Why does the Lotus Sutra say that Sutras before it are provisional and should be discarded?

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bcol01
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Why does the Lotus Sutra say that Sutras before it are provisional and should be discarded?

Post by bcol01 »

Would this include Pure Land?
In his writing, Hokkemongu (Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra), The Great Master Nichiren said, “If the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra wholeheartedly devote their life to the Lotus Sutra and practice according to its golden words, it is certainly needless to say that not only in the next life, but also in this lifetime they will overcome severe difficulty, prolong their life, receive the great, good fortune of unsurpassed enlightenment, and accomplish the great vow of the widespread, propagation of True Buddhism.”
GrapeLover
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Re: Why does the Lotus Sutra say that Sutras before it are provisional and should be discarded?

Post by GrapeLover »

Does it? It's T’ien-t’ai who sets up the Lotus as definitive and other sutras as provisional, and essentially Nichiren who goes so far to say that this means that others should practically be discarded. In his view this does emphatically include the Pure Land sutras, but you know this. Other schools have regarded the Lotus as provisional, so this is not a universal thing.

The Lotus Sutra itself says that the singular "Buddhayāna" is definitive and that the three yāna scheme was a skilful means, but it doesn't imply that (for instance) the Pure Land sutras are false, and that you can't attain Buddhahood via rebirth in Sukhāvatī. Indeed, the Lotus Sutra mentions Amitābha and rebirth in his land. Nichiren said that this was a different Amitābha.
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Hazel
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Re: Why does the Lotus Sutra say that Sutras before it are provisional and should be discarded?

Post by Hazel »

bcol01 wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 3:16 pm Would this include Pure Land?
Why do you ask?
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Why does the Lotus Sutra say that Sutras before it are provisional and should be discarded?

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Every school is suited for someone here, but not someone there.
I think the Sutras respond to this tendency.
For instance, the Larger Sutra of the Three Pure Land Sutras say that Shakyamuni will especially preserve that sutra for another 100 years after all other sutras have disappeared from the earth (i.e. a very bad time at the end of a long decline).
This leads some to have interest and faith in the Pure Land teachings; others, the opposite effect; countless more have never heard of the sutra, and will enter the Dharma another way.

I suppose in that context for me, "why" one sutra says something isn't a very clear question. Because the Buddhas are infinitely compassionate and wise? :shrug: Whatever approach makes you keep practicing your whole life.
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Queequeg
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Re: Why does the Lotus Sutra say that Sutras before it are provisional and should be discarded?

Post by Queequeg »

It doesn't quite say that.

You need to be familiar with the narrative of the Lotus Sutra.

It opens with the Buddha in the samadhi of immeasurable meanings. He shoots a beam of light out of the urna illuminating the lands in the eastern direction so that all in the assembly can see the full scope of samsara and buddhahood. The assembly is startled by this and Maitreya asks Manjusri, "What's happenings?!!!!" Manjusri explains he saw this sign in the past when a buddha was about to expound the Lotus teaching and reminds Maitreya that he has seen this, too. The Buddha then emerges from samadhi and addresses Shariputra saying, "My bodhi is so great. Only another buddha could understand my bodhi. You sravakas can't understand." Shariputra then asks the Buddha to explain this teaching. The Buddha agrees, but first he predicts that Shariputra will become a buddha.

This is a very very very big deal. Up to this point, Shariputra was practicing the sravaka path and had attained arhatship, meaning, this was his last birth and on the dissolution of his body he would attain parinirvana. Now, the Buddha was telling him, "You are on the bodhisattva path and will become Buddha so-and-so in a land called such-and-such, and your dharma will endure for so many kalpas."

With that prediction, the Buddha undermined the sravaka teachings. If one knows that the sravaka path is upaya, there is no reason to follow it any longer. It would be like following the path to El Dorado after finding out that there is no such place. The story continues with all the sravakas in the assembly receiving predictions of Buddhahood. The Naga King's daughter, and Devadatta, who in Buddhist lore is incorrigible and irredeemable, also receive predictions of Buddhahood. The gist is, everyone has the capacity to become a buddha (universal buddhanature), but because people have different capacities and inclinations, the Buddha gives different instructions that help people advance on the path, even if the instructions are not complete teachings that guide beings all the way to Buddhahood. The instructions advance them some of the way.

Then comes the second part of the story.

A giant stupa comes up out of the Earth and floats up into the air. Inside is a buddha who attained parinirvana eons ago. This buddha called Prabhutaratna, invites Shakyamuni to sit next to him and teach the Lotus. Also, myriad buddhas from the ten directions are summoned and join the assembly, including Amitayus who we also learn was an older brother of Shakyamuni when they were the sons of a buddha in the ancient past. All of these buddhas are emanations of Shakyamuni.

