Buddha Lokeshvararajah, the Leader of Kings,
The Repository of the Dharma of mendicant monks,
The World-honored One,
Having practiced for many hundreds of kalpas,
Attained supreme, immaculate, intuitive wisdom.

Oh, You who stand now to His right,
Now to His left,
Fanning the Leader, Buddha Amitabha,
Oh, You who are likened to an illusion,
To You in a state of concentration
Do the Victorious Ones in all the fields go,
There to do You Honor.

In the Western region is the blissful realm,
The Pure Land of Sukhavati,
Where this Leader, Buddha Amitabha
Stands plain to view,
The Caravan-chief of all living beings.

There is no birth as women in that land,
Nor any dharma of copulation whatever,
But those born of the Victorious One are self-produced,
Seated spotless in the center of lotus-flowers.

That Leader, Amitabha Buddha too,
In the immaculate appealing center of a lotus-flower,
Seated on a lion throne,
Glows like a king in his court.

He, too, is thus the Leader of the world,
Who has not his like in this triple existence;
For the accumulated merit of his praise
May I quickly become like You,
Oh supreme among all beings!

Introductory Notes by Richard St. Clair

The Lotus Sutra is a large Mahayana scripture which scholars today seem to feel was compiled in four strata, between sometime in the 1st century B.C.E. and about 150 C.E. in India. Recognized for centuries by many Mahayana schools as containing the summit of the Buddha Shakyamuni's teaching about supreme enlightenment and buddhahood, the sutra itself represents the craftmanship of many pious Buddhist writers and translators over the centuries. The Mahayana line of Buddhism is predicated upon a desire to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. This desire is called "bodhicitta," and the path it denotes is the bodhisattva path. The Lotus Sutra has much to say about the bodhisattva path, but on matters of doctrine its comments are largely in summary form and assume knowledge of a great depth of Mahayana doctrine, particularly the Theravada canon and the Prajnaparamita scriptures.

What is striking to many about the Lotus Sutra is the radical emphasis on devotion and faith, noting that the path to buddhahood is not restricted to those who practiced monastic auterities but to those who worship the buddha (or buddhas) in a number of ways. Here is where the Mahayana decisively splits away from the Theravada school, in which faith is scarcely mentioned and is often regarded with suspicion. But ancient India was for millennia a land dominated by ritualistic religion (Vedic, Brahmanical) and it was not unnatural that Buddhism would incorporate these practices and attitudes. In fact, wherever Buddhism has gone, it has adapted to the indigenous culture. This practice is highly praised in Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, which guarantees that all such paths will eventually lead the practicer to buddhahood.

The Lotus Sutra does not appear to have become a central object of faith/practice in India as it did in China and later in Japan. In China, it was elevated to most-favored-sutra status by the efforts of the Buddhist monk, T'ien-t'ai (a.k.a. Chih-i, Chih-yi, Chigi, Chih-chi), late in the 6th century C.E., together with his pupil Miao-lo. It was transmitted thence to Japan by the Japanese monk, Dengyo (Saicho) in the 8th century C.E. It became the cornerstone of the first formal constitution of medieval Japan, used by Prince Shotoku, and for centuries thereafter was the most revered sutra in that land. The Tendai faith in Japan (based on the teachings of T'ien-t'ai) saw the Lotus Sutra as the foundation of their practice together with faith in Amida Buddha as the key to rebirth in the Pure Land after death, where enlightenment would occur.

In mid-13th century Japan, an outspoken Tendai monk named Nichiren established a school of Buddhism founded upon the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren felt he had unlocked the key to the Lotus Sutra by interpreting the title of the Sutra as emblematic of its entire meaning. His insisting upon exclusion of all Buddhist practices other than devotion to the Lotus Sutra was controversial and caused an unbreachable rift with his parent Tendai sect, forcing him to found his own sect, which he called Hokkekyo-shu (Dharma-Flower-Sutra Sect). There are today over thirty sects and sub-sects of Nichiren style Buddhism, some bearing his name, each with a different interpretation of Nichiren's teachings, but each claiming lineage from the Hokkekyo-shu and Nichiren himself. Some are intensely doctrinaire and evangelistic while others are low-profile and virtually undoctrinal to the point of doing little else than chanting as Nichiren advocated on the force of sheer devotion alone.

Various Mahayana traditions consider Shakyamuni as one in an succession of buddhas, while there is an "eternal buddha" of whom the various specific buddhas are "emanations." The Lotus Sutra is traditionally interpreted as defining the "Eternal Buddha" to be none other than Shakyamuni. The "I" which Shakyamuni refers to in the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sutra is, however, a Buddha who attained enlightenment at a fixed point in time. The sutra reads, "Since I attained Buddhahood...." and then describes the inconceivable (by human standards) amount of time since that enlightenment occured. The Pure Land school sometimes regards the Buddha Amida (also known by the names Amitabha, Amitayus, Amita, and Amito) in the same way, and the Kegon or Flower-Garland school regards the Buddha Vairocana as the eternal Buddha. Whichever is true is unimportant. The Buddha Shakyamuni said, "Where you see the Dharma, you see me." This can also be said of every Buddha.

