The Opening of the Eyes

Chapter19(Revealing the fact that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past in the essential teaching)

It is hardly surprising that these sutras should speak in this fashion. But there is something that is an astonishment to both the ear and the eye. This is the fact that the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra also speaks in the same way. In the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, the Buddha denies the great doctrines, such as the Flower Garland Sutra concept of the phenomenal world as created by the mind alone, the concept of the ocean-imprint meditation set forth in the sutras of the Correct and Equal period, and the Wisdom Sutra concept of mutual identification and nonduality, when he declares, “I have not yet revealed the truth.” The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra regards the practices taught in the previous sutras as practices that require many kalpas to complete. However, the same sutra says, “In the past I sat upright in the place of meditation for six years under the bodhi tree and was able to gain supreme perfect enlightenment,” using the same type of language as the Flower Garland Sutra, the first sutra Shakyamuni preached after his enlightenment, when it talks of the Buddha having attained enlightenment for the first time in this world.

Strange as this may seem, we may suppose that, since the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra is intended to serve as an introduction to the Lotus Sutra, it deliberately refrains from speaking about doctrines to be revealed in the Lotus Sutra itself. But when we turn to the Lotus Sutra, we find that, in the sections where the Buddha discusses in both concise and expanded form the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle, he says, “The true aspect of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between Buddhas,”⁴⁸ “The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines [and now must reveal the truth],” and ”Honestly discarding expedient means, [I will preach only the unsurpassed way].” Moreover, Many Treasures Buddha testifies to the verity of the eight chapters⁴⁹ of the theoretical teaching, declaring that these are all true. We would suppose, therefore, that in them there would be nothing held back or concealed. Nevertheless, the Buddha hides the fact that he attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, for he says, “I first sat in the place of meditation and gazed at the tree and walked around it.”⁵⁰ This is surely the most astounding fact of all.

In the “Emerging from the Earth” chapter, a multitude of bodhisattvas who had not been seen previously in the more than forty years of the Buddha’s preaching life suddenly appear, and the Buddha says, “I taught and converted them, and caused them for the first time to set their minds on the way.” Bodhisattva Maitreya, puzzled by this announcement, says: “[World-Honored One], when the Thus Come One was crown prince, you left the palace of the Shākyas and sat in the place of meditation not far from the city of Gayā, and there attained supreme perfect enlightenment. Barely forty years or more have passed since then. World-Honored One, how in that short time could you have accomplished so much work as a Buddha?”

In order to dispel this doubt and puzzlement, Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, then preaches the “Life Span” chapter. Referring first to the version of the events presented in the earlier sutras and the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra, he says: “In all the worlds the heavenly and human beings and asuras all believe that the present Shakyamuni Buddha, after leaving the palace of the Shākyas, seated himself in the place of meditation not far from the city of Gayā and there attained supreme perfect enlightenment.” But then, in order to dispel their doubts, he says, “But good men, it has been immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I in fact attained Buddhahood.”

All the other sutras such as the Flower Garland, Wisdom, and Mahāvairochana not only conceal the fact that people of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood, but they also fail to make clear that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past.

Notes

48. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2. In this chapter Shakyamuni expounded the ten factors to indicate that all people are endowed with the Buddha nature; this provided a theoretical basis for the assertion that all people can become Buddhas. Later in the same chapter Shakyamuni declares that all the teachings he expounded serve to reveal the one vehicle leading all to Buddhahood.

49. The eight chapters from the “Expedient Means” (2nd) chapter to the “Prophecies” (9th) chapter.

50. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.