by Harvey Kraft
Not for a moment did Siddhartha Gautama ever conceive of his Teachings as a local or ethnic-based religion. He designed Buddhism to define the universal scope of Existence and its inculcation in the human mind. It was to be, as the Magi had hoped, not another religion in competition with other religions, but the culmination of all religious aspirations to fathom and manifest Universal Truth. At this climactic stage of Buddhist Cosmology, he wished to elucidate why everything existed, how everything worked, and where human life came from—all in order to ignite the advancement of human evolution.
Initially, his vision of the Cosmology of Infinite Wisdom had revealed that a myriad Buddha-stars illuminated the Buddha-Dharma across the Universe. Long before the Saha-world emerged into being, Buddhas manifested throughout other world-systems. In the next cosmogony Sakamuni focused on the Mind of Nature to explain the interaction between Heaven and Earth and the dynamic conditions of Existence.
From the moment of his Supreme Awakening under the Sacred Tree, Siddhartha Gautama, the Sage of the Saka (Skt. Sakamuni), had manifested the role of the One-Who-Comes to Declare the Truth (Skt. Tathagata). In assuming the global messianic role and responsibility of Savior of All Humanity, the Buddha showed that everywhere across a vast Universe teeming with Buddhas and Enlightening Beings mortal beings were nurtured and guided to grow in awareness. Never before these visions had any other seer observed compassionate Celestial Beings with ethereal bodies able at will to cross between worlds. Never before had the stated goal of any preceding religion been to free all humans, without prejudice, from the veil of illusions and the conditions of suffering in the here-and-now.
The course of Teachings the Buddha had offered led his disciples on a long journey of learnings, realizations, and selfless actions. Many achieved a liberating consciousness in engaging the vast cosmic interplay, but he was not finished. The work ahead would be his boldest yet, and likely to be the hardest to believe.
Over the course of four decades and three prior cosmologies many of his disciples had grown elderly and attached to their well-earned achievements. Some had successfully attained various levels of Enlightenment.
Initially, the ascetics and skeptics who joined the Buddha believed that Nirvana was a pure state wherein rebirth in mortal forms was extinguished. In the afterlife those who ascended to Nirvana would exist as a divine consciousness in the Heavens of the Golden Mountain. As his course continued, however, the Buddha steered them away from the focus on blissful retirement in the next life. But it took a long time. He had to spend more than twenty years on the Cosmos of Relativity until they could adopt an alternative motivation.
Rather than finding a way out of insufferable birth, the Bodhisattva Path invited self-sacrifice through rebirth in the mortal world, in order to help others find salvation. For the enlightened Bodhisattva practitioner Nirvana was redefined. It would mean the achievement of repeated future rebirths as an Enlightening Being blessed with a Rewardbody, and a guaranteed role working to serve Buddhas in each lifetime. But some senior Arhats continued to believe that they had scaled the lofty mind of Heavenly Nirvana and expected to enter it in the afterlife. Among those who adopted the Selfless vehicle, as the Buddha had encouraged them to do, many did so only to honor his wishes.
Sakamuni Buddha was prepared for a contentious response to the Lotus Cosmology. He clearly expected that among his followers there would be doubters. In addition, looking ahead to the future, he anticipated that some would resist or deride it, or dissuade others from embracing it. Even future scribes might tamper with the content of the Lotus Sutra. All these long-term issues had to be taken into account as he intended to bequeath this cosmology to people far into the distant future. This legacy would take millennia to sink in, the Buddha foresaw, but in it he was determined to leave behind the vehicle of Perfect Enlightenment, a transformative generator of compassion, blessings, and self-awakenings.
With the motivation of his followers in mind, and his ultimate purpose still unrealized, Sakamuni had to challenge their earlier assumptions and expectations. In the Lotus Sutra he would propose yet another new direction, which he expected to be controversial. He would introduce the Dharma called the Buddha-Vehicle. This vehicle, he said, was the One Vehicle (Skt. Ekayana) that all Buddhas used to attain Perfect Enlightenment and to teach Bodhisattvas how to take on the mission of Buddhas.
