The Prose & Verse of The Lotus Sutra

Chapter 2
Ways & Means

Page 1

Ways and Means – Chapter 2

The explanation of the title of this Chapter on Ways and Means has an outline and elaboration. The outline is in two parts. First there is the outline itself, then a summation.

1. The Outline

A. The Outline Itself

  1. The Ways & Means of Teaching and Application: In indicating a partial teaching we explain the ways & means as 'adapting to the desires of living beings'. However this was not the Buddha’s original intent. Like the Sutra says:
    “Because it made them free of their attachments and the sufferings of the threefold realm, The One That Has Come2 enthusiastically praised the ways and means.”
    The meaning of this may explain other Sutras, but it is not the idea of this chapter.
  2. The Penetrable Ways & Means: And the ways & means are like a door. A door is that which lets in those who are able to penetrate it. When the provisional ways & means are worked through they become doors to the absolute reality. In revealing the absolute reality the ways & means are justified. In getting their name from their ability to reveal reality, the ways & means are explained as being ‘doors’. Like the Sutra says:
    “Opening the doors of ways & means to reveal the aspect of absolute reality.”
    The meaning of this may explain other Sutras but it is not the idea of this chapter.
  3. The Secret and Wonderful Ways & Means: And the ways are secret and the means is wonderful in the wonderful way to reach the true secret. Inside the lining of the pauper’s clothes, there was a priceless gem3. On the top of the king’s crown there is but a single gem. These two gems are one and the same. In pointing out the vagrant visitor, the rich man made him his son4. This too is no different. In words such as these there is a wonderful secret. Like the Sutra says:
    “Only I and the Buddhas of the Ten Directions recognize its aspect. No more, no more – it is not necessary to teach any more. My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.”
    Therefore we explain the ways as being secret and the means as being wonderful. This is truly the idea of this chapter, and so it is called “The Chapter on Ways and Means”.

B. The Summation

  1. In the first explanation (Teaching & Application) the ways & means are external to the embodiment of reality but there is a provision for having influence and following the ideas and words of others.
  2. In the next explanation (The Penetrable Door) the ways & means are external to the embodiment of reality but they are provisions for both one’s own practice and the influence of others and following one's own ideas and words as well as those of others.
  3. In the last explanation (The Wonderful Secret) the ways & means are the same as the embodiment of reality. It is the provision of one’s own practice and following one’s own ideas and words.
  1. In the first explanation of ways and means there is nothing to be penetrated nor is there penetration.
  2. In the next explanation of ways and means there is something to be penetrated but there is not penetration.
  3. In the last explanation of ways and means there is penetration but there is nothing to be penetrated.

Therefore we recognize that the name ‘Ways & Means’ is the same in each of these but the meanings are very different. There are many in the world that do not see this idea and therefore they improperly explain The Chapter on Ways & Means.

Question:
What is the relationship between provisions and ways & means?

Answer:
This is distinguished by means of the four parts of the tetralemma.

  1. With ways and means one refutes the provisions and with provisions one refutes the ways and means.
  2. With ways and means one cultivates the provisions and with provisions one cultivates the ways and means.
  3. With the ways and means being identical with the provisions, the provisions are identical with the ways and means.
  4. * With ways and means one refutes the provisions. The Four Doctrines5 are all the ways and means of that which is secret and wonderful. With these ways and means one refutes the provisions that are merely following the ideas of others.
    * With provisions one refutes the ways and means. With the provisions that are of the same embodiment as reality one refutes the ways and means that are external to its embodiment.
    * The aspects of cultivation and the aspects of identity may also be understood like this.

The first three statements may explain other Sutras, but the fourth explains the idea of this chapter. Therefore The Blossom of the True Dharma6 calls this chapter ‘The Skillfulness of Provisions’.

With the provisions being identical with ways and means, they are inseparable. One bows one’s head and raises one’s hands7 and everywhere there is attainment of the path of spiritual enlightenment. The ways and means and the skillful provisions are everywhere identical with the absolute reality.

 

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Ongi Kuden on This Passage

 

 Footnotes:

1. The Three Provisional Teachings: The Three Baskets Doctrine, The General Doctrine & The Specific Doctrine The One Real Teaching: The Total Doctrine See The Four Doctrines

2. The One That Has Come: (S. Tathagata) One of the ten honorific titles of the Buddha - It refers to the one that comes down to this world from the realm of the absolute spiritual reality to enlighten living beings and then reenters Nirvana, returning back to that absolute reality.

3. Inside the lining of the pauper’s clothes, there was a priceless gem: Parable from the eighth chapter of The Lotus Sutra on The Prophecy of Enlightenment for 500 Disciples. A man gets drunk at a friend's house and falls asleep. The friend sews a precious gem inside the lining of the man's clothes. The man wakes up and ventures out into the world and falls on hard times. He works very hard for very little, not knowing of the precious treasure he carries. The poor man finally meets up again with his friend, who tells him of the treasure he carries. Upon hearing of it, the man awakens to the wealth he possesses.

4. In pointing out the vagrant visitor, the rich man made him his son: Parable from the fourth chapter of The Lotus Sutra on Faith & Understanding. A son wanders off and is separated from his wealthy father. Years later, the son, a penniless vagrant, unknowingly wanders onto the estate of his father. His father recognizes him and sends for him, but the son, not knowing that the man is his father, is afraid and runs away. His father sends out two men (representing the Two Vehicles) to give the son work shoveling dirt for wages and the son, needing money, takes the work. The son works hard for his meager wages. The father, not wanting to scare his son, dresses down and approached his son and 'adopts' him (as a Bodhisattva). When the father nears death he tells his son the truth and makes him the inheritor of his fortune (a Buddha, like his father).

5. The Four Doctrines: The progressively deeper understandings of spiritual truth:
a. The Doctrine of the Three Baskets: The Truths of Birth & Extinction, on Causality & Conditions - For the Two Vehicles
b. The General Doctrine: The Truths Without Birth or Extinction, on Emptiness - For the Three Vehicles
c. The Specific Doctrine: The Limitless Truths, on That Which is Temporary - For the Bodhisattva
d. The Total Doctrine: The Innate Truth, on the Mean - For the Buddha

6. The Blossom of the True Dharma: The first translation of The Lotus Sutra into Chinese by Dharmaraksa in 286 CE.

7. One bows one’s head and raises one’s hands: One worships and offers service with reverence

 

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