Chapter 12 · The Road of Carrying the Sutra — Six Closing Chapters and Never-Disparaging

Part Three · Contemplation and Practice

A sutra has been read to its end. What then? Do you close the book and return to a separate life, or does a road lead outward from the final page? The Lotus answers that question itself. It writes the answer into the last chapters of the sutra. The opening heart-essence of this edition characterizes them in these words:

The final six chapters add no higher abstraction. They ask how the sutra is to remain alive in the world: through Medicine King's offering, Wonderful Sound's manifestations, Guanshiyin's rescue from peril, dhāraṇī protection, the transforming work of a good spiritual friend, and Universally Worthy's encouragement. 〔本版《法華》卷首心要〕

The ancient masters classified the passage. Jizang gives it in one sentence: 「From here begins the second part: the bodhisattvas receive the command and proclaim and circulate the sutra; hence the arrival of the ‘Medicine King’ chapter and the rest」 〔《法華義疏》T34n1721 0619c22·待譯·誌〕. They receive the command and proclaim it. By this point in the sutra, the person reading has received a charge. This chapter examines three things: one person, Never Disparaging; one entrustment, in “Supernormal Powers” and “Entrustment”; and one road, the six chapters and four dharmas.

1 · Never Disparaging — The Archetype of Carrying the Sutra

What does it look like to carry the sutra? The first example given by the text is not a high seat for teaching Dharma but a monk who bows to everyone he meets. In the “Bodhisattva Never Disparaging” chapter, during the age of the Semblance Dharma after Buddha King Awesome Sound has passed into extinction, a bodhisattva-monk bows to and praises everyone he sees—monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen—and says only one thing:

「I deeply revere all of you and dare not slight you. Why is this? You are all practicing the bodhisattva path and shall attain buddhahood.」 〔羅什譯《妙法蓮華經·常不輕菩薩品》·T09n0262 0050c19–20·本版《法華》譯注品二十〕 『I deeply revere all of you and dare not slight you. Why is this? You are all practicing the bodhisattva path and shall attain buddhahood.』〔本版譯注品二十·白話層〕

Some among the fourfold assembly become angry and revile him. This continues for years, yet Never Disparaging does not become angry:

「When he said these words, some people struck him or hurled wooden staves, tiles, and stones at him. He dodged them, ran away, and stood at a distance, yet still cried out in a loud voice: 『I dare not slight any of you. You shall all become buddhas.』」 〔同品·0050c28–0051a01〕 『When he said these words, some people struck him or hurled wooden staves, tiles, and stones at him. He dodged them, ran away, and stood at a distance, yet still cried out in a loud voice: 「I dare not slight any of you. You shall all become buddhas.」』〔本版譯注品二十·白話層〕

He does not specialize in reading and reciting scriptures but practices bowing. The first archetype of carrying the sutra is thus a person who scarcely teaches at all: what he carries is the sutra's central sentence, that every person shall attain buddhahood. When stones fly, he retreats beyond their reach and still finishes calling out the sentence. For this he receives the name 「Never Disparaging.」 At the end of his life he hears the Lotus Sutra formerly taught by Buddha King Awesome Sound, attains purification of the six faculties, and teaches it widely to others. The whole account is in the annotated Chapter 20.

2 · Entrustment — The Charge Given with a Hand on the Crown

Carrying the sutra is not a reader volunteering on private initiative. The Buddha places it directly in others' hands. In the “Supernormal Powers of the Tathāgata” chapter, after displaying his powers, the Buddha summarizes this sutra:

「To state the essential point: all the dharmas possessed by the Tathāgata, all the Tathāgata's free and unobstructed supernormal powers, all the Tathāgata's treasuries of secret essentials, and all the Tathāgata's exceedingly profound matters are proclaimed, revealed, made clear, and taught in this sutra.」 〔同經·如來神力品·0052a17–20·本版譯注品二十一〕 『To state the essential point: all the dharmas possessed by the Tathāgata, all the Tathāgata’s free and unobstructed supernormal powers, all the Tathāgata’s treasuries of secret essentials, and all the Tathāgata’s exceedingly profound matters are proclaimed, revealed, made clear, and taught in this sutra.』〔本版譯注品二十一·白話層〕

It also makes a promise about the place where the sutra is upheld:

