妙法蓮華經玄義 序王

Why must the lotus flower fall after it has opened? If the flower does not open, the lotus fruit cannot appear; if the flower never falls, people see only the flower.

The Buddha establishes various skillful means like a flower opening for the sake of the lotus fruit. Skillful means are not a needless detour, because sentient beings cannot yet enter the Wondrous Dharma directly; yet they are not the destination, because every path was always meant to reveal the real. Thus the flower opens: the provisional gate opens, and the true mark appears. The flower falls: attachment to skillful means is released, and the lotus fruit ripens.

The same lotus blossom also illuminates Origin and Trace. Buddhahood attained in the remote past is the Origin; leaving home and attaining the path in recent times is the Trace. The Trace descends from the Origin and is not a rootless illusion. At first, sentient beings see only the flower and think the Buddha has only now attained the path. When the flower unfolds and the lotus fruit appears, they see the Origin in the remote past. When the flower falls and the fruit ripens, the proximate Trace no longer obscures the original ground.

The six similes are therefore not six theories, but two aspects of a single movement of disclosure: in the teaching, the real is revealed through the provisional; in the Buddha's body, the Origin is revealed through the Trace. The conjured city can provide temporary rest, but it is not the treasure place. The grass hut can offer temporary lodging, but it is not the family estate. When skillful means have fulfilled their task, they are not cast aside in disgrace; they have delivered people to the place they always indicated.

The heart-essence of the lotus blossom is that neither opening nor falling can be omitted. If one wants only the flower and does not see the fruit, skillful means become an attachment. If one wants only the fruit and refuses to let the flower open, the real has no gate of entry. True wondrousness does not stand outside skillful means; it lets skillful means live for the sake of the real through establishment, opening, and relinquishment.

Opening the Meaning of the Whole Sutra through Its Title

“Wondrous” means that the principle indicated by this name is inconceivable. “Dharma” means the dharmas of the ten realms, the ten suchnesses, the provisional, and the real. “Lotus blossom” uses the lotus and its flower to illustrate the dharmas of the provisional and the real.

Precisely because the Wondrous Dharma is profound and difficult to understand, it becomes easier to reveal through similes. The lotus blossom can illustrate many meanings; here only the two great divisions before and after in the sutra are taken in brief, forming six similes.

The First Three Similes: The Provisional and the Real

First, the flower opens for the sake of the lotus fruit. This illustrates how the Buddha establishes provisional skillful means for the sake of the real Dharma. The sutra means that the Buddha knows the principle of the foremost quiescence and extinction, yet through the power of skillful means displays various paths. Although he manifests various different paths, their actual purpose remains the sole Buddha Vehicle. The flower opens for the sake of the lotus fruit; skillful means are likewise established for the sake of the real.

Second, the flower's unfolding illustrates opening the provisional; the lotus fruit's appearance illustrates revealing the real. The sutra means: open the gate of skillful means and show the mark of the real. Once the gate originally taught through skillful means has been opened, one can see within the provisional the real that it was meant to reveal.

Third, the flower's falling illustrates abandoning attachment to the provisional; the lotus fruit's ripening illustrates establishing the real. The sutra means: straightforwardly set aside skillful means and teach only the unsurpassed path. This does not deny that skillful means performed a guiding function. It means that when the real has been fully revealed, skillful means are no longer taken as ultimate.

The Final Three Similes: Origin and Trace

The lotus fruit can further illustrate the Origin, and the flower can illustrate the Trace. The Trace is manifested downward from the Origin, and the Trace that is shown is also established in dependence on the Origin.

First, the flower's opening for the sake of the lotus fruit also illustrates manifesting the Trace downward from the Origin. The sutra means: it has in fact been an immensely long time since I attained buddhahood; only to teach and transform sentient beings did I make this statement: “When young, I left home and attained complete awakening.” Buddhahood attained in the remote past is the Origin; manifesting departure from home while young and attainment of the path in the present is the Trace. The Trace descends from the Origin; it is not some separate event apart from it.

Second, the flower's unfolding illustrates opening the Trace; the lotus fruit's appearance illustrates revealing the Origin. The sutra means: all beings in the world think that I have only now begun to attain the path; in fact, since I attained buddhahood, immeasurable and boundless nayuta kalpas have passed. Sentient beings originally saw only the Trace of recent attainment; by opening the Trace, they now see the Origin in the remote past.

