The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment, White Lotus Sutra

Unit 7 – Symbols of Life and Growth
Aim
To explore as fully as we can the difference in how we personally experience the
implications of two common – contrasting – symbols for spiritual life: a) organic,
‗spatial‘ symbols, e.g. an unfolding lotus, b) ‗temporal‘ ones such as the path and the
journey?
Preparation
After the parables and myths of the chapters so far, we now encounter one of the most
enduring of Buddhist poetic images, no less potent and dramatic. To mine its riches, we
need to bring a fine sensibility to bear.
Here are the relevant paragraphs from p.113-4 of The Eternal Legacy recapitulating
Chapter 5 of the Sūtra.
―Praising the four elders for their discernment, the Buddha explains that the
qualities of the Tathāgata are beyond calculation. Knowing as he does both the
Absolute Truth and the inmost hearts of sentient beings, he leads them into the
way of Supreme Enlightenment by tactfully adapting his teachings to their
individual dispositions and capacities. This procedure is illustrated by two
parables:
A dense raincloud arises, its moisture universally fertilising the plants, shrubs, and
trees; but though nourished by the same rain, and springing from a common soil,
all these grow according to their own species, and bring forth different kinds of
flowers and fruits. In the same way the Buddha preaches one universal Dharma,
but sentient beings are benefited by it in accordance with their different capacities.
Again as the sun shines on all alike, making no distinction of great or small, high
or low, so the Buddha diffuses over all beings impartially the Light of Truth.
At this point Mahākāśyapa raises various questions, which the Buddha answers
with the help of two more parables. According to the first of these the differences
of nomenclature between the three yānas is comparable to that between, for
example, a curd-jar, a butter-jar, and so on, which derive their respective
designations from their contents; the jars themselves being the same. Even so,
though the Buddha-yāna is one only, three yānas are spoken of by the Tathāgatas
by reason of the difference of mental endowment among sentient beings. In the
second parable, a blind man after having his eyesight restored, by a skilful
physician, is urged to acquire, by means of meditation, the still more powerful
supernormal vision of the Saint. Just as ordinary eyesight occupies an intermediate
place between blindness and yogic vision, so the Nirvāṇa of the Arhats constitutes
a respite on the way from a state of spiritual ignorance to the final and complete
illumination of a Buddha. Ultimately there is one Nirvāṇa for the followers of all
three yānas, not three separate Nirvanas (Chapter V).‖
Triratna Dharma Training Course for Mitras
Year Four – Module 4: The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment
Parables, Myths and Symbols of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra
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