Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion Chapter5-2
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Question: What proof can you offer to support your view?
Answer: The Universal Worthy Sutra states, “This great vehicle sutra4 is the treasure storehouse of the Buddhas, the eye of the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three existences, the seed from which spring the Thus Come Ones of the three existences.”
And it also states: “This correct and equal sutra is the eye of the Buddhas. It is through this sutra that the Buddhas are able to acquire the five types of vision. A Buddha’s three types of bodies5 are born from this correct and equal sutra, which is the great seal of the Law that assures entry into the sea of nirvana. It is from this sea that a Buddha’s three types of pure bodies are born. These three types of bodies are fields of good fortune for human and heavenly beings and are highest among those worthy of alms.”
These sutra passages indicate that the Buddhas are beings who are given birth, and that the Lotus Sutra is that which is capable of giving birth. The Buddhas are the body and the Lotus Sutra is the soul.
Therefore in the eye-opening ceremony for Buddhist wooden and painted images, only the Lotus Sutra should be used. But nowadays in the True Word school when these two types of images are consecrated the mudras and mantras associated with the Thus Come One Mahāvairochana and the Honored One Buddha Eye are employed for the eye-opening ceremony.6 This is utterly contrary to reason!
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Notes
4. “This great vehicle sutra” and “this correct and equal sutra” mentioned in the following paragraph refer to the Lotus Sutra.
5. The Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifested body. See three bodies in Glossary.
6. The ceremony for imbuing a newly made Buddha image with spiritual properties, thus making it an object of devotion. The Honored One Buddha Eye, described in the esoteric True Word teaching, represents the virtues of the five types of vision (see Glossary). The eye-opening ceremony is conducted with the mudra of the Honored One Buddha Eye and the mantra of the Buddha Mahāvairochana. One view holds that the Honored One Buddha Eye is Mahāvairochana Buddha in a different form and a personification of the Buddha’s supreme wisdom.