests who read and recite the Lotus Sutra...” So I take exception to being excluded as one of the treasures of Buddhism by this Temple. I have recited the Lotus Sutra well over 150 times, that being a central feature of my practice. As for that – if I heard of someone who read this text “well over 150 times,” I would seek him out and question him. So far, the world hasn't come beating a path to my door. Which is okay but I don't mind saying, I find the silence deafening.

The One Treasure of Buddhism

In both lists of the Three Treasures cited above, the Buddha appears at the top. In my personal list, I consider the Law (aka Dharma) to be of primary importance. There are times when there is no Buddha in the world. But there are never times when there is no Law in the world. I know the Buddha had spoken of risks that the Law would perish. But I'm sure he said that to spur the Buddhist Order into action.

Chapter 7 speaks of the time when the buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence attained buddhahood. That was at a time when there wasn't a single Buddha present in the entire universe. But that should not have been a source of undue concern, since the Lotus Sutra speaks of buddhas who have “passed into extinction” - that is, who exert an influence though not manifesting a material form.

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Steven Searle, just another member of the

Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and

former candidate for President of the USA (in 2008 & 2012)

Contact me at bpa_cinc @ yahoo.com

Footnote:

Lotus Sutra* - In today's post, all of my citations from this highly-esteemed text of Mahayana Buddhism come from the version translated into English by Burton Watson, and published and copyrighted by the Soka Gakkai in 2009, bearing the title:

The Lotus Sutra and its opening and closing sutras