「You should know that this very place is the place of awakening. Here the buddhas attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening; here the buddhas turn the Dharma-wheel; and here the buddhas enter parinirvāṇa.」 〔同品·0052a25–27〕 『You should know that this very place is the place of awakening. Here the buddhas attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening (anuttarā-samyaksaṃbodhi); here the buddhas turn the Dharma-wheel (proclaiming the true Dharma); and here the buddhas enter parinirvāṇa (complete extinction).』〔本版譯注品二十一·白話層〕

A garden, a forest, beneath a tree, a monastic dwelling, a layperson's home, a hall, a mountain valley, or open wilderness—the sutra lists all seven. Wherever the scripture is present is the place of awakening. In the sutra's own words, the table on which you place the book belongs on this list. In the next chapter, “Entrustment,” the Buddha rises from the Dharma seat, strokes the crowns of immeasurable bodhisattvas three times with his right hand, and says:

「Through immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of incalculably long aeons, I have cultivated this difficult-to-encounter Dharma of unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening. I now entrust it to you. You should spread this Dharma single-mindedly, causing it to increase and bring benefit far and wide.」 〔同經·囑累品·0052c05–08·本版譯注品二十二〕 『Through immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of incalculably long aeons, I have cultivated this difficult-to-encounter Dharma of unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening. I now entrust it to you. You should spread this Dharma single-mindedly, causing it to increase and bring benefit far and wide.』〔本版譯注品二十二·白話層〕

A hand upon the crown, the words repeated three times, the entrustment: this is the ceremony by which the whole sutra is handed over. In Chapter 2, Huisi places the Dharma in Zhiyi's hands and says, 「Do not become the last person, the one who cuts off the seed.」 That entrustment from master to disciple has its source in the Buddha's hand in this chapter. The next six chapters are the road walked after receiving the command.

3 · The Road of Six Chapters, and the Four Dharmas

The six chapters each walk one face of the road: Medicine King through the offering of austerity, Wonderful Sound through manifested bodies, Guanshiyin through rescue from danger, the dhāraṇīs through protection, King Wondrous Adornment through the transforming work of a good spiritual friend, and Universally Worthy through encouragement at the close of the sutra—just as the opening heart-essence characterizes them. The source text, vernacular, and textual study for each are in annotated Chapters 23 through 28. In the final chapter, “Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universally Worthy,” Universally Worthy asks the Buddha: how can one obtain this sutra after his passing? The Buddha answers with four dharmas:

「If good men and good women accomplish four dharmas, they shall obtain this Lotus Sutra after the Tathāgata has passed into extinction. First, they are protected and kept in mind by the buddhas. Second, they plant the roots of many virtues. Third, they enter the class fixed in rightness. Fourth, they arouse the resolve to save all living beings.」 〔同經·普賢菩薩勸發品·0061a18–21·本版譯注品二十八〕 『If good men and good women accomplish four dharmas, they shall obtain this Lotus Sutra after the Tathāgata has passed into extinction. First, they are protected and kept in mind by the buddhas. Second, they plant the roots of many virtues—the foundations of merit. Third, they enter the class fixed in rightness—the class decisively tending toward right awakening. Fourth, they arouse the resolve to save all living beings.』〔本版譯注品二十八·白話層〕

The path to obtaining the sutra has four branches: being protected and kept in mind by the buddhas, planting the roots of many virtues, entering the class fixed in rightness, and arousing the resolve to save all living beings. At the end of the reading, the sutra tells you 『what it means to obtain me.』 It is not on a shelf. It is in these four dharmas.

4 · Bowing and Departing

The final sentence of the entire sutra says:

「When the Buddha finished teaching this sutra, the bodhisattvas, including Universally Worthy; the śrāvakas, including Śāriputra; devas, dragons, humans, nonhumans, and the entire great assembly all rejoiced exceedingly. They received and upheld the Buddha's words, bowed, and departed.」 〔同品·0062a27–29〕 『When the Buddha finished teaching this sutra, the bodhisattvas, including Universally Worthy; the śrāvakas, including Śāriputra; devas, dragons, humans, nonhumans, and the entire great assembly all rejoiced exceedingly. They received and upheld the Buddha's words, bowed, and departed.』〔本版譯注品二十八·白話層〕

Departed—the assembly disperses, and each person carries the sutra into a different world. This school exposition has three parts and twelve chapters, and this is the last. Chapter 0 asked 『how a sutra can be read into a road.』 By this point you have seen the whole shape of that road: three chapters of sources and formation, four of teaching, and four of contemplation and practice. The sutra itself has stated what remains to be done in the four dharmas. The annotated translation of all twenty-eight chapters waits on the shelf for you to read one chapter at a time. When the reading is complete, close the book, bow, and depart.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