Third, the flower's falling illustrates abandoning the Trace as ultimate; the lotus fruit's ripening illustrates establishing the Origin. The sutra means: the Dharma of all buddha-tathāgatas is entirely like this; all manifestations made to liberate sentient beings are real and not false. When the proximate Trace no longer obscures the original ground, everything revealed is a real event.

The Sutra's Entire Work of Teaching Gathered into the Six Similes

Therefore, the sutra's title first sets forth the Wondrous Dharma and then uses the lotus blossom as a simile. It sweeps away sentient beings' attachment to the provisional teaching of the conjured city and discards the stagnant feeling of the poor son, who stays in the grass hut and refuses to advance. It opens the provisional gate of skillful means and reveals the wondrous principle of the real. It gathers the lesser practices among the various wholesome deeds into the vast One Vehicle. Those of superior, middling, and inferior faculties all ultimately receive the Buddha's prediction.

The sutra also discloses the provisional skillful means established by the noble ones to liberate sentient beings and reveals the originally hidden and subtle reality of the remote original ground. Sentient beings thereby increase the path and diminish birth and death, reaching a stage close to great awakening. Throughout this period of teaching and guidance, both phenomena and principle come to completion. Here lies the purport of the six lotus-blossom similes.

“Sutra” and the Sovereign Preface

“Sutra” is called sūtra in the foreign land and is the general name for all sacred teachings. Questions of whether this name is translated or left untranslated will be explained later.

The recorder Guanding explains: “Sovereign Preface” means a preface that narrates this sutra's profound and wondrous purport. That purport appears at the core of the sutra, and the sutra's core does not go beyond Trace and Origin. When one looks up and contemplates this purport, its many meanings become lucid and distinct, each recognizable in its place.

“Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma” narrates the sutra's name; revealing the wondrous principle of the real narrates the sutra's substance; gathering all into the vast One Vehicle narrates its purport; sweeping away attachment to the teaching of the conjured city narrates its function; the completion of this period of teaching and guidance narrates the characteristics of the teaching; and the six similes of the lotus blossom narrate Trace and Origin. Though the preface is brief, its meaning is comprehensive.

Why is one lotus blossom spoken of six times? The sutra title has only five graphs, yet the Sovereign Preface does not hurry past it as a mere name. “Wondrous” means inconceivable; “Dharma” includes the ten realms, the ten suchnesses, the provisional, and the real; the lotus blossom makes the difficult dharmas of the provisional and the real visible through opening, falling, appearing, and ripening. Why, then, does the same lotus blossom not form a single simile but six?

The answer lies in the relation between flower and fruit. The flower is not merely praise, nor does the lotus fruit merely symbolize purity. The flower grows for the fruit; when the flower opens, the fruit appears; when the flower falls, the fruit ripens. These three movements first explain the provisional and the real, then turn to explain Origin and Trace. The image has not changed, but the relation it reveals moves from how a teaching leads people into the real to how the Buddha's body reveals the Origin through the Trace.

If the Wondrous Dharma Is Difficult, Why Begin with a Flower?

The Wondrous Dharma is difficult not because it deliberately hides itself, but because the provisional and the real cannot be cut into two things isolated from one another. If the provisional is regarded as merely false, one cannot understand why the Buddha establishes it. If the real is regarded merely as a final statement, one cannot understand how sentient beings are led there. The lotus blossom allows both to be seen in a single living process: flower and fruit depend on each other and unfold in sequence; they have different functions, yet are not two plants.

Thus the preface first sets forth the Wondrous Dharma and then presents the lotus blossom. The Dharma is what must be understood; the simile makes it manifest. The simile does not add another esoteric doctrine to the Dharma. It turns a relation difficult to grasp all at once into a series of movements: for the sake of, unfolding, appearing, falling, and ripening. By following these movements, the reader can see that the provisional and the real are not static classifications, but the way teaching begins, discloses, and comes to completion.

The First Simile: The Flower Opens for the Fruit; Skillful Means Are Established for the Real

The first simile does not begin by asking whether the flower is beautiful, but what the flower is for. “The flower for the sake of the lotus” shows that the establishment of provisional skillful means has a direction from the outset. The Buddha knows the foremost quiescence and extinction, yet through the power of skillful means shows various paths; amid the many, the true purpose is the Buddha Vehicle. Skillful means are not a side road departing from the real. They are the roads on which the real unfolds so that sentient beings may enter.