The Lotus Sutra was originally written in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, the name of the Lotus Sutra is "Saddharma Pundarika Sutra". It was translated several times into Chinese ca. 3rd-5th centuries C.E. The most famous and most highly regarded of these translations was by the Chinese, Kumarajiva (died c. 406 C.E.), who translated a great number of other Buddhist sutras and writings as well. Most if not all of the English translations currently available are based upon Kumarajiva's translation, as are the translations at this web site.

Five key chapters - 2, 14, 16, 21 and 23 - are presented here in their entirety. Chapter 2 extols the One Vehicle of all Buddhist practice and represents the revelation of the Lotus Sutra as the highest evolution of the Dharma. [The One Vehicle concept is also found in the Nirvana Sutra (Mahayana version).] Chapter 14 is the portion of the sutra dealing with actual practice and attitude befitting a bodhisattva and representative of the Lotus Sutra. It lays out a four-part scheme to aid the bodhisattva (1) in establishing the healthiest and most effective relationships within and outside the sangha, (2) in meditation, (3) in keeping tolerant attitudes towards other Buddhist faiths, and (4) in aspiring to buddhahood in order to use one's powers of buddhahood to literally draw beings towards enlightenment.

This last vow upholds the central Mahayana concept of the power of accumulated and transferred merit - namely, that one's efforts towards enlightenment, once fulfilled, can palpably benefit other beings. This is the most basic assumption of Pure Land Buddhism , the greatest example of a Buddha's transferred merit being that of Amida Buddha, faith in whom assures birth in the Pure Land (Sukhavati) and enlightenment or Nirvana. This is described in brief in the Shorter Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra and is expounded in full detail in the Larger Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra. In the Lotus Sutra's 23rd Chapter on the Deed of the Medicine-King Bodhisattva, the Pure Land of Amida Buddha is described as the next birth for women and men who joyfully accept the accounting of that bodhisattva in the 23rd chapter.

It is clear especially in the 14th chapter that the main thrust of the Lotus Sutra is for the elite of highly-attained bodhisattvas in the closing Dharma-age (Mappo), to clarify their practice and to demonstrate the unity of the Buddha Dharma behind the facade of seemingly infinite diversity of 'practices' (upaya). The 2nd chapter, by comparison, upholds the efficacy of even the simplest of devotionalism or faith in the Buddha to succeed in attaining the Buddha Way - even by calling on the Buddha's Name, which is the core of Pure Land faith. This is the 'split' in the apparent conflict of practice versus faith that has caused a misreading of the Lotus Sutra through the centuries. One need not be a bodhisattva-mahasattva in order to find comfort and assurance in the Lotus Sutra, for all paths of the Dharma are proclaimed to be valid.

The 16th chapter is held by some to be a 'proof text' asserting that the Buddha Shakyamuni is "eternal" and hence the "original" Buddha. In the first gatha, however, Shakyamuni Buddha starts with the phrase "Since I became Buddha," telling of how incredibly many aeons it has been, yet clearly stating that his enlightenment came at some finite point in the past. The 16th chapter is an expounding of the ultimate devotion Shakyamuni Buddha has towards the liberation of all beings in his world system. His "constant thought" is how to lead all people to buddhahood.

The 21st chapter is brief and expounds the transcendent powers of all Buddhas. It also pays reverence to Buddha Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha of our world-system, for expounding the Dharma in this Sutra. However, the 23rd Chapter, describing the amazing long history of the Bodhisattva Medicine-King's sacrifices on behalf of the Dharma, is aimed toward assuring birth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha (called Amitayus in this chapter, the attribute of Amida which refers to eternal life). This chapter itself is viewed in the way that the Nembutsu is viewed in the Pure Land tradition proper. Faith in and joyful acceptance of the Medicine-King Bodhisattva's story will guarantee women and men that they will be born in their next life in the Land of Bliss, or Sukhavati - the Pure Land of Amida Buddha. Buddha Shakyamuni expounded many ways that people can attain birth in the Pure Land of Amida, but of all the Buddhas Amida is singled out as the one to whose land one should aspire. The reasons for Amida Buddha's qualifications and high regard by Buddha Shakyamuni is briefly explained in the Shorter Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra , and detailed at length in the Larger Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra.

The elimination of doubt as the essential element for enlightenment is expounded by 6th Patriarch of Zen, Hui-neng (early 8th c. China) in the Platform Sutra - the only Chinese-origin sutra in the entire Mahayana canon. Hui-neng said to a seeker:

"... you are very proficient in the Dharma but your mind is not proficient.
You may have no doubts in so far as the sutras are concerned,
[but your mind itself doubts].
You are searching for the true Dharma with falsehood in your mind.
If your own mind were correct and fixed,
you would be a man who has taken the sutra to himself."

Elimination of doubt is one thing. Faith approaches the same matter in a positive or pro-active sense. Faith is the essential teaching of Shinran Shonin, regarded as the founder of the Jodo Shinshu, or True Teaching of the Pure Land Way, otherwise called Shin Buddhism. By faith, one closes the circle of the Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings: in the first phase, one learns the Buddha Dharma by practices, and in the second phase, one transcends the practices through faith.

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