He reminded his disciples that his original intent, from the beginning of his course and all through the intervening years, was his continual promise that he would lead them to the state of “Supreme Awakening” (Skt. anuttara-samyak-sambodhi). Now the time had come to reveal this wonderful Buddha-Vehicle and make his promise come true.
The full title of the Lotus Sutra in Sanskrit, Sahd-dharma Pundarika Sutra, embodied the One Vehicle of Perfect Enlightenment. Although it was the fourth vehicle Sakamuni introduced, the One Vehicle eclipsed the three earlier vehicles that led to Enlightenment. The vehicle of Buddhahood, encapsulated in the title of this sutra, was the means for entering, sharing, transporting, delivering, and residing in Perfect Enlightenment.
Literally Sahd-dharma meant Wondrous Dharma, but it also harbored a deeper, underlying meaning.
The prefix Sahd, representing the perfect number six,197 meant Perfect Harmony. Perfect, in this context, referred to “universal,” “ubiquitous,” “endowed,” or common to all. As used in the title of the Brahmanic Upanisad (syllabic Upa-ni-Sahd) and alluded to in the Rig Veda, the syllable Sahd also meant “seat,” as in seat of honor, or seat of a teacher. In this case, the perfectly endowed seat of Perfect Enlightenment.
The word Dharma interchangeably meant Cosmology, Truth, Law, Teaching, or Reality. It connoted the Buddha-wisdom regarding the infrastructure of all Existence.
Together Sahd-dharma meant the All-Encompassing Cosmology, Boundless Truth, Universal Law, Ultimate Teaching, or the Perfectly Endowed Reality. As Sahd-dharma was itself the seat of Buddhahood, it represented the actualization of perfect harmony between person and the cosmos.
Pundarika was the name of a mythic, colossal, and most rare lotus blossom, representative of Existence in the state of absolute purity. In Buddhist symbology the lotus served as the seat of purity, the foundation for Perfect Enlightenment. The self-cleaning feature of a lotus blossom, always pristine even as it grew in muddy waters, represented liberation from the mire of mortal suffering. The opening of its petals in response to the light of the sun spoke to its cosmic connection. The pure whiteness of the eight-petal Pundarika expressed the absolutely clear mind and unblemished life-essence associated with Buddhahood.
The word sutra also had a particularly important meaning in the context of the title.
The Buddha’s sutras all served as vehicles for dispensing good news about life. Every sutra was a gate of liberation to higher consciousness, always composed of a highly dense form of prose containing profound and powerful wisdom. In the context of sacred harmonics, a sutra was literally defined as “an ever-vibrating string.” Harmonic resonance was a critical factor in synchronizing wisdom with its recipient, and aligning the cosmos with human endeavors.
Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician who was a contemporary of the Buddha, had related the vibrations of various lengths of string to mathematical equations and also spoke of frequencies in relation to cosmic movements. Earlier in his career he had studied harmonic frequencies with Babylonian cosmologists, possibly members of the Magi Order. They had inherited knowledge of the diatonic musical scale, the progression of seven natural tones from the Sumerians who discovered this scale in making the first string instruments, which they played at the tower-temples to honor Innana, the Queen of the Stars.
In the context of the Lotus Cosmology this sutra is an ever-vibrating string in a state of harmonic resonance with Perfect Enlightenment.
Echoing the language of Vedic mythology, wherein absolute purity coincided with beginningless and endless Cosmic Time, the pure and cosmic Pundarika Sutra defned Perfect Enlightenment as the
vibration of boundless life. It symbolized the never-ending and determined expressions of life in all its glorious manifestations, conditions, meanings, and frequencies. Pundarika Sutra meant Life Everlasting.
The full underlying meaning198 of Sahd-Dharma Pundarika Sutra reads as: “The Perfectly Endowed Cosmology of Life Everlasting.” This title embodied the perpetual, everlasting state of Buddhahood in perfect harmony, the essential message of the Lotus Cosmology that Sakamuni was preparing to reveal.
He regarded the revelation of the Lotus Cosmology, the Buddha- Vehicle for the universal awakening of Perfect Enlightenment, to be his most compassionate action. This cosmology was equal to the scope of the Buddha’s mind, his boundless compassion and the bottomless commitment extending across Cosmic Time. Through it he would express his inexorable love for all human beings across past, present, and future, like that of a parent for his children, determined to alleviate their pains and help them overcome their shortcomings.
The scope of his compassion was so great that he could not leave anyone behind in misery, not a single exception, no matter how long it might take to make sure that all beings came around to their full potential. His mission epitomized the boundless vow of all Buddhas to inspire the self-transformation of all beings, so they may eventually acquire the Eye of a Buddha, with which to transform the world into a Buddha-land.
THE MISSING LINK
Sakamuni surprised his audience by revealing that he had held back one essential Dharma, the missing link that could empower people to awaken Perfect Enlightenment. But would they understand it? Would they accept it? To be sure, it would spark a host of questions:
How many lifetimes does it take to achieve Perfect Enlightenment?
What are the challenges to achieving Perfect Enlightenment?
What are the benefIts to be gained from Perfect Enlightenment?
Who really qualifIes to access Perfect Enlightenment?
What is the vehicle for achieving Perfect Enlightenment?
Surveying the assembly, Sakamuni Buddha nodded to the two Celestial Bodhisattvas flanking him on the left and right. Maitreya and Manjusri respectively represented the Future and the Past across the Cosmic Time of Buddhism.
The Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Loving Kindness, Ajita Maitreya, the master of social harmony and peace, represented the long-term goal of Buddhism on Earth, the establishment of a future Era of Loving Kindness characterized by harmonious order and peace among all beings. Standing at Sakamuni’s opposite shoulder, the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Manjusri, was the master of past life memories. He had knowledge of incarnations from the remotest past. As a pair, their personifications199 represented either side of the Present. Seated in the middle between them, Sakamuni embodied the Present moment, which also encompassed both Past and Future. Together, the three depicted the Middle Path of Cosmic Time.
Manjusri had led the course on the Perfection of Wisdom. Upon its completion the Vehicle of Bodhisattva had been established and largely embraced among Sakamuni’s disciples. The Buddha had consistently urged that there could be no greater practice than Selflessness, no greater reason for living. The way most disciples put the Bodhisattva Way into practice was by teaching others to find relief from suffering through various meditations, harmonic chants (Skt. Dhahrani), reciting sutras, studying doctrines, or contemplating insights.
Ultimately the Bodhisattva who pledged to combat mortal distress throughout existence could be reborn again and again as a Bodhisattva. But a goal of this magnitude demanded a consistent conviction over eons of time and countless lifetimes. For one to travel through Transmigration with undeterred devotion to Selfless intentions was an arduous challenge that could be accomplished only if one approached compassion as a labor of love.
On a cosmic scale, Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas assumed the role of Buddhas-in-training eagerly and joyfully employing the power of the Dharma in helping others evolve to a higher existence. Sakamuni had inspired all his disciples to embark on the road of Selfless practices with tales of Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas who acquired luminous angelic bodies (Reward/Wisdom-body) after eons of good works. Because the ethereal bodies of Enlightening Beings were made of compassion, a “substance” unencumbered by the relative limits of time-space-scale, they had the advantage of free cosmic movement enabling the conveyance of the Buddha-Dharma across the Universe. When purified of ego manifestations, the Dharma’s cosmic messengers became free of relativity. But their acquisition of an unblemished celestial body was a reward not sought after. The role of an Enlightening Being, according to the Buddha, even surpassed in merit the heavenly deities who were rewarded with long divine lifetimes.
The Buddha held up the Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas as models for his disciples to emulate suggesting that they too could acquire Rewardbodies, if they embraced compassion at the highest levels of dedication and application.
By urging the entire Sangha to assume a missionary role dedicated to lead all beings out of the state of suffering, the Buddha mobilized them into a socially engaged movement. While other religions contemporary with Sakamuni focused on achieving purity through cleansing the soul of its sinful attachments, he was urging his disciples to reexamine their motives. What was their highest priority—a personal victory over the impure vicissitudes of mortality or a proactive engagement aimed at the transformation of the human community?
The decision by most disciples to embrace the Selfless Way represented the triumph of Buddhist evangelism. The ideal Bodhisattva would seek out mortals no matter where they may be found in any of the Six Worlds of the Golden Mountain Cosmology. Fearlessly resolved to help those in need of rescue, the compassionate Selfless beings, their minds perfectly balanced, would engage people in all of the “conditions” of Samsara. Determined to break through the noise of impulsive and compulsive conditioned behaviors, they offered various practices and doctrines of the Buddha-Dharma to liberate people from suffering.
The great majority of those gathered to attend the Lotus Sutra had by this time adopted the banner of Selflessness, and yet, some of the two vehicle disciples still hesitated to self-identify themselves as Bodhisattvas, in the lofty sense of this role, to emulate in action the angelic Enlightening Beings.
Although in principle most had adopted the Bodhisattva Way, in practical terms they continued as before—teaching the Dharma as they had learned it. In the Lotus Sutra, however, they would be introduced to the missing link in the Buddha’s Teachings, the Dharma that only Buddhas could fully comprehend. The time had come to introduce the cherished One Buddha-Vehicle, the means for transforming Bodhisattvas into Buddhas.
FIRST ASSEMBLY
Over the course of the Lotus Sutra three audiences would appear.
As the sutra commenced, the first audience to gather consisted of Sakamuni’s disciples and human guests from many cultures near and far. They would be joined by celestial Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas, the light beings from throughout the Universe, as well as Nature deities and enchanted creatures.
The contingent of Sakamuni’s followers totaled 20,000 males, females, and students.
Of these followers, 12,000 male followers (Skt. Bhiksus) led by the Buddha’s Ten Foremost Disciples, represented the successful accomplishments of the disciples who quieted their senses and sensations, hurdled the default identity of self, overcame the boundaries of relativity, and aligned themselves in harmony with the Buddha-Dharma.
In the mythic language of the sutra, there were names, places, and numbers that were often cast in code as a short hand used to impart complex concepts and important accomplishments. Rather than a literal accounting, the head counts assigned to group size, for example, honored the practices that they had mastered.
The base number twelve echoed the primary objective of the 12,000 Bhiksus—the pursuit of liberation from sensory liabilities. The number twelve referred to the six sense organs and their six corresponding sensations (Pali/Skt. Ayatana).200 By overcoming the self-referential “delusions” they experienced through the se
nses these male disciples had hurdled the blocks to greater wisdom. Furthermore, the number twelve echoed their mastery over the Twelve Link-Chain for Causation of Perpetual Suffering (Pali/Skt. Nidanas), using various skills to neutralize the default identity blocking the way to liberation.
The cyclical twelve-link chain that defined the process of creating a default ego had been replaced by a new iconography, the twelve-spoke Dharma Wheel, now representing the self-liberating cycle of Buddhist wisdom. The Buddha’s segmentation of the circle into twelve sections echoed the twelve houses of destiny of the Babylonian Zodiac, the tool the Magi Order divination-astrologers created for deciphering the interplay of constellations relative to human activities.
The twelve spokes of the Buddhist Wheel and sectors of the Babylonian Zodiac testified to a common link between Buddhist and Babylonian views regarding cosmic cycles and synchronistic harmonies,201 linking universal law to human identity and human behavior to destiny.
The use of the number 1,000 (Skt. Sahasra) multiplied by the base 12 to arrive at the number 12,000 male Bhiksus, invoked the composite number 10, the base multiple the ancients used to denote harmonic alignment, composed of the sequence of numbers regarded as the base frequency of the cosmos (4+3+2+1 = 10). In the Buddhist cosmogony, the number ten symbolized the Ten Primary States of Being (the Six Worlds of Samsara, plus the Three Vehicles, and Buddhahood). The formula, 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 signified that at any single moment in time a person could experience one of 1,000 conditional variables, each relative to the Threefold-body composed of Manifestation, Information and Cosmology (1,000 x 3 = 3,000). This “internal” structure of the sentient-being mirrored the cosmos at large, namely the “Great Three-Thousand-fold Universe,” a tri-level cosmology consisting of one thousand world-systems (chiliocosm), one million world-systems (dichiliocosm), and one billion world-systems (trichiliocosm).