This simile preserves both sides. If one sees only the various paths, the Buddha Vehicle is lost amid their differences. If one speaks only of the single Buddha Vehicle, one may deny the varied guidance sentient beings presently require. The flower opens because of the fruit: this neither turns the flower into the destination nor denies the flower's necessity because the fruit is the purpose.

The Second Simile: The Flower Unfolds and the Fruit Appears; Opening Does Not Exchange One Dharma for Another

The second simile moves from purpose to appearance. Only as the flower unfolds does the lotus fruit become visible; only as the gate of skillful means opens can the mark of the real be shown. Opening the provisional does not demolish the existing teaching and bring in a different truth. It sees, as the provisional is opened, the real toward which it had always pointed.

Opening therefore has two movements: it loosens closed attachment to the surface of skillful means, and it indicates the place within those means where the real can be seen. If it performs only the first, nothing remains but negation. If it performs only the second without opening the gate, the real remains sealed outside the provisional teaching. The flower's unfolding and the fruit's appearing happen together, so that breaking attachment and revealing the real are not separated.

The Third Simile: The Flower Falls and the Fruit Ripens; What Is Abandoned Is Attachment, Not the Buddha's Words

The third simile is the easiest to misread as rejection. The falling flower illustrates abandoning the provisional; the ripening fruit illustrates establishing the real. The sutra says to straightforwardly set aside skillful means and speak only the unsurpassed path. If abandonment means that the preceding teaching was entirely wrong, the first simile—establishing the provisional for the real—loses its meaning. The flower opened for the fruit and falls only after fulfilling its function. What is relinquished is the attachment that fixes the flower as the fruit, not the flower's former protection and guidance.

Nor does the ripening of the fruit mean that the real comes into being from nothing. The real has always been the purpose for which skillful means were established; here it is simply no longer concealed by the provisional gate. The three steps of establishment, opening, and relinquishment therefore preserve one another. Without establishment, sentient beings have no gate through which to enter. Without opening, skillful means are mistaken for the ultimate. Without relinquishment, the provisional already opened may be grasped once again.

Why Do the Same Three Movements Speak Again of Origin and Trace?

After the first three similes, the preface says that the lotus again illustrates the Origin and the flower again illustrates the Trace. This word “again” shifts the level of reading: the preceding question concerned the provisional and the real in the teaching; the later question concerns Origin and Trace in the Buddha's body. The flower still exists in dependence on the fruit, and the Trace is likewise not established apart from the Origin. Manifesting the Trace downward from the Origin is therefore not producing a false body from nothing, but the Origin manifesting a visible Trace to teach and transform.

The fourth simile first speaks of the Origin—buddhahood attained in the remote past—and then of the Trace of leaving home while young and attaining awakening in the present. The Trace is not an isolated event but a statement made by the Origin for the sake of sentient beings. The fifth says that all beings in the world think the Buddha has only now begun to attain the path; once the Trace is opened, buddhahood attained in the remote past appears. The sixth says that the Dharma of all buddha-tathāgatas is like this, and that every manifestation made to liberate sentient beings is real and not false. When the proximate Trace is no longer grasped as ultimate, the Origin is established.

The latter three similes correspond to the first three: manifesting the Trace resembles the flower opening for the fruit; opening the Trace resembles the flower unfolding and the fruit appearing; relinquishing the Trace resembles the flower falling and the fruit ripening. Yet Origin and Trace are not merely new names for the provisional and the real. The first three concern how teaching leads toward the real; the latter three concern how the buddha of the remote Origin becomes visible to sentient beings through the proximate Trace. The same image preserves the structure; the different referents preserve the levels.

Why Must the Six Similes Return to the Conjured City, the Grass Hut, and Prediction?

When the six similes are complete, the preface does not stop at the image of the lotus blossom but carries it back into the entire sutra. The conjured city is a place of temporary rest along the journey; if it is grasped as the destination, that attachment must be swept away. The grass hut is where the poor son contents himself outside the gate; if he remains stuck there, it must be abandoned. The gate of skillful means is opened, the wondrous principle of the real is shown, the many lesser wholesome deeds are gathered into the vast One Vehicle, and those of superior, middling, and inferior faculties all receive predictions.

