Overall Teaching

All disciples of the Buddha are actually bodhisattvas, and both the Buddha and bodhisattvas appear in forms appropriate to teach them the “lesser goal,” which is actually the bodhisattva path all along. Taking the lesser goal as supreme, however, is going astray.

Summary

1. Pūrṇa praises the Buddha’s ability to understand the natural capacities of beings and teach them accordingly. (27b)

2. The Buddha praises Pūrṇa for his ability to preach and prophesies that he will become a Buddha called Dharmaprabhāsa (Splendour of the Dharma) and describes the qualities of his Buddhaland, called Suviśuddha (Well Pure) in the aeon called Ratnāvabhāsa (Light of a Jewel). (27b-28b)

   1. In the verse summary, the Buddha explains that bodhisattvas appear as śrāvakas  or pratyekabuddhas and gradually cause sentient beings, through skilful means, to practice the bodhisattva path. (28a)

3. Twelve Hundred Arhats request their own predictions. (28b)

4. The Buddha confers prophecies on five hundred disciples.

   1. Beginning with Ājñātakauṇḍinya, and including Uruvilvakāśyapa, Gayākāśyapa, Nadīkāśyapa, Kālodāyin, Udāyin, Aniruddha, Revata, Kapphiṇa, Bakkula, Cunda, Svāgata, and other monks, totally five hundred, will all become Buddhas called Samantaprabha (Universal Light). (28c)

5. The five hundred arhats repent for thinking that they attained the Buddha’s wisdom. (29a)

   1. The five hundred arhats use a parable to describe their situation:

      1. A man comes to the house of a close friend and when drunk and asleep, had a priceless jewel sewn on the inside of his garment by the close friend.

      2. The man roamed to another country but couldn’t afford any food, being satisfied with only a small amount.

      3. His friend eventually met him and told him about the priceless jewel in his garment. Now the man will never want again. (29a)

   2. They thank the Buddha for now giving them the knowledge that they were actually Bodhisattvas.

6. Ājñātakauṇḍinya summarises their response to the Buddha in verse form. (29a-b)

Analysis

In response to 29a, while the “lesser goal” is part of the greater bodhisattva path, it is not to be taken as the genuine goal, the arhats still express self-reproach when they realise this. Should we not feel ashamed when we, time and time again, end up with incorrect understandings of the Dharma, only to realise later that we were wrong? I would say that we should, but this is not a shame that is discouraging, rather, it recognises that progress on the path is possible and that we have made it. It also recognises our fundamentally ignorant nature. Until we attain buddhahood, we should be careful not to carry illusions that we have the answer. But I would suggest that each time we recognise progress, we should both repent our wrong understandings from the past, and rejoice in our better understanding in the present, but not identify with or attach to it.

            Tao-sheng offers a more interpretative understanding of the disciples’ parable. The house refers to the residence that is the Greater Vehicle, whereas the close friend refers to the sixteen princes. (Kim, 476) The sixteen princes were the sons of the Buddha Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū in Chapter Seven, and roughly refer to Buddhas of the various directions, including the familiar Akṣobhya Buddha and Śākyamuni Buddha. When the man is drunk and lies down, this refers to the passion of the five desires and saṃsāra. (Kim, 476) When the friend leaves he does so “having official business,” which means that the teacher’s stimulus to teach ends while disciples are still unaware, but their potential for awareness is still within them, like the jewel sewn in the garment. (Kim, 477) The lesser contentment that the man found on his travels was like the lesser contentment of nirvāṇa we can get prior to finding the Greater Vehicle. (Kim, 477) The encounter with the old friend by chance is the Buddha’s preaching of the Lotus Sūtra. It is by chance because while being content with the lesser, one is not actively seeking for that which one is still unaware of. (Kim, 478) The jewel of the true Dharma was sewn into our hearts in the infinite past. There cannot be any true want for anything if one understands cause and effect – cause changes into effect, so there is no pleasure that we cannot obtain (or haven’t obtained). While we did have the transformative teaching of the One Vehicle sewn into our hearts in the past, we forgot it, and our forgetting of these subtle understandings manifested as an attachment to the lesser nirvāṇa (Kim, 478)

Important Figures

Pūrṇa (Maitrāyaṇīputra: Son of Maitrāyaṇī) – Not to be confused with the other Pūrṇa, from Suppāraka. Pūrṇa was the son of Maitrāyaṇī, the sister of Ājñātakauṇḍinya (below). He was a brahmin who was converted by Ājñātakauṇḍinya. He stayed in Kapilavastu and practiced meditation, soon attaining arhatship. He, in his turn, converted five hundred disciples there and they attained arhatship. When they visited the Buddha he had them send his regards, but the Buddha invited him to meet him in person. After this, he was recognised by the Buddha as foremost in the preaching of the Dharma. Ānanda became a stream winner after listening to Pūrṇa’s preaching. (Source: Dictionary of Pāḷi Proper Names, under the “Punna Mantānīputta Thera” entry)

Ājñātakauṇḍinya – Born as a brahmin called Yajña in Kapilavastu, before the Buddha, he was one of the eight priests who prophesied that newly born Gautama would become a Cakravartin or a Buddha. He thereafter awaited Gautama’s renunciation, after which he joined him as one of the five disciples. After Gautama became Śākyamuni Buddha, he attained the fruit of Stream Entry after the Turning of the Dharma Wheel, whereupon the Buddha bestowed upon him the title Ājñātakauṇḍinya (Kauṇḍinya (his family name) by whom it is Understood), as he was the first to understand the Dharma. He attained arhatship after the Buddha preached the first discourse on not-self, and was the first to receive full ordination. While the Buddha declared that he was pre-eminent in understanding, he felt that he was inconveniencing the two chief disciples, and took his leave to stay in the wilderness. He stayed there for twelve years and only returned to the Buddha prior to attaining his own parinirvāṇa. In the context of the Lotus Sūtra, this would be the time frame in which Kauṇḍinya is present. He then attained Parinirvāṇa prior to the Buddha and they had a silver caitya built for him. (Source: Dictionary of Pāḷi Proper Names, under the “Aññāta-Kondañña (Aññā-Kondañña) Thera” entry).