When Shakyamuni asks the Assembly who will receive this teaching of the White Lotus, the Assembly led by Maitreya volunteers but he turns them away. Instead, hordes of bodhisattvas erupt from out of the Earth. When Maitreya asks who these bodhisattvas are, Shakyamuni tells them these are his disciples that he first converted and had been teaching since he awakened. This puzzles the Assembly. These bodhisattvas are far advanced, possessing golden bodies and 32 marks. They wonder how the buddha could have converted and raised all these bodhisattvas to such advanced levels in the 40 years since his awakening at Gaya.

The Buddha then addresses the Assembly urging them to have faith in the buddha's words. Led by Maitreya, the Assembly promises that they will accept the Buddha's teaching on faith. The Buddha then instructs the Assembly to imagine a man who pulverizes an inconceivable number of world system into atoms, and then travelling an inconceivable number of world system to the East, drops one atom, and continues in this manner until he exhausted all of the atoms. The Buddha asks the Assembly if they can conceive of the number of worlds the man would have passed in this task. The bodhisattvas agree, even if they combined all of their intellects that the number could not be conceived. This is significant to show that what the Buddha teaches is, as the Buddha said at the beginning of the sutra, only can be understood by buddhas - even great bodhisattvas like Maitreya who is in his last existence before buddhahood - doesn't get it. The Buddha then instructs them to imagine all of these worlds, whether the man dropped an atom in them or not, were then pulverized to atoms, and if each atom represented an eon, this didn't even begin to approximate the length of time since Shakyamuni Buddha first awoke. He then explains that his appearance as Siddhartha Gautama was just a display so that he could approach human beings and teach them. The implication being, informed by parables told earlier in the sutra, that if Shakyamuni had appeared to human beings in his real aspect, he would have scared the shit out of them and would not be able to teach anything. He goes on and explains that actually, all of the buddhas and bodhisattvas he appears as (ie, all of his emanations that have gathered) or tells people about, like Dipamkara who he supposedly received a prophecy of Buddhahood from, are all just edifying stories to get people to do what they ought to do so that they can advance toward Buddhahood - whether they know they are advancing to buddhahood or not. Everything the Buddha teaches - other than his real aspect - is upaya for the sake of instructing beings.

The Sutra continues, explaining its benefits and then is entrusted to the bodhisattvas who emerged from the Earth specifically, and to all the Assembly generally. There are a few more stories about bodhisattvas and dharanis.

For those ready to hear this White Lotus teaching... this Sutra draws the curtain back on the entire body of Buddhist teachings: "All of these are stories that I, the Buddha, tell you because you need to hear them. You're afraid of the perils of this world? Here is a story about a bodhisattva called Avalokitesvara who hears your cries of anguish and comes to your aid. Here is a story about a bodhisattva who is the embodiment of wisdom called Manjusri who can be your tutor as you cultivate your wisdom. Here is a story about a psychedelic bodhisattva called Samanatabhadra who is the protector of people going deep into meditative practices - he will accompany and protect you when shit gets weird. For those of you afraid of death, here is a story about a buddha who lives far in the West who will meet you at your final moment; Rest assured, he will save you." Etc. Etc. Etc.

***

In meditative practice, there is a progressive approach where one starts with say, a kasina, and as one becomes absorbed in the object, one removes the object and then meditates on the absence of the object until something in that state is discerned becoming the object of absorption, and then one removes that... and on, meditating on increasingly subtle objects and thereby refining the mind into finer and finer states. One's mind is no more or less than its object; coarse objects, coarse mind, subtle objects, subtle mind.

If one groks the nature of the mind implied by the above description of meditative practice, one can appreciate that Manjusri, or whichever object, even Buddha, is more or less a kasina. These "kasinas" have different properties and can help cultivate those aspects embodied in the particular object. There comes a time when the object is dissolved and we're left with only the imprint - a hole in the shape of the removed object, but that fades away; in that absence, we are able to discern subtler qualities.

In the gradual path, there comes a time when the training wheels must come off. The Lotus Sutra is the removal of the training wheels.

What's left?

There is only reality; there is nothing separate from reality. The naturally tranquil nature of dharmas is shamatha. The abiding luminosity of tranquility is vipashyana.

***

Nichiren is of the thought that its Mappo and therefore there's no time for gradual development; the training wheels need to come off now and we'll just have to learn on the fly because there isn't time, and the training wheels were just figments of the imagination anyway. We don't know when we will encounter the saddharma again.

When he was saying everything else is provisional, it was out of urgency because there is no time for upaya.

I wonder if he appreciated that upaya is an infinite regress so even his perfect teaching, NMRK, can't escape being upaya, too.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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