Chapter Title 

utsāhaparivartaḥ - utsāha: power, strength, effort or perseverance, from ud-, a prefix which implies prominence or superiority of the term it is adjoined to, and sāha, power or resistance, from √sah, meaning, to prevail or endure. 

Important Figures 

Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī was the younger sister of the Buddha’s mother, Mahāmāyā, and was married to King Śuddhodana at the same time as Mahāmāyā. After Mahāmāyā’s passing, she became the Buddha’s step-mother, and raised him with her own son, Nanda. After Śuddhodana died she vowed to ordain and attained stream-entry before the Buddha returned to Kapilavastu. At the time when the Buddha returned the Kapilavastu and five hundred Śākyan men joined the order, she requested ordination. The Buddha refused, explaining that the monastic life is full of hardship. After the Buddha proceeded to Vaiśālī, Mahāprajāpatī and the five hundred wives of the new monks followed after shaving their heads and requested again. The Buddha refused again, but Ānanda interceded and they were allowed to ordain. She attained arhatship soon after and ‘entered nirvāṇa’ before the Buddha. 

Yaśodharā, called “Mother of Rāhula,” ordained not with the first five hundred bhikṣuṇīs, but after they were allowed. Yaśodharā is likely an epithet for her, meaning “preserving glory,” while her given name was Bimbā. She was born the same day as the Buddha, and said to have been married to him in most of his previous existences. After the bodhisattva showed his prowess in a competition, Yaśodharā and he were married at sixteen. After Rāhula was born the bodhisattva left and became the Buddha. When he returned, she was struck by his appearance and personality that she instantly sang in praise of him. Rather than visiting him, the Buddha visited her, and he learned that since the Buddha left home, she had lived as an ascetic in the house, just as had been related that the bodhisattva had been living: i.e. wearing robes, eating once a day, etc. She sent Rāhula to be ordained by the Buddha and ordained herself, after Mahāprajāpatī. In the order she became known as Bhadrakātyāyanā (The Good Descendant of Kātyāyana), attained powers, and become an arhat. She died two years before the Buddha at the age of seventy-eight, after having left with thousands of other companion arhat bhikṣuṇīs, and ‘entered nirvāṇa’ with them. 

Summary 

• 1. Mahāpratibhāna and Bhaiṣajyarāja bodhisattvas and others vow to uphold the Lotus Sutra in worlds to come, and that it is difficult in this world with its evils. (35c) 

  2. The Buddha gives predictions of buddhahood to the bhikṣuṇīs and his step-mother, Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī: she will become a Buddha called Sarvarūpasaṃdarśana (Fully Seeing all Forms). She will give predictions, in turn, to six thousand bodhisattvas. (35c-36a) 

  3. The Buddha gives a prediction of buddhahood to the mother of Rāhula, Yaśodharā: she will become a Buddha called Raśmiśatasahasraparipūrṇadhvaja (The Splendour of One Hundred Thousand Unfurled Flags), who will live for immeasurable, incalculable aeons. (36a-b) 

  4. After the Buddha remained silent upon being requested to encourage them to propagate the sutra in different worlds. Countless bodhisattvas then vow to persevere in upholding the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha enters parinirvāṇa. They recount all of the sufferings they will endure on the sutra’s account. (36b-37a) They have to endure the persecutions of: 

  5. “[T]hose who are ignorant, Those who disparage others with evil words, Or who attack us with sticks and swords.” (36b) 

  6. “Monks[, who] in this troubled world Will have false wisdom And be deceitful. They will think they have attained What they have not, and their minds Will be full of conceit.” (36b) 

  7. Then there will be those who dwell In tranquil forests wearing rags, With the thought that they alone practice the true path, And who look down on those who lead worldly lives. (36b) 

Analysis 

Tao-sheng says little about this chapter, however some things can be pointed out. Just as Mahāprajāpatī was the first female disciple of the Buddha, she was the first female disciple to be given a prediction of Buddhahood. As Yaśodharā became a bhikṣuṇī later, she received her prediction later. 

As regards the silence of the Buddha, this may be taken as indicating that it is better that the disciples take it upon themselves to propagate the sutra themselves. They do not need the permission of the Buddha. This is the interpretation of the Tian Tai master Zhi-yi.1 However, others may take it as an indication that the Buddha did not want the sutra to be too openly propagated. As we have heard before, propagation to the wrong people is not suitable. It may be that these bodhisattvas knew the appropriate skilful means, but it would not have been skilful for the Buddha to indicate non-propagation at that point, less others take it as an indication for something the Buddha did not intend. 

Another interpretation is that, since the bodhisattvas specifically requested encouragement to propagate in other worlds, this was not necessary for the Buddha to do, since there are already beings doing this in chapters 15 and 21.2 Tao-sheng, on the other hand, indicates that silence is merely an expression of “the words of stern [warning] for the serious application of their mission.” (Kim, 490) 

The three groups of persecutors are called the “Three Kinds of Arrogant Enemies.”3 This indicates, in the first, purely ignorance, and in the latter two, perceptions of superiority in thought and in practice. The second are those who slander other Buddhists who are practicing the Dharma properly. The third are those who actually wish to be rid of people in this world, and retreat to the mountains. They may be respected as awakened, and accumulate wealth, but miss the true message of the Buddha – this is the type of Buddhism that Master Hsing Yun speaks of in Qing Dynasty China, and what Humanistic Buddhism was a response to.

1. http://www.nichiren-shu.org/LasVegas2/Page/sutra/chp13_LotusSutra.pdf (page 3)

2. (Page 3)

3. (Page 4)