This series of conclusions shows that the six similes do not concern only how the Buddha teaches; they also concern how sentient beings attach, open, and return. Attachment to the conjured city rests in the teaching, while stagnation in the grass hut rests in feeling. On one side, guidance is mistaken for the destination; on the other, people do not dare to accept the great Dharma as their own. Disclosure does more than exchange one view for another. It lets people of differing faculties advance from the places where each has stopped toward the One Vehicle.

Next, the provisional skillful means of the noble ones are disclosed, the hidden subtlety of the original ground is revealed, the path increases as birth and death diminish, and the stage reached neighbors great awakening. Throughout this period of guidance, phenomena and principle are both complete. Only here is the lotus blossom's meaning whole: it speaks both of disclosing the Dharma gate and of disclosing the Buddha's Origin; both of how the teacher establishes means and of how those taught release their clinging and stagnation.

Why Does the Recorder List Five Topics Again at the End?

The Great Master's preface ends with the word “sutra”: it is the general name for the sacred teachings, while questions of translation and nontranslation are left for the later explanation. Guanding then explains that, although the preface appears only to explain the sutra title, it has actually placed the sutra's name, substance, purport, function, characteristics of the teaching, and Origin and Trace within its short compass.

The Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma is the name; the wondrous principle of the real is the substance; the vast One Vehicle is the purport; sweeping away attachment to the conjured city is the function; the completion of one period of guidance is the teaching; and the six similes narrate Origin and Trace. This is not a rewriting of the preceding passage, but an invitation to turn back and examine it. Every topic was already at work in the similes and their conclusion; it had simply not been explicitly named.

“The text is brief, but the meaning comprehensive” does not mean that a few categories can replace the entire sutra. On the contrary, those categories have content only when they return to the opening and falling flower, the conjured city, the grass hut, predictions, and the original ground in the remote past. The recorder's recapitulation makes the Sovereign Preface a miniature of the whole work and allows the later Five Chapters always to look back toward this lotus blossom already spoken of six times.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

The reading above has followed the Dharma and similes of the Sovereign Preface itself. Zhanran's Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian further illuminates the pronunciation of the title, the six similes, and the recorder's recapitulation.

First, the graph translated “sovereign” is read in the departing tone and means “to arise” or “beginning.” Wondrousness is delimited by inconceivability, while “Dharma” briefly names realms and suchnesses, leaving their full explanation for later. The language of the provisional and the real must be read through the three meanings of establishment, opening, and relinquishment, not flattened beforehand into a static duality.

Second, the lotus illustrates the real and the flower the provisional; “borrowing” means relying on something, and “revealing” means making manifest. The first three similes concern the provisional and the real; the latter three concern Origin and Trace. Zhanran characterizes the first three as the provisional being established for the sake of the real, the real being seen within the provisional, and there being no provisional left to discuss after opening. He characterizes the latter three through the Trace not standing alone, sentient beings being deluded about the Trace, and no Trace remaining after relinquishment.

In the first simile, skillful means are originally for the Buddha Vehicle. In the second, opening points out the real within the provisional. In the third, relinquishment means that after opening one no longer establishes the provisional. The three meanings continue one another and cannot be compressed into the falling flower alone.

Third, the conjured city is a provisional teaching of the guide, so attachment rests in the teaching; the grass hut is what the practitioner clings to, so stagnation rests in feeling. Those of superior, middling, and inferior faculties receive predictions through the three rounds of teaching by Dharma, by simile, and by causes and conditions from past lives, linking the sweeping away of attachment and the abandonment of stagnation with prediction.

Increasing the path and diminishing birth can be understood through the later simile of weeding and planting: the myriad practices are like planting; wisdom is like weeding; what is diminished is the divided birth of ignorance. “Sutra” is a comprehensive name because all teachings are called sutras; the details of translating the title remain for the later explanation.

Fourth, the stage “neighboring great awakening” is near wondrous awakening; one period begins at the site of quiescence and ends between the crane trees; revealing the Origin completes phenomena, while opening the provisional completes principle. From the words “the recorder explains” onward, Zhanran expressly determines that Zhang'an is explaining the Great Master's intent in the preface. On its surface the Great Master's preface is explaining the name, but in intent it contains all five meanings; Guanding only draws out the distinct meanings already within it. Looking back through this mirror, the five topics still arise from the movement by which the lotus blossom is disclosed six times.