The Prose & Verse of The Lotus Sutra

The Prose & Verse of The Lotus Sutra

Chapter 2
Ways & Means

Page 3

And the Buddha gradually led living beings.

Ordinary people figured that the configuration of the mind was the reality but it is not the reality. Therefore the Buddha taught that the absolute is the emptiness that is the nature of spirituality.
Ordinary people then discarded existence and held onto emptiness. Therefore the Buddha taught that emptiness and existence were both mundane, and that that which is neither emptiness nor existence was the absolute.
Some discarded the two extremes but then again stagnated in the middle way. The Buddha therefore taught that a third was the absolute; being completely free of the two extremes but not being attached to the middle way.

And there were the people of the Five Vehicles¹.

First the Buddha guided ordinary people and those in heaven to bear faith and leave existence.
Next he guided those of the Two Vehicles, making them enter into the mean.
Next he guided Bodhisattvas to discard both the mean and partiality.

And for those training in the mean:

There are the three temporary things of this world that are mundane² and there is the emptiness of the three temporary things that is absolute. This is only beginning to grasp the idea.
Then there is the emptiness and existence of the three temporary things that is mundane, and there is that which is neither emptiness nor existence that is absolute.

Now we have closely examined these explanations. There has already been the idea of depending on the five periods. Is not this gradual sequence of teachings like the steps of a ladder? This may explain other Sutras but it is not the idea of this chapter.

The Sutra says:
“Everywhere making living beings see it...”
Whether it is at the beginning or the end, at the opening up of understanding or at the awakening of it in others, the different times are not the same.

And the Sutra says:
“Simply discarding the ways and means.”
How does one use a gradual sequence of teachings in order to make one understand the total wonder?

And at beginning the Buddha guided them to bear faith, understanding, influence and the fruit³, etc. What connection is there between this and the idea of ‘awakening and entering’ that is in explained this Sutra?

It is like Vasubandhu’s list of seventeen names for this Sutra. Number thirteen was ‘The Great Skillful Ways & Means’. And the Sutra on the Ways and Means of the Great Vehicle clarifies ten kinds of ways and means. Number nine was called ‘skillfulness’. Converting those of the Two Vehicles and making them enter into the Great Vehicle is called ‘The Paramita of Ways and Means’.

One must know that this chapter is therefore about the ways and means of The One That Has Come⁴. It includes all teachings just as emptiness contains form. If the ocean includes all the currents, is it possible that the teachers of just one branch or one school could explain all of the great domain that is the spiritual realm?

Literature Next Page Home

Outline of Title Outline of Prose

Footnotes:

1. The people of the Five Vehicles:
a. Personality: Development of Morality and Character
b. Heaven: Mastery of Desire, Worship and Meditation
c. Spiritual Disciples: Understanding of the Four Truths
d. Spiritual Self-Awakening: Mastery of the Causality & Conditioning of Karma and Retribution
e. Bodhisattvas: The Path of Service - the Great Vehicle of Spiritual Enlightenment
See The Vehicles of Enlightenment

2. The three temporary things of this world: That which is temporary, phenomenal and derived from elements is empty and unreal. This includes the Five Aggregates of Self (Skandhas) and the Cognitive Realm of Words.:
a. Things (Dharmas), which includes Forms (and the mystery of the body)
b. Perception which includes Sensations, Thoughts, Actions & Consciousness (and the mystery of the mind)
c. Names and Words (and the mystery of the mouth) which channel the Aggregates of Self (Things & Perception)

3. These four explain the forty stages of the Bodhisattva path:
The first dual insight makes one bear faith: The Ten Abodes of Inspiration and Faith - Opening up the doors to spiritual enlightenment
The next dual insight makes one bear understanding: The Ten Practices of Virtue - The Paramitas - Revealing spiritual enlightenment in one's own life
The next dual insight makes one influence others: The Tenfold Dedication (Turning Over) of Merit - The Parinamanas -Awakening it in others
The last dual insight is the fruit: The Ten Groundings of the Enlightenment - The Bhumis - Entering into the one universal enlightenment

4. The Ways & Means of The One That Has Come: The Secret & Wonderful Ways & Means of the Tathagata

Copyright Policy - Contact the Author at pj@tientai.net

Since July 9, 2001

FastCounter by